Wednesday March 23, 2022

Scripture reference Ez. 3:¹⁶ At the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁷ “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. ¹⁸ When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. ¹⁹ But if you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their evil ways, they will die for their sin; but you will have saved yourself. ²⁰ “Again, when a righteous person turns from their righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before them, they will die. Since you did not warn them, they will die for their sin. The righteous things that person did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. ²¹ But if you do warn the righteous person not to sin and they do not sin, they will surely live because they took warning, and you will have saved yourself.”

– We must strongly consider the onus the Lord places on the believer and follower of God to warn the wayward. I know that in our, “live and let live”, culture such a mandate seems entirely inappropriate, however when we consider what is at stake especially for the wayward, we might begin to understand and perhaps even agree with the mandate God sets out for His servant here.  I say that tongue in cheek because the truth is the truth whether we accept it or not. 

– We are to speak the Word of truth into the lives of everyone. That means our deeds must line up with the truth we profess to believe and our words must be flavored with the Word of God.  That also means there will be many who do not want to see it, and who really don’t want to hear it!  But does their objection to the truth mean that we who possess the truth can withhold that truth from them?  God says, “no”.  Here, as in other areas of the Bible we see God sending His servant to warn those who are going astray.  God cares about those who go astray; God pursues those who go astray, and He does so through His willing servants. God requires that those going astray hear the truth, and respond to the truth by repenting of their wicked ways.  

– Somehow in our modern age of anything goes, we have almost entirely lost sight of the importance of this truth.  Our warning to the wayward might just be the catalyst God uses to bring that wayward soul to his/her senses. This happens all the time in church services where the truth is preached and repentance is practiced.  Over my many years of ministry I have had the privilege of seeing individuals respond to the call to seek Christ at the altar and I have watched as such individuals have wrestled with the Lord in their seats but then stepped out with the strong hand of God upon them and kneel down at the altar to seek forgiveness and restoration.  What could be greater?!  Paul wrote in Gal. 6: Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. ² Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”  This was written to the Church and is a message for the Church!  Consider how Paul warns anyone who is endeavoring to restore a wayward believer because of the inherent danger of also falling into sin!  Sin is insidious by nature and has a way of infecting not only the individual but of also spreading to those around that individual.  Those who make light of sin and repentance, especially regarding the life of the believer are already captive to it, 1 John 1: ⁸ If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”