Are We Watchmen or Executioners?

We are to take the Gospel of one God and his only begotten, Jesus Christ, to all nations. Yet we hesitate when we hear God calling us. We take a step, then a stutter step, and then no step at all. We sit back in fear, or laziness, and keep the most amazing good news to ourselves. We have our excuses why we can’t take the gospel, and they sound so good to our ears. The excuses range from having to properly care for our family, to not enough education, to fear, and many others. Yet at the heart of the matter is our hardness of heart and our disobedience to our Lord and savior. The same disobedience and hardness of heart that plagued Israel plagues the church today. Listen to how the apostle Paul describes it. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?" So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for "Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world." But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, "I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry." Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, "I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me." But of Israel he says, "All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people." Romans 10:16-21

I want to put forward to you that believing the Gospel is not repentance from sin and faith in Christ only, but rather believing the Gospel is those things and more. Believing the Gospel is more than personal salvation, it believes that it is the only chance of salvation for all men everywhere. Israel neither repented of her sins, nor did she teach others to repent of theirs and put their faith in God’s grace and mercy. The later is more tragic than the former, for with the former unbelief only the person who doesn’t repent is harmed, yet to know the truth and keep it from others because of a hardened heart not only condemns the one person, but it condemns every person who should have been told. And God finds this a most grievous sin. Here what he says to Ezekiel about this very thing as he is commissioned to warn the people. "Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. Ezekiel 3:17-18

Is there blood on your hands and mine because we have been hardened, disobedient, and contrary to God? Have we warned every person we know of the wrath of God to come? Have we told people how much they need the savior? Or have we like Israel become complacent in our religion and comfortable within the confines of our little church buildings. I pray that it may not be so, yet I fear that it is. Let us repent as individuals and as a church. Let us begin to share our faith daily. Because if we don’t share our faith we look more like executioners than watchman!

Lord,
May I serve as a watchman and evangelist for you. May I reach out to those around me with the Gospel, and may I ever be sensitive to your calling to take the Gospel to the nations.