We're also going to need our Forms and Prayers book this morning, Congregation for the Catechism, so you might want to grab that. I forgot to put it in the bulletin, but we'll be dealing with and reading. Question and Answer 115, you'll find on page 251. But especially then to Ezekiel this morning, Ezekiel chapter 33, Ezekiel 33. And there we will pay attention to verses 1 through 9 as our text, together with question and answer 115, which we'll read in a moment responsibly in the Catechism, page 251. So this morning, beloved, let's rejoice in having God's word before us, never taking for granted the freedoms that we have and the privilege that is ours to listen to God's word being read and preached. Ezekiel 33 at verse 1. Again, the word of the Lord came to me saying, son of man, speak to the children of your people and say to them, When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their watchman, when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning. His blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman's hand. So you, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Therefore, you shall hear a word from my mouth and warn them for me. When I say to the wicked, O wicked man, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. Nevertheless, if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity. But you have delivered your soul." Thus far, beloved, God's rich and glorious Word. Keep your Bible there and turn to the summary of the teaching of the Word of God as this morning we have it in the Heidelberg Catechism. completing the section of the catechism dealing with the commandments before we turn to the section dealing with prayer this last question for us to be attentive to today since no one in this life can keep the ten commandments perfectly why does God want them preached so pointedly First, so that all our life long we may more and more come to know our sinful nature and thus more eagerly seek the forgiveness of sins and righteousness in Christ. Second, so that we may never stop striving and never stop praying to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit. So that we may be renewed more and more after God's image Until after this life we reach our goal perfection These things again dear congregation the word of God does teach and therefore we do believe Let's turn our attention again for help to the throne of grace. Let's pray Our Father, we thank you this morning that down through the ages Christians have with earnestness desired to hear your word preached. Desired to have the bread of life broken open for them and they be fed by it. And so it is with us. Lord, we praise you that you have done this and are doing this. You are kind and merciful to us. You strengthen us as sinners to both preach and then also to hear your word. We ask, Lord, that by your Spirit you would do that very thing this morning, and that you'd give to us boldness in these things we need most. We ask for that of your Spirit's work. In Jesus' name, amen. Dear congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, one wonders if the ministry in American Christianity has lost its will to warn. The minister in preaching fulfills that office not of the king, that's the elder, not of the priest, that's the deacon, but of the prophet. And one aspect of the duties of the prophet captured here in Ezekiel 33 is shown by an analogy to the city's watchman. We listen to question and answer 115 of the catechism tell us that God, quote, wants his law preached pointedly. If you're familiar with the old language of the catechism, you heard something a little different because it used to say preached strictly. And in that we wonder if preachers have lost the voice of alarm. Let's notice this, if we can be bold, verse 2. The people of a certain territory, in a certain region, let's use the analogy of a certain congregation in a certain geographic region, take a man and they make him their watchman, let's say their preacher. And an important part of his duty is to sound the alarm, blow the trumpet when he notices trouble approaching. The people must heed the warning or own the responsibility of not heeding it. If, as Ezekiel says here, the preacher fails to warn, then he bears the responsibility The enemy approaching and breaching the wall in our day could certainly be seen as temptations. The enemy approaching and breaching the wall in our day could certainly be seen as temptations to violate the commandments. This it seems to be an appropriate way of understanding verses 8 and 9 especially. These dangers call for pointed preaching of the law of God. The watchman announces the deadly danger of violations of the commandments. The watchman announces the deadly danger of violations of the commandments. Well, let's notice first this morning then that preachers as watchmen are to announce commandment violations now you know how this goes and we can think about the history of the situation here that as we just alluded to in ancient cities Enemies could approach at any time. There was a certain regularity about it. We're not familiar with these things in our day. There were not then large police forces with riot gear or even well-sourced militaries to guard the small villages and hamlets and cities. And in many cases then, a great deal of money was spent to have walls built to provide protection. But often because those folks lived in an agricultural and agrarian society, people had to go outside the city wall during the day. And many times, most regularly during the day, the gate was open and the people would be outside working the area around the city. And so the city would go to another expense to hire, as Ezekiel reminds us here, a watchman. perhaps a cadre of them and they would rotate and take their turns and certain days they would be on duty and certain days off and then of course they didn't like the graveyard shift but sometimes they had to do that too and we know that the text of scripture tells us in various places that those who had to serve at night yearned for the morning the watchman waiting for the first light of morning for obvious reasons perhaps that we'll think of this morning and that watchman as he stood on the wall would have to study his surroundings. He would study to come to know every hill, every clump of trees, every bunch of bushes, every little bit of water that was around. That study was intense. He would get up there and he would know his surroundings, you see, intimately well and it would allow him, that study would allow him to know two specific things. First, he knows exceedingly well what the lay of the land looks like. He would be very familiar, if we can put it in this way, with his congregation. That land to which the Lord has called him. What are her strengths? What are her weaknesses? What are the tendencies? What is the past situation of the congregation? What are her current trials and challenges? What are our future hopes and expectations? And so it's certainly that. But secondly, he would study, as it were, the surroundings. And we put this in two separate ways. The Word of God is the primary way. And then secondly, the culture. And in both of those things, studying well, he would be able to quickly spot and rapidly give the warning to any what he would see as an approaching danger. so that no watchman who didn't study intensely the Word of God would be able to fulfill his responsibility. And in a certain way, secondarily to this, no watchman who didn't have at least a finger on what was going on in the society in terms of violations of the commandments coming toward the people would not fulfill the responsibilities of his office. The prophetic voice needs to be used. So the watchman being able to know his surroundings, the congregation, the Word of God, and in some ways the culture, would be able then to give quickly a warning. And then the people must respond. But he must actually warn. Verse 7, So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Therefore, listen to it, you shall hear a word from my mouth. Ezekiel is not talking. God is not using his prophet to talk specifically about watchmen on a wall of a city. It is an analogy, you see, of the word that comes from God, verse 7, through the prophet, with which word to warn the people. When I through you say to the wicked, O wicked man, you shall surely die if you don't turn around, if you do not repent, if you do not give heed to these things, you will die. And so we're talking, beloved, about the warning that comes through preaching. about the law specifically here is question and answer 115 of the catechism wants us to understand our text in Ezekiel 33 makes it very clear that each individual in the congregation has the responsibility to respond to the warning of the watchman as we'll take up that below but in God's economy in his kingdom citizens cannot respond unless the warning is issued. The preacher must take up his duty and responsibility very seriously because one hat he wears, and it's not the only hat, but one hat he wears, one role he fills alongside his elders, is to be able to look out and detect the subtle approach of an enemy, that enemy not wishing to be detected. He must know the terrain. Oh, did that bush just move? Bushes don't move. Maybe there's an enemy in there, you see, coming close. How do we detect an approaching violation of the first table of the law, the commandments one through four? Well, by knowing these commands exceedingly well and knowing what approach is coming from the culture's idea of a worldview in our particular day. And the same with the approaching violations of the Second Table of the Law, Commandments 5 through 10. God wants His commandments preached pointedly. We don't get to be sloppy or loosey-goosey with what God says in the law. Know well, and we said this on Thanksgiving morning if you were here, about how to detect the counterfeit. Know well first the authentic. Know it extremely well so that you can quickly warn when you see the Trojan horse coming toward the city gate. And so then secondly, God wants his commandments preached this way to warn his people. This knowledge of the commandments and observation for imposters and other enemies seeking to get in and destroy comes mainly through the faithful preaching of the law. That kind of fulsome, meaty, detailed, spiritual, Christ-centered, Spirit moved along, experiential preaching of the commandments. That's a mouthful, isn't it? Serves to warn the Christian. And so if we do not have a meaty, fulsome, detailed, spiritual, Christ-born, Spirit-moved-along experiential preaching of the commandments, the Christian may not be warned, except on the surface level. We must not be in any case, in any way, an inch deep and a mile wide. We know that not one thing happens unless God causes it or allows it. And in the text, it seems to be that He's bringing swords upon the land. And in our day, we must understand, in the economy in which we live, that He is allowing violations of those commandments, which, by the way, the violators of the commandments are heaping up guilt for themselves, but the watchman sees them. Now we're going to get into this more in our discussion time later this morning in a more fulsome way, but beloved, the watchman sees them and warns the people so that they are not swept away in the destruction. There are many things happening in our society and culture that go, and we must understand this is the way it's going to be from the enemy's influence, that go in our culture absolutely in an antithetical way from God's commandments, in opposition to His commandments. And we need to be aware of these. The watchman sees and warns so that the people are not swept away in the destruction. Those angels whom the Lord sent to Sodom told Lot, gather up your family and flee the coming destruction. Do not stay. You must go. Why? Well, according to the Catechism, the only duty of faithful ministers, apart from this, in the proclamation of the Gospel, in loving the people, is to warn. It is to warn. The people, as the Catechism says here, us, have to come to know the office of Christ more fully. Have to come, therefore, to understand our sinful nature. more fully, or we will fail to fully seek forgiveness in Christ. If there is not warning in terms of the commandments going on, here says the Catechism, we will not more and more come to know our sinful nature, and we will not therefore more and more, with more and more eagerness, seek the forgiveness of our sins and righteousness in Jesus Christ. It is why, by the way, in the great wisdom of the Heidelberg Catechism's authors, The catechism goes to such length to explain that the commandments are not just simply a sentence, not simply the 10 words from God, but the catechism goes and begins to open up the treasure chest and say, now, here are the various ways the commandments apply to our lives and our living. So we spent five sermons on the Eighth Commandment, for example. preaching them fully so that we might understand the fullness of our sins, repenting of them, and understand the fullness, secondly, of striving, never stopping to strive, never stopping praying, but seeking the grace of the Holy Spirit, what? So that we may be renewed more and more after God's image. Beloved, The church is weakened to the extent to which the preacher does not pointedly preach the law of God. The Christian desires by the Holy Spirit. This is our conviction. This is our presupposition. The Christian desires by the Holy Spirit to seek further forgiveness of sins. Don't you? Isn't that what we want? We desire to seek further forgiveness of sins. But you see, that further confession requires deeper preaching of the commandments to the deeper issues buried in our hearts. And when the watchman on the wall sees, here's an easy one for example, that watching the NFL on the Lord's Day harms those who do so spiritually, watering down the Lord's Day for them, the responsibility of the watchman is to issue a warning. That's just one example of many. The member who habitually allows the Lord's Day observance to be watered down in that way or any other who has done that prior to hearing that that's something they should repent of. They are then at that moment of hearing it and able to seek forgiveness of those sins and to be renewed more and more after God's image. Isn't this how it works in our spiritual growth? The apostle says, let us live up to what we have already attained. with the understanding that we haven't arrived yet. Isn't this something we say? God's not finished with me yet. We say that in kind of colloquial language. But it's true, isn't it? And we grow and we are deepened in terms of seeking forgiveness and in renewal and going on in the grace of the Holy Spirit being renewed more and more in God's image. That member, verse 5, hearing the warning is in pointed law preaching and the call of the Gospel to repentance, verse 5, took the warning to save his life. Pointed preaching. This is the sounding of the alarm, the blowing of the trumpet to warn. Without pointed preaching of the commandments, the enemy finds easy egress or easement, access into the camp, into the congregation, into the life of the Christian. Now, when the member will not listen, and honestly, beloved, I have to say it to you this way, we're going to hear that in very pointed language in a few weeks in terms of letters that need to be read. When the member will not show amendment and is disinterested in the violations of the commandments, then comes great harm and loss. and so beloved we ask thirdly then to understand that you are warned of these violations of the first table of the law respond now i was thinking in terms of our sermon discussion to come up if you're interested to stay for that i was going to hand us each uh... piece of paper with some of the things i want to list out for you as i was working on that this week it ended up being about ten pages long as well they don't want ten pages so i'll be reading some of those but we need to understand That each of the things I'm going to list for us here this morning in terms of what the watchman is supposed to warn about, these are things actually going on in our society right now. These are not hypothetical. They're not in somebody else's turf. These are in our own land. And so in terms of the first commandment, have no other gods before me, it is being violated in our society by the demand that we all bow to the God of science in the mandate of evolutionary belief. It's no longer evolutionary theory, you'll notice. We are being called and commanded by our society to bow to evolutionary belief, which requires a worldview without a creator. Now there are a number of different ways that's being seen in our culture, but just the bare fact of evolutionary science so-called thinking being taught, it is even being taught now in Christian colleges and Christian day schools, not even to mention the public systems, we know that already. And we'll explain why that's so significant in terms of the first commandment a little bit later. The second commandment and no images and only worship God as He has commanded us to worship is being violated, beloved, as we know, in very significant ways by man declaring that what worship ought to be is what works best in accomplishing our man-centered goals. And so what begins to drive corporate worship is the goals that men or women in a particular congregation or denomination or group have decided ought to be a goal to be achieved and corporate worship is twisted, focused on that particular goal. The second commandment, we might even say it more, is even being violated. with women ministers, so-called, like Beth Moore, taking to themselves what God has given only to man to do. The glory of God is also being violated, dishonored by violations of the third commandment in liberal theologies. Now, think about this. The name of Jesus, liberal theologies, where Jesus' name is being claimed as love over all sorts of vile practices. So the third commandment tells us to uphold the honor of God's name. Well, Jesus' name is being claimed as love. If you claim that you are a follower of Jesus, you will love all sorts of vile practices like racism and greed and homosexuality. These are violations of the third commandment, beloved. Now, if we don't know already about the violations of the Fourth Commandment, well, then we've been asleep. But in Reformed circles, and I dare say even in some of our URCNA churches, this violation of the Fourth Commandment is taking place in the downturn away from an idea of the Lord's Day to what is becoming the Lord's hours, and it used to be three, morning worship, the teaching hour, and evening worship. There's a downgrade away from the Lord's day in its entirety to the Lord's hours, and we could talk about that, to what now is basically the Lord's hour, that if I come to church in the morning, well, then I've satisfied the fourth commandment. Beloved, we need to understand that God says something different to us about the Lord's day, the Christian Sabbath. You see, God wants his law preached pointedly, again the old language, strictly. We cannot afford in our day to pull punches. And so the watchman on the wall must warn. Now you just heard in bare summary form four ongoing violations. You have heard, if we can put it this way, the trumpet being sounded, verse four. And in hearing that, if we personally or in terms of our family or in terms of our congregation do not take notice and then begin to join in on any of these violations, then our blood is on our own head. This is what the text says. But, verse 6, if I do not warn you about the dangers of the participation and the violations of the commandments as we've just listed them, then a certain sense of your debt will rest on me. This is why James warns those against being teachers, because we will be judged more strictly. And beloved, I do not want your guilt to become my debt. I don't want any of us to have any of this guilt. We must hear these warnings and respond. And so don't give an inch, any place to evolutionary philosophy. You're hearing it more and more. It's being told to us in a variety of ways that evolutionary thinking leads to all kinds of scientific implications, which are contrary to the word of God. Beloved, you must understand that as a philosophy from the pit of hell, boldly, clearly, without exception. God rather is the creator and the sustainer over the heavens and the earth. Creation, science, and evolutionary thinking are not able to be meshed. What place has Christ and Belial together? There's no accord and agreement between them. We must further turn away from every effort to dumb down corporate worship in making it seeker-friendly. We must not minimize the tremendous error of women so-called ministers. It's one of the very issues that led to the formation of the URCNA, isn't it? We must not give way to the gross error of one ethnic race of greater position than all the others, or of the normalization of anti-biblical sexuality and practices, or of sexual minorities and their tyrannies. We must all, you see, understand these things in our own spheres of influence, realize them for what they are, be alert to them and say, no, I am going to choose something different. And that perhaps most especially and easily for us in terms of how I am and my family is personally going to observe the Lord's day. Fourthly, You are warned of these violations of the second table of the law. Respond. Now in terms of the fifth commandment, we are seeing a worldwide resurgence of socialistic, Marxist, authoritarian government philosophies and the shrinking of constitutional democracies and the shrinking of capitalistic economics. It's happening at a rapid rate and it does impact the church. the church in christianity begin to get an idea that is taken from socialistic ideas and capital and that kind of economic structure and begins to say to people in the church well we're going to treat you and kind of a marxist socialist way below that is happening under our feet right now we need to be aware of it recently in terms of the sixth commandment united nations passed a resolution, this happened just recently, the United Nations, positing their words, I'm summarizing now, the quote, wonderful benefits of abortion as an aid to worldwide population control. Yes, they actually passed such a resolution. This vile and wicked evil is seen in China, for instance. where approximately, the numbers are very hard to come by, approximately in China, 13 to 23 million children are aborted every year. And it's probably many more than that. In the US, it's about 900,000 a year being murdered. But the Seventh Commandment, it is likely being more grossly violated at an increasingly rapid rate than any of the other commandments. Do we even remember the uproar over fifty shades of something or other? How long has it been since so many Christians, Christians, professing Christians, found no problem with watching a show A pornography show called Game of Something or Other. I'm not giving you the full names, obviously. You probably know what they are. It is no longer taboo in so many people's lives to sleep together first before deciding if it would be good to be married. Now these, beloved, are some of the enemies. Now get this from what Ezekiel is telling us here. Enemies that are prowling around on the edges of the land of our own responsibility as enemies seeking to gain entrance and in many ways have gained entrance into churches, into groups of professing believers. There are more things, aren't there? The Eighth Commandment is being violated where money and the growth of personal wealth has become a god to be served and there is no room for tithing in that world of the money god. We see violations of the Ninth Commandment as we mentioned a few weeks ago in a sermon, regularly on Facebook and Twitter, Instagram, violations of the Ninth Commandment by Christians regularly. And the 10th commandment is violated, and this one you might be stretched with a little bit, but I want you to think about it. What's the 10th commandment? Don't covet. What is especially something we covet? The upbuilding of our own name? Well, the 10th commandment is especially being violated in coveting power, success, and prowess, power and success and prowess over one's peers, Coveting a better pride claim over your peers as is provided for via video games, the postmodern coliseum. Now, beloved, these things are real. These are the enemies who are attacking. These are the kind of enemies that come at the church and at Christians, and here's a phrase, in advanced societies, which is what we probably call ourselves, and Europe would call itself, and Asia would call itself, many others. If we are not considering these things as deadly enemies that come and assault the church, bent at securing allegiance of our life, if we are not heeding the blast of the trumpet meant to warn us, then We'll continue to slide. What's the calling of the watchman? What things ought we to hear in the church? The Word of God, the law, specifically being preached pointedly. Why? What was expected? Well, let's go back to those ancient cities a moment. There are those people outside tending their flock or working the ground, two o'clock in the afternoon, The gates open. The watchman sees something off in the distance. And he blows the trumpet. Now the people looking up, heading, with their eyes looking at the city, wouldn't say, oh, the trumpet. Well, I've got a couple of hours. I can't hang out here. No, you see, the expectation was that upon the hearing of that trumpet's blast, the people would what? Would run for safety. Isn't this exactly the connection between the law and the gospel? So that hearing those warnings about the violations of the commandments, the people would more eagerly seek, as the Catechism says, the forgiveness of their sins and righteousness in Christ. So that hearing the warnings about the violations of the commandments that are going on all around us, we would then know to be renewed more and more. after God's image by the Holy Spirit, that there would be a striving, that there would be a running into the city for safety, to be kept behind the wall so that is to be in Christ. So that after this life we reach our goal perfection. Beloved, we can say it quite succinctly. When you hear the warnings about the violations of the commandments and you see a connection in your own life, the first thing we must do is run to Christ. Confess our sins. Yearn as the psalmist in Psalm 119. Yearn to be renewed more and more If we could say it this way, I know the language isn't great, but more and more and more and more. What if the Catechism wrote it that way, with like eight mores? We'd get the idea, wouldn't we? Of sanctification for the believer. And the necessity of both law and gospel for that sanctification in our lives. Because we have a goal. We won't achieve it until after this life. But it is our goal, perfection. Amen. Our Father in heaven, we praise you for the privilege of your word and the catechism. We thank you that you teach us these things which we need the most. Lord, we pray that we would give attention, not that we want to be absorbed in what our culture is doing or thinking or saying, but it is not also possible for us to live as if we were on a desert island, totally Unimpacted by these things. Give us to know a good balance. Lord, give us to know what our action is in terms of that and bless your people in the gospel. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.