Is one job of a preacher to warn people about the consequences of sin? Let’s begin in Ezekiel 33.
What did God say to Ezekiel about a man standing watch?
The Lord said: Ezekiel, son of man, warn your people by saying: Someday, I, the Lord, may send an enemy to invade a country. And suppose its people choose someone to stand watch and to sound a warning signal when the enemy is seen coming. (Ezek 33:1-3 CEV)
What would happen if the people ignored the watchman’s alarm or he failed to blow the warning trumpet?
then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself.
But if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman's hand. (Ezek 33:4-6 ESV)
How is preaching a warning against sin like being a watchman?
As for you, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. When you hear a word from My mouth, give them a warning from Me. If I say to the wicked, ‘Wicked one, you will surely die,’ but you do not speak out to warn him about his way, that wicked person will die for his iniquity, yet I will hold you responsible for his blood. But if you warn a wicked person to turn from his way and he doesn’t turn from it, he will die for his iniquity, but you will have saved your life. (Ezek 33:7-9 HCSB)
What does God really want from the wicked in terms of behavior?
Now, Son of Man, tell this to the house of Israel: ‘You keep saying, “Our crimes and sins burden us so much that we’re rotting away, so how can we keep on living?”’ Tell them, ‘As certainly as I’m alive and living,’ declares the Lord God, ‘I receive no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Instead, my pleasure is that the wicked repent from their behavior and live. Turn back! Turn back, all of you, from your wicked behavior! Why do you have to die, you house of Israel?’” (Ezek 33:10-11 ISV)
If a righteous person turns away from God and commits evil, can their past good deeds save them from judgment?
Therefore, thou son of man, say unto the children of thy people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth.
When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it. (Ezek 33:12-13 KJV)
If a bad person turns away from evil, makes restitution for thefts and turns to justice and righteousness, will God forgive them?
But when I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and he turns from his sin and does justice and righteousness, if a wicked man restores a pledge, pays back what he has taken by robbery, walks by the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of his sins that he has done will be remembered against him. He has done justice and righteousness; he shall surely live. (Ezek 33:14-16 LSB)
Do people still have bad judgment, saying that God’s way is not right?
Yet your fellow citizens say, ‘The way of the Lord is not right,’ when it is their own way that is not right. When the righteous turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, then he shall die in it. But when the wicked turns from his wickedness and practices justice and righteousness, he will live by them. Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not right.’ I will judge each of you according to his ways, house of Israel. (Ezek 33:17-20 NASB)
What did God have to say to the people who believed that they deserved the land but kept on sinning?
In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month on the fifth day, a man who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me and said, “The city has fallen!” Now the evening before the man arrived, the hand of the Lord was on me, and he opened my mouth before the man came to me in the morning. So my mouth was opened and I was no longer silent.
Then the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, the people living in those ruins in the land of Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was only one man, yet he possessed the land. But we are many; surely the land has been given to us as our possession.’ Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Since you eat meat with the blood still in it and look to your idols and shed blood, should you then possess the land? You rely on your sword, you do detestable things, and each of you defiles his neighbor’s wife. Should you then possess the land?’ (Ezek 33:21-26 NIV)
Was God's judgment inescapable for the unrepentant survivors of Judah?
Say thus to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “As I live, surely those who are in the ruins shall fall by the sword, and the one who is in the open field I will give to the beasts to be devoured, and those who are in the strongholds and caves shall die of the pestilence.
For I will make the land most desolate, her arrogant strength shall cease, and the mountains of Israel shall be so desolate that no one will pass through. Then they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have made the land most desolate because of all their abominations which they have committed.” ’ (Ezek 33:27-29 NKJV)
Did the people treat God's prophetic warning as mere entertainment rather than a call to genuine repentance and obedience? Is that how many treat modern preaching?
Son of man, your people talk about you in their houses and whisper about you at the doors. They say to each other, ‘Come on, let’s go hear the prophet tell us what the Lord is saying!’ So my people come pretending to be sincere and sit before you. They listen to your words, but they have no intention of doing what you say. Their mouths are full of lustful words, and their hearts seek only after money.
You are very entertaining to them, like someone who sings love songs with a beautiful voice or plays fine music on an instrument. They hear what you say, but they don’t act on it! But when all these terrible things happen to them—as they certainly will—then they will know a prophet has been among them. (Ezek 33:30-33 NLT)
Is it still God’s desire that we learn truth, repent and live?
For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and come to full knowledge of the truth. (1 Tim 2:3–4 WEB)
Is one job of a preacher to warn people about the consequences of sin? You decide!
