How do you measure success when you are serving the Lord Jesus? I think most of us would tend to measure our success by how well we perform and how well we are accepted by other people. Is this the way God measures your success?
In Ezekiel 33 God speaks about a watchman on a wall. The picture is of someone who was to guard a city against encroaching enemies. The watchman was to blow the trumpet, to warn people when there was some kind of activity around the walls of enemies approaching. That watchman and warning was the prophet of God named Ezekiel. God says in verse 7, “So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.” God is saying, “I have set you as a warning to my people Israel.” What was important here was not the people hearing Ezekiel, but Ezekiel hearing God. Ezekiel was a watchman. He was to give a warning.
I’m living in my trailer right now as we are on the road, and if someone was to knock at the door of my trailer, my vicious dog Bromley would jump up and start barking. What is she doing? Well, she is guarding her territory and warning her people. That is a warning. Sometimes it is annoying, but it is a warning.
Not long ago, I was in a motel and pretty late at night the fire alarm went off and shocked me. I thought we might be in trouble, but the alarm stopped and never went on again. I don’t know what happened, but the alarm was intended to be a warning of encroaching danger.
We may not always like what we hear from a Bible preacher and a Bible message, but if what a preacher is saying is coming from God’s Word, he is simply transferring what God Himself is saying to you. So, a dog can be annoying, a hotel fire alarm can be annoying, sometimes a message can be annoying, but those are given for the good of people. They are to be heeded.
Notice three key words here. The first word is sword. In verse 2 God says, “When I bring the sword upon the land.” God goes on to talk about the fact that there are times when He must judge sin.
The second word is trumpet. Verse 3 says, “If when he [the watchman] seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people.” So, the sword is a judgment and the trumpet is a warning.
The third idea is choice. God says throughout the rest of the chapter, “If people are doing wickedly, but hear the warning, repent, and turn back to God, God will forgive. I have no pleasure in the wicked perishing, but if they ignore the warning and go on in their way, then there is judgment.”
There were people of Ezekiel’s day who thought God wasn’t fair. They said, “The way of the Lord is not equal.” God replied, “I’m not the one who is not being right. These people are the ones who are not being right. I will judge everyone after his ways.” God is the righteous judge of the universe and we are wise to heed His warning.
The bottom line is that I’m not a success because people hear me; I am a success because I hear God.Now, I read this earlier in the morning and later I was in a restaurant with my wife. We ordered at a counter and went to our seat to wait for our food. About five minutes into our meal I thought, “I have a gospel tract and I did not give it to this dear lady who was serving our table.” I thought back on what I had read earlier, which was God doesn’t judge me for how people hear me, but by how I hear Him. I thought, “I don’t know how this lady will respond to the gospel, but I do know how I should respond. I should give the good news of God’s love and provision through Jesus to this lady and blow the trumpet of warning of God’s judgment.
Every day that you live you are going to be in contact with other people who need the Lord, who need to honestly assess their own sin and hear the good news of the gospel. When you meet such people today, remember that God does not judge you by how well people hear you, God judges you by how well you hear Him.