The Watchman

Thank you

GOD bless you

but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand

I think Paul was aware of this warning when he said to the Ephesian elders: "I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ...Therefore I testify to you this day that I am INNOCENT OF THE BLOOD OF ALL MEN. For I have not shunned to declare to you the WHOLE counsel of God.”

Blessings to you brother.

Amen. May God continue to raise up such watchmen.

hi, i see no new testament ministry gift called the watchman but have met many young men who believe that this is their calling.it usually stems from a puffed up,self centered,selfrighteous,low performing individual.it is however important that you take care to watch over the children that you are responsible for and protect them against the wiles of the devil being loosed upon the earth.paul surely looked after the people he was responsible for.he was their pastor and their father in the faith.remember that satan is the accuser of the brethren and we are not to join in league with him in this endeavor.we are to do justly,love mercy and walk humbly with or God.jimp

"Who say to the seers, "You must not see visions"; And to the prophets, "You must not prophesy to us what is right, Speak to us pleasant words, Prophesy illusions."
(Isaiah 30:10)

Sadly, that is the sentiment not only of non-believers but also believers.

Like the original post lays out, you that are given a hard word from the Lord cannot let such sentiments discourage you from preaching that word.

Satan, who is the accuser of the bretheren will give the people an encouraging message like: " You shall NOT surely die." Gen 3:4 that produces death, while the watchman who does the dirty work of telling people depressing messages like : " You shall surely die. " Eze 3:18 that produce repentance and life.

A message is valued not by its severety, but by its fruit.
Does it produce death or does it produce life.

The false prophets'message was peace, peace when there was no peace because the people were living in sin.

It seems a loving message outwardly, but the fruit was death.

you that are given a hard word from the Lord cannot let such sentiments discourage from preaching that word.

Amen brother. May God raise more men who are not afraid to speak the hard message that brings life. Because if God runs out of men, you know what will happen? He will raise women, children, and yes, even dumb animals.

hi, at the birth of Jesus the angels cried out peace on earth...not satan.Jesus said that He did not come to condemn the world but to save it.a man who has no influence has no power to be a watchman for his cries are without any respect. if you want to be a watchman first you must be recognized and respected for your credibility. any idiot can cry wolf even if he has never seen a wolf.this negative and critical move has not changed anything at all. the wolves are still fleecing the sheep... the profits are still robbing the widows and orphans...the immoral are still ministering.nothing has changed...it has gotten much worse.jimp

hi, Jesus said He did not come to bring peace but a sword. The first message He preached was repentance, the same for every true preacher of Jesus Christ. Those who want to continue thinking that things are not that bad can continue in their delusion. Jeremiah cried out day and night with little results to show. Success in God's eyes is not about numbers but faithfulness to Him and His Word.

If others shrink from the obloquy of such a work, he will not.... He loves his fellow-men too well. They may upbraid him; they may call him a misanthropist, or a prophet of evil; they may ascribe his warnings to the worst of motives, such as pride, or arrogance, or self-esteem, or malice, or envy; but he will give no heed to these unjust insinuations.

I love Horatius Bonar. He did not sugar-coat anything.

The Heart of God.

I was stirred to ask God today a question that had occupied my thinking for a while. Lord, what do see in man ? What made you step into flesh, come and live on a corrupted earth, and Die…? For man..? Man had tried to take your place, and be like God. He sided with your enemy, the Devil. It doesn’t make sense.

The heart of God is love… For sinners… And yes, even those who will never repent.

I was taught that since God does not change, His love does not change, it stands the reason that he does not love sinners who He knows by His omniscience will never repent. I was taught that the verses in Matthew 5: 43-48 do not speak of God’s love, but of His goodness. But after reading it over and over again, I found that it does speak of God’ love.

Read this,
“43Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
44But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
45That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
46For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
47And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
48Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

The passage speaks of love. Jesus said: We aught to love even as the Father loves. We aught to love our enemies even as He loves His enemies. He continues to give sunlight and rain to those who will use the sunlight to murder and commit adultery,… and will never repent! We know that not every one will repent. In fact, very few will. And God knows that…and continues to be good to them…..Why?
We are told in Romans: 2: 4 that the goodness of God has a purpose. It purposes to bring men to repentance…For God is not willing that any would perish but that all may come to repentance… He has no delight in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked would turn from His wicked way and live. Now ask this. If God desires that the wicked would repent that he may be spared eternal judgment…Wouldn’t that mean love?

The Judgment of God.

Here is where things may seem contradictory.

That same goodness the wicked receives now will stand on the Day of Judgment to accuse and condemn Him. The sunshine, rain, health, prosperity, blessings,…will be the court jury that will testify against the accused and pass the eternal sentence.

Jesus said to the crowd: “If anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.”

And again: “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin….If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin;”…

That same Word that was meant to bring salvation will stand as a witness against the wicked on that great day of the Lord to bring condemnation.
Behold the goodness and severity of God….For the Lord is just and loves justice, the upright will see His face.

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?

The angry watchmen by Carter Conlon.

I have listened the this message a few months ago. The only problem I see with it is that it is unbiblical.

First, Mr. Conlon was talking about the angry watchmen who pronounce judgment. He called them the accusers of the brethren and workers of the devil. Who take certain passages out of the scripture out of context. I believe he was referring to the warnings in the Book of Hebrews.

He said that these are the ones Paul talks about in 1 Tim 4
1Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
3Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meat, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.

He said that they forbid the bride ( church ) from marrying the groom ( Christ ).
He was able to get that from verse 3 in 1 Timothy.
He also was able to find the connection between 1Timothy and the Song of Solomon since the latter speaks of the bride and the groom as 1Timothy does.
As for the meat part in 1 Timothy ( commanding to abstain from meat ), he was also able to find that in the Song of Solomon. He said that these angry watchmen forbid the bride and the groom to meet.

That is where he got scratching my head. Is it talking about the MEAT that you eat, or MEET as in “ to meet in the street”

The problem with Mr. Conlon and the like who try to take away the warnings of the Scriptures is that they are moving with a human sentiment. They would go as far as saying the Apostle who wrote these passages was the Devil himself because to them, any one who says that people need to be careful not to fall away since the Bible teaches it is impossible for such to be renewed again unto repentance would be the ACCUSER OF THE BRETHEREN.

Should we take away the warning passages from the scriptures in order to encourage people and give them hope? Is that how God works?

4And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
5So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
6For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:
8But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
9Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
10And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

What a harsh message Jonah had!!! But wait, why didn’t the people get discouraged?
What if Jonah had said this instead: God loves you. He has elected you from the foundation of the world. He loved you when you were yet a sinner, and He knows very well that you are unable to repent.

What fruit would that have produced?

good post Untobabes.

Just to clarify, I agree with appolos/Frank, that the true preacher should have the love God as the foundation of his motive and message. And I agree that there should be a balanced theme of both the severity and kindness of God(Rom.11:22).

However, I used to think that every single message from a true preacher of Christ has to have the good news and love of God proclaimed and expressed in it and not just the hard message of God's Judgment. I realized that that sentiment is not really biblical, even in considering just the New Testament.

John Baptist, Christ and the apostles did not always include the good news in their preaching. They sometimes left that part out, depending on how they were led of the Spirit in any given situation.

I too used to judge all preachers whom I would hear preach only warnings and judgment in their message on the streets. I am not that quick to judge nowadays.

That said, sometimes I can tell in my spirit when a street preacher is not from God, that is, when the love of God and men is not the underlying motivation.

I agree with appolos/Frank, that the true preacher should have the love God as the foundation of his motive and message. And I agree that there should be a balanced theme of both the severity and kindness of God(Rom.11:22).

I agree too.
If giving one's body to burn, or one's money for the poor in nothing to God without love, then how much more would be giving the offending message of the gospel without love.

If people are to be offended let them be offended at the message, not the attitude by which the message was delivered.

If people can not see tears in our eyes, and hear the choking in our voice when we tell them that they are going to hell if they do not repent and believe on the Lord Jesus, then we should be silent.

hi, Jesus did not use the term watchman in the accounts of His ministry but He did use the word Pharisee.most of the watchmen i have run into would fall into this catagory,not all...if you want to have fun come to new orleans where i have ministered for years during mardi gras when a million sinning,obnoxeous,drunken people are and try to preach judgement.it did not work in sodom either...jimp

hi, by watchmen we mean servants who desire to declare the whole councel of God, both the kindness and severity of God proclaimed throughout Scripture. If you want to call them Pharisees go ahead, they do that with many, including Ravenhill, who you claim to be very fond of.

Did not Ravenhill say we need more Holy Ghost-filled hellfire preachers in these dark days? If you don't like the word watchman you can call them that instead.

Many Christians today tune Ravenhill's messages off because they think they are too extreme and legalistic/Pharisaic. Why? because he emphasized true holiness unto the Lord, and constantly rebuked the Church for her lack of burning love toward Jesus Christ and her spiritual adultery.