Our sermon for this morning is Watchmen, Watchmen, What of the Night? Watchmen, Watchmen, What of the Night? refers to all of God's faithful servants who are made watchmen upon the walls of Jerusalem, watching for danger, ready to blow the trumpet to prepare We begin then with a parable. Run, run, run, thundered in my sleeping ears, awaking me from a deep sleep. Run, run, run, leave everything behind. Run to that mountain right now. My army company of 100 sleeping men were encamped in a pleasant valley during Vietnam's war. Suddenly our captain, who was the bravest man in Vietnam, was shouting hysterically, run, run, run toward that mountain. Leave everything, just run. And he was kicking and shoving all of the sleeping soldiers awake, shoving them toward that mountain. Now we had seen our captain many times before in battle, and he was calm as if he was sitting in his desk while bullets were flying around. Now to see him hysterical was a strange, strange sight. And we quickly decided that if our captain was afraid of something, there was some very, very, very good reason for us to be afraid of something. And we started running toward that mountain, crashing into trees, stumbling, falling into holes and whatever impeded our way. But behind him, as fast as we're running, we can hear the captain shouting, faster, faster, faster. Finally, we could run no more. And we found on that mountain some deep holes and craters made from a previous fierce battle sometime before on that side of the mountain. valley, and suddenly that whole valley where we had been blew up into the sky from 500,000 pounds of bombs dropped from an errant B-52 strike on the wrong target. Yes, somehow, someway, at the last moment, a message was conveyed to our captain that we were in grave, grave, grave danger. and to get every man out as fast as what he could, kicking and shoving and pushing. He herded us all up into those holes. But they were roaring toward the target, toward this valley where we were at 300 miles an hour. The big bomb doors were open. The buttons were already pushed for the trajectory of those bombs to land in that half mile square area. That's how high they were. Now these B-52 bombs and planes were flying toward us and we didn't know it. But the devastating results could certainly be seen and heard. Those six B-52s carrying nearly a half a million pounds of dynamite. spread a fire across that valley that was millions of degrees hot. It literally blew trees through the air like as if they were toothpicks. Yes, the devastation if you were caught inside of that bomb blast was great. You were, if you were a half a mile away, you were bleeding from every your ears and your nose and mouth. If you were inside that cone, you were literally vaporized as it succeeded in a B-52 strike in erasing a half a mile of the jungle that was below. Yes, utter disaster was imminent and we had not been, had we not been warned to escape, to flee to the mountain to hide deep in the holes of the wounds of that mountain. We would have also perished on that awful day in 1969. Oh, and it is a metaphor also for what I'm hoping to preach today as watchmen. We are to be warning our people of dangers that are coming dangers that are imminent, dangers that can be seen. We are to blow the trumpet and to warn the people. Oh, what a metaphor that is. Today I am your captain and I am kicking you awake. I am beating you with my fists. I am pushing you, shoving you. because this great earth shall one day perish in a flaming lake of fire. Oh, Peter, through the Holy Spirit has told us of that thing that the earth shall be burned up in a fervent heat. Yes, that day is coming, that hour, that minute, that split It is coming, it is coming, it is coming. And I am your captain this morning, urging you to flee, flee, flee to the mountain, which in the scriptures always refers to the mountain of Jesus Christ. Yes, our only hope is to be found in Him, or we shall perish with the rest of the world in Yes, that certain moment is not uncertain. It is mapped out from the stillness of an ever-begun eternity, and it shall happen. It's not a question of if it will happen, but when it will happen. Today, then, if you hear my voice as your captain, as your minister today, Something far greater than the B-52 strike is approaching the earth. The whole earth will be consumed. The whole earth will be burned up as with a fervent heat. A disaster, an unparalleled disaster, where the Lord Jesus shall appear on the clouds in great power and might, and draw his people up to him, but shall destroy the earth. Oh, that great judgment is coming, coming, coming. Today, if we hear God's voice, let us flee from the wrath to come. Oh, metaphorically again, I am your captain, urging you, beating on you, kicking on you, shoving you. toward that mountain, and Jesus tries to escape from most certain destruction. that spiritual night coming, that great Christian apostasy is going to descend upon Christendom in the future months and years, unless we repent. Oh, in Scripture, there are over 50 verses where God says that He is coming at a time of great Christian apostasy, like as the parable of the ten virgins we read something amazing that in those trying times in the end times of the last days that there shall be a sleepiness descending upon all of christendom yes in that parable we hear and we read that all what all means sometimes it has different meanings in the bible but in this context it means all slept for it lists who slept both the foolish and the wise both the elect and the non-elect claimed Christendom for themselves, but had fallen asleep in apostasy and in error and believed a lie. Yes, it is near midnight today in the church. We see that so much of Christendom has false watchmen who are not warning, not warning that there is a disaster coming, a disaster that shall destroy this world, a disaster that shall bring an end to willful man's sin. Yes, God is revealing in his word that this time where Christendom will apostatize from his law and gospel during that last generation, will be the 32nd time that Christendom has apostatized and brought itself into a spiritual midnight. But nothing shall be so serious as this apostasy, this 32nd one, for we read that all slept. In all the previous 31 apostasies, we read that God preserved a remnant who were awake, who were warning the people. And we just give you two examples out of Scripture because they are so prevalent of those 32. In the years 586 BC, when God has said to Jeremiah the prophet, pray not for this people anymore, for I will destroy them. Nebuchadnezzar to destroy my Christian church because they have apostatized so greatly from me. Oh, it was so hard for the nominal name Christians of that day to understand. And they complained to Jeremiah and said, what does not the Lord we are God's church, we are reading his word, we are singing his Psalters. Oh, they do not see what the Lord says. This people, they sing of me with their tongue, they speak of me with their mouth, they hear of me with their ears, but their hearts, their hearts are full Oh, what a horror then of Christendom we see in our day, where we may and have many reasons to fear, based upon black and white documentation of all the surveys taken in the last hundred years, that we have made ourselves blind to our blindness, dead to our deadness. traveling with gusto, carelessly, toward the judgment day, without a Savior for our precious soul, having a counterfeit Christ for our salvation, not the true Christ. Yes, each one of us have a precious soul worth far more than the whole world's wealth. never die. And try to imagine then the immense worth of your one soul, that one soul that makes Satan labor day and night to bring you and your soul into hell. And that soul that is so precious in God's sight of his children that he was willing to send and to offer up his see, to redeem lost souls, priceless souls. Yes, God's work will continue to the very end, for he will awaken those sleeping virgins, all of them. And we read five of them find that In all their apostasy, God has still preserved oil in their lamps, which they may light and by faith may enter in to the door to worship the King of kings, the Lord of lords, to be married as the bride, the church, to the great bridegroom, and to ministers 31 times in history. Do not even pray for that corrupt Christendom anymore, for I will not even hear their prayers. But we are fortunate to this hour that the Lord has not said this to our deeply corrupted Christendom of our day. God has not said, pray not for this people, preach not repentance to this people, for I will not hear them. Oh, what does that say to you and to me? There is still an opportunity to repent. The marketplace of free grace is still open where the Lord cries out, come and buy. without money and without price. Oh, do you hear his voice today, convicting you of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment? Oh, have you found the beatitude way of salvation, of sanctification, where God speaks in Matthew 5? Blessed are they who mourn when they see what is steel which flows out of their heart as a mighty foul stream of transgression, assaulting God in our apostasy. Oh, today, if you hear his voice, harden not your heart. Listen, listen to the true watchmen who may warn. And our scripture text then for this morning is from Ezekiel 33 verse 1. Again, the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, speak to the children of thy people and say unto them, when I bring a sword upon the land, if the people of the land take a man from their coast and set him as their watchman, When he seeth a sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet and warn the people. And whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet and taketh not warning, if the sword come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet and took not warning. His blood shall be upon him, but he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. But if the watchman see the sword coming and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned, if the sword come and take not any man, person among them, he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand. watchman unto the house of Israel, and therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die. If thou does not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at your hand, O watchman, thus far the reading of God's holy and infallible word. Yes, today we hear and preach of the great responsibility of the watchman, the watchman who are God's servants, warning out of God's word of what is to come. And if we look at the theme of eschatology as scripture unfolds them in the Bible, our first point will be Daniel's eschatological writings by the Holy Spirit. Our second point will be Mark's eschatological writings by the Holy Spirit. And our third point will be the other five human authors. Matthew, Luke, Paul, and John writing about the future disaster of the church, where all slept. We try to expand this narrative that there will be two marks of the beast, one in 70 AD when Titus destroyed the second temple, and one shortly before the end of the earth. Oh, there are so many false, misleading Christian theories abounding today within Christendom that do not reflect the Bible, which the Bible must be our only guide. Yes, in our first point, the 90-year-old Daniel over 500 years before Christ was given to write such deep and probing realities about the last days of the last hours of the earth. It was given to Daniel so much wisdom. All others have referenced him in their writings under the grand authorship of the Holy Spirit. Yes, it is from the Holy Spirit through Daniel. that we have the term and the reality of the abomination of desolation and the precise timing and the circumstance which shall surround this cryptic divine miracle of the end of the earth. No, no one dares to say when the last day is, such a fool would be a false prophet. But we do know that there are signs of the last generation, and how many barrels of ink have been spent writing up the many false theories that fill libraries and fill the minds of deluded Christian leaders and men today. Yes, Daniel gave us the 49-week outline of eschatology that is true, became reality. Yes, naturally Daniel is interested. He is curious as to when these two events that the Lord gave him will take place and what they are. But God in his infinite wisdom hides this even from Daniel, for it shall be only revealed in these last days, the last hours. God's ways are not our ways, God's thoughts are not our thoughts, for he is high and lifted up far above our puny finite minds. Yes, Daniel receives only this comfort, that he will be in the lot of the saved in the last days. Yes, God tells Daniel many factors that shall be revealed in those days. And we must take heed to them. And chief among them is that then the gospel in the world. It has reached all 197 countries in the world through the Beatitude Way, through the Pentecost force of the Holy Spirit that has carried the gospel but we read them and before we look at those 25 factors which are the withholding force then we must hasten to emphasize again and again and again for the thousandth time I must say I am not a prophet oh perish the very No, but he gives, God gives to his servants some inkling, some idea of what will come in those last days. Yes, God is a living God and he teaches his true servants what is coming. Now those 25 factors which are the withholding force that have prevented Satan, who was loosed for a season from hell, chains loose, that he can wreck abomination upon the earth, and that he can so ripen the fruit of the earth. For we see in that other parable that God has sown the good seed, but the evil one has sown the bad seed, and both have grown up, both the tares and the wheat. And the angels asked the Lord, shall we, shall we harvest the wheat while the tares grow with them? And the Lord said, no, let them mature, let them grow, let them reach ripeness for when they are ripe, then there is a vast difference between a white ripened wheat and a ripened terror, then there will be no mistakes, then none of my poor, little, missing, grieving children will be mistakenly lost. For I have that great promise that I bear, that none will be lost of all of those that the Lord has sent me sinners, who hunger and thirst for that living way, who hunger and thirst to know Jesus Christ more and more, to be conformed to His image, to be brought into His presence, to be taught by His Holy Spirit in these exceedingly trying times. where, as we said, the 50 verses in the Bible testify that all slept, the bride of Jesus Christ, the elect slept. We read that unless the Lord had shortened those days in a miraculous way, they also would not have been preserved. Oh, God has a withholding force during this time of Pentecost blessing around the world to all 195, 197 countries. That withholding force is, first, it is a God-given law. God has established civil and spiritual law. The church and the country are to be Siamese twins who jointly bring to the people the unfettered word of God, bring to hearing ears law and gospel. Yes, God restrains a country through the law. Up until this generation, we've seen that was true. Now we have the Supreme Court, which has made their own man-made laws, saying that grievous sins, horrendous sins, abominable sins condemned in the Bible over 30 times are now the new holiness. and preached in so many churches, Christian churches around the world. Yes, this is all part of God's plan. The shortening of the days is also in God's grand master blueprint for the universe. The shortening of those days that the elixir lamp oil is not deteriorated to nothing. Yes, it is a God-given force. It is the Holy Spirit going forth around the world in Jesus Christ riding the white horse of victory as he tramples sin in the winepress of justice with that sharp two-edged sword that proceeds out of his mouth. The word of God convicts of sin of righteousness and of judgment. Oh, have you heard his word? Has it ever affected your heart? Has it awakened you out of your dead sleep? Oh, it has been applied all around the globe until this generation because it is a spiritual force and It is a force for good. It is a force maintained by God that the gates of hell shall not prevail against God's church. There will still be a remnant. Yes, the wise virgins sleeping shortly before the Lord Jesus comes again, awakened only at the last moment. by the loud voice of the Holy Spirit crying out, awake thou that sleepeth and arise from the dead for the bridegroom cometh. Yes, that word of God goes said the government previous to this generation was part of that equation, part of that force that was designed to work with the church, to provide the word of God to all humanity, to protect humanity, to be watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem, ready to blow the trumpet. Oh, Do you hear the trumpet blowing loud and long today? Oh, I am blowing that trumpet loud and long today. We are in great danger. We are sleeping so much of Christendom, and we may fear it is as a time of the ten virgins, where even the elect slept. Oh, can you fathom the evil that has come about in this generation? Our godly forefathers would, if they could miraculously come alive, thunder condemnation upon you and me and the counterfeit Christianity that counts itself as Christianity today. countless people who say, God knows I have a good heart. God knows that I love him. God knows that I am his child. When has the their tongues, but their hearts are far from me, following a false doctrine, following a counterfeit way, following a Jesus Christ who is counterfeit. Jesus warns us so many, many times, beware, beware, beware of false Holy Spirit? Do you hear His voice today in your hearts? Do you hear His warning? Do you hear the trumpets sounding? Danger! Danger! Danger! Oh, if your church does not follow Scripture, does not follow the Word of God, but as invented many many delusions, flee, flee, flee to the mountain of Jesus Christ. Oh, we will only give you a few examples this morning. When we look and we see that the theory of evolution dominates over 90% of Christendom to some degree or another, that people say, oh, God could not have done something so great. God could not have done the creation of the earth in the twinkling of an eye. Oh, really? Do you believe the word of God? For God says that six times in his word, that in the last split second of time, God will Create a new heaven and a new earth in a split second. Yes, and we know from God that he is not only omniscient, but that he is omnipotent, that he is the same yesterday as he is today. And if God in the last days is able to, and he certainly is, to create a new heaven and a new earth in the twinkling of an eye. Then that's exactly how long it took God to create the earth. In each of the six 24-hour days of creation, yes, there was lots of time left something in its essence and then to spend time in refining it and bringing it to final conformity to the image of Jesus Christ. Yes, God is still working today. God is still calling to you and to me today. turning, turning, turning from the wickedness of this present earth, but also from the wickedness of This present wicked Christendom, which accepts open abominable sin as some kind of new holiness, saying, God must not have known what he was saying. of the Bible, we can make up our own laws. Yes, we can obey the law of the Supreme Court of the United States that says that same-sex marriage is acceptable. That homosexuality is acceptable. That transgenderism is not only acceptable, but must be included in the church as some kind of new holiness. Oh, abomination of abominations. What will you do? Will you obey the Supreme Court? and all of their foolish errors, telling you what is to be believed and what is not to be believed. Or will you believe the word of God, where no matter how impossible the word of God seems to us puny, finite human beings, yet it is true. And it cannot fail. It shall not fail. Not one jot or tittle lot of God's word shall fail. And he has used that restraining force where we have given those 25 principles to bring us to this point that all 197 countries in the world have been exposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ. No, it has not reached every part of every country, but neither has God promised that that's what he would do. Yes, the word of God is to be our guide. And in that parable that I began the sermon with, where we see that Our captain has kicked us, beaten us, shoved us, pushed us toward that mountain of Jesus Christ to escape from the wrath that was to come from this 500,000 pounds of dynamite, which was an errant B-52 mission bombing the wrong site. Oh soul, I beg you to see me as your, your captain this morning. And I am beating you with my fists awake. I am kicking you awake. I am shoving you toward that mountain. I am picking you up and shouting faster, faster, faster. for the wrath of God is to come. And now perhaps you will say, oh, Chaplin, so many people have said the end of the earth is going to come. And look, it's still here. It's still here. Oh, then I tell you, mockers shall come in the last day and shall say exactly that thing, God will not destroy the earth when he has promised that that is exactly what he will do. Oh, do you believe the word of God or do you believe the word of Satan? God's destructive force that shall descend upon this earth and destroy all of the earth is coming. It is coming. It is coming. and we know not how soon. Oh, today then, if you hear my voice, if the Holy Spirit awakens you to your lost state, dead in sins and trespasses, lost to your lostness, blind to your blindness, and awakes you