Worship

Pentecost 15                         September 6, 2026
Ezekiel 33:7-11                       Pastor Ryan Wolfe

Sermon Theme: Watch out for sin!

“Am I my brother’s keeper?” is the very first question of mankind recorded in the Bible. For those that might not be familiar, let me walk you to it quickly. Genesis 1 & 2 record the creation of the world, first telling us the whole story, and then going back to the beginning and telling it again with mankind at the center of it. Then in Genesis three we see the fall into sin. The snake, the fruit, the shame and blame, the promise of a Savior. Then in Genesis four we start to hear about other humans. Specifically, Cain and Abel, two of the sons of Adam and Eve.

There was a time both sons offered sacrifices to God. Cain offered “some of the fruits of the soil” as his offering. Abel offed “fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock.” For relatively obvious reasons God accepted the wholehearted gift of Abel but rejected the halfhearted gift of Cain. And Cain gets angry. He kills his brother out in the field, and when God confronts him and asks, “Where is your brother?” Cain responds with those famous words, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

The answer we find from our Scripture readings today is clear: YES! We are called on to watch out for each other. Sin is the enemy of all, and God would have us warn one another when we see each other in danger. And we are in danger. Did you know God say the anger in Cain’s heart before the murder? God tried to warn him away from it. Genesis 3:7 says, “If you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

God was the first watchman against sin. He saw it growing in the heart of Cain and warned him of the ruin that lay ahead. Sadly, famously, Cain didn’t listen. But God isn’t the only watchman. In Ezekiel 33, among other chapters, God calls the prophet “a watchman for the people of Israel.” In our gospel reading Jesus gave the same responsibility to every believer. Brothers and sisters, we too must watch out for sin. Not only in our lives for our own future, but for each other as well.

The importance of a watchman in Biblical times took on a whole new meaning last winter when I had the opportunity to visit Israel and see the ruins of fortified towns and cities for myself. It was on the second day of our trip, in the ruins of Beersheba, when it hit me. These towns were small. You see, I didn’t understand that most of time, the people of these towns lived outside the walls of fortified towns and cities. They tended their crops and their animals and really only went into the town to pay taxes or speak to the rulers. Most people lived outside the safety of the fortified walls.

Watchmen were posted on towers on those high walls though, and they would be the first to see danger approaching. Raiders or bandits or even an approaching army. The watchmen would call out on their horns and those who paid attention and heard the horn could retreat behind the walls to safety. Those who ignored the watchman’s call were on their own. The watchman didn’t save the people on his own, but he was an important part of delivering the people from danger. It is that precise role that God uses to describe Ezekiel’s responsibility to the people of Israel. Our responsibility to each other in faith.

In Ezekiel 25-32 God had sent the prophet to warn the nations who set themselves up as enemies of Israel and enemies of God. He boldly proclaimed that if they did not repent of their sins against him, the people of those nations would be judged and punished. But here in verse seven, God directs the watchman of Israel to turn his focus inward. To warn God’s people themselves because they weren’t innocent in God’s eyes either. Ezekiel was directed to “hear the Word God speaks and give them warning.”

The warning was simple. We read in verse 8: “The wicked man will die for his sin.” This is a message we know because we’ve heard this Word of God spoken to us. Many of us from childhood even. God warns us, plainly and simply, that all are guilty of sin from the youngest infant to the most elderly among us. And that sin separates us from our holy God as surely as light is separate from darkness. Because all sin, all will die and all will be punished for that sin. The Word of God makes it clear – this death is unending separation from God in hell. God, the faithful watchman, warning us who place ourselves outside the wall of his protection. Pray we hear and run to his safety in Christ, who died to pay for our sin. Who rose to promise us life eternal in heaven.

Ezekiel’s responsibility to sinners, our responsibility, is to warn them. To remain silent in the face of God’s command would bring their suffering upon him! Listen carefully to what God tells his watchman. “When I say to the wicked, ‘You wicked person, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade them from their ways, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood.”

How concerned are you about the death of unbelievers all around us? Google tells me that today alone, 160,000 people will die and face God for judgment. 160,000 people with no more chance to come to know God or know their Savior. How concerned are you for them? Enough to speak up to your coworker who steals from the office? Enough to say something to your friend or child living with someone outside of marriage? Enough to give up your time to go knock on a stranger’s door? We are God’s watchmen, called to watch and warn. I can’t show you the video in church here for copyright reasons, but go home and search YouTube for an old video called “Gift of a Bible.” In it, an atheist (an atheist!) talks about how unloving a person would have to be to believe others are going to hell and not warn them. It’s not often that God and the atheist make the same point, but here it is – if you believe that the lost have no future but hell and you still are not speaking out and warning others, then your love has gone cold. Watchmen of Israel, watch out for sin! The sin that keeps us silent and the sin that still burdens the unbelievers around us.

As we carry out this important work of warning though, we do it with gentleness and love, not superiority and arrogance. Remember our place in God’s plan too. Every one of us is a sinner no better than those who don’t know Christ at all. The difference is not in us and our actions – it’s in knowing our Savior and knowing his actions on our behalf. The difference is in the trust we place in Christ who died for our sins. Too often Christians forget that it is by God’s grace alone that we aren’t living in sin’s darkness too. Some of you have heard my favorite description of the Christian. We are beggars who found bread leading other beggars to enjoy it with us. We’re not better, we’re just blessed. And God calls you to go out and share that blessing with others. To share the truth about sin and grace, and to do it in love.

When a sinner repents, Scripture tells us the angels rejoice and sing. And so do we! A single soul is worth all our effort. But what happens when you share your warning and others reject it? I wish I could tell you every person that I’ve warned about sin received the message, repented, and returned. They haven’t. But God speaks to that too. Verse 9, “But if you do warn the wicked person to turn from their ways and they do not do so, they will die for their sin, though you yourself will be saved.” Ultimately, each person is responsible for their own sin. We cannot do anything to save another sinner. In other words, we can lead those dying of thirst to the Living Water of Jesus, but we can’t make them drink. Our role is to speak Law and Gospel, the rest is between them and God. We keep on praying for them and we keep on showing love, but we have peace for ourselves in knowing our own forgiveness remains firm.

God’s will here once again places us at odds with the world around us. Talk about an unexpected, or unwanted, truth. Point out sin and proclaim that sin has consequences? You won’t hear or read that in today’s media. We live in a world of “live and let live.” Our society has bought into the lie that the only way you can love someone is to let them be. But we who are sinners ourselves must warn others who are just like us. It’s the old picture of a child playing on the road, unaware of the semi speeding right toward him. What heartless person would just stand by and watch the scene unfold? No, we would race across the road, tackle the child if we had to, and move them to safety. Well, unbelievers living in sin have a far greater danger barreling toward them. We must speak, even if the truth hurts feelings or bruises egos. God says it as plainly as he can here, in the verse that I sometimes call the heart of God for sinners. Verse 11, “‘As surely as I live,’ declares the Sovereign LORD, [see the special name!] ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Isarel?’” God is not some cruel, distant harbinger of justice. He is the ultimate loving Father watching in horror as his dear children choose destruction instead of life.

Today we are reminded that we are God’s call of love to those lost ones. We are the watchmen on the towers, horns in hand, to call people away from danger to the safety of Christ. Pray today that God opens your eyes to this part of his work. Pray that God leads you to watch out for sin, in your own life but in the lives of others as well. And most of all, pray that every sinner would turn from our sins and live, as our heavenly Father so strongly desires. God bless us, watchmen of Israel. Amen.