"…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" (Ezek.33:7).

God's Prophet Ezekiel was appointed as a "watchman" over the house of Israel. He was held responsible to sound the alarm and warn the wicked of Israel from their way. While God must deal justly with sin, He also declared: "I (the Lord) have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live" (Verse 11).

If Ezekiel failed to warn the wicked they would die in their sins, but their blood would be required at his hand. If he faithfully warned them, however, and they refused to heed the warning, they would die in their sins, but he would be absolved of all responsibility (See Verses 8 and 9).

Some Christians may remind us that we are living under a different dispensation than was Ezekiel's and that our message is one of grace. True enough, but this doesn't diminish, it should increases our burden toward the lost.

"For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?" (ICor.14:8).

We as believers as ambassadors for Christ on earth should not allow the lost to go to Christless graves without having heard "the gospel of the grace of God." Will this not be accounted for among other things at the Judgment Seat of Christ, by which the Lord will access rewards? (See II Corinthians 5:10-11). This is why we find Paul reminding the Ephesian elders that he had not ceased to "warn" men "night and day with tears" (Acts 20:31).

As the apostle looked back over his ministry among the Ephesians he could say: "I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men" (Verse 26). And this had been so of his ministry in general. Indeed, it was now his desire that whatever the cost, he "might finish his course with joy, and the ministry which he had received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God" (Verse 24).

May Ezekiel, and the Apostle Paul, that great warrior for the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, be memorials to us concerning our great ministry toward the lost... as the Lord's ambassadors who also bear the burden of "the ministry of reconciliation"!

"And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;" (2 Corinthians 5:18)