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[00:00:00] Now could we read a few verses from the 62nd chapter of Isaiah.
[00:00:09] Isaiah 62 for Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until her righteousness go forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burneth and the nations shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory.
[00:00:47] And thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name.
[00:00:55] Thou shalt also be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.
[00:01:07] Verse six.
[00:01:09] I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem.
[00:01:15] They shall never hold their peace day nor night.
[00:01:20] Ye that are the Lord's remembrances, take ye no rest, and give him no rest till he establish, until he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
[00:01:46] Last Sunday morning we spoke for a while about the testimony of Jesus.
[00:01:57] We spoke about that candlestick, all of gold that was on the right side of the tent of meeting as you went in.
[00:02:11] And you will remember that we spent some while just simply defining what that golden candlestick stands for, and not only what it stands for, but something of its function and ministry. We said that the three pieces of furniture that you find in the tent of meeting, the golden candlestick on the right, the golden table of showbread on the left, and the golden altar of incense immediately in front of you, before the veil, just in front of the veil before the ark, spoke of a threefold and essential ministry of the church.
[00:03:08] It speaks of that threefold ministry of God's people.
[00:03:17] Of course, it is true to say that our Lord Jesus personally summed up that threefold ministry in himself. He is the golden candlestick himself. He is the golden table of showbread himself. He is food for people.
[00:03:38] He is light to this world. And above all, he is the intercessor in the universe. He is the travailer of the universe, the one who knows something of the ministry of the golden altar. But you know, the whole point about the church is not that it's an institution, not that it's some organization, not that it's some movement called Christianity or something akin to that. The whole point of the church is that it is only the extension of Jesus on earth. It is only the reproduction of Jesus. All the churches is simply those who've been brought into union with him and are, as it were of him. They are produced out of what he is and to all intents and purposes, they are Christ on the earth.
[00:04:38] The church is supposed to be the vessel in which Christ can be found. The church is the vessel through which Christ conveys himself to the world. The church should be the instrument of Christ. As he is the head. The church is his body.
[00:04:56] Hidden body are never severed. They are one living organism.
[00:05:02] And you cannot distinguish the church from the head. You can't say, this is the church, that is the head. You must take head and body together in God's sight. They are absolutely one. And this is the testimony. The testimony of Jesus is invested in that church, wherever it can be found, wherever it can be born, wherever it can be produced and built up. You have the testimony of Jesus in the midst.
[00:05:39] Well, we can't go back over. Last week we spoke of the characteristics of that candlestick. You will remember them. Pure gold, all beaten work turned work beacon out of one piece.
[00:05:59] Absolutely one.
[00:06:02] And we spoke of the oil. Now, this morning, for a few moments, I would like to direct your attention to a further thought that comes out of that that we said concerning the testimony of Jesus.
[00:06:16] I want you to look at this whole question of watchmen.
[00:06:21] Watchmen, you know, in, in the scriptures, particularly amongst the prophets, this word is used again and again.
[00:06:31] Watchmen.
[00:06:33] We are the watchmen of the law.
[00:06:36] We have been appointed as watchmen of God, and we have a tremendous ministry and function to fulfill in this world as the watchmen of God.
[00:06:51] I want you to look for a few moments at one or two things here.
[00:06:56] The first thing I want to point out to you is contained in the first five verses of Isaiah 62.
[00:07:06] In chapter 61, it speaks of the Lord Jesus. You look at verse one of chapter 61, you will find the spirit of the Lord God is upon me. That speaks of the Lord Jesus. Then the prophet Isaiah speaks for the Lord Jesus, and we suddenly find these are the words coming out of the one upon whom the spirit of God rests. Ize for Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until her righteousness go forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burns.
[00:07:49] You know, the Lord Jesus is at this very moment, whilst we are gathered in this room, the Lord Jesus is engaged in heaven in an unceasing ministry of intercession.
[00:08:05] He is not resting. Oh, you mustn't get it into your minds that although there's one aspect of scripture truth, that says the Lord Jesus is seated, he is enthoned. His work, his work of salvation, of redemption is over and finished. You must not think by that, that he's not doing anything. He is engaged in an unceasing, unending ministry of intercession. He is not resting.
[00:08:33] He is engaged in a tremendous conflict to see the fruit of his finished work fulfilled and realized his work is over.
[00:08:49] Everything that is needed for the salvation of the human race is, is accomplished.
[00:08:55] Everything to produce a new humanity, everything to have the testimony of Jesus shining brightly and gloriously in this world. All the resources, all the provision, everything that is necessary has been placed at our disposal because of the finished work. The Lord Jesus, everything is involved in that finished work. The finished work is the of Christ. Is the only reason that God can deal with us, the only reason that he can accept us, not only initially, but always louder than that.
[00:09:40] But you know, our Lord Jesus is engaged in tremendous ministry to bring the end, the object, the goal of his suffering, of his death, of his resurrection, of his very coming into this world, into this race, into this humanity. He is not resting until that goal, till that object is secured.
[00:10:20] You see, here you read it again, those first five verses. How wonderful it is. I am very glad that primarily, and firstly, it's not left to us.
[00:10:32] I'm very, very thankful that Lord Jesus is not just sitting down in heaven of leaving it all.
[00:10:39] I'm very thankful that it's been revealed to us that the Lord Jesus is on the move in heaven. Activity, heavenly activity, tremendous amount going on up there to secure his, to secure it, to bring in the kingdom, to have that people, that bride for himself, to wind up this world, to finally terminate this whole system and order of things, and to bring in that which God originally conceived and desired.
[00:11:19] All depends upon a certain kind of people, surely.
[00:11:25] And I want you to remember that these prophecies of Isaiah were all dealing with a time when Jerusalem and the testimony of God in the Old Testament was marred and lost.
[00:11:42] And this was the word that came to Isaiah, that when the people of God are in exile and when everything is upside down in a state of chaos and disorder, the word came to Isaiah. Isaiah. I'm not resting. I am not going to rest until we get back people, to the land, till we get Jerusalem rebuilt, till we get the temple rebuilt, until again the glory of God is found on this earth, till this lamp burns brightly, this candlestick is again functioning in the midst, so that all the nations have a chance, an opportunity of seeing what God is like, a beacon to guide them. If there is anyone who wants the Lord so that they can see somewhere on earth, they can see the Lord.
[00:12:41] It's no good just presenting to this world a Christ who is ethereal, who is not here.
[00:12:51] It is a principle with God, that there's got to be something on the earth, something actually lived out, something secured and realized on this earth, where people can touch Christ again, where people can handle Christ again, where people can see Christ again. It is only the principle of incarnation.
[00:13:17] That's all. And we are but the extension of the ministry of the Lord Jesus when he was here on earth.
[00:13:23] Men and women should be able to find Christ in us, touch Christ in us, see Christ in us, handle Christ in us, something within.
[00:13:37] That's the church, that's the testimony of Jesus. Well, I'm very glad to see that. The Lord Jesus says here he's not resting. He is not resting until this testimony of his is bright, until it's reinvested in his people, until it's recovered, until it's in a place where the nations, where the unsaved have a hope, have got a hope.
[00:14:08] Oh, all this talk about evangelism and so much else, what really is the point unless we've got something that the world can see of Jesus in us, until they can see changed lives, transformed people, revolutionized people.
[00:14:29] The world's tired of religion, and it's tired of a christian facade.
[00:14:35] It's got to see that dynamic and true real thing inside of a people.
[00:14:43] That's something which somehow or other, you cannot explain it, but witnesses something or other in them says, that's it.
[00:14:53] The Lord Jesus says here, he's not going to rest. He's not going to rest until her righteousness go forth as brightness, her salvation as a lamp that burst. Isn't that wonderful? See her salvation as a lamp that burneth. It's bound up with this testimony. People being saved, people finding the Lord, those lives that are fettered in sin and in darkness, they've got to see this lamp.
[00:15:20] They've got to see this life of Jesus, the character of Jesus, the nature of Jesus.
[00:15:31] And it says here, the Lord Jesus is not only going to not rest until he's got that in his people, but he's not going to rest until he can make us a crown of beauty in his hand. That's the end.
[00:15:46] Something for his adornment, something that will express his glory.
[00:15:53] Well, that's the first thing. I want to underline that. Because, you see, it's important for us if we're going to see what watchmen are, to realize that the Lord Jesus is on the moon. It's not left to us. He's the one who's on the move. He's the one that must have this. Now you see that verse six. I have set watchmen upon thy walls, o Jerusalem. They shall never hold their peace. Watchmen? What are watchmen? Well, the word is those that seed, those that observe, those that look.
[00:16:30] I'm not going to suggest that all the Lord's people are watchmen. We should all be watchmen. But we are not all watchmen.
[00:16:38] But it all depends on how much we have seen.
[00:16:44] When Ezekiel saw something of the glory of the Lord, immediately the word came to him. I have appointed thee a watchman when he had seen.
[00:16:54] And you will discover again and again this whole question of spiritual watchmanship is bound up with what we've seen. If we've seen something of the Lord, if we've seen something of the purpose of God, if we've seen something of the gold which the Lord is working. We are constituted watchmen. We don't have to have a word. We don't have to have something special, a special official appointment. We are constituted watchmen by what we have seen. We become responsible to the Lord for what we have seen.
[00:17:34] You know the parable of the talents? Three men which given certain amount of money and what they did with it, what was given to them, they were responsible to the Lord over for its increase, for its development, for its exploitation.
[00:17:52] It's no good any child of God saying that they have not been given something.
[00:17:59] You may have only been given two talents, but you've still been given something of the Lord. And you and I are absolutely responsible to the Lord. Watchmen were responsible in the old days to the elders of the city for the safety and security of the whole city.
[00:18:20] Upon them, their watchfulness, their alertness, their functioning depended, the whole safety of the population.
[00:18:33] Spiritual watchmen are like that.
[00:18:36] If we've seen something, we are constituted watchmen. We can't get away from it. We might not like it, but we can't get away from it. We are constituted watchmen. Now listen. I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem.
[00:18:55] If we've seen something of the purpose of God, we have been spiritually set upon the walls of Jerusalem. You know, there's a tremendous amount we could say about the walls of Jerusalem. The battles that were fought over the walls of Jerusalem, that which defines God's ground, that which defines God's dwelling place, that which marks it out and distinguishes it from everything else. We have been set upon that.
[00:19:24] That's where our feet are. In this ministry of guardianship, in this ministry of covering, in this ministry of watchfulness, we've been set. Well, two things. The Lord Jesus is on the move to obtain the end of his work, to bring everything to its right conclusion, he is an unceasing activity in a ministry of intercession. Secondly, if you and I have seen anything of the Lord Jesus or anything of the purpose of God, and then we are constituted by what we have seen, watchmen. We are responsible to the Lord and indeed to others for what we have seen.
[00:20:19] Now I want you to remark that there are two there is a twofold ministry in being watchmen. The first is inward, the second is outward. The first is toward the Lord and in the realm of the invisible. The other is toward people in the realm of the visible.
[00:20:39] The first is contained in these verses from six to verse seven, and really almost to the end of the chapter. What is this ministry? Listen. They shall never hold their peace day nor night.
[00:20:56] Ye that are the Lord's remembrances, take ye no rest, or keep not silent and give him no silence.
[00:21:05] The Lord has such a burden on his heart that he says to us, give me no silence. I don't want to be left. I don't want you to leave me for a moment. I want you to plead with me. I want you to importune me. I want you to lay hold of me day and night. You must never stop. You must harp and harp and harp and harp upon this thing. Don't you think you will wear me out? You won't wear me out. I want to have no silence, no silence until Jerusalem is as the brightness of this lamp. I want you to lay hold of me and worry me and worry me and worry me and worry me until something happens. Don't ask me why the Lord in his sovereignty's got to be worried over the things I don't know.
[00:21:52] Don't ask me why there's any need for prayer when the Lord's absolutely all powerful, except it is over the question of union mutuality, head and body.
[00:22:07] It may well be, oh, do hear me. It may well be that the Lord Jesus, because of the principle of union, cannot work without his people and his people cannot work without him.
[00:22:21] It may well be that prayer is bound up with this mutuality of existence, this mutuality of entity.
[00:22:30] It may well be that the Lord Jesus says, if you don't work, I don't work. If you work, I work. You pray, I'll be behind it. Do you understand?
[00:22:41] It's as simple as this. If you don't witness in the office, there won't be any witness of the Lord. If you don't speak for the Lord, when you've told you the Lord will not speak. It's no good you saying, why leave it to the Lord? The Lord must do things matter. He must say, I mustn't get in the way.
[00:22:58] You are denying the very principle of incarnation. You are a member of Christ. If you don't act, how can Christ act? You are his body. Cut my hand off. How can I get that glass of water? Cut my hand off. Cut my arm off. How can I get it? Oh, but you say to me, you've got a head. Get it? But I say, I can't. I haven't. My arm won't work. I haven't got an arm. Well, you say, but you've got a head. Everything's bound up with the head. Let the head do it. I say to listen, I can't do it. There's a principle in my body. I got to have an arm. Then when I got an arm, something will happen here. It will go through. It will take hold of the glass. It will lift it up.
[00:23:45] We are not supposed to work for the Lord Jesus. We are supposed to work with the Lord Jesus.
[00:23:52] What a lot there is in scripture about working out your own salvation. For it is God that works in you. When you work it out, God works in you. Do you understand? Praying. In the prayer of the Lord Jesus.
[00:24:08] There is a prayer ministry of the Lord Jesus. You pray. He prays in you. You shut up and he doesn't pray. Oh, don't think the Lord Jesus will pray through you if you won't pray.
[00:24:20] There's nothing ethereal about this. You are the body of the Lord Jesus.
[00:24:27] We are part of the Lord Jesus. All right. The whole object of the enemy is to batter us down into passivity. Get us to the place where we won't do anything. Where we feel so utterly unworthy of our hundred or other things. One other things. We won't get on with the job.
[00:24:46] And then the devil stands back and laughs. Listen to them all. They're talking about the sovereignty of the Lord. They're talking about the almightiness of goddess. Let them see their hymns and talk about it. It's all right. We've got them.
[00:25:04] Absolutely got. They don't understand the principle of the church.
[00:25:11] It is union.
[00:25:14] It is the incarnation of Christ.
[00:25:19] This ministry, then you will see of being constituted. Watchman is firstly, a ministry of Prayer. It is a ministry that is inward to Christ.
[00:25:30] Give him no rest. Give him no peace. Worry him day and night. Don't let him have any silence. Don't let him, as it were, and get away from you all the time. Let your voice follow him, let your pleadings go after him. Let him not for one moment get away from this object, from this business.
[00:25:51] I tell you one thing, we shall tire more quickly of this than the Lord Jesus.
[00:25:58] I've noticed it in our prayer that we're growing tired of prayer.
[00:26:03] Oh, yes, amongst us who are responsible as much as amongst those who are not so old in the north. We are going tired of prayer. We're going tired of the battle, tired of the whole conflict. But you see what the Lord Jesus says.
[00:26:22] They shall never hold their peace.
[00:26:26] You all know what it is to be nagged, don't you?
[00:26:30] That's really what the Lord Jesus is saying.
[00:26:33] He wants a nagging ministry, an importunate ministry of prayer that nags and nanks and eggs and legs and legs. He wants it.
[00:26:46] He won't work without it. He won't bring in anything without this ministry.
[00:26:53] Oh, if we could get hold of this. There's so much amongst us who are the Lord's people. That's merely outward. We try to get on with the outward function of the watchman before we've tackled the inward.
[00:27:05] This is the most important thing of all. We're on those walls and we're the remembrances of the Lord. Why does the Lord need to be reminded if the Lord has said, I will, I will, I will, I will. What's the point in saying to Lord, remember, you said, I will.
[00:27:23] What's the point?
[00:27:26] But you all know the basis of that game, don't you?
[00:27:30] You said you would do so and so, and you haven't done it.
[00:27:36] You said, so and so, so and so and so and so, and you haven't done what you said you would do.
[00:27:43] So on and so on and so on and so on.
[00:27:47] And Lord Jesus wants a ministry of prayer that takes hold of him like that. You said, so and so and so and so.
[00:27:56] We've got to have it. It's got to be made real.
[00:28:01] All right, I think I can leave that inward function there. Oh, you know, I would like to ask you, when did you really last pray for the purpose of God? When did you really last lay hold of the Lord for his testimony? When did you last really sacrifice time to lay hold of the Lord? If you are a watchman, you have a responsibility. If you've seen anything, you've got a responsibility. God, it doesn't matter what you feel like. I have no doubt some of those watchmen at times felt very jaded on the walls and weary of their job, but they've got to go on all this spineless, weak kneed business that is amongst us. I don't feel like praying. I don't feel like going on. I don't. Oh, dear.
[00:28:58] Well, the other thing you will find in Ezekiel 33 is the outward ministry. It is the outward ministry of the watchman. Ezekiel was a very fine man indeed, as you all know. He was a man who was very faithful to the Lord in every way. And yet the Lord was more severe with Ezekiel than many others. You know what he said to Ezekiel? He said, ezekiel, you are a watchman. Now, you know what happens to a watchman that's on the city walls, don't you? If he's been put on those city walls and he sees the enemy coming and he doesn't blow the trumpethe whose blood is required by the elders of the city, yours, watch.
[00:29:40] He did not do his duty.
[00:29:43] Now, then, Ezekiel said, the Lord, I am sending you to this people.
[00:29:50] Your responsibility to me is over what you have seen. If you do not proclaim to them what you have seen, they will die. But their blood will. I require, at your hands.
[00:30:08] Now, that's pretty severe.
[00:30:11] And I want to point out to you the solemn fact that you and I can go into the presence of God. Though saved from our sin, those saved from the condemnation of the judgment that is upon sin, we can nevertheless go into the presence of God with blood on our hands, the blood of others that we never bother to warn.
[00:30:36] The watchman's job is to warn, what is this candlestick? All of gold. What is the light for? Just as a pretty ornament, the Lord Jesus said, I am the light of the world. He said, ye are the light of the world. What is it for? So that people can stand back and say, what a lovely piece of work. Look at those pretty little twinkling lights.
[00:30:59] No, the whole thing is that people might see God. They might see the salvation of God. They might understand what God is after. That's the whole point of it.
[00:31:15] We are watchmen.
[00:31:17] Do you think we are just here to give cups of tea to each other, to pass on a little bit of comfort to one another?
[00:31:27] Do you know that you and I have a responsibility to this world because of what we have seen, because of what God has shown us? We shall one day stand before God, and he will say to us, what did you do with what I've seen? Oh, we'll say we had little meetings. We had nice times. We tried to help each other. We, um. We baptized people. We married people we buried, people we dedicated, children we sought to somehow or other just keep each other going.
[00:31:58] The Lord said, what's the point of all that?
[00:32:04] Your function is in a world that's dying, that perish.
[00:32:10] I want to reach out to them. All around you there are broken lives. All around you there are devastated people. Can't you see?
[00:32:19] Don't you understand?
[00:32:22] Have we been so saved that we've been lulled into indifference and apathy because we are all right, it doesn't matter about anyone else.
[00:32:33] Well, we can go on like that. And there will come a day when the Lord will look at our hands and say, blood. Blood is on your hands. Thousands have gone into eternity because you didn't do anything. I'm not saying that you've all the time got to be talking, talking, talking, talking. But what are you?
[00:32:51] What am I? Is there anything of the Lord in me that's light, anything in me that can, that can somehow or other be the means by which God reaches out to others and saves them? Or in our offices are we just looked at and made the butt of jokes? Ho Seren says, religious, you and I have a responsibility. We might well fear over this because there is a day when we must all appear before the Lord before that tribunal of rewards, and we must each give account of what we have done. It has nothing to do with judgment. It has nothing to do with the past of sin and so on of transgression. It is to do with our responsibility over what the Lord entrusted to us. And I am persuaded that the Lord might well be very much more severe with some of us than he is with others when it comes to that day.
[00:34:04] What did James mean when he said, don't be teachers, brother. Don't all of you try to be teachers. There's a much severer test coming in the end of the teacher when he stands before God.
[00:34:20] Well, there you are. First, an inward ministry, an outward ministry. We are watchmen. We have a responsibility.
[00:34:30] Do you? Are you ever concerned about the people you work with, you move with? Are you the least bit concerned about the world around?
[00:34:42] When did you last really show some concern for people?
[00:34:51] You and I have a terrible responsibility, men.
[00:35:00] It is a terrible thing to think that one day people have got will be charged to our recklessness and carelessness and indifference because they might not.
[00:35:16] Well, it's an uncomfortable doctrine, isn't it?
[00:35:20] But if anyone thinks I'm just being dramatic, you better read the 33rd chapter of Ezekiel and the third chapter of Ezekiel. And I think also you better read some other parts in the New Testament that deal with this warning every man.
[00:35:36] Warning every man. Oh, yes, there's a lot that's in the word about this whole question of spiritual watchmanship.
[00:35:47] Do you know what happened to the man who had a two talents and hid them in the ground?
[00:35:52] Our Lord said, what have you done with him? He said, I knew you were a hard man, Lord, I hid it in the ground.
[00:36:00] He asked them to be brought to him.
[00:36:03] He said, take away what that man has and give to the other who has.
[00:36:16] Take away what he's got. What does that mean?
[00:36:21] I'm sure it does not mean that we can lose our salvation, but I do believe it does mean that there is a possibility of suffering a lot of injury.
[00:36:31] Well, that's solemn, isn't it? But I must close now.
[00:36:37] That's the question. That's the whole matter of spiritual watchmanship. And I would like, though it's so solemn and sober, to point you back to what I said at the beginning, take courage from this.
[00:36:50] The Lord Jesus is not resting, and he will not rest. You and I might not be very concerned about the millions around us who are dying, who are perishing, who are indeed. But the Lord Jesus sees it all, hears it all. He understands he's like the great headquarters into which all the time signals are coming that keep him aware what's happening in with him all over the world. He knows he doesn't want that state of things, that system of things to last one moment longer than absolutely desperate. He wants to wind it all up and bring in a new heaven.
[00:37:30] Oh, that we might be with the Lord Jesus first, in a spiritual ministry of watchfulness and alertness, laying hold of him for this. And secondly, wherever we are, with whomsoever we be, to seek by God's grace to so live first, and then to so speak, that they might be fully acquainted with, as the owners of God, we could say a lot about ourselves as a company, setting literally our responsibility collectively as the church of God here in this town is for the wholeness of this town. And one day, what we've done, how we've reacted, how we've fulfilled our responsibility, it's going to be the matter, the substance for investigation by the Lord Jesus. What did you do? You had so much there. I provided so much for you. I gave you so much. I was in your midst. What did you do?
[00:38:43] Oh, it's not a question of methods about me. It's a question of desired to by all means save some, snatch them out of it somehow rescue them. Oh, don't let's get to that awful level of quibbling about how to reach people. Let's pray to the Lord by every means, however strange and peculiar. By every means, let us seek to rescue some. By the grace of God, may he so do it.
[00:39:24] Lord Jesus is a solemn type of word, and we ask thee together now, that thou cover us from the enemy, and what he will seek to insinuate and do, o save us from misconstruction or misinterpretation or misunderstanding. Standing at the same time, Lord, stop us from shaking this off like water off a duck's back. Lord Jesus, we pray, oh, take us back to thy word. We might read it and see whether it is so. And might by so doing become more responsible to thee for what we've seen of thyself and of thy purpose. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:40:11] Amen.