<TITLE>03. Par 10-14</TITLE>L-10 Now, to draw a little context tonight, let us call your attention to a Scripture reading in the Bible in the book of Isaiah. Let us turn into Isaiah, the 21st chapter of Isaiah, and read the 11th verse of Isaiah 21:
The burden of Dumah. He call... me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?
The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come.

L-11 Must have been an awful day, perhaps a hot one. And everything had been so confused, and look like nothing was going right, the city all flusterated; because that from the tower had come warning after warning: "There is an enemy approaching." But the city was so completely given over to sin, till they would not hear the voice of the watchman in the tower.
Though he had said, "I have seen the dust from their chariot wheels, and in the sunlight I see their polished armors and their glittering swords." But they would not believe that, because they were wholly committed unto sin.

L-12 And when a place gets committed to sin like that, they don't want to hear anything that has any warning or discomfort to them. But just the same, the voice came, warning after warning. And as the evening begin to approach, perhaps the young maidens was meeting out around the public well in the city square to get the evening water. Which was customary in those days for the young ladies to go to the well, and get their water--early of a morning and late of the afternoon--which would be a supply for the day, then a supply for the evening and night, for cooking and whatever they had to have it for.

L-13 And as these certain young ladies... The scene in the street would be, we would see them coming from different parts of the city. And when they got there, we would hear a little sniggering laugh, and saying, "Did you hear what that fanatic man in the tower said today, trying to scare us into something? He was trying to warn us of an approaching enemy. You know, telling us that we must turn to repentance, and to sackcloth, and ashes."
And they would say, "Now, we are not turning to any sackcloth and ashes, or unto repentance. Because we do not believe his message. We believe that tonight we're to have a party, and we're to wear our newest style clothes. And do you think that we'll let a fanatic stand and tell us how we must dress and what we must do? I don't care how much he says, how much he warns; I'm going to the party just the same."

L-14 And as much as I hate to say it, this is a day something like that day. No matter what you tell the people, they're still going to do what they want to do. They're headlong, and they are going to plunge right on. Regardless of how much you warn of the coming of the enemy or the approaching of the Lord, they will go just the same as they did; they got their minds made up. Pleasure-mad, and they're going to do just as they want to do. And if you try to correct them, you're a fanatic. Just the same, the voice still calls out! God will have a watchman in His tower that'll not fail but to call out the warning.
There was the young men in the--the taverns. And they would pass the drinks to one another, and say, "Jim, did you hear today? We have an approaching enemy. (making a lot of fun out of it, and pass smutty remarks) We know better than that. We've got the best military system there is in this country, and there's no enemy can bother us. Our forts are all guarded and our walls. And--and that fanatic up there in the tower, I wish they would get him out of there."
You know, it's never popular to tell the truth amongst people who want to live for this present day. They don't want to believe the truth. But the Bible said, "You shall know the truth." I'm so glad of that. "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Now, you can be a prisoner, or you can be a--a truth rejecting prisoner, or you can know the truth and be free.


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