It is my prayer that God will
wound you, that God will slay you, that
God will take you to hell today, that He may heal you, make you
alive, and lift you up to glory. He won't do it any other way. Turn with me, if you will, to
Ezekiel chapter 20. Driving up here Thursday, Shelby
read this chapter to me and we discussed it a good while on
the road and I knew I had to get started preparing a message
from this text of Scripture. Ezekiel 20 and verse 37. The Lord God says, I will call
you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond
of the covenant. I will call you to pass under
the rod, And I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. How I delight to hear the omnipotent
God, the God of all grace, declare, I will. I will. When God says, I will, that's
a done deal. I will. God never says, I will
if you will. He says, I will. He doesn't say,
I will and maybe you will. He says, I will and you shall. God Almighty speaks with certainty. Now hear this word of certainty. If you're God's, He's going to
get you. If you're God's, He won't let
you alone. If you're God's, He will not
leave you alone. Oh, how I thank God there are
some people in this world loved of God from eternity, chosen
in everlasting grace, redeemed by the precious blood of His
Son. There are some people in this world from whom God will
not take no for an answer. If you're God's, He's going to
get you. May He do so this day for Christ's
sake. Look at the next line here. God
says, I will. I will call you. I will call
you. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee. I will call you. If you're willing, recipients
of his grace is because God causes you to be the recipient of his
grace. If you trust His Son, it's because
God causes you to trust His Son. If you receive Christ Jesus the
Lord, it's because God causes you to receive Him. If you're
willing and obedient, it's because God makes you to be willing and
obedient. If you choose Christ, it's because
God causes you to choose Christ. In this business of salvation,
In this business of grace, all the cause is in God. All the cause is in God. Nothing depends on you. Nothing waits on you. Everything
depends on God. Everything's determined by God.
Everything waits on God. If God waits for you to will
to be saved, you're going to be damned. If God waits for you
to will to choose Him, you will never choose Him. If God waits
for you to decide to come to Christ, you will not come to
Christ. I will call you, God says. Now hear me. If you're without
Christ, oh, may God be pleased today not to leave you to yourself,
but to call you to come to Him. If God leaves you to yourself. If God leaves you to yourself, that's what it takes for you
to go to hell. It's for God to leave you alone. For God to leave you alone. Oh,
God, be gracious and not leave you alone. My subject this morning
is the bond of the covenant. May God be pleased to call you
now to pass under his rod and bring you into the bond of the
covenant. Let me give you the background
of our text. This is God's word to his people
by his prophet Ezekiel. His people who had been scattered
among the heathen in his judgment. Scattered among the heathen because
of their disobedience. And the children of Israel were
very pragmatic people like we are. being scattered among the
heathen, they said, let's mingle with the heathen and get along.
Let's mingle with the Babylonians and get along. Let's not be offensive. Let's trim away those things
about our doctrine and our religion and our worship that offend the
Babylonians, and we will become as those who worship stones. We will become as those who worship
the wood that they carve and the stones that they stack up.
And Lord, God said, no, you won't. No, you won't. You're my people.
Look at verse 32. And that which cometh into your
mind shall not be at all. I'm going to go my way. I'm going
to do my thing. I'm going to live the way I want
to. God says, that's not going to happen to you. That's not
going to happen to you. That you say, we will be as the
heathen, as the families of the countries to serve wood and stone. God says, oh no. That which comes
to your mind, that's not going to happen because I've chosen
you for myself. I've redeemed you with the blood
of my darling son. And you shall be mine. You shall
be mine in that day when I make up my jewels. I won't leave you. I won't let you go. Run hard
as you may to hell. I will have you. You see, God's
elect shall not perish. Christ's sheep shall never be
turned into goats. His redeemed ones shall not be
lost. The Lord God says, I will cause
you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond
of the covenant. Now, this is what that means.
At the appointed time of love, all who are sanctified by God
the Father in eternal election, and preserved in Christ Jesus
the Lord by divine predestination, shall be called by God's almighty,
irresistible grace to life and faith in Jesus Christ. All who
are the objects of covenant grace shall be made to experience the
blessedness of covenant grace." Here in this twentieth chapter
of Ezekiel, the Lord God tells us how He'll do it. He tells
us exactly how he will do this thing for his name's sake. Four
times in this chapter, God says, I'm doing this. I'm doing this
for my name's sake. I'm doing this for my name's
sake. As Brother Bruce pointed out, the people of God in the
Old Testament often prayed, Moses did, Hezekiah did, others. Lord,
you're God. You're God. Make everybody know
you're God. And God says, I'm doing this
for my namesake. I've called you. I've put my
name on you. I've staked my honor on you.
I've given claims to you, and I'm going to do this for my namesake. Four times, God says, I'm going
to bring you into the bond of the covenant for my namesake.
Look at verse 41. I will accept you with your sweet
savor when I bring you out from the people. and gather you out
of the countries wherein ye have been scattered." How many times
do we read the scriptures about God scattering His people? He
scattered Israel. He scattered them among the heathen.
He scattered them in the wilderness. He scattered them among the Babylonians. He scattered them among the Egyptians.
He scattered Israel. He scattered them. But that was
to give us a picture of something. That was to remind us of something.
In the sin and fall of our father Adam, God scattered his elect
among the heathen throughout the ages of time. He scattered
them to the four corners of the earth, but he scatters with a
purpose. He scatters that he might gather
his elect from the four corners of the earth. And so he scattered
Israel among the heathen, that he might gather his elect among
Israel unto himself. Read on, verse 42. I will be sanctified in you before
the heathen, and ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall
bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for which I
lifted up mine hand to give it to your fathers. And there shall ye remember your
ways, and all your doings wherein ye have been defiled, when I
gather whom I've scattered. But I gather you who said, we
will be as the heathen. We will go and we will live our
lives the way we want to, and we'll worship the wood and stones
for gods that we have made. God says in the day when I gather
you, you will remember your ways, and you'll remember all your
doings wherein you have been defiled, and ye shall loathe
yourselves in your own sight." for all the evils that ye have
committed. Oh, wonderful it is when God brings
a sinner to loathe himself. We live in this religious age
of nonsense, and religion permeates everything, everything in society.
Very popular thing these days with counselors and psychiatrists
and psychologists and teachers and preachers. You need to learn
to forgive yourself. You know what? I never had a
problem in my life forgiving myself. I've never had a problem with
that. I've never had a problem with it. I hope you have a problem
with it. And God calls you to loathe yourself. Until you loathe yourself, you'll
never love the Redeemer. Until you loathe yourself, you'll
never come to trust the Savior. He says you'll loathe yourselves
in your own sight for all the evils you've committed, verse
44, and ye shall know when you loathe yourself. When you remember
your ways and your doings whereby you've defiled yourself, when
you loathe yourself, then you shall know that I am the Lord,
when I have wrought Isn't that a good word? When I have wrought
with you, a blacksmith takes iron and he heats it and he beats
it and he bends it and he heats it and he beats it and he bends
it and he heats it and he heats it and he heats it and he beats
it and he beats it and he bends it and he makes what he wants
from it. So God says, I have wrought with
you. I heat and I beat and I bend. I heat and I beat and I bend
to make you my own. So I have wrought with you for
my name's sake, not according to your wicked ways. Oh, bless His holy name. God
didn't work with me according to my wicked ways. but according
to his ways of mercy." Read on, "...not according to your corrupt
doings, O house of Israel, saith the Lord God." If God doesn't deal with you
in this way of distinguishing grace, mark it down, He will
deal with you in distinguishing wrath. You read this chapter,
The whole chapter is about judgment. The whole chapter is about judgment.
The whole chapter, the children of Israel sent their elders to
Ezekiel and said, go inquire of the Lord for us. And God's
first word to Ezekiel in this chapter is, you go tell them
I will not be inquired of by them. His whole word is spirit and
judgment and wrath. But all through these verses,
all through the chapter, is a ray of light. There's a golden beam
of grace. There's a declaration of mercy
so that God is declaring, though he is a God of justice and truth
and judgment and wrath, and he will punish sin, yet he delights
in mercy. And there's a people to whom
he will be gracious. The Lord God will bring you to
himself, if you're his, at the appointed day of mercy. Let me
show you three things, and I'll be done fairly quickly. First,
I'll talk to you a little bit about the covenant, God's covenant
of grace, and then about God's method, the way he brings sinners
into the sweet bond of the covenant, and then briefly about the objects
of the covenant, the objects of God's covenant grace. First,
in verse 37, the Lord God describes His saving operations of grace
as bringing chosen, redeemed sinners into the bond of the
covenant. When God saves a sinner, He brings
that sinner into the sweet bond of a covenant union in the experience
of grace. Now, the covenant was made before
the world began. The covenant was fixed from eternity. The covenant was fixed before
ever God called the star to shine in heaven. The covenant was fixed
when there was nothing but God. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit, in everlasting covenant love, chose a people. And God said, I will be their
God, and they shall be my people. And the Lord Jesus Christ stood
forth. before the foundation of the
world and said, I will be surety for your people. Give them to
me. Give them to me. I'll go. I will
become one with them. I will take their nature into
union with myself, and I, God the Son, will become a man. And
I, as God in flesh, will live for men upon the earth in obedience
to that law which your people shall break through the set and
fall of Adam. I will go, and I will fulfill
all things on their behalf. I'll live in perfect righteousness
for them." I will obey God, magnify His law, and make it honorable
in the room instead of your people. Give them to me, and I will go
to the cursed tree, and I will take their sin to be my sin. And I will bear their sin in
my body, forsaken of God, cast upon me, and God's justice made
out upon me. I will swallow the sword of justice
on their behalf. I will extinguish the flame of
divine wrath on their behalf. Yoke your neck, pour it upon
me, and I will bear it all. And I will send my Spirit and
call them to you, and bring them at last and present them before
you, and say, Lo, Father, I and the children which thou hast
given me." And the Father trusted the Son. That we should be to the praise
of His glory who first trusted in Christ. Who first trusted
in Christ. Who was that? That was the God
and the Father. the triune God, trusted Christ,
the God-man mediator, for all his glory, all his will, and
all his people. Now, he called sinners to trust
him. David spoke of this covenant.
As he lay dying, he said, Although my house be not so with God,
yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant order in all things
insure, and this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he
make it not to grow." This covenant is that covenant that's wrapped
up all together in His Son, Christ Jesus. God says concerning His
Son, I will give Him for a covenant to the people. I will give Him
for a covenant to the people. A covenant is a compact. A covenant
is that which puts people in obligation to one another. We
are married by a covenant of marriage. so that a husband pledges
himself to his wife and a wife to her husband, and we are brought
into a covenant. Now, God made a covenant of grace,
but the covenant of grace is a compact that doesn't depend
on our faithfulness. It depends entirely upon the
faithfulness of God's Son, our Mediator, in whom we are joined
to God, and he brings us into the bond of the covenant in the
sweet experience of his grace. causes us to know that we are
now bound to Him. Bound to Him. Yes, in baptism,
we bind ourselves to Him. We lift our hands like Jephthah
and we cannot go back. We speak God's name as our Father
and we bind ourselves to Him. We devote ourselves to Him. We
consecrate ourselves to Him. But our devotion, our binding,
our consecration, of ourselves to Him is meaningless, except
He holds us by His grace, bringing us into the blessed bond of the
covenant. Now, here's what He says in promises
of the covenant. Just listen to them. You can
read them in Jeremiah 31 or Ezekiel chapter 36, but let me just give
you a summary. God promises when He brings you
into the bond of the covenant, a new heart. also will I give
you, and a new spirit will I put within you." He doesn't repair
the old heart. He doesn't fix up the old man.
He comes and puts in you a new man, a new man created in righteousness
and true holiness, making you partakers of the divine nature
so that Christ Jesus comes in. Christ Jesus comes in. Christ Jesus comes in. He's called
Christ in you, the hope of glory. And you have no reason to suspect
you have any hope before God until Christ comes in. You understand
that? People talk about the Lord Jesus. You've seen those silly pictures.
He's standing outside the heart's door and he's knocking. Somebody
told me one time years ago when I was just a boy, said, you see
there's no handle on that door. That's because you have to open
it on the inside. That makes a lot of sense. Here stands he
who is the light of the world holding a candle. And this one
who is God knocking for you to open the door and let him in.
Let me tell you a little secret. If he ever taps at your door,
he'll knock the door down bolt and bar. and he will come in,
and when he comes in, he brings his welcome with him, and you
don't even know he's around until he's already on the inside sitting
on his throne. Christ comes in and gives a new
heart, a new nature, making all things new in his people. Then
he says, their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. How come? Because he removed
them from us. as far as the east is from the
west. As our brother just said, he cast them behind his back. He took them away. Their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more. He does not behold iniquity
in Israel, nor sin in Jacob. How can that be? How can it be
that God, who sees all and knows all, does not remember my sin,
which I can't forget? How can it be that God does not
remember my sin, which I can't forget? How? Because he put them
away. He put them away. I have said
for years, we kind of parrot things, you know, we hear them
growing up and we kind of parrot them. Justified means just as
if I'd never sinned. No, it doesn't. No, it doesn't.
It means I never sinned. It means I never sinned. How
can that be? Christ took my sin away. When he buried his body on the
tree, he buried it away forever. And this was something that was
done. The works were finished from the foundation of the world. Brother Don, I can't understand
that. I can't understand it either, but I enjoy it. I don't know
how on this earth you can get Take a brown cow eating green
grass and get white milk and yellow butter, but I drink the
milk eating the butter. And I enjoy it. I don't have to understand
everything, I enjoy it. God finished this work before
the world was. We come to experience it in time.
He brings it to life in our souls in time, but it was done from
eternity. Listen to this. I will be their God. I will be their God. You who would not have him, he
says, I will be your God. I'll be your God. Not just they're
going to call me their God. Not just they're going to name
me God. Not just they're going to allow me to be worshipped
as God. Oh, no, no, no. That means Bill
Grisham. I'm going to cause you to bow
to me and worship me, your God. I'll be their God, and they shall
be my people. I will be that God to whom they
devote everything, and they shall be that people to whom I have
devoted everything. God says, I will devote all I
am to you as you devote all you are to me because of my covenant
mercy. I will make with them an everlasting
covenant, a covenant with them that I will not turn away from
them to do them good. I will not turn away from them
to do them good. I will not turn away from them
to do them good, for I will put my fear in their hearts that
they shall not depart from me. This is God's purpose. This is
God's purpose in everlasting predestination. This is God's
will in everything. This is what God's doing in providence. Oh, God, help your children of
God to get hold of this. It'll help you in time of trouble. It'll help you in time of trouble.
What's God doing? How often we ask, what's God
doing? God, what are you doing? Why
this? Why now? I don't understand. God, what are you doing? Things
are so black, so dark, so confusing. What are you doing? Let me tell
you what God's doing. He's bringing his people into
the bond of the covenant. He's saving his people exactly
as he purposed in every detail of providence. All that comes
to pass in time. was predestined in eternity to
this end, that you who are loved of God, chosen of God, begotten
of God, shall at last be conformed to the image of His Son. God
in providence is working what He purposed in predestination
to bring the people He foreknew in everlasting love into everlasting
union of life with His dear Son. This is God's purpose. This is
God's will, to bring you into the bond of the covenant. That
word bond, we tend to shy away from it. We don't like bonds. We like to be free spirits. Well,
you know, I got married when I was 18 years old, and I've
been in bondage ever since. I've been in bondage ever since.
But it's kind of bondage. If I had it to do over again,
I'd have gotten married when I was 12. Wonderful bondage. Wonderful. I wouldn't escape
from it for anything. I wouldn't be free of it for
anything. I'm as serious as I can be. I wouldn't be free of it
for anything. It's a blessed bondage. Oh, what happiness,
what delight, what joy that lady brought to my life. continually
delightful bondage, a bondage by which I am willingly obligated
to her with everything. Understand that? That's blessed
bondage. God Almighty brings us into this
sweet bondage of the Father's immutable purpose. The bondage
of the Son's effectual blood, the bondage of the Spirit's unbreakable
seal, The love of God shed abroad in our hearts constantly constraining
us. The love of Christ constrains
us. This is bondage. This is bondage. Now, there are
probably some folks sitting here who still think we have some
kind of obligation to the law and we're in bondage to the law.
You can have that if you want it. But I'm going to tell you
something. Love's a whole lot stronger. Love's a whole lot
stronger. You find me a man who loves his
wife because the law requires him to, and find me one who loves
his wife because he loves his wife. And I'll show you a woman
who wants to be married, and I'll show you one who doesn't. Exactly right. Exactly right.
The love of Christ constrains us, because we thus judge that
when Christ died, we died. And he died for us that we should
not live to ourselves, but unto him that loved us and gave himself
for us. Oh, to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be. Let that grace now like a thinner
bind my wandering heart to thee." All right, now, let's look at
the second thing. Let me show you how God brings sinners into
the bond of the covenant. Talk to you a little bit about
his method of grace. I recognize that God saves sinners by election,
by predestination, by effectual rediction, by effectual calling. God saves sinners by those things
done specifically and only for his elect. God saves sinners
because he loved them specifically with everlasting love. He saves
sinners because he chose to save them before the world began.
He saves sinners because Christ died for them at Calvary. He
saves sinners because he sends his Spirit specifically to the
chosen redeemed sinner at the time of love and calls him by
his grace. But all of those things are secrets. They're secrets. You don't know
anything about that. You don't know anything. And
you can't know anything about that until you come to experience
God's grace in time when he brings you into the bond of the covenant,
giving you faith in Christ. Brother Bruce mentioned knowing
some people who were just dead sure they committed the unpardonable
sin. Me too. Me too. When I was taught as
a young man about election and predestination and limited atonement,
my first conclusion was not me. Not me. That may be for somebody
else, but not for me. God may have chosen that fellow
over yonder, but not me. There's no hope for me. There's no hope for me. Until
God was pleased to send His Word and power to my heart and called
me to see His Son bearing my sin in His body on the tree and
believing on the Son of God I found it was all for me. He chose me. He loved me. He died for me. He called me
by his grace. And the faith he gave is the
fruit and the evidence of all the secret things I could not
know otherwise. Here is a people bent upon idolatry
forever. A people bent upon going or whoring
from God. A people to whom God, as He has
done with you sitting here, gave His word and His prophet and
His ordinances. But a people who said, no, I
won't have God. I'm going to have my way. But
the Lord comes and takes an oath by which He says, that which
cometh to your mind, that which you plan and scheme shall not
be. Now, Let me show you a few passages. Look at verse 31. How is it that
God brings you into the bond of the covenant? Verse 31, look at the last line.
I will not be inquired of by you. I'll tell you the first
thing God will do. He'll make the heavens brass
over your head. He'll make the heavens grass
over your head. You see, everybody presumes by
nature. You have been taught better until
God saves you by His grace. You still presume. You still
presume God is at my beck and call. He'll come to me any time
I want Him. He'll do whatever I want Him
to do. All I got to do is turn to Him and everything will be
all right. He's at my beck and call. And then when He starts
to deal with you in mercy, You'll try to pray and find out you
can't pray. You'll call for God and he won't
answer. You'll beg and God won't speak. You'll cry and God won't
sympathize. God shuts the heavens against
you because he wants you to know his fury and his wrath against
sin. He will shut you up in the prison
house so that he may deliver the prisoner that's called his
prisoner. But once God deals with the sinner,
He puts His finger in your heart, it seems to be that He is utterly
unapproachable. Utterly unapproachable. Israel in Egypt cried and cried
and cried, and until God sent Moses, They had no idea God heard
their cry until God sent a deliverer. It didn't do Him any good to
cry, and so it is with your soul. Before He sets the prisoner free,
He makes you a prisoner. Here's the second thing. Once
He shuts you up and made you, as it were, a prisoner under
the sentence of death, the Lord God graciously stretches out
His mighty arm of omnipotent grace, and separates the precious
from the vile. Thank God for distinguishing
grace, by which he separates the wheat from the chaff, and
the sheep from the goats. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory
as if thou hadst not received it? What's the difference between
Marvin Stonerker and his brother? What's the difference? What's
the difference between you and your neighbor? What's the difference?
What's the difference between you and your son or your daughter?
You believe, they believe not. What's the difference? God Almighty
made you to differ. He chose you. He redeemed you. He called you. He gave you faith. Those are His gifts. Only His
gifts. You don't make yourself to be
distinguished from another. Look at verse 33 of our text,
Ezekiel 20. As I live, saith the Lord God,
surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and
with fury poured out, will I rule over you." What a strange way
to be merciful. With a mighty stretched out arm,
with fury poured out, I will rule over you, and I will bring
you out from the people. And I will gather you out of
the countries wherein you are scattered with a mighty hand,
with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out." What's
he talking about? His mighty arm is irresistible
grace. Sometimes I fail to realize that
folks can't get the simplest of terms. One of my sisters heard
me preach one time. She said, what do you mean by
irresistible grace? I said, that's grace you can't
resist. That's grace you can't resist.
You mean God forces people to be saved? Yes. Aren't you glad? Yes, He does. He forces folks
to come to Christ. If He didn't force you, you wouldn't
come. If He didn't force you, you wouldn't bow. He takes His
hand and bows you at the feet of His Son. And when He gets
you bowed, you're perfectly happy that He did. He makes you willing
in the day of His power. He does this by fury poured out. Fury poured out. God poured out
His fury on His Son. Oh, the fury of His wrath and
justice! Bless God He poured it all out. For now He says to Jacob, fury
is not in me. I'll bring you to me by a mighty
stretched-out arm through justice satisfied, and I will rule over
you. I'll bring you to me and cause
you to bow to me as your sovereign God and Lord." Look at this third
thing. The Lord graciously brings His
own into the wilderness alone with Himself to make Himself
known to you. by the revelation of His grace.
Look at verse 35. I will bring you into the wilderness
of the people. There was an adulterous woman. We're told about in John the
8th chapter. The Pharisees laid a plot and they caught her in
adultery in the very act. And they brought her before the
Lord Jesus. And the Lord Jesus stooped on
the ground, acting like he wasn't paying attention until they said,
this woman has taken an adultery. Taken in the very act of Moses
and the Law says, stoner! What do you say? And he sat down
and scribbled something on the ground. I don't know what it
was. Probably some times and places and names. I don't know,
but I suspect that's what it was. Anyway, when he got up,
nobody was around. Nobody was around. Jesus was
alone with the woman. standing in the midst. He says,
I will bring you into the wilderness of the people. How does he do
that? By something called Holy Spirit
conviction. Put your mark here and turn over
to John chapter 16. John chapter 16. The Lord Jesus
said, it is expedient for you that I go away. For if I go away,
the Comforter will not come." The Comforter will not come.
I must go and accomplish redemption, or the Comforter will not come
by whom redemption is applied. Now watch how he speaks of the
Comforter. This is strange comfort in the
ears of most people. But, oh, it's blessed comfort
to those who experience it. And when He is come, He will
reprove. The Word is convinced. He'll
convince the world. That is, he will convince all
his elect, wherever they are, in the world. I'll see it. I'll
see it. Not convince you that it's wrong
to steal. You knew that. Not convince you
it's wrong to commit adultery. You knew that. Not convince you
it's wrong to commit fornication. You knew that. Not convince you
it's wrong to curse and blaspheme God. You knew that. You knew
that. What's coming? I'll convince you of who and
what you are. Just sin. Just sin. And I can't convince you of that.
Your mom and daddy can't convince you of that. If God ever comes
to you, the Blessed Comforter, the Holy Spirit comes to you,
He will convince you of sin. And of righteousness. Of righteousness. Not convince you to act righteous. Not convince you that you must
do righteous things. No, no. He will convince you
that righteousness is finished and of judgment. Not convince
you that there's a day of judgment. There's not anybody sitting here
who doesn't know that. You were born with that knowledge.
You may try to escape it, but you're going to meet God in judgment
and you know it. When the Spirit of God comes, he convinces you
of your sin. of God's righteousness in Christ,
and of judgment finished. Now there's the comfort. Read
on. Let's see if that's what it says.
Of sin, because you believe not on me. Of righteousness, because
I go to my Father, and you see me no more. If I hadn't performed
what I said I'd do, I could not go back to my Father. And of
judgment, because the Prince of this world is judged. Oh, you've chosen rebellion.
But if God's chosen you, He'll deal with you with grace. And
now stretch the arm. You'll hear the sentence of hell
ringing in your soul. If He turned not, He will rent
His sword. He hath bent His bow and made
it ready. You'll feel the arrows of distress in your soul. But
the Lord God Almighty is dealing with you in mercy. He will bring
you to heaven and bring you to himself by faith in Christ if
he must drag you through hell to get you there. He will bring
you to himself. He causes the sinner to know
himself, and then he causes the sinner to know the Savior. I
will bring you into the wilderness of the people, he said. Here you are in this crowd of
people, alone. You ever been in a crowd, utterly
alone, completely alone? I've been in places where I didn't
speak the language and for a brief period of time be left alone
in a crowd. It's uneasy. It's uneasy. Nobody there can
talk to me and I can't talk to them. It's an uneasy feeling. Doesn't matter how big you are,
you're alone and there's a crowd around you and nobody can communicate
with you. And when the sinner has God's
finger in his heart and he knows his sin, he knows his rightful
place in judgment, condemnation, he knows, oh, you know, if God
sends you to hell right now, it's just right. If you quit
breathing right now and wake up in hell, it's just right.
And you think there's nobody in such a state as I am. God
won't hear me and nobody can help me. That's where God brings
people, into the wilderness. He said in the book of Hosea,
using Hosea and Gomer as an illustration, He said, I will bring you into
the wilderness and speak comfortably to you. God Almighty strips the
sinner, brings him out alone to deal with him in mercy. one
at a time, not in crowds, one at a time, and speaks to the
heart of his own comfortably. He knows how to take the heart
of stone and turn it into a heart of flesh. He knows how to make
insensible sinners sensible to sin. He knows how to make the
comfortable disconsolate. And that's God's way of bringing
sinners to himself. Turn over to Lamentations 3.
Look at this. Lamentations 3. I've got to wrap
this up. Verse 25. The Lord is good to
them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It is
good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation
of the Lord. It is good for a man that he
bear the yoke of his youth. He saith alone and keepeth silence. because he hath borne it upon
him. He putteth his mouth in the dust, if so be there may
be hope. He giveth his cheek to him that
smiteth, he is filled full with reproach. For the Lord will not
cast off forever." Go back to our text, verse 35. And there will I plead with you
face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers
in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with
you, saith the Lord." How did God plead with their fathers
in Egypt? Let's see if I can remember how it was. He pleaded with them to come
out of Egypt, and that meant they came out of Egypt. So he
says, I will plead with you face to face, eventually call you
to hear my voice. Job said, I've heard of thee
by the hearing of the air, but now might I see of thee, wherefore
I abhor myself, I repent in sackcloth and ashes. Now watch this next
thing. Verse 37. I will cause you to pass under
the rod." What does that mean? Shepherd comes to get his sheep. When shepherds are taking their
sheep, they'll put them in a large pen, and they come to take them
out in the morning, and they come get their sheep, and take
them out of the sheepfold, and they bring them out one at a
time, and they sort of halfway open the gate, and as the sheep
come out, he counts his sheep. He just taps him on the head,
on the shoulder. He just taps him with his rod. That's it. He closes the gate. He brings his sheep to himself
under the rod, causes them to come under his protection, causing
them to look to him for provision. He causes his sheep willingly
to come under his rule. He brings us into the bond of
the covenant by the effectual call of grace, brings sinners
to himself and makes them willing in the day of his power to come
to him. Now, what's the object of all
this? Ye shall know, verse 38, that
I am the Lord. Then he says in verse 41, I will
accept you with your sweet savor, all your gifts and sacrifices
you prepared to bail, now you bring them to me. I will accept
your sweet savor. I will accept whatever you bring
to me and everything you bring to me. I will accept you with
your sweet savor. He will accept you, you, in all
you are. as a sweet savor offered to Him
through the sweet-smelling savor of the sacrifice of His Son. Verse 41 again, And I will be
sanctified in you before the heathen. Don Fortner, everybody who ever knew you,
Knew you were sure for hell the day you were born, as was the
sunrise in the morning. Everybody expected you to wind
up in prison, shot to death on the streets, running from the
law the rest of your life, and you wind up in hell. Isn't that? Everybody looks at you and says,
my soul, God save him, maybe save me. Look what God can do with trash. Look what God can do with all
scouring of the earth. Look what God can do with the
filth of humanity. Look what God can do by His almighty
grace. I'll be sanctified in the midst
of the heathen in you. Imagine that. God's name honored because of
me. Not because of what I've done.
Oh, no. Because of what He's done in me, with me, for me. Look at verse 43, and I'll wrap
this up. You shall remember. And there shall you remember
your ways and your doings. For as long as we live in this
body of flesh, We live with sin, warring in our members. God has
not taken away that old man. He put a new man in us, but the
old man is still there, just as vile as he ever was. Because
God would have us while we live here, Jeff, to remember. Remember
your ways and your doings. Don't ever forget the hole in
the pit from which you've been digged. Don't ever forget where
you were, what you were when God saved you by His grace. Amazing
grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Wherein
you have been defiled and you shall loathe yourselves in your
own sight for the evils that you've committed. Why, Lord? Why? Why? Why would God save something
like you? Why would God save something
like you? Why? And you shall know that I am
the Lord when I have wrought with you for my name's sake. Oh God, for Your namesake, for Your namesake, for Your namesake,
God, take these hearts of steel and stone and hardness and perform
Your marvelous works of grace and sanctify Your name in the
midst of the heathen. Amen.