Ezekiel 16. Our subject is the power that
reveals sin. I was going to read this whole
chapter, but I'm just going to read the first three verses. He said, again, the word of the
Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know
her abominations. And say, thus saith the Lord
God unto Jerusalem. Now, you can read this chapter
later and you probably have read it before. God speaks some very
strong things here concerning Judah's sin. It's pretty salty
language in this chapter. Judah looked down upon Sodom
and Gomorrah and Samaria for their sins, and God tells them
in this chapter that the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah was not
nearly as bad as the sin of Judah. The reason they sinned and the
essence of all sin was pride. It says down in verse 15, thou
didst trust in thine own beauty and played the harlot because
of thy renown. Here's what they forgot, verse
22, and in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast not
remembered the days of thy youth. when thou was naked and bare
and was polluted in thy blood." God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah
for their sin, but He didn't destroy Judah for theirs. God
is sending a message here through Ezekiel, a message of grace. This is the Word of God to His
elect among Judah, there's going to be some in Judah that are
not going to hear. They're going to go their way
and do what they will, but this message is to God's elect amongst
them. He's going to make them know
their sins. That's what He's going to do here. Now, did He
thunder upon them with the law? Is that how He made them know
their sin? He said, make them know their abomination. Did He
go back to Sinai and thunder on them with the law? Did He
declare it was hopeless for them, that this was it, there's no
hope for them? This is what God said many were
saying in Judah. Remember in the valley of dried
bones, He said many say there's no hope for these bones. He talked
about them and the situation they were in. God rebuked them
for saying that. No, this message is for God's
elect. It's for those God had delivered out of Egyptian bondage
and those He would deliver into His glory. That's who's going
to hear this, who He's going to make hear this. That's who
it's for. That's who the gospel is always for. But the power
of God to save, the power to reveal our sin beginning to end,
it's not the whip of the law. It's the gospel of God's grace
in Christ towards sinners such as we are. This is the power
that's going to reveal sin. Make our sin really sinful to
us. Nothing makes a believer see
our abominations and loathe our own selves. Just our own selves. Nothing makes us do that like
beholding God's sovereign saving mercy, His everlasting covenant
grace to such an undeserving wicked sinner. That's what God
makes you see. God makes us know our sins by
making us remember what we were when God first looked upon us.
And then God makes us loathe ourselves and our sins by making
us remember His grace toward us. And then He makes us follow
Him in faith by His everlasting covenant promise, guaranteeing
us, promising us what He shall do for us. This is all the way
He makes us for our own selves. Now, first of all, in order to
make us behold our sins, sins since being converted, God's going to make us remember
what we forgot. He's going to make us remember
what we forgot, what we are by our first birth. It says here
in verse 3, And say, Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem,
and thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan." Do
you know how that word would have come to Judah, to the inhabitants
of Judah? They despised the Canaanites.
The Canaanites, in their view, were these sinful, godless, Gentile
heathens. And God declares to His people
in Judah, thy birth and thy nativity is of Canaan. That's the cursed
place. And He's saying, your birth is
at the cursed place. And then, among the Canaanites,
the Amorite and the Hittite were the most despised because they
were the vilest of the Canaanites. And God declares, thy father
was an Amorite and thy mother a Hittite. That's some strong language.
That's some strong language. Spurgeon pointed out, I thought
this was good, that when the Lord speaks of what we are by
grace, He says, look to Abraham, look to Sarah, look to the rock
from which you were hanged, look to the pit from which you were
digged. But when He speaks of us and what we are in ourselves,
it says here, your father was an Amorite, thy mother a Hittite. What does He say to you and me
who are Gentiles? That's what He said to His elect
in Israel. What does He say to us who are Gentiles? He said
in Ephesians 2.11, Remember, you being in time past Gentiles
in the flesh, at that time you were without Christ, aliens from
the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of Brahmas,
having no hope without God in the world. It wasn't due to a
father or a mother that God chose us. Every elect child was a child
of the curse, born of sinful parents just like every other
child of Adam. God loved His elect and He chose
us by grace with absolutely no cause in us. Your father is an
Amorite, your mother is a Hittite. God couldn't have chosen us because
of any noble birth. This is the light that's going
to make us see our sins and hate our sins, being reminded by God
of His sovereign grace toward us when there was no cause in
us. Reminding us of His love toward us when there was no cause
in us. I tried to think of a way that
we could enter into this a little more, because we don't know just
how the Israelites despised the Canaanites. And what a hard thing
it was to say, your father's an Amorite and your mother Hittite.
You just take somebody that you'd never want to be called or never
want to be named and that's what it'd be like. God saying, that's
so. That's what you are. But what
about after we were born? What about after we were born?
Do we do something to save ourselves? Could we do something to save
ourselves? Verse 4, As for thy nativity, in the day that thou
was born, thy navel was not cut, neither was thou washed in water
to supple thee, thou was not salted at all, nor swallowed
at all. None eye pitied thee to do any of these unto thee,
to have compassion upon thee. Thou was cast out in the open
field to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou was
born. You picture this infant. This was a common practice among
the, especially the Amorites and the Hittites. If they had
a child slightly deformed or if they had a female, they would
just throw them out in the field and leave them. Just an aborted
baby is what this amounts to. Now you picture this infant.
This infant is about the most, it is the most helpless thing
there could be. Cast out and left for dead. That's
the state of every son of Adam. It really is. Even every elect
child of God. That's how helpless we are and
how bound for eternal death we were if just left ourselves.
Sinners, naked, polluted in our own blood, helpless, no sanctifying
ability to wash ourselves, no salt of grace to preserve us
from our sin, no garment of righteousness to cover our nakedness, and none
I pitied thee to do it for you. Not another person pitied you,
couldn't do anything for you. It's not enough to humble us.
to only speak of certain sins we've committed. The Lord's going
to speak of sins they've committed. But that's not where He starts.
Because if you just speak of certain sins, if one sin is named
and somebody doesn't think they're guilty of it, that just puffs
up in pride. So the Lord, He goes deeper than
that. He goes to our nature. He goes
to what we are in our flesh, in our sin nature. He used the
very people they looked down upon to declare that they were
no different from them. Absolutely no different. That's what God has to keep us
remembering. This is what Paul was dealing
with when he talked about those wicked, wicked, wicked Gentile
sinners. And then he said to the Pharisees,
when you condemn them, You condemn yourself because you do the very
same thing. And here is where he ended up. This is where Paul
ended up. What then? Are we better than they? This
was his point. Are we better than they? Whether
we are Jews saying it, are we better than the Gentiles? Or
whether you are Gentiles saying, are we better than those Jews?
Are we better than these ones that the Lord is calling a harlot
right here and calling guilty of whoredoms? no and no wives. For we have
before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under
sin. This is where we have to be brought
to keep remembering. By one man, sin entered the world,
and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men. For that
all have sin. It's easy to forget what we were
by nature. and what we still are by nature.
Easy to forget it. We get to a place where it's been a
long time since we were the harlot. Don't forget that. Start looking
down on harlots. Can't forget what we are. I can't
forget what we are. That's how God humbles us. He
doesn't leave any room to think of ourselves better than any
other. He's declaring here each and
every one of His elect are equally sinful, equally helpless in themselves
to save ourselves. And He makes us remember the
sins of our youth. Listen here now. Look down at
verse 22. This is what they forgot. In
all thine abominations and thy whoredoms, in all your sins you
committed, here was the problem. Thou hast not remembered the
days of thy youth when thou wast naked and bare and wast polluted
in thy blood. This is what they forgot. And the sad thing, their sin
was Religion. Religion. And thinking how much better
they were. That was their abomination. Now
let's look here, secondly. So that's the first thing, we
have to remember what we were by nature, what we are in our
nature, by birth. But secondly, nothing makes us
see our sin and loathe ourselves like God making us to remember
His grace to us. His mercy to us, His love toward
us from beginning until now. He said, None I pitied thee,
nobody had compassion on you. But look what He says, verse
6, When I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own
blood, I said unto thee, When thou wast in thy blood, live!
Yea, I said unto thee, When thou wast in thy blood, live! God is intent on us hearing that
He said three times, I saw thee polluted in thy own blood. I
said to thee, when thou was in thy blood, live. Yea, I said
to thee, when thou was in thy blood, live. Notice all these
works of God toward His people right here. All of these are
works of God. We weren't seeking God. God says, I passed by thee
and I saw thee polluted in thy blood. God saw us from eternity,
but here's the good news, God saw His people in Christ who
He chose us in. That's how He could have mercy
on us and be gracious to us. He accepted us in Christ from
the beginning. It wasn't our will that gave
us life. God said, I said unto thee when
thou was in thy blood, live. I said unto thee when thou was
in our blood, live. Now when I passed by thee and
looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love. See that in verse 8. God chose
His people by grace and He predestinated us the exact set time when God
would pass by and speak and say, live, and we would live. having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself according to the good pleasure of His will, to the
praise of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted
in the Beloved. He passed by and He looked upon
that Samaritan woman at the well, it was the time of love. He passed
by and He looked upon the Ethiopian eunuch, because it was the time
of love. He passed by you, child of God, and looked upon you because
it was the time of love. Predestinated from before this
world was made. And He spoke and He said, live.
And that's how we had life. That's how we have it now. By
this Word going forth in Him speaking and we have life. That's
how He's going to make us see our sin. We had no righteousness. Verse 8, I spread my skirt over
thee and covered thy nakedness. The perfect righteousness of
Christ wherein his people are made accepted. The perfect righteousness
of Christ given to us through faith that God gave us. You are
saved by grace. In whom we have redemption through
his blood, even the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of his grace. We were strangers to the covenant
of grace. Verse 8, Yea, I swear unto thee,
and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and
thou becamest mine. But sadly, like them, they entered
into a mutual covenant. God said, If thou wilt, I will. And they thought they could.
But God's going to show us that's not the covenant He's going to
save us by. He has to show us that. We couldn't sanctify ourselves. Verse 9, Then washed I thee with
water, yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and
I anointed thee with oil, not by works of righteousness which
we've done, but according to His mercy. He saved us by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. He keeps washing. He keeps renewing. What about
since He called us? We're looking at His grace toward
us. We have to remember His grace. What about sense He called us?
Verse 7, I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field.
And thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent
ornaments. Thy breasts are fashioned, and
thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. I clothed
thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badger skins.
I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with
silk. I decked thee also with ornaments, I put bracelets upon
thy hands, and a chain on thy neck. I put a jewel on thy forehead,
and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thy head.
Thou wast decked with gold and silver, and thy raiment was of
fine linen, and silk, and embroidered work. Thou didst eat fine flour,
and honey, and oil. Thou wast exceeding beautiful,
and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went forth among
the heathen for thy beauty, for it was perfect through my comeliness
which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God." These are all
emblems of what God said through Paul. He called the unsearchable
riches of Christ. The unsearchable riches of Christ.
But the children of Israel had all this beauty, had all this
adornment, all this comeliness, And here is what they did. They
began to trust in all this beauty. Verse 15, But thou didst trust
in thine own beauty. This was the problem. Thou didst
trust in thine own beauty. And you played the harlot because
of thy renown, and pouredest out thy fornications on every
one that passed by. His it was. Pride of grace. They took the things God gave
and they worshipped those things, giving themselves glory for their
beauty. They literally took all these
things God had given, that He adorned the tabernacle with,
and the offerings, and all the things provided. They made images
to bow down to, and took those garments and adorned their images. And not only that, they compromised
the word, they compromised the gospel. Have you ever had this thought? Ever had this thought? I'm doing
a pretty good job. I'll admit it, I have. I have. I ever thought, that prayer was
pretty good. That was a pretty nice prayer.
That word I spoke, that was just what needed to be said. Oh, that was good to avoid that sin. Good thing I avoided that. That was a good deed. That was
a good deed. That's the equivalent of what
they were doing. glorying in their beauty, and
it was all of God. God did every bit of it. They
made great buildings at the head of every street, and trying to
attract more numbers, and trying to make converts, and open themselves
up to the Egyptians that were great in number. And so to make
converts, they would sort of take on a little of their idolatry
and mingle it in with their own worship, just compromising everything
they were doing. You know what God called that
eminent house at the head of every street? God calls it a
brothel. A brothel. Plus they committed various other
sins. God said they played the harlot
due to their pride and forgetting what they were when God first
looked upon them. But what's the humbling power?
What's the humbling power to make us see our sins and loathe
ourselves? What is it? is to be reminded
everything that we have beginning to end at every second of every
day is by God's grace. Everything. Everything. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if
thou didst receive it, why dost thou glorious if thou hast not
received it? And when God He makes you remember
truly what you are. He makes you remember all the
grace He's shown to you. And all that He's given, and
given His Son, and given you grace to see Him and know Him,
given you faith, given you, creating all the fruit He's adorned you
with. He makes you see, He makes you
remember everything is of His hand. That's when you Loathe
yourself. That's when you say, how could
I sin against a God that's been this good to me? How could I
worship anything of my hands? How could I attribute anything
to myself? And how could I sin against Him?
It makes you see sin as hideous because you are reminded of what
Christ had to lay down, how He had to lay down His life to save
you from it. All of grace, all of God's grace,
and it makes you say, how, how, how could I be so proud and sin
so against the God who has been so gracious to me? And you know, it's even God's
grace, and this is something that you see too. It's even His
grace that sent this Word to you, and made you hear it, and
made you remember these things He's teaching. It was grace that
He sent Ezekiel to them. He didn't send the Gospel to
Sodom and Gomorrah except to bring Lot out. But here He sent
the Word. That's even grace in itself when
God continues to teach you, continues to show you what you are in yourself
and what He's done for you. And then He turns us to follow
Him. And this is how He does it. You're
brought to this point and you think, there's no hope. I've
sent away grace. God won't have me. But then He's
going to show you, He's saving you by His everlasting covenant. And so it's ordered and sure. And all the judgment, now I'm
going to skip down to verse 60, skip down to verse 60, but now
all the judgment you're going to read about, when you go back
and read that chapter, God will chasten His child. He'll chasten
His child. But all the judgment, all the
judgment that His people deserve, God brought all, He said, He
described bringing all these enemies around Israel, around
Judah, and tearing down everything that they had built. Because
He said, even these enemies you've prostituted yourself to, your
lovers don't love you. They see this for what it is,
and they despise you too. And He said, I'm going to take
the hedge off. They're going to come in and
they're going to devour you. That's what Christ bore in place
of His people, what we deserve on Calvary's cross. He went to
the cross and God took the restraints off the devil and his seed and
all the religious hosts that despised our Lord Jesus Christ
poured out their enmity upon Him. And he bore the fierce fury
of God's wrath in place of his people. And because of this,
God says, though he chastens his child in love, he says in
verse 60, nevertheless, he even said this to Israel, to Judah,
in that day. But this is especially spiritually
a word to his child every time he chastens in correction. Nevertheless,
I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth.
I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant. Then thou
shalt remember thy ways and be ashamed when thou shalt receive
thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger, and I will give
them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant. and
I will establish My covenant with thee, and thou shalt know
that I am the Lord, that thou mayest remember and be confounded
and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when
I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith
the Lord God." Salvation is by covenant. It's by God in Christ
fulfilling His covenant to His people. He had made a covenant
with them and said if they would, He would, but they didn't. And
God said, this is not going to be by your covenant. This is
not going to be by your hand fulfilling anything for me or
anything, period. It's going to be God doing it
all for you. God doing everything for His
people. He said, ìItís not by Thy covenant.
I will establish My covenant with Thee.î And Christ Jesus,
because He bore all the sin and all the curse that His people
deserved, God says this to His children. He said, ìI am pacified
toward Thee. I am pacified toward Thee. For
all that Thou has done, saith the Lord God.î pacified. In those days, in that time,
saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for,
and there shall be none, and the sins of Judah, and they shall
not be found, for I will pardon them whom I reserve." What's
that going to do to us if we really know this about ourselves
and see what Christ did? What's that going to do for you
when He makes you see your sin? Somebody said forgiven sin looks
far blacker because it's forgiven. That's so. God says, then thou shalt remember
thy ways and be ashamed. Brethren, there's nothing like
God's free forgiveness to make us loathe our own sins, and not
just our sin, our own sinful selves. It's not enough to just
loathe your sins. You've got to loathe yourself.
You've got to loathe what you are. Some people think they just
need to put aside some outward sin and they'll be alright. No,
no. We've got to die. That's why Christ had to come.
We had to die. under the wrath of God. There's
nothing like forgiveness. Listen to this from Ezekiel 36,
31. Then shall you remember your own evil ways and your doings
that were not good and shall loathe yourselves in your own
sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. That's
the cure. That's the cure. That's how God
makes us merciful to receive our brethren in love. Look here,
He said, when I've done this, thou shalt receive thy sisters,
thine elder and thy younger, and I'll give them unto thee
for daughters. These are these Israelites who hated Gentiles,
and that's who God's talking about right there. He said, when
I've worked this and showed you what sinners you are in the light
of my gospel and my grace and my Son and my covenant redemption,
when I've shown you this, You're going to be compassionate on
these that you're right now calling Gentile heathens. You're going
to receive them as brethren that I've saved by my grace and be
willing to receive them. And that's what He works in us,
brethren. He makes you compassionate on others that have fallen the
same way you've fallen. We ought to be that way all the
time, toward all sinners. toward all sin, but especially
toward brethren who fall, if we know what we are. And this is how He's going to
make us know that He's the Lord. Look, I will establish my covenant
with thee, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. How does
this make us know He's the Lord? Because no man No man, but for
the grace of God working in the heart. No man and no man-made
God. Because they are made by man.
They do not forgive the sin of others so completely and so thoroughly
and so continually as God does. Undo. This is how He makes us
know Him. Let's know what Spurgeon said.
He said, if you know the Godhead, you must behold it in the person
of Jesus Christ while you look up to Him and see Him through
your tears. In Him, you see yourself crucified
as a rebel and a traitor. deserving nothing but wrath.
And then in Him you see God over all exalted dispensing mercy,
not because of man's merit or even because of man's prayers
or tears or anything like goodness in man, but simply because He
wills to do it, to display the majesty of His stupendous grace
in passing by transgression, iniquity, and sin. That's when
we really see Him. That's when we really see Him.
That's when we know Him. When you think you have sinned away,
all hope of Him receiving you. And He makes you know, I'm not
saving you because of you. I'm saving you by my grace, by
my covenant mercy. And see, the world, natural religion
doesn't understand. You can't tell a man that. That's
the only thing that will make you loathe your own self. Anybody can loathe others. We've
got to be brought to loathe our own selves. And it's the only
way you're going to do it. By constantly seeing His never-ending
covenant grace toward you when you don't deserve it in the least
bit. In the least bit. And it's this
covenant grace that keeps us remembering we're only sinners. You never get past that. Not
in this life. You're a believing sinner. Sin
is hideous. Sin is obnoxious. God calls it
an abomination. And this is when it is an abomination
to us. This is when you could have been guilty of
the same sin for years and all your brethren see it and you've
never seen it about yourself. And God the whole time being
merciful, gracious, merciful. And one day, God makes you see
it. And that's when it becomes loathsome
to you. And you realize, and that's so, any sin God gonna
make us really hate, that's how He's gonna make us hate it. Saving
us graciously and mercifully by His covenant Even though we
have committed it. And even though it is in our
nature, still. This is what makes you obedient
to Christ. To trust Him only. Him only. That's not obedience to some
people. That's not obedience to some people. That's obedience
to God's people. It's having every thought brought into captivity
to the obedience of Christ, to His obedience on our behalf being
our only hope of salvation. We're going to shut our mouth
in shame when He does this, and that means there will be no more
boasting in self, there will be no more trusting in self,
but only in the Lord, until He does this again in you. Because
it won't be very long, we'll be just like Israel was, we'll
start thinking something about our renown. And He'll show us
again. And what does He do when He does
it? Verse 63, that thou mayest remember
and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of
thy shame. No more boasting about what we've
done for God. when I'm pacified toward thee
for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God." There's
twofold meaning in that. One, it's being pacified toward
us for all the sin we've done because Christ bore it away.
But it's also this, because we were in Christ, God's pacified
toward us because everything Christ did, we did it. We did
it. Do you believe that's how God
looks upon you? Do you believe God sees you as
His righteous, perfect, holy servant that only did what pleases
Him? If you're His, if you trust Christ
by His grace, that's how He sees you. And everything else He does
in His chastening mercy is simply to keep us from glorying in our
shame and trusting ourselves and keep us partaking of Christ
who is our only holiness. He is our only holiness. And
He is going to do it. Make us see what we were, remember
what we were in our sin. by nature. See His grace to us
over and over and over and over, even His grace in making us see
it now and reminding us, I've made my everlasting covenant
with you. I'm not letting you go. That humbles. That increases faith. That does
everything we need done in our heart. Amen.