Our God does not make mistakes. He is perfect in everything that
He does. And the price of my redemption
was paid in full with the blood of Jesus Christ, my Savior. There
is nothing that can be laid to the charge of God's elect. He
has redeemed us with His own precious blood. Isn't that wonderful? I can't hear that message enough. I want to hear that over and
over and over again. I still believe it. I'll believe
it if I don't hear it again before the Lord takes me home. But I
never get tired of hearing that Jesus Christ paid it all. All
to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Brethren, that's good news for
a hell-deserving sinner. And that's what I am. So this
morning, I want to bring before you a message I trust will be
used by our Lord to give us that blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. He took my sins, made them his
very own, and removed them from God's sight as far as the east
is from the west, and remembers them against us no more. Now
Adam received that same message from the Lord Jesus, and he taught
his two sons, Cain and Abel, that same message. Abel believed
God, and God had respect unto his offering and to Abel as well. But unto Cain and his offering,
God did not have respect. Why? Because Cain tried to offer
the works of his own hands. And John tells us in 1 John that
Cain was of that wicked one. He knew what he was doing. He
didn't want to come God's way. He wanted to come his own way.
And God rejected him and his offering. Now from those two
men we have two religions that have come into the world and
have been here ever since Cain and Abel. the religion of grace
through the blood of Jesus Christ, our Savior, which ables offering
typified, and the religion of works, something we do, that
we think we do, that will gain favor with God. Those two religions. Well, here in Ezekiel chapter
16, the blood of Jesus Christ is God's blood. And we have a
picture, I believe, in these first few verses of the 16th
chapter that typifies the total depravity of man and the sovereign
mercy of our God through the blood of Jesus Christ. Now the
blood of Jesus Christ is the blood of the everlasting covenant.
The Word of God teaches us that. Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God
slain from the foundation of the world. Before God created
anything, before time came into being, Jesus Christ was that
Lamb that God would use to wash us clean through His supreme
sacrifice for His people. Jesus Christ purchased His people
with His own blood. We're not our own. He bought
us. He bought us. Jesus Christ bought us with His
own blood. We belong to Him, lock, stock,
and barrel. We're His by a divine promise. God promised us to Christ before
the foundation of the world. By divine payment, Jesus Christ
paid the price in full for all of our sins. By divine power,
the Holy Spirit comes to us when we're dead in trespasses and
sins and tells us live, one syllable word, and gives us life when
we deserve nothing but God's eternal wrath. And all of this
was done in the eternal covenant of grace by God himself before
time began. The blood of Jesus Christ is
the blood that obtained eternal redemption for us. And when God
sees that blood, he passes over us. Jesus Christ is our Passover. God sees the blood. Well, when
did he see it? way back in old eternity when Jesus Christ agreed
to come to this earth and meet the conditions of the eternal
covenant of grace. Did he? You bet he did. He did always that which pleased
God the Father. A voice came from heaven and
said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. From
the time he was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary to
the time he went to the cross, Jesus Christ was pure, perfect,
spotless. And when he hung there on that
cross, He bore my sins in his own body on the tree. He's my
substitute. God poured out his wrath on his
darling son so that Jesus Christ, through his obedience to the
will of God, even to the death of the cross, that would be that
which God sees and accepts us. in the one who loved me and gave
himself for me. Jesus Christ is seated on his
sovereign throne in heaven, and all of his chosen people that
he purchased with his own blood are seated there with him. So
if you're with me here in Ezekiel chapter 16, the first few verses,
verses one through six, I believe is one of the best verses of
Scripture, passages of Scripture that points to the total depravity
of man and the absolute sovereign mercy of God through the blood
of Jesus Christ our Lord. Starting at verse one, we read,
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, thy birth and thy nativity is of the land
of Canaan. Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an
Hittite. And as for thy nativity, in the
day thou wast born, thy navel was not cut, neither was thou
washed in water to supple thee, thou was not salted at all, nor
swaddled at all. None I pitted thee to do any
of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee, but thou was cast
out in the open field to the loathing of thy person in the
day that thou wast born. And 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. Now, I believe that this is a
picture of us when we come into this world, dead in trespasses
and sins. I heard a preacher years ago,
and I don't know where he got his information, I have never
read this, but it made sense to me. The Israelites were in
captivity, and a woman that was pregnant had to go out into the
fields and labor, even on the day that she gave birth to a
child. If it was a male baby, she got
the rest of the day off, could go back home, clean up her baby,
take care of her baby, but she had to be back in the fields
the next day. If it was a girl baby, they didn't
want girls, they wanted men to labor in the fields, so those
who were over, the people who were held captive would take
that little girl baby would not do anything to help it, just
pick it up, pollute it in its own blood, take it over to an
open field and cast it out of the field till it died. No compassion. And God tells the Israelites,
this is how you were when I passed by you and said, live. You have
nothing to boast in. Abram, he was a pagan idolater. Sarah was a pagan idolater. You have nothing to boast in
because you're an Israelite. That little baby that was cast
out in that open field to die could not walk, couldn't come
to the front of the church. Avelum's plea to those under
his preaching, and to repeat after him the words that he would
put into their ears. Couldn't walk, couldn't talk,
couldn't even raise his hand to let the pagan preacher know
that he's wanting something. That little baby couldn't do
anything. Couldn't speak in gibberish, which people today are calling
tongues, which it isn't. Couldn't get baptized. Didn't
embrace the Philadelphia Confession of Faith. Didn't belong to a
church. Didn't have anything that he
could offer to God or she could. And we were just like that. Just
like that little baby when we come into this world. The strings
from our mother's womb going astray and speaking lies. That's
what the Bible says about us when we come into this world. And we have pagan preachers calling
God a liar, encouraging people to do something that will gain
favor with God when God will not allow not one thing for the
sinner to do to rob him of his glory. Brethren, salvation is
of the Lord from start to finish. And we, as God's people, have
nothing to do but give our Lord all the praise and all the glory
for this unspeakable gift, eternal life through Jesus Christ who
loved us and gave himself for us. Look at the last part of
Ezekiel chapter 16, if you will. When we come into this world,
we're the same as dead, dead in trespasses and sins, separated
from God, on our way to eternal torment, in need of God's mercy. And in Ezekiel, the latter part
of this chapter, starting at verse 60, we read where God says,
Nevertheless, I will remember my covenant with thee. in the
days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting
covenant. Then thou shalt remember thy
ways, and be ashamed when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine
elders, 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." Now if you would
just take the time, not right now, but later in your own time,
read this whole chapter of Ezekiel 16. You'll see the charges God
laid against Israel, and it's just terrible, terrible what
they had done. God's chosen people, and He punished
them. But he makes a statement in this
latter part of the 16th chapter that needs our attention. God
establishes with His people an everlasting covenant. Folks, listen to me. Our God
is a covenant God. He has a covenant people. God
the Father promised a people to His darling Son back in old
eternity. if He would meet the conditions
of the everlasting covenant. And like I said earlier, He did.
He did. He came into this world to do
the will of God, by which will we are sanctified to the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. He not only made us
holy with that perfect sacrifice, He perfected us forever. We read that in Hebrews chapter
10. And this is through the blood of the everlasting covenant.
So, God Himself tells us what condition we're in. Go to Romans
chapter 8, if you will, please. I believe God, and I trust that
you do also. But there are many who do not
believe God, and like Cain, they don't want to come God's way.
They want to come their own way. And God will not accept that.
And I know that we're to love our enemies, I know we're to
do good unto our enemies, that we might heap coals of fire upon
their head, and we do. And the best love we can show
towards those who are false preachers is to tell them the truth. They'll
hate us like Cain hated Abel, and if they could, they would
kill us. But we still have this truth, Jesus paid it all. And we tell folks, if you have
anything that you think merits God's favor, get rid of it as
soon as you can. Jesus Christ paid the price in
full for our sins, for the sins of His chosen people, and God
looks upon what Jesus Christ has done and accepts all those
who believe in Him as He is set forth on the pages of Holy Scripture.
You cannot deny this. Eternal life is promised to the
people who believe God. Now, do I believe what I just
read in Ezekiel 16 about my condition? Yes, I do. And I not only believed
it when the Lord opened my blind eyes to show me my need of Christ,
and we'll never see our need of Christ until we see our need
of Christ. Is that too profound? We'll never
see our need of Christ until we see our condition before God. We are ill-deserving, undeserving,
hell-deserving sinners, and God cast the whole human race into
hell. He would be just in doing so. But He chose a people in
Christ before this world was created. And those people were
purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ when He came to this earth
to do His Father's will. And the Holy Spirit comes to
us when we're dead in trespasses and sins and says, live, live. One syllable word, live. He quickens
us. That's an old English word that
means He gave us life. And only God can do that. We
were deserving of His wrath, dead in trespasses and sins. But God, who is rich in mercy
for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
are you saved. I wonder what it is about those
wonderful verses of Scripture that these people who are trusting
in the works of their own hands do not understand. Listen to
this portion of Scripture here in Romans chapter 8, starting
at verse 6. For to be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because
the carnal mind That's our mind in our unregenerate state. That's
our mind before the Lord comes to us. and delivers us from the
power of darkness, the power of Satan, the power of sin. That's
our mind. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. That's a strong word. We come
into this world with the same wicked heart that Cain had who
slew his brother, a heart that hates God, a heart that's running
from God, a heart that doesn't want to come God's way. And that
heart is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be. Do you believe that? That's
the Word of God. God commands all men everywhere
to repent. But we are not subject to that
command from God, neither indeed can we be. So we read in verse
8, So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. That's the Word of God, folks.
In our unregenerate state, That carnal mind that we come into
this world with cannot do one single thing that's pleasing
to our God. But Jesus Christ did everything
that's pleasing to our God. And He did that for His chosen
people. The Lord Jesus Christ took our sins upon himself and
delivered us from the wrath of God so that God can look upon
us in Christ and be pleased with us through Christ who did always
that which pleases him. I'm telling you the truth. Why
would we look for righteousness anywhere else when we have the
perfect righteousness of Christ imputed to us if we believe on
Him whom God hath sent? Let me take you over, please,
to Hebrews chapter 8. The blood is the issue. If I was going to give a title
to this message, that's what I would call it. The blood is
the issue. Do we believe in unconditional
election? Not on our part. I said that wrong. On our part
we believe in unconditional election. But not on God's part. Jesus
Christ had to meet the conditions of the eternal covenant of grace.
And we read that in the last part of Ezekiel 16. He establishes
with his people the eternal covenant of grace. And we read about that
here in Hebrews chapter 8, starting at verse 7. We read, for if that
first covenant, which was a covenant of works, if that first covenant
had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for
the second. Now there wasn't anything wrong
with the first covenant. was wrong was on our part. We
couldn't keep that covenant. We couldn't do those things that
God commands His people to do. We come into this world as liars.
A lie is a sin against God. Someone mentioned from the pulpit
that all men are liars, and that includes women, too. And one
lady said, well, I knew all men were liars. I didn't know the
women were. That is a blanket term. All men are liars. That
applies to the whole human race. That's Adam's fallen nature.
And so there's nothing wrong with the first covenant. The
problem was with us. But in verse 8 we read, For finding
fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the LORD,
when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and
with the house of Judah. Now folks, God has a chosen people
who are called the nation of Israel. And that nation typifies
God's church. Abraham was not an Israelite. We just read that in Ezekiel
16. He was a pagan that God called
out of that land of Canaan. He was a pagan who had sinned
against God. He was just as guilty as all
the others down in that pagan land, but God called him out.
God called him, and Sarah, he called Abram and those who went
out with him, and we must hear the voice of Jesus Christ. We
must. I'm preaching to you what I believe
the Word of God teaches. But if you just hear my voice,
that's not enough. You must hear the voice of Jesus
Christ. And if you do, you won't be deceived
by the voices of wicked men who are trying to encourage you to
trust in the works of your own hands. I have a precious granddaughter
living in California. who has been deceived by a false
preacher into thinking that God has turned the eternal destiny
of all the people into their own decision. They determine
their eternal destiny by a decision for Jesus. Can you imagine that?
You know what those preachers are doing? They're not only calling
God a liar, They are teaching that God owes those who believe
in Him a voice of gratitude. They are saying God should be
thanking you. Because if it wasn't for you,
you wouldn't be with Him in glory. If you had not chosen to meet
on Saturday, if you had not decided to get baptized, if you had not
spoken in gibberish, if you had not exercised your own free will,
made your decision for Jesus, then God wouldn't have anybody
in heaven. For can you imagine a God of heaven and earth? The
One who is in control of everything among the army of heaven and
the inhabitants of the earth, not even allowing one sinner
to question Him for what He does. Can you imagine God's saying,
thank you to hell-deserving sinners, but that's what they're teaching,
and they take it all the way to the judgment seat, saying,
Lord, haven't we done many mighty works in thy name, and cast out
demons in thy name, and done these things in thy name? Listen
to the words of our Lord Jesus to them. Depart from me, ye workers
of iniquity, I never knew you. That word knew, I never knew
you, is the same word that we read when Joseph took Mary to
be his wife after the Lord revealed to him that it was the Holy Spirit
that was forming the child that was in her. And Joseph took Mary
to be his wife and knew her not. until after her firstborn came
into this world, until after Jesus was born of the virgin.
He knew her not. He never was intimate with her. And that's what our Lord will
say to those goats on His left hand. He's going to say, I never
knew you. I was never intimate with you. I never loved you, is what He's
saying. And brethren, we have so much to be thankful for that
we bow before our God, and He tells us in everything, give
thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you. Now turn over to Hebrews chapter
1, if you will, just for a moment, just back a few pages. And listen
to the words of our Lord Jesus. as he speaks to, and I believe
it was the Apostle Paul who wrote this epistle. He writes under
divine inspiration, starting at verse 1, who at sundry times and in diverse
manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath
appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the world."
Now this is speaking of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior,
our sovereign creator, the one that God has spoken to us in
these last days, and this was 2,000 years ago, but His words
still ring out loud and clear. Listen to verse 3. Speaking of
Christ our Savior, who, being the brightness of God's glory,
His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding
all things by the word of His power, when He had... When He had... I'm pausing on
purpose. by Himself purged our sins, sat
down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." Now what is
it about that verse that's difficult to understand? Jesus Christ by
Himself purged our sins. He didn't ask any help from any
of us. We couldn't give Him any help.
We were like that little baby, just polluted in our own blood.
left there to die and would have gone out into that world of darkness
through that doormark death if God had not come to us and shown
us our need of Jesus Christ and opened our blind eyes to this
wonderful truth. Jesus Christ by himself purged
our sins. They're gone, gone, gone, gone. as far as the east is from the
west. Now it took me to Hebrews 8, and I took you away from that. Go back to Hebrews chapter 8,
and let me read this to you. And it goes along with what we
read in Ezekiel chapter 16. Verse 7 again, For if that first
covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been
sought for the second. For finding fault with them,
he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make
a new covenant with the house of Israel, with the house of
Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers
in the day when I took them by the hand and led them out of
the land of Egypt, because they continued not in my covenant,
and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. They did not continue
in God's covenant. They didn't even start to obey
God in that old covenant of works. They did not and God regarded
them not. Now folks, people today are looking
to the nation Israel as God's chosen people still. And I said
earlier that Israel typified God's church, His body. Spiritual
Israel is God's church. He looks upon his church with
love, compassion, tenderness, because Jesus Christ paid the
price for our sins in full. And God sees us in Christ just
as if we had never sinned. And this covenant is the covenant
that God established before the foundation of the world. Look
at verse 10. For this is the covenant that I will make with
the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will
put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts,
and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.
And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man
his brother, saying, Know the Lord. For all shall know me,
from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more." No more. God has mercy on a particular
people that he chose in Christ before the foundation of the
world. And this is the everlasting covenant that Ezekiel was talking
about in that 16th chapter. This is the everlasting covenant
that God establishes with us. And because Jesus Christ met
all the conditions of the eternal covenant of grace, he has the
right and he exercises the right to give eternal life to as many
as God the Father gave him. And if we believe what the Word
of God says concerning our total depraved condition, if we believe
what the Word of God says about the life that He gives to His
chosen people through the perfect redeeming work of Christ our
Savior, if we believe God, we have the promise from God Himself
that He has forgotten all of our sins. He remembers them against
us no more. Does that bless you? I never
get tired of hearing that. After his message Wednesday night,
I went to Darwin Pruitt and said, I never get tired of hearing
that message of God's grace and His mercy through the perfect
redeeming work of Christ. I see Him. I see Jesus Christ
as my Lord and my Savior. He didn't try to save me. He
got the job done. He saved me by redeeming me with
His own precious blood. And I'll give Him all the praise
and all the glory as much as I possibly can in this finite
sinful body of mine. I'll give Him all that praise
for saving my soul and promising to me that I will be with Him
in glory. for all eternity. We just had the funeral for Brother
Lindsey Campbell Friday. But he wasn't in that body that
they put in that casket. Absent from the body is present
with the Lord. He went on to glory. And that's
our Lord's prayer, Father, I will. That all those whom thou hast
given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory.
And I said to Judy, when we got the news that the Lord took Lindsay,
I said, can you imagine the smile on Brother Lindsay Campbell's
face right now? God delivered him from the body
of death. No more sin going through his
mind. No more disobedience to his God. No more doing those things that
he knows was not pleasing to God, he knew. No more of all
of that which he knew was against his Savior. Not being able to
do that which he knew he should be doing. That's gone. Gone. Gone! and He's now in glory, in perfect
obedience to His Savior, seeing Him, Jesus Christ, in all of
His glory. And that's waiting for every
child of God whose faith is in Jesus Christ and in Christ alone. I have a good friend out in California
who now pastors the church that I pastored for 37 years. And he has a family member, a
dear member of his own family, who has listened to several of
his messages. And she asked him, after Sunday
services, what he preached. And he gave her his text, and
she said, never mind. I know what you preached. You
preached the same message you always preach. You're like a
fish flopping around on the top of the water and never getting
down into the deep things. Several members of the church
came to him after the services. He shared that story with them. And they said, Brother John,
keep on flopping. I tell you folks, there's only
one message. How can you get any deeper than
this? Jesus Christ left the splendors of glory and came to this sin-cursed
earth to redeem a people given to Him in the eternal covenant
of grace before this world was ever created. That's pretty deep. How can you get any deeper than
this? He went to that cross as our substitute and He bore the
penalty of all the sins of His people. Our sins, if our faith
is in Christ, our sins were in Him. He bore our sins in His
own body on the tree. By His stripes we are healed.
You can't get any deeper than seeing Christ as our substitute,
enduring the wrath of God in our room and our stead. And He,
the Lord Jesus Christ, went to the grave rose again as a victorious
champion, rose to the heights of glory, is seated at the right
hand of the majesty on high. You can't get any higher than
that. And He promises eternal life to His chosen people from
every kindred, tongue, and tribe, and nation, if their faith is
in Him and only in Him. You can't get any broader than
that. And He promises everyone who look to Him as their Lord
and their Savior, eternal life. Can't get any longer than that.
Eternal life is eternal. Our faith must be in Christ. If our faith isn't in Christ,
we're still dead in trespasses and sins, and that door of death
is waiting for every one of us. I told Brother John, there was
only one door. in the ark that Noah built. And when he had finished building
that ark, it took him over a hundred years. People watched him week
after week, month after month, year after year. Noah was a preacher
of righteousness. They mocked him. They mocked
him. And they mocked him. And God, after all of that which
he purposed to be aboard that ark, There were two despicable
animals, skunks and pigs, male and female. And I told John,
those animals were preferred above all the ungodly people
on the face of this earth. And God closed the door. Noah
did not close the door. God closed the door. Noah couldn't
have opened that door, and he probably wanted to. I don't know
if that's true or not. But the people running to that
ark, crying out, I believe, open the door to what we believe now.
It was too late. God closed the door. Folks, listen
to me. Jesus Christ is that door and
it's open right now. To all of those who are hearing
His gospel, come to Jesus. Put your faith in Him. Get rid
of anything that you're trusting in and trust in Christ and in
Christ alone. In one of these days, God's going
to close that door and He's coming in flaming fire, taking vengeance
on those that know not God and obey not His gospel. Have you
entered in? Do you believe God? Is your faith
in Jesus Christ and in Him alone? Then God bless you. You have entered into the Ark
of Safety, which Noah's Ark represented. And we can sing this closing
hymn that's on page 127, with joy in our hearts. Hallelujah. What a Savior. Will you stand
with me, please? and turn to hymn 127, and let's
sing Hallelujah for the Savior. Then we'll be dismissed in prayer.
127, please. Man of sorrows, what a man! For the Son of God who came Ruined
sinners to reclaim Hallelujah! What a Savior! Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned He stood, Sealed my pardon with His blood. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Guilty, vile, and helplessly
Spotless crown of God was He Full of torment, can it be? Hallelujah! What a Savior! Lifted up was He to die, It is
finished was His cry. Now in heaven exalted high, Hallelujah! What a Savior! When He comes, our glorious King,
All His ransomed home to bring, Then I knew this song will sing,
Hallelujah! What a Savior! Bow with me, please. Our Father,
we do sing with joy in that new heart you've given to us. Hallelujah. What a Savior. Thank you, Lord
Jesus, for coming to this world of sin, humbling yourself before
God Almighty to do His will, being obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. Help us never to lose sight of
what You accomplished for us. We're Your blood-bought children.
You have redeemed us with Your precious blood, and You will
not allow anything or anybody to keep You from bringing all
Your ransomed church home to be with You in glory. Help us
to see Your hand in delivering us from that awful, totally depraved
condition we were in, bringing us into this living union with
yourself because of what you have done for us. Dismiss us
now with your blessings, protect us as we go to our different
homes or other places that we might be going to, and keep us
looking to Christ Jesus, the author and the finisher of our
faith, so that we might walk pleasing
in your sight, giving you all the praise and all the glory.
We have nothing to boast in but Christ our Savior. Those who
glory in the Lord must glory in the Lord. Thank you for allowing
us to worship you in spirit and in truth here this morning. And
in all of this, we do say thank you and for so much more. In your name, Lord Jesus, we
do pray. Amen. Thank you. You're dismissed. That's a good message. I'm not
very stable.