and I make alive, I wound and
I heal. There's no other God. I told
you this, God said. And yet you chose other gods? God told them of the vanity of
the world. He said vanity of vanities. All
is vanity, sayeth the preacher. And yet they chose the pleasures
of sin. This people had rebelled against
God, and God here is clearly showing the nation of Israel
their sin and their abomination. But what does this have to do
with us? Now I know this, that nation of Israel, they sinned
against God and God sent them into captivity. For 70 years
He sent them into captivity. And then in love, He brought
them out so that the Messiah still should come from that line.
He kept them, even in their captivity, but He brought them out. But
again, what does this nation of Israel have to do with us?
I'm just giving you a history of what happened to this nation.
But what you must understand is that Israel, in the Scripture,
is a type of every believer. They are a type and a picture
of the church. As they were the elect of God,
even so is every believer in Christ of the elect of God. As
they were delivered from Egypt, so is every believer in Christ
delivered from the bondage of sin. As God gave them a law on
Mount Sinai, even so has He given us a law, which is this, faith
in Christ and love toward Christ. We're not under the Mosaic law,
but we're under the law of faith and love. So these people, these
people represent us. These people are a picture of
us. This nation pictures every believer
in Christ. Now my purpose then is to preach
to you this same Gospel, this Gospel of Christ, even from this
passage. You remember the Lord said this
when He met His disciples on the road to Emmaus. He said this,
beginning at Moses and all the Scriptures, He did what? He expounded
unto them in all things concerning Himself." You see, this book
is really all about Christ. It's all the Gospel message.
So no matter where I go in the Scripture, you'll notice this.
I'm always going to preach Christ to you. Because that's what this
book is about. This book is not a history book
about Israel, but rather it's a book that preaches to us the
gospel of Christ. And so, that's my intent this
morning, is not just to give you a history lesson of Israel,
but rather to show you the gospel through this passage of Scripture. In this passage, we are going
to see the salvation and work of God. We have here by the Holy Spirit
the salvation of God by His free and sovereign grace. Here is
a great picture of the superabounding grace of God toward poor and
outcast sinners. In this passage we see the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ in His appointed time of grace as He
comes to His people. And now as we read these words,
it is our It should be our heart to see the Gospel. And that's
what I want you to see, is the Gospel. I intend to show you
the Gospel of Christ. That this infant, first of all,
this infant, I want you to know who this is. This is you and
me. The infant that is polluted in
its own blood. The infant who was born as a
bastard, as a cursed child. cast out into the open field
to the loathing of His person. This is a picture of every believer
in Christ by nature. This is us. And this One who
passes by, we know this, He is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is
the One that gives life. He is the One that passes by
in pity, in love and grace and saves. The believer saves his
children. As we go through this, let us
see that this is our salvation. This is a picture of our salvation.
Now, I have three divisions in these verses. Okay? The first
division is the nativity. Our nativity. The second division
is the work of God, which is the passing by of God in grace. And the third division is the
perfections and benefits given to those who are saved by the
grace of God. So let's look at this, the nativity.
In verses 1 through 5, we have the birth. We have given an illustration
of what we are by birth, our nativity. Now, before the world
began, before there was ever anyone created, our Father has
made it very clear that He has chosen a people for Himself.
Before they were ever born, God chose to save a people. These are what the Scripture
calls the elect, the elect of God. That God, before the foundation
of the world, in love, in sovereign grace, never looking to them
for any merit in themselves. God chose a people that He would
save for Himself. Ephesians 1 is very clear. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath
chosen us in Christ, when? Before the foundation of the
world. Now what did He choose us for?
He chose us that we should be holy. This is the purpose of
God. that His elect should be holy,
that they should be without blame before Him, in love, having predestinated
them unto the adoption of children. But how should they do this?
How should they be holy? Is that how we were born? Was
any one of us born holy? No. But God, before we were born,
purposed how we should be holy. By, the Scripture says, by Jesus
Christ. unto Himself. So God not only
chose a people, He also determined how they should be holy. Not
by themselves, but by Jesus Christ. We were not born with a holy
nature. God purposed for us to be holy,
but that's not how we were born. And so God tells us the truth
then in our text about our birth. The truth Listen now, the truth
is not comfortable. The truth is not pleasant. But
the truth is the truth. And only God, I tell you this,
God is truth. And His Word is truth. Scripture
says, let God be true and every man a liar. This is what God
says. Our Father says about our nativity. He said, thy father was an Amorite
and thy mother a Hittite. You know what that means? Our
father and mother were cursed. Those people in the land of Canaan
were cursed people. And what God is telling us is
that our nativity, we were born of cursed people. Now your father
and mother are just like my father and mother, which is just like
their father and mother. All the way back to the garden,
and what do we have? We have a fallen man. And we
are sons and daughters of a fallen man. We are all born cursed. We're all born in sin. The Scripture says our navel
was not cut, neither were we washed, or settled, or salted,
or swaddled. But instead, we were unwanted,
unloved children cast out to die in an open field. That's
what these verses are telling us. Listen to the words, and
then apply them to ourselves. By nature, this is what we are.
Thy father, Namorite, thy mother, Hittite. This was thy nativity
in the day when thou was born. Thy navel was not cut, thou was
not washed. with water to supple thee, thou
wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all, listen, none I pitied
thee, to do any of these things to thee, to have compassion on
thee. But thou wast cast out into an
open field to the loathing of thy person in the day thou wast
born." Now, I want you to understand
why this is necessary to hear this. Because no man is saved
unless he knows this. You remember that only a blind
man needs sight. Only a dead man needs life. And
listen, only an outcast needs God to pass by. If you're not
an outcast, if you're not like this child, then listen, God
will never pass by you in love. Because this is the nativity
of not everybody. Listen, this is the nativity
of Jerusalem. He's not talking about anybody
else. He's talking about the church. He's not talking about
the guy down the street with the wine in his hand, or this
person with the harlot over here. He's talking about his church.
This is how we were born. This is how I was born. I was
born an outcast. I was born to the loathing of
my own person. I was polluted in my own blood. left to die with no hope. You know, this was the custom
in this day. You know, if they had a child that was unwanted,
a bastard, that's what they would
do. That woman had that child, they'd
throw him out in the middle of the field. Now consider, I guess we're much
more civilized now. We have a doctor stick a needle
in a baby's head and suck his brains out. So obviously we're
better. No, we're no better. You can tell. This generation
is no better. That's exactly what's happening today. I mean,
people are doing that today. Legalists all get out. Murder
a child. But this was not intended to
teach us of the evils of abortion, but rather it was intended to
teach us our nature. to teach us who we are. We, like
this infant, were by nature deformed. Most likely, this was a deformed
child. This was a child that had some deformity, some ailment. I know they used to do this in
the Spartan generation. If the male child had some deformity,
they would just cast it out. But listen, this is what we were.
We were deformed. Spiritually deformed. Spiritually. This is a spiritual language,
friend. We must understand it. We were polluted in our own blood. That is, we all by nature loved
and lived in the stench of our own sin. This was the commission of the
prophet, wasn't it? I told you at the beginning to
show your abomination. To show our abominations. So
then it is my commission to tell you the truth. What good is it
would I tell you if I tried to prop you up and tell you how
good you are, if it's not the truth? I would be an abomination. I would not be faithful to my
ministry. I'm here to tell you the truth
that all men are born dead in sin, polluted, polluted in sin. This is because of our
father Adam. When Adam died and he sinned,
all of his generation died. Can you not see the... Look out
in humanity and you know what you should see? You should see
dead men walking. Polluted men. Uncorrupt. Corrupt
men. Born in sin. You know, that's
what David said. He said, in sin did my mother
conceive me. See, this sin didn't start when
you started lying. That's what most people think
about sin, isn't it? That something that you just do. Listen, sin
is more than that. It's who we are. It's the very
core of this fleshly nature. Scripture tells us, wherefore,
as by one man's sin entered into the world, and death by sin,
so death passed upon all men, Romans 5, 12. So we are born outcasts of God. We are by nature polluted and
helpless as this infant in the field. You suppose this infant
could have helped himself? You suppose he could have done
anything for himself? This also shows us that not only
the ruin of our nature, but the helplessness Man by nature is
helpless to save himself. He's helpless to do anything
to merit the favors of God. He has no ability. You know this, I could preach
Christ to you and tell you of the wonderful graces of Christ,
and I want to. But I know this, no man can come
to Christ by nature. Except God draw him. That's what
the Lord Jesus Christ said in John 6, verse 44. No man can
come to me. He is helpless to come. He's
polluted and he don't want to come. But I tell you this, he
also has a malady that he cannot come. He cannot come. Except God draw him. And I tell you this, I was dead
in my sin, but how did I come? You who believe in Christ, you've
came, haven't you? You've believed on Christ. How
is it that you've come? You didn't come on your own will.
You didn't come on your own power. You came by the grace of God.
God drew you. I like old Mephibosheth. You
remember him, that one that was lame on his feet? You know how
he got to David? David sent someone to fetch him.
We like call that fetching grace. He couldn't come. He had no legs. He couldn't come. So how then
do sinners come, seeing they're so helpless, seeing that there's
no hope for them? How is it that sinners are saved?
God comes to them. God must come to them. Scripture
says, Who maketh thee to differ from another? Or why have you
received this grace? Were you better? Did you have
any power or will to come? Is there anything you have to
brag about? Now listen, if you've got something
to brag about, you've never come at all. You got something that
you did that somebody else didn't do? Listen, you're robbing God
of His glory. See, salvation is by grace, and
by grace alone. The only reason I came at all
is because God came to me. And that's like this infant here.
The only reason he has come at all, the only reason he saved
at all. Why? Because God said, I pass by thee. This is the only hope for man,
is that God should pass by. Listen, none eye pitied us by
nature. The law could not help us. You
know the law doesn't pity you. You won't find any pity at all
in the law. You know that? Are you looking for mercy? You
won't find it in the law. The law says, Cursed is everyone
that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law
to do them. That's what the law says. You're not going to have
the eye of the law pity you. Therefore, you who are loathsome,
am I speaking to you? Because I'm talking to sinners.
I'm always preaching to sinners. Are you a sinner? Can you identify
with this child, having no hope, no righteousness, no goodness
in yourself? Have you died in Adam? I praise God that this is not
the end of the story, don't you? I'm thankful that the infant
wasn't left to die, that there was hope. And look at this next
part, the work of God. We saw the nativity of our nature,
born dead in sin, outcast, polluted in our own blood, but here is
the grace, here is the mercy. Verse 6, when I passed by thee,
I saw thee polluted in thine own blood, and I said unto thee,
when thou wast polluted in thy blood, First of all, God passed by.
Seeing that we by nature are defiled, by nature can do nothing
to save ourselves or merit God's favor, yet we read here, God passes
by the polluted sinner in love. Behold how God saves a sinner
is that he comes to us. He comes to us. We by nature
are blind. We could not see God. How could
we come to a God we never saw? How could we come to a God we
would never know? We could not come to Him. He
must come to us. He must come to us. I like that
man that was born blind. You know, he never looked for
the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? He couldn't find Him. Never
sought Him. Never knew anything about Him.
But the Lord came to him. Don't you think he was happy
that the Lord came to him? Instead of making him try to
seek Christ, he never would have sought Him. And neither would we. If any man is saved, God must
come to him. Why? Look over in Romans chapter
3 with me if you can. Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3 and verse 10.
A little bit again about our nature.
Why is it that God must come to us? Verse 10, as it is written,
there is none righteous, No, not one. There is none that understandeth. Listen, there is none that seeketh
after God. There is none that seeketh after
God. How then shall men... Now the
commandment is, seek the Lord, isn't it? That's a command of
God given to us all. Seek the Lord while He may be
found. Call on Him while He is near. But what's the problem? Nobody seeks Him. Why? Because there's none righteous.
Only the righteous seek God. Only the righteous love God.
And we're not righteous. None of us seek Him. Therefore,
he says, they are all gone out of the way. They are all together become
unprofitable. There's none that do a good, no, not one. When our father sinned, when
Adam sinned, who sought who? When Adam sinned, did he look
for God? No, he looked for fig leaves, didn't he? He looked
for something to cover his nakedness. He was afraid of God, but he
didn't seek God. That's what man is. He's afraid
of God, but he doesn't seek Him. He tries to cover his nakedness
by the works of his hands. They really worked hard on those
fig leaves. I imagine they were very beautiful, however they
sewed them together. But when God called Adam, what
did Adam do? He ran and hid. And I'll tell
you, have you ever tried to witness to somebody that don't want to
be witnessed to? They try to run. They try to
find a way to get out of that room. They don't want any part
of it. Why? Because that's their nature.
It's our nature to run from God. You see, God must find us. He must come to us. Our Lord Jesus Christ in that
parable said that which of you having a hundred sheep and one
of them go astray? Shall he not leave the ninety
and nine in the wilderness and what? Wait for that sheep? Is
that what he said? Should the shepherd wait for
the sheep to come home? No. Jesus said the shepherd goeth
into the wilderness and findeth the sheep. Are you confused as to what Christ
is doing right now in heaven? You think everything's in chaos?
It's not. Everything's running right on
schedule. You know what He's doing? He's finding His sheep.
He sends out His messengers to preach the gospel, and as we
preach, you know what happens? He passes by sinners, and He
brings them in. That's what He's doing. He's
calling out His sheep. He's calling them out. He's coming
to them. He's not waiting for them to
come to Him. Look, if God waited for us, none
of us would be saved. None of us. Therefore, it is the work of
God, it is the work of grace that He comes to sinners. I like
this in Ephesians 2 verse 4, it says, "...but God, who is
rich in mercy with His great love wherewith He loved us."
Listen, even, even when we were dead in our sins, is that not
what the passage in our text is saying? He said, I saw thee
even when you were polluted in your own blood. I passed by even,
I didn't wait for you to get better. I didn't wait for you
to wash yourself and make yourself presentable. This is why the
Gospel calls out to the worse, to sinners. Come as you are.
Come as you are. God's not waiting for you to
get better. He comes to you. And He saves sinners. He said He quickened us together
with Christ. By grace you are saved. and hath
raised us up together, made us to sit in heavenly places in
Christ, that in the ages to come He might show His exceeding grace
and kindness toward us through Christ. By grace are you saved
through faith, that not of yourselves. It, faith, is a gift of God,
not of works, lest any man should boast." You see, when God comes,
when He passes by, He doesn't wait for you to get better. He
comes at the appointed time of His love. And what does He say? I said unto thee, live. Friends, salvation is not a decision. It's a resurrection. It's a resurrection. It's a command
of God to live. You cannot command yourself to
live. If you believe in Christ, I want
you to see this. You believe because God came
to you in your polluted state and said to your soul, live. Now I've got a question. Was
this a request? Did He ask, will you please live?
No, God doesn't make requests. God makes demands. He commands. And as He commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, even so He had commanded the light
to shine in our hearts. To give us the light of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. You who believe, I want you to
see that it is because He passed by you. He saw you polluted in
your own blood and He said to your soul, live. Isn't that what
He did at Lazarus' tomb? When He stood at that tomb, did
He wait for Lazarus to do anything? No. He came to Lazarus and He
said, Lazarus, come forth. He didn't ask him. He didn't
barter with him. He just said, you, get up, come
here. And Lazarus, do you think he
had anything to say about that? No. His master commanded life. And I'll tell you this, would
you want to say anything against that? If you were dead and somebody
raised you, would you? No. No. We're thankful. I'm thankful for His grace that
He came by and He gave us life. But how could He do such a thing? How could He give polluted sinners
life? How could He accept us? This
is a great question of wisdom. If you want to know the greatest,
the only question that really matters is this. How can God
be just and justify you? You ever thought about that?
How can God be holy and yet forgive your sin? I'll tell you there's
only one way. It's that Jesus Christ Himself
paid for our sin. That's the only way. That's it.
God in holy justice poured out His wrath on that man on the
cross. That's how God could come to
you. That's how. Now then lastly, let's see some
of the benefits. What are the benefits of this?
When he passed by, he said unto that polluted child, live, live. Verse 8, when I passed by thee
and looked upon thee, here's the first benefit, thy time was
a time of love. What's the benefit of being believers
in Christ? This, the love of God. Do you realize that you who are
believers, God loves you? Don't let the religious world
cheapen that love. You know how they say, well,
smile, God loves you. Smile, God loves you. Do you
suppose Noah would put that on the back of the ark? They're drowning, suffering the
vengeance of God, and yet they say, smile, God loves you. That'd
be foolish. You know who God loved? Noah. How do you know? He was in the
ark. Now how do you know God loves you? If you're in Christ,
that's the only way you know God loves you. God don't love everyone. Tell
that to Esau. God loves him. Tell that to the
people in hell. God doesn't love them. If God
loved them, He'd save them. Scripture has said that the children
not yet being born, neither having done good or evil, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand. It is said to her,
the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. I tell you this, God hated Esau. And God loved Jacob. Now why? Because he would. No merit on Jacob's part. He
deserved what Esau got. But God, who is rich in mercy.
You see the difference? Why is it that he passed by us? We are all polluted in our own
blood. Why is it that he passed by you? Why does he look down
to you? Why did he say to you, Liv? Because he loved you. You
see, he loved you because he always loved you. You realize
there's never been a time that God hasn't loved you? Never. God doesn't change, does He?
Neither does His love. You see, if God ever begins to
love anybody, then He changed. God doesn't change. Jeremiah
chapter 31, verse 3. I have loved you with an everlasting
love. But therefore, because I loved
you, with loving kindness I have drawn you. Now see why you're
drawn? Because I've already loved you.
I sent my Son to die for you, and now I've sent my Holy Spirit
to give you life. See, you've got the love of God.
Is that not the greatest benefit in the world? And you know what?
If you have the love of God, you never lose it. Ever. You didn't do anything to earn
it. You can't do anything to lose it. This is the greatest
gift ever, the love of God. There's another benefit to this.
Look at this. I spread my skirt over thee and
covered thy nakedness. Here's a benefit. You have the
righteousness of Christ. Now, I'll tell you, that righteousness
that Christ earned, God imputed that righteousness. He charged
it to your account. He charged it to you. But more
than this, when He comes by us and He gives us life, I'm going
to tell you, He imparts that righteousness into us by the
new nature. You who are believers in Christ,
you are righteous as God's Son right now. It takes faith to see that, doesn't
it? Because you can't see it with this old man. This old man
is just as vile and sinful as he always was. You didn't lose
anything with this old man. He's still here. But the new
man and the old man now begin to struggle against each other. Why? Because you've got a righteous
nature and a sinful nature and these two are pulling at each
other, opposing one another. But make no mistake about it,
that new nature that's in you. God says in Ephesians, I believe,
chapter 4, that it's created in holiness. After God, in true
holiness. So you have the righteousness
of Christ. That's good. He's covered your nakedness. You can
go to God. You can go to God in confidence.
Why? Because you have the righteousness
of Christ. Notice this next thing. I swear unto thee, and entered
into a covenant with thee. You know this? God has entered
into a covenant with you. I love His covenant. It's not
two-sided. You know, we've got contracts, and it's two parties. They sell you something, and
you buy something, and you all both get an agreement. This is
a one-sided contract. God says, I will save you, and
you shall be saved. That's a one-sided deal. I like
this one-sided deal. I like this one-sided covenant.
I receive all the benefits by the grace of God and not by
merit. This is the covenant that God
enters in. Look at this in verse 9, "...I
washed thee with water, yea, I thoroughly washed away thy
blood from thee." What is this? This is the blood of Christ.
I have thoroughly washed away all your sins. Every one of them. All of your sins that you have
committed. All of the sins that you are
now committing. And all the sins you shall commit,
I have thoroughly washed them away. He did that when He took our
sins and imputed them to His Son. Scripture says this, that He
who knew no sin was made sin for us. Why? That we should be the righteousness
of God in Him. So you've been washed of your
sins. Is that not a great benefit? You know the law can't point
its finger at you anymore? Do you realize Satan has nothing
to accuse you of? Now he accuses you to you, but
he has no way to accuse you before God. I have anointed thee with oil.
What is this? The Holy Spirit. Do you realize that God Himself
lives in you? Know you not that you are the
temple of God? That the Holy Spirit of God dwells
in you? Don't you know that? We've been anointed with the
oil of the Holy Spirit. Why? So He keeps us. We could
never keep ourselves in the faith. I could never keep myself in
the faith. I could never continue except
the Holy Spirit give me strength. Have you ever considered that
every time you think of Jesus Christ, that's the Holy Spirit?
What does He do? The Holy Spirit don't testify
of Himself. The Holy Spirit testifies of Christ. What did He say He would do?
He said He won't speak of Himself. Anybody that's telling you the
Holy Spirit is speaking about Himself is not true. Why? Christ said He won't speak of
Himself. He'll speak of me. You think of Christ? It's the
Holy Spirit dwelling in you, causing you to think of Him.
Isn't that a benefit? Isn't that a benefit? It is.
And listen, He puts jewels and bracelets on us and a crown on
our head. What is this? Here's a benefit.
You are heirs of God and join heirs with Christ. Heirs. You inherited something. You know what you inherited?
God. Can you think of a higher inheritance?
Anything lacking in that inheritance? Anything. If you have God, you
have everything. Do you not see what God's bought
you, what God's done for you? Where were you, where'd you come
from? You were that polluted infant, cast out in the field,
worthy of nothing and helpless to save yourself. Yet God, in
grace, passed by you, said to you, live, you believed on Christ,
and now you receive all the benefits. Why? Grace. Merited favor of God. Now, can you see yourself there?
Can you see yourself as the infant? Can you see what happened? Not
just a history lesson. Salvation by the grace of God. I hope and
pray God gives you grace to see yourself there. And if you don't,
may God cause you to cry out That you should be what you really
are. You see who you really are, the
polluted infant. That you should cry out. And
perhaps God will pass by you. I pray God will bless this to
you. Let's be dismissed in prayer.