So be rekindled with fire from
above. Hallelujah, find the glory. Hallelujah, find the glory. Hallelujah, find the glory. Revive us again. Revive us again, that's also
taken from Psalm 85, verse 6, which says, Wilt thou not revive
us again, that thy people may rejoice in thee? And that's really what we want
and pray for when we come here in this midweek service. It's
been a few days. since the Lord's day and gone
out in the world and we get our feet dirty and hot and thirsty
and dry and come in here and want to be revived. Don't we? Ezekiel sixteen. Ezekiel sixteen. As I said, someone asked me if
I was going to finish this when I was going to finish this study
in this In this book and tonight's the night Lord willing. I had
a man write me from Japan. Who listened to the first part
of this message. Japan and he asked me when are
you going to finish this. So. I take that as a sign. Let's
look back at this story and rehearse it. It's a good one. This is the story. Of a child. A helpless. Hopeless. Wretched. Poor. Dying. Loathsome. Ugly. Child. That's been cast
out into a field. Why I pitied it. None had compassion. And it wasn't washed. It was
naked. ready to die, and this is a picture,
a beautiful picture, of all of God's people whom he saved, all
of his elect, and a picture of how they were when he found them,
dead in trespasses and sin. Scripture uses words like this,
abominable, filthy. He told Ezekiel, and he tells
every preacher, true preacher, to cause my people to know their
abomination. We saw that, didn't we, how that
the first thing that God, through his word and through the preaching,
lets us know in mercy is our abominations. Just how exceedingly,
Paul said, exceedingly sinful we are. He said, when the law
came, when the commandment came, I died. It just killed me. He
said, before the word of God came, I thought I was all right.
I thought I was a pretty good fellow. And then the word of God came,
and he said, it just slew me. It killed me, said I was guilty
as charged. And the Lord says about us looking
down, there's no soundness in them. And Isaiah 1 says from
the sole of our feet to the tops of our head, no sound, nothing
good. The Lord says things like this,
they were in a pit, we were in a pit, brought us up out of a
horrible pit, pit of corruption. Says things like this, we were
on a dung heap. You know what a dung heap is? foul play. He brought some people out of
the dung heap, set them among princes. That's a long way, all
the way. But God in mercy and love and
great grace did pity us. None eye pitied us, but like
as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pities them that
fear him. And God chose some and foreknew
them, or that is, set his love upon them. He says, now when
I passed by thee and I looked upon thee, we saw how the salvations
of the Lord, when he comes to us in love and mercy and favor
and looks upon us, we weren't looking for him, but thank God
he was looking for us. And Isaiah 65 said, I am sought
of them that ask not for me, I am found of them that sought
me not. And he said, that's how I got
a blessing out of that. Did you die time? This was your
time. There was a time in the fullness
of time in God's time. That you heard the gospel for
the first time. And it was about time. Oh, that
struck me when I first heard. It's your time. All of God's people have a time.
that God wrote down before time began a time when they would
come when he would bring a prodigal back and set them down and unbeknownst
to them he's going to save them. Thy time was a time of love when
God's great love is going to be shown through the preaching
of the gospel. Thy time, time of love and he says you became
mine. As some young parents in here,
and old, that know, well, everybody has somebody that they call mine.
And all that that means, something that's yours, something you really
love, something you have your affection on, someone, if they're
yours, you'll do anything and everything for them. You'll never
leave them or forsake them. And that's what God says about
His. And that's what Christ prayed in that great priestly prayer,
didn't He? All mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I will
that those whom thou hast given me be with me, that they may
behold my glory." Thou became mine, and God engaged Himself,
Christ the Holy Spirit, trying God's purpose to save us and
do all for us until He finally presents us thoughtless the boy
is present and he said when the gospel came when God's good time
verse six or six he said Leo. You see this salvation is for
dead sinners. They are no less dead than Lazarus
was when Christ called him for. And he said Leo he quickened
us yes by grace you say and verse eight he said it I spread my
skirt over you. We're going to look at the second
part of this, but I'm kind of hung up here. Is that all right?
This is worth telling again. So you got it, you got to tell
how just how good God, we've got to remember just how good
God was, is to us and where he found us in order to. To appreciate
or rather be ashamed of how we repay such love. It says he spread
his skirt over us, what's that? Well, we saw that Christ Christ,
who is our right. We're covered with his spotless
robe skirt, and he covered our nakedness. See, all things are
naked and open before God's eyes. God sees all, but we're covered. We're covered, and he swear unto
us, verse eight said, I swear unto thee. He tells us not to
swear. Because we can't we can't fulfill
it, you know, we can swear on whatever. by whomever and whatever
but we have no power to fulfill God's war and the Hebrews in
the Hebrews it says when he could swear by no greater that he swore
by himself on his name it says his oath. His covenant I will
be by God's war by himself. People blasphemously and take
God's name in vain by saying I swear to God. Well. God swore by himself on his name. Based on his word, he swore,
I swear unto them, and he says, and I entered into a covenant
with them. Not that he asked us to cooperate, no, he drew
up this covenant concerning us before we were ever born. Covenant. So these two immutable things.
That's what the Hebrews said about two immutable things it's
impossible for God to lie. His oath. His word when he says
something is good. And his covenant. And he said
they're immutable. I mean it can't change. It can't
change. The will of the testament cannot
be changed. He lives to be the enforcer or
testator of his own covenant. Making sure all whom he has in
it receive what he swore they would receive. Eternal life. Verse nine, he said, then I washed
thee with water. That's not only the blood of
Christ, that fountain of cleansing, but it's the water of his word.
He washes his church and anointed them. Verse nine, anointed thee
with oil, that's the Holy Spirit, and adorned us, clothed us with
broidered work. and shot us with badger skin
and we saw how that all of this represents the things that our
God has done by grace you say you say it's all of great I kept
emphasizing the personal pronoun I. You see that with me. All through here I did this I
did this I did this. I did this. Salvation is of the
Lord. By grace a gift bestowed we are
saved God Almighty. By himself, by Christ. Verse
13, he says, you were decked with gold and silver and raiment
and fine linen, silk, broidered work, beautiful. And it said you did eat pine,
flower and honey, ate well, oil, exceeding beautiful. All God's
creation is. Verse 13 says that you are prosperous,
prospered into a kingdom. We have all spiritual blessings
and heavenly things in Christ Jesus. That's prosper. And thy renown, verse 14, well
known, known and loved by others. All over. Among the heathen,
among a bunch of Gentiles. They know you. And it says, thy
beauty, it was perfect. Perfect. Through my comeliness,
which I put had put upon thee, saith the Lord God." See, he
did it all, didn't he? So he gets all the glory. This is a new creature. What
he's talking about here is a new creature. Dead, once ugly, now
beautiful. Once dirty, now clean. Once dying,
now alive. Once loathsome, now loved and
lovely. Once helpless, now imbued with
grace. A new creature, a living child.
God's people are living children. They sure are. Responsible unto
Him. And it's His creation now. They're created in Christ Jesus
unto good works. But God hath before ordained
that they should walk therein. So this was God's doing. Salvation
of the Lord. Verse 15. Now the story gets
sad. Thou didst trust in thine own
beauty." In spite of all that he did for
her, it says she trusted in her beauty. In other words, she began
to think that she was. The little child in this story
grew up from a little baby and a little infant. There's nothing
cuter. I tell you, I look at those little
infants, and I have to remind myself they're depraved. Because it just doesn't look
like it at first. And there's a great sense in which they are
innocent. They haven't willfully rebelled
yet. It's in them, and it's going
to come out. It's there. But you look at them
in all that seeming innocence, and they're beautiful, aren't
they? Little child. Adorable. They grow into a little
girl, a little toddler. That's a cute time, too, isn't
it? Like Abigail, even younger, just waddling along. And all
their little, you know, attempts at walking and talking and all
that is just all cute. Oh, every now and then, there's
a real show. Right, Wes? Every now and then, you're reminded,
huh, she is a little sinner after all. But these young things,
you know, they look mighty cute. And then they grow into what's
called adolescence. Adolescence is a big word for
me, and you're not a child, you're not an adult. You're no longer
a baby, you're no longer a toddler, you're no longer a little child,
you're not an adult yet. And so this little child grew
up into adolescence, and she was pretty, began to be formed,
And she had some talents. She began to know something,
had some knowledge. Now, who gave her all of this?
Why is she like she is? Because the Lord did it all.
We are what we are by the grace of God. Well, she reached these
adolescent years and she became pretty. And who made her different? She became pretty and talented
and with some knowledge, and so she began to think so. And she heads out into the world and begins to give herself and
sell herself for bad purposes. Bad, bad story. And the Lord,
see the Lord doesn't mince words when he talks about sin and And
what it all is like to him. Does it? You know, we are we
are uncomfortable when we read things about prostitution and
harlotry aren't we? Selling the body and all that.
What is that? But but but it's all for pleasure
and money. Sell yourself. Sell yourself.
Our Lord said this, what would a man give in exchange for his
soul? People give about anything. They give about anything. It
really is happening. And it happens to us. The actual
story here, now, the first ten minutes of this message and the
last ten minutes are the most important part. In the middle
here, let me give you some things here. The actual story here is
how Israel, God's chosen people, Israel, how the Lord found them. He found them and you gave you
had your students come over your house and watch that that movie
Ten Commandments. You who I don't know who was
there. You remember watching that. Oh yeah that is a pretty
good depiction of what it was like back then. And if any of
you saw that old movie all those Israelites were down in those
slime pits. You remember seeing that they
were down in those mud pits, that's actually what they did.
They made mortar with straw and mud for bricks to build Egypt. And they were down in those pits,
you know, they're caked down in a pit. Where the Lord found
them was in slime pits. He found them in slime pits. and took them to you and all the way that he led them
down them and slap slam it ransom them saved them renewed he said
I gave Egypt for the Ethiopian but I read since I was precious
in my side. Looked like pigs in a slot. Precious because he they were
his right. And he ransomed them, saved them,
made them into a glorious kingdom, Israel. Found them a bunch of
slaves in pits and took them all the way to fair Canaan, Beulah
land, and made them one of the greatest kingdoms ever known
to man. Put over them David and then Solomon. And then from the
slime pit to every man dwelling under his own vine and victory.
and peace all around. And they themselves had servants.
That's a long way that the Lord brought them. A people to whom
God made himself known. God did all that. God did all
that. He did all this for them. He didn't have to, but he did.
He said, I didn't choose you because you were better than
anybody. I didn't choose you because you were more than anybody
else. He just pleased the Lord to make
you his people. that he might show in you the exceeding riches
of his grace and his kindness toward you. And yet they went, Israel went
after idols. They went after idols. They began
to mingle with and be joined with the heathen, the world that
is, began to practice their heathen idolatrous way. This is the actual
story. They began, all the way through
you read the Old Testament. Every single prophet, this is
what they, why they pronounced woe on them, why they were carried
to captivity, why they had so many problems. It was just, they
were out in the world and they got a taste of it and they loved
it and they began to be idolatrous, mingled with the world, forgot
God. Just forgot God. Forgot where they came from.
Began to be lifted up with pride and practiced all sorts of abomination. And what a picture this is. of
the what's called the visible church. By that whenever we say
that what we mean is those who look like or sound like or say
they're Christian professing Christian. Over the years it has become
a despicable place and adulterous idolatrous mingled with the heathen
abominable practice you can't tell the difference now between
modern religion and Iraq. All the way through here the
Lord gives how that they. It's known all over your hoardings
and so forth, how they're in it for money and so forth. It's
known by the whole world. It's their laughingstock. Israel
was, is just a mockery of God and everything. And so is this
so-called church today, isn't it? It's a mockery. People are
laughing at God, laughing at the Bible, laughing at people
who call themselves believers and followers of the Lord, laughing.
There are no different, no different. Versus look at verse 16 and 17,
it says they made high places with different colors, like the
harlot. In other words, and in this story,
she paid people to come to her. She paid people to come to her,
bribed the people to come into her, and does that not sound
like modern religion? High places the Lord talks about
how places have you read the Old Testament. High places various
kings the Lord raised up and. The good ones tore down the high
places meaning these elaborate houses of worship high places
he said there's a high place where is it a high place on every
where where to say that. Yeah, verse twenty four, he built
unto thee an imminent place is made the in high place in every
street as one on every corner. Nothing changes. As one on every
corner, a high place. Full of the Lord in Deuteronomy,
especially calls something a monumental thing, that a monumental thing,
that accursed thing. Anybody know what that is? He
said, don't get, don't do not do that cursive thing, that monumental
thing. You know what it is? Images. Any kind of image. The Lord over and over and over
and over and over and over and over again said, do not make
any kind of image whatsoever of anything, anybody. What's
it say in verse seventeen they made jewels of gold and he took
my jewels and so forth and made images of men. Statues of men. Start working. In elaborate high
places. Verse twenty and twenty one.
I said, you've taken your sons and daughters that you've borne
unto me that is supposed to be raised in the fear and admonition
of the Lord, and you sacrifice them to be devoured, eaten up. And I thought about all these
so-called Bible schools that are going on throughout the land
about right now. Are you with me? Are you reading this with
me? It's abominable, isn't it, people? Do you read these signs?
Do you see these things? What they're doing to try to
attract kids and so forth. I hope somebody listens to this
somewhere. It's all this avalanche ranch
and extreme kingdom and all this. It's utterly abominable what
they're doing to try to attract kids. Isn't it? They make God a laughing stock.
And there's sacrificing their kids to the monumental thing.
They're not being taught the living and true God. Sons and daughters of mine, you
know, go through and here's the thing is. Nearly everyone in
here was involved in that. Came out of that. I think there's a couple of form
of Catholics in here, but were you christened as a child? That's abominable. Nowhere in the scriptures does
it tell us to christen or baptize our babies. Baptism is for believing
adults. He that believeth and is baptized.
And they call that, you know, a covenant christening them putting
them into the church we can't do that. Christ can only put
it says the Lord added daily such as should be to the church
such as should be said the Lord. His church he's only one of them.
And all these things christenings and catechisms and consecrations
and vacation Bible schools are all of my nation to go if they
are. I sure hope so that somebody
hears it. Abomination in verses twenty
four and twenty five. We said that or he said made
a high place on every street. First twenty five. He made your
beauty to be abhorred. Open your feet to everybody that
passed by. Come in under me. We'll take
it doesn't matter. We'll cheapen ourselves. We'll
sell ourselves out. We'll sell out God and sell out
the truth to get a good get a big hearing. And it says in verse twenty eight.
Played the whore and you were in unsatiable. Played the harlot,
you could not be satisfied. Could not, insatiable. So that's
the story, that's Israel actually, unbelievable as it was, they
actually fell a whore in after other gods and the so-called
church throughout the ages has done the same thing. How does
this apply to us? How does this apply to us? All
right, here's the last ten minutes of the message, OK? All right,
we talked about this physical adolescence, the time between
childhood and adulthood. He's not a baby, not an adult,
not an adult, not helpless. and not independent. And not
ignorant. Sure doesn't have much experience. That's the most dangerous time.
It's a dangerous time. Adolescence is a very dangerous
time. If that child, that little child grows up, that child that
owes everything, yes everything, to its parent. The parent is
the one from whom they get everything. The jeans and everything. The
parent is the one who trains them up. The parent is the one
who feeds them, clothes them, houses them, sponsors them, pays
for them, puts them through school and all that. If they amount
to anything, they owe it all to their parents. All of it. Right? I admit it. I admit it. I'm not a self-made
man. And if that adolescent begins
to think too highly of itself or herself and becomes proud,
though they are outwardly beautiful, they're actually very ugly and
they become very ugly. There's nothing more ugly than
pride. Now, here's the picture. Spiritual adolescence is a dangerous
time. And most of us in here are in
those years. spiritual adolescence, the middle
year, the back of the midst of the year. That's what we're talking
about, the middle year, middle age. Some of us are more middle
than others, right, Stan? You do know Stan hit fifty the
other day, don't you? But the middle years are dangerous
times. Not a babe, not a newborn, not
a babe in Christ, and not a father either. old patriarch had been
through too many war that men through much through much experience
and trials and so forth. Dangerous time. They now have
some faith some faith the disciples. When the Lord first found them
they just hung on his every word. Three years later. I mean, just three years later.
Buddy, they could just whip the world, couldn't they? And the
Lord had to admonish them timely, didn't he? And so, we have some faith. We have some faith. Yes, we do.
Just some faith. Very little faith. Some faith. We do have it. We have some knowledge.
We know some things. I know more than I did when I
was a baby and cried. But I'd still know very little. I look back on old messages I've
preached, I dig them up every now and then, look at them, and
I just cast them back aside. Sometimes I think, I'll just
throw them all away, what good are they? And I'll probably do
the same thing ten years from now, if the Lord doesn't come,
look back on these messages and say, well, I had a lot to learn. We have some knowledge, we have
some ability. Go with me to Deuteronomy chapter
8. Deuteronomy 8. Our brother read this in the
study a while ago. Were you men blessed by that?
I was greatly blessed. If you want some good reading,
just start in Deuteronomy. The book of Deuteronomy is, the
name, the word means second law. Meaning, not another law, but
a repetition of, a copy of the law. What Moses does, what God
does through Moses here, is just remind them of everything he's
already said. That's what Deuteronomy is. It's
a rehearsal. It's a repetition. God goes back
over everything, where he found them, and all he did for them,
and all that he taught them. He reminds them again. And we need it, don't we, in
the midst of the year? We need reminders. Look at Deuteronomy
8 with me. Just look at some of these verses.
Verse 2, Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy
God led thee. We need to always remember where
the Lord found us, don't we? Never forget the slime pit, the
ditch, the pit, the hole in the pit. from which we were given. The dung heap. The dung heap
where the Lord found. All and how far he brought it. All the way. The Savior leads
us. The Lord thy God led thee these
forty years. Some of you, it has been forty
years, John. Early, some of you. It has been
forty years. Spiritually speaking. The Lord
has led you. Barbara, Charles, You've been
hearing the gospel about that long, haven't you? Close to it. And forty years
in the wilderness, you see, this world's wilderness. What did
he do there? What's it all about? What's this
life all about? What's this gospel walk, walk of faith all about? This whole life for the believer
is for this purpose. Verse two, to humble thee. To
humble thee. See, man, man's life, what a
man does, a human being, carnal, he grows up into a man, he begins
to assert himself and do this and do that and accumulate things
and make a name for himself and accumulate things for himself
and possessions and all that. Why? For his glory, for his glory,
for his pride. He gets lifted up until he's
old and owns a lot of stuff, you know, a lot of stuff. And look at what all I've done,
fills him with pride. That's all it does. But the Lord
says he's going to bring down everything that exalted himself. But he that humbleth himself
shall be exalted. So the Lord, this whole life
of faith for the believer is to humble us. Sometimes we wonder
why the Lord doesn't remove sin from us completely. Lord, if
you'd just get rid of this sin in me completely, I'd be good.
Oh, you'd be lifted up with pride. All these things. All these things are for our
umbleness. And to prove us. Prove us for
what? Prove the sincerity of thy love.
See, the humble love the gospel. Humble love the gospel of God's
mercy and grace. They never get, they will never.
Here's the key now, you've got to listen to this. They will
never grow tired, the humble will never grow tired of hearing
of the gospel of God's sovereignty. If a person ever does, they've
become lifted up with pride. Read on. And know what was in
your heart, and it's humility, it's out of the heart of the
issues of life. Verse three, and he humbled it. He keeps saying
this, that humbled you. Suffered you to hunger, fed you
with manna. So many of us, well, you know, when he brought you to
here, he made you, you were in religion and he made you hungry.
He didn't know what for, but he just knew, you just knew that
you were hungry. You're not getting like my father-in-law. I don't know what I'm not hearing,
but I'm not hearing something. I need something. I don't know
what it is. And he brought you, Jeanette. Made you hungry, sped
up with, discontented, distressed, in debt, in that religion of
old, hungry, eaten husk. Made you hungry and brought you
and fed you manna. Delivered you from captivity,
from being bruised by a rough husband. And he said, you knew something
your fathers didn't know. Verse 4, And your raiment waxed
not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell these forty years.
The gospel never grows old. Verse 5, You need to consider
in your heart, thou shalt also consider that as a man chastened
of his son, so the Lord thy God chastened of thee. Why is the
Lord doing this to me? Because He loves you. If you were without trials, if
you were without trouble, you'd be a bastard, right? That's what
Hebrews 12 said. Whom the Lord loves and chastens. What's he doing? Weaning us from
this world. He's preparing us, you see? Children
of Israel, you have here no continuing city. You're strangers and pilgrims
and sojourners. We're not going to stay here.
So the Lord's not going to allow us to be just too comfortable,
too happy here. Thorns and thistles. Right? Prepare a better place for it.
And read on. It says, verse 7, The Lord thy
God bring thee into a good land. He's bringing you into a good
land. You know, the Lord said in Isaiah 65, He said, You need
to rejoice in what I will create, new heavens and a new earth,
wherein dwelleth righteousness, new heaven and new earth. And
it's going to be so wonderful that the former things shall
not be remembered nor even come to mind. As beautiful and as glorious
as this first earth was and still is to some degree, it pales in
comparison. It's nothing compared to the
glory that shall be revealed. It's like the gospel compared
to the law. And I thought about all these
verses that someday gave, I want to go through these verses and
look at this as the church. Where the Lord has brought us,
where all the stones are like iron. And you ate wheat and barley
and fig trees and pomegranate land of oil, olive oil, honey
and so forth. That's the church. That's what
you get every service, people. That's what you get. You come
in here. You're not eating the husk. You're eating at Solomon's
table every time. Every time. Yes, you are. I know it's not because I'm prepared,
it's because I know where I'm getting it. Solomon's table. I'm bringing it to you right
from the table, hot, fresh food. Eat the best food. We're eating
the best food, aren't we? Well, I'm bringing you into a
land, verse, but now he said, verse 11, beware. Beware that
thou forget not the Lord thy God. Verse twelve, lest when
you be eaten, they are full, and have built goodly houses,
and dwell therein. Well, we have, haven't we? We have. We're there. Are you
still with me? The babies will keep, OK? Let me tell you mothers something
right now, and don't you forget this. In the history of the Church,
as far as I can remember back, there's never been one child
lost in the nursery during a service. OK? So forget them. They'll be
just fine. We're making that place just
as good a place as it can be. All right. And he said, remember,
don't forget, the Lord thy God. Beware, lest when you built these
houses and goodly houses and dwell therein, verse 13, your
herds and your flocks multiply. You look out in this parking
lot and some of the finest chariots money can buy with 200 horses
out. One of them costs what a house
used to cost. Thy gold is multiplied, savings
and bonds, stocks and bonds, and so forth, and thou hast multiplied
families and fruit of the womb. Beware, verse fourteen, then
thy heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord thy God, which
brought thee forth out of the slime pit. Remember where you
came from. The house of bondage. See, all those things are bondage.
That's what the world is bound to. The world is bound to these
things. It has a hold of them. It has
a strong grip on them. This world. The things of the
world. That's the reason he says, Love not the world, nor the things
of the world. Because these things get a grip on people and they
take them down to the grave. They'll go down to the grave
holding, trusting. That's all they've been for. Not you. This is a bunch of stuff. Enjoy the stuff, but remember
it's stuff. Health, good health, enjoy it,
thank God for it, but it won't last. Will it? It won't last. Barbara, very soon the dew of
youth is going to be on thy brow. Women are doing everything, spending
every dime they can to make themselves beautiful again, and it's not
working. But I'll tell you somebody who's
going to. And it's going to last forever. A new person. But do of youth
are not that. I'm not. Don't polish brash on
a sinking ship. That story of the Titanic, you
know, that most people didn't believe it was going down, even
when they were warned. They didn't believe. Even when the sirens
were going off, most of them didn't believe it. They sat there
at the table. And that fine china and all that. Admiring their
surroundings. And they perished. Let's not
be like that. Back in our text, verse 18, he
says, remember, look at verse 18 in the Deuteronomy. Do you remember the Lord thy
God? It's he that giveth thee power to get well. See, don't
forget him. Worship other gods. What other
god? I'm not going to go worship an idol. I'm not going to. What
does he call idolatry? Covetousness. And we're all very,
very, very susceptible to that. And we've all done it and do
it. So back in our text, Ezekiel 16, the Lord told Israel, He
told Israel that they'd sinned against great mercy and grace,
and every one of us has done the same thing, and we'll do
it in the midst of the year. You know, David, when he was
in his forties and fifties, is when he went through those terrible
falls, terrible times in the midst of the years. Every one of us will fall into
sin in the world. In a sense, sell ourselves at
times, leave our first love, like the church at Ephesus, folks. Things haven't changed. The children
of Israel, they began to loathe that light bread, which is the
gospel. And so the Lord took it away. Took it away. It says he caused
them to hunger back there in Deuteronomy. It caused them to
hunger, and they would have loved to have a little light for it.
The church at Ephesus. Boy, Ephesus. Boy, didn't they
hear a good gospel, a great gospel. The Ephesians? That letter was
written to them. Well, they left their first love.
They began to grow, you know, they'd heard all that before.
never were moved by it anymore. The church at Laodicea, you know,
they're rich and increased with goods and had need of nothing,
and they became lukewarm. The gospel never touched them
anymore. It never meant anything, so God removed it. God had a remnant. He always
has, a remnant. And after he removed it, they
were dying of hunger and thirst. And he's done it
again today. And they knew it in this little
place. Don't forget. And verse 60, I
look in our text, Ezekiel 16. Ezekiel 16, she, this little
girl, this child grew up into an adolescent, fine young lady
and began to be lifted up with pride and sold herself and went
out into the world and so forth, but God. And here it is again,
this is salvation. This is her salvation this is
our. Nevertheless verse six. I will remember you forgotten. But I can. I will remember you
forgot me but I never forget you. I will remember my covenant
with you. And he says that the one I made
in the days of my youth, you know, that's when you were in
the field where I found you. That's when he said you became
mine. And even when she was out there
doing all this stuff, she was still his. Grieving him, but
she was his. And he said, I will establish
unto thee an everlasting kingdom. And you'll remember, you'll remember,
here's the goodness of God is for him to convict us always. Keep convicting us. Seek repentance.
Conviction is not a one-time thing. Repentance is not a one-time
thing. It's a continual thing. But we'll
be sinners until the day... And you'll remember. He'll cause
us to remember our ways and be ashamed. Oh, we feel at times
so ashamed of ourselves, don't we? Good. That's good. It means the Lord hasn't left
you alone. We need to worry when the gospel
quits convicting us. That's where we need to worry. And he said in verse 63, and
you'll remember and you'll be confounded. It means you'll be
bewildered about yourself. You'll be confounded. You'll
be confounded as to how could I have done that? Why could I? If I'm a child of God, how could
I have done that? Like old John Newton's wonderful
poem. Here's a point I long to know.
Oh, it caused me anxious thought. Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I His or am I not? If I love, why am I thus? Why
this cold and lifeless frame? Hardly sure could they be less
than they never knew His name. And we wonder, we're confounded
by ourselves, perplexed by ourselves, and we're confounded by God's
goodness. Surely he's cutting me off. No,
he says, no, I haven't. Well, that's just amazing. That's just amazing. I remember
one time my brother ran away from home when he was about 15
years old. Can you imagine that, Stephen? Your son running away
from home, he was gone for, it was either Is it well over a
month maybe two months gone and I never heard word from it had
no idea whether a 15 year old son. Can you imagine that. Can you imagine that Mary. How much sleep would you get
for a month. Well one day he came home. I remember when he did. And they received him with great
grace and love. Opened the arm and fell on his
neck and kissed him. That's our God. That's our God. And he says the result of all
this is you're never going to open your mouth again. Hopefully. Be lifted up in pride. Never say anything in pride again.
You shouldn't because of your shame when I'm pacified toward
thee and all that I've done. I am not. Oh, so that may the
Lord convert us. You see, she got lifted up and
formed and pretty and began to think she was something and she
was nothing. She's still nothing. She thinks
she knew something. She knew nothing yet, as she
ought to know. May the Lord convert us back into little children. Make us ashamed of our ways,
never open our mouths in pride at any point. Remember the pit
from which we were digged, the field where he found us, and
be eternally grateful to him. All right, stand with me. Thank you for watching. Thank you very much. Thank you.