Someday we will sing of God's
love from the depths of our heart and at the top of our lungs unto
Him that loved us. I was singing that song thinking
how ashamed I am with my and lack of appreciation for
that so great love. Ezekiel 16, this story of the
Lord finding and saving this abandoned child is the blessed
and beautiful story of God's amazing love and saving grace
and power and saving wretched sinners. And it needs no lengthy introduction. The best way to tell this story
is simply let God's Word tell it. The Word of the Lord came
to me, verse 1, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know
her abomination." God had raised up this man, Ezekiel, who was
a preacher. And God commanded this preacher
to cause Jerusalem to know their abomination. Now, Israel was
God's elect, God's chosen people. And Jerusalem was the heart,
the capital, the heart of that nation. So God told the preacher
to speak to his people and go straight to the heart. Understand? Preach to the heart. This is
what he said in Isaiah 40. Speak ye to the heart, to my
people. Cause them to know. Now here's
the thing he said, the first thing he told the preacher to
do. Cause them to know. Go straight to the heart. The
heart of the matter. Cause them to know their abominations. Now most of you in here know, I'd venture to say, everybody
in here heard this. You know, at least in your head,
the truth of what God thinks of this world. What God really
thinks of this world. Not what the world says, but
what God says about the world and the inhabitants thereof.
You know that God Almighty's Word says it's abominable to
Him, doesn't it? That it's filthy. He said, the
Lord looked down upon the sons of man to see if there were any
that did seek after God, any that had called upon God to seek
Him. He said, they all together become filthy, unprofitable. The word is stinking, wretched
in God's eyes. That's what God says about this
world. And in the beginning, He destroyed
the then known world, didn't He? God destroyed it, and the
same God. Peter wrote, the same world is
kept in store now, reserved under fire, wrath, and God's going
to destroy this planet again. Why? It's not the love of God. It's what God really thinks about
this world. It's abominable. It's a wretched
and vile place. He looks at this as we would
look in a sewer. That's right. My wife and I were at a shopping
center the other day, and we were remarked to one another
how that people today look a whole lot rougher than they've ever
looked in history. I mean, just everybody, up to
adults. They look, people, the way they're,
what they're doing to their bodies and so forth, and the way they
let themselves go, it looks almost demonic, doesn't it? It is. It
wasn't that way just 40 years ago, folks. Was it? Just 40 years
ago, people. And I blame it all on the pulpit. And if it's so outwardly, if
people look that way on the outside, God looks on the heart. God looks
on the heart. God looks at the thoughts and
intents of the heart. God knows the imaginations of
the heart. He said that in Genesis 6. He said the thoughts of man's
heart and his imagination are only evil. Only evil. Continually. Every day. That's what God said.
He looks on the heart. And now here's mercy. Here's
saving mercy. If God sends you a preacher and
causes you to know you're abomination, This is the first work that God
does in salvation, is to cause us, not just look at the world
and see how, cause us to know our abominations. This is saving
mercy. And what we truly looked like,
how God beheld us, what we were to God, abominable, filthy, wretched,
miserable, poor, naked, blind, so forth. Man is a filthy creature,
wicked and vile and capable of doing anything. And such were
some of you. And it says this. Here's what
it says about us. And these are the verses that
pricked your heart in the beginning. In time past, you who were dead
in trespasses and sin. You who walked according to the
course of this world. Just like it. According to the
prince of the power of the air. captive Satan, prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in these children
of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation,
our lives and time passed in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the mind, were by nature children of wrath,
just like the others, just like the others. Now here's salvation,
but God in rich in mercy. And the first thing he does in
mercy is to cause you to know you're a abomination. God, the message doesn't come
from a true preacher telling you how much God loves you. Oh,
no. It comes telling you what an abominable person you are. Capable of anything. And you. And you. Yeah. But God. By His
grace. You see, it's by grace we're
saved. It's by grace. The mercies of the Lord that
we're not consumed. And it's by grace that we amount
to anything. Our salvation. Salvation is,
now this is Bible salvation. Real salvation. God Almighty
is saving us from sin. That's what it's all about. Saving us from sin. Sin is an awful thing. Sin is
an ugly thing. God Almighty is saving us through
Christ from the penalty of sin. God's going to just destroy people.
Wipe them out. That's the penalty. Death. Put them out of my sight. But
God. Salvation from sin is consequences. The consequences of sin render
someone filthy and ugly and vile and wretched and no good but
God. The letter to the Corinthians
says, Know ye not that whoremongers and adulterers and so on and
so forth shall not inherit the kingdom of God? And such were
some of you but God. But you are washed. Like His
child. Sin, it's power. Sin just manipulates,
reigns over unto death, doesn't it? Reigns unto death over people,
doesn't it? Under its bondage, but God. Deliver them, He says. Set the
captives free. Sin. And someday God's going
to deliver His people from the presence of it. And I can't write
a comment on that. It's too mysterious. But verse
3 in our text says that, he said, when I found you, thus saith
the Lord, your birth, your nativity is of a land of Cain, your father,
he was an Amorite, your mother was a Hittite. In other words,
you were born of heathen parents. Your parents were no good. A mixed breed. No good. Heathen. Hittites. Amorites. You know,
I started thinking about all the races of man. and how various
ones considered themselves to be the superior race. Haven't
they? Down through the years. I guess it started with the Jews,
maybe. They quickly showed us, didn't
they, in the wilderness just how they're not superior. They're all just alike. And bloody, barbaric Germans,
Aryans, Superior race. The most bloody ones of all.
Barbaric. Evil. Murderous. No good. None
good. Not one. We're not from noble
parentage. None of us in here were born
of noble parents. We're born from Adam. We're sons
of Adam. People like to trace their family
tree, don't they? They're hoping to find something
good there. Somebody of note, and usually it's somebody notorious. Notorious. That's right, because
we all go back to that fellow named Adam who was a rebel. Sinners,
heathen, that's who we were born of. Verse 5, When I found you,
Verse 4, your navel wasn't cut, you weren't washed with water,
you weren't supple, you weren't salted, nor swaddled at all.
None eye pitied thee to do any of these unto thee. I have compassion
upon thee. I was cast out, you're cast out
in the open field to the loathing of thy person. That's how you
were born. It's a terrible picture. These young parents could enter
into this. You think about this, a little
newborn baby just thrown out. They actually did this. This
actually happened. It's still happening today. They throw out this child into
a field, usually a female. as they've done, and they're
actually still doing. China, I've mentioned to you before,
China, you know, trying to do away with female babies. 17 million born a year, babies. America aborts millions of them.
Throw them out. But back then, usually a newborn
female child, if unwanted, was literally cast out in a field
as soon as it's born. And here this child is lying
in this field, naked, polluted in its blood, and it's drying
up on it. It's a horrible picture, isn't
it? It will soon be devoured by wild beasts. And nobody cared for it, especially
after they see it the way it was. And this child, had you
come across it, it would have repulsed you. You wouldn't have
had anything to do with it. You would have pitied it. None
did. This is what God says about us. You know that? You know, no preacher has ever
preached man as he really is. He really has not. The world
doesn't even believe this. But really, the half has not
been told. And God says things like this in Isaiah 1, from the
sole of thy feet to the top of thy head, there's no sounds and
sin, nothing but wounds and bruises and putrefying sore. Isn't that
what God's Word said? And that's the way God found
us. And it says, to the loathing of thy person. And he says to
this preacher, you cause my people, that is, Israel, Jerusalem, go
right to the heart, and here's the first thing you tell them.
You tell them just how abominable they are in themselves. How they
were born. And how that none eye pitied
them. There was nothing to pity in them. Tell them that. John,
you said that fellow at work thinks you're too rough on yourself. Not rough enough, John. God hadn't let us see. He hadn't. Didn't let us see. Cause them
to know their abominations. To know this is the first great
blessing that God Almighty does. It's a great blessing to know
that we're a wretched, miserable, no good, vile, hell-deserving
sinner. That's old-fashioned. We've heard
that for years. Oh, we've heard that before preached. It's a blessing to know that. to cause us to loathe ourselves.
You know that? The only people that love Christ
truly are those that loathe themselves. You hear me? The only people
that cry out for mercy are those that are helpless and lying in
a field. You understand? You understand that? The only
people that the gospel is really good news to is those that hate
themselves. The only people that mercy really
means anything to is guilty. That's right. Loathe thyself. Look at verse 61, the end of
this story. See, this woman, I don't know
if we'll get to it Wednesday night or not. Said we would.
But this woman got puffed up after the Lord did all that He
did for her. She got a little puffed up in
pride. She'd forgotten where He found her. And it says the Lord reminded
her later on because she got in a bad way again. She became
outwardly beautiful, but the Lord said, you're ugly in pride. And it says in verse 61, you
will remember thy ways and you will be ashamed. And it said
in verse 63, you'll remember and be confounded and you'll
never open your mouth again. If you do open your mouth, all
you'll say is grace. Grace. All you'll say is mercy.
Mercy. That's why David said, I'll make
mention of thy righteousness and thine own. To the loathing
of thy person. Son of man, cause my people,
go straight to the heart, cause her to know her abomination and
cause her, and if you do, if they do, here's what they're
going to cry. Lord, there's no soundness in my flesh. Lord,
my iniquities are gone over my head. Lord, my wounds stink and
they're corrupt because of my foolishness. Lord, my loins are
filled with a loathsome disease. There's no soundness in my prayer.
Lord, save me." The world, as we said, doesn't
believe this. Preachers don't preach this. The religious world
doesn't believe this. False preachers don't preach
this, but you do. And I do. Cause my people. Cause Jerusalem to know their
abomination. Know what they were when I found
them. Know that. And if you do, if you believe
it, and if you loathe yourselves, and you love this gospel of God's
sovereign mercy and grace, you must be one of God's called.
You must be one of God's foreknown, foreloved. You must be loved
by the Lord. Because for whom he did foreknow
or forelove, he did predestinate. And whom he did predestinate,
he called by our gospel. And the first thing our gospel
says is, cause them to know their abomination. And once they know
it, I've got good news. See, we hear the bad news first,
don't we? Somebody ever said to you,
I've got some good news, I've got some bad news. And generally you say, well,
tell me the bad news first. Let's get over with it. Well,
here's the bad news. Cause them to know their abomination.
And now here's the good news. Here's the good news. Here's
the gospel which causes us to great joy. He says in verse 6,
look at our text in verse 6. When I passed by thee, Now here's salvation. When God
passes by you, meaning comes where you are. When I passed
by thee and I saw thee, when I looked upon you, this is salvation. This is Bible salvation. He finds
us. We're not even looking. He puts
us in His field. He puts us in his field like
Ruth. You remember when Boaz passed by? Ruth, her hap was
to light in the field as a beggar. That's what she was, first thing.
She knew, I'm a beggar. If I get anything, it's going
to be pure grace. And her hap was. The blessing
of the Lord and God's sovereign province was to have her light
in this field that belonged to the most blessed man. upon the
face of the earth, the only one who would show mercy and compassion
upon her, blessed Boaz, her kinsman-redeemer. And as she was a beggar, gleaning
in that field, just picking up some crumbs, somebody passed
by. Somebody riding on his white
horse, a noble man, a beautiful man that owned it all. He took
notice and said, who is that maiden right there? Oh, there's
many maidens out there. Yeah, but that one right there.
Well, that's a moabite. You don't want her. She's of
no noble parentage. She's nobody. She's just a beggar.
Ah! You let some handfuls fall on purpose for her. Don't just
load her sacks, load her wagons. And when the evening comes, you
bring her to sit at my table. I've put my affection upon her. I'm going to have her. She lit
on Boaz's field. And he passed by. That's not
our story. But she was sitting at the table,
remember? And Boaz passed by. And he's going to make her fall
in love with him. He's wooing her. And he brushed up against
her and gave her some cornbread. And she's fallen. She's in love. Because he loved her first. He
passed by. The Lord put this child in this
field, and the Lord put us in this field, and the first thing
we're going to hear from a preacher is not how lovely we are, but
our abominations. That's a good thing, because
that's where the Lord goes. That's where the Lord is. That's
who the Lord saves. You know, He saves the chief
of sinners. The Lord put a thief one day, an old murderer and
a thief, a no-good fellow you would have nothing to do with.
You'd have wanted him dead. You'd have wanted Him dead. You'd
have hurled insults in His face. You'd say, crucify Him. An old
thief. Put Him on the cross at a particular day, at a particular
time, right beside the Lord Jesus Christ. You think about that. Could have
been the day before, could have been the day after, but God put
this man on this cross on His right hand. That would be the
right hand. Because today is his time of love. God put this baby in this field
because somebody is passing by. He passed by through the preaching
of the gospel. Oh, the lot is catching a laugh,
isn't it? Oh, honey, I'll go to church with you this morning.
I've decided to go to church. Well, good. The whole disposal thereof is
of the Lord. I'll go to Mama's funeral. Well. And he passes by and he looks
on us. We don't know who he is like,
you know, like Ruth. She didn't know who that man
was. He knew her. He looks on us. He says to us,
look at this, verse 6, when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted
in thine own blood, I said unto thee, when I passed by, when
I saw you, and I said to you, live. Live. You know, there were many babies
thrown out in the field. Many left to die, weren't there?
Do you have any brothers or sisters, some of you? Do you have any unsaved spouses
or parents, any of you? Sure you do. Everybody in here
died. Many are left to die. But He passed by you and sent
me out. You're not going to die. You're
going to live. And forever. Live. Yea, I said unto thee when
you were in your blood. See, for a good man, some might
die. For a righteous man, some might
die. But God commended His love toward
us. And while we're in our blood,
centers, particles, God said, live. You don't want that one. That's
precisely the one I want. I said unto thee, live. And verse
7 is what she became. It really goes with the rest
of the story. Verse 8 is what she was when
he passed by. Verse 8, Now when I passed by
thee, and looked upon thee, When I passed by thee, when I came
to you, when God sent the gospel to you, when God Almighty took
notice of you, when God Almighty set His love upon you and His
affection upon you, when God looked upon you. Remember, God
called Lazarus, didn't He? Christ called Lazarus, didn't
He? Lazarus was dead, but Christ called him. Lazarus, come forth.
Christ looked upon Zacchaeus up that tree, didn't He? He's
passing by. And He looked up, and there's
old Zacchaeus. And he looked upon him first
and said, come down. The Lord himself was waiting
at a well on a woman to come by one day, wasn't he? He passed
by and he sat there waiting on her. He was waiting to be gracious.
And he won't be kept waiting. Behold I, he keeps reminding
us, when I passed by thee, now when I passed by thee and looked
upon thee, thy time was a time of love. I want you to stop and
think, this really caught my attention. Thy time. It was a
time of love. Thy time. He says, behold, thy time. There was a John Newton, the man that wrote
Amazing Grace. Great preacher, hymn writer. That man, if you've ever read
his story, the way the Lord saved him, it's amazing. He was a rough
one. And a man named William Jay,
another preacher in his day, they were both pastors at the
time, but William Jay came by the study where John Newton was
to visit. And Brother William J. was excited
he had good news. He said, Brother Newton, he said,
did you hear that Brother Edwards of Bath County, not Brother Edwards,
Mr. Edwards of Bath County, you remember
that notorious fellow that everybody knew, just a vile fellow that
he was? Mr. Edwards, yes, he said, I
remember. He said, Brother Newton, he said, the Lord saved Mr. Edwards, that wretched man. And he said, oh, Brother Newton,
I'll never despair of anybody being saved since the Lord saved
Mr. Edwards. And John Newton looked
at him and said, Brother Jay, he said, since the Lord saved
me, I'll never despair of Him saving anybody. Thy time was a time of love. This is your
time. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth His Son in the form of the Gospel. It's your time.
Who? You? Me? Yeah. What is it? The time of love. Whose love? Your love? My love, God said. My love. I have set My love upon
them. Not yours. That comes later.
This baby. This baby, when a baby's born, when a baby's born, they're
born blind. They're born blind. Yes, they
are. When you open their eyes, they
don't see anything. It's just a blur. That's right. They're born bloody. They're
born messy. They're born ugly. They're everything about them.
They hear voices and they're groping and they're miserable
and blind and naked. Yes! This is a picture and they
don't, they hear a voice and they just need help. They know
something. Where's what all they know. Something
has happened to me. I can't see hardly anything. They don't know who this, they
hear a voice. They hear a voice and it sounds
good to them, but they're blind and they're groping and all of
that. Who loves who? Where does the love start? Gabe, tell us. Come up here and
tell us. Her time. Time of love. Oh, somebody loves you. Your
love will come later. That child's love will come later.
Oh, yes, it will. It'll be there. If loved, you'll
love. Love of God shed abroad, you'll
love. But when we're born, you see, oh we know, when we're born
again, when we're born again, we don't know what's happened
to us. Something's happened. I get blind now. I don't know. I once was blind, now I see.
Something's happened to me. It's your time. It's great love and great grace
for the Lord in the gospel to break the heart. This is the
first time. Show your abomination where you cry out. That's the
first thing a baby does. Cry out. Cry out. What's wrong? I don't know. I'll tell you what's
wrong. Everything's right now. Everything's
right now. Your love, baby, you just don't
know how much you love. We saw that Wednesday night,
didn't we? Because a father pitieth his children. Cause my people
to know their abomination. Oh, I'm a miserable maggot. Yes,
you are. But you love. This is your time. And it's a time of love. I love you. It's the first thing
I do for those that I love. Here's the love of God. We preach
love, don't we? Oh, we preach love. We preach
love that's real love. We preach a God that really loves.
Will you ever quit loving that child? It was love at first sight.
Love at first sight. Will you ever? You can't. It's
not possible. Well, it is humanly possible.
Can a mother forsake her sucking child? Yes, she can. They do
it all the time. Not God. It's not possible. Love, real love, never faileth. Our God who sets His love on
His people, they are loved. And I saw you in your blood,
and it was love at first sight. Thy time. It's your time. God's loved many, hasn't He?
God's loved many. As the Sansas see in the stars
of the sky, He's loved many. Now it's your time. I wish I
could preach this. I wish I could feel this. Now
it's your time, my time, time of love. We sing this song, Oh
How Can It Be, that God should love us all. Jeanette, one time
in my life, wouldn't you like to sing it from the heart really
thinking, how can it be? I remember saying that when I
heard about my first love, when I first heard the gospel. And
that's the indictment God says against people in Ephesians.
You've left your first love. This gospel doesn't touch you
anymore. Then I'll remove it. When I passed by you, I could
have gone right on by. I could have left you. I left
your brother, I left your sister, I left your mother, I left your
father, I left your husband, I passed by you and I stopped
and said, Deborah, it's your time. Time of love. Yea, I've loved thee with an
everlasting love. Before I formed thee in the belly,
I loved thee. And therefore, with loving kindness
through the preaching of the gospel, I've drawn thee. You're
mine. Look at the next thing. He said,
you became Well, no, that's not the next thing. I spread my skirt
over you. I spread my skirt over you. Here's
this naked little child. You know, there's babies all
over the world now running around naked, dying, aren't they? We just saw one born naked. And the first thing you do is,
oh honey, cover her up. Cover up. I spread my skirt over
my skirt. The white skirt. Men wore robes
back then. The skirt of the robes. What
is this skirt that He spreads over us? This covering. Cover
the nakedness. This covering that warms this
cold child. This covering. What is it? It's
Christ Himself. Christ who is our righteousness.
It's not the righteousness of Christ, it's Christ our righteousness. He himself. That baby is not
warmed simply by a blanket, but by a mama who's holding it. Didn't wrap this child in a blanket
and put it over there and fend for itself, no. It's hugged up
in the arms of a person. This child loved by a person. Dave and I are talking about
this love, how you know it, you hear about it, you think you
understand it, and you experience it. You experience it, don't you?
You think, I didn't think I could, I didn't know what love was.
I really didn't. Don't you? That's the difference
in salvation and head. Time of love. I covered you. And look at this. He said, and
I swear unto you, honey, I'm going to take care
of you the rest of your life. I love you and I will never quit
loving you. I swear I'm making a covenant,
an agreement. Your mama and I and your grandfather
and I, grandmother, we've made an agreement. We're going to
take you and care for you and not let anything or anybody touch
you. Why? Because you're mine. Thou becamest mine. Get a hold
of this, would you? God says about His people, you
became mine. And all that that means, they
can have this God that will love them and leave them, this God
that won't save them. They'll end up in hell anyway. My God says,
Kellie, my God says to me in the gospel, you're mine and nothing
and nobody's going to change that. And I have made a covenant
and I swear, God, this immutable thing, two things immutable,
it cannot lie, John. His oath and His covenant, He
says, mine. And He's engaged all of His heart,
all of His mind, all of His purpose, all of His will, everything on
the topside of God's earth, He's engaged to our salvation. And
nothing is going to stop your mind. Mine. And thine are mine and thine
are thine. That's our God. Ed Berry, this
is our God. He loves us. And everything's
working together. Why? Because we're His. We're
His in a covenant. He said before the world began,
this one's mine, this one's mine, this one's mine, this one's mine.
He chose them. It's His prerogative, isn't it?
Why'd He choose us? Oh, no. He just pleased Him. In a covenant. And He gave them
to His blessed Son in that covenant. This really happened. It's not
just doctrines of grace. This really happened. God, the
Father said to the Son, here, I've chosen these. These are
yours now. They're yours. I'm giving them to you. You're
going to be the shepherd. They're my sheep. Every one of
them are going to be lost. Every one of them are going to
be filthy, abominable sinners cast out in the field, and loathing
their person. And you're going to come, the
blessed Savior and Redeemer. I will send you. They're mine.
And you're going to save all of them. And you're going to
bring them back to me. Mine. And you're going to say, Behold,
I and the children that you gave me are all here. And they're
going to sing throughout eternity. We're all going to sing to the
praise of the glory of your grace. They're mine. Covenants. Agreements. Mine. Oh, I'd like to preach the gospel
in my life. Then he says, verse 9, I washed you with water. I
washed you. That's what he said over in Ephesians
5, didn't he? Verse 26, washing up water by
God's Word, washed in His blood, washed in His water, the water
of His Word, washed in His blood. Washed you. Yea, I throughly
washed you. Washed away all the notions you
used to have. Washed away new mind, your mind
renewed. This mind is in you now. Washed
away thy blood from thee, thy sins, and thy iniquities. I remember no more, he said.
How? They washed away. There is a
fountain, you see, filled with blood drawn from God with us. Emmanuel's name. Sinners plunged
beneath that blood. Lose all. How many? All. They're guilty still. Records
gone. The slate is clean. All sins. There's sins and iniquity. I'll
remember no more. He said as far as the east is
from the west. And he says, and I anointed thee with oil. I anointed
thee with oil. Christ went back to glory and
sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, and God,
and Christ sent, he said, the Comforter. He's going to dwell
with you forever. The Spirit of Christ. Anointed. A nanny. We've got a lifetime
nanny. Can I use that term? Rich men
and rich lords of old, you know, who owned vast estates and had
much to care for, they had great business. Often would attend
to things all throughout the land. And they had nannies. They
had personal butlers and nannies that would care for their children.
And they chose the best. They would watch over them and
teach them. Schoolmasters to bring them up and so forth. We
have one. The Spirit of God. Any man hath
not the Spirit of Christ, none of his. Christ is expedient that
I should go, that the Comforter should come, whom my Father will
send and heal, dwell with you, anoint you, teach you, guide
you, lead you, protect you. I clothe thee, verse 10, with
a broadered work. Oh my, the character of Christ,
the multifaceted character of Christ, like old Joseph's coat,
huh? Shod thee with badger skin. We're
shod with the gospel, aren't we? These shoes that this baby
wears are amazing, but it never wears out. They never wear out.
Do you still have any of your baby
shoes, Nancy, your children's baby shoes? Do you get them bronzed
or something? People actually do that, don't
they? These shoes that we first started walking in by faith,
this gospel, we've still got it. It hasn't changed a bit,
has it, Henry? You've been here as long as anybody
They'd be longer. They hadn't changed a bit. They
won't wear out either. Good shoes. You're kind of loathe
to throw away a good pair of shoes, aren't you? An old pair
of boots. But these, the gospel, never
wear out. Badger's skin. For those of you who know, that's
the outer covering of the temple, of the tabernacle. And I girded
you with fine linen. That's what priests wear. You
know that? Priests wear linen. He's made us kings and priests.
See, this girl, this baby girl, she's His. Nothing but the finest. She's going to be His. She's
going to grow up to be His and look like Him. And I covered
thee with silk. That's a smooth, comforting silk, isn't it? Your
babies, you give them silk, don't you? Hannah used to have a baby
blanket and the border of it was silk. She used to love to
feel that. She kept it until she was about
18. Took it on her honeymoon. You laugh, there sits Lauren.
Lauren? Still has it. This covering,
this blanket, this security blanket which God has given us, which
is Christ, whom we hug up to, whom we lay hold upon. Christ.
Yes, the person. It's the person. We trust the
person. He's comforting. Comforting. Silk. Silk. Never want to let go. don't want
to. Verse covered you with silk and
he says in verse 11 he decked you or he decked her with, adorned her
with ornaments, gold and silver and precious stone, bracelets
upon your hand, chain on thy neck, jewel on thy forehead. What kind of jewel do you reckon
is in the middle of her forehead? I happen to believe it's a pearl. Yeah, of great price. Always
where she could think on it. A pearl, and a beautiful crown
upon that head. Crown of salvation. God has crowned
us with glory. Not our own, but with this gospel
of our salvation. It's on our head, isn't it? On
Christ, our head. It's in our mind. Always on our
mind. Christ. And I put a jewel, verse
13, you're decked with gold and silver, thy raiment was of fine
linen, Silk embroidered were and you did eat. Oh, I fed you. What's now? What's the first
thing a baby eats? Doesn't start eating bread immediately. What's
the first thing? Milk. A sincere milk. A pure milk. That's all babies.
First, and it's wonderful. It's wonderful. And some do it
longer than others, don't they? Becca. It's a good thing, though. It's a nurturing thing. It's
a bonding thing. It's an intimate thing. I was
talking to Hannah about it. She loves it. She said this is
just special between me and my child. And I quoted to you Wednesday,
God said, I'll dangle them on my knees and they shall suck
the breasts of consolation. A personal, intimate thing. I'm
going to reveal my word to them. And they're going to suck and
be satisfied. And you know, I still love milk
to this day. Do you? Any adult? I still love milk.
I'm never going to completely leave milk. Love it. Got to have
it. That's what started out. But you go on to eat bread, fine
flour, honey, oil. Oh, it became beautiful. It started
looking like a parrot. It became beautiful. You know, old brother Martin, I told you
about him. He didn't think any babies were cute. And I kind
of agree with him. Because when they're born, I
mean really, seriously now, when you first see them, come on.
Melinda, now, they all are bloody and ugly until they're washed
up and cleaned up a little while later. But Barnard used to say
that he'd see a baby, you know, and he couldn't lie. He's a true
preacher. He couldn't lie, so all he would
say was, well, it's a baby. And I guess that would suffice
them, yeah, he's a baby. God doesn't love us because we're
lovely. God didn't find us because we
look cute. No, but no, unlovely. Altogether unlovely. But here's
the salvation of God, people. Here's the true Christ of Scripture,
and here's true sanctification. He actually makes you like Christ.
I mean, he actually does. Not in theory, not in principle,
not in doctrine, but he actually makes God's people like Jesus
Christ. Yes, they begin to grow up and
look like the Father. That's right. Every one of you hanging your
head and thinking about yourself, don't think about yourself. Think
about somebody else. Think about somebody else. Think
about somebody you knew before the Lord did a work on them.
Think about it. Do they not? Has there not been
a miraculous change? This is the Savior. This is true
salvation. Who was it that said, Ebenezer
Erskine or one of them said that salvation is so, when God saves
a man, it's so real even the old hound dog will know it. Yeah. It became beautiful. Beauty. And it was perfect. Verse 14 says it's perfect. He
became renowned. Yeah, renowned. Yeah, the salt
of the earth. Of whom the world is not worth.
Renowned. And it was perfect. You're complete. You're perfect. Dave, would you change anything
about that girl? Anything at all? So what you're telling us is
she's perfect? She's got a long way to go, doesn't
she? Long way. She's only three days
old. Perfect? That's what God says about us. I don't see it. I look in the
mirror and all I see is ugly. Don't you call common what God
has cleansed? I mean, say it, admit it, but
perfect, complete. How? Through my compass. I'm the one that did all this,
you see. I'm the one that did all this. I put it on you. I
found you. See what this is all about, praise
of the glory of this exceeding riches of the grace of this wonderful
person who came by and saw this despicable, filthy, rotten, no
good, stinking child lying in a field and set his love upon
it. And to the praise of the glory of his grace is what this
child became, what he did for this child. Brought it from the
dung heap to sit among branches. Who could do such a thing but
him? Your beauty is through my comings
that I put upon you. I did all this, she said. So
he gets all the glory. Now, Lord willing, Wednesday
night, There's another part of this story. It's a sad one. It's
sad. This baby girl grows up to be
a beautiful young woman. Beautiful. But she wanders off. It's bad. Bad. But it ends good. Okay,
let's sing a song. thing here number 44.