Let's go back to the scripture
that he read to us in Ezekiel, the book of Ezekiel chapter 16. And you'll note my text in verse
8, and this is where we get our subject for the evening, the
title of the message. The Lord says, now when I passed
by thee and looked upon thee, behold thy time was the time
of love. That's my subject, the time of
love. These 14 verses set before us the duties of God's salvation
to us through the Lord Jesus. Here we see a wonderful and marvelous
picture of God's grace to unworthy rebels like me and like you. Now, on the surface, it gives the story of the past
history of Israel That is from our very humble beginnings with
a man out of Ur of the Chaldees who settled in Canaan. And then
it takes us through to the glory days of King Solomon. God called the man who was stooped
in idolatry, Abram. And from that very insignificant
beginning, God brought Israel to be the very envy of all of
the nations of the earth. But there is much more here than
just a mere history lesson of Israel's beginning. This is a
picture of our awful condition by nature, our depravity. our fallen state, our wretchedness and pollution
and sin. And God shows us our guilt. Then
God, through the Lord Jesus, lifts us up and He makes us beautiful
through the righteousness of Christ. I want to talk to you
about a New Testament mercy, an Old Testament dress. This
is a passage that is a shadow of good things to come. I find
it interesting to note the horrible condition of ourselves is set
forth not only in the first few verses of chapter 16, but in
all of chapter 15. And one of the things we know
we ought to do whenever we look at a passage of Scripture, is
we need to consider the context. And if you'll look back into
the 15th chapter, and most of the time that I've heard this
preached on, in fact, most of the time that I preached on it,
I haven't even mentioned chapter 15, and that's a confession to
you. But I got to looking at chapter
15, and this just, it gives and some additional information about
our worthlessness and about our depravity. In chapter 15 of Ezekiel,
we're set forth as being like a fruitless vine. Useless. No good. Not good for anything. That's
us. That's us. Look at chapter 15.
The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, what
is the vine tree more than any tree, or than a branch which
is among the trees of the forest? In other words, all of the other
trees of the forest, they have a use. They have meaning. They have a purpose. They're
useful to men, or they're fruitful to men. He says in verse 3, "...shall
wood be taken thereof to do any work? Or will men take a pin
of it to hang a vessel on, like a peg, a wooden peg? Oh, this
vine, behold, it's cast into the fire for fuel. The fire devoureth
both ends of it, and in the midst of it it's burned. Is it meat
for any work? Is it good for anything?" That's
what God says. And that's us in our fallen state. Are we good for anything? Is
there any goodness about us? Is there any soundness about
us? Is there any fruitfulness about us? God made man to bear
fruit for His glory, to worship Him, to adore Him, to acknowledge
His goodness. God made man to praise the Lord. We're fruitless vines, we're
useless vines due to the fall. Notice in verse 5, Behold, when
it was whole, it was meat for no work, and much less be it
meat yet for any work when the fire hath devoured it and it's
burned. Therefore, thus saith the Lord
God is the vine tree among the trees of the forest, which I
have given to the fire for fuel. So will I give to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem. And I will set my face against
them. They shall go out from one fire
and another fire shall devour them. And you shall know that
I am the Lord when I set my face against them. and I will make
the land desolate because they've committed a trespass, saith the
Lord God. While other trees were useful
to be for like building houses, making worthwhile things out
of them, God says of Israel, and he says of you and me by
nature, We're fit just to be burned. Just to be burned. God says, I can't even use you.
You won't even be used as a pin to hang something on. Useless
and worthless. And when we get to the 16th chapter,
God doesn't let up. He doesn't let up. You say, oh,
you paint a bleak picture. No matter how much we preach
against depravity, no matter how much we declare our sinfulness,
it's like Solomon's glory and his wisdom, the half has not
been told. And after God sets forth our
uselessness and our fruitfulness, the lack of fruitfulness rather,
He then goes on to say in chapter 16, he says, O son of man, cause
Jerusalem to know her abominations. We've got to know how disgusting
we are. And that's what the word abominations
means. We're loathsome. God says make
her to know how loathsome she is. You see, it's only as we
come to understand our loathsomeness, it's only as we come to understand
our sinfulness, that then the gospel will be good news to us. It's only after God shows us
that our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Only then will
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus be beautiful to us and
we'll desire it. It's only after God shows us
our filthiness and our state of abomination, our wretchedness,
only then will we appreciate what it means to be washed in
the blood of the Lamb and made beautiful before God. When we
get to the 16th chapter, the Lord likens us in our fallen
condition to deserted infants. Absolutely helpless and hopeless. Let me give you several words
in this message. And they all start with the letter
C. And I know you're not supposed
to tell how many points you have to a message. That's one of the
things that they taught us in Bible school. Don't tell how
many points. I got nine of them. So get ready. I took the nap. But these are important. Easy
to follow. I like messages that are easy
to follow, don't you? Let's see if God will help us
as we set this forth. Here's the first word, conviction.
The first word is conviction. Again the word of the Lord came
unto me saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations. Cause her to know. God's messenger has got to be
honest with his hearers regarding our spiritual condition. And
it is the Word of God. It is the scriptures as set forth
by his servants that God uses in order that we might know our
abominations. As I said, the gospel will never
be good news to us unless we find out the bad news
of how bad off we are. The message of salvation conditioned
upon the obedience of the Lord Jesus will never be a delightful
story unless we're made to know our wretchedness and our helplessness. I know this before the Lord pours
in the oil and the wine of the gospel He first of all convinces
us of our helpless state that we need the gospel. We need the
gospel. You see, nobody is going to be
washed in the blood of the Lamb until we find out how filthy
we are. Nobody is going to be healed
of spiritual leprosy until we find out we're sick. That's our
problem. We don't know what the issues
are. We don't know about our sickness. We don't know about
our depravity. and therefore the message of
Jesus Christ and Him crucified, the message of justification
by the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's
a message folks just aren't interested in. But we'll get interested
in the message of salvation altogether by grace through the obedience
of our Lord Jesus Christ if and when God the Spirit uses His
Word to convict us of what we are, of our awful state before
God. See, nobody's going to be robed
in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ until we realize
our spiritual nakedness. Nobody's going to be interested
in the great physician and his cure, his remedy for the disease
of sin until God the Spirit convinces us through the preaching of the
gospel that we're diseased. We're diseased. We're infected. I went to visit somebody in the
hospital just last Friday, and I got to the hospital room, and
there's a sign on the door that says, wash before you go in,
put a mask on, put a robe on, all that, lest you infect the
patient. Let me tell you something about
sin. We're already infected. We got the disease already. And
as far as we're concerned, it's an absolutely incurable disease. But listen, you won't seek out
a great physician. And the remedy, the remedy for
the disease won't be of interest to you until God the Spirit,
through the preaching of the Word, convinces you, you got
the disease. You're infected. You're infected. You're a leper. You're a leper. We must know our condition. We
must be convinced of it. The Lord said in Revelation chapter
3 concerning the lay off of sins, He said, Because thou sayest,
I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing,
and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and
poor, and blind, and naked. You just don't know. You just
don't know your condition. There's a natural ignorance about
our real depraved condition that is native to all of us. It's an absolute ignorance. We just don't know. And when
somebody tells us, we get offended. What are you talking about, preacher? I'm as good as anybody. Don't
you know I don't cuss, and I don't run around with people who do,
and I don't go to the dirty movies, and I don't drink to excess,
and I don't do this, and I don't do that. And here's the problem. We've never seen our hearts condition
in the mirror of God's Word. And if God ever convinces us,
if He ever convicts us of what we are, that's when we'll sit
on the edge of our pews and say, won't somebody tell me where
help is to be found? That's when we'll get interested.
And nobody will have to beg us to come to church. Nobody will
have to say, oh, won't you please come and hear our preacher? Or
won't you listen to this CD? They'll be asking us, what time
does service start? I want to get up, I want to get
close, because I want to hear, because I need some help. I need
some help. Log gone will be the cries of
somebody patronizing God, and they'll say, you wonder, is there
any mercy for a sinner like me? I've been convinced of my helpless
condition. I need God, I need Christ. Preacher, you think there's any
hope for me? Well, come and listen to the
gospel. It'll do you good. It'll do you good. We've got
to know our condition. We've got to be convinced by
the Spirit. Convicted by the Spirit of our
condition. And He does that through the
preaching of the Word. Notice in verse 3. He says, And
say, Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem, Thy birth and
thy nativity is of the land of Canaan." What was that? As a
land of idolatry. Thy father was an Amorite and
thy mother a Hittite. The Lord takes us back to the
origin of our wickedness. The land of Canaan was a land
where they worshiped false gods. God tells us where we came from.
I'll tell you, all of us together, we come from a long line of idol
worshippers. That's where we all came from.
A long line of idol worshippers. Every man is religious by nature,
but his religion is a false religion, and consequently, every man is
a worshipper of idols. You're an idolater by nature.
We talk about repentance. The Lord brings us to repentance
toward God. We've had wrong ideas about God. We've had wrong thoughts about
God. He brings us to repentance. We're
all guilty of idolatry. We came from pagan idolatry. You've heard of Canaan. Cursed
be Canaan! That's what God said to Noah.
Cursed be Canaan! This is what he is saying. You
folks came out of the land of Canaan. You know what the word
Canaan means? Zealous. Zealous. The original word is zealous.
It means zealous. This is what he is saying. You
came out of a land where the people were zealous after false
gods. And that's all of us. Zealous
after false gods. You lived and dwelt among the
people who are idolatrous. While Abraham did indeed come
out of Ur of the Chaldees, Isaac and Jacob, they were born in
the land of Canaan. This sets forth our origin. This
sets forth our sinfulness. This sets forth our depravity. This sets forth our original
sin. Wherefore, as by one man, sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. All have sinned. And while it
is a fact that Abram and Sarah were Chaldeans, yet they dwelt
among the Amorites and the Hittites, more idolatrous people. But here's
the second word, condition. Condition. It was one of absolute
hopelessness and helplessness. And our condition is likened
to that of a newly born infant cast out into the wilderness. Verse 4, and as for thy nativity,
in the day that thou was born, thy navel, thy cord was not cut,
neither was thou washed in water to supple thee, thou was not
salted at all, nor swaddled at all. You know the Bible sets
forth our depravity in terms that are understandable to us,
to show us just how despicable and wretched we are, and to show
us how helpless and how hopeless we are. Here's an infant, a newborn infant,
for whatever reason it's cast out into the desert, into the
wilderness, unwanted, tossed aside. Years ago, this is what they
used to do when children, babies were born that were deformed,
or if they didn't want any more female children, didn't want
any more girls, they just tossed the girls out into the wilderness,
didn't wash them, didn't clean them. When the baby was born,
just take it out into the field, leave it to die in its own blood.
The poor thing wouldn't last long. It would die quickly. Maybe it would be due to the
fact it just couldn't breathe, or it could be due to the fact
that wild beasts would devour it, and then buzzards would swoop
in, the vultures would devour the flesh. God's command to the preacher
is you tell my people, that's what they are by nature. Like
a deserted infant, cast out in its own blood, and there it lays,
fully exposed to all the enemies that are out there, all the beasts,
the insects, the snakes, the scorpions, lying there in its
own blood, and there's not a thing it can do to help itself. What
could possibly be more helpless? What condition could possibly
be more hopeless than a newborn infant taken out into the wilderness
and laid down and you absolutely desert it? What could be a more
hopeless condition? I'll tell you. A sinner dead
in trespasses and sinners. That baby's got more hope than
we do by nature. More hope for survival. Because
you see, we're already dead. We're already dead. What a sad
state is ours. God's command to the preacher
is, show them their condition. Tell them their condition. It's
not a pretty picture. No, it isn't. But you'll never
be brought to trust in and rest in the Lord Jesus Christ until
you're forced by God's grace to see and acknowledge and confess
what you are by nature. Your sin. Your sin. That sets forth our state of
depravity. Our pollution. Our understanding
is polluted with darkness. The world is filled with enmity
against God. And our affections, they're not
toward the Lord. They're toward the world and
the things of the world. We're unwashed. We haven't been
salted. Salt pictures grace so many times
in the Bible. We're filthy. We're graceless,
we're godless, we're helpless, we're hopeless in the world. Like this deserted infant. It
says, watch this in verse 5, none I pitied thee. None I pitied
thee. That's a sad condition. Nobody
feels sorry for you. They took the baby out there
in the wilderness and then everybody turned around and walked away. Nobody to pity it. None I pity be to do any of these
things to have compassion on you. That's our loathsome state. Let me tell you something. The
law of God can't pity us. You think the law of God pities
a sinner? Oh, no. The law of God is unfeeling. The law of God demands perfection
and will accept nothing less than perfection. Think of the parable of the Good
Samaritan, as we call it. That man who fell among thieves. They stripped him, they wounded
him, they left him half dead. Along came a priest. He took
a look at him. He went over across the road.
He had to go the other side of the road. He couldn't help him.
Along come a Levite. He couldn't help him either.
None eye pitied him because the law is not going to pity you. The law says this, do and live,
disobey and die. That's what the law says. None
I pitied thee. God's holiness couldn't embrace
us. God's truth is sworn to testify
against us. Divine justice is aggravated
by our sinfulness and our uselessness and our fruitlessness. We couldn't
help ourselves and nobody else could help us. None I pitied
thee. No pity. Here is the third word. Compassion. Compassion. Having said in verse 5, None,
I pitied thee to do any of these things to thee, to have compassion
upon thee, but thou wast cast out in the open field to the
loathing of thy person in the day that thou wast born, when
I passed by thee. Oh, here is compassion. "...and saw thee polluted in
thine own blood. I said unto thee, when thou wast
in thy blood..." He says, "...in thy blood," three times. "...I saw thee polluted in thine
own blood. I said unto thee, when thou wast
in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee, when thou
wast in thy blood, live." When there was no other hope, no other
possibility for recovery. God said, I said something. I
said, live. Oh, what compassion. You see,
our time of need, our condition before God in helplessness and
hopelessness, that's the time when grace shines in all of her
splendor. The grace of God, you see, is
best seen and it is only seen when all hope of relief And all
possibility of help from every other hope is absolutely cut
off. That's when grace is seen in
its sweetness. God convinces us and convicts
us of our awful condition. And you know what? That's a gracious
act of God. You see, millions of people never
know their abominations. But God said, convince them of
their abominations. Have you been convinced? Have
you been convinced of your abominations? Have you been convinced of the
fact that you're disgusting and you're loathsome? Well, I humbly say, I've been
convinced. And I'm still being convinced.
God gives me more light to see more of my abominations. And
I'm even more convinced. I'm more convinced now that salvation
is of the Lord. I'm more convinced of it now
than when God first revealed it to me. Because as the years
go by and as we grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ, we grow in seeing and understanding and perceiving
our original depravity, our state of wickedness before God and
how great His grace must be to lift us up from the miry clay
and set our feet on the rock, Christ Jesus. Oh, this is a time of compassion. A time of compassion. And let
me give you three things on this. This time of compassion, it's
a time for love visits. It's a time for love visits.
Notice it says there in verse 6, when I pass by thee, And also
see in verse 8, look at verse 8. Now when I pass by thee, a
time of compassion, that's a time for a love visit. That's when
God visits us. Oh, how merciful and how gracious
of our God to visit us in His saving, free, sovereign grace. Little wonder that the psalmist
said in Psalm 8 verse 4, what is man? that thou art mindful
of Him, and the Son of Man, that thou visitest Him. But, oh, visit
us He has, and visit us He still does. Of these love visits, I'll tell
you this, He visited us 2,000 years ago in order to save us
from our sins by substitutionary death. Luke 1.68 says, Blessed
be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His
people. Luke 1.78, Through the tender
mercy of our God, whereby the dayspring on high hath visited
us. It's a love visit. He came down
here 2,000 years ago for a love visit. He visited to save. He visited to redeem. He visited
to reconcile. He visited to do something about
our sins. He visited to satisfy the justice
of God that demanded death for sin. He visited and by His visit
to the cross and His visit to death, He saved all the objects
of God's electing grace. He visited. Oh, bless the name
of our Savior. He visited here. He visited here. Oh, what great compassion is
this. A love visit from the Savior. He visited as God sacrificed
for sin. And I'll tell you something else.
He visits us in our time of spiritual deadness by sending us a preacher
with the truth of the gospel. When we are held captive by Satan,
he visits in saving grace, in revealing grace, and he delivers
us from the hand of the oppressor. As the Lord said to the people
of Judah, for thus saith the Lord that after 70 years be accomplished
at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward
you in causing you to return to this place. He visits. Hold your place here and go back
to that passage in Acts chapter 15. That we started off with. Acts chapter 15. This is at the Jerusalem Council
as I've already said when we opened up the service. But I
want you to notice in response to what Simon Peter said. What did Simon Peter say? I'll
read it again for you. Verse 7, Acts 15, 7. When there
had been much disputing, Peter rose up. He said unto them, Men
and brethren, you know that how a good while ago God made choice
among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word
of the gospel and believe. God made a choice that these
Gentiles would hear the gospel They'd hear the gospel through
the mouth of Simon Peter, and they'd believe. Now, let's drop
down for the sake of time. Look at verse 13. And after they had held their
peace, James answered, saying, Simon Peter has spoken. He made
that tremendous statement of verse 11. We believe that through
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they.
He didn't say that they shall be saved even as we're saved,
but we shall be saved even as they're saved. See, it doesn't
matter whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, you're going to have
to be saved by grace. And you're going to have to be
saved through the substitutionary work of the Lord Jesus. And then
some folks had some things to say. They gave audience to Barnabas
and Paul. And then in verse 13, after this,
they held their their peace, and James answered, saying, Men
and brethren, hearken unto me. He says, Simeon hath declared
how God at the first did visit the Gentiles to take out of them
a people for his name. God has visited the Gentiles.
Boy, what grace is this? God has visited the idolaters. God has visited the Gentiles
for this purpose. To take out of them. And I'll
tell you, that's strong language. It means to seize, to lay hold
upon and forcibly bring them out. That's effectual grace.
That's the irresistible call of the Spirit. That's what that
is. He visits us with the gospel. And maybe He's going to visit
today to irresistibly draw out from this congregation another
sinner as a trophy of His grace. Oh God, visit in mighty power. It's a love visit. That's what
it is. It's a love visit. And when the
Lord came to you, when He took the gospel and He drove it home
to your heart, I'll tell you what it was. It was a love visit. A love visit. Go back to our
text. So this time of compassion, it
was a love visit. And then I know this, we know
that He abides with us by His Spirit, but there are special
times when He visits with us by His Word. to cheer our hearts,
to lift up our downtrodden spirits by making his word precious to
us. These are love visits too. And you who are the people of
God, you can certainly enter into what I'm trying to say.
There are times when we feel low in spirits, And maybe sometimes
we can't even put our finger on what makes us to feel this
way. We just do. And the Lord makes a sweet love
visit through his word. And it may be he may just take
one verse of scripture and he visits you with that promise
of his presence and of his grace. Let me show you something real
quick. Go over to, let me show you, the book of Genesis. Boy,
and I've got to go quick because I'm not too far on this list
of words here. But go back to Genesis, if you
will, and 50, last chapter of the book of Genesis. I'll show
you something. This blessed me. This helped
me. And I figure if something helps me, if it blesses me, then
it will bless the rest of God's people. Here in Genesis chapter
50, these are the last words of Joseph. And I only got time
to just read them. Look at verse 24. Genesis 50,
24. And Joseph said unto his brethren,
I die, literally, I am dying. And God will surely visit you. We are talking about love visits. God will surely visit you and
bring you out of this land, this land of Egypt, unto the land
that He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And Joseph
took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely
visit you, He is going to visit you, and ye shall carry up my
bones from thence. Now go to Exodus chapter 3, page
or two over. God has appeared to Moses. The
Lord Jesus, the Son of God, has appeared to Moses in the bush
that burned but was not consumed. He is the Great I Am. That's
how He identified Himself to Moses. Look at Genesis chapter
3 and verse 16. God said, Go, and gather the
elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The Lord God of
your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared
unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and have seen that which is done
to you in Egypt. I visited. I see. He speaks after the man Ramean.
I visited. And I saw what kind of shape
you all are in. And I have said, verse 17, I
will bring you out of the affliction of Egypt, under the land of the
Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites,
and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, under a land flowed with milk
and honey. I visited and I see your dilemma.
And I'm coming to the rescue. That's what God said, I'm coming
to the rescue. One other reference, chapter
4. Chapter 4. Now Moses and Aaron go before
the elders of Israel. Verse 29. Chapter 4, verse 29. And Moses and Aaron went and
gathered together all the elders, all the representatives of all
the families of the children of Israel, And Aaron spake all
the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and did the
signs in the sight of the people, and the people believed. And
when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel,
and that He had looked upon their afflictions, This is the effect
that it had. When God makes a love visit to
his people to remind us of his promises, this is always the
result. They bowed their heads and worshipped. When God makes another love visit
to us and he makes his word real to us, he speaks to our poor
needy souls and he gives us that word of cheer that we need. and
He reminds us of His everlasting love to us through Jesus Christ
and His work of redemption. You know what we do? We bow our
heads and we worship. That's what it all, that's always
the result. It's always the result of God's
love visits that we then worship Him and we adore Him. Go back over to our text in Ezekiel. So this was a time for love visits.
I got something else for you here. This was also a time of
compassion, a time of love looks. Not only love visits, but this
time of compassion is a time of love looks. Look at verse
6 again. When I passed by thee and saw
thee, I saw you. I saw you. Look at verse 8. He says, Now when I passed by
thee and looked upon thee. Now this is not merely a look
of observation. Because the Lord observes all
things. Because all things are opened
before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. But this is a
different look. This is a look of compassion.
This is a look of grace. This is a look of love. The hymn
writer said, He saw me ruined by the fall, yet loved me notwithstanding
all. He saved me from my lost estate. His loving kindness, oh, how
great. He beholds His people. He sees
His people. He saw us in eternity. He had
His eye on us from eternity. And He sees us now. His eye is on the sparrow. And
I know He watches me. He watches over me. Here is God's compassion. Here is their love visits, their
love looks. And then here is a love call.
Verse 6, he says, When I passed by thee and saw thee polluted
in thy blood, I said unto thee, this is a love call. When you
was in your blood, I said live. Yea, I said unto thee, when thou
wast in thy blood, live. He said it twice. He said it
twice. You see, God says things twice. The first is the outward word
that comes to us, to this ear. And then there's the effectual
word that comes to the heart. He says it twice. Psalm 62, 11 says, God has spoken
once, twice have I heard this. Power belongeth to God. God's preachers preach the word
of God. That's the first time you hear
it. Then the Spirit of God takes it to your heart. That's the
second time you hear it. That's when you hear it down
here. You hear it down here. We say, oh Spirit of God, cause
these to live! But the Spirit himself must single
us out and say, this is a time for love. Live. I tell you, when
he says live, that's when his lattresses will come forth. Come
forth from the grave. This is a call to life. It's
a life-giving call. It's a life-creating call. It's
a call that comes forth from the Lord Himself. Oh, this is
great compassion. Here's the fourth word. The fourth
word is cleansing. Look at verse 9. Then washed
I thee with water. Yea, I throughly washed away
thy blood from thee, I anointed thee with oil. This foul, filthy,
dirty sinner must be washed. Washed in the blood of the Lamb.
And nobody can wash us but the Lord. 1 John 1 verse 7, But if
we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth
us from all sin. David said in Psalm 51 verse
2, Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from
my sin. He says in Psalm 51 verse 7,
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall
be whiter than snow. He washes us. We're blood washed
sinners. Made whiter than the snow. Cleansing. The Lord says, I anointed thee
with oil. He gives us his spirit. Fifth
word is covering. Covering. Back in the end of
verse four it says, you weren't swallowed at all. You're tossed
out, you're like that infant tossed out there in the wilderness.
Absolutely naked in your blood. Wasn't swaddled. That's us in
our sinfulness. But in verse 8, the Lord said,
when I passed by thee and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was
the time of love. What'd God do? He said, I spread
my skirt over thee. I covered your nakedness. That's
the robe of Christ's righteousness. He covered up our nakedness.
I feel He washed us and He robed us in the best robe. The prodigal son came home. He
had his little speech memorized he was going to give to his father
and he started saying against the father, I've sinned against
thee and against heaven. I'm not worthy to be called your
son. Just make me a servant. The father said, wait! Servant,
bring the best robe and put it on my boy. Bring the best robe. And I tell you, God brings his
wandering prodigals to himself by effectual grace, and God says
put the best robe on him, the robe of Christ's righteousness.
Robe him in the garments of my salvation. Look at verse 13. The Lord says, Thus thou wast decked with gold
and silver, thy raiment was of fine linen. You know who wore
fine linen? Priests. That's what we are. And silk embroidered work. You
know what the broidered work was? Those beautiful veils in
the tabernacle and in the temple. The Jewish women worked on those
for days and days and days. They hand embroidered those veils. They were purple and red and
blue. Just absolutely gorgeous. And
God said, I robe you, I cover you with the garments of my own
needlework. I wove it myself. Our Lord Jesus,
He wove the garment that covers us, He wove it by His obedience
unto death, even the death of the cross. Oh, we have a covering. And He
says, watch this, He says, I shod you, I shod you with badger skins. I shod you with badger skins. That's the same covering of the
tabernacle in the temple. The Lord said to Israel in Deuteronomy
29.5, I've led you for 40 years in the wilderness, your clothes
aren't waxed old upon you, and your shoe is not waxing old on
your feet. That robe that God has put around
us, it'll never wax old. And the shoes, we're shod with
the shoes of the preparation of the gospel of peace. Never
gonna wear out. It's said that those badger skin
shoes that were soft on the inside, tough on the outside. And I tell
you in the gospel of peace, you can walk through this world and
even walk through the valley of the shadow of death and not
fear any evil because the Lord's with you. He's with you. Back in verse 10 he said this,
I clothed thee with broidered work, I shod thee with badger
skins. You got the best shoes on your
feet, they're never going to wear out. I girded you about
with linen, I covered thee with silk. Notice, God did it all. God did it all. Salvations of
the Lord, that's our covering. And I'll give you this, this
is number 6, it's all due to a covenant. Verse 8. The last
part, ìYea, I swear unto thee, and entered into a covenant with
thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine.î We became
His in the covenant. Everything He does for us is
due to the covenant. God always works through a covenant. He never works apart from a covenant. Never ever does God work apart
from a covenant. And in the covenant of grace,
God ordained all of this. He ordained it all. This is a
covenant. In Numbers 7, He puts a crown
on us. Verses 11 and 12, I deck thee
with ornaments, I put bracelets on your hands, a chain on your
neck, I put a jewel on your forehead, earrings in your ears, and a
beautiful crown upon your head. Your royalty. He has made us
kings and priests unto God. We're the king's family. And
you can come to the throne anytime you want to. In fact, through
the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, you can come to
the throne boldly. Boldly. We're kings and priests
unto God. And oh, what comforts we have.
Look in verse 13, in the middle of it, he said, Thou didst eat
fine flour, honey, and oil. My, what comforts. We feast on
the best. That's right. We feast on the
bread from heaven, Christ Jesus the Lord. Isaiah 25, 6 says,
And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people
a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the leaves, of fat
things full of marrow, of wines on the leaves, well refined.
Oh, what comforts God gives us. And we've come together today,
again tonight, to feast at the banquet table of God's mercy
and God's grace to us in Jesus Christ. And you know what? He
feeds us abundantly, abundantly through his word. The preacher
just gives us a meager fare. I give you what I can, but really
the food that I'm trying to set before you is the best food there
is. I present it in a meager way
and in a feeble way, but it's a banquet for God's people to
just feast on. And evidently you like feasting
at the table because you keep coming back. You keep coming
back. It's like somebody says, well,
was breakfast pretty good? Yeah. And you know what? I'll be back for lunch, too.
And I'll be back for supper, too, because I find that cooking
is mighty fine. And I find the gospel just meets
my needs. I just keep coming back, come
back to the banquet table again and again. That's the comfort.
And here's the last word. I hope I got them all in, all
nine. Here's comeliness. And this is
what he says in verse 14. Thy renown went forth among the
heathen for thy beauty, for it was perfect through my comeliness
which I put upon thee, saith the Lord. In Christ Jesus we
are beautiful. There is a comeliness about God's
people that gives Him all the glory because He poured out the
grace on us through Jesus Christ the Lord. The time of love. Boy, the gospel sure is sweet.
Our Lord sure is good to us. Visit us again. He made another
love visit us today, hadn't he? I sure am grateful. Sure am grateful. Let's sing 186.