All right, let's look at Ezekiel
chapter 16. This chapter is the longest of
segments, one segment of Ezekiel's prophecy. And it's one of the
most interesting. I mean the whole thing. And that's
something when you consider all that we've read so far in Ezekiel
and all that we've got to read coming. This passage is full
of gospel truth, full of truth that would help each and every
one of us to know Christ more and to build confidence in Him
by the power of the Spirit. I told somebody the only problem
I'm going to have tonight is how to get through 63 verses
in the time allotted. So I'll just set your mind at
ease. I'm not going to even try that. I'm going to go through
the first 14 and we start. That lays the foundation of the
whole passage. This is what is commonly known
as the parable of the cast out infant. This is an allegory. It sets forth God's dealings
with the nation Israel temporarily and temporarily under the old
covenant. But it's also, and for us today,
it's also a great picture. of God's dealings with his elect
people chosen before the foundation of the world in Christ. His people
spiritually and eternally and the salvation that he freely
gives us by his free sovereign grace in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now as I said, this passage shows how Israel had taken the privileges
and the great things that God had given them as a nation under
the old covenant. And God gave these things to
them so that they could know and trust, trust in and worship
and serve him. And they took these beautiful
things that God had freely and unconditionally given them and
they turned those beautiful things into abominations, into idolatry
and sin and depravity. And this is a graphic picture
of our own state by nature in our sin, this cast out infant. Now, the whole passage, even
though it begins with the cast out infant, even in the first
14 verses, this whole passage shows that the real thrust of
this is Israel as an unfaithful bride who starts out as an infant
but grows into womanhood. And so this shows us that if
left to ourselves, if we're left to ourselves in our sin, then
we have no hope of salvation. If left to ourselves, we'll perish
eternally and justly so. And so let's look at this. I've
titled the message from verse 14. Read verse 14. He says, thy renown went forth
among the heathen for thy beauty. They had a beauty. Israel did. We have a beauty, but what is
that beauty? Will you notice the colon after
the word beauty there? He's going to explain what that
beauty is, what it consists of, and here it is. For it was perfect,
meaning complete, through my comeliness, through his comeliness,
through his beauty, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord
God. And so the title of this message
is Beauty and Perfection through Christ. Beauty and Perfection
through Christ. Now the first five verses of
this chapter shows a graphic picture, as I said, of sinners
by nature and by birth. Sinners by nature and by birth.
It uses symbols. The main symbol being the cast
out infant to show the ruination of man in Adam and the total
depravity of man in himself. Here we have set before us in
graphic language, in a graphic picture, the total depravity
of man. And this sets, in this background
here, what we need to understand and see is the amazing grace
of God which we're coming upon. You see, men don't really know
amazing grace. They sing amazing grace. I remember
for years I used to sing amazing grace, but I didn't really know
firsthand by experience and by revelation how amazing grace
really is because we don't know our abominations. This is what
he says, verse one, again, the word of the Lord came into me
saying, son of man calls Jerusalem to know her abominations. She
needs to know her abominations. We need to know our abominations. What is an abomination? An abomination
is something that is unclean. Something that is sickening in
the sight of God. You see, here's the thing about
it. Why is it necessary that Israel, Jerusalem, or any individual
human being born of Adam. Why is it necessary that we know
our abominations? And I'm not just talking about
just saying, well, I know I'm a sinner. You know, people say,
I know I'm not perfect or I know I'm a sinner and then they laugh
about it or make a joke about it or go on their merry way.
What is it to know our abominations? Well, let me say it this way.
As long as people think that they have some spark of goodness
or power of will to choose good, they don't know their abominations. They don't know the grace of
God. You see, man by nature is dead
in trespasses and sins, he doesn't have righteousness, he cannot
work righteousness, and he does not want righteousness God's
way. He wants it His way, which is
no way at all. His way of righteousness is a
way of death. And that's the abominations of
man. First, look at this. We'll apply
it to Israel. And then we'll apply it to ourselves.
He says here in verse 2, calls it Jerusalem to know her abominations. And says, and say, thus saith
the Lord God unto Jerusalem, thy birth and thy nativity is
of the land of Canaan, thy father was an Amorite, thy mother an
Hittite." Think about that. What's he saying? Picture Israel,
the nation Israel in the bondage of Egypt. Just picture that. You know, God had made a temporal
promise to Abraham 400 years before the Israelites came to
Egypt, the Hebrew children. And he promised Abraham that
he would establish them, his earthly descendants, Abraham's
earthly descendants, as a nation in the land of promise. You can
go back to Genesis chapter 12 and see that, how he said, I'll
bless you. I'll bless your descendants.
And he said, I'll bless all nations through you. But he told Abraham
over in Genesis 15 that before that happened, that his descendants
would be in bondage to a land not their own. That's Genesis
15, 13. And what happened? There they
are in Egypt in bondage. This is what that pictures. Their
beginnings. You see, that was really their
beginnings as far as being gathered together as a nation. They were
gathered together as a nation in the depths of bondage and
slavery. And that's what he's talking
about there. Thy birth and thy nativities of the land of Canaan. That's the heathen. My father
was an Amorite and my mother was a Hittite. What he's showing
them is that they have no reason to be proud of their pedigree.
I've always told you that the Jews basically had three things
that they boasted of that they thought proved them to be children
of God. And number one was that they
were physical descendants of Abraham. They said we'd be Abraham's
seed. The second one was their circumcision.
And the third one was their law-keeping. We have Moses. Well, he's saying
your birth and your nativity is nothing to be proud of. My
friend, it's a Canaanite. That's a heathen. That's an idolater. That's an ungodly person. An
Amorite. A Hittite. You see, that was
an insult. You think about Ezekiel standing there preaching this
to these people and he's insulting them. In their minds. And why is he doing it? Well,
to show her her abominations. To show her her sinfulness by
nature and by birth. To show her her depravity and
eventually her idolatry. He says, they were not born children
of God. No one is born a child of God.
We are born in sin. Not born good. We're born in
sin. We come forth from the womb speaking
lies. We have that fallen sinful human
nature that we're born with. We're no better than the heathen
nations by birth and our nativity. That's what he's saying here.
You remember Abraham? Where did God find him? In the
Ur of the Chaldees in the heart of idolatry. God didn't find
Abraham because he was the best of men or he stood out among
the there's no sir God chose him out of his sovereign mercy
and grace and Then look at verse 4 is for thy nativity and the
day thou was born thy navel was not cut That's that connection
with that ruination Neither was thou washed in water to supple
thee. This is the abandonment He says,
thou wast not salted, that is with bath salt and swaddled at
all, this is medicinal and cleanliness. No, you just laid there in your
filth and in your dirt. Verse five, he says, none I pitied
thee to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon
thee. When they were in Egypt, nobody felt sorry for them in
their bondage. But thou was cast out in the
open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou
was born. What he's saying here is they
were born in sin and they couldn't rise above it. The navel was
not cut. And you weren't washed. You weren't
salted. You weren't swaddled. And there
they are, forsaken, the cast out infant. Now, is there any
doubt in anybody's mind, if you take a real infant like this,
cast him out into the open field, Is there any hope of that infant
living? And the answer is no. This is
a picture of spiritual death. The wages of sin is death. But
look at this and apply it to ourselves. Think about it as
a picture of my own ruin in Adam and my own birth in sin and my
own depravity. Here he shows that included In
a saving understanding of God's grace is a clear understanding
of my abominations, my sin, and my depravity. And it shows us,
you know, that word abominations always comes forth like it's
saying something dirty, doesn't it? Abominable. Abomination. I think about Luke 16. And verse
15, where it says, that which is highly esteemed, valued among
men is an abomination unto God. Think about it. I think about
Saul of Tarsus, who highly esteemed his own works. You remember he
said, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee of the Pharisees,
of the tribe of Benjamin, circumcised the eighth day, is touching the
law, a Pharisee. And all of that was an abomination
before God. I think about the false preachers
of Matthew 7 who said, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in your name? Have we not cast out demons? Have we not done many wonderful
works? And every bit of it that they esteemed and had confidence
in was an abomination to God. Didn't measure up. He called
it iniquity. That's why when the Holy Spirit
comes to give us life, what does He have to do? He has to convict
us of sin. We really don't understand and
know anything about real sin until God reveals it to us by
His Spirit. Oh, we know the difference between
morality and immorality in the eyes of men. Ethics. Men study
ethics. We know about religion. But we
don't know anything about the depravity of the fallen human
heart, the dead, cold human heart, until God the Holy Spirit convicts
us of sin. We fell in Adam. That's our nativity. That's our heritage, rather. We're born in sin, born dead
in trespasses of sin. That's our nativity and our birth.
Clearly, no hope of salvation for us, no better than this cast-out
infant, who's helpless to contribute one iota or one movement to his
own well-being and salvation. No efforts. That's why the scripture
says, by deeds of law shall no flesh be justified. We're saved
by grace, not of works, lest any man should boast. But there
in that verse three, when he spoke of their nativity and their
birth, You think about it, as I said before, you remember as
it applies to Israel, God had made that promise to Abraham
400 years before, but here they are. Well, think about us. God had made a promise of salvation
for his elect in Christ before the world began. Our names were
written in the Lamb's book of life. God chose us in Christ,
but in the process of time, what happened? Adam fell and we fell
in Adam. We fell in him. And then our
heritage from our Father. What is it? Fallen, ruined in
sin, dead in trespasses and sins. That's our birth. And listen,
unless the Spirit of God comes along and clips that umbilical
cord from Adam, it will stay right there. And just like Israel,
they weren't born good or innocent. We weren't either. Our connection
with Adam is still within us. We come forth from the womb,
speaking lies. And so how evil are we by nature? Well, there it is. There it is
in that picture. And what a picture it is. That's
a picture that I wouldn't like to see an artist draw. How about
you? That's a picture that even if the greatest artist of all
time could draw or paint, it wouldn't even begin to tell the
whole story of our sin and our depravity. Those people who say,
well, I know I'm not perfect, but I've never done anything
to deserve hell. They don't know their abominations.
They don't know their sin and they don't know their need of
Christ. But now beginning at verse six and going all the way
through verse 14, what we see is the sovereign love, mercy,
grace, and power of almighty God to save his people. Temporally and temporarily, this
is everything that is spoken here. can be applied to the nation
Israel, but only for a time. Only temporarily, physically,
ceremonially, and only temporarily for a little while. It can be
said of them. We spoke of it already, their
time in Egypt. We can talk about their establishment
and growth as a nation up to the grandeur of the kingdoms
of David and Solomon. But eternally, And spiritually,
this what is said from verse 6 to verse 14 can only be said
of Christ's spiritual kingdom. His spiritual people, spiritual
Israel. You see, it's true of all believers,
what we're about to read, who are a kingdom of priests, a royal
priesthood, kings and priests under God, citizens of the kingdom
of God's grace, a kingdom which can never be moved, A kingdom
which is founded upon and in which exists righteousness and
peace and joy in the Holy Spirit and we're heirs of a kingdom
of glory hereafter. When he says, and when I pass
by, in verse six, to us who know Christ, that's equivalent to
saying, but God, who is rich in mercy, but God. Look at it, he says, verse six,
and when I passed by, when I passed by thee, and I saw thee polluted
in thine own blood, this passing by is a metaphor for his sovereign
providence, his protection of his people, even when dead and
trespassed as a sinner. Think about Israel and Egypt,
God was watching over them all the time, the whole time. He watched over them. How did
he establish them in Egypt? Through Joseph, a type of Christ.
But then Joseph died. And another Pharaoh arose who
didn't remember Joseph, and he put him in bondage. But God was
still there, watching over them. And they were polluted in their
own blood. He preserved Israel and Egypt through Joseph. He
passed by when he sent Moses as their deliverer to bring them
out. You see, if we're, and think about it, if we're one of God's
elect, God has preserved us even in our sin and our bondage. Why? Because of Christ. He sent Christ
to redeem us on the cross. He passed by us when he sends
his spirit to regenerate us. That's no accident. That's why
Christ said, I must need to go through Samaria. There's one
of his sheep down there, a Samaritan Mormon. That's why he said, All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and them that cometh
to me I will in no wise cast out. And this is the will of
him that sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should
lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day. This is
why God sent Philip into the desert to preach to an Ethiopian
eunuch. This is why God gave Peter a
dream and sent him to a man named Cornelius to preach the gospel.
This is why God passed by Saul on the road to Damascus. When
I passed by, He said, and saw you in your filth, and in your
polluted, in your own blood. And here's what He said, I said
unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, that means when your
death, dying, that's what it's talking about. It's talking about
spiritual death. He said, here's what I said, I said, live. Live,
yea, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live. God spoke and what did he say?
He said, live. When that applied to his elect
people, that's eternal spiritual life given by the command of
God. God's word, the word of truth,
the word of life. This baby was born dead. Well,
that's what we're born to spiritually dead. Why? Why? How do we know
that Christ said you must be born again? or you cannot see
or enter the kingdom of heaven. And notice he didn't say, when
I passed by and saw thee polluted in that blood, I said unto thee,
will you please live? He didn't say that, did he? He
didn't say, will you please accept life or receive life into your
heart? No. He said, live! And that's what he meant. Live.
Christ stood before the tomb of Lazarus. And he said what? Lazarus, come forth. He didn't say Lazarus, will you
please come forth? Will you try to come forth? Just
Lazarus, come forth. God spoke and it was true. God spoke and it was real. Life,
where can spiritually dead sinners find life? Well, only in God
who is life. And he gives it from the source
of life, which is his son, Jesus Christ, who is our life. And
then he speaks of fruitfulness. Look at verse seven. He said,
I've caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and
thou hast increased and waxen or grown great. Thou art come
to excellent ornaments, thy breast are fashioned, thine hair is
grown, whereas thou was naked and bare. Now when I passed by
thee and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love.
Listen to this, he says, I spread my skirt over thee. That's the
hem of his garment. That's the corner of his garment.
Covered thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God. And thou becameest
mine. You became mine. Now that speaks
of fruitfulness. For the nation Israel, This would
apply to them in their establishment and their growth as a nation
in the land of promise. Covers, as I said, their whole
history up through the grandeur of the kingdom of David, the
kingdom of Solomon, how they grew as a nation. They weren't perfect. They were
still sinful, sinners. They still had their problems.
There were times in their history that it was nothing but an abomination.
Think about how they grew and multiplied in number and how
eventually God brought them to a time of majesty as a nation
through King David and King Solomon. He speaks of their renown later
on. You know how renowned Solomon
was. All the other nations knew about
Solomon and his wisdom and his riches. Remember the Queen of
Sheba who came to inquire of Solomon. And this time of love
for the nation Israel does not refer to God's redemptive love
as it applies to them in Christ, but it does refer to God joining
himself to them under that old covenant. You know, in the Bible,
there are different kinds of love. The only kind of love from
God that saves sinners is his redemptive love in Christ. Herein
is love. Not that we loved him, but that
he loved us and did what? Sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. But what kind of love was it
to the nation Israel? It was God joining Himself to
them, that's what it literally means, in order to accomplish
His purpose through them. But it didn't last. Because we
see later on, because of their idolatry and their abandonment,
God gave them a bill of divorcement. But you see, when it's a time
of love for His sheep, when it's a time of love for His elect,
We're talking about God's redemptive love in Christ. And that kind
of love ensures the eternal salvation and final glory of all its objects. That's the love of God, which
sent his son to be the propitiation, the sin bearing sacrifice that
brought satisfaction for our sins. That's the love. that we're talking about. And
the fruitfulness, the fruitfulness of Israel only lasted for a little
while. In the time of Ezekiel, they're
anything but fruitful. They're being punished in captivity. And as a nation, they never really
were fruitful again. There was a moment in time after
the 70 year captivity that they came back to Jerusalem and rebuilt
the walls and rebuilt the temple, but they were still under bondage.
They never were fruitful. You see, fruitfulness comes from
the vine. And that's why Christ said, I
am the vine and you're the branches. Christ is our vine. We're the
branches. He gives us all things that pertain
to life and godliness. This time of love, this is God's
love in action. It's certain salvation for His
people. The Bible says in John chapter 13 and verse 1, He loved
His own to the end. That's to the finishing of the
work. And then there's nothing in this cast out infant to attract
God's love. Nothing in this woman as this
infant grows into womanhood to attract God's love. This time
of love indicates that she's now reached the age of marriage.
Now if God had not chosen her and watched over her, where would
she be? She'd be dead. How do you know she's reached
the age of marriage? Well, look at verse eight again. He says,
after the time of love, he said, I spread my skirt over thee.
You know what that is? That's a marriage proposal. You
remember reading about that in the book of Ruth? When Ruth came
and laid down at the feet of Boaz, and he awoke and he saw
that beautiful woman there. And God gave him a heart to love
her. And she said, spread your skirt over me. And that's what
Boaz do. Spread my skirt over thee. Take
you for my own. That's what that means. And he
says there, he says, I covered thy nakedness. I covered thy
nakedness. God covered the sins of Israel
temporally and ceremonially with the blood of animals. That did,
as Hebrews chapter nine and verse 13 says, it did sanctify to the
purifying of the flesh. It did set them apart ceremonially. But there's something that the
blood of bulls and goats could not do. It could never put away
sin. So how does that apply to us?
Well, how did he cover our nakedness? Well, we're washed in the blood
of Christ from all our sins. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. He clothed us in the righteousness
of his son, which is the merits of his obedience unto death.
Our sins were charged to him, his righteousness charged, imputed
to us. And so we stand before God clothed
in the righteousness of God, which is Christ. Now, man, he
can cover his nakedness with religion, but it won't last. He can cover it by ignoring it,
but it won't last. But look what happens here. After
he covers the nakedness, he says, I swear unto thee, and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest
mine. To Israel, that took place at
Mount Sinai when he entered into covenant with it. And that was
a conditional covenant towards them. To the elect of God, you
know when that takes place? In the everlasting covenant of
grace, He made a covenant with His Son. He chose His people
in Christ and gave every one of them to Him. And placed all
the responsibility of their complete salvation upon Christ. You know, if we're in Christ
today, you know we've always been His. That's right. And He fulfilled all the conditions. Some people call it a dowry.
He fulfilled all the conditions, all the requirements, paid all
the debts for his bride. And look at verse 9, he says,
then washed I thee with water. That could refer to the washing
of the priesthood in Israel, all the ceremonial washings that
they went through. But to God's people in Christ,
it applies to being washed in the blood of Christ for the forgiveness
of our sins. and it also means to be washed
in the water of his word. Wherewith shall a young man cleanse
his way by taking heed to his word. He goes on, he said, I
thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, all death washed away,
all guilt washed away, and I anointed thee with oil. There's another
emblem of the priesthood, and it speaks of the Messiah, The
Messiah said of him in Psalm 45 and verse 7, you love righteousness,
hate wickedness, therefore God your God has anointed you with
the oil of gladness above your fellows. And this oil is also
an emblem of the work and the power of the Holy Spirit to give
life, the new birth, and the indwelling presence and power
of the Holy Spirit. And then look at verse 10, he
said, I clothed thee also with broided work and shod thee with
badger skin. Most commentators say that's
not a literal badger, like we see running around the yard sometimes. Most think it's actually an ocean
creature that came out of the Sea of Galilee or the Red Sea.
But anyway, it doesn't matter. This speaks back to the tabernacle,
doesn't it? The tabernacle was covered with
badger skin. It also speaks to, the material
used for their shoes that they put on when they were going to
the festivals. And what it's talking about,
this is all priestly language here. Look at it. He says, I
girded thee about with fine linen. Remember the priest had that
fine linen? Covered thee with silk. And then he goes on, look
at verse 11. Here he says, I deck thee also
with ornaments and I put bracelets upon thine hands and a chain
on thy neck, put a jewel on thy forehead. You might have this
in your concordance. That's a jewel through the nose. And earrings
in thine ears and a beautiful crown upon thine head. You know
what that is? That's the language of a marriage.
That's a wedding feast. So what you have here is the
symbols of the priesthood. which means access to God. You
remember the Old Testament priest, they went in one time, the high
priest went in one time a year with the blood of the lamb to
atone for the sins of the people. Well, Christ is our great high
priest. And he went in one time on the cross and died. And by
that one offering, he forever perfected them forever that are
sanctified. Christ is our high priest. He's
our lamb. He's our high priest. He's our
altar. All of that. And then Christ is our husband. He's the husband of the church.
And he gives his bride the fine linen of his perfection, his
perfect righteousness. And the silk, meaning the riches
of his grace. And the ornaments of grace. You
know, these ornaments that are listed here, they're kind of
like the same ornaments that Isaac brought to Rebecca back
in Genesis chapter 24, because she was going to be his bride.
And he gave her these ornaments and these ornaments, they signify
all the ornaments that adorn the grace of God for us. And then he says in verse 12,
he put a beautiful crown upon thine head. Christ wore a crown
of thorns for us, didn't He? But I tell you what, He gives
us a crown of life. He gives us a crown of righteousness,
a crown of glory, a crown of rejoicing. And then look at verse
13. He says, Thus wast thou decked
with gold and silver. Gold being the emblem of deity. Our salvation is of the Lord.
Silver being the metal that symbolizes redemption, bought with the blood
of Christ. Thy raiment was of fine linen,
there's his righteousness again. It's emphasized because it's
the only ground of salvation. Silk, embroidered work, that's
the ornaments and the garb of marriage. You see, he says, thou
didst eat fine flour, that represented Christ, the bread of life, honey
and oil, the sweetness and the power of the gospel message that
is imprinted indelibly upon our heart by the power of God's grace.
Think about all of this. He says, and thou wast exceeding
beautiful and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. What are we by
nature? We're abominable, abomination. What are we in Christ? Beauty.
Prosperity. Prosper into a kingdom. You know
Israel, as a nation, they prospered into a kingdom. Again, think
about the majesty and the grandeur of the kingdom of Israel under
David, under Solomon. But it didn't last. It didn't
last. And that's what he's going to
start off here in verse 15 when we get to that next time. It
didn't last. But you see, the kingdom of God
in Christ is a permanent, prosperous, immovable kingdom. It cannot
be destroyed. It cannot be contaminated. It cannot end. It has no end. Now, why is that? Well, look
at verse 14. And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy
beauty. And what was that beauty? Well,
it was the perfection that they had through his comeliness. Now
that beauty in Israel could not be seen in the behavior of the
people. Now you've got to understand
that. I mean, you think about it. Now, think about David, King
David. That was the height of their
majesty, King David and King Solomon. But think about David.
Now he's sitting there under inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
writing the 23rd Psalm. You know, that's a beautiful
thing. Not that David himself, in himself, or by his works was
beautiful, but the Holy Spirit empowering and inspiring David
to write one of the most beautiful Psalms that we read. The Lord
is my shepherd. That's a beautiful thing. But
then it's not long till we see David Turned loose. And he commits adultery. He lusts
after Bathsheba and commits adultery. And one sin builds upon another
and he has her husband killed. And he lies about it. And then
it goes on and on. The beauty that he's talking
about here is not seen in the behavior of the people. It's
seen, number one, through the through the temple in Israel,
which is all indicative of Christ and his church, all typical of
Christ and his church, and it's the beauty of the grace of God
working in his people. And so when we look at this perfect,
it was perfect through my comeliness, his comeliness, Christ's comeliness,
not mine, not yours, but his, which I had put upon thee, which
he imputed to us, saith the Lord God. That describes the church. His bride. And the church's beauty
lies in the righteousness of Christ imputed. It lies in the
blood of Christ being put upon her by which she is washed and
cleansed, justified, pardoned, not guilty. Think about it. And we do have the beauty of
the graces of the Spirit of Christ implanted in us in the salvation
of Christ for our life and in the presence of Christ who intercedes
for us. I'll tell you it's a beautiful
thing when a sinner comes to see in reality his own abominations
and runs to Christ for salvation, for forgiveness, for righteousness,
for eternal life and glory. And that's why The gospel message
of grace for sinners includes this line from Romans 10 and
verse 15, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the
gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. And nothing
too beautiful about my feet. And that's not what it's talking
about, thank God. It's talking about those who go about preaching
the glory of the Lord in the salvation of sinners through
the blood and righteousness of Christ. That's the beauty of
it. Read it again. Thy renown went
forth among the heathen for thy beauty. For it, thy beauty, was
perfect, complete, whole, through my comeliness. That's his beauty. Which I had put upon thee, saith
the Lord God. Alright.