You know, the Old Testament,
the Old Testament is full of parables. And a parable is using
earthly illustrations to teach spiritual truths. Our Lord used
them all the time. He said, look on the fields,
they're white, ready to be harvested. He told a parable of a fellow
looking for a treasure in a field. Talked about corn growing, how
it starts out as a seed and goes into the blade into full ears.
So he used lots and lots of parables to teach spiritual truths, heavenly
truths. And the Old Testament's full
of pictures. You know Christ is a substance,
but you know a picture, the Old Testament's full of pictures.
And you don't fall in love with a picture, you fall in love with
a person. But that's what the Old Testament does is teach us
Christ and shows us pictures and types. And every one of them
relates to how God saves a sinner. How God saves sinners. Every
single one of them talks about how God saves sinners. And our
Lord himself, he often, when he was preaching, constantly
referred to the Old Testament. He told Nicodemus, as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. He was preaching one day and
they asked him, you know, what in the world he meant by three
days, you know, tear this temple down and I'll rebuild it in three
days. And they thought, and they said,
how in the world can you do that? He said, as Jonah was three days
and three nights in the belly of the fish, even so must the
Son of Man be three days and three nights. And then he referred
back to the days before he come, he said, as it were in the days
of Noah. He referred to the Old Testament
many times, many times. And I pray that God would make
us wise give us understanding, clear understanding of the types
and pictures of our Lord because He's the same today, yesterday,
and forever. He never changes. He never changes.
Now here in this chapter that I've read so far, we're not left
to wonder about what's being taught here. We're not have to
understand what we're being taught here, the application of these
scriptures. You know, the scriptures have
an application. And we see here the first, here's
the application that God's telling him to do. This is what it means.
Look in verse two. God said to him, said, son of
man, son of man, that's what you are, you're a son of a man,
cause Jerusalem to know her abominations. I want you to, I want Jerusalem
to know how abominable she is, her abominations. And he uses
this infant being cast out, throw it out into an open field, uses
a picture of this infant, throw it away, throw it away, throw
it away. And it was common among heathen
nations, if you had a deformed or unwanted infant, child, throw
it out. take it out in the woods, throw
it out in the desert. Kind of like the way they do
infants today. The newborn infant would be cast
out into a field right after he's born. I mean, they didn't
do anything for it. It's born, take it and throw
it away. And they'd throw it into a field, and animals and
birds would come, and they'd destroy that child, eat that
child. Destroy that child. And this
is how God found Israel. Just like this infant. Wasn't
worth nothing. Nobody wanted it. Nobody cared
for it. Nobody had any compassion or
pity for it. And this is how God found Israel.
In idolatry, paganism. You know everybody talks about
Abraham. Before God called Abraham, you know he was an heathen idolater.
He worshipped idols. He worshipped idols. That's what
he did. He worshipped idols. And that's
the way God found Israel. And the scriptures tells us that
He made them His own. Gave them His glory. Gave them
His prophets. Gave them His law. And gave Him
His Son. And their fame and beauty. went
forth among all the nations. They were beautiful through His
glory, through His comeliness, which He put upon them. But as
in all Scriptures, God's dealing with natural Israel is a picture
of His dealings with spiritual Israel, us, God's people, God's
elect. You know, when you go back, there
was always an elect within the elect. You know, God chose a
nation, but out of that whole nation, there was just a very,
very few that was chosen to salvation. That's what he meant. Many are
called, but few are chosen. And so, when he's dealing with
natural Israel, he's showing us how he deals with spiritual
Israel, his elect people. And this is a picture of how
God saves sinners. This is a picture of how God's
sovereign grace goes and does something for somebody who is
unable to do anything for himself. Now let's go down through these
scriptures, see what they have to say to us. And he says thus,
cause Jerusalem to know her abominations. And say, thus saith the Lord
God, thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan, and
thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother was a Hittite. And you know when his baby was
born, it was wrong. It's born wrong. Something was
wrong with it. He was born of the land of Canaan,
and God cursed Canaan in Genesis chapter nine. And he talked about
the Amorites over in Genesis 15. He said, the Amorites, their
iniquity is not full yet. So this baby was something bad
wrong with it. This baby was wrong from the
day it was born. And it was cursed, come from
the land of Canaan, cursed. Now I'll tell you some other
people that's born wrong, every single one of us. You know why
we was born wrong? Because our mother was wrong,
our father was wrong, our grandparents were wrong. Every one of us was
born wrong. David said, I was shapen in iniquity
and in sin did my mother conceive me. He said, the wicked go astray
from the mother's womb speaking lies. And every baby, you think
it's gonna die if you don't pick it up, but it's gonna scream
and squawk because it wants all the attention. Ain't a thing
in the world. Feed it, clothe it, it's still gonna cry. And
so they go estranged from the mother's womb. And you know the
scriptures tells us by one man, just one man, one man, sin entered
into this world. And by that one man's sin, Death
passed upon everybody, the whole world. How's come? Because when
he sinned, we sinned. When he rebelled against God,
we rebelled against God. And from that day forth, every
time Adam had a child, it was born in his likeness and in his
image. And so that's what happened.
Now I want you to look with me over here. Keep Ezekiel 16. Look with me over here in Job. Look with me in Job chapter 25.
I want you to look with me in Job chapter 25. Look what God
says over here. Job's right before the book of
Psalms. Look what God says. You know,
this shows us our lost condition. Oh, what a condition we were
in. Look how God says in verse 4,
How then can man be justified with God? How can he stand before
God and say, Oh God, I'm justified in your sight. I've not done
anything wrong. How can he be clean? That's born
of a woman. He said, look up at the moon.
And as far as God's concerned, it don't even shine. Yea, the
stars, as they shine up in the night, they're not pure in His
sight. How much less man that is a worm, huh? And the Son of
Man, which is a worm. Now that's what He told us. He
called us worms, worms. Now back over here, I want you
to look at this infant. Look at this infant. Oh my, look
what he says down there in verse five. This infant was helpless,
this infant was friendless. God said this, he says, no, I
pitied you. I was not an eye anywhere that
looked upon you with pity. No, I pitied thee. Oh my. Then what can an infant do in
this condition? And he says this, and he says,
and they didn't even have compassion on you. Didn't have compassion
on you. This infant was helpless. This
infant was friendless. What can an infant do? What can
this infant do in this condition? What can it do for itself? Huh? It's impotent, helpless, powerless. It's a landmare. Can't do anything. So how in the world is anything
going to be done for it? If anything's done for that baby,
anything's done for that infant, somebody else has got to do it.
Somebody else has got to do it. Oh, it's got to come from the
hand of another. Somebody else has got to do it.
And I tell you, it's got to come from the will, it's got to come
from the power, it's got to come from the love, it's got to come
from the compassion of somebody else. His mama didn't want it. Dad didn't want it. Nobody wanted
it. So if anything's gonna be done
for that infant, it's in its blood. It's in its nastiness. And I tell you what, I tell you
what, except God, God asked this question. He asked it in Jeremiah.
Can the Ethiopian change the color of his skin? Can a leopard
change his spots? How then can you, that are accustomed
to do evil, do good? How can you do it? Oh, and I'll
tell you something else about this baby. It absolutely had
no sense of the condition it was in. It was absolutely unaware
of its condition. It didn't know the condition
it was in. It didn't know nobody loved it. It didn't know nobody
had compassion on it. Huh? And look what he says there
in verse four. Oh my. We can't save ourselves. We're just empty, empty vessels.
He said, as for thy nativity in the day that thou was born,
your navel wasn't cut. Oh, you're still attached to
you. You know, they had never separated you from that navel
that come out of your mother's womb. Nobody took water and washed
you off. to supple you, and listen to
this, and nobody purified you, swaddled you, salted you, or
swaddled you, and took you and wrapped you in clothes. This
infant was dirty, loathsome, polluted in his own blood. Instead
of having beauty, he had ashes. Instead of glory, they had shame. Instead of health, they had rottenness. Oh my, no wonder Isaiah said,
from the top of the head to the sole of the foot, you're full
of wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. Now I'll tell you what,
the way we see ourselves and the way God sees us, two different
things. That's the problem with most of us. That's the problem
with most of us. We see ourselves And we see other
people and we don't see ourselves as God sees us. But God, first
of all, called us a worm, called us a baby, loathsome, polluted
in our blood, born wrong. Oh, our blood, that's where all
of our problems at. A man doesn't become a sinner
when he starts sinning. He starts sinning because he's
a sinner. You know where he got his sinful
nature from? In his blood. You know, if you
want to find out what's the matter with you, you get your blood
drawn and they do all the things in your blood and they'll tell
you whether you got good blood, bad blood, you got an infection
or whatever you got. If you got cancer, if you got
too many white cells. Listen, I'm telling you, blood
tells everything there is to know about you. I'd go to the
doctor all you want, but he'd go sit there and just talk to
you. Well, how do you feel? How do you think? Are you hurting
in your back? You got a headache? What's going
on with you? All I got to do is take your blood. The doctor
read that blood and said, well, you ain't got no vitamin D. You've
got too many white blood cells, you know, and then go through
your blood. And they'd sit down there and say, well, you're pretty
healthy today. Everything's alright. Tell you
how much potassium you got and how much iron you got. Tell all
the things about you by your blood. And God tells everything
about us by our blood. Our blood was wrong. Our nature
was wrong. And this infant was polluted
in its own blood. And that's the problem. It's
the blood. It comes in the blood. You know why I'm the way I am?
Because my daddy was the way he was. Because my mother was
the way she was. My grandfather and grandmother.
And I could tell you personal things about them, and I tell
you what, I got too much of them in me. But always, I tell you,
I tell you, the dirty and loathsome, polluted, All that blood was
over you, that slime was over you, that corruption that was
over you. And nobody looked in love, and
nobody looked in compassion, and nobody pitied you. But now wait a minute, wait a
minute. Look down in verse six. And when I passed by, And when I passed by, look what
he said. Oh, this infant was just laying
there. It was a mess. It was in pitiful
shape. And oh my, this infant wasn't
laying there looking for somebody to help him. He didn't even know
the condition he was in. He was senseless. As the old
hymn writer said, this not that I did choose thee, Lord, for
that could not be. For thou hast not chosen me,
thy glory I would not see. God said, I pass by. And look
what he said, pass by thee. Oh my. And listen to what else
he said. I saw you, I saw you, I saw you. Huh? Oh my, and I pass by thee,
and it says it again down in verse eight. And when I pass
by thee, and listen to this now, and looked upon you, I looked
at you. I looked at you. I looked at
you, I saw exactly the condition you was in. I saw everything
that was wrong with you, but I passed by you. Oh, I passed
by you. Oh, and you know what it says?
and behold thy time, it was your time. And you know what it was? The time of love. Oh my, it was
the time of love. You know this is one of the most
wonderful things. God passed by. You know how many
times the Lord Jesus Christ passed by? He passed by the woman at the well.
He passed by Ezekiel, I mean Zacchaeus. He passed by Lazarus'
grave. He passed by a funeral one day
and gave a man life. Our Lord when he passed by something
always happened. And I tell you, when the Lord
Jesus Christ passed by, something's gonna happen. Believe me. And
I tell you, it's not that we loved Him, but He first loved
us. We didn't seek the Lord. No,
no, we like His baby. We didn't have a clue what condition
we was in, what we was like. We didn't seek the Lord. He sought
us. He came where we were. He came
to where we were, found us, just like we were, not like we thought
we were, not like we hope we were, not like we believe we
were, but as we were. And you know what he said? It's time to love, time to show
my love, time to manifest my love, time to learn more love. Oh, bless his holy name. Oh,
he passed by. You know, we sang that little
chorus, when the Lord passes by, reach out and touch the Lord.
How many people? He was passing by one time, and
a great crowd was around him. And a woman, she had bad blood. Oh, she had bad blood. Spent
all of her money on doctors. Listen. Then it just got worse
and worse and worse. That's the way most people do
it. They just get worse and worse and worse until it's too late.
But oh, she got worse and worse. But she said, oh my, there he
is. There he is. If I can just get close enough
to touch the hem of his garment, I'll be made whole. She crawled
through that crowd and pushed through that crowd. She got down. Do you know how low she had to
get to touch the hem of his garment? She was crawling. She was on
her face. She was reaching out. And all
she had to do was just barely touch it. She made a hole like that. Oh, that's all it takes. That's
all it takes. He said, I passed by you. Oh,
that's God's sovereign grace. I passed by you. I saw you. I looked upon you. I looked upon
you. And then look at God's sovereign
choice in verse six. Oh my. He said, when I passed
by thee, I saw you polluted in your own blood. Polluted in your
own blood. You know, I'm grateful that we
don't know one another's hearts. I really am. You know, I know
enough about mine to know I don't trust it. I know enough about
mine, I don't trust. I don't trust. I know all I can
do is look to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell you, you may,
friends, may not know your heart, you may not know your own heart,
and you certainly may not know your own sinful condition, but
God knows. God knows. And that's what I
love about God. He said, I saw you as you are.
I saw you polluted in your blood. And here's one thing that God
does. Man looks on the outward appearance. That's just our nature. We look on the outward appearance.
And I told a congregation here recently, I said, believe half
of what you see and nothing of what you hear. People telling
you something. Why'd I say that? Well, because
you may see somebody doing something, and you say, well, I wouldn't
have believed they'd have done that whatsoever. But you don't
know what they was doing, and why were they doing that, and
who they was doing it for. You know it? And then, most people,
when they tell you something, did you hear what so and so said,
what so and so did, what so and so's gonna do? But you know God don't look on
what we look like on the outside. That don't interest Him at all. Now I'd make some, you know,
I dressed up to come to church today. Shirley said I got the right
tie to go with the shirt. I dressed up good. She looked
at me, she went up and down, then she said, well, you'll pass. You'll pass. You'll pass. Most of the time I don't do that.
I'll take two or three ties and take them in there and say, which
one goes? That's what I have to do. But anyway, while I said
all that to say this, God looks on this outward appearance. I
mean, we look on the outward appearance, but God sees the
heart. He's looking at the heart. And
I know this, if He's got your heart, He's got you. If He's
got your heart, He's got you. You know exactly what you are
before the Lord. You ain't pretending, you don't
have no pretense, you have no put on, you have no sham when
you stand in his presence, none whatsoever. Oh, it's all gone,
huh? And then look what he said over
here in verse eight. Look down there at the bottom
of that verse. Well, let me tell you this. He said, I covered
thy nakedness, I swear unto thee. And listen to this, I entered
into a covenant with you. Oh my, you know why he done this?
Because he entered into a covenant. And then you know what, listen
to what he says, saith the Lord God, when I saw you polluted
in your blood, when I passed by you, he said, you know what
I did? Thou becamest mine. You became mine. Your mama didn't
want you, your daddy didn't want you. David said like this, when
my mother and my father forsake me, then the Lord will take me
up. And I tell you, he said, oh,
I saw you like you was, and I look at you, and I pass by you, and
it was a time of love, and you know what I said? I said, I want
you. I want you to be mine. I'm gonna
take you and make you mine. Make you mine. Huh? Oh my. And I tell you what, when this
time came, it was a time of love. It was a time of love. And I,
Lord Jesus Christ, at God's sovereign grace, I pass by you. His sovereign
choice. Oh, God said, oh, listen. He
said, look what he said. Oh, I'm missing one somewhere. Got
too big a hurry here. What am I doing? Well, I'll catch
up. I'll catch up. But oh my, look
what God said there to her. He said, when I pass by you,
When I passed by you, in verse six, and saw thee polluted in
thy blood, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood,
I said, live. Yea, I said unto thee, when thou
wast in thy blood, live, live. That's what he's told to Lazarus. Lazarus, come forth. Twelve-year-old girl laying dead.
They already had her laid out, getting ready to prepare her
body to bury it. And our Lord Jesus went in the
house. I laid that little twelve-year-old
girl. Just tiny, probably very small. Our Lord said, she's not dead.
She's not dead. What do you mean she's not dead? He said, she's just asleep, I'm
gonna wake her up. And all of them, Peter, John,
all of them said, oh Lord, oh, listen, she's dead. What are
you talking about? She's just asleep. He rushed
and got her by the hand. Talutha Kumai. Get up, daughter. Just got her by the hand. I don't
believe she even got off by herself. I believe when he got her by
the hand, he lifted her up and set her down. That's how kind
of power he's got. That's how gracious he is. And
he says, now this girl's hungry, now feed her. He takes care of everything.
He not only gives you life, but then he feeds you. And do you
know all he's got to say to give life? Is live. That's all it
takes is live. Live. That's all it takes. It passed by you, I saw you,
you became mine, I entered the coven with you, I clothed you,
and I tell you what I'm gonna do. He said, you're gonna become
mine and I want you to live. I want you to live. And oh my. And he says there
in that verse, verse, well, verse 10, no, eight. He said, the time
that I come by, it was the time of love. And listen to this,
I spread my skirt over you. I spread my skirt over you. You
remember Ruth, when Ruth Naomi found out that Boaz was a kinsman
that could redeem them and pay all their debts off and redeem
her. She said, I'll tell you what
you do. She said, you go back, you go over there where he's
working and he's going to be sleeping. He said, now what you
do is you get right at his feet and you lay down at his feet
and cover yourself with his clothes. And that's where we go. We have
to go to his feet And then what did he say? I spread my skirt
over you. Oh my, what's a skirt? Something
to cover you. And that's what he said, I've
covered your nakedness. And he, God said, when I could
swear by no more, I swore unto thee and entered into a covenant
with thee and you became mine. You became mine. Now look what
else he did here now. God makes some commands here.
You know God don't ask anything. Everything he's done here, God
did it. God did it. That infant couldn't do nothing
for itself. And that's what men need to learn, that they cannot
do anything for themselves to save themselves. And once they're
saved, they can't do anything to keep themselves saved. They
can't do it. Man cannot save himself, and
he can't keep himself saved. You just can't do it. And the
thing about it is, every time you find what God does for somebody
in the scriptures, you find out that God is the one that does
it. God's the one that makes the initial move. God's the one
that has to do the work to start with. There's not anybody that
you'll find that until God first went to them, that they come
to Him first. It don't happen that way. And
look what God commanded here now. His sovereign command. There
again in verse 6. And that's what I'm
telling you about. It's a commandment. And when
I passed by thee, and saw thee, saw thee polluted in thine own
blood, He said, Live. You know how that's capitalized?
Live. You know where life's at? It's
in Christ. You've got Christ, you've got
life. And then he repeated it twice. He said, I want you to
understand that if you're going to live, I've got to be the one
to give you life. And he said, I said unto thee, well now it's
in my blood. I said, live! I mean, I want
you to live. They threw him out to die. But
God said, I want you to live. I want you to live. In God's
creation, God's spirit moved upon the dark water and the earth
without form and voice. And God said, let there be light.
And one day God moved over our darkened hearts, over our darkened
understanding. And you know what he said? Let
there be light. And he gave us the light of his
glory. You know where he gave it to
us? In the person of his blessed son. Oh my, huh? Oh my, huh? God's Spirit moved
over the virgin's womb and said, let there be life. And Jesus
Christ was God's only begotten Son, came into this world that
way. One day God moved over our lifeless
soul and said, live. I say unto thee, live. He said,
as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons
of God, which were born, not of blood, not of the will of
man, not of flesh, but of God. Oh, Lazarus, Lazarus. Now let me show you something
else here. Look at God's gifts. He gives, you know, if we have
anything, God has to give it to us. with his spotless garments
on, we're as holy as God's own Son. Look what he said in verse
9. I passed by you, then I washed
you. I washed you. I washed you. He said, no, I pity you. Nobody
washed you, but I washed you. And you know, look how he said,
I washed you. I washed you throughly. Not thoroughly, throughly. We're
throughly, throughly inside and out, and outside and in, sinners. So God said, I'm going to wash
you inside and out. I'm going to wash you all over.
I'm going to wash your heart, I'm going to wash your mind, I'm going
to wash your soul, I'm going to wash your will, I'm going to wash your
emotions, I'm going to wash you, I'm going to wash you throughly.
I'm going to wash you throughly. And you know how he washes us?
The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Didn't look what else he said. And he said there in verse 9
again. And I anointed you with oil. What does that mean? That means he sent the Holy Spirit.
That's the Holy Spirit. The oil always represents the
Holy Spirit. He sent the Holy Ghost. Sent
the Holy Spirit to us. And he's the one that taught
us the things of Christ. One that taught us the things
of the Lord Jesus. And then look what else he said. He said there in verse 10, I
closed thee. I closed you. What did you close
us with? Fine linen. I closed you. Oh, when the prodigal
come home, he said, bring forth the best robe. Now stretch out your arms, son,
so I can put this coat on you. No, no. He said, you all put
that coat on that boy. And that's what God does for
us. He comes and puts on the clothes. He don't say, now listen,
stretch yourself out here, stick your arm out, let me, no, no. Let me, are you willing for me
to close you? No, I closed you. Oh Adam, he had a fig leaf. That
wouldn't do. And then God said this, He said,
I covered your nakedness. And you tell what He said? I
covered your nakedness. Oh my, bless His name. I clothed
you, clothed you with fine linen, the righteousness of the saints.
And then look what He says, I think verse 11 and 12. I decked thee
also with ornaments. What kind of ornaments you reckon
He put on us? How do you think He, What kind of ornaments He put
on us? Well, I think this is the fruit of
the Spirit. He dressed us up with love, and
joy, and peace, and gentleness, and goodness, and faith, and
meekness, temperance, all of these things. He put all these
ornaments on us. Now you can't see the ornaments
on yourself, but I can see the ornaments on you. I can see the
love, I can see the grace, I can see the righteousness, I can
see the gentleness and the goodness and the generosity and the graciousness,
I can see it. Oh, he gave us righteousness,
justification, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, tenderness, oh my. Oh, he decked us with beautiful,
beautiful ornaments. And then look what else he says
there. In verse 12, I put jewels on your forehead and earrings
in your ears, and listen to this now, and put a beautiful crown
upon thy head. I put a beautiful crown on your
head. You know, it said over in Isaiah, God said, I'm gonna
take the crown off your head. He told Job, he said, I'm gonna
take the crown off your head. So he took our crown off, and
he put on a crown of righteousness. There's two crowns that we wear
according to the New Testament. The crown of life and a crown
of righteousness. And you know what we're going
to do with both of them when we get to glory? We're going to throw
them at Christ's feet. Throw them at Christ's feet.
And then look what he says down here in verse 14. And your renown went forth among
the heathen for your beauty. Now listen to this. For it was
perfect. Your beauty is perfect. Oh, how
in the world did we become perfect? How this infant that was so polluted
in his blood, cast out, loathsome, it was perfect, listen to this,
through my comeliness. And look what it says now, which
I put upon him. Perfect has come through him. Through Christ. You're complete
in Him. And that word perfect completes
the same word as perfect. You are complete in Him. Perfect
in Him. How's come? Through His comeliness.
Through His work. Through who He is. Through who
He is. Our Father, thank you for the
gospel. Thank you for blessing us in these words today. I pray
they were a blessing. I pray they was enlightening
and encouraging and comforting. And I pray for that soul who's
never trusted Christ, that they see what it is to trust him today.
Lord, meet our needs. We're like His infant. You got
to save us. You got to give us life. You
got to wash us. You got to clothe us. And Lord,
if we got any perfection, it comes from you. You and you alone. And we bless you for it in Christ's
name. Amen. Let's turn to number 51 in the
hymn book. Number 51. Stand together. When we're through
with this, you're at liberty to go. 51 Praise the Savior that we owe Him. Gladly let us render to Him all
we are and have. Jesus is the name that charms
us. He for conflict fits and arms
us. Nothing moves and nothing harms
us while we trust in Him. Trust in Him, you saints, forever
He is faithful, changing never Till the end, so God can sever
Those He loves from Him Keep us, Lord, oh, keep us cleaving
to Thyself and still believing till the hour of our receiving,
promised joys with Thee. Then we shall be where our Father
meets. Then we shall be.