Again the word of the Lord came
unto me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,
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, and thy mother a Hittite. And as for thy nativity, in the
day that thou wast born, thy navel was not cut, Neither was
thou washed in water to supple thee, thou wast not salted at
all, nor swallowed at all. None eyed pitied thee to do any
of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee, but thou wast cast
out into open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that
thou wast born. And when I passed by thee, and
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. I have caused thee to multiply
as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen
great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments. Thy breast are fashioned,
and thine hair is grown wherein thou wast naked and bare. Now, when I pass by thee, and
look upon thee, And thy time was the time of love, and I spread
my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness. Yea, I swore unto
thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God,
and thou becamest mine. Then washed I thee with water,
yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed
thee with oil. I clothed thee also with broided
work, and shod thee with badger skins, and I girded thee about
with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. I decked thee
also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and
a chain on thy neck, and I put a jewel on thy forehead, and
earrings in thy ears, and a beautiful crown upon thy head. Thou wast
decked with gold and silver, and thy raiment was of fine linen
and silk and broided work. Thou didst eat fine flour and
honey and oil, and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou
didst prosper in the kingdom. And thy renown went forth among
the heathen for thy beauty, for it was perfect through my comeliness
which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God. But thou didst
trust in thine own beauty, placed the harlot because of thy renown,
forced out thy fornications on every one that passed thine,
his it was, and of thy garments thou didst take, and decked thy
high places with diver colors, placed the harlot thereupon,
the light thing shall not come. neither shall it be so. Thou
hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver,
which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and
didst commit whoredom with them, and tookest thy brooded garments,
and covered them, and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense
before them. My meat also, which I gave thee,
fine flour, and oil, and honey, were with thy fed thee. Thou
hast even set it before them for a sweet savor, it was, saith
the Lord God. Moreover, thou hast taken thy
sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and
these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this
of thy whoredoms a small matter?" All right, let's pray together. in the blessed, glorious name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we come and offer our thanks,
truly thankful in our hearts for your mercies, for your strength,
for the abundance of grace and tenderness and pity you've shown
us over the years, for upholding us, keeping us, preserving us,
Thank You, Lord, that You put it in our hearts to love You,
to know You, to call on You, to trust You. We bless You, Lord,
that You put it in our heart to know that we need You, and
we utterly and absolutely depend on You. And Father, we pray for
the saints that's gathered out today, that Christ would be set
before them, and that I would be able to set the Lord Jesus
in the preaching before me. And Lord Jesus, we pray for those
unconverted among us, that you would save them by your grace,
make them feel their need of Christ. And for those who are
traveling, those who are away from us, we ask for your great
mercies upon them. Bless them because, Lord Jesus,
I know they're with us in spirit and in heart. So meet their needs. Our dear missionaries, our nation,
so many things, Lord, that we have to pray for. Pray for those
among us who are sick, whose bodies are broken, whose bodies
are weak. We ask for your great strength
and great mercies upon them, knowing that your grace is sufficient. Bring glory to yourself in this
service today. And to have mercy upon our children
and grandchildren, we ask these things in Christ's name. Amen. Completing thee, O work of mine,
Making dear, Lord, the place of thine, Thy blood has bought. For me and I am now completely,
completely The Lord shall sing, Thy grace
has conquered rain within, Thy voice will ring in the deep. Shall stand completely complete of life, and no good thing to
be denied. Since Thou my portion, Lord,
shall be, I ask Lord, come visit me. Before thy bar of crime hath come the
simple bar among the true. are he and I, twice and completely. Thank you very much. the the so so I'm not afraid of the dark. I'm not afraid of the dark. I'm sorry to tell you that I
can't come to visit you this evening. I'm sorry to tell you that I
can't come to visit you this evening. We shall never be apart. We shall
never be apart. We shall never be apart. We shall never be apart. We shall never be apart. We shall
never be apart. you you It's a great honor to be a part
of this. you. It's been a while since I've
seen you Thank you. I just don't get no better than
that. That's just beautiful, ain't
it? Absolutely beautiful. All right, let's look back here
to Ezekiel 16. I met a lot of folks up at Don's
that have been listening to me on Sermon Audio, and one lady
in her seventies, come from New Jersey, way up north New Jersey,
told me that she said, I've learned more about my Savior in the last
year or so than I've ever learned in my whole life. Listen to the
gospel. Listen to the gospel. That's
a blessing, ain't it? Somebody that old will tell you
that. She didn't say, I learned more about doctrine, I learned
more about the Bible. She said, I learned more about
my Savior. Oh, bless my heart. Well, here in Ezekiel 16, Jerusalem
is portrayed and prophesied of what's going to happen. But yet
it's also a gospel message, a message that shows us the wonderful love
and mercy and grace of God given to sinners in Christ like ourselves.
And it was a time when God passed by, yet that's what it said in
verse 8, when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold,
the time was the time of blood. So God came by and passed by
us. And when He did, it was the time
of manifesting His love. But there's also some things
that's not so pretty about us, until He passes by. There's also
some things it does not good about us before He passes by.
First of all, we see a picture here, which is a picture of illustration,
beautiful picture of the gospel, beautiful picture of God saving
sinners like ourselves. But first of all, we have a picture
of destitution, of poverty. Excuse me, look what it says
in verse two. God, the Word of the Lord came
to me, came to Ezekiel. And he says, you caused Jerusalem
to know her abominations. And oh, they had abominations,
and that's what we were. You know, we're the heavenly
Jerusalem. We're the Jerusalem now that Christ God dwells in,
and we have to have to be told. He says, you tell them. Now,
how does God tell men the condition they're in? He pleased God by
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Men
cannot call upon somebody whom they have not believed. And they
can't believe in somebody whom they have not heard. And so here's
a picture. And he told them, he said, you
tell them this. And he said, this is what I want you to tell
them in verse 3. That their birth, their birth
was wrong, their birth was awful. First of all, thy birth and nativity
is of the land of Canaan. You know, the land of Canaan
was a cursed place. Cainan was cursed. Cainan was
a son who was cursed of the Lord. And he was accursed. And he says,
not only that, but your father was an Amorite and your mother
was a Hittite. Now, you know, it's said over
in Genesis 15, 16, he says, you know, the time has not come,
but my judgment will come, said the iniquity of Amorite must
be filled and their cup must be filled. And so here they are,
his mother's an Amorite, father's an Amorite, his mother's a Hittite.
an awful evil, all just pagans, people that didn't know God,
people that were just awful people, wicked people, sought the awfulest
things in the world. And he said, and not only that,
this is the way you was born. Your father was a heathen, your
mother was a heathen, and you was born in a place that was
cursed of God. You know, Canaan the son of Noah
was cursed of God. And look what he says. Then he
says, your navel was not cut. Verse 4. Thy mother, and he said
in verse 4, for thy nativity of the day that I was born, thy
navel was not cut. Do you know what the navel is?
That's the umbilical cord. That's what joins us, and that's
where the child gets its life from its mother. And so your
umbilical cord was not cut. Your life is lived to the mother,
and it was not cut. You're joined to your mother.
Your mother was a heathen. Your mother was a Hittite. Your mother was somebody besides
one of God's blessed people. And look what it says here. He
was not cut. You're still joined. You had
your life from your mother. And how can a clean thing come
out of an unclean thing? And then he goes on to say here,
and you was not washed. Nobody washed you. Here's a baby. You know what happened when those
babies was born? If a baby was born that was not
wanted or it had some kind of deformity or something, they
would take the baby and just throw it out in the field and
leave it to die or leave the animals to eat it up. And they
still do that in lots of countries with the babies born that has
some deformity or something. They do that in places in Africa. They do that in China, as far
as I know. They'll just take a baby that's
not born, and a baby that's had some deformity, and just throw
them away. Throw them out, and if they don't die on their own,
an animal will come and eat them up. And he says here, you're
joined to your mother, your navel wasn't cut, nobody cleaned you
up, nobody took you up as a baby and washed you off, cleaned the
blood off of you. And then it says here, not only
that, but nobody salted you, and salt was antiseptic to clean
the baby up, to clear from its impurity. Nobody salted you. Nobody took water and salt and
cleaned up and purified your body. Nobody put antiseptic on
you. And then look at this, and nobody
wrapped you in a blanket and swallowed you. Nobody took you
up and took you in the arm and swallowed you and wrapped you
in a blanket and took you up and pulled it to the brain. And
oh, my! And look what he said, he said,
you was cast out. You vagal, you was cast out.
And oh, and then look what he said in verse 5. Not only was
it their birth, this poor, their birth was bad. Everything about
them was bad. But look at this infant. Now
look what else it said here. And none I pity thee. Nobody
looked on you with pity. David says, my mother and my
father have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me up. He
said, none I pitied thee to do this unto thee. Nobody looked
at you and said, oh, that poor baby. Nobody looked at you and
said, what a pitiful child. Nobody said, oh my, I need to
get that baby up and take care of it. Nobody says you were just
cast out into the open field. No other mother came by, nobody
came by, no neighbor came by, nobody come by and said, oh,
that poor child, we need to pick that baby up, take it home with
us. And oh, he said, and look what he says, thou was cast out
to the loathing of thy person. Loathed. Your mother loathed
you, your daddy loathed you. Everybody loathed you, was nothing
about you. Oh, this was all done. Look when
it was done. When was all this done? In the
day that thou was born. That's the way we were when we
was born. Our mother and daddy was wrong. The place we was born
was wrong. We was born in poverty, born
in destitution. Born as in as far as the eyes
of God was concerned, no blood, not blood, joined to our mothers,
nobody pitted us, nobody cared for us, nobody swallowed us,
swallowed us, and I tell you what, and all this was done in
the day we was born? Oh, mine, the blood. We was,
oh, the blood. I'll tell you, we was drawn to
our father Adam, and we absolutely had nothing to commend this to
God. So there's a picture of destitution.
Now I want you to see a picture of deception. Look down at verse
15. Not only destitution, but look
here at deception. Down in verse 15. Oh, there was
hopelessness. Oh, no outage. But look what
he said here. This is the condition they're
in. But he says, but thou didst trust in thy own beauty. Oh my! They were deceived and they decided
that their own beauty. Grew up, it talks about how she
grew up here, and here all of a sudden you know Jerusalem this
way, and said there's a picture that was deceived in their own
beauty. But you trusted in your beauty. I saw you in your hopelessness. I saw you in your destitution.
I saw you in your poverty. I saw you as you really were.
But here's what you see about yourself. You're deceived in
your beauty. And, ah, beloved, not only that,
but look what Jeremiah said over here in Jeremiah 17, 5. Look
what Jeremiah said about this. You know, men and women, apart
from the grace of God, they trust in their own beauty. This is
the way men are in themselves and in their religion. They have
religious pride. They think they're beautiful
in the sight of God. They think, by their own nature,
that they've got something that makes them acceptable to God,
that makes them pretty in the sight of God. But all of our
righteousnesses are as a filthy rag. And the Scripture said in
Proverbs 28, 26, a man that trusts in his own heart is a fool. And
that's what they did, they said, oh my, I'm so beautiful. But
look what Jeremiah said, Jeremiah 17, 5. Thus saith the Lord, cursed be
the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and
whose heart departeth from the Lord. So here's this person,
you know, she's grown up, and you see now that she has, and
they trust in herself. And she said, oh, I'm so beautiful. You just don't know how beautiful
I am. And that's why I'm telling you, you know, people will be
just as rotten as hell, but they'll always say, you know, I'm a good
person. I'm a good person at heart. I'm a good person. I don't
know why they keep saying that I'm not a good person, but they
say I'm a good person. I'm a good person. Having an
abortion, I'm a good person. Tell a lie, I'm a good person.
Be dishonest to somebody, I'm a good person. But ain't you grateful that God
saves murderers and harlots and sinners? Saves people that has
absolutely nothing? And oh, she was deceived in her
own beauty. Oh, I'm beautiful. They get into
religion and say, oh, look how pretty I am. And oh, they dress themselves
up in the sight of God and say, oh boy, everything about me is
pretty. I read the Bible, that makes me pretty. I pray, that
makes me beautiful. I pay my tithes, that makes me
beautiful. I attend the church, that makes me beautiful. Don't
start telling me about how I'm beautiful. I'll tell you what,
look how beautiful I am. And then I trusted, I trusted
my beauty. My beauty is going to carry me
all the way to heaven. Oh, I don't think so. And notice
what else in verse 16, not only did they trust him to be deceived
in their beauty, but they were also deceived in their garments.
And look what he says, And of thy garments thou didst take,
and deckest thyself in high places with divers colors. Oh, boy,
I said, oh, you decked yourself and you put your garments on
and you decked your high places with diverse colors. You got
all these beautiful colors. And they'll say, boy, I'm finally
dressed. Look what a beautiful garment I got. Look what a beautiful
outfit I got on. Oh, you ever seen such a pretty
dress as I've got? And I'll tell you what, when
I go up to my high places and go up there to honor myself and
be honored among religion, I got my diverse colors and I get up
in the high places. Oh, I'm covered well with my
works. My garments is beautiful. I'm
covered well with my works. I'm covered well. My garments,
it's got so much worth. I'm worth so much. My worth and
the things that I do that makes me acceptable to God, I have
enough worth in myself that God would have to look on me and
say, my garment's dry. Oh, I'm dressed well in my walk. Dress well in my worship. Dress
well in my will. You know what my will does for
me? My will says I decide to live the way I want to. I decide
that I want to be one to worship God. I walked an aisle and I
said, I'm going to worship the Lord and I'm going to be saved
by my will and by my will and resolve, I've got a beautiful
garment on. I'm the dress, that's what he
called it. And I heard a preacher say the other day, he was preaching,
and he was preaching about the necessity of the gospel, and
hearing the gospel. And this preacher asked him,
said, what are you going to do about my profession? He said,
I don't want to do nothing about it. He said, it's your profession.
I don't know. And he says, you know, I got
saved when I was seven years old. I didn't know nothing, didn't
hear nothing. Got me, you know, then when I
was 14, 15 years old, I began to know something about the gospel.
But God don't save people apart from Him. You know, he said,
they're finely dressed. And he thought he was finely
dressed until he heard the gospel. And he found out all of a sudden,
you know, that I'm not dressed too well at all. I need to defend
my dress. I need to defend my clothes.
I need to defend my garments. You know, I was converted back
there when I was 14 years old. I didn't know nothing about God
until I was 30, but I was converted when I was 14. I remember when I got on that
old-fashioned altar, and I know, but I'll tell you what, I'm going
to hold on to that. I'll tell you something, beloved,
man's well pleased with his fig leaves. Oh, Adam, when he put
on his fig leaf, he said, Oh, God will accept me now. I'll
come out of these bushes, and God will look on me, And he put
on that fig leaf. And the only thing about a fig
leaf is that after a while it gets dirty, it gets dry, and
it gets crumbly, and you got to take another. You got to just
keep on taking that one off and putting another one on. Taking
it off and putting it on. And that's why, beloved you, the
man's well satisfied with it. And he thinks with that fig leaf
on, he's really, really dressed up. And then look what else about
they were deceived. They're destitute in poverty.
And look what else they were deceived in their riches, their
wealth. Look down at verse 17. Thou hast also taken thy five
jewels, listen to this, of my gold and my silver which I have
given thee, and listen, and made to thyself images of mead. Oh, deceived in their riches
and wealth. They took the silver and gold and the jewels that
God gave them. and all the blessings that God
gave them. And they abused the blessings of God. They say, this
is done by my hands. I've got what I've got through
my sweat and my labor and my work and my efforts and everything
I've got. I earned it. God ain't never
give me nothing. And they said, oh, and God said,
it's my jewels and it's my gold and it's my silver. And I gave
it to you, and you thought it was yours. And you took that
thing, and you went and took out you some gold and some silver,
and you made you an image of a man, and you worshipped that
man. That image. And oh, they're rich in religion.
Make them images. And that's why the Scripture
says, you know, they become, thought themselves wise, but
became fools and made up images like unto man, and four-footed
beast, and creeping things. And you know the greatest image
that man makes of himself? The greatest image man makes
of himself is that he honestly thinks, really truly thinks,
that everything he's got he's earned, and that God owes him
something every single day because of their goodness and because
of their efforts, and that when they face God one of these days,
they'll be able to face Him and say, I'm rich and increased with
goods, and I don't have need of nothing. But know it's not
that they're wretched, poor, blind, and naked. And I tell you, I heard Walter
Gruber say one time, he said, people would rather have a visible
counterfeit. A visible counterfeit. That's
why people, that's why Catholics have loved to have their images.
That's why Baptists love to have their images. You hardly go in
a Baptist church, a Baptist church, where they won't have a cross
somewhere. Well, they won't have a picture of Jesus hanging on
a wall. Or they won't have a church covenant over here, and you've
got to agree to that church covenant. They'll tell you everything under
the sun that you need to do, but they won't tell you about
Christ and what He did. But people would rather have
a visible counterfeit than an invisible reality, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's why they made that
golden calf. And they made that golden calf
and said, look here, this is what brought us up out of Egypt.
Moses, I don't have a clue where he's at. I don't have a clue
what he's done. And he was up there worshiping God, communing
with God. And they was down there dancing
around the golden calf. And man in his free will, man
in his power, man in his goodness, man in his morality, man in his
works, man in his merits, that's what he thinks is his riches
and his wealth. And, oh my, not only were they deceived in
their garments, deceived in their riches, deceived in their beauty,
but they, these deceived people, I'll tell you something about
deceived people, you know what they do? They leave their own children
into deception. If you have a false profession,
99% of the time you'll take your children out of that false profession
with you. Now, ain't that right? I know
that from experience. But oh, look what he said here
in verse 20 and 21. He says, Moreover, thou hast
taken thy sons and daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me,
and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. And
this is the whoredoms of small matter. Thou that hast slain
thy children, slain my children, delivered them to cause to pass
through the fire for them. In other words, you take your
children, And instead of, when you go in this wrong way, when
you go in this deceiving yourself, you take your children out of
that deception with you. You go through this false fire,
you take your children through that false fire. You offer to
a strange God, you offer your children to a strange God. And
oh, sacrifice them to the world, sacrifice them to the world by
our worldliness, sacrifice them to false religion, by our commitment
to false religion. And the Scriptures is full of
illustrations of that. When God told Lot, he says, I'm
going to destroy this city, Sodom and Gomorrah. And Lot told his
sons and daughters and his grandfathers, his sons and daughters, his sons-in-law,
he said, we got to get out of here or God's going to destroy
this place. And you know what the scripture said? He has one
that marked them. He has so corrupted his profession,
so corrupted his life in the presence of his children, his
son-in-laws and daughters, that they said he seemed as one that
mocked him. Don't tell me nothing. Don't
talk to me about Christ because I've watched you. Don't talk
to me about the Lord because I know you. You're no different
than I am. And I say, you know why Lot got
out of Sodom? The angel of the Lord beat the
door down and got him by the head and dragged him out of there. And his whole family stayed down
there except for two daughters. And his wife took her out of
there and God said, don't look back. And you know why she looked
back? Because her heart was still inside
of her. That's why the Lord says, no
man, having put his hand to the plow, looking back, is fit to
enter the kingdom of God. That's why He says, looking unto
Jesus. Our whole salvation is based
on looking. Look unto me, and me you save,
on the ends of the earth, for I'm a just God and a Savior.
Christ said, if I be lifted up, then as their serpent was lifted
up, look and live. And then he says, looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And that's why
he said if they had mindful, if they'd been mindful of where
they'd come from, they might have turned around and went back.
But they said they was looking for a city whose builder and
maker was God. And I tell you, beloved, that's
one thing I A man told me just the other day, the night before
last, I sat beside him, a dear, dear friend, known him for years
and years. And he told me, he says, you know, he said, when
I was young and in religion, he said, I've ruined my wife.
I've ruined her. She knows she don't want to even
talk about it. And here I am, I've got to live with this because
I tried to force it on her and tried to make her understand. And I ended up making her hard. And he said, and I can't undo
it. I can't undo it. And she's got cancer now, she's
going through all kinds of chemo. And he said, I can't undo it,
darling, I can't undo it. He said, I'd love to be able
to send, oh, honey, listen, I said, well, tell us and please forgive
me. And and she don't want she don't
even want to talk about him. And that's what happens when
we're so hard and we're so mean and we're so tough in our religion,
what we do is we ended up alienate people. And oh, God, give us grace to
work. People, when we tell them something,
they'll say, listen, you know, there's some people's weight.
The words they call carry some weight. And God help us where
our words carry some weight with our children. Where our lives, when we say
something, our children listen to us and pay attention to us. And if I could go back, and I
can't, I can't go back. If I could go back when my children
were little, I was a fundamentalist and was so hard on them and such
a legalist. If I could go back to that, oh,
I'd go back in a heartbeat and say things, do things different,
but I can't. But I can't. I can't. Look over here in verse
44. Let me show you this. I've got to move on. Here's what I'm saying. If you're deceived, you lead
your own children into deception. And here in Ezekiel 16.44, look
what it says. Ezekiel 16.44. Behold, everyone
that uses Proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying,
As is the mother, so is her daughter. As is the mother, so is the daughter. That can be good, or that can
be bad. All right, but now wait a minute.
Boy, that's an awful place to be left in, but now let's look
at this other picture. Here's a picture not only of
destitution and deception, but here's a picture of deliverance,
of salvation. And when was this salvation? He says in verse eight, Now when
I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, Behold, thy time was
the time of love." When did God, our salvation, come? In the time
of love. Whose love? It sure wasn't ours. He told about how pitiful condition
we was in. It surely wasn't our love for
Him. So it was a time of love. It was time of His love. Having
loved us, with an everlasting love. In the time of love, when
he looked at it, it was the time of his love, the time to love
us. And he says, and when I pass by him, faith. Oh, we sang that song,
reach out and touch the Lord as he passes by. And I'll tell
you what, the Lord, when did the Lord pass by? I'll tell you
when he passed by. He passed by with the coming
of his son. When he sent his son into this world, God was
passing through this world. God was in this world in the
person of his son. God passed by in the coming of
his blessed son. God sent him forth, and our Lord
God sent Christ forth and sent him forth to the world, sent
him forth as the Savior, sent him forth as the Redeemer, sent
him forth as the only mediator between God and man. God sent
him forth, and you know what he said? Our Lord Jesus said
when Philip said, show us the Father, he said, I've been such
a long time with you, Philip, and you've not seen me? He that's
seen me sees the Father. And he made such claims that
he said, when I speak, it's not me, it's what my father gave
me to say. I got nothing of myself to say. Everything I say is what my father
told me to say. My life I lived, the father gave
it to me and sent me to live this life. And oh, God passed
by at the coming of his son. And some folks rejoiced in it,
and other folks utterly despised it. But oh, then I tell you,
he passed by at the coming of his son, and I tell you, he really
passed by at the death of his blessed son. When he nailed his
son to a cross, when our Lord Jesus was nailed there, nailed
there as a criminal, nailed there as one who was hated and despised
and rejected, And it pleased the Lord to bruise him, and there
at the death of his blessed son is that bloody body, hanged there
as a sacrifice, as a substitute, as a sin offering. God sent him
forth right there. And you know why he did that?
Because John 3.16, and this is not the gospel, this is just
the beginning of it. I'm not saying it was the time
of love. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. And as Moses, and this is next
line, this is where the gospel is, because of this love that
God had, because of this love that God had towards his people,
he said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And beloved, and I tell you what,
he said, it must be lifted up. And that's what happens when
you lift it up, that everyone that sins the Son has everlasting
life. That's the gospel. And I tell
you what, beloved, he lifted him up, and I tell you this,
there's, no matter what anybody says, it's Christ who put away
sin. It's Christ that was the sacrifice
for sin. It was Christ who was the substitute
in the place of sinners. What would we do without Christ? If God hadn't sent His Son and
passed by, what would we do without Christ? And it was a time of
His love. He passed by and made us to see,
to understand Him, and to bless Him, and to praise Him. And then
He passed by at His resurrection, raised Him from the dead, And
not only that, but it took him up to glory. He said he met his
own right hand. And I tell you, his worry is
passing by right now. And it's a time of love. If you
want to hear this, it's a time of love. And he's passing by
right now in the preaching of the gospel. Every time the gospel
is preached, Christ is passing by. God is passing by. God is passing by. And I tell
you, every time the gospel is preached, It's the time of His
love. Oh, can you believe that? Can
you believe that when Christ comes by in the preaching of
the gospel, it's the time of love? Let us have a preach just this
morning on John 1.14. And he says, Behold, the Word
was made flesh, and manifested among us, and
we beheld His glory. dwelt among us, and we beheld
His glory as the glory of the only begotten of the Father."
And he talked about beholding the glory, who it was that was
come among us. God came down. The Word of whichever
thing that was made, God was manifest in the flesh. Then He'd
come down here and lived among us. Then He died for us, for
His elect, for His blessed people. for people that God gave Him
in the eternal covenant of grace. We'll see it in a minute. But
oh, I tell you, look at that. So when you hear the gospel,
when God blesses the Word to your heart and your mind, your
understanding, that's the time of His love. And look at the
proof of His love in His passing by. He gave us proof of it. Look
what He said here. Now in verse 6, Ezekiel 16, verse
6, And he said in verse six, And
when I passed by thee, here's the proof of his love, and he's
passing by, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, look what
he did now, he said, I sat under thee, I told you, and you alone.
Now listen to it. When I saw thee polluted in thy
blood, I sat under thee, lived, yea, I sat under thee, lived.
When thou wast in my blood, I sat under thee, lived. He called,
and guess what happens when he calls? People live. You know,
look what an awful state he was in. You know, this was a call
of grace. Here was this baby, this infant,
that's what was pictured here. This, you know, Jerusalem, this
is what you really like. This is what you really are.
This is all of you. You all don't know every man
like yourself. You think you're beautiful. You
think you're dressed right. You think you got this riches.
And he says, and the way you really are is you're an infant
cast out. And he said, and I pass by you
in the time of love. And I said, live! Now I tell you something, beloved,
when God calls and He says, live, it's effectual. Huh? Lazarus? Here's a man been dead four days.
He was wrapped in, he was already in his grave clothes. It's like
when you're, we're going to be buried, we'll be buried in clothes.
Literally clothes on the casket. Put it away. And then the Lord
says to you, I say unto thee now that the casket bust is open,
and you get up out of it and you got your clothes on, And I'll tell you what, beloved,
that here's a man been dead four days and corrupted. Christ not
only saved his life, but he turned his corruption back from that
four-day corruption back as if he had never been dead before.
Part of it is, be of good cheer. Why? He called it that. Oh, it was a call of grace that
only God can cause a soul to live. We were in our blood, and
that means that we were connected to Adam. Blood, our blood. We got our blood from Adam. Then
look what else God did for us. Look what else He did for us.
In verse 9, He says, Not only did He call us, love us in that
time of love and pass by us, then He called us and said, I
live. And then verse 9, look what He says here. He cleansed
us. Then I washed thee with water." He said, nobody washed you, but
when I saw you, I washed you. Not only did I wash you, but
look what he said, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee.
In Adam we're made dead, in Christ we're made alive. In Adam we're
polluted blood, in Christ we're washed and cleansed. Oh, he said
none of that, but he said, I'll throughly wash you. This says, thoroughly. He said,
through me. That means inside and outside. Most folks say, well, he did
it thoroughly. He does do a thorough job. But
I tell you what, you can't cleanse the ends. He said, I'll cleanse
you through me. Through me. That's why David
said, wash me, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be
whiter than snow. He washed the blood of Adam from
his And then, look what he says, not only did He wash us there
in verse 9, but I anointed thee with oil. I not only sent the
water and washed you, but I sent the Holy Ghost to cleanse you
too and anoint you. And that's why you know when
our Lord was washing the disciples' feet in John 13, He got His towel
and He humbled Himself and got down to those disciples and He
began to wash all their feet. Because, you know, and that was
a custom in those countries that when you come in, your feet was
dirty and dusty from walking. They'd wash your feet. Make you
feel welcome. Well, our Lord was washing His
disciples' feet, and He came to Simon Peter. Simon said, Oh,
no, no, no, no, Lord. You wash these other fellows'
feet, but You ain't washing me. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. You're
not going to wash me. Thought He was being humble.
Thought He had some humility. Oh Lord, you're too holy and
I'm too sinful. You're not going to wash me. And you know what
the Lord said? If I don't wash you, if I don't wash you, you
ain't got part with me at all. Oh, oh, oh, Lord, I swear to
you, start at the top and go all the way to the bottom. Forget
my feet, just wash me all over. If that's what it's going to
take of me, wash me Lord, wash me inside and wash me outside.
Not just my feet, wash me all over. And then he said, you're
clean. Everyone of you is clean. And
oh, beloved, look what he said here. Not only did he cleanse
us, but in verse eight, he covered us. Oh, I love this in verse
eight. He said, the time was a time
of love. I spread my skirt over thee and covered thy nakedness.
Oh, he said, I spread my skirt over you and covered your nakedness.
The only thing that will cover a sinner's nakedness is the righteousness
of God in Christ. Oh, He's got to cover us. And
you notice He said it's His skirt. He covered us with His skirt.
He put His skirt over us. He covered us. And all beloved,
oh Lord, cover our defenseless head. Look what He said in verse
9. He said in verse 10, excuse me. Not only did I spread my
skirt over you and covered you nakedness, but I clothed thee
also with broadened work and girded you about with fine linen. I spread my skirt on me and then
I clothed you with broader work. I took this fine linen and I
made this beautiful garment to put on you and make you, oh look,
you make you look so wonderful. You thought you had some pretty
clothes. You look at the one you've got now that Christ gave
you. Oh boy. And then look what He said in
verse 8. He claimed her. Then He claimed them. He said
in the last part of verse 8, And the Lord said, saith the
Lord God, Thou becamest mine. You're mine. I am my Beloved's
and my Beloved is mine. He said, You became mine. From
pollution to His power, from our sin to His righteousness,
from our self-glory to His blessed grace, from our pollution of
blood to His blessed righteousness and working, And that's why,
you know, he said, oh, we're looking for a city whose builder
and maker is God, and a place that God's not ashamed to be
called our God. God's not ashamed to say, they're
mine! They're mine! And I'll tell you,
the Scriptures tells us, he that believeth in the shot shall not
be ashamed or shall not be brought to shame. But for God not being
ashamed of us. Now, that's an amazing thing.
And I tell you, God has no reason to be ashamed of us. You know
why? Because His Son put away all of our sins. We're clothed
in His righteousness. And thou becamest mine. And then
He not only learned that, but look what He did. He crowned
us. Look in verse 12. And I put a jewel on thy forehead,
and earrings in thine head, and a beautiful crown upon your head. He put a crown on us. You know,
the only people who wear crowns is people that's princes or kings.
And that's what we're called. He made us kings and priests
under God. He said, I put a beautiful crown upon your head. Crown of
grace. Children of the King. And I tell
you, we can't go in anything. He put the crown on our head.
He put the clothes on our back. He put us that righteousness
on us. And that's why when the prodigal son got home, you know
what the father said? He said, take the finest robe
and put it on him. Put it on him. He crowned us,
beloved, with life, justification, righteousness. And that work
He began in us, He's going to perform it to the day of Jesus
Christ. And look over here at 2 Timothy
4, and then I'll quit. just in a minute. Take a Timothy
4. You know, there's going to be
a day he'll crown, he's already crowned us with life. He's crowned
us with grace. He's crowned us with justification,
crowned us with righteousness. And he has to give us that. But oh, there's going to be a
day, there'll be a great crowding, us and him. Look what he said
in verse six, 2 Timothy 4. For I am now ready to be offered,
and the time of my departure is at hand. Oh, the time of my
departure is at hand. I fought a good fight, I told
him, the preacher last night, I said, he just started preaching
and pastoring. I said, I said, you've got some
hard, hard roads ahead of you, boy. You've got some, you've
got some hills ahead of you. You've got some, you've got some,
just get started. I said, you've got some, you've
got some things to face. You can't become a preacher.
You can't become a pastor without these things. And that's why
he said, you've got to fight that good fight. And I finished
my course and I kept the faith. Now listen to it. His foresight
is laid up for me, a crown of righteousness, which the Lord,
the righteous judge, because He's the righteous judge, He
knows righteousness when He sees it, and He knows the righteousness
of any gift, and He's going to give it to me on that day. But
not to just me, but everybody that loves to see His appearance.
All of us are going to get the same thing. And then, last thing, go back
over to Ezekiel 16. One thing, and then I'm through. Verse 8. Again, He entered into
covenant with us. We became His, and He crowned
us, and then He entered into covenant with us. Verse 8. Yea, I swear unto thee, and entered
into a covenant with thee. He entered into a covenant with
us. I swear and entered into a covenant with you. You see,
we couldn't enter into a covenant with God. We couldn't enter into
a covenant with Him. How could we make a covenant
with Him? If a covenant, you know, we'd
break the covenant just that quick. But He makes the covenant. And He enters into it. He'll
keep His part of it. We couldn't enter one with Him,
and this infant couldn't enter into it. He is helpless, he is
hopeless, and he didn't do nothing, couldn't do nothing. And not
only is it a covenant, it's a blood covenant. That's how it is with
the blood of Christ, through the blood of the everlasting
covenant. It's a sure covenant. You know
what God said? I shall, and you will. I will, and you shall. That's
the covenant. I will be your God, you shall
be my people. I shall be your God, you will
be my people. And that's true. That's true.
I told you there's a beautiful picture of salvation there.