Sovereign salvation for a sinner.
An infant, a baby. God saves babies. He saved a
baby, saved an infant. I read these verses to you, and
the Old Testament is full, full of parables, full of illustrations
showing how God saves sinners. A fellow asked me the other day,
he said, do you apply Christ to everything you preach, Old
Testament, New Testament? I said, I do. I try my best to
get to Christ as quick as I can. And I said, just like the first
five verses of Genesis, I mean, it's the Gospels clear as the
nose on your face if you see it, if God blessed you to see
it. And that's what I'm saying. The Old Testament is full of
illustrations of God saving sinners, of how He saved sinners. And
our Lord Jesus constantly referred to the Old Testament even in
his own preaching. He talked about Abraham, talked
about Noah in the days of Noah, talked about Sodom and Gomorrah,
talked about Moses as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
showing us that the gospel was preached there. As Jonah was
three days and three nights in the belly's fish talking about
his own life, his own resurrection, And as it was in the day of Noah,
that's the way it's going to be in the days of the Son of
Man. So our Lord Jesus used the Old Testament to show how God
saves sinners, how He does it. And if we were wise, if we were
wise, if God would bless us, we'd become acquainted with these
types, we'd become acquainted with these pictures. For our
Lord Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He doesn't change. The gospel
didn't begin when Christ came into this world. The gospel began
before the foundation of the world and was manifested even
in creation. And we're not left to wonder
here about the first application of this scripture. You've got
to always find out who's talking, what they're talking about, who
they're talking to. And we're not left to wonder
about the first application of this scripture. It says there
in verse 2, Son of man, Son of man, Caused Jerusalem to know her
abominations. Now, Son of Man, here's this
preacher, Jeremiah, or Ezekiel. Caused Jerusalem. Caused Jerusalem. He is told to cause Jerusalem
to see their abominations. Look and see your abominations,
your sinfulness, your wickedness. What you're doing is abominable.
And among the heathen nations, and here they are, they have
all these awful abominations. Among the heathen nations it
was the custom. To leave deformed or unwanted
infants to perish in the woods, in the desert, to throw them
out. You know, they didn't have medicine like they do today.
If one was born that was deformed in any way, or if they were unwanted,
throw them out. Throw them away. Leave them out
to perish. And they're doing that today.
It's still not, you know, we still have pagans in our country
doing the same thing with infants today. A child that's aborted
at eight months or something like that and is still living,
if the mother chooses to let her die and the doctor says that,
you know, this is an abortion, they just leave it in a room
and leave it lay there to die. That goes on in our country today.
It goes on in multitudes of hospitals across our country today. We're
just as pagan today. And that's what we're doing.
We're going to cause America. I'm going to cause you. And I'd
love to be able to preach to America. and say, see your abominations? Do you see your abominations?
Your false idols that you set up in the place of God? You don't
care even for life? You have no respect for life,
no regard for the souls of men and women? You have no regard
for God who sits on His throne. Do you want to take it unto yourself
to save yourself by your works and your deeds when everything
you do is an abomination in the sight of God Almighty? And that's
what he says. So the newborn infant, when he
was born, he'd be cast out into a field right after birth for
the birds and the beasts and the animals to devour. And this
is how God found Israel. That's how God found Israel.
In idolatry. In idolatry and paganism. Throwing
infants out. Caring nothing for God. Cause
a Jewess from to see her and know her abominations. And this
is how God found Israel. In idolatry. Paganism. Abraham's family was in idolatry.
On the other side of the flood, when God came to Abraham, who
was the father of Israel, and the father of the faithful, and
God called him out, and he was an idolater when he dwelt in
Caledonia. And he made them his own. He
took this people, this pagan people, this idolatrous people,
and he made them his own. Made them his own. Said, I made
you to be mine. I chose you. I loved you. You
were not more righteous. You were not more than anybody
else. In fact, you had nothing for you except I said, you're
going to be mine. Going to be mine. And He gave
him His glory. Oh, He come down on the Shekinah
glory of the tabernacle. Gave him His glory when He met
with him in the wilderness. Led him by cloud of a day and
fire by night. Gave him His prophets. The only
nation that had any prophets, sin of God, was Israel. Nobody
else had any prophets. If they did, they were all false
prophets. Baal had 450 at one time, and God killed them all. They had plenty of prophets,
but they were all false. The only true prophets called
of God was in Israel. He gave them His law, gave them
His Son, and their fame and beauty. went forth among the nations.
Oh, Israel, they go somewhere and say, Oh, we know that we've
heard about your God. We've heard about what He did
to Pharaoh. We've heard about it. And, oh, there's a priest
passed by here in the red. He said, Oh, save me. I've heard
about you. Their fame and beauty went forth
among the nations. They were beautiful through God's
glory and beautiful through the comeliness of God which He put
upon them. But as in all Scriptures, But
as in all scriptures, God's dealings with natural Israel is just a
picture, a picture of His dealing with spiritual Israel, sinners
like ourselves. This is a picture, this is Ezekiel
16 that I read to you this morning. This is a picture of how God
saves sinners. And if you have eyes to see,
and ears to hear, and a heart to believe, and to understand
the mysteries of grace, You'll see His sovereign grace and mercy
given to you in Christ in this passage of Scripture. First of
all, the first thing we see is our lost condition. This lost
condition. This baby that was cast out into
the field. This baby was born wrong. Look
what it says there in verse 3. It says, you know, "'Cause Jerusalem
know her abominations, and say, Thus saith the Lord God unto
Jerusalem.'" Jerusalem represents the church. thy birth and thy
nativity as of the land of Canaan. And do you know who Canaan was?
Canaan was the son of Ham, who Ham went in and discovered his
father Noah's nakedness. And Noah, when he came to himself,
he got up and said, Cursed be Canaan, the son of Ham. And Canaan was cursed Canaan
was cursed. Canaan was a cursed place. It
was a cursed people. It was cursed. And he says, Cursed
be Canaan. And first of all, he's born wrong,
born of Canaan. You're nativities of Canaan.
You were born under a curse. You were born cursed. And then
look what else he says. And the birth of thy nativities
of the land. Thy father was an Amorite and
thy mother was a Hittite. Those were people that were wicked.
Those were people that God destroyed. Those were people that were born
in sin. And that's the way we were. We
were born in sin. People think you become a sinner
when you do something. You sin because you're a sinner.
Because you've got sin in you, you do what you do because you
are what you are. And beloved, we'll deal with
that tonight. A man can murder a person and never pull out a
gun, never pull out a knife. Never get a club, never do nothing
but just spank in his heart and commit murder. Now that's a fact. And that's what we're talking
about. This person, this baby here was born wrong. He was born
cursed. He was born innocent. And he
says you navel, there in verse 4, you navel was not cut. You was joined. You was united.
And all David said, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my
mother conceive me. And a child, the wicked, as quick
as they be born, they come forth from the womb. What do they do?
Speak lies. Speak lies. How can he be clean
that's born of a woman? How in the world did we become
sinners? How did this sin inherit us? How did this sin get a hold
of us? By one man. God met a man, he
made him upright, put him in the garden of Eden, come fresh
from the hand of his maker with his own righteousness, with his
own life, Lord of Eden. God met him, Lord there. And
what did Adam do? He disobeyed one commandment
God gave him. And he ate of the fruit of the
tree of knowledge of good and evil. When he'd done that, God
drove him out of the garden of Eden. God said, did you listen to what I told
you? Don't you eat of that fruit that
the day you'd eat thereof that you would die? And that was spiritual
death. You're separated from Me. And
God said, I can't fellowship with you anymore. You've got
to get out of Me. And I'm going to curse you. And
I'm going to curse this whole race because of your one sin.
And because of one man's sin, Death passed upon all men. Why? Because all have sinned. Have you ever wondered that there
is not a parent born on the topside of God's earth that would teach
their child to lie, teach them to steal, teach them to covet, teach them
to be greedy, teach them to try to break them from being selfish? But they'll lie, they'll steal,
they'll covet, they'll get mad at you. You cross their little old paths
when they're just little bitty babies. And man, they're going
to get mad at you, and they're going to cry, and they're going
to kick, and they're going to throw their tantrums. Why is that? Sin. You can call them angels all
you want to, but I know what they are. You say, my children wouldn't
do that. Well, then you don't know yourself. Ah, the apple
don't fall far from the tree. That's right. And oh, that's
why, you know, as in Adam, we all died. That's how we died. That's how we became sinners.
That's how we became sinners. This baby was born wrong. Cursed. Coming into this world, cursed
from Canaan. Mother was an Amorite. Father is a Hittite. And here
we are. Oh, Mama's wrong. Daddy's wrong.
So they can't do nothing but produce a wrong child. How can
He be free? That's born of a woman. Let me
show you something else. This baby was born wrong. And
I'll tell you something else about this infant. This infant was
helpless. This infant was friendless. Look
down there in verse 5. Well, it says there in verse
4, it says, You wasn't washed in water. You know, when a baby
is born, they start cleaning it off immediately. They start
cleaning it off. And you wasn't salted. Nobody tried to clean
you up. Nobody picked you up and swaddled
you in their arms. Nobody picked you up and held
you. Wrapped you in a blanket. It's the first thing they do.
They wrap them babies up tight. Oh, they wrap them up tight.
Put some more with her hand. Wrap them up tight. Well, that's
what they did. They didn't do this one this way. Watch what
happened. None, I pitied you. Not one person
went out there and said, I pitied you. Not one person. And to do any
of these unto thee. To have compassion upon you.
Now what in the world can an infant And the condition, like
this, do for itself. What can this infant do for itself?
Huh? No, I pitted it. Nobody had compassion
upon you. Huh? This infant's impotent. This infant's helpless. This
infant's powerless. Nobody swallowed it. Didn't even
pick it up and show it any love. No, they didn't look at you and
say, oh, I pitted that poor child. Look at that poor baby. Let's
take that baby home. Let's clean that baby up. Let's
love that baby. No! And who in the world ever
had any pity for you? Who ever had any compassion on
you? And oh, it's infinite, helpless, powerless. And if anything is
done for this infant, it must come from the hand of another.
Somebody else is going to have to go do it for it. Because you
cannot do for itself. It must be saved and comforted
from the will and the power of another if it's going to be picked
up, if it's going to have anything done for it. Somebody else is
going to have to go pick it up. Somebody else is going to have
to have the will to do it. Ain't that right? And all mine. I'll tell you something else
about this infant. This infant wasn't aware of its condition.
It absolutely had no clue of the condition it was in. Didn't
know it was cursed. Didn't know it wasn't washed.
Didn't know it wasn't swaddled. Didn't know that it wasn't pitied.
Didn't know that it had no compassion. It wasn't aware of it. And it
could not possibly save itself, no more than we can save ourselves.
Now that's the condition we're in. Huh? Oh, I remember well when I was
a young man. I remember well and being in
a miserable, miserable state. And there was nobody pitying
me. Nobody had compassion on me. Nobody cared a thing in the
world. But people that I run with, when
I got in trouble, you think they're standing in line to do something
for me? No. You got yourself in this mess,
get yourself out. But oh, we cannot save ourselves.
We're like empty vessels. Can an empty vessel fill itself?
Set a glass down on the table, say, now fill yourself up. Tell
a baby, get up, clean yourself up. Get up to save yourselves. Get up and pity yourself. Get
up and have compassion on yourself. Get up and swallow yourself.
Oh my, that's the condition we're in outside of Christ. And there's
no ifs, ands, or buts about that. And this infant was dirty and
lonesome. What did it say there in verse
5? No, I pitted you to do any of this unto thee to have compassion
on you, but you are cast out into the open field. Oh, watch
this, to the loathing of that person. This infant was dirty
and loathsome, not washed, and it says in verse 6 in you, was
polluted in your own blood. Blood was hollow. They polluted
his own blood. And that's where our pollution
comes from. From our blood. The blood of Adam. The blood
of Adam. Oh my, polluted in his own blood. Instead of having beauty, she
had ashes. Instead of having glory, she
had shame. Instead of having health, she
had rottenness. And that's a condition. All men in are outside of Christ.
Outside of Christ. We're full of wounds. God said
this about us. And you can look at this in Isaiah
1 6 yourself. God said we're full of wounds,
bruises, and putrefying sores from the top of our head to the
sole of our feet. That's what we are. But now watch.
That's the condition this baby's in. That's the condition we're
in outside of Christ. Look in verse 6, look at God's
sovereign grace. And when I passed by thee, and
saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee, when
thou wast in thy blood, I said unto you, Oh, this infant wasn't looking
for help. This infant didn't know the condition
it was in. It was absolutely senseless.
Tis not that I did choose thee, for, Lord, that could not be.
For hast thou not chosen me? Thy glory I would not see. And
God said, I'll pass by you. I'll pass by you. Reach out and touch the Lord
as He passes by. How many times they talk about
when Christ passed by, they would come and say, Oh, Jesus, thou
Son of David, have mercy. They'd stop. Passing by an dead
man in a casket stopped. Passing through and a woman with
an issue of blood got to him is when he's passing by. Lord,
he passed by. You see, beloved, we didn't love
God. It was a time of love. We didn't love God. He loved
us. Look down at verse 8. Now when
I passed by thee and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was a
time of love. Not the time that you loved me,
but thy time was a time of my love for you. It was a time for
me to manifest my love to you. We love Him now, but why? Because
He first loved us. It was a time of love. God said
in Jeremiah 31.3, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love, and with cords, cords of loving kindness. I told you. I told you. Now, Hosea 14.4 says,
I will love them freely. I won't find no reason to love
them. I'll just love them because I will. Oh, it's a time of love. And we didn't seek God. We didn't
seek God. No, no. He sought us. This infant
couldn't seek God. All this infant could do was
just lay there and cry, totally unaware of his condition. We
didn't seek God. He sought us. He came where we
was. He came where we was in the condition
we were in. And He gave us grace, and He
gave us life. Everything we have, from what
have we got, that we did not receive. And oh, not only look at God's
sovereign grace, but look at His sovereign choice. Verse 6,
And I saw thee, and I said unto thee, yea, I said unto thee when
I was in thy blood, I saw you polluted. This is individual
choice. This is salvation. It's God's
sovereign that chose you. I wonder how many other infants
was there? This wasn't the first infant.
Over in China, they were only allowed to have two children. And a lot of times, if they have
two girls and they can't carry on the name, you know what they'll
do? They'll destroy one of them girls and act like they never
had one. They do that right now in China
because they want a boy to carry on the family name. So if they
have a second girl, they're only allowed to have two children.
Only allowed to have two. And if they don't like that one,
they throw it away. Throw it in the river. Do something with
it. There's babies like that all
the time all over this world. And God said, I saw you. I saw you. Oh my, I come from
a whole family like this. My brothers and sisters like
this. My mother and daddy's like this. My aunts and uncles like
this. My first and second cousins are like this. Everybody that
ever knows like this. But God said, I saw you. What
about them mothers? I saw you. I saw you polluted in what? Your
own blood. Oh, your friends may not know
your heart. Your family may not know your
heart. You yourself may not know your sinful condition. But God
knows it, and God knows your guilt, and God knows your condition,
and He said, I saw you like you were, not like you thought you
were. I saw you like you are, not like you hope you are. I
saw you like your condition really is. And oh, beloved, I say that's
something that God does. He looks past everything everybody
else thinks about us. He looks past You know, there's a preacher
friend of mine, I heard him tell this story, I've probably told
it before here, but he got under conviction and God began to deal
with him. And he started talking about
being a sinner, having no hope, and his mama said, Honey, I know
better than that that you've been a Boy Scout. You can't be
a Boy Scout without being a good boy. That has something to do
with it. That makes you a good person
because you're a Boy Scout. What people call good now is
actually upside down to what God calls good. You know, God
said there's none good. In Psalm 53, he said he went
looking for a good man. He said, God went looking for
a good man. And he said, I found that there's
none good, no, not one. That there's none righteous,
no, not one. Oh my, that's the whole shooting
match. And oh God, you know, he looks
on the heart, he sees us the way we really are. And then look
what he says down there in verse 8, last part of verse 8. He says,
saith the Lord God unto you, and you became mine. I saw you polluted in your blood.
I saw you as you were. And I said, you have become mine. You're mine. You're mine. You're mine. I'm claiming you
to be mine. Nobody treated you. I did. Nobody
had compassion on you. I did. Nobody loved you. I did. Huh? Oh my. And then look what God's sovereign
command. We've seen His sovereign choice.
He chose her. Chose that infant. That's what
He does. He sovereignly chooses His people. We are elected in Christ. He
said, You've not chosen me, but I've chosen you. I love election. I love election. I love the fact
that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world. God said, You're mine! Christ
said, I lay down my life for the sheep, and other sheep which
are not this foe, them also I must bring. Smoked Saul down on the
Damascus road, and said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
And he said, Who are you? I'm Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou
persecutest. And he said, I've chosen you.
When did you choose me? When it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me, Thy Grace. Oh, God sovereignly chooses His
people. Oh, ain't that wonderful? You
know, we've got this new president coming in. He's going to choose
him a cabinet. He'll have lots of people influencing him. He'll
have lots of reasons for doing it. But the only reason God does
anything for anybody is because he says, I will. I will. That's the only reason
he does it. He didn't say, now I'm going to sit down and take
counsel with somebody and see who in the world ought to do
something for him. Who's ever been his counselor? Whoever said unto him, what doest
thou? Jacob, have I loved thee, so
I have I hated. Oh, is there unrighteousness which God doth
for men? Who in the world are you, O man, that would dare reply,
Is God your Creator? He made you, he said, out of
the same lump, out of Adam, out of Eve, out of Cursing Cana,
out of the mother of Amorites and daddy of Hittites, born in
abomination, cast out, out of the same lump. I'm going to
make some a vessel of mercy and some a vessel of wrath, some
a vessel of honor, some a vessel of dishonor. It's my claim, I
do what I want to with it. Oh, and then look at God's sovereign
command, there in verse 6. And when I passed by thee, and
saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee, When
thou wast in thy blood, And oh, he said it again. He
repeats it. Yea, I said unto thee when thou
wast in thy blood, live. When you was related to Adam,
I said live. When you was dead in trespasses
and sins, I said live. When you was corrupt, I said
live. When you was dead, I said live.
Dead in trespasses and sins, I said unto thee, yea, live. You know, in Genesis 1, it says
that darkness upon the face of the deep, and the earth was without
form and void, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of
the deep. And He said, let there be light. Boom! The light began to shine. Where to start at? When God said,
let there be light, that sun started giving off its, all that
form and void began to be, chaos was gone. No longer darkness,
no longer void. And oh my, and God's Spirit moved
over the dark waters of our hearts and our souls, and in His compassion
and love, you know what He said to us? Let there be light. There he was in darkness, without
form, without void, cast out to the loathing of our person.
God said, let there be light. Let there be light. Where did
he say, let there be light? Into this old darkened heart.
And when he turned on that light, what did we see? We saw the glory
of God. We saw His glory. We saw His
immutability. We saw His sovereignty. We saw
His wisdom. We saw His power. We saw His
grace. Oh, we saw God, His glory. Where
do we see that? In His blessed Son that came
here to save sinners. Oh, my. God's Spirit moved over
that barren virgin's womb one day and said, let there be life.
Nine months later, the Son of God was born. God came, God was
manifested. Emmanuel came to be with us.
Who? God manifested in the flesh. When he said, let there be life,
and Christ was life, and he brought life into this world. He brought
life for dead sinners. And one day God moved upon our
lifeless soul and said, live. Live, and we were born not by
the will of the flesh, not by the will of man, not by blood,
but of God. Lazarus, he stood outside Lazarus'
tomb. Mary and Martha sent to the Lord
Jesus, for while Lazarus was sick, said, Master, thee whom
thou lovest is sick. He's sick. You just thought,
boy, if the Lord Jesus is going to do anything for him, if he
loved him, he'd go over there real quick and heal him. No, he's going to have to go
the way of all flesh. He's going to have to die. We're all going
to go that way. But he let him die for one reason.
You know what he said? This death is but for the glory
of God. He's going to die. I love him. I love his sisters. But he's
going to die. And for one reason, for the glory
of God. Sure enough, after four days,
the Lord Jesus said, let's go. Let's go to Bethany. He said,
Lazarus is dead. Or no, Lazarus was sleeping.
He said, Lord, if he's sleeping, that's wonderful. Let's just
let him alone. No, he said plainly, he's dead. He's dead. And he got over there and Martha
ran out there and met him and fell to his feet and said, Lord,
if you'd have been here, he hadn't have died. God was in the beginning
of creation. He put Adam in the Garden of
Eden and he died. Why did he die? For the glory
of God. For the glory of His grace, for
the glory of His power, for the glory of His righteousness, and
oh my! He got there, Lord Jesus stood
outside that tomb and said, roll away that rock. That's what I'm
doing this morning, roll away rocks. Trying by God's grace
to move away these rocks of self-deception, these rocks of tradition, these
rocks of self- righteousness, trying to move these rocks. And he said, old Martha said,
Lord, he's been dead four days, he is stinking. He is stinking. Stinking. He said, oh, Lazarus, Lazarus,
Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead. I love
this, don't you, James? He that was dead came forth. Not only had he been dead four
days, he had already swelled up and already started corrupting
and rotting. Those eyes that was glassed over,
that tongue that never spoke again, those feet that couldn't
move, those ears that couldn't hear, that heart that wasn't
beaten, Lungs that weren't breathing, Christ said, Lazarus, come forth. And those eyes opened and he
saw. Those ears opened and he heard. And not only did he give
him life, but he reversed all the effects of that conversion.
And what we lost in Adam, we gain ten thousand times more
in Christ. Oh, bless His holy name. Then
let me show you this. God's sovereign gifts. God's
sovereign gifts. Now, let's start here in verse
9. See, with God's spartan garments on, I am as holy as His own Son. Look in verse 9. He says, Yea,
when you became mine, I spread my skirt over you and covered
you in nakedness. And then He says, I washed you.
This is the first gift. Then I washed thee. I washed
you. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanses us from all sin. Unto him that loved us, and washed
us from our sins in his own blood, there is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that
flood, whose all their guilt is done." Not only did he worship,
he said, I thoroughly washed you. He didn't say, I thoroughly
washed you, I thoroughly washed you. I washed your heart. I washed your soul. I washed
your mind. I washed you throughly, completely,
inside and out. I washed you. Verse 9, and then he goes on
to say, and I washed your blood away from you. I separated you
from that relationship with Adam. You became mine. Now watch this,
and I anointed you with oil. That anointed with oil means
that He gave us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit come upon us.
You know, God will have no unanointed people in His presence. You've
got to be made holy, and the Holy Ghost comes and makes us
holy and anoints us. And without the Spirit of Christ,
we're none of His. Huh? He sent the Spirit of Son
into our hearts, and we cry, Abba, Father! The Spirit of God came to us
and called us and cleansed us and lifted us and anointed us
with the knowledge of God's blessed Son. And then look what he says
in verse 10, I clothed you. She was naked before. Didn't
know she was naked. That baby didn't know he was
naked. We didn't know how naked we was, did we, until he put
clothes on. And now we would not dare be unnaked. Huh? Oh, I clothed you. Just like,
you know, Adam was in the garden and he took his fig leaf off.
And God slew the animals and shed the blood and He covered
Adam's nakedness. That's what the Scripture says.
He cut Adam's, covered Adam's nakedness. And He said, I clothed
you. I covered you. I covered you. Down in verse 8 in the middle
of the verses it says, I covered your nakedness. What did He close
us with? He closed us with the very righteousness
of Christ. Closed us with the righteousness
that God gave us in Christ, in Christ alone. Spotless. Perfect. Oh, what a clothing we have on.
Just like the prodigal. When he came home, the father
clothed him with the best robe. He said, put the best robe on
him. He didn't say, hand it to him, let him put it on himself.
He said, you put it on him. That's what God does to us. That's
why He said, I clothed you. You didn't clothe yourself. And
I didn't measure you to see if it would fit you. I just clothed
you. You was naked and you needed to be clothed. You needed to
be worn. So I did it. And then verse 11. And oh, He
said in verse 10, that's broader work. That was work that God
brought in Himself. He made this garment. Then He
said, and I debt you. I decked you out." Oh, we'll
see somebody all day who'll say, boy, where are you going, man?
You're just all decked out. Well, I tell you, He decked her
out. I mean, He decked this, I decked you with ornaments.
What kind of ornaments did He deck us with? Why did He crown
us? He said, I crowned you. I crowned you. And He said in
verse 12, I put a Jewel on your forehead, earrings in your ears,
bracelets on your hands, chain on your neck, and a beautiful
crown upon your head. I just clothed you with jewels
and glory. What did He deck us with? First
of all, He decked us with righteousness, crowned us with righteousness,
crowned us with justification, decked us with holiness, covered
us, filled us with joy and love and peace. That's what He decked
us with, crowned us with His glorious righteousness. And the
ornament that He gave us that shows us that He is the fruit
of the Spirit. What did He deck us with? Love
and joy and peace and gentleness and goodness and faith and meekness
and temperance. He crowned us, decked us. He
showed us grace. Paul said, I beheld the grace
of God that was in there. When Paul came, they said, they
seen the grace of God that was given unto you. God decked him
and dressed him, and they could see it. They could see it. And
then in verse 14, look what he said. And your renown went forth among
the heathen for your beauty. What? What made them beautiful?
What made them beautiful? It was perfect. through my covenants,
which I put upon you. Oh, my. You know why you're perfect? Because it's me, my covenants
that's upon you. We're covered with Christ. We're
complete in Christ. We're perfect in Christ. He has
perfected forever them that are sacred. Ain't that right? You're perfect. You're perfect. How? You didn't do a thing to
become perfect. It was through my comeliness,
my beauty, my glory. That's why you're perfect. Ain't that what Christ said? Complete in Him. Complete in
Him. What else do we need? You see
how salvation is all through the Old Testament? What a wondrous
thing, how God saves sinners. And everywhere you find it, it's
still the same. The sinner can't do nothing for himself. It's
all a sovereign gift and choice and commandment. God don't say,
will you come to me? He says, you shall come to me. He don't stand and beg. He says,
come. And you come. Here, and you here. Ain't that right? Oh, bless you, Savior. Thank
you for your gospel. Thank you for the truth as it's
in Christ Jesus, our Lord. God bless this word to our hearts,
to our understandings, to the hearing of those gathered today. Father, thank you. Thank you
for such a glorious, glorious truth, the salvations of the
Lord from start to finish. We were lost, Lord, You found
us. We were dead, You gave us life.
We were naked, You clothed us. We were filthy, You washed us.
And we bless You for it. We bless You for it. In Christ's
name, Amen.