Ezekiel 16. Excuse me. I have enjoyed myself immensely
and enjoyed the fellowship, the meals, the kindness, the love. Appreciate it very
much. But I want to read these first six verses.
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, thy
mother a Hittite. 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 swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee to do any
of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee. but thou wast cast
out into the 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 pass by in thy blood, live, yea, I said unto thee, live,
live. You know, my subject this morning,
the title of my message is A Time of Love. Norm last night, Pastor
Wells, last night he talked about those terms of endearment and
quoted from Jeremiah 31.3, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. and with cords of loving kindness
have I drawn thee. That was with the Lord Jesus
Christ. And here it was, God said down here in verse... I'll get to it here. When he
passed by him, he said, it was the time of love. It was the
time of love. And you became in verse eight,
look what it says now. When I passed by thee and looked
upon thee, Thy time was a time of love, and I spread my skirt
over thee, and covered thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee, and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becameest
mine. You know, and Brother Norm's
already said, you know, that the scriptures is full of parables,
Old Testament scriptures full of parables, pictures, types
of how God saves a sinner. how God saves a sinner. And our
Lord Jesus Christ, when He preached Himself, He constantly referred
to the Old Testament. He said, as Moses lifted up serpent
in the wilderness, as Jonah was three days and three nights in
the belly of the fish or the whale, He said, so shall the
Son of Man. He talked about what it was in
the days of Noah. And He talked about Abraham,
rejoiced to see his day and saw it. And when Peter preached on
the day of Pentecost, he quoted 18 different verses from the
Old Testament alone in that message. Because that's all they had,
was the Old Testament. And here we have our Lord Jesus
use the Old Testament. And oh, may God in His infinite
mercy make us wise, give us understanding of the types and pictures of
our Lord, because the Lord Jesus Christ is the same today, yesterday,
and forever. And we're not left to wonder
what's being taught here, not left to wonder at all. We can,
the scriptures, you know, when we apply them, they always have
something to say to us. And the first thing he says,
son of man, son of man, cause Jerusalem to know their abominations.
And I tell you what, only God can make what a man's abominations
are, and He can only be the one to make a man know what his abominations
are. He said that is well-pleasing
in the sight of men. He said it's an abomination in
the sight of God. But here among heathen nations,
the Amorites and the Hittites, it was the custom if they had
a deformed child, or an unwanted infant when it was born, what
they'd do is they'd take it and go out into the woods or they'd
go out into a field and throw that baby away just like that. Come from his mother's womb,
had a deformity about it, didn't want it. Well, what are we going
to do with it? Throw it away. Throw it away. Throw it away. And they left
it to perish there. And that newborn infant would
be cast out into that field, and the animals and the birds
would have that and devour that infant. And this is how God found
Israel, in idolatry, paganism. Abraham's family, he said he
dwelt among the idols on the other side of the flood. But
God made Israel His own people, gave Him His glory, gave Him
His prophets, gave Him His law, and through Israel came the Son
of God, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And their fame and beauty
went forth among all the nations. They were beautiful, and we'll
see this, through His glory, through His comeliness which
He put upon them. But as in all Scriptures, when
you deal with Israel, And God's talking about natural Israel. He's really talking about spiritual
Israel. They apply to us, to us, spiritual
Israel. And not everyone's a Jew, which
is one outwardly. But you know how, I'm gonna tell
you something. I'm a true son of Abraham. And I've never been to Israel. But he's not a Jew outwardly,
but he that warns inwardly is circumcision of the heart by
the Spirit. And I tell you what, I'm a true,
we worship, this is the true Israel that worship God in the
Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the
flesh. That's what he said, this is true Israel. I'm a true son
of Abraham. How do I know I'm a true son
of Abraham? I believe the promise. I'm a true son of, I believe
God. God made me righteous. I'm a
true Jew. Spiritual Israel, I belong to
Christ. You people say, I don't, I don't
know how, but listen, but here we have a picture, a picture
of how God saves a sinner. Here we again see God's sovereign
free grace at work. And the first thing I want us
to look at here is our condition, our condition. And you know what
our condition was? Look in verse three. Thus saith
the Lord God unto Jerusalem, thy birth and nativity is of
the land of Canaan. Thy father was an Amorite, thy
mother was a Hittite. Now this baby, this is our lost
condition, this baby was born wrong. What was wrong with him? He came out of a cursed nation.
In Genesis chapter nine, you remember when Noah was laying
in his tent and he was naked and he was drunk. And his son,
Canaan, come in there and made fun of him. And Shem and Jepheth,
they come behind him and didn't even look at him and covered
him up. But Canaan ridiculed him. Canaan made fun of him.
And when Noah come to himself, he said, cursed be Canaan. And Canaan was cursed. It was
a cursed land. It was a cursed race. And that's
the way we were. We were born in a cursed race. Cursed is the man who continueth
not in all things in the book of the law to do them. And we
were born wrong. Who was we born wrong? From our
mothers. My mama, I don't care what yours
was, but my mama was a sinner. My daddy was a sinner. My grandpa
was a sinner. My grandmother was a sinner on
both sides. And so how in the world could
I not be a sinner? How can you bring a clean thing
out of something that's unclean? And I tell you, we was born wrong,
born in sin, and it says there that in verse four here, it said,
his navel was not cut. You know what that means? That
means he was still getting, he got his life from his mother. And that's the way through the
navel, how he grows and how he was fed and how he was nourished. And I tell you, his navel was
not cut. And the Scriptures tells us we
were shapen in iniquity, conceived in sin, and the Scriptures tells
us, Davis said it like this, it's against thee only that I
have sinned and done this evil in your sight. And so whatever
we do, and then the wicked be estranged from the mother's womb,
speaking lies, speaking lies. Look over here with me in Job
chapter 25. Second Job chapter 25. Oh, I
tell you this. I was preaching one time and
dealing along with a thing like this, talking about people being
lost, people being sinners and having no hope without God, without
Christ in this world. And I'd been preaching in this
place for three or four days, five days, and finally a woman
jumped up, stood up and said, don't you know what this man's
saying to you all? He's calling you all a bunch
of sinners. He's saying you all are wicked. He's saying that
you ain't got no hope apart from, he said, it's not right. He said, I've been knowing you
all all your life and you're not that bad. And everybody in that congregation,
the pastor said, I was going to see how he's going to react
to that. I said, well, you just proved
my point. Just proved my point. But people
don't want to be call centers. And especially, let me tell you,
you know that woman, that came to the Lord Jesus Christ, and
she had a daughter that was so sick, and she was so troubled,
and she wanted the Lord to do something for her daughter. And
she come to the Lord Jesus Christ, she come to the master, and she
said, Lord, my daughter is sick, and Lord, would you have mercy
on her? And our Lord absolutely did not
do anything, He just ignored her. Talking about, you know,
God's not, ways not ours. People think, you know, that
God's got a job too. When we say, God job, He's got
a job. Lord, I need healing, He's got
a job. I need my marriage straightened out, He's got a job. I need health,
He's got a job. But our Lord Jesus Christ never
heard, you know, just act like, Just ignored her. She kept on
saying, Lord, have mercy on me. He said, it's not neat to take
the children's bread and give it to a dog. You know what she said? Yes,
Lord, that's exactly right. You're telling the truth. You're
telling the truth. I'm a dog. I'm a dog. But, oh, the dogs, the dogs get
a crumb from the master's table. And our Lord said, oh, be it
unto you as you desired. I tell you, that's, you, that's
what, that's what, you take your place where God put you. Take
your place where God, God put you. Scott Ritch used to say
all the time, stand on the ground where God put you. He puts you,
and he said, the more you can convince me I'm a sinner, the
more you show me how much I need mercy. And I'll tell you what,
and look what he said here in Job 25, in verse four. How then can a man be justified
with God? Oh my. How can God take sinners
and justify them? And how can he be clean, come
out clean that's born of a woman? Nicodemus said that what's born
of the flesh is the flesh. And look how he says now, look
up at the moon at night when you can see it, and it don't
even shine. Yea, the stars are not pure in
his sight. God looks up, said them things
ain't even pure in my sight. And here's how God talks about
us. How much less is man than is a worm? A worm and the son
of man, which is a worm. Heard a fella say one time, said,
you know, people brag on one another and go up and brag and
brag, I'm better than this and I'm better than that. It's like
a bunch of worms bragging on one another, which was the best
worm. which is the greatest worm, the strongest worm, the best
worm, the less slimy worm. Ain't that right? Oh my. We was born wrong. And you know, here's the difference
between an Armenian and somebody that knows God. When a mother
and husband, they find out they're going to have a child and they
know God and they know what grace is and they know what they're
bringing into this world. Before that child, the minute
they find out that they're going to have a baby, they begin to
start praying, Lord, please save my baby. Please have mercy on
my baby. Don't bring a baby into this
world without Please, for your mercy's sake, do something for
them. We got a young couple. They having
their baby and he comes to me, he comes to me with tears in
his eyes and says, Oh, Lord, I need a baby that God bring
a baby into this world that you're going to do something for. Now Armenians, they don't, they
can't pray that way. You know why? They're born innocent. And then they grow up till they're
12 years old, and then they're held accountable. That's why we pray, Lord. Have
mercy. Have mercy on our children. Save
them, oh Lord. There was a woman who said, Lord,
don't give me a child unless he's going to be one you elect. And here's the thing about it. That's how we know how desperately
wicked man is that we have to pray for our children before
they're born. Do you understand what
I'm saying? And I'll tell you something else
about this infant here. Look down at verse 5. He said,
nobody pitied you. Nobody pitted you. This infant
was, what could this infant do for himself? He's cast out into
a field. What can this infant do? He can't
even talk. He's helpless. He's friendless. What can an infant do in this
condition and do for itself? Ain't that what he said? He said,
look what he said there in verse four. He said, nobody even washed
you up. The first thing they do for a
baby when he's born, they wrap him up in a blanket. And then
when they get him, they start washing him off and turn him
this way and that way and he screams and hollers and kicks.
But this baby here, they throwed him out. They laid with that
stuff all over him and his navel hanging out all over the place.
And nobody walked over and said, let me wash you, let me wash
you, let me wash you. Nobody, you know, they said to
insult you, that means to purify you, to clean you up, purify
you. And then nobody went and got
a blanket and wrapped him up real tight. He's laying out there,
what in the world is he going to do? What's going to be done
with that child? He said, none I pitied you. And
then look what else he said, and nobody had any compassion
on you. And how many times did it talk
about our Lord Jesus Christ having compassion? Looking upon them
had compassion. Compassion. And all this infant
was impotent, helpless, powerless. And if anything is done for this
infant, it has to come from somebody else doing it. I tell you what,
it couldn't come from His will, it couldn't come from His power,
it couldn't come from His ability, it couldn't come from anything
that He could possibly do. If anything's done for Him, it's
got to be somebody else's will, somebody else's power, somebody
else's compassion, and some eye that would look on Him with pity.
That's why our Lord Jesus, you know, said in Jeremiah 13, 23,
can the Ethiopian change the color of his skin? Can the leper
change his spots? How can you then, who are accustomed
to do evil, ever do good? And I'll tell you something else
about this infant. He was not even aware of his condition. He wasn't aware that he was laying
in his blood. He wasn't aware that nobody pitied
him. He wasn't aware that there was
no compassion towards him. He wasn't aware of him in his
blood. He wasn't aware of being laid
out in a field. He wasn't aware of his condition. And I tell you what, until God
makes a man know what his condition is, he's just like this baby. He don't know. He don't know.
Can't save ourselves. And I tell you, this infant was
dirty. Look what he says there in verse
five again. None I pitted thee to do any
of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee, but thou was cast
out into the open field. Listen to this, to the loathing
of thy person. They loathed him, not just to
have no compassion, no pity, they loathed that child. He was
loathed, loathe of thy person in the day that thou was born.
He was in his land, in his home, he said, I saw you polluted in
your own blood. Blood and water. This sin was
dirty, loathsome, polluted. Ain't that what Christ said there?
The scripture said there in verse five, when I passed by I saw
they polluted, polluted, pollution in his own blood. His own blood. People scared to death about
pollution. Oh my. Let me tell you something about
a man's own righteousness. If a man trusts his own righteousness,
his own works, I'm gonna tell you what he looks like and what
he smells like. Everybody knows what a septic system is. Take
the lid off a septic system, jump down in it, come back out,
and come into a service and say, boy, I'm ready to go, I'm ready
to go. I've got my own righteousness,
I smell real good, and I'm ready to go. That's how loathsome and
how corrupt and how stinking a man is in the sight of God,
outside of Christ. You say, that's awful gross.
That's the truth. If righteousness come by anything
we do, then there was no reason whatsoever to Jesus Christ to
die on the cross. There's no reason in the world
that Christ would bear our sins if we could be saved by anything
we think, say, or do. And that's what this infant,
you know you think this infant was loathsome. How loathsome
are we in the sight of God outside of Christ? How filthy was we? Well, I don't know about you
all. I don't know about you all. But
my old flesh is so corrupt. My old nature is so corrupt. that I sometimes loathe myself
and feel like I'm the stinkiest thing on the face of this earth.
I don't want to be around anybody because they're going to smell
me. They're going to smell my sin.
They're going to smell my loatheness. And I tell you, have you ever
felt that of yourself? You feel like you just loathe
yourself? And I tell you what, but you
know what God does for people like this? He gives them ashes
for their beauty. He gives them shame for their
glory and rottennesses of hell. And he goes on down here, you
know, and he said, I passed by and I saw you polluted in your
blood. Now let's talk, as I lost condition, now let's talk about
sovereign grace. Free sovereign grace. Look what
it says there in verse six. I passed by thee. Nobody else cared about it, but
the Lord said, I passed by you. How many times did Christ pass
by somebody in the New Testament? How many times? Oh, I passed
by you. This infant wasn't looking for
help. This infant didn't know the condition he's in, didn't
know where he was, didn't know who he was. He didn't know the
condition that he was in. He was utterly senseless. And like the old hymn writer
said, "'Tis not that I did choose thee, Lord, that could not be.
For hast thou not chosen me, O thy glory I would not see."
He said, I'll pass by you. I'll pass by you. I'll pass by
you. And I saw you. I saw you just
like you are. I saw you just like you are.
Now look down verse eight. He says, now when I pass by thee,
and not only did he pass by him, look what he said. He said, I
looked at you. I looked on you. I looked at you. I see you. I looked at you. And you know
what time it was when I passed by and what time it was when
I looked at you? Time of love. When did he start loving him? Everlasting love. That means
it has no beginning, no end. Oh, I'll pass by you is a time
of love. And I'll tell you what, that's
what the Lord does for us. Where we are, we're awful, wretched,
poor, blind, and naked. polluted in our blood, polluted
in that blood that we inherited from our father Adam. And there
was a time that God said, I'll pass by you and I saw you. What time was it? It's time for
me to love you. And it's a time for you to know
it. It's time for me to love you.
It's a time for you to know it. You know, Here in His love, we sung that
song, Oh How I Loved Jesus, we sang that chorus, but we always
stop, and when we get to the end of it, we say, because He
first loved me. That's the only way we can love
Him, because He first loved us. And I'll tell you, we didn't
seek the Lord, He sought us. We never called on the Lord,
He called on us first. We didn't go where He was, He
came to where we were. We didn't know Him, but He knew
us. And He, in His sovereign mercy,
in His sovereign grace, comes, and in His time of love, He lets
you know that. And once it's a time of love,
it was always been love, and it'll never cease to be love.
You say, boy, I'm an awful wretch, I don't know how God can love
me. I'll tell you how He does it. Same way he did this baby. Cause he wanted to. He willed
to. It's his good pleasure. It's his good pleasure. And then,
oh, God's sovereign grace. Look at God's sovereign choice. Back here in this, he said back
over here in verse six, look at God's sovereign choice in
verse six. When I passed by, I saw you, I saw you polluted
in your own blood. I saw you polluted in your own
blood. Now here's the thing, your friends
may not know you, your friends don't know your heart, you may
not know your own sinful condition, your own heart, but God knows,
but God knows. And he said, I saw you as you
were. And that's what's so wonderful
about it. There was a fellow one time, The Lord started dealing
with him and he was having a hard time, you know, and God was making
him to be a sinner. And there's a difference. Let
me tell you this. Let me take a minute to say, there's a man-made
sinner and a God-made sinner. If you're a man-made sinner,
you're in trouble. Only God can make a sinner. Only
God can make a man know what his sin is. And when you, the
minute you know what, the minute you know you're a sinner, I mean
immediately when you know you're a sinner, you know what you're
doing? You're calling out on Christ just that quick. Huh? And oh my. But I tell you what,
God looks on the heart. And I tell you, God said, I saw
you, you. And here's the thing about it.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, right now, He's this all the people
all over the world. I wonder how many he'll save
today when he said, I saw you. Have you ever been in a service
and you felt like there's only one person in that building and
God was speaking to you? I don't know what anybody else
heard today, but I heard something. I heard something. I seen something. I seen something. And oh, and
listen to what he was going to say now. Down here, you know,
in verse eight, he said, I swear unto thee and entered into a
covenant with thee, saith the Lord. And listen to this now.
And thou becamest mine. Mama didn't want you. Daddy didn't
want you. But I did. You became mine. You became mine. He said, oh, you're mine. What did I say? Friday night, I said, you know,
when I make up my jewels, mine jewels, they're mine. For God
to say, that's mine. Kids, you know, they fight all
the time. You know, they come to your house
to visit or something and they'll take one of your kid's toys and
say, the kid will pick it up and say, no, no, that's mine.
That's mine. Well, God says that about us.
That's mine. And there ain't nobody gonna
fight over it. Oh no, that's mine. That's mine. You can say that about yourself
right now. Christ reaches out and gets you and says, that's
mine. That's mine. I loved you with an everlasting
love. Oh my, you became mine. You didn't know it. Oh, you became
mine. You became mine. And then look
what he did when he done that. He said, I spread my scold over
you. And look what he said, and I covered your nakedness. And entered into a covenant with
you. Oh my. And then, I mean, you look at
God's sovereign command, back over here in verse six again.
We're talking about God's sovereignty. God, only God can do this. Like
King David, he gave commands. And then God said here, in verse
six, and when I passed by thee, saw thee polluted in thine own
blood, and was, I said unto thee, when thou wast polluted in thy
blood, he said, I said unto thee, live. And so they understood
what he said, when I saw thee in thy blood, when thou wast
in thy blood, I said, live. I don't know. For God says, live
is like Lazarus. Oh my goodness. This is one of
the most blessed things that you'll, for me, the scriptures. that the Lord Jesus walked up
to Lazarus' tomb, and he stood there and cried, wept. He said, can you imagine the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Son of God? And he has tears, his
tears were holy, and his tears, holy tears run down his holy
face. And you know what, you know what he was crying about
over at Lazarus' tomb? He said, I've got to go bring
this man that's been in paradise, I've got to go and bring him
back into this old sin-curse world. I've got to bring him
back in here and he's got to go through this again. He's going
to have to die again. And our Lord stood outside that
grave and Lazarus, a dead man, can't hear a voice. He'd been
dead four days. And our Lord Jesus sighed and
said, Lazarus! Lazarus never said a word. Come
forth! Now, I'm gonna tell you something.
There's a man, he's still got his grave clothes on. He can't
walk. He got his grave clothes on.
He's wrapped in that linen. And he said, but yet he came
forth. How in the world can that happen?
When God says something, it's gonna happen. His word is so
powerful that a dead man with that, and that's what he says,
take off his grave clothes. Unwrap him. And you know what
they did next? They went home and Mary and Martha
fixed a dinner and they ate supper. And then when God said, I say
unto thee, live. Oh, may God do that to my son,
may God do that to my daughter, may God do that to my grandchildren,
may God do that to my great-grandchildren, may God do it to you today! In the creation, God's Spirit
moved over the dark waters. The earth was without form and
without void. darkness come over it and that's
the way we was in darkness and God come and we without form
and void and he brooded over us by the Holy Spirit in love
and compassion he said let there be light and one day when we
was in our darkened condition God shined the light God commanded
listen it says God commanded the light to shine out of darkness
where'd he shine it at in the heart. What did he shine
it for? To give us some understanding
of Jesus Christ and his glory. That's what he did. Jesus Christ
and his glory. God's spirit moved over the womb
of that virgin and said, let there be life. And the Lord Jesus
Christ was conceived in that womb of that virgin. And he come
out as the only begotten son of God. And one day God moved
our lifeless soul, and we were born, not of the will of man,
not of the will of the flesh, not of blood, but born of God. And then let me, I'm gonna wind
it up. Listen to this. This stuff just does something
for me, and I can't tell you what it does for me. I can't
tell you what the gospel does for me. You listen. I need this. I need this. I got
to have this. And then look at God's sovereign
gifts. You start out God's sovereign grace, God's sovereign command,
God's sovereign joy. Now look at His sovereign gifts.
And He said, With His spotless garments on, I am as holy as
God's own Son. He said down in verse 9, He said,
Then I washed thee with water. I washed you. And look what it says, "...thoroughly
washed you, away your blood from you." Thoroughly. Do you know
what thoroughly means? We say thoroughly. But when he
says thoroughly, that means he cleansed you from the inside
to the outside. He's done a thorough job. He said, I cleaned you thoroughly. And the blood of Jesus Christ
cleanses us. from all sin unto him that loved
us and washed us. He said, I washed you. I washed
you. And then look what he said there
again in verse nine. Then I anointed you with oil.
That means I gave you the Holy Spirit. I gave you the Holy Ghost.
I come and gave you the Spirit of God. I anointed you. Gave
you the Holy Spirit. Then look what he said in verse
10. Then I put some clothes on you. I really, really closed
you. And what did you close him with?
Ah, just broided work. Beautiful garment, all woven,
all beautiful garment. And he said, and I closed you.
He said, no, I swaddled you, no, I pinned you. But when I
come by, and I said, Liv, I washed you, got all that blood off of
you. I cleaned your heart up, I cleaned your soul up. I put some clothes on you. I
put this beautiful garment on you. And when people see that,
they say, that's the prettiest garment I believe I've ever seen
in my life. You know, in Bunyan's Pilgrim's
Progress, oh man, I ain't been preaching long. It's twelve o'clock. You know, in Bunyan's Pilgrim's
Progress, I don't know how many of you read it, but When they
went through the straight gate, and he had that burden on his
back that he couldn't bear, and he went through that straight
gate, and he come up to the cross, and he saw a man on that cross,
and his burden fell off his back. And he said, there come two shining
ones, and they put this beautiful shining garment on him. But he
didn't know it was shining. And he come and put one on another
one, one faithful, put one on Christian, one faithful, and
they put them garments on him. Christian looked at faithful
said that's you got you got the most beautiful garment all I've
ever that you shining. He said you're shining He could
see it in the other one, but he couldn't see it in himself
And I tell you what God clothes saw with the same clothes I Closed you Adam fig leaves
ain't gonna do And all he said I covered your nakedness. I covered
your nakedness then look what else he's did I Verse 11 and
12. He said, I decked you with ornaments.
I dressed you up. I put some bracelets on you,
hands, chains on your neck. I said, oh, I said, I dressed
you up. And I tell you, he takes that grace of God and dresses
us up and adorns us with love, kindness, gentleness, meekness,
faith, temperance. He, he clothes us. Oh, and he
puts all these beautiful garments on us and all this beautiful
ornament. And I'll tell you what, and then look what he says. I
put a jewel on your forehead. And look down there at what he
said in the last part of it. I put a beautiful crown on your
head. What do you reckon that crown
was? It was the crown of righteousness. The crown of righteousness, that's
what it was. Oh my. He said, I covered you. Righteousness, justification,
joy, and peace. And they put that beautiful crown
on there. And then look what he said in verse 14. And thy renown went forth among
the heathen for thy beauty. Now here's what it comes down
to. For it was perfect through my
comeliness, which I put on thee, saith the Lord God. He said,
you know what makes you beautiful? You know what makes you perfect?
You know what makes you perfect? My comeliness makes you perfect. And it's the comeliness of Christ
that makes us perfect. We're complete in Christ, perfect
in Christ. And that's what he says. You
know, we don't look beautiful to ourselves, but we look beautiful
to Him. Oh, we're perfect through my
comeliness. And I tell you, we are perfect.
That word complete in Colossians 2, 9, that means perfect. I've
made you perfect, you're complete, you're perfect in Christ. And
I'll tell you what, started out over here as a baby, nobody wanted.
Ended up beautiful, perfect. Who could do that but the Lord?
Who could do that but the Lord? Well, like you said, that's the
last one for this meeting. That's the last one for this
meeting. But it won't be the last year
ever here, I hope. Love you. Appreciate you. Thank you very
much for letting me come. What a privilege. What an honor.