It's good to be back together. My prayer, my desire is that
this little group would get closer, stronger in faith, and constantly together plead
for more grace. for more grace, like we looked
at in James. He gives more grace. Turn to Ezekiel chapter 16. I'm
going to read you an article that I got this morning. It's
by a man named Charles Simeon. Well, Charles Spurgeon liked
him a lot and read him a lot. Just to kind of give us a backdrop
before we get into Ezekiel 16. The most deceitful of all things
is this article by Charles Simeon. The human heart is the most deceitful
of all things and desperately wicked. Who really knows how
bad it is? Jeremiah 17, 9. Different translation. The deceitfulness
of the human heart is seen in misrepresenting the nature of
spiritual realities. But where shall we begin our
illustration of this point? If we look up to God, there is
not a perfection or attribute of his nature which the unenlightened
mind views are right, are correctly. And as for those perfections
which he exercises as the moral governor of the universe, they
are even held in abhorrence by the carnal mind. I thought this
was good. God's absolute sovereignty is
denied as though the exercise of it were an injustice to man. His holiness and justice are
imagined to be incapable of judging men for their sins. His veracity
is impeached so as to save those who continue in rebellion against
him. Some are so foolish and deceived
as to say there is no God. And of those who acknowledge
his existence, There is not one, unless he has been previously
converted by divine grace, who entertains worthy conceptions
of him in his heart. If we turn our thoughts to the
world around us, what is there that the heart of man views in
its proper light? Its pleasures? Its riches? Its
honors? All these, instead of being regarded
as the scripture says, as snares, worthless vanities, are perfectly
idolized and are sought after as constituting the chief happiness
of man. Do we look to morals? How erroneous
are men's conception even of the plainest realities? Pride,
anger, revenge are held forth as noble and honorable principles,
while the virtues of humility, meekness, forbearance, and forgiveness
are despised as indications of a weak and cowardly character.
As formerly, neither the Greeks nor Romans had a word in their
language whereby to express the true notion of humility. So now
the very idea of humility, as enjoined in the scriptures, never
enters into the mind of an unconverted man unless it is to load it with
ridicule and contempt. Look at the gospel. That is considered
as consisting, and this is good as well, look at the gospel.
That is considered as consisting in a profession of certain religious
beliefs and observance of certain religious forms. Entire devotion
to the soul to God, of the soul to God, is deemed to be foolish
and improper access. the effect of needless fears
or wild enthusiasm. Harsh and offensive names are
used to characterize all true piety while every sin is given
soft names and plausible excuses. In a word, the scriptures describes
the heart of man in this precise view as calling evil good and
good evil as putting darkness before for light and light for
darkness and putting bitterness for sweet and sweet for bitter,
Isaiah 5 verse 12. Yes, the human heart is the most
deceitful of all things. Guard your heart above all else,
for it determines the course of your life, Proverbs 4, 23.
Now this was written 1700s? It's as though he was writing
about today, because this is exactly the issue. Now, let's
look at Ezekiel 16 and we'll look at verse 60 and go to the
end of the chapter There's a word here that be honest with you.
I've never seen before and it's like what so I got really looking
at this It fascinated me it interested me more than that Spiritually,
I hope that this is applied to us Verse 60 of Ezekiel chapter 16,
nevertheless, God says, I will remember my covenant with thee
in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an
everlasting covenant. Then thou shalt remember thy
ways and be ashamed when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine
elder and thy younger, and I will give them unto thee for daughters,
but not by my covenant. And I, says God, will establish
my covenant with thee, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord,
that thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open
thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am pacified
toward thee for all that you have done, saith the Lord. Now the word that gripped me
was pacified, pacified. He says in verse 63, I am pacified. I am pacified toward thee. For our sovereign to make such
a statement, to use such language, it must indicate at least two
things. One, Previous offense a previous offense, which is
why I read the heart because that that's us That's every that's
every person. It's every boy woman man child
boy and girl. It's all of us It must indicate
previous offense and to extreme anger and extreme anger. Look at verse 58. We won't read
all this, but this is kind of the context. Thou, this is God
speaking, thou has borne thy lewdness and thy abominations,
saith the Lord. Lewdness and abominations. That's
what he's, that's, that's what we are. So my desire is twofold. May God make each one fully aware
of our own shame. of our own shame. Now, people
don't like to be shamed. As a matter of fact, it's very
offensive. You know, you shamed me and this and that. Well, I
don't want to shame you, but so be it if God uses the words
that I speak. May He cause us to be fully aware
of our shame. And secondly, therefore, by doing
that, to see and know God is pacified towards us. Pacified. What does that word
mean? Well, literally, To be pacified
in God's eyes is to be covered. The word's atoned. Canceled,
to be appeased. Now this is the interesting thing.
This word, incidentally, and Melinda and I were talking about
this, and I said, boy, this just sounds like another concept.
And I went to Genesis, and this is what I found. And I found,
and I looked this word up. It's the exact, this word here
is the exact same word in the Hebrew. as the pitch in the ark. It's the same word that, remember
he pitched it within, without? Do what? I'm muted? Sure enough. Unmuted. This word pacified in
Ezekiel 16 and verse 63 is the exact same word The letters are
H3722 is what the Strongs gives that number to that. But that
word is the exact same word as the word pitch used that Noah
pitched in and out of the ark. Remember what he did there? That's
the word for atonement. It's God's appeased. And so I'm
interested, not only in knowing myself, but I'm interested, I
want to know if God is appeased, if he's covered my sins, if he's
atoned for, if he's canceled. And we know that that pitching
within and without shows God's total protection to his people
from his wrath, or the rain. As the rain came down, it couldn't
get in because the ark was pitched within and without, same word.
Now, I want us to view this pacification, this covering, in three ways. First, in the cross. Second,
in the gospel. And third, in our conscience,
in our conscience. First, in the cross, in and by
the cross, our covering is accomplished. Our pacification, God's pacification,
his anger towards us, it's accomplished, it's taken care of in the cross. Here then is our righteousness
and holy God's demands and law met and answered in the cross. That's the reason why Christ,
he must needs go through, he must needs go through Samaria.
He must needs every step that our savior took. It was a necessity
that it ended up at the cross. And then it didn't end there
because he rose again. The soul that sinneth, we know,
shall die. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness
of sins, none sustained whatsoever. Hence, turn with me to Hebrews
chapter two. Hebrews chapter two, we're looking
at the cross of Christ, seeing the pacification of our Father,
of our God, of our holy righteous Redeemer accomplished. Hebrews chapter two and verse
17. Wherefore, in all things that
behooved him, Christ, to be made like unto his brethren, that
he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining
to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of his people. Ephesians. Ephesians chapter five and verse 2, Ephesians 5 verse
2, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given
himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet
smelling savor. The cross, the pacification of
God was accomplished. Indeed, What a valuable and divine
substitute. What value is in the blood? Sin
is punished. God is honored. Righteousness
is received. Sin is cast away into the sea. A new heart is given. Christ
received up the glory and he's now seated at God's right hand,
which means it's finished and then it's accepted. What he did
for us Pacification, because we're the offending party, has
been accepted. God in Christ Jesus is pacified. Secondly, I want to see this
pacification as it relates to in the gospel. God being appeased
and atoned is revealed in the gospel. It was accomplished at
Calvary. But how do you know that? Well,
every time, by the grace of God, every Wednesday, every Sunday,
whoever stands up here, you're going to hear the truth of how
God can be just and justify the ungodly. So the pacification
of our Father was accomplished. We don't need to do anything.
We don't need to pray the sinner's prayer or walk an aisle. It's
accomplished. It's done. Any work added nullifies
it. It's accomplished at Calvary.
It's revealed. It's revealed in the gospel.
This glorious, all-sufficient work, the cross, must be made
known. That's why we're here. That's
why we go to our jobs. Yeah, you go to a job to get
a paycheck, you do this, you do that, but that's not why.
That's not why we are sent forth. And that's what I wish I knew
this years ago. You take care of your family
and it's honorable and we need to do that. But there are sinners
out there. How did you hear? How did you
hear? You told your wife. How did they hear? Somebody loved
them enough to tell them. It has to be declared or told.
That's where preaching comes in. That's where speaking comes
in. That's where handing a card or handing a tract Inviting sinners
here. Surely our peacemaker, Christ
himself, he was a preacher of peace. Ephesians chapter two. He said, if you have the son,
or excuse me, if you've seen and heard me, Christ said, you've
seen and heard my father. John chapter 14. Hence, the merely
religious people who are more concerned with their traditions
and the denominational ties, they took up stones to kill him.
Because he, being a man, made himself God. They heard that
right. In another place, which I think is one of the most clear
indications of the gospel being used to reveal this accomplishment
of Christ, they have the law and the prophets, let them hear,
let them hear them. Let them hear them. That's Luke
chapter 16. Believe Christ for the work's
sake and also his light revealing words of truth, John 14. We, each believer, are ambassadors
for Christ. We were not created to sit at
home and watch television. We were not created to, all the
things that we do, unfortunately, that's part of it. We have to
live our lives and take care of our families, but we have
a higher calling. Every believer is an ambassador. Let us redouble our efforts.
Speak of him. Tell of him. Do not hide this
diamond under a basket. Let us not be physicians with
no value. Now, you may know a lot about
I use myself as an example, may know a lot about wilderness,
birds, species, that's fine. That's knowledge that he's imparted.
There's be a day when I won't know my own name probably. What are we doing? What are we
doing with this? Of course our friends and neighbors
and fellow employees see no beauty in Christ, but we say we have. We have. He's altogether lovely.
Tell them, implore them to come. Feast with us. Feast with us. Lastly, this pacification is
accomplished at Calvary. It's revealed in the gospel,
but thirdly, it's realized in the conscience. As some of you
have been, have sat here and heard and heard and heard, but
has it been realized? Do you understand? Do you believe
this for yourself? I tell you, it is vain. In vain
is this atonement, this pardon accomplished and published if
it is rejected and disregarded. You come in and go out, nothing's
different. That is, his work of free redemption
must be applied by faith. That's what I'm talking about,
faith. And it's a gift of God. By sovereign grace, we acquire
faith and trust and believing, and by believing, we enter rest.
And being justified by faith, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ, Romans 5. A peace that passes all understanding,
Philippians 4. A peace without, a peace within,
a living peace, and a dying peace. God now, because of the exploits
of his son, smiles upon every child of grace. Every elect sinner
renewed by free, supreme, unchanging grace. God is pacified in the
cross, which is revealed in the gospel, which is realized in
the conscience or the heart. I couldn't say it and I wouldn't
say it any better than this, Isaiah chapter 12. Verse one, Isaiah 12, verse one. And in that day, thou shalt say,
O Lord, I will praise thee Though you were angry with me, your
anger is turned away. You're pacified, and you comfort
me. Behold, God is my salvation.
I will trust and not be afraid, for the Lord Jehovah is my strength
and my song. He also is become my salvation. So I ask and tell each of us
to behold to look to, to believe, rejoice, trust, come to Christ. Do not delay. Spread the cheer
and go your way rejoicing and blessed and content in Him. Why? For you have found that one and
only pearl of great price. And God is pacified. Amen. Bruce, would you close
us?