Ezekiel chapter 16. We're going to just have a general
perusal of Ezekiel 16 verses 1-14. I absolutely love this
passage. It's a beautiful picture of salvation
by grace alone. Of course, when you speak of
salvation, that's all it ever is, is by grace alone. But we're
just going to look at it, these 14 verses, but let's look at
the first five first, make some comments, and then we'll look
at the latter part and make some closing comments. And then I'll
have you turn, at least turn to one closing passage. As I
said, this is an absolutely wonderful type and picture of salvation,
full and free. Full and free. Well, let's look
at this together. Ezekiel 16, and he says in verse
1, 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 you were born, your navel was not cut, neither were
you washed in water to supple thee, you were not salted at
all, nor swaddled at all. None I, nobody pitied thee, to
do any of these unto thee. to have compassion upon thee,
but we and thou were cast out into the open field to the loathing
of our person in the day that we were born." Now, usually I'll
jump right into the depravity of man, but I got stuck and I
got hung up on the first word of the first verse. I almost did a message on this
years ago, just that word. Again, the Word of the Lord has
come here. Again. What kindness. There's a word in pulpits today,
is not from the Lord. This is the Word of the Lord.
Again. One more Sunday in Jackson, Missouri. And I usually skip over this
and it just arrested me. What kindness, what mercy to
truly have heard it once in Jackson. And now we are again embarking
upon its sacred pages to look at the Gospel. We're not playing
religion. We're not playing politics. We're
not talking about the weather. We're not talking about sports.
We're talking about the Gospel. Again, what a privilege and honor
to even know what is contained in this book as we meet together
under His banner. Because like I said, these churches,
every corner you can look, there's a building and there's people
in it, and they are carrying on Two men went up to the temple
to pray. They both were going up to worship.
They both were going with intention. They both were going up with
understanding. But only one knew what he was
there for. He couldn't even look up his
eyes to heaven because he knew his abominations. He knew. But as we gathered together,
again, again, there's places that have had the gospel preached,
and then the faithful pastor died, and that church is no more. This place, humanly speaking,
by human construction, by human scheming and ingenuity, this
place should not be here. It should be scattered. And the
person tried. Bruce and I said it's hard for
that man to kick against the bricks. Here we stand. But we
don't stand in and of ourselves and we don't boast about it.
We stand in Christ. Again, the Word of the Lord,
the Word of the Lord, not a Lord, the Lord, the Sovereign, the
King, the Ancient of Days, the Alpha Omega, our Ruler, the Judge,
the High and Lofty One, in whom is no error, no wrong, no forgetfulness,
no weakness, No variableness, shadow of turning. He's the same
yesterday, today, and forever. Again, the Word of the Lord came
unto me saying, let's listen. This is what He has to say. The
next several verses, this is a description of what we are,
and this is a picture, before the Holy God. And I believe if
we are to advance one inch in our spiritual state, we will
know this about ourselves as well. He says, verse 2, Son of
man, cause Jerusalem to know, not the abominations of the First
Baptist Church, not the abominations of the Immanuel Luther, not the
abominations of the Methodists. We don't have anything to do
with that. cause us to know right here, right now, today, this
morning, our abominations, our own abominations. And he says
it, and this may not mean anything to us, verse 3, this is what
we are to speak. Jerusalem, thy birth and thy
nativity is of the land of Canaan, thy father an Amorite, and thy
mother a Hittite." Now, you can look this up in Genesis. We're
not going to go there. But reference to Amorite and
Hittite was the worst of the idolatrous nations of Canaan. They're the most wicked. And
that's us. Verse 4, "...as for thy nativity..."
Now, this is an infant child just being born. Keep that in
mind. were born in sin, as for thy
nativity, the day that you were born, the navel, the umbilical
cord was not cut. You weren't washed, and you weren't
suppled, and you weren't swaddled. No, I pity thee, but we were
cast out in verse 5 of the open field to the loathing of our
person in the day that we were born. We were born in sin, uncut
navel cord, which is filthy, uncomely, dirty, unkept. It's
a horrible state and a horrible condition spiritually. And verse
5 agrees with Ephesians 2.12, we were without God, without
hope in this world. Left for dead, stinking, suffering,
and dying. Deliverance by self is impossible. This is all of us, all of us,
from birth, nature, and practice. And I got to looking at this,
and I looked at this passage, and like I said, I truly enjoy
this one along with Ezekiel 36, and we've got our favorite scriptures.
But I just stepped back, stepped out of the woods, out of the
forest, and just asked a simple question. Who can read these
words in our text and not see the desperate condition. And
yet, sinners will come week after week, month after month, year
after year, sit, listen, and go out to play. They're not affected
by it. But how can we not read this
verse, these verses so far, and see our hopelessness, our absolute
inability to save ourselves? A baby, this is a baby, an infant.
What can a newborn do to survive in such conditions, physically
or spiritually? We're cast out into the open
field to the loathing of our person in the day that we were
born. Talk about free will all you want. Talk about your man's
goodness all he wants. Talk about his ability all you
want. This is us. There is absolutely
nothing we can do. It's not going to happen. It's
impossible with us. It's unfeasible. It's implausible.
Yet, all over the world, all over this country, all over this
town, from most pulpits today, We are being told that salvation
is up to you. You must cooperate. Please cooperate
with God. Please make your decision for
Jesus. Do this or don't do that. It's
impossible. We could go to Matthew 19-24
where he talks about the camel going through the eye of a needle. In that, whatever you want to
say, you look up that word needle, it means suture. It doesn't mean
the eye of a gate, or the camel, he does this and works his way.
No. It's saying don't attempt to save yourself. You can't do
it. It's like an animal, in this
case a camel, going through... It's to sew. It's a suture. It's not done.
And then obviously, In Jeremiah 17, the Ethiopian can't change
the color of his skin, the leopard has spots. We quote that, but
then we don't quote the last part, you know, and you that
are accustomed to doing evil, can you do good? And then in
Jeremiah 13, 23, the heart, the heart, and that's what God has
to do with, and that's what our heart is what He makes willing
in the day of His power to receive Christ, to trust Christ. The
heart is desperately wicked. Above all things, who can know
it? Who can know it? We could go
on and talk about this condition, but this is a perusal. This is
a perusal of this text this morning. So in answer to that simple question,
when I stood back and I said, can we not see the helplessness,
hopelessness, the inability Yes, we can. But the answer, can man
save himself? No, absolutely not. And I know that God must
reveal this truth to the souls, to our souls, or else we will
go about continually trying to work out our salvation to the
ruination of our souls. If we try to add anything, take
anything away, our best foot forward, again, I reference you
back to Cain. That's what He did. He brought
the best of what He had. Now let's look at verses 6-14. Now I'm just going to read through
this and make a few comments. We'll read the whole passage.
And when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own
blood, I said unto thee, when you were polluted in your own
blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee, when thou
wast in thy blood, live." Three times he says that, blood, blood,
blood, live. I have caused thee to multiply
as the bud of the field. Thou hast increased in wax and
grade, and thou art come to excellent ornaments. Thy breasts are fashioned,
and thy hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. Now
when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, the time was
the 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 becamest
mine." Then washed I thee with water, yea, I thoroughly washed
away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil. And
I clothed thee with broiled work, and shod with badger skin, and
I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with
silk. I decked thee also with ornaments,
and I will put bracelets upon thy hands, and chains upon thy
neck, and I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine
ears, and a beautiful crown upon thy head. Thou wast decked with
gold and silver, and Thy raiment was of fine linen silk, broidered
work. Thou didst eat fine flour and
honey and oil, and Thou wast exceeding beautiful. And Thou
didst prosper into a kingdom. And our renown, Thy renown, went
forth among the heathen for our beauty, for it was perfect through
My comeliness." which I had put on thee, saith the Lord." Now,
before I even get started on this section, I have a simple
question. Have you noticed all the I's? I didn't count them up. It's
overwhelming, the number of I's, and it's not us. It's the Lord
God. In these next verses, 6-14, simply
put, this is the core of our gospel truth. God wills it, I
will, and it is so. His I wills, not ours, are totally
effectual through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
this causes salvation. This initiates redemption. This
is the tell-all of God's dealings with men, women, and children.
I will. I will. And we shall. I will, we shall. And there's
another place in the scriptures where it says, I will, you shall.
And it's back and forth, back and forth, but it's not here.
I will declares Jehovah, I will announces the Christ, and I enable
announces the Spirit. And it's forever accomplished. We are forever beautiful in the
eyes of God through the redemptive work, the redemptive coverings
the fine linen, the ornaments of our Lord Jesus Christ. From
first to last, salvation, as Jonah noted, is of the Lord. Polluted, yet life. Bloodied,
yet life. Washed, suppled, swaddled, covered,
and set up with Christ's lovely robe or covering of perfect righteousness. I, I, I, not me, me, me. I will, when I pass, I spread,
I wash thee, I thoroughly wash thee, I anoint thee, I clothe
thee, on and on and on. How can anyone read this and
stick Man's importance, or man's self-worth, or man's supposed
free will, or whatever we want to talk about. How can they do
such a thing? It can't be done. Not scripturally.
It can't be done. Redemption through blood, atonement
through substitution, full pardon through mediation and reconciliation. That's done by the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's why we gather together. That's why, again,
one more time, One more time. And I pray that the Lord, if
He takes me down or takes me out, if it's the Lord's will
that someone else would come in or come among us, or be among
us, and the Lord would raise that person up. And they would
know new message. We are simply, like Tim James
said, we're just errand boys. Everything is complete. The author's
written it, it's done. And we open it up and we just
tell back the truth of Christ and Him crucified. And Christ
Jesus has made unto us all these and much more. Good news, Nathan. We were cleaning out. We were
doing deep cleaning, just put it that way. Found a bunch of
stuff. A bunch of more stuff I didn't
know I had. I knew I had, I forgot. Two more things I'm going to
have you scan. One of them is what Christ has
made unto us by Jack Shanks. And the other one is the life
of David by Jack Shanks. Nobody's got it. It's not out
there. So we're going to have you scan
it, and we're going to send it out. Christ is made unto us. Water. What does water do? It washes the blood from us.
Oil. He's made unto us broidered work,
badger skin, fine linen, silk, all these things. And this is
more than I know. I talked to a young convert years
and years ago. He was talking and he was like,
I don't know about that. All I know is Christ died for
me and set me free. That's what we've got here. A
sinner, purely, simply, wonderfully saved by grace. Bless His pure,
holy, and lofty name. As Job says, a ransom was found. Now, I know I assigned this for
homework Wednesday, but we're going to close. I'm just going
to read through this. 2 Chronicles 20. In case any of you didn't do
it, I read this again this morning. I've read this off and on all
week. This is so precious, it's got
to be read. I was going to preach from it,
but I figured it was too close to last week's Exodus 11 message. But now, because of this great
transaction, because He has taken the abomination, and made it
clean, and made it pure, and made us clean, and made us pure
in His sight, and given us a righteousness which can never be taken away,
because of this great transaction is now fulfilled unto us-ward,
that is to the church, to the elect, and is accomplished, We
have numerous promises and daily benefits to or for each believer. So let's look with me at our
brother Jehoshaphat. And he needs these promises from
God. daily benefits to Him and His
people. And so we are God's people. We also need all these grace-wrought
and bought benefits to us in this day, in 2020. In this day
right now because of the battles, the hate, the fear, and the trials
that's going on in Jackson, it's going on in Cape, it's going
on in St. Louis, it's going on everywhere in this country. Everywhere. Battles. Hate. Fear. trial, difficulty. Oh, this is
new. No, it's not new. But let us
look at the grace that was given to Jehoshaphat and let us do
the same thing. 2 Chronicles chapter 20, the
first 30 verses. It came to pass after this also
that the children of Moab and the children of Ammon And with
them, other besides Amorites, came Jehoshaphat to battle against
Jehoshaphat." They're going up against him and his kingdom.
Then there came some that told Jehoshaphat, these kings, saying,
there cometh a great multitude against thee. Verse 3, Jehoshaphat
feared. Do believers fear? Absolutely.
Absolutely. But let's learn his lesson. and
he set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout
all Judah." We gather together, that's what we're doing. Fasting,
yes. No, we're gathering together
to worship. And Judah gathered themselves together to ask help
of the Lord, even out of all the cities of Judah, they came
to seek the Lord. And Jehoshaphat stood in the
congregation of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the Lord before
the new court and said, O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou
God in heaven? And rulest thou not over all
the kingdoms of the heathen? And in thy hand is there not
power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee? Art
thou not our God? who didst drive out the inhabitants
of this land before Thy people Israel, and gave it to the seed
of Abraham Thy friend forever. And they dwelt therein and have
built Thee a sanctuary therein for Thy name, saying, If, when
evil comes upon us as the sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine,
We stand before this house, and in Thy presence, for Thy name
is in this house, and cry unto Thee in our affliction, then
wilt Thou hear and help. And now, behold, the children
of Ammon, and Moab, and Mount Seir, whom Thou wouldst not let
Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but
they turned from them and destroyed them not. Behold, I say now,
how they reward us to come to cast us out of Your possession,
which You have given to us to inherit. O our God, wilt Thou
not judge them? For we have no might against
this great company that cometh against us, neither know we what
to do." We don't know what to do. But our eyes are upon You. And all Judah stood before the
Lord with their little ones and their wives and their children.
And then upon Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of Benedict,
the son of Jael, the son of Matthew, the Levite of the sons of Asaph,
came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation.
And this is what he said, Hearken ye all Judah and you inhabitants
of Jerusalem, and thou King Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the Lord unto you,
Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude,
for the battle is not yours, but God's. Tomorrow go you down
against them. Behold, they come up by the cliff
of Siz, and you shall find them at the end of the brook before
the wilderness of Jerul. You shall not need to fight in
this battle, Set yourselves, stand still, and see the salvation
of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Fear not, be not
dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them,
for the Lord will be with you." And Jehoshaphat bowed his head
with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. And the Levites and the children
of the Coltonites and the children of Kohit stood up to praise the
Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high. And then they
rose early in the morning and went forth into the wilderness.
And they went forth, and Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear, O Judah,
and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, Believe, believe in the Lord
your God. so shall ye be established. Believe
His prophets, if they're His prophets, so you shall prosper."
And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers. What? Singers unto the Lord that
they should praise the beauty of holiness as they went out
before the army and to say, praise the Lord for His mercy endures
forever. And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord
Himself set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab,
and Mount Seir. They were smitten. And that word
in the margin means they smote one another. And that will make
more sense with verse 23. For the children of Ammon and
Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir. They were all
three together. Now there's two against one.
Utterly slay and destroy them. And when they had made an end
of the inhabitants of Seir, everyone helped to destroy one another.
So they turned a sword on one another. And they're cutting
one another up. And when Judah came toward the watchtower in
the wilderness, they looked under the multitude, and behold, there
were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped. And
when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away the spoil of
them, they found them among the abundance, both riches with the
dead bodies and precious jewels which they stripped off of them,
more than they could carry. They were three days in gathering
the spoil, it was so much, and on the fourth day they assembled
themselves in the valley of Berchara, and there they blessed the Lord.
Therefore the name of the same place is called the valley of
Berchara unto this day. Then they returned every man
of Judah and Jerusalem, every man, nobody got smitten, from
them to go again to Jerusalem with joy, for the Lord had made
them to rejoice over their enemies. And they came to Jerusalem with
psalteries, harps, trumpets unto the house of the Lord. And the
fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries when they
had heard that the Lord fought against the enemies of Israel."
So the realm of Jehoshaphat, that's the kingdom. was quiet. Why? His God gave him rest round
about. Oh, for our God to give us rest. And Christ is the believer's
rest. And I tell you, if you have not,
rest in Him. Brandon, would you close us please? Heavenly Father, I thank you
for this great day. Thank you for giving us rest
in Christ.