You'll have to excuse me if my
voice begins to give way. I'm not used to it. It's been
a long time since I brought four straight messages. I brought two up in Missouri
and then two this morning. Plus, we sat up all night and
talked. Turn back with me to Ezekiel
chapter 16. This is a message to God's Israel. I think everybody in here understands
what I'm saying when I say to God's Israel. He's not a Jew
which is one outwardly, he's a Jew which is one inwardly.
And that circumcision is that of the heart, not of the law. messages to God's Israel to remind
her where she came from, and what she was when he found
her, and what she had become by the
grace of God, and therefore the depth of her rebellion in the
light of all his goodness and love. Now the chapter begins
as the word of the Lord comes to God's prophet. He came to
his prophet. Everything God has to say to
men, he says in his word. The prophets were they who whose writings were the word
of God. God had nothing to say to Israel
except through his prophets. Everything that God said to Israel,
he said through his prophets. He began with Moses and all the
way down the line speaks to his Israel through his prophets. We do not need any source of
additional evidence or proof. His word is sufficient. His word is sufficient. He said,
man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God. Word of God is the foundation
of faith. People who talk about faith that
doesn't use the word of God as the basis, they don't have faith. I don't know what they have.
They got visions. They got concepts. They got theories,
but they don't have faith. cometh by hearing, hearing by
the word of God. It builds itself upon the word
of God. I don't expect anybody in here
to believe anything that I say if I can't show it to you in
the word of God. But now if you take what I say
and I read to you the word of God and then you go south, now
you've made God a liar. The Word of God is the foundation
of faith. And faith by today's standards
is not faith at all. It has no basis except the vain
ideas and thoughts of men. That's all it is. It's not something
built or something established. It's just something felt. But real faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the Word of God. And then secondly, notice this.
The word of the Lord came to God's prophet. God has always used men to communicate
with his people. He did so in the very beginning. And he has done so throughout
the scriptures, and I don't know why today men think that's so
strong, strange, so against everything. It's not against everything.
It's the way God's always worked. And then the Holy Ghost tells
you this. A man wrote, he sent me five or six books. He lives
up a little bit north of where Clay pastors in New Jersey. One
of those big cities up there. I forget what it is. Trenton
or one of those big cities. Anyway, he wrote to me. I said,
hey, there's a Grace Church not very far from you. Not very far
from you at all. And he called Clay, and Clay
said, first thing he asked me if I believed in the necessity
of the preaching of the gospel. And he said, when he told me
he knew you, he said, I couldn't imagine why he would ask me that
question. Because he says, I know you hammer
on that a lot. But that was the way I asked
him. And then he called me back, the fellow did, or wrote me back,
and asked me if it'd be okay for him to send me some books.
And he sent some books, and of course, these men all had beginnings
without hearing the gospel, you know. Well, the Holy Ghost asked this
question. How shall you hear without a
preacher? So you take your books and you
send them to him. You take it up with him. He's
the one who asked that question. How shall you hear without a
preacher? And where are you gonna get your
information? Huh? Gonna get you a library
and get it all out of that? All right, what did God tell
his prophet to tell Israel? The word of God came to his prophet. This was God's prophet. You know how the people knew
if a man was a prophet? If anything that man said didn't
come to pass, they were to take him out and stone him because
he was a false prophet. Everything that man said must
come to pass because God can't lie and God's sovereign and nothing
can keep it from coming to pass. So if God tells him to tell us
something and it don't come to pass, he's not God's prophet. What did God tell his prophet
to tell his Israel? Ezekiel 16 verse 2, calls Jerusalem to know her abominations. Now Jerusalem's called by the
Jews the holy city. Actually, they call the whole
area the holy land. But Jerusalem is symbolic of
the church of God. You can read that in the book
of Galatians. He said Jerusalem, which is down
here, is fashioned hard onto Sinai. It's connected to Sinai. And it's still in bondage. Still
in bondage under that law, under that works. But he said Jerusalem,
which is above, who's that? That's the church of the living
God. If you don't believe that, listen
to this. Cause my people, cause my people,
my Israel, my Lek, my Jerusalem, to know her abominations. Not
to know that she stepped out of line a little bit. It was the Holy Spirit inspired
these writings. These were not just any old words. Holy Spirit inspired this prophet
to write these things. And he's not talking about telling
Jerusalem that she stepped out of line a little bit, not to
know that she's made a few mistakes, but to know her abominations. Listen to Job. He said the heavens
are not clean in God's sight, How much more abominable and
filthy is man who drinks iniquity like water? You cause Jerusalem to know her
abominations. She is an abomination. And everything she does is an
abomination. You cause her to know this. This is your responsibility.
You tell my people, my elect, they're abominations. You make
it clear to them. You tell them that their mind
is enmity against God. What's that mean? It means it's
hostile. It's constant hostility toward
God. Man will obey and fellowship
with the rulers of the darkness of this world. He'll believe
and rejoice with antichrist religion. He'll follow their rulers. He'll
defend their code. But he is altogether hostile
against the word of God. And you push him far enough in
the corner and he'll tell you that. I don't care what that
book says. This is what I believe. His nature, his very nature is
contrary to God. His nature craves what it's forbidden
to have. And it resists what it's commanded
to receive. Listen to this scripture. The
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Why that foolishness unto him? Neither can he know for they
are spiritually discerned. God preserves his word in a book,
but the natural man rejects it as the word of God. God sends
to men faithful evangelists and pastors, but the natural man
rejects them and refuses to hear their gospel. God deals with
men and women and their consciences, but they harden their hearts
until that still small voice of God is seared over us with
a hot iron. But nothing more betrays the
mind and nature of a fallen man than his insatiable appetite
for false religion. He loves it. He loves it. I've seen men and women that
I've known all my life willing to separate themselves from me
to defend a religion or religious principle that they got no personal
interest in whatsoever. But they'll defend it to the
death. They're ready to roll up their sleeves and fight you
over it. Defend free will and not even
know what it is. Defend universal love without
even looking at the word of God. He said, you caused Jerusalem
to know her abominations. David said, there are no bands
in the death of the wicked. How come? Because there's no
true knowledge in the wicked of their wickedness. That's why. When a man is convinced of sin,
he suddenly realizes that he's an object of God's righteous
hatred and wrath and that God will be just if he sends him
to hell. He's got no excuse for his sin. He suddenly realizes that he's
not just a creature of God, but he's the enemy of God. Here's the love of God was manifested. He died for us when we were what? Enemies. Isn't that what he called
us? Enemies. You see, we're not just
out of fellowship with God. We're on the other side, and
we're uniformed soldiers in the opposing army. We're enemies
of God. We have just made God upset. We are, by nature, children of
wrath, even as others. But how did it get this way? How'd he get this way? Ezekiel 16 verse three. Thy birth
and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan, born in a cursed land. Did you know that this world
is under the curse of God? It is. Cursed is everyone who continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do. It's
a cursed land. The land of Canaan was the land
of idolatry. They worshiped frogs and flies
and you name it, snakes and creeping things. They had no concept of
God. They were ungodly people. He
said, this is where you come from. This is where I found you. Your birth and your nativity
is of the land of Canaan. And you were born of cursed parents. Thy father was an Amorite, thy
mother was a Hittite. Listen to David as he goes before
God, repenting of his sins. He said, I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me. By one man, sin entered into
the world, Paul said, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. And again, David says, the wicked
are strained from the womb. They go astray as soon as they
be born, speaking lies. Now, turn back to our text in
Ezekiel 16. Let's look at the picture that
the Holy Ghost paints of the sinner. He says in verse four,
and as for thy nativity, in the day that thou wast born, thy
navel was not cut, neither wast 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 things to thee, You were cast out into an open
field to the loathing of thy person in the day thou wast born. Can you imagine? Little baby,
just been born. Just reached down and tore that
umbilical cord loose, grabbed it by the feet and slung it out
in the sand. And there it was. They wasn't
over there crying and weeping because they couldn't take care
of it. Threw it over there to the loathing of its person. They
didn't want it. They didn't want to be saddled
with it. They didn't want to be responsible for it. They didn't
want to teach it. They didn't want to feed it.
It was cashed out into an open field and none I pitied thee. No tellin' how many people passed
by, that little baby over there kickin' and screamin' and that
hot sun and that hot sun burnin' it and it's sittin' there with
the afterbirth all over it and cord not cut and there's blood
all over it and there it sit. You think somebody come by and
go, no, none of I pitied thee. Nobody pitied you. You was cast
out. When? In the day you were born. That's our story. I'm telling
you, if you're here today and you're a believer, that's your
story. That's how God found you. This world didn't care about
you. Why? I tell you, if they did,
it's because you got a little money. Oh, you're the banker. Glad to meet you. Come on up
here. Don't sit back there. Come on up here. We got some
seats reserved up here for who's who. We'll seat you up here. None of our pity, do you? You
cast out. You think these men on TV laughing
and popping bubble gum and talking on there all this foolish? You
think they love you? I don't care about you. I don't care about God, I don't
care about anything. Here's the sinner, he's unwanted
and uncared for and cast out to the loathing of his person,
wallowing in the sand, unpitied, unloved, and unclean. He's food for the predators.
Is that right? I tell you, if God don't love
you, you're nothing but food for the predator. And they'll
come along. Boy, they got built-in senses.
They could find you no matter where you hide. They'll come
get you. You food for the predators. Now, I want you to listen to
me. There is nothing about the salvation of God's elect that
can be done without the intervention of God. Nothing. I can't do anything for you.
I would if I could. I beg and weep and cry and I
pray for you and all of these things, but I can't do a thing
for you except what I'm doing here to point you to Christ. And if God don't make intervention,
if he don't come in and do that work in your heart, you're food
for the predators. There's nothing about the salvation
of God's elect that can be done without the intervention of God.
Every son and daughter of Adam born into this world is by nature
a helpless, hopeless sinner. That's the truth. Being totally
depraved means you're totally dependent upon the mercy and
the free grace of God. This child had nothing going
for it. Nothing. And this wasn't the first child
to be cast out. And it won't be the last. See the sinner. No knowledge
of her sin, no knowledge of her ruin, no knowledge of her helplessness,
just kicking and screaming in the hot sand. But now watch this, Ezekiel 16,
6. When I passed by, when I passed That's what it takes. Here's a couple more words. When
I passed by B, he passed by a lot. But he didn't pass by her. When I passed by thee and saw
thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee, when thou wast
in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee, when thou
wast in thy blood, live. A thousand others could have
said it. It wouldn't have meant anything. But I tell you, when God says
live, you live. You live. Charles Wesley wrote these words
back in the 1700s. He said, and can it be? Is it possible that I should gain an interest
in the Savior's blood? Can it be? Can it be this old dead sinner,
this old cast out sinner, this old naked sinner? Can it be that
I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood? Died he for me who caused his
pain? For me who him to death pursued? Oh, my soul. When I passed by, when I passed by you. I tell you, if there could be
a simple declaration of salvation, here it is. When I passed by
you. Picture our Lord. Dark. I was up in, just outside
of Springfield, Missouri. We were on our way to church
the other night, and man, I mean, there was a storm boilin' over
Springfield, and Nixa's right there beside us. We could see
it down the highway. We could see this storm comin'.
And the lady we were ridin' with, she was nervous as a cat. She
was tryin' to get to the church before all this thing hit. But
you imagine, these disciples out on this huge lake, and this
big storm, and it's rainin' so hard that the boat was ready
to, and the waves were comin' over the boat, and the boat was
lean way over, and they looked over there, and here comes the
Lord, walkin' on the water. and he made like he was gonna
pass him by. So they just sit there, oh no,
oh no. And you won't either when you
know he's passing by. You won't either. Lord, help
us lest we perish. And he just said, to the wind
and to the waves, be still, like glass. When I passed by, you think that leper let him
pass by? He wasn't allowed under the Jewish law, he wasn't allowed
around the public, and he especially wasn't allowed where people were
congregating to worship. But he came up there anyway,
rag on his face and the pus and the blood and the stink and everything
else, and he ran up there and fell down on his face on the
ground. Don't pass me by, Lord, if you will, you can make me
clean. He said, I will. When I passed by, I don't want to stand up here
for the next 10 years and just say words and watch them go out
and fall on the ground. I want him to pass by. And will you know it or not,
you need him to pass by. Here's the good news. God will
not leave all the cursed children of Adam kicking and screaming
in the sand. Won't do. He's chosen to redeem some. Why? Nobody else pitied them. Nobody else pitied him. Why should
he? That little baby didn't sin against
anybody except God. Why would he pity? Why would God save any out of
Adam's fallen race? Somebody told me one time, said,
what you're preaching when you preach election, that's not fair. I said, so you think God is obligated
to save some? He said, well, yes. I said, why? He didn't have an answer. Why would God save any out of
Adam's fallen race? They're all rebels. They all
come forth from the womb speaking lies. Why would he save any of
them? Why would God show mercy to any
one of these rebellious sons and daughters? I'll tell you
why, because God hath from the beginning chosen to save some
to salvation. That's why. God hath saved us,
Paul says, and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Yes,
but why, why? Well, here's the only true why
I can find in the scriptures. Ephesians one and verse five. Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, are you listening? according to the good pleasure
of his will. Because he would. Nobody else
would, but he would. He would. The God of glory, the
living God, the eternal God, who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will has abounded toward us in all knowledge
of his will. And it's God's will to save a
people by and in and through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
to take from this cursed earth a bride for his son. And where'd she come from? Out
there in the burning sun, cast away, unloved, Why would
God choose such a one to magnify His mercy and grace? And all those chosen in His Son
are blessed by the Father of lights who sends His gifts with
unreserved charity and with unchangeable love and
purpose. And all He chose in His Son,
He redeemed by His Son. He paid their sin debt, wrought
out a perfect righteousness, and then ascended into glory
to make intercession for them. And then when the fullness of
the time has come, he'll pass by them. Every child predestinated of
God to be his heir, God treats with extreme prejudice. That's what Phil told me one
time, what you're preaching, you're saying God prejudiced,
I sure am. I'm glad he understood that. Read the scriptures and that's
what you'll think too. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. That prejudiced. Oh, every child predestinated
of God to be an heir, he treats with extreme prejudice. That
child, when it's born, even in its alien state, is loved of
God and made provision for. I was telling Jesse coming home,
we won't know in eternity all of the unseen things that God
protects us with and surrounds us with, and we never see it. Never even think about it. God
has appointed angels over you, over his elect, ministering angels
who minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. And he
said, their angels, that's what Christ said, their angels do
always stand before their father, ready to protect and ready to
guard, ready to preserve. And then secondly, the child
in our text was born with a death penalty. It wasn't dead yet, but it was
sure to die. Sure to die. You're not dead yet, but you're
gonna die. You're gonna die. But God said
this one's not. He said, live. Live. I know what the law says. The
law says, cursed is everyone who continueth not in all things
written in the book of the law to do them. And I know what our
nature says. We will not have this man to
reign over us. But God says, live. And I believe in the sovereign
God of glory who calls his sheep with an irresistible calling.
If he tells you live, you're gonna live. That's right. They said, if thou be the Christ,
tell us plainly. He said, I told you. But you
believe not, for you're not my sheep. As I said unto you, my
sheep hear my voice. God can make his voice affect
you. Effectual. It won't go out and
fall on the ground. It'll accomplish what he sends
it to do. And I tell you, when God passes
by his elect, he speaks through gospel preaching. And that preaching
don't come in word only. It comes in power and in the
Holy Ghost. And it says to the sinner, live.
Live. And he lives. Says to the sinner,
hear. And he hears. Says to the sinner,
see. And he sees. Says to the cripple,
stand up and walk. He couldn't, but he did. Can
you imagine being a paralyzed man for, what was it, 37 years? Couldn't move, couldn't do anything.
Lord said, take up your bed and follow me. You reckon his voice
was effectual? I don't know, he took up his
bed and followed him. And I'll tell you something, though you
hear the voice of a man, if God speaks, you'll hear him. You'll
hear him. All right, God sees the helpless
sinner, and there he lies in his blood, and he tells him to
live. Then what? Look down here at verse eight,
Ezekiel 16. When I passed by, not when the church full of elders
took me by the hand and taught me into making a profession of
faith, Not when they sang 59 verses just as I am and the preacher
kept on and on and on until he got you down to the front. When
I passed by, God said, when I looked upon you, behold thy time was
the time of love. You can't imagine right now, God looking down on you and saying,
I love you. Huh? Me? I love you. Why? Because I will. Oh, but it won't last. There are things to come. And
what Paul said, he said neither things present nor things to
come, nor life, nor death, nor any other creature shall be able
to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.
I'm not talking about some vain affection or infatuation like
we have. I'm talking about love that you
can't separate yourself from. A love that never faileth. A love that endureth all things. Oh, my soul. It was a time of
love. Listen to it. It was thy time
of love. It was that time when God comes
to that individual and makes his love known. Oh my soul, it was a time of
love. Thy time was a time of love,
and there you lay. in your blood, naked, cast out. And he said, I spread my skirt
over thee and covered thy nakedness. I think about Boaz and Ruth.
Ruth was a Gentile. She didn't know what was going
on. Her mother-in-law knew. And he said, now, When everybody
lays down to go to sleep, you just go down there and lay down
right at the feet of Boaz. Boaz woke up, looked down there
and saw her. He didn't want these other men
looking on her, and he covered her with his skirt. Oh, my soul. I spread my skirt over thee,
And I entered into a covenant with thee, a marriage agreement,
a covenant, a covenant of grace. I entered into a covenant with
thee, saith the Lord God. And thou becamest mine. One with my son. You're mine. Do you know the scripture said
that God the Father Loves his elect, he loves the believer
as he loves his son. Now I can conceive of God's love
toward his son. There's nothing in him not to
love. But he loves you as he loves his son. It's impossible to see the glory
and mercy and free grace of God until God causes you to know
your abominations. When the Lord begins to intervene
on your behalf, you cannot see it in any other light than to
see the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. When he causes you to know your
abominations, God loved you, and sent his ambassador
of peace. He came, Paul said, and preached
peace to you, to you which were afar off and to you that were
nigh. And when God intervenes, the
sinner sins only God's love and mercy and grace, because there's
no other reason for God to intervene. Is that right? A preacher, you
just harp and harp and harp on our sins. Oh, I hope he takes
what I'm harping on and presses it on your heart. When he does,
the love of God, well, it'll almost blind you. It'll overwhelm
you. You'll be swept away with it. Ezekiel chapter 16, verse 9. And then I washed thee with water. What's he talking about there?
That's the washing of regeneration. And the washing of the water
of the word. I thoroughly washed away thy
blood from thee, and then I anointed thee with oil. According to God's
mercy, He saved us, Paul said, by the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Ghost. And only God can wash away the
blood of our old birth and nature. And then He anointed us with
oil. When He anointed that old priest,
that oil poured down off his head onto his shoulders. David
said, our God has anointed us with the oil of gladness. Gladness. Whoo, I was glad when
he passed by me. Huh? Oh, I was glad when he spread
his shirt over me. David said, I thought I was clean
gone. No, he passed by. And everybody he passes by, he's
going to spread his skirt over. And he's going to wash them.
He's going to wash away that old blood, that old filth, that
old mess. And then he's going to anoint
you with oil. Some of you kids wonder, why
do these guys get up there and cry? Some of these people sit
over here and they just get real silent. I'll tell you why. They know what I'm talking about.
They've experienced these things in their heart. They know something
about the love of God when he makes it known in that washing. And that grace and that mercy.
God who is rich in mercy. And for that great love wherewith
he loved us. Even when we were dead in trespasses
and sins, have quickened us together with Christ. Verse 10, and I clothed thee
also with broidered work, and shod thee with badger skins,
and girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered you head
to toe with silk. Here's this one who was cast
out naked in an open field. And now they sit at the king's
table, arrayed in royal garments. Can you imagine? But ain't that
what we're doing here this morning? Aren't we sitting at the king's
table? Are we not eating the king's
food? Are we not arrayed in royal apparel? And here we sit. Oh, he said, I deck thee also
with ornaments. What's that? Bracelets, he said. I put bracelets upon your hands,
and a golden chain upon thy neck, and a jewel in thy forehead,
and earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown upon your head. You know what that is? That's
the fruit of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, ornaments, ornaments. Paul said in like manner also
that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefacedness
and sobriety to adorn themselves with that which becometh women
professing godliness with good works. I tell you, that's the
ornaments. The Lord dressed his young bride
so as she would appear as his queen. The crown she wore was
given to her of God. And then he tells us in verse
14, her beauty was perfect. through his comeliness. Near, so near, nearer you cannot
be, for in the person of his Son I am as near as he. Salvation is of the Lord. It
was of the Lord who sought her out It was of the Lord who found
her, passed by her, loved her, and made her his own. It was of the Lord who spoke
unto her. And it's of the Lord who caused
us to see our sins and to know our abominations. And oh, listen
to this. The rest of this chapter is about
this young lady after all that God did for her, committed whoredoms. And what a sin in the light of
such grace. Well, don't you preach law to
your people? No, I preach love. I preach love. That's the only
thing that'll constrain any man or any woman Paul said in 2 Corinthians
chapter five, and I can't remember the verse exactly, but he said,
it's the love of God that constraineth us. That door's wide open. Why don't you leave? You can't. I can't. What am I gonna do,
run back out there in the sand in my blood? No. No, I'm gonna
sit right here at the king's table. And it's the only thing powerful
enough and sure enough to keep you from falling is love. He won't let you go. You'd go
prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I
love. But he ain't gonna let you go.
Thank you.