One day the Lord Jesus was passing
through the streets of Jericho and he came to a place, there
was a man up in a tree. He was there because of the great
crowds and he was a man of small stature and he wanted to see
the Lord Jesus about whom he'd heard so much. And the Lord Jesus
came to that place and looked up in the tree and said to Zacchaeus,
come down for today, I must abide at thy house. The Lord Jesus
passed through Jericho that day because for Zacchaeus, the time
of love had come. Our Lord is going out of Jericho
and passes by another man who'd been blind from his birth by
the name of Bartimaeus. And Bartimaeus heard that Jesus
of Nazareth passes by and he cried, Jesus, thou son of David,
have mercy on me. And the Lord Jesus stood still
and called for Bartimaeus because for Bartimaeus that day was the
time of love. There was a woman with an issue
of blood for 12 years, who had bowed for 12 years for this issue
of blood. She'd spent all of her money,
wasted her money on physicians of no value until one day she
heard that the Lord Jesus was walking in the midst And she
came in the midst of the crowd and made her way through the
crowd. And she said, if I could just touch the hem of his garment,
I would be made whole. And so she touched his garment. And he said, who touched me?
He perceived that virtue had gone out of him and she was immediately
healed of her plague because that day was for her the time
of love. I wonder. Is this, for some of
you, the time of love? This I know, for every chosen,
redeemed sinner, before the world began, God Almighty set a time
when he would meet his chosen one, cross his path by his sovereign
power, make himself known and call his chosen from darkness
to light, from death to life, from condemnation to everlasting
salvation at the time of love. Let's read about it in Ezekiel
chapter 16. Here we have a picture drawn
by the pen of divine inspiration of the time of love describing
for us what God does for chosen sinners when he saves them by
his grace. Ezekiel chapter 16, verse 1. Again, the word of the Lord came
unto me saying, son of man calls Jerusalem to know her abominations. That's the first task of every
prophet sent of God is to make you know your abominations. What a word is here used to describe
the sin of God's people, abominations. As I said to you this morning,
Jeremiah, or Ezekiel rather, is in Babylon with the Jews in
the captivity. So he's not speaking just to
Jerusalem in any physical sense. Jerusalem was already destroyed. The Jews were taken into captivity.
Judah was in bondage. He's speaking to God's people
and he's saying to Ezekiel, Ezekiel, you tell my people in plain words,
the reason for their bondage, the reason for their captivity,
it's their abominations, their abomination. that which is abominable
before God is that which characterize their behavior and their lives.
Therefore, they're here. You are in this condition in
your lost, ruined estate under the wrath of God with a sentence
of judgment and condemnation upon you, with the terror of
God seizing your soul because of your abominations, not your
Mistakes or your errant ways your abominations your abominations
before God verse 3 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 and Hittite as for thy nativity
In the day that thou was born, thy navel was not cut. Neither
was thou washed in water to supple thee. Thou was 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 was cast
out in the open field to the loathing of thy person. in the day that thou was born. And when I passed by thee, I
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. I have caused thee to multiply
as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased in waxen
great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments. Thy breast are fashioned,
and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. Now when I passed by thee and
looked upon thee, behold, thy 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 throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed
thee with oil. I clothed thee also with broidered
work, and shod thee with badger skin. And I gird thee about with
fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. I decked thee also
with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on
thy neck, and I put a jewel in thy forehead, and earrings in
thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus wast thou
decked with gold and silver, and thy raiment was of fine linen
and silk, and broadered work. Thou didst eat fine flour and
honey and oil, and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou
didst prosper into a kingdom, and thy renown went forth among
the heathen for thy beauty. For it was perfect through my
comeliness which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God. This poor, outcast, polluted
infant. Resurrected, washed, anointed,
nourished and renowned for the perfection of beauty is a divinely
inspired picture of every sinner's conversion and salvation by the
grace of God. A divinely inspired picture of
God's church and what the Lord God has done for us by his grace. Now, I see three things in these
14 verses I want to call to your attention. First, we're told
here what we were by birth and by nature. Second, the Lord God,
our Savior, tells us what he did for us when he saved us by
his grace. And then third, he tells us what
we are in him. Let's begin in verses one through
five. Here we're told what we were by birth, what we are by
nature, what we were when the Lord Jesus came to us. This is the state and condition
of all men by nature. The word of the Lord came to
Ezekiel and said to Ezekiel, you go tell my people what they
are. Look at this. The word of the
Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, call Jerusalem to know
her abominations. And say, thus saith the Lord
God to Jerusalem. This is how you started. This
is how you began. Your birth and your nativity
is of the land of Canaan. You've heard of Canaan. Do you
remember what Noah said to his son Canaan? Cursed be Canaan. Your birth and your nativity
was from a cursed people, a cursed race, a cursed parent, a cursed
mother, a cursed father. Your father was an Amorite, the
offshoot, the offspring of Lot's adulterous affair with his own
daughter. And your mother was a Hittite,
one of the cursed of the Amorites. Read on. Verse three, 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 an Hittite. And as for thy nativity, in the
day that thou was born, thy navel was not cut. Neither was thou
washed in water to supple thee. A baby that's newborn normally
The navel is cut and tied. The baby is washed, washed from
the blood in which it's been surrounded and made clean. But not you. Thou was not salted
at all, nor swaddled at all. Why? None eye pitied thee. None eye pitied thee. No one wanted you. No one cared
for you. No one was interested in you
to do any of these under thee. Nobody had any compassion upon
you. Nobody felt anything for you.
You were cast off like an unwanted dog. You were cast off like some
unwanted, useless animal just thrown out in the field. Nobody
had any concern for you. But thou was cast out in the
open field to the loathing of thy person. Most of you, I'm sure, have come
across dead animals in the field, in the woods, that have been
there for a while, and you give them plenty of space. You walk
around them. You don't want to get near because
of the filth and the stench. You don't bother to go bury it.
You just wait for it to rot. because of the filth and the
stench. There's just something loathsome
about the dead, decaying corpse. And that of a human being is
far worse. In the day that thou was born,
that's your beginning. They tell me that long, long
ago, among some of the pagan nations, If a woman was expecting
a child and the child was unwanted, it was a birth that was not anticipated,
or when the child that was born was deformed, or if it was a
girl and girls were not wanted, as today they're not in China,
that child would be taken immediately, not even washed or cleaned, but
cast as a unwanted piece of trash in the open field. left to die
and death would come soon. The child would be left to die
and it wouldn't take long. Then the corpse would be left
to the buzzards and the beast. The picture is almost unbearable. What a terrible, terrible image
we have before us. But God says that's your beginning
and mine. We were, by nature, the cursed
children of cursed parents of a cursed race. We're all, by
nature, wretched, despicable, deformed, unwanted, outcast,
polluted, dead, decaying, flesh-rotting sinners. The stench of our own
blood makes us obnoxious before anyone. That's your abomination. That's where we are by nature. That's what you are in yourself
and me too. Have you got some idea of the
obnoxious picture? God commands me as his preacher
to show you these things. It's not a pretty picture. But
I insist upon it in faithfulness to your soul because you will
never seek Christ till you know yourself a sinner. You will never
seek mercy till you know your misery. You will never seek grace
till you know your guilt. You will never seek help till
you know that you're helpless before God Almighty. Man by nature
is nothing but sin. an abomination before God. You'll
find no better picture of our state at birth in our father
Adam than what's given us here in this story. We were born in
sin, born of fallen parents. David said, in sin did my mother
conceive me. In sin did my mother conceive
me. He is not saying that he was born from some kind of an
illicit affair. That's not it at all. He's saying
at the very instant I was conceived in my mother's womb, I was corrupt. Man's not born on probation and
then sometime becomes accountable and at an age of accountability
and chooses to become a sinner. Oh no, the wicked are restrained
from the womb. They go astray as soon as they
are born speaking lies. so that we are all like this
unclean baby from the beginning. Ours was a state of total depravity,
total inability with regard to all things spiritual. Turn to
the book of Romans, if you will. This poor outcast infant is helpless,
hopeless, without any power or any ability to help itself. So man is born dead you see it
Romans chapter 5 verse 12 Dead in Adam all died Wherefore as
by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so
death passed upon all men For all have sinned This baby is
dead Dead it couldn't do anything It couldn't even cry for help.
It's dead. It's dead. That's your state
by nature. Dead. I haven't had time to confirm
this, whether Frank was talking to us about the leprosy in comparison
of it to sin and the members of the body rotting and falling
off If I recall correctly, Brother Frank, it's something else about
leprosy. You feel no pain with it. You just die. So it is with sin. You're dead. And you feel nothing. Nothing. Not until God does something
for you to make you know what you are. So that like this infant
you're cast out in your own blood to the loathing of your person
and no one pities you and you can't even cry out because you're
dead. That's the nature of man. Turn
to Ephesians chapter 2. You hath he quickened who were
dead till a dead person. Tender stories,
they're unmoved. Tell a dead person of some great
alarming fear, they're unmoved. Do something horribly cruel to
the dead body, doesn't affect them. You watch a mortician work
on a dead body and you can almost think, what that must feel like. It's just a dead body. The dead. You hath he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and in sins. What do you expect from the dead?
Nothing but rot. Nothing but corruption. Nothing
but decay. I recall years ago, my mother,
I guess like lots of folks, she was fretting all the time about
various things. And she said to us one time,
she said, We won't even have enough to bury us when we die."
And I said, mother, I promise you, it won't be long, we'll
get you in the ground. That's one thing you don't have
to worry about. It won't be long, we'll get you in the ground.
Death, we don't be around it long. Dead in trespasses and
in sins. Where in time past you walked
according to the course of the world. According to the prince
of the power of the air the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience Among whom also you all we all had our conversation
in time past in the lust of our flesh Fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind and whereby nature children of
wrath even as others But God who is rich in mercy for his
great love wherewith he loved us Hath quickened us together
with Christ By grace you're saved, verse six. And hath raised us
up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches
of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.
We're his workmanship created in Christ Jesus under good works,
which God had before ordained that we should walk in them.
Now, what's this? Verse 11. Wherefore, remember. Children of God, remember, remember
that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh who were called
uncircumcision, who were called filthy. and dirty and polluted
by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made with hands.
That at that time, here's where you were without Christ. Aliens from the Commonwealth
of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having
no hope without God in the world. Dead. There were none to help
this poor infant, none who would help if they could. We read back
in Ezekiel 16, 5, none I pitied thee. Oh, men have natural pity and
natural compassion, and they want everything for the child. They want everything for the
newborn. Mama and daddy planned for its
college education and planned for it to have a great career
and planned for it to have a better livelihood than they had. Planned
wonderful things for the child. Everything useless. Everything useless. But give
no thought to the needs of the child's immortal soul. I had a neighbor when I was growing
up who had some kind of a secret job for the United States government.
I don't know what he did. He never did tell me. Mr. Sturgis. And he was always pretty good
to me. He and I got along. I never caused him the pain I
did some of the other neighbors. When it came time to roll houses
on Halloween nights, his didn't get rolled. He was pretty good
to me. He'd always give me good advice. I mean, just always good
advice. Kind of took me under his wings.
He didn't have a son. He just had a daughter. And he'd give
me good advice. And then God saved me by his
grace. And Mr. Sturges got wind of it. David, you'll never guess his
counsel. He called me over to his yard one day, sat down on
the steps on the front porch. And he said, I hear you got religion. And I said to him, best I remember,
I said, the Lord saved me, Mr. Sturgis. He said, well, Don,
you don't want to carry that too far. That's what I'm talking about.
None I pitied you. No man cared for my soul. That's
the state man's in by nature. That's just where we were when
the Lord called us by His grace. The law condemned us. Holiness
would not embrace us. Truth was sworn to testify against
us. Justice may bear its sword to
destroy us. We couldn't help ourselves and
no one else wanted to. This is a loathsome sight. But
a true picture of fallen sinners. Isaiah described us well from
the sole of the foot, even to the head. There is no soundness
in me but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. If there's any help, it's got
to come from outside. If there's any help, It's got
to come from someone other than me. If there's any help, it's
got to come from someone other than those among whom I live.
I'm a man of unclean lips, Isaiah said, and everybody around me,
mother and daddy and brother and sister and neighbor and friend
are just like me. They're all sinners with unclean
lips. Who can help? Nobody but God. Nobody but God. Unless God intervenes,
dead I must remain. It's an awful sight to see a
baby lying in that field, unwanted, helpless, hopeless. But that's how we came into this
world. Now watch this second. Ezekiel 16, six, the Lord God
declares what he's done for us by his 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, live. Yea, I said unto thee, when thou
wast in thy blood, live. I have caused thee to multiply
as the bud of the field. Thou hast increased. and waxen
great, thou art come to excellent ornaments. Thy breasts are fashioned, thine
hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. I pass by thee. Oh, what grace. I pass by thee. David said, Lord,
I looked into the heavens and when I consider thy heavens,
the sun, the moon, the stars, the things which you've made,
what is man that thou visitest in? I pass by thee. God stepped into time. God came into humanity. God came in our flesh. The word made flesh dwelt among
us. And then he came to us where
we were. We didn't pass by him. He passed
by us. We didn't come to him. He came
to us. We didn't seek him. He sought
us. I passed by the he came where
we were and saw us polluted in our blood just as we are by nature. He saw me ruined in the fall,
yet loved me notwithstanding all. We didn't see him, but he
saw us. We didn't want him, but he wanted
us. We didn't love him, but he loved
us. Our Lord Jesus came into this
world to save sinners such as you and me. He was mindful of us and set
his love upon us before the world began and entered into a covenant
of mercy with us on our behalf as our surety before the angels
of heaven saying his praise, this covenant. Covenant of pure
free grace and salvation by which God saved us by which God gave
us all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ by
which God Accepted us in Christ our surety the lamb slain from
the foundation of the world the Son of God came where we were
in our flesh took our nature and obeyed God's law for us and
He took our sins and our shame upon ourselves, our pollution
and our guilt and redeemed us to God by his blood. He said,
I saw the polluted in thy blood. I saw you the way you really
are. I saw you in your pollution. I saw you in your desperate need. I saw you in your helplessness. I saw you in your lonely isolation. And I said unto thee, when thou
wast in thy blood, in the same way that our Lord stood before
the grave of Lazarus, whose dead body was already decaying. You remember, Martha said, Lord,
he'd been dead four days. By this time he staketh. The
Lord said, take away the stone. And he said, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came out
of the grave. So the Lord Jesus comes to dead
sinners and speaks by the word of his grace, by the power of
his spirit and says to the dead, live. And the dead find themselves
alive before God. Not by choice, Not by decision. Not by work. By a work of grace
performed for them and in them by God Almighty. Live. And so the Lord Jesus quickens
to whom He will. Turn to John chapter 5. John
chapter 5. Look at this. When our Lord gives life to a
sinner, through His Word, death gives way to life. Darkness is
turned to light. The storm is made a calm. Inability
gives way to strength. And our enemies flee from our
face. There's a man with a withered
arm. And the Lord Jesus says to him, stretch forth thine arm.
Mark, his arm is withered. If he could stretch it forth,
he'd have stretched it forth a long time ago. What on earth is this but
insanity? The Lord says, stretch forth
thine arm. Oh, no. With his word comes the power. Stretches out his arm. And when
the Lord God calls sinners to life by his grace, his call is
a call of effectual omnipotence and the dead live. John chapter
5 verse 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, watch this,
shall have everlasting life. Now, what it says? No, he that
heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting
life. You couldn't hear. You wouldn't
believe if he hadn't already given you life. And he shall
not come into condemnation, but is passed from death into life. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the
voice of the son of God and they that hear shall live. For as
the father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the son to
have life in himself. John in Revelation 20 verse 6,
heard blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. On such the second death hath
no power. The first resurrection is the
new birth. The first resurrection is God calling sinners from death
to life spiritually. The second resurrection is the
resurrection of the body in the last day. But in the regeneration
of our souls, in the new birth, in God's salvation, sinners are
resurrected from the dead by the same power that Christ Jesus
found when he was resurrected from the dead physically. Now,
here's the third thing. We were dead. Christ gave us
life. He said live and we began to
live but there's more Look at verses 8 through 14 Here the
Lord Jesus tells us what we are in him and what he made us by
his grace Now when I passed by thee he says and looked upon
thee behold thy time was the time of love and I spread my
skirt over thee and covered thy nakedness and Nakedness throughout
scripture refers to sin. You remember Noah's son Ham uncovered
his father's nakedness. His brothers refused to look
upon their father's nakedness. If you go up an altar of steps,
you're forbidden to do so because if you try to work your way up
to God, you only expose your nakedness, your sin. The Lord
says, I covered your nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God. And thou became
as mine, lock, stock, and barrel, mine. I called you. I made you. I redeemed you. You're
mine. I gave my heart to you, and I
called you to give your heart to me. Then I washed thee with
water, yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and
anointed thee with oil. I clothed thee also with broader
work. and shod thee with badger skins, and I girded thee about
with fine linen, and covered thee with silk. I decked thee
also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and
a chain on thy neck, and I put a jewel on thy forehead, and
earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus was thou decked with gold
and silver, and thy raiment was of fine linen and silk and brooded
work. Thou didst eat fine flour and
honey and oil, and thou wast exceeding beautiful had thou
didst prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went forth among
the heathen for thy beauty, for it was perfect through my comeliness
which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord. Thy time was the time
of love. I lived hating God like you. Hating God. Hating God. That's the nature of humanity,
hating God. Men love their thoughts about
God. They hate God. I hate God. Until the time of love. And something marvelous happened.
Because he first loved me. He came and conquered me by his
grace and made me his and called me to love him. And now we love
him. Because he first loved us. He said I spread my skirt over
thee and covered thy nakedness You remember Ruth said to Boaz
it spread your skirt over man What? What? Take me for yourself
And the Lord Jesus came to me When nobody would have me when
nobody wanted me and nobody had any reason to. And he spread
his skirt over me and took me for himself. I covered thy nakedness. He took away our reproach, our
shame, our guilt, made us righteous and holy by his obedience and
death in our place at Calvary. And then he said, I washed thee.
He cleansed us with the washing of water by the word, in redemption
by his blood, in regeneration by his spirit, through the word
sanctifying us by his grace. Let the water and the blood from
thy wounded side, which flowed, be of sin the double cure, save
from wrath and make me pure. He said, I anointed thee. I anointed
thee. The holy anointing oil. With
which the high priest was anointed as the oil representing God,
the Holy Spirit. I poured out my spirit upon you. I gave you my spirit. Believers
are not people who pray for the spirit. They're people who had
the spirit. They're not people who want to be baptized in the
Spirit. They're people who possess the
Spirit and are possessed of the Spirit. They're not people who
want a second work of the Spirit. They're people who walk in the
Spirit, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. I clothe you with
broader work. Broader work. Don't see much of that these
days. Women doing embroidery work. in the mountains of West
Virginia when we were there, the old women used to do a lot
of it. It takes a lot of time, a lot
of patience, a lot of it. It refers to the broadered curtains
in the temple. Beautiful, magnificent embroidery
work. He said, I clothed you with the
beauty of the veils in my house. Those Jewish women sat for days
and days and by hand did the work. And these veils were made
of purple and scarlet and red and blue. They were just beautiful,
magnificent. The Savior says, I covered you
with this special needlework of glory and the grace of God
and the graces of the spirit, love and joy and peace and faith
and long suffering. All those things are so beautiful.
And I shod you with badger skins. Badger skins. Again, referring
to those veils and the coverings in the temple, badger skins.
The badger skins were very tough, durable and lasting. And easy,
soft to the touch. The Lord Jesus says, I put the
finest, the finest of garments on you. And on your feet I put
durable, lasting, soft, comfortable shoes of badger skin so that
you walk through this world and the trials and difficulties and
the coals of fire and the rivers of woe and you walk through comfortable
in my grace. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou
art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. I girded you with fine linen. Who wears linen? Who wears linen? The priest did. And you are made
a holy priest. You are sinners who now are able
to do business with God in the holy place by divine right. A holy priesthood. And I covered
you with silk. With silk. Silk, that's costly. That's expensive stuff. Silk. I covered you with silk. Who
wears silk? Kings wear silk. He's made us
kings and priests unto God. Our Redeemer washed us with his
blood and made us a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a nation of kings
and priests unto God. And then he says, your renown,
your renown went forth among the nations for your beauty. And it was perfect through my
comeliness that I put upon thee. He says, this is what I've done
for you. I've made you the picture of
beauty. And everybody in the world. Every, every angel of heaven,
every man on the earth, every demon of hell will see soon what
my grace has done for you. Your renown goes out among the
nations. Your beauty is perfect. Perfect. Perfect. I put gold on you and silver
on you. I just thought about that just
a minute ago as I was reading it. I don't know what possesses men, but
we all like to buy jewelry for our wives. And the women all
like to get it. But just buy what you can. Because we want our wife decked
out with ornaments so that the world knows how we value them. Maybe there's something good
in all that pride. Maybe there's something beneficial
in that. We want the world to know how we value the object
of our love. And the Savior says, I deck you
with the richest of ornaments and the world knows your mind. the objects of my everlasting
love. And this perfection of beauty
that's yours, it is yours through my comeliness. What a word for perfect beauty. My comeliness. That which makes
me appealing to you. that which that about me which
causes you to delight in me your beauty is made perfect through
the beauty of my grace and character as God your Savior that I put
on you so that I took my righteousness and made it yours my holiness
and made it yours my sanctification and made it yours because you
and I are one forever. And I will at last present you
faultless before the presence of the glory of God with exceeding
joy, holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in beauty, in the perfection
of beauty through my comeliness that I put on you. Oh, God, make
this for chosen sinners. the time of love and call them
out by your grace. Amen.