Ezekiel 16 is a lengthy chapter,
63 verses, and a very profound chapter containing profound truth. I know that in myself, I'm incapable
of making it clear as the Lord has put this in my heart. But
it contains a message of great importance for us all. And I trust the Lord will help
us with it. The title of the message today is the sin that
surpasses Sodom. The sin that surpasses Sodom. Now in this title, I am in no
way excusing are minimizing the awful sin of Sodom or Sodomites. But in the minds of religious
people, good people, moral people, and especially in our generation,
there is nothing, people think, that could possibly be worse
than sodomy. Well, God says there is. Speaking to Judah and to Israel,
in verse 48 of this chapter, here's what God says. Ezekiel 16, 48. As I live, saith the Lord, Sodom
thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast
done, thou and thy daughters." What sin could be so awful that
God Almighty would say to Israel, even Sodom hadn't gone where
you've gone. Even her iniquity does not surpass
yours. Yours surpasses Sodom. What could
it possibly be? What's he talking about? Well,
let's back up to verse 1 and begin. To look at all 63 verses
in this chapter would take all day, but we must kind of follow
throughout the chapter, follow along here with the prayer in
our hearts that the Lord will show us Himself and ourselves
in this message. The chapter begins with the Lord
instructing his prophet Ezekiel to make known to the people their
sins. Ezekiel, you know, is writing
during the captivity in Babylon. He told us back in chapter one
that he himself is among the captives taken to Babylon. At this time, the nation of Israel
is divided with ten tribes known as the Northern Kingdom called
the Kingdom of Israel and two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, known
as the Southern Kingdom called the Kingdom of Judah. And both
these kingdoms have become captives of Nebuchadnezzar and of this
Kingdom of Babylon. I do not believe And you're familiar
with that, the captivity of 70 years. I do not believe that
the northern kingdom called Israel ever resurfaced after the captivity,
at least with any degree of respect or power as a kingdom. They didn't. Judah, however,
did resurface. You remember in the books of
Ezra, And Nehemiah, how did a remnant return to Jerusalem? Rebuilt
the walls and rebuilt the temple. And so the kingdom of Judah did
resurface and survive as a kingdom only for the purpose of bringing
God's Son into the world. That's why. Judah could survive. Judah must survive. And Judah
did survive. only because Christ was in the
loins of Judah. You see, this nation was chosen
and was called God's elect beginning with Abraham. God would
protect them. He would provide for them in
spite of them throughout the generations of the Old Testament
until the due time for his son to be born into the world. So
Old Testament Israel was a type and only a type of God's elect
in Christ. The very purpose for their existence
of a nation was complete when Christ came. You remember our
Lord said in Matthew 24 concerning the beautiful buildings of the
temple and Judaism and that Old Testament system. He said to
him concerning that temple, not one stone shall be left upon
another. And that entire Old Testament
system of worship and approach to God was history, including
the temple itself. And then after he said not one
stone should be left upon another, Later there in Matthew 24, he
said, this generation shall not pass till all these things be
fulfilled. And it didn't. The generation
he was talking to is the generation he was talking about. And it
didn't pass until these things were fulfilled. In less than
40 years, in 70 AD, in the same generation, The temple was destroyed,
Jerusalem was destroyed and burnt. The people were scattered and
that nation is history. God put it away. Now, here in
Ezekiel chapter 16, verse 1 says, again the word of the Lord came
unto me saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations. Now in verse 3, he begins with
a description of the nation in its beginning. You remember God
had chosen one man by the name of Abram, later called Abraham. He was 75 years old when God
called him out of heathenism. out of an idol-making, idol-worshipping
society in Ur of the Chaldees. He was a nobody with nothing,
just another fallen sinner of Adam's race. God likens this
beginning of this nation of Israel, He likens it to an unwanted newborn. Look at verse four. Well, let me read verse three.
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. Heathen, knowing not God, was
the beginning when God called Abraham. Then verse four says,
and as for thy nativity, In the day 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. The Lord is likening the beginning
of this nation as an unwanted newborn. In some Old Testament cultures,
if a newborn was deformed in any way or unwanted, it was not uncommon
just to pitch that newborn out in a field and leave it to die and for the wild beast to devour
and consume it. Sometimes Even if it were a girl, when they wanted sons so badly, if it was a girl and they didn't
want the baby, would just cast it out to perish. Rejected, unloved, unwanted. And God says
to Israel here, that's where I found you. That's where I found
you. Verse 4 here, they would rub
a newborn with salt with some sort of ritual. And of course,
to wash the newborn with water, clean it up was appropriate.
And then to wrap it with some covering clothing called swaddling. But God says, you're concerning
Israel. You were not salted. You were
not washed. You were not clothed, I found
you naked and unclean, rejected, unwanted, and unloved. Verse 5, none I pitied thee to
do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee, but
thou was cast out into the open field to the loathing of thy
person in the day that thou was born." To the loathing, to the
despising of thy person. When the people saw, when the
parents saw, when the father saw, when the mother saw, said,
we don't want this. Pitched out into the field to
die. God says, nobody cared about
you. But here's what I did, verse
six. 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. Don't die, live. Yea, I said
unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, Live. When no one else wanted you,
I wanted you. When no one else loved you, I
loved you. When no one else cared what happened
to you, whether you lived or died, I cared. Instead of letting you
die, I said live. Everybody was willing to forget
you were born and forget you ever existed, but not me. I said live, and you lived. Now, we can take this picture
not only of Israel's beginning, but of our beginning, not only
in a natural sense, but in a spiritual sense. Then he says, I blessed you from
infancy to adulthood. I have caused thee to multiply
as the bud of the field. And thou hast increased and waxen
great. And thou art come to excellent
ornaments. In other words, I've blessed
you. You've come from nothing. from nobody, from me calling
one heathen named Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees. I've made
of you a great and powerful nation." Now he speaks of Israel here
in the feminine having grown and developed into a beautiful
young woman. And he says here, thy breasts
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. It is time for her to have a
husband. And I spread my skirt over thee. Remember that's what happened
with Boaz and Ruth that night in the threshing floor. It was
a bond. It was a, an engagement. 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." We were married. We entered into a covenant. Thou
becamest mine. Now going back to the picture.
of the newborn. He says in verse 9, 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 girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with
silk. I began to give you everything
a man could give the woman he loved. I decked thee also with
ornaments. 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 arraignment 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." I made you beautiful. I made you beautiful. But it
was my beauty given you. Thy beauty was perfect through
my comeliness. See that in verse 14. 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. Verse 13 had said, Thou wast
exceeding beautiful and Thou didst prosper into a kingdom. Oh, in David's time, how this
nation blossomed and was blessed of God and became rich and powerful
and feared, respected and honored and was associated with the living
God. In David's time, she became great. In Solomon's time, she was glorious. All the wealth and the glory,
Solomon built great things, cities and houses and built the temple. You remember the Queen of Sheba
came to see all the glory of Solomon and the glory of the
kingdom. And when she saw it, she said,
I've heard about it. I've been told about it. But
now to see it, she said, the half was not told me. It was more than twice what I'd
heard and thought or dreamed of. The half was not told. This mighty kingdom of Israel,
most glorious nation in the history of the world, that in the beginning was nothing
and had nothing. God says, I made you. I gave
you that power. I gave you that influence. I
gave you that wealth. I gave you that glory. But now
in verse 15, the Lord tells Israel through his prophet, but thou
didst trust in thy beauty. They didn't trust in the Lord,
thou didst trust in thine own beauty. You acted like it was
you who made you great. You acted like it was yourself
who made you beautiful. You acted like it was you that
made you powerful and made you rich and blessed and glorious. You forgot that you belonged
to me, that I did it. And you, verse 15, played the
harlot because of thy renown, and poured out thy fornications
on every one that passed by, he as it was. Speaking in terms
of adultery, anybody that wanted you had you. It's what God is saying. And
of thy garments, Thou didst take and deckets thy high places with
divers colors. The term high places is always
in reference to worship, false worship. Deckets thy high places
with divers colors and plates the harlot thereupon. The like
things shall not come, neither shall it be so. Thou hast also
taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had
given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit
whoredoms with them, and tookest thy broidered garments and coveredst
them, and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them. My meat also, which I gave thee,
fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast
even set it before them for a sweet savor, and thus it was, saith
the Lord God. Moreover, thou hast taken thy
sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, And
these hast thou sacrificed unto them, that is, unto your false
gods, to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small
matter, that thou hast slain my children and delivered them
to cause them to pass through the fire for them, that is, for them false prophets,
to sacrifice the children? And in all thy abominations and
thy whoredoms Thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth when thou
wast naked and bare, and was polluted in thy blood. It came
to pass after all thy wickedness. Woe, woe unto thee, saith the
Lord God, that thou hast also built unto thee an imminent place,
and hast made thee an high place in every street." There in verse
24, this statement, imminent place. Now it may be an imminent
place. The word there is literally a
brothel, a house of prostitution. The high place refers to worship. The charge is spiritual fornication,
spiritual adultery. Verse 25, thou hast built thy
high place at every head of the way, and hast made thy beauty
to be of hoard, and hast opened thy feet to everyone that passeth
by. In plainer language, thou hast
spread thy legs to everyone that passeth by, and multiplied thy
hoardoms. Thou hast also committed fornication
with the Egyptians, thy neighbors. Great of flesh, and hast increased
thy whoredoms to provoke me to anger." Dropping down to verse
31, and in that thou buildest thine imminent place in the head
of every way, and makest thine high place in every street, and
hast not been as a harlot in that thou scornest hire, you weren't like an ordinary
harlot in that you received money for your services, but as a wife
that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her
husband. They give gifts to all whores,
but thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest them,
that they may come unto thee on every side, for thy whoredom. Instead of them paying you, you
pay them. And the contrary is in thee from other women in
thy whoredoms, whereas none followeth thee to commit whoredoms. And
in that thou givest a reward, and no reward is given unto thee,
therefore thou art contrary. You are not like the others.
Instead of being paid, you pay. Wherefore, O Harlot, he's talking
to Israel. Wherefore, O Harlot, hear the
word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God, because
thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered
through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, with all the idols of
thy abominations, and by the blood of thy children, which
thou didst give unto them. You see, thousands of infants
in Israel were sacrificed to Moloch and to other false gods,
sacrificed their own children. Behold, therefore, I will gather
all thy lovers with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all
them that thou hast loved, and all them that thou hast hated.
I will even gather them round about against thee, and will
discover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness. And I will judge them, as women
that break wedlock and shed blood are judged. And I will give thee
blood in fury and jealousy. And I will also give thee into
their hand, and they shall throw down thy imminent place, and
shall break down thy high places, They shall strip thee also of
thy clothes and shall take thy fair jewels and leave thee naked
and bare. They shall also bring up a company
against thee. They shall stone thee with stones
and thrust thee through with their swords. And they shall
burn thine houses with fire and execute judgments upon thee in
the sight of many women. And I will cause thee to cease
from playing the harlot And thou also shalt give no hire any more. So will I make my fury toward
thee to rest and my jealousy shall depart from thee and I
will be quiet and will be no more angry. God says, I'm through
with you. I'm not jealous for you anymore.
I'm not angry with your enemies anymore. I'm through with you. Verse 45, thou art thy mother's
daughter that loatheth her husband and her children. And thou art
the sister of thy sisters, which loath their husbands and their
children. Your mother was an Hittite, and your father an Amorite. And thine elder sister is Samaria,
she and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand. and thy younger
sister that dwelleth at thy right hand is Sodom and her daughters. Yet hast thou not walked after
their ways, nor done after their abominations. But as if that
were a very little thing, thou wast corrupted more than they
all in thy ways. As I, Leo, saith the Lord God,
Sodom thy sister hath not done. She nor her daughters, as thou
hast done thou and thy daughters." So this is the charge against
them. They're turning on God, forsaking
God. Now in verse 53, beginning in
verse 53, we'll look at this a minute, is what some think
is God's promise to restore this old nation. But it's not that
at all, not at all. When I shall bring again their
captivity, they're referring to Sodom and
Samaria, the sisters, Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity
of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity
of thy captives in the midst of them. What God is saying is,
the day you see me approve of Sodom, and her iniquity, and
the day you see me approve of Samaria and her sins, that's
the day I'll approve of you." It ain't happening is what he's
saying. It's not going to happen. Now verse 55, when thy sisters,
Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate,
and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former
estate. In other words, when they undo it all, when they go
back to being pure and clean, when they return to their former
estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate. In other words, when you see
Sodom Go back to being pure in my eyes. And you see Samaria
pure in my eyes. Then you can be pure in my eyes.
But it's not happening. It's not going to happen. Verse 56, For thy sister Sodom
was not mentioned by thy mouth in the day of thy pride. What
is this saying to Israel? Sodom was so disgusting. Samaria
was so disgusting. Gentiles in general were so disgusting
to Jews. He says here, you refused any
association with her, even as a neighbor. He said, you never
even ever opened your mouth about her. You never mentioned by thy
mouth. thy sister Sodom." You certainly
didn't acknowledge that she was like you are and you were like
she is. Sodom was so disgusting, you
never mentioned her. You refused any association with
her. But God here calls her thy sister. He'd said back up in verse 48,
you think she's so bad, she's not as bad as you. Sodom was never married to Jehovah
God as was Jerusalem, as was Israel. Sodom never deserted a divine
husband whose kindness had exalted her to much glory in the earth
like Israel did. Even Sodom was not guilty of
that, but Israel was. So what is the sin that surpasses
Sodom? It is to spurn, to shun, to despise
the goodness of God. It is to prostitute the blessings
of God, to take the glory God has bestowed and give it to other lovers. Verse 59, for thus saith the
Lord God, I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which
has despised the oath in breaking the covenant. God says we're
through. You've broken the covenant, the
marriage vows, You want out, so be it. You're out. We're through. Was God defeated in His purpose? No. That was His purpose. Christ came into the world and
said, Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. And the book of Hebrews
says, He taketh away the first. Talking about that old covenant
of works. of people being able to try to
live up to pleasing God and winning God's approval. Christ said,
I lo, I come to do thy will, O God. I come to take away the
first. That's the end of that. That
he may establish the second, a new covenant. Now, beginning
in verse 60, we find another covenant in the picture. involving
a remnant of Israel along with Sodom and Samaria,
Gentiles all in the picture. Look at verse 60. Nevertheless,
I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth,
and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant. This is the new covenant in Christ. It's not a temporal covenant,
but an everlasting covenant. God says this covenant will not
survive by what you do, but by what I do. It's not established by our faithfulness
to God, it's established by His Son's faithfulness in our stead,
by His shed blood to satisfy God's justice, by clothing us
with His righteousness. The Spirit of God has come to
indwell every believer, to make us conscious of our sin, to make
us ashamed of our sin. Verse 61 said, then thou shalt
remember thy ways and be ashamed. Grace will bring you down and
bring you in. Grace will do for you what works
never could do. Oh, I know a lot of folk that
claim to be making the grade and they're anxious to promote
and paint posters and billboards to tell you about their works
and their accomplishment and how they're getting the job done
for God. But they know in the depths of
their heart that they're as sorry and rotten and as low down in
this flesh as you are and I am. But grace will do for you what
works can never do. Grace will bring you down, bring
you in, make you ashamed of your sin. when thou shalt receive
thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger." Oh, he done said,
you wouldn't even claim Sodom as a neighbor, let alone a sister. But he says, when grace comes
in your heart, you'll receive thy sisters, thy elder and thy
younger. You'll see that Sodom and Samaria,
you will not see them as being inferior to you any longer. You will receive them. That's
what he says here. Not approve of them. We don't have to approve of anybody.
We don't even approve of ourselves, see? We preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord. And I will give them unto thee
for daughters, And look at this line, not by thy covenant. It's the last of verse 61. Not
by thy covenant. No good, no blessing will ever
come from God by your doing. Your doing can only damn you,
not save you. Not by thy covenant. Now verse
62, I will establish my covenant with thee. Thou shalt know that
I am the Lord. You will know that what you couldn't
do, I have done. The perfection you could not
attain to in yourself, I have provided for you in my Son. That's what the New Covenant's
about. That's what the Gospel's about. That's what God's grace
is about. In that the perfection He required
of you and I, He provided it in His only begotten Son. Now
verse 63, that thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open
thy mouth any more because of thy shame. You know what grace
will do? It'll cause you to not open thy mouth anymore about
me, my, and me, and mine, and my for, and what we're doing,
and how much greater we are than anybody else. Grace will shut
you up. Be confounded and never open
thy mouth anymore because of thy shame. You confess what you are. When I am pacified toward thee
for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God. There is a totally different
mindset and attitude in the hearts of God's people.
than there is in the rest of the world. It's so different
even from the religious world. Clothed in all their religious
garb, all the wicked insist they're
righteous. And all the righteous confess
they're wicked. That's how it works. That's how
it is. All the wicked, even in religion,
will contend we're righteous. But those really righteous in
Christ will confess, I'm wicked. That's how it is. Which side
are you on? The application of this chapter
is so very extensive. What happened to Israel? will
happen to all Adam's race in final judgment. God will say,
I'm through. I'm not fooling with you anymore. After man has taken all the goodness
and blessings of God to enjoy in this life, and then spit in God's face like
this generation is doing and saying we don't need God, we
don't want God, we will not have Him rule over us. I want to say
all that's going to change in the day of Christ's return. It
really is. He tells us in Matthew 25, He
will set His people, His elect, His sheep on the right hand And
he'll say unto them, come, you blessed of my father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
How was it prepared from the foundation of the world? I'll
tell you how. It was prepared first by God's
elective decree and elective purpose. We were chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world. It was also prepared and
it was procured even then in the mind and purpose of God.
Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. See, salvation was no afterthought
with God. He never came up with a remedy
after we had the problem. Oh, no. His remedy in His only
begotten Son is the reason He created the problem. Adam was created to fall. Couldn't
be any other way. Salvation was no afterthought
with God. It was all fixed and finalized
in eternity before He ever hung the stars. When Christ our Lord
hung on that cross in shame and endured the judgment of Almighty
God for the sins of His elect, I want to say there is no way
possible that a single one of his sheep can perish. In that day of his coming again,
he shall set the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his
left. And he'll say to the goats, all
the unredeemed of Adam's race Depart from me, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his messengers,
his ministering spirits, fallen men, and angels. And apart from
Christ, we'd all be in that number. We'd all be in that number. But
as the old songwriter said, oh, the love. that drew salvation's
plan. When did he draw it out? In eternity. Oh, the grace that brought it
down to man. When was that? When he was born
of a virgin there in Bethlehem. Oh, the mighty gulf that God
did span. God in infinite holiness came
into this world which men had made nothing but a cesspool of
sin and shame and ungodliness. Oh, the mighty gulf that God
did span at Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace
was free. Pardon there was multiplied to
me. There my burdened soul found
liberty. There, there at the cross. not in looking at myself, not
in looking at my profession and my doing, but in looking on Christ,
the bleeding Lamb, to see Him dying for me as my surety, my
Savior, to see Him as my righteousness before God. It was there in Him
My burdened soul found liberty there at Calvary. Looking unto Jesus, the author,
which means the beginner, the start, the author and finisher
of our faith. You say, well, what is there
for us to do? Believe in Him. believe in him. He did his part, what's my part?
Well, now wait a minute. He is the author, this is in
the book of Hebrews, the author and finisher. And if you'll read
that, the little word and is in italics, which means that's
not in the original Greek text. What it's really saying is, looking
unto Jesus, the author, finisher. of our faith, all in one, all
in one, looking unto Him. Bless His holy name. Well, I
wanted to give us this chapter and see this awful thing of the
harlotry of Israel, of refusing of using the blessings and glory
of God to make them what they were, then to turn and give it to other
lovers, to false gods. No wonder God said to them, you're
worse than Sodom ever thought about being. And this morning, this is a message
for everyone, whether you profess to know God or not. So as we see the bumper stickers,
as we listen to the media, as we hear the comments and read
the comments about sodomy, along with a lot of other things in
our time, Just think about this. There was a people that God said,
you're worse off than that crowd. I don't want to be in that number.
I don't want to be in that number. Oh, that we would honor God with
all that he does for us. Bless his name. All right, stand
with me.