If you would turn back with me
to Ezekiel chapter 34, those of you whom Christ has revealed
Himself to, you find great comfort in the scriptures, the promises
of God Almighty. And one of the greatest promises
I suppose that God's made to us in His Word is that He'll
never leave us or forsake us. What a token of God's magnificent
grace to save us. undeserving creatures that we
are. But also what wonderful, beautiful
token of His grace in that He will never leave me nor forsake
me. That's why I rejoice, dear friends,
in knowing that salvation is of the Lord from beginning to
end. He saved me by His grace. He called me by His grace. I
was dead in trespasses and sin. He quickened me. He made me alive. And friends, if I endure to the
end, it will be due to His keeping. And that's great comfort to the
believer, isn't it? Isn't that a great comfort to
you this morning that know Him? He's not going to let you go.
By grace I've been made to know whom I have believed. And I've
been persuaded by God's grace that He is able to keep that
which I've committed unto Him against that day. As Paul wrote
to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1.12. What is it that I've committed
to Christ and whom I believe? The salvation of my soul throughout
all eternity. And friends, we live in a world
that boasts of no sure things. You don't have to turn on the
television long to see there's just no sure thing. People are
rioting, protesting everywhere because there's no sure thing.
But I've been made aware of the only sure thing. Haven't you? And that's Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. He came into the world to save
sinners. That's a sure thing. That's a
sure thing. That's a bed long enough to stretch
out on. That's a bed that has covers
big enough to wrap myself up in. I, by God's grace, have been
made to know that He is the one thing needful. One thing needful. He's the way, He's the truth,
He's the life, and He Himself said, No man can come to Me but
by me, John 14, 6. No man can come except the Father
which sent me draw him. And if the Lord didn't interfere
in our church, and I mean this church individually and the church
of God collectively, if He did not interfere, divinely interfere,
intervene, I'm convinced the church would cease to exist.
He's who keeps it all together. If the doctrines of His Holy
Word had been left to man's teaching, I'm telling you, they would have
so degenerated that the church wouldn't have one particle of
truth in it. God has a remnant according to
election. And they're going to preach God's
holy truth until He comes back. Why? Because He keeps it. and He causes it to be so. And
I tell you, the preservation of truth in our midst is owing
to the direct and immediate sovereignty of the Almighty. Even within
our own hearts, the witness of truth in the heart of every individual
believer is the evidence of the same unceasing care of Christ
for us. If He let me go tomorrow, I wouldn't
believe anything that I've preached to you ever. Christ Himself said
in John chapter 10, My Father which gave them Me is greater
than all, than all. And no man is able to pluck them
out of My Father's hand. He's the greatest of all. Why,
He is so much greater than we can imagine, so much more powerful
than we could think. It's no hard thing for Him to
keep a sinner in His hand. And that's the God with whom
we have to do, dear friends. And if you don't trust this God,
you're going to go out one day and give an account to Him as
to why you didn't. And I know it's easy once we
walk out this back door to continue on in our daily lives. We live
in this world. We work in this world. We're
mostly around people that don't have any conviction or any belief
in what we hold dear to our hearts. And it's tough. I know it is.
But friends, this is serious business. This is a matter of
life and death. And that's why I endeavor, by
God's grace, every time we meet, to comfort you all I can. I can't comfort you, only God
can, but bring you a message that's comforting to your heart.
You know the comfort that you have that the world doesn't?
You're His, in a personal, intimate, precious way. Thou art mine. And when you pass through the
waters, I'll be with you. And through the rivers, they
shall not overflow you. And when you walk us through
the fire, you won't be burned, neither shall the flame even
kindle upon you." You remember the three children that were
thrown into the fiery furnace? The king threw them down in there.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The scripture says, he looked
down and there were four. And the other Looked like God. When they pulled them up out
of that furnace, didn't even have the smell of smoke on them.
You know why? Neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the
Holy One of Israel, and I am your Savior. I gave Egypt for
your ransom, Ethiopia and Cebu for thee. God gives nations and
countries for his people, because you were precious in my sight.
Me? It's hard for me to imagine being
precious in anybody's sight. But precious in God's sight? Only in Christ. But nevertheless
so. And I have loved thee. And friends, I ask you, if God
be for us, who in the world could be against us? I'll give men
for thee, and people for thy life. Fear not, for I am with
thee." Now that's what I want to get a hold of. Every day,
every minute, every second of every minute, of every hour,
of every day, of every month, of every year that the Lord tarries,
He's with me. He's with me. Now, in our text,
for time's sake, I only want to concentrate on verse 16. But you'll notice in this verse
that God has promised to do for certain ones that have four distinct
characteristics. And if you find yourself with
one of these, I believe you'll see by divine revelation that
you possess the other three. God's salvation is unto, first,
that which was lost, and those who are driven away, and those
that are broken, and those that are sick. Now let's deal with
these four things, and I'll do it as briefly as I can, but please,
Give me your attention. This is a matter of life and
death, as I said. Matter of life and death. First,
he speaks of that which was lost. Now, I know that some of you,
by God's grace, have come to know something about that solemn
word, lost. And it may seem a cruel thing
to say, but the men just discussed it over in our time together. Oh, how I wish that men would
be lost. He said, well, that's a cruel
thing to say. Christ came to seek and to save those that are
lost. We've got to be lost. God will
seek that which was lost. The Son of Man has come to seek
and to save them that are lost. A man is never truly lost, though,
friends, until he's void of all personal strength. As long as
you have one particle, one iota of carnal strength, fleshly strength,
God will never show you His salvation. As long as you think that you
can do one solitary good thing in and of yourself, or rely upon
one principle of good works within yourself for redemption, you're
still under the curse of the law, and you're not yet brought
to know the covenant mercies of God Almighty. But let me tell
you something, when God strips you of every rag of self-righteousness,
and when you say in your heart, God's will be done, well, mine
has failed. then God's will has conquered
your will. That's when it happens. When you're lost, it is then
that God declares you found. I hear men say all the time,
and I know what they mean, and I know their intentions are good,
but they say, I found Jesus. He wasn't lost. If you were lost, then He found
you. Again, a man is never thoroughly lost until not only his strength
has failed him, but he's come to his wit's end. Have you come
to your wit's end? Well, what do you mean by that,
preacher? Well, are you like a traveler? that's lost his way
in the deep forest. You thought there was a path,
there seemed to be a path, but all of a sudden you can't find
it any longer. You find yourself entangled in
thorns and your clothes are ripped and your flesh is ripped from
the thorns and the thistles. And you've looked for a way of
escape, but every avenue is blocked by this unpassable thicket or
some fast-flowing current of water that you cannot cross.
So what do you do? You climb the highest tree in
the forest and you try to see if there's a way of escape, some
direction in which you should go. But the further you look
in all directions, the more lost you are. I don't know where I'm
at. Your hopes are extinguished.
Your plans are defeated. Your strength is exhausted. Your
tongue is parched and your visions become like blurry. Now I'm talking
about plum lost. And all you can do once your
water is gone and your food is all spent is to just lay down
in despair and die. That's the kind of lost I'm talking
about. Are you such a one? Does that describe you and your
quest for peace and salvation? Have you tried everything? And
has everything failed you? If so, I've got good news. Christ came to seek and to save
the lost. If you could, by grace, believe
it, you would leave here with joy today. You'd leave this place
saying, I went in there, a poor lost soul, But the shepherd of
Israel has sought me and found me, and he came to save and seek
those that are lost. And I'm found. My eyes were blind,
but now they see. Oh may God make it so. The second
thing mentioned here, that which was driven away. Now there are
different ways in which poor sinners can be driven away. Sometimes
unbelief drives men and women away. The sinner sees Christ
on the cross and he sees the blood flowing from his head.
his feet, his hands, his side, and he says to himself, could
it be? Could it be that Christ died for me? Well, it says in
his word that he came to save sinners. And I qualify for that. I'm the chief of sinners. I'm
a horrific sinner. Then suddenly, a cold, great,
black thought comes and says to the heart, you? Who, you? You don't have any right to come.
They're not talking about you. That's not meant for you. Unbelief
drives men away. Sometimes preachers drive men
away. Especially legal preachers. They drive souls away. They preach
a gospel that's so mixed up with the law, so united with the doings
of a man that the poor soul just coming to Christ gets driven
away. There were many times in my life when I felt as though
God had brought me to my wit's end. I knew deep down within,
and it was God that put it there, but I knew deep down within that
I was lost. I knew there had to be more to
life. I went to church with a void in my heart, but I was driven
away. You know why? I heard no Christ
in the message. None. I was given no hope of
redemption. I heard the things that I had
to do to be saved, and I thought in my mind, I can't do that.
I was driven away, and oh, how I often wonder, and it gives
me very anxious thoughts to think, have I driven some away? Oh God, never let it be so. Cause
my message to always be a message of hope. Always, Lord God calls me to
proclaim Christ and what He's done and what He's doing for
sinners. See, my message is not a message
of doing, dear friends. It's a message of what God has
done. The work's done. Now, there's
still battles to be fought, but the war's over. Sin is defeated. Death and hell are conquered.
Christ has made to me all that I need. And how could that beautiful
message drive anyone away? Third thing is binding up the
broken. Maybe this refers to those that
have been driven away. The shepherd smoked them so hard
that he broke their bones. Friends, there's a good shepherd
that will bind up the broken. And you know what he says? He
says, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and he's anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor. He sent me to heal the
brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery
of sight to the blind and to set at liberty them that are
bruised. The psalmist said, he healeth
the broken in heart and he bindeth up their wounds. The child of
God is broken before he's bound. Maybe he's broken by trouble.
Maybe it's by affliction. Maybe by assaults of the enemy. Maybe he's broken on account
of his own sin that's been manifested to him in a new light by the
Spirit of God. Oh, I remember when God showed
me my sin. Oh, man, there was no relief
until I had the assurance that Christ died for me the rest that
I was. Maybe that's it. Maybe they're
broken because of these things. But dear broken one, God will
help you." And that is our message and that is our words of comfort
to you. He's promised because He says
right here, I will bind up that which was broken. Oh, what a
sweet and precious thought and promise. God Himself binds up
broken bones. What a marvelous surgeon we have.
God Almighty Himself bows down from heaven to put the white
linen of Christ's righteousness upon us. And our wounds are bound,
and by His stripes we're healed. God always does what He says
He'll do. You can count on that. And He
says that He'll seek the lost. And He says that He'll bring
those again who've been driven away. And He's promised here
to bind up those which are broken. And all I can say to you is He
will. He will. Is that not the experience
of you that know Him? That He will? And the fourth
thing mentioned is that He will strengthen that which was sick.
Have I described you to you this morning so far? There's no difference
in any of us in whom the Lord has revealed our need of Him
to. I was lost. I was driven away
like a leper. Get out of here, boy. You're
not supposed to be here. And my putrefying sores from
head to toe from my horrific disease weren't bound up. But
one day I met the great physician. And you know what? I didn't find
him. He found me. I was lost. I'd been driven away
by many things. And he bound up my wounds. And he strengthened me in my
sickness and disease. He made me completely whole.
Made me whole again. You see, those that are well
have no need of a physician. But those that are sick... Are
you sick? Are you sick? If so, I know a
great physician. Can you see your illness? Do
you understand that you have a dreaded disease? It doesn't
have a big, long name like so many diseases do. This one just
has three letters. Sin. It's a disease and it's
a dreaded disease. If you do and you see it and
you know you have it, then fret no longer. for there stands before
you the great physician and he'll strengthen those that are sick."
Zechariah 10 says, and I will strengthen the house of Judah
and I'll save the house of Joseph and I'll bring them again to
place them for I have mercy upon them and they shall be as though
I had not cast them off for I am the Lord their God and will hear
them. Do you know what? God will hear
you. God, I hear you. Oh, sick one, may God give you
the grace to understand that He means what He says. And He
says what He means. And believe me, He'll do what
He promises. I'll strengthen that which is
sick. So in all your distresses, in
all your sins, here are some exceeding great promises ministered
unto you by his word. And how unspeakable the satisfaction
to a poor sinner when he hears the great physician describe
all his ailments and says to him in confidence
that however painful there's no symptom that's beyond his
skill. We've all been to the doctor.
We've all had our share of problems. And haven't we all heard our
doctor say, when we were sick, I mean sick, when he said, when
you recover from this, I've got what you need to recover from
this. And when you recover from this
sickness, you're going to be better than you were before. Well, now you think about that.
And you think about how far God's mercies exceed our miseries.
And you think about how far His cure extends beyond our symptoms. And you think about how sure
He is to do for His people exceedingly and abundantly above all that
we could ask or think. You think about that. And I'm going to tell you, we
can see again from this verse and every other verse in Scripture
where the Lord promises something, that God's promises are certain
and sure. What does He say? He says, I
will seek that which is lost. He doesn't say, I'll look for
a while. No. I'm going to seek. And when God seeks, dear friends,
He finds. And when He finds, He saves.
And He said Himself that He had come to save, seeking to save
those that were lost. And He says again in this verse,
and bring again that which was driven away. I will bring again
that which was driven away. The prodigal son that we've heard
about so many times. He was driven away by his own
lust and desires. He said, Father, you give to
me what's coming to me. And he went out and he spent
them on his own lust and desires. And he lived a righteous life. And he rebelled and he spent
all that he had. But the scriptures say that he
came to his senses. The actual words are he came
to himself. You know how? By the sovereign
God. I'll bind up that which was broken. I will. I will bind up that which
is broken. Christ is our Good Samaritan.
He'll see that we have all we need. One day a lawyer stood
up to test the Lord Jesus Christ and Christ said, I'm going to
tell you a little story. He said a certain man went down from
Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among thieves. And they stripped
him of his raiment. They stripped him of his clothes. They wounded him and they hurt
him bad. And they left him laying in a
ditch, half dead. And he said, and by chance there
came down a certain priest that way, you know, the pious priest,
the one who claims to love and care for his flock. And he said
when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. He's like,
oh man, and takes over across the street and walks down the
other way. A so-called godly man. The ones that should have
helped this man crossed the street and went the other way. But there
was a certain Samaritan. Now remember, the Jews hated
the Samaritans. The Samaritans were basically
half-breeds. They were half-Jew and half-Gentile,
and the Jews hated them. But the Lord uses this Samaritan
as an example. And he said, and he journeyed
and came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion
on him. He had compassion on him. He
went to him and he bound up his wounds. You know what the Lord
said he would do for us? Is he not that good and precious
Lord and Savior? He bound up his wounds. He poured
in the oil and wine. He set him on his own horse.
And I can see him walking in front of him, leading the horse. This man set upon his horse and
he brought him to an end and he took care of him. He took
care of him. And on the next day, when it
was time to leave, he had to go. He took out some money and
he gave it to that innkeeper, the one that hosted that place
of dwelling. And he said, you take care of
him. And he said, whatsoever you spend more than what I just
gave you, he said, when I come again, I'll repay you. What a
God. What a Savior. What a Lord. What a Redeemer. I'll strengthen
that which is sick. I will. One day there came a
leopard to Christ, beseeching Him, kneeling down to Him, saying
unto Him, Lord, if Thou will Thou can make me clean. Jesus
moved with compassion. There it is again, that phrase.
Moved with compassion. Put forth His hand and touched
Him. And He said, I will. I love that story. You know why?
I can see me in that leper. And I can see by God's grace
me coming and saying, I know you're able. I know you can do
all things. I know you can do exceedingly
and abundantly above all I can think or ask. But if you will,
that's how we come to Christ. Mercy beggars, begging and pleading
for mercy. And you know what? Not one time
can we find in scriptures that he did not have compassion. And
he said, I will. I will be thou clean. But I can't
leave you without bringing to your attention the last line
of our text, verse 16. But I will destroy the fat and
the strong. I will feed them with judgment.
The fat and the strong. Those who boast that they're
good enough. Those who have need of nothing. Those that go their own way.
They desire no gospel. There's none to preach to them. They know everything. They're
so good and excellent that they have no need of Christ. They're
not lost. They haven't been driven away. They have no need to be bound because
they're not broken. They have no need to be strengthened
because they're not sick. They have no need of God's free,
unmerited, sovereign love of God and Christ. But just maybe. Just maybe God will get them
lost. That's the only way. Just maybe
by driving them away from their own goodness and self-righteousness,
they'll be lost. Just maybe God will break them
and show them their sickness and their disease called sin. That's their only hope. There
is hope because He delights to seek and save the lost. He delights
to bring home His prodigal sons who have driven themselves away. He delights to bind up the broken
hearted and to strengthen those that are sick. But friends, never
ever forget that He requires that in all these things that
you feel the need of Him. Friends, there's only one way
that a man can be made whole, can be redeemed, and that's in
the Lord Jesus Christ. What do you think of Him? Now,
I mean that sincerely. I ask you, what do you think
of Him? Do you see that He is your only means of being made
whole, your only means of being saved and redeemed? Well, if
you do, it was His gift that He gave you. Oh, may God cause
you to have no rest until you see your need of Him.