Ezekiel 16 tonight. I'm going
to go ahead and read the first 14 verses. Ezekiel
16 verses 1 through 16. And then we'll make a few comments
concerning this passage. Ezekiel 16, starting in verse
1. Again the word of the Lord came unto me, that is the prophet
Ezekiel, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,
and say, Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem, Thy birth
and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan, thy father was an
Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite. And as for thy nativity, in the
day that 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 peed thee, to do any
of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee, but thou wast cast
out into the open field to the loathing of thy person in the
day that thou wast born. 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. And I caused thee to multiply
as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased. and waxen
great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments. Thy breasts are fashioned,
and thy hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. Now
when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was
a 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 bordered
work, and shod thee with badger skins, and girded thee about
with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. I decked thee
also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hand, and
a chain on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy forehead,
and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thy head. Thus was thou decked with gold
and silver, and thy raiment was of fine linen and silk and embroidered
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." Now, one of the
vital realities, one of the vital necessities of speaking a word
from our God, like the prophet Ezekiel, again the word of the
Lord came unto me and said this, anyone who is called of God to
preach the gospel, the vital necessity and reality of speaking
a word from our God is to speak clearly and accurately, one,
about the condition and plight of Adam's race. And this we see
in verses 2 through 6. We see it laid out very open
for all to read and to see in these verses. And that this we
know, this book tells us about ourselves, is none other than
the utter depravity of our fallen natures. And secondly, another
necessity, those who say they are speaking from the Word of
God, you cannot bypass this, you cannot overlook it, it's
everywhere, is to speak concerning how God can redeem such wretched
and corrupt sinners as we are. And this passage, in these verses,
we see it all. This has got to be one of the
most clear descriptions of what we are outside of God's grace. And it has to be one of the clearest
depictions of how God in his free, unbound grace redeems us
to himself. We're shown as a child, a baby
that is born, cast out in the field right after the birth,
the umbilical cord is not cut, The child is not washed or swaddled,
sure destruction, sure death, helplessness. It's such a clear
picture of our depravity. So when someone says that they
are speaking a word of the Lord, and they don't speak anything
about how man's condition is in this book, or how God can
redeem sinners, or how God can be just and justify the ungodly,
it is not from God. It's their own imagination. As
the Prophet tells us, Again, the word of the Lord came to
me. And this is what he told me to
say. Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abomination. That's the first point, verses
2-6. Cause Jerusalem to know her abominations. Now,
the way some things are worded in here, I thought I would look
up in concord what these Hebrew words meant. And they're obvious
to the believer. It's amazing how I was thinking
about this as I was writing this and preparing this message. I'm
going to stand up here and tell you things about yourself that
are not pleasant because they're about the same for me also. But
I can stand up here and tell you and insult you. And yet believers,
they say, Amen, because we can't tell it bad enough about ourselves.
But if I'd walk down the road and go to any other church in
this town and stand up here and preach or read this, let alone
preach it, there would be people so offended and so mad. But what
I love about the grace of God is that
it strips us and it takes away that desire to argue. We know
and submit to God's Word that it's right. Whatever He says
about us, it's right. Times ten. He says, Cause Jerusalem. Stand up there on your two feet and tell her about her abominations.
Now that word abominations means idolatry and It means something
disgusting. That's just literally what it
means in the Hebrew. So stand up there and cause Jerusalem.
You preach the gospel. One of those components of the
gospel is to cause sinners to know that they are in idolatry
from birth. We are not born serving, worshiping,
seeking God. We're born in idolatry. We'll seek anything. We'll bow
to anything. We'll worship anything other
than the God of this book. But also something disgusting
caused Jerusalem to know how disgusting we are to be shown
by this book and therefore by the preachers of this book, how
disgusting we are in the sight of a holy sovereign. Disgusting. See these terms. Like I said,
I'm sitting there preparing this. I'm thinking I would stand up
here and speak the truth. And people will run out of town
for speaking truth like this. But Bruce prayed when we were
out there. He said he is just so perfect
for this situation. When he was asking the Lord to
bless the meeting, he said, have Drew, have our pastor not worry
about us, but the glory of God. And humanly. We get visitors
in and things like that. I'm thinking, boy, but I can't
hold back. I've got to tell. I've got to
do as this prophet did. The word of the Lord came to
me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations.
Whatever, when God gives me grace, as I prepare these messages,
I must, in Behutah, I must, woe to me if I don't, preach what
he lays on my heart out of this book. Cause Jerusalem to know
her idolatry. Cause Jerusalem to know that
in my sight, you and I, because of our sin, our sin nature, what
we do and what we are, we're disgusting in the eyes of God. Now, I'm not talking about man
to man. Because, you know, we all think
from one person to another, we all think we're pretty good.
You know, we think we're something. I'm talking about our drawing
conclusions based upon the straight and narrow. Us as we
are seen in the eyes of God. Not man to man, but man to God. Now, he also says in verse 3,
say to Jerusalem, your birth and your nativity is of the land
of Canaan. Well, you can look up You can
get a concordance and look up every word with the land of Canaan
and it's all negative. Thy father was an Amorite and
thy mother a Hittite. Canaan, Amorite, Hittite. Much could be said about these
three words as they relate to God and what he thinks about
them. But suffice it to say that These three things, the way it's
being indicated in this verse, is God holds these things in
abhorrence. It's all negative. So, it's like
I said last week, you know, some of these Mormons, they've taken
this genealogy and they really get into it, but they don't go
back far enough. They don't go back to Adam. Because it's all
disgusting in the eyes of God. No matter what our pedigree is,
no matter what our lineage is, it goes back to our father Adam.
And in Adam, all our abomination he has got, all our disgusting,
and all our hell in the ports, in and of ourselves. What a picture
of our total and explicit inability to please the Father on any account. Now continue what he says here
in verse Four, and as for thy nativity, and the day that you
were born, your navel was not cut, you weren't washed, you
weren't suppled, nobody suppled thee, you weren't swaddled, nor
salted. Just out there. Smelling, stinking. But my eye went down to verse five, no I pity thee, We
were cast out in the open field to the loathing of thy person. That word loathing. I looked
that up. To the loathing of thy person.
And to me it indicates a couple things. We're not even aware
of our condition or our plight. We're cast out in the field to
the loathing of our person. We don't even know. Right or wrong. We don't even
know the plight of our condition. We just We just carry on like
there's always going to be tomorrow and like there's always going
to be. God's going to look at us in favor, but in actuality
and reality. Because of what we are and who
we are, who our parents are. Adam and Eve, we're not even
aware of our condition. That's why when you say, you
know, that's one reason why another picture of us in our lost estate
is blind, can't see. Deaf, we can't hear. Now if that's all you ever knew
was deafness and blindness, you would think that's the norm.
But when God speaks grace to us, then we see, then we hear,
then we realize that was horrible. Loathing. It's a derivative of
a couple other words, but this place right here is the only
place in the Bible that this word is used. It's a derivative
of different words, but it stands by itself. It's the only place
in the whole Bible that it's used. And it means to reject
or to detest. Now look at it with me again.
But we were cast out into the open field to the rejection of
our person. We are detested in the day that
we were born. It's just all, these words are
just very descriptive. We are in ourselves and because
of ourselves rejected by God and detested by His nature and
His very attributes. And you know, I got to thinking,
it's got to be so for two reasons. This is our condition and it
must be so. Well, more than two reasons,
it's in the Bible so it's true. But this must our nature. of
being rejected by God and detested, it must be so, one, because he
is without sin. And that's all we are. So this
must be an accurate description of our son. And secondly, it's
got to be so because it sets the tone for his free grace in
redemption by the blood of his son. You see how it's all setting
up. And when we by his grace are made
to know what we are oh how sweet the sound of grace how amazing
the grace John Newton amazing grace how sweet the sound why? that saved a wretch like me Verse 16 and forward. But God. And when I pass by thee, you
see who's doing all the work, you see who's all the initial,
the initiation of grace, the initiation of regeneration, the
initiation of salvation is all in him. It never starts with us. Never.
You know, Bruce is always saying the cart before the horse. That's
all most preaching is today. If you visualize it, you've got
a cart pulling a horse. But no, this is phrased and worded
and written as it is by the prophet under inspiration of God. No
error. It is as it is. So he would get all the glory.
And when I passed by thee, I saw thee polluted, and I know blood."
There we are again. Polluted. Or trodden underfoot. I said unto thee, when thou wast
in my blood... Stop right there. When God finds
us, He doesn't find us... I'm using these words on purpose.
He doesn't find us reformed in doctrine, or in attitude, or
in actions. He finds us in blood. That's
the way we ask the truth of it. We can clean ourselves up. We can go to church all the time. We can take communion. We can
do all these things. But until He finds us and He quickens us
and He causes us to believe the gospel, we are in our blood. We're not made better. We don't improve ourselves. He
sees us when we are in our blood and He sees us in that condition.
Because he came to seek and save the lost. Those who are sick
need the physician. That's the truth of this whole
book. I know most people in religion
try to get you to try to get us to improve ourselves, self-help
and all these different things. But the truth of the matter is it is when we are in our blood. That's where he
finds us. That's where he finds us. He
says, when I found you that way, when I walked by, I passed by
thee in his own time, in his own predestinated, ordained decree. I said, live. Yea, I said to thee, when thou
was in thy blood, live. It was his time, it was his method
of grace His choosing, His calling, His cleansing, all by and through
the operation and direction of His Son. Verse 7, I caused thee
to multiply. Verse 8, now when I passed by
thee and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was a time of love.
I spread my skirt over thee, and I covered thy nakedness. He says, I said, and when he
says it will surely come to pass. He said live. And he's saying
he says live by his decree. We live by his command. We live
by his provided righteousness and by his substitute, the Christ
child. We live. We live in Christ. And then he says. In verse, when he came by, not only was
it a time, when he came by he said live, but he said when I
came by thee in verse 8, behold thy time was a time of love,
a time of love, conditional love. I mean by that, this love that
He has for us is based upon the worth and workings of Jesus Christ. It's conditioned on that He satisfied
the law, He satisfied righteousness, and He worked everything for
us. This love that He has, this time of love, it was conditional
love. It was based on the conditions that Christ had to meet. And
secondly, is unconditional love. It means we can't alter it or
change it and we can do nothing to earn it or get it. It's love based upon the innocent
dying for the guilty. It's love secured by perfection
in the room instead of pollution, us. It is love pronounced by
God from before eternity, settled in eternity, and brought out
in time by Christ on the cross for us. And then he says again
in verse 7, he says that he spread, or excuse me, in verse 8, he
said, I spread my skirt over thee and covered thy nakedness.
and wash thee with water." Verse 9, we see this famous spreading
of a skirt and washing of water, which is propitiation accomplished
and applied, atonement actually made for us. Therefore, reconciliation
between us and God is had. Regeneration and righteousness
imputed and imparted. Worst means worst. That means I now am something
that I was not before. I was unclean and polluted and
now I'm worse. Now unless I'm missing something.
Unclean and clean. We were literally unclean and
legally unclean. We are literally clean and legally
clean. This concept of salvation without
impartation, I just can't see it. It's not in the scriptures.
If you're unclean and then he cleans us, you are now something
that you were not before. Before, we were always unclean.
But now, yes, we got the old nature. But legally, he's put
our sin away and literally. Now are we without sin? No. But
there's impartation. There's a new nature in us. We're new creatures in Christ. But there's more. He goes on
in verse 11 forward. I deck thee with ornaments, I
put bracelets upon your head, chains on your neck, jewels in
your forehead, the decking of fine ornaments and jewelry, the
fruit of the Spirit is now seen in us and desired by us. And I think perhaps It's all
beautiful this whole these these verses these the whole all of
verses 1 through 14 but the closing remarks concerning the whole
matter of the believers life and walk and inner peace is summed
up in verse 14 and Thy renown Went forth among
the heathen for thy beauty For it was perfect through my comeliness,
which I, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit,
had put upon thee, saith the Lord God." You know what the
conclusion of the whole matter of the believer's life, walk,
and inner peace? Him, him, him. We are what we
are by the grace of God. I am what I am by the grace of
God. Thus, as amazing and unbelievable
as it may seem, we are beautiful to Him. Thy renown went forth
among the heathen for thy beauty, and it was perfect beauty through
my comingness. We are beautiful to him. Now you think about. We could just stay here for such
a long time. You think about the thoughts
you had today. 20 minutes ago. Right now, after the message
is over, you think about how far our thoughts are from him.
You think about the things that you've done and will do, the
sin that remains in the believer. You think about all these difficulties
that we have, and yet he says we're beautiful in him. That is amazing grace. What a splendid couple. This bride, you and I, the church,
and this groom. Now, I know we do things and
think things and say things, how ugly and how corrupt. And we beat ourselves up and
Satan runs with it and the world loves to see us fall. But I'm
telling you, give you comfort and peace, not to go on in sin,
but to remember that He sees us in His Son. Beautiful. perfectly beautiful. Now, rightly understood, that
will never, and I use that word on purpose, that will never,
rightly understood, as this gospel is rightly understood, will never
give us the license to sin, but will continually humble us and
causes desire to serve him fervently with a pure heart. That's why
this gospel is so glorious. Not only does it give him all
the glory, but it causes the believer to seek him out and
be near him, never wanting to leave our groom, the Lord Jesus
Christ. John, would you close us please?