If you have your Bibles, if you
would please turn with me to the book of Ephesians chapter
2. Ephesians chapter 2. And I would
like to read verses 1 through 8 that you might be very familiar
with what we are going to try to talk about this morning. You
have been very kind and gracious. You have listened very carefully
throughout the years. And I hope that you will continue
to listen to the Word of God, to hear what the Word of God
has to say. I believe that we owe that unto
our God. Seeing that we're not our own,
seeing that we've been bought with a price, seeing that the
blood, the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ was shed
to redeem us from sin, I believe we owe it to our blessed God
to listen carefully to his word. I do know that this is not a
day of hearing. I know that this is a day of
seeing, seeing with the eyes and partaking of the things of
the world through pictures and through television. This is not
a day of hearing, but if you know Christ If you have been
born again and you're truly in the Lord Jesus Christ, then you
ought to listen very reverently to the Word of God, to hear what
God says. Hide the Word in your heart that
you sin not against the Lord, but hide it away in your heart.
It can be and will be a lamp unto your feet and a light to
your path. Hide the Word of God in your
heart. So let's read beginning with verse 1 and you Paul says
most of you are aware of the fact that he's writing to the
church at Ephesus and he said and you have he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world according to the prince
of the power of the air the spirit that now worketh in the children
of of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation
or behavior in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others. The wrath of God would
have fallen upon us if it had not fallen upon our substitute. Think about it. We were the children
of wrath by nature even as others. We were as worthy as hell as
those who are in hell this morning. But, he says in verse 4, but
God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved
us, the reason for his love, my friend, is to be found only
with him. only with Him. We know that He
first loved us if we now love Him. And so the reason for His
love has got to be found in the great heart of God. Even when we were dead in sins. Dead in sins. All of the descendants of Adam
are born, they're still born spiritually speaking. In Adam
all die. In Adam all die. Did you hear
what I said? We are born, still born, spiritually
speaking, when we come into this world. There is no spiritual
life in us. None whatever. He says, even
when we were dead in sins by one man, sin entered into the
world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men,
for all have sinned. And so we're dead in Adam in
a state of nature. Okay? Goes on to say, by grace,
Or he says, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ. By grace ye are saved, 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, and that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." Hear me carefully. It is very
solemn, but a very true statement that no man can quicken his own
soul. We read here in verse 5, even
when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ. No man can quicken his own soul. And it is an equally solemn,
we might say a tremendous truth that the gospel only comes in
power to those who God has chosen unto eternal life. That is a
terrible truth, an awesome truth. No man can quicken his own soul,
and those who are quickened are those whom God has chosen unto
eternal life. seems to me to flow from the
other. For if no man can quicken his
own soul, it necessary follows that it must be of sovereign
grace that it is quickened at all. If your soul is quickened
at all, my friend, the glory and the praise goes to free,
sovereign, electing grace. Because of the fall of man, man
because of the fall is so thoroughly dead in trespasses and sins that
he cannot raise himself up to newness of life. The doctrine
of election is a sinner's only hope. It's his only hope. Now
that's either true or it's not. Now, if you can get anything
else out of the verses that I've read to you out of Ephesians
2 this morning than that, then my friend, you're finding something
that I don't think is there. Now, the question would be asked,
am I quickened? Have I reason to believe that
I am a quickened soul? Now by that I mean, do I have
reason to believe I'm alive in the Lord? Do I have reason to
believe that God singled me out before eternity and that he laid
upon me his love and affection, he set it upon me, and that in
time God came to me and quickened my soul? Am I quickened? Now
if I say yes, I believe that I am, then did I quicken myself? The answer to that of course
is no. It is no. I did not quicken myself. I could not because I was dead
in sin. Did God quicken me? Did he quicken
me? Who but God could give life to
a dead soul? I want you to Look in John chapter
5. Hold your finger here in Ephesians.
Turn in your Bibles to John chapter 5. And let me read here a verse
of scripture to you. John chapter 5. In verse 21. For as the Father raiseth up
the dead, and makes them alive, quickens them, even so the Son
makes alive whom he will. Even so, the Son makes alive
whom he will. Do you notice there that there
is a note of sovereignty in the scripture? This verse of scripture
teaches that the father raises the dead and that the son makes
alive whom he will. Whom he will, he makes alive. Now in verse 26, for as the father
hath life in himself, so hath he given to the son to have life
in himself. And we read of course in those
familiar verses in John chapter 10 where the Lord Jesus Christ
says, I give unto my sheep eternal life and they shall never perish. I give them life because I have
life to give to them. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. They that come, they'll not be
cast out. I'll give them life. I have power
over all flesh, and I can give eternal life to as many as the
Father has given to me. I can give it to them. But if
the Son will quicken, whom He will? Well, the question now
can be asked, why did He quicken me? If I have reason to believe
that I'm alive, why did he quicken me when I was dead in sin? Why did he do it? Well, because
he loved me and because he chose me in the Lord Jesus Christ before
the foundation of the world to be an heir of his eternal glory. Now, if you will allow me to,
I'll say hallelujah, because that's exactly what the Word
of God teaches. That's the reason that the Father
quickened us to life, was because He would make us an heir of His
eternal glory. Beloved, there's no doubt as
you read the Word of God that the Lord has a people in this
world who are dear to Him. They're dear to Him because He
knows them in eternal election and salvation. And also, He makes
them dear to Him. They're dear to Him and He is
dear to them. He is very dear to them. And
that's why we give Him praise and glory this morning is because
He's manifested His goodness and kindness and grace and mercy
toward us. Now, these people may be unnoticed
by the world, they may even be despised by the men of the world. but they're the elect of God,
they're the chosen of God. You may not be able to cut a
very wide swath in this world as you go through it, but you're
the quickened of the Lord, you're the saved of the Lord, you're
God's children, bought with a price, and you've experienced that new
work of grace in your heart that has made you to be a quickened
child of God. Now beloved, if we be a vessel
of mercy, whom he has thus chosen to eternal life, the gospel either
has already come, or in his own time, according to his own purpose
and way, It will come with power to our heart and conscience in
the time when the Lord chooses. You remember Paul said in Galatians
1, he said that when it pleased God, he separated me from my
mother's womb and called me by his grace when it pleased God. And so let me just give that
to you one more time. If we be a vessel of mercy, whom
he has thus chosen to eternal life, the gospel either has already
come or in his own time and way will be made to come with power
to your heart and your conscience. If God has chosen you, then you
will experience quickening at the hand of the Lord. Now then,
if you will, notice verse 4, 5, and 6 here. But God, who is rich in mercy,
when sinners were under the wrath of God, God intervened. He's rich in mercy, and for His
great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead, He's
quickened us together with Christ, by grace you're saved, and hath
raised us up together, raised us up together, and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Now, if you will,
think with me a little bit. Two thousand years have rolled
away since the body of our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, was quickened
in the sepulcher. The Lord Jesus, the Bible says
that the Father gave him power to resurrect He came forth out of the grave. The Father quickened him to life. Now, that happened 2,000 years
ago. But the effect of that quickening reached all the election of grace
and will continue to affect until the very last one experiences
quickening to life. Now you think about that a little
bit. We've been quickened together with the Lord Jesus Christ. When
He was quickened and brought to life, all the elect came to
life in Him, even though they had not experienced yet, because
many of them had not been born as yet. But they will all be
affected by that quickening of the Lord Jesus Christ by the
Father. The Holy Spirit does this quickening
at the time of the purpose of God. Life enters into the soul
of His sheep. It enters in at the time when
the Lord chooses. Now beloved, there are some people
who believe they can be saved anytime they want to be. They
believe that they can be saved anytime they choose to be saved. Well, seeing as that salvation
is a quickening, and a quickening of the dead, then how is it that
one could feel, how is it by reading the word of God that
one could feel that they could be saved anytime they want to? No, my friend, you cannot be
saved anytime that you want to be saved. You will be saved When
God wills, when God chooses, when it's time in God's clock,
then you will be saved. Nobody is saved just when they
want to get saved. Now I'm sure of this, that when
one is quickened, and let me show you some things here. The
Holy Spirit does this quickening. Life enters into the soul. And
with this comes living sensations. Number one, such as conviction
of sin. You ever wonder about how that
an individual comes under conviction and feels the guilt of his sin
in his conscience? It's whenever God puts life in
him. He never had any conviction before that. He never had any
conscience, tender conscience toward God until that happened
in his heart. The fear of God in the heart.
The Bible says that there's no fear of God in the natural man's
heart. But the fear of God comes into
the heart of an individual. Well, why is that? Well, that's
because life has come in and he begins to fear the God of
the Bible, the broken heart, the contrite spirit. Where do
you think that came from? Well, here we have rebels. We
know what rebels are. We see them every day. Far from
a tender heart. Far from a broken heart. Far
from a contrite heart. They have no desire toward God
and have no desire toward the things of God. But then, suddenly,
something happens and the heart of that individual is broken.
I've witnessed it, I know what I'm talking about. The heart
is broken, and it's tender, and it's a heart that fears God.
And then, I believe that the spirit of prayer comes in at
the time of this quickening. Somebody says, well, you know,
can't the sinner pray? Well, I never did know of one
that could pray. How could he pray if he doesn't
have a living soul? If his soul is not alive. But
once, His soul is quickened like the Apostle Paul, Lord what will
you have me to do? Here he was going down the road
to Damascus to hail men and women and put them in prison and the
Lord struck him down and the Spirit of God made his heart
tender and he said Lord who art thou and he said I'm Jesus whom
thou persecutest And he said, Lord, what wilt thou have me
to do? The spirit of prayer entered that old hard Pharisee's heart,
and then repentance unto life. Oh, turn in repentance toward
God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This, my friend, is the
activity of a soul that is alive in the Lord. It's one who's alive,
not dead. He sees thou things that he never
could see before. He understands. He just immediately,
he sees things. Now the Apostle Paul, we mentioned
him already, but I want to use him for this illustration. We
know that prior to his conversion, he thought that Jesus was a fake. He thought, well, this business
idea that Jesus, that he was buried and that he rose again
and now ascended back to heaven, that's just a farce. There isn't
any truth to that. But immediately, when he said,
he said, Who art thou, Lord? And Jesus said, I am Jesus. whom thou persecutest. Immediately
Paul could see that this was the Son of God and that truly,
look at all he learned in just that little brief time. He learned
that Jesus was alive and that he was no farce and that he was
not a fake and that he was truly the Son of God and that he'd
come into the world and that he died, he had truly been raised
from the dead and ascended to heaven and was seated at the
right hand of God. He learned all of that in just
a very small window of time. And so my friend, once a person
is quickened, when he has life in his soul, then he begins to
see. The Word of God opens up to him.
He begins to read and read the Word of God and it opens up to
his heart and to his soul. And he feels. That's when the
feeling comes. Oh, somebody said you got to
feel a certain way. No, a dead man doesn't feel any
way. He doesn't. He does not feel. But a live man feels. He has feelings. And so he begins
to feel the things of God, and he trembles, and he cries, and
he groans after the Lord, and he begins to beg God, to cry
out to God for mercy. He soothes for mercy. His renewed mind is alive, and
it's open to the things of God. You have he quickened, saith
Paul. You have been made alive. by Him and that's why you have
these living sensations. Never do we pray, never do we
read, never do we hear, never do we feel so much the power
of eternal things as when the Lord by His Spirit of grace is
pleased to quicken us unto spiritual life. Now, beloved, this is very
important that we understand that we must be made to live
before we can have these living sensations. Now, I want you to
turn with me to John chapter 3 in your Bibles. John chapter
3. Now here in the third chapter
of John, we see the Lord Jesus Christ talking to a Pharisee
named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. Now I'm going to read a
few verses here, and there's three questions that I want to
ask and attempt to answer, if I can, by the grace of God. And
then as we go on, we're going to ask in the end, why is all
of this so important? These things that we're discussing
this morning. Why are they important? Number
one, the number one question as I read this is found in verse
4, Nicodemus saith unto him, now Jesus has just told him,
truly, truly, I say unto you, except a man be born again, he
cannot Now Nicodemus saith unto him,
How can a man be born when he is old? Now this is the natural response
of Nicodemus to what the Lord Jesus Christ has said. Jesus
said, ye must be born again, Nicodemus. Ye must be born again. Now if I have any understanding
about what Jesus was saying to Nicodemus, it was, Nicodemus,
you must be quickened. You must have spirit life. You must have life from heaven. You must have life from above.
You must experience a birth from above. You're dead in sin. You're not alive, Nicodemus.
And you must be born again. You must be quickened alive.
And so Nicodemus said, well, how can a man be born when he's
old? How's it going to happen? Well, my friend, we tell you
this this morning, that a man can be born again in God's time
by God's mercy, according to God's free grace, and it will
be the doing, the work, from A to Z by God himself. It's God's work. No man can born
himself. No man has the ability, just
as he cannot quicken himself, he cannot born himself into the
kingdom and family of God. He's unable to do that. The new
birth, my friend, is off limits to an actual man until God comes
and intervenes and puts his spirit and life in that man and brings
that man out of his death and brings him into life. And then
it can be said that man is born again. He cannot enter again
into his mother's womb and be born. That's ridiculous. Jesus
is not talking about a physical birth. He's talking about a spiritual
birth. Now this is important. Number
two. Listen to this. Is there words that can be put
end to end in a sentence spoken by the sinner to make this happen? Now you think with me a little
bit. This is a very, very important
question. Very important question because
we have We have those that are of the Arminian persuasion that
tell us that the sinner can pray a little prayer. He can pray
a little prayer. Just get a man to polypare this
prayer. Just get him to do it. That's
all you gotta do. Whether he's willing, ready,
whether he wants to, get him to say this sinner's prayer.
And there's magic in these words. And a sinner will be saved by just saying these words. Dear
Lord, I know I'm a sinner. I can't save myself, I need you.
I believe that you sent Jesus, your only son, to die on the
cross for my sins. Thank you, Lord, for this great
gift, and thank you for all you're going to do for me. Amen. Not
even in Jesus' name, just amen. Whether you said this prayer
just this moment or a lifetime ago, the Lord has bestowed upon
you further gifts that come with salvation. You have eternal life. Whether Jesus returns in a moment
or is generations away, we experience a physical death departing these
physical flawed bodies on earth, we have the assurance of knowing
that our eternity will be spent in the very presence of God always. and forever. Now my friend, we've
been told by the Armenians that God has given us a free will
and so we can freely choose to accept this wonderful gift he
makes available for the asking. And that a man, all he needs
to do is put together these words end to end and he guarantees
his salvation. Well my friend, I tell you that
this is not true. It is not true. You cannot back
God in the corner. The God of the Bible is an absolute
sovereign. Salvation is in His hands. It's His work from the beginning
to the end. And the sinner cannot back God
in the corner and say a raw prayer devised and put together by a
preacher and force God to quicken his soul to life. We're talking
about coming alive from the dead is what we're talking about.
We're not talking about some little bitty decision that the
sinner makes. We're talking about life from
the dead. There is no salvation through
a little decision made by the sinner and the praying of what
is called, as we said, the sinner's prayer. And so the answer to
that is no. There is no magic words that
a sinner can say to God that's going to force God, make Him
do what He wants Him to do. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ, we
need to get the picture of Him that the Bible presents of Him.
In the book of John, in the 19th chapter of John, Jesus is before Pilate, before
his crucifixion. And when Pilate therefore, in
verse 8 of John 19, therefore heard that saying, he was the
more afraid, because it was said that Jesus made himself the Son
of God. And went again into the judgment
hall, and saith unto Jesus, in verse 9, whence art thou? But
Jesus gave him no answer. Then said Pilate unto him, Speakest
thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have
power to crucify you, and have power to release you? Now you
get the picture of this. Here Jesus is in the hands of
a mortal. It appears that he's in the hands
of a mortal. He said, I can crucify you, I
can let you go, I can do it. Either way, the power is mine. And listen to this, Jesus answered,
Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were
given thee from above. Now this you need to see. Jesus
here is saying, he shuts Pilate, he robs Pilate of his little
power. to afflict him or to release
him and says, you wouldn't have any power against me unless it
was given to you from heaven. It had to come from heaven. You
don't have no power over me, Pilate. And I'm going to tell
you what, the Jesus of the Bible is not this little rug that people
wipe their dirty feet on and that they manage. You cannot
manage the Jesus of the Bible. You are not telling Jesus what
you're going to do. You're not going to do that.
And it is also said further in the Statement of Faith of the
Armenians that Jesus must be given permission. to be our Lord. And that we must give Him. We
must go and give Him permission to be our Lord. Does it sound
like to you after reading verse 11 here of John 19 that He needs
permission from anybody to be their Lord? He was Pilate's Lord. And the only reason that the
Lord Jesus Christ was crucified was because of the Father's will
and purpose in the salvation of His people. Alright? Now the third thing, the third
question that I want to ask is back to John chapter 3 again.
Back to John 3. As you know this, this is a very
familiar, very familiar portion of scripture. Jesus again says
in verse 5, Truly, truly, I say unto you, Except a man be born
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born
of the Spirit is spirit, showing there is a spirit birth and there
is a flesh birth. Marvel not that I said unto you,
you must be born again. The wind blows where it listeth.
You hear the sound thereof. You can't tell whence it cometh. Whether it goes, so is everyone
that is born of the Spirit. God is pleased to blow upon the
souls of men. Some are saved. Others are left.
The wind blows. You don't tell the wind when
it can blow, do you? Well, I'll tell you, you're living
in a good place to do it if you could. because we got plenty
of it here. But nobody manages the wind.
And that's the very thing Jesus is teaching here. The wind blows
where it's listed, where it wants to. It blows where it wants to. And you hear the sound of it,
but you can't tell where it came from or where it's going. And that's the way it is in the
birth of the Spirit. In a congregation, somebody gets
saved. There are others there that you
would say need to be saved, but the wind of the Spirit didn't
blow in their direction, didn't blow on them. But those to whom
the wind of the Spirit is pleased to blow, upon whom the Spirit
blows, they're quickened to life. And so the question is this.
Was Jesus here telling Nicodemus, now listen carefully to the question,
was he here telling Nicodemus how to be born again? Or was
he just telling him that it must happen to him? What do you think
is the answer to that question? Well, my friend, the answer to
that question is that he was simply telling him that it must
happen to him and it must happen to any individual that plans
to enter the kingdom of God or see the kingdom of God. There
is no place in the Bible, now this will set you back a little
bit, but as far as I'm able, what I'm able to find out by
the reading of the word of God all these years is that there
is no place in the Bible where it can tell you how to be born
again. There is no such thing. You say,
well what about Romans 10, 9 and 10? That if thou shalt confess
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. What
about that preaching? Well, the Bible says that no
man, first of all, no man can call Jesus Lord but by the Holy
Spirit. You cannot just say, Jesus, you're
my Lord, unless the Spirit of God has quickened your heart
to life. And not only that, I defy any
man, any woman, anybody to believe in their heart. that the Lord
Jesus Christ was raised from the dead apart from the gift
of faith being given to their soul. Now, this is so important
that we see this. Let me have you turn with me
to 1st Timothy chapter 1. 1st Timothy chapter 1. I'm saying
that Nicodemus was told that it had
to happen to him. Jesus was not telling him how
he could make it happen. All right, now in the book of
2 Timothy chapter 1, Paul is thanking Christ Jesus in verse
12, who had enabled him, he counted him faithful, putting him into
the ministry. Now in verse 13, you listen to
this, who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious,
But he said, I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in
unbelief. Now look, here you have a man
that is doing what he's doing ignorantly. He's doing it in
unbelief. Let that word soak into your
soul. Unbelief. Now Paul, when you were Saul
of Tarsus, you were in ignorance and in unbelief. Unbelief. Well, if a man's not a believer,
he's lost. He's a dead sinner if he's not
a believer. Now look at the next verse, and
this shows you the connection. Here it is, the last word in
verse 13 is unbelief. And verse 14, And the grace of
our Lord Jesus, and the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant
with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. Alright? How did you get this faith, Paul?
How did you get it? Well, Paul would tell you, I
got it from the grace of God. It was the grace of God that
gave me this faith, because the grace of our Lord Jesus is exceeding
abundant with faith and love. Paul, where'd you get that love
for Jesus that'd make you go all over the Gentile world and
preach the gospel? Where would you get that love
that'd make you suffer and finally die being beheaded? Where did
you get that love, Paul? He said, I got it from the grace
of God. That's where it came from. It was the grace of God.
Now, beloved, if you will look at that verse and look at it
carefully, you'll see where faith comes from and you'll see where
love in the heart of the believer comes from. It comes from the
grace of God. Now then, back to Ephesians 2
again, and here the Apostle Paul said, In verse 8, for by grace
are you saved through faith. I'm talking about faith and how
that no man can believe except God gives him the gift of faith. And this faith is in the hands
of the sovereign God. It's in God's hands. For by grace
are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, that
not of yourselves. Does that mean anything to you?
Well, there's a lot of people it don't mean anything to. God
says, it's not of yourself. And the Arminian says, you believe
and polyparities words and you're saved, you're in the kingdom. Paul says, that not of yourselves,
didn't come from you, didn't come from you. He says what? What's that next little sentence
there? Does that mean anything? Is that
significant? It is the gift of God. It's the
gift of God. Well, we give glory to God. Now
listen, some of you maybe have got into this thing of salvation
and you've never had a real trial maybe in your life. Maybe you've
never had to try to believe God just to be able to live, be able
to endure from one day to the next. I'm going to tell you and
I challenge you to believe in a God who cannot lie, apart from
Him giving you the faith to do it. I challenge you to do it. Sometime when you're in a deep
trial, you try to believe God for the victory. You try to leave
it all with the Lord. You try to wait upon the Lord
and rest in Him and see what a time you have of it until He
is pleased to drop faith into your soul. And when He drops
it into your soul, hallelujah, we can then have the victory.
Because the victory is faith, beloved. It's faith that is the
victory. Alright, so I'm saying Romans
10, 9, and 10, that that verse of scripture is talking about
somebody whom God has given faith. Somebody who God has already
put faith in their hearts. And then there's the expression
of it. By the confessing with the mouth, the Lord Jesus. I know Him to be my Lord. This
is not the work of a sinner. This is the work of a quickened
soul. I believe in Jesus to be my Lord. And I believe God raised Him
from the dead. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians
2 and 14, But the natural man, that's the man in Adam, never
been quickened, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness unto him. He receives not the things
of the Spirit of God. He's in the meeting. But the
Word of God goes forth. He doesn't receive the things
of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness unto Him. Even so, in that same chapter,
the Bible says, The things of God knoweth no man. The things of God knoweth no
man. No man in a state of nature knows the things of God, but
the Spirit of God. God's Spirit. Well, I must hasten
on because I've got to answer another question. And that is,
why is this so important? Why is it so important, preacher?
Well, we read there in Ephesians 2.8, but now look at verse 9
if you've still got your Bible over there. Not of works. Lest
any man should boast. Lest any man should boast. Lest he should boast. Boasting
excluded. Pride abased, the psalm says.
I'm only a sinner saved by grace. Boasting excluded. Now, I want
you to turn with me in your Bibles. I'm not going to apologize for
using the scriptures, but you turn in your Bibles to 2 Timothy
3 and look at verse 2 with me, and I'm going to let you go in
just a little bit. But I want you to look at this. Paul says
here in verse 1, this know also, this is 2 Timothy 3, that in
the last days perilous times shall come, and their opponents
brethren. For men shall be lovers of their
own self, covetous, and what's that next word? Boasters. Boasters. Proud. Blasphemers. Disobedient to parents. Unthankful. Unholy. Now, I read this verse
in order that you would see that boasters are proud. The two go together. Now, we
have a generation of professing believers that's got into the
church by praying the sinner's prayer. And I'll tell you what,
if you listen to them, You pin them down, and it's always the
big I. I'm the person that made the
decision. I made the decision. Not only
did I make the decision, I received Christ. I did this. I did that. It's their bolsters. Proud bolsters. And listen to me. Take away that
little I business out of their experience, and they don't have
nothing. Nothing at all to talk about.
Nothing! because nothing's ever happened
in her soul. And that's how these churches got full of people that
don't know the first thing about the gospel, wouldn't know it
if they met it in the street. Because all they'd done was polyparity
a little prayer after the preacher. They know nothing about the big
I, God, and the little you, and they know nothing about that.
Now, friend, this is so important that we see this. I want you to turn with me to
Ezekiel 16, and I'm just going to quit right there. Ezekiel
chapter 16. The Old Testament. I just want to show you this. Again, the word of the Lord coming
to me saying, Ezekiel said, the word of the Lord came to me.
And said, son of man, you caused Jerusalem to know her abominations.
You go out and you show her her sins. Well, how would you do
that? Well, you would do that by preaching the holiness and
the perfection of Almighty God. That a man might see who He really
is. that he's a dead sinner. 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. As for thy nativity and the day
thou wast born, thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed
in water to supple thee. Thou wast not salted at all,
nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee to do any
of these 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. The picture is of an illegitimate
child, stillborn, just cast out into the field, polluted, nobody
cared, nobody did anything for it was stillborn. And then in
verse 6, and from here on to the end of my reading, I want
you to notice the I, when it says, and when I pass by, I want
you to see that God here boasts It's His boast, my friend. And I say to you that the glory
of God is so important. Why is this all important? It's
because salvation from A to Z. There was a one-liner spoken
by a man at the bottom of the ocean with the weeds wrapped
about his neck inside of a fish. A one-liner that says salvation
is of the Lord. And we need that God would be
glorified. And he boasts here, look at it.
And when I passed by, there that infant laid out there in the
field, none to care for, and God said, when I passed by, my
friend, I got saved when God passed by me. It wasn't that
I came by where He was, He came by where I was. You remember
what happened to blind Bartimaeus? The Lord Jesus came by. He came by. And the woman at
the well, Jesus went out of His way. Why? He says, I must needs
go through Samaria. Why? Because I must pass by that
woman of Samaria. I must save her. And so when
I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood,
he says, when I saw your condition, he said, I said unto thee, when
I saw the shape you were in, when I saw you were dead, when
I saw you were illegitimate and that you didn't have any care,
he said, I said unto thee, you had no life in you when you were
in your blood. I said unto you, live! Live. And that's what happened to me,
friend. God spoke to me. And I just want you to see that
about, I think, 13 or 14 times here in this short portion of
Scripture, God declares His boast. Well, my friend, isn't it alright
for God to boast? I say God can boast. And the
reason He can is because salvation is His work from the beginning
to the end. And if you rightly understand
this book, there is not one inch of ground given to the sinner
whereby he might boast before God. Not one inch. Not one inch. Don't talk to me about your little
receiving Christ. You're dead and you're a dead
sinner if that's all you've got to talk about. Have you been
quickened? Has He come by? Has He said to your soul, live? Live! Until He says, Live! You're not alive, my friend.
You're still dead, dead in your sin. I said unto thee when thou
wast in thy blood, Live! I said it. Now if God says it... Now listen to me. On Resurrected
Morning, I hope to hear those words. I hope the Lord passes
by, don't you? Oh, my friend, listen to me.
This comes down to serious business. You do believe in a resurrection,
don't you? Well, I'm going to tell you what, before you're
resurrected, you know what's going to be your state? Let's
say you pass out of this world tomorrow. And in a hundred years,
the Lord Jesus comes back. I want to know how much help
you're going to give Him on resurrection morning. Speak it! Tell us about
the help you're going to render unto the sovereign God of the
Bible. Here you are, nothing but ashes. Nothing but dust. Oh, my friend, listen. I'm wanting
Him to come by, aren't you? And say, Love! Live! Only if he speaks those words
will we live. Only! There's not a chance of
you coming out of the grave unless he says, live, live. Well, I'm grateful to God that
he's got the power when he speaks. Where the word of the King is,
there is power, the Bible says, and he can quicken a dead soul. Now, he goes on to say, I have
caused thee to multiply. And then now in verse 8, Now
when I passed by thee and looked upon thee, behold, that was a
time of love, a time of love, and I spread my skirt over thee.
Oh, God has betrothed these people unto himself. You remember Ruth
and Boaz, and when she snuggled up to Boaz and his garment, was
laid out over her. Things happened there that we
won't talk about here this morning, but that's where she was engaged
to Boaz. And this is where the sinner
is engaged to the Lord Jesus Christ to marry Him. And her
nakedness was covered. 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 worst I thee, I, I did all
of this. I clothed thee also with brooded
work, and shoved thee with badger skin. I girded thee about with
fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. I decked thee also
with ornaments. I don't know anything about being
decked out in Montana, but where I came from, I remember that
people used to be decked out. I mean, they were something.
They would cut a swath, people that were decked out back where
I come from in southern Indiana. And God says, I deck thee out. He said, I put ornaments, bracelets
upon your hand, your chain on your neck. And he goes on, I
put a jewel in your forehead, earrings in your ears, a beautiful
crown upon your head. I did all of this. And he said
in verse 14, And your 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. Well that, my friend,
is the state of a child of God. His beauty is not His own. He's dressed in garments not
His own. He's dressed in those glorious
garments of salvation. And Paul said, we're complete
in the Lord Jesus. Paul said, I want to present
every man perfect in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you're perfect
through my comeliness. It's the comeliness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Hallelujah, just to be like Him
in eternity. Well, the Bible says we are going
to be like Him because we are going to see Him as He is. But
the thing I want you to do sometime is just go through here and count
all of these times where the Lord makes His boast. I, I, I. He doesn't say a word about you
did this to help me and that to help me and so on and so forth.
The fact is this was a sorry lot of people. But God in sovereign
mercy and grace spared him and delivered him. That's why it's
important. God makes His boast. And if you are here this morning,