We are in Ezekiel this morning,
Ezekiel chapter 36. And I told the men that we're
going to kind of go backwards and forwards. We started in Ezekiel
chapter seven on Wednesday night, but now we're in Ezekiel 36.
And then second hour, I hope to be in Ezekiel chapter one.
So we're kind of going forwards and then going a long ways back.
But I believe it's necessary for us to see this this morning.
There is a clear, crystal clear gospel. message throughout Ezekiel. And the more that I study in
the Old Testament, the more I believe we could have called it the gospel
according to Isaiah and the gospel according to Jeremiah and the
gospel according to Ezekiel. And Christ has revealed himself
thus far in every book that we've looked at. And his gospel has
been revealed in it very clearly. Now, our text is in Ezekiel 36,
if you'd like to turn there, but Throughout this book and
all the books I just mentioned, the Lord gives us the who, the
what, the when, the where, the why, and the how of the gospel.
He's so clear. He doesn't leave any doubt that
salvation is of the Lord and it's all by grace. The same gospel
here. And this was thousands of years
ago. It's the same gospel here now
as it is here in Ezekiel. It hasn't changed. It's the same
hope for sinners. It's the same hope for salvation. It's that the Lord will and we
shall. It's not that we will do something.
It's that he would do something. There's an example in Ezekiel
37 where he tells us, can these dry bones live? The Lord carried
Ezekiel out and he looked over a valley of dry bones. It says,
and behold, they were very dry. They had no hope of life whatsoever.
And the Lord looked at Ezekiel or spoke to Ezekiel rather and
said, can these bones live? And he said, Lord, thou knowest. What he meant was, is if they're
going to live, you're the one that's going to have to do it.
Because I can't make them live. Nobody can make them live. I
believe that you can. And that's the picture of salvation,
isn't it? Where the Lord comes by us in our dead state, our
dry bones, and stands us up as He did those dry bones according
to the wind, which is His Holy Spirit that breathes upon His
people. Breath of life, it comes forth out of us because He stands
us up and puts sinews upon us and skin. breathed into us, we
become living. We become born again because
of this glorious gospel. That's the picture in Isaiah
37. And then again, I'm sorry, Ezekiel 37. And in Ezekiel chapter
16, we see where the Lord passes by. And it's referring to the
nation Israel, but the Lord only has one people. He always has
only had one people. It's his chosen people that he
would redeem. And yes, the promise of the Messiah came through Israel,
but the scripture is clear, they that are of Israel are not all
of Israel, meaning it's by faith, isn't it? It's not by the bloodline.
So it was the faith of Abraham that were begotten by, because
it's Christ's faith, isn't it? So in Ezekiel 16, he passes by
and he says, I saw you dead. I saw you polluted in your own
blood. No one swaddled you when you
were a babe, whenever you were in this state, you were dead.
No one cleaned you, no one washed you, but I did. I took you unto
myself. I made you mine. I spread my
skirt over you. It was a time of love. I had
mercy upon you. I bought you by my own blood.
You are mine." That's the gospel, isn't it? That's what we need
from the Lord, to look upon us in our state of pollution, of
being dead, without hope. And he says, live, just as he
did to the bones. And he says, live, just as he
did unto us, according to Ezekiel 16. That's our hope. All throughout, Ezekiel gives
this same hope to sinners. And it's the same confirmation
that's in the New Testament. For by grace are you saved through
faith, in that not of yourself. For by grace are you saved through
faith, in that not of yourself. It is the gift of God. Not of
works, lest any man should boast. Wherein do we have to boast? If the Lord did all the work,
if he did all the saving, if he does all the calling, if he
does all the regenerating, he did all the redeeming, where's
our boasting? It's in Christ alone, isn't it? There's no boasting
in this flesh. If there was something to do,
we would definitely boast, wouldn't we? We would brag about what
we have done. And men do that. Men say, look
what we have done for Jesus. I've heard a man say that recently.
It's not what we do. It's what he did. It's not what
we're doing. It's what he's done and what
he's doing, allowing to come to pass according to his purpose.
See, the lie isn't that we've transgressed God's law. The lie
is that we can do something to please God to fix it. The lie
isn't that we've transgressed. The lie is that we can do something
to fix it. Or we can do something now that
would please the Lord. That's the lie. There's nothing
we can do. Nothing we produce, we need the Lord to sanctify
us. We need him to make us holy. And that's what we see here in
Ezekiel 36, that it's all his will, his work, and his choice. We've been made to know that
it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. We've been made to know that
it's by his own will begat he us. The Lord was speaking to
his disciples and the followers that he had. And he said, except
your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of
heaven. You can have the righteousness of the world and you can have
your own righteousness. That's what you have been led to believe. But the truth is there is no
righteousness in that, is there? We must have the righteousness
of Christ. It can't be self-righteousness.
It must be his righteousness. Thanks be to God, Christ has
been made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
The God made him unto us. That's our hope. It's not something
we produce, it's what Christ produced in his own righteousness.
It must all be of grace. So this is where we find ourself
in Ezekiel 36, and look at verse 21. But I had pity. for my holy name." He goes on
to say, I did not do this for your sakes. I did this for my
name's sake, that I would be glorified. But I had pity for
my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among
the heathen, whether they went. Therefore say unto the house
of Israel, thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for your sakes,
O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have
profaned among the heathen, whether ye went. And I will sanctify
my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have
profaned in the midst of them, and the heathen shall know that
I am the Lord, saith the Lord God. Now look at this part right
here. When I shall be sanctified in
you before their eyes, for I will take you from among the heathen
and gather you out of all countries and will bring you into your
own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water
upon you and you shall be clean from all your filthiness and
from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I
give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take
away the stony heart out of your flesh. I will put my spirit within you
and cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my judgments
and do them. You shall dwell in the land that
I gave to your fathers. You shall be my people and I
will be your God. I will also save you from your
uncleanness. I will call for the corn and
will increase and lay no famine upon you. I will multiply the
fruit of the tree and the increase of the field that ye shall receive
no more reproach of famine among the heathen. Then, after he's
done all of this, after he's done all the work, then shall
you remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not
good and shall loathe yourself in your own sight for your iniquities
and for your abominations. Not for your sakes do I this,
saith the Lord. Be it known unto you, be ashamed
and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel. I've titled
this message sanctified in you, sanctified in you. That's what
he just said. I will be sanctified in you. And he tells us the reason, or
he tells us how he's going to do this, or the reason why he's
going to do this is I had pity upon you. I had pity upon you. God had pity upon a people. That's how it all started, wasn't
it? Before the foundation of the world, God chose to elect
the people to have pity upon them. Now God is diluted in society. People, even in texting and different
things, a lot of people say OMG and oh my God and different things
like that. So the word God is very diluted. The God that we're
talking about here is the sovereign God, the only God that exists,
the holy God, the one that's other than us, the one that's
set apart, the one that's higher than the heavens, the one that
doesn't have a new thought, and yet he hears his people when
they pray. This is the God I'm talking about.
He chose to have pity upon his people. Now, men believe there's different
gods, men believe that God in their mind looks a certain way.
You remember the painter Michelangelo, I believe it was. I may not be
him. Maybe Da Vinci. I can't remember
the painter. But anyways, it was one of those Renaissance
painters, and you've probably seen the picture. It has a man portraying
Adam and a man portraying God, and they're about to touch fingers
together. Perhaps you've seen that. This is man's thought process. God must be like us in some way,
shape, or form. In order for us to connect to
God, he must be something like us. There was only one that was
like us, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. But the Father,
the only way to the Father is through Christ. The only way
to the Father is through Christ, but no man has seen the Father
live. So we don't understand anything about His isness other
than what the Bible tells us about. We don't know what He
looks like. We know that the scripture tells
us in Genesis that Let us make man in our own image. We know
these things, but he is not like us. His nature is not our nature. His everything about us is sinful. So we are bound to this flesh,
this sin that we are, and he's other than us completely. And
yet he chose to have pity. He chose to have pity upon a
people. This is the gospel here. So whether
we believe he's one way or whether we believe he's another way,
it really doesn't determine reality, does it? doesn't determine reality. What we believe doesn't alter
it in any way. That which has been is what shall
be. Everything that the Lord has
purposed is going to come to pass and nothing is going to
alter that. It doesn't matter whether I believe in God. It
doesn't matter whether I believe on God. My belief doesn't change
anything. Does that give you rest to know
that you can't change something because of what you do in any
way? It does me. Does it give you hope to know
that Christ did change something? He changed a bunch of sinners
into perfection by his own death. He's the only one that can make
real change, isn't he? Now we can clean up our lives
morally and we can taste, not touch, not handle, not, but we're
still just seeing Christ. Jesus was the one that was perfect.
He's the one that had to come because the father had pity.
upon his people to make them righteous before him, to make
them exactly like him. And he is satisfied with the
work of his son. In this chapter, we find ourselves
profaning God's name starting out. That's how it started, wasn't
it? You profane my name among the heathen. Now, it is mercy
that we were not left to the heathen, that we were not left
as a heathen, because that's what we would have been had it
not been for the Lord having pity. This is where this all
started. The Lord said, I will, and you
shall. We read everything that he said.
I'm going to cleanse you and you're going to be clean. I'm
going to wash you and you're going to be made whole. This
is the gospel message, not that you do something. No, we're the
ones that profaned his name. We're the one that would drag
his name through the mud if he left us to ourselves. You know
it to be true. Oh, thank God for his grace in
keeping us from ourself and revealing Christ, giving us eyes of faith
to look unto him. This is the good news that we
can't be left to ourself. If Christ Jesus has put away
our sin, we get to cry, I'm a father. I'll never leave you and never
forsake you. And he says, the first thing
he's going to do is I'm going to sanctify my great name when I shall be
sanctified in you. in their sight. No matter what
you've done, no matter what somebody accuses you of, in His sight,
you're perfect. There's rest in that, isn't there?
There's rest in knowing I'm perfect? Me? Only because He has been
sanctified in His people. Only because He indwells within
them. It's Christ in us. I can't understand
this, but we believe it. Christ lives in his people. We sing a song sometimes, and
perhaps I should have wrote it down, I forgot, but Christ liveth
in me. This is our hope, isn't it? That
whenever we are seen, that Christ is seen. It says, I shall be sanctified in
you, and then he proves it. He proves it. The God that cannot
lie says, I will be sanctified in you. I will take you I will
gather you. I will bring you. I will take
you. I will gather you. It doesn't
really give you much of an option, does it? That makes some people
mad. Did you know that? It does. People get mad whenever
they find out they don't have an option in it. Not the believer.
The believer sees that they can't be gathered. They can't be brought
on their own. They won't gather together on
their own. There were the dry bones that's in the valley that
are just completely separated, aren't we? We're not going to
come because we have no legs. We're lame. We're not going to
see you because we're blind. See, that's what the believer sees. When
the Lord says, I will and you shall, we rejoice. We say, oh,
what a debt that we're into grace. Thanks be to God. He paid that
debt. He says, I will be sanctified.
I'm going to bring you to the promised land, to the land of
milk and honey. I'm going to cleanse you from
your filthiness. That's what he said in this chapter. I'm
going to cleanse you from your filthiness. And you know what?
You're going to be clean. You're going to be clean. You're
dirty. And I'm going to wash you with
pure water, he says. I'm going to wash you with pure
water. Now, the elect's life, the believer's life, is likened
to being in a desert. And as you're in a desert, you're
stinky and you're dirty and you're tired. and you're thirsty, you
don't have any water out in the desert, except for maybe an oasis
that pops up. Well, that's where we're at right
now is in the oasis. And when we gather in here together,
we're here for one reason, that he might wash us with the washing
of water by the word, that he might give us the fountain of
living water. And as we wade into this pool
that he's provided for us, we start drinking and we're full,
we start bathing and we're clean, and then we have to leave, don't
we? We have to go right back into the desert. We have to go
right back into the world. And guess what? As soon as we
start out again, crawling through this wilderness, this desert
world, we start stinking again. We start getting dirty again.
We start getting thirsty all over again, don't we? And then
we come back to the oasis and we get our thirst quenched. We
get clean again. This is the believer's life over
and over until one day he receives us up into glory and conforms
us to himself. If you're hungry and you're thirsty,
I have good news for you. Christ said, blessed are they
which hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall
be filled. Men are hungry. and men are thirsty,
but only the Lord's people are hungry and thirsty after His
righteousness." Do you feel, you feel the stink that we are,
don't you? You feel the dirt, the filth
in our life and the things that we would do, we don't do, but
the things we would not, we wallow in. The dog returns to its vomit,
the scripture says. We're like a bunch of pigs, aren't
we? Lord, I need you to wash me. I stink. I know I stink. Make me smell just like Christ.
Lord, cleanse me. Wash me in his blood. Make me
look just like Christ. Lord, only see Christ when you
see me. Sanctify yourself in me. That's
our hope, isn't it? That's our only hope. Most of the time, we never appreciate
something until it's absent. I have been in services before.
the gospel was declared and I was so concerned with everything
else in my life, I did not hear a single word that was said. Isn't that embarrassing? I'm
confessing that to you. I didn't mean to be that way.
I wanted to enter in when I got there. I desired to hear. I did.
I wanted to hear. I needed to be washed. So concerned
with everything else. I didn't hear a thing that the
man said. When the absence of that happened,
Well, I was hungry the next service, you better believe it. I was
starving to death. I was dying of thirst because
I didn't get to see his face. I was pulling up CDs. I'm like,
Lord, I got to see you. I'm in darkness. I'm in a wilderness
here. I'm dying. I'm dying of thirst. I have to
see him. We have to see him, don't we?
And in mercy, he reveals himself in his time. It's the only hungry
people eat and only thirsty people drink. And it's the same spiritually. It's the same spirit. If you're
hungry and you're thirsty, you will eat and you will drink.
But if you're not hungry or you're not thirsty, it's because you
haven't been given a need. If I'm not hungry or thirsty,
it's because I haven't been given a need. Lord, make me hungry.
Make me to thirst after righteousness. If you never have, may this be
the day that I am starving for Christ, that I am famished for
his living water. Cause it to be thus and shut
me up to him. Sanctify yourself in us. That's
the believer's prayer. Someone who doesn't have a desire
has never been made hungry or thirsty. I'm reminded of the
prodigal son. You remember the account of the prodigal son?
He was like most of us were, and I realize I'm still young,
but I'm going to say young men and young women, more so probably,
but headstrong, got it all figured out, ready to go. Dad, I want
my inheritance, he tells his father. I'm ready to leave this
place. I'm ready to strike out on my
own. I've got this. I learned everything I can from you. I
deserve this, give it to me, I'm gone. He got it. He got what
he wanted. Got his inheritance. And what did he do? He wasted
it, didn't he? Wasted on frivolous things. He had a bunch of friends
as long as he was spending money. I can promise you that. But as
soon as the money ran out, where was he at? He didn't have any
friends left. He was in the, with the hogs,
wasn't he? With the hog pen. He was found
in a hog pen feeding the hogs and would have feigned filled
his belly with the same husk they were eating. So what is
this a picture of? He became a deacon at the First Baptist
Church. He no longer heard the gospel anymore. He was desiring
to eat of the same husks that non-believers eat. There's no
feeling in that, is there? There's no satisfying in these
husks. No, it takes the manna of God.
It takes the bread of life to fill the believer. And he remembered,
he came to himself. He remembered his father's table,
didn't he? He remembered his father had
servants that ate very well. The Lord gave him repentance
is what happened. The Lord gave him repentance. And what did
he do? He ran home. He ran home back to his father.
Now did his father say, no, you, you wasted everything. I don't
want to have nothing to do with you. No. He said, bring the robe, the
best robe, bring the ring, put it on his feet and kill the,
on his finger and kill the fatted calf. We're going to, we're going
to have a feast. My son's come home. This is a
picture of what the Lord's done for his people. He doesn't look
at us in condemnation because of what his son did in putting
away our sin. Gives us a robe of righteousness,
gives us the repentance. We can no longer be satisfied
with the husks of this world. We can no longer be satisfied
with the husks of sin, can we? We need Christ. We've been given
a hunger. We've been given a thirst that
only he can fill. and thanks be to God, he allows
those crumbs to fall from his table, doesn't he? Actually,
he puts us up to the table. The scripture says he's gonna
girt himself one day and serve us. I'm like, Peter, Lord, don't
let that be so, because I need to serve you. And he said, but
I don't wash your feet, Peter, you have no part with me. He
said, well, then not my feet only, but my hands and my head
also. We see the picture of the Lord's servitude and all of that
in providing everything we need, don't we? We need him to wash
us. We need him to feed us. We need
him to sanctify us because we can't do it ourselves. Show me someone that will eat
of the husks of false religion and say that they believe the
gospel. I'll show you someone that has never tasted of the
grace of God in his heart. Only the grace of God satisfies
the believer. I know people that attend different
churches, and they say, well, I can take what the preacher
says here, and I'm happy with that, and I can take what he
says here, and I'm happy with that. Understand something, if a man
is declaring the gospel, and he adds one thing to it, or he
takes one thing away from it, it is no longer the gospel. He
is no longer a gospel preacher. It's that simple. The gospel
must be declared clearly. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel. He didn't say and. He didn't
say anything. He said the gospel, period. I'm
not ashamed of the gospel. Why? Because it's the power of
God unto salvation for everyone that believeth. This is the believer's
hope, is his gospel. If someone can be content, if
you and I can be content anywhere else, we will be. In time, the
Lord will allow us to be content with husks. He'll allow us to
be content with the things of this world. He'll allow us to
drift away and fade away. But we are kept by the power
of God. through the faith of Christ unto
salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time. See, he gets
all the glory in saving. He gets all the glory in calling.
He gets all the glory in keeping. We just keep coming back, Lord,
I need to be washed again. Lord, I need to be cleansed again.
Now in his eyes, it was a one time and done thing. Do we understand
that? But in our eyes, we start stinking. We can smell ourselves.
We can see the dirt that we are and say, Lord, I need to see
you again. Wash me again, Lord. Wash me, cleanse me. and I shall
be cleansed. If you're hungry or you're thirsty,
God is the doer of it. He's given us his manna and we've
tasted it and we must have his manna. Only the Lord's elect
will come to this fountain. Only the Lord's elect will desire
this manna. Do you know why? Because God has been sanctified
in them. They have been made holy before
him and only his holiness will do. Only his gospel will do for
them. God goes on to say, our Lord
speaking to Ezekiel, he tells him that you're adulterous. You're adulterous. Not adultery,
but idolaters is what he's telling them. Now, we're born idol factories. Did you know that? We're born
creating idols in our heart. What I mean by that is, and I've
said this before, but most people are their own God. That's the
truth of it. They believe they have a choice.
They believe that they're good enough. They believe that they've
done something to please God, and therefore, they're an idol
to themselves. We even idolize people, don't we? We watch sports
and different things, and we see this guy, and man, he's a
great football player, basketball player, or maybe it's a, whatever
it may be, we idolize people in society, actors, whatever
else. They put their pants on the same way you do, same way
I do. point I'm making is, is we're an idle factory, aren't
we? We put things up in our mind higher than we should, and even
ourself. And it's only by grace that the
Lord tears down that factory and shuts us up to Christ. Men
and women will go and they'll create idols that they carry
around with them, trinkets, such as crosses. There's reasons we
don't have crosses at this church. It's an idol. It doesn't do God
any favor for us to have a cross around our neck or on our finger.
As a matter of fact, it strips him of his glory. We're pointing
to the cross rather than the person. Worship is done in the
heart, brethren. Worship is not done externally.
Did you know that? Worship is not whenever we're
waving our hands around and we're portraying or doing something
physically. Worship's done down in the soul,
the new heart that he has given us, that he just talked about
here. Worship is quiet. Worship, sure, we'll cry sometimes
or we'll laugh or smile when the preacher's preaching. We
hear the gospel and it's good news to our heart. And we feel
it warming our soul, but it's never done externally. We don't
draw attention to this flesh. And that's what idols do. They
draw attention to the flesh. This is why we don't do it. This
is why we don't do it. The believer wants God to have
all the glory in salvation. There's plenty of people in religion
all over the world that have crosses and nativity scenes and
all kinds of different things like that, that they believe
they're doing God a favor or they believe they're doing something
for God or they're identifying with God. That's the furthest
thing from the truth. That's not how you identify with
Christ. We identify with Christ by saying, Lord, have mercy upon
me, the sinner. Lord, I'm the chief of sinners.
I'm going to keep making idols unless you stop me making idols.
And that's what he says. I'm going to purge you from your
idolatry. That's what he's done for his
people. We only have one God. We only have one God. We don't
look to other things, do we? We don't. I love the fact that the Lord
doesn't say, I'm going to be sanctified in your walk, in your
talk and what you do externally. No, he says in you, I'm going
to be sanctified in you. Can a man add, Christ asked this
question, can a man add one cubit to his stature? Can the Ethiopian
change his skin or the leopard his spot? One of the prophets
said, no, it's not possible, is it? Oh, we need a substitute. We see ourself as wicked everywhere
we turn. We need a substitute. I can't
change anything truly about myself. I can't. But oh, he can. He can take out this heart of
stone that he's describing here in this chapter, and he'd give
a heart of flesh that looks unto Christ as all our wisdom, as
all our sanctification, as all our righteousness, as all our
redemption, all our hope before him. Only when we're showed that we're
a dog I'm glad the Lord let me preach that message, God or dog.
When we're showed a dog, we're not God. That's whenever he shows
us Christ. Only when we've been made to
have a need does he show us Christ. When we've been made to beg for
his grace. Only when we've shown is that
we're nothing. When we're shown we're nothing. That's the only
way that we can see Christ is everything. Only whenever we've
been made to see that we're a bunch of zeros, then we can see the
one, the Lord Jesus Christ. Only when we see ourself and
our righteousness is filthy rag, would we beg for his righteousness.
Lord, give us your righteousness, sanctify yourself and your people.
He's already done it, but we still beg for it, don't we? We're made to see our desperately
wicked heart, desperately wicked heart. And then we cry out, Lord,
I need a new heart, one that looks unto you. And that's what
he does for his people, isn't it? Gives us a heart of flesh.
He says, I'm going to take all of your unbelief all of your
sin, and I'm gonna give you faith and give you righteousness because
of what Jesus Christ did. That's our hope. I'm gonna take
all of your unbelief, and I'm gonna give you faith. I'm gonna
take all of your sin, and I'm gonna give you my righteousness.
You will be sanctified. And thanks be to God, when he
got done with us on the cross of Calvary, we were washed whiter
than snow in his sight. We have been sanctified by him. We have been justified by faith
and therefore we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
We say things like that and don't really I can't really enter into
the depths of that, but we truly have peace with God. There is nothing but peace with
God now for his people. There is no longer wrath. There's
no longer contention. There is perfect harmony, perfect
oneness, perfect unity with him. We have peace with the father
of his people, with the father of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
creator of this universe. We have peace. with Him because
we've been justified, because we've been sanctified, because
Christ has been made into us all of our wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Somebody asked me recently, when
did all of that happen? And they were trying to track
me is what they were trying to do. And I said, before the foundation
of the world, when we were yet sinners, Christ died for the
ungodly. When we were dead in trespasses
and in sin, Even when we were in debt and sins hath quickened
us together with Christ by grace, you are saved. And this is what
he's saying here. I'm gonna take your dead spirit. When you were in
trespasses and in sin, I'm gonna give you a new spirit. I'm gonna
take your dead, cold, stony heart, and I'm gonna give you a heart
that looks unto me. This is what he's done for his people. Every
single thing required for God to be satisfied, the Lord Jesus
Christ provided. His people are satisfied with
him alone. He goes on to say, by giving
us his spirit, it shows us that we know nothing of spiritual
things. He's telling, letting us know that you were ignorant.
You were unlearned. You didn't know, but I'm gonna
teach you. And is that not what the Lord said? They all shall
be taught of God. Lord, teach us. Lord, be our
wisdom. Don't allow us to confess anything
other than Christ alone. Be all of our wisdom. Be all
of our knowledge. Be all that we're clinging to
in everything. Strip us completely naked and
clothe us in your righteousness. He tells them, I'm gonna draw
you. Well, that means you have to be away from him. As a matter
of fact, we're lost, aren't we? We're lost. The lost sheep is
what the Lord said. I didn't come for these. I came
for the lost sheep of Israel. That's what he told us. That's
what he told the Pharisees. He said, my sheep hear my voice
and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal
life and they shall never perish. The Lord draws his people with
cords of love. And he tells us why by saying,
it's not for your sake, but it's for my holy namesake. Do you
know why? Because he gave his word. He
gave his word. I'm going to try to say this
the right way, but he gave his word twice. He gave his word
by speaking it. And then Christ became a man,
which is the word of God. Christ had to be, so he gave
his son, which is his word also. Do you see what I'm saying there?
Christ is the word of God. Yes, but God literally spoke
and said, I will elect a people. And Christ said, I will redeem
a people. He gave his word to do so. And then he gave his word
in a physical matter on the cross of Calvary for his people. He
kept his promise, didn't he? That's what I'm saying. He kept
his promise to his people. He kept his oath. He sanctified
his people. Christ prayed for that in John
chapter 17. Did you know that? He said, sanctify
them through thy word. Thy word is truth. As thou has
sent me into the world, even so have I sent them into the
world. And for their sakes, I sanctify myself that they also might be
sanctified through the truth. Christ said, I sanctify myself. Can you say that about yourself?
He's the only one that could sanctify himself. Now I can't
enter into that and you can't neither, but this is what he
said. Christ sanctified himself. You know why? Because he's the
God man. We're going to hear about that the second hour. He
is the God man, 100% man and 100% God. He was holy. He was
separate from sinners. He was undefiled. The Lord Jesus
Christ was the only one that could sanctify himself and his
people. And he tells us that in first
Corinthians six, you're washed. You are sanctified, you are justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God. God said, I'm gonna do all of
this and you're gonna be sanctified. I'm gonna do all of this and
you are going to be made as holy as I am. That's what the Lord
did here. This is what the picture is.
We are sanctified or made holy through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. And we have been presented faultless
before the throne of God. And he tells us the end result
of everything that he done in this life, what we'll have. He
says, it tells us in verse 31, Then you shall remember your
own evil ways and your doings that were not good. You shall
loathe yourself. You shall loathe yourself. Is
that you? Do you love yours? There's only two kinds of men
and women in the world, those that love themselves and those
that loathe themselves. And it is by grace alone that
a man or a woman would loathe themselves. This is every single believer's
confession. And the good news is, is every
time we loathe ourself, we hear the declaration in the heart
through the gospel, you are mine, you are loved. You may loathe
yourself, but I love you. with an everlasting love. You may hate the sin that you
are, but I don't see it anymore because I put it away. I've sanctified
you. I've made you perfectly righteous.
This is the gospel. This is what the Lord's people
delight in hearing because if it's left up to me, I can't sanctify
myself. Lord Jesus Christ sanctified
himself and he sanctified his people by his death upon the
cross of Calvary. Tells us that in Ephesians that
he might sanctify and cleanse it, talking about the church,
his bride, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing
of water by the word, that he might present it to himself,
a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that it should be holy. That's the same word of sanctified,
but it should be holy and without blemish. Does it comfort you
to know that you are without spot? that you are without blemish,
that you are without wrinkle or any such thing. That means
any flaw whatsoever in the eyes of God, his people are holy. They are sanctified. He is sanctified
in them because of what he done. And then in time, he gathers
all that he sanctified, that in the dispensation of the fullness
of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ,
both which are in heaven and both which are in earth even
in Him, every single person that Christ loves, every single person
that Christ died for, His elect people, He calls them unto Himself
and reveals that it is Christ in you, the hope of glory. This is what the message is this
morning. I will be sanctified in them. Christ in you, the hope
of glory. That's your sanctification. That's
my sanctification. Christ in us, the hope of glory. It's in Him we live. It's in
him we move and it's in him we have our being and thanks be
to God. Christ liveth in his people. In closing, I want to turn to
Jeremiah 32. Ezekiel is written after Jeremiah,
but they had the same message as I mentioned before. And he
literally says almost verbatim what Ezekiel says in Jeremiah
32. Look at verse 37. Jeremiah 32, 37 says, behold,
I will gather them out of all countries, whether I have driven
them in my anger and in my fury and in my great wrath, and I
will bring them again into this place and I will cause them to
dwell safely and they shall be my people and I will be their
God and I will give them one heart and one way that they may
fear me forever for the good of them and of their children
after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them
and I will not turn away from them to do them good. But I will
put my fear in their hearts and they shall not depart from me.
Yea, I will rejoice over them to do good with them, to do good
to them. I will rejoice over them to do
them good. And I will plant them in this
land assuredly with my whole heart. and with my whole soul. For thus saith the Lord, like
I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will
I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them. I
will gather, I will cause, I will bring, I will, and you shall. That's the message of the gospel.
I will be sanctified in you. How? Because I'm going to sanctify
you by my finished work, by my son on the cross. This is the
message. I will give you one heart. I
will make an everlasting covenant with you. This is what he's saying.
The same thing as Ezekiel was saying, salvation is of the Lord
alone. God promised it. He said, I'm
going to give you all the good that I promised. God promised
it. God fulfilled it. Salvation has been successfully
accomplished for the Lord's people. When he looks at his people,
he sees the holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ as our righteousness. He truly is sanctified in his
people because he is in his people. And it's all to the glory of
the Lord. It's all to his glory and all to his praise. He did
it all and gets all the glory for it. His work has made us
holy. Christ is our sanctification. He's sanctified in us.