Ezekiel chapter 16. I'm entitling
the message from the words found in verse 8. Look at verse 8 one
more time. Ezekiel 16 verse 8. The Lord
said, When I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, this was
a look of love, not a look of anger. It's a look of love. I
looked upon thee, and behold, thy time was a time of love. I spread my skirt over thee,
I covered thy nakedness, I entered into a covenant with thee, and
you became mine." The time of love, that's the title of the
message, the time of love. to us comes in a time of God's
covenant mercy, covenant love. Every believer can certainly
confess that our salvation that we enjoy, that we are blessed
with, is only because of the Lord's sovereign love to us. We, Bridget just sang a moment
ago, hail sovereign love that first began. A scheme to rescue
fallen man. Hail matchless, free, eternal
grace that gives my soul a hiding place. The time of love, salvation,
wrought in our heart. The Lord's sovereign, effectual
love to us. We read in 1 John 4, we only
love him We love Him because He first loved us. Left to ourselves,
what do we love? John 3 said, men love darkness,
not light. It's only by His sovereign calling,
His sovereign love that we love Him. And He has loved us in Christ
forever. Now in this chapter, Ezekiel
16, we see God's sovereign mercy to His covenant people through
the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a beautiful, glorious picture
of the Lord's salvation to us. This is every believer's spiritual
biography. God found us in the pit, raised
us up, made us to grow in grace, made us new creatures in the
Lord Jesus Christ, and He has adorned us with His beauty, His
glory. From the dunghill to the throne
of glory. That's our salvation that the
Lord has given unto us. And it's all by the Lord's purpose,
all by the Lord's grace. God saves sinners by His purpose
and by His grace. I love that prayer that we read
a moment ago in 1 Samuel 2. Hannah prayed, he raises the
poor out of the dust, he lifts the beggar from the dunghill.
This is the Lord who does this. We have no ability to set them
among princes, to make them inherit the throne of glory. For the
earth, the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and He has set
the world. upon them. You see, as we read
through the Old Testament, it is still the history of redemption,
of our redemption in the Lord Jesus Christ. All that has been
written in the Old Testament has the same purpose of the New
Testament. All Scripture is God-breathed
and all Scripture is given To us, to reveal unto us the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why I like the words in
that last song. In thy book revealed, I see,
I see the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ. In Luke
24, our Lord said, all things must be fulfilled which are written
in the law of Moses, in the prophets, and in the Psalms. They're all
about Him. They're all about Christ, His
person, and His work. Our Lord said to those Jews,
you are they which search the scriptures, but they are they
which testify of Me. To Him give all the prophets
witness. All things are written aforetime
are written for our learning. that we, through patience and
comfort of the scriptures, might have real hope. You see, the
foundation of faith is the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God. As we see God's dealing with
this national Israel in sovereign mercy, even so we see God's dealings
with His spiritual Israel, His elect. in Christ. He has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings. In this story of this infant
cast out that was raised up by the power and purpose of God,
we see the three R's of the gospel, don't we? We see ruin, we see
redemption, and we see regeneration by the Holy Spirit. Ruin in Adam,
redemption through the blood sacrifice of Christ, and regeneration
by God, the Holy Spirit. Now, let's look at some of these
verses and let's see about our ruin, our sinfulness in Adam. In Adam all died. Verse 3, Thus
saith the Lord God, Ezekiel 16, 3, Unto Jerusalem thy birth,
thy nativity was of the land of Canaan, thy father was an
Amorite, thy mother a Hittite. As for thy nativity in the day
when thou wast born, thy navel was not cut, neither was thou
washed in water to supple thee, thou wast not salted or treated
at all. nor swaddled, cared for at all,
none pitied thee. Everybody that passed by said,
too polluted to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion
upon thee, but thou was cast out in the open field to the
loathing of thy person in the day that thou was born." Now,
we read about I'm told as we read of some pagan nation, there
was a terrible custom of leaving unwanted, deformed
infants to perish in the field. Now, we see a lot of that today. Often we read about that or hear
about that of those who have children, just cast them out. But you'll find no better picture
of our state and birth in Adam than in this story of this infant
that was cast out. Because we were born fallen,
of fallen parents, as it says there, your father and your mother,
they were idolaters, Amorites and Hittites. And we were born
of fallen parents, weren't we? David said, in sin did my mother
conceive me. We come forth from the womb speaking
lies. We did not come into this world
as those who might stand and maybe fall later, but we are
born into this life in sin and we're born already fallen in
our father, Adam. By one man's sin, death entered
into all, in whom all have sin. We are born in sin, shapen in
iniquity. That is so, isn't it? That is
true. Our state of total depravity
and total inability, we see in verse 4, this newborn Babe was
cast out, helpless, hopeless, without any power or ability
to help itself. All it could do is lay out in
the field and cry. And no one paid attention. And
that's us too, isn't it? Totally depraved, with no ability
to approach God, to love God, to believe God. No outside help
is available, it says in verse 5, none I. No eye pitied thee
to do any of these things to you, to have compassion upon
thee. You was cast out into the open field to the loathing of
thy person. In the day that you were born, dead in sin, trespasses
before God. None pitied thee. The law of
God was against us, condemned us as guilty. The holiness of
God offended by our sinful character
passed us by. The truth of God was sworn to
testify against us and the justice of God is sworn to destroy us
because of our sin. The soul that sinneth must surely
die. No, I pity thee. The law was
against us. Justice was against us. None
had compassion upon us. But that's not the end of the
story. Yes, we are sinners. As Isaiah said, from the sole
of our foot to the top of our head, there's nothing but wounds
and bruises and terrible, open, infected sores. If there's any
help for such awful creatures as we are, it cannot come from
within us. It has to come from outside of
us. You see yourself this way by
nature as a helpless, infected, dying sinner cast out. The law of God against you, the
justice of God said the guilty must die. The sword of God justice
ready to avenge his justice. And if God had not passed by
in mercy, we would certainly perish in our sin. But that's
not the end of the story. We see our ruin in Adam, our
sinfulness. But we see the good news of the
gospel in verse 6. When I passed by thee, he looked
our way. When I passed by thee, I saw
thee. The Lord sees us really as we
are. Sinners, sinners through and through, sinners by birth,
sinners by choice, sinners by practice. When I saw thee polluted
in your blood, sin contaminates our whole being. God said, when
I saw you in your guilt and in your sin and in your filth, God
said, live, live. live I cause thee to multiply
I pass by thee God passes by his people on purpose on a saving
mission, on a saving purpose. Remember the story in John chapter
4, when the Lord was purposed to show mercy to a woman, a Samaritan
woman at the well. Remember the scripture said,
he must needs go through Samaria. Why? He had one of his elect
down there. He must cross her path with the
gospel and teach her the gospel. She wasn't seeking him, he was
seeking her. The Lord said in verse 6, when
I pass by thee, that cast out infant wasn't seeking mercy,
wasn't seeking the Lord. I saw thee polluted in thine
own blood, I passed by thee. We did not at first seek him,
he sought us. We did not choose him, not at
first, he chose us. We didn't come to him where he
is, had nobility. He came to us where we were.
He was mindful of us and set his love upon us from all eternity. For he loved his people with
an everlasting love. I passed by thee and I saw thee
polluted and God said, live, live. The Lord our God has entered
into an eternal covenant with covenant of mercy with his people
in the Lord Jesus Christ and has made Christ our servant,
has made Christ our mediator. The Lord Jesus Christ came where
we were. He took upon Himself our flesh. He came to rescue us from our
sin. He came to redeem us from our
sin. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem
them. When I pass by thee, we know
it's by purpose, don't we? The Lord Jesus Christ took upon
Himself our humanity, apart from sin, and obeyed the law of God
for us. The Lord Jesus Christ took upon
not only our humanity, but He took upon Himself our sin, our
guilt, and our shame, and He redeemed us by His precious blood. I saw thee polluted in thy blood. The Lord sees us as we really
are. Yet, in Christ, He loves us with
an everlasting love. You see, mercy is for the miserable. Grace is for the guilty. Salvation
is for sinners. Turn over here to Matthew chapter
9, just a moment. Matthew chapter 9. We read about the Pharisees who
complained that the Lord Jesus Christ was, they said he's a
friend of publicans and sinners. In Matthew chapter 9, look at
verse 10, it came to pass that Jesus said at meet in the house,
behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and
his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it,
they said unto his disciples, why eateth your master with publicans
and sinners? And when the Lord heard that,
he said unto them, They that behold need not a physician,
but they who are sick. Go ye and learn what that means. I will have mercy, not sacrifice. For I'm come, not come to call
the righteous, but sinners, sinners to repentance. Sinners to repentance. We read in Romans chapter 9,
God commended his love toward us, and that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that the Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. Paul said, I'm the chief one.
When I saw thee polluted in thy blood, thank God he didn't turn
away. Thank God he crossed our path. And he said, live. Live! Live! In the same way that our
Lord, as He stood before the grave of Lazarus, you remember
from our study in the book of John, Lazarus had been dead and
buried four days, And when the Lord stood in front of his grave
and instructed them to roll the stone away, the Lord Jesus Christ
commanded Lazarus to live, didn't he? And he that was dead came
forth. That's exactly what the Lord
does for us in mercy when he crosses our path and causes us
to live in Him. He gives us life. You hath He
quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sin. When the Lord quickens
a sinner to life, He does so by His will. of his own will
beget he us with the word of truth he does it by his will
and he does it by his word to the word preached death gives
way to life darkness becomes light inability gives way to
strength our enemies flee away and he raises us from the dead
he finds us in terrible condition dead in sin What does he do? He raises us from the dead. He
said, in His grace through the gospel, live, live, live. You see, we only believe according
to the working of His mighty power. And it's the same power
that raised the dead body of the Lord Jesus Christ. He raises
us up from the dead and causes us to have life and salvation
in Him. Now look at verse 7, Ezekiel
16 verse 7. Not only does He pass by our
way, sees us in our guilt, He puts away our sin by the sacrifice
of Himself, He gives us all spiritual blessings in life, and He causes
us to multiply. To multiply. He causes us to
grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ. I've caused thee to
multiply the bud of the field. Thou hath increased and waxen
great, Thou art come to excellent ornaments, Thy breast are fashioned,
Thine hair is grown, Whereas Thou was naked and bare. Here we see the blessings of
God's mercy unto us. We read about it in Psalm 40.
Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast
done. Thy thoughts which are to usward cannot be reckoned
up in order. If I were to declare and speak
of them, there more than can be numbered. He's blessed us
with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ.
Notice these words in verse 7. I've caused thee to multiply. Multiply. He's given us multiple
blessings upon blessing of His fullness. Have we all received
grace for grace? And then He uses a word here,
increased. Where sin has abounded, grace
does much more increase. And then He uses the word here,
waxing great. We have great blessings in Him.
We have great privileges in Him. And then He uses the word here,
excellent. Excellent ornaments. And then He uses the word here,
grown. Where thou was naked and bare,
now you've grown up. In the Lord Jesus Christ dwells
all the fullness of God and we stand complete in Him. fully
redeemed, fully pardoned, fully blessed. Again, look at verse
8. God causes us to grow and to
mature in faith. When I passed by thee and looked
upon thee, behold, thy time was a time of love. I spread my skirt
over thee, I covered your nakedness, I swear He took an oath, entered
into a covenant, that's the eternal covenant of grace with thee,
saith the Lord, and you became mine, one with Him. We were naked,
barren, lifeless, poor, yet the Lord has abundantly blessed us
in Christ. Consider what we have in Him,
all things. But of him are you in Christ,
who of God is made unto us? Everything that I need, he's
fully provided. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
he's my redemption. Everything I need to stand before
God, excepted in the beloved, is given in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the reason behind all that
is covenant love, covenant mercy, at the time of love. Herein is
love, John said, not that we love God, When we talk about
love, let's not talk about how much I love the Lord Jesus Christ.
I don't love Him like I ought to. I don't love Him like I should. I don't love Him like I will
one day. But let's talk about His love
for us. I'm embarrassed about my love for Him. I do love Him.
I can say with Peter, Lord, you know all things. You know that
I love you. But when we talk about love,
let's talk about His love for us. When John writes about it,
he said, herein is love, not that we love God, but that He
loved us and that He sent His Son to be the sacrifice for our
sin. It was a time of love. The Lord
Jesus Christ died for us because what? He loved us. He loved us. You remember Ephesians chapter
5, he loved the church and gave himself for it that he might
present it to himself a holy, spotless, unblameable church
in him. The reason behind our salvation
and the mercies that we enjoy is because of God's eternal covenant
mercy, covenant love. in Christ Jesus. Of which we
read in Romans 8, and nothing can separate us from the love
of God which is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing. Nothing. Not
only that, He's loved us and He's called us from the pit of
sin and He's covered our nakedness. Now I can't think of anything
more embarrassing Anything more embarrassing to be caught in
public with nothing on I mean Some people I know they're not
embarrassed by anything, but I'm talking about myself personally.
I would be just Wouldn't you? How about being naked before
God? In the guilt and filth of your
sin you talk about You talk about being embarrassed But the Lord
Jesus Christ has covered us. He's covered our nakedness. What has He covered us with? A garment that He's provided.
The Lord Jesus Christ, He's provided for us a garment. You know what
it's called? Let's read about it over here
in Isaiah 41. Or Isaiah 61, turn over there. He's covered our
nakedness. Our nakedness, our sin. He's
given us the robe of righteousness. Isaiah 61, verse 10. I will greatly rejoice in the
Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for He hath clothed
me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe
of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments,
as a bride adorneth herself with jewels. That's our covering. You see, Christ himself is the
robe of righteousness. In him, it says in scripture,
he that believeth on him shall never be ashamed. We stand before
God's holy law, before the light of his justice, we stand before
him in Christ clothed. with a perfect justifying righteousness
in Christ Jesus. That's what we have. He's covered
our nakedness. He took away our reproach, our
shame, our guilt, and he's given us that blessed righteousness
that we have in Christ. And he does it freely. It's not
something we've earned. He's blessed us freely for Christ's
sake. We're justified freely by His
grace in Christ Jesus. And this all because of this
covenant, and it's a covenant of love. I've entered into a
covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and you became mine.
What kind of covenant is this? It's a covenant of mercy. It's
a covenant of grace. It's the eternal covenant. We
read about it over here, let's turn to it. Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews 13. It's that eternal
covenant that David set on his deathbed. It is ordered in all
things and is sure. It's all my hope, all my salvation. This is that covenant entered
in between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit that guarantees
the salvation of God's people. In Hebrews 13 verse 20. Now the
God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus
Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood,
the blood sacrifice to the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in
every good work to do his will, working in you that which is
well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory
forever and ever. Amen. Look back at Ezekiel 16. I entered into that covenant
with you and you became mine. We have that eternal union with
the Lord Jesus Christ. He described it so vividly in
John 17, I in them and thou in me that we may be made perfect
in one Don't turn, let me just read it to you. I in them, thou
in me, that we may be made perfect in one. I in them, thou in me, that they may be
perfect in Christ. That the world may know that
thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. It's the time of love. The time
of love. Now look back at Ezekiel 16,
then when you became mine, when I passed by you, when I said
unto you live, when I decked you out and covered your nakedness,
I washed thee with water, yea, I throughly washed away thy blood
from thee, and I anointed thee with oil." We've been made clean,
we've been washed, the water of his word with the gospel.
He's made us to know Him through the gospel and to make us to
know that it is the blood that maketh atonement for our soul. The blood of Christ cleanses
us from all our sin. Now, in verse 10 and verse 11,
notice the further description of the salvation and blessings
we have in Christ. I clothed thee also with abroided
work, I shod thee with badger skin, notice it's everything
that he did for us, I passed by thee, I washed thee, I clothed
thee, I covered your nakedness, I shoved thee
with badger skin, he gave us shoes, I girded thee about with
fine linen, I covered thee with silk, I decked thee also with
ornaments, I put bracelets upon thy hand, and a chain upon thy
neck, a jewel on your forehead, earrings in your ear, crowned
upon your head. Now what a growth we have. What a picture we have. Here's
that cast out infant, polluted in its blood, dying in the open
field. Now, a beautiful queen, raised
up, decked out, crown on her head. And this is all a picture
of what Christ has done for us. Clothed us with a special garment,
abroided work, shod our feet with badger skin, durable shoes,
we read about in Ephesians chapter 6, your feet are shod with the
preparation of the gospel of peace, girded with fine linen,
fine linen is what the royal family wears, kings and princes,
and we are made kings and priests unto our God. We have the fine
linen that the priest wear, And Christ has made us kings and
priests unto our God. Verses 11 and verse 12, we are
adorned with special jewels of his grace. Notice what he says
there. Bracelets, verse 11. Bracelets upon thy
hand and a chain upon thy neck. What is bracelets upon the hand?
You ladies wear bracelets all the time. My wife loves to buy
those bracelets. You buy three or four of them.
Put them on. You know, that would kind of
bother me, but she loves those bracelets. Nothing wrong with
that. But these bracelets here that
he's talking about, he puts bracelets upon our hands that we might
serve him. They're hands that are tuned
to serve him. And he's put a chain upon our
neck. Believers willingly bow and serve Him, made willing in
the day of His power. We have a jewel upon our forehead.
You see those ladies from India walk through the airports and
you'll see them sometimes they have that jewel right on their
forehead. And what I see in this, believers,
if you walked in here with a jewel in your forehead, you know what? I would notice it. I mean, we
put a jewel right here, I'm gonna notice it. Believers openly confess
Christ and they assemble where the gospel is preached. And that
jewel on the forehead is emblematic of our open confession of Christ.
bracelets on our hands, a chain upon our neck, a jewel on our
forehead, earrings in our ears. You see this? You see the picture
of this baby, now grown-up, dead, beautiful? She's a beauty queen. Earrings in your ears. What does this mean? It's a picture
that our ears are tuned to hear the Shepherd's voice. Let us
be swift to hear and slow to speak. He said, my sheep, hear
my voice. I know them and they follow me.
And he's crowned us, crowned upon your head. He's crowned
us with loving kindness and tender mercies. Verse 13, thus was thou
decked with gold and silver, thy raiment was fine linen, silk
broided work, and you ate the best food, fine flour. I mean
flour that's been prepared, honey and oil. Thou was succeeding
beautiful. Thou did prosper into a kingdom. And again, this is all a glorious
picture of what we have in Christ. Our gracious Lord provides all
things for His church, His bride, a glorious covering and constant
feeding upon Christ through the bread of life. Christ is the
honey and the oil of the Word. Christ is the sweetness of the
Word, isn't He? And the church does prosper.
See that word in verse 13, prosper? Remember Isaiah 53 10, the pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He's made us to prosper
into a spiritual kingdom. The gates of hell, the Lord said,
I'll build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. Verse 14, thy renown went forth
among the heathen for thy beauty. For it was perfect, our beauty,
our righteousness we have in Christ is perfect, perfect. Our salvation that we have in
Christ is perfect. Thy renown went forth among the
heathen for thy beauty. For it was perfect through my
comeliness, through my righteousness. Blessed is the man whom the Lord
imputeth righteousness without works. Which I, again, notice
everything we have here that this cast out infant, this cast
out sinner enjoys is because of the Lord's blessing upon us. I pass by thee, I saw thee, I
love thee, I close thee, I crown thee. And you're beautiful. perfect through my comeliness,
which I put upon thee. Turn over here to Colossians
chapter one, which I put upon thee. Salvations of the Lord,
isn't it? I put upon thee, Colossians 1,
verse 19, for it pleased the Father that in him should all
fullness dwell, having made peace through the blood of his cross,
by him to reconcile all things unto himself. By him I say, whether
they be things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were
sometimes alienated, cast out infant. Enemies in your mind
by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of
his flesh through death, talking about his sacrificial death,
to present you just like that infant, now dressed fully, clothed,
decked out, crowned, to present you holy, unblameable, unreprovable
in his sight. Perfect through His comeliness. Turn to one other scripture,
find the book of Jude, right before the Revelation. Jude,
just one chapter, verse 24 and 25. This is the beauty that we
have in Christ. He's not ashamed to call us brethren.
Jude 1 verse 24 now unto him that is able to keep you from
falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory
with exceeding joy to present you faultless before the presence
of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God our Savior
be glory majesty dominion and power both now and ever Amen. God who spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Our salvation in Christ is perfect
and complete. Nothing need added. I watched a documentary film
about the life of Charles Spurgeon. When I was out there in Iowa,
Brother Terrell had this and we sat down and watched it. It
was about an hour long. You can find it on YouTube, I
believe. but it's a biography of Charles
Spurgeon's life and his ministry. But I found this statement by
him. He said, the whole of the work
whereby a lost sinner is lifted from the dunghill of sin, washed
in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and made righteous and
exalted to eternal life and glory is of the Lord and of him only. Salvation is of the Lord. Well,
I pray the Lord will bless His Word to your heart and cause
you to consider how He's blessed us so fully, so freely, so eternally
in the Lord Jesus Christ.