I invite your attention back
to Ezekiel, the 16th chapter. As far as the history of this
goes, this is the Lord dealing with Jerusalem or His chosen
people, which are a type of the elect of God unto salvation,
as He represents them as having done abominations and taken the
very things He had given them to worship Him and using them
to build idols and so forth and taking care of them. This is
a picture of what I have entitled my message today, Grace and Ruin. Grace and Ruin. If you were reading
along with me, you saw that the language of this chapter is one
of the sweetest reminders of the grace of God to his people. And this is about the salvation
of the elect. This is about the grace of God
toward helpless, ruined, sinners, guilty vile and helpless we,
spotless Lamb of God received. Full atonement, full redemption,
can it be? Hallelujah! What a Savior! In these words that I read to
you this morning, we see a singular premise that appears throughout
Scripture when the subject of grace is addressed, part and
parcel of the doctrine of grace. is the revelation of depravity. Part and parcel with the doctrine
of grace is the revelation of depravity. As our Lord reveals
his action toward this dead and corrupting sinner here, pictured
by this child, this female child who's cast out on a trip because
she's a female. And under that economy, she could
not be very productive and would have had to be cared for for
a long time before she became of childbearing age. She was
simply cast out. She was born on a trip and cast
out into the field to die. And that's representative of
us, as representative of us, the dead and corrupting sinner. As he reveals this, it is at
the same time a revelation of his grace toward those who are
utterly without hope and without help in this world. Verse 2 clearly
states, that the beginning of the understanding
of grace is the understanding of our abominable condition in
nature. And he says, Son of Man, that
is Ezekiel, calls Jerusalem, that is God's people, to know
her abominations. Calls her to know her abominations. Now what follows is this great
treatise on the grace of God toward this one. But grace is
a meaningless concept without the presence of the utter ruination
of humanity. You cannot understand grace,
perceive grace, receive grace unless God gives you an understanding. You won't have anything to do
with grace at all unless you know what you are in nature. So before God shows what great
grace he bestows on this one who's cast out, he says, show
her her abominations. That's the way it has to be.
Now this basic element of truth, the truth of the gospel is precisely
where religion errs in the teaching of grace. I know that grace is
a word commonly bandied about in religion. People talk about
it all the time. Amazing Grace, the song written
by John Newton, has become a common song and is even put in the category
of American folk music, though it was written by an Englishman
who was a slave trader and whom the Lord redeemed, named John
Newton. Religion does not hold that man
is fully and totally and utterly ruined. It simply does not. It does not hold that at all. Religion gives man hope in his
will, his own decision, and thus convinces man that grace is obtainable
by his voluntary act. Grace is thus reduced and diminished
to a mere offer rather than the necessity and the necessary sovereign
act of Almighty God. Grace is not an offer. I don't
offer anything to you and neither does God. Show me anywhere in
Scripture that God offers anything to anybody. It's not there. And certainly there's no reference
to grace whatsoever in this book wherein God offers it to somebody. Even the ordinances of the church,
like the Lord's Table we'll be taking this afternoon and baptism,
have been turned into a means of obtaining grace. They're called
by a great deal of religions, especially those who are in Catholicism
or in the Reformed movement that came out of Catholicism, and
basically among many churches that don't belong to that ilk. They've been made to be what's
called sacraments. And these words have even bled
over into fundamentalist religion. Sacraments. Now what that means
is that when you take them, they are an avenue or a channel or
a means by which God then can be gracious to you. When you
do that, grace is thus bestowed. It sounds nice, except it's just
a lie. It's simply not the truth. It's
simply not the truth. The Lord's table and baptism,
the two ordinance given to the church, are an acknowledgment,
only an acknowledgment, of God's finished work of grace. It's an acknowledgment. You don't
get it. When we take the Lord's table this afternoon, if you
partake in that, then you will not receive anything but some
wine or grape juice and some bread that Debbie made yesterday
in my oven over in the house. That's what you'll receive. It's
food. But it's food that is to remind
us of a finished work. We do show forth His death until
He comes again. The wine represents the blood
of the everlasting covenant of grace. The bread represents the
body of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we, by taking those things,
acknowledge that our salvation, if indeed we are saved, our salvation
is wholly and completely the work of God by Jesus Christ's
substitution and nothing else. That's what grace is. We don't
obtain. You can't get grace by doing
something, or trying something, or praying through, or walking
down an aisle, or using your will, or making some decision. You can't get grace because grace
doesn't come that way. Grace is unmerited kindness. Grace is unmerited favor. That means you can't merit it.
You didn't want it. You weren't looking for it. God
bestowed it upon you. That's His work. And you will
never get grace as long as you think that you have something
to do with getting grace. It's that simple. By religion saying that you can
obtain grace, that it's an offer, God himself is diminished. And
he becomes the supplicant at the door of man's decision, or
his so-called free will. In the religion of this day,
grace has no value and is not understood because the utter
ruin of man is not believed. If total depravity were embraced,
if men truly understood that, they wouldn't have any trouble
with any other doctrine in Scripture. But when men think that somehow
there's a spark of goodness or a spark of divine, when men think
somehow that they can will themselves from death to life, When men
think that by deciding something, that that changes them from a
dead person to a live person, that person knows nothing of
the grace of God. To believe that salvation is
ultimately dependent upon the choice or decision of free will
is a complete denial of the doctrine of grace. It denies the grace
of God if, in natural man, such a thing as capability to better
his estate by affirmative spiritual choice exists, then grace does
not exist. There is now, even now, a remnant
according to the election of grace, Paul said in Romans chapter
11. And if it's grace, then it's
no more works. And if it works, it's no more
grace. Those two will never be together. So this truth of ruin and grace goes
throughout Scripture. And here in this chapter we have
a great example in these first 14 verses in this treatise on
grace. It is prefaced by the declaration,
first off, that the people are ruined. That's the first thing. Ruined in the fall. What happened
in the Garden of Eden? What did Adam do? He voluntarily
ate of the fruit that God had forbidden, and he died. The actual language is the promise
of God, the threat of God, the warning of God is in the day
that you eat of that fruit. Dying, ye shall die. That's the way it's worded. It
says surely you will die, but if you read the margin and go
to the original language, dying. What happened? He died spiritually
that moment. He no longer, no longer had any
desire whatsoever to communicate with God. How do I know that?
When God showed up, he hid. Didn't he? First he tried to
sew together his own righteousness and that didn't work. And then
he hid from God when God showed up on the scene. and he began
to die physically. He began to die physically. He was ruined and so were you
when he fell. His sin was accounted as your
sin. He is our federal head and representative
in nature. So Paul said in Romans chapter
5, sin has entered the world and death by sin. So death has
passed upon all men in whom all sinned. You're guilty of Adam's
transgression and you'll pay for it or somebody else will. Somebody's got to pay for that
sin. Now what that produced in you was a desire to have nothing
to do whatsoever with God Almighty. Now I'm not saying it had something
to do with religion. The fact that he sewed fig leaves
together showed that he wanted to have religion. The fact that
he was willing to cast the blame off himself onto the wife that
God had given him showed he was a very religious person. Religion
likes to do that. They like to blame other stuff. Just get rid of them TVs. Just
get rid of that liquor. Just get rid of that dope. We
wouldn't have no problem. You got rid of all the booze,
a man would figure out how to make booze out of dirt. He'd
figure out how to ferment dirt. You guarantee it. Why? Booze
is not the problem. Man is the problem. We're the problem. We're trying
to save the earth and people talk about saving the earth.
You can't save this planet. It's a goner. It's been going
downhill since the first. It's the first. And whether or
not you embrace the teaching of global warming or not, Doesn't
matter. Doesn't matter. One day it's
going to get real hot. It's going to melt with the fervent heat. And it's
not going to be because I drive a car that gets 15 miles to a
gallon. Because God's going to speak. And it's going to be done. It's going to be done. Adam ruined
us. And we're ruined in him. So this is how this whole treatise
on grace begins. Show them their abominations. Abominations is a nasty little
word. You'll pardon me if I am a little
uncultured here, but the word comes from passing gas. That's
what it means. It means show them how they stink
in the nostrils of a holy guy. They stink. They stink. Show them their abominations.
And that's always the case. Those who have experienced the
grace of God know that the grace of God is held against and over
against in opposition to the fact of what they deserve. What they deserve. And that's
always the case. We were at a jewelry store the
other day and admiring some of the pretty jewelry. Josh had
bought Debbie a necklace and some earrings and some kind of
Insurance policy that she has to take them back every six months,
and they adjust make sure all the diamonds It's a free deal,
and it's really not we were just walking around I was looking
at those Diamonds and pearls and all the pretty stuff in there
and all of those diamonds were displayed against a black velvet
surface Why? So you could see how pretty they
were They weren't displayed on aluminum foil that wouldn't work
would you? Or a white surface wouldn't show
up. It had to be displayed on a black surface. Why? Because
the brilliance of the diamond shows against the opposition
of the black velvet surface. That's grace. Grace is only seen
in its beauty. The diamond of grace is only
seen in its beauty against the black backdrop of man's ruin
and depravity. So where you find grace in Scripture,
You're going to find ruined individuals. You ruined individuals. Unless
we think that the grace of God puts an end to the lusts of our
flesh or does away with our carnality, the context of this entire chapter
reminds us that this is not so, and likewise reminds us that
God's action of grace has nothing to do with, is not in any way
dependent upon what we do or do not do. Verse 14 and 15, let's
just read these together. Here's the end of this act of
grace that God gives. And thy renown went forth among
the heathen for thy beauty, for it was perfect through my beauty,
through my comeliness. through my covenants, which I
had put upon thee, saith the Lord God." Well, that ought to
take care of it. We're saved. We're never going to have no
problem with sin no more. We're going to be above and beyond.
We're going to live the higher life and the deeper life. We're
going to rise above the world of sin. Read verse 15. Thou didst
trust in thine own beauty, and played the harlot because of
thy renown, and pouredest out thy fornications on every one
that passed by." And that list goes on all the way down to the
last three verses of this chapter. What are you talking about? I'm talking about grace as the
salvation of your soul. But it's not going to change
the corruption of your nature. of your nature. You're a sinner. If you're saved by grace, thank
God. But you didn't have anything to do with it. You didn't have
anything to do with it. All you could do, like your little
fellow said one time, the preacher says, you understand salvation? He says, yes, I do. I understand
there's two parts to it. I'm the sinner and Christ is
the Savior. That's the two parts to salvation. I'm the sinner
and Christ is the Savior. at the rehearsal of these things
where God shows these people and this person and us our own
abominations, shows us what we deserve. Our Lord once again
reminds us of why we are saved at the end of this chapter. You
can start reading verse 15 and read all the way to verse 59
and it is nothing but woe is you, woe is you, woe is you.
God points out every conceivable vileness that can come up. And
then He says this in verse 60, nevertheless. Nevertheless, I
will remember my covenant with thee. I will remember. It's evident
that verses 15 through 59, they ain't remembering nothing. except
their own willful sinfulness. But God said, nevertheless, no
matter what you are, If you are my child, if I have shown you
grace, I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy
youth. I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.
Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed when thou
shalt receive thy sisters, thy elder and thy younger, and I
will give them unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant,
but by my covenant. And I will establish my covenant
with thee, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord thy God. Grace
always held over against our ruin and reminds us, our ruin
reminds us that we cannot, in our flesh, please God, ever. And when we think we're doing
something good, if we know ourselves by His Spirit, we know that when
we would do good, evil is present with us. We know that. That's
the clear declaration of Scripture. Our ruin is the first thing that's
spoken of here. Our depravity is plainly revealed. Abominations, as I said. Son of man, cause Jerusalem to
know her abomination. This is in itself. For it is God who through the
appointed preacher causes us to know our abominations. This is an act of grace. It is
for God to show you what you are. Because if He don't, you
won't know. You'll never know. You'll never
know. You'll stand at the judgment
and say, wait a minute, didn't we prophesy in our name? Didn't
we cast out devils in our name? Didn't we do great wonders in
thy name? And He will say unto you, depart
from me ye that work iniquity, for I never knew you. What were
they doing? They were doing stuff for Jesus
in His name. And it was iniquity, God said. Only the understanding of our
ruination will ever cause us to cry for mercy. It was grace
that taught my heart to fear. And grace my fears remain. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee. Psalm 65 forward. Our abominations speak to our
own rebellion and our sins. When he says, show them their
abomination, it speaks of our sins, that plural aspect of our
rebellion against Almighty God. But verses 3 and 4 teaches us
the source of our sins, and that's our connection with our father
Adam. Look at verse 3 and 4. Thus saith the Lord God of Jerusalem,
Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan, thy father
in Amorite, thy mother in Hittite. This shows our depravity. Canaanites. It says in Zechariah, the last
chapter, it says that in the land of God there ain't going
to be no Canaanites. In the land of salvation, there
ain't going to be no Canaanites. Canaan was representative of
all that's idolatrous. Then he says, your mother was
a Hittite, your father was an Amorite. These two tribes, these
two nations, were the cruelest and vilest and most idolatrous
nations spoken of in Scripture. That's where we come from. A
cursed place. A curse in place. It says, As
for thy nativity and the day that thou was born, thy neighbor
was not cut. That means the umbilical cord
remained. We were connected to the placenta. The placenta and all of us were
cast out into the field. That speaks of our connection
with that nature of Adam. Our connection with our father
Adam. Our neighbor was not cut. We
were not separated from our nature. The Amorites and the Hittites,
as I said, are used simply to show how rotten our ancestry
was. We came from wicked stock. I
know people like to look up their genealogies. places on the internet where
you can find out who your great-grandfather and great-great-grandmother was
and find out where they were buried and what cemetery and
what census they were taken in and all that sort of stuff. People
find it interesting. I admit, I find it a fleeting interest. My brother likes it a lot better
than I do. I'm not really that big on it.
But nevertheless, here's your genealogy. Your father was Adam. Your grandfather was dirt. Your
great-grandfather was nothing. That's your genealogy. That's
every human being's genealogy. And we're all the same. We may
come from different tribes and nations and tongues, but we're
all the same. God has made all men of one blood. They're not
a dime's worth of difference. They're a cultural difference,
but culture only divides. We are not different. We're exactly
the same. Every one of us exactly the same. We're all sons and daughters
of Adam condemned by God for it. It says here that our condition
was so bad that we were not washed with water. That means we were
not cleansed. That means we were still in our
filth. We were not salted. Salt was used to tighten up the
skin and to take off the corruption of the blood and the mucus that
the baby had on it. You were not swaddled at all.
Swaddled is a word that is used in the East to represent taking
a baby and making sure all its limbs were in the right place.
They put the hands like this and the feet together and they
swaddled the baby and held it that way. be rightly formed. So it says here that we were
filthy, we were not cleansed, and we were without form and
void. We were nothing. We were nothing. That's our case in nature. That's exactly what we are. We
like to think as children being pure. They're not pure. They're innocent in this sense
that they've not been yet subjected to things that they will find
tempting to them. Just let them live for a little
while and you'll find they're not pure. They're not pure. Children
born into this world are guilty before God because they come
forth as soon as they are born speaking lies. They're not sweet
little things. I know we love our babies. I
love my babies. They've grown up now. One of
them is 35 and the other one will be 29 the next birthday.
I love my babies. But, they're just like me, they're
depraved. Now I can say that, you can't
say that. You don't tell me my baby's depraved, you're going
to make me mad. But you can say it about your own children. I'm
not ever going to tell you that your children are depraved. You can
ask people here, I've been in this congregation for 30 years,
I've never once said a bad thing about any one of their children.
Mainly because I love their kids, but I've also got some grey matter
between these two ears and I'm not going to be stupid. Same
thing with God, remember that. He can say what He wants to about
His children. He can say they're abominable. You better not. Matthew 18 says if you do, you're
going to have to contend with Him. The angels steadfastly look
in the face of God. And when someone looks down on
His little children, God sends His angels to protect them. But we, by nature, are depraved. And then this, our depravity
is spoken of in such a sweet and merciful way. Verse 5 says, None eye pitied
thee, to do any of these for thee,
to have compassion on thee, but thou wast cast out in an open
field to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou wast
born. And what that simply means is
that this child represented here in this scenario, in this story
that the Lord is relating, this child died because the next thing
we hear is God say live. This child died. So that represents
our death, our spiritual death. But the language here is we have
pity on this child only. And that's how God views His
rebels. Now we know we're rebellious
by nature. We know, had it not been for a work of grace, we
would like to have stuck our finger in God's eye and jerked
Him off the throne and put ourselves in His place. That's how rebellious
we are. We hated Him, despised Him. The natural mind is enmity
against God, is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. We hated God. He was our enemy. We know that.
But He looks at His elect, His chosen, His Jerusalem, His city
of peace, His bride. He looks at her in pity. In pity. You look at the representative
nature of Christ's miracles on this earth. The people He healed. He doesn't speak of them as vile
and unclean and undone, such as that in the matter of salvation.
He speaks of them as having a disease or being in a pitiable estate. And that's mercy. Because you
know what you deserve. You deserve to perish in eternal
damnation. And for God to look at what you
are and have pity on you is an amazing thing. He views His children
as sick, in need of a physician. What a thing! The whole need
not a position, but them that are sick. I came not to call
the righteous, but bring sinners to repentance, he said. Verse
5, nobody has compassion on this child. What that means is, nobody
can really help this child, and nobody can help you. I can't
help you. We all have found that out to some degree along in our
lives, and when we try to help people and tell them the truth
about God, something like that, they don't want that. Leave me
alone! I'm fine where I am. I'm happy
where I am. And even if they did want us
to help them, all we can do is tell them who can help them.
We cannot help them ourselves. I can't help you. I can't help
you. I can tell you where the help
is. One man said preaching the gospel is one beggar telling
another beggar where the bread is. And that's what I'm telling
you, where the bread is. But I can't do anything for you,
I can't convince you. If I did convince you, it would
be my ability to convince you, not God convincing you. And it
won't do you no good. It won't do you no good. None I pitied thee, dead, corrupting,
that's what we are, covered in our own blood, connected to our
father Adam, doomed, dead, damned and dying in this world. And in verse 6, God says, When I passed by thee,
and saw thee polluted in thy blood, trodden underfoot in thy
blood, I said unto thee, When thou wast in thy blood, dead,
cast out, a baby helpless, dying, all it can do is breathe. That's
it. But that's already stopped. It's
stopped breathing now. It's dead. God walks by this
dead baby and says, if you'll just walk down an aisle, if you'll just take the first
step, dead baby, if you will exercise your will, dead baby.
What does He say? What will it take for you to
be made spiritually alive from this dead condition? God's got
to say this to you. Live! Live! And when God says live,
something lives. Let there be life here. Live! And just so we understand
what He was talking about, He repeats it. I said unto thee,
when thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee,
when thou wast in thy blood, live! That's what happened to
you, and that's what happened to me when God graced us, when
God bestowed His unmerited favor on us. We weren't asking for
it, we were dead. We were corrupt, we were ruined,
we weren't looking for it, we didn't even know we needed it.
People say, everybody needs Jesus, just ask them. You don't know you need Him until
you are awakened from this dead condition. Live! And something lives when
God says live. And then verse 7 and 8, we see
love. We see love. When I'm talking about love,
Here the language is the language of this young girl being grown
up into being a beautiful young woman. And the language is somewhat
romantic. There's nothing wrong with romantic
languages throughout the Scripture. Read the Song of Solomon, which
men weren't even allowed to read until they were 30 years old
in Israel, because they knew they couldn't understand it. But this is the language of love,
and when I'm talking about love, I'm not talking about romance.
I'm talking about acting upon love, the willful act of love. And love is a willful act. You
who are married know this to be true. There were times in
your marriages when you looked at your partner and you thought,
I think they'd fit into a woodchipper. You've thought that. You know that's true. There are
times in a marriage when two people have lived together for
a long... Them and I celebrated our anniversary this week. Yesterday
we were married 38 years. But there have been times in
this marriage... Well, there may be room for applause,
I don't know. There have been times in this marriage when she
looked at me and thought, I'd like to kill him. Isn't it right? Don't lie. And there are times
I felt the same way about her. There are times. But that's feelings. That's romance. Thirty-eight years ago, was it
a Saturday or a Sunday? It was a Saturday, wasn't it?
Sunday afternoon. I made a vow to this woman. I
vowed to love her. And that didn't mean I was always
going to be a romantic guy. And I am kind of a romantic guy.
I like romance. I'm a sap for a chick flick. I am. I admit it. David can tell
you. I watch L.A. Men. I like them
love stories. I do. I'm a sap. So what? That
has nothing to do with it. I vowed to love her. That didn't
mean I vowed to romance her. It meant I vowed that no matter
whatever happened in our marriage, I would never act in a manner
that was not brought about by love. I would never act against
her. I would hold her up as first.
I would hold her up as precious, as admired and respected. I would
hold her up and always seek to do that which was good for her,
even if it was at the expense of myself. That's acting in love. Now, this world has an idea about
love. They talk about romance all the time, and romance is
fine. Ain't a thing wrong with it. God made us that way physically
to enjoy that. But it's all chemicals, folks.
It is. Oh, I just fell in love all of
a sudden. I just saw him. I fell in love. That ain't love.
Just go ahead and admit it. I'm glad it's there. I'm glad
God made us that way. But it ain't love. Love always
seeks to do what's best for the one that is loved. Always. And so here we find love, true
love, acting. Acting toward the loved one.
And that's how it always works. We love God because He first
loved us. And this is the action, and I'm
running a little long. I'll try to hurry up. He says,
I caused thee. I have caused thee to multiply
as the bud of the field to grow up. Thou hast increased in wax
and grape. Thou art come to excellent ornaments.
You're beautiful. You're arrayed. You're adorned.
Your breasts are fashioned. You've grown up and become mature.
Your hair is grown where before you were naked and bare. I've
made you into a beautiful person. He said, Now, Before, when I
said, you were dead in trespasses and sin, now, then I said, live,
now I'm going to dress you, adorn you, love you, act in love. And it says, when I passed by
thee, I looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love,
and I spread my skirt over thee. That's a Jewish way or an Eastern
way of saying, I take you for myself. You become mine. And he goes on to say that. I
covered thy nakedness. How did he do that? He covered
our nakedness with the righteous robe of Jesus Christ's righteousness. I swear unto thee, read Isaiah
45, he swears unto his people and says, all that come to Christ,
all that come to Christ, that men will come to Christ, And
He will receive them, and He will justify them, and all that
are since against Christ, He will destroy. I swear unto thee,
I entered in a covenant with thee, and that speaks of the
eternal covenant. Thee saith the Lord God, and you became
mine. Now it can be said of all creation
that they belong to God, because He made them. He made them. But this is not what that's talking
about. This is talking about the act of love whereby they
became the Lord's, bribed to be. Go on. It says, Then I wash thee with
water. Then I wash thee with water.
That's speaking of the Word of God. Yea, I thoroughly washed
away thy blood, thy corruption from thee, saved us from all
our sins, put away our sin by the sacrifice of himself. I anointed
thee with oil. He gave us his Spirit, that other
Comforter, to take the things of Christ and reveal them unto
us. And he supplied everything we
needed. Look at verse 10. I clothed thee
with broidered work, and shod thee with badgered skins. I girded
thee with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. I deck thee also
with ornaments, I put bracelets on thy hand, and a chain upon
thy neck, I put a jewel in thy forehead, and earrings in thy
ears, and a beautiful crown upon thy head. All this speaks of
what Christ did for you. I clothed thee with broidered
work, and shod thee with badger skin. That represents two things
in Scripture. First of all, it represents the
door of the tabernacle, the veil between the holy place and the
most holy place, that four-layered curtain. What does that represent? Access to God. We have access
wherein the grace wherein we stand. And I shod thee with badger
skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen. That always
represents the righteousness of Christ. I covered thee with
silk. That represents the kindness and the mercy of God. I decked
thee with ornaments, and put bracelets upon thy hand, and
a chain upon thy neck. He said, I got you ready for
the marriage ceremony. I put a jewel in thy forehead,
As is done often in the east, a jewel is put in the forehead
or worn on the forehead. But this speaks of a nose stud
or a nose ring. I put that on and he said, well,
piercing must be an old thing. Must be an old thing. Been going
on a long time. And earrings in thy ears, and
a crown of righteousness upon thy head, a crown of life for
you. He did that all. He said, and
I do that. He says, Thou was decked with silver and gold.
In verse 13, silver and gold, which represents the trials of
faith that bring forth your faith is silver and gold. Thy raiment
was fine linen, the righteousness of Christ brought her worth.
Thou didst eat fine flour. The second thing is, these all
represented the priest garments also. He made you a priest and
a king unto God. You did eat fine flour and honey.
Thou was exceeding beautiful. Now you think about this. What
are we by nature? We're abominable. What are we
in Christ? Beautiful. You're beautiful if you belong
to God. He said, I made you beautiful.
I made you beautiful. I was exceeding. He was prettier
than pretty. You were exceeding beautiful
and you did prosper into a kingdom. That's what God has done for
you now. You will not find your action anywhere in here. You
will not find your say-so, your desire, your want, because these
aren't involved in grace. When God shows grace, He shows
it to dead, ruined sinners. He calls us to grow and to prosper,
and it says in verse 14, Thy renown went forth among the heathen
for thy beauty, for it was perfect. And that word is perfect. Perfect. How? How can I be perfect? Through
my covenants. Through Christ's covenants. You're
perfect before God. God has made Him to be unto us. 1 Corinthians 1.30 Wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. All those things, God has made
Him to be to us. How are we beautiful? God has
made us beautiful. How? by Christ putting His beauty
on us. On us. And look at what He says, Which
I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God. I put this on thee. Like the wayward son, the prodigal
son, who went away and spent all his earnings, all his life,
Wasted himself away and began as a Jewish boy to envy the hogs
for what they had to eat. And he went back home. His father,
while he was alive, he made all these plans. He said, when I
get back, I'm going to ask Daddy. He said, I'll just tell him,
Daddy, let me be a servant in your house. I'll sweep the floor. I just
want to be back in the house. I'll do anything you want, Daddy.
Just let me do something so I can get back in the house. And while
he was away, a far off father saw him. How'd he see him? He'd
been looking out that window for him. He'll be looking out the
window, and there he sees a dot on the horizon. He gets a little
larger, a little larger, and the father says, that's my son.
He says, come home. His father runs out to meet him,
and falls upon his neck, and kisses him, and kisses him, and
the word there just smothered him with kisses. Now he's thinking,
maybe you'll let me be a servant. I ain't no servant. You're no
longer a servant, you're a son. But I've spent all I had. Well,
I'm going to give you some more. I wasted all I had. I'm going
to give you some more. And he takes him into his house
and he says to his servant, Find the best coat. That's what he
says. And he doesn't say let him try
it on and see if he likes it. He says put it on him. Find the best coat and put it
on him. Put a ring on his fingers. Put
shoes on his feet. This is my son who was lost and
now is found. We return home. If you are in
Christ, God puts you there. If you are beautiful, God made
you beautiful by putting Christ on you in His righteousness. Now here's what I want you to
do in your spare time. I want you to read this chapter,
this entire chapter. I want you to look and find out
what you do in this chapter and what God does in this chapter
you'll find that what you do even as one who's been washed
and swaddled and loved and made a bride and made beautiful you'll
find that everything you do is against God In fact, if you want
to read chapter 14, chapter 15, chapter 16, chapter 17, read
Ezekiel. Just read the book. Everything
you do is against God. Everything. Everything He does is for you. That's the grace of God. Find
one thing in there that you did for Him, one thing that you asked
for Him, ask from Him for grace. I'll stop preaching grace. Never
mention it again. God's grace comes to you as a ruined, vile,
unclean sinner. And you know what it does? It
saves you. It does. It makes you beautiful
in God's eyes. Thank God for His grace. Father,
bless us through our understanding and prayer, in Christ's name,
Amen.