Sunday Morning, October 30, 1988
SUMMARY
This Sunday morning message reflects on the sovereignty of God and His mercy, using various scriptures including Ezekiel and the Old Testament. The speaker emphasizes that God, as the sovereign ruler of the universe, acts according to His own will and pleases Himself. The text explores the birth of the nation of Israel and how God chose them, not because of their own worth or righteousness, but out of His mercy and grace. The speaker draws parallels between the birth of Israel and the salvation of individuals in the church, highlighting the transformative power of God’s word when He says, “Live.” The message concludes with an invitation for those who haven’t experienced God’s saving grace to respond and accept Jesus as their Savior.
THE FULL MESSAGE
The 16th chapter of Ezekiel. I’ve been studying the last few weeks quite a bit in the Old Testament and I’ve been studying about the patriarchs, creation stage, and then the patriarchs. I’ve been studying about Israel and how God deals with Israel. This morning I want to show you something about God. I want to show you something about the sovereignty of God. What does that mean, sovereign? That means that God is in complete control. Sovereign means that God is the Lord and the King of the universe and God can do what He wants to do.
He doesn’t have to ask anybody’s opinion. It’s not a democracy. He is ruler supreme. And so we find that God is a sovereign God and He does that which seems right in His own eyes. He does that which pleases Him. And I would like to show you because in Ezekiel it is dealing with the birth of a nation. It’s dealing with the birth of that little nation Israel and according to the 16th chapter of Ezekiel we find that Israel was born because of a sovereign God and this sovereign God had mercy and had pity and that’s what this is about.
And I want to read to you the conditions and also what God did for Israel. Again, the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations. And say thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem, Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan. Thy father was an Amorite and thy mother a Hittite. And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born, thy navel was not cut, neither was thou washed in water to supple thee. Thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. None I pitied thee to do any of these things unto thee, to have compassion upon thee, but thou wast cast out in the open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou wast born.
And when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live. Yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live. I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased in wax and grate. And thou art come to excellent ornaments, thy breast are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. Now when I passed by thee and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love. And I spread my skirt over thee and covered thy nakedness. Yea, I swore unto thee and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine.
Then washed I thee with water. Yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee. And I anointed thee with oil. I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badger skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands and a chain on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy forehead and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver, and thy raiment was of fine linen and silk and broidered work.
Thou didst eat fine flour and honey and oil, and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. And so God said this, and keep this in mind. He said, I was walking by and I looked and there was a little newborn infant, just born, hadn’t even been cleaned up, still had blood on it. His navel had not been cut. In other words, He is trying to show here not only the helplessness of this little nation, but also that this little nation was polluted. You see, God did not choose Israel because they were sinless. God did not choose them because they were great.
God did not choose them because of their own worth. But God said, I passed by and I saw thee in that pitiful condition, and I said unto thee, Live. You see, that is a mandate from God. And God says, Live, and He is eternal life. And that little nation did live and must live. And He says this, He says, Now let’s go back a little bit and understand something about how this nation was born. We find there was a man about 65 years old that was living in Ur of the Chaldees.
Now you need to know something about Ur of the Chaldees. Ur of the Chaldees was a great city, perhaps the greatest city on earth at that time. But they had two temples, and they worshipped moon gods. One of them was Nainar, and the other was Nengar. And they worshipped moon gods. And so therefore Abraham was taken out of idolatry. God walked by, and He saw Abraham in his lowest condition, and He said unto him, Live.
God said, Abraham, get thee up and come out of there. Leave your father’s home and leave that place, and I’m going to bring you to a land that I will show thee. You see, it’s all by the mercy of God. God didn’t owe Abraham anything. God just looked down. God had pity, and it was in the foreknowledge in the heart of God that He would look down and that He would save Abraham and said, Get thee up and leave thy father and leave thy land. He said, I’m going to take you to a land that I’m going to show thee.
It’s all of God. I want to tell you something. The nation of Israel exists for one reason, because of God’s grace. That’s all. Just because of God’s grace, He looked down and saw Abraham and said, Abraham, I’m going to make of thee a great nation. I’m going to make your name great. And He said, From all the families of the earth will be blessed because of you.
And He said, Abraham, get up. Now, I want to tell you something about Abraham. Abraham wasn’t always obedient. He said, Get up and leave your father’s house. Abraham didn’t do it. He got up, and he took his father, and he also took his nephew Lot. And instead of going to the land where God told him to go, he went to a place called Haran and lived there for 10 years until his father died.
But you see, he’s still by grace. Now, Abraham was about 75 years old when they left Haran, and he didn’t have any children. And God would talk to Abraham, and Abraham said, Well, Father, God, what good does all of this possession that you’ve given me, what good does it do me, seeing I have no heir? And God said, I’m going to give you an heir. I’m going to give you a son. We know that he had a son named Ishmael, which was not in the lineage. He was never a part of the children of Israel. And so God came one day to Abraham, and Sarah was there, and He said, About this set time next year, I’m going to give you a son.
And the Bible says that Sarah laughed. She laughed, not out loud, but she laughed in her heart and said, Can someone old like me bear a son? Should I have such pleasures as this? And God, the angel of the Lord, which was the Lord Himself, said, Why did Sarah laugh? And she said, Oh, I didn’t laugh. And He said, Yes, you did laugh. He said, Is anything too hard for the Lord? There Abraham was, 100 years old, and his wife was way past childbearing. But God said, Is anything too hard for the Lord? You see, Sarah was going to have a son, and is going to call his name Isaac. Why? Because God before had already said to Abraham, Live, you’re going to be the father of a nation. And so God has the power to bring it to pass.
So we know about a year later, little Isaac was born, and when he was born, she named him Isaac, which means laughter. She said, Oh, I named him Isaac, which means laughter, so that when I think of this, I laugh, and all those around me shall laugh because of the miracle that God worked in my life. You see, God looked and had mercy, and He said, There’s going to be a nation. So we have a great big nation now. We have Abraham and Sarah and Isaac. So we come along a lot of years, a lot of years, and finally Isaac gets married and has two sons. One of them is Jacob, the other Esau, but Esau is also rejected.
It is not a part of the children of Israel, that great nation. One little boy, Isaac. So now we have a great big nation, don’t we? Well, except Sarah died, so we still just have a little bitty nation. But you see, God said, I saw you when you were just an infant, and He said, I watched over you, and I protected you, and I nourished you, and I fed you. And so then we know that, remember the story, how Jacob married and he had 12 sons, and his name was changed from Jacob to Israel. And so those were the 12 sons or the 12 tribes of Israel. Now, let’s go on.
We go on down through time, and we remember that Jacob had a son. We’ll call him Israel from now on. Israel had a son named Joseph. And if you remember, Joseph was sold into slavery down into Egypt. And because he was an interpreter of dreams and visions, he interpreted a dream for the Pharaoh, and the Pharaoh set him upon his right hand and made him ruler over all of Egypt just right under him. Well, we remember then seven years later, there was a famine in the land, and here little Jacob and his children were way off over here in the Canaan land, and there was famine. Jacob told his brothers, he said, go down into Egypt and buy corn, because they’d heard that there was corn in Egypt.
And you remember the story how they sent the brothers down in there, 10 of them, all but Benjamin, sent them off down in there, and when they come in there, there was Joseph and all of his glory and his power, and he recognized his brothers, and he sold them corn, but you have to read the story. I don’t have time to tell you all of it, how that he knew his brothers, but he wouldn’t reveal himself to his brothers, but he told them, he said, now, don’t you come back again. He said, I believe you’re spies, and you’ve come down here to spy out the poorness of our land. And they said, no, we’re not. He said, we’ve just come down here to buy grain. And he said, okay, but he said, don’t you come back. They’d already told him, they had a younger brother, Benjamin, which was his own brother.
He said, don’t come back unless you bring Benjamin. Well, they went back up there, and you remember the story how they ate all of that up, and Jacob told them, said, go back down into Egypt and buy more grain. And they said, we can’t go unless we take Benjamin. He said, oh, no, I don’t want you to take Benjamin. He said, that’s the only son I have. He said, I lost Joseph. He said, and I don’t want to lose little Benjamin.
And so they finally talked him into it, and here they came back down into Egypt. And then as the story goes, that Jacob made himself known to his brothers. He said, I’m Joseph. And when he did that, it scared them to death because they’d sold him into slavery. And he told his brothers, he said, now, when you sold me into slavery, you meant it for harm. They said, God meant it for good. He said, you sold me into slavery to do harm to me.
They said, God knew of a famine coming, and God brought me down in here that I might preserve this little nation alive. And I’ll tell you what, what a nation. Now, listen, this was 350 years later. When God called Abraham, 350 years later, then we find that Joseph and his brothers go up and bring Jacob and all their families down into Egypt. What a great nation. What a multitude. There was an entirely 70 people in the whole nation after 350 years.
That’s not much of a nation, is it? See, we got more than that right here. We got more people right here than the whole nation of Israel was 350 years after God said, I saw thee polluted in thy blood. But here comes that little nation of 70 people down into Egypt. And I want to show you what God said to Jacob. Jacob was worried about leaving the Canaan land. He didn’t really want to leave the Canaan land. He was scared.
And God told Jacob, and he said, I am God, the God of thy father. Fear not to go down into Egypt, for I will there make of thee a great nation. I will go down with thee into Egypt, and I will also surely bring thee up again, and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes. He said, you’re going to live to see Joseph that you thought was dead. He said, don’t be afraid, Jacob. He said, you’re going down into Egypt, because I’m going to make of thee a great nation there. Well, we know the story how that when they went down into Egypt, they were there 430 years.
And by this time, that 70 people had multiplied into over 3 million people. So we have a larger nation by this time. And God is still blessing, and God is still watching over His nation. But the trouble is the Israelites had gone into slavery and bondage and to the Egyptians. But God didn’t forget them down there, and He called a man named Moses and said, Moses, you go down there and you tell Pharaoh to let my people go. We remember the story how that Moses and Aaron went down in there, and they come before Pharaoh, and Moses said, God said, let my people go. And we remember the contest how that Moses had to bring 10 plagues upon the Egyptians before Pharaoh would let them go.
And the last one was the death angel that killed all the firstborn of Egypt. And then we remember how that God, watching over, and strictly because of His sovereignty and because of His mercy, parted the Red Sea and led His children across on dry ground. And after He got them across on dry ground, how that He closed the sea back upon the Egyptians. And all the time they were wandering in the wilderness, God fed them with manna. God gave them pure water to drink. And not only that, for 40 years their clothes and shoes did not wear out all the time they were traveling. Why? Because God looked upon a little bitty nation that was despised, that was nothing, and had mercy on it.
All right, now I want to show you something. You might want to turn to Deuteronomy the 34th chapter. This has to do with the death of Moses. The death of Moses. Here they are, God’s brought them, I mean Moses has brought them right up to the River Jordan and they’re just getting ready to go over into the Promised Land. Moses took all of the 12 tribes and he’d separated them and he pronounced a prophetic blessing upon each one. Each of the 12 tribes Moses had just blessed. He said, you’re getting ready now to go over into the Promised Land.
Now let me show you something in the 34th chapter. And Moses went up from the plains of Moab into the mountain of Nebo to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land of Galilee and to Dan, and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah and to the uttermost sea, and the south and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees and to Zor. And the Lord said unto him, this is the land which I swear unto Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed. I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over hither. So we know that Moses died there, not getting to go over into the Promised Land. But in this, you think about that.
God brought Moses up on this great mountain where he could look over into the Promised Land. And I can just see him saying, now Moses, you see that stretch of land over there by the sea? That goes to Zebulun. And I want you to look at this parcel of land over here in this part of Canaan Land. And that goes to Judah. And this part over here, and he goes all through and shows Moses all the parts that the tribes will inherit there in the Promised Land. Now look what Moses said just before he died, just before he went up on that mountain. It’s in chapter 33, verse 29.
Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thine excellency? And thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their high places. He said, O Israel, O Israel, Moses, he says, I don’t get to go, but O Israel, who is like unto thee? There is not another people on all the earth like unto Israel, because God one day looked and had mercy on a little outcast baby and said, I’m going to have mercy. And now we find a great nation of over three million people standing there ready to go in and inherit the land that God had given them. O Israel, happy art thou. There’s not another people like you, O people saved of the Lord. We know that Israel is the wife of Jehovah. We know that Israel is the wife of Jehovah.
And God said, I’m married to a backslider. Israel is always into backsliding, always going into idolatry, but nevertheless God made a covenant with them. And he says, O Israel is a backslider, but how can I give her up? What a nation, just because of God’s grace, he raised up a nation from a people that were no people. O happy Israel. But listen, he did it again. Remember that Israel is described as the wife of Jehovah, but the church is the bride of Christ.
O happy art thou, church, body of Christ, bride of the Lamb. There’s no people like unto you, O ye saved of the Lord. And listen, I’ll tell you we’re a church here today just because of God’s mercy and because of his sovereignty and because of his grace, because one day he said, live. You see, it was in the mind of God, and he said, live. Aren’t you glad that he did? Boy, you think about this. Think about this, people here this morning. There’s people all over St.
Spring’s and Tulsa and Oklahoma that don’t know Christ as their Savior. That ought to make you happy that God has chosen you and that you are the body of Christ and the bride of Christ. We’re not happy that they’re lost, but we’re certainly happy that we’re saved. Now you think about this, and if you’ll look in the New Testament, we find that the Lord, when he saved, he did it just exactly that way. We find that one time there was a woman at the well, come to draw water. Jesus had a conversation with her, and he said, live, and she was saved. One time there was a thief hanging on a cross right next to Jesus, and he said to the thief, live, and the man has eternal life.
We find a blind beggar by the name of Bartimaeus that heard that Jesus was coming his way, and he was yelling out for Jesus, and the crowd said, be quiet, he don’t have time for thee. And so Jesus said, what is that? And he said, well, it’s a man calling for thee. And he come up to him, and he said, live. We find a woman that was taken in a daughter and thrown at Jesus’ feet, and he said, live. See, that’s what the church is made out of. The church is made from sinners. Did you know that? God’s not going around looking for good people.
There’s not any good people. God saves sinners. He said, I come to save them which is lost, and he does it by speaking a single word, live, and we live. I remember, I never will forget, I’ll always remember, it’s what I’m trying to say, that when Mother got saved, she was a little bitty girl, I think she said about nine years old, and she was standing at the kitchen sink, and she was doing dishes, doing the dishes, and the Savior walked by and said, live, and gave her eternal life. When I was a little boy, nine years old, I was getting ready to go to church, and I stand before a mirror, and I picked up the brush, and I started to brush my hair, and I heard the Lord say, live. He speaks the words of eternal life. You see, he said, I am the resurrection, and I am the life.
He is eternal life in the form of human flesh, and he speaks the word, live, and we live, and Jesus is calling out a church, he’s calling out a bride, and it’s all by grace, and it’s all by mercy. Just stop and think about it. Look at this little church this morning. Boy, we’re a pitiful looking bunch. I mean, there’s not a genius in the bunch of us. None of us are just real good to look at. But God in his mercy, one day said, Bill, live, live, live, live, live.
Boy, see, that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? You see, he’s a sovereign God, and he says, I can save who I want to, and I don’t have to save who I don’t want to, but he speaks the word, and we live, and every one of us that are redeemed of the Lord can remember that time when we heard the Lord say to us, live. I can’t catch you. Anybody here that’s saved that says, I can’t remember when I heard him say to me, live. Boy, I can. Boy, I can. It’s just like the gold guy said one time, he said, boy, when he got saved, he said, something come in and never did leave, and something went out and never came back. And, boy, that’s just the way it is.
When we were lost in sin, it says that our carnal minds was enmity against God and were not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. You see, he didn’t save us because we was good or because he owed it to us. He just saved us because of his mercy. And I’ll tell you why I like to preach the gospel, because that is the only time when the Lord says, live, is when he is being lifted up. And when I preach the gospel, I know the Holy Spirit says, live. Not when I preach politics, not when I preach tithing, not when I preach baptism, not when I preach church membership, not when I preach good works, but when I preach Christ. The Bible says that then the Lord will say, live.
Now, we find that Moses went up on that mountain, and God said, I want you to look down over that land. I want you to look into the promised land, Moses. And he said, I want you to look at that land that I’ve given to Abraham’s seed way back there 700 years ago. 700 years later, they’re just now getting ready to inherit the land that God has given them. He said, look at it. Well, I’ll tell you what, we got something better than that. John the Revelator said, I heard a voice that said, come up hither.
And John the Revelator was caught up in the heaven, and John the Revelator said, I saw a heavenly city. He said, I saw a pearly white city come down from God out of heaven, adorned as a bride for her husband. And he said, it hath 12 foundations and gates of pearl and streets of pure gold. You see, people, you see, people, that’s our promised land. That’s our promised land. And like these ladies in Beale, St. Wallyville, one of these days he’s going to come and get us, and he’s going to say, it’s time to go over into your canyon land.
He’s going to come with a shout, and the trumpet’s going to sound, and he says, it’s time to go over into the promised land. But are you ready? Are you ready? He says, I’m going to come as a thief in the night. Let me tell you something about a thief. When a thief breaks in, he comes after the jewels. You never heard of a thief that broke into someone’s house and stole the mop and the broom and the dishrags. No, they come for jewels. And Jesus says, when I come, I’m going to come for my jewels.
I’m going to come for those that I’ve spoke to and said, live. Has he said live? Has he said live to your heart? Has he spoke to you? Do you know you’re ready to go? Do you know you’re ready to go? Can you say, I’ve heard the voice of the Lord.
I remember that day, and I remember that hour when I accepted Jesus as my Savior, and he came into my heart. My wife asked me a question. She said, Jerry, what is an authentic Christian? What is an authentic Christian? She’d been listening to tapes again. I know when she listens to tapes, I’m always in trouble. She’s always going to ask me something I don’t know. And I said, well, an authentic Christian is one that’s been born again. She said, nope. She said, an authentic Christian is one that has the seal. Makes sense. You see, the Bible says that when Christ says, live to you, then he seals you with the Holy Spirit into the day of redemption. Every king has a seal. It’s usually on his ring, and he’ll put a seal.
And nobody can break that seal unless it’s somebody with greater authority. When they threw Daniel in the lion’s den, the king put a seal on it so that nobody could break the king’s seal. When they crucified Christ and put him in the tomb, the Roman governor put a seal on that tomb so that nobody could break that seal. But a higher authority broke the seal, and he came out. But God says, I’m going to say, live to you. And after I say, live to you, then I’m going to seal you with the Holy Spirit into the day of redemption. You know if you have the seal.
You know if you have the seal. You know if you have that spirit. How do you know if you have the seal? Because you cry, Abba, Father, dear Father. It changes your very nature. It gives you a new birth. It gives you a new mind. You see, that is salvation when God says, live.
Let’s stand, and Bill, would you come? While they’re getting ready, let’s go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we come to you this morning thanking you for your many blessings. And Father, we just ask now, this invitation’s given, that if there’s anybody here this morning that don’t know you as their Savior, that this morning will be that morning when they hear you say, live. That they’ll accept you as their Savior. And when they do, they’ll come forward in public profession by coming forward. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Is God speaking to you?