God's word to us this evening is to be found in Ezekiel chapter number 16. Ezekiel chapter number 16 tonight. I want you to look with me in Ezekiel chapter number 16 verse 22. And in all your abominations and your whorings, you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your blood. And in all your abominations and your whorings, you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your blood. You know, it should be our goal Every Christian's goal, ongoing goal, to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord. I'll give you a few verses. The Bible is full of these kinds of verses. Colossians 1.10, We are to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. 1 Thessalonians 4, verse number 1, Finally then, brothers, We ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that as you receive from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you're doing, that you do so more and more. 1 Peter 1, 15-16, very familiar section in the New Testament. But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. So this is the great goal in the life of the Christian, to live a holy life that's pleasing to the Lord. And as we seek to attain to that goal, we must also be aware that we have a great obstacle to that goal, and of course that obstacle is sin. We continue to deal with sin. As a matter of fact, the writer of the Hebrews would write an encouragement to those people. And he says in Hebrews 12.1, Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, in other words, you have all of these believers in the past who have run the race and have been successful in the race. He says, let us also lay aside every weight and sin. which clings so closely. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. In Isaiah chapter 59 verse 2, Isaiah says, But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. Sin is a great obstacle, isn't it? to living a holy life. And so we ask the question, how are we to overcome the obstacle of sin? That's an important question to think about tonight because if you're honest, you still struggle with it, don't you? You struggle with it every day, every moment perhaps. Temptations come at you from the right and from the left and from Above you and beneath you and all over the place, you're bombarded with temptations trying to woo you into sin. You also deal with remaining corruption that's left, that has not been redeemed yet because we still live in this body, this fleshly body. So how are we to deal with this obstacle of sin? Now there's many things that the Scripture tells us, but if we were to put it in general terms, the only way that we overcome this is by God's help, by divine resources, by the things that He has given us so that we can overcome those sins. Maybe you think about it from an Old Testament perspective. Again, this divine aid, this divine help that comes from God. The psalmist would say in Psalm 18.29, for by you, I can run against a troop, and I, by my God, I can leap over a wall. The New Testament perspective, often quoted verse of Scripture in Galatians chapter 5 verse 16, but I say, walk by the Spirit. and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. So you see, in order for us to live holy lives, we have to deal with this obstacle of sin and we deal with that by the divine resources that God has given us, by divine aid, by His help. There's no way that we could do it without His help. For tonight, I want us to focus in, I think, on more of a specific tool as we move from the general to the specific. I want us to think about a specific tool tonight that we need to employ so as to help us live holy lives that are pleasing to the Lord. Again, the goal of the Christian life, to please the Lord, to walk in holiness, to walk in godliness, to walk in practical righteousness. A practical help tonight. To help us to do that. And here it is. This is the theme tonight. This is what I want to talk to you about. We must take time regularly and consistently to remember where God found us before He saved us. Remember where you were before God saved you. Such an important thing. Consider that word remember for a minute. We must remember. In Peter's second epistle, he shows us this as it pertains to the truth. Remember, Peter is writing there. I'll quote it for you in 2 Peter 1, 12-15. Listen to this. Therefore, I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. He says, I think it right, I think it's fitting as long as I'm in this body, as long as I'm alive, as long as I'm around you, as long as I'm in this body, to stir you up by way of a reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me, and I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things. What things? Peter is writing, saying to these believers, I want you always to be able to remember and to recall and to think about what? The truth. The truth that's been revealed to you. That which has been revealed by God and given to you as part of your inheritance of being a child of God. I want to always put that in your remembrance. Remembering, remembering, remembering. We're always to remember. We've forgotten so many things, haven't we? We need to remember. We've been taught so much truth. It's not always that you need fresh truth or more truth. That you need to remember the truth that you've forgotten. You need to go back to the sermon that was preached a year ago. That fired you up in the moment that now has totally exited your mind. And you need to be reminded of those truths. Reminded of the truth. Reminded of the truth. Reminded of the truth. But from our text tonight in Ezekiel chapter number 16, it's not the truth that Ezekiel is talking about that God is talking about through the prophet Ezekiel. It's not the truth, listen to me, but it's experience with God that is to be remembered. You see the difference? There is a difference, isn't there? There's one thing to be taught the truth and need to be refreshed and reminded of the truth, but here he's talking about something very different. He is talking about experience with God that is to be remembered. Now listen to me, it's Israel's failure to remember. Israel's failure to remember that led them into sin. Go back to the text and look at it again. And in all your abominations and in all your whorings, you did not remember, what? The days of your youth, when you were naked and bare and wallowing in your blood. It's a good lesson for us tonight, not only to remember the truth, but also to remember experience with God. Particularly, remember where God found you before He saved you. Now, I want us to go back tonight to the beginning of chapter number 16. And I want to show you some things here that I think will help us in the story of Israel to see their relationship with God and kind of the build-up that led to the verse that I just read to you there, verse number 22. Now, the first thing here, in chapter number 16, as I want you to see in verses 1 and 2, that this whole thing starts out with God coming to the nation while they were in a time of sin. Look at verses 1 and 2. Here's Ezekiel writing, and what does he say? Again, the word of the Lord came to me, son of man. That's Ezekiel. And here's what he says to him. Make known to Jerusalem her abominations. And I want you to say something to them. So what is it that's going on here with the nation of Israel? What's the context? Well, Ezekiel is a prophet. And of course, Ezekiel is writing in a time when the nation of Israel had been exiled from the land. If you go back, you can remember the story with the nation of Israel. They had been given the covenant promises from God and were under the Mosaic Covenant. And of course, the promises of the Mosaic Covenant were if you obey the law, if you obey, I'm going to put you in this land and if you obey the law, you can stay in the land. But if you don't obey the law, I'm going to kick you out of the land. The cup of sin continued to build and build in the history of the nation. And of course, what did God do? He came through on what He said He was going to do. And He sent them out of the land. They were exiled and then they were taken into captivity because of their violation of the covenant. While they're exiled and while they're in captivity, God continues to deal with them. And God continues to speak to them through the prophets that He would send to them. And that's what's going on here with the prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel, God has come to Ezekiel and look at what he said again. He says, look, the word of the Lord came to me and He wanted me to say something to the people. I've got a word for the people. God wants to speak to His people. Even though they're in captivity, even though they're exiled, He has a word. Listen, that's a good thing for us to mark down tonight. That to get a word from God while in a time of sin is a tremendous grace and a tremendous blessing. They didn't deserve that, did they? God has just come through on what He said He was going to do concerning the terms of the covenant. He doesn't owe them anything, does He? And to get a word from God, what a blessing, what a grace. Maybe, you know, as we think about what we're doing here tonight, trying to be refreshed, trying to examine our hearts, trying to think about our walk with the Lord and where we stand, primarily in a practical way with the Lord and our walk with Him, it's a good time for you to think about that and to realize just from the opening section here in chapter 16, as you see God speaking to the nation, Maybe if you're in sin tonight, maybe if you're in that position, maybe if you've got something going on in your life, maybe if God's been pointing something out or there's some sin that you know is taking place in your life, God has providentially ordained this meeting and this time for you to be here. So you're here, so that means the providence of God has worked to such a degree to bring you here instead of somewhere else. Isn't that true? So God's worked that tonight. All of us are here providentially because God has something for us in this meeting. And perhaps this is the grace of God to you tonight, if you are in some sin, that He's brought you here so that you can hear a word from Him. And so you don't need to discount that. And you don't need to disregard that, especially if you know of some known sin in your life that you haven't repented of or turned from or confessed before the Lord. Maybe now the chisels of the hammer, the hammer and the chisel of the Spirit of God is beginning to poke around on you, show you things maybe in your life that needs to be dealt with. So you need to listen closely. Now I also want you to notice, next, after God comes to the people in their time of sin, God then proceeds through this word that He's given to the prophet to remind them of their relationship with God and their past experience with God. And all of that is for the purpose of reminding them of His goodness to them. It's all for the purpose of Him giving them a refresher of history of how good that He has been to that nation and the sweetness of the relationship that they have with God and also the folly of their sin. Notice here, in verses 3-14, God reminds them of their relationship and their past experience. Now this section kind of divides into two parts. In verses 1-7, you see that God goes back through the history of Israel. And He talks about their relationship with God from Abraham to the time that they were in Egypt. And then in verses 8 to 14, he talks about Israel's story and their relationship with God from the exodus from Egypt to the height of the glory of the nation under David and under Solomon. Let's read this and just notice this language from God that's going on here. Verse 3, say to them, thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem. Now notice, your origin. and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites, your father an Amorite, your mother a Hittite. And as for your birth on the day you were born, your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling clothes. No eye pitted you to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, but you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred on the day that you were born. And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, live! I said to you in your blood, live! And I made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed and your hair had grown, yet you were naked and bare. That's some explicit language, isn't it? It's very graphic, very telling. And think about this. This is the history of Israel being recounted from God's perspective. This is God retelling it. And when God retells it, you get it accurately, don't you? You get it from the angle by which He sees it. And what is He saying? He's taking us all the way back to Abraham. And so you have Abraham, and you have Isaac, and you have Jacob. And Jacob has his twelve sons who become the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel. You remember the story. as Joseph is taken off into Egypt, and he's there, and he grows to prominence, he grows to power, and then there's the great famine in the land. And after that whole scene with his brothers, his father then ends up coming down to Egypt, and they live in the land of Goshen. I think there was 70 people that came back to Egypt to work through the famine. And you remember the story, right? They're there, and they grow up into a vast number of people. And it's as if God is saying, Here's how you were born and how you grew and nobody really cared for you like I care for you. I'm the one who cares for you. I'm the one who was looking down on you. I'm the one who was interested in you. So that takes us from Abraham to Egypt and God's dealings with the nation. But then in verse 8, now it moves further. Notice what he says. Look at this, this is amazing. When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, relationship, the salvation of the nation, deliverance from bondage. Isn't that an interesting way to think about being saved? that God saved you when you came to the point, when He brought you to the point where you were at the age, so to speak, of love, of a relationship with Him? Interesting perspective. And I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became mine. Then I bathed you with water and I washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk." Do you see the growth of the nation here? So they're brought out from the land of Egypt, they wander in the wilderness, they then go into the promised land, and then they begin to grow up. Drive out the enemies. They're growing up as a nation. They're becoming powerful. And I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck. I poured out my blessings on you. And I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. God is beautifying the nation of Israel. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour and honey and oil. You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty. For it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord." So far so good, right? This is a wonderful story so far. Just a beautiful, beautiful imagery from God as He's recounting what's going on. The nation's growing up right before God and He's pouring out His blessing. And the nation is getting strong and David comes on the scene and then Solomon comes. And everybody, all the nations around began to marvel at how amazing this nation was and the leaders of the nation. That's what happened, right? Now why is God recounting these things back to Israel? Why is He doing this? Why is God reminding them of their relationship and their experience with Him in the past? Well the answer to that is that when one remembers their salvific experience with God and His goodness, it has a way of fostering further experience with Him. And if a person is in sin, it has a way of pulling them back into intimacy with God. Again, the lesson tonight, the thing I'm trying to drive home is remembering where God found you. Remembering where God found you. A call here is to an experiential remembrance of your relationship to the Lord and His grace upon you in your life. That's what He's doing with the nation. He's reminding them of how He intervened, how He did what He did. Really, God was the one who was in charge of all of it. He's the one that called out Abraham. He's the one that caused them to grow. He's the one that did it all. And He's calling them, He's reminding them, and He's putting it in language of such intimacy in the form really of a marriage, of a union between the nation with God. We need a call to experiential remembrance, don't we? Let me also say something to you tonight. Sometimes when we get into sin, when we fall into sin, sometimes as God works over that thing, sometimes we're a little bit stubborn, aren't we? And it seems to be the way that the Lord has always worked in my life. The Holy Spirit, when He convicts me of certain things, it always comes in a gentle way at first. You know, you kind of feel like somebody putting their hand on your back saying, hey, hey, let me tell you something. And that happens two or three times. And if you don't comply, the next time it's maybe a little bit harder, thumb on the back, hey, hey, you know, we need to talk here. And if there's still rebellion, if it continues to go on, unconfessed, undealt with, you see, God does those things because He's interested in an intimate relationship with you. And He's working out purposes to make the whole thing reciprocal with Him. But sometimes when we're not listening, when we're stubborn, when we're hard-hearted, sometimes a hard word has to come to you. Sometimes He even works in His providence through your circumstances to put you in uncomfortable situations so that all you can do is go to your Father. And it's been said before that God cares far more about your holiness than He does your happiness. In one sense of the word, that's true. He does care about your eternal happiness. He's giving you salvation because He wanted to give you eternal lasting joy. So He does care about your happiness. But listen, He does care about your holiness because holiness is required. Practical holiness is required if you're going to grow in your practical walk and fellowship with God. And so sometimes a hard word might come to you, and He'll use His Word like a hammer and like a fire to stir you up and to come to you, to really hammer you at the very core of your being. But listen, it's a display of His kindness and His grace to you when He does that. Don't despise that. Don't turn from that. And if you come to the point where the Word comes to you in a hard way like that, it really should be a red flag and a wake-up call saying, What in the world happened to get me to this point where He had to speak to me in such a way? You ever been there? How I've drifted for Him to have to speak to me like that. For His Word to have to come in that way to me. Where it's moved beyond just the gentle whisper to a little bit more maybe of the yell. It's true. But it's God's intention to pull you back into intimacy with Him. When I ask you tonight, are you in any sin? Is there anything in your life that needs to be dealt with? If so, then like Israel, the call tonight is to heed the call and to remember your relationship and your past experience with God and where He found you and all of that, again, for the purpose of pulling you out of sin and leading you further on in your intimate experiences with God. That's what He's doing. Now let me show you another thing here about the nation. In verses 15 to 21, God, He starts pointing out some specific sins that they had committed against Him. Again, He comes to Ezekiel and He's saying there in verses 1 and 2, I have a word for the nation. I'm going to recount first this intimate relationship that we've had together, but I have a controversy with them. And I have some things that I need to talk about. Let's read this. Verse number 15 and following. Do you see the but you there? Again, everything up to this point, from verses 3 to verse 14, was all in a positive light, recounting that beautiful experience. And then you come to this but you, and that's never good. It's not a good thing. You, but you trusted in your beauty. And you played the whore. Because of your renown and lavished your hoarings on any passerby, your beauty became His." You know, it's interesting that many times when God works in our lives and He gives us such abundant blessing, it's so easy for us to begin to turn our focus to the gifts instead of keeping ourselves focused on the giver. You know what I mean? God just blesses us and does all the things that He does, and then that becomes the thing that we start focusing on. And before long, you've totally turned your eyes away from Him, and you're just focusing on all of these good things. Look at this. You took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful shrines, and on them played the whore. The like has never been nor ever shall be. You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men, and with them played the whore. And you took your embroidered garments to cover them, and set my oil and my incense before them, also my bread that I gave you. I fed you with fine flour and oil and honey, and you set before them for a pleasing aroma, and so it was, declares the Lord God. And you took your sons..." And this is where it gets shocking. You took your sons and your daughters whom you had borne to Me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your whoring so small a matter that you slaughtered My children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them?" You know, the issue that's going on here in these verses that I just read to you is that God is saying, There came a time when you turned away from Me and you then began to worship and serve idols. There was idolatry that began to go on. Of course, that's all recounted in the history of the nation. They started serving all of the false gods. And it got so bad that what is it that they were doing? They were sacrificing their own children to these false gods. That's how bad it got. Hmm. Kind of sounds familiar, doesn't it? Welcome to America. It's true, isn't it? Again, don't miss the marriage metaphors through here. As God is thinking of this relationship with the nation, God views our salvific or redemptive relationship to Him as a marriage. It's a very intimate thing. That's something that's carried over into the New Testament too, isn't it? We are called what? The Bride of Christ. I mean, how much more intimate could you get it? How much more intimate could the terms be as it concerns our relationship to God? And here in the marriage, what has God done? He's giving the people all of these good gifts and all of these wonderful things, and they've turned all of those good gifts into idols, and then they begin to offer sacrifices to those idols. And when a person does that, that brings them to the height of their sin, doesn't it? Listen, don't ever forget the fact that if you have idols in your life, you have to service those idols and they're costly. They require payment. They require sacrifice. You have to keep them up. Just set your heart on something that becomes an idol. Doesn't matter what it is. It could be a bass boat. It could be a new car. It could be so many different things that become an idol. And I promise you, when that thing gets your heart, it's going to be a costly thing. It requires sacrifice on your part. Either time or money or something else. You can think today about many, many parents who are sacrificing their children today for their idols. I don't necessarily mean that they're killing them, but think about how many children today are neglected in the home because the father has an idol. He wants to go golfing or he wants to go fishing. He wants to come home from work and sit down in front of the television and watch the ball game and he doesn't care about his children. And he's sacrificing his children for his idols. Women do the same thing. Everybody does it, can do it. And it's costly, isn't it? And it's dangerous. And that's what the nation of Israel had done. And God calls these things abominations. It's wickedness in His sight. He calls it whoring after other gods. Doing the work of a prostitute. This is a sobering thing we need to ask ourselves tonight. What sins perhaps in our own life, what idols in our own life need to be brought to the light and confessed of and repented of and turned away from? Do you have big sins going on in your life? things that are done in secret, things that are done in the dark, things that you wouldn't want anybody else to know about. Big, big things that really are weighing on your mind and you've just been wrapped up in those things and you've been, your heart has, the cords have been wrapped around your heart and you don't feel like you can get free from those things and you're ashamed of it, you feel guilty of it and you haven't confessed it. And you feel like God is angry at you and He's mad at you and so you're running away from God instead of running to Him and looking to the Gospel and looking to Christ who died on the cross to forgive you of those kind of things. That's one of the biggest mistakes in the Christian life, isn't it? Is that when you fall into sin, to run away from God instead of running to God by means of the Gospel. Big, big mistake. But what about little sins? Sometimes we think of little sins that they're more respectable than big sins, so we don't give them a lot of thought. Gossip, backbiting, laziness. These are things that we can entertain real easily. We don't think they're all that big of a deal, but they are a big deal. Bad attitudes, problems in relationships. Little things that we just get so used to doing that we don't think about it. So it's a little thing in our mind. Listen, it's a big thing though in the sight of God and it hinders your walk with Him. It hinders your relationship with Him. It hinders intimacy. It hinders communion with God. Are there some of those things tonight in your life? That's why we're here, to deal with those things. How could you come Sunday to the Lord's table without first giving thought to these things? I'm not saying exclude yourself from the Lord's table. The whole purpose of the Lord's table is to get you to deal with your sin and then come and partake and run to the Gospel. But you've got to have these things pointed out. You've got to think about it. You've got to search your heart. You've got to let the light of the Gospel shine and say, is there anything that's contrary to God in my walk with Him? Things I'm doing at home. Things that I'm doing with my children. Harsh words, bad attitudes, actions that aren't in step with the Gospel and the fruits of the Spirit. These things need to be dealt with. I'm not saying these things to you tonight so that you would have shame heaped upon you so that you would run away. It's just the opposite. Because the willing of the Gospel says, come back, come back. John chapter 3 verse 20 and 21 says, For everyone who does wicked things hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his work should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. Now I know in John's gospel, this is primarily talking about a positional reality of people coming to the light, meaning Jesus. But look, this is also true concerning our practical sanctification, isn't it? Every time you repent, every time you confess, every time you turn from sin, every time you come and get in step with the truth and the light of God's Word, that is a work that's being carried out by God in your life. Proverbs 28, 13, and 14 says, Whoever conceals his transgression will not prosper. You will not prosper if you conceal your sin. but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy." He goes on in verse 14 to say, "...blessed is the one who fears the Lord always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity." You may be at a crossroads already tonight in the sermon, having some things confronted and stirred up in your life, things that are going on that are out of step. And think about what that says. If you confess and forsake, if you turn, if you run to the Lord and deal with it, what does it say? You're going to prosper. You're going to prosper spiritually. You're going to move on with the Lord. You're going to come up on the next step. You're going to move in closer to the Lord in practical sanctification and intimacy with the Lord. But if you come to that crossroads and you say, I'm not going to deal with it right now. I'm not ready to confess. That's a sad sign, isn't it? Your heart's being wrapped around that thing, and you're not going to prosper. And you're going to take a step back. And in time, you'll be humiliated because of that thing. Well, this brings us back to verse number 22 that I read tonight that I began with, which is really the whole heart of the message. After God has pointed out these specific things in the life of the nation, specific sins that they've committed, specific sins of idolatry, He now points out the problem that led to that sin and the thing that led to these consequences that they've been experiencing. Look back in verse 22. Here it is. And in all your abominations and your worryings you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your blood." What's that? A statement of naked and bare, wallowing in your blood? How are we supposed to interpret that? What's that supposed to mean? That's where we were before the Lord found us. You didn't remember. You got so used to all of the things that you've experienced in your relationship with me that you forgot where you were before. I saved you. Look in verse 43, same message. Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but you have enraged me with all of these things. Therefore, behold, I have returned your deeds upon your head, declares the Lord. You didn't remember where you were when I found you, and so you had no restraint, you fell into sin, and now judgment has fallen on you. You've been exiled from the land. You're in captivity. I told you that was going to happen. The problem they forgot, they failed to remember where God had found them and that failure is what led to their sin. Let's understand this tonight for our own lives from two perspectives, okay? On the one hand, think about this in your own life as a Christian. If you fail to remember, if you fail to reflect on what God has done for you in grace, in salvation, it is going to put you in a position of being exposed to sin. Maybe I could say it this way, if you fail to remember where God found you, if you fail to remember your specific salvific experience with Him, if you fail to remember the magnitude of His grace in your life, if you think of what He's done in your life as a small thing, if that's how you view it, then what you're doing is you are removing a major bulwark of defense against sin in your life. You expose yourself. You make yourself liable to sin. That's one angle by which you need to think of verse number 22 tonight. But then on the other hand, on the positive side, if you do remember, if you do reflect, not just on truth, but also on your experience with God, your walk with Him, things in the past that have happened, if you remember where He found you, it's going to serve as a protection from sin. It's going to make it to where sin is not as attractive to you if you were in the other position. You see, if you're thinking of your salvation as just a common thing, just a normal thing, if you haven't seen the enormity of it, the magnitude of it, sin perhaps might be somewhat attractive to you. But if you're dwelling on it, if you're thinking about what God has done for you, if you're thinking about where you were, if you're thinking about where God found you, the condition that you were in in sin, sin is not going to be near as attractive to you in that position, is it? It's a major deterrent. Listen, I wonder tonight, could the sin that's in your own life be explained by your failing to remember and failing to reflect on where God found you? Have you drifted from that? Has salvation become so normal to you that you've sort of lost the great wonder and amazement of it all? It's a good thought to think about, isn't it? It's easy to get there. Do you remember where He found you? Have you been thinking about this even as I've been talking about it? Can you go back to it? What were you before God found you? Was you a good respectable sinner? Grew up in church? Godly family? Around the gospel your whole life? But deep down inside there was hypocrisy, no true conversion. You didn't have any true affection or love for God. It was just because of the draws and the restraints of your parents that kept you around. You know, that's getting to be less and less the case in the pagan drift that we're on right now in our own country. But perhaps that was you. I mean, that was to a large degree my story. Grew up in a Christian home, thought everything was fine, but it wasn't until 29 years old where God found me and He showed me. You're a sinner. You're undone. Maybe you were on the other side of the spectrum. You were a bad sinner. The prodigal type of sinner. Living for the world, living for yourself, living for your idols. living in sin and bondage to sin, bound up, held down by all of that stuff, abused by the enemy, just completely tied down in bondage. You remember that? Do you remember that time in your life, if that's where you were at? And then all of a sudden, what happened? One day, the grace of God, the light of the Gospel broke into your dungeon of sin and opened up the bars, didn't it? So that you can come out. You think back before the Gospel, Maybe intellectually astute, but really you now look back and say, wow, I had such a darkened mind. There's a lot of those kind of people out there, aren't there? They think everything's good. The Bible talks about how knowledge puffs up. There's a lot of intellectual kind of people that are out there and they think they're fine, they're smug and secure. But you know what? When the Gospel comes along, the wisdom of God just destroys. Or we could say the folly of God, which is true wisdom, destroys the wisdom of men. The cross is foolishness until you see it, isn't it? The intellectual man looks at the cross and he says, what's wrong with you people worshiping a crucified Jew? What's got into your thinking? You're not on the right road. And then one day the glory of the gospel goes off in their life and they say, oh, I've been such a fool. I've been so blind. My mind has been so darkened. Is that where you were before the gospel? Think back tonight. Remember where you were when He found you. That's the call of this text. That's the call of the passage. Refresh yourself. Give it thought. Do a journal entry in your mind right now. Get the pen of your mind out and start writing on the paper. Think about what God has done. Recount all of those things. Remember His love. Remember His grace. Remember His kindness to you. And I'm not just talking about His goodness and His kindness to send Christ in the world to accomplish salvation and redemption. I'm talking about the experience where it became applied to your life. I'm talking about recounting that. You can look in the Scriptures, and you can read the story, and you can glory in Christ when you see Him on the cross, and you think about the resurrection. But I'm talking about remembering when that was applied to you, when it came to be yours experientially, and you moved from darkness into light. That's what you have to remember. Remember where you were when He found you. Sit by the fire of that for a little while and warm yourself. Come in out of the cold and get warmed up. We'll go back to the text. I want you to see next, almost in a cyclical fashion, God continues to point out the sins that they have committed against Him. There's another round of it here. I'm not going to read it all to you because it goes from verse 23 all the way to verse 58. It's a lot of verses. The Lord takes sin serious, doesn't He? But let me point out a couple of things. Two small portions of this text that reveal to us a little bit more clearly the depth of Israel's sin at this time. Look at verse 30. Watch this. How sick is your heart, declares the Lord God, because you did all of these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute, building your vaulted chamber at the head of every street and making your lofty place in every square. Now get this. It's amazing. Yet you are not like a prostitute because you scorned payment. Adulterous wife who receives strangers instead of her husband. Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you gave your gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from every side with your whorings. So you were different from other women in your whorings. No one solicited you to play the whore, and you gave payment while no payment was given to you. Therefore, you were different. How about that? It's an amazing statement because the Lord is saying, you acted like a prostitute but you didn't receive payment. You're the one who gave the payment. You're the one who made the payment. And then look at this other little snapshot in verse number 51. Samaria has not committed half your sins. You have committed more abominations than they and have made your sisters appear righteous by all of the abominations that you have committed. You see what God's saying about the nation right there? He says, look, your sins were so bad that you made the sins of others around you seem righteous. Now that's pretty bad. That's pretty bad. When your sins are so abominable and so bad that when compared to other people's sins, their sins seem as if they're walking righteously. Now that's a pretty deep depth of sin, isn't it? This is not a pretty story. This isn't a pretty picture from the Lord to the nation. So how did all this turn out for them? How does all this turn out for Israel? And what does this mean for us when we fail to remember where God found us and when we fall into sin? Well, let me show you one other thing here. If you'll notice in verse 59 to 63, here God reminds the people of His covenant faithfulness to them in spite of their faithlessness to Him. Let me say it to you again. God reminds His people of His covenant faithfulness to them in spite of their faithlessness to Him. Let's read this. Look at this. Amazing. Verse 59. For thus says the Lord God, I will deal with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant. Yet. Yet. It's an important statement. I will remember my covenant with you. in the days of your youth and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant. Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you take your sisters, both your elder and your younger, and I give them to you as daughters, but not on account of the covenant with you. I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be confounded and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord." This is amazing. What God is speaking about in these verses are His promises concerning the New Covenant that goes all the way back to the covenant that He made with Abraham. Again, you have to think about the covenant structure of the Bible. But the covenant that God is talking about that they broke, that caused them to be exiled, was the Mosaic Covenant. It was a conditional covenant, wasn't it? If you do this, you live. If you don't, it's over. And in this section, when God is talking about His faithfulness to the people, it's not on the basis of the Mosaic Covenant. He says, it's based on the covenant that I made with you way back before. He's talking about that covenant that He made with Abraham that would also find expression in David that would then be announced by the prophets that we would come to realize in the New Testament called the New Covenant. God is saying to the nation, I have promises that I'm giving to you that is going to uphold my faithfulness to you too. And here's the key thing, to preserve you. You know, without God's promises of preserving us, of His preservation, God's people would never persevere in their relationship with Him. You listen to me? If it wasn't for God preserving you, you would never persevere in your relationship with God. We talk about the great doctrines the doctrines of grace. And one of those doctrines is the perseverance of the saints. And it looks at it from the angle of the believer continuing on with the Lord. But what's behind the perseverance of the saints is the preservation of the saints by God. And if it wasn't for the preserving grace of God, we would never persevere with God. That's the message. And get this, if you notice down at the bottom, There's coming a time that you may remember and be confounded and never open your mouth again because of your shame. When I, mark the word, when I do what? When I atone for you and for all that you have done, declares the Lord. Now we're in the doctrine of the atonement. And of course, when we fast forward in the Scripture, we know that this was played out in real time in history because the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross and He atoned for sins, didn't He? God is speaking of the fact of His faithfulness being rooted, first off, in Him having to atone for their sins. He's got to deal with their sin. If they're going to be in a continual relationship with Him, atonement must come. And it does come in the New Covenant under the Lord Jesus Christ. And without the atonement through the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and without These loving fetters on our hearts that keep us bound to God, God's people would fall away. Talk about loving fetters. You know what a fetter is, right? It's like a chain. It's where you're bound to something. Again, think of the language of the New Covenant. Think of what happens in the New Testament. What do we receive as part of our inheritance? We receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God, the life of God, and the soul of man. That's what preserves you. That's what causes you to persevere. And God is announcing that to the nation. He's talking about that to them. Now the sad story is you unfold the Scriptures, Did you see that when the Lord Jesus came, what was the nation's response to Jesus when he came? Jesus said to them those terrible words, your house is left to you desolate. You've rejected me. And they did, didn't they? They did. They rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know, there's a lot of people that look at that and they say, you know what? Jesus came the first time and the nation of Israel rejected Him. So that must mean we must interpret the Old Testament promises that were made to Israel as belonging to the church. It's the expression that the church is the fulfillment of the promises. In other words, that we replace the nation of Israel. But that's not the truth, is it? You see, you look at the nation of Israel and they have not taken part in this covenant yet. It hasn't happened, but it will one day, won't it? And why can I say that? You say, Brother Kyle, why can you be so confident that they will? They rejected Him when He came. Well, the reason I believe is because the Scripture says it. The Bible tells us in Zechariah that they're going to look on Him that they have pierced. And they're going to weep for Him. They're going to repent. and they're gonna see Christ as the one who atoned for them. We're gonna talk about that on Sunday. But, here we are tonight. And we should have a position tonight as we sit in the pew. Praise God! Amen! Yes, they have rejected Him, but God has opened up our eyes to see the truth of this. And we don't boast in that like there's something special about us. And we long for the day where the nation of Israel gets to get in on their own promises that God gave to them. And it's gonna happen! They're going to do that, and we want that, but that's happened for us. God's opened up our eyes and has included us in the new covenant. This very thing that He's talking about, we're a part of that. We've been included in that, and we should be joyful in that tonight. And at the same time, desire that for the nation of Israel. Desire and long for the day where they will look upon Him in whom they have pierced, so that then we can all rejoice together in the same way that Jude would say it. We do this together, now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling. You see, some people could look at the nation of Israel and say, well they've stumbled, they've fallen, but you know what? One day they're going to be grafted in, and it's going to happen on the world stage, and God is going to get glory to Himself when that happens. And His promises concerning what He has said are going to be proven true. And we, Gentiles, along with those Jewish brethren who will be grafted back into their own olive tree, as Paul talks about in the book of Romans, will all say together now to Him, who is able to keep us from stumbling and to present us blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy. By the way, who's the one doing the presenting? It's God. Because if it was left up to us, we would do exactly what the nation of Israel did. If it wasn't for Him presenting and preserving, we would fall away. And so we say, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen. Brothers and sisters, as we think about these things tonight, We must strive for the goal of living a holy life that is pleasing to the Lord. Be holy for I am holy. But we also have to beware of the great obstacle that is before us and that is the obstacle of sin. But we don't need to despair about that because God has given us the resources to help us to overcome sin and to not be sifted by sin. And those resources are many and I haven't talked about all of them tonight. There's many, many things that we could look at in Scripture that have to do with the resources that God has given us so that we wouldn't fall into sin. I read one of them from Hebrews. We have such a cloud of witnesses. Some of you younger believers here tonight, you have a cloud of witnesses right here in this room of saints that have been walking with the Lord longer than you have, who can give you help and encouragement to keep you from falling into sin and all the rest. So there's many, many resources, many things that the Lord has given us so that we can walk this walk of faith. But I'm trying to impart one major thing on your mind tonight. Peter says you have to remember the truth, don't you? That's one thing. You must remember the truth. But listen, it's not just that. That's not the main lesson. That's a sub-category of what I'm talking about tonight. What I'm trying to drive home to you tonight is that you must remember your relational experience with God. Remember where He found you. That's what I'm saying. Remember where He found you. I love how the psalmist says it in Psalm 40. Listen, I waited patiently on the Lord. He inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock. It doesn't say it here, but He set His feet upon the solid rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lot." Man, remember your experience. He drew me up out of the miry bog, out of the slough of despond, if you like it in Bunyan's words, from the pilgrim's progress. Remember where He found you tonight. Dwell on it. Think about it. Go back to that place often. Think about His grace. Remember when He sought you and it was time for love, time for intimacy, time to know Him, time to learn who He is. Let me also say to you that you need to learn also to enjoy what He's doing now. In the present. You do need to go back and visit the past, but also you need to pay attention to what He's doing in the present. Right now, this moment, think about all that He's doing and the continual experience that you can have with Him. And also, learn to live in expectation of where you're going to go in the future. And where are you going in the future? You're going into an eternal experience with Him that's full of delight. And not just delight, but perfect delight. A kind of delight that you could never find here, that you could never have satisfaction with here in this world. But that's there for you. That's coming in the future. So remind yourself of the past. Live with the Lord in the present. Think about the future of what's coming for you in glory. And if you do that, in that way, if you'll think about those things, you'll be able to live a life that's pleasing to the Lord as you victoriously overcome sin. Amen? Father, we bow before you tonight, Lord, and are refreshed as we hopefully have taken the time to think about where you found us. Lord, I remember, I look back to that season in my life when you found me Lord, thank You that You brought me to Yourself. Thank You that You saved me. Thank You that You delivered me from my sin. Thank You that You set my feet upon the rock. Thank You that You showed me Jesus. Lord, I pray that that's the heart cry that's going on tonight in each person. That they're thinking about where they were. That they see now, they look back and they say, wow, I was hopeless back there. I was blind and I was dumb and I didn't see Christ rightly. I was a rebel against you, God. I hope we're thinking those thoughts tonight and then we're remembering when the precious news of the gospel came to us and showed us our Savior, showed us the path, showed us how we could be reconciled to you, Lord. That's what I want us to remember tonight, Father. Lord, help us to be so full of affection for you tonight and in the days ahead as we walk with you, Lord, that sin loses its attraction to us, Lord. that our walk with You and our relationship with You is far more important. Lord, and help us not just to think about that from the standpoint of big sins. Lord, I think that we deceive ourselves when we think that we're doing okay because maybe the big sins in our life have been taken care of. But Lord, the little things, the little things, day after day, the way we talk, the way that we act in our relationships with other people, Lord, our attitudes, our mindsets, our habits, the places we go, the food that we put in our bodies, all of these things, Lord, are things that maybe we would consider little. But Lord, there are so many places where sin can get a beachhead. Help us to fight that back, Lord. Help us to be so attracted to you, Lord, that those things don't have any sway over our lives. Help us tonight to remember where you found us. In Christ's name, amen.