We have before us here in the 16th chapter of the book of Ezekiel an allegory where God uses the story and the picture of an unfaithful wife, a wife unfaithful in the worst degree imaginable, to picture and typify the nation of Israel. And contrasted with the unfaithfulness of the nation of Israel, we find the faithfulness of God. In the book of Lamentations we read, Thy mercies are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. And as we go through this chapter this morning, may I just warn you ahead of time, this is not a pretty chapter to study. It would be very easy to just jump over the 16th chapter and go on to something else. But we're going through the book of Ezekiel, and we're at the chapter 16 this morning. And in chapter 16 we have a very graphic description of the wickedness and sin of the nation of Israel. And while we have here a graphic description of sin, given to us in great detail, couched and hidden some by the King James Translation, and I believe somewhat to our detriment, I want to make it absolutely clear that the Word of God is always pure and righteous. This was written by God himself, the Holy Spirit. We've had a great influx of pornographic literature on the newsstands of our country and right here in our own city. We've talked about legislation to curb the printing of pornographic literature, but it's a hopeless cause almost now. However, I don't think we should give up. The last time there was legislation like that presented, there were some who said, Well, my, you know, if you pass legislation similar to the legislation that you folk are talking about, why, then you'd have to censor the Bible because there are passages in the Bible that are pornographic. Nothing could be further from the truth. Pornographic literature is literature that is written and designed to stir up the carnal interest of men and women. The Word of God deals explicitly with sex. and with all manner of sin with reference to sex. But the Spirit of God has so ordered and so governed the writing of Scripture and passages such as this, that when God's Word does write about it and does bring it before us, it turns us away rather than stirs us up and draws us to such thoughts and imagination. And I resent very much anyone in any way equating passages of Scripture such as this with pornography. They are as far apart as night and day. This is God's holy word. And as you read this story of sin and wickedness and corruption which is depicted here, it will not stir you up. But rather, it will cause you to want to run toward the God of righteousness, and the righteousness which is part of his very character. I wanted to make that as an opening remark and statement this morning, as we look at the unfaithful character of Israel, the wife of God. Shall we pray? Our God and Father, we pray that you would bless to our hearts the things that we are going to be looking at this morning. Lord, there's a message for us here in this book. Lord, Israel was unfaithful, and we look back with great criticism and disgust at her unfaithfulness. But Lord, it may be that perhaps there are believers here in this church this morning who have trusted you as Savior, but yet believers, Lord, who are spiritually unfaithful to you and the promises which they have made. O God, if we are guilty of unfaithfulness, we ask that this day that you would speak and challenge our hearts, and that we might, Lord, as believers, if we've been guilty of unfaithfulness in any way, that we might repent, Lord, and come back in faithfulness unto thee. Father, we ask these things in thy precious name. Amen. Remember now that Ezekiel is writing as a captive from the land of Babylon. He's writing about the nation of Israel and their sin and their wickedness, and he's bringing before them here in chapter 16, as he did in chapter 13 and 14, he's bringing before them the reason for God's judgment that is about to fall. Already now, as Ezekiel is beginning to write this particular chapter, the armies of Babylon are laying siege to the city of Jerusalem. And Ezekiel, in desperation, is given this message by God to try to alert the nation to its dire need and to the awful circumstances which have brought this situation about. And so he says, the word of the Lord came to me. Ezekiel said, this message that I have for you today is from God Himself. And anything that God says and puts in His Word, we ought to be willing and able to study. Isn't that right? And so I want to bring you to this chapter this morning, and I want you to see what God is depicting here through His prophet and His spokesman, Ezekiel. He said, Son of man, I want you to cause Jerusalem to know her abominations. And then he said again in verse 3, Thus saith the Lord. You have an outline in your bulletin that I would encourage you to take out and use to make notes on this morning as we go through this particular passage of Scripture. And in verses 1 through 6, he gives to us a picture of the birth of a nation. And he said, Thus saith the Lord God to Jerusalem, Thy birth and thy nativity are of the land of Canaan, and thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother was a Hittite. Now what is God doing here? Look down in verse 6, as He comes, not verse 6, but in verse 5, as God speaks to us here, of the nation of Israel, and I don't want 5 and I don't want 6, I want 14, I've got it. Did you have it there? In verse 14, God says, I want you to realize that all of the things that have happened to you have happened to you because I have put upon thee, saith the Lord. In other words, we are being given here a marvelous picture of the grace of God. And God begins right here at the beginning to point out to the nation of Israel and to these Jews that they were in existence because of God's grace and God's grace alone. He says, where did you begin? Where did you start? He said Jerusalem didn't start with the nation of Israel. He said Jerusalem has been there for centuries. It wasn't always the city of God. He said at one time it was inhabited by the Amorites and the Hittites. It was inhabited by the Canaanites. He said, where was your background? He said, you came out of the Canaanites, the Hittites and the Amorites. What is the word Canaanite symbolized? By this time the word Canaanite had come to symbolize all that was wicked and all that was despicable, all that was dreadful, all that was abominable in the sight of God. To call someone a Canaanite was to call them a dirty rat, so to speak. And so when Ezekiel speaks to the nation of Israel and said, You came from Canaanites, he said, You are of the slums. You are out of the sewer. He said, You were nothing. There was nothing about Israel that caused God to accept them. There was nothing about the nation of Israel that was any different than any other peoples around them. And the only reason that God chose them as a nation was because God in His grace wanted to save man. And you know what a picture that is of us this morning? There is nothing wonderful about us. If you're here this morning as a child of God, if you're here today as a Christian, you're here today as a believer and as a child of God by the grace of God. There was nothing special about you. There was nothing wonderful about you. There was nothing particularly spectacular about you. You were not righteous. You were not holy. You were a sinner, a rebel against God. But God in His grace reached down and touched you, didn't He? And saved you. And the grace of God is the only thing that offers salvation to men in any age. And so God wants to bring before the nation of Israel the wonders of His grace. He wants to bring before the nation of Israel the magnificent character of His grace. And so God said, where did you come from? He said, you came out of the sewers of humanity. You say, Pastor Grace, how would you so speak against the Hittites and the Amorites? Well, I say that because as you study the religion and the culture of those people of that day, as you read some of the Ugaritic literature which has been translated for us, I don't recommend it, but I've read excerpts of it, and as you read of the things that were taking place in the land in those days, as you remember that one of these Canaanite cities from which they drew their background here in the land of Canaan, two of them were Sodom and Gomorrah, this is what God was talking about. And God said, this is where you sprang from, and I made you my people, and I made you a beautiful city. God said, what brought you into being? Why, God says, when I first saw you, as for thy nativity, in the day that thou was born, thy navel was not cut, neither was thou washed in water to cleanse thee, and you weren't salted at all, nor were you swaddled at all. And know I pitied thee to do anything unto thee, to have compassion. But you were cast out into an open field, to the loathing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born. And when I passed by, I looked down, and there was a little newborn baby. Its umbilical cord had been cut, but nobody had washed it, and nobody had touched it. And there you were, lying in the sand, and kicking in your own blood, a despicable, distasteful, horrible sight. And God said, I looked down, And God says, I looked at you in your need, and God said, I said, Live! And you lived. Yes, you see, one way down there in the land of the Ur of Chaldees, God had put his hand on a man by the name of Abraham, a man who was raised in the midst of idolatry. And God, in his grace and in his sovereignty, said, Abraham, come out! And Abraham came out. And Abraham and his wife arrived there in the land of Canaan. And God said, Abraham, look in all directions, and this land that I give you is a land that will belong to you and your people, and I'll raise up a nation unto you. And the people of Canaan looked at Abraham, and they saw him come through, and it never dawned on them that here was the beginning of a great nation, that here was the beginning of a people that would one day produce for the world a Savior. They didn't understand that God in His grace was going to bring something marvelous into being. through this pitiful little baby, and so they despised him. They paid no attention to him. You know, somebody might say, what is this business of salting and washing babies? This is something that prevailed in Arab lands up until just modern times. I don't think they probably practice it much today, but in Arab countries at the time of Ezekiel, and even up to just a few years ago, when a newborn baby was brought into the world, the midwife would immediately take it and wash the baby and clean it, and then she would rub it with salt, and then she would treat it with oil, and wrap it up in swaddling clothes, and there it would stay for seven days. At the end of seven days, she'd take off the clothes, and she'd give it another treatment with oil, and she'd give it another treatment with salt, and wrap it up for another seven days. And then she'd take it off at the end of seven days, and repeat the process over for the first 45 or 50 days of the baby's life. You say, well, in the world, how could anything like that work? Well, the salt was an antiseptic, and it took care of the little baby, and it worked fine, and they grew up to be healthy and strong. Dr. Spock, maybe you better review that. I don't recommend it. But God said, that's your beginning. You were nothing. You were just a small, unwanted child. And God said, I reached down, and I picked you up, and I said, Live! Oh, I like that sixth verse. Two times. You know, that word live there is a powerful word in the Hebrew text, and it means God said, Come alive! She was dying. She was kicking pitifully in her own blood. And God said, Live! Live! Live! Oh, what a picture that is and how that does remind me this morning of the fact that even though we were dead in sin and even though we were lost and away from God, that one day when we by faith reached out and believed on God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible says that in that moment we became alive unto God, didn't we? God reached down in His grace, and He made us to become alive unto Himself. When Paul wrote to the Ephesian church, he said, You hath God made alive who were at one time, what, dead. in trespasses and sin. He said at one time you walked according to the course of this world. You were by nature the children of disobedience. You were the followers of wrath. You were rebels against God. But he said praise God on that day that you by faith believed on God's Son Jesus Christ as your Savior. He said on that day God made you to live. You became alive. It's the grace of God that saves sinners and the grace of God that brings sinners alive. O dear Christians, there was nothing about us that attracted God, but in our sin we were an abhorrence in the sight of God. God was repelled by our sin, but praise God that God in His love provided a salvation through His grace, whereby we as sinners were able to receive by faith Jesus Christ as our Savior. And the moment we received Him as our Savior, we became alive, we lived. And God said to us, just as surely as He said to the nation of Israel, God said, Live, and we lived. Oh, do you remember that day when you became alive? The Bible tells us that we not only became alive, but the Bible says in that same passage in Ephesians, that God has raised us up together and made us sit together and walk together, so that now as living beings born again by the grace of God, we have the right of fellowship with God, and we can walk spiritually in the heavenly places where God walked. And then beyond that, he said, and that in the ages to come, that throughout all eternity, we can show forth the praises of God and His grace. And there we have the birth of a nation. God picked up this little baby, and He washed it, and He said, Live! And that little baby began to live. And then God says in the next seventh verse, He said, I cause you to multiply. as the bud of the field, and you increased, and you became great, and you were come to excellent ornaments, and thy breasts were fashioned." What is he saying? He said, and then he said, I watched, and he said, suddenly, he said, I looked down one day, and I saw that you had begun to mature. You began to come through your babyhood. You'd come through adolescence, and suddenly you began to mature into a beautiful young woman. Certainly this takes us down with the nation of Israel, that Abraham was born, and then after Abraham followed God, and then after Abraham came Isaac, and then after Isaac came Jacob, and then Jacob came with his twelve sons, and then we read that they didn't believe God, and so they went down to the land of Egypt to find food. And rather than trust God for the food, they didn't believe, and they didn't have the faith, and so they went off to the land of Egypt. And the Word of God says that as they left and went to Egypt, they went seventy strong, a small pitiful little child. But four hundred and thirty years later, they crossed the Red Sea, and God crushed the armies of Egypt behind them. And the Word of God tells us that they came out over a million strong to walk across the desert of Sinai. And God says that as they came out of the land of Egypt, God said, you went down there a struggling little baby, but God said, I brought you out a beautiful young woman. And remember that when they left Egypt, they brought with them the gold and the wealth and the treasures of Egypt. And so in verse 8 we read about, verses 7 through 14, we follow on with the development of the nation. And in verse 8 God says, And now when I passed thee, I looked upon thee, and behold, thy time was a time of love. And God said, I saw you as a beautiful young woman, your beauty was marvelous in my sight. And God said, I realized, and I reached down, and God said, I took you to myself as my wife. Yes! We think of the church as the bride of Christ, and so it is pictured in the New Testament. But in the Old Testament, the nation of Israel is referred to over and over again as the wife of God. And God said, I spread my skirt over thee. That was a symbol in Old Testament times of the intent to marriage. That was an engagement gesture. You remember that in the book of Ruth, that Ruth went down at the threshing floor, and she lay down at the feet of Boaz. And Boaz rose up, and he placed his skirt over her, symbolizing that he was willing to take her, and wanting to take her. Not willing, but wanting to take her as his wife. Ladies, we'd rather have them wanting rather than willing, wouldn't we? Right? Good. I want to make sure you're still awake. Okay. And then God said, I entered into a covenant with you, saith the Lord, and thou, what? You became mine. And God and Israel were joined together in a marriage, a beautiful marriage. Oh, what greater bridegroom could you have than Almighty Jehovah Himself? And of course this marriage took place out there in the wilderness at Mount Sinai. When God spoke to the nation of Israel and God said, I want you to be a nation peculiar unto me. I want you to be a nation of priests. I want you to be a kingdom of priests. And God said, here is my covenant. And the nation of Israel embraced the covenant of God. And they said, all that the Lord has said, we will do. We will be your people. You will be our God. And so the marriage began. And for the next years, God richly blessed and showered His blessings upon His people. Oh, how wonderful God is. How marvelous is God's nature! You know, God loves to shower untold blessings upon His people. If you're walking in fellowship with God, the grace of God is an open chest of riches that God will shower upon you. And so we notice here as we read through the rest of the chapter that God said, I washed you with water, I thoroughly washed the blood from thee, I anointed thee with oil, I clothed you with embroidery work, I shod you with badger skins, I girded thee about with fine linen, 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 in your nose. That means a ring right through a nose. That's what the ladies liked in those days. You don't have to do that if you don't want to today, ladies. I put a jewel in your nose, and I put earrings in your ears, and a crown on your head. Oh, God just gave to this nation everything that He could. And where does this take us to? This takes us to the days of David, when under the leadership of David, the mighty warrior, they ranked the borders of Israel, were extended to their broadest reaches. And then following David came Solomon with all of his wisdom. and all of his wealth, and for forty years the wealth of Israel grew to the extent that the nations around looked at Israel, and they marveled, and they wondered, and they said, How can it be that a people could have all that is there in the nation of Israel? And the word had gone out that this was here, because these were the people of Jehovah, and God was showering upon His people His bounty. We read in 1 Kings 10 that the Queen of Sheba, hearing of the wealth of Solomon, she made a trip and she traveled from the land of Sheba and up to the land of Canaan, of Israel. And there she beheld the courts and the palaces of Solomon. And 1 Kings 10 tells us that when she had seen all that was there, she said, I have heard of thy wealth. and of thy magnitude, and of thy wonders, and of these things I have come to behold. And she said, Now that I am here, the half was never even told." Oh, isn't it true today that God, if we will just allow Him to, that God will give to those of us who are believers blessing after blessing after blessing? The riches of God's grace are unsearchable. And when we as believers walk in fellowship with God, God just pours blessings upon us one after the other. Do you believe that? Can you testify to that this morning? One of the greatest joys that you can have as a believer is to just close your eyes and count the blessings of God in your life. And God in His grace will shower blessing after blessing upon His people. But in verses 15 through 34, we see the decline of a nation. In verse 13, he says, You were decked with gold and silver. Raiment was of fine linen and silken embroidery work. You did eat fine flour and honey and oil, and thou wast exceedingly beautiful. And thou didst prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went forth among the nations for thy beauty, for it was perfect. through my splendor, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God." Oh, there is no greater place in all the world than to be centered in the center of the will of God and to be enjoying the blessings of God as they fall down from heaven upon us. But God said, suddenly I looked And I saw that you, my wife, had become unfaithful." He said, you were not content to just have an affair. But he said, your unfaithfulness grew to the extent where you became a harlot. And you were not content just to be a harlot. But you had to revel in the worst type of harlotry imaginable. Notice what it says. But thou didst trust in thine own beauty. What is the seed of sin that brought Israel away from its God? We look at Israel and say, Israel, what's the matter with you? Hasn't God brought you out of nothing? Hasn't God given to you everything that you have? Why are you so unfaithful? Why would you for a moment turn your back on a husband like this? The answer comes back, because Israel became proud and lifted up. And the beauty which God had given her, she claimed for herself. And I want to say this today, that there are many of God's people who've been born again, but who are committing spiritual fornication and are being unfaithful to the pledges and promises that they've made to God, because they are putting self and pride ahead of God. And we look at Israel today and we say, how could Israel act this way? And I turn the corner that they coined back the other way and I say, how is it that so many of God's dear people today who've been born again, who've been cleaned up, who've been given a new life in Christ, why is it that they are taking their lives that belong rightfully to Him and they are using them in their own selfish way and neglecting God's will and God's program and God's service? and God's call on their life. Why is it that we find so many of God's people today who are giving themselves to the world and the pleasures of the world and are neglecting the work of God? Just one area alone that I could bring to your attention. I believe that you would be appalled if you knew how many people that miss the house of God to watch some filthy program or some foolish program on a television box. We'd be appalled to know of the millions of Christians that never come to a prayer meeting, that never come out on Sunday night, but are glued to that thing which is filling their home and their lives with wickedness in many cases. I know there are good things that can be watched, but I know that there's much on TV that has absolutely no place in the life of a believer today. The filth, the suggestion, the innuendo, the outright filthy language that comes across the screen, and all of the rest that goes with it. And yet there are hundreds and millions of God's people that are choosing that. I say to you that that's just as much infidelity and unfaithfulness as Israel's story right here. And I think we better be very careful that we do like Jesus Christ said in the New Testament, that we be very careful that we cast a beam out of our own eye before we begin to pounce too harshly on the nation of Israel here, as wicked and as sinful as her condition was. Let's notice what God says happened to this nation. God said, Thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and thou playest the harlot because of thy renown, and thou pourest out thy fornications on every one that pass by. His it was. And God said you weren't content to just go and be unfaithful. No, God said you had to take the things that I had given you, and you had to use them in your harlotries and in your fornication. You know, dear Christians, the Bible reveals to us that the moment everyone becomes a child of God, the moment you become a new creature in Christ Jesus, that God places special endowments and abilities in your life. And Romans 16 tells us that the gifts of God are beyond recall. And I believe today that many people are using the gifts that God gave them to be used for His work, and they are using them for themselves and for the world. This is exactly what the condition was in the church at Corinth. God had showered His gifts on the church at Corinth, and they were using them in carnality for themselves rather than for God. Dear Christian, I want to say to you this morning that God has placed spiritual gifts in your life, and God has placed abilities in your life. He's given you the gift of teach, the gift of mercy. He's given you the gift of administration, the gift of help. And I want to ask you this. Are you using those things for God, or are you taking the things that God has given you to use for Him, and are you using it in business or somewhere else? Are you dedicating to God the talents that He gave you to be used for Him? Or are you guilty of infidelity and unfaithfulness? Are you using the things that God gave you for his glory and squandering them on the world and for selfish designs and desires? Oh, what a change there would be in the Church of Jesus Christ if every born-again believer would totally yield everything that God has given him to God. What a marvelous thing it would be to see a group of believers, to see churches filled with Christians that are faithful to God in every sense of the word. God says to this nation of Israel, of the garments that thou didst take, the things that I gave you, you took those garments to deck the high places with various colors, and you played the harlot on them, and thou shalt not come neither, neither shall it be so. Thou hast taken the fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I have given thee, and thou hast made thyself images of men, and did commit harlotry with them." What is he talking about here? Well, as you read the book of Kings and the book of Jeremiah, you will find that as Israel turned its back on God, they didn't just stand stagnant, but they went out and they embraced the idolatry of the nations around them. And the gods of the Canaanites became theirs. And what he's talking about here, as he made images of men, he's talking about that the nation of Israel went so far as to enter into the worship of the phallic cult. and the terrible degeneracy of immorality that was associated with that kind of worship. And God says, you took the things that I gave you, and you made for yourself instruments of wickedness. And then he goes farther than that, and he says, and then he took my children, and you gave them to be slain in the fire. Josiah had brought about a reformation. In the days of Ahaz and in the days of Manasseh, they had been engaged in the worship of Malik. And in the worship of Malik, in a religious frenzy and orgy, they would go and dance before this great image, and then they would take their newborn children and they would cut them in pieces and burn them in the flames. where sometimes they would take a child that was even ten or twelve years of age, and his parents would pick him up and cast him alive into the fire. Oh, you say, how can anybody do things like that? Because that's what Satan takes men into when they turn their back on God. You say, Pastor, that's all behind us, is it? Well, our law enforcement officers are telling us that this is coming back into vogue in a great way and fashion in our day, and we have ritualistic killings taking place all the time as witchcraft and the worship of Satan becomes more and more prominent and popular in our day. Satan doesn't change! Verse 20, Thou hast taken my sons. thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me." God said, these were my children, you were my wife, and you've taken my children, and you've done this to them. God said, I intended for these men to be Ezekiels, and Daniels, and Jeremiahs, and Isaiahs, and God said, you took these little children, and you cast them into the fire. Verse 21, you have slain my children, and delivered them to the cause them to pass through the fire. Josiah had cast out all of these things, but now Jeremiah tells us in chapter 35 verse 23 that in this very moment that Ezekiel is prophesying that Zedekiah has revived all of these things and once again in the city of Jerusalem little children are being sacrificed. And God said, if that wasn't enough, then He said, you got your eyes off of Me, and He said, you began to go out, and in your desperation, you tried to make alliance with every nation round about. He said, you tried to join up with the Egyptians in verse 26, and then in verse 27, you tried to join up with the Philistines. And then in verse 28, He said, you tried to join up with the Assyrians. But He said, your wickedness and your holatries became so great that even these were ashamed to be seen with you. How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord, seeing that thou doest all these things." And then he said, you went out into the streets. And he said, you began to open yourself to any who would come along in your desperation. You see, when you turn your back on God, you will never find satisfaction anywhere else. And he said, finally you came to the place where you began to pay rather than to be paid. But like a wife that commiteth adultery, who taketh strangers instead of her husband, you gave gifts to all the harlots, but you give gifts to all your lovers, and you hire them, that they may come to you on every side. Thou art different from other women in their harlotries, wherein none followeth thee to commit harlotries, in that thou givest a reward, and no reward is given unto thee. Therefore thou art different." Oh, a despicable passage, a horrible passage. but a picture of the wickedness of a nation that once knew God and turned its back on God. And God says, I cannot look away from this. God said, I must deal with you. But I want you to notice this, that through all of this, God was faithful. We say to ourselves, what would we do with a wife like that? And of course, the obvious human answer comes back, kick her out and write her off. But oh, God is so much different. God is so much greater. And God says to this wife, God says, I'm going to deal with you. I'm going to bring judgment on you, but not so I can get vengeance. God says, I'm going to bring judgment on you, because God says, I want you back. I want you back. Oh, I find that tremendous. I find that so blessed, so wonderful. What a marvelous, wondrous God we have. He says, verse 38, I will judge thee as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged. I will give thee blood and fury and jealousy. I will give thee into their hand. He said, I'm going to allow the people that you committed all of these things with to come in and judge you. I'm going to burn you with the fire of my wrath. Then in verse 44, 46, and 49, he compares Israel with her two sisters. He said, look at your sister Samaria. Samaria were the ten northern kingdoms that had gone off long before Israel here. And God says, you're worse than your sister Samaria. In fact, he said, you're worse than your sister Sodom. When we think of Sodom and Gomorrah and the reason for God's judgment upon them, we think of the sin of immorality, and particularly the sin of homosexuality that had just totally gripped that society. And so wicked was it that the Bible says that God destroyed them. But here in the 49th verse, we find that the real sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was more than that. What led them to this course? What brought them to this state? Notice what it says. The sin of Sodom was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, and the sin of Sodom was first of all pride, and then fullness of bread, and then the abundance of idleness, and in her daughters. And neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and of the needy. And I think every nation could take a look at this. I think this would be a good nation for us to think about as Americans today. God says the things that brought Sodom to her dismal end was the fact that Sodom became filled with pride. It became a city in which there was great affluence and abundance. It became a city in which there was idleness and much time for people to spend doing nothing. It became a city where people gave no thought or care for their neighbor. And God said, put all of these things together, and he said, you have a nation that destroys itself. Let's look at verse 60, the judgment of a nation, in verses 35 through 58, 9. Praise God, in verse 60, there's the restoration of a nation. All of these things that God predicted against Jerusalem came to pass. The restoration to this date has not taken place. Israel is back in the land today, but they have not been restored to their God. But God says, nevertheless, I will remember my covenant with you. God said, you have been unfaithful. Unfaithful is to say the least, isn't it here? God says, you have been unfaithful, but God said, I have remained faithful. I have remained faithful. And God said, I will remember my covenant. The one that I made with you in the days of your youth, when God said, I'm going to bring you back. And when you've come to your senses, I'm going to take you back. And notice what he says, and I'm going to give to you this time an everlasting covenant. Jeremiah talked about this. He said, God's going to make a new covenant with the household of Israel. And Jesus Christ, when he was here on earth, Jesus Christ presented to us this new covenant. And he said it was going to be ratified by his shed blood on the cross of Calvary. And God said, on the day that I make the new covenant with you, We're going to repeat our vows to one another, and I'm going to take you back. And I'm going to establish, and thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed when thou shalt receive thy sisters, and the elder and the younger. And I will give unto thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant. And I will establish my covenant with thee, and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah. And thou mayest remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done. Sayeth the Lord." God said, I'm going to bring you back. And God said, we're going to say our vows again. And he said, there are going to be new vows, and there are going to be better vows. And God said, this time This time, you're going to be a faithful wife unto me. Why this time? Because this time, the entire nation will be made up of those who are born again, those who believe and trust in Him. And never again will they stray, and never again will they be unfaithful. O Christian, God in his grace has reached down and saved us this morning. And at various times in our lives we have made commitments and pledges and promises to him. I want to ask you to spend just a moment or two at the close of our service this morning to think back over the pledges and promises and commitments that you have made to the Lord Jesus Christ. your betrothed husband and loved one. And I want to ask you this question. Have you been faithful? Have you used your life? Have you lived your life in faithfulness to Him? Have you kept the things of Christ for Him and for Him alone? Or have you taken the things that he has given you, and squandered them in the world, and shared them with others who had absolutely no right to them? I believe that the truth were known, that there are hundreds and hundreds of Christ's dearly beloved church today, members of his bride, who have not been faithful, but he's And even though we have been unfaithful, He hasn't put us off. He hasn't cast us out. And He has remained faithful. You know, He said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. He remains faithful. Have we been faithful to Him? This message has been brought to you by the Santa Rosa Bible Church. Our mission is to see the lost reached and believers transformed by Jesus. You can find out more information about us at our website at srbible.org. Or you can visit us in person at 4575 Badger Road in Santa Rosa, California. You can also reach us by phone at 707-538-2385.