Ezekiel’s deserted infant

‘None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing 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.’ Ezekiel 16:5–6

Suggested Further Reading: Romans 5:12–16

A ruin so terrible and so early has fallen upon each of us. Let proud man kick against the doctrine as he may, Scripture tells us assuredly that we are born in sin and ‘shapen in iniquity.’ We came not into this world as Adam came into the garden, without flaw, without condemnation, without evil propensities; but by one man’s offence we are all made sinners, and through his desperate fall our blood is tainted and our nature is corrupt. From the very birth we go astray, speaking lies, and in the very birth we lie under the condemnation of the law of God. It is not mine to defend this doctrine, to answer objections to it, or to bring arguments for it; I simply announce what God has himself revealed by the mouth of his servant David, and also more fully by the tongue of the apostle Paul. Man, unless God has mercy on you, you are lost, and lost from your very beginning! You did not come into this world as one who might stand or fall; you were fallen already; an original and birth-sin had seized upon you in the womb, and you were even then as an infant cast out to perish and to die. There is hardly any doctrine more humbling than that of natural depravity or original sin; it has been the main point of attack for all those who hate the gospel, and it must be maintained and valiantly vindicated by those who would exalt Christ, since the greatness and glory of his salvation lies mainly in the desperateness of the ruin from which he has redeemed us. Man, think not to save yourself by your works; boast not of the excellence of your character and of your nature.

For meditation: We are born with the fatal disease of sin inherited from our earthly parents (Psalm 51:5). When we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are born again with the perfect cure of eternal salvation received from God our new spiritual Father (1 Peter 1:23; 2:2–3).

Sermon no. 468
7 September (1862)