Let's open our Bibles to Ezekiel
chapter 36. Ezekiel chapter 36. Now tonight we're going to begin
at verse 24 of this chapter continuing the message that I began this
past Wednesday entitled, God will accomplish His will. God will accomplish His will. The reason I entitled the message
that way is from the very beginning of this chapter, which is a prophecy
of the new covenant. We see so much spoken here by
the Lord through the prophet Ezekiel about his sovereign will. He says in verse 23, look at
Ezekiel 36, 23, he said, and I will sanctify my great name. And as you go through these verses,
you just notice once again as I mentioned Wednesday how many
times God says I will you shall I will you shall and what that
does it rings forth the nature of the covenant of grace the
nature of the new covenant of which Christ Jesus Christ is
the surety of the covenant Brother Joe read about that in Hebrews
chapter 8 over there where he was talking about how Christ
was made a surety of a better covenant. Now a covenant better
than what other covenant? Well better than the old covenant
over in the book of Jeremiah chapter 31 he speaks of that
when he prophesies of the new covenant there and that's that's
what the writer of Hebrews is quoting Hebrews chapter 8 who
I believe was the Apostle Paul who used of the Holy Spirit to
write the book of Hebrews and you remember in Jeremiah 31 and
verse 31 he spoke of a day the days to come behold the days
come saith the Lord that I will make a new covenant with the
house of Israel and with the house of Judah now we're going
to talk about a new nation tonight and that new nation is a spiritual
nation that was pictured and typified by national Israel under
the old covenant and the house of Israel in the house of Judah
when it's mentioned in prophecy that way it's talking about the
United Kingdom the United Kingdom spiritual kingdom under the headship
of Christ who is the surety of the covenant And Jeremiah wrote,
he said in verse 32, he says, not according to the covenant
that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by
the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant
they break. Talking about the old covenant,
which was a conditional covenant upon the nation Israel, which
they broke. Setting forth the reality in
a in the reality of the sinfulness of all of us by nature setting
forth the reality that if salvation or any part of it were conditioned
on us it would fail because we're sinners and that's what the total
depravity of man is all about it's not it's not about just
trying to insult people It's just showing the reality of what
we are by nature and that there is no hope of salvation for any
of us if salvation is not totally by the sovereign grace and mercy
of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what that's about.
So he says, which my covenant they break, although I wasn't
husband unto them, saith the Lord. And then Jeremiah goes
forth and relates some of the same language that we'll read
here in the book of Ezekiel chapter 36. But you'll notice over here
in chapter 36, the I wills and the you shalls. There's no breaking
this covenant. This covenant of grace. This new covenant. Covenant of
mercy. There's no breaking this covenant.
Now why is that? I'll tell you why. Because it's
not conditioned on me. It's not conditioned on you.
It's conditioned on Christ. He fulfilled the conditions.
He met every requirement. to ensure the success of this
covenant. And that's why he's called our
surety. So we'll look at it from that viewpoint. We saw here that
the divine motive for this promise that God makes is his own honor
and glory. Again, verse 23, I will sanctify
my great name. That's what that's all about,
the glory, the honor. the reputation of God. And then
he begins to talk about God's sovereign work in this covenant,
which God accomplishes in the person and the finished work
of Christ. And remember I gave you those
three things to remember about this. And if you weren't here,
listen to this. Here's how it goes. First of all, there is
a regathering of the nation. That's verse 24. He says, I will
take you from among the heathen and gather you out of all countries
and will bring you into your own land." Now, there's the regathering
of the nation. Now, when did that take place?
Well, a lot of people say that it took place when they were
brought back out of Babylon and brought back into their own country. Well, there was a limited fulfillment
of that temporarily and temporarily, but that's not what Ezekiel's
talking about. Now, how do I know that? Well,
hold on. All right? Some people say it was fulfilled
in 1948 when the land of Palestine was reoccupied by the Jews and
formed as a nation. Well, that's not what this is
talking about. Again, I'll show you why. Some
people say, well, Ezekiel's talking about a future millennial kingdom
after the Great Tribulation. I don't believe that's the case,
and I'll show you why on that. All right? Let's look at it.
It's a regathering of the nation. All right? It's based on redemption. Now, whoever he's going to be
regathering here, they're the redeemed of the Lord. Now, how
do you know that? Look at verse 25. He says, then will I sprinkle
clean water upon you and you shall be clean. Now, what is
it that cleanses God's people? What's the only thing the scripture
tells you that'll cleanse you from sin? The blood of Christ. That's the redemption. that was
accomplished in the future here for Ezekiel and the people to
whom he's preaching that the Messiah would come and accomplish
redemption so this regathering is going to be under the redemptive
work of the Messiah and then it's going to result in a heart
work called regeneration Look here, he says in verse 26, a
new heart also will I give you. And we're going to look at these
in just a moment. So what you have is a regathering of the
nation based on redemption by the blood that results in regeneration
by the spirit. What you have here is a new nation
formed under the headship of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want
to show you, I could show you several passages on this, but
I won't go to too many. I'm really just going to go to
one. Go to Hosea chapter 1. Let me just remind you of this.
We preached on this when I went through Hosea. But Hosea prophesies
of that same day in this passage here, verse 10 of Hosea chapter
1. And he starts out talking about
the sins of Israel and how Israel had broke the covenant. Now that's us by nature. That's
our sin. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. That's why we cannot work our
way into God's favor. That's why we cannot earn or
ever deserve salvation. It's a free gift of God based
on the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what salvation
is. That's why the gospel is the
revelation of the righteousness of God. and not how you can make
yourself righteous by your efforts because you can't do that. I
can't do that. Israel couldn't do it. We're
in the same boat Israel's in. You know, when you read the Old
Testament and you see where Israel dropped the ball and where they
broke the covenant, don't let that make you proud like as if
you would have done better because you wouldn't have. We're sinners. And we deserve nothing but damnation
based on our works. So, Hosea starts off, he talks
about how Israel had sinned against God. But in the future, look
at verse 10 of Hosea 1, he says, Yet the number of the children
of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea. The nation as a whole
is not going to be obliterated. Now, in what sense? Well, he's
not talking about the physical Economy or ethnic is race talking
about spiritual Israel. How do you know he says which
cannot be measured nor number? It shall come to pass that in
the place where it was said unto them. You are not my people There
it shall be said unto them. You are the sons of the Living
God now the Apostle Paul Quotes that in Romans chapter 9 Applying
it to the Gentiles You're not my people those who are not my
feet. They'll be my people And so he's talking about how God's
elect, his spiritual nation, is made up of his elect out of
every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. And how's it going
to be? Look at verse 11 of Hosea 1.
Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be
gathered together. There's the regathering. Now
look at it. And appoint themselves one head. Now who is the one head? Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. He's talking about a regathering
of people under the headship of Christ. He's not talking about
a regathering of a physical nation of unbelievers. And he goes on,
he says, They shall come up out of the land, for great shall
be the day of Jezreel. That's a day of great victory
in the Jewish history. A day of great victory. Now,
look back over at Ezekiel 36. So here's what we're talking
about. It's a regathering based on redemption that results in
regeneration. So whoever he's talking about,
I'll tell you exactly. You know, Christ looked at Nicodemus
and he said, Nicodemus, you must be born again. Or you cannot
what? See the kingdom of heaven. And
then he said, you must be born again or you cannot what? enter
the kingdom of heaven. Now, Nicodemus was standing right
there in the land of Palestine. If that was the kingdom he was
talking about, why did he say you must be born again or you
can't enter the kingdom? Nicodemus hadn't entered the
kingdom of heaven. How do you enter the kingdom of heaven?
It's being regathered based on redemption that results in regeneration. That's how you enter the kingdom.
You must be born again. That's what he's talking about.
Christ spoke of it in John 10. And incidentally, you can kind
of read John 10 as a parallel to this. Even John 6, you know,
he talked about, all that the Father giveth me shall what?
Come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will unknowwise cast out. John 10, he said, the good shepherd
gives his life for the sheep. That's redemption by the blood.
He says, he told him, he said, other sheep I have that are not
of this fold, this Jewish fold, them also I must bring. That's
the regathering of that spiritual nation, that new nation under
the headship of Christ. And then what'd he say? My sheep
are gonna what? Hear my voice. Told the Pharisees, who were
ethnic Jews, he says, you're not of my, he said, you believe
not because you're not of my sheep. So what's the context
of this whole thing tell us? He's talking about spiritual
Israel here. Now prove it. Well, look at verse 25 again.
All right. He says, he says, I'm going to
sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean. Now,
what's he talking about? The application of the blood
of Christ to his people. I'm going to apply that blood
to you. Christ died on the cross as the substitute and surety
of his people. And in that sense, look over
at Hebrews chapter 10 with me. He cleansed us from all sin legally. That's right. Our sins imputed
to Him, His righteousness imputed to us. There was a legal transaction,
a real, legal, powerful, beautiful, effectual transaction between
the Father and the Son that took place on that cross when the
Lamb of God gave up His life. paying our sin debt in full and
look at Hebrews 10 and verse 10 he says by the which will
we are sanctified set apart through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once and then look at verse 14 for by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified redemption
by the blood but in time The Holy Spirit comes to each and
every one of God's elect people, Jew and Gentile, in each successive
generation. And what does he do? He applies
that blood to our hearts, to our conscience. Look at verse
15 of Hebrews 10. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is
a witness to us. When the gospel is preached to
the people of God, that's the Holy Spirit being a witness to
us. For after that he had said before,
now look at verse 16, this is the covenant that I will make
with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws
into their hearts and in their minds will I write them and their
sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now remember under the
old covenant there was a continual reminder of sin and iniquity. That was the day of atonement,
that was the priesthood, that earthly priesthood. That's why
Paul called it in 2 Corinthians 3, the ministry of death. The
ministry of condemnation. He said it's the ministry of
the letter. Remember what he said about the letter? The letter
does what? Letter killeth. And then he says, but here he
says, I will remember their sins no more. What God means by that,
when he says that is, I won't hold it against them. I won't
charge them with sin. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? So he says in verse 18, now,
where remission of these is, there's no more offering for
sin. By one offering, he has perfected forever them that are
sanctified. No more offering. What in the world could you or
I offer God in payment for our sin? Our works, pitiful works,
our ceremonies, the blood of bulls and goats could not take
away sin. But by one offering, Christ hath
perfected. And then look at verse 19. Having
therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest, by
what? The blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he
hath consecrated. That means Christ is the one
who made this way, this new way. For us, through the veil, that
is to say his flesh, the offering of his body, and having a high
priest over the house of God. Now look at verse 22. Let us
draw near with a true heart. Now, a true heart is a sincere
heart. A true heart is an honest heart,
honest about sin. A true heart is a convicted heart. A true heart is a regenerate
heart. A true heart is a new heart.
In full assurance of faith, he says, what is the full assurance
of faith? Well, I know I've got enough
faith That's not the full assurance of faith, my friend. The full
assurance of faith is not saying, well, I know I have enough faith.
The full assurance of faith is I know I have a great savior.
There's a difference, isn't there? I know I have a lamb, the lamb
of God. I know my savior is great enough
and powerful enough and worthy enough to save me from my sins.
Worthy is the Lamb. Paul expressed the full assurance
of faith this way, I believe in 2 Timothy 1 and verse 12.
He said, I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded that I have
enough faith. No, I'm persuaded that he's able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. That's
not splitting hairs. That's the difference between
the full assurance of faith and self-righteousness. So he says
in full assurance of faith, now look at it, having our hearts
sprinkled from what? An evil conscience. An evil conscience
is a condemned conscience. An evil conscience is a guilty
conscience. An evil conscience is a legal
conscience. It can either be condemned because
you're not doing enough or it can be satisfied because you
think you have done enough. Either way, it's an evil conscience. because it's not cleansed by
the blood of Christ. You understand that? And our
bodies washed with pure water. Now, go back to Ezekiel 36. He's
going to sprinkle clean water upon you. And you'll be clean. No spot, no blemish. How in the
world can I look at myself and say I have no spot No blemish. And not be embarrassed. I know
myself. How about you? How can I do that? Not but one way. Washed in His
blood. Clothed in His righteousness.
Any other way is a denial of Him. If righteousness come by
law, Christ is dead and gone. That's what He's going to do.
So whoever He's regathering here, There's the ground of it, the
blood of Christ. And they're going to be sprinkled
clean. Now look on. He says, I'll cleanse you from
all your filthiness, from all your idols, will I cleanse you?
He's going to turn you away from your idols, your false religion,
self-righteousness. He's going to turn you away from
it. And how's he going to do it? Look at verse 26. Now here's
regeneration. He said, a new heart also will
I give you. There's the new heart. Again,
that's the regenerate heart. The circumcised heart. Remember
what the apostle wrote in Romans chapter 2 on that issue? The
new heart? It was by this heart, it was
by the heart that God the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to identify
who the true Jew is. When I say the true Jew, I'm
talking about the true child of God. Look at Romans 2 and
verse 28. For he is not a Jew, which is
one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision,
which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew, which is one
inwardly. And circumcision is that of the
heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not
of men but of God. You see it? What Paul writes
in Philippians chapter 3 and verse 3, we are the circumcision. You know who he was talking to
there? Believing Jews and Gentiles. We are the circumcision. We worship
God in spirit. How do you know that? We rejoice
in Christ Jesus. Literally, we have confidence
in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. That's the new
heart. That's the heart that's broken
over sin. The heart that knows what we
are, what we can do and cannot do, as we're convinced by the
Holy Spirit in light of Christ and His glory and His righteousness. The heart that is new is one
that is broken over sin and knows that if God were to judge us
based on our best, we would not stand. We'd be condemned. The new heart is the heart of
faith that looks to Christ, that clings to Him, rests in Him.
Christ said, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
I'll give you rest. The new heart's the one that
relishes in that rest, satisfied with Him. who knows that He is
our all and in all, and that He is all we need for complete
salvation. He says, verse 26, a new spirit
will I put within you. Now we can talk about the Holy
Spirit. God the Holy Spirit will abide within. But He is also
talking about life, spiritual life imparted to us, given to
us. whereby we have ears to hear
and eyes to see and hearts and minds to understand and know
and love Christ and His Word, to believe the gospel. This right here is a way of describing
the gospel as the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believeth. A heart and a spirit and a willingness
to submit to Christ and His righteousness as that which alone saves me,
keeps me, blesses me, and brings me to glory. A heart to follow
Him in knowledge and in faith and love. A new motive. Here's
a new motive here. Whereas the motive before was
legal and mercenary, now the motive is love and grace and
gratitude. Now being a bondservant of Christ
and not a legal slave forced into submission by the law and
by threats. or by mercenary promises of reward. A new spirit. He said, I will
take away the stony heart out of your flesh. That's that hard
heart. That unbending, unsubmissive heart. The proud heart. He said,
I'll take that out of your flesh and I'll give you a heart of
flesh. Flesh there not meaning flesh in the sense of sinfulness
or evil, but flesh meaning it's pliable. It's submissive. Humble. That's what he's talking about.
He says in verse 27, I will put my spirit within you and cause
you to walk in my statues. You know, that's how we're going
to walk in his statue. God has to cause us to do it. That's
right. And he does it not by coercion,
but by conviction. Sometimes somebody says, well,
you think that God just makes us robots and forces us to do
what we don't want to do. Oh no. He gives us a new heart.
He puts a new spirit within. He makes us willing in the day
of His power. He shows us that He's the only
way and His way is the only right way. That's what He does. That's how He causes us to walk
in His statutes. It's the statutes of the gospel.
The statutes of His grace. And He said, you shall keep My
judgments and do them. That's walking by faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. As willing, loving, bond slaves
of Christ. And then he says in verse 28,
you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers. You know
what that's speaking of? That's our eternal security in
Christ. That's the eternal security of
the saved. You see, the reason people believe
you can be saved one day and lost the next is because they
don't know anything about grace. They don't know anything about
Christ's assurity. He said, you'll dwell in the
land that I gave to your father. That means you're never going
to dwell anywhere else. You're a citizen of the kingdom
of God. And if you're in that kingdom,
you'll never be anywhere else. That doesn't mean you're not
going to struggle. That doesn't mean you're not going to fail and
falter and mess up. but you're still a citizen of
the kingdom. And then he speaks the same marriage vow that he
always speaks in light of the covenant of grace. He says, you
shall be my people and I will be your God. We're married to
Christ. He'll never issue a bill of divorcement to his bride or
his bride. He paid the dowry. He cleansed,
he cleaned us up. He sewed together by His obedience
unto death the wedding garment. And we stand in Him before Almighty
God. That's what He's talking about.
And then look here at the next two verses, verses 29 and 30.
This speaks of preservation and fruitfulness. I'll save you from
all your uncleannesses. I will call for the corn. I will
increase it. I'll lay no famine upon you.
Now, whoever He's talking about, they're not going to dwell anywhere
where there's a famine. They're gonna be safe and secure.
He says in verse 30, I'll multiply the fruit of the tree and the
increase of the field that you shall receive no more reproach
of famine among the heathen. This is safety, this is security,
this is fruitfulness, and he caps it off, look in verse 31,
by the issue of repentance. Now when all this is done, And
this is, you know, this is not some kind of a long drawn out
time span. This is God bringing his people
to faith in Christ. And that faith in Christ is evidenced
by this, verse 31. Then shall you remember your
own evil ways and your doings that were not good and shall
loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and
for your abominations. You know what that is? That's
repentance. God's not willing that any of
his people should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
How do you get to repentance? Through faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. This is a penitent heart. And I tell you what, isn't that
true of all of us when God brought us to see the glory of Christ?
Just like Saul of Tarsus stopped on the Damascus road. Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou me? What do you mean persecute you,
Lord? I'm religious. I've joined the church. I'm a
Hebrew of Hebrews. I was circumcised the eighth
day. You see, Paul was given a new
heart, a new spirit. That old hard heart was taken
away and the fleshy heart was given. And he said, now I loathe
myself. And you know something? That
repentance there, it has a beginning. There's a beginning. I can remember.
I'm not into days and times and what they call spiritual birthdays.
I think people today are so bogged down in that that they miss Christ.
I really do. It's sad. And I can't give you a day and
time, but I don't care. But I know that when the Lord brought me
to see the glory of God in Christ, that I began to see how every
religious thing I ever did up to that point was evil in the
sight of God. And I loathed myself. And I had a beginning, but you
know what? It's a lifetime for a believer.
Think about Job. He said, I hate myself. I've
seen, I've heard of thee with the ear, I see thee with my eyes. He said, I hate myself. And I
repent and sight cloth and ashes. And then he gives us the reason
for it all. Look at verse 32. He repeats it. Not for your sakes
do I do this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you. Be
ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.
I'm not doing this for your sake. He says, I'm doing it for my
own glory and honor. God made a promise before the foundation
of the world to glorify himself in the salvation of his people
through Jesus Christ. And you want to know why? That's
why you're saved. That's why. Had nothing to do,
you know, this thing, you read verses like it, you know, people
say, well, God looked down through the telescope of time and he
saved you based upon what he foresaw you would do. Oh no. He said, I don't do it for your
sakes. And the thing about it is we're sinners. We're sinners. And think about this, go on,
look at verse 33. He says, thus saith the Lord
God, in the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your
iniquities, I will also cause you to dwell in the cities and
the waste shall be builded up. This is talking about the security
again and the fruitfulness of his people in Christ. The desolate land shall be tilled,
whereas it lay desolate in the sight of that passed by, of all
that passed by. They shall say, this land that
was desolate has become like the Garden of Eden, going all
the way back to Adam before the fall. Now that doesn't mean that
we're going to just be restored to what Adam had before the fall. We have restored what Adam had
before the fall, but infinitely much more. Infinitely much more. There's no possibility of us
falling if we have Christ. And the waste and desolate and
ruined cities are become fenced and are inhabited. Then the heathen
that are left round about you shall know that I, the Lord,
build the ruined places and plant that which was desolate." Now
listen to this. He says, I, the Lord, have spoken it and I'll
do it. God's will will be accomplished. Verse 37, Thus saith the Lord
God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel. to
do it for them. I will increase them with men
like a flock." You see that? I'm going to do it, God says.
I will. You shall. I will. You shall. I will. You shall. But you're
going to ask for it. You're going to ask for it. Somebody said, well, if you believe
in predestination, why pray? I'll tell you why, because God
predestinated the prayer. God is a God of means. God has
determined the end from the beginning and he works all things after
the counsel of his own will. And part of that will is this,
faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Part of that will is all whom
he chose will come to believe the gospel. It pleased God by
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. I
will, you shall, I will, you shall, I'm the Lord God, he says,
I'll do it. But you're going to ask for it. You're going to ask for it. You
know why you're going to ask for it? Because he's going to
show you that you need it. And he's going to show you there's
no other way to get it, but by his grace through Christ. There's nothing wrong with me
asking you tonight. Will you ask for it? He said,
I shall be inquired of. I'm not talking about walking
an aisle, making a big show. I'm talking about in your heart,
sitting right where you are. Do like the public, and you know,
the public can ask for it. He said, God, be merciful to
me. He wouldn't issue forth a command
there. He was asking. He was inquiring
of the Lord. God, be merciful to me the sinner. Those men at Pentecost, those
men and women at Pentecost, men and brethren, what shall we do?
I see what you're saying, Peter. I'm a sinner. I deserve nothing
but damnation and my works cannot save me. What am I going to do?
God said, I'll be inquired of you. You're going to ask for
it. And you know what? Christ said, ask, and it shall
be given. Knock, and it shall be opened. Seek, and you shall
find. You're going to seek for it.
He's going to bring his sheep to do that. And look at verse
38. He said, as the holy flock, as
the flock of Jerusalem, that's the people that are set apart
and cleansed by the blood of Christ, is the flock of Jerusalem
in her solemn feast. You imagine Jerusalem, let's
say, during the Passover and the Feast of Pentecost, how many
people were there? That's what he's talking about.
So shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men, and
they shall know that I am the Lord. In the New Covenant, he
says it this way. He said, they shall all know
me from the least of them to the greatest.