May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this evening as we meditate in His Holy Word.
Let us turn to the book, or the prophecy rather, of Ezekiel,
and chapter 36, and we'll read verses 25 and 26. So the prophecy
of Ezekiel, chapter 36, and reading verses 25 and 26. Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you, and ye shall be clean. From all your filthiness and
from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I
give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will
take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give
you a heart of flesh. This gives to us a view of the
greatness and the mercy and the love of Almighty God to utterly
unworthy sinners of the earth. Because how all of us need to
receive from God the great and wonderful blessing of a new heart. and a new spirit. We're born
with a heart and a spirit, and we need God to give us a new
heart that's a spiritual heart. That's a heart that feels after
the things of God, that appreciates the things of God, and is made
alive to spiritual realities. and is able to pass over the
things that we have and enjoy with our natural heart and yet
to also be made aware through a new heart and a new spirit
that our old heart, our old nature is deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked. Now, no one with only that heart
will ever come safely to glory. Quite simply because there is
no sin in heaven. So all of us need to know that
we possess the wonderful favour of a new heart. and also a new
spirit. Now God says very graciously
and gloriously that he will give such. Also will I give you and
I will put within you. So we should be very thankful
to know that we have a God. But of course the great question
is whether we have received it from God. And the only person
that knows whether that's true is ourselves. We do not know
what another person possesses. We may make assumptions, but
we do not really know. It's that evidence between a
true believer and a holy God which is known. that one possesses
this wonderful and glorious gift. See, we're told God gives it. Again, it comes back, doesn't
it, to the truth of eternal life, that you and I can't earn it
ourselves, we can't work for it. But what a blessing if God
gives it to us. And it is so important that you
and I possess it. Because without it, we shall
be destroyed. When I say that, what I mean
is we shall never go to heaven. We should end up in hell for
eternity. And how few people in the day
and age in which we live realize the importance and the solemnity
of being blessed with this wonderful favor. A new heart also will
I give you. A new spirit will I put within
you. You see, it's that which is within
us. It's not on the outside, it's
that which is within us. It's the innermost being. And
it's how the Holy Spirit moves inside and instructs us in the
way of God and in the things of God so that we see ourselves
in some measure how evil, how wretched, how undone we are,
and how we need the great and glorious blessing of Almighty
God to come upon us, indeed to cleanse us from all our sins,
that we may be those who possess this great blessing of a new
heart. That means really we're a changed
person. where a new creature, you see
the old man, the old nature has the old sinful heart, which is
of the flesh. The new nature, the God-given
life possesses the new heart. And what a mercy it is if we
therefore have that. And it comes back really to the
very beginning that Jesus spoke to when he was on the earth One
of the early things that he speaks about was to Nicodemus and he
told Nicodemus that he needed to be born again. That means
he needed to have a spiritual life, a new life, a blessed life,
a life which possessed a new heart. Well, Nicodemus initially
could not understand it. And most people today cannot
understand it. Most people today don't want
to understand it. And it'd be a great blessing
if, by the grace of God, you and I do desire to know that
we do possess a new heart, to know that we are born again of
the Spirit of God. You know how important it was?
Jesus said in Nicodemus, you must be born again. How true it is. And how true
it is, we must possess a new heart. It's no good just assuming
everything's going to be all right. We need to have the evidence
of it in our lives, the evidence of it from God. That secret of
the Lord, which is revealed to his people, what a blessing it
is if you and I have received and do receive this wonderful
blessing. Well, that's a new heart. And
then the previous verse tells us, then when I sprinkle clean
water upon you, generally speaking, in the word of God, this clean
water refers to the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, which
takes away all sin. What a wonderful truth it is. What a wonderful mercy it is.
to know that we have a God who does cleanse us from all sin. Because if our sin is not cleansed,
we do not possess a new heart, then you see there's no hope
for us spiritually. We remain in a lost and ruined
condition. Well, we know that As the Apostle
Paul tells us, in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good
thing. That means in himself, in his
old nature, the same as us, dwelleth no good thing. Our old nature
is not good, it's evil. And how we need Almighty God
to come and to cleanse us and to give us that new heart and
to cleanse us. You know, David, the psalmist,
tells us of his situation and how he needed to be cleansed. And in the 51st Psalm, we have
a little insight to his spiritual life. And it's good for us, and
we should be very thankful that God has given us these spiritual
testimonies of God's people throughout the Word of God. to trace out
for us the pathway of a true believer. You see, David commences
this 51st Psalm by saying, have mercy upon me. Nobody really
prays for mercy, not really, until God has brought into their
heart, or brought into their life rather, a new heart. They remain. outside of the knowledge
of God, outside of the secret of the Lord which belongs to
them. But those who are blessed with
it come to this realisation that they must have mercy. Mercy indeed
is welcome news indeed to those who guilty stand. We won't want
mercy. We won't pray for mercy until
we are convicted that we are a sinner before a holy God and
because of our sins there is no hope for us unless we receive
mercy no hope for us going to heaven how important it is and
so we see how very relevant David prays in this way have mercy
upon me oh God again a very personal statement and real religion as
I say to you very often is personal it's not what the person next
door has received it's what you and I receive It's that which
God gives to us. And here was David praying for
this mercy. According to thy loving kindness,
according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out
my transgressions. He wanted all his sins to be
taken away, to be blotted out. We read in another place, thrown
into the depths of the sea, be seen no more forever. How do
you and I view sin? Do we view sin as hateful? Do we love sin by nature? You
see our old nature, our flesh, our old body loves sin. Our new nature Our new spirit
hates sin. And there is therefore that battle
between our old nature and new. And so David comes here and he
writes this psalm, as you may know, most of you, after he'd
sinned, after he'd disobeyed God, after he committed adultery
with Bathsheba and also killed her husband not physically himself
but by ranging for him to be killed. And we see how terrible
it was and how David then stands guilty before God and he wants
to be throughly washed from all his sins. Wash me throughly from
my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Well, it's a wonderful
mercy if you and I come to that position and realize that we
need cleansing. We may not be in the same position
as David was, but whatever sin we have, and all of us have sin,
and the smallest sin, if we can put it that way, what may appear
to be the smallest sins, needs to be forgiven, needs to be washed
away. And we need to have that new
heart which shows us our sin. Most people today, if you ask
them about themselves, whether they are sinners, They might
say, well, I've done one or two things wrong in my life and now
confess that. But they don't realize that they
are indwelt with sin. Sin is about them. It all occurs
through that original sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of
Eden. And when that occurred, sin passed
upon all mankind and all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God, and all need forgiveness, and all need a new heart, and
all need to be cleansed. You see how relevant it is. Well,
it's a great blessing for you and me tonight if we can testify
that God, in his love toward us, has shown us our condition,
a guilty, hell-deserving sinner. And what does it do? It makes
us flee for refuge. And where is refuge? It's only
in and through what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. Is it nothing to you, or ye that
pass by? We spoke about it fairly recently.
And often it's not. It means nothing, the death of
Christ. But what a glorious thing and
what a wonderful sign and what a wonderful evidence that you
and I possess the life of God in our soul, that we possess
a new heart, a new spirit, and we recognize our ruined condition
before a holy God. Well, David comes on in this
psalm and tells us He says, cast me not away, cast me not away. Perhaps he felt like it, I'm
sure he did, and sometimes we feel like that. You come and
pray to God, cast me not away from thy presence, and take not
thy Holy Spirit from me. Perhaps we realize how we've
deserved it. As we look into our hearts and
we find so much evil there, and how we need this wonderful cleansing. What a mercy then it is to have
a God who does cleanse us. And David goes on and tells us,
deliver me, deliver me, you see, again, personal from blood guiltiness,
O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud
of thy righteousness. And he also speaks to us and
tells us that God desires truth in the inward parts, that means
inside, in our new heart. Our old heart, it's not truthful. And many times in our lives we've
spoken lies, perhaps not directly, but perhaps indirectly. And when
you say, when I say that, you may ask me what I mean by indirectly. Well, let me just say, if you
are perhaps recounting something that you've seen happen, and
you want it to sound rather more impressive, so you just embellish
it a bit, you add a bit perhaps to it, to make it sound rather
grander than it actually is. Well, what is that? That's the
old nature. That's our evil heart. That's
speaking lies. It's very solemn, isn't it, to
realize that, how we're so often guilty almost without realizing
it. What a mercy when the Holy Spirit
of God comes and shows us the evil, the sin of our hearts. And therefore, a blessing therefore
to possess this great and glorious gift of a new heart. Because
the new heart is pure. A new heart is sinless. And it's
that which God gives. What a mercy, what a blessing.
If we can look into our hearts, our old nature, and realize,
yes, God has given me. a new heart, new desires. We desire holiness. Our own nature doesn't desire
holiness. We may pretend it does, but it
doesn't. But our new nature does. The
new heart does. And again, what a wonderful evidence
of the life of God within when God gives to us this great and
glorious favor. And so here we have this statement. Again, quite clearly, the Lord
speaks to us and he tells us all our filthiness. He might
say, well, what does that mean when it's not outward filth? It's inward filth, the filth
in our hearts, the evil which comes there, the sinful thoughts,
the sinful desires, they all emanate from our old nature. And so here the Prophet tells
us and how true it is, we need to be cleansed from it, from
all our filthiness and from all our idols. Again, we may have
idols, things that we like doing which are not God-honouring,
things that we like doing which are sinful, which doesn't bring
glory to God. And again, if we just sit down
sometimes and try and analyse these things, what do we find?
We find we have idols tucked away in our heart. Perhaps they don't come out very
often, but sometimes they do. Before we know where we are,
we're bowing down to them. You may say, what does that mean?
Well, we worship them because we enjoy being involved with
them. But there's no spiritual benefit. There's no spiritual
good. And what does it do? It adds
sin. It adds sin. We need to be cleansed. We need this sprinkling of the
blood of Christ. which cleanses us from all sin. Now, when the Holy Spirit shows
us something of our sinful nature, our sinful, the word we use is
propensity, that means it goes after it, we realise then how
we need, how we need to be cleansed and we should come to that knowledge
that we cannot cleanse ourself. So what are we going to do? What are we going to do? We can't
cleanse ourselves because sin is mixed with all we do. We can't
cleanse ourselves. We need to be cleansed. And how
can we be cleansed? We can only be cleansed in one
way. And that's through the work and blessed office of the Lord
Jesus Christ. What He has done. And it would
be a wonderful mercy and a wonderful blessing if as the Holy Spirit
leads us to see our guilt before a holy God so we had to cry out
like the lepers did in old time unclean unclean don't get near
me I'm unclean That's our nature, our old heart. We're unclean. And we have to
perhaps sometimes cry out, not to people, but to God. Cry out to Him, I'm unclean. I need to be cleansed. I need to be washed. And we can
only be washed in that one way, in the precious blood of Christ. You see, this is the cleansing
fountain, the cleansing water of life, the precious blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you and you shall be clean. What a mercy that we have a God
who is willing to do this. A God who is willing to come
to us where we are. God knows all about us. He knows
more about us than we know about ourselves. Because He knows everything. He knows our actions. He knows
our words. He knows our thoughts. And if
we had to list them out, what a long and terrible list it would
be. And we need God to take away all those sins of thought, word,
and deed. They're all evil. they'll all
take us to hell unless we are forgiven so how relevant such words are
here tucked away in Ezekiel people don't read Ezekiel it's a very
difficult book to read really I've just recently read it myself
and it's not easy but there we are we have in it some wonderful
words some wonderful truths and here they are in this book Well,
what a mercy it is. And you may have noticed that
when we read down this chapter, there were some interesting and
important statements about tilling the land so that the land is
churned over and ready for the good seed to be sown. What a
mercy it is when God takes us in hand. He doesn't leave us
to wander on aimlessly in this poor old sinful world. Like so
many, many people are today. They have no desire after heavenly
things. No desire to be cleansed from
their sin. They're perfectly happy in their
sin. Perfectly happy in their evil
ways. Well, what's made you and me
to differ? What's brought about the change? What's done it? The grace of
God. The free, unmerited favor. To think that God has come where
we are. He's come to us. And he's found us. Wandering
in the wilderness. Jacob tells us in the, he says,
he found me in a waste-hounding wilderness. And this world is
a waste town in wilderness. What a blessing if God has found
us. And if he's found us, he hasn't
left us to just wander on aimlessly. But he's given us a new heart. He's given us a right spirit. So through his mercy, through
his grace and abounding love, He's moved us to seek Him. He's moved us to pray to Him. He's directed us to plead for
mercy. He's turned our feet. He's turned
our walk from following the ways of evil. to the right way. He's brought us from the broad
way, which leads to destruction, into the narrow way, which leads
to eternal life. It's the work of the blessed
Spirit of God. And what a mercy for us today,
if we find the effect of it in our hearts, because there is
an effect And there must be an effect, because the effect brings
honour and glory to God. That glorious change that has
been wrought about by the Spirit of God and turned our thoughts,
turned our feet, given us a desire after heavenly realities, after
the things of God, and shown to us the vanity of all the things
of this poor world. Well, he says, a new heart will
I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. And then
he just illustrates the effect of this. He says, and I will
take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give
you a heart of flesh. The picture illustrates to us
that something which is stone doesn't feel anything, does it? You can poke stone, can't you?
You can hit stone, it doesn't have any effect. And that's what
we are, just by nature we're born with. heart of stone a hard
heart a hard heart which isn't affected by God's mercy until
the Holy Spirit works we can walk through many times of deliverance
many times of blessing naturally but has no effect because we
have such a hard heart what a mercy to know that we have a God a
gracious God, a kind God, a merciful God who takes that stony heart. He takes it away. And what does he do? He gives us
a heart of flesh. A heart of flesh is a soft heart. A soft heart which acknowledges
our sinful condition. a soft heart and the desires
pure things holy things righteous things it's a complete turnabout
a complete change from our old nature from our stony heart which
is not affected by so many things which may come
into our lives we just carry on what a mercy and what an evidence
it is if God has given us heart of flesh again I can't tell whether
God's done that but you can tell you know whether God has produced
in you that complete change from ignoring all those things which
have a wrong influence and a wrong effect upon you, turning to God,
turning to be a true follower of the Lord. We only do it if
God gives us this heart of flesh. What a mercy it is to receive
it. And you see the next verse, 27
goes on, just tells us, and I will put my spirit within you and
cause you to walk in my statutes, that's to walk in the laws of
God. Again, there will be our delight. You know, David says on a number
of occasions, how love I thy law. He loved the law of God. Naturally, we don't like the
law of God because it crosses across things that we want to
do, not something which we'd like doing. What a mercy it is
when we turn by the grace of God to follow Him and to keep
His statues, to walk in them. What a change in our lives. Again,
it's a good thing to just sit down and look into our hearts
and see our evil, our old nature, our evil heart which is desperately
wicked and then see that new heart which God has given us,
which seeks after purity, seeks after the knowledge of God. The old heart may pretend to
seek God, but the new heart does seek the Lord. It's a vast difference. What a blessing then, if you
and I have passed from darkness to light, because it is the light
of the gospel, it shines into our heart, which shows us the
difference, shows us the difference. What a mercy and what a blessing. And so do we know, do we understand
this great truth? And do we realize that the only
way we can be cleansed and forgiven is through what the Lord Jesus
Christ has done in taking away our sin. He paid the price, which
you and I could not pay. You know, to free ourselves from
the condemnation of the law of God, which said, the soul that
sinneth, it shall die, there's a price that had to be paid to
free us from that condemnation. And in and of ourselves, We could
not pay that price. We were bankrupt. We didn't have
the right currency. We couldn't pay it. We were lost
and ruined on our way to a never-ending eternity in hell. What a mercy
when God came and pointed us to the Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ, and showed to us That wonderful finished work that
he had completed upon that cross at Calvary, he paid the price
to take away our sin. And the price required by our
Father in Heaven was the life of his only Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ and the blessed Saviour. willingly and freely gave his
life so that you and I might be cleansed from all our sin. Do we not have to stand back
and ponder and say what a saviour we have in the Lord Jesus Christ
who didn't cast us aside He came where we were. Reminds us, doesn't
it, of the parable of the Good Samaritan. There was that man
traveling down from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among thieves
that robbed him, left him half dead. What happened? Well, the priest and the Levi,
religious people, they didn't want to be involved. They walked
on the other side. They ignored him. But we have
that picture of the good Samaritan. The Samaritans had no dealings
with the Jews. The last person that we would
naturally expect came where he was. Bound up his wounds, pouring
in oil and wine. set him on his own beast, took
him to an inn, paid what was due to look after him, and told
him, if there's any more owing, when I come again, I'll pay the
bill. Wonderful, wasn't it? He didn't know the man. What
a wonderful picture it is for us to realise that there we are. Also, just like that man going
down From Jerusalem to Jericho, we might say going in the wrong
direction. Fall among thieves, fall among the devil who wants
to rob us and take away anything of any value. When I say that,
I mean spiritual value and leave us half dead. Perhaps those that
we might expect would understand this, don't want to get involved
because they don't understand. and they pass by on the other
side, but what a mercy to have a great and glorious Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who understands us. He understands us and He
comes to us where we are, half dead perhaps, far off, only ourselves
to blame, and yet He has compassion on us. what a God we have compassionate
God what a mercy then to receive
these great and glorious gifts yes freely freely it's lovely
isn't it to realize that a gift is something which is given and
we don't have to pay for it and it's free to us and this is exactly
what we have here a new heart will I give you a new spirit
will I put within you the love of God the love of that Samaritan
to that person the love of God to us as utterly unworthy sinners
can we not say with the Hymn writer in Hymn 766, On such love
my soul still ponder, Love so great, so rich, so free, Say
whilst lost in holy wonder, Why, O God, such love to me! We can't fathom it, can we? And yet it's an eternal love,
It's greater still. But what a mercy you and I have
such a God to deal with. He's not someone like ourselves
that wouldn't understand. We have a God who's created us. A God who's watched over us ever
since we were born. He knew all about us. What a
wonderful blessing then to be the recipients of this new heart
and this washing, washing in this blood of Christ, the only
cleansing that is acceptable, the only cleansing you and I
need, the precious blood of Christ. So it'd be a good thing. if the
Holy Spirit then shows to us the reality of our religion by
leading us to Calvary. And there we view by faith the
Lord Jesus Christ suffering, bearing the curse for us, the
curse of our sin, so that we are set free, free from the curse
and can look forward to glorious eternity with our Saviour. What cause there is surely to
praise that God for all his great plan, for all his love, for all
his mercy to such unworthy sinners and truly to say on such love
my soul will still ponder. Well I hope we can meditate upon
the love of Christ. It's really outside of our ability
to think that someone could love such a wretch as we are and that
love is eternal and that love will never cease. And what a
blessing it is if you and I, by the Spirit of God, this new
Spirit within us, draws us to the Saviour. We have to say it's
all a grace, all a grace. Reason surely to praise and to
honour and glorify our God. Well, may we rest in His love. when we rest in the promises
of God you know so often in this book of Ezekiel as I read through
it I was struck again and again and it says moreover the word
of the Lord came unto me saying came unto Ezekiel what a blessing
if the word of the Lord comes to us and speaks to our heart so that
we can rejoice. The Lord knows about us, and
He hasn't passed us by, but He's looked upon us. We read again
in Leviticus, He passed by and said, live. Well, what a mercy
if He's passed you and me. Come to us and said, live. Because
we live, We possess therefore that new life, that new heart,
that new spirit. One that seeks after holiness,
seeks after Christ, seeks after knowledge of the love of God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And we can
truly go on our way rejoicing, comforted to know we have a God
who has not passed us by, because his mercy endures forever. Amen.