May God bless us together this
evening now as we turn to consider his words to the chapter that
we read in the book of the prophet Ezekiel, chapter 36, and we'll
read part of verse 37. Ezekiel 36, 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. Thus saith the
Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of
Israel to do it for them. It is a sad reality that I see
day in, day out at my work that many people who come under the
criminal justice system and ultimately end up in prison have some kind
of addiction. Normally drugs, often alcohol. And because of that, they have
committed crime, often to fund that addiction. And because of
that, they end up ultimately in prison. Generally speaking,
when someone is released from prison, that addiction is still
there. And of course, there's great
work which is done in various agencies to try and conquer that. But often, sadly, because the
problem is still there, it's highly likely that they will
continue to offend and continue to get into trouble. Many people who are in the grips
of addiction would long to be out of it, would love to be free,
but they're too deep, they're too far gone, and it takes a
lot of work to defeat it. But if you were able to go to
someone in that state in prison today and tell them that they
could go free, they could be released there and then. But
more than that, tell them that somehow you could do something
wondrous for them that meant that that addiction would be
removed They would be free from the curse and the scourge of
the drugs they'd been taken. They would be free from it all
and they would be utterly changed and completely transformed. Many
people would be amazed. It's something which can't be
promised. something which really we can't do. But wouldn't it
be wonderful for someone in that position, if you said, well,
you can go free, but more than that, we'll change you inside.
We'll change you so you don't have this underlying problem
anymore, which is getting you into this trouble. Well, pardon the illustration,
but in one sense, that's a little bit like what Israel was facing. Israel, we know, had gone into
captivity, or Judah, particularly, had gone into captivity to Babylon.
They had been taken by Nebuchadnezzar. They had been taken from their
homeland, Jerusalem, and they had been taken, exiled, to a
foreign land, taken to Babylon. And why? Well, they had been
taken there because they were guilty. God had warned them time
and again to turn from their sin and from their idols. They
had ignored the warnings and they had finally, under God's
judgment, been taken into captivity, away from their land and amongst
the heathen. Ezekiel speaks to the captives
in Babylon and really warns them that the ultimate destruction
was still to come of Jerusalem. He was speaking to them certainly
earlier in the book when the first exile had been taken. They
were hoping it would be very short. They were hoping they'd
be back very soon, and he has to tell them no. the gates are
to be burned, Jerusalem is to be destroyed, you're here for
some time. And Ezekiel tells them very clearly
that it was because of your sin that you are here. And it's because
of your sin that Jerusalem is being and will be destroyed.
But when we then come to the latter part of Ezekiel, and we
come to particularly this chapter, chapter 36, We read wonderful
messages of hope, wonderful messages of blessing, and of restoration. God has not left his people in
Babylon. God has not abandoned them in
captivity. God is still their God, and they
are still his people, and he will do wondrous things for them. And we're told that there would
therefore be a return back to their homeland, that there would
come a day when Nehemiah, Ezra, so forth, would go back, they
would resettle, they would rebuild, they would take again the land
that God had given them. There would be a natural return,
as if being set free from prison. But you see, Israel needed more
than that. Because Israel were a sinful
people and they were there because of their sin. What they needed
was to be changed. Not just a natural restoration,
but a spiritual transformation. And this chapter, or the latter
part of it from verse 25 onwards, is full of this glorious promise
of a change in their heart. A change within. the nation,
the society, within their very beings. He tells them, I will
sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean from all
your filthiness, from all your idols. Will I cleanse you? He
promises them cleansing, a removing of their sin, of their filthiness,
and a removing of their idols that they had clung to and that
they had worshipped before. that God would take all this
away, he would change them within so that they were willing to
give up these things and they would know the blessing of cleansing,
the blessing of forgiveness as it flowed from their gracious
God. I will cleanse you from sin and from your idols and a
new heart also will I give you. a new heart. You see, this is
the inside, isn't it? This is their character, this
is who they are. Their heart is going to be changed. I will take away the stony heart
out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. This is to be changed within. Their cold, stony heart, which
was not interested in the word of God, which reacted against
it and ignored it, that stony heart is to be ripped out, and
they are to be blessed with a heart of flesh. A heart that's alive,
a heart that feels, a heart that loves, a heart that yearns for
God. A new heart will I give you and
a new spirit will I put within you. I will put my spirit within
you. You see, the blessing is that
God would be within them. God would be amongst them. His
spirit would be there. He was not to be distant. Now
we read, don't we, in Ezekiel of those passages of the Spirit
of the Lord, the presence of the Lord withdrawing out of the
temple. And gradually it retreats, it
leaves the temple and then leaves the city of Jerusalem. But here
is this promise that my Spirit will be within you, it will be
there, my presence will be amongst you. I will change your heart
and I will be among you. my spirit within you, and then
I will cause you to walk in my statutes, ye shall keep my judgments
and do them. So having been blessed with a
return, having been blessed with forgiveness, having been blessed
with revival, now they would walk in his ways, in my statutes
and my judgments to do them. You see, now, having before they
had walked their ways, they had walked in their wisdom and in
their ways, their idols, their own form of religion, now you
will walk in my statutes and my judgments. You see, the change
has been within. And that inward change has changed
the outward. The inward change has renewed
the outward walk. And now they will willingly walk
in His statutes and judgments to do them. And as a result,
ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and ye
shall be my people, and I will be your God. Now, no longer the
threat of exile, no longer the threat of removing from the land.
You will dwell in the land that I gave to you. You will dwell
there in safety and you will be my peculiar, particular, blessed
people and I will be your God. There will be a restoration of
a relationship between Israel and God in the land that he gave
them. Why? Because they've been blessed
with revival. because they're now walking in
obedience. And God has turned away and washed
all of their sins. I will also save you from all
your uncleanness. I will call for the corn and
will increase it and lay no famine upon you. And I will multiply
the fruit of the tree and increase the field that ye shall receive
no more reproach of the famine among the heathen. You see, the
continued blessing, prosperity, fruitfulness. There will not
be famine anymore. I will call for the court. I
will increase the form. There will no famine upon you.
You see, God would bless them so much with an abundance in
this land, which Moses was told would flow with milk and honey.
And now there would not no famine in the land. God would bless
them abundantly. They would prosper in the land
that God had given to them. You see, there's a wonderful
promise of plenty, a wonderful promise of God's blessing upon
them. And then he says, 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 see, having come out of Babylon, having
been freed, having been blessed with this cleansing and washing,
having been blessed with this new heart and the spirit amongst
them, having been blessed with obedience in walking in the Lord's
ways, having been blessed in the land with their God, with
prosperity as he blesses them, they look back. And they see
what they were and what they did and where they were before
the exile. And they will loathe themselves
for their iniquities and abominations. You see, God would bless them
with true repentance and with some understanding of what they
were and of what they had done. Now these are amazing promises. astounding promises to Israel,
who at the very time that this was written was in exile in Babylon. God will do it. Verse 36, he says, then the heathen
around about you shall know that I, the Lord, build the places
and plant that which is desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken it and
I will do it. You see, it will be done. The blessings will flow. The
return will come to pass, and the revival will be poured out
on the people. I will do it. There's a certainty, as Ezekiel
speaks to Israel in captivity. But, but, That truth as it is,
that glorious promise as it is, God goes on to say, I will yet,
for this, be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for
them. Yes, my promise is sure. Yes, I will work my work. But along with that, I require
the people of God to pray for it. They must inquire, they must
seek, they must pray, they must plead with me for this blessing
to be poured out on us. I will yet for this be inquired
of by the house of Israel to do it for them. And God would
therefore work in them to bring out of them this desire. He desired
that the people would desire this blessing. He was looking
that the people from their hearts would be longing that God would
do what he had promised, and as a result would bow down on
their knees and plead with him that he would do these things. It's like Daniel, isn't it? When
Daniel came to an understanding that God was going to release
them, that the time would come to an end after 70 years that
they would go back into Jerusalem, Daniel came to that understanding
in reading the scriptures. What did Daniel do? Well, he
didn't sit back and say, well, we know after 70 years we're
going to go back into Jerusalem and therefore we just need to
live out our days. What did he do? He got on his
knees and he prayed. He pleaded the promises with
God and he wrestled with God that the promises might come
to pass and that the blessing might come. He inquired of the
Lord. The Lord would work in the hearts
of Israel so that they might long for the blessing because
God desired to hear their prayer. I will yet for this be inquired
of by the House of Israel to do it for them. They must seek
him. They must seek him. And that
must surely be done, as surely as the promise itself would be
fulfilled. So that was Israel in those days. That was the importance of his
promises to them. This evening I want to look at
this as far as we're concerned in two ways. Firstly, this evening,
in the things of God, in the things of salvation. In the things
of salvation. God graciously promises these
blessings, in a spiritual sense, to all of his people. He promises to his church And
that promise must be fulfilled. He has loved them eternally.
He has bought them. the blood of Christ. They belong
to him. They're his people, his church,
and therefore these promises must be fulfilled. They must
be cleansed from their sin and all washed away to be made whiter
than snow. They must receive a new heart. The cold stony heart must be
taken out and they must be given a new heart of flesh. And the Lord does that in His
people. He comes and He takes out the
cold, unfeeling heart, which has no interest and no desire
for God, and He gives a new, living, beating heart. A heart that feels, a heart that
longs, a heart that desires the Lord, a heart that's alive. He will do that. He must also
come and bless them with His presence. Having made them a
new creature, as we read in the Epistle to the Corinthians, having
made a new creature, the giving of a new heart, we're also told
that the believer is the temple of the Holy Spirit. I will put
my Spirit within you. And for all of God's people,
the Spirit is within them. Christ in you, the hope of glory,
the Spirit comes and dwells in the heart and soul of his people. Then, having been blessed with
this cleansing and this renewing, God's people are blessed to be
caused to walk in his statutes and keep his commandments and
to do them. They're put in the narrow way.
They're put in God's way. and walking the road that He
has ordained for them, and as He works in them they are made
willing to walk in His commandments, and made willing to obey His
paths, and therefore they walk with His help the narrow way
which leads to glory. They are brought to walk in His
statutes and judgments to do them. God's people are brought
into the land the blessing of a place that the Lord has brought
them to a place of safety, a place where he will bless them, and
ultimately, of course, the place, the land of glory, where we will
be with him, and ye shall be my people, and I will be your
God. To know a relationship with the
Lord. We thought about this in Sunday School this morning. The
friendship between David and Jonathan. There was a deeper
spiritual friendship there. It's a relationship between them.
And here it is between God and his people. You will be my people
and I will be your God. There will be this relationship
between them. Brought nigh, how? By the blood
of Christ. Brought nigh by the forgiveness
that they have known. I will be your God and I will
save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the corn and
increase it and lay no famine upon you. God's people will know
blessing, will know prosperity, will know the Lord's presence
and fruit in their life. As they grow in grace, as they
learn of the things of God, as they learn more about themselves
and more about the grace of God, you see there's this fruitfulness
as we go on through our lives and the Lord pours out His blessing. There's an amazing change when
you think of these promises fulfilled in the hearts and souls of God's
people today. And that must be done. God's
people must be cleansed. They must be renewed. They must
be born again. It's His promise. I have spoken
it and I will Do it! But, verse 37 applies to God's
people too. I will yet for this be inquired
of by the house of Israel to do it for them. The Lord would
have his people seek him for these blessings. And He will
work in their hearts so that they so desire these blessings
that they will plead with Him until they receive them. He will have us seek Him with
a longing heart. And I wonder this evening if
there's anyone here who is seeking like that. Who is pleading with
the Lord that the blessings that He speaks of in these verses
might be your blessings. And the blessings that others
have received and you've seen it in their lives might be your
blessings. And what are you to do? Are you
to say, well, the Lord is sovereign, the Lord had his people, and
therefore I must sit and I must wait for the Lord to bless me.
Are you to sit and to wait that you hope one day the Lord might
bless you in this way? And are you to forget all about
it until he does? No. The Lord tells us He will be
inquired of to do it for them. If you desire and long for this
blessing, what the Lord would have you to do is to seek for
them and to pray for them and to plead with Him for them. Because
if you are truly seeking for something, you cannot give up
until you find it. If you are truly seeking the
Lord, Though there may be times when you're tempted to give up,
though there may be times that you feel unworthy to carry on,
you will not really give up until you've found what you're looking
for. I will yet be inquired of by
the house of Israel to do it for them. And you see, there
is so many encouraging words throughout scripture to encourage
us to seek the Lord. Seek the Lord, that we might
find him and that he might bless us with these wonderful blessings. Let me just remind you of a few
of them, although there are just a few. David says in Psalm 27,
when thou saidst, this is the Lord, seek ye my face, my heart
said unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek? Is that our response
to this word? I will yet be inquired of by
the house of Israel to do it for them. Do we immediately say,
yes, Lord, thy face I will seek. I will inquire. I will plead
with thee. I will wrestle at the throne
of God. Seek ye my face. Isaiah, of course, encouraged
the people so many times to seek the Lord that he might bless
them. Let us remind ourselves of one of them. Seek ye the Lord
while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is
near. Seek the Lord while he may be
found. You see, this is the greatest encouragement for us today. Seek him. While he may be found,
call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return unto the Lord,
and he will have mercy upon him. And to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon. And then, of course, we have
the many occasions in the New Testament that Lord Jesus Christ,
when he speaks, says, come unto me, all ye that labour and are
heavy laden, I will give you rest. Can you think as well of
that example that time of blind Bartimaeus? Bartimaeus lay by
the side bedding. He didn't have anything. He couldn't
do anything. He was blind. He was utterly
dependent on the goodwill of others and giving. He couldn't
heal himself. He couldn't change his situation.
Only Jesus could do that. Only Jesus' power, only Jesus'
grace, only His blessing could heal him and change him. But
what did Bartimaeus do? Did he sit and think, well, I
hope Jesus notices me? I hope this one day I might be
healed. What did he do? He cried out,
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And when he was
told to be quiet, he cried out even louder, because he had a
need, because he was desperate, because he knew the Lord could
help him. You see, I will be inquired by the house of Israel
to do it for them. We desire this blessing tonight.
Do we plead with him? Do we pray for him? Because the
Lord would have us seek him. Now, you know, the devil will
tell you this. The devil will say, well, don't
you believe in the sovereignty of God? Don't you believe that everything
is settled? Don't you believe that the Lord knows the beginning
from the end and your prayers won't change anything? There's
nothing you can do to change the sovereignty of God, so what's
the point? What's the point of praying? It doesn't make any
difference. And you know, if you try to reason
with the devil, he will often get the upper hand. If you try
to reason with him and work out the sovereignty of God and explain
it to the devil, you'll very rarely defeat that temptation. But how can we then for answer
such a temptation to not bother praying? Well, it's simple. The great almighty Son of God
tells us to seek. He tells us to seek and therefore
we can say to the devil, I don't understand. I cannot work out
the difference, how can I put together the sovereignty of God
and yet the power of my prayer? I don't understand it, I can't
explain it, and I can't argue the point. But my savior tells
me to pray, and therefore I will. Because he wouldn't tell me to
seek him if it made no difference. And he wouldn't call me to draw
near to him if he wasn't willing to hear. So he will be inquired
of by the house of Israel. May we inquire of him for the
blessing of salvation in our own hearts. But secondly this
evening, I want to look at this in a slightly different way.
And that is, I will be inquired of by the house of Israel to
do it for them. And I want to look at that in
the sense of the church. God's people. The church in our
age today. The church today is not dissimilar
to Israeli captivity. It's in a low place. It's often
divided and lethargic. There is little zeal for the
things of God. There is little energy, there
is little dedication, and wholehearted obedience. There is much looking down, much
despair, and where there may be, it seems, good attendances
and good people and good congregations, generally, It can be because
it's entertaining, or because it's fashionable, or whatever
reason. But when you look around the
church in our society, there is no fervour, there is no longing,
there is no pleading for the Lord. It's like the church in captivity.
And it's because There's sin. And the heart has been affected.
The heart of the Church has been affected. And as a result, where are the
conversions? Where is the outpouring of the
Spirit? Where is the blessing? But more than that, where is
the life? Where is the zeal? Where is the
blessing of joy and peace in the Lord? Where is the unity? You see, the church compared
to where the church was a few hundred years ago is but a shadow
of its former self. It's a church in captivity. And surely what we long for,
I hope we do, What we long for are days of prosperity. We long that our sins may be
forgiven, that many may be converted and brought in. We long that
the dead may be brought to life and the deaf may hear and the
blind may see. We long that those who once never
had any interest may cry out, what must I do to be saved? And
have a concern for their souls. and they're standing before God,
we long for prosperity. We long for a new heart in the
church of God. The reality, the life, the liveliness
may be seen as the very heart of the people. That there may
be unity in this living, feeling heart of the people, may be united
in that. That there may be a longing for
God and his ways. There may be life within the
church. We long that the church may walk
in his ways, in his ways, in obedience to his judgments and
his commands, that there might be dedication, that there might
be service, that there might be commitment. We long for the
days when people run to the house of God and say, I was glad when
they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord, because
it was my joy and my pleasure. It was my delight. We long for the days of liveliness
when the people would love to pray and the fellowship was united
in Christ. And the prayer meeting was not
a laborious task, but it was a joy that we could pour out
our hearts in the presence of the Lord and we would be sad
to leave that place. We long for the days when we
might, even as individuals, walk before the Lord and have much
time in communion with him We might know the outpouring of
His Spirit upon us. We might have a sense, yes, of
our individual and collective sins, but we might have a sense
of the wonder of grace that He has come and that He has cleansed
us with this water from all our filthiness and idols. Yes, the
sins weigh on us, but we delight in the Savior. We long for the
days when Christ is the centre, the heart, the substance of the
professing church. And the days when the church
has a concern for the lost amongst the congregation and wider afield. Now I hope and I'm sure we do
have that here. I'm not speaking because I think
anything is lacking in our church here. But wouldn't we be wonderful
to know this outpouring again so that we know the real blessing,
the outpouring of the Spirit upon us? That is what we need,
the outpouring of the Spirit. We need, we plead, we pray for
revival, revival. The Lord says, I will yet for
this be inquired of by the House of Israel to do it for them.
He desires that we might pray for the outpouring of the Spirit. He desires not that we just pray,
because I'm sure all of us pray for the blessing of the Lord,
but that we might wrestle, that we might be bowed down with a
burden of prayer, so that it is like it's squeezed out of
us. That we might know what Jacob
knew as he wrestled at Penuel, that he would not let him go
until he was blessed. That we might know prayer like
that, that we groan within ourselves for the appearing of God, that
he would bless souls, that he would revive the church, that
his name might be glorified. Not prayer that we speak and
we forget easily about and we've forgotten what we've said, but
prayer that is pressed out of us. and we're yearning for the
blessing of God, where is that? Well, maybe I'm just speaking
for myself, where is it in my heart? May we be blessed as well with
unity in this, that there might be a united concern that God
would fulfil the promise of these blessings in our midst, that
we might see it again pouring of the spirit. You know, the
devil will try to stop us praying. As he does as individuals, he
will stop a church praying, and he will do it like this. He will
tell us, well, you know, revivals are a thing of the past. Revivals
are things that you read about in history books. They're not
things that happen today. He will say, well, you know,
God is sovereign. We must accept our lot. We must
accept that we live in a day of small things. We must accept
that we live in a day which is on a gradual or steady decline,
and that's just the way it's going. No potprying about it.
You must accept that you're all sinners anyway. The Lord doesn't
hear your prayers. Nothing will happen. It's impossible.
The Lord will not bless. So what do we do? Well, instead
of saying, nevertheless, Lord, thy will be done, but I will
still pray about it. I will still plead. I will still
inquire of the Lord. We say, well, then we'll stop
praying and we'll lose our concern and our zeal. But God says, I
will be inquired of. You will seek me for these blessings. You see, the enquiring is linked
to the certainty of the fulfilment of the blessings that he has
promised. I will be enquired of. May we not be found guilty
of not praying. You see, the Lord is sovereign. The Lord will fulfil his glorious
plan. And it may be in his wisdom that
there is to be no pouring of the Spirit. There is to be no
reviving and there is to be a rapid decline until the end of all
things when our Lord returns. That may be the will of the Lord,
but may we not be guilty of not pleading with the Lord as he
has commanded us to do. You know, in the book of Acts
we read of that wonderful day of Pentecost. when the Spirit
was poured out in great power upon the apostles. And they preached,
and many were converted. We read a couple of chapters
later, having known the blessing of the healing of the lame man
in the temple, that Peter and John preached to the people,
were arrested for their preaching, and then they preached to Caiaphas,
the high priest, and the elders of Israel. Having been released
from their arrest and preaching then, they went to their own
company. And what did they do? They prayed to God. When they
heard that, this is the report of what happened, they lifted
up their voice to God with one accord and said, O Lord God,
Thou which has made heaven and earth and the sea and all that
in them is. I won't read it through. But
they prayed to God and their essence was this, they prayed
for boldness to help them in their continued preaching. And
then we read this, when they had prayed the place was shaken
where they were assembled together, they were all filled with the
Holy Ghost and they spake the word of God with boldness. You see, the very recent blessing
of Pentecost The outpouring of the Spirit on that day didn't
stop them praying for the outpouring of the Spirit again. It encouraged
them, I'm sure, to pray for the outpouring of the Spirit again.
They expected that God would hear and answer this prayer,
and He did. They didn't say, well, the Lord has done this
for us already, we mustn't expect anything else. No, quite to the
contrary, they felt their need of the blessing of the Lord,
and they pleaded with him to know it again. And he answered
that prayer. The spirit fell, and that is
what we need today. That is what we need today. You
know, there can be so many things that we do absolutely rightly,
absolutely in obedience to God's command, absolutely because He's
called us to preach to the nations. We can be involved in so many
things. What is vitally needed with it
all is the outpouring of the Spirit. And we must plead, we
must wrestle with God. for this blessing. I will be
inquired of by the House of Israel to do it. May our prayers persevere
in this. We're so tempted to give up praying
because we feel we're not getting anywhere, because we feel we're
not breaking through. Wrestle, plead on, pray on. Some have described it like this,
breaking through into the throne room. And that can be like a
long journey, a long time of prayer before we get into the
throne room of God. And when we get there, when we
receive there, then we know the access and outpouring of our
hearts. May we press through the crowd, press through the
temptations of the devil who would stop us until we find ourselves
at the foot of the throne of God. Access through Christ, I
will be inquired of. This evening, maybe what we need
most of all is to pray for prayer. And I hope that no doubt we will
all feel as we go home tonight that we do not pray as we should,
we do not seek as we should, and we feel disheartened. May we at least go home and pray
for prayer. Pray to have a spirit of concern. Pray that God would put his spirit
within us, that we may pour out our heart to him. Because when
God blesses us with a burden and blesses us with prayer, then
the Lord will surely hear those prayers. May we have this spirit. He will pour out. the Spirit
upon you. I will put my Spirit within you. May we inquire of the Lord to
do these things for us. May we plead with the Lord to
do these things for us and for the church and for the people
around us. And may we see days when men
and women and children come to the knowledge of the Lord and
have this life and liveliness within them, and that the presence
of the Lord is known and it is felt, days of glorious revival. Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer,
says David. Attend to the voice of my supplications. In the day of trouble I will
call upon thee, and thou shalt Answer me. Lord, wilt thou not
revive us again that thy people may rejoice in thee? Yes, but
I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to
do it for them. Amen.