Ezekiel chapter 36. We're going to be looking at
verses 16 through the end of the chapter, verse 38. And as
we go through these, I'm not going to read them at the onset,
but we're going to go through these almost verse by verse. And as we go through these, you'll
see that there is in this text, it divides itself rather plainly. So I have four points, and as
they're divided, you'll see this in verse 16 through verse 20. You'll see the need of a covenant. man's need of a covenant salvation. In verse 21 through verse 23,
you will see the cause of this covenant, the root and foundational
cause. God says, I do this not for your
sakes, but for My name's sake. In verse 24 through verse 30,
you see the covenant itself. the promise of God concerning
His people and what He will do for them, and what they shall
do as a result of His will. And then in verse 31, through
the remainder, you see the effect. The effect of it is you're going
to loathe yourself. The effect of this covenant is
you are going to get... God's going to plant in you life,
and you're going to be as beautiful as the Garden of Eden. And God
will by us, by this gospel that He has worked in us, this covenant,
He will draw His people, His flock, Verse 37, He says, "...I
will yet be inquired of this by the house of Israel. To do
it for them I will increase them with men as like a flock." What
is this? God says, I'm going to get every
one of them. I'm going to bring every one of them under this
covenant, and they're going to know that I did it. I did it. Now, so then in this chapter,
what we're going to see is the Lord lays out for us His eternal
covenant of grace. His eternal covenant of grace. He, by the Holy Spirit, sets
forth His purpose, His eternal, immutable, unchangeable decree
concerning the salvation of His elect people by an eternal covenant. Now this covenant that God has,
that He has written for us here, I want you to know this. It is
the only hope for salvation. If God had not made a covenant
to save, no one would be saved. You know that God never made
a covenant with the fallen angels, never made a covenant for them
to save them. And what of those angels that
failed? There is no hope for them. The only hope is, except God
save us by a covenant, by a covenant of free grace. What does this
mean, a covenant of free grace? A covenant is a compact, it's
a contract, isn't it? Between two parties. Now I want
you to know that this covenant was made by God, with God. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. That's who this covenant is made
with. It is made with God, and yes,
we who are named in this covenant are included. But this covenant
was a compact between God, His Son, and the Spirit. God the
Father, in the covenant of grace, purposed to save an elect people. He chose a people He would save. God the Son covenanted to be
the mediator of this covenant. He covenanted to be the surety,
the guarantor, and to accomplish all that is necessary for those
written in this covenant. And the Holy Spirit in this covenant
agreed to call these people to life and faith and keep them
in the faith until they receive the reward of this covenant. So then all the covenant is provided
for by God. God does everything in this covenant.
And yet here is the mercy. God does it to save His people. He does it out of an act of free
and sovereign will. The covenant. Now this is that
we need a covenant. Why? Because man is sinful. The Scriptures are very clear,
for as by one man's sin entered into the world. And what was
the result of that? Remember, that was a covenant,
wasn't it? A covenant God made with Adam. And Adam, all he had
to do was one thing. And he didn't even have to do
anything. He had to not do something. It was a negative. Don't eat
that fruit. Very simple, very plain, very
clear. Eat anything else you want. It's
all yours. This is my covenant, that if
you refrain, you'll remain pure. But in the day you eat, you shall
die. And what happened? He failed
in his covenant responsibility. He did that which God commanded
him not to do, and as a result, death entered into the world.
Death. Spiritual death. Death. And so death passed upon all
men. It's not hard to understand when
you get a phone call and someone says, so-and-so died. You know
what that means, don't you? It means they died. They're no
longer here. They're dead. And yet men are
so confused about being spiritually dead. What is so confusing about
that? God says that we were dead in
trespasses and sins. What does that mean? It means
you're without strength, without knowledge, without ability to
do anything spiritually. You cannot know God, you cannot
receive Christ, you cannot come to Christ, you are dead. And
so then this is an important thing, that we need God to do
everything for us. Man needs a covenant if he's
going to be saved. But the covenant cannot be between
us and God. It must be between God and done
for us. It must be done for us. Now, the world and its false
religions suppose that God's salvation, that God's covenant
of grace, is set for some vain desire of God to save everybody. When I talk of the covenant of
grace to freewill works religionists, they suppose that this covenant
is some vain attempt of God to save everyone, to save the whole of humanity.
They say that He sent His Son to die for all men without exception,
and that they will but accept His covenant. If they will in
some way exercise their free will and do some good works or
some religious obedience, then they shall be saved. But as we
read this covenant, this covenant is made up of God's will. God's will. Not man's will. God's works. Not man's works. This is not their covenant. The
idea of the covenant is not in this text, nor is it anywhere
recorded in the text of Scripture. This covenant is made up of God,
and its fulfillment is not in any way dependent upon the objects. Ah, that's good. That's good
to hear. God's covenant of salvation is
in no way dependent upon us. This covenant, this covenant,
it uses language, the language of this covenant is this, I will
and you shall. I will, God says, I will and
you shall. False religion has it upside
down and backwards. They say, if I will believe,
God shall save me. They say, if I repent, God shall
forgive me. That's not the language of the
covenant. The language of the covenant is, God says, I will
save you and you shall believe. The language of the covenant
is, I will forgive you and you shall repent. You see, we believe
and we repent solely based on what God has willed. Our salvation,
our faith, our repentance is solely based on the power and
the will of God, and not our own. And so in this
chapter, the Lord declares this phrase, I
will. You know, I've counted it, no
less than 18 times God says that, I will. I will. I will. What will be the result of His
will? You might. Not the result, is it? You shall. You shall. Because God willed,
you shall. And what do we know concerning
the will of God? What do we know concerning the
will of God? We know this, that whatever God wills shall come
to pass. Isn't that the language of all
the Scripture, that God is sovereign in His will? Isaiah 46, it says,
Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there
is none else. I am God, and there is none like
me. In that chapter, I love this.
God is dividing Himself from false gods. He's showing us the
distinct difference between a false god and Himself. You know what
the distinction between a false god and the true God is? Sovereign will. False gods, they're given a will
by man, but they have no power to do it. And what does God say?
He said this, declaring the end from the beginning. From ancient
times, the things that were not yet done, saying what? My counsel
shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. What's happening? What's happening? Pick up the
newspaper, what's happening? God's will. This morning, what's
happening in your heart, in your mind? God's will. What's happening
in the lost world and religious world? I'll tell you this, God
is performing His will. I like this, in Psalm 33 it says
this, Let all the earth fear the Lord, let the inhabitants
of the world stand in awe of Him. Why? For He spake and it
was done. He commanded and it stood fast. The Lord bringeth the counsel
of the heathen to nothing, and He maketh the devices of the
people of none effect." Listen, this world is all against God.
What is God doing? He's making their counsels nothing.
They stand together enraged against Him, defying Him, shaking their
fist in His face, and they're all counseling as to how to get
rid of Him. And what is God doing with their
counsel? He's turning it to nothing. He disannulls it. Matter of fact,
the scripture puts it this way, the God of heaven shall laugh. Now what is he doing? What is
he doing there? He's laughing. He's mocking them. The God of heaven shall laugh.
He shall have them in derision, in that confusion. Isn't that
what they are? They're confused. They don't
know what's going on. I know what's going on. You know what's
going on. What's going on? God's will.
God's doing exactly what He pleases. Whatever God decrees, whatever
God wills, that's exactly what's happening in this world, and
especially in this matter of salvation. So this covenant,
this covenant was ordained of God, purposed by the sovereign
will of God, shall be accomplished. Whatever this covenant says.
We'll get into this covenant and we're going to pick it apart
and we're going to look at what it says. Whatever this covenant
says, God will do, He will do. Whatever God's will to do, that's
exactly what shall happen, especially with these His people. Whatever
He has accomplished shall come to pass. All that are in this
covenant, God says, I will save them. I will save them. And now let us look at what I
call God's free will covenant. This is God's free will doing
this. He does this of His own free will. So these are four
things I want us to see, as I said at the beginning. First of all,
let's see this. The need of a covenant. Look
in your text. Let's begin our reading in verse
16. "...Moreover, the word of the
Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, when the house of Israel
dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and
by their doings. Their way was before me as the
uncleanness of a removed woman." First thing I want you to see
about this covenant that God is getting into, He speaks specifically
to a people. This covenant is not for everyone.
Who is He directed to speak to? He said this, when the house
of Israel dwelt in their own land. Who is He talking to? He's
talking to the house of Israel. Look at the very first verse of this
chapter. He tells us, He said, Also thou son of man prophesied
to the mountains of Israel. He's talking to a very specific
people. This covenant is for a very specific
people. Israel. Now what do we know about
Israel? Israel in the Old Testament are
what? What are they? What are they intended for? They're
intended to picture God's elect. That's what they're intended
for. The nation of Israel was a type, a shadow, a picture of
God's covenant people. And so then this covenant is
directed to Israel. God says to Israel in this chapter,
He says, I will turn unto you, I will multiply you. I will make
you to know that I am the Lord." So God will now lay out His covenant
to this very specific people. All those that God has chosen
in sovereign free love, He has also purposed to save and named
them specifically. in a covenant of grace. You remember what is said in
Revelation 13. He said that all the world would go out and worship
the beast except for who? Those whose names were written
in the Lamb's book of life went from before the foundation of
the world. It is these elect people that
God has willed to save. It is these elect the Father
has decreed and predestinated to be holy. Read it with me in
Ephesians 1 again. Ephesians 1. This is that covenant
people that God has purposed to save. Paul gives blessing to the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, verse 3, "...who hath
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ, according as He hath chosen us in Christ before the
foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before Him, in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure
of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein
He hath made us accepted in the Beloved." This people, this elect
people, were chosen for what purpose? To be holy. Holy. To be His holy children. Yet, we see this in our text,
that Israel by nature is no different than any other of Adam's race. Look at that, what we have done,
what Israel has done. He said, when they dwelt in their
own land, what did they do? They defiled it by their own
way and by their own doings. I want you to know this about
this covenant people. that God will save. They have
defiled their own nature. They have defiled their own nature.
Their hearts are completely defiled. He says this, that their way
before me was as the uncleanness of a removed woman. I didn't
know what that meant. I had to look it up. Removed
woman. A minstress woman. Under the law, a minstress woman
was debarred from her husband. She was separated from her husband,
and she was not allowed to worship in the temple. She was not allowed
in the presence of God with His people. And so then, these beloved and
chosen sons of God, these ones God willed to save and named
in this covenant, that He purposed by a changeless decree to make
holy by His Son, by nature, we are separated from God. If you know anything at all about
this covenant, if you're named in this covenant, you can identify
with this. That by nature, we were separated
from God. By nature, we have defiled ourselves. How? By our ways and our doing. What is this way? There is a
way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end is what? Death. We all had our way to God. We
all thought we had our way to God. We assumed that we could
work our way to God. But what's wrong with this? We're
defiled. We're separated. Matter of fact,
God says of these people, "...Where have I poured My fury upon them
for the blood which they have shed upon the land for their
idols that they have polluted? And I scattered them among the
heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries according
to their way and according to their doings. I judged them,
and when they entered into the heathen, whither they went, they
profaned My holy name when they said unto them, These are the
people of the Lord." and are gone forth from His land. Friends, how defiled are we by
nature? Can you contemplate the utter
ruin of our nature? We'll give you just a small portion
of this. What we are doing right now is
defiled. Now, this is the most holy thing
we could do. Seek to worship God. Not only
seek to worship God in our own way, we are seeking God by His
gospel. We are seeking God to learn of
His covenant. We are seeking God by way of
Christ. And yet, even if God were to
judge us based on this doing, He would condemn us. over in Exodus when the high
priest went into the holy place, he had to wear this mitre, and
on his crown, and over the top of it would say, Holiness unto
the Lord. And the Scripture says this,
that when Aaron, with that on his forehead, it says this, that
Aaron may bear the iniquity of, listen, holy things. Even our holy things are iniquity. That's how ruined we are. You know, I pray that God would
expose our sin to everyone. Expose us for what we really,
really are. And if God don't ever do that
for you, He'll never save you. Because God, by Christ, has come
to save what type of people? What type of people is this covenant
for? Defiled sinners. He said, you, Israel, My people
have defiled yourselves by your ways and your doings. So defiled, so dead are we that
we could not come to Christ. How many times have I told you
of Christ? How many times have I told you of His mercy, of His
grace, of His blood, of His righteousness, and yet still many will not come? Why? You're dead. You're dead. And you cannot come. You will
not come because you cannot come. You're dead, defiled. Now if
that's you, good. Because that's the ones named
in the covenant. Only covenant people understand
this. Only covenant people need a covenant. If I'm going to be saved, it
has to be by covenant. Our need of a covenant is made crystal
clear to us. Now secondly, I want us to see
this, the cause. Look at this in verse 21. Why
does God give a covenant of salvation? He said, here it is, but I had
pity on you. That what it says? No. God didn't give this covenant
because he had pity on you. What did he have pity on? My
holy name. If you want to get down to the
root cause of why anyone is saved, here it is. The glory of God. God does all things for his own
glory. I did not this for your sake,
he said, I pitied my namesake, which you profaned among the
heathen. Therefore say unto the house
of Israel, thus said the Lord, I do this not for your sakes. That's good. You know why? Because
that means it's not dependent on me. God's doing this for His own
sake. God's doing this because of His own free will. God's doing
this because of His own grace and mercy. I'm doing this for
My name's sake. I will sanctify My great name,
which You have profaned among the heathen. which you have profaned
in the midst of them, and the heathen shall know that I am
the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, when I shall be sanctified in
you before their eyes. For I will take you from among
the heathen and gather you out of the countries, and I will
bring you to your own land." God says this, you're going to
know this covenant when I sanctify myself in you. When I work that
work of grace inside of your heart, only then will you know
I'm the Lord. If God don't ever do that for
you, you'll never know Him as Lord. He is your Lord, but you'll
never know it until the end. Now then, look at the covenant.
Look at what He does for His own namesake. He says, I will
gather you. This is the first thing He says
you'll do. He says, I will gather you from what? Among the heathen. I will gather you from among
the heathen. out of all countries and will
bring you to your own land." Those that God has chosen, those
who have defiled themselves, God for His own holy name said
this, I will gather them from among the heathen. These sons of Adam dead in their
sins, rebels and haters of God, even as others. Yet God promises,
I will gather them. This is why God has sent His
Son into the world for this purpose, to gather His people, to gather
them. What is He doing right now? He
is gathering them. all those that He chose, He sent
His Son to be their representative, to be their high priest, to be
the mediator and surety of this covenant. And Isaiah 43, it says this in
verse 5, Fear not, for I am with thee. I will bring thy seed from
the east and gather them from the west. I will say to the north,
Give up, and the south keep not back. Bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the ends of the earth, every one that
is called by my name. For I have created him for my
glory. I have formed him, yea, I have
made him. Our Lord said that about Himself,
didn't He? He said, I am the Good Shepherd. What do shepherds
do? They lead their sheep. They gather
their sheep. They call out their sheep. Jesus
said this, I am the Good Shepherd. And how does He call them out?
This is the main thing about these sheep, is that they're
lost. They're lost. They're scattered among the goats.
And he comes in and he says this, I will give my life, lay down
my life for the sheep. The other sheep I have which
are not of this fold, them I also must bring. I must bring them. Why? Because the covenant said
so. Because in a covenant God swore, I will gather them. Now then, have you ever asked
this? How could God gather sinners to Himself? If these sheep are so defiled
by nature, how could God gather them to Himself? Look what He
says in that next verse. He said, Then I will sprinkle
them with clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all
your filthiness, from all your idols will I cleanse you. This
is what the blood of Christ has done. When Christ came into the
world, He came as that high priest. He came to make a sacrifice for
the sins of those sheep so that He might be able to gather them,
to provide a righteousness for them that they could not provide
for themselves. And when He does this, He sprinkles
the blood of Christ upon the hearts of His people. And what
happens? He says they are clean. From
what? All their filthiness. The cleansing, redeeming blood
of Jesus Christ had cleansed all God's people from their sins. You see, because God gave all
of His elect and put them in union with Christ, when Christ
came in the flesh as our High Priest, He offered Himself to
God as a sacrifice. In Isaiah chapter 9 and verse
6, it says this, "...the government shall be upon his shoulders."
What does that mean? It means that all those covenant
people that God chose to save, Jesus Christ in that covenant
from eternity says, I'll be responsible for them. I will bear the responsibility
to save everyone you've named, Father, in this covenant, no
matter how defiled they are, no matter how bad they are."
He says, I will bear the blame if I don't bring them. And there
He was upon the cursed tree as God made Him to be sin for us
who knew no sin. For what purpose? That we, the
covenant people, should be made the righteousness of God in Him. This is His covenant promise.
I will sprinkle you. Does that sound doubtful? I will
gather you. No matter where you are. That's
good news. I don't have to... Who would
have ever thought that Ethiopian eunuch would have met Philip
in the middle of the desert? God did. God purposed it. And God accomplished it. God
willed it, and guess what? They shall. They were clean. He was clean. I will sprinkle
you and you shall be clean. Not only this, He promises this,
a new heart will I give you. That's good because this old
heart is irreparable. God didn't try to fix up this
old nature, did He? No. He gave us a brand new heart,
a holy nature. made by the very righteousness
and blood of His Son. And He created us in Christ. Isn't that what He said? He said,
Yea, I have made Him. I have formed Him. And if God
ever saves you, it's because He formed something in you that
wasn't there before. This is His covenant. I will
give you a new heart and a new spirit. What is that? His Spirit.
He said, in another place, I will put My Spirit within you. My
Spirit. Listen, do you believe on Jesus
Christ? I'm not asking do you believe like
you should. I'm not asking do you believe
like you want to. Do you believe on the Son of
God? I want you to know this. That
is because of this will, because of this covenant. God said, I
will and you shall. I will cleanse you. I will gather
you. I will give you a new heart.
I will put my Spirit within you. I will do it. And I will take
away the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of
flesh. Set your affections on things above. It is not your
affections on Christ. Is not your heart on Christ?
What happened? Why is the world not going after
Christ? I think it's utter madness, don't
you? I think it's utter insanity not to come to Christ. And yet,
why do I? Because of this covenant. He
said, I will. And you will do what? You will
walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them. What
is this judgments and statutes? Does this mean the law? No. It
means faith and love. You will believe on My Son and
you will love Him. You will come to Him. You know
what Jesus said? All that the Father giveth Me,
what? Shall come to Me. and Him that cometh to me, I
want to know why." Why will He not cast them out? Because He
swore to do it in the covenant. This is the covenant of grace
and mercy. And He said, "...you shall dwell
in the land that I gave your fathers, and you shall be My
people, and I will be your God." Any question about that? Is there
any way that these people will not be the people of God? Is
there any way that God will not be their God? No! You shall be
My people. When? When I give you a new heart,
when I give you a new life, and when I cleanse you, and when
I gather you, just like I said, then you can claim that I'm yours
and you're Mine. Listen, you can't claim God to
be your God and you be His people unless you come to Christ. That's
the only evidence of this, isn't it? The only evidence is when
He does these things, when He fulfills these things in us.
And look at this, verse 29, "...and I will save you from all your
uncleanness." Now why does it say that again? He said He's
already cleansed us in verse 25 from all our filthiness. What
is that? That's what He'd done in Christ.
Now then, listen. Do you still need cleansing?
That's good. This covenant makes provision
for that. God didn't remove that old nature from you. It's still
there. John says this, many men say he had no sin, he's a liar,
and the truth is not in him. But if we confess our sins, he
is faithful and just to forgive us all our sins. You see, God makes provision,
even this, I will continually save you from your uncleanness. That's good. I need to be continually
saved, don't you? I need His salvation more today
than I did yesterday. I need it more. And He makes
provision. He said, I will continually cleanse
you. And I will cause the corn to
increase and will lay no famine upon you. And I will multiply
the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field, and you
shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen.
Ah, this is good. He said, I'm going to cause you
to grow. in all the graces that I plant
in you. You will increase in love, in
joy, in faith." Now listen, I don't feel that, do you? I feel like
I've regressed. God says, don't worry, I've made
provision. You'll grow. You'll grow. You'll increase
in these graces. Why? God says, I will that you
increase. And guess what? You shall increase.
You shall increase now. What how do I know that this
covenants for me? That's I know God's doing this
for his elect But how do I know this covenants for me? God gives
us very clear marks as to who this covenant belongs to look
at this in verse 31 then Shall you remember your own evil ways
and your doings that are not good and you shall loathe? Yourselves
in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abomination Who among God's people does not
loathe themselves? What did Job say when God came
to him? He said, Behold, I am vile. Isaiah said, Woe is me, for I
am undone. A man of unclean lips. When God ever comes to you with
this covenant of grace, He'll make you loathe yourselves, and you will of necessity flee
to Christ. You will. He says, Thy people shall be
willing, when? In the day of His power. in the
beauty of wholeness. 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
places shall be builded, and the desolate land shall be tilled,
whereas they lay desolate in the sight of all that pass by. And they shall say, This land
that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden." Don't you know you're the Garden
of Eden? You who loathe yourselves in your own sight, God says you're
beautiful. Why? I've tilled the land, I've
built it, I've made you holy. You're as pure and fruitful as
the Garden of Eden. And the waste and desolate ruined
cities are become, I like this word, fenced and inhabited. This heart that was only once
desolate now is blooming with righteousness and is fenced in. That means nobody can get to
it to defile it. Nobody can touch this. Nobody
can get to you, or remove you from your God. Now why? Because God said, I will, and it shall be done. This is the covenant of grace. And I'll tell you this, all that
are named in this covenant will come Look at verse 37. Thus saith the Lord God, I will
yet for this be inquired by the house of Israel to do it for
them. I will increase them with men
like a flock. Do you need this covenant? And
God says, I'll be inquired. Now, listen, if you're starving
to death and I have food here and I say, you know what? All
you got to do is die. If you're hungry, you will. God's
people, He makes them hungry. And then He provides Christ.
And they most surely will inquire of Him. I still inquire of Him,
don't you? And God says this about His,
He said, I will increase them with men like a flock, as a holy
flock, the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feast. So shall
the waste city be filled with flocks of men, and they shall
know that I am the Lord. Is any of this doubtful? No, it's a covenant that God
made with Himself for you. And all God says, I will do,
He will do. And you shall do whatever He
said. I'm so thankful to be saved by
a covenant, by a covenant of God And the cause is God's glory,
not my doing, not my merit, but only that of Jesus Christ. I
pray you come to Christ. I pray that everyone would believe
on Him. And all who do, this is your
covenant. I like when David said those
last words of David, He hath made with me, what? everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things. And what? Sure, sure. I pray God will comfort you,
these covenant people. Let's be dismissed in prayer.