Turn back to Ezekiel chapter
36. What we will see by the Lord's
help is what happens when God saves a sinner. And as you saw, as I read this, that the whole work of salvation
is of God. It's not a cooperative effort.
My effort was the sinning part. But all of salvation is a work
of God. It is what He has done for us,
and it is what He has done in us. There's a work for us, and
there's a work in us. And it's all of God. It's all
of God. You know, there was a time, and
I was sitting back and thinking about this scripture, and as
I was thinking of it, I thought there was a time when there was
no time. Think about that for a while.
There was a time when there was no time. The only thing that
existed was God. In the trinity of His person,
that's all existed, was Him. And then there's a time when
God purposed. He purposed to create all that's created. And He purposed
to create man. He said, let us make man in our
image and after our likeness. And of course, we know this,
that is fulfilled in the man Christ Jesus. The first Adam
was only a type. The second Adam is the Lord from
heaven. And that is the man, truly a
man created in the image of God. I mean, he would truly, and you
and I are conformed being conformed to that image. He's making us,
you go back to that original thing, let us make man and that's
what's going on right now. God is creating a multitude of
people, sinners chosen by Him. He's creating, He's conforming
them to His own image, to the image of Jesus Christ who is
God. And so you go back and I think
of a time when the Lord Jesus Christ created the world and
all that's in it. It was all made by Him. All things,
it says in John 1 3, all things were made by Him and without
Him was not anything made that was made. Nothing exists that
He didn't make. Colossians chapter 1, for by Him are all things
created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible. Whether they be thrones, dominion,
principalities, or powers, all things were created by him and
for him. And he is before all things.
And by him, all things consistent are maintained and held together.
Right now, it's all being held together by that man, Jesus Christ,
who is God. Now we know by the word of God,
That he created all things and he created all things according
to the pleasure of his goodwill. That God predetermined all things. Did he not do that? He predetermined
the end from the beginning. Our Lord says this in Luke 14.
For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down
first and count the cost, whether he hath sufficient to finish
it? Lest happily, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not
able to finish it, all that behold it will mock him. Well, how much
more God, if he gives us that instruction, he says, will you
not sit down and count the cost, if you can finish building the
house? Well, how much more God, he purposes to create, is he
not gonna purpose the end from the beginning? Is he not gonna
see that this is gonna be finished? As our Lord cried on the cross,
it's finished. It's finished. And our Lord, He created all
things, He purposed all things, and He created man, and then
sin entered the world. Sin, this mystery of sin. The
more I think about sin, the evil of it, it's just such a mystery
to me. It's such a mystery to me. But
I'm not going to worry about where sin came from, I think
if Spurgeon said, don't worry about how the thief got in the
house, worry about getting it out of the house. Getting it
out of the house. That's what I want to know. How
I get rid of sin. I'm not going to overly concern
myself. Well, where did it come from? How did this happen? I
don't know. The secret things of the Lord belong to the Lord.
But I'll tell you this, when it's over, sin won't exist no
more. It will not exist anymore. It'll
be gone. It'll never raise its ugly head
again. But when sin did enter, it entered through a man. It
entered through a man, Adam. And it brought forth death. Spiritual
death. That's why everybody born into
this world is spiritually dead. Dead to God. Now people think
because they can talk and reason and speak with each other and
reason with each other that they just automatically turn and do
so with God. You can't do it. That's another
level. You've got to be born of God.
There's got to be that which is born of the Spirit of the
Spirit and that which is born of the flesh is flesh. They're totally opposite.
Totally opposite. Sin brought in this spiritual
death and then eventually physical death. I don't care what you
die from. It may be cancer, heart attack, whatever it is, but the
root of it is sin. The root of all death is sin. And it always
will be until it's over with. And because of this sin, we have
all these problems. Because of sin, we have this
enmity in our minds against God. We just soon go do something
else than hear of God. By nature, we do it. By nature. We're more
concerned about what we'll have for lunch than what's being said
from the word of God. But that's what sin brings forth,
and that's what sin does for us. And because of this, we have
a sinful nature. We have a sinful nature. That's
what we are. I am a massive corruption. Now,
we don't see that by nature. We don't see it in each other,
do we? We don't, we see it in, we'll have certain ones, you
know, you see a serial killer and say, well, that's a massive
corruption. Or this, somebody does something that's just unheard
of. And you say, whoa, that's, I
don't know how he could do that. Well, I didn't either until God
saved me. I didn't either. And now I say, By the grace of
God, there go I. And I mean it, I mean it. That
would be me, if God turned me loose. If God turned me loose
on myself, that would be me. Go over in Romans chapter one,
and read, when God turned them over to a reprobate mind, they
went into all kind of perversion. Usually what happens, they go
ultra-religious, or they go ultra-perversion. They usually go one or the other
extremes. But sin brought in death, and
we are born with this sinful nature. It's who we are. You know, when I was a kid, we
used to play a game called You're It. I don't know if you play
that down here in the South. We did. We'd play, we'd chase
each other around the yard, touch a You're It, then we'd run. Well,
when it comes to sin, when it comes to sin and rebellion, Evil. You're it. I'm it. I'm it. When it came in through
Adam, it touched me. It touched everything about me.
It touched my boys, my parents. It touched my parents. It touched
everybody born from Adam. You're it. When it comes to sin,
don't talk about somebody else. You're it. You're it. But here's a question. Did God
fail? Did God fail? Was creation a failure? Was the
creation of Adam a failure? No, no. The question is absolutely
not. But I do know this. That this
matter of sin and Satan and evil, this is the way that God is going
to do away with it, that it will never exist again. And I believe
the way God does things is the only way it can be done. You
and I are in a straight between two all the time. I don't know
which way to go. You and I always had a fork in the road. There's
no fork in God's road. There's no fork in that way.
It's straight gate, narrow way. God did not fail. The fall of
man did not take God by surprise. In fact, God already prepared
the way back to Himself. That's what He says over in Revelation
13a. And all that dwell upon the earth
shall worship Him whose names are not written in the book of
life of the land slain from the foundation of the world. Listen
to this scripture. In 1 Peter 1, 18-20, for as much
as you know, you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your
fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world. Before God created the heavens
and the earth, he took care of this matter. He finished it. You see, he finished it. He's
not, you know, he's not up there writing names and if you're like,
Some places they believe you can be lost and be saved. You'd
be writing it and erasing it, writing it and erasing it. I
don't think so. He wrote it before the foundation
of the world. And Christ stood as the Savior
of the sinners from the foundation, before He says the foundation,
He was ordained to do it before the foundation of the world. But now listen. God has a people
He's going to save and they're sinners, they're ungodly. If
I think the majority of people who call themselves Christians,
if they really understood, if they really understood what that
is, what that means, and what it is to be saved, they'll say,
nah, I'm not that bad. Nah, I'm not that bad. You see,
they made Christianity, they made it to look real popular.
It looks popular. My granddaughter said this. She
said, it's just popular now to be a Christian, so-called. Not if you understand what it
means. Christ died for the ungodly. You know how hard it is to find
someone ungodly? Unlike God? Sinner? Lost? God-hater? Well, it takes God to make one
a sinner. To make him realize it. But now
here's what, now let me get to this. Here's what he reveals.
Here's what God does and the work that he does and what he
must reveal to us in order to save us. First of all, there's
got to be a revelation of truth. You are a disgraceful people.
Well, that, You are a disgraceful people. Listen, Ezekiel 36, 16
through 21. The word of the Lord came to
Jeremiah. He said, Son of man, when the
house of Israel dwelt in their own land, the land I gave them.
You know, everything you have, God gave you. What do you have
that you haven't received? Everything you have, God gave
you. Everything. And you know what you and I did
with it? He says, you defiled it by your own way and your own
duties. Whatever God's given us, Sooner or later we defile
it. Isn't that right? Left to ourselves, now left to
our natural self, we defile it. He's given us so many things
and we use it for evil purposes. You see, there's got to be a
revelation of truth. You defiled what I've given you.
You defiled and you defiled it by your way and your doings.
And you shed blood. You shed innocent blood. And
not only that, you polluted it with your idols. Idol worship. You say, I've never worshipped
an idol. I don't have anything sitting on my shelf. Idol worship begins
in the heart. You'd be surprised what you worship
until... Let God take it away from you.
Then take it away from you and find out how much attachment
it has to you. No, he said you defile. Here's
what it is. You profane my name. In verse
21, you profane my name. How many times have we taken
God's name in vain? How many times have we used it
in a cuss word? Well, when I was a teenager,
I thought that was a big deal. You know, you somebody, if you
smoke a cigarette, cuss. profaned his name, took his name,
took God's name and just dragged it through the dirt. You guilty of that? I am. I'm guilty. When I read this,
I think guilty. No excuses. I make no excuses. I just say that's who I am by
nature. This is me. Well, he said, you're a vile,
you're a filthy people, you're a disgraceful people by nature
and by conduct. But then the Lord, after doing
that, now listen, after doing this, after putting us in our
place, after putting Israel, which is the representative of
the church, after putting them in their place, putting us in
our place spiritually, you see, Let me jump off track here a
minute. A lot of the readers said this applies to God bringing
Israel back in the last days, and I believe he's gonna do something.
But this truly applies to the spiritual Israel of God. What
we're gonna look at here, this is what God does for us when
he saves us, and saves his church. In Ezekiel 36, 24, for I will
take you from among the heathens, God has a people all over this
world. God's true Israel is scattered throughout this world because
we make, all who believe, make up the true Israel of God. I'll
take you from among the heathen. I'll gather you out of all countries
and I'll bring you into your own land. I'll bring you into
the kingdom of God. That's where you're at right
now. You know that? I told you that earlier in the Bible lesson.
You're in the kingdom of God. I'll bring you to your own land.
I'm going to call you by my grace and by my spirit. It's going
to be an effectual call. The gospel is going to go through
every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation under heaven. And
you're going to come. I'm going to take you. Aren't
you glad God does that? Because you wouldn't come if
he didn't. Lord, take me. Make me willing. Make me willing. It says in Psalm 110.3, Thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power. Ain't nobody else
gonna be willing, but His people will be. At the time we weren't
willing, then He made us willing. And He will show us here how
He does this, how He makes us willing. The Lord will fetch
us, fetch us from sin. He'll fetch us from sin, death,
and Satan. We call it fetching grace. Fetching
grace. I'll fetch you from among the
heathen where you've been scattered. And I'll justify you. Look at
this. Verse 25. Then will I sprinkle
clean water. And everyone I read that I have
good confidence in says this is reference to the blood of
Christ. This is how we are cleansed from our sin. We're cleansed
by By His blood, the Word has a cleansing effect to it. The
Word of God does. The Holy Spirit takes the blood
and cleanses us with it. But I will. Now listen, I will. Let's not miss this. I will do this. This is my work.
This is who you are. This is who you are. And this
is who I am. And this is what I'm going to
do for you. I will sprinkle clean water upon
you and you shall be clean from all your filthiness. And from
all your idols will I cleanse you. Here we have justification. I'm going to take all this and
the books are going to be clean. Nothing's going to be against
you. I'm going to cleanse you and clear you from all charges. I'm going to justify you. Because
until God can be a just God, you're not going to be saved.
You and I cannot be saved until God can be a just God and a Savior. So the first thing He says, I'm
going to cleanse you. I'm going to remove your filthiness.
I'm going to clear the books. He's going to cleanse us from
all our sins, from all our filthiness, and He's going to justify us.
And then secondly, after justifying us, we have in verse six, regeneration. Regeneration. You see, Israel
went out, they were very religious, they're very lost. That's what
Paul says in Romans 10. They have a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge. Most people, and this is just
so, most people are very religious, and they're very lost. That's
the truth. I know from experience what I'm
talking about. And he says here in verse 6,
a new heart also will I give you, because if I don't, if I
don't, you're going to be the same, you're going to be the
same way. I said, when I was preaching on the radio back in
Ashland, I was a pastor on Hurricane Road, I was preaching on the
radio and I said, from John chapter 3, the new birth, and I made
the statement that It wouldn't help if you went back to your
mother's womb. Nicodemus said, well, how can
a man be born again? Can he enter the second time
to his mother's womb and be born? I said, if he could, if he could
go back a thousand times, it wouldn't make any difference.
And a man called me on that. He called me on that. Called
me at my house. He was upset. Well, at least
he heard something. I doubt if he ever believed it,
but I never heard from him again. But he said, I don't agree with
that. He said, if I could go back,
I'd do a lot of things over. I said, but you'd still have
the same nature, and you'd just be self-righteous. If you could
go back, right now, and there's things in our lives we would
say we'd change. If you can go back right now, and you could
change things that you've done, or you could say, I wish I could
go back and undo that. You'd be so self-righteous you
couldn't stand you. God allowed that so that you
would lay low in the dust and not raise your ugly head. That's
why we need Christ, because there's no do-overs. There are no do-overs. You can't go back. What's said
is said. What's done is done. Once you
shoot that bullet, there ain't no bringing it back. And without
a change of nature, I'm no different. It's just a different form of
sinning. He said, I'll give you a new heart and a new spirit. David said, give me a clean heart
and a right spirit. Brethren, I want to be able to
do things in a right spirit, don't you? I don't want to do
things grudgingly. I don't want to stand here and
preach grudgingly. I don't want to give grudgingly. I want a right spirit,
and that's of God. That's a work of God. That's
the only way. You see, this is the only way
that Israel is not going to come back into their own land and
be the same thing. Be the same thing over and over. That's deja
vu. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting
a different result. God says, no, I'll bring you
back, but there's going to be a change. and I'm going to make the change
and it's going to be in you and I'm going to give you a new heart,
a right spirit. I'm going to take away the stony heart out
of your flesh and I'm going to give you a heart of flesh, a
heart that can love, a heart that can be taught, a heart in which the Holy Spirit
dwells. He's talking about this flesh, this nature. He's talking
about a live, a living heart, a living beating heart, spiritually. He's speaking here spiritually. And then verse 27, we have sanctification
and perseverance. I'll justify you, I'll regenerate
you, I'll sanctify you, and you will persevere, listen. And verse
27, and I will. You see, I'll put a new spirit
will I give you, and then I'll put my spirit in you, the Holy
Spirit, I'll put my spirit in you. I'll put my spirit within
you, and listen, and cause you to walk in my statutes. This
is the way. You'll hear a voice saying, this
is the way, this is the way. You are sealed with the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit takes the things of Christ and shows
them to you, teaches you, instructs you, comforts you, guides you.
And you walk after godliness. You walk according to the word
of God. Now you're not looking, you're not opening the Bible
and saying, well, what am I supposed to do today? But I tell you what
you do, you open that Bible and you look for Christ and you follow
him in his word. You follow him in his word. I'll put my spirit within you
and cause you to walk in my statute and you shall keep my judgment.
You will. You will. He said, you will. You know,
the first time Israel, when God gave them the covenant of works,
they said, we'll do it. Well, they didn't. But now God's
given us this covenant of grace. And he says, you shall, because
I'm going to walk in. I'm going to be with you. I'm
going to instruct you. I'm going to keep you. I'm going
to direct you. I'm going to guide you. I'm going to guide you. These are unconditional promises
of that covenant, which God, the father made with God, the
son concerning us who believe. They're unconditional promises.
Verse 28, and you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your
fathers, and you shall be my people and I'll be your God.
Heaven is our home and God is our God. He said, you will dwell
on the land. You will be in glory. You will
be in glory. You know, God gave Israel, the
people back in that day, the land of Canaan, it's flowing
with milk and honey. And because of their sins, he drove them
out, and they were taken captive by the Babylonians, and they
were always in trouble. But here, here he's saying, you're
gonna dwell in the land I gave your fathers. And I believe that
the Lord's gonna do something with that little country over
there called Israel. I think he will. You read Romans
11. After the time of the Gentiles
come in, then you're going to turn to them? I don't know, but
I tell you what they will do. They will believe the same gospel
we believe. Wouldn't it be something that that whole nation turned
to the Lord? Turn this world upside down. But I do know this
applies to the whole Israel of God, the spiritual Israel of
God. Heaven's your home and God is
our God. And here's a promise in verse
29. I will also save you from all your uncleanness. You know
what he's saying here? Sin shall not have dominion over
you. You know what Paul said in Romans? Sin shall not have
dominion over you. I'll cleanse you from all your
uncleanness. I will call for the corn. I will
increase it and lay no famine upon you. Our God shall save
us and He shall bless us with all spiritual blessings in Christ
and in heavenly places. These are covenant promises. Sin will not have dominion over
you. It feels like it doesn't. It does. It feels like sin has
dominion. It sounds like that's all I do. But he says it doesn't
have dominion over you. It's not going to control you.
It's not going to sit as king like it used to in you and rule
over you. Used to, it would just whistle.
It was your master. It would just whistle. And like a dog,
you'd just come running to it. You know, I'm not going to do
that no more. There you go again. You did it again. You think you're
not going to do it no more. You get straight. I'm just not
going to do that no more. I've said that before. You know,
I've got a weapon for my parents. I don't do that no more. I won't.
I did. I just made sure they didn't
catch me the second time. I was a little more smarter about
not getting caught. But you can't hide from God.
It says the night is as the light before him. Now I'm gonna save you. I will
also save you from your uncleanness. I'll call for the corn and the
wine. I'll bless you. I'll bless you and there won't
be a curse in the blessing. May no famine upon you. And listen,
I'll multiply the fruit of the tree and the increase of the
field. You know, when the Lord sent them out, that land became
desolate. You ever see a house, and I know
you have, you've seen a house when somebody's moved out of
it and nobody lives in it anymore? Isn't it amazing how fast it
falls apart? It just, you can see it just start to crumble,
the weeds take over, and it just, and that's what happened to the
land of Canaan. And those who passed by said, these were the
Lord's people, but now look at it, it's just a desolate place.
It's just, well you and I were pretty desolate at one time too.
But now you bear the fruit of the Spirit, don't you? I know
you do. If you're God's people, you do. Love, joy, kindness,
long-suffering. You're fruitful people. You're
not desolate no more. Before God saved you, you were
desolate. You didn't produce anything. You didn't produce
one thing worth writing home about. Desolate. But he says, now I'm gonna multiply
the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field and you'll
receive no reproach or famine, and you shall remember, now listen,
when I do this for you, when I give you a new heart, I justify
you, you're regenerated, you're sanctified, you know what's gonna
happen? Verse 31, then you'll remember
your own evil ways. Until then, you make excuses
all the way. Until then, you don't, you're not, I wasn't that
bad. I mean, I was, You start finding
somebody that's worse. Start pointing out somebody that's
worse. But I wasn't that bad. But boy, when God does this work
of grace in you, when He saves you, one of the first things
you do is you remember, you shall remember your own evil ways and
your doings that were not good and you'll loathe yourselves.
Do you really loathe yourself? You know, I found this out. When
I really, really loathe myself, He sure keeps me from talking
about others. Ain't nothing that'll keep you
from talking about someone than when you absolutely loathe yourself. You see what you really are by
nature and what God's done for you. You'll remember your own evil
ways and you'll loathe yourselves. Listen, in your own sight, in
your own, that's what Job said, I abhor myself, I abhor myself. I tell you, it takes the work
of God and the work of grace to bring this about. But I know
this, know this, when you remember this and you loathe yourself
and I do this work for you, I give you a new heart, I want you to
know this, I'm not doing it for your sakes. I'm doing it because
of who I am. If God saved me for my sake,
He would save everybody in this world, because they all look
just like me. Listen, not for your sakes do
I this, saith the Lord, be it known to you, be ashamed and
confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel. I'm not doing
this for your sakes. You know why God's forgiven me?
You know why God's forgiven you, you who believe. You know why
God's forgiven you. Let me read it to you. Ephesians
4, 32. And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's
sake, hath forgiven you. That's why God forgave me. Christ
died for this sinner that didn't want him, wanted nothing to do
with him. Christ died in my place. And
God, in honor of His Son, in honor of His justice, has forgiven
me for Jesus Christ's sake. Isn't that something? And then He gives us these covenant
promises here in the next few verses, and I'll quickly go through
them. He says in verse 33 through 36,
Thus saith the Lord God, in the day that I shall have cleansed
you. I do this, this is my work. We can't cleanse ourself from
sin. You can cry all the tears you want to cry, and it won't
put away one sin. Only the blood puts it away. When I cleanse
you from all your iniquities, I will also cause you to dwell
in your cities, and the waste shall be builded, and the desolate
land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight
of all that pass by. They shall say, this land that
was desolate, I see myself in death. This person that was desolate,
This person that was just ornery and rotten and wicked, boy, that's
something different. Something different. He's like
the Garden of Eden now. Fruitful. Productive. You're
productive. Spiritually productive. And he
says, and the heathen that are left all around about you shall
know that I, the Lord, built the ruined places. I'm the one
who saved you. I'm the one who brought you back.
I'm the one. And everybody's going to know
it. Everybody's going to know it. I have the Lord spoken it,
I will do it. The curse is over. It's just
showers of blessings. And the last two verses. And
you're going to pray for this. You know that? He's not going to let you just
go off on your own. You're gonna pray for this. You're
gonna pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. Listen, verse
37, for thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired
of by the house of Israel. Lord, save my soul. Have you ever asked God to do
that? You don't have to be a theologian, just a sinner in need of mercy.
Lord, save my soul. That's what Peter said when he
was about to drown. Lord, save me. Good night, that's all. It's
not complicated. I will yet for this be inquired
of by the house of Israel to do it for them. I'll increase
them with men like a flock." You know, I often pray this.
I do. And I mean this. I often pray, Lord, fill this
place up for Christ's sake. I would love to see us have to
expand these walls for Christ's sake. Such a one, such a one
should be glorified. Such a one should be praised
by a multitude. By a multitude. I pray that,
I do. I pray that more often than you realize. I pray, Lord,
fill this up for your name's sake. For your glory, for your
honor, fill it up. Don't just, I don't want, I don't
want to just be filled up. That's just more headaches for
me. I don't need a bunch of goats in here. A sinner saved by grace. Sinner saved by grace. Pray for
that. He said to, I will yet for this
be inquired of by the house of Israel. They'll pray to me for
this. He'll move us. I pray that that's
what he's doing with me. I pray he's moving me to pray
for it. I hope so. And here's the great end of it
all. Here's the great end, the glory of God. Fill this place
up for your glory. If we could really, I tell you
this, I believe this. If we could honestly, from our
hearts, This place will be filled up. It'll be filled up. Press down and run it over. As
the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feast,
so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men, and
they shall know that I am the Lord. The great I am is the Lord
Jesus Christ, and everybody's gonna know it. They're gonna know it. I don't
think this world out there, this world's not a loose cannon out
there just willy-nilly going around. No, no, no. Right now
he's subduing all things to himself and this whole world, those in
heaven and those in hell, are going to know that Jesus Christ
is the I Am. He is the Lord. And He has done
this. He has saved us. I will and you
shall.