Behold, I make all things new.
And God don't take old cloth and put a new piece
in it. He makes the whole cloth new. He don't put new wine in
old bottles. And God does everything, and
He has to make everything new. Everything new and that's what
we're going to talk about today today this morning Look with
me in Ezekiel 36 in verse 25 Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you and you shall be clean from all your filthiness and
from all your idols will I cleanse you a new heart a and a new spirit will I put within
you. I will take away the stony heart
out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And
I'll put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statues. And you shall keep My judgments
and do them. And you shall dwell in the land
that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be My people, and
I will be your God. I will also save you from all
your uncleanness, and I will call for the corn, and will increase
it, and they 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 from among the heathen. Then shall
you remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not
good. You shall loathe yourselves in your own sight and for your
iniquities and for your abominations. Not for your sakes do I this,
saith the Lord God. Be it known unto you, be ashamed
and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel." God's talking
here about making something new. A new heart, a new spirit, a
new walk. Something God does. And here
we have a word for spiritual Israel. This is spiritual Israel
we're talking about here because all of Israel, you know, not
all of Israel is Israel. God said if it hadn't been for
a remnant that had been left, we'd all been like Solomon and
Gomorrah, a remnant according to the election of grace. And
here we have a word for spiritual Israel, God's elect, God's blessed
people. Here's a gracious word from our
covenant God. But it was spoken to a graceless
people, to a graceless people, who went their own way. Look
what it says up in verse 21. They went their own way. But
I had pity for my holy name, which the house of Israel had
profaned among the heathen, whither they went." And yet he said he
had pity on them. You remember the infant that
was cast out in Ezekiel 16? Cast out to his own loathing,
cast out in his own blood. And the Lord said, there's no
I that ever pitied you. But I loved you. And I spread
my skirt over you. And that's what He does with
people that went their own way and profaned the name of the
Lord. He has pity. As a father pitieth his children,
even so the Lord pitieth them that knoweth Him. Because He remembers that we
are but dust. We're just dust. And everything
about this work shows us that it's of the grace of God. Everything about this work shows
us the grace of God. His work, from start to finish,
is of grace. You know, in these verses that
I read today, He says, I will twelve times. I will. I will. It doesn't say nothing
about man's will, man's free will, man's work, man's doing. Everything that's mentioned about
man in this, he did wrong. Everything that mentions about
what God will do, He does right. He has to do the work. He has
to do the work. And 12 times His will is mentioned,
His will. And it's a personal work. It's
a personal work. In verse 26, He said, I will
give you, you, you personally, every individual. It's a personal
thing. I will give you. Not a whole
bunch at one time. He said, I will give you, you,
a new heart and a new spirit. And then look what he says, he
said, I'm going to give you a new heart. Well, I give you. Why
in the world would he give a new heart to a man? Because the one
he's got is rotten to the core. The one he's got is, what is
it saying here, is made out of stone? Because the old one is
wrong. The old one is wicked and deceitful
above all things, and desperately wicked. And God said He looks
upon the heart. And He said it's with the heart
that we seek Him. And why does He put a new one
in a man? Because the old one is stony.
Ain't that what He says? And I'll take away, in verse
26, I'll take away the stony heart out of your flesh. A heart
of stone. He said it's a stony heart. A
heart of stone. A stone is cold. A stone has
no warmth. A stone has no affection. A stone
is past feeling. A stone is absolutely cannot
feel. It's cold. It's lifeless. It's
dead. And I tell you what, it's hard.
It's hard. He says the man's heart is harder
than the nether millstone. That's what he said, the nether
millstone. You remember years ago, in some places they still
do it. You can take your corn and your wheat and different
things, and they had a place that you could take it and you
could get it ground into cornmeal or whatever you wanted. And they
had a stone, you know, where a wheel that went around the
stone, they'd put it in there and they'd grind it and grind
it and grind it. Oh, it's so hard. And when you want to sharpen
something, you sharpen it on a stone. But I'll tell you a
stone's heart, and God says, your heart is like stone. Stone,
lifeless, cold, dead. And I'll tell you what, it's
unfeeling. It's callous. You know, you've heard about
people being hard-headed? Boy, he's one of the hardest-headed
people I've ever seen. None of you are like that way. I'm just,
you know, we've heard of people that's hard-headed. None of you
are that way. I do know that about you. But can't feel. And how many times have you heard
somebody say, boy, he is so hard-hearted. Hard-hearted. In fact, sometimes
I feel very, very hard-hearted. And I'll tell you, the only people
that know they've had a new heart is because you can't feel with
a stardust stone, and the only people who worry about having
a hard heart is people that's been given a new heart. Because
they can feel with a new one. You can't feel with a stony heart.
A stony heart can't feel. Only a new heart can feel. And
not only is he saying it's stony, it's dead. A stone's dead, incapable
of spiritual matters. Dead in trespasses and sin. There's
no vitality in a start of stone. No life in a heart of stone.
And it's dead. The stone can't hear. The stone
can't speak. Can't do anything in God's name. It's dead. He can't hear God's
Word. He can't feel God's Word. He
can't react to God's Word. Until God does something for
him. There must be a miracle. And
this is what men are missing today. That this business of
salvation is a supernatural work of God. They say, oh listen,
thanks, supernatural things don't happen. And I'll tell you what,
if God ever does anything for me or you, it'll be a supernatural
act. It'll be a miracle of God's grace. These preachers get on TV and
they get in their places and they start talking about God
will do a miracle for you today if you'll just believe. I'm telling
you something, beloved, the greatest miracle God ever done for a human
being is take out his heart of stone and give him a new one.
The greatest miracle God ever done for a man is to save him
by His grace. And that's why we sang Amazing
Grace. That's a sweet sound to us. And I tell you, a powerful, it's
got to be a powerful work. A powerful work. And he said,
a new heart will I give you. And he calls it a heart of flesh.
He said, I'll take away this stony heart and I'll give you
a heart of flesh. Oh my, you know there's a difference. Stone can't feel. And he said,
I'll take that out and give you a heart that can feel. A heart
of flesh. And I tell you something, nothing
can be done with a stony heart. You can polish it. Gary Shepard's
dad was, what do they call them fellas that polished stones?
Lapidaries? Lapidaries? He'd polish stones
and go out and cut them and polish them and make belt buckles and
all kinds of stuff. And I tell you what, you can
polish a stone, you can even carve stone, But you can do whatever you will
with it. It won't make it alive. It won't make it alive. But he
said, I'll give you a heart of flesh. It's a new heart. And you know what this new heart
is? It's God's gift. It's a work of God. God gives
it. And he said, I will take, I will
take away the heart of stone. I'll do it. I won't ask you to
do it. I won't ask you to help me do
it. I won't ask for no cooperation from you. I will go inside you
and I'll take away that heart of stone and I'll turn right
around and put a heart of flesh inside of you. That's an operation
of God. That's what faith is called,
God's operation. And I'll tell you what, He says
this new heart, this new heart is life-giving. And this new
heart that God gives, it changes the whole man. It's new to the
soul. When you've got a new heart,
it changes your mind, it changes your affections, it changes everything
about you. And I'll tell you this old thing,
give Jesus your heart, He don't want it. He's got to give you
the heart. Let Him into your heart. How
do you do that? How do you let Jesus into your
heart? How's that done? I remember a fellow standing
up one time preaching along this way and he jumped up and says,
you mean to tell me that we're not to go out here and win souls? and give out tracts and I said
listen if I could win one soul and all I do is give out tracts
and give money to win them I would be the worst human being on the
face of the earth if I didn't give all my money except what
was necessary for me to live on and I would live in a shack eat
bread and water And spend all my time out giving tracts. If
I could win one soul by doing that, what kind of human being
would I be that didn't do that? I mean, give everything we've
got if we could win one soul. But we cannot change a man's
mind, much less his heart. You can make a Democrat, you
can make a Republican, and you can change people's minds. You
can change people's minds from being a Baptist to a Pentecostal
or a Presbyterian to a Camelite. But you cannot change a man's
heart. You can't change his nature.
And let him into your heart. They say open your heart and
let him in. How in the world does that happen? Men say the craziest, dumbest
things with a Bible in front of them and preach on it. And not only is it a gift of
God, but it's soft. Soft. He makes it soft. It's
the heart of flesh. It can be touched now. It can
be touched with the Gospel. It can be touched by the Spirit
of God. It can be touched with the truth. It becomes sensitive. You know what it becomes sensitive
to? To the glory of God. It becomes sensitive to sin.
It becomes sensitive to the way it thinks. It becomes sensitive
to its attitude. When God gives us a new heart
and gives us a heart that's sensitive, it makes us sensitive about what
we say, what we do, how we act. It makes us sensitive. And I'll
tell you, it makes us so sensitive that it becomes impressed with
the things of God more than the things of the world. In fact,
it becomes childlike. Childlike. You know what we call
God? Our Father. Why do we call Him
our Father? Because we're His children. And
by the way, we say, Lord, I'm your child, your will be done.
I'm your child, you provide for me. I'm your child, you clothe
me. I'm your child, you feed me.
I'm your child, you direct me. I'm your child, clean me up.
I'm your child, protect me and preserve me. That's what children
do, don't they? And not only does he soften it,
but he gives you a warm heart. It's not cold and lifeless anymore. It's not cold and lifeless anymore. No, no. Oh, it warms. You know what warms it more than
anything? God's blessed word. God's gospel. God's gospel. And you know what? The scripture
says that the love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy
Ghost. And it's warm towards other people
now. Oh, it's warm toward other people.
It manifests itself towards other people. And I'll tell you something
that's especially warm to, God's blessed Word. Whatever God says,
we warm right up to it. We don't say, oh no, I don't
agree with that. Oh no, that's not right. If we say it in God's
Word, we say, oh yeah, that's right. That's good. I believe
that. I enjoy that. Yeah, tell me some
more about that. Ruby tells me all the time, she
says, you can preach that again next week, or you can preach
it again tonight even. You know, we can preach the same
thing over and over and over, and the saints of God don't get
upset about it. You know why? They've got a heart. A heart. Not only is it warm and it's
soft, and it's God's gift, but it's a living heart. A living
heart. Oh, it's a heart of flesh. It's
living. It was once dead. Now it's alive. Now it's alive. And you know
how you know it's alive under God? Because your heart now seeks
the Lord more than anything else. It continually and constantly
seeks after the Lord. If you can't say nothing else
but, Oh, Lord, have mercy. Oh, Lord, pity me. Oh, God, hear
my cry. Oh Lord, I don't know what to
say. Oh Lord, I'm so cold, I'm so lifeless, I'm so dead. And
only people that's living are concerned about those things.
You know the only person not concerned about being a hypocrite
is a hypocrite. The only person concerned about
not having a living heart is people still got a dead one.
And only a living heart is the only kind of heart that can feel.
That's why our Lord Jesus, in His heart, said He is touched
with the feelings of our infirmities. And that's why our heart seeks
the Lord. Or Ralph Barner said one time,
said, put on my tombstone, here lies a lifelong seeker after
the Lord. You know when we'll quit seeking
Him? You know when we'll quit? When we'll close our eyes and
to never wake again until we wake in the Lord's presence. And I tell you what, we'll not
quit seeking Him until then. And I tell you, a living heart
has desires. A dead heart, a stony heart has
no desires. But it has desires. Has spiritual
desires. Desires after God. Desires after
Christ. Desires after people that's unconverted. Desires to see people given new
hearts. Because we know if you've got
a new heart, you want somebody that don't have one, to have
one. If you have new desires, you want people who don't have
these new desires to have these new desires. It has needs. A new heart has
needs. It has needs it never had before.
It has needs that it didn't even know existed until you was given
a new heart. Any of y'all here know anything
about Sir Walter Raleigh? He was an Admiral, if I'm not
mistaken, in the English Navy. And anyway, they're going to
cut his head. They're going to chop his head
off. They're going to execute him. Chop his head off. And when he had his head on the
block, the executor told him, said, move your head just a little
bit. Move your head. You know what Sir Walter Raleigh
said? He said it matters how little,
it matters how the head lies if the heart is right. It don't
make no difference how the head lies on the block if the heart
is made right. And you notice he said made right,
made right. And I tell you everybody, everybody
either has a heart of stone or a heart of flesh, a new heart.
There's no middle ground. Got a heart of stone or a heart
of flesh? A heart of flesh. And I tell
you what, look what else it says here. And not only in verse 26
will I give you a new heart and I'll give you a new spirit. And
then he says in verse 27, I'll put my spirit within you. Well,
there's a new heart, there's a new spirit. You know, Nicodemus
came to our Lord Jesus Christ and said unto him, We know that
thou art a teacher come from God. Nobody can, no man can do
these miracles that thou doest, except thou art sent from God.
And our Lord never, you know, if that's somebody said that
to us, he said, boy, I thank you. Oh, I appreciate that. I
appreciate you thinking of me and all that. But I tell you,
you know what? Our Lord turned to Nicodemus
and said, Nicodemus, He said, except a man be born
again, he can't see the kingdom of God. He can't enter into the
kingdom of God. And except a man be born of the
Spirit, he can't enter. And he says, well, that which
is born of the flesh is always going to be nothing but flesh.
He said, that which is born of the Spirit is spiritual. Spiritual. And he says, and everyone that's
born of the Spirit, he said, this is how it happens. He said,
the wind blows where it will. He said, you can hear it. You can see the effects of it.
But it blows wherever it will. And that's what he said, everyone
that's born of the Spirit. Now listen, I don't know, you
know, the wind's blowing here. Wherever the Gospel's preaching,
the wind's blowing. Sometimes it comes powerful. Sometimes it comes... You can't
hardly hear it. You can't hardly feel it. You
ain't perceptive of it. But I do know one thing, that
when God glows on a man, and the Spirit comes in a man, He
gives him a new spirit, and the Spirit of God is put in him.
And he's aware. He's not aware of his flesh until
God gives him a new spirit. Oh, and he said, Oh, I'll put
my spirit within you. And a spirit manifests that new
life. manifested. It's His Spirit.
God said He sent forth His Spirit of His Son into our hearts. And why do we cry, Father, Father? We never called Him Father before
until He put that new Spirit within our hearts. And this is
the way we know they're the children of God. How? The Spirit Himself
bears witness with our spirit that we're the children of God.
And I'll tell you something else. You keep Ezekiel 16. And look
in Romans 8 with me. Look in Romans 8. We know we're free because we've
put this new Spirit within us. We know we're free. The Spirit
sets us free. He does something for us that
nobody else can. The Spirit sets us free. Look what He said here in verse
14. Romans 8. As many as are led by the Spirit
of God, they're sons of God. You know where the Spirit of
God always leads a man? He leads him to Christ. Leads
him to trust Christ, rest Christ. and desire Christ more than anything
else. That's how one way you know you're
born of the Spirit of God, because the Spirit leads you to Christ.
And he says, and listen to this, you've not received the spirit
of bondage again, you've not received the law, you've not
received works, you've not received the spirit of bondage again to
fear, If our sins are gone, and we've got a new heart, and God's
put a new Spirit within us, but you've received the Spirit of
adoption, the Spirit of children of God, and we cry, Father, Father,
and the Spirit Himself or Itself bears witness with our spirit
that we're the children of God. And then if we're children, if we're children then, then
we're heirs. Heirs! Children inherit things. As of who? God. And Christ is
the only begotten Son. He inherits it all. So we're
joint heirs with Him. Sherry and I was talking about
it on the way to service this morning. You know, when a man
marries a woman, like her and I got married, I take all of
her liabilities. She gets all my liabilities.
I get all her assets. She gets all my assets. Under
the law, we get everything. We become one and everything
becomes ours. But here's the situation in Christ. We had nothing to bring to the
situation. We had nothing but liabilities. We had nothing but sin. We had
nothing but death. We had nothing but darkness,
and deadness, and lifelessness, and even enmity towards God. Well, in Christ, He got all our
liabilities, and we got all of His assets. That's what it calls being there. And how wealthy is he? How rich
is he? He talks about the riches of
his glory, the riches of his grace. Alright, back over to Ezekiel
16. We get all his assets. We absolutely
have nothing to bring to the situation. We just brought nothing
but liabilities. And not only has he put his spirit
within it, but it changes our spirit. When He puts a new spirit
within us, He changes our spirit. He changes our nature, and our
spirit is called our nature, towards God. It changes our nature
towards God. It changes our nature toward
His Word. It changes our nature towards
His way. Look what He said here in verse
27. He said, I'll put my spirit within
you, and listen to this, and cause you to walk. in my statutes. He didn't just say, I'm going
to ask you to walk in them, I'm going to encourage you to walk
in them, and I hope you walk in them. I'll even help you to walk in
them. He said, you know what he said? I'm going to cause you
to do that. Oh boy, this idea that somebody
can be converted and get saved when they're 12, 14, 15, 20 and
then go back out in the world and live 10, 12, 15, 20 years
and then come back in. You know I was saved way back
yonder? No, no, no. When God takes away the stony
heart and puts in the heart of flesh, this is God's work. And
when God does this, He said, I'm going to cause you. He told
them over in Isaiah, He said, this is the way. Walk in it! He said, it's God which worketh
in you both to will and to do. God created us in Christ Jesus
unto good works which He hath before ordained. Before ordained
that we should walk in them. And now we walk. We got a new
walk. New spirit. New walk. Now, we
now walk in newness of life. And we love God's ways. You know,
Pam sings a song, you know, and she sung it before. Teach me
thy way, O Lord, teach me thy way. That's what David said. He said, O Lord, teach me thy
way. Teach me thy way. And that's
why we say, Lord, teach us your way. We love God's way. And you know what? Leave me not
to my David's sickness also. He said, let me not walk in my
own ways. Who wants to walk in their own
ways? I did that for years. And you
know where my ways led? There's a way! That seemeth right
unto man. But the end thereof are the ways
of death. But God's ways are perfect ways,
precious ways, free ways, glorious ways. And the best way is the
way of righteousness and justification. And that's why our Lord said,
as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him. How did you
receive Him? First thing, you received Him
as a sinner. Don't ever be anything else but
that before. The first thing you did is you
humbled himself. Stay right there. When you received Him, you received
Him in helplessness and hopelessness and inability. And you still
ain't got anything better other than walking in Him just the
way you received Him. And Enoch walked with God. And so we walk with Christ. Enoch
walked with God. How did he do it? By faith. By
faith. Now let me show you something
else here. Look what else happens in verse 28. Not only, he said,
I'm going to put my Spirit in and cause you to walk in my statutes. He said, you're going to dwell
in the land that I gave to your fathers. Oh, he said, I'm going
to. And you know what this land he's
talking about? That new heaven and new earth. He said, I saw new heaven and
new earth and the old earth and the old heaven passed away. We're talking about that just
right before service. This is the promised land. This
is a new heaven and a new earth he's talking about here. People's
worried to death about, you know, a nuclear, going to have a nuclear
war and destroy the whole world. That ain't going to happen. Somebody
may drop a glucose, somebody kill a whole bunch of people,
but I'll tell you one thing. The scripture says that God Himself
shall cause the elements to melt with a fervent heat. And He'll bring in a new earth
and a new heaven wherein dwelleth righteousness. God's not going
to let man get the glory for doing nothing, not even destroying
the earth. He's going to get all the glory. Men are going to know that God
reigns on this earth. That this earth is His and He'll
get rid of it when He gets ready. When He got ready to make it,
He said, let there be. When He gets ready to do without
it, He'll say, it'll be no more. Time will be no more. And when
he gets ready for the new one, it will be as easy for him to
make as it was the first one. And you know who's going to be
there? These people's got new hearts, got new spirits, they're
walking in statues. That's all the people going to
be there. No, it's a new heaven. We're going to dwell in the land. You know, when Israel went down
to Egypt, Joseph was reigning and ruling. And he told Pharaoh,
said, listen, my people down here and over there was the land
of Goshen, the best, best part that was in all of Egypt. He
said, that's where I want my family to be. Until a Pharaoh arose who didn't
know Joseph. And I tell you what, if you think
Goshen was something, You think what is going to be in this new
heaven and new earth. Oh, and look what else he says
here. And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your
fathers and you shall be my people. You shall be my people and I'll
be your God. And that's the covenant. That's
the long and short. If you want to know, if anybody
ever preaches to you the covenant, he's got to say, I'll be your
God and you're going to be my people. That's the long and short.
You're going to be my people. He said, that's all that's going
to happen. He said, you're going to be my people and I'm going
to be your God. He didn't say, well, I'd like
to be your God. Will you let me be your God? Go and let God. You'll be my
people and I will be your God. How can you make it any plainer
than that? You can't make it any simpler
than that, plainer than that. And then look here at these precious
promises. In verse 29, look at these precious
promises. Oh, He gives us promises. And
all the promises of God are in Christ. Yea and Amen. And I will also save you from
all your uncleannesses. You know, when our Lord Jesus
Christ washed the disciples' feet in John 13, old Simon Peter
said, oh Lord, you're not going to wash my feet. And our Lord
said, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. He said,
Lord, wash me all over. He said, you're clean ever wit. And so every day we get defiled
in our walks And our Lord Jesus Christ said, I'm going to save
you, cleanse you from all your uncleannesses, all your unclean
thoughts, all your unclean attitudes, all your unclean words, all your
unclean imaginations, all these things that goes on with us all
the time. He said, I'm going to cleanse you from them. What
would it be if we had to go through this world always feeling, what's
God going to do to me because I thought this? What's God going
to do to me because I felt that? What's God going to do to me
because I said that over there? He ain't going to do nothing.
He already did it to Christ. And that's why He said, I'm going
to cleanse you. I'm going to save you. I'm going to cleanse you
from all your uncleanness. I'm going to save you. Save you. Save you
from all your uncleanness. And then He said, look what else
He said. I'm going to call for corn. I'm going to call for corn. I'm going to feed you. I'm going
to see that you're fed very, very well. I'm going to feed
you with corn. I'm going to feed you. And then look what He says,
that I'm going to increase it. I'm not only going to just give
you some corn, I'm going to cause it to be in abundance. I'm going
to feed you and feed you well. And then look what He said, and
I'll lay no famine upon you. I won't. I won't lay no famine
upon you. If you ever come to a service
and think, oh my, Lord, I'm so lean, I'm so, I'm so, I'm so,
I'm so, I feel like I can't feel anything
and I feel like I can't, nothing's going on. He said, but listen,
when you get there, what does God do? He feeds you. He won't
lay no famine on you. I know that in the days we live,
there's a famine for the hearing of the Word of God. There's a famine for the hearing.
If people really believed in the grace of God, this place
would be running over and we'd have to build a place twice as
big if they really, really believed the grace of God. They'd go someplace
where it was being preached. I do know that. And then look
what else he says. Look what a precious promise.
I'll multiply the fruit of the tree. I'll multiply the fruit
of the tree. I'm not only going to give you
corn, but I'm going to make you fruit trees to multiply. And
oh, we're trees of the Lord's planting. Trees of righteousness
that our Lord planted. He said, I'm going to multiply
the fruit of it. And I know this, that if we have any fruit, He
must be the author of it. He must be the producer of it.
And He says this in John 15, 16, No you're not. You've not
chosen Me, but I've chosen you. and ordained you that you should
bear fruit. That's what He said. You should
bear fruit. And then look what He says. And that you'll receive no more
reproach. Oh my! There ain't going to be
reproach anymore. God's not going to reproach us.
Angels ain't going to reproach us. Sin's not going to reproach
us. The angels ain't going to reproach us. The law ain't going
to reproach us. Judgment or justice ain't going to reproach us. Nothing's
going to reproach us. Who can reproach us? We have
the righteousness of Christ. And then look what He said in
verse 22. He says down in the middle of
the verse, I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel,
but for mine own holy name's sake. for my own holy name's
sake. Now let me just say something
about this work. This work. This work, God said,
I'll give you a new heart, give you a new spirit, cause you to
walk in my ways, give you the cause you want. You're going
to dwell in the land that I gave to you. You and me, we're one. You're my people and I'm your
God. I've saved you from all your uncleannesses. I'm going
to feed you. I'm going to give you fruit.
I'm going to take care of you. You'll be reposed no more. And this, let me ask you this,
you reckon this is an effectual work? You reckon it gets the
job done? Could God do anything that fails? If He says, I give you a new
heart, are you going to have a new heart? He said, I'm going
to put a new spirit in you, you're going to have a new spirit. He says, I will, I will, I will,
I will, I will, and you shall, you shall, you shall. But one
of the greatest works He does by this new heart and new spirit
is to make us do something that we could have never possibly
done without a new heart. Look in verse 31. Then shall you remember your
own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall
loathe yourself in your own sight for your iniquities and your
abominations." The only people that absolutely... Job said it like this, I have
whored myself. Isaiah said, I'm unclean. John
fell down before the Lord as a dead man. But oh my, you're going to remember. You'll remember that you was
dead. You'll remember you had a stony heart that couldn't be touched. And this
is one of the greatest mysteries of the gospel. I don't know if
you've ever done this or not. The other day, a sin I committed
when I was about 14, 13, 15, 14. I was just a kid. It'd come up before me just like
it was yesterday. Oh, it's just like... And I'd
say, Oh Lord, have mercy on me. I wouldn't remember those things.
David said, My sin's always before me. But yet he says, Lord, I've
cast my sins as far as east is from the west. And when God gives you a new
heart, the only people that loathe themselves... How many times
have you just absolutely said, Oh God, I loathe myself. Oh, how can I be this way? Your
own evil ways and your doings, not anything you ever did was
good. He says your doings that were not good. And He says you'll
loathe yourself, not somebody else. You won't know somebody
else. Not somebody else's evil ways.
Not someone else's doings, but your doings. Has God taken out your stony
heart? Has He put in a heart of flesh
that you can actually feel with now? Has He put His Spirit within
you? Nobody knows that but you. Nobody knows that but you. Nobody knows it but you. God
help us. Oh, our blessed Lord Jesus Christ,
our great God and Savior, I pray that you'd cause the gospel.
Lord, the Holy Spirit would use this message. Use the gospel
here. Use the truth here. And Lord,
not only here, but in other places. Lord, you're the only one that
can take out the heart of stone. You're the only one that can
put in a heart of flesh. And if there's a heart here this
morning that's feeling, being touched with the gospel, being
touched by the Spirit of God, having their hearts knowledge
in itself to, yes, this is true. Everything you said is so. God,
give them grace. Give them grace to bow, to receive
the Lord Jesus Christ as they are, not the way they want to
be and not the way they hope to be, but as they are and as
He is. We ask you these things in Christ's
name. Amen. Amen. All right, let's stand
and sing. I think it's 133 that I want. I'll have to look and see. What's Depth of Mercy? What song
is Depth of Mercy? Yeah, 233. 233. Let's stand together. Sing 233. Depth of mercy, can there be? Mercy still reserved for me. Can my foul reborn be near me,
the Chief? I have long withstood His grace
Long provoked Him to His face Would not hearken to His call
Grieved Him by a thousand falls Now incline me to repent. Let me now my sins lament. Now my foul revolt deport. We believe as sins no more. There for me my Savior stands
See you tonight, six o'clock, God willing.