Good morning, good to see everyone,
and I add my welcome to Winston's, to our visitors. Glad to have
you with us today. This morning's message is titled For His Namesake,
and I intentionally put the emphasis on the word his, meaning for
God's namesake, rather than for the sake of man's name or man's
honor. And from our study of God's word
today, you will see that I'm speaking of no less than the
deliverance and eternal salvation of sinners that God provides
for his name's sake. You know, the scripture clearly
teaches us that God's chief design in all that he does, and that
includes in the salvation of sinners, is that his name might
be magnified and exalted, that he might receive all glory. As Romans 11.36 declares, for
of him, referring to God himself, for of him and through Him and
to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. God's
design or purpose in all that He does then is first and foremost
for His own namesake, His own glory, and listen, not for ours. And when I say ours, I'm including
all those who are saved. Now for sure, those who are saved,
eternally saved, they are indeed blessed of God. They receive
a wondrous eternal benefit, but it is for His sake and not theirs. This manner, see, of the gospel,
of how God saves sinners, is all about Him. And to attempt
to understand God's grace, God's gospel of grace, while still
imagining that salvation is all about us, to get this backwards,
as we self-consumed, fallen sinners are naturally prone to do, is
at least a contributing factor as to why we all will initially
approach God for salvation in a way that is opposed to His
way of salvation, to the gospel of grace. And we see that even
in our first initial interest in religion, when the first question
that pops to our mind is, what must I do to be saved? So the truth that salvation itself
is for God's own namesake, His own glory is set before us in
unmistakable language by God through the prophet Ezekiel in
Ezekiel chapter 36, which is where our text for today is taken.
And I want to share with you before we get into the passage
here, Two main points that struck me in my study of this passage,
and they're very simple, but today in particular, as we go
through this passage, I want you to observe from Ezekiel 36,
first, God's design and purpose in salvation. I want you to see
in the scripture, it is, as I have asserted, that salvation itself
is for His namesake, for God's own glory. And then secondly,
how God's way of salvation, His gospel then must be in keeping
with that design, that design to receive all glory. That's
a good way to test our gospel and the validity of it. So here's
the challenge this morning. Will my gospel, will your gospel
stand that test? Is the gospel you believe, where
your hope lies, how you perceive that God saves sinners, is it
in keeping with God's main design and purpose that he might receive
all glory. Well, let me begin by giving
you a bit of background on the book of Ezekiel and on the subject
matter here of chapter 36. This prophetic book of God, God's
Word, was penned by the prophet Ezekiel. And Ezekiel prophesied
to Israel after the time of Jeremiah. He prophesied during the time
they had already been taken captive into Babylon. And some of the
predictions that are recorded in Ezekiel, they had their accomplishment
after the Jews returned from captivity. Other prophecies remain
to be fulfilled. And there's an important aspect
of that that I want us to think about because Ezekiel's prophecy,
see, like all biblical prophecy, pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Scripture says as much. It
said, It pointed to Christ of whom both Moses and the prophets
wrote. Some of you will recall after
the resurrection of Christ, he appeared on the road to Emmaus.
And those that he was walking with along that road, they didn't
recognize him. They weren't able to perceive
that it was Christ to whom they were talking. So they started
talking to him about how Jesus had been crucified and how the
tomb had been found empty. And in Luke 24, When we get to
verse 25, Christ turns to them and responds saying, says, then
he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe, look,
all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ have suffered
these things and to enter into his glory? And look here, and
beginning in Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them
in all the scriptures, the scriptures they had at that time, the Old
Testament, the things concerning himself. The Bible is all about
the Lord Jesus Christ. And it will be helpful to our
understanding if we keep that in mind, in particular when we
study the Old Testament. And today we're going to see
in Ezekiel 36 how this prophecy, it did pertain somewhat to their
present circumstances and the predictions of the nation Israel's
temporal deliverance, but it also speaks of future blessings,
spiritual blessings, for God's chosen people whom this nation
typified, those chosen from every nation unto eternal salvation,
spiritual Israel, the church. So you will see his prophecy,
and it will become clearer as we get further into the passage.
It's speaking of eternal salvation itself. So walk with me through
this passage, verses 16 through 32, while keeping those two important
points I mentioned in mind. First, God's design and purpose
in salvation. And secondly, how then His way
of salvation must be in keeping with that design. Beginning in
verse 16, Ezekiel writes, Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto
me, saying, Son of man, he's referring to himself, Ezekiel,
here. He said, When the house of Israel
dwelt in their own land, that is, before they were taken captive
into Babylon, They defiled it by their own way and by their
doings. Their way was before me, God
says, as the uncleanness of a removed woman. Sin defiles. And here we see the essence of
sin, is to have things our own way, by our own doings, as seems
right to us. As you hear quoted often from
this pulpit, Proverbs 16, 25 proclaims, There is a way that
seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways
of death." And here God says that their way, that way that
seemed right to them, was an abomination unto Him. And that
day when a woman experienced her monthly cycle, she was to
be removed from the company of her husband. And she could not
even enter into the sanctuary of the Lord. And that's how her,
quote, uncleanness was viewed. And so had we lived in that culture,
we would appreciate here this vivid picture of how evil sin
is in the eyes of God. God had not abandoned his covenant
with this nation Israel. That would remain in place until
the promised Messiah came in fulfillment of that covenant. So in that sense, he, God, just
like the husband of the removed woman, he was still the husband,
so to speak, of these people. Yet because of their sins, there's
a sense in which he separated from them. He removed them out
of their land of Canaan. It's a picture here of how an
unclean sinner is not fit for God's presence. some sort of
reconciliation must take place. So God continues in verse 18
saying, wherefore I poured my fury upon them for the blood
that they had shed upon the land and for their idols wherewith
they had polluted it. And as I said, as we go forward
this morning, you're going to see how clearly it's not just
the temporal circumstances of this nation that he's speaking
of, but also the spiritual circumstances of spiritual Israel, those chosen
just like that nation was, but unto eternal salvation. The Israelites
here in their setting, they had killed some of those who had
pointed out their sinful ways. They had shed the blood of some
of the prophets that God had sent to warn them. And in time,
you know, in time future, They would take part also in the shedding
of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ in His very crucifixion. So as I say, Ezekiel's prophecy,
it reaches far beyond just the time period of this Babylonian
captivity. But I want you to notice in that
sentence, we read how God's fury was poured out upon them and
it says it was due unto the blood that was shed and due to the
pollution of their idols. For that reason, I believe that
the blood being shared here also, maybe even primarily so, refers
to their offering up the blood of animal sacrifices to these
idols that they had fashioned with their own hands. And that,
of course, in rebellious disobedience to God's very specific instructions
for worship under that ceremonial law that he gave to Moses. This
attachment, see, to their idols involves a rejection of Christ,
the promised Messiah, to which all of the law of Moses pointed.
Now I want you to think with me about the parallel truth that
is so prevalent in the religious thinking of our day. Here at
this time, God's wrath and fury came upon them, at least in part,
we see, due to their religious activities. And that activity
involved their looking to idols, idols they had fashioned by the
works of their own hands. And just as we read in verse
17, it referred to their doings. Well, so today, all of us by
nature, we likewise dare to approach God for acceptance based upon
our doings, some work of our hand. Today's popular religion,
it may not involve the worship of tangible, carved idols out
of wood or stone, but as men and women dare to approach God
for acceptance based upon their so-called free will decision
for Jesus or because of their acceptance of Him, in other words,
based on some work of their hand that makes the real difference
in their salvation, that which they do, they have fashion for
themselves and their own hearts and minds no less of an idol. So we see here in their day,
the Israelites experienced the wrath of God in their temporal
circumstances as he allowed them to be taken captive. And as we
get to verse 19, now we know from both biblical history and
secular history that the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, was the
instrument for their being initially scattered from their homeland.
It was God uses, though, and turns the minds of even pagan
kings. For, you see, it wasn't that
God just allowed them to be taken captive, but it was actually
God's providential doing. It was God's fury and wrath that
brought on their difficult circumstances here. As he says in verse 19,
he says, and I, God, scattered them among the heathen, and they
were dispersed through the countries. Then he adds, according to their
way and according to their doings, I judge them. Now here we see
that God, He condemned their evil ways and He manifested His
just wrath consistent with principles of fairness and equity. So it
could not be said that any injustice was done them by, He said He
judged them according to their way and their doings. That reminds me of our Lord's
own words in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7, beginning in
verse 1, where he said, Judge not that ye be not judged. For
with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. And with
what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. Now
many take that verse and say, oh, we shouldn't make any judgments.
Well, we know God commands us again and again to make judgments,
to beware of false prophets. You should be judging right now
whether what I'm telling you is in accordance with God's word,
whether it's true or not. Literally, that would read, for
with what for judgment ye judge, in other words, whatever basis
you use for judgment, you shall be judged accordingly. And when
he says, with what measure you meet, meet there is simply another
word for measure. He's saying, by whatever measurement
you base your judgment upon, you shall likewise be judged.
So in other words, Christ, he's simply saying, if you insist
on judging the life and death issues that he had been talking
about there in the Sermon on the Mountain, he was speaking
specifically about the entrance requirements into the kingdom
of heaven. If you insist on judging those issues that pertain to
your very eternal life or death based upon a measurement of something
that proceeds from you, then you will be judged on that basis.
You'll be judged by that which you are able to produce. But
Acts 1731, you can look that up on your own, it makes it very
clear that we're going to be judged in righteousness, the
very righteousness of Christ. that that's the one clear standard
by which all shall be judged, the perfect righteousness of
Christ. So that would mean our doing
has to measure up to His doing. If we're going to be accepted
on the basis of something we've done, if that's our measurement,
so to any who insist on measuring their fitness for heaven based
upon their way or their doing, then God's reply is simply, so
be it. But listen, our immutable God,
He does not change His holy standard of perfection to which they must
measure up. The standard of a perfect righteousness
by which He declares us to be saved or lost. Do you see the
implications of this? If you imagine God will save
you, What really makes a difference is because you believed when
someone else wouldn't believe that you might presume to be
lost. Or if you think he saves you
because you're willing to accept Christ as your Savior when someone
else that you presume to be lost would not. Or you may be like
thousands of people, and you may say, I'm not going to get
into all this detailed doctrine. I don't know, but I kind of figure
I'm going to be all right. I'm a pretty good guy. I know
I'm a lot more moral than a bunch of folks out there. So in the
end, I figure I'm going to stand out pretty good. Well, if that's
the way you think, then know this, you're going to be judged
on that basis. You'll be judged on the basis of whether you're
a good enough guy to measure up to the greatest guy of all,
to the very perfection of goodness that the sinless Lord of glory
rendered when he walked on this earth, his righteousness. Likewise,
as I mentioned, if you're banking on the fact that you're saved
because of having believed or because you accepted Jesus, then
your act of faith will be judged, but the standard won't change.
You're going to be judged on whether you're believing, your
acceptance meets that standard of perfection, unwavering and
continual throughout your entire life with no variation, no moment
of doubt. In other words, you too shall
be judged against the standard of Christ, perfect, invariable,
never failing righteousness. And we cannot measure up to that,
as you know. Romans 3.20 says, by the deeds
of the law, by our efforts to obey, to meet the condition,
there shall no flesh be justified, declared not guilty in his sight. Do you see in this how the irony
that God often gives us what we want? See, the sad part is
that what we want is a product of who we are, of our fallen,
sinful, self-consumed nature. We naturally want salvation.
I don't know anyone, if they believe there is a heaven, an
eternal life to spend, they want to go there. Who doesn't want
heaven? The problem is, is we want to
go to heaven, but on the terms that seem right to us, not according
to God's way, his gospel. But thankfully, as we continue
now in the passage, we're going to see this good news. We see
that God does deliver and save a people in spite of their sinful
rebellion and determination to go their own way. And he gives
these undeserving objects of his mercy and grace. He gives
them a new heart, a new principle of life, which brings about true
repentance and causes them to come to Christ alone. and had
come by that blood-bought, God-given gift of faith and repentance,
and that in accordance with God's way of salvation, by grace in
Christ alone. In verse 20 of our text, we see
the impact of men and women who profess to be the Lord's people,
as certainly Israel did, while acting and are worshiping, though
contrary to His prescribed way, as we read, and when they entered
in entered unto the heathen, whether they went, wherever they
went, they profaned my holy name. When they said to them, these
are the people of the Lord, and are gone forth out of his land. They profaned his name not only
by their immorality, but also by their false religion, as we've
read. And hereby, you see, they gave the enemy ammunition to
use against them, the spiritual enemies I'm speaking of. gave
them ammunition to speak ill of them, of their religion, and
lesson of the true and living God, the God who had miraculously
delivered this people again and again, first out of Egypt, through
the parting of the Red Sea, into the Promised Land. And you know
the history. It's the God of their ancestors,
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so it is, though, with every
age, for those who carry his name. In our days, those who
would profess to be Christian but would deny the doctrine of
Christ. That is God's gospel of grace,
and they do so as they insist that they may speak a lot about
Christ. Now, don't get me wrong. But
in the end, the real determining factor is not what Christ accomplished,
for many think he did that for everyone that ever lived. even
those who perish in hell. So it had to be something else.
Some decision they make and idol they fashion. But look now what
God graciously does for such folks in spite of their rejection
of Him. In verse 21 He continues there
saying, But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of
Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went. He
tells Ezekiel, therefore you say unto the house of Israel,
thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for your sakes, O house
of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned
among the heathen, whether ye went. And I will sanctify my
great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have
profaned in the midst of them. And the heathen shall know that
I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified
in you, set apart in you before their eyes. For I will take you
from among the heathen and gather you out of all countries and
will bring you into your own land." So here God, he instructs
Ezekiel to proclaim to the people it was solely owing to his regard
for his own holy name that he would deliver them back into
their homeland of Canaan, a deliverance which, as I say, man's history
and the Bible itself tells us most certainly did take place.
And this gathering together of them from all countries may have
some allusion to the saving of spiritual Israel after the dispersion
by the Romans, in which they were scattered into many countries.
But it clearly refers to a deliverance for spiritual Israel as typified
by this nation. He will most certainly bring
them out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. He will bring
them into heaven's glory itself, of which that land of Canaan
is often a type, or as Mark's been teaching in Joshua, that
very rest in Christ based on a finished work. Notice how in
verse 22, lest there be any doubt, God leaves no room for us to
misunderstand that this deliverance is solely, only due to his regard
for his own glory when he emphatically adds, I do not this for your
sakes. Do you see the goodness and the
mercy and the grace of our great God and the sovereignty of him
on display here? God's going to vindicate the
honor of His own holy name, not by giving any of us what we deserve
if we're judged according to our own works, whereby we too
would profane His holy name, but by mercifully sparing us
from what we deserve and graciously giving us in Christ what we deserve
not. That's grace. Notice that God,
He repeats again and again how they profaned His name. Now that
simply means how they wickedly disrespected the honor of His
character. And it shows the awfulness and
sinfulness of all of us if we're left to ourselves and our natural
religious ways. Do you see here any mention of
God deciding to bless them because of some merit of their own? Because
they turned to Him in faith? Or they did their part to do
this or that to make some difference? No. Their being blessed by Him
is solely owing to His own sovereign determination to be honored in
their deliverance. A deliverance, see, that they
can't share in any of the glory of, for they did not deserve
it and they did not merit it. And it's likewise the same way
with the eternal deliverance of spiritual Israel, those God
saves in every generation from every nation. A sinner's eternal
salvation is in no sense deserved or earned or merited by the sinner. But think, if the way of salvation
were in keeping with the popular religious notions of our day,
if it really is just a matter of your being willing to do what
they may say is just this one small thing, Christ has done
it all, but if you will just accept Christ, walk this aisle,
pray this prayer in your heart of hearts, get serious about
religion, whatever it is, then know this, that would be salvation
for your sake. It would be something you deserve
for doing your part. God would owe you because you
cut your end of the deal. And do you see how that's not
God's way of salvation that's set forth in his word? Salvation
is solely owing to God's sovereign mercy and grace in Christ. You
know, God's name is like our names in this sense. It's how
we're identified. God is spirit, and so we know
him by the things that he does. That's the glory that I'm speaking
of. It's what God is like. And he's
determined to make himself known in the person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ in a way so that he receives all honor and
all glory and all praise so that he alone might be worshiped.
And ultimately, see, His name, His very glory, is going to be
recognized by all, even the heathen, indicative here of all outside
of God's chosen people, those not chosen to be so blessed by
God. As the Lord is quoted in Romans
14, 11, He declares that ultimately, when all stand before the judgment
seat of Christ, He says that every knee shall bow to Me, and
every tongue shall confess to God. God's ultimately going to
be vindicated in his character even among unbelievers. And the
distinguishing aspect of the character of God, as we heard
some of in the 10 o'clock hour, what distinguishes his holy name
is something that's revealed to all those whom God saves in
their respective lifetimes. And it's this. We call it his
redemptive character, for it's manifested in the redeeming work
of Christ. It's how God can be both a just
God and a Savior. God speaking through the prophet
Isaiah in Isaiah 45, 21 says, and there's no God else beside
me. Now what's distinguishing about
him? He says a just God and a Savior. There's none beside me. He says,
look unto me. Unto who? A just God and a Savior. Be ye saved, all the ends of
the earth, for I am God, and there is none else." Now, let's
think about that. How can that be? How can God
justly judge us according to His clearly stated, own perfect
standard of righteousness? A perfection that Christ alone
could and did render in His obedience unto death. How could He justly
judge us according to that? and still find any of us sinners
fit for his presence. Perfectly righteous, measuring
up to the righteousness of Christ so that we might be accepted
into his holy presence in heaven's glory. The answer to that is
revealed in the gospel of God's grace. And true believers, as
ambassadors for Christ, they identify with and they support
this very gospel message that would point sinners to Christ
and His imputed righteousness alone for all of their salvation."
What does that mean? We use that term often, an imputed
righteousness. When you have time later, look
that word up. Just look in the Concordance in the Bible, imputation
and imputed. You'll see it's a biblical term.
In 2 Corinthians 5, beginning in verse 20, Paul writes of himself
and other believers saying, now then we are ambassadors for Christ
as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's
stead, be ye reconciled to God. Now that begs the question, how? On what basis? And he tells us,
for he hath made him, Christ, to be sin for us. Christ who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him. Now that's a glorious thing.
Those whom God saves, they don't approach God for acceptance based
on their own way or their own doings, but they're brought to
approach Him on the basis of the doing and the dying, the
righteousness of their substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing
more, nothing less. It's really that simple. And
so shall they be judged. God the Father is here, made
Him, God the Son, to be sin for all those He saves. Christ is
a substitute for all these blessed objects of God's everlasting
love. He had the very demerit of all
their sins imputed or charged to his account. You see, that's
how he who knew no sin, who inherently, within, was not contaminated
by sin. We're talking about the one that
the scripture says offered himself up without spot. So we're speaking
of the impeccable, sinless Lamb of God and yet he was made sin. How? By imputation, by God accounting
it to him. He taking on the responsibility
for the debt so that then he was able to accomplish for his
people that which they could never accomplish for themselves.
Perfect righteousness, perfect satisfaction to God's law and
justice, both in its precept, he obeyed for them perfectly
and in penalty. His precious shed blood, His
death on the cross, paying the penalty due unto the guilt and
demerit of their imputed sin, that before the infinitely holy
justice of God. That's what it took. Our dying
won't do it. It took the infinitely valuable
blood of the God-man. He bore their sins away. They
did the crime, but He paid the fine. And these for whom Christ
was made sin, it says there, they were made the righteousness
of God in him. That is, God imputed or accounted
unto them the very merit of what Christ their substitute accomplished
for them by his doing and his dying by his perfect satisfaction
to God's justice, the imputed righteousness of Christ. And
listen, if you think that's some sort of pretend thing, think
again. God killed his son due to sins that were imputed to
him for he knew no sin. He offered himself up without
spot. That's how real imputation is. And you see, on that basis,
God gets all the glory. His name is magnified, as we
heard in the 10 o'clock hour, as the Lord our righteousness. That's what he's called there
in the book of Jeremiah. There in the person and work
of Christ is where we see God's marvelous, redemptive character
as both a just God and a Savior. And notice God told Ezekiel there
in verse 23 that he would be sanctified or set apart in them
before the eyes of the unbelieving world. That is, they would, by
God given faith and repentance, they would behold him as he is.
And this marvelous work of grace shall come upon all of spiritual
Israel, all who are delivered. And clearly, as you'll see going
forward here, we're not speaking temporally anymore but strictly
eternally. As we continue in verse 25 where
God declares, then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall
be clean from all your filthiness and from all your idols will
I cleanse you. As I say, this is where it's
abundantly clear that Ezekiel's prophecy goes beyond the physical
nation Israel in those temporal circumstances, because this is
speaking, see, of the justification of sinners. The very work that
Christ accomplished for them at Calvary having been applied
so that God finds them not guilty, cleansed from all filthiness,
washed in the blood of the Lamb, all based upon the merits of
His obedience unto death on the cross, that His His very righteousness,
having been reckoned or imputed unto them. First John 1 7 tells
us, the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all
sin. That means all for whom His blood
was shed, they're justified, they're forgiven, they're cleansed
from sin, from all sin. And they're made perfectly pure
and spotless in the sight of God. Imagine, meet a sinner.
That's how the Scripture, why the Scripture can say that believers
are found before Him unreprovable, unblameable, holy in His sight.
A sinner? Oh yeah, because I've got a perfect
righteousness. It's not in here. Mine resides
at the right hand of the Father. But it is, it's mine. Notice, too, that God, He does
not set forth this cleansing as being conditioned upon their
willingness or their presumed free will, as so touted often
in our day. But He states, then will I sprinkle
and will I cleanse you. And that from their very filthiness
and idolatry. What do you suppose the free
will choice of a filthy idolater would be? By nature, we do make
choices. But we will choose an idol of
our own imagination who will accept us on the basis of our
own way, of our own doing, of that way which just seems right
to us. But God does not say here, then
will I, if you will, know His testimony is that they won't
of their own volition do anything but profane His holy name. And just as sure as God has justified
a chosen people. That is, He's declared them to
be faultless, not guilty in Christ, their eternal surety and substitute. He shall also in each of their
respective lifetimes grant them that gift of faith and repentance
as evidences of their new birth. He'll give them spiritual life.
And we read about that in verse 26 where He says, a new heart
also will I give you. and a new spirit will I put within
you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your own flesh,
out of your flesh, excuse me, and I will give you an heart
of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk
in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments and do them."
This new heart and new spirit speaks of the regenerating or
life-giving work of God the Holy Spirit. A new principle of life
is granted whereby they come to behold something new, something
they did not see before, to recognize their idolatry that they might,
as God commands, turn from their idols to serve the living and
true God. And this is a work that affects
the heart, meaning our very inner being, our mind, our affections,
and our wills. And the stony heart that's taken
away, it refers to how the heart This heart was one that was void
of spiritual life. It was a senseless heart, spiritually
stupid. No matter what our IQ may be,
not spiritually, it's zero. As we come into this world, born
in darkness, spiritually dead. It's a stubborn and an inflexible
heart that's like stone upon which no impressions can be made.
That speaks of the hardness of heart of all of us by nature. As the scripture says, the heart
is desperately wicked. This work requires the almighty
power of God to remove it. Now God uses the very preaching
of his gospel of grace, but my words or my persuasiveness won't
make any difference unless God the Holy Spirit does a work.
Otherwise, none of us will want any part of God's gospel. To
be brought to that requires the powerful and effective grace
of God-given faith and repentance unto eternal life that would
have us to look solely to Christ and Him crucified for all of
our salvation and to reject that way that just seemed so right
to us before. He softens these hard, desperately
wicked hearts and He gives us a heart of flesh That means a
heart that becomes aware and sensitive of our own sin and
the danger we're in that would draw us unto Christ in submission
to His will, submitted to His righteousness alone for all of
our salvation. And so by contrast, this new
fleshy heart, it's a pliable heart upon which impressions
of God's gospel and even God's very glory can be made. And he
speaks there at the end of that passage of the walk of faith
and keeping his judgments. And that is the fruit and the
fact that gives evidence that this work of grace has taken
place. I think when he says they're keeping his judgments, in part
at least it's referring to the fact that we now judge by the
power of the Holy Spirit's indwelling influence and presence in our
lives. We judge according to God's standard of judgment. We
adopt His standard of judgment as our own, so that we're found
ever looking to Jesus as our righteousness, whereby we stand
clean, not guilty before God, accepted in the beloved, as the
scripture puts it, Christ our Savior. Well, just as then verse
25 spoke of our justification based upon the redemptive work
of Christ, that being a work and a declaration that's made
completely outside of ourselves, None of us were even born. Verses
26 and 27 then present to us the sure and certain regeneration
and conversion that ultimately shall be experienced by all those
for whom Christ purchased these gifts of grace by His justifying,
redeeming death on the cross. As we get to verse 28, God continues
there, and in the interest of time, I'm not going to read verses
28 through 30, As you look at those, let me just point out,
in the interest of time here, the sovereignty of God that is
so prevalent in this language. As He says again and again in
that passage, I will, I will. He declares, see, without any
condition that they shall be His people and that He will be
their God and that He will save them. So this is a testimony
to the unconditional nature of God's blessings upon His people.
how it's according to the pleasure of his own goodwill and not based
on any goodness or merit found in those he blesses. Then in
verse 31, I want you to notice how God describes how they will
look back on their former evil doings and particularly the religious
activities associated with their former idolatry. He says, then
shall you remember your own evil ways and your doings that were
not good and shall loathe yourselves, hate yourselves in your own sight
for your iniquities and for your abominations." So they don't
look back on their former religion with any fondness. They see it
for what it is, idolatry. See, a true believer, this tells
us a true believer comes to see that those things which they
before thought were good were actually evil. Believers may
and should become very shameful and hate many of the sinful things
that he or she may have done in the past, but there's none
more despicable to a born-again believer's new regenerated spiritual
hearts than those abominations of their former false religion.
And I believe that's central to what's being communicated
here. And see, we come to recognize by God's grace how truly evil
it was in his sight to dare and approach him for acceptance on
the basis of any doing of our own, based on anything that proceeded
from us. And we come to see the evil of
this by the stark contrast between what we imagine we could do to
get ourselves saved and to be reconciled to God versus a discovery
of what it actually took. doing and dying of the Lord Jesus
Christ. How dare we stack our doing up
against that? How dare we presume that our
own doing could earn that which took the doing and dying of the
Lord of glory, His precious blood? That's the same sense we get
from the Apostle Paul as he wrote of his own repentance in Philippians
3, 7 saying, but what things were gain to me? not the things
I knew to be wrong, but that which I thought gained me favor
before God. These I count at loss for Christ."
And that's the testimony of these blessed with a new heart and
a new spirit. And then as we close with verse
32, lest we miss the point, God says once again, 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. May God the Holy Spirit grant
someone new who hears this message a new heart that will find you
likewise ashamed of that false way that before it naturally
seemed right to all of us. You know, being consumed with
our own self-importance, we naturally resists admitting to the idea
that all of salvation is, as Jonah put it, truly of the Lord.
And such a man-focused religion will leave us stumbling over
thoughts such as, well, it just would not be fair if God didn't
give us a free will choice in this manner of salvation. that
it's totally outside of my hand. That wouldn't be fair. Surely
we surmise God owes us a chance to do something to be saved,
to gain His favor. And you know, all that time we
talked a lot about God's mercy and grace, but we wouldn't naturally
give up on the notion that we can determine our own eternal
destiny by how we respond or by something we do. You see,
in that state of mind, we don't need mercy, we just got to cut
our end of the deal. And so do you see how the popular
notion that our salvation hinges at least in some degree on something
we do, some response that we make, how that would negate God's
own stated chief design to receive all glory in the salvation of
sinners. If your salvation were conditioned
in any way on you, then you would have the bragging rights. You
would receive the glory. Your name would be magnified
because according to that gospel, you made the real difference
in your being saved, not Christ the Savior. But such a way, see,
is proven to be false. It's proven to be an untrustworthy
false gospel because that would mean that God does save you for
your own sake. And as I hope you've seen this
morning, God declares otherwise. He states emphatically that it
is not for your sake. So how about you? How about your
gospel? Don't cling to a false gospel
that exalts you, the sinner, over and above that of the Savior. And if God has given you a new
heart, Then you'll see all of your hope for eternal life wrapped
up in His doing and His dying. The doing and dying of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You'll discover your fitness,
you see, to be accepted into His holy presence is based solely
on His imputed righteousness. As I said, nothing more, nothing
less. And if your heart has been so turned, then rejoice. You
see, that describes those who have been justified, sprinkled
clean, declared not guilty, washed in his blood, and who with this
new heart and new spirit now approach God consistent with
his design to receive all glory in their salvation. It really
is all about God who saves ungodly sinners such as you and me for
his name's sake.