It is a pleasure and a joy to be here with you again, and we trust that we shall know the Lord's blessing as we come now to the Word. I would like to direct your attention this morning to the words which we find in the portion that we read together from the 36th chapter of the book of the prophet Ezekiel, and particularly the words of the 26th verse. Ezekiel chapter 36, verse 26. The Lord speaks by the prophet and 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 flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh. We find here and in this chapter and in the whole prophecy Ezekiel is coming to a people who are facing and suffering from the punishment of Almighty God.

The children of Israel have dwelt for many years in the land that had been promised to their fathers, having been brought in by so many great miracles and wonders. They had seen so many deliverances from the hand of the Lord that had brought them in and established them into a land which was, as described in the scriptures, flowing with milk and honey. was a land where all their wants were provided for, all their needs were supplied. It was a good land for them to dwell in. And yet, even as Moses feared that they would, once they were settled in the land, they forgot God.

And we see throughout all the history of the children of Israel whilst they dwelt in the land, as we read of it in the historical accounts in the scriptures, it was a time when So often we find them disobedient to the Lord God. There were times of revival, there were times of restoration, there were times of joy and rejoicing when the people came together to worship God, of course there were. And yet we see that these times were interspersed with equally dark times in the opposite direction, so to speak. When the children of Israel followed after the gods of the nations round about, when they followed after Baal and after Ashtaroth, and they did not worship the Lord their God who had done such wonders for them. We find, of course, at the end of the historical accounts that the children of Israel degeneratively got worse and worse, and things went downhill, and the kings became worse and worse. They had no concern for God, no thought for God, and altogether forgot God.

They polluted the Sabbaths of the Lord. They worshipped all their idols, and they walked in uncleanness. And so the lords was merciful, he was long-suffering with them. He sent the prophets to them. We have so many of the writings of the prophets here in the Scriptures for us, and if we read through them, sometimes they can make very hard reading. They speak sometimes in pictures, and yet one thing that is common to them all, they are all pleading with the people to return to the Lord.

And they are saying to them, if you do not return to the Lord your God who has done such great things for you, if you do not seek the God of heaven, if you are not right with the God of heaven, then he will come in destruction, and judgment will fall upon you, and desolation will come to you, and ruin, and you will be ruined. You will be taken away into a land afar off. You will be invaded. Your nation will be desolate.

And all this has come to pass when Ezekiel is writing. Ezekiel and Jeremiah were contemporaries. The prophet Jeremiah was, as we read in the historical part of his prophecy, he was there when Jerusalem was destroyed. And we see him, he was one of those who remained there. But he was one of very few. Ezekiel was a prophet who was carried off with the majority of the people, with the best of the people, we might say, the noblest of the people, who are all carried away into Babylon, into captivity.

So when we find him in the earlier portion of this chapter, it speaks there of a prophecy which is to be spoken to the mountains of Israel. You might think, well, this is a bit strange. Normally a prophecy would be for a people or for a nation. But here we find the prophecy is directed specifically to the mountains, and as it is there in verse four particularly, to the mountains, to the hills, to the rivers, to the valleys, to the desolate wastes, to the cities that are forsaken, the sense of it is this. But it is a prophecy given in this form to a land which is barren of people, a land that has been emptied, has been stripped of all its wealth, of all its goodness. It has been left to itself, so to speak. And so all that is left are these mountains, the hills, the rivers, the valleys, the people have gone.

And yet this prophecy, as it would have been recited in the ears of the exiled people, would have been of great encouragement to them. if they had such a heart and a mind to seek after God. Because see what he says, this prophecy directed to the land, surely yet as the people read it, they would have had some hope, because this land which was now desolate and ruined, it was a land that would again be populated, a land which would be given back its people, so to speak. The land would be restored, to what it had been before.

And even as it was there in verse 11, I will settle you after your old estates and will do better unto you than at your beginnings. And ye shall know that I am the Lord. And so we find then, up until verse 16, this prophecy is given to the land of its restoration. And then following on from verse 16, we see the reason, if you like, for the judgment that had fallen upon them, and the reason for the restoration which was to follow. The judgment was, of course, as we see in verse 17, because they had defiled their own land. They had done all manner of uncleanness and sin before God in their own land, and so they had been removed.

And yet, with their being removed, and we must of course remember that God is never taken by surprise. He is never reactive to anything that happens, because he knows all things. He knows the end from the beginning, and nothing will ever take him by surprise.

And yet, after the children of Israel had been punished, after they had been taken into captivity, after they had been removed out of this pleasant land, we find then the heathen, They are speaking against God. They are given cause to blaspheme. They are given reason now to profane the name of the Lord. We read in verse 22, I do not this. He would not restore the children of Israel, not bring them back, for your own sakes, O house of Israel. But for my holy name's sake, which he hath profaned among the heathen with thee he went, and I will sanctify my great name.

And this was the great work. What we see here, if you like, is mercy exalted. But these words are spoken in verse 25 and following, which we come to particularly this morning. They were to be cleansed. Not only were they to be cleansed, but they were to be changed. A new heart was to be given to them.

And we find, of course, the scripture speaks to this very plainly in the New Testament. We see, if you like, the New Testament light shed upon this same truth. If you would turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, We find there in the 17th verse, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. A new heart, says the prophet, 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 flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. But let us observe in the first place the work of man, the work of man and its consequences. This is all that has brought them into this state.

Man, left to himself, where does he end up? Well, he ends up like this, in the sight of God, I speak. He ends up in a state of deep filthiness, worshiping all manner of idols, following after all manner of falsehoods, following after all manner of things which will ultimately end in his ruin. The prophet Hosea speaking to the children of Israel, he cries out with this lament, O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself. And that is the way of the natural man. He goes about in this world with no thought of God.

And what is his end? What do you say? He does very well for himself. Look at him. He has so many nice cars. He has his mansions. He has all this wealth that he has accrued to himself. He is successful. Everybody respects him. They look up to him. He has everything that he could want in this world. Is he not doing well? He has not thought of God. He has been entirely ignorant of God.

Well, so it may be with some. And you may say, well, there is no ruin in that. And yet, understand his end. See what will become of this man. Watch this man as he goes on. See him perhaps on his deathbed. See him there, realizing, seeing all his life tumbling down before his eyes.

All his wealth that he has accrued of no use to him, of no value to him. See him now looking around at everything that he has done, everything that he has not done. And he has nothing really to hold on to. As he stands on the brink of eternity, he has nothing to strengthen him, nothing to help him to stand, nothing to take with him. He is all alone. All without help, without hope, with nothing.

And the scripture teaches us that such a man, if he does not seek after God, if he does not look to be right with his maker, at the last he will find ruin and destruction. Some find it in this life, Some find, by virtue of breaking the laws of God, going against his will, going against his pattern, that their lives are shortened. Proverbs speak of this in numerous places. How that the days of those that fear God shall be prolonged, and yet the days of the wicked shall be shortened. And so it sometimes naturally works out to be so. Those who do not follow after the laws of God soon ruin themselves. Perhaps they ruin their health. Perhaps they ruin themselves by breaking the laws of God. And they know destruction in this life.

And yet what more concerns us is that of eternity. And we know from the scriptures that ruin and destruction is all that shall come. to those who do not seek the Lord. It is plain scripture teaching. And we see that this is always the consequence of this way. To be filthy, to be unclean before God, to never look to the one who can cleanse, to never seek to have such water sprinkled upon them, to follow after these idols. to follow on in a path, even of atheism, trying to pretend that there is no God, or whether to pretend that there is a God, and yet to refuse to come to him in the appointed way. All these things lead to ruin.

We'll see then, in the second place, a work of God. The work of God, I should say. particularly that which is spoken of here. Man himself gets himself into an awful mess. He creates for himself ruin and destruction. Ah, but see what the promise of God is here. See what the work of God is. I will sprinkle clean water upon you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. There are many things we might say here. The first we must observe is this.

Why is it, how is it that God proposes an act of mercy to those who are outright rebels against his law and against his grace and against his justice? Those who have broken all of his laws. Those who have refused to walk in his ways. Those who are determined to go in their own way. Determined to walk in a way of sin.

How is it that this is spoken to such a rebellious people? How is it that this is spoken and this word is given to a people who have sinned against God and are even now suffering punishment as a token of it? This is extraordinary. Some might say, this is almost beyond belief.

It's not how we would behave, not a plan that we would have devised. If we had taken thought for this matter, we had taken thought What to do with those, perhaps, who were under us, over whom we had some authority, who had done some awful thing, had broken some rule that we had set down? Well, how would we behave? If it was, for instance, in the situation of a manager with an employee at his work, well, what would he say? Well, if it wasn't an offence serious enough, he would be fired. for sure he would be under discipline. he would have a warning at least. but in time if he persisted in it if he went on in that way well he would have nothing more to do with it. he would no longer be working for that company. he would no longer have that employment. he would be done with. but here is an act of mercy proposed. an act of great mercy.

Well, to God be the glory for such great things as these. That he should ever propose to send his son into this world. That he should ever go through and cause that Christ might be sentenced to bleed and to die for the sins of man. The sins of rebels, for the sins of those who were dead in trespasses and sins.

What a marvel is this, what a wonder. What grace is there in this? What love, I say, what love, that should bring the very Son of God down from heaven, to come into this world, slowly working itself up into ruin, a sinful world, a foreign world, and that not to be treated well, but to be brought up in poor condition, to be ill-treated of man, to be crucified, and to die. What is this? It is a pure work. It is a holy work. It is a work into which we cannot fathom the depths of grace and love and mercy in it. We cannot bottom it. We can't get to it. It is almost beyond us.

But here it is, my friends. It is in this book, this infallible book. It is here. It is the word of God who cannot lie. And as it is here, so it is true. And so it is our responsibility to believe it. That is what falls to us, to hold onto this truth. Here is the voice of God speaking. And more, here is the work of God in action. And so many of us, I am sure this morning even, can testify of this in our own hearts. That we have known this. We have experienced this. It has been done for us.

And if it has been so, what should hold any back from this? But it is here shown. It is nothing of man. Man cannot do it. Come on to this in just a moment. But man cannot do it. Man could not change a stone into flesh if he tried. Of course, it was Satan that tempted Christ when he was in the wilderness. If thou be the Son of God, make these stones into bread. Well, Christ would not. He would not be so tempted of the devil.

And yet here he is, as it were, authoring. to cause such a thing to be and a greater thing at that. Not stone into flesh, but here he is speaking of the heart. And is it not so true that sometimes we know the truth of that scripture which the prophet says, the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know it? And his sense there is, well, I can scarcely fathom my own heart myself. I can scarcely understand it. I can scarcely work out how it is that it works and desires and goes after these strange things. And as he is saying it, well, if we cannot even tell our own hearts, if we can't even understand our own hearts sometimes, well, how can we even begin to think about changing it?

And yet here is God, the almighty God in heaven. looking down upon puny man in this world, and he says, a new heart also will I give you. And when it is presented like that, it sounds so straightforward, does it not? To God, it is. At the very beginning, God spoke, and it was so. Then, At those oldest times, it took but a word of the Almighty and all this world came into being. He spoke and the sun shone from the heavens. He spoke and the waters were separated. He spoke and the earth was populated.

He who has such power is able also to work in this way. A new heart also will I give you. Well, let us come to consider this matter. Thirdly, the stony heart that is spoken of here. What is it that he means? Well, here is a heart presented to our view. Well, in the first place, it is hard. A stone is always hard. It is hard to break. It is tough. You can throw it, you can drop it.

And yet it will not crack. It will not break. It cannot be penetrated. It cannot respond. It is dead. It is altogether passive. You cannot take a stone and do with it as you might with something that is rubber. You cannot do with it as you might to clay. You cannot mold it or form it into anything. But it is there. Unless you have some tools, some great force, you cannot change it. What so a man's heart may be described in this way as a stone.

It is unresponsive towards God. It is dead, it is lifeless. It can do nothing of itself and nothing for itself. It is truly, as the scriptures speak and I quoted earlier, dead in trespasses and sins. Lifeless towards God and altogether of a stony nature. It is a heart which is so cold, again, towards God.

A stone. If you were to take a stone, the exterior of the stone may warm up, and yet within there is no warmth. You may put a stone under the blazing heat of the sun. You might put it in the depths of a snowdrift, and there would be no change to it, no alteration to it. It would be no different, whatever you did with it. This is the description that is given. Oh, what a desperate case is this. Resistant to everything. Resistant to the gospel.

Yet we know there were these in the times of the apostles. The apostles went forth preaching the word. They preached with the power of the Holy Spirit. And yet what do we find? There were some who even when thousands were being converted around them, they were untouched by it. completely unmoved.

They went on their way. They thought no more of these things. They were not touched by the fire. What was it? They had stony hearts towards the God of the world. They would not hear the gospel. And even when the pleas were brought to them, even when their sins were set before their sight, even when Jesus Christ and him crucified was presented to their view, Even when it was revealed to them, this Jesus, they had crucified, they had nailed to the cross, they had put him there.

Even when all these things were presented to their view, they cared nothing for them. They were not concerned about it, they were not touched by it. Touched perhaps naturally, perhaps not even that. But being completely unmoved by it, they carried on their way.

And even some, we read, tried to stop the apostles. Moved with jealousy and hatred, they set themselves against them to persecute them, to drive them out and to destroy them. To stop them from preaching in the name of Christ. Oh, my friends, every man at one time has had a heart like this, a stony heart towards God. a heart which did not respond, a heart which did not move at God. There are some who hear the gospel even from the youngest age, some who know of the way of salvation, some who have heard of the mercy and the love of God almost from the moment they are born. There are others who have not heard anything of it and yet hear it for the first time and still reject it. But my friends, the scripture describes it as all the same. The case is all the same.

Ah, but what is it now to have this changed? See in the fourth place what this heart of flesh is. Take away the stony heart out of your flesh. and I will give you a heart of flesh. What is this heart of flesh? Well, he speaks here now of something which is much softer, something which is alive, something which now has Blood coursing through it, so to speak.

Something which is now, which can be moulded. Something which can be fashioned. Something which can respond. Something which can feel towards God. Something which is altogether alive. How wonderful is this, now, what a change, what a contrast, from the stone on the one hand, now to be turned into something living, something which is breathing towards God, something which is living towards the Almighty God, now which has breathings out towards him in prayers and supplications, Something which now knows in itself of the love of God shown towards it.

Something which now burns. Yes, it may be a feeble glimmer of a flame. It may not be much, but it has something of it. Something of a life. Something of a fire in it. Burning towards God now, when it feels the love of God bestowed upon it. Is not this wonderful? What is it? What has happened? Christ has come. Christ has made the difference. Christ has come to this soul. This is the difference.

That cold heart, that stony heart, it will have nothing to do with it. Nothing to do with religion. Nothing to do with God. Nothing to do. No concern for itself. No concern for eternity. No concern for its future. No concern for its end. No concern for its eternity. Ah, but see now it has changed. What has happened?

By the grace of God, sin has been revealed to it, has seen its desperate wickedness, has seen its utter ruin, the desolation that it will come to if it continues in such a way, and not only this, but in a sense of ruin, in a state of desperation, while Christ has been presented to view. It is different, of course, for everyone, not all, No, the terrors of the law, not all are brought under such deep conviction of sin at the first. For some, it comes more gradually.

And as they go on in the Christian life, they come to know more deeply what it is that they have done, the state of their heart before God. Ah, but see, the great thing is that they have known something of it. The great thing is that they have known that they can't do anything of themselves, and therefore God is their only hope. And since that is the case, seeing Christ brought to their view, Christ and Him crucified, preached in the gospel, now seeing Him, casting everything away, casting away all confidence of the flesh and trusting alone in Him, now they find themselves changed. And the work goes on in their hearts. The work happens in an instance.

The believer, of course, is not perfect in an instant. He does not automatically and suddenly turn into a man who is on fire for God, necessarily. He does not always immediately turn into a very holy and sanctified man. He does not immediately turn into a person who is altogether perfect in this world.

No, because he is still in this old body. He is still subject to his old nature. Yes, his heart is changed. What does that mean? Well, it does not mean that he is perfect, I say, but it means that his greatest, his truest, his sincerest, his best desires, and the most of his desires, lie in a better direction. Once his heart was altogether, and I say naturally, bent in a certain direction, That was the way of the stony heart and he was bent very firmly in that way.

And it takes nothing but a work of God to turn him out of it. But he is set in his own ways. Set in following after his own ways. And yet God turns him out of them. Brings him away from them. It causes him to look to Christ, and when that happens, no longer does he always concerned about himself, but now he is concerned about God. Of course, he falls sometimes, and it grieves him sore. Sometimes he thinks more about himself than he does about God. I said it causes him grief, did I? That is a change, never used to. It never used to trouble him.

But now it troubles him because his heart has been changed. Because now he has been caused to see the Almighty. Now his eyes have been fixed upon a better end, a better goal. He now looks as it were higher than himself. He looks to God. And this great change is affected in his heart. More than this, I say, because now, once his heart has been so changed, well, what do we find?

He does not stand on his own when he comes to judgment. When he is there nearing the verge of eternity, he is not alone. No. He has Christ with him. And when he goes to stand in judgment, he will not stand alone. But see, there is one to plead his cause. There is one to stand who has borne the suffering and the punishment for his sins. One there who has suffered for his sake and has imputed his righteousness to him so that before God the poor man, the sinful man, is accounted righteous before God. There is one standing there. to save him, and his name is Jesus. And this one, as he is there, he it is that is behind it all.

We scarcely find Christ mentioned so much in the Old Testament. We read of the Messiah on a couple of occasions. We read of the one who is promised to come, and yet, my friends, he is here plain enough. This is a work which he should effect, a work which he alone could do to bring about this change, to cause this cleansing to come upon the people, to cause them to be washed from their sins and for their heart to be changed. Well, this is what God can do. He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think.

We may say my case is hopeless. I cannot do it. Perhaps you might say I am stuck. I am trapped in a cycle. I am caught in a sinful lifestyle, a sinful way. I have been doing this for so long. I've heard these things so many times. Can it be now that God would receive me? For sure.

The hymn says, Christ receiveth sinful man. And remember this, Christ himself came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. God commandeth all men everywhere to repent. And sinners who do not come in such a way as this, those who do not turn out of this way, will suffer for their failure to do so. For this is presented to our view, the promise is given, and Christ says, come.

We find it there. If you were to turn to the Gospels, you know the words, I'm sure, very well. In Matthew chapter 11, towards the close of the chapter, we read these precious words. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Christ calls you to come. will not fail those who come to him. He will not turn any man away because he is too sinful. He will not turn any man away who comes in sincerity. But this is what he will do. He will affect this great work. He will cause this great change to come to pass. and shall we have the glory of it? Does a believer then have the ability to walk around and think that he is so much better than everybody else for this work that has been done in him? No. You see, I said earlier, The children of Israel were not to be restored to the land for their own sakes, not for their own goodness, not for anything in them, not even for any foresight of any good that they might do as some have supposed, but rather that the name of God might be glorified, that Christ might be exalted, that glory might be to him in the church throughout all ages. That is what we speak of, then. That is our glory. That, as it was the apostles, so it may be ours, is our boast. Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Oh, my friends, have you known anything of this in your own hearts? Have you known of the Lord's working? Have you known this change within yourselves? If you cannot say that you truly have, come, even this morning. Plead with the Lord that he might work in you.

He might cause this change to come to pass. The word is here. A new heart also will I give you, 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. That is the word of God. Come, even to Christ. and he is able to do this. But may the Lord bless these things to us this morning, for Christ's sake. Amen.