Ye Shall Remember

Q: What does the Bible say about our spiritual needs?

The Bible identifies our desperate spiritual needs, including the need for righteousness, the atonement of our sins, and spiritual life. According to the Bible, we come into this world with deep spiritual needs. Specifically, we lack the righteousness necessary to approach God, as our own righteousness is described as 'filthy rags' (Isaiah 64:6). We also need our sins to be dealt with in a way that satisfies God's justice, which cannot be achieved through mere acts of religiosity or self-effort. Finally, we need spiritual life because by nature, we are 'dead in trespasses and sins' (Ephesians 2:1). Each of these needs is met through the grace of God and the work of Christ on our behalf, as stated in Ezekiel 36:23-31.

Q: How do we know God's promises are true?

God's promises are grounded in His unchanging nature and His covenant faithfulness, as seen throughout Scripture. God's promises are affirmed by His inherent character and faithfulness, which are consistent and true across generations. Throughout the Scriptures, God has declared, 'I will' do certain things for His people, emphasizing His sovereign will and power to act. In Ezekiel 36, we see that God acts not for our sake but for His holy name's sake, which He has promised to sanctify and make known among the nations (Ezekiel 36:22-23). This assurance is that when God states His intention, He accomplishes it, assuring His people of His fidelity.

Q: Why is the concept of total depravity important for Christians?

Total depravity emphasizes our inability to save ourselves and highlights our need for God's grace in salvation. The doctrine of total depravity is crucial in understanding the plight of humanity. It teaches that every aspect of human nature is affected by sin, which means that we are unable to turn to God or seek Him on our own. Scripture states that we are born spiritually dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). Recognizing total depravity leads to the acknowledgment that outside of God's sovereign grace, we can do nothing to redeem ourselves or fulfill His righteous requirements. This understanding prompts a deeper appreciation for the grace offered through Christ, who provides the righteousness we lack and the spiritual life we need.

Q: What does Ezekiel 36 teach about God's grace?

Ezekiel 36 reveals God's grace through His promises to cleanse, regenerate, and restore His people. Ezekiel 36 is a profound declaration of God's grace and mercy toward His people. In this chapter, God promises to cleanse us from our impurities and give us a new heart and a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:25-26). This divine initiative underscores that salvation is not something we earn; rather, it's a gift of grace from God Himself. He acts out of love and for His name's sake, ensuring that the focus remains on His glory rather than our merit. Such promises should lead believers to joyful worship and gratitude for the transformation that only He can achieve in our lives.

Q: How can we approach God with our sins?

We can approach God by relying on Christ's atoning sacrifice, which cleanses us from all unrighteousness. To approach God with our sins, we must understand that our attempts to cleanse ourselves are futile. The Bible tells us that we cannot stand before God based on our own righteousness; instead, we must rely entirely on the righteousness of Christ, who bore our sins in His body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24). Through faith in Christ, we can confess our sins and receive His forgiveness, as promised in 1 John 1:9, which assures us that He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This conveys that our approach to God hinges on His grace, not our ability to rectify our wrongdoings.

I want to say again what a wonderful blessing it is to be here. I know that you have never done anything very foolish. I did something very foolish the other day. I was studying and I decided to go out and ruminate. Think about what I was studying and I went down to the river and the wind was blowing and it was cold and I got a frog in my throat. Now it's not sore. I'm thankful for that, but I was sitting there listening to myself sing and I said, I better go out into the hall. It's terrible, terrible.

But anyway, we want to bring a short lesson this afternoon. We've been spending some time last several times that we've been with you. We've been spending some time on the subject of the I wills of God, the I wills of God. Now, it's so wonderful that God's people have never had God say, I wish I could do something. We have always heard God say, I will do something. He's never been caught off, never been caught up short. He always has a plan. And his plan has been from everlasting to everlasting. There is no end to the plan that God has.

And he has purpose in his word to share with us things that he will do. And they're blessings to the church. They're blessings to God's people. They're an encouragement to us to know that God said, I will do some things. Now, before I go over to the book of Ezekiel chapter 36 and read a few verses, we've read most of them before, but we want to conclude a little section there. But before I go over there, I just want to say this, that we have some desperate needs in our life by nature. When we're born into this world, we come into this world with some desperate needs.

Now I'm not specifically talking about physical needs because most of the time those things are taken care of by our mom and dad. I've noticed a known a few people whose parents didn't care for them. I'm sorry if that was your circumstance, but most parents take care of their children. But I'm talking about eternal things. I'm talking about spiritual things.

We come into this world with some very desperate spiritual needs. There are three of them in particular, and they're all taken care of here in this book of Ezekiel chapter 36. The first thing that we need, desperately need, Because the Bible tells us that our righteousness is as filthy rags. So if we think for a moment that we have righteousness to approach God on, the Bible tells us, and that's the only authority I have.

I don't want to guess about this. I don't want to surmise about this. I don't want it to be caught off guard. I must go to the word of God to get the answers to spiritual things. And the word of God is very clear on this, that by nature, our righteousness is as filthy rags. We need help in that area. We need perfect righteousness to approach God. We cannot approach God on righteousness that is ours. We need perfect righteousness. And the next thing that we need so desperately is we need our sin taken care of. We cannot approach God with all our sin. It must be taken care of in a way satisfactory to God. And that's not becoming religious. That's not going through some ordinance, not memorizing something.

That's an act that God must perform on us. and in us. So we have three very serious issues that we're born into this world with, we grow up with, and unless God acts upon us, we'll die with those serious problems and we'll not face God on good terms. The first one, we need a righteousness. The second one, we need our sin dealt with. And the third one is, we need a spiritual life. The Bible tells us that we're dead in trespasses and sin. When our father Adam disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden and ate that forbidden fruit, he died spiritually instantly.

His body went on and lived for another about 900 years. That's what the Bible says. I had a teacher one time who was very religious and he said, You know, people used to live only 45 or 50 years. And I said, well, there used to be people who lived to be 900 years old. He says, that's not right. I went into the little school library, pulled it out to this religious person, and read there in Genesis. And sure enough, there are people that live to be 969 years. That's in God's word.

Now, we're either going to believe it or we don't believe it. And if we don't believe it, we're unbelievers. And I'd rather be a believer. I'd rather be a believer. All right, so we have a need of righteousness, we have a need for our sin to be dealt with, and we have a need to have a spiritual life.

The scriptures tell us that, and you hath he quickened. Now I mentioned that word in our services this morning. I had a young man that I was talking to for some time and I read that verse of scripture and I asked him, what does the word quicken mean? And he says, well, that's to be fast. You know, most of the time in our modern vernacular, when we hear the word quick, we think of being fast.

Well, when the Bible was translated, that word meant made alive. made alive, and you hath he made alive, you hath he quickened, who are dead in trespasses and sin. So we have three problems and we have all of them taken care of in Christ Jesus the Lord. So let's go over to the book of Ezekiel chapter 36. And I wanna read just about seven or eight verses over here and make some comments on them.

And we find out that God said, I will take care of them all. He's not gonna say, I wish I could take care of him. If you did so much, then I could. He says, I will. And the church is thankful because we find out we're unable on our own to do what God requires us to do. We can't do the law. We can't keep the commandments. It's an impossibility, but he has taken care of it.

All right, over in the book of Ezekiel chapter 36, You know, I do a lot of study out of the Old Testament because I found out that that is the section of the Bible that Jesus did all his preaching out of. He didn't have the New Testament at the time. That's the section that Paul did all his preaching out of, because he didn't have the New Testament at the time.

And all of the apostles and all the prophets had to use sections out of the Old Testament to do their preaching out of. and they preach Christ all the time because Christ is the message of the Old Testament as well as the New Testament. Salvation in a person, Jesus Christ the righteous. All right, here in the book of Ezekiel, Old Testament, we have New Testament principles brought out, declared here, by the prophet Ezekiel, because he was saved by the same grace, he saved Saul of Tarsus by, he's the one that revealed Jesus Christ in the scriptures, just like he did to Saul of Tarsus, and to you and I, if we know Christ as our Savior, the revelation of Jesus Christ. It says here in Ezekiel chapter 36, therefore, say ye unto the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God. I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for my holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whether ye went."

Now that's the problem. We as natural men, we have profaned. the name of God by establishing our own righteousness and not claiming the righteousness of Christ. We have made mockery out of him. We've mocked the God of heaven by saying, I can take care of the problem by myself. I'm capable of doing that. We find out God said, no, you're not. You can't take care of it yourself. You cannot approach spiritual God on your flesh.

And then he goes on to say, and I will sanctify my great name. What a wonderful thing that God said about himself. I'll do that. I'll sanctify my name or I'll make it great among the people. I will save my people from their sins, and I'll make my name great among them because of the great salvation I have, which was profaned among the heathen." What did Adam do when he sinned against God?

He profaned God's name right there in the Garden of Eden. He, just the day before it, had a conversation with him. He had a visit with God Almighty coming down in the cool of the evening. And then he went out there and ate that forbidden fruit, whatever it was. He ate that forbidden fruit and he mocked God and said, you can't tell me what to do. And God said, the day you eat, you shall surely die. And he did, spiritually died.

And he passes that trait onto everyone that's ever been descended from him. The heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. When I save my people from their sins, I'm going to sanctify my great power in front of everybody ever born. This is what I do to my people when I save them by my grace.

Then will I sprinkle clean water. Now he's not talking about baptism there, he's talking about the word. I'll sprinkle clean water. You know, God's word from beginning to end is as clean as a pure brook of water. It is so pure and how people have done an injustice to God by taking God's word and changing it to meet their own needs and their own standards. picking and choosing verses of scripture out of the Bible and making it nonsense. Oh, to take it as a whole and see he is God that rules in heaven and earth.

He has a purpose that he's going to carry out. He's going to save his people from their sins. He sent his only begotten son down to this earth, not to set up a kingdom, but he sent his son down to this earth to die in the stead and place of his people, and he poured out his rich blood on our behalf that we might have eternal life in Christ Jesus. And then he was buried, rose again the third day in great success, and declared the name of God among the heathen. What a blessing. that God did on the behalf of the church, on the behalf of Jesus said, I lay down my life, a ransom for many. I give my life. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.

And then he goes on to tell us a new heart also will I give you, you know, we're in desperate need of a new heart. My dad was probably 50 years old when Dr. Bernard, I think it was, did the first heart transplant. Man, what a miracle. Take a heart from someone else and put it in a heart. The guy needs a heart. And it worked. Now he had to take lots of pills to make it so it wouldn't react or reject it, but it worked. That's not the kind of heart we're talking about here. He's not talking about a physical heart. We need a spiritual heart. We need a heart that died in Adam. We need a heart that is dead and trespasses us in. And God said, I will give you a new heart. I'll give you a spiritual heart that can worship me.

You will recognize me as God. I'll recognize you as my people. You will say, thank you, Lord. And he'll say, you're welcome. because he loves his people with an everlasting love. And that heart, he said, I'll be to you a God, you shall be my people. And the people said, amen.

By nature, we don't want that. By spiritual birth, we crave it. It's our desire to have Him as our God. We worship Him, we bow before Him, we thank Him. And it's not just for our meals, it's for every breath of life, every spiritual blessing that we have in Christ Jesus. A new heart also will I give you. He said, I'll give it. I'm not hoping to give you a new heart, I will give you a new heart. Everyone that God purposes to give the new heart to, He gives a new heart. And you know what? He doesn't ask for permission. He saves us according to his grace and mercy. We'd never vote for him. I've had people say, I'd never vote for that guy. You know, in Adam, we all said, I'll never vote for God. No way, no way. We're enemies.

Oh, I like that little God that I can control. A friend of mine said that peanut God, That God that's in a wheelchair, the one I can control and tell what to do, when I pray, I expect him to come through with the answer to my prayers like I want him and not like he does. Well, that's not God. This God is the everlasting God that rules in the armies of heaven among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his head or say, what doest thou? That's this God. That's the God of the Bible.

That's the God that saves his people from their sins. I'll put my spirit within you. What a hallelujah moment when he regenerates us and gives us his spirit. Indwelling of the spirit, God taking up residence in the heart of somebody that he created in Adam and gave salvation to. A new attitude, a new spirit, a new thought about God, to love him. I'll be your God, you shall be my people. I will love you, you shall love me. Why do we love him? We love him because he first loved us. We can't love him until he expresses his love to us. It's just an impossibility.

You shall dwell in the land. Now, so many people look and say, well, look at there, that's Israel getting the land. You know, the land is the special blessings that God has for the church. It's a land of promise. It's a land that floweth with milk and honey. And that's figurative language. It's a good land.

You know, even in this evil world, he has set aside a place for us to enjoy the rich blessings of Christ. Even among all the turmoil, we can be at peace. Among all the trouble, we can be settled. We can have a place that is at peace with God. What a blessing that is. I'll save you from all your uncleanness. You know, God said, I'll save you from your uncleanness. I'll take care of your sin.

You can't wash it away, you can't, there's just no way of getting rid of it. Have you ever done New Year's resolutions? Oh yeah, yeah, I have. You know, about the third day, I failed on the first one that I tried to set aside and it didn't take about three more days and I said, oh, what's the use anyway? Cause I can't get rid of them. I cannot, I just can't get there from here. Well, that's the way it is with our sin. We just can't get rid of them. Our heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? God has to deal with that.

He's the one that shall save you from your uncleanness. And I will call for the corn and will increase it and lay no famine upon you. I will bless you with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. Everything that God has ever promised will be the churches from eternal life to eternal life. I'll multiply the fruit.

You know, we just continuously are able to reap the harvest of the good fruit that God has for us in his word. The newspaper doesn't have much good news, but the Bible does. These things that go on in the world, they're not very good news, but God's word is a place of safety. a fair haven, a shadow in a dry, thirsty land. We have that.

And then, you know, after he saves us by his grace, then, he said, then shall ye remember your own evil ways. You know, we're not even able to comprehend a minuscule amount of the problem that we have in our fallen Adam until after we've been born again, and he lets us see what the glory of God is in respect to what we are. Oh, mercy, it's worse than I thought. My sin is worse than I thought. It's only the church that ever admits that they're sinners before God, only the church, only the sapiens. You know, I'm bad, I'm not that bad.

We had a young lady that used to attend church, and Mike and I were talking about this just recently, and I mentioned it again this morning. You love that song, Amazing Grace? Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Well, this young lady was singing that song because it's a nice tune besides good words. And she came to that word, wretch, and she went to her mama and says, mama, what's a wretch? So she explained to her what a wretch was. You know what the little girl said then? I'm not like that. You know what? By nature, we will never admit that we're like that.

But by the grace of God, the grace of God, we can say, as the Apostle Paul said, it's a faithful, sane, and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus came to die for sinners of whom I am chief. Whom I am chief. Saul of Tarsus said that. He became the Apostle Paul. Saul of Tarsus was a wicked, wretched man. You know, if he was still alive, he'd be right out there at the door checking on this and going to arrest people and haul them off to jail because they was preaching the gospel. God saved him by his grace. He preached Christ to the day he died. And he was able to say, He saved the chiefest of sinners.

I heard a young preacher say one time, you know, Paul said that about himself, but every one of us could say the same thing about ourselves if we're honest with God. You shall remember your own evil ways, your doings that were not good, shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.

Oh my, oh my, oh my. No end to that, but no end to grace. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. So God's I wills. He never said, I wish that person would listen to me. You know what he does? He causes us to hear him. I never, I wish I could talk to him. He didn't do that. He gets in our face and talks to us. The Bible uses a term and all preachers, he arrests us. He arrests us. You know, after he arrests us, we're so thankful that he arrested us because left to ourselves, we'd ended up in a pit. And so God said, I will. And the church says, thank you, Lord. Brother Mike.

Ye Shall Remember

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about our spiritual needs?

How do we know God's promises are true?

Why is the concept of total depravity important for Christians?

What does Ezekiel 36 teach about God's grace?

How can we approach God with our sins?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

Joshua

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

Ye Shall Remember

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about our spiritual needs?

How do we know God's promises are true?

Why is the concept of total depravity important for Christians?

What does Ezekiel 36 teach about God's grace?

How can we approach God with our sins?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

More from Norm Wells

Related Sermons

Same Scripture

Articles by Norm Wells

Suggested for You

Joshua

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book