Would you turn to Ezekiel chapter
36? While you're turning there, if some of you could stay after
the service and help arrange the tables for the Vacation Bible
School, Kelly's going to tell everybody where everything needs
to be. So we got a boss and you all just do what she says to
do. I'm sure that's Richard's life. Ezekiel 36. I'd like to read. Beginning in verse 16, down through
the end of the chapter. I hesitate to say this is a very
important passage of Scripture because every passage of Scripture
is a very important passage of Scripture. But all of the elements
of the gospel are found in this passage of scripture. So let's
keep that in mind as we read it. Verse 16. Moreover, the word of the Lord
came unto me, saying, Son of man, when the house of Israel
dwelt in their own land, they defiled it. by their own way
and by their doings. Their way was before me as the
uncleanness of a removed woman. 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 I scattered
them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries
according to their way and according to their doings. I judged And
when they entered unto the heathen, whether 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. But I have pity
for mine holy name, which the house of Israel hath profaned
among the heathen, whether they went. Therefore 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
you profaned among the heathen, whether you went. And I will
sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen,
which you 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. 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. 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 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'll give
you a 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, and you shall dwell in the land that I give to your
fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God."
I will also save you from all your uncleannesses, and I will
call for the cord and will increase it and lay no famine upon you.
And I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the increase
of the field that you shall receive no more reproach of famine among
the heathen. Then, after I have done all these
things, then shall you remember your own evil ways and your doings
that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own
sight 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. Thus saith the Lord God in the
day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities,
I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes
shall be builded, and the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas
it lay desolate in the sight of all that pass by. And they
shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden
of Eden, and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become
fenced and are inhabited. Then the heathen that are left
round about you shall know that I the build the ruined places,
and plant that which was desolate, I the Lord have spoken it, and
I will do it. Thus saith the Lord God, I will
yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it
for them. I will increase them with men
like a flock, as the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in
her solemn feast. So shall the way cities be filled
with flocks of men, and they shall know that I am the Lord." I have entitled this message,
The Issue Then and Now. And I could almost just as easily
entitle it the gospel then and now. By issue, I mean the essential
point or the essential points of the gospel. Now, the issue
then in Ezekiel's day and every other day is the issue of right
now. There are no new issues. The
issue then is the issue now, and the issue now will be what
the issue is tomorrow. The issue is, what is the gospel? That's the issue that you and
I are faced with all the time. What is the gospel? Now, the gospel is, like its
author, eternal. and unchanging. So if I can find
out what the gospel was in Ezekiel's day, I can find out what the
gospel is in our day. The issues or the essential points
of the gospel are spelled out so clearly in this passage of
scripture that I just read. And the first thing that comes
to my mind in the reading of that passage of scripture is
my own sinfulness. That passage is kind of sad,
isn't it? How the Lord says to his people, you've profaned my
name by your own doings. The gospel is for a people. Now,
you listen real carefully. The gospel is for a people that
are so evil that there's not one thing in them that would
move God to save them. That's who the gospel is for.
How many times throughout this passage of scripture did he say,
I'm not doing this for your sakes. Be it known unto you, I'm not
doing this because of something that you've done that moved me
to save you. The gospel is for people who
are so unclean and filthy. Unclean and filthy. and they
cannot cleanse themselves. The gospel is for people whose
hearts are so bad that they are likened to a stone, cold, dead,
and hard, so defiled that it is beyond mending or repair,
and they must be given new hearts. Not the old heart fixed and but
New Horns. Would this describe you? If not, I don't have a gospel to preach
to you. You see, the gospel of Christ, and this is one of the
many things that are so precious to me regarding the gospel. The
gospel of Christ is essentially and fundamentally a religion
for sinners. That makes it unique, doesn't
it? It's like no other religion. It's a religion that's essentially
and fundamentally for sinners. That means it's for me. Thank God for that. The people
that are described And I'm saying this to my own shame, but also
it gives me some hope. The people that are described
in Ezekiel 36 describe me. Now, in this passage of Scripture,
we're given a divine motive for salvation. Look in verse 22. Therefore say unto the house
of Israel, thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for your sake,
O house of Israel. But for mine holy namesake, which
you profaned among the heathen, whether you went, look in verse
32, he repeats himself, not for your sakes do I this sayeth the
Lord God, be it known unto you, be ashamed and confounded for
your own ways, O house of Israel. Now, I'm so grateful. I'm so
thankful that he's not doing this for my sake, because if
he had to do this for my sake, he wouldn't find a reason to
do it. You believe that? If God had
to find a reason in you that would make you a recipient of
salvation, what would he find? Absolutely nothing. If he had to find a reason in
me, he wouldn't find one, but he does this for his own holy
namesake. Look in verse 23. He says, I
will sanctify my great name. And remember, his great name
is the person behind the name. I will sanctify my great name
which was profaned among the heathen, which you have profaned
in the midst of them. These are the Lord's people.
Look at them. And the heathen shall know that
I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified
in you before their eyes. Now, the Lord's name is such. Like
I said, it's not just the audible name, it's the person behind
the name. He said in Exodus 3, 14, I am
that I am. And this helped me so much, I
read where one fellow said what that means is, or what is implied
in the Hebrews, the Hebrew is, I save in the manner which I
save. If you want to know who God is,
see how He saves. That tells you who He is. How he saves. And when God sanctifies
his great name by taking somebody like me, sinful and weak and
helpless as I am, and he perfectly conforms me to the image of his
Son, and I'm justified, oh, how that will sanctify his great
name. Who's going to get all the glory
in this sinner's salvation? I can say with such depth of
conviction, I know that he'll get all the glory and it'll sanctify
his great name. Look in verse 24, we see a sovereign
separation from the world, and this is what he does. For I will
take you from among the heathen. and gather you out of all the
countries, and will bring you into your own land, a sovereign
separation from the world." Now, why is it that you have an interest
in the things of Christ? Why is it that you want to be
here tonight? Why is it that you want to hear the gospel?
Why is it that you, in your heart, love the Lord Jesus Christ? He's gathered you out. You'd
be in the world with no desire for Him, no desire to hear the
gospel. You'd be satisfied with the husks
of this world. You'd just be happy. Somebody
says, everybody's just hungering for God. No, they're not. You'd
be happy without Him. But thank God He gathered you. He gathered me. He pulled me
out. Who makes you to differ from
another? Do you know the answer to that?
What do you have that you didn't receive? He gathered us out from
the heathen. Aren't you thankful that he gathered
you in? We wouldn't have come. We wouldn't
have come if he didn't gather us in. I know that. Thank God
for this sovereign grace that gathers us in. He said, I gathered
you in from the heathen. Verse 25. He says, Then will
I sprinkle clean water upon you. And you shall be clean from all
your filthiness and from your idols will I cleanse you. Now the word clean means pure,
uncontaminated, unadulterated, holy. When I sprinkle this clean water
on you and clean you, you will be clean. Now this tells us what
the blood of Christ actually does. it makes me clean, it makes
me perfect, it makes me holy. I love that passage of scripture
that was just read when Luke was reading the scripture in
Romans chapter 6 where Paul tells every one of us, he says that
this is a command to every believer, you reckon yourself, you reckon
yourself to be dead indeed to sin. Indeed means really, truly. Now the only reason God would
say, you reckon yourself to be dead indeed to sin, but alive
unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ is because I am dead indeed
to sin. Sin has nothing to say to me.
It's been put away. It has nothing to say to me.
I stand before God without guilt. That's what the blood of Christ
does. He says, I'll sprinkle you and you'll be clean. You'll
be pure. You'll be without sin. Hebrews
chapter 10 verse 14 says by one offering. Talking about his death
on the cross, by one offering, he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. When Jesus Christ the Lord offered
up his body on Calvary's tree, God said concerning everybody
he died for, they're perfected forever. It takes faith to believe that.
You can't see it by sight, can you? It takes faith to believe
that. But isn't faith the evidence
of things not seen? I can't see that I'm perfected
forever, but I believe that I am because God tells me I am. And
faith is the evidence of things not seen. Now, just because I
can't see it and because you can't see it doesn't mean it's
not so. Every believer is perfected, holy, unblameable, unreprovable
in God's sight through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
said, I'll sprinkle you and you shall be clean from all your
filthiness while I cleanse you all. It's all washed away. Nothing
is left. Now, look what he says in verse
26. Now remember, he's not doing
this for our sakes. He's not even doing this because we asked. He's doing this because he purposed
to do it. And we're going to ask for it,
as we're going to see, but that's not his reason for doing it.
He does it for his own holy namesake. Now, he says in verse 26, 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'll give you an heart of flesh." Now, this is what is
called the new birth. This is what's called being born
again. A new heart will I give you. He puts a heart there that was
not there before. The new heart is not the modification or the
improving. Or even influencing the old heart. It's putting something in there
brand new. If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature, a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things have become new. You got a new heart that wasn't
there before. You know, I hear preachers say, I've heard this
so many times. Won't you give Jesus your heart? What would
he want with that thing? What would he want with that
old, evil, wicked heart? You reckon he'd want that? No,
the only wise thing to do is ask him to give you a new one.
He said, a new heart, a new heart will I give you. Remember what
David said? He said, create in me a clean
heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. He didn't say
clean up this old one. He knew it was beyond repair.
Do you know that about your heart? It is so defiled. It can't be
improved. It can't even be influenced for
good. I must have a new heart, one that was not there before. He says, I'll take that stony
heart out, that cold, hard, dead heart, that heart that's unmoved
by the gospel of Christ, that heart that is unimpressed with
the great things of the gospel and the mystery of godliness,
and I'll give you a heart of flesh. I'll give you a living
heart, a heart that a heart that loves, a heart that rejoices
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's go on reading. He says,
A new heart also will I give you, in verse 26, a new spirit
will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out
of your flesh. And I give you a 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 all is the work of the Spirit
of God. When he puts a new heart within,
it's the work of the Spirit of God. God says, I'll put my Spirit
within you. It's what Peter called being
a partaker of the divine nature. That which is born of the Spirit,
our Lord said, is Spirit. Now, the work of the Holy Spirit
in getting a new heart is just as essential as the work of Christ
on the cross for the salvation of the sinner. It wouldn't do
me any good for Christ to die for my sins if I wasn't given
a new heart along with it. I'd mess it up. I'd mess it up.
But he says a new heart. This is the new birth. A new
heart also will I give you. And how we need the Spirit of
God. I need the Spirit of God to give me this new heart. I
need the Spirit of God to quicken me. The Lord said, it's the Spirit
that quickens. It's the Spirit that gives life.
The flesh profits nothing. And how we need the Spirit of
God. How I need the Spirit of God in the preaching of the gospel.
I can't preach the gospel unless God the Holy Spirit is pleased
to bless it. Even if what I say is true, it
won't do anybody any good unless God the Holy Spirit is pleased
to bless it. How bad do you need the Spirit
of God to read the scriptures? It's a closed book unless he
opens it. How bad do you need the Spirit of God to pray? We can't pray without God the
Holy Spirit. How we need the Spirit of God
in our worship services. There's no worship without the
Spirit of God, either private or public. Paul said, We are
the circumcision which worship God, how? In the Spirit. There is no worship without God,
the Holy Spirit, without a new nature. That's why I never say
to a group, to an unbeliever, come worship with us. I'll say,
come hear the gospel. I want you to hear the gospel.
I want you to hear the truth. But I don't say come worship
with us because you can't do that unless you have got the
Holy Spirit. I need his spirit. He said, my
spirit will I put within you. And what happens when he puts
his spirit within us? He says, I will cause you. To
walk. In my statutes. I will enlighten
you. I will enable you and I will
cause you to walk in my statutes. Now, I believe the gospel. And
I believe because it causes me to. I know that. You know, I don't want to be
given free will. I want to be caused to walk in
his statutes. I want God to cause me to walk
in his statutes. I've heard people say, boy, you
make everybody a robot. The one thing that's not so,
we do what we want to do, don't we? We do what we want to do. But I'll tell you what I want.
I want to be caused to walk in his statutes. I don't want to
be given a choice about it. I want to be made to do it. I
want to be caused to do it. He said, I'll cause you. Thank
God for that. I'll cause you to walk in my
statutes. I love the I wills and you shalls. If he causes me to walk in his
statutes, which is nothing but his appointments, his decrees,
if he's causing me to do it, I'll do it. Thank God for that.
Now let's go on reading. Seven, I will put my spirit within
you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep
my judgments and do them. Don't you love the I wills and
you shalls in the Bible? God says I will do this and you
shall do that. Because he said you'll do it,
you're going to do it. Verse 28, and you shall dwell
in the land that I've given to your fathers, and you shall be
my people, and I'll be your God. You'll dwell in the land. Now
what is the land that we dwell in? The Lord Jesus Christ. abiding
in him. That's the place we're at. And
that's the place we dwell. He says he's going to cause us
to dwell in the land, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he gives
us this blessed, precious promise. He said, I'll be your God. And
you'll be my people. You know what that means? I'll
be your God means I'm for you. To have God for you. If God be
for us, who can be against us? That means He's for me. He's
for me in all things. What a blessed place. I'll be
to them a God, and they'll be to me a people. You know what
that means? That means you're for God. He's for you, and you're for
Him. I love it when Moses said, Who's
on the Lord's side? I'm on the Lord's side. I'm not
on man's side. I'm not on man's side. I'm on the Lord's side.
He'll be to me a God, and we'll be to Him a people. Verse 29, I will save you from
all your uncleannesses, and I will call for the court and will increase
it and lay no famine upon you. I'll save you from all your uncleannesses. What about all the sin that vexes
you? And that you hate. And that you wish you could wring
it out of your heart. What about that sin? He's going to save you from it.
All your uncleannesses. Same thing that we have in the
promise of Matthew 121. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people. from their sins. What a precious
promise. That's what I need to say from
my sins. And he promises that he'll do that. Remember, this is a promise of
the gospel with regard to sin, with regard to sins you commit.
You use this with the Lord. Lord, you promised in your word
that sin will not have dominion over us because we're not under
law, but under grace. Lord, give me that grace. Don't
let any sin have dominion over me. You promised because of grace.
That's the way of awareness you go to the Lord with this promise.
I'm going to save you from all your uncleannesses and lay no
famine upon you. He talks about the fruit that
he will cause to be born. He said in verse 30, I will multiply
the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field, and you
shall receive no more reproach, a famine among the heathen. I'm
going to make you fruitful. I'm going to cause fruit to abound.
You know, he said in Hosea, for me is thy fruit bound. You know,
I want to bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit, don't you? And you
know, that's not something you work up. That's something he
causes. I'll cause your fruit to abound.
Now look at verse 31. Then, after I've done all these
things, Then shall you remember your own evil ways. Now, this
is part of the covenant. This is part of the covenant,
the covenant of grace, the covenant of his peace. Then shall you
remember your own evil ways and your own doings that were not
good and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities
and for your abominations. Part of the covenant is self-loathing. You know what? I loathe myself. I do. I loathe myself. I can't wait to get rid of this
human nature that I'm carrying around. I can't wait to get rid
of it. Oh, what's it going to be like
to not sin anymore? To have no more unbelief? No
more uncleanness? To be perfect in God's sight?
I loathe myself. I ain't. That's part of the covenant. He said, you'll loathe yourself
in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. Not
for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God. I like being reminded
of this. The Lord doesn't have to find
a reason in me to have mercy on me. He does it because he's
merciful. He does it because he's gracious.
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. Thus saith the Lord God, in the day that I shall cleanse
you from all your iniquities, I will also cause you to dwell
in the cities, and the waste shall be builded, and the desolate
land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in sight of all
that pass by. And they shall say, This land
that was desolate is become like the Garden of Eden, and the waste
and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced and are inhabited."
This is God's work. Then to heathen, the unbelievers
that are left round about, you shall know. They're going to
know in no uncertain terms that I the Lord build the ruined places. And plant that was desolate.
I, the Lord, have spoken it. I'll do it. It's obvious. Salvation's
of the Lord. It's His work. And then I'm so
thankful for this verse. Verse 37. Thus saith the Lord
God. Now, what am I supposed to do
before I read this? What am I supposed to do? I hear about all these
things the Lord says He's going to do. He's going to make me
clean. He's going to give me a new heart.
He's going to give me a new spirit. He's going to cause me to walk
in his statutes. He's going to make me to loathe
myself in my own sight. He's going to cause me to bear...
He talks about all these things that he's going to do. Now, what
am I supposed to do? Just wait for it to happen? Look what it says in verse 37.
Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of. They're going to ask me for it.
They're going to ask me for it. I will yet for this being inquired
of by the house of Israel to do it for them. Lord, would you
do this for me? Lord, would you make me clean? Lord, would you give me this
new heart? Lord, would you put your spirit
within me? Lord, would you cleanse me from
all my uncleanness? Lord, would you cause me to bear
fruit? Lord, would you cause me to loathe
myself, deliver me from my self-righteousness that is so contrary to the gospel?
Lord, would you do these things for me? I will yet for this be
inquired of, of the house of Israel, to do it for them. Now this is the place of prayer. Ask, and you shall receive. You have not because you ask
not. I don't have a new heart. Have you asked God for one? Anybody,
now you listen to me, real carefully. Anybody who asks the Lord God
for a new heart, He gives it to them. Anybody who asks for
mercy, gives it to him. And I know somebody's going to
be saying, well, I've asked for things. I've asked for mercy,
and he didn't give it to me. No, you never asked him for mercy.
You were kind of bargaining with him somehow, because anybody
who asks for mercy, they're going to receive it. I don't know how,
you know, like I say in this morning, you know, if you believe
in free will, you can't ask for mercy, because you think somehow
it's in your hands. It's not his to give or to withhold.
And if you believe in free will, you negate mercy altogether.
Ask, ask, and you shall receive. Seek, and you shall find. Knock,
and it shall be opened to you. For everyone that asketh receiveth,
and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall
be opened to him. I shall yet, for this, be inquired
of the house of Israel to do it for them. He says, I will
increase them with men. like a flock. Lord, increase
us with men like a flock. You said you would! Everybody
here, pray this. Lord, you said you'd increase
us with men like a flock. Now would you do what you said?
Increase us with men like... Wouldn't you love to see thousands
of people who believe the gospel of God's grace and rejoice in
the gospel? He said, I'll increase them with
men. Like a flock, as the Holy Flock,
not just men as numbers, but as the Holy Flock, as the flock
of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts, so shall the way cities be filled
with flocks of men, and they shall know that I am the Lord. The issue then, you see what
it was, is any different today. Is this a timeless passage of
scripture? I mean, it's just so timeless.
The same issue then, today, May we be enabled by the Spirit
of God to see these things that the Lord says He's going to do,
and then ask Him, Lord, make me clean. Lord, give me a new
heart. Mine's no good. Mine's filthy.
Give me this new heart. May the Lord enable every one
of us to inquire of Him, to do these things for us and in us. Beloved, if you ask, you will receive. Do you believe
that? If you ask, you will receive. Ask. Let's ask together.