Thus saith the Lord God, because
the enemy hath said against you, Aha! Even the high places, the
ancient high places, are ours in possession." The enemies of
God are ridiculing and mocking Israel. They're saying, you're
lost, you've been overrun, you've been taken, you're ours, you've
fallen prey to the enemy, even Jerusalem. Even the highest mountain,
the last place to be taken, is completely fallen. You are no
more. Now this may be referring, you
know, this is after David and after Solomon. This is not too
many years before our Lord came. But he may be talking here about
the last 1800 years when the Jews have been just scattered
all over the world, the Holy Land, Jerusalem overrun by factions
and Arabs and fighting people and just no Jews there, no people
of Israel, no worship, no tabernacle, no synagogue, no worship of God. Even the high places are down,
done away. Now look down at verse 6. In
verse 6, Now some a man prophesied therefore concerning the land
of Israel, and say to the mountain, and to the hills, and to the
rivers, and to the valleys. Thus saith the Lord God. I'm
not unaware of what's happened to my nation, Israel, my people,
David's people, Solomon's people, Abraham's seed. I'm not unaware
of what's happened. Now listen. I've spoken in my
jealousy and in my fury because ye borne the shame of the heathen. I've spoken in my wrath and my
jealousy. You've borne the ridicule and
the shame of the heathen. And he said, therefore thus saith
the Lord God, I have lifted up my hand and surely the heathen
that are about you and ridiculing you and laughing, they're going
to bear their shame. I'm going to deal with them.
Go back to verse 3 and look at this. Prophesy and say thus saith
the Lord God, because they have made you desolate, and swallowed
you up on every side, that you might be a possession unto the
residue of the heathen, and you're taken up in the lips of the talkers,
they're making fun of you, and your worship, and your holy days,
and your circumcision, and you're claiming to be the people of
God, you're an infamy of the people. Therefore, you mountains
of Israel, you hear the word of the Lord God. Thus saith the
Lord God to the mountains, to the hills, to the rivers, to
the valleys, to the desolate places, to the cities that are
forsaken, which have become a prey and a derision to the residue
of the heathen that are round about. Therefore, thus saith
the Lord God, surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken
against the heathen." I'm going to deal with these people, he
said. If you'll turn to Deuteronomy, I'm going to deal with these
people that have dealt as they have with my people, with the
Jews. In Deuteronomy 32, listen to
this, I'm going to deal with them, God said. In Deuteronomy
32, 39, see now that I, even I, am he. There's no God with
me. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. Neither is
there any that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my
hand to heaven, and I say, I'll live forever. And if I wet my
glittering sword, and my hand take hold on judgment, I'll render
vengeance to my enemies. I'll reward them that hate me.
I'll make my neighbors drunk with blood, and my swords shall
devour flesh, and that with the blood of the slain and the captives,
for the beginning of revenge is upon the enemy. Rejoice, you
nations, with his people. He's going to avenge the blood
of his servants. And he's going to render vengeance
to his adversaries, and he's going to be merciful to his land
and to his people. And that's what he's saying here
in verses 6 and 7 of 36. I've spoken in my jealousy, in
my fury, because you have borne the shame of the heathen. Therefore
thus saith the Lord, I have lifted up my hand, and the heathen that
are about you, they are going to bear their shame." They are
going to bear their shame. Now then, maybe we are looking
at what happened in 1948. Maybe, I don't know, maybe we
are looking at what Romans 11 talks about, the return of the
Jews to that land. And the picture here is that
land is desolate, even the high places fallen, the people are
scattered, there's no worship, there's no people there, there's
no God's Israel, God's nation, not that. Now watch verse 8. But ye, O mountains of Israel,
you shall shoot forth your branches, you shall yield your fruit to
my people of Israel, for they are at hand to come. That's what
Spurgeon said, they're coming back. And they did come back. They came back in 1948, when
that nation was recognized as a nation. For behold, I am for
you, God said. And I'll turn unto you, and you
shall be tilled and sown. The sons of Abraham, and Isaac,
and Jacob, and David, and Solomon are going to walk the fields
their daddies walked, the mountains their daddies walked, and plow
those same fields. That's what you're going to till
and sow. And listen, I'll multiply men upon you, he's talking about
upon the mountains. I'll multiply men upon those
mountains, all the house of Israel, even all of it, and the cities
shall be inhabited again. And the ways shall be built again.
And I'll multiply upon you mountains, man and beast, and they'll increase
and bring forth fruit. Did you know what that country
has done and is doing? It's marvelous, marvelous. Listen,
I'll settle you in your old estates. I'll settle you in your old estates.
Talk about that nation. And we'll do better unto you
than at the beginning. And you know that I'm the Lord.
Now look at verse 12. I'm going to cause men to walk
on those mountains. I'm going to cause men to walk
on those mountains where beasts used to walk. Even my people
Israel. called Israelites. And they shall
possess thee, and thou shalt be their inheritance, and they
shall no more henceforth bereave them of men." Now, the history
of Israel is a history of wars and famines. You read clear back
to Saul, King Saul and David and Solomon and all the rest
of these kings, that the history of Israel wars and phantoms and
sword and captivity and one captivity or another captivity, backsliding,
judgments. They were the enemies of every
nation around them. The Egyptians, the Hittites,
the Amalekites, the Philistines, the Amorites, they all hated
Israel. They were always at battle. Now look at verse 13. Thus saith
the Lord God, the other nations say unto you, your land, the
bowers of men. That's it, they killed them by
the thousands. You remember when they marched down through Jerusalem,
through the city, the crowd says, Saul's killed his thousands and
David's killed his ten thousands. He said, you bereaved the nations. Therefore thou shalt devour men
no more. Neither bereave thy nations any
more, saith the Lord. He's saying you're not going
to do that anymore. And he says in verse 15, And
neither will I cause men to hear in thee the shame of the heathen
any more. You're not going to be the reproach of the people,
you're going to be an honorable nation. Neither shall you bear
the reproach of the people any more. Neither shalt thou cause
thy nations to fall into idolatry. You remember the idolatry? Israel,
they were always being rebuked for their idolatry, even in Solomon's
days. building those places of worship
to other gods, it's not going to be anymore, except the Lord
God. In nearly every reign, except
David's reign, I would say except David's reign, Israel was guilty
of idolatry. But they're not going in that
direction anymore. And he says here, now watch this.
And he goes back now to their history. He says, this has been
your history, idolatry. Look at verse 16. Moreover, the
word of the Lord came to 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 out my fury
upon them, for the blood that they had shed upon the land,
and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it. This was
their history, the backslidden people. 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 them,
judged them, always judging them. And when they entered unto the
heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name. The people said to them, these
are the people of the Lord. These folks are the people of
the Lord. They've gone forth out of his land. These folks
have come out of his land. Look at them. Well, that's the
story of this. But, verse 21, I had pity on
them. And you see this all the way.
He called Abraham. He said, I'll make you a great
nation. I'll give you a land, the land
of Canaan. You dwell there. And he said, I didn't choose
you because you were more in number than any people, you were
the purest of all, but I chose you because God loved you, and
because I swore unto your fathers, I made a covenant with your fathers,
and I brought you in your land. But all the history was idolatry,
all these things. Then you were driven completely
out, and the land was gone. Beasts roamed the mountains of
Israel, heathen people overran it, overflowed it, The worship
stopped. Everything was destroyed. Titus
wiped out the emperor. Titus wiped out the whole city. No remnant or residue or remembrance
of God anywhere. But I'm not going to tolerate
that nonsense. They're going back. Israel's going back. And Israel came back. And Israel's
there. And it's different. But it's
still not to Israel that God He's going to make the new covenant
with them. Watch this now, in verse 21. Turn to Ezekiel chapter 20. This is why God did what he did
for Israel. This is why he continued to deal
with them in mercy, for his namesake, for his great namesake. He said,
for my holy namesake. Look at Ezekiel 20 verse 8. They rebelled against me. They
wouldn't hearken to me. They did not. Every man cast
away the abomination of their eyes, neither did they forsake
the idols of Egypt. Then I said, I'll just pour out
my fury on them, to accomplish my fury against them in the midst
of the land of Egypt. Kept them there 400 years. But
I wrote for my name's sake, that my name should not be polluted
among the heathen. These are God's people. That's
what the heathen were saying. These are God's people. But they're
not going to pollute my name among the heathen, among whom
they were, in whose sight I made myself known to them in bringing
them forth out of the land. God sent Moses down there. And
Moses dealt with that country by God's power, plague after
plague, and the death of the firstborn. And then they were
made to say, Israel's God is God. He demonstrated His power
and His might and His majesty and led them triumphantly, didn't
leave a hoof or a hair behind. The Egyptians thrust them out,
paid them to leave, gave them gold and silver and everything,
sent them forth, these slaves of 400 years. God magnified His
name. Divided the sea and they walked
across and then closed the sea and drowned the greatest army
in the world. I made my name. I did it for my namesake. Wherefore
I caused them, verse 10, to go out of the land of Egypt and
brought them into the wilderness. I gave them my statutes. Gave them my statutes. What did
he give them? Well, you just let me turn over
and read you what he gave them. He gave them what he gave nobody
else, what he gave no other nation. Who are the Israelites? Well,
they're the folks to whom pertaineth the adoption, the glory, the
covenants, the giving of the law, the tabernacle, the priesthood,
the sacrifices, the promises, whose are the fathers, of whom
is concerning the flesh Christ Jesus King, who is over all,
God blessed forever. I blessed them. I blessed them. My soul, I gave them my statutes. Look at that. Gave them my statutes. Gave them my law. Gave them all
these things. All right, now let's, Ezekiel
36, go back, now let's see. They're back there, but there's
another cover. There's a new cover. And he did
this, he's demonstrated all these things for his holy namesake. For his holy namesake. All right,
verse 22. Therefore, now here's a message, say to the house of
Israel, deliver this message to the true house of Israel,
the true Israel, the remnant in Israel and the people in other
nations that are princes of God. You say to them, thus saith the
Lord God, I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel. What I'm going to do, I don't
do it because you married it. I don't do it because you deserve
it. I don't do it because you are worthy of it, or married
it, or deserve it. But for my holy name's sake,
which you profaned among the heathen wherever you went, wherever I'm going to sanctify my great
name. I do this for my name. I'm going to bring glory to my
name. Bring glory to my name. What
I do is to sanctify my great name. That's why God does everything
that he does in reference to a sinner. Let me show you that.
Turn to Psalm 106. I'm talking about earth now.
I'm talking about true spiritual Israel. What God does, he does
for his namesake, his holy namesake. Psalm 106, verse 6. We have sinned, there's no difference,
Jew or Gentile, male or female, we've sinned with our fathers.
Psalm 106, verse 6. We've committed iniquity, we've
done wickedly. Our fathers understood not thy
wonders in Egypt. They remembered not the multitude
of thy mercies, but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red
Sea. He saved him for his namesake, that he might make his mighty
power to be known. That's why God does what he does.
That's what he's saying here in Ezekiel 36. What I do now,
spiritually, eternally, for a people called Israel, in all nations,
is not because they deserve it. or marry it, what I do is for
my namesake, to magnify and exalt my holy name. Let me show you
another text, Isaiah 48. What I do, I do for my namesake. God doesn't need us, we need
him. What God does is for his glory,
for his namesake. Now watch Isaiah 48 verse 9.
For my namesake, will I defer my anger. For my
praise will I refrain from thee that I cut thee not off. Because
I have refined thee, but not with silver, I have chosen thee
in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake will I do it. For how should my name be polluted? I will not give my glory unto
another." What God does is for his namesake. Now let's look
at verse 23. I'm going to sanctify my great
name. God's greatness lies chiefly
in his holiness. What I'm about to say is so important.
He's going to glorify himself in holiness. He's going to make
his name to appear in holiness. The scepter of his kingdom is
a righteous scepter. His chief attribute is holiness.
And God is going to vindicate and make glorious that name.
Now let's read verse 23. And I will sanctify my great
name which was profaned among the heathen, which you 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 before their eyes. And God, the way that God is
going to sanctify his name and make it glorious is not in punishment
and wrath, but in grace and mercy. That's how he's going to redeem
a people. We're going to come into it right
here. He's dealt in judgment, he's
dealt in wrath with Egyptians, with these other nations, he
dealt in wrath with Egypt. But now he's going to magnify
his holiness, going to glorify his great name. Moses asked him
about that. Turn to Exodus 33. What is God's greater glory? It's not in wiping out nations.
It's not in afflicting people. It's not in judgment and wrath. It's in mercy. It's in grace. In Exodus 33 verse 18, Moses
said to the Lord, verse 17, let's read verse 17. The Lord said
to Moses, I'll do this thing also that you've spoken, for
you've found grace in my sight. I know you by name. And he said,
I beseech you, show me your glory. Lord, show me your glory. And
God said, I'll make my goodness pass before you. I will proclaim
the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious. to whom I
will be gracious, I'll show mercy on whom I'll show mercy." That's
my glory. That's my glory. God will punish
sin. God must punish sin. But God
Almighty is going to be gracious and merciful to sinners, and
that's going to manifest and magnify and sanctify his name
before the whole world. They'll know that I'm the Lord.
I'm the Lord God, plenteous in mercy. Something nobody else
can do, show mercy to his enemies. Look over at chapter 34, verse
6. The Lord passed before him and
proclaimed the Lord God. He passed by Moses and proclaimed
the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering
and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands
for giving iniquity and transgression and sin. I know he'll by no means
clear the guilty. I know he'll visit the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children, from the children's children
to the third and fourth generation. He will punish them, but he will
show mercy. That's what we're getting to
here. He will be merciful. He will be merciful. And preachers
use the wrong tactics to glorify God, making Him appear to be
fierce and angry and full of wrath and casting people into
hell and showing young people the planes of hell and the pictures
and movies and trying to drive them down an aisle to accept
Jesus. God's greater glory is His goodness
and mercy. It's the goodness of God that
leads men to repentance. It's the grace of God that magnifies
his name. That's what he's saying here.
I'm going to sanctify my great name. And that's what our Lord prayed
in John 17. Listen to this. He wants the
world to know that God sent him to this world to save sinners.
He said, I didn't come to destroy the world. I didn't come to condemn
the world. It's condemned already. I came to save. Look at John
17, verse 20, our Lord is praying here, and he says, 17, verse
22. Verse 21, I pray that they all
may be one as Father, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee.
That they may be one in us, that the world may believe you sent
me. And the glory which you gave me I have given them, that they
may be one as we are, I in them, thou in me. that they may be
made perfect in one, that the world may know you sent me."
Not to damn them, not to burn them, not to drive them out,
but to save them, bring them to God. That the world may know
you sent me and you've left them as you left me. All that I will,
they also whom you have given me, be with me where I am, that
they may behold my glory which you gave me. You loved me before
the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world
has not known thee, but I know thee, and these have known that
thou sent me. And I have declared thy name,
and I will declare it, that the love wherewith you love me may
be in them, and I in them. I swear I'm going to glorify
thy name, God said. I'll cause my goodness to pass
before you. I'll be merciful to whom I will.
I'll be gracious to whom I will. I'll pardon iniquity, transgressions
and sins. And I'll be, look at that verse
23, the last line, and they'll know I'm the Lord. I'm the Lord
God when I shall be sanctified in you, right in front of their
eyes. They're going to see you a trophy of my grace, a trophy
of my love. They're going to see that and
they're going to know that you sent me. Now listen to what he's
going to do for us. For, for, I'm going to take you
from among the heathen. You're not going to be born without
sin, you're going to be born a heathen. You're not going to
be a proper child, you're going to be an improper brat. I'm going
to take you from among the heathen. I will. I want you to notice
these two words he uses all the way through here, I will. You
know, one time our Lord came down from the mountain and a
leper ran up, a crusty, dying, seedy leper, and fell at his
feet. He said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Christ
said, I will be thou clean. I will be thou clean. And I'm
going to take you from among the healed. That's where we were,
among whom we all had our conversation. in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh, and whereby nature, children of wrath,
even as others. I'm going to take you from among
the heathen, and I'm going to gather you out of all countries. Oh, John saw in heaven a great
multitude which no man could number out of every tribe, kindred,
nation, and tongue. I'm going to take you from all
countries. I'm going to bring you into your own land. You know
Canaan land, land of the Jews, is a type of the church, the
church here and the heavenly country there. And God says,
I'm going to take you out from among the heathen and I'm going
to bring you to your own land. I'm going to bring you into the
land I prepared for you, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ,
fellowship of believers, family of believers. You're going to
be a commune in Christ. You're going to live together.
worship together, walk together, love each other, and then I'm
going to take you to your own land. I've prepared a place for
you. The believer has a place. The
moment he believes, he has a place in the church, among believers,
in the family of God, and in God. I'm going to bring you to
your land. I'm already there. I'm already
in my own land. I'm with my own people. I'm with
the folks out here that I'm going to be with in God. I'm already
home. Everybody talks about going home. I'm home! No matter where
we live, there or here, we're home. The Lord's here. I'm going to take you from the
heathen, gather you from all countries, bring you to your
own land, then I'm going to sprinkle clean water on you. That's the
blood of Christ. That's the blood of Christ. Water
and blood. Let me read you something over
here in 1 John 5. This is He. Talking about our
Lord Jesus Christ. This is He. That came by water
and blood. Even Jesus Christ, not by water
only, but by water and blood. That's how he came. They pierced
his side. Now came water and blood. Water to sanctify, blood to justify. Old Toplady wrote a song about
it. He said, Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in
thee. Let the water and the blood from
his riven side which flowed be of sin. Double cure, double cure,
save from wrath, make me pure. Justify me, sanctify me. I'm going to sprinkle clean water
on you, and you're going to be clean. And you talk about clean,
Mr. Clean, you talk about clean,
clean. When our Lord, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses
us from all sin. This new Israel, this spiritual
Israel, It's going to be different. All of them are going to be saved.
All of them are saved. All of them are God's children. All
of them are washed. David said, wash me and I'll be clean. Purge
me. I'll be whiter than the snow. I'm going to sprinkle clean and
you'll be clean. From what? From all your filthiness. Your
filthiness is your nature. My nature. Your nature. That's
our nature. Filthy nature. Born in sin. Original sin. filthy by nature,
but God's going to make you clean. You are clean in his sight. Holy,
unblameable, unreprovable in his sight. And not only from
your filthiness, but from your idols. I'm going to cleanse you,
I'm going to sprinkle clean water on you, water and blood, and
cleanse you from your filthy nature, from your original nature,
from your Adamic nature, and from your religious nature. your
idols. Man is not only a fallen, fleshly,
sensual creature, but he's a fallen spiritual creature. He's not
only wrong in his attitude and life and walk, but he's wrong
in his thoughts even about God. He said, your thoughts are not
my thoughts. Men by nature worship idols. By nature, there's a way
that seems right to a man in death. It's idolatry. So I'm
going to cleanse you, not only from your filthiness by nature,
but from your idols. I'm going to show you and reveal
to you the living God. And your thoughts are going to
be my thoughts, and your ways are going to be my ways. Boy,
now that's cleansing you. Will I cleanse you? And then
verse 26. I'm going to give you a new heart.
I'm going to give you a new heart. The peculiar and particular and
crowning feature of the grace of God is that God's saving,
redeeming grace begins within and works out within. The religion of works, man's
religion and human religion and human merit begins without. and tries to affect the inside.
Man's natural religion begins with outward form, dress, candles,
stained glass windows, crosses, uniforms, ceremonies. They give you a day to observe,
a time to pay, a place to attend, a rule to obey, and hope somehow
it will give you some peace inside. But it doesn't do it. and gives you peace inside. That's where I start, God said,
with a new heart. God gives you a new heart, a
believing heart, a loving heart, a broken heart,
a submissive heart, an obedient heart. You can take a tiger and
put him in a cage. A cage with bars around it. Bars
of religion and bars of rules and regulations. And he'll behave
himself pretty well. But he's still a tiger. Somehow
he's going to get out of there. And when he does, there's a lot to pay. But if
you can change his nature and give him a new nature and a new
height, you don't make him like a lamb and you won't even need
a cage. You lie down in the living room.
That's the difference in man's religion. God starts with the
heart. I'll give you a new heart. I
shed abroad my love in your heart. Man begins on the outside and
tries to work his way in. Our Lord said, First, cleanse
that which is within. And then, watch this, oh my,
a new heart will give you a new spirit that I'll put within you
and I'll take the stony heart out of your flesh. We have to
be operated on. We have to have a removal of
that old stony heart. I'll take the stony heart out.
A description of a heart of stone. It's a pretty good description.
What's stone like? Well, it's hard. It's hard. You can strike it. with rebuke,
if you ever take a hammer and hit a rock, it'll come right
back at you. And when a man's got a stony
heart, if he's rebuked, you make your pay. Bounce right back. A stony heart cannot take correction,
it cannot take rebuke, it repels the blow. A stony heart, you
can scratch it temporarily, but you can't penetrate it. Soak
it in tears. It'll be just as hard when the
trial's over as it was when it came. It's stone. Stone's not only hard, but it's
cold. Walk across a stone floor. Darsh wants to put tile on my
bathroom. Don't put tile on my bathroom. I get up in the morning,
my feet are cold anyway, and I go in there and walk on a cold,
You remember that old stone mansion we stayed in up there in Rippon?
Stone cold, it's cold on your feet, and it makes your feet
cold. Build a fire on it, warm it up, and it'll be cold in ten
minutes. How quickly it's cold again. No heat from within. It's
cold. It's cold. Stone's dead. The natural hearts do it, speak
to it, it won't hear. You say, why don't they hear
what you say? You ever had a rock answer you? They don't hear. Cut it, it won't bleed. Teach
it, it won't learn. It's a stone. And fourth, your stone is unfeeling. It cannot groan. It cannot weep
over transgressions. It cannot rejoice in the good
news. It cannot respond to trial and
promises. There's not but one thing to
do with a stony heart, replace it. Isn't that right? Replace it. And he said, I'm
going to do that for this Israel. I'm going to take out that stony
heart. And I'm going to give you a heart of flesh. And that's
not talking about sinful flesh, that's talking about feeling
flesh. I'm going to give you a heart
that can feel sin, like David said, my sins ever before me.
Like Paul said, the things I would do, I do them not, but it's my
heart. It can hear the word and rejoice. It can be sensitive
to divine love and love God in return. It can believe and worship
and give thanks. It can respond to the love of
others. It can reach out during trials
and heartaches and comfort. It can long for His return and
the eternal years of happiness and glory with God. The heart
of flesh. I will do this. I hear people
talk about man's will and your will and his will and free will.
I'll do this, God said. I'll take you from among the
heathen. I'll give you a new heart. I'll take the stone of
your heart out. I'll give you a heart of flesh.
In verse 27, and I'll put my spirit in you. And I'll cause
you, he said, not command you, not make you, not force you,
cause you to walk in my statutes. and you'll
keep my judgments and do them, and you'll dwell in the land.
I'll cause you. Our people shall be willing in
the day of our power." Perfectly willing. God never saves a man
against his will. I beg your pardon. He makes them
willing. I'll cause you to love what you
once hated and hate what you once loved. I'll cause you to
walk willingly, lovingly, in all my statutes and all my ways.
And you're going to dwell in the land. No more of this Israel
is ever going to leave. The land I gave your fathers,
verse 28, you'll be my people and I'll be your God." That's the New Covenant. Joan Eskridge has requested believers'
baptism. Joan made a profession of religion
years ago, as many or nearly all of us did, under pressure
and persuasion in various ways. Since that time, the Lord has
revealed himself to her heart through the gospel of his grace.
And she's been troubled about this a long time, and she desires
to confess publicly her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, her
confidence in his grace and mercy, who loved her and Died for her
sins, was buried, and rose again. And so, we'll rejoice with her
tonight.