Ezekiel 36:25-27 A ruined Heart made a Renewed Heart
One of the things that we see in this day is that so much of the
gospel preaching seems to be fruitless. There is quite a lot of
preaching of the word but it seems that there is so little real
fruit. Now and again we hear of a meeting here or a mission there
where a number of souls have been saved and we certainly rejoice
if that is the case and yet there are many instances where there
have been a lot of souls who have professed faith in Christ and
yet if you were to go back to the churches in the area in six
months or a years time you would not find them. And if you were
to talk to many of those who professed you would find that there
was no reality to the profession that they made. Sometimes there
has been a lot of emotion and a certain amount of pressure put
on in a gospel campaign and that which seemed to have yielded
great results has, in reality yielded very little. That is the
reality. It is a very sad reality and a very lamentable reality
and yet it seems to be the way at the moment. And you say what
is the matter? Why are there so very few true and lasting results
from the preaching of the gospel? I think that it is a great deal
to do with people who are trying to adopt the gospel to the age
in which we live. There are many who think that people will not
come to church and will not be interested if the old fashined
doctrines of grace are preached and so they have not insisted
on the very first fundamental of the gospel and that is the utter
ruin of the human heart and the total inability of man. What is
infered in many Gospel meetings today is that you are all not
such a bad bunch of people but how much bettter life would be
if you would just choose to make Christ part of your lives. And
Christ has become a sort of a commodity who will bring benefits
to the individual. If you take Christ you will have peace. If
you take Christ you will have fulfilment. In some cases they even
tell people, "if you take Christ you will have financial
prosperity". Well I don't read about the financial prosperity
but you will certainly have peace and fulfilment but to present
the gospel as if you were selling a commodity is not the gospel
and it will not save the soul. It is absolute folly to try to
cure the cancer of the soul with human quackery. The reason I
believe that more people are not saved is because we do not show
them their infinite need and their rotteness . If I am very sick
I do not want the doctor to come in and tell me I am not so bad
and if I take a few aspirins or a dose of paracetemol I will be
alright when what I need is surgery and when I need to have something
that is diseased removed.
Listen, the Bible is either true or it is not. If it is a lie
then we need to throw it out and shut the churches, but if it
is true then you need to listen to Paul when he wrote to the Ephesians
and said that "we were by nature children of wrath"
or to Jeremiah when he said, "The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked.." or to Moses when
he said that "The imagination of man's heart is evil from
his youth." or to the Psalmist who said "they
are all gone aside; they are altoigether become filthy ."
I want to tell you that the Bible is in no way complimentary about
the state of the human heart. The Bible in a most straightforward
way labelled the Laodiceans as being poor and wretched and blind
and naked. And if God was to send His Spirit upon this meeting
in a dramatic way this evening and make a true revelation of the
state of our hearts I believe there may be a number of hearts
that might beat faster and a number of cheeks that might blanch
with fear. And souls unable to keep quiet would cry out, "What
must I do? God be merciful to me a sinner." In this text
of Scripture there is a revelation of the true condition and remedy
of the soul. So I want you to pray for me as we look at it that
I may be able to paint a true picture as God sees it
I The Ruin of the Soul
There are a number of words used in this text by the Holy
Spirit of God to describe the soul and the heart.
First:the text says of the heart that it is "UNCLEAN"
It says From your filthiness will I cleanse you.",
Our hands may be clean as water can wash them and our garments
as white as snow and neat and pressed, and yet our inward nature
be polluted. Sin is not like an antique, that gets better by being
kept; it gets worse and worse. All the impure thoughts of your
life have left their mark on your soul Though a bad thought passed
through your mind thirty years ago, its vileness is there yet.
If you have one thousand unclean thoughts which you would not
have anyone know, those one thousand thoughts are all rankling,
festering, and befouling your soul, and God has been looking at
them all the time. The text is not too strong when it speaks of
the filthiness of the heart. Your soul is vilely, and terribly
unclean. It is loathsome in the sight of God. Sin is a carrion
bird that has strewn its nest with foulness. I only take the Bible
imagery when I say that your heart, unchanged, is a sepulchre,
reeking and stinking with corruption. Water cannot wash it off.
Fire cannot burn it. Sin has cursed you through and through. The
mire has been rubbed into the soul. It is a leprosy! People who
had that disease in the olden time put bandages over their mouths
as they walked in the street, and cried " Unclean !"
And if we could realise our moral defilement as we advance, we
would cry, " Make room for the leper ! The Arabs have a fable
that once a camel came to the door of a tent and thrust in his
nose. Not being resisted, he thrust in his feet. There being no
hindrance, he came half way in; and after awhile he got all the
way in; the Arab said to the camel. "This tent is too small
for two." Then the camel said to the Arab, "lf that
be so you had better leave." So sin comes into the heart
farther and farther, until it takes full possession. Byron and
Shelly the poets who lived lives of licentiousness wreathed sin
with garlands, but I want to tear off the flowers' from the skeleton,
and hold out before you the reeking Death's-head. Oh, how sin
has trampled and scarred your soul ! It is a black, a horrible,
a damning thing. Its not satisfied until it has pushed the soul
into an eternal prison house, and slammed and shut the door, and
shoved the bolts, and turned the locks of an everlasting' imprisonment.
A heart under such unclean sorcery, how it must appear to God's
all-searching eye. He sees it through and through. The darkness
cannot hide it. - Years cannot erase it. He sees the horrible
unwinding of the serpents as, with fangs of eternal poison, they
lift their heads to strike. Think of the Holy One before whom
seraphic purity is sullied -the One in whose quiver are all the
thunder-bolts of an omnipotent God-watching a soul ?~unclean,
and wilfully unclean.
(ii) Again: The text represents the heart as IDOLATROUS. "
From all your idols will I cleanse you." Because we have
in this land no altars of Baal or Molochs, or heathen temples
as they did of old, do not conclude that there are no idols. From
our very nature we must worship something. If we do not worship
the God in heaven, we worship something on earth. This man worships
pleasure; this one, applause; this one money, this one his family.
That to which a man gives his supreme thought and affections is
his idol. Like Dagon, how often it falls down, crushing~its worshipper
! God will have no rivals. Amid fire and darkness, thunder and
earthquake, the command went forth, " Thou shalt worship
the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." If
there is anything on earth that you think more of than you do
of God, then you are an idolater.
(iii) Again: The text represents the heart as STONY OR INSENSIBLE.
I prove it by the fact that people do not realise the truth of
what I have already said. If we had any appreciation of our unclean
and idolatrous nature, could we be as unmoved as we are ? Would
that young man be whispering to his comrade in the gospel meeting?
Would that woman be examining the style of her neighbour's hat,
and criticising how poorly the colour of the shoes suits the colour
of her dress? ~Would the farmer be thinking of how much he lost
last week, and how much he probably will gain next week ? No;
this place would be like a courthouse when a man is on trial for
his life, and the jury rises to render the verdict. That is our
position. Before God's universe we have been indicted. The law
has pleaded against us. The cross has pleaded for us. This night
may be announced our condemnation or our acquittal. We are insensible.
And so, until grace touches our soul, we sit through the preaching
of the wonders of Christ and the glories of heaven strike no thrill
through the heart. Ah ! there are hundreds of people who acknowledge
that their heart is hard; they carry it about like a block of
ice in their bosom; and they wish it would melt; they say, "I
cannot feel, I want to, but cannot." The text is true. Cold
as a stone; hard as a stone; dead as a stone. A company of persons
suspected of crime were brought before a judge; only one of them
was guilty, but how to find out which one was the question. The
judge put his ear against the heart of each one and listened;
when he came to the guilty one, he heard, in every thump of his
heart, the acknowledgement of the crime. And so, although to-night,
all may seem fair in our case, if we could listen at the door
of our own hearts, every pulsation would confess, Guilty ! Guilty
!
II The Renewal of the Soul
But thank God we do not have to leave it there. We have thought
about the ruin of the soul but I want you to think of the renewal
of the soul It would be a very bad doctor who would come and examine
your case and say, " You are in very bad state indeed,"
and then propose nothing as a cure. I have told you of the disease.
Hear now of the healing process that God proposes for every one
of you: " I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye
shall be clean. 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."
Ah ! it is no insignificant process we are talking about here.
This is a change of heart. It is a change from black to white,
from down to up, from -the highway to hell to the highway to heaven
the whole nature made over again.
Think with me of some of the people in the Bible who underwent
this change. Think of Paul, the persecutor. Think of him as he
says, "Kill that man; he loves Christ. Whip that woman; she
believes in Jesus. Open the prison doors, and get ready the sharp
knives, and we will put an end to Christ's religion. "
But now think with me of Paul's back bared to the scourge, and
the blood running. For whom ? For Jesus Christ. Paul on the floor
of the Mamertine prison, his feet fast, and the cold shivering
through his agonised body. For whom? For Jesus Christ. Paul standing
before the rulers, making a speech that that would have thrilled
another audience into tumults of approval, yet interrupted, scoffed
at, coughed down, charged with being crazy, and sentenced to die.
For whom ? For Jesus Christ.
Think of another scene. Think this time of a man called John Bunyan.
Born of a low gipsy woman, himself vulgar and blasphemous, shocking
the ears of those who would utter an odd blasphemythemselves,
reproved even by an abandoned woman.
But now think of John Bunyan, from the wicket-door of the prison
looking toward the "delectable mountains, and pointing the
whole world up to the gate of the Celestial City. ~What was this
change in John ? A change of heart.
But why go so far ? I could point them out in this congegation
. Here are men who once rejected the Bible, cared not for God,
talked against high heaven, and now all their ~hopes are hung
on one strong nail-the nail of the cross. One form is to them
more glorious than any other-the form ~the Son of God. "I
take him," they cry, "through joy and sorrow, through
fire and flood, for time and for eternity. None but Jesus ! none
but Jesus !" They would stick to him if it should mean having
to face death. Why? Because they have a new heart-new in its sentiments,
new in its hopes, new in its affections, new in its ambitions.
Well," you say, "how peculiar a man must feel to turn
around like that." The change is wonderful. If now, you .hate
somebody with a perfect hatred, one of your first desires would
be, after such a change, to go and shake hands with If, now, your
chief aim is to a few pounds then you be more anxious for a fortune
in the skies, Now you shudder at the thought of eternity; then
the word would chime like wedding-bells in your soul. That is
what the text is speaking about here. It is speaking about the
renewal of the heart and the giving of a new heart. It is being
Born-Again of the Spirit of God. We think of the renewal of the
Soul. Then think of
III The Refuge of the Soul
"Oh !" you say, "I want that change. Let me have
it now." My text tells you how you may get it. There is only
one place and only one person to whom you can go who will be able
to do this for you and that is the Lord. Notice the words of the
text Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall
be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will
I cleanse you. 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 an heart of flesh.Notice
how it repeats the word "I", "I" It is only
the Lord and his death on the cross that can give you the new
heart Now if you were to take that stone of a heart, and dash
it against the foot of the cross, that heart would not break.
Water has sometimes worn away the rocks; but if that stone of
a heart were placed under the water that drops from the eternal
fountain, the hardness would not wear away. But I want you to
see what God has said in the text, " Then will put my
spirit within you." God has got to quicken the heart
before it can be dealt with Now I understand. God's holy, gracious,
quickening, arousing, rekindling, omnipotent Spirit only can do
this work. That Spirit comes to your hearts to-night. Perhaps
there is a man who says, " Oh for something better ?"
That is a stroke of God's Spirit. Is there a young person or a
boy or a girl who says, "I wish I could be like my old father
and mother before they died." That is a stroke of God's Spirit.
Here is a lady who says, " I wish I could get over these
unease about the future world." That is a stroke of God's
Spirit. Perhaps there is a man who looks all unconcerned, but
he trembles. He knows that eternity is all around him, and that
one step may plunge him beyond all rescue. Oh eternity ! eternity
! How many here feel that they are not ready for it ! They know
that they are keeping their old nature, and that except a man
be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. Oh that God's
Spirit would strike harder to-night and that each one of these
citadels might be captured ! We are praying that God will shower
you with His arrows of conviction and that he will wheel around
you the thundering field-pieces of God's law. Oh that God will
break down the stoniness of your defences and raise on the parapets
with the standards of Emmanuel ! Surrender, oh immortal man !
Surrender, oh immortal woman ! You want a new heart. Why not get
it right away ? Have you not postponed it long enough ? I would
with both hands lay hold and rattle the gates of your soul. For
this night's work you and I must answer at the judgement and we
must be aware of that day when the song of the righteous shall
rise into a perpetual anthem, and the wail of the wicked drop
into the groan of unending pain.
Oh man or woman you can think of other meetings or Gospel missions
or special gospel efforts. boy or girl you can think of times
when the Lord has been speaking to you in the Sunday school or
in the children's meeting. Maybe when you were at the graveside
of some loved one you thought of how you would have to consider
the things of God. When you saw or heard of some friend or acquaintance
who got saved it stirred in your heart the resolution that some
day you too would be saved. But all those desires have come to
nothing. All those resolutions to get right with God have made
no difference. Here you are this evening and you have gotthat
little bit older. You have marched on many more miles toward the
end of your earthly journey and the oening of your eternal destiny.
You have no pardon, no peace and no prospect of heaven. I pray
to the Lord that He will lay hold on you man. If this is your
last opportunity I pray that the Lord will let you know that.
Dear friend I would not endanger yor soul by not warning you about
the future punishment of the lost. There are preachers who think
they are being refined by preaching the mesage softly. Well if
I am not refined by telling you of Hell I will suffer being uncouth.
The Storm is coming! The cloud that was only a speck of darkness
on the sky has become a squadron of black sails. Can you contend
with the God who smote Sennacharib's host in a night and whose
arm upholds the universe and whose voice will announce the doom
of all outside of Christ. You need to tremble unforgiven soul,
you need to tremble before him. Oh I know that this may sound
strange in the ears of a generation who scoffs at authority. This
may even sound amusing to those who have been taught no respect
for governments or authorities but I want you to know that the
God who holds your breath in his hands is angry with you. Will
you defy him any longer? Who can help you ashore from an eternal
shipwreck? Who among us will dwell with the everlasting fire?
Who among us will dwell with everlasting burning?
But the gate of refuge is open wide. The Spirit if God can bring
to your soul the transformation that you need. There is one refuge!
There is one hope for your soul and that is in the one in our
text who says "I will sprinkle clean water upon you
Turn to Him and seek Him as Your Saviour rhis evening.