Ezekiel 36:22-38

great name which has been profaned among the nations and which you have profaned among them.

And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you

I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you

from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you

and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses. And from all your idols I will cleanse you and I

will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone

from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to

walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your

fathers and you shall be my people. And I will be your God. Can people really change? I think many of

us have conflicting feelings about this question. On the one hand we like the idea of change.

Every year many of us make New Year's resolutions vowing to set new patterns.

Every year hundreds of thousands of books and articles and blog posts are written in order to tell us how

to change for the better. How to get in shape. How to find a healthy romantic relationship.

How to become a better friend or parent. How to study more effectively. How to be a better leader.

The American dream is based on the assumption that anyone can change.

That by hard work and with the right opportunities anyone can rise to the top.

Maybe you're not happy with your life now. But you hope that moving to a new place.

Or maybe getting married or having kids or retiring.

Will bring the change that you hope for.

We like the idea of change.

But on the other hand I think we recognize that deep and lasting change

is difficult and elusive.

William James, early psychologist back in 1890, wrote,

In most of us, by the age of 30, the character has set like plaster and will never soften again.

And often the older we get, the less optimistic we become that people can really change.

Last year Jeffrey Kotler, writing in Psychology Today,

said, I've spent the past 35 years writing books about change,

interviewing people about their experiences,

researching the features that are most associated with significant transformations that endure over time,

and here's my conclusion.

I don't know.

It's a mystery.

A process so complex and multidimensional that it defies understanding.

On one level, change is pretty easy.

The hard part is making it last over time.

He estimates 90% of attempts to stop a bad habit

or even follow through on a New Year's resolution will fail.

He then went on to list some of the factors that prevent us from changing.

We overestimate our own abilities.

We underestimate how hard it will be to sustain a new commitment.

Our environment triggers old patterns.

We sabotage our own or others' efforts to change because of fear.

Often, he says, some of the most deeply life-transforming events are also painful and traumatic events

that we would never seek out on our own.

Now, this morning's passage is about change.

It's about deep, lasting, heart-level change in people and, by extension, in communities.

The prophet Ezekiel was living at a time when deep and lasting change for the better seemed nearly impossible.

He was living in the aftermath of one of the most traumatic and awful events of Israelite history,

the Babylonian exile, brought on by the repeated moral failures and spiritual degradation of the Israelites.

The city had been burned.

The temple looted and destroyed.

The king humiliated and taken captive.

The leaders and landowners deported.

It was a tragedy.

It was a mess.

But Ezekiel and the other prophets said,

it was a mess that the people had brought on themselves.

If you look up at verses 16 through 19,

Ezekiel presents God's perspective on the Babylonian exile.

And he says when, basically, God says,

when Israel lived, when you lived in your own land, you defiled it.

You polluted it by your ways and your deeds.

So he says, so I poured out my wrath because of their violence and their idolatry.

I scattered them among the nations.

He says, in accordance with your ways and your deeds, I judged you.

You see, the Israelites hadn't just made a one-time mistake or an excusable error.

They had been involved in ongoing and unrepentant rebellion against the creator of the universe.

Treason against their rightful king.

Infidelity toward their faithful lover, the Lord himself.

The Israelites were God's masterpiece.

His very own people who he had chosen in order to display his glory and beauty to the world.

And they had polluted the land he had given them.

They had dragged his name through the mud.

They had blamed God for their failures and taken credit for God's gifts that he had given them.

They had torn into pieces their covenant with God.

And God responded by finally withdrawing his presence from them and sending them into exile.

Ezekiel was one of those who had experienced the horror of being deported and marched across the desert for hundreds of miles all the way to Babylon.

He had experienced the horror of the exile.

He had seen the death of the nation.

If there was any time in the history of Israel when deep and lasting change for the better seemed absolutely impossible, it was then.

They had blown it.

God had judged them decisively.

And everything they had was gone.

There was nothing to go back home to.

But very surprisingly, the word that God gave to Ezekiel while he was sitting there in exile was a word of hope.

A word of promise that God would one day bring deep and lasting change for the better in the hearts of his people.

Look at what he says in this passage.

Verse 22.

He says,

You, you have profaned my holy name among the nations.

That means you've dragged my name through the mud.

Treated it as a common thing.

But he says,

But I, I will vindicate the holiness in my great name and the nations will know that I am the Lord.

The Israelites had become just as bad as everyone else.

Even though God had called them to display his glory and his beauty to the world.

So God had dealt with them justly.

According to their own ways and their own deeds.

In the exile, Ezekiel says,

You got what you deserve.

But he says,

Here's the good news.

God's purpose is not to give you what you deserve.

He says,

It's not for your sake that I'm going to act.

He says,

God's ultimate purpose is to display his own glory and beauty.

So that all the nations will see and know that I am the Lord.

The creator.

The redeemer.

That there is no one else like me.

Israel's reputation was bound up with God's reputation.

And the rest of the world was looking on and saying,

Who are all these people who are being marched through our town all the way to Babylon and taken captive?

Just like the Babylonians have taken so many others captive.

Oh, they worship this God, Yahweh?

Who's this Yahweh?

Well, he let his people be conquered by the Babylonians.

He let his city be burned and his land be decimated.

He must not be much of a God at all.

No better than the gods of all the other nations that the Babylonians have conquered.

And God says,

That is not acceptable.

If it was just about giving the people of Israel what they deserved,

God could have sent them into exile and been done with them forever.

But God says,

No, my purpose is to show the world who I really am.

And I'm going to do that by restoring you once again.

To be my holy people.

To be, to display my holy character to the whole world.

So verse 24, he says,

I'll bring you back home.

Verse 25, he says,

I'll wash you clean.

Verse 26 and 27, he says,

I'll fill you up from the inside out.

I'll give you a new heart.

And a new spirit.

A heart of flesh.

Instead of a heart of stone.

A soft and responsive and tender heart.

He says,

I'll put my holy spirit within you.

So that you walk in obedience.

Verse 28, he says,

You shall be my people.

And I will be your God.

In perhaps the darkest time in Israel's history,

when it seemed that all hope had died,

Ezekiel proclaimed a message of hope.

That God would one day give his people new hearts.

Clean hearts.

Spirit filled hearts.

You might say,

Well, that's a nice promise.

But did it ever happen?

Well, approximately 70 years later,

many Israelites did return back to Jerusalem from exile.

They resettled Jerusalem,

rebuilt the temple under Ezra and Nehemiah's leadership.

But that restoration was only partial.

Jerusalem was later conquered by foreign armies.

The kingship was never restored.

The people continued longing for this spiritual renewal

that they had tasted,

but not yet experienced in full.

You know, if you turn to the New Testament,

the New Testament boldly proclaims

that Ezekiel's promise was fulfilled

in the coming of Jesus the Messiah.

In several places,

I refer back to this passage.

John chapter 3,

John 3 · chapter mention

Jesus was speaking with Nicodemus,

one of the Jewish religious leaders at the time.

And he said to Nicodemus,

famously,

You must be born again,

or born from above,

in order to see the kingdom of God.

He said,

You must be born of water and the Spirit.

Just like Ezekiel said,

cleaned out on the inside,

washed clean,

and filled with God's Spirit.

And then he said,

This is why God sent His only Son into the world,

so that all who trust in Him

and believe in Him would have life,

eternal life,

implanted in them

and flowing out from them.

As Nick read in the beginning of service,

in the service,

Jesus promised later in John,

He said,

If anyone thirsts,

let him come to me and drink.

And whoever believes in me,

as the Scripture has said,

out of his heart will flow

rivers of living water.

The Apostle Paul

brings up this theme

several times in his epistles.

If you look at 1 Thessalonians,

Paul says to the church,

he said,

You turn to God from idols

to serve the living and true God.

You've been cleansed from your idols.

And then he says,

God hasn't called us for impurity,

but for holiness.

God's called us to be set apart

as His holy people.

And then he says,

God gives His Holy Spirit to you.

He's cleansed us from our idols.

He's called us to be holy

and He's put His Spirit within us.

He's given us new hearts.

Or as Titus says,

He saved us.

Not according to our own works,

but according to His own mercy.

And then he says,

By the washing of regeneration

and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

In other words,

He's cleaned us out

and He fills us up.

And we poured out on us

through Jesus Christ, our Savior.

If you look at Ezekiel 36, verse 18,

Ezekiel 36:18

Ezekiel speaks about the people

who had rebelled against the Lord.

And he said,

God poured out His wrath

on His persistently disobedient people

and sent them into exile.

But in the New Testament,

in Titus,

Titus is saying,

Now because of what Jesus has done

on the cross,

the punishment for our sin

has been removed.

And now God has poured out,

not His wrath,

not His righteous anger

against our sin,

but His Holy Spirit,

His presence,

His mercy,

His grace

on everyone who turns to Jesus

as Savior.

In one more New Testament reference,

2 Corinthians 3, 3,

Paul says to the church,

he says,

You are a letter from Christ,

written by the Spirit,

not on tablets of stone,

but on tablets of hearts of flesh.

It's literally what it says.

Sometimes translated,

human hearts.

It's literally hearts of flesh.

God has given us hearts of flesh,

new hearts.

Jesus removes our hearts of stone

and replaces them with hearts of flesh.

He gives us a heart transplant,

a radical change from the inside out.

Earlier this summer,

I ran into a guy who I've known

for over 10 years.

And for most of the time I've known him,

his kidneys were failing.

He was on dialysis three times a week.

Every time I saw him,

he was groggy.

He was weak.

He was tired.

He walked slowly.

He spoke slowly.

He slept half the day.

And then after I hadn't seen him

for a few months,

I ran into him

while I was walking this summer.

He looked like a different man.

He was energetic.

He was clear-headed.

His speech was different.

He had started exercising.

He had started working part-time.

He seemed like a new man.

And he said,

I've received a new kidney.

A kidney transplant.

Now there was a cost

to this kidney transplant.

Someone had sacrificed

one of their kidneys,

which was working perfectly well,

so that his dysfunctional kidney

could be taken out and replaced.

And a team,

a skilled team of surgeons

and medical assistants

had carefully taken out

the dysfunctional kidney

and replaced it with a new one.

You see, the Bible says

that there was a cost

for God to give us new hearts.

That Jesus Christ died on the cross

in our place,

giving his life,

pouring out his life

unto death for us,

taking the punishment

that we deserve for our sin,

so that God might pour

his Holy Spirit into our hearts.

God has come in Jesus Christ

to give us new hearts.

That's the message of this text.

It's the hope that we celebrate

at Christmas.

And I want to spend the rest of our time

drawing out some implications

of this message.

That God has come in Jesus Christ

to give us new hearts.

First, I want to speak to those of you here

who are not Christians.

Let me speak to you in two groups.

First, some of you may be optimists,

optimistic about change.

Maybe you have an optimistic view

of human nature and human progress.

Maybe you believe that people

are basically good,

or that if we look deep within ourselves,

we can find what we need

in order to truly change.

I want to challenge you

that deep, lasting, heart-level change

is much harder than many of us think.

I think we've seen this

at a broader societal level

over the last few weeks.

Some of the deeply entrenched

racial tensions

that remain in our country.

Whether or not the police were justified

in using lethal force

in particular cases,

I think the events of the past few months

have exposed a long-standing

lack of reconciliation.

Racial equality can be expressed

in principle through laws and systems,

and it's important to consider

whether those need to be improved.

But racial reconciliation

only happens when people's hearts

are also turned toward one another.

We have laws officially

preventing discrimination

on the basis of race and class.

We have a president who is black.

We live 50 years

after the Civil Rights Movement

and 150 years after

the abolition of slavery,

but there are still

deep levels of mistrust.

Lack of understanding,

lack of love

between black and white people

and other races in the U.S.

And as a white man,

I'm tempted to avoid

cross-cultural conversations

about race

because I can feel guilty

or defensive

about my own inherited privilege.

Some of my black brothers

and sisters in Christ

wrestle with anger

or despair

that their voice

will not be heard.

Many of us are afraid

to speak honestly,

to listen well,

to extend ourselves

toward people

who are different

than ourselves

and who may disagree with us.

These are all matters

of the heart.

And change in these areas

doesn't come easily.

To all of us in the church,

in the midst of troubled times,

we need to talk with each other,

listen to each other,

and most importantly,

to pray for one another

that in the midst

of upheaval and turmoil,

the church would be

a place of hope

and reconciliation

and representing

the faithful presence

of Jesus Christ.

You know,

the Bible's very realistic

about how hard it is

for us to change.

I think if you really

dig in to pursuing

whether it's racial justice

and reconciliation

or combating

the global sex trafficking trade

or pick any other issue,

working with people,

with drug and alcohol addictions,

you'll see how entrenched

our human,

even self-destructive patterns are.

How hard it is

for us to change.

The Bible recognizes

both personal sinfulness

and systemic injustice,

and it says our hearts

are part of the problem

and not the ultimate source

of the solution.

The prophet Jeremiah says

the heart is deceitful

above all things

and desperately sick.

Who can understand it?

Change is a lot harder

than we think

at the level of the heart.

But you know,

the Bible also brings us

good news.

Maybe you've got to the point

where you're pessimistic

about change

and you don't think

anyone can change.

And you're cynical.

But the Bible says

God and His grace

can intervene

in order to change

even the hardest heart.

And I could tell

a lot of stories here,

but I'll tell just one.

There's a rather intense

YouTube video

that's been making the round

since last week

by a man named David Wood.

For many years,

people would have called him

a psychopath

or a sociopath.

He had no feeling

for anyone else.

His dog died

when he was five.

He felt no sadness.

His best friend died

when he was in high school.

He thought,

so what?

At one point,

he wondered

if something might be

wrong with him.

But then he decided

that he had evolved

to a superior state

compared to the rest

of humanity.

So one day,

he choked his friend

because of a disagreement.

He watched his mom's

boyfriend beat her.

And though he could

have defended her,

he couldn't care less.

One night,

he came into the room

where his dad was sleeping

and beat him over the head

with a hammer

until he almost died.

He was taken

to a mental hospital

and finally to jail.

In jail,

he met a Christian

in his cell

named Randy.

who had turned himself

in after 21 felonies.

David despised Randy

and other Christians.

He teased them

mercilessly.

Randy would sometimes

fast and pray

for,

sometimes for several

days at a time.

David,

ever the competitor,

would go without food

a day or two longer

than Randy each time

to outdo him.

In order to argue

against Christian beliefs,

he started studying

the Bible.

One night,

after he hadn't eaten

for several days,

he was reading

the Gospel of John

and he read Jesus' words,

I am the bread of life.

He had spent

his whole life

searching for liberation

from social norms.

He was now locked up

in a jail cell

and he read,

you will know the truth

and the truth

will set you free.

His health

was rapidly declining

and he wondered

how much longer

he could keep this up

and he read

Jesus' words,

I am the resurrection

and the life.

He said,

even for me,

this was weird.

This book was talking

to me.

After a long process,

he finally surrendered

to Jesus Christ.

He prayed

one night

to repent of his sin

and receive Christ

into his life.

And he said,

when I sat up,

the entire world

looked different.

Like everything

was a different color.

For the first time

in a lot of years,

I didn't want

to hurt anyone.

And I had a strange sense

that I had somehow

known the truth

all along.

For years,

I was willing

to sacrifice everything

for a freedom

from external control.

But now I realize

that true freedom

is found

in not having

this inclination

to turn against

our Creator.

After I prayed,

I felt like

I had been fighting

my whole life

and I finally had a chance

to sit down and rest.

And that rest

has never gone away.

He's now married

with four kids

and works for

a Christian apologetics

ministry.

In the conclusion

of his video,

he quoted this verse.

Ezekiel 36, 26.

I will give you

a new heart

and a new spirit

I will put within you.

And I will remove

the heart of stone

from your flesh

and give you

a heart of flesh.

Have you experienced

that deep,

lasting,

heart-level rest

that doesn't go away?

It does not always come

in such a dramatic

experience that you

can point to

by date and time.

But Jesus Christ said

to all who will

listen to Him,

come to Me,

all you who are weary

and burdened

by your sin,

by your shame,

by your guilt,

by your fear,

whatever burdens you,

and I will give you rest.

He says,

my yoke is easy

and my burden

is light.

change is possible

through the power

of Jesus.

Second,

let me speak to those

of us who are Christians.

Let me give three groups.

First,

if you're a new Christian,

if you've recently

started following Jesus,

if that's you,

I want to encourage you

to rejoice

in this new heart

that you've received

from God.

Rejoice that Jesus

has cleaned you out

of your sin and guilt

and filled you up

with the Spirit of God.

The Apostle Peter says

according to His great mercy,

He's caused us

to be born again

to a living hope

through the resurrection

of Jesus Christ

from the dead.

And he says,

in this,

you rejoice.

Though now,

for a little while,

you've been grieved

by various trials,

but though you haven't

seen Him,

you love Him.

And though you don't

see Him now,

you believe in Him

and rejoice

with joy inexpressible

and full of glory.

As a new believer,

you might have lots

of questions

about the Bible.

You might feel fearful

and anxious

about what lies ahead.

You might be dealing

with baggage

from a messy past.

God might be convicting you

and showing you

all the ways

that you fall short

and all the sinful habits

that you need

to break free from.

And you might be wondering,

how in the world

will I ever live

like a good Christian?

Rejoice.

Because God has given you

a new heart.

And God has poured out

His Holy Spirit

into you.

His favor,

His mercy,

His love,

His grace,

and that's greater

than any of those things

that you're facing.

It's the best gift of all.

It's the best reason

to rejoice.

Because you have

a new heart.

Second group of Christians,

if you've been a Christian

for some time

but you feel stuck,

the joy you experienced

when you first believed

in Christ,

has faded,

you're still falling

into the same old

sinful and self-destructive

patterns,

maybe you wonder

whether this is even true.

Do I really have

a new heart?

Is God's promise

true for me?

Well, think of it this way.

What the Bible is saying

is that through the mercy

of Christ,

we've had a heart transplant.

Now, I don't know

if you've ever had

any kind of radical surgery,

but if you've had

major surgery,

you don't walk

out of the hospital

dancing and jumping

for joy

and ready to run

a marathon.

More often,

you go out like Jacob

after he wrestled

with the angel

all night,

limping.

And there's a long process

called recovery

before you experience

the full benefits

of an organ transplant.

Doctor sends you home.

Take not an organ

and say if you have

a knee replacement,

doctor sends you home,

you've got your new knee.

But then you have to do

a series of exercises

over the next several weeks

and months

that feel painful

and hard

until you gradually

begin to experience

the benefits

of your knee replacement.

Now, for a Christian,

spiritually speaking,

the process of adjusting

to and living out

of your new heart

that God has transplanted

into you

by His Holy Spirit,

that process takes

a lifetime

until you die

or until Jesus comes again.

Some of us have had,

many of us have had

the heart transplant

from Jesus,

but we've gotten stalled

or discouraged somehow

in the recovery process.

Sometimes we've stopped

following the doctor's orders.

And so we're not experiencing

anywhere near

the full benefits

or not seeming,

not growing

in experiencing the benefits

of the new heart

He's given us.

But if you've turned

to Jesus in faith,

His promise is still good.

He's given you a new heart.

He's implanted

a new principle

of spiritual life

within you.

He's put His very own

spirit into you.

And God doesn't go back

and do reverse surgeries.

You have a new nature

even if you don't feel like it.

So instead of

complaining

that you feel

just as bad

as you did before,

you need to get up

out of bed

and do the exercises

that the doctor

has ordered

and stretch yourself

like the doctor

has told you to

because that's the way

you'll grow stronger.

That's the way

to get used to

and live out

of that new principle

of life

that's been implanted

in you.

That's what Peter says

in his epistle

continuing that same passage.

He says,

prepare your minds

for action.

In other words,

get ready for a fight,

for a struggle.

It's not going to be easy

because you have

a new nature

but it's fighting

against your old nature

which is hanging

on to you

and trying to pull you back.

But he says,

set your hope fully

on the grace

that will be brought

to you when Jesus

comes again.

He says,

don't be conformed

to the passions

of your former ignorance

but be holy

in all that you do.

He says,

love one another

earnestly

since you've been

born again

and like newborn infants

long for the pure

spiritual milk

of God's word

that by it

you may grow up

into salvation.

So that's what he says.

He says,

long for God's word.

Love one another.

Take practical steps

to be involved

in others' lives.

Recovery is not

a solitary process

as a Christian.

God's given you

a new heart.

He's also given you

a new community.

We need to work out

together what that

looks like.

But God's given you

a new heart.

So be encouraged.

Paul says,

not only has God

renewed our hearts

but he also says

our inner self

is being renewed

day by day.

God gives us

a new heart

and then he continues

renewing us

by his spirit

day by day

by day by day.

It's an ongoing

process of his grace

and mercy

being poured

into our lives.

And our call

is to work out

what God

has worked

into us.

Finally,

let me speak

to those of you

who've been Christians

for some time

and now you're

on the homestretch.

Maybe you're

in the second half

of your life,

perhaps in your

later years,

perhaps facing

health problems

or other reminders

that your physical

body is not as strong

as it used to be.

And one day

we will all die.

What I want to say

to you is this.

The new heart

that God has given

you is a prelude.

It's an anticipation.

It's the first fruits,

as the New Testament

says,

of God's promise

of a resurrected body

and eternal life

in God's new creation.

You see,

the heart of Ezekiel's

promise in this chapter

is that God will give

his people

new hearts.

But if you look,

if you read the rest

of the chapter,

what I didn't read,

even look at verse 29.

He starts talking about

the land being restored.

The land that was desolate

would one day

become abundantly fruitful.

The cities would be inhabited.

The waste places rebuilt.

The desolate land

would become like

the Garden of Eden.

And the people

would multiply

like a flock.

It's a promise

of a new creation.

Come back next week,

Pastor Nick will be

preaching the whole sermon on.

But the point

I want to make here

is that the new heart

that God has given you

is the down payment,

it's the guarantee

of what he's going to do

one day

in making a whole

new heavens

and new earth.

nor will we live

with Jesus forever.

The Apostle Paul

makes this connection.

2 Corinthians 4,

he says,

so we do not lose heart.

Though our outer self

is wasting away,

our inner self

is being renewed

day by day.

For this light,

momentary affliction

is preparing for us

an eternal weight

of glory

beyond all comparison.

As we look not

to the things

that are seen

but to the things

that are unseen.

And then he goes on.

He says,

for we know

that if the tent

that is our earthly home,

our physical body

right now is destroyed,

we have

a building from God

that will last.

A house

not made with hands,

eternal in the heavens.

For in this tent,

this temporary body,

in this tent we groan,

longing to put on

our heavenly dwelling

so that what is mortal

may be swallowed up

by life.

And then he says this,

he who has prepared us

for this very thing

is God,

who has given us

the Spirit

as a guarantee.

God's given you

his Holy Spirit

to dwell in you,

to renew your heart

day by day

as a guarantee

of his promise

that one day

he's going to make

all things new.

Amen.

You can say amen.

We're in a Baptist church.

It's alright.

It's worth affirming

this promise

of a new creation.

So brothers and sisters,

God's given us new hearts,

cleansed from sin

and filled with his Spirit

so that we may know

that one day

he'll give us new bodies

and a new creation

and it'll be glorious.

That's the promise

we hold on to

in this season of Advent.

We think about

anticipating

the coming of Christ.

That's the promise

that we hold on to

and look forward to.

That's the hope

that we have.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you

that though

in our sinfulness

we cannot

change ourselves

in that deep

and lasting

and heart level way.

We thank you

for sending your son

Jesus Christ

so that we might

have new hearts.

We thank you

for his sacrifice,

for his coming

into this world

for his laying down

his life on the cross,

for his body broken

and his blood poured out

so that we might

receive life.

Lord, we thank you

for your promise

that one day

you will come

and make all things new.

Lord, we pray

that you would

renew our hearts

day by day.

We pray that you would

sustain us

by your grace.

In Jesus' name

we pray.

Amen.

Well, this morning

we come to the Lord's Supper

where we remember

the sacrifice

theatelly sermon

of Shelby

that should satu

replied.