This morning we look together in God's Word in Ezekiel chapter thirty six. Ezekiel chapter thirty six. I'll be making several references to the canons of Dort as we look at the fourth, what is called the fourth head of doctrine in those canons or teachings, and those are found on page one hundred and three, four and five. And so I want to just draw your attention to that as we look at one of the many portions of God's Word that reflect and teach these truths. We look at Ezekiel chapter 36 and begin with verse 22. Now, as we read this passage, I believe there are two things that we keep in mind. That is that Israel or Judah is in exile. There is a promise in these words concerning a return from exile that God will bring about a return, however. It is clear from the text and various aspects that the return from exile is is but a. Another prophecy concerning the future messianic return, the Messiah is coming when the Messiah will lead his people in fullness. to return and bask in the blessings of God and God will accomplish this. And that's the emphasis of the passage. And so, though it has the undertones of the return after 70 years, it has also the prophetic vision more fully fulfilled in the coming of Christ. and the ultimate proclamation of the gospel in the New Testament era. And so we have layers of truth that are being declared. So people of God in that light, we look at Ezekiel chapter thirty six, beginning with verse twenty two here, then the glorious gospel of the power of our God. Therefore, say to the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord God, I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for my holy namesake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went. And I will sanctify my great name. which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. And the nations shall know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when I am hallowed in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all the countries and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. and you will keep my judgments and do them. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. I will deliver you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and multiply it and bring no famine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit of your trees and the increase of your fields so that you need never again bear the reproach of famine among many nations. Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good. And you will loathe yourself in your own sight for your iniquities and your abominations. Not for your sake do I do this, says the Lord. Let it be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your own ways. Oh, house of Israel. People of God. Thus, the proclamation of the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. the Messiah through whom is accomplished God's purposes. We have set before us and we come to that portion of the clear teaching of the doctrines of grace, the gospel, the good news of God's saving work. As we have reflected that God is the one who steps forth and goes forth and accomplishes his purpose. He does that as he sent forth his son who died, and that death is powerful. It is powerful to save, and it does save. He does it because of all that is set before us in these verses concerning our own sin. And these verses, as the word of God and in its entirety, will convict us of our sin, our uncleanness, the fact that we cannot save ourselves from the situations that we find ourselves in. We cannot save ourselves from ourselves, from death, from the judgment of God against our sin. All of this is pressing upon us. But the good news is that God comes and saves his people. The very foundation of that salvation is the work of Jesus Christ. But then God takes that work and he impresses it upon our hearts. He changes us so that we ultimately would embrace and take hold of that work through what is called the irresistible work of the Holy Spirit, irresistible grace, the power of God, the message of the gospel coming to us and the power of the Holy Spirit. And once again, people of God, in the context of the declaration of that powerful work of God and of the Holy Spirit in Ezekiel chapter 36, it is set before us that God is going to do this not for our sake, but for the sake of his name. We and are not the primary motivator in this, God is. God is going to establish His name. He is going to reveal Himself. His power, His glory, His grace, His mercy is all that should be at the forefront of our minds, our hearts and our faith as we reflect on these truths that God sets before us. We are like Israel in exile, apart from the saving work of God, once again enslaved like they were in Egypt under the judgment of God, under the curse of God, dead in our sins, totally depraved, falling short of the glory of God. But God comes to us and for his name's sake. says the text, for His name's sake, He works. And therefore, all that we do, or all that God does, is done for His name's honor and glory. And all that we do ought to be done for God's name's honor and glory. He's doing it for his namesake than anything that we do in response to what God has done is done for God's glory. We come to worship for the glory of God, not that we would exalt in ourselves. Now, in our worship, we certainly rejoice. The Declaration of Philippians, as it connects to the very nature of worship, is that we are worshiping in the spirit, rejoicing in Christ, but all the while giving the glory and the honor to God. Now, that's in sharp contrast to a lot of church services that seek to glory in man or exalt man or make the worshipers happy. Indeed, one of a one of the quote ministries of a mega TV church. declares this and it's a quote ministry and by ministers, but I don't believe they're really ministers or a ministry of the Church of Jesus Christ. And and it was at this moment, it's the wife of, quote, who was a co-pastor, supposedly, and she makes these kinds of declarations all the time. But recently, Victoria Osteen declared this. I want to encourage every one of us to realize when we obey God, we're not doing it for God. I mean, that's one way to look at it. We're doing it for ourselves because God takes pleasure when we're happy. I do this for my name's sake, says God. For my glory, says God and says the Osteens, God does it so you can be happy. And that's the reason he acts. That's the reason you come to worship for your happiness. But that's the very opposite of the text of God's word here and throughout the Scripture. Indeed, we do rejoice and we can and we are happy in Christ. But if that's our goal. Then we will never rejoice in Christ. We were only be enslaved to our own sin. But God's glory will be declared. By God's work through his people. And it will be known even among the nations. And what God does will be a testimony and a witness to the nations of God's power and God's glory and God's work. When I read these verses here and we we read the declaration in Ezekiel, That God says, I will take you from among the nations and I will do all this. And it's for my name's sake. And it's and then he makes the declaration that he does this among the nations. He's going to do it. He's going to work in such a way that the nations themselves come to see. That God is the one who at work, who is at work. that the people may know. It reminds me of Matthew, chapter five, verse fourteen, Matthew, chapter five, verse fourteen, where Jesus says about those in whom and through whom God is at work. You are the light of the world, a city set on a hill cannot be hidden, so when God does this, The result is his people become as a light in the world. And they are shining so that the world ought to see the powerful work of God. And so how sad it is that those who claim to be declaring a gospel that is the gospel that is man centered. Fails to bring glory and honor to God. For God is the one who is at work. God is the one who is the one who saves. Now, God does that through the preaching of the word. God declares what he's going to accomplish in in Ezekiel, chapter 36. But God is declaring that in the context of the proclamation of his word. So what God says he will do in something like verse twenty four, I will take you from the nations. Verse twenty five, I will sprinkle clean water on you. Verse twenty six, I will give you a new heart and we're going to really emphasize that again in a moment. But I say in that context, This is what is happening. God is saying in verse 22, say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord. So God is going to accomplish these things in the context of the proclamation of those things to the people he's going to accomplish them in. In other words, it is through the preaching of the gospel. It is through the preaching of the good news of what God is going to do. It's through that means that God accomplishes his purpose through the power of the Holy Spirit. So it doesn't. So God doesn't come to Ezekiel and say, close your mouth, say nothing to Israel. Don't speak my word. And then in 70 years, I am going to come and place within the mind of each of the people that I am going to save my special revelation. And I'm going to communicate one on one to them. And they're all going to get the same truth. And then they're all going to come and suddenly they're going to realize this. And I don't want you or any preacher or the word to be written. I want this all just to happen in the context of nothing. Well, that sounds very strange. I would hope that sounds strange because God says, therefore, say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord, God declares what he's going to do and the very declaration of what he declares he's going to do becomes the means by which he does it. In other words, God saves through his word. God saves through the preaching of his word. God saves through the communication of the truth of his word. He declares it and then he does it. God says, I am going to save. wretched sinners and declare that I am going to save wretched sinners to every wretched sinner. And through that declaration of what I'm going to do, I will do it. And wretched sinners are saved by hearing about their wretchedness. And about God's grace and about the power of the Holy Spirit, that's how they're saved, that's why we call that The teachings found in found in the canons of Doris, the doctrines of grace. That's why I communicate to you this is a summary of the gospel. This is the good news, though dead, God makes us alive. God powerfully accomplishes through the preaching of the gospel. Salvation. In the lives of his chosen. In head to Article five, this is prior to the fourth head of doctrine, it says we are introduced in the canons of Dort. We're introduced to the importance of the proclamation of the gospel in this way. Moreover, the promises, the promise of the gospel is that whoever believes in Christ crucified shall not perish and have eternal life. This promise. Together with the command to repent and believe ought to be declared and published to all nations and to all persons promiscuously and without distinction to whom God out of his good pleasure sends the gospel. It's in the gospel to everyone. Had four, which is the focus, irresistible grace this morning. Article 11 says it this way, but when God accomplishes his good pleasure in the elect or works in them, true conversion, he not only causes the gospel to be externally preached to them and powerfully illuminates their minds by his Holy Spirit, that they might rightly understand and discern the things of the Spirit of God. And then it'll go on to say he does more than that, but he does at least this. God will accomplish his good pleasure. Because he causes the gospel to be externally preached and the external preaching of the gospel is declared to us in Ezekiel thirty nine by these kinds of words, say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord. That is a command that God's servants, God's prophets and now God's preachers preach the word, not some nonsense they make up to make people happy for the day. Because our true happiness will be found in the proclamation of the gospel and the glory of God, not in the exaltation of man. And God will do this by the power of the Holy Spirit. at work in the lives of people. It always seems rather strange to me that those who call themselves Pentecostal, who declare that the spirit is powerful and that we all need to be in submission to this powerful spirit, basically make the spirit weak. Because they say, well, the spirit can't save people. God just gives people the opportunity to be saved. But the word of God will declare, I will do this. And what does God say that he will do? In verse 36, verse chapter 36, verse 27, I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statues. I'll put my spirit within you. And he said that spirit within us will cause us to walk in the statutes of God will get to the further meaning of that. But we focus on this moment. It is through the powerful work of the Holy Spirit that God irresistibly calls us to himself. The spirit is intricately connected to the proclamation of the word and the salvation of any individual. Head for Article 11. And the canons of Dort will declare it this way, and I take just parts of that. But when God accomplishes his good pleasure in the left, he powerfully illuminates their minds by the Holy Spirit that they may rightly understand and discern the things of the Spirit of God. By the efficacy of the same regenerating spirit, he pervades the inmost recess of man. He opens the closed and softens the hardened heart. God is working through the power of the Holy Spirit to save those who are dead in sin. And the Spirit of God is connected to the coming of the Messiah. This of all the points of this passage is that Messianic theme that when the Holy Spirit comes. There will be the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, even as we saw in second Corinthians three, as we began our worship in verses 15 through 18. We talked about how and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. There is freedom, freedom from, as I said, the deadness of sin. Freedom from the bondage of being incapable of following the law in any way. Freedom from the judgment of God, even. And we are being transformed by the Spirit of the Lord. The spirit is out poured, is poured out in the messianic kingdom. Israel and Judah will be gathered from the nations. But we'll see that that gathering is more than an ethnic gathering, it now becomes the gathering of all peoples from all nations. But God says he will accomplish all this with specific acts. specific acts and it is declared. God says he will sanctify his name in verse twenty three, but how will he do that? He says, I will take you from among the nations. I am going to take you out. I'm going to take you from the nation that is in rebellion to me. I'm going to take you from being in rebellion to me. I'm going to take you out of the cultures and out of the religions and out of the idol worshipers of every nation, of every people throughout the world. And in the power of the gospel, God is bringing and taking people out of every nation. Yesterday, I listened to a testimony of a A man who was taken out of the nation of Turkey and was saved by grace, and he testifies to how in in Turkey there are people who are being saved today. Saved by grace, by the powerful work of God, their whole culture is against it, but God says, I'm going to take you, I'm going to send forth my spirit. God is going to take them from among the nations. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean. And how is baptism not seen in this? God sprinkles that clean water and that is all a symbol and a sign of our uncleanness and how we are washed by the blood of the land, by the death of Jesus Christ. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and your idols. God will do this. You can't do it yourself. God doesn't say, I'll give you an opportunity to do this for yourself. God says, I will do it. I will give you a new heart. I will take out the heart of stone. I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you. I will be your God. I will deliver you from all your uncleanness. Verse twenty nine. I will multiply the fruit of your trees. Verse 30. I will do this. For my sake. I will do all these things. I will do them again in Article 11 of the canons of Dort. It picks up on what God does for us by the efficacy of the same regenerating spirit, the spirit that he causes the gospel to be preached. He opens the closed and softens the hardened heart and circumcised that which was uncircumcised, infuses new qualities into the will which, though heretofore dead, he quickens. From being evil, disobedient and refractory, he renders it good, obedient and pliable, actuates and strengthens it that like a good tree, it may bring forth fruits of good actions. I will deliver you from all your uncleanness. I will save you from your sin. God does it. And when God acts in such a way, The people of God ought at the very forefront of their lives. Say glory be to God. Thanks be to God. Praise the Lord. We rejoice in Christ. How can not such a truth drive us to humble praise and adoration? And God says that this is his work. And that he will accomplish this work in the house of Israel. The house of Israel. From Jews. But the New Testament makes it abundantly clear That this house of Israel revealed in Ezekiel. Is beyond. Only ethnic Israel includes ethnic Jews, but is beyond that. Because the people of God today, the people of God in this messianic time. are people from every tribe and tongue who are brought together as a people of God, as the Israel of God. God will do this for his people and everyone in this. Everyone here today that has been saved by grace, that has the irresistible work of the Holy Spirit at work in their lives. Every one of us are part of that people prophesied in Ezekiel. Our confession says it this way, the mystery of his will, God revealed to but a small number under the Old Testament, under the New Testament, the distinction between various peoples having been removed. He reveals himself to many. God reveals himself to many. Well, where does God say that in Romans nine, six through eight? Romans chapter nine verses six through eight. We read these words concerning Israel today, the people of God today. But it but it is not that the word of God has taken no effect, for they are not all Israel who are of Israel. Nor are they all children because they are of the seed of Abraham. In other words, not all the people who are gathered from all the nations are ethnic Jews. Some are, but not all. But in Isaac, your seed shall be called. That is, those who are the children of flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as the seed, the promise of I will save you, the promise that I will give my spirit to you. That ultimate promise comes to those who hear and believe that promise. And so it's that kind of promise. And Second Corinthians, chapter six, verse 16, as we would find in many parts of the New Testament. Will then describe the New Testament church, that church, that people on whom the Spirit of the Lord has been poured out, that people who have been gathered from all nations, that people who have been given a new heart, who have been circumcised, all those terms used of the New Testament church. in the New Testament found in Ezekiel, but the key one I will be there. God we see in second Corinthians six verse sixteen and what agreement has the temple of God with idols. For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. I will be their God. They shall be my people. An absolute promise. A description of the irresistible work of God in the lives of his chosen. And all the glory and all of the honor goes to God, and when God does that, he causes his people to walk in his statutes to obey his word. And we see that back in Ezekiel, chapter 36. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments. Well, what's one of the first statutes that a child of God walks in? Repent and believe. That's a statute of God. And the spirit of God at work within us causes us to take hold of all those promises by faith, a faith that is not of ourselves, but it is a gift of God. And so faith itself is that work of God within us in Article 14. I've had for faith is therefore to be considered as the gift of God, not on account of its being offered by God to man. No, because faith is the proper response of loving obedience by faith. To be so faith is not on account of its being offered by God to man to be accepted or rejected as at man's pleasure, but because it is in reality conferred upon him, breathed and infused into him. nor even because God bestows the power or ability to believe and then expects that man should, by the exercise of his own free will, consent to the terms of salvation and actually believe in Jesus, but because he who works in man both to will and to work, and indeed all things in all, produces both the will to believe and the act of believing also. God gives us that. As it says here, I will pour my spirit and cause you. To come to me. And when we come to him by true faith and repentance, we give him the glory and the honor for the irresistible work that he has accomplished in our lives so that we might know and that we might bear testimony and that we might be a light that declares It is God who saves, it is not me. It is to God to whom the glory deserves, not to me. May God receive all the honor and the glory and the power. Amen. Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for your saving grace. May we rejoice in that grace. And may we grow in that grace as we seek to honor and as we believe and repent and rejoice in Christ. This we pray in Jesus name. Amen.