We are going to draw our attention to the Word of God. This morning I preached on the New Covenant from Jeremiah 31. This evening I'll be preaching on the New Covenant from Ezekiel 36. And before we get there, I would like us to read from John 7, verses 32 through 39. Let us stand together in reverence for the word of God. Let us hear it and receive it as though hearing God speak to us from heaven. The focal point in both texts will be the person and work of the Holy Spirit, so keep an ear open for those things as we read. John 7, verse 32. The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things concerning him, and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him. And Jesus said to them, I shall be with you a little while longer, then I go to him who sent me. You will seek me and you will not find me. And where I am, you cannot come. The Jews said among themselves, where does he intend to go that we shall not find him? Does he intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What is this thing that he said? You will seek me and not find me. And where I am, you cannot come. On the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in him would receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. And there, glorified refers to death and resurrection and ascension. Well, Jesus said these things are taught in the scriptures about the Spirit, so now let us turn to Ezekiel 36, where we see one example where this is the case. beginning in verse 16 of Ezekiel 36. 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 ways and deeds. To me, their way was like the uncleanness of a woman in her customary impurity. Therefore, I poured out my fury on them for the blood they had shed on the land, and for their idols with which they had defiled it. So I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the countries. I judged them according to their ways and their deeds. When they came to the nations, wherever they went, they profaned my holy name. When they said of them, these are the people of the Lord, and yet they've gone out of his land, But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations wherever they went. 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 name's sake, 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 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 I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and I will 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. You shall be my people. I will be your God. I will deliver you from all uncleanness. I will call for the grain and multiply it and bring no famine upon you. I will multiply the fruit of your trees, the increase of your fields, so that you need never again bear the reproach of famine among the nations. Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good. And you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and your abominations. Not for your sake do I do this, says the Lord God. Let it be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded of your own ways, O house of Israel. Thus says the Lord God, on the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will also enable you to dwell in the cities, and the ruins shall be rebuilt. The desolate land shall be tilled instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass by. So they will say, this land that was desolate has become like the Garden of Eden, and the wasted, desolate, and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited. Then the nations which are left all around you shall know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt the ruined places and planted what was desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken it, and I will do it. Thus says the Lord God. I will also let the house of Israel inquire of me to do this for them. I will increase their men like a flock, like a flock offered as a holy sacrifice, like the flock at Jerusalem on its feast days, so that the ruined cities shall be filled with the flocks of men. Then they shall know that I am the Lord. Thus far the reading of God's holy word. As we come to this particular passage of Ezekiel, as I've indicated in the title, the hero of the story, so to speak, is God the Holy Spirit. And in fact, everything in this text conspires, as it were, to draw our attention to the middle of the text, to verses 26 and 27 about the work of the Holy Spirit. As I was thinking about this particular text, I was reminded of something that probably most of us in this room experienced about a month and a half ago. We celebrated a holiday known as the Fourth of July. Children, if you hear about the Fourth of July, what immediately comes to mind? It's the fireworks, isn't it? And when you watch a fireworks show, what are you waiting for? Ultimately, everything in the show is a precursor or prelude to the grand finale. We're all waiting for the end when all the fireworks go off at once, and as it were, everything else, glorious as it is, is simply pointing to this great final event. Well, in some ways, when we think about what the Bible calls the New Covenant, that's exactly what we see. We see the fireworks of God's glorious covenant, God's grace, God's promise, God's Christ, and here God's Spirit gradually building through the entire Bible, looking to the grand finale, looking to the coming of the Savior. I believe that's exactly where Ezekiel takes us in this text about the Holy Spirit, is he's trying to teach us the glory of his work under what the Bible calls the New Covenant. Now in the other text that I just read to you from John chapter 7, especially the last verse that I read, verse 39, the statement there is actually a little bit more stark and more of a contrast than what I read to you in the English translation. What I read was that the Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. What it actually says is the Spirit was not yet, or was not, for Jesus was not yet glorified. And John is not telling us the Spirit didn't exist until this time. Neither is he telling us the Spirit didn't work before this time. Do we not read in the prophets that they spoke by the Spirit? The Spirit of the Lord came upon Samuel. Earlier than that, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson. The people grieve the Holy Spirit of God in the wilderness and the Spirit is always present and always there. But what is John telling us? He's telling us that the work of the Spirit under the new covenant is so great, you ain't seen nothing yet. In other words, what the Spirit does now, what Ezekiel is promising about the Spirit in this text, so far surpasses anything that God has ever done up to this point, that it is as though the fireworks leading up to the grand finale are all that we've seen. So what then does Ezekiel teach us about the Holy Spirit in connection to the new covenant? I wanna summarize it in one simple statement. The spirit, the spirit himself that is, is the chief blessing promised through Christ in the new covenant. In other words, the gospel gives us lots of things, but notice in conjunction with what we've looked at this morning, the gospel doesn't simply offer us a list of benefits, it offers us divine persons. We have a Savior who came to save His people from their sins and wipe away our iniquities, which we saw this morning. But now we also have a Spirit who comes to us and who applies and completes the work of salvation by bringing it home to us. This is Christ's great legacy to the church. And that's what Ezekiel is driving at. The spirit is the chief blessing promised through the new covenant in Christ. Now in order to give you something of an outline of the text and pull our way through it, we need to understand that the text was not written to us in this time and this day and this age, but people who are about to go into exile. And they faced a lot of questions. Can the Lord defend his people? That's question one. And verses 16 through 21 answer that question. How can God restore his people? That question's answer, verses 22 through 32, and that'll be the centerpiece about the spirit. How can God change their condition? Things are bad. And that's answered then in verses 33 through 36. And lastly, how can God restore harmony or peace between himself and his people? And that's the end of the text, 37 to 38. So what are we looking at as we think about this? Well, the people are concerned about their circumstances. They have problems with their circumstances. They have problems with themselves. They have problems with their conditions, and ultimately their great problem is their relation to God. And Ezekiel step-by-step addresses all of these particular issues. So what I want to do is repeat each of these questions and then use the text to answer them as we go through. So first of all, verses 16 through 21, can the Lord defend his people? Now why is this question being asked? I'm not necessarily going to go through all the details of the text, but try to pull you quickly to the centerpiece about the Holy Spirit. But we need to understand what's going on. The people of God were going into exile. What does that mean? They're literally going out. They're living in the land of the Lord. And notice it does use the language here of His land, God's land. And their privilege was to live with God in the land and to know God. But now they're going out, and what do the nations around them say? Where is their God? You said your God was better than all the nations of the earth, and he's the only true God, and he's not able to deliver. Now you've left the land, and you see what's going on. Why did these people go into exile? Why did they go into captivity? Was it not because of their own sin and their own fault? And yet, when God justly gave them the consequences of their own sin, the world looked around and said, these are his people, this is his land, and this God is incompetent. Maybe he's not God at all. Maybe he's just like the idols of the nations that the Babylonian armies are sweeping away before them because they're nothing. And that's the crisis. So what's happening in this particular text? Well, the Lord reminds them of how they got into this mess in the first place. The first thing he tells us is you've defiled yourselves. You've ruined yourselves. Notice again the graphic language that he uses in verse 17. Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own ways and their deeds. To me, their way was like the uncleanness of a woman in her customary impurity. You may not be as familiar with this verse, maybe some are. But do you remember the verse in Isaiah that is often quoted? Your righteous deeds are like filthy rags before me. Now I don't want to get graphic with this, but what's he actually saying? Your best works are like menstrual garments to be cast aside, to be thrown out, In other words, what greater expression of defilement and revulsion can God give you? The best you have to offer me is defiled at best. You should have lived in the land. You should have been my people. But you ceased listening to my voice. And you rebelled against my commandments. And the land was defiled. And that's why you're in this mess in the first place. Now, that reminds us, doesn't it? that all affliction, all suffering in this world is ultimately the result of sin. In other words, it's not as though you're suffering or I'm suffering in some particular circumstance because we've done A, B, or C and now God is drawing a direct line from A, B, and C to these particular things in my life. But He is reminding us that all suffering results from sin. The miseries of this life are ultimately our fault. If we were not sinners, the earth itself would not, as it were, grown under our feet. That's something of the picture that's given here. Now, there is something more specific here too, isn't there? He is singling them out. You have done specific things. You do need to repent of your particular sins. The land is defiled under your feet. and you must turn, must repent. And then things get worse. The nations are saying God can't deliver them. God says in verse 18, therefore I poured out my fury on them for the blood that they had shed, for their violence, for their idolatry. Now it's interesting, isn't it? This is a prophet writing several hundred years, give or take, BC, before Christ came. And yet, the situation he describes is very contemporary, isn't it? We see violence increase on the earth. We see the evils of abortion, for example, in our own country. We also see idolatry running rampant. Maybe not people bowing down to blocks of wood and stone, But people basically saying, I don't need this God. Or if I do need him, it's only because he suits my needs. He fits my liking. He meets what I think will help me in life. And so if it's good for you, it's good for you. If it's true for you, it's true for you. But don't tell me what I need to think. Don't tell me what I need to believe. My dear friends, do you hear the voice of Adam and Eve in the garden? You shall not eat of this tree. In the day you eat of it, you will die. Satan says, you will not surely die. Oh, we have two opinions here. One says we'll die, one says we'll not. Well, who will we believe? Shall we believe God or shall we believe Satan? Shall we believe God, shall we trust in ourselves? And is this not exactly what Israel did with all the blessings, all the promises, all the wonderful things that God had given to them? They defiled the land and now they were under the fury of God for their bloodshed, for their idolatry. So God scattered them among the nations, verse 19. That's why this has happened. And what did they do? And what happens? Parents, if you correct your children and you discipline your children, what do you want and what do you expect? Do you want them to say, I'm drawing my line in the sand, I'm going to die here or you're going to die there. No matter what you do, no matter what you take away, no matter what consequences I have, I'm not caving in. Well, most people learn to move beyond that behavior at some point in life. Not everyone does, but that is basically what Israel is doing. God punishes them because of their defilement and what do we see happen? More sin. More defilement. You know, people often say, if God showed himself from heaven, gave me a sign and wonder, peeled back the veil of the clouds, spoke to me, I would believe. Would we? What did Israel do when they saw God on the mountain? Didn't they worship a golden calf in response? What do they do in light of all the prophets? Literally God coming and speaking with specific messages. What should I do with my life? What am I going to do in the next five years? Well, let me tell you. Here is Jeremiah. You are sinning against the Lord. You need to repent today or you will fall under the judgment of God. And by the way, you're going into exile. And how do you respond? More rebellion, more sin. or defilement, reminded of the book of Revelation, where one of the curses there is God makes the sun to scorch people. It actually says that they blasphemed the God who gave the plagues. He gives these afflictions. He gives a world full of afflictions to warn us all is not right. He chastens and disciplines his covenant people to show them that they must repent and they move from defilement to wrath to more defilement. Things are getting bad, aren't they? Now, I'm trying to belabor this because at this point, we should be saying there has to be something better than this. There has to be something else. There has to be something next. So this takes us to the end of this section where God says in verse 21, I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations wherever they went. And he begins to tell them, I'm going to bring you back. I'm going to restore you. I'm going to receive you. But let it be clear. And you got this from the Bible reading if you're listening. Let there be no mistake. not for your sake, my name's sake. That's a theme in Ezekiel, isn't it? You read Ezekiel every chapter three or four times. Then they shall know that I am the Lord. Then they shall know that I am the Lord. Then they shall know that I am the Lord. You see what he's saying? I will do something about this situation. I will come and I will save you, but it is for my name's sake and my name alone. Now, this is tremendously important. for the gospel of Jesus Christ. The question here we've been looking at is can the Lord defend his people? The nations say no. God says yes. But he says I will take my honor upon myself. I will take responsibility for it. I will defend and vindicate my name even as I save my people. You realize there's nothing better that God could say. Have you read the Bible? If you have, have you noticed that God is zealous for the glory of his name with all of his almighty power? If I can use the inappropriate expression, with every fiber of his divine being. He pursues his own glory, he upholds his own name, and he honors his own name. And what we see in scripture and what we see here is that the name of God is on the people of God. That's good news for you, that's good news for me. Because that means that God uses his same almighty power and his zeal for his own glory to defend the people that bear his name. John says this in the New Testament, doesn't he? In that wonderful verse in 1 John 2, little children, your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. What's he saying? God will sooner violate the glory of his own name, which is unthinkable, then he will forsake you and fail to save you. So can the Lord defend his people? Yes. For his own name's sake. Our only hope is in God's zeal for his own name. That's where this begins. So then the next question. Okay. God pursues the zeal of his own name. He has the power to restore his people. The nations are wrong. But the second issue is, how can he restore these people? Have you read their history? Have you seen what they've done? People have often said that the New Testament is an anti-Semitic book. Children, you understand what I mean by that. Anti-Semitic means, I don't like the Jews. The New Testament doesn't like the Jews because it blames them for crucifying Jesus, it blames them for the wrath of God coming upon the temple and all these other bad things that came. Well, if that's the criteria for being anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish, then the Old Testament is the most anti-Semitic book ever written. Now, please understand me, it's not. The Bible is not against Jewish people because they're Jewish people. It's against sinners because they're sinners. And the more these sinners had privileges from God, the more they turned their back upon Him, and you're starting to feel the problem. How can this change? How do you break the cycle? How is this not gonna happen again? And how are they not gonna go down this path a second time? That's where he directs all of our attention to the Holy Spirit. So can the Lord defend his people? Yes, by his own name and for his name's sake. How can he restore them? by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now we need to understand something as we look at verses 22 and following, and especially verses 22 down through 29, and then the last two verses I have here will sort of tie it together. There's something in the Hebrew language known as achiasm. I'm not gonna ask for hands, but how many have heard of achiasm? Well, basically, different languages have ways to make emphasis. So we might underline something, we might put it in bold, we might put italics around it, we might highlight the text. Well, that's what a chiasm is in Hebrew. In other words, what's going on is, think about it like a pyramid. There's one word here. and then another one, and we're walking up the steps, and then another one, and then we reach the top. And when we reach the top, we're supposed to stand there, look around us, see the vista of what God is saying, and take it all in. But then we start walking back down the steps, and we go back where we came. Well, that's basically what this text does. It's bringing us to one crucial central point, standing on the top of that pyramid, looking around, seeing the glory of what God reveals. And that centerpiece is verses 25 and 26 about the Holy Spirit. So what I want you to do is mentally, spiritually walk up the steps with me, stand on the top of the pyramid, see what the Lord is teaching, and then walk back down the other side. Notice what he says. How can the Lord restore his people? Ultimately, by his spirit. But he tells us in verse 22, 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 name's sake, which you've profaned among the nations wherever you went. And I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you've profaned in their midst. Notice the repetition. The Lord's getting our attention, isn't he? And the nation shall know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when I am hallowed in you from before their eyes. I will take you from among the nations. I'll gather you out of the countries. I'll bring you to your own land. What's he saying? Basically, isn't he saying that this is like a new exodus? God will show His majesty. God will put His holiness, His power on display. Just as He brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and brought them into their own land, now He's sent them away. And He's gonna bring them back. And just like the old Exodus, we learn a story of redemption, so it will be with this great new Exodus. God's zeal for His own name, He's bringing the people back in. Now what we're going to see is that this has implications for more than Israel. We said this morning that God says it's too small a thing, that his servant, the Messiah, should be sent to the lost sheep of Israel. He'll be a savior to the ends of the earth, and that's exactly where we're going to end here. But how can we stop the cycle of sin, defilement, exile? By the Holy Spirit. Let's go ahead and stand on the top of the pyramid and see what the Lord is saying. First in verse 25, I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all of your idols. Every time animals were sacrificed in the Old Testament, Not every time, but the general idea was the blood was sprinkled on the people, on the altar, on the book. And what's the point? The idea is that one has died in the place of another. And the grace that is pointed to here must be applied. This is why Peter says we are sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ. And that's basically what the prophet is saying. How can this cycle end? How can the Lord restore his people? We must be sprinkled with clean water. We must have the blood of Christ applied to our souls for our salvation. In other words, our sins must be covered, our sins must be washed away, and only the Lord can do it. People don't sprinkle themselves. The Lord sprinkles them. The Lord comes. The Lord applies the benefits of Christ. Do we recognize this? Do we see this first and foremost as our only hope? To look to the name of the Lord, His zeal for His own glory, and to acknowledge that He upholds His glory, He upholds His majesty in the cross of Christ. And it is only by laying hold of Christ, by God sprinkling us with His blood, and applying it to us, that He is ours and we are His. We can't talk about changed lives until we talk about forgiven sins. The gospel is not about Jesus being a good moral teacher. It's about Jesus suffering the wrath of God on the cross and teaching us how to return to God. In fact, bringing us to God himself. And God sprinkles us with clean water. This should make us think of our baptism. What happens in baptism? All you who are baptized, You bear the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And in God's zeal for his own name, he has sprinkled you with clean water in baptism. I'm not saying that's the only way we should baptize, but it's water. That's the point. It's not the mode, it's the water. Why? Because it is teaching us that we bear the name of God and his zeal for his own name, he saves us, and he washes away our sins in the blood of Christ. Now there's more. That's still walking up the steps. The height is verses 26 and 27. Here's the great promise of the Spirit in the New Covenant. I will give you a new heart. I will put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. Now verse 27 is a repetition. I will put my spirit within you. I'll cause you to walk in my statutes. You will keep my judgments and you will do them. You see the parallel with Jeremiah 31 from this morning. God puts his law in our minds, he writes them in our hearts, and the text says that God promises to do those things, and we ought to believe the promises. Now, he's more specific. There is a divine person who is coming in person to do just these things. It is the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit that writes the law of God on our hearts in two ways. First, he gives new hearts to write on, and then secondly, he begins writing. First, he gives new hearts to write on, and notice the radical imagery here. You're not someone who's simply suffering heart disease, who can change their diet, who can start exercising, who can follow the doctor's regimen, and hopefully, by the grace of God, will not have another heart attack. This is a stone heart. It needs to be cut out. It needs to be removed. And this is how the Bible describes us in our sins. It's not that we're sick, it's that we're dead. It's not simply that we need help, but we're helpless. It's not that we can hope to change things and turn things around, but we're hopeless. Do you recognize this? Maybe for some of you, this is the first step to seeing the glory of the gospel of Christ, to being convicted of your sins this very night. Do you realize the desperateness of your need? The depths of despair you should feel. Your heart is stone. Especially if you're deriding and mocking the things that I'm saying. Do you realize you're proving a point? Your hearts are stone. I remember whenever I read this text, I think about my wife's uncle, years ago, actually had a heart transplant. And I confess, until that happened, I didn't really know they could do that. It's kind of amazing to think about it, isn't it? They put him on ice, basically, and were waiting for the donor, and his diseased heart would have killed him. And once they got the donor, they literally cut all the connections to the heart and put in a brand new heart. Now that's a physical heart. But isn't that exactly what the Lord is doing in what we call the new birth, in what we call regeneration? We need to be born anew, born again. The old heart has to go. The new heart must come in. And is this not something God and God alone can do and must do? But dear friends, do you realize he's promised to do it? And even as you hear the word of God, We ought to be encouraged that it is exactly through this means, hearing the preaching of the gospel, that God does surgery. Takes out the heart of stone. Puts in the heart of flesh. You hear Him. You hope in Him. You look to Him. But He doesn't stop there. He creates a new heart and then he puts something there. He puts something in it. I'll put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statues and you will keep my judgments and do them. You realize, dear friends, the goal of the gospel, the end to which we're going, is not verse 25, as glorious as it is. It's verse 27. In other words, unless you're forgiven of your sins, unless you're resting on Christ for your salvation and no one else and nothing else, then you have nothing else. But the purpose is to create a people to God who are zealous for good works. Why? You were meant to be like God. I was meant to be like God. And that means we need to be imitators of God. As dearly beloved children, we saw the law this morning, and don't we see it again? The law as a picture of the character of the God we serve, written large. Jesus Christ as a walking transcript of the law of God. And now, the Spirit, etching an image of Jesus into your soul. That's what the Spirit is doing. And here is what he's saying. We must know the law of God, we must know the statutes, the judgments, the commandments of God. In other words, we must read our Bibles, we must hear our Bibles, we must work practices into our lives, into our Lord's day that promote these ends. There has to be something going in the ear if there's going to be something in the heart. There must be. Yet God is promising to bless it because we don't trust in the Bible, we trust in the Lord. Now I want to be careful there. The Bible is the word of God. We should receive the word of God as God's word speaking to us. But you realize even the Bible is a means to an end. It is a means to help us know God and be like God. And it is the means that God has appointed. But I love the quote from the Puritan Thomas Manton that he says, in heaven, the only book that the saints will read is the face of Jesus Christ. Even the Bible is temporary. But right now, it's absolutely indispensable. We must know the law of God, we must know the word of God, but we must know the Lord of the law through it. That's why the spirit is doing this. So we need to study our Bibles, we need to seek the Lord, but we need to trust that the words don't simply go into the ear, but into the heart. Now this is very important because sometimes we think of the Christian life like this. I trust in Jesus to forgive my sins and that's something I do over here. But now I'm struggling with my personal sin over here. I keep losing my temper. I keep failing at work. I keep failing to be a good husband, a good wife, a good mother, a good child. What do I do? Are you acquainted with your privileges? Do you believe this promise of the New Covenant? What do you actually expect God to do? I've heard lots of people read Jesus say, be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect and say, that's useless, nobody could do that. But let me say this to every genuine Christian heart in this room. The Spirit of God is in you. You have a new heart. He's writing the law there. Can you be satisfied with anything less? This is why the Christian life is always looking ahead. Forgiveness of sins is the beginning, not the end, and it's a necessary beginning. But ultimately, what God is promising is the situation will be reversed. The defilement of my people will be stopped. Why? Because my spirit is in them. My spirit is there. and he will give them everything that they need to be like me, to follow me, to love my law, to imitate me, and ultimately to see Christ in glory and to be like him. That's where all those New Testament expressions come from, is passages like this one. That's why Jesus, when he talks about the Holy Spirit being like a fountain of living waters and his work in the New Testament being so much greater than anything he's ever done before, says, as the scriptures say, The scriptures have taught you to look ahead, to anticipate these things. Do you believe them? Do you rest in them? Then we walk back down the steps quickly. Verse 27, then you will dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers. You shall be my people and I will be your God and I will deliver you from your uncleanness. And then he talks about the grain multiplying, the famine being gone, the fruit of the trees increasing, and you never need to bear the reproach of famine among the nations. What's he saying? I think what Ezekiel does, as you get to the end of his book, is he uses Old Covenant language to describe New Covenant blessings. In other words, this is the language available to him. God gave them the land as a pledge, as it were a gigantic sacrament that was pointing them to life with God. to the blessings of God's presence. And now by using this language of restoring all these things, you realize that this never really happened to Israel again. There was a partial restoration. But when Jesus comes on the scene, they're still living under the Romans, aren't they? And the nation is really never brought back to this kind of peace, this kind of security. But I think what he's saying is this, when I send my spirit, when he dwells in your heart, when he writes the law there, it will be like these great blessings. All the blessings that I promised will follow it. Psalm 72 talks about the hills being full of waving grain when the Messiah is reigning on his throne and ruling over the nations and calling the Gentiles to himself. I think that's what Ezekiel is telling us. Then notice this in verses 31 and 32. Then you will remember your evil ways and deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight. for your iniquities and your abominations. An interesting theme in Ezekiel. When I forgive you, when I give you my spirit, when I pour upon you the richest blessings that you can imagine and beyond, then you will loathe yourselves. Isn't that interesting? Are we tempted to say, well, that's really not for the Christian? To loathe yourselves? Let me put it this way. Does this sound familiar? What if I word it a little differently? Do you humble and abhor yourselves because of your sin? How many of you, the first time you came into the OPC and you're looking at the membership vows, did that one jump off the page? That is one of the vows. Do I really humble and abhor myself? Do I hate myself because of my sin? Ezekiel says that's the effect of divine grace. We humble ourselves, we abhor ourselves, we loathe ourselves, not just because of the misery of sin, but because of the sinfulness of sin. And because of the mercies of God. The more the law is in our hearts, the more we grow in the knowledge of it and the practice of it, the more we hate our sins and ourselves because of it. The more we long to be rid of it. And is that not one of the great blessings of heaven, to be finally rid of this burden of sin? And that's exactly what the prophet is saying. Then you will really know. In Ezekiel 16, he actually uses the word atonement. You will loathe yourselves in your sight when I make atonement for your sins. When I cover them, when I remove them, then you will really realize it. We're often humbled more by the mercies of God than the rebukes of God, aren't we? You ever marveled at how good God is to your soul? Let it humble you. Let it increase your hatred for sin. That we loathe ourselves. And then he tells them to be ashamed, confounded for their own ways. We've looked at the centerpiece. We've really focused on most of what the prophet has to say. Can the Lord defend his people? Yes, for his own name's sake. How can he restore them? By the Spirit removing the defilement, removing the cause of this mess in the first place. But what do we have left? How will he transform their condition? Notice verses 33 through 36. Here he says, by making his name known. So where do we start? The nations are saying, where's your God? Maybe he's not powerful enough. Maybe he couldn't save you. His name is on the line here. God says, I'll defend my own name. And I'll change your hearts so that this won't happen again. But now he also says, I'm going to publish my name. I'm going to make it known. And the nations themselves will know that I am the Lord. How so? Well, the land, again, verses 33 through 34, will be inhabited and cultivated. Then verse 35, he gives this over-the-top description. The land will be like the Garden of Eden. You know that the Bible, in a sense, begins in the garden and ends in the garden. begins with the Lord planting Adam in the garden by the rivers with two trees, and one is the tree of life. It ends with a city with a river of the water of life going through it, and the tree of life growing along the banks. That's where we end. I think that's where the Lord is directing us. He's going to take the ruin and misery of sin and undo it. He's going to restore paradise. partly in this world as we live with God and as we know God, but ultimately in the next. That's why I say he's using Old Testament language to point to New Testament realities. Then the nations, verse 36, which are left all around you shall know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt the ruined places, planted what is desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken and I will do it. You need to feel the emphasis there. I've said it. What about the circumstances? What about the desolation the church is in today? How insignificant are we actually in light of the surrounding world? What does the Lord say? Same thing he says to Ezekiel, it doesn't matter. I will do it. I've said it. I've spoken it. I will do it. I can and I will. I will defend my own name. I will give you new hearts and put my Holy Spirit within you. And how can the Lord change the condition of his people? By making his name known again. Now that brings us to the last point, the last question. How will the Lord restore harmony between himself and his people? I said at the outset that these promises are couched in terms of the restoration of Israel. But the promises, as it were, step beyond Israel and go further than Israel. Well, we see that in the last two verses. The Lord, thus says the Lord, I will also let the house of Israel inquire of me. You know, he told Jeremiah that he wouldn't hear their prayers. Because the prayer of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. We must turn from our sins, we must trust in Christ, or we have no right to prayer at all. And now God is saying, you will inquire of me and I will hear. I will listen. I will answer. Why? Because my name is on the line and I will defend it because my spirit's in your hearts and the law's written there. And because I'm publishing my fame once again and now you can pray. Now you can seek me. Now you have the freedom to enter into my presence. Do you realize what a tremendous privilege it is to pray to God? And children, even your simplest and shortest prayers are some of the greatest blessings God has given to you. Because you can come to him through Christ. And you can rest on him. And you can trust that the Holy Spirit will help you. But notice he basically says two things. How is he going to restore harmony? By multiplying a humble people. I will increase their men. Like a flock. Behind this is the fact that God is the shepherd, caring for the flock. Jesus is the great shepherd of the sheep who laid down his life for the sheep. And God is saying, I'll multiply the flock. They'll grow, they'll extend beyond their bounds, even beyond the borders of Israel. Like a flock offered as holy sacrifices, like the flock of Jerusalem on its feast days, so shall the ruined cities be filled with the flocks of men. then they shall know that I am the Lord. Let me borrow from the preceding verses and try to put this together. How does he restore harmony? By multiplying a humble people, a people who loathe and abhor themselves because of their sins against such a good God. and a people who are constantly multiplying until the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea. I'm borrowing from Isaiah and Micah there with the language. But I think that's what he's saying. That's why we sang 22i today. All the ends of the earth will remember him. All will look to him. The kings of the earth will bow before him. Those who are rich will be made low in the dust. and the nations will flood in to God's holy mountain. I'm mixing texts again, but the Bible's full of these promises, and they're glorious promises. So what has the Lord told us? Can he defend his people? Yes, he can, by his holy name. Can he defend us in a hostile world, in the fears that we face with an increasingly secular culture? Yes, will he not defend his own name Do we not bear His name in baptism? Will He not come to us and vindicate Himself? How can the Lord restore His wayward people? Does He not promise to change us from the inside out? Should we not expect great things from God personally and for others? How will the Lord transform our condition? He will publish His name. He'll make it known. And then lastly, how will he bring harmony? He'll bring a humble people and then multiply. That's what we see in this text. Now I know it's a lot of text and a lot of things to think about. If anything stands out to you, let it be verses 25 through 27. God sprinkles us with clean water. God takes out our heart of stone, puts in a heart of flesh, and God puts His law into those new hearts. That encapsulates everything He's promising. And if you can remember that, then may the Spirit bless that greatly to our souls. Well, I ended this morning's sermon with the Lord's Supper. I want to end this one briefly with baptism, which I've already mentioned a few times. Just as the Lord's Supper embodies all the promises of the new covenant and fellowship with Christ, so our baptism points to the washing away of our sins in the blood of Christ, the sprinkling with clean water, and it also points to the washing of our hearts by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Isn't it a glorious thing that the Lord, though he's only given us two simple sacraments, he's given us two sacraments that tell us so much about the gospel of Jesus Christ. So let us look to the Lord who sprinkles with clean water, who removes our hearts of stones, replaces them with hearts of flesh, and who will and who does write his law there. Let's pray. Almighty God, we do thank you for blessing us so richly with these exceedingly great and precious promises. We thank you for the privilege of worship and fellowship, and we pray that we would look to you as our great God and Savior, that you would imprint these things in our hearts and minds, and that we would draw strength and courage from them each day that we live. We ask that you would spread forth your flock, that you would fill the land with your people, that you would bring many from afar to come and call on the name of the Lord. You would make us a humble people who are filled with the Holy Spirit and the fruits of righteousness. And we pray that as you are zealous for your own name, that we should be too. And we pray that all of our confidence and our hope is in the name and glory of the Lord our God. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. We're now going to respond by singing 415, which is a baptism hymn, baptized into your name most holy. This is a good opportunity for us to improve or apply our baptism tonight, even though we're not witnessing it, by seeing how it embodies all these great promises of the gospel. Let us stand together as we sing 415. Oh Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I claim a place where we can all be, among your sweet, your chosen host. Married with Christ and dead to sin, the spirit and child live within. My loving Father, be you taken, forever be your child and heir. My grateful Savior, be you given, your righteousness only life to share. O Holy Spirit, you will be a comfort, guide, and help to me. And I am bound to fear and love you, of of of of of Faithful one, your word hails never, Your covenant surely will abide. Oh, cast me not away forever, should I trespass in on thy side. Oh, I have of my soul become, in love forgiv'n, restored your child. and love most dearly, I offer now, O Lord, to You. O let me make my vow sincerely, and what I say help me to do. of God. And ever let my word exalt her, O Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. I'm deeply faithful to your altar, till you shall call me from my post. Amen.