A New Heart
Sunday October 22, 2000
Ezekiel 36:23-27
23 I will show how holy my great name is—the name you dishonored among the nations. And when I reveal my holiness through you before their very eyes, says the Sovereign LORD, then the nations will know that I am the LORD.
24 For I will gather you up from all the nations and bring you home again to your land.
25 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols.
26 And I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new, obedient heart.
27 And I will put my Spirit in you so you will obey my laws and do whatever I command.
Our sermon today is: A New Heart, the word translated heart has a very wide meaning and is used here denoting the will, the feeling, the center of intellect of an individual.
As we consider A New Heart, today, we are thinking about your feelings toward God, your knowledge and acceptance of God as your creator and your attitude toward God.
God is telling us that He will take us out from this old world of sin, and give all who ask Him a life eternal!
God wants to bring you to Himself.
He does not want you to suffer the bondage of a world of sin.
He wants you to learn of Him and to live a life that is filled with righteousness, peace and joy.
He knows that the only way for you to really enjoy life is for you to be free of sin so He has gone to great lengths to devise a plan for you.
His son, Jesus Christ, has come and died in your place as a sacrifice for your sin so that you can be forgiven your sin.
The Holy Spirit has been sent to empower you to break the bondage of sin and enable you to live a holy, godly life in this present world.
To accept Jesus Christ as your savior and to repent of your sin to live a holy, godly life is likened to having a change of heart.
Therefore Ezekiel’s prophecy that when God takes you from this old world of sin, He takes out your stony heart and replaces it with a heart of flesh.
You get a change of heart.
Your feelings and knowledge of God, the creator changes.
You become a new person.
The old person you used to be passes away.
Your feelings are changed.
Now you can enjoy living holy and godly in this life.
You enter into the kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy through the holy Ghost.
Like it tells us in,
2 Corinthians 5:17
17 What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!
In this scripture, Paul is explaining that with the new heart, we become new creatures.
This is a mystery that the sinful man cannot understand.
In fact unless you yourself become a true Christian, you will never understand how a person can be completely changed from a vile, dirty sinner to a clean, righteous saint.
The sinful does not believe that this can happen to him.
As a sinner, you cannot believe it can happen to you.
You see others that it has happened to, and the devil convinces you they were somehow different than you.
That is where your understanding of God comes in.
If you will study the scriptures, you will find that the only thing different about the Christian is that he has learned to believe and trust God.
You will find that everyone can be saved.
You will find that everyone can be a real Christian.
You will find that all are invited to be Born Again!
This is the Will of God, that no one should perish!
God wants for each and everyone of us to live for Him all of the time.
Now let’s read on in,
Matthew 11:27-30
27 “My Father has given me authority over everything. No one really knows the Son except the Father, and no one really knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light.”
If you notice Jesus’ words are come unto me all ye; not some of you; not most of you; but all of you.
Yes, no one is excluded by the Lord.
He invites all to enjoy the life of a Christian.
This includes you.
He does not say come unto me all except.
There are no exceptions in His invitation.
John 7:37-38
37 On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “If you are thirsty, come to me!
38 If you believe in me, come and drink! For the Scriptures declare that rivers of living water will flow out from within.”
Again we see that our Lord’s invitation is to all.
If any man thirst.
Do you thirst this morning for righteousness?
Matthew 5:3-12
3 “God blesses those who realize their need for him,
for the Kingdom of Heaven is given to them.
4 God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 God blesses those who are gentle and lowly,
for the whole earth will belong to them.
6 God blesses those who are hungry and thirsty for justice,
for they will receive it in full.
7 God blesses those who are merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 God blesses those whose hearts are pure,
for they will see God.
9 God blesses those who work for peace,
for they will be called the children of God.
10 God blesses those who are persecuted because they live for God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
11 “God blesses you when you are mocked and persecuted and lied about because you are my followers.
12 Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted, too.
To many in our world today, think that living a righteous life is only a dream.
It is something that they see others do and wish that they could do the same but for various reasons they believe that they can not do it.
Are you one of those?
Do you wish that you could live right?
There is no wishing to it, you can!
Do you see others living right, enjoying their lives with the Lord?
Jesus said that if you hunger and thirst after righteousness you would be filled.
If you desire to live right with the intensity of hungering and thirsting to do so, you can do it.
If you want to live right, Jesus is inviting you come to Him.
Come and learn of Him.
Get a change of heart.
Get a New Heart!
Become a new creature.
Drink of the water of life.
Let Jesus fill you with righteousness.
Revelation 22:17
17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” Let each one who hears them say, “Come.” Let the thirsty ones come—anyone who wants to. Let them come and drink the water of life without charge.
Praise God!
That includes you.
You can drink the water of life today by coming to the Lord, taking His yoke upon you and learning of Him.
All you have to do is believe Him.
Believe that He can do what He said He would do.
His power will transform your life.
He will forgive.
He will save.
He will give you living water.
He will teach you.
He will give you power to life holy.
He will empower you to break the yoke and bondage of sin.
He will give you a new heart.
A heart that is right with God.
You will become a new creature.
With righteousness will come peace and joy through your obedience to the holy spirit of God.
Every provision has been made for you so you can enjoy the freedom from sin and the presence of God in your life day by day in this time world.
Let us now examine for a few minutes this process of getting your heart changed.
Ezekiel said that God would remove the stony heart.
What does he mean by the stony heart?
Well to start with this sounds like a hard heart; a heart that will not listen to reason, a heart that has no compassion, a heart that has no room for others, a heart that is selfish and stubborn.
Jesus taught us in,
Matthew 13:3-9
3 He told many stories such as this one:
“A farmer went out to plant some seed.
4 As he scattered it across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them.
5 Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The plants sprang up quickly,
6 but they soon wilted beneath the hot sun and died because the roots had no nourishment in the shallow soil.
7 Other seeds fell among thorns that shot up and choked out the tender blades.
8 But some seeds fell on fertile soil and produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted.
9 Anyone who is willing to hear should listen and understand!”
Matthew 13:18-21
18 “Now here is the explanation of the story I told about the farmer sowing grain:
19 The seed that fell on the hard path represents those who hear the Good News about the Kingdom and don’t understand it. Then the evil one comes and snatches the seed away from their hearts.
20 The rocky soil represents those who hear the message and receive it with joy.
21 But like young plants in such soil, their roots don’t go very deep. At first they get along fine, but they wilt as soon as they have problems or are persecuted because they believe the word.
Here we see that Jesus teaches us that the Word of the kingdom or the word of God is sown in the hearts of men and that some of those hearts are stony.
We understand that he means a very rocky place where we cannot grow a crop if we were foolish enough to try because there is not sufficient soil to produce a crop.
Anyone involved in agriculture will easily understand this as most of Jesus congregation was the day He spoke this message.
Today many of you may never have planted any garden, field or plot of land and you may not have the same understanding.
So let me explain to you that a plot of land that has a high content of stones is not fit for growing crops because there is insufficient nutrients and water available to bring the crop to maturity.
The greater the depth of the topsoil, the greater the chance of producing a good crop.
Where the soil is shallow and has a lot of stones in it, the seed will sprout quickly and grow fast, but soon it will wither and die when the heat of summer and periods of drought come.
So it is with your heart.
If you attempt to be a Christian with a stony heart, you will soon fail in your efforts.
You must have a new heart if you are to succeed as a Christian.
Therefore God has this plan to take out your stony heart and give you a new heart that will have no stones.
A heart that is made of good ground, a heart that will receive the word of God and grow to perfection.
No doubt you have known of people and maybe even you yourself, that have tried to live a Christian life and have failed.
Please understand that failing is no proof that you can’t be a Christian.
But you must also get back up when you fail and start all over again!
In the parable of the sower, Jesus is trying to get you to understand the reasons for failing.
The number one reason is stony hearts.
And without A New Heart it is a hopeless situation.
It is impossible for you to change without God!
And you cannot just have a change of heart.
This is an operation that God does for you.
You must turn yourself over to God and let Him change your heart.
To get into His operating room, you need to confess, repent and forsake your sin.
He will do the operating and you will awake to righteousness.
This is not a new leaf or a new resolution; this is a new life.
It is available to you.
Jesus invites all including those that have tried before and failed.
Whosoever will may come and get a new heart.
A heart that is right with God.
Ezekiel taught us that along with this new heart comes a new spirit!
God says "..I will put my spirit within you .."
And His spirit will cause you to walk in His statutes (commandments, decrees, laws) and keep His judgements (verdicts).
This is a real transformation isn’t it?
How will it happen that we will have God’s spirit put within us?
Jesus explains:
John 14:15-17
15 “If you love me, obey my commandments.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, who will never leave you.
17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world at large cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you do, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.
We see here that the Holy Spirit is sent to dwell in the Christian.
John 14:26
26 But when the Father sends the Counselor as my representative—and by the Counselor I mean the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I myself have told you.
Here Jesus explains the purpose of the Holy Spirit is to Comfort and teach you all things and to help you to remember the Word of God.
Did you ever wonder how some people seem to know all about God’s word?
It is not because they have such a high education or because their IQ is so high.
It is because they have received the holy spirit into their lives and he is teaching them.
How do you think that He is teaching them?
They are learning by their constant communion with Him in prayer and the reading of His word!
How can this be, you might ask?
Because they accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior and received a new heart along with the Holy Spirit of God into their life.
This new heart and new spirit will make a new person out of you.
Jesus goes on in John chapters 14, 15 and 16 talking about the Holy Spirit and how he will send Him to his followers.
We turn now to
Acts 1:4-8
4 In one of these meetings as he was eating a meal with them, he told them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you what he promised. Remember, I have told you about this before.
5 John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
6 When the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, are you going to free Israel now and restore our kingdom?”
7 “The Father sets those dates,” he replied, “and they are not for you to know.
8 But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
These were the final instructions that Jesus gave his disciples.
They were told to wait in Jerusalem for a baptism with the Holy Ghost.
And that baptism of the Holy Spirit will give you power to be a witness.
We read how this happened in:
Acts 2:1-21
1 On the day of Pentecost, seven weeks after Jesus’ resurrection, the believers were meeting together in one place.
2 Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm in the skies above them, and it filled the house where they were meeting.
3 Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them.
4 And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.
5 Godly Jews from many nations were living in Jerusalem at that time.
6 When they heard this sound, they came running to see what it was all about, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers.
7 They were beside themselves with wonder. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee,
8 and yet we hear them speaking the languages of the lands where we were born!
9 Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia,
10 Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya toward Cyrene, visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism),
11 Cretans, and Arabians. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!”
12 They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other.
13 But others in the crowd were mocking. “They’re drunk, that’s all!” they said.
14 Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, “Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this.
15 Some of you are saying these people are drunk. It isn’t true! It’s much too early for that. People don’t get drunk by nine o’clock in the morning.
16 No, what you see this morning was predicted centuries ago by the prophet Joel:
17 ‘In the last days, God said,
I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
and your old men will dream dreams.
18 In those days I will pour out my Spirit
upon all my servants, men and women alike,
and they will prophesy.
19 And I will cause wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below—
blood and fire and clouds of smoke.
20 The sun will be turned into darkness,
and the moon will turn blood red,
before that great and glorious day of the Lord arrives.
21 And anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Now that they have been filled with the Holy Ghost, they are proclaiming the Gospel and telling freely the wonderful works and words of our Lord.
The same Peter that previously did not have the courage to admit that he was a disciple but lied to a maid and denied that he even knew Christ, now stands forth boldly preaching in the streets of Jerusalem.
God is working a great miracle causing every man to hear in his native language which he can easily understand even though Peter is a Galilaen the crowd is hearing in languages native to sixteen different nations.
This was a demonstration of the power of God operating through the Holy Spirit.
Peter goes on to preach and instruct us:
Acts 2:37-39
37 Peter’s words convicted them deeply, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”
38 Peter replied, “Each of you must turn from your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
39 This promise is to you and to your children, and even to the Gentiles—all who have been called by the Lord our God.”
Yes, if you will follow Peter’s instruction – repent and be baptized you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost is a gift.
God gives him to you when he gives you a new heart.
It is part of the operation He calls a new birth.
This new spirit will cause you to live right.
This Holy Spirit is Holy!
That is His character.
That is why He is called the Holy Spirit!
The disciples received power after that the Holy Ghost came upon them.
You too will receive power when the Holy Ghost comes into your life.
If you will confess, repent, and forsake your sin, you will receive this new spirit along with your new heart.
Your hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled.
You will have the power to break free from sin.
You will have the power to live free from the bondage of Satan.
You will be able to enjoy righteousness, peace and joy through the holy spirit.
You will have a heart that is right with God.
Jesus invites you to come to Him.
Whosoever may come.
What is your answer to Him?
Are you ready for God to come today, or for that matter this very second?
