It is a Heart issue
Ezekiel 36:20-37
Introduction-
Good Morning church
Happy you decided to join us as we gather together.
I am hopeful that you have come with an open heart for Him to speak to you.
If I said that this world is a mess and in chaos, not be too many people would disagree. If I try to correct the problem, there would be some willing to criticize me even for trying though they offer no solutions and do not offer to help in fixing the problems. Many criticizers, some judges, and few solution finders.
This world is in a mess for one reason and one reason only- sin!
Sin as defined by God is a transgression against God.
God determines what sin is and He determines the consequences for sin.
We make up laws that we think are right and we put our approval on them but the final authority is always God.
God is a majority even if no one would agree with Him.
Let’s Pray
Ezekiel 36:20-28 Read from Bible
The prophet Ezekiel is dealing with a rebellious nation that has been spiritually far from God and they have lost the land He has promised.
If we took the time to read the whole chapter we would see that God has decided to intervene and restore them to live back in their land.
He makes clear that it is not what they have done because they were still rebellious, it is because of His good name that He chooses to work in them and then through them to have people come back in a right relationship with Him.
God calls a surrendered heart a consecrated heart and a consecrated heart is a sanctified heart and a sanctified heart is what God is looking for from his people.
IT IS A HEART ISSUE/ hence the title of the message- the heart or condition of our hearts will determine what we do or do not do concerning the things of God.
We see very quickly that we can never do that without God’s help.
We will always fall short when we try to clean ourselves up- scripture says we are like filthy rags compared to a holy and pure God.
Paul tells us in Romans 3 “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless, there is no one who does good, not even one.”
Paul tells us without God this would be a tragic ending to a story of all mankind’s life. “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather through the law we become conscious of our sin.”
The law was not written by God to show us how good we are but to show us how much we need God and are sinners.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3
Even in the OT before Jesus physically walked this earth we see a God that desires to intervene on our behalf and do what we cannot do for ourselves- The prophet Ezekiel proclaiming what Wesleyans and Nazarenes call Holiness.
You want to know how to live a holy life here it is-
You want to understand what Sanctification is… it is right here.
You want to know how God takes sin out of our life and make us people better than we were and not quite who we will be later because of the Sanctifying power of God here it is!
It is wrapped up in the verses 25-27 it is an outline for sanctification and holiness of heart.
“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.”
I WILL DO THOSE THINGS
I WILL CLEAN YOU UP- COME AS YOU ARE
I WILL GIVE YOU A NEW HEART AND A NEW SPIRIT
I WILL REMOVE A STONE HEART AND GIVE YOU A HEART OF FLESH
THEN YOU WILL LIVE IN THE LAND AND YOU WILL BE MY PEOPLE AND I WILL BE YOUR GOD.
Let’s break this down- it is a heart issue- our bad and corrupt heart is in need of God doing something that we are impossible of doing for ourselves.
We cannot clean ourselves up- not to be presented to a holy God. Oh we try to clean up so others do not see who we really are, but spiritually, God has to be the one doing the cleansing of the heart.
Man tries to clean up from outside in and God cleans up inside out.
Because of the fall of man, we have hearts far from God that are born into sin. We do not have to sin, we are born into sin and the cleansing can only come from one who has no sin.
In our hearts are lot of impurities and a lot of idols.
Who has not had a bad thought, impure motives, who has not done things that they know have been displeasing to ‘God.
Who has tried to clean themselves up and have failed terribly?
We cannot replace our heart with a heart pleasing to God only God can do that!
So let’s see what kind of heart we have- God says a heart away from God is a stony heart.
A stony heart is an unfeeling heart, a cruel heart.
Unfeeling and cruel to what? The things of God.
A heart that only thinks about itself.
Spurgeon
THE FALL of man was utter and entire. Some things when they have become dilapidated may be repaired; but the old house of mankind is so thoroughly decayed that it must be pulled down even to its foundation, and a new house must be erected. To attempt mere improvement is to anticipate a certain failure. Manhood is like an old garment that is torn and rotten; he that would mend it with new cloth will make the tear worse. Manhood is like one of the old skin bottles of the Orientals; he who would put the new wine into it shall find that the bottles will burst, and his wine will be lost.
According to the Word of God, man's heart is by nature like a stone; but God, through his grace, removes the stony heart and gives a heart of flesh
Stony Heart
A stony heart is a cold heart- you would not want to have to walk in your house on a floor made of stone…especially in the winter. It would be cold! Mankind’s heart is burning hot toward the things of this world that displeases God and cold as ice toward the things of God.
How do you get a cold stony heart?
You begin to let the world influence you in your decisions and even if they go against the things of God you allow them to be in your life.
You begin to have a feeling of numbness when your heart begins to have compassion for someone else because you have been hurt before and you are not willing to let your heart be broken again.
A stony heart is a hard heart how do you get a stony heart that is hard?
Be so dogmatic that you have to be right at all cost. Being right is not enough- you have to be right enough that you break them before they break you and you have no room for compassion and you have no room to explain your position because the end game is to be right and prove them wrong.
A stone heart is dead-
How do you get a stony heart that is dead? You do not let the Holy Spirit of God into your heart to clear away the dead cells that the world has stolen and you are comfortable protecting that heart even though it has died
God is still on the throne and He still cares what is happening in your life!
Listen to parts of Proverbs 12
“Whoever loves correction loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid.”
(16) “Fools show their annoyance at once, but the prudent overlook an insult.”
(23) “A fool’s heart blurts out folly.”
The Righteous and the unrighteous.
Accepting discipline and those that rebel at correction. A stony heart will not receive correction.
Talk of the upright and the talk of the wicked.
The desire of the wicked and the desire of a righteous person.
Illustration-
It seems to me that everyone has an opinion on every issue, even things that they do not know much about.
Everyone is an expert. Right? You know those people.
I was Helping my wife Becky put a Holy bush in our yard. If you know me, I know nothing about planting and growing. I do not have a green thumb.
I began telling Becky how to plant this bush, what we needed to do.
I was totally egging her on.
I was just talking, pretending I knew what I was talking about.
She let me go awhile and then she looked up at me and I got the look- you know the look.
I burst out laughing, because I wanted to see how long she would let that go on…everyone an expert on every subject.
When it comes to learning God’s Ways-
There are pearls of wisdom in the word of God. Period.
They are there for us to learn, to better ourselves, to understand what God wants for our lives.
There are warnings, pitfalls, landmines, and consequences for not listening to His words.
One of the biggest contrasts between believer and unbeliever is where are you looking for pearls of wisdom? Are you looking to the world? Are you looking into God’s word?
I am going to be reading from the Passion Translation the first 3 verses to set the tone of Proverbs chapter 12.
“To learn the truth you must long to be teachable, or you can despise correction and remain ignorant. If your heart is right, favor flows from the Lord, but a devious heart invites His condemnation. You can’t expect success by doing what is wrong.”
I need to pause and say something…the Bible never debates wither it is the authoritative word of God- it makes a fact statement-
The Bible is …”the inspired word of God”.
It was written by many writers under the anointing of God to direct sinful mankind into a relationship with God through the life, death, burial, and resurrection of His son Jesus Christ.
There is not many ways to be saved from sin, “only one way”.
There is a gulf between a Holy God and sinful man- we cannot fix ourselves.
We cannot be good enough
Jesus Christ is the mediator between God and Man. 1 Tim 2:5- “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
Jesus proclaims “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father except by me.” John 14:6
It is right to live for God-
It is right to have a relationship with Jesus Christ
It is the truth of God that sets people free and leads and guides them into eternal life with Christ.
‘Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
Close- guard your heart/ surrender your heart to the Lord
I believe today there are many believers that have hard hearts- we have allowed the enemy to use life situations to give us a stony hard heart and the Lord wants to take that hard stony heart and give us again a heart of flesh one that is surrendered to Him and a heart that has compassion and love for others.
Our prayer-
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O lord, my Rock and my redeemer.”
Let’s pray-
