Can God change a hard heart? In Ezekiel 36, God promises to remove His people's "heart of stone" and give them a "heart of flesh." Dr. Toby Holt explains the great doctrine of regeneration — the new heart only God can give. Israel had broken covenant and disgraced God's name, yet God promises to act — for the sake of His own holy name, not their merit. He will sprinkle them clean, give them a new heart, and put His Spirit within them. This is the new birth: we cannot soften our own hearts any more than we can raise the dead. Regenerating dead sinners cost the blood of God's own Son.
Questions this study answers:
1. What is "regeneration"? The new spiritual birth — God replacing a dead "heart of stone" with a living "heart of flesh." It is His work, not ours.
2. Who brings about the new heart? God alone, by His Spirit, for the sake of His own name. We cannot change our own hearts.
3. What happens if we are not regenerated? Without a new heart from God, we remain spiritually dead in sin. The new birth is essential to truly know God. "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." — Ezekiel 36:26 (NKJV)
Dr. Toby Holt is President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio. Find more verse-by-verse Bible teaching at newgeneva.org; support this ministry at newgeneva.org/give.
A number of years ago when my wife and I lived in Virginia, we were looking at a particular house
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:and we made an offer on a house and we submitted that and it got accepted. So we said hurrah,
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:we were excited. But our real estate agent reminded us there was a couple of contingencies
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:in there and one of the contingencies was for something called the home inspection.
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:I thought, well, okay, I mean, that makes sense. Probably want someone who knows better than I do
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:to go through the house and see if there's anything wrong. Well, as things turned out,
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:this was right before a giant storm was to hit. And the home inspector went literally the day
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:before, went through the house and he got into the basement and he finds that the slab of the house
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:is cracked, that the foundation has a significant cracking. Now, when he told me that, I'm nodding
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:my head and going, all right. So that's, you know, some stucco will fix that up or caulking or
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:something. And he says, no, that's not the way that works. So I said, is this bad? And he says,
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:yes, this is very, very bad. And so I asked him a million dollar question. I said, if this was
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:your house, would you go through with this transaction? And he just shook his head and said,
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:no, I would not. So given that information, of course, we utilize a home inspection contingency
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:and we were able to get out of a contractual relationship that otherwise would have caused
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:us great difficulty if we were to have moved into this house. Now, virtually every relationship,
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:especially those that are contractually oriented, has contingencies. Almost all the contracts that
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:you or I may enter into in the course of our lives have contingencies, where the actions or
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:delivery of one party can affect the choices or the continuance of the other party. If you're
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:employed, that's the way it works. You promise to do work, and they promise to pay you. If one of
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:those two falls short, what's going to happen? The relationship will be severed. If you don't do the
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:work, they will terminate you, and if they don't pay you, you will walk. See, this is a very simple
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:contingency and yet it's very understandable. The same way if you own a house, you pay a mortgage
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:and you're paying a mortgage and you get to stay in the house. You stop paying the mortgage,
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:someone will knock on your door and say it's time to leave. This is the way these things work. Our
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:relationships hinge on certain things that if there's an action or a mission that causes us to
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:fail or fall short of the contract's goals, then the arrangement can end. Now, aren't we
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:fortunate? Aren't we glad? Aren't we happy to know this? That our relationship with God
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:doesn't work that way. See, in the Garden of Eden, it did. In the Garden of Eden, man had a contract,
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:so to speak, with God, or a covenant. To use biblical language, a covenant has been made.
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:Now, this was a covenant of what? It starts with a W? Works. It was a covenant of works. It was a
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:simple covenant. God says, hey guys, here's the garden, and there's the fish, and the flora, and
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:the fauna. You get to name them. You get to do whatever you like. You take dominion over us. It's
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:all yours but I got just this one thing see that tree over there in the middle don't eat from that
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:tree everything else just knock yourself out you can eat and be merry and run around be happy like
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:but that tree that tree is not for you now pretty straightforward the first covenant was simple the
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:mankind could stay in the garden as long as they didn't eat from this tree that was the one
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:contingency that was in this relationship and if they did eat from the tree God told them at the
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:outset, he says, here's what to expect. Death. Expulsion from the garden would follow. This is
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:what we call a covenant that's based on works. A covenant that is transactional in the sense that
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:man needed to complete or follow or obey the work he'd been given to do in order for God to uphold
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:the end that God had promised. Now, of course, man failed and man's original sin or Adam's original
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:sin, it stains us to this day. With that said, once man was expelled from the garden, did God
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:have any other covenants that might have followed in the years to come? Yes, absolutely. He had a
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:number of them. The most notable one that came along just a few chapters later in Genesis
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:was a covenant he made with a guy named Abram or Abraham. And this covenant was somewhat different
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:than the covenant he'd made with Adam. In this covenant, it was a covenant by which God promised
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:certain things to Abram and to his descendants. Most notably this, that God says, I'm going to
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:call out a people unto myself. Abraham, you're going to be the father of this whole generation
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:that's going to be more numerous than all the stars in the sky and all the sand on the beach.
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:I'm going to give you a special land, a special place. I'm going to call the people out from this
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:globe unto myself. Now, later on, God's covenants were expanded upon. God makes a covenant with
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:Moses, a covenant that involves the law. And in this covenant is embedded this construct that if
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:man should keep the laws of God, then things would go just swimmingly between them. But if man was
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:to violate the covenant God had made, if man was to violate God's laws, then there would be
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:consequences therein. However, as we see back in the covenant he made with Abraham, God had promised,
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:God had pledged, that the consequences of mankind breaking the covenant would not befall mankind,
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:but would rather befall God himself, as we found out later on in the personal work of Jesus Christ.
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:These are covenants. This is a very brief discussion of the principal covenants,
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:covenant of works covenant of grace that we find in scripture now in ezekiel's day in ezekiel's day
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:the people are familiar with god's expectations upon them and they were familiar at the very least
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:with this thou shalt have no other gods before me god had given them laws god had given the decrees
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:just as he'd given adam in the garden and yet just as adam had done they had turned their backs and
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:the laws god had made and so this was to put the stress test to the covenant that he had made with
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:forefathers. And that's what we're going to see in today's reading. All right, if you would,
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:let's go back to today's reading. Let's look at verses 16 through 21 from chapter 36. Let's see
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:a little bit of the history here in these verses, and then we'll move forward to the promise and the
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:covenant that is to follow. So verses 16 through 21. Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me,
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:saying, Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own
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:ways and deeds. To me, their way was like the uncleanliness of a woman in her customary impurity.
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:Therefore, I poured out my fury upon them for the blood they'd shed on the land and for the idols
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:which they had defiled. So I scattered them among the nations and they were dispersed throughout
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:the countries. I judged them according to their ways and according to their deeds. When they came
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:to the nations, wherever they went, they profaned my holy name. When they said to them, these are
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:the people of the Lord, and yet they have gone out of his land. But I had concern for my holy name.
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:which the house of Israel profaned among the nations wherever they went.
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:You know, if you give someone a precious gift,
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:it could be an anniversary gift, it could be a housewarming gift, any number of things.
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:If you give someone a precious, maybe expensive gift,
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:your hope or your desire is that they'll value it in the way that you do.
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:That you'll give something that's precious to you or important or expensive or valuable or what have you,
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:and you'll give it to them and they'll take it and they'll say thank you very much
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:and then they'll esteem and they'll value it in the same way that you have.
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:You have a young couple and they go out near the beach or out near the coast or what have you.
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:They go out on one of those piers and the young man says,
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:I would like to marry you and he takes the ring out of his pocket and he gives it to her.
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:Let's say she takes that ring and she looks at it and she goes, hmm.
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:And she throws it as far as she can into the water.
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:What's going to be the reaction of the young man?
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:He's going to be crestfallen. This is the worst.
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:You know, three months, eight months salary went into this ring.
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:She didn't appreciate what he had given her.
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:She didn't value it in the way that he had.
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:Let's use another example. Let's say that you write someone. You write someone, I don't know,
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:a note or a love note or a poem or something, and you use an ink bottle that's filled with
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:your own tears to write it. Something so precious. And you write this thing, you use cursive and all
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:this sort of stuff, calligraphy, and you give it to someone, and they look at it, and they go,
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:and they rip it up right in front of you and throw it in the fire. What's your reaction going to be?
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:It's going to be the same thing as the guy with the ring. You're going to be brokenhearted. Your
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:eyes are going to go wide, your mouth's going to drop, you can't believe how they have defiled
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:what you have invested yourself in to give to them that was so precious in a very limited sense.
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:This is what we're seeing in verses 16 through 21. In a very limited sense, God is saying, hey,
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:guys, I love you, and my evidence, my proof of that love is what I've given you.
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:I made a promise to you I didn't make to the Philistines or the Moabites or the Ammonites
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:or the Hittites or the Jebusites or any of these guys. I made a special promise to you to call you
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:out of this fallen, darkened world, to make you my own. And then not only that, but I gave you the
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:land that I promised Abraham all those years past. I gave you the land. I gave you the place. I gave
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:you more descendants than the sand on the beach. All the things I told Abraham, I did. And not only
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:that, but once I'd given you the land, I came to dwell in it, in the temple, on the mercy seat,
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:in the Holy of Holies. I was there in a way that my manifest glory, my Shekinah glory was present
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:in a way that it's not been present anywhere else. I love you. You're precious to me. And yet,
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:and yet, much like the woman who takes the ring and chucks it into the murky waters of the
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:Mississippi Gulf Coast, much like the individual who rips up the tear-blotted, tear-stained love
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:note, that's what the people had done. They hadn't just rejected and said, well, no, thank you. They
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:hadn't done that. They had taken what God had given them, and they had defiled it in the most
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:hideous ways imaginable. They had defiled these wonderful promises, these wonderful things,
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:all that God had presented before them. And not only had they done that, but then even after God
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:had brought judgment upon them, and since, you know, some died, many died, others got sent into
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:exile in Babylon and elsewhere, and even when they got there, they didn't learn the lesson,
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:and they continued to poorly represent their namesake, their faith, their God amongst those
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:peoples. It wasn't just what they had failed to do in Jerusalem, but they didn't learn the lesson
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:even after the hammer had come down. They continued to do that which is wrong. Verse 20 says that even
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:in these lands, they continue to profane the name of the Lord their God. When you're a son,
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:when you're a son, your actions and choices reflect on your father. It's just the way that
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:that works, especially when you're young, but your choices reflect poorly on your father if they're
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:poor choices. With that said, if a son is disobedient, if a son strays, if a son has
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:great malfeasance, that reflects poorly on his father and on the family's name. If you think
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:about some of the people of history, you can see this. You know, if you were a Benedict Arnold's
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:dad, how would you like to be known as Benedict Arnold's dad? Ivan the Terrible's mother, how
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:would that be? Not so great. You know, Vlad the Impaler's cousin. You know, fun fact, he was
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:originally named Gus, but Gus the Impaler wasn't that impressive. With that said, if you are related
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:to any of these individuals, if you're related to someone like this, that relationship that you have
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:with Gus or Vlad or Ivan or Benedict or whoever, the relationship you have with these individuals
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:will reflect poorly on you based on what they go and do. And this is what God is saying. Look at
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:what you've done. You've acted in the most abominable ways, and yet you say that I'm your God,
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:and then the people in the nations around look at you, and then looking at you, they see me. You
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:have profaned my name. Well, I've had it. I've had my fill of that is what we see in verses 16 through
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:21. I have concern for my holy name that you don't. I have concern for my holy name which you
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:have profaned among the nations wherever you have gone. You know, the name of God matters. The name
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:of God matters. I think there's one of the commandments that speaks to this, this idea that
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:we're not supposed to even take the name Lord our God in vain, right? Just not even in vain.
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:To say nothing for profaning it repeatedly, continuously, habitually before the people
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:around us. So what is God going to do about that? Well, he's going to do something. Let's look at
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:verses 22 through 27. Verse 22, therefore say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord your God,
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:I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel. What I'm about to do isn't really about you,
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:It's about my name. For my holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you
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:went, I will sanctify my great name. I will clean it up. I will sanctify my great name, which has
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:been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst, and the nations shall
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:know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when I'm hallowed in you before their eyes. For I will
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:take you from among the nations, I will gather you out of all the countries, and I will bring you
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:into your own land. You see references to promises made in the past. Then I will sprinkle clean water
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:upon you. You ever wonder why we sprinkle babies? This is one of the reasons why. I will sprinkle
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:clean water upon you and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all of your filthiness,
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:from all of your idols. I will give you a new heart. I'll put a new spirit within you. I will
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:take the heart of stone out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh. I'll put my spirit
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:within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them all
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:right let me ask you another question which do you think is more impressive building a brand new
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:house from scratch just building a brand new house from scratch or reassembling one that's been
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:burned to the ground what do you think is easier now i'm no builder and i'm no contractor but i
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:got to guess, and I would think it would be easier to use a new construction to build a new house
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:rather than to take the ashes and rubble of an old burnt out house and try to reassemble that house
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:using those ashes. I would think it would be easier to build something that's new. Well, this sort of
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:action, taking that which is broken and burnt and destroyed and decimated and defiled, and yet
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:restoring it unto new, unblemished life. That's what we are seeing in verses 22 through 27.
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:In these verses, God says, look, y'all are broken. You only have done things so bad. And I have been
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:patient for so long that I didn't just have to discipline or refine you. I had to burn the whole
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:thing to the ground. But here's the thing. I had made a promise that I would be your God and you
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:would be my people. And that promise is greater than you. That promise to which my holy namesake
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:is invested is a promise that transcends your sins. And because that's true, in time I'm going
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:to restore and rebuild. I'll take that which is broken and dirty and burned out and defiled and
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:sinful and stained and sodded, and I will give it, breathe into it, new life. You see, what he's not
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:saying here. He's not saying, look guys, you're really messed up. Let's back to the basics. I'm
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:going to teach you. I'll teach you how to act. I'll teach your minds or intellects. You did this wrong
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:and you need to do this right. He's not saying I'm going to teach you and instruct your intellect.
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:He's not saying anything about the mind. He's talking about the heart. He says, for the love
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:of all that is right in the universe, your hearts are stony and cold. And because this is true,
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:I'm going to do something that only I can do. I'm going to give you a heart of flesh. I'm going to
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:reach into your spiritual chest, so to speak. I'm going to extract that stony, cold heart,
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:and I'm going to grant you a new heart, a spiritually soft heart that will listen and
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:that will obey and will stop rebelling, a heart that will respond to my word and ultimately to
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:my son. Now this, in the big grand scheme of things, this speaks to a doctrine that we call
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:regeneration. Regeneration. See, generation or genesis, that's obvious. That's the easy part.
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:Genesis is what? Creation, right? God created in the beginning. God created the heavens and the
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:earth. It's the first verse. So we think of creation, genesis. However, regeneration is
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:taking that which is broken and burned and sodded and diseased and profaned and taking that, taking
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:that was just stony and cold and dead, spiritually flatlining and breathing into a new life. That's
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:what God is promising here. And it's not just a promise that was to some people a long time ago
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:in a place far, far away. Regeneration is the very reason you have hope today, because at some point
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:God did that in you. You know, at one point in our lives, at one point in our lives, if there
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:had been a device, you know, a spiritual EKG machine or something, and it had been applied to
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:our chest at one point in our lives what results would it have attained none that's exactly right
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:you know the flat line that's it that's all would have been at one point we were dead in our sins
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:and trespasses not sick not sleepy but dead you were born dead in your sins and your trespasses
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:there is none who are righteous no not one that was a condition of all of us so what had to happen
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:if an ekg would have tested us and found us to be spiritually dead well what had to happen is that
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:God out of his own volition had to reach down to our chest and give us something that we otherwise
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:didn't have, which is new life, a new heart, a new nature. This is what it means to be born again.
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:Being born again is not a function of you making some intellectual decision to walk the sawdust
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:path and say magic words. Being born again is God of his own volition determined to save you by
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:changing your very nature and enabling and persuading you to do that which you otherwise
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:wouldn't have done. Come to him. The people of Ezekiel's day desperately needed this in great
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:measure. Fortunately, God says, that's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to give you brand
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:new hearts. You don't just need teaching. You don't just need prophets. You don't need a pep talk at
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:halftime. You need a new heart. And I'm committed to that end. And this is what we see in these
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:verses. You know, regeneration. Regeneration. It should be one of the most impressive words in all
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:of Scripture. And the reason why is because of what it costs. As you look out at the cosmos and
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:the world around you, as you look at the plants and the birds and the flowers and the trees and
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:all this sort of stuff, some amazing stuff. If we look through a telescope and we see the galaxy,
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:the cosmos, the universe, all this, very impressive. But here's the thing. Which do you think was
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:easier? God creating all that or God giving you new life? This is a leading question. You know
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:the answer. It's far easier for him to have created the whole universe than it ever was for him to
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:breathe new life into you. Why? Because the cost. Because the cost. See, in Genesis 1, it didn't cost
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:God anything to create the whole cosmos, whole universe. Planets beyond planets and suns beyond
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:suns and light. It didn't cost him a thing. You know what he did? He spoke and happened. It's one
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:of the prerogatives of being God. You speak and things happen. Ex nihilo, out of nothing. God
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:created everything around us. He even created man this way. But here's the problem. Man became
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:stained, sinned, fallen, broken through sin. Spiritually flatlining. And in order to redeem
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:a spiritually flatlining corpse, in order to redeem you and I at such point as we did not know him,
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:what did God need to do? What was the cost associated with that? Well, the cost. The cost,
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:while at one point all he had to do was speak and make it happen, the cost in order to regenerate
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:your heart, in order to sanctify you, in order to save you, in order to purchase you back and
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:redeem you from sin and death. The cost was of his own son's blood poured out on Calvary,
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:regeneration, sanctification, salvation, glorification. Everything in that satiriological
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:bowl is far more precious, far more amazing than even the creation of the cosmos itself. This is
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:not a trivial doctrine that he's speaking of here in Ezekiel 36. All right, let's look at the next
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:verses verses 28 through 32 these are the last verses that we'll look at here this morning verse
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:28 then you shall dwell in the land that i gave to your fathers he's reminding them of the covenant
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:you shall be my people and i will be your god i will deliver you from all your uncleanliness
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:i will call for the grain and i will multiply it i will bring no famine upon you and i'll multiply
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:the fruit of your trees and increase your fields so you need never again bear the reproach of
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:famine among the nations. Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good,
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:and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for iniquities and your abominations.
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:Not for your sake do I do this, says the Lord God. Let it be known to you. Be ashamed and
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:confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel. You know, if there's one thing that keeps us
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:pushing forward on hard or difficult days, it's this idea. The idea is that the future is going
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:to be better than the past. If there's one thing that keeps us kind of pushing forward, it's because
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:we look back at the past, maybe long past, maybe yesterday, and we say that was bad, but tomorrow
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:will be better. The sun will come out tomorrow. We think that the future is going to be better than
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:the present. Now, for most of us who are in this room, for all who have been regenerated, this is
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:true. If you've been bought by the blood of Christ, if you've redeemed, if your heart has changed, if
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:you've been saved, then the future absolutely, undeniably, is going to be better than the past.
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:But how can we be sure of this? Well, look at verse 28. Verse 28 was written to the most
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:undeserving bunch of sinners on the planet. If you ever feel that you're unworthy of that great
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:future, of a future beyond the veil that's better than today, remember this. The sinners in this
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:text were about as bad a lot as they could get, and yet as undeserving as they were, the future
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:of Israel was still bright. Why? Well, it wasn't going to be because they got their act cleaned up
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:on their own. Rather, it was because God says, I'm going to do this. I'm going to clean you up. I will
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:deliver you from all your uncleanliness. Israel's future was bright because one thing hadn't changed
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:and that they were God's people and that he was their God. He says, look, I made you a promise
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:and I will keep it. We had a relationship. We had a relationship by which I would do certain things
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:and you would do certain things. However, unlike Adam, when you broke the law, when you broke the
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:covenant, when you did that which was wrong and failed to do that which is right, I'm the one who
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:walked between the pieces and the consequences came down upon me or more specifically on my son
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:and the person and work of my own son. And so he looks at the people with his son's crucifixion
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:resurrection in view and he looks down upon them and he knows this, I'm going to call you out of
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:the darkness in which you have deliberately buried your head like a pig in the trough you've done all
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:manner of things wrong i will lift you up i will change your height i will make you and i'll cleanse
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:you in front of all the nations and when i do so my name will be glorified when i do that when i
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:take the burnt husk of a house and rebuild it before the nations that will bring glory to my
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:namesake and god says that's the principal reason i'm doing this don't get in your heads because
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:you've been so sweet or you're so inherently lovable I just can't help myself so I'm gonna
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:do this principally for my own namesake when you've strayed when you've been faithless I have
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:been faithful when you rebelled I've remembered my promise all right earlier I mentioned that was
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:our last section of verses I was wrong actually let's look at verses 33 through 38 before we wrap
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:up verses 33 through 38 thus saith the Lord your God on the day that I cleanse you from all your
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:iniquities, I will also enable you to dwell in the cities and the ruins shall be rebuilt.
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:The desolate land shall be tilled instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass by.
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:And so they will say, this land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden
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:and the wasted, desolate, ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited. Let me read that verse
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:again because it appeals to something we're going to talk about in a moment. So then they will say,
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:meaning the people and nations around it, that this land that was desolate has become like the
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:garden of Eden. And the wasted, desolate, ruined cities are now fortified, they're inhabited.
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:And then the nations which are left all around you shall know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt the
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:ruined places and planted that which was desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken it, I will do it. Thus
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:says the Lord God, I will also let the house of Israel inquire of me to do this for them. I will
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:increase their men like a flock, like a flock offered as holy sacrifices, like the flock of
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:jerusalem on its feast days so shall the ruined cities be filled with the flocks of men then they
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:shall know that i am the lord this is a fascinating prophecy given at a time in which jerusalem is a
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:steaming pile of rubble blood smeared on the rocks the glory of god departed into the sky
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:the temple was gone the people were exiled in the pagan nations and god says look
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:it is true that your condition at the moment is not great but the future is better
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:and the future is better because i am going to do a number of things to make it better
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:in time not only am i going to sanctify you and cleanse you up but i'm going to bring you back
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:to the land that was always yours to land that you only had to leave through sin much like eden
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:i'm going to bring you back into eden i'm going to bring you back into the garden i'm going to
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:bring you back to the promised land all cleaned up and when you're there you'll be more numerous
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:than the flocks and the hills around you now to a ragtag remnant most of which their contemporaries
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:had been you know have been killed in jerusalem to ragtag remnant who only saw smoke arising from
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:the west when they look towards jerusalem this had to be both a fantastic a surprising and amazing
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:prophecy. And yet God says, I'll do it. And when I do it, remember this, that I am the Lord. I am
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:the Lord. Then they shall know that I am the Lord. All right, these verses, verses 33 through 38,
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:they describe this restoration that would happen. God's reminding them that a day will come
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:when that which is presently desolate will become like the Garden of Eden. Now, if you notice,
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:remember last week we talked about the city of Tyre, the people of Tyre who were just up the
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:coast. What did God tell them when he said, I'm going to judge you? Well, he didn't tell them it
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:was ever going to be filled with flocks again. He said this, I'm going to waste you to the ground.
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:And for centuries, there's going to be nothing but fishermen, you know, with their nets. I'm going
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:to take this city and throw it into the ocean. It's the only time this has ever happened to a city.
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:It happened to Tyre. The city literally, with the blocks, the buildings, everything got thrown into
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:the sea. And it was desolate. But God made a different promise to Jerusalem. He says, you're
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:now, but you won't be later. It's not going to take very long until you see this, until you see
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:this around, until you see the fulfillment of the promise that I'm making you. It's a promise of
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:better days to the Israelites. On the other hand, it's also a promise for us. We want better days.
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:Our condition is probably different, probably better than the Israelites of Ezekiel's day,
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:his contemporaries. On the other hand, we're looking for something better. We're waiting for
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:Eden's return. We're waiting for a heavenly Eden. Heavenly Eden that's yet to come. We're waiting
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:to live in a land where there is no hardship, no heartache, no cancer, no death, none of these
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:things. We look forward with expectation, and we know it's there. We know it's there, and it speeds
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:even readily toward us. This is not Eden. South Mississippi on the Gulf Coast is pretty nice,
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:especially on a day like this, but this is not Eden. You and I were appointed to someplace
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:better someplace far more wondrous someplace far more marvelous and our habitation of that place
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:is not that far off for any of us the apostle john he was given a picture of this in the book of
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:revelation the apostle john got a picture got a vision of that of the eden that we want to re-enter
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:a far greater eden than what we see is spoken of in this text an eden whose city is zion whose
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:founder is god and we see that in the book of revelation 22 it says this he showed me god showed
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:me a pure river of water of life clear as crystal proceeding from the throne of god and from the
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:lamb in the middle of the street on either side of the river was the tree of life that's interesting
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:which bore 12 fruits each tree yielding fruit every month and the leaves of the tree were for
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:the healing of the nations and there shall be no more curse and all that comes with the curse
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:But the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it.
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:When Ezekiel and his vision had watched the glory of God depart from the temple
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:on up into the sky, as difficult and as trying days as those might be,
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:we all look forward, from Ezekiel on up to us, we all look forward to this day
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:when we dwell in such a place as heavenly Eden where the throne of God remains.
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:And more importantly, where the Lamb upon the throne is seated.
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:ezekiel 36 was a promise of better days not just to the exiles but to us in the face of whatever
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:we're facing it's a promise to all of god's people wherever they may be that although we've all sinned
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:and fallen short of the glory of god that god is not done with us and our story is not over
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:and in his time god will finish the work that he started in his time whether it was ezekiel's
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:contemporaries or us those here who have been sanctified or who are being sanctified even the
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:present will one day be what glorified will one day be glorified in time this heavenly eden awaits
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:god's children guess what verse 36 says you can take that promise to the bank you can bet your
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:life on it in verse 36 we see this i the lord have spoken and i will do it let's pray