Amen. Let us turn to Ezekiel chapter 36. And we'll read verses 16 to the end of the chapter. As we commonly see in the book of Ezekiel, really more important than looking at the chapter divisions, which were added later, a section begins with something like, the word of the Lord came to me, and ends with, something along the lines of, then they will know that I am the Lord. And that is, uh, that is, uh, this unit here. And that is common starting and ending points all through the book of Ezekiel. And we'll let us, uh, read down beginning at verse 16, the word of God, the word of the Lord came to me. Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds. Their ways before me were like the uncleanness of a woman in her menstrual impurity. So I poured out my wrath upon them for the blood that they had shed in the land, for the idols with which they had defiled it. I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries. In accordance with their ways and their deeds, I judged them. But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned my holy name. In that people said of them, these are the people of the Lord, yet they had to go out of this land. But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came. Therefore, say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, it is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers. And you shall be my people. And I will be your God. And I will deliver you. from all your uncleanness, and I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations. It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God. Let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel. Thus says the Lord God, on the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be rebuilt, and the land that was desolate shall be tilled, instead of being the desolation that it was in the sight of all who passed by. And they will say, this land that was desolate has become like the Garden of Eden, and the waste and the desolate and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited. Then the nations that are left all around you shall know that I am the Lord. I have rebuilt the ruined places and replanted that which was desolate. I am the Lord. I have spoken and I will do it. Thus says the Lord God. This also I will let the house of Israel ask me to do for them. to increase their people like a flock, like the flock for sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts. So shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the Lord." So far the reading. Let us at this time pray for the preaching of God's Word Lord God, Your Word is holy and perfect. We pray that You would now open this Word to us, that Your Spirit would be upon us, even as we read of the great truths of Your Spirit. This is our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen. Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, there are two different five-point summaries of Reformed theology that you may be familiar with. One of them sounds older because it uses Latin words, but the five solas were put together as a summary of Reformed teaching sometime during the 1800s. The other five point summary is then older. And it started in a place that you may be familiar with because it's the five doctrines of grace, sometimes called the five points of Calvinism. And that goes back not to the 1800s, but to the first place we really saw them listed, the Synod of Dort in 1618, 1619. But while both of these summaries of reformed faith neatly summarized in five points are not so old, 200 years old, 400 years old, they are neat five point summaries of very old truths. And so indeed the profound statements of salvation by grace alone or sola gratia are right here. in Ezekiel 36. They were given 2,500 years ago from the word of the Lord through his prophet Ezekiel and they are before us tonight. And so our theme tonight is this, trust only in the redeeming grace of God. First look at man's depravity and then God's grace and then God's gifts, God's gifts on top of salvation. So man's depravity. What is the problem? Man's sin is the problem. Even as we spoke of this morning by going to the fall in Genesis 3. And man's sin continues to be the problem. And so the land has been defiled with the sins of God's people. Verse 16. The wrath of God must be poured out. The murder and idolatry must be removed. verse 18, and God is the one who is then scattering them and bringing about the exile, verse 19. Sin is always the problem. Now, do you believe that? Remember how an objection might come. Well, I have not committed murder. And I can't think of what my idolatry is. And remember, those are the sins listed here in verse 18. But whether it was the Israelites who might have said, well, I haven't committed actual murder, so why did I have to be removed from the land? Or the Israelites who would say, well, I'm not sure what my idolatry is. Whether it is 2,500 years ago or today, My sin must be ever before me. Your sin must be ever before you. And God tells us plainly. that we are sinners and there must be consequences for sin. So the famous words of the Apostle Paul are this, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. And then we always need to remember that the Apostle Paul, who was an actual accomplice in murder, was not just speaking about himself, it was what 1 Timothy 1 verse 15, a faithful saying worthy of all acceptance. We must consider our own sins and consider them rightly. Now to see how God brings us to view our sins, we have to jump over verses 22 to 30. We'll come back to them in our second point. And we jump ahead to verse 31. What should be our attitude towards our own sins? We should remember, we should know our evil ways and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourself for your iniquities and your abominations." And immediately notice that God is the one who is working this. This is what we need. It is not as though Scripture says, you'll loathe yourself, and then Scripture says, oh, but that's not good, you shouldn't loathe yourself. No, it says this is what God is doing. This is what God's grace is doing. It is God's grace which helps us to see our sin and to be ashamed of it in the way that brings us to God and to His grace. And so Horace Hummel, the Lutheran, who we've quoted from a few times as we've worked through Ezekiel, he said it this way, together, quote, together with verse 32, chapter 36, verse 31 emphasizes that only after God acts, sole gratia, in restoring the people, will they be capable of true contrition over their past behavior, end of quote. It is God's own work. that brings us to see our sin, to loathe ourselves, to hate our sin. Now, we spoke quite a bit about sin this morning. We were in Genesis 3. Now we're speaking about sin again. At this point, I am going to read a quote from Dave Harvey. This is a book that Dave Harvey wrote And he's just spoken about sin for a number of pages, and he made reference to 1 Timothy 1.15. And then he says, well, an objection might come. Quote, this guy thinks about sin way too much. The worst of sinners? Man, take a chill pill and unplug the moral meter. What is the big deal? End of quote. Now how does that objection sound to you? Do you have a biblically deep sense of sin to recognize the folly of such a statement? Or do you think, yeah, we really just need to unplug the moral meter, don't we? We shouldn't talk about sin so much. We must have a deep sense of sin. Do you hear the biblical call to give all praise to God for His grace which saves? For we are all sinners. Are you ready to loathe yourself to then see more brightly the grace of God for what it really is? If you think that you have not sinned, remember as J.I. Packer once said it, there are no small sins against a great God. Or as James by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit said it in James 2 verse 10, For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all. Now, I knew a young man who grew up in the church, grew up in a Christian home, and was preserved from what we might call outward rebellion and what we might call gross sins. And that's language that we use. It's language, for example, in our church order, which describes sins of a certain nature which require certain actions immediately. Well, this young man, by God's grace, was preserved from outward rebellion from what we might call gross sins. And so one time he was asked, what's your favorite verse of the Bible? And he quoted James 2 verse 10, for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he is guilty of all. He said that was his favorite verse because having grown up in the church, and having been preserved from gross rebellion, there's this temptation to think, I'm not so bad. And there's a temptation to think, God's salvation of me is not so great and glorious. Because I'm just one that He's grabbed hold of, And I've never known a day when I wasn't His. But that verse reminds me that I am a sinner just as everyone else. And that God's salvation for me is glorious and wondrous just as God's salvation is always glorious, always wondrous, always His supernatural grace. Salvation is by grace. God's grace alone. Trust in God's grace. Because none of us can or should trust in ourselves. We are all sinners. Well, we jumped ahead to verse 31. But now let's come back to verses 22 and 30 as we come to our second point. God is doing this grace, this act of grace, this salvation. It's his own initiative. And so we see both sola gratia and if we take one of the other Latin phrases, soli deo gloria. It's all for God's glory alone. We see that especially at the end of verse 22 and end of verse 23. I am about to act, this is the middle of 22, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations, and I will vindicate the holiness of my great name. And then Ezekiel goes on and he teaches us of the new spirit that we need and then the old heart of stone which must be removed. And then to remove any doubt that we're talking about the Holy Spirit here. Sometimes the word spirit is in reference to our own spirit, to our own heart that needs to be changed. But if there is any doubt, that the Holy Spirit is not in view, that is removed in verse 27. Because how does God say it through his prophet Ezekiel in verse 27? God says, and I will put my Spirit within you. You know, in Hebrew, there's no capital, lowercase letters. In ancient Hebrew, it's just all capital letters, essentially. You know, so it's a translation decision. You know, when do we have the capital S for Spirit? When do we have lowercase s? Sometimes that's hard, but sometimes it is very easy. Verse 27, there is no dispute. God says, this is my spirit. This is the Holy Spirit. It is God's work giving his own Holy Spirit. Now, this evening and this morning, we've spent a lot of time speaking about the reality that we are all sinners. But brothers and sisters, Do not only trust in God, but be comforted in God for salvation as you come to Him. Because by God's grace, God makes His own Holy Spirit to live in you. God makes His own Holy Spirit to live in you as you trust in Him. And so if One would even object, well, I'm such a sinner, how can I ever be saved? God's Spirit is given to all who trust in Him. God's own Holy Spirit. Jesus also spoke about our need for the Holy Spirit and He gave an illustration which directed our attention away from our own initiative or our own act spoke about the need to be born again by the Spirit. And then, of course, Nicodemus objects, how can one be born again? Can he enter again into his mother's womb? And then Jesus says, are you a teacher of the law and yet you do not know these things? And I cannot remember which minister said it, but I appreciate one who once said that we could paraphrase Jesus' words there from John chapter 3 like this. Are you a teacher of the law and yet you do not know? Ezekiel 36. There is no uncertainty here. This is the Holy Spirit which is needed. This is the Holy Spirit which is given. This is all done by God's own work. Look at just some of the words God uses from verse 22 and onward. I am about to act. I will vindicate. I will take you. I will sprinkle. I will give you a new heart. I will remove the heart of stone. I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and I will deliver you." We are saved by God's active grace. And then we'll just move back to verses 24 and 25 to look at the language of the promise there. In verse 24, I will gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. Here is a clear promise of the literal return which God will bring. Humanly speaking, the obstacles to this are huge. There's going to be one empire and then another ruling over the exiled slaves of Israel. But God will bring them back. There will be another exodus from slavery for God's chosen people. And then we have the image in verse 25, clean water being sprinkled. Now, more often in the Old Testament, when we have the sprinkling of something for the symbol of cleansing, it's the sprinkling of blood. The priests were actually to sprinkle blood throughout the temple quite often for a number of different reasons. But there are a handful of times in Levitical law tied to the red heifer and some other ceremonies where there was sprinkling of water. There's one time where the priest was to sprinkle both blood and water, and that's described in Leviticus 14. And there's this whole list of things which the priests were to do with a house that had had leprosy in it. And after what we might, you can read Leviticus 14 to go through the whole list later, but after what we might call a whole series of more practical steps, At the end, if it was free from leprosy, the symbolic act of everything being clean at the end was you sprinkle both blood and water. And so what is it? And remember, what is leprosy? Leprosy is sin in a symbolic physical form. And so the removal of leprosy is a picture of the removal of sin. And that's what the sprinkling water and the sprinkling blood are tied to. They're pictures of cleansing. Already in the Old Testament, and now what's the sprinkling of water in the New Testament? It is one of the two New Testament sacraments. It's the sacrament of baptism. And what is the picture? It is the same. The sprinkling of water for baptism is a picture and a symbol of the washing of regeneration. And so all of this is what God does. And some of the pictures he uses to describe his grace in salvation. But before we get to point three, let's briefly look at what must be removed. Verse 26, and in the middle of verse 26, we come to the heart of stone, which must be removed. And let's make two observations about the natural heart of stone. First, it's a picture of that which cannot be reasoned with. Have you ever heard the phrase, speaking to a wall? Ever heard that phrase? Or sometimes there's just one word added, speaking to a brick wall. What is that a picture of? What is that an illustration of? It means it's no use speaking to this person. It's like speaking to a wall. You're not gonna make any headway. There's just total obstinacy a total disregard, a complete failure to listen or want to listen. You might as well speak to a wall. Well, that's what the heart of stone pictures. That's what God says we are, apart from his grace, working in us. We are, when God is, before God works in us, you might as well speak to a stone. We need God's grace to save us. And then second, a heart of stone, it's not only the fact that you can't reason or speak to or change, it's the fact that the heart of stone is dead. You can live without fingers or even without limbs. You can live pins and metal and all these different places, but your heart must be a heart. It must be a heart of flesh. Otherwise, there is only death. There must be a heart of flesh for there to be life. And all of this is a picturesque picture of the, or a clear picture of the reality that we are dead in our trespasses and sins. As the apostle plainly says in Ephesians two verse one, but by God's gracious act, the heart of stone is removed and we are given a new heart and God's very own spirit dwells in us. And now people of God from this precious gift comes more gifts as well. This brings us to our third point. God's, if we were to add another word here, God's abundant gifts or God's added gifts. And again, this is God's own work. I will cause, we see in the middle of verse 33, It's again for God's own glory. It's for the purpose that all will know that God is the Lord. We see that in verse 36 and in verse 38. And what does God do? He restores the land. The ruins are rebuilt. He brings his people back into the repaired land. And just as there were many sheep brought into Jerusalem for the appointed feasts, this is a picture in verse 38, God will now bring many back into Jerusalem itself and they will worship Him there. So the image of the sheep being brought to the appointed feasts, it's both an image that says there's going to be many and it's an image which immediately brings us to the context of worship. We now come to worship God. That's one of His gifts. He brings us before Him together to worship Him. As my favorite simple illustration, so I know I've used it before, is that so often in God's prophecies, we have the onion with the multiple layers. And what is the first layers here? It's things that God will literally do in the not so distant future, in the lifetime of some of those here in Ezekiel's day. people will be brought back to the land. There will be worship in Jerusalem. Some who saw the first temple will live to see the second temple. But there are also future layers which go beyond the return from exile. We see that especially in verses 28 and 29 and 35. So what do we have in verse 35? We have this language, God will restore his people to a land like the Garden of Eden. Usually, when we have reference to the Garden of Eden, even as we had in Ezekiel chapter 28, we're going backwards and we're thinking about the Garden of Eden. But here, we're looking forward and there's something that's like the Garden of Eden. Well, what is that? When does God remove the curse again? Where Will there again be access to the tree of life, but no longer any tree of the knowledge of good and evil? It's the new heavens and the new earth. The tree of life described in the book of Revelation, which is there. So here is one of the times when the word Eden is used in a forward-looking prophecy to God's perfect work and restoration, which is yet to come. Again, verse 29 and 30, if we go backwards in our text a little bit, these are also words which tell us that some of these promises are only future promises. When will there be no famine upon you? When will you never again, the end of verse 30, suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations? It's only in the new Eden that every famine, that every difficulty will be removed. So brothers and sisters, be comforted by the language of God's prophecies and the future promises, but don't expect every layer all at once. see the layers of how God speaks to us, and wait for the time when there's no famine, but endure with the blessings that God does give now, awaiting the new Jerusalem, the new Eden, which is not yet. All of this, brothers and sisters, accomplished by the grace of God alone. And so, we trust through all the waste places, through all the restored waste places, which God often does while we are yet on this earth, and into the New Jerusalem, the New Eden, where there is truly no famine. God so often directs our eyes to the glories of heaven and so clearly speaks to us of His grace which saves. Amen. Let us pray. Lord God Almighty by your grace, we receive