Word of Salvation – Vol. 14 No.42 – October 1968

 

The Big Heart Swap

 

Sermon by Rev. J. Goris, Th.Grad. on Ezekiel 36:22-32

SCRIPTURE READING: John 3:1-8

PSALTER HYMNAL: 183:1,2,3; 211: 6,4 (after Law);
                                    95:1,2 (tune 94)’431:2,6; 125:4

 

Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ,

When an eleven-year-old boy heard that his mother was going to hospital, his first question was: "Are you going to get a new heart, Mum?"

Some twelve months ago such a question would not even have entered the mind of a grown-up.  Heart-swaps were simply out of the question.  And yet, long before Dr.  Christian Barnard performed his first heart transplant on Mr. Louis Washkansky, a prophet of the people of Israel already spoke about a heart-swap.  It was the prophet Ezekiel who broke the news of this great event to the people in exile.  God Himself would be the surgeon, and He would take the stony heart out of His people, and swap it for a heart of flesh.  We are going to hear something about that in this service:

            THE BIG HEART SWAP

First we consider:     The Promise,
                        then:  The Reason,
                    finally:  The Result.

I.  The Promise:

The time in which the prophet Ezekiel lived did not look very promising for the people of Israel.  The situation was grim.  Jerusalem had been destroyed and the people had been scattered in many different directions.  Most of them were living in exile in Babylonia: deported persons!

Why so?  We know the story.  The people of God had turned away from Him.  They had become unfaithful to their Covenant God, Who had proved to be so gracious to them.  What was worse, they had paid little or no attention to the messages of the prophets.  God had warned them.  He had called them back, by reminding them of all that He had done for them in the past.  Moreover, He held out many promises to them, if they would but return to Him.  But it was all to no avail; they would not hear.  And when you do not want to hear, then you are going to feel it!  (Isn't that what mother says when she is about to give her disobedient youngster a good hiding?).  Well, that's what happened to Israel.  They did not want to be tied down to God?  Then they would soon experience the consequences.  Formerly, God used to be their strength in the battles against their enemies.  This time He was not.  He allowed their enemies to make them prisoners.  Thus they were deported out of their own land, and taken to Babylon.

However, God did not leave His people altogether.  The prophet Ezekiel went along with them into exile.  God would continue to deal with them, and let them hear His message.  It would have been far worse, had they no longer heard God's Word!  What grace that is!  Do we of today realise that too?  It is true that Ezekiel's messages bore a strong note of denunciation.  God had shown Himself as the Glorious One who could not stand sin.  Israel must know this.  God cannot wink at sin.

After the messages of judgment, however, Ezekiel also spoke of restoration.  God held out some glorious promises to exiled Israel.  We read something of that in the words of our text: They would return to their own land' God would see to it that they would get there again.  He had caused them to be scattered.  He would bring them back again.

You can well imagine that God did not want them to go back SO as to let them continue in their sinful ways again.  Mother expects the same from her little son.  He had been making a mess of himself when playing in the mud.  After he has been scrubbed clean, he will be told to keep clear of the mud.

Our Lord Jesus Christ used to say much the same thing to the people who had come to Him for healing: "Your sins are forgiven, go and sin no more!"  You have made a mess of things; don't get back into the mud!

That is what applied to Israel too.  God would not only bring them back to their old land; He also promised: "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you."  God would wash their sins away.  He would forgive them, so that they could REALLY make a new start!

And still, that would not be all.  It would not be enough.  God does not just wash away the dirt of their sinful past, nor does He only take away the toys of sin; He goes much further.

Besides PUTTING us right with Himself, He does something to KEEP us right with Him.  He gives us a NEW HEART!

That is the most important part of the message of Ezekiel in this chapter: the big heart swap!  "A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh."

God Himself will provide the new heart.  (Did you know that Jesus had to die in order to give you a new heart?)  God Himself will also carry out the operation.

That old heart of Israel just would not do anymore.  It had become a heart of stone; as cold and as dead as a stone.  It was a heart without feeling.  It was no longer touched by the loving words of God, words that called them back from their evil ways.  Nor was it pounding in their chests when they waded into sinful waters.  It was not hurt when they grieved the Holy Spirit.  It could not be hurt.  It was insensitive; as lifeless as a stone.  In this dreadful and seemingly hopeless situation, God was going to act.  The operating knife would have to be used.  The stony heart was to be taken out, and a new "live" heart of flesh would be put in.  A heart of flesh; that is a heart that is sensitive to God's loving call; a heart that can respond; a heart that is moved, and melted by the undeserved grace which God offers to the sinner.

Such a heart Israel needed.  Such a heart could be there only because of a further promise that God gave to His people: "I will put My Spirit within you!"  Although the prophet spoke of the days when the people of Israel would return from exile, he was pointing ultimately to the great event of the coming of Jesus Christ, through Whose death we would receive a new heart.  A heart made new by the Holy Spirit.

This new heart is the basis for a new start.  All the miseries and failures in life cannot be overcome by trying to change the things around us.  Numerous people think so, and they pin all their hopes on their new job.  Others think of a new land.  Those whose marriage is about to go on the rocks, think in terms of a new marriage.  However, we cannot make a new start, unless we have a new heart!

The basic trouble lies inside.  It is THERE that something has to happen.  A new heart makes a new person.  Says the apostle in his letter to the Corinthians: "If any man is in Christ, he is a NEW CREATURE; old things HAVE PASSED AWAY; behold, ALL things are become NEW!"  Being in Christ means belonging to Christ.

It means having Christ's Spirit live within.  And when He is there, the new heart is an irrefutable FACT.

My brother and sister, is that the case with YOU?  This is a matter of the utmost importance.  WE need a new heart too, just like Israel of old.  You may know the Bible back to front, from cover to cover.  You may be a Sunday-school teacher, an elder or a youth-leader, but if you haven't got that new heart, if the Spirit of Christ does not dwell within, you will have no visa to heaven!

Remember Nicodemus?  He was a learned man.  A spiritual leader.  A teacher in Israel, a rabbi.  Well, what of him?  What did Jesus tell him in that night when he came to Him?  "Nicodemus, unless you are born again (that is, born of the Spirit), you will not enter the kingdom of heaven."

There you are: heaven is only for people who have been born again; or, to use the wording of our text: it is only for people who have received a heart-swap!

And, you know, that is exactly what God promises His people here!  To be sure, He promises them much more.  Read those verses 28 to 30...!!  But the new heart is the basis for all those other things.  You have probably already been raising the question in your mind, "Is this promise for ME?  Can I deserve it somehow?"  This makes us ask the reason for this big heart-swap.

II.  The Reason:

WHY is it that the people of Israel have this great promise held out to them?  Is there some way in which they have merited it?  Surely this is an important question which also concerns us!  Well, let us have a look at the opening verses of our text: (vss.22,23).

"Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act (in giving that new heart, etc.), 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, says the Lord God, when THROUGH YOU (mind you!) I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.”

No doubt you have discovered that Israel certainly had not deserved this great promise!

On the contrary, what they had done deserved God's wrath on them.  They had profaned His name.  They had dragged it through the mud.  They had reduced God's holy and unique Name, to a COMMON name.  It was no longer something special to them, no longer to be honoured.  What is more, they had profaned it among the nations!  Due to their exile and their inability to stand up against the armies of their enemies the nations had slandered their God (just as Goliath once did).  They had put Jehovah on one line with the gods of the nations which had also been conquered!  Was Jehovah just as weak and unable to defend His people, and no different from the gods of wood and stone?  What terrible shame was brought upon the great and glorious Name of the God of Israel!  Surely, they had profaned His name.

God has a great concern for His Name!  The nations had rightly linked the people of Israel with their God!  He had ACTUALLY connected His Name with them, like a husband whose name is linked with his wife; so much so that the wife even 'loses' her maiden name!  The Lord had married Israel, He had made a covenant with them!  They were His bride (how much had Ezekiel stressed this too!).  His holy name had been placed on them.

Therefore God had come to them with such a tremendous promise.  He will give a new heart; His Spirit will dwell within them.  Why?  God simply cannot allow His Name to be dragged through the mud.  It must not be profaned.  Thus God will vindicate the holiness of His name.  He will assert its uniqueness.  He will prove that it is not to be placed on one level with that of other gods, who are no gods.  God will show the worth, the power of His Name.  ("All hail the power of Jesus' Name”.)  He will show its purity, its holiness.

The nations will KNOW it.  They will SEE it!  How?  "When THROUGH YOU I vindicate my holiness before their eyes!  THROUGH YOU who have profaned My name.  For I am going to give you a NEW heart, I am going to place My Spirit within you!  That's how God will do it, and in NO OTHER WAY!  He does it through redeemed sinners, whom He FILLS with His Spirit, so that people will say: "Do you see that man, that woman, that boy, that girl?  They made me hate the church, those hypocrites!  But look what's happened, they are SO changed!  They've got something I long to have, they've got something that's "out-of-this-world", something heavenly, something of God!  They make me curious as to what their faith in God is all about!"  Young people, fathers and mothers; has anyone said this of YOU at any time?

Don't forget it; God's name is on you too!  Remember those solemn words: "I baptize you in the NAME of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit".  Wherever you go, you take God's Name.  Where the Christian goes, Christ's name goes!  Do we realize that, young folk?

And God does not want His name to be profaned!  Surely not!  So be careful little feet, where you go!  And be careful little lips what you say!  And be careful little eyes what you see!

God is vindicating the holiness of His name THROUGH YOU.  Wonder of wonders, how can it be?

God proving His Holy Name through ME!

He does this through the Holy Spirit, who has come to live in your NEW heart!  And then things WILL change!  The results cannot be hidden.  We see this in the case of Israel, in the last part of our text.

III.  The Result.

What is one of the first things that will happen, when God has installed that new heart?  What will that heart do?

We read in verse 31: "Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good; and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominable deeds."

Yes indeed, there will be confession of sin.  You will see sin as it really is: EVIL, iniquity, ABOMINABLE!  When the Spirit of God has come into your heart you will see sin as GOD SEES it!  Then you will not cover it up.  You will not wink at it.  You will not say of it: "Is it not a little one?"

Then you will not glibly talk about it.  Then you will not even excuse yourself by saying: "But we are all sinners.  We can't help it.  We will never be perfect in this life." (And then Satan quickly adds: So why try?  What is the use of it while in this world?)

Congregation, how do WE look upon sin?

Let us look into the mirror of God's Word here.  What do we see?  What goes for Israel of Ezekiel's time, goes for us.  God only gives ONE SORT of new heart!  And the result is the same!

Looking upon sin as it is, will make us LOATHE ourselves.  Do you know what that means?  Not merely hating yourself, but being utterly DISGUSTED with yourself!  That's not easy!  That's impossible, unless, unless.... you have a new heart!  Said our dear Lord: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate... even his OWN life, he cannot be My disciple."

There is also another result of that big heart-swap.  "I will put My Spirit within you, and CAUSE YOU TO WALK IN MY STATUTES, and be careful to observe My commandments".  Thus the second result is OBEDIENCE!  That obedience is not something that is forced ON you from the outside.  No, note well: it is the Spirit of Jesus Whom God has put WITHIN you, who will CAUSE you to walk straight!  It is through Him that you will exercise yourself unto godliness.

People of God, is there a SIGN of LIFE in YOUR heart?  Or is it still cold and stubborn?  What of it, young people?  God's Name is on you!  You can't be neutral about that.  Never, You can't rub it off!  What are you doing with it?  Is it being profaned?  Or being vindicated?  God is most concerned about His holy Name. That makes Him chase you.  He wants to honour His Name... THROUGH YOU!

That's why He promises this big heart swap!  Not only to Israel of old; also for YOU!  The heart DONOR is there: JESUS CHRIST!  YOUR DONOR?

            "Oh, for a heart to praise my God,
             A heart from sin set free;
             A heart that's sprinkled with the blood
             So freely shed for me.

             A heart resigned, submissive, meek,
             My dear Redeemer's throne:
             Where only Christ is heard to speak,
             Where Jesus reigns alone.

             A humble, lowly, contrite heart,
             Believing, true, and clean,
             Which neither death nor life can part
             From Him that dwells within.

             A heart in every thought renewed,
             And filled with love divine:
             Perfect and right, and pure and good
             A copy, Lord, of Thine.

             Thy Spirit, gracious Lord, impart,
             Come quickly from above;
             Write Thy new name upon my heart,
             Thy new, best name of Love.

Amen.