A Heart for God

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This is the third sermon in a series of messages on the topic of sanctification. In the previous message we had been describing the character of God as revealed in the Mosaic Covenant. This message takes a look at what the covenant reveals about human nature or human character.

Written Excerpts:

Ezekiel 36:24-29 (NKJV)

24 For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.  25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.  26 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.  27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.  28 Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.  29 I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. I will call for the grain and multiply it, and bring no famine upon you. 

Introduction:

It has been two weeks since our last message in the series we have been doing on the topic of sanctification. I just would like to summarize some of the things we have already covered before I go on.

We mentioned that by God’s marvelous grace He chose specific individuals with whom to establish a binding covenant. And, He also entered into a covenant with an entire nation, purely because of His grace. None of them had done anything to earn or deserve being chosen by God to participate in the covenant with Him.

By choosing to use a covenant, God utilized a practice that was very common to the people of the ancient near eastern culture. So the familiar tenets of the covenant could be used to teach the people vital truth concerning the nature and character of God.

We have learned that He is completely separate from the world that He created and He stands apart from any other being. Since He is the creator of the material world, He cannot be represented by a material object that is part of the creation He made.

We have learned that He is sovereign and has the rightful authority to require strict allegiance and to stipulate how humans who want to live in covenant with Him should conduct their lives in order to exhibit His own character.

We have learned that the covenant exhibits His grace and His faithfulness. The Israelites did not deserve His offer or His choosing of them. He rescued them and delivered them purely by His grace and His faithfulness to the promises made to their forefathers.

Even after the covenant was established, God repeatedly maintained His faithfulness and offered them forgiveness when He had every “right,” according to the terms of the covenant, to completely destroy them.

We learned that the covenant was not a mechanism for entering into a relationship with God, but it was for those who were already in a relationship by the grace of God and needed to know how to maintain that relationship, or how to demonstrate that they belonged to the Lord.

The last time, we finished the sermon by stating that there was one more important truth that was revealed to the people through the use of the covenant.

That truth is going to be our focus for the message today.

The purpose of the covenant was not only to reveal the character of God and His intention for human life, but it also was intended to reveal true human character.

With the help of God’s Spirit, I want to point out the human problem that the covenant revealed, and use various Bible texts to emphasize God’s remedy.

Proposition:

The covenant revealed that human beings by nature are incompatible with God’s nature and God’s plan for living our lives.

I want to focus on the nature of our problem, some examples of the problem and a brief glimpse at God’s solution.

I.   The nature of the human problem revealed by the covenant.

We have mentioned already that the covenant was never intended to be a means whereby people could enter into a relationship with God.

When the covenant was offered, God had already initiated the relationship and called them to be His own purely because of His grace. This was true for Abraham, and it was true for the nation of Israel.

The covenant was not meant to be a means for us to make ourselves acceptable to God.

Dr. Oswalt explains that the covenant was also not intended to be used like a ladder to achieve greater levels of sainthood. The Apostle Paul in Romans 7 shows how that scheme can actually turn out to be a curse instead of a blessing.

The covenant defined how life would work if they lived the way they were supposed to live.

When Moses asked the people if they were willing to obey the Lord and if they were willing to enter into this binding covenant, they eagerly responded in the affirmative.

I read to you the other week where they said to Moses, “You go speak with the Lord and all that the Lord has spoken we will do.” (Ex. 19 & 20)

God had graciously delivered them from slavery, so they would do all that God instructed Moses for them to do. In fact, they willingly called death down upon themselves if they failed to live up to the terms of the covenant.

However, when they made such drastic promises they apparently didn’t realize they had a problem that they inherited from Adam and Eve.

Even though they had bound themselves to obey God’s will in the strongest terms possible, they very soon and very often violated the terms of the covenant that they promised to live by.

The covenant was the means for revealing to them that they couldn’t live up to God’s requirements, nor had any deep inward desire to do so.

They discovered again and again that they wanted their own way and were constantly drawn to the very things God forbade.

II.  Some examples of the human problem.

Ps. 51:5 – Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time that my mother conceived me. (NIV)

Jer. 17:9 – The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (NIV)

The Bible indicates that when we commit acts of sin we are just doing what comes natural to us because our nature is corrupt.

You’ve heard me say frequently that we were born with a nature that is inclined against God and bent toward evil.

Even today, when we hear the message of God’s gracious salvation and respond to the invitation to become a child of God and enter into a relationship with God, there is a joy and happiness to know that our sins are forgiven and we have been accepted by God on the benefits of Christ’s death on the cross.

We are happy and thrilled with the hope of eternal life.

If we are asked whether we intend to live for God and fully obey Him after all He has done for us, we respond with an immediate “yes.”

However, in a short time we discover that there is still a spirit or motivation or desire within us that works against our best intentions to live the life of God, even though we have trusted Christ and know that we have received a new life.

Usually Satan tries to convince us that nothing really happened and there is nothing to this life of faith and salvation, after all. Everything is just like it was before.

But, new converts need to be reminded that something did indeed happen when they believed the gospel, but they haven’t yet received all that God has provided for them.

(Oswalt) The Israelites apparently thought it would be easy to serve God in the ways He ordered so they blithely entered the covenant with its oaths to be faithful or die.

But, they soon broke the covenant, but it was not just a one-time freak incident. No, they broke the covenant again and again. In fact the entire history of Israel is an ongoing cycle of faithful obedience then rebellion and waywardness.

Finally, at a point when the nation had been punished repeatedly for their unfaithfulness to the covenant, God reveals through His prophets what He intends to do for His people.

III.  God’s solution for the problem.

This brings us to the passage of scripture that was read earlier in the service, as well as the similar passage in Ez. 36:24-29 (see above).

See also Jeremiah 31:31-34

God’s remedy for this glaring problem in the heart of men and women as revealed in the covenant is defined in these passages. God offers each and every one a brand new heart.

He offers to remove the heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh (i.e. stubborn/rebellious vs. yielded/ compliant).

When we earnestly seek God’s purifying grace, His Spirit can give us a new heart that is completely yielded to His will rather than continuing to seek our own will.

There is no greater happiness or greater peace than that which is enjoyed when the deepest motivations of one’s heart is surrendered and totally consecrated to the will of God.

Conclusion:

Various methods and philosophies have been offered to rectify the problem that exists among the human race.

Some have insisted that ignorance is the primary problem of society and education is the remedy, but as much as education is needed, it will merely provide more efficient and more devious ways to achieve one’s selfish desires, if the deepest spiritual problem is not addressed.

Some have proposed that poverty is the problem, but forced economic equality has not eliminated the problems. In fact, it has historically produced even more undesirable results; more complex problems and more intense suffering.

No, the only true solution for the human problem that was so vividly exposed by the covenant is the solution proposed by God Himself – giving a new heart and a new spirit.

That is the essence of sanctification and holiness. It is not only living a life prescribed by God for His glory, but it is to possess a heart that has been radically changed by God’s Spirit so that the law of God and the mind of Christ has been internally written on the heart and produces Christ-like actions.

I would like to close the service today with the chorus that is listed in your bulletin:

Change My Heart, O God