Ezekiel 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh… I. GOD HATH SUPREME DOMINION OVER THE HEARTS OF MEN. 1. He furnishes the hearts of men with qualifications suited to their several offices and employments, which He assigns them in the course of His providence. 2. He moderates and controls the most unruly passions, and renders them subservient to His own glory. 3. He sends spiritual judgments into the hearts of men. 4. He also shows His supreme dominion over the hearts of men, by renewing and sanctifying the various powers of their souls. 5. He restores order to the affections, and places them upon their proper objects. 6. He likewise inclines the heart to those things which are well-pleasing in His sight, and brings it into a willing subjection to His law. II. GOD MERCIFULLY REMOVES EVERY OBSTACLE THAT MIGHT OBSTRUCT HIS POWERFUL GRACIOUS OPERATION. The stony heart, which God graciously promises to take away, is remarkable — 1. For insensibility. (1) It is insensible to the majesty and glory of God, impressed on the works of His hands, and to His power and presence displayed in His providential dispensations. (2) It is insensible to the spirituality and excellence of the Divine law, and to the wonderful discoveries made in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 2. For obduracy. The hearts of all men are naturally possessed of this bad quality, which is greatly augmented by sinful habits, which, when indulged, provoke God to permit them judicially to harden themselves more and more. 3. For inflexibility. The stony heart is not easily bent to comply with the gracious purposes which God hath in view to execute. It will not be persuaded to accept of the rich mercies which He offers to bestow, nor obey the directions of His Word. 4. For resistance. The stony heart strongly resists the instruments employed to soften and render it tender. The merciful designs of providence are counteracted. Even the convictions and impulses of the Holy Spirit are resisted. III. GOD PROMISES TO WORK A GREAT CHANGE IN THE HEARTS OF HIS PEOPLE. 1. The spiritual and gracious qualities conveyed to the soul, by the fulfilment of this promise, are called a new heart and a new spirit; because they come in place of the old things which pass away, and are very different from them. By the new heart and the new spirit, we are made partakers of the Divine nature, and renovation after the image of Christ is begun, which is afterward gradually carried forward under the influence of the Holy Spirit. The eyes of the mind are enlightened, and a new light shines into it, whereby it is filled with the knowledge of God's will. Divine truths are seen in their native beauty, displaying the manifold wisdom of God, and the unsearchable riches of Christ; they penetrate to the bottom of the heart, they are embraced with sincere affection, and have a transforming influence on the heart and life. 2. God also promises to give you an heart of flesh — which seems to intend, a heart the reverse of the stony heart, which He takes away. (1) The heart of flesh is a sensible heart, that perceives the great importance and excellence of spiritual and Divine things. (2) The heart of flesh is a soft and tender heart, that is deeply impressed with a sense of the Divine goodness and the manifold mercies of God. (3) The heart of flesh is likewise flexible and pliant to the holy will of God. (4) The heart of flesh makes no resistance to God, as doth the stony heart. 3. "And I will put My Spirit within you." By the Spirit may be meant, the Holy Ghost, who dwelleth in the people of God as in His temple, the Comforter whom Jesus Christ promises to send from the Father, that He may abide with them forever, even the Spirit of truth — who dwelleth with you and shall be in you (John 14:16, 17). As a Spirit of power, He strengthens with all might in the inner man; as a Spirit of supplication, He helps their infirmities, and teaches them to pray; in every respect acting as a Spirit of holiness, sanctifying them wholly, and enabling them to perform duties in another and more spiritual manner than ever before. As the promised Comforter, He supports and comforts; so that as their sufferings abound, their consolations by Christ are made to superabound. As a Spirit of wisdom and revelation, He discovers the deep things of God, that we may know the things freely given us of God. As a Spirit of adoption, He enables us to cry, Abba, Father, and to draw near to God with filial freedom and confidence. IV. THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE PRECIOUS PROMISES WHICH ARE HERE GIVEN, IS ATTENDED WITH BLESSED EFFECTS AND CONSEQUENCES. Those who have the Spirits of God put within them, shall be made to walk in God's statutes, and to keep His judgments and do them. The statutes of God are the rule by which they shall walk, His judgments point out the work which they ought to do. By both expressions the Word of God is intended, which is given to be a lamp to our feet, and a light to our goings, and to show us what is good, and what the Lord our God requireth of us. In these statutes and judgments, God promises that those in whom He puts His Spirit shall walk. In Scripture, walking is often mentioned in a figurative sense, to denote a person's habitual temper and practice. 1. Walking in God's statutes is a voluntary, agreeable employment to those who have received a new heart and spirit. They delight in the law of the Lord after the inward man, and in the ways of His commandments which they have loved. In doing the will of their heavenly Father, they find far more real pleasure and satisfaction than in sensual pleasures, worldly riches, and great temporal honours. 2. Walking in God's statutes is a diligent and progressive business. There may be, no doubt, some accidental obstructions and checks made to growth in grace, and progress in holiness; still, however, faith and love, and other graces, increase and grow up to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. (W. M'Culloch.) Parallel Verses KJV: A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. |
    |