Note: This transcript is AI generated and may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for accurate information and meaning.
Introduction: New Things in the Gospel
Turn to the book of Ezekiel, chapter 36. We are in the middle of a series looking at the “new things” that the Gospel produces in our lives. We often talk about a “New Year, New You,” usually in terms of weight loss or fitness, but the writer of Ecclesiastes says there is nothing new under the sun.
As long as we are living on a horizontal plane, it is all the same. However, the Gospel allows us to live beyond the sun. When we live beyond this horizontal, earthly moment, there is immense newness and abundance. We often fail to rest in this because we have been let down by everything “under the sun”—that is our pattern. But beyond this sun, we are never let down.
Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 36:25–28
“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.”
Two Stories of Nature and Change
Two stories hit me this week that seemed similar.
The Scorpion and the Frog
The first is the fable of the scorpion and the frog. A scorpion wants to get across a pond but cannot swim. He asks a frog for a ride. The frog is hesitant, fearing he will be stung. The scorpion argues, “If I sting you, we both die; that makes no sense.” The frog agrees, but halfway across, the scorpion stings him. As they both sink, the frog asks why. The scorpion replies, “I couldn’t help myself; it’s just in my nature.” The point is that some people simply cannot change their nature, no matter their promises.
The Doorbell Camera Argument
The second story was a video from a doorbell camera. A young couple is about to enter a home. The husband says, “Okay, we’re here,” and the wife asks if he’s excited. He says, “Yeah, this is what you wanted to do.” She gets upset, saying, “I want you to want it for yourself, not just because I want it.” They get into a five-minute argument because she wants his internal “want-to” to change, not just his outward actions.
The Core Problem: The Heart of Stone
These stories are the same. We have a problem that goes deeper than outward morality; we have a problem with our heart. God isn’t about fixing the heart you have; He says it is so damaged that it needs to be thrown out. You have a stone-cold, hard heart.
In the movie Wicked, we see the backstory of the Tin Man. He was once a Munchkin with a deep, loving, and compassionate heart. Once he lost that heart and became “tin,” his character changed into something cold and wicked. The problem with humanity isn’t that we don’t know how to act; it’s that we don’t have the roots to act the way we are called to act.
The Solution: A New Heart from God
We try to use all the implements of our lives to make ourselves better—parenting, self-help, new relationships—but those are just methods “under the sun” that eventually fail. God says, “I can do what you can’t.”
Look at the “I wills” in the text:
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I will take you
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I will sprinkle clean water
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I will give you a new heart
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I will put my spirit in you
It is a process of transformation, not just restraint. The law of God can restrain you through guilt or shame, but it can’t change the root. It’s like trying to fix a rotten tree by clipping the fruit and stapling new fruit on. You have to get to the root system.
Why Does God Do This?
If our problem was just moral conformity, why did Jesus have to die? If I see you about to step in front of a truck and I just yell “Don’t!”, that might save you. But if you are already in the path of the truck and I throw you out of the way while being crushed myself, that is dramatic salvation.
God does this for a reason higher than just us. Ezekiel 36:22 says, “It is not for your sake… that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name.” God wants to change your heart because He loves doing it. It is His nature to redeem and transform.
The Result: Living from the Inside Out
When the heart is changed, the “want-to” changes. You don’t need a thousand rules when the heart is moved by the Spirit. This change is spontaneous by the work of God, but it manifests over time as the roots grow out to the fruit.
The lion will lie down with the lamb because its nature has been changed from a predator to something loving. That is what God does with the human heart. He takes a creature out for its own survival and turns it into one that is moved by love, joy, peace, and patience.