Ezekiel 36

Christ is never born in the heart without pangs — many thank God they never had any trouble of spirit, they were always quiet; a sign Christ is not yet formed in them. 2. As when Christ was born into the world he was made flesh, so if he be born into your heart, he makes your he…

This amounts not to a new creation, or that power which raised Christ from the dead. God does not only persuade, but enable (Ezekiel 36:27). If God in conversion should only morally persuade, that is, set good and evil before men, then God does not put forth so much power in sav…

When the sun shines in a room, not the body of the sun is there, but the light, heat, and influence of the sun. God has made a promise of his Spirit (Ezekiel 36:27): I will put my Spirit within you. Turn promises into prayers.

It defiles all it touches. Urge God with his promise (Ezekiel 36:26): a new heart will I give you. Say, Lord, I am as the dry bones; but you did cause breath to come into them (Ezekiel 37:10).

4. Our love to God is a sign of his love to us (1 John 4:19): We love him, because he first loved us. By nature we are 〈in non-Latin alphabet〉, we have no love to God, we have hearts of stone (Ezekiel 36:1). And how can any love be in hearts of stone!

2. Earnest supplication: Implore the help of the Spirit to carry us on in obedience: God's Spirit makes obedience easy and delightful: If the lodestone draw the iron; now it is not hard for the iron to move: If God's Spirit quicken and draw the heart; now it is not hard to obey.…

There is a threefold encouragement. 1. That though we have not ability to obey any one command, yet God has in the new covenant promised to work that in us, which he requires (Ezekiel 36:27). I will cause you to walk in my statutes.

Make a new heart. Alas it is above our strength, we may as well make a new world (Ezekiel 36:26). I will give you a new heart.

The great promise of the Messiah is in the Old Testament: "A Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son" — indeed, I say more, the moral law in some part of it speaks gospel: "I am the Lord your God" — here is the pure wine of the gospel. The saints' great charter where God promises t…

But who are heirs of the covenant of grace? Only such as have the kingdom of grace in their hearts (Ezekiel 36:26): "A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you" — there is the kingdom of grace set up in the soul. Then it follows in verse 28: "I will be y…

The Covenant of Grace is our charter for Heaven. The terms of the Covenant are, that God will be our God, (the crowning blessing) but who are interested in the Covenant, and may plead the benefit of it, only sanctified persons (Ezekiel 36:26). A new heart will I give you, and I…

Question: What shall we do to obtain a penitential frame of heart? Response: Seek to God for it: it is his promise to give a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36) and to pour on us a spirit of mourning (Zechariah 12:10). Beg God's Holy Spirit.

He changes the hearts of men. The Devil would have Christ prove himself to be God, by turning stones into bread; but thus the Holy Ghost shows his Godhead, by turning stones into flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). I will take away the stony heart, and give you a heart of flesh.

Could we hear the saints departed speaking to us from heaven, sure they would speak after this manner, Were we to leave heaven a while, and live on the earth again, we would do God a thousand times more service than ever we did; we would pray with more life, act with more zeal;…

He puts as it were a blank paper into God's hands, and bids him write what he will — he will subscribe to it. 4. Beg grace and strength of God to do his will (Psalm 143:10): Teach me to do your will: as if David had said, Lord, I need not be taught to do my own will, I can do th…

3. God is not wanting to them who seek to him for grace: Deus volentibus non deest: He is willing to put to his helping hand. With his command there goes a promise (Ezekiel 18:31): Make you a new heart; and there is a promise (Ezekiel 36:26): A new heart will I give you. 2 Posit…

Q. And how is Christ King of the elect? A. Not only by his providence, as over all creatures: nor only by his word and ordinances, as to the visible Church, but also by the special working of the grace of his holy Spirit in their hearts (Ezekiel 36:26; Ephesians 1:22; Colossians…

So in Isaiah 48:9-10: 'For my name's sake...' So also in Ezekiel 36:22, 32: 'For my name's sake, and not for your sake.' And in Isaiah 43:25: 'I am he that blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember your sins.'

3. Thirdly, sacrifice is a broken and a contrite heart for his sins, and his daily failings he has committed against a crucified Jesus: when God pours upon his people the Spirit of grace and supplication (Zechariah 12:10). The more the Spirit of Christ opens the eyes of their sp…

The expression is taken from the sprinkling of blood upon the offering of the sacrifices (Exodus 29:16, 21; Leviticus 4:17; Chapter 14:7). The spiritual interpretation and application whereof is given us (Ezekiel 36:25). And whereas this sprinkling from sin, and cleansing thereb…

In all the actings of lust and sin, in the drought and dust of barrenness, we represent an enmity against him, and contrariety to him, acting over the principle of the first rebellion and apostasy from him. These things in their own nature tend greatly to his dishonor (Ezekiel 3…

Sin is the same that ever it was, and the law is the same, and God is as holy and as much delights in holiness as ever he did; we therefore must be as strict as ever: 'tis but a carnal liberty to have leave to be wanton, to be free to sin: nature is very apt to hear in that ear,…

How is that worthy name blasphemed — James 2:7; 2 Samuel 12:13-14! The hearts of the righteous are saddened — Psalm 25:3; Ezekiel 36:20. By this the world is fearfully prejudiced against Christ and religion, the bonds of death made fast upon their souls, those who had a general…

If Christ when dead could not be kept from rising, Christ now living shall not be hindered from raising and helping his Church. His own glory is linked with his people's security, and though he may not be moved for anything in them because of their sinfulness, he will for his ow…

Hardness and impenitent heart (Romans 2:5). This is that heart of stone, which God promises in the Covenant to take away, by the efficacy of his almighty grace (Ezekiel 36:26). Where this hardness abides uncured, unremoved, there sin is absolutely in the throne; this therefore w…

But the inference is not good, that therefore it should be unlawful to enter into Church-Covenant: for, first, by the same reason, all promises are unlawful, and all covenants whatever; as the covenant of marriage, the covenant of service, yes and the personal covenant of Grace,…

All men naturally want this motion, they cannot judge or do any thing by nature: they may do opus operatum, but they cannot do it in a holy manner; their prayers, their hearing, receiving of the Sacrament, and the like, are dead works, without faith the principal of life; howeve…

The Scriptures don't only direct and encourage us in general to pray for the Holy Spirit above all things else, but it is the expressly revealed will of God, that his Church should be very much in prayer for that glorious outpouring of the Spirit that is to be in the latter days…

By this it appeareth, this law appertaineth to all, because he is the Lord of all. Your God: that is, one which does vouchsafe you a particular favor, when in your creation he indued you with corporall and spiritual benefits, and does enrich you to eternal life (Psalm 144:15; He…

1. It's clear from these places of Scripture, where there is an express distinction and difference put between the outward ministry of the word, and this inward, powerful, efficacious work of grace on the heart, and wherein the great weight of conversion is laid on this inward w…

Another passage we have in Philippians 2:12-13: "Work out the work of your salvation in fear and trembling; for it is God that works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure;" where the Apostle makes the work of grace not only to work ability to will and to do, but to…

The anointing that teaches all things, [illegible], remains in you (1 John 2:27). And (Ezekiel 36:26) I will give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my Spirit [illegible] in the inner part, or in the midst of you. Antinomians teach, that true poverty of spirit does kill and ta…

(John 16:13) He will guide you in all truth — he will show you things to come. So there is a Spirit of grace poured on the family of David (Zechariah 12:10), on the thirsty ground (Isaiah 44:3), a new heart, put in the midst of the covenanted people (Ezekiel 36:26), fear of God…

(1 Timothy 6:17): Riches has a [illegible], an uncertainty, like ghosts or spirits that you see, but they vanish out of your sight, and disappear; or like clouds, or fire-lightnings in the air, that come and go suddenly; but bread is faithful and sure to the soul drawn to Christ…

So the Lord points them out with the finger, Isaiah 49:12: [in non-Latin alphabet] Behold these shall come from far, and behold these from the North (North-land men) and from the Sea (Islanders) or from the West (West-land men) so it may be read, and these from the land of Shimi…

Then you shall call upon me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you." (Ezekiel 36:37) "I will for this be enquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them." Therefore we should be daily in the practice of this duty, and not look upon it as a work that may…

Answer. Christ alludes to the washings of the old testament (Ezekiel 36:25), and with that gives an exposition of them, on this manner. You are a Pharisee, and love much washing: but if you would enter into the kingdom of heaven, you must be washed with clean water, that is, bor…

For a man cannot recover himself when he will. We do not the good we can, unless God makes us do it (Ezekiel 36:27) (Song of Solomon 1:4) (Jeremiah 31:29). Therefore it is an error to think that we may repent and turn to God when we will, as many suppose.

Now in that he commands them to wash themselves, it is not because men come to repentance by their own proper moving, and free will; but he shows that no other remedy will serve the turn, unless they appear pure and clean before God. Now we know that the Spirit of God is wont to…

We must not think then that God had respect to the deserts of the people, or to any other particular cause, but solely to his own glory. For we must supply a close antithesis here, which is expressed by Ezekiel: I do not this for your sakes O house of Israel, but for my holy nam…

By the word spirit, he tells us what is signified by waters and floods. The spirit is also called water in (Ezekiel 36:25), but in a diverse sense. For when Ezekiel attributes the name of waters to the holy Spirit, he calls them pure waters: having respect to the purgations unde…

But the Holy Ghost was in his Dispensation to purifie and cleanse them as Fire does Gold and Silver. And on the same account is he compared to Water, Ezek. 36. 35. I will sprinkle clean Water upon you and you shall be clean; which is expounded v. 26. by a New Spirit will I put w…

This is the constant Course and Tenor of the Scripture, to distinguish between the Grace of Regeneration, which it declares to be an immediate supernatural Work of God in us and upon us, and all that Obedience, Holiness, Righteousness, Vertue, or what-ever is good in us, which i…

God promises to work in us that holiness which he commands us to have — it is a fond imagination that defiled nature can cleanse itself or depraved nature rectify itself; those who lost the image of God cannot re-create it in themselves by their own endeavors, and therefore what…

The Fith Corollary. DOth God perform all things for you? then seek God for all by prayer, and never undertake any design without him: Certainly, if he do not perform it for you, you can never have what you desire and labor or: and though he have designed to perform this or that…

Their corrupt and wicked conversation also made them a reproach, and their Religion contemned. So was it with them from their first Dispersion as God declares (Ezekiel 36:20), When they entred to the Heathen whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them,…

§ 20 Thirdly, they insist on the promises which concern themselves; and these of all others they most mind and urge against their adversaries. Nothing they say is more certain and evident in the Scripture, than that the people of Israel shall be brought into a blessed and prospe…

By waking, is understood, some liveliness and sensibleness, or at least life, in opposition to the former deadness and dullness, as, (Romans 13:11) It's high time to awake: And, (1 Thessalonians 5:6) Let us watch, and be sober; which is opposite to that spiritual drowsiness, whe…

2. It is necessary for such as have given scandal and offence by their miscarriages; this will stick very close to any who has the least spark of saving faith. It is that which God is in a peculiar manner provoked with in the sins of his people, as in the case of David (2 Samuel…

All the promises are bonds made over to us, but prayer puts these bonds in suit. The Lord had told Israel with what rich mercy he would bespangle them; he would bring them to their native country, and bring them there with new hearts (Ezekiel 36). Yet this tree of the promise wo…