A New Heart

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 (Ezekiel 36:26)

Ezekiel wrote this book while in exile. Israel had sinned against God and have been sent to captivity in Babylon. The problem of Israel and Judah is a universal problem. It is a problem of the heart—a problem of sin. The Scripture’s use of heart therefore is the whole being of the man—our desires, delights, priorities. The heart represents our lifestyle (Mark 7:21-23; Heb 3:12).

The Necessity of The New Heart

“A new heart also will I give you”

God is Holy and he will not compromise on his holiness. He will not let go unpunished our breaking of his law. Because He is Holy, he demands obedience. But we are unable to obey because our hearts are evil. To be able to fellowship with him therefore we need a new heart. We need a new heart also because our old heart is at enmity with God.

The Nature of The Old Heart

“I will take away the stony heart”

The metaphor here is of a lifeless object. That is how our hearts are. Dead. Unresponsive. Our heart is hard—stubborn and stony. This is how God described the heart. A stone is also cold. It is cold and doesn’t have any feeling to others: ungracious. Look into your own heart and see the wickedness lying in there. Our heart is ever stony, ever wicked.

The Newness of The Heart

“I will give you an heart of flesh”

A heart of flesh is an awakened conscience by God’s word. A heart of flesh is responsive and responds to God’s word. It is a heart that feels and knows the evil of its own way. A heart aware of the hatred of God towards evil. And it is a heart that sees the love of God. It brings tears over our sins; a heart that cries out to God for forgiveness of sin and a heart that obeys God.

It Is All A Work Of God
God doesn’t say he will repair our hearts. He says he will give a new heart. That is a total overhauling, a complete change of the old heart. It is a new birth (John 3:16; 2Corinthians 5:17). God’s promise of a new heart isn’t based on any merit. This work of change of heart is also work sovereignly done by God.

God does this by his Spirit through his word. We come to God through Christ for that change of heart. We need faith. We need to call on Christ for that change of heart.

Hymn:

O JESUS, full of truth and grace,
More full of grace than I of sin,
Yet once again I seek Thy face;
Open Thine arms and take me in,
And freely my backslidings heal,
And love the faithless sinner still.

2
Thou know’st the way to bring me back,
My fallen spirit to restore:
O, for Thy Truth and mercy’s sake,
Forgive, and bid me sin no more;
The ruins of my soul repair,
And make my heart a house of prayer.

3
The stone to flesh do Thou convert,
The trait of sinfulness remove;
O speak into my wayward heart,
And melt it down by dying love;
This rebel heart, O now subdue,
And make it tender, form it new.

4
O give me, Lord, the tender heart
That trembles at the approach of sin;
A godly fear of sin impart,
Implant, and root it deep within,
That I may dread Thy gracious power,
And never dare offend Thee more.

Charles Wesley, 1707-88

—Sermon notes taken from a message preached by Ferguson Kcofie today 7/03/2020 at Truth Missionary Baptist church Morning Gospel Service.