A Heart Right With God

(Ezek 36:24-28 KJV) For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. {25} Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. {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, and I will give you an heart of flesh. {27} And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. {28} And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

Our subject today is: A Heart Right With God, the word translated heart has a very wide meaning and is used here denoting the will, the feeling, the center of intellect of an individual. As we consider A Heart right with God, today, we are thinking about your feelings toward God, your knowledge and acceptance of God as your creator and your attitude toward God.

In our text, God is telling us that He will take you from among the heathen (from a foreign nation or from a nation other than that of God). God wants to gather you to Himself. He does not want you to suffer the bondage of heathen worship. He wants you to learn of Him and to live a life that is filled with righteousness, peace and joy. He knows that the only way for you to really enjoy life is for you to be free of sin so He has gone to great lengths to devise a plan for you. His son, Jesus Christ, has come and died in your place as a sacrifice for your sin so that you can be forgiven your sin. The Holy Spirit has been sent to empower you to break the bondage of sin and enable you to live a holy, godly life in this present world.

To accept Jesus Christ as your savior and to repent of your sin to live a holy, godly life is likened to having a change of heart. Therefore Ezekiel's prophecy that when God takes you from the heathen, He takes out your stony heart and replaces it with a heart of flesh. You get a change of heart. Your feelings and knowledge of God, the creator changes. You become a new person. The old person you used to be passes away. Your feelings are changed. Now you can enjoy living holy and godly in this life. You enter into the kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy through the holy Ghost.

(2 Cor 5:17 KJV) Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

In this scripture, Paul is explaining that by becoming in Christ we become new creatures. This is a mystery that the sinful man cannot understand. In fact unless you yourself become a true Christian, you will never understand how a person can be completely changed from a vile, dirty sinner to a clean, righteous saint. The sinful does not believe that this can happen to him. As a sinner, you cannot believe it can happen to you. You see others that it has happened to and the devil convinces you they were different. That is where your understanding of God comes in. If you will study the scriptures, you will find that the only thing different about the Christian is that he has learned to believe and trust God. You will find that everyone can be saved. You will find that everyone can be a real Christian. You will find that all are invited to be Born Again!

(Mat 11:28-30 KJV) Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. {29} Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. {30} For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

If you notice Jesus' words are come unto me all ye; not some of you; not most of you; but all of you. Yes, no one is excluded by the Lord. He invites all to enjoy the life of a Christian. This includes you. He does not say come unto me all except. There are no exceptions in His invitation.

(John 7:37 KJV) In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.

Again we see that our Lord's invitation is to all. If any man thirst. Do you thirst this morning for righteousness?

(Mat 5:6 KJV) Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

To many in our world today, living a righteous life is only a dream. It is something that they see others do and wish that they could do the same but for various reasons they believe that they can not do it. Are you one of those? Do you wish that you could live right? Do you see others living right, enjoying their lives with the Lord? Jesus said that if you hunger and thirst after righteousness you would be filled. If you desire to live right with the intensity of hungering and thirsting to do so, you can do it. If you want to live right, Jesus is inviting you come to Him. Come and learn of Him. Get a change of heart. Become a new creature. Drink of the water of life. Let Jesus fill you with righteousness.

(Rev 22:17 KJV) And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

Yes, whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Praise God! That includes you. You can drink the water of life today by coming to the Lord, taking His yoke upon you and learning of Him. All you have to do is believe Him. Believe that He can do what He said He would do. His power will transform your life. He will forgive. He will save. He will give you living water. He will teach you. He will give you power to life holy. He will empower you to break the yoke and bondage of sin. He will give you a new heart. A heart that is right with God. You will become a new creature. With righteousness will come peace and joy through your obedience to the holy spirit of God. Every provision has been made for you so you can enjoy the freedom from sin and the presence of God in your life day by day in this time world.

Let us now examine for a few minutes this process of getting your heart changed. Ezekiel said that God would remove the stony heart. What does he mean by the stony heart? Well to start with this sounds like a hard heart; a heart that will not listen to reason, a heart that has no compassion, a heart that has no room for others, a heart that is selfish and stubborn. Jesus taught us in

(Mat 13:3-9 KJV) And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; {4} And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: {5} Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: {6} And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. {7} And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: {8} But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. {9} Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

(Mat 13:18-19 KJV) Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. {19} When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

(Mat 13:20-21 KJV) But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; {21} Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.

Here we see that Jesus teaches us that the Word of the kingdom or the word of God is sown in the hearts of men and that some of those hearts are stony. We understand that he means a very rocky place where we cannot grow a crop if we were foolish enough to try because there is not sufficient soil to produce a crop. Anyone involved in agriculture will easily understand this as most of Jesus' congregation was the day He spoke this message. Today many of you may never have planted any garden, field or plot of land and you may not have the same understanding. So let me explain to you that a plot of land that has a high content of stones is not fit for growing crops because there is insufficient nutrients and water available to bring the crop to maturity. The greater the depth of the topsoil, the greater the chance of producing a good crop. Where the soil is shallow and has a lot of stones in it, the seed will sprout quickly and grow fast, but soon it will wither and die when the heat of summer and periods of drought come. So it is with your heart. If you attempt to be a Christian with a stony heart, you will soon fail in your efforts. You must have a new heart if you are to succeed as a Christian. Therefore God has this plan to take out your stony heart and give you a new heart that will have no stones. A heart that is made of good ground that will receive the word of God and grow to maturity.

No doubt you have known of people and maybe even you yourself, that have tried to live a Christian life and have failed. Please understand that failing is no proof that you can't be a Christian. In the parable of the sower, Jesus is trying to get you to understand the reasons for failing. The number one reason is stony hearts. And you cannot just have a change of heart. This is an operation that God does for you. You must turn yourself over to God and let Him change your heart. To get into His operating room, you need to confess, repent and forsake your sin. He will do the operating and you will awake to righteousness. This is not a new leaf or a new resolution; this is a new life. It is available to you. Jesus invites all including those that have tried before and failed. Whosoever will may come and get a new heart. A heart that is right with God.

Ezekiel taught us that along with this new heart comes a new spirit. God says "..I will put my spirit within you .." And His spirit will cause you to walk in His statutes (commandments, decrees, laws) and keep His judgements (verdicts).

Wow! This is a real transformation isn't it? How will it happen that we will have God's spirit put within us? Jesus explains:

(John 14:16-17 KJV) And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; {17} Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

We see here that the Holy Spirit is sent to dwell in the Christian.

(John 14:26 KJV) But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Here Jesus explains the purpose of the Holy Spirit is to Comfort and teach you all things and to help you to remember the Word of God. Did you ever wonder how some people seem to know all about God's word? It is not because they have such a high education or because their IQ is so high. It is because they have received the holy spirit into their lives and he is teaching them. I know some Christians that have a very low level of education and can't even score average on an IQ test. Yet, they have a great knowledge and understanding of the scripture. In fact one friend of mine has a third grade education, can only read the Bible, can't write a letter or fill out a job application and yet he is a preacher with an incredible knowledge and understanding of God's Word. How can this be? Because he accepted Jesus Christ as his savior and received a new heart along with the Holy Spirit of God into his life. This new heart and new spirit has made a new person out of him. It will do the same for you if you will repent of your sin and take Jesus Christ as you Lord!

Jesus goes on in John chapters 14, 15 and 16 talking about the Holy Spirit and how he will send him to his followers. We turn now to

(Acts 1:4-8 KJV) And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. {5} For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. {6} When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? {7} And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. {8} But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

These were the final instructions that Jesus gave his disciples. Wait in Jerusalem for a baptism with the Holy Ghost which will give you power to be a witness. We read how this happened in:

(Acts 2:1-19 KJV) And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. {2} And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. {3} And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. {4} And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. {5} And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. {6} Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. {7} And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? {8} And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? {9} Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, {10} Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, {11} Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. {12} And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? {13} Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. {14} But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: {15} For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. {16} But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; {17} And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: {18} And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: {19} And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:

So we see the day of Pentecost launching the disciples into their ministry. Now that they have been filled with the Holy Ghost, they are proclaiming the Gospel and telling freely the wonderful works and words of our Lord. The same Peter that previously did not have the courage to admit that he was a disciple but lied to a maid and denied that he even knew Christ, now stands forth boldly preaching in the streets of Jerusalem. God is working a great miracle causing every man to hear in his native language which he can easily understand even though Peter is a Galilaen the crowd is hearing in languages native to sixteen different nations. This was a demonstration of the power of God operating through the Holy Spirit. Peter goes on to preach and instruct us:

(Acts 2:37-39 KJV) Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? {38} Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. {39} For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

Yes, if you will follow Peter's instruction – repent and be baptized you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is a gift. God gives him to you when he gives you a new heart. It is part of the operation He calls a new birth. This new spirit will cause you to live right. This Holy Spirit is Holy! That is His character. That is why He is called the Holy Spirit!

The disciples received power after that the holy ghost came upon them. You too will receive power when the holy ghost comes into your life. If you will confess, repent, and forsake your sin, you will receive this new spirit along with your new heart. Your hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled. You will have the power to break free from sin. You will have the power to live free from the bondage of Satan. You will be able to enjoy righteousness, peace and joy through the holy spirit. You will have a heart that is right with God.

Jesus invites you to come to Him. Whosoever may come. What is your answer to Him?