From the Inside Out

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

There are essentially two different ways to get around when going to a new, unfamiliar place, and Mary and I have employed both of them on different trips.

Last year when we traveled to Italy and Greece, we rented a car in both places. And since we were in unfamiliar territory, we were heavily dependent on Google maps. While that is certainly a lot easier than the old days of trying to follow paper maps, its not without its difficulties and frustrations.

One day on the island of Paros we missed a cooking class we had scheduled because there were apparently two places with exactly the same name - on opposite sides of the island. And of course I entered the wrong one in my phone.

On another day there, we drove up to the city of Lefkes, which is the highest city on the island. On our way back, Google Maps took us on a very scenic route which consisted mostly of one lane dirt roads with rock walls on both sides and which eventually took us up to the radio towers on the highest spot on the island before finally taking us back down to our apartment, which near the sea.

This year, when we went to Sicily, we took a completely different approach. On that tour we never had to drive at all. We were part of a tour in which Giovanni and the other drivers took us to every location. Run into an accident - no worries. Giovanni picked a different route and we still ended up at exactly the right spot.

Although the illustration isn’t perfect, there is a sense in which the difference between those two contrasting ways to travel are a lot like the two approaches we can take when it comes to our relationship with God.

One approach, the one that comes from the Old Covenant and the law, is a lot like using Google Maps to travel. We get a bunch of directions and then try to follow them the very best we can. But we’re just not capable of doing that perfectly so we’re constantly “recalculating”. And that’s a very stressful and frustrating way to live.

As we’ll see more clearly today, living under the New Covenant is a lot more like depending on the driver to get me to where i need to go. God doesn’t merely give me a set of instructions and tell me to try harder. Instead, He does a work in me that changes me from the inside out. That is a much more fruitful and joyful and hopeful way to live.

Tension

Every single religion on this earth, with the exception of Biblical Christianity, is based on the first model. And, unfortunately I think even a lot of Christians fall back into the trap of thinking the way to please God is to try harder to follow His rules. If you’re one of those people I can imagine that must be really frustrating because there is just no way to know if your efforts are good enough. Today, we’re going to see that there is a better way. It’s the New Covenant we’ve been talking about for the last few weeks.

Truth

Go ahead and open your Bibles to Ezekiel chapter 36. You’ll find the book of Ezekiel right after Jeremiah and Lamentations and before Daniel. Or just do like I do and use the table of contents or look it up on your device.

Ezekiel, whose name means “strengthened by God”, grew up in Jerusalem and was taken as a exile to Babylon in 597 BC. While there, he was called by God to be a prophet. His prophecies contain both condemnation and judgment against Judah and hope for a future restoration of Israel. While most of his prophecies deal specifically with Israel, the passage we’re going to look at this morning is particularly relevant to those of us who live under the New Covenant today.

For time’s sake I’m going to briefly summarize parts of the chapter so that we can focus of Ezekiel’s description of the New Covenant.

In verses 16-21, Ezekiel describes how God poured out His wrath on Israel because they profaned His name by living in a way that was not consistent with His character. What is particularly relevant for us there is that profaning the name of God doesn’t mean using God’s name as a curse word when we hit our thumb with a hammer. Although we obviously shouldn’t do that either, that is not what the Bible means when it talks about profaning God’s name. As we see here in Ezekiel we profane His name when we call ourselves His child and then we live in a way that is not consistent with His character.

But then there is a turning point in verse 22:

Ezekiel 36:22 ESV

22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.

God makes it really clear here that He is going to act, not because the people deserve it, but for the sake of His name. That is the defining characteristic of the New Covenant. Jesus came and died for us, not because we deserve it, but for the sake of His name. Obviously we benefit tremendously from that act, but that is not the primary reason for it. Keeping that in mind should keep us all very humble.

Beginning in verse 23, there is a phrase that is repeated, if I counted correctly, 13 times. Can you scan through that portion of the chapter and help me identify it?

That’s right:

I will...

Who will? That’s right! God will.

In the Hebrew the “I” is emphatic. It convey the idea that “I, I myself will do it”.

As we see often with Hebrew prophecy, there is an element of mystery here. Undoubtedly some of these promises have both a near term and far term fulfillment. Many of them apply only to Israel and not the church. And it’s not easy to make those distinctions. But I want to focus on two promises that are clearly connected to Jeremiah’s description of the nature of the New Covenant.

In the Old Testament, the term “new covenant” is found only in Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 31:31 ESV

31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,

No doubt Jesus’ disciples would have immediately thought of that passage when Jesus spoke about the New Covenant He was about to initiate as He observed the Passover with them the night before He went to the cross:

Luke 22:20 ESV

20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

What Jesus is saying is that with His death and resurrection, He is about to inaugurate the New Covenant described by Jeremiah. But as we see clearly in both Jeremiah and the passage we’ll read in Ezekiel in a moment, the final fulfilment of that new covenant, especially as it relates to Israel, is still to come in the future.

Although Ezekiel doesn’t use the term “new covenant”, the passage we’re studying this morning contains numerous parallels to Jeremiah’s description.

With that in mind let’s read verses 25-27, which is the part of Ezekiel’s prophecy that is most relevant to us:

Ezekiel 36:25–27 ESV

25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Here is the main idea we’re going to develop from this passage today:

The New Covenant changes me from the inside out

While most of the promises here in Ezekiel 36 await a future fulfilment for the people of Israel, there is little doubt that through Jesus, God has already done for us what is promised in these three verses.

He has cleansed us from our uncleaness and forgiven all our sins.

He has removed our heart of stone and replaced it with a heart of flesh.

He has put His Holy Spirit within us.

I’m going to quickly share with you a series of New Testament verses and passages that clearly show the connection to what Ezekiel writes here. I’ve give you the verse references in your sermon outline so you can go back and spend some more time on them later.

John 3:5 ESV

5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Ephesians 5:26 ESV

26 that he [Jesus] might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,

Titus 3:5 ESV

5 he [Jesus] saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

Acts 2:4 ESV

4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

In each of those verses it is clear that God is the one who is doing the work. He saved us. He sanctified us. He cleansed us. He filled us with His Spirit. We didn’t do anything to earn or deserve that.

So it is God who initiates the process of changing me from the inside out.

As we said earlier:

The New Covenant changes me from the inside out

As we saw earlier in verse 27, God’s purpose in cleansing us, giving us a new heart and putting His Spirit in us is to produce a change in the way we live our lives. He does that so that we will walk in His statutes and be careful to obey His rules.

But that doesn’t just occur automatically. There are some things we need to do to cooperate in that process.

Here’s how the Apostle Paul described that process in his letter to the church in Philippi:

Philippians 2:12–13 ESV

12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Here we are commanded to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. But just to make sure we don’t think that means “just try harder”, Paul immediately tells us that it is God working in us. He is doing the three things we read about in Ezekiel - cleansing us, giving us a new heart and guiding us by His Holy Spirit. And it is that work that then gives us both the desire and ability to live in a way that is consistent with His commands. So how do we cooperate with God in that work?

Application

HOW TO LET GOD CHANGE ME FROM THE INSIDE OUT

Quit trying so hard

First, let me make it clear that the passages we looked at earlier make it clear that God’s goal in changing us from the inside out is to ultimately change our outward behavior so that our lives will not profane God’s name, but rather bring glory to His name. So our outward behavior is important. And therefore spiritual disciplines do play an important role in our lives, as I’ll explain more fully in a moment.

But the entire Old Covenant demonstrates that trying harder alone never works. It only leads to disappointment and frustration and it can never bring us closer to God. While it’s easy to fault the people of Israel for continuously falling short of God’s standards, I really think for the most part many of them really did try hard to be obedient. But even the “heroes of the faith” like those listed in Hebrews 11 could never fully keep the Law, no matter how hard they tried.

Even David coveted another man’s wife, and committed adultery and murder. God did eventually soften his heart and he confessed and repented for what he had done. But left to his own efforts, not even David could obey God 100% of the time. So what makes us think we can do that in our own strength?

There are a lot of people who genuinely love God and want to please Him, but who are living miserable lives because they are constantly trying to please God by trying harder. And I’m pretty sure that many of you here today have either been there or are still there. The New Covenant is the antidote to that kind of life because it reminds us that real change comes when God changes us from the inside out. The more we understand that, the more peace and joy we’ll have in our lives.

Instead of trying harder, ask God to give you a tender heart and to guide you by His Spirit. Ask Him to give you the desire and the ability to work out your salvation. Those are all prayers that God delights in answering because He is merely fulfilling the promises He has already made in His Word.

Put my effort into knowing God

Ezekiel chapter 36 ends with these words:

Then they will know that I am the Lord.

That is the ultimate end of the New Covenant. God wants to have a relationship in which we come to know Him. In biblical Hebrew the word translated “know” means a deep, personal, and experiential relationship rather than just basic mental awareness. It is the same word used to describe the intimacy of the marriage relationship - like in Genesis 4 where we read that “Adam knew Eve...”

The main reason that God cleanses us, gives us a new heart and gives us the Holy Spirit because He wants us to know Him intimately like that. And as we get to know God better, He changes us from the inside out so that our character and actions become more and more consistent with who He is and how He operates.

God knows that we’re incapable of knowing Him like that in our own human wisdom and intellect, which is why we need a new heart and why we need the Holy Spirit. But coming to know God more deeply doesn’t just happen automatically. We have to cooperate with God in that process, which is where the value of spiritual disciplines like Bible reading, prayer, fasting, solitude and worship come in. But only if we approach them with the right mindset.

Let me give you one example. We all understand the importance of reading the Bible regularly and systematically. But there are two ways to approach that. I can view it as an obligation or duty. I’m guessing that some of you are probably disciplined enough to stick with it for a while strictly based on your own efforts. But eventually you’ll get tired or distracted and you’ll quit. And even if you don’t you probably won’t get much out of it.

On the other hand, if your goal is to get to know God, you will want to spend as much time in His Word as possible because that is the primary place God will speak to you and where you will get to know Him more intimately. You’ll probably miss a day here and there, but it won’t be fatal because deep down you’ll miss that interaction with God through His Word.

Action

We’ve seen today that...

The New Covenant changes me from the inside out

It doesn’t begin with me changing myself. It begins with God changing me.

There are several ways that God might be leading you to respond to this message this morning:

First, there might be some of you here today who need to experience the New Covenant for the first time. Hopefully you understand by now, that you can’t do that based on your own efforts. It is a work that God does in order to provide you with a gift. Paul describes that gift like this:

Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Even the faith to believe is a gift, but just like with any other gift you have to receive it in order to experience the benefits that go along with it - cleansing from sin, a new heart and the Holy Spirit. And the only way to receive that gift is by putting your faith in Jesus Christ alone rather than depending on anything you can do.

If you’ve never done that, I’m guessing that you might have some questions about exactly what that means and how to proceed. If that’s the case, then please see me or Ryan after the service or contact one of our Elders this week. Our contact information is in the bulletin. If you’re ready to do that right now, great. When we pray in just a moment, could you take one of the red cards from the seat pocket and fill it out and give it to me or place it in the box at back of the auditorium before you leave today. We would love to rejoice with you in that decision and also help you take you next steps in your relationship with Jesus.

I’m confident that many, or even most of you, have already done that. But I’m also pretty sure that some of you are not living the joyful, hopeful, peaceful lives that Jesus wants for you because you’re constantly trying too hard.

If that’s the case, then begin by thanking God for clothing you with the righteousness of Jesus so that you are clean before Him. Then ask God to forgive you for your human striving and ask Him to soften your heart. Ask Him to help you rely upon the finished work of Jesus on the cross and the Holy Spirit who dwells permanently in you as you grow in your relationship with Him.

Finally, I am thankful that many of you here today are doing a pretty good job of letting God change you from the inside out. If you’re one of those people then thank God for doing that work in your life and ask Him if there is anything else He is calling you to do in order to cooperate with Him in that work.

Right now, if everyone could bow your head and close your eyes I’ll give you a few minutes to respond to God in prayer.

[Prayer time]

Inspiration

The New Covenant changes me from the inside out

When we learn to live our lives according to that truth, God enables us to live lives that are full of hope, joy and peace. That sure beats what life is like when we try to change it on our own, isn’t it?