Rev. David Holwick ZD
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
September 9, 2012
Ezekiel 36:24-28
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I. Petrified Forest National Park.
A. An interesting stop on our summer vacation.
The Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona has the best
collection of petrified wood in the world.
Big chunks lay on the ground, looking like trees that fell
over and broke into sections.
It is the best, but it is not unique.
We also stayed at a state park in Utah that had petrified
wood laying around.
Even an RV park in the middle of a town had a dozen tree-sized
specimens displayed next to the office.
Petrified wood can be found in all 50 states, including
New Jersey.
Legally, you can collect 25 pounds of it from public land,
per day.
Just don't do it in the national park!
They mention something about a curse that follows little
children who steal the rocks.
B. Wood isn't the only thing that can petrify.
1) Humans are pretty good at it, too.
a) You get hard and calcified.
b) God prefers us to be soft and warm.
2) What is your condition?
II. A story of restoration.
A. Ezekiel 36 begins with God speaking to the geology of Israel.
1) He tells the hills and valleys that things will improve.
a) They will no longer be filled with invading armies or
ruined towns.
b) Instead, God is going to make them fruitful again. 36:8
2) He also has a message for people.
a) (Of course, the whole chapter is aimed at people.)
b) The enemies of Israel are going to be put in their place.
c) And the Jews will be gathered from all the nations they
have been sent to.
1> They get to come home again.
B. Everyone will know who God is. 36:11
1) This is actually a big theme in Ezekiel.
a) I used a computer Bible to do a quick search and was
surprised by what I found.
1> The phrase "Then they will know that I am the Lord"
occurs 30 times in this book.
2> Another 25 times it says, "Then YOU will know that
I am the Lord." It's not just for other people!
b) It occurs across the board.
1> The judgment passages, whether concerning Israel
or the enemy nations, have this punchline.
2> The blessing passages have the same conclusion.
2) Knowing God is more than a simple acknowledgement. 36:22
a) They will see what his character is like.
1> God is holy - he is different from them.
b) God also lets the Jews know what he thinks of their
character.
1> In verse 22, he emphasizes that he is not bringing
them home because they deserve it.
2> It is only because he is concerned about his own
reputation with the neighbors.
A> The Jews had dragged it through the dirt.
B> Christians can be like that, too.
Many people don't give much thought to God, but they
have a real negative opinion of Christians.
This week I heard of a family where one brother is
very religious and the other is a pagan.
They want the pagan one to know the Lord.
His stumbling block is that the Christian brother
cheats at business.
He orders materials and labor from people but never
seems to get around to paying them back.
So when he tells his pagan brother, You need to know
the Lord, it kind of falls flat.
Sadly, it is nothing new - it has been around forever.
III. The return involves more than a change of scenery.
A. First, they are going to be cleansed.
1) Their false religion and sin will be washed away.
2) This is the main idea behind baptism.
a) God has to remove all the gunk and turn you into a
clean slate.
b) Then he can start his reconstruction project.
B. Second, they will get a heart transplant.
1) If you know Jaime Vega, you know that is a big deal.
He was in the hospital for weeks, and had a long recovery.
It isn't cheap, either.
Nationally, the total cost for a heart transplant is
estimated as $997,700.
And that doesn't even include the out-of-pocket expenses
that will pile up.
But the expense means something wonderful - they get a new
lease on life and they know it! [1]
2) Hearts need to be transplanted when they don't work anymore.
a) Ezekiel describes a heart that is made of stone.
An interesting thing about petrified wood is that they
don't contain any wood (except in rare cases).
These logs get buried in mud and volcanic ash and then
get waterlogged.
Each cell of the wood is slowly replaced by minerals,
which gives it the brilliant colors.
Sometimes it is not that slow - trees buried in Alaskan
earthquakes began to petrify in 5 years.
b) A petrified heart may look like a heart, but it is not
a heart.
It's just stone.
So God has to pull it out and put in something new.
C. Ezekiel is talking about their spiritual nature, of course.
1) That is why he mentions a "new spirit" alongside a
"new heart."
In the Bible, the heart is more than your emotions.
It represents the core of your being, what we associate
with our mind, will and personality.
A new heart wants to obey God.
Not because it is forced to, but because it wants to.
It is responsive to what the Spirit wants you to do.
2) I think there is also a suggestion that the heart of flesh
is a caring and compassionate heart toward people.
One of Ezekiel's biggest complaints about the people is
their cruelty and indifference toward one another.
D. What is the condition of your own heart?
1) Do you have a desire to know God, and serve him?
a) Or does it seem like a lot of religious mumbo-jumbo
that's pretty boring?
2) Do you feel for the hardships of other people?
a) Maybe your heart doesn't feel much anymore.
b) You would be a prime candidate for a divine transplant.
IV. Jesus preached a lot about hard hearts.
A. He says the heart is where all your problems originate.
1) Our problems with sin aren't caused by our environment
but they're caused by what is already inside us. [1]
2) In Matthew 15:19 he says all our evil thoughts come from
the heart.
B. It's an inside-out situation.
1) The opponents of Jesus thought the solution to the problem
of sin was to take an outside-in approach.
a) If you practice the correct ritual, or have a strict
lifestyle, everything is fixed.
b) Some Christians believe this, too.
1> They focus on passing the right laws or electing
the right politicians, thinking this will solve
the problems of society.
2> But the problems in society are the symptom, not
the cause. Our hearts are the cause.
2) But Jesus teaches that hearts can change.
a) It takes a miracle, but it can happen.
b) Instead of loving sin, we can love God with all our
heart. Matt 22:37
C. God has to do it.
1) Ezekiel had a low opinion of human ability.
a) He thought his fellow Jews would never be able to turn
themselves around. Only God could do it.
b) The New Testament teaches the same thing. Rom 5:8
1> Jesus died for us while we were still sinners.
2> You don't clean yourself up first, because you can't.
2) Our gracious God can work on our hearts.
a) In the book of Acts, 16:14, it says God opened the heart
of a woman named Lydia so she could respond to Paul.
b) God will give us the ability to do what needs to be done.
V. Exposure to religion is not enough.
Two years ago a man walked into a cell phone store in Florida.
It was raining outside and he and a clerk were the only ones
in the store.
He talked about the weather, asked how much a particular phone
cost, then pulled a gun on the woman.
As she walked to the register, 20-year-old Nayara Goncalves
said, "You can do whatever you want, but I'm just going to
talk to you about Jesus before you leave."
The gunman said he was embarrassed and hated having to steal
money but he had no choice.
"Jesus got something way better for you," the clerk said.
"I don't know what you are going through, but all of us are
going through a hard time right now."
The man said he was a Christian and the two realized that they
had both attended the same church and knew the pastor.
As the man walked out of the small store, Goncalves told him,
"Jesus helps you. He can change your life.
Go back to church. Find a job.
Get real friends in church.
Talk to a pastor.
You don't need to do this. Jesus is coming soon."
The clerk continued to plead with the man to turn to Jesus and
not to hurt anyone.
He confessed that his weapon was only a BB gun and that he wasn't
very good at robbery.
He decided not to take any money from the store.
After he left, Nayara started crying and called police.
They were amazed she was able to talk the man out of robbery.
But less than two hours later, the man put a gun in a shoebox
and robbed a Payless Shoe Store.
She did have some impact on him - when he left the shoe store
he said to his victims, "God bless you."
Police described the man as a serial robber.
He has been in and out of jail in Florida since 1998.
They also charged him with failure to pay his child support.
#36268
He knew enough about God to be convicted of sin.
But his heart was still petrified.
He just didn't believe enough to do the right thing.
What about you?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
[1] Transplant Living. A service of the United Network for Organ Sharing,
a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. <http://www.transplantliving.org/before-the-transplant/financing-a-transplant/the-costs/>
#36268 “Choose Jesus Over Crime,” adapted from an article by Lauren
Frayer, America Online News, July 31, 2010; and the article
"Clerk thwarts robbery with conversation about Jesus," Erin
Roach, Baptist Press, August 2, 2010.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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(*) Sermon title is borrowed from Rev. James May.
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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