Ezekiel 11:19-20 - Homiletics.

The heart of flesh.

Two mistakes are commonly made by well meaning social reformers. Too much faith is placed in external improvement, and too much power is credited to man. It is not perceived that the greatest evil is in the heart, and that the only cure can be found in the help of God. but both of these deeper truths are recognized in the passage before us.

I. THE NATURE OF THE GREAT CHANGE . Ezekiel 11:17 had promised an external restoration; now we have the assurance of an internal transformation. It is the heart that is to be changed. The very centre of the being must be renewed. For this David prayed ( Psalms 51:10 ). The need of it was pointed out to Nicodemus by Christ ( John 3:3 ). Note the characteristics of the new heart.

1 . Unity. "One heart." The internal discord will cease. A man with divided affections is like a two-hearted monster. But doubtless the unity here referred to is social. Sin having brought quarrels among men, the new state will be one of harmony.

2 . Life. The old heart was of stone, and therefore dead. The new heart is of flesh, and living. Sin deadens the soul. The death of sin is the resurrection of the better nature.

3 . Susceptibility. The stony heart cannot feel. This is the dangerous result of sin. The conscience is seared. The guilt of sin and its danger are not felt. The appeals of Divine grace are unheeded. Tears are wasted on a marble statue. Rain and sunshine cannot fertilize a granite rock. But the new heart is tender. As when Moses strikes the rock the streams flow, so when God's Word. reaches the stony heart with the power of his Spirit a new feeling is awakened.

4 . Naturedness. The new heart is of flesh, not of some rare ethereal substance. The Christian is not to have the heart of an angel, but just a man's true natural heart. The Christian is the true man. Christianity is in harmony with nature. Inhumanity is unnatural. The lack of natural affections is a sign of unspirituality. Cold saintliness is not an effect of God's grace, but a product of man's perversity. God puts a heart of flesh in the flesh. Thus there is harmony, and all is natural.

II. THE SOURCE OF THE GREAT CHANGE . God promises to effect this wonderful transformation. Only he can do it. We can change our clothes, our habitation, our outward manners, but not our hearts. The depth of the change renders it too much for man. So does the previous condition of those on whom it has to be wrought. As the heart is of stone, it is too cold to feel its need, and too dead to strive after a better condition. In this hardness and indifference the hapless condition of the sinner is completed. Even the penitent cannot create in himself a clean heart. But left to himself, man is not likely to become penitent. Now, God promises to do what man can never accomplish for himself. He will take away the old evil—remove the heart of stone. He will give a new nature—the heart of flesh. He will also inspire power into this new nature by putting "a new spirit" in his children. This is done by the gift of his Holy Spirit.

III. THE RESULTS OF THE GREAT CHANGE . This change takes place in the heart; it is inward, and therefore secret. But its consequences cannot be hidden, for out of the heart are "the issues of life." No one can have the heart of flesh and behave like a being of stone—cold, unsympathetic, inactive. Two consequences are noticed.

1 . Obedience. The heart of flesh is given that God's people may walk in his statutes and keep his ordinances and do them. We cannot truly obey God till we love him. When the heart is right with God the most natural result is that the conduct should be right also. Yet, be it observed, this is not to be regarded as a merely necessary result of God's action within us, for Ezekiel 11:20 describes a purpose rather than a certain result. God gives a heart of flesh "that" his people "may walk," etc. It is still left with them to exert themselves in the way of obedience.

2 . Adoption. "Thy seed shall be my people, and I will be their God." God owns his renewed people as his children; they own him as their Father. The right heart is at one with God.