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[0:00] As the Lord shall be pleased to help me, I shall call your attention to a subject you will find in the book of Ezekiel, chapter 36, and the 26th verse.

[0:22] A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

[0:44] Chapter 36, verse 26, the book of Ezekiel. If you are a sinner born again, and a great mercy it is that many of you are, and if you are, then such a subject as this will be very alluring to you.

[1:15] And a wonderful mercy it is when you find there is that set forth in the word of God that is alluring to you, and in your heart you feel the attraction of it.

[1:33] A new heart also will I give you. Mark the word in. A new heart also will I give you.

[1:46] You cannot earn it. You cannot buy it. You cannot merit it. But the God of all grace deals with poor sinners on the basis of his divine sovereignty.

[2:04] I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. And there are millions of poor sinners to be found in whose breast there has been a new heart lodged.

[2:25] And now if this subject is alluring, as I said, to you, there is a word here which is encouraging, Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them.

[2:51] You have the privilege to draw near to God and bring this matter before his holy majesty. And there is a guarantee he will make you welcome in doing it.

[3:05] His word still is, and him that cometh unto me I will never, no never, no never, cast out. But, there is one thing I want to emphasize.

[3:22] A new heart. The adjective new. And now that means it is not the old heart with which you were born renovated, patched up, clothed on the outside with a religious exterior so that you look respectable.

[3:47] No, all know a new heart. And that is that which a man cannot receive except it be given him from heaven.

[4:00] and if you find it in your heart to inquire of the Lord to possess this great mercy, a new heart, I can tell you one petition that will suit you well.

[4:17] Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. Oh, how the spirit of God would teach you.

[4:31] The emphasis there is on that word create. And you know, God is the creator. And he alone can create.

[4:43] Man can manufacture this and that out of that which God has created. but man cannot create. But God is the creator and he will make you know in your inquiries concerning a new heart being given to you.

[5:07] Your utter helplessness in things divine. Your inability to do good. And now I want as the Lord to help me to look at the subject from two or three viewpoints of it.

[5:25] And I should like to say something that will be helpful to you and encourage you to hope in God.

[5:36] Let us look again at this adjective new. A new heart. I've sometimes been afraid of that word that you read concerning Saul Israel's king.

[5:52] And the Lord gave unto Saul another heart. Eh, but it was not a new heart. But he did quite a deal with that heart that God gave him even to such a degree that it was said is Saul among the prophets.

[6:12] prophets. But it was not a new heart. And the word of God makes it plain that Saul, Israel's king, lived an ill life and he died an ill death.

[6:30] you will find these things very searching and solemn as you were led deeper down into the things of God.

[6:43] And now it says concerning Asa that he possessed a perfect heart with the Lord all his days.

[6:53] but some of the things you read about Asa in his life are not good reading. And you might even feel surprised that a man, a godly man, should ever be guilty, I nearly said capable, of doing such things.

[7:12] But he did such things as a very sad reading. Yet, that was what he was by nature, uppermost. but underneath he was right at heart.

[7:28] And I've thought many times that these things are to help us in understanding some things that happen in the church of Christ and which has happened down through the ages when there have been some people whose lives seem to perplex you because they did this and that and you were stumbled thereby.

[7:54] And yet, at the end, they came out and matters were made manifest as being right between their soul and God. Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that we, through comfort and patience in the scriptures, might have hope.

[8:15] when it says a perfect heart, it means sincere, honest, a heart that will make you say before God, may we never, never dare what we are not to say we are.

[8:36] Remembering the Lord requires the truth in the inward parts, I, the Lord, search the heart and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

[8:51] And now let us start afresh. 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 a heart of flesh.

[9:15] Spirit of truth come down with the other things of God is what you sang. And you know some of you in singing it felt in your hearts an amen to it.

[9:28] Because you must get your religion like that. You must be led into the truth by him whose prerogative alone it is to teach you.

[9:41] None teacheth like him. And sometimes I get troubled that you can get together quite a deal of what is truth as to its letter by dint of intellectual study.

[9:58] and I'm not condemning it but you want more than that. And you must go deeper down and you must have that secret something which is known and felt.

[10:20] Then you can say that that which we have tasted handled and felt of the good word of life declare we unto you. let us look at this word new for it is very helpful a new heart and now that means when you have it communicated can you remember when you felt the workings of it first of all it might be very difficult for some of you to trace out the workings of it first of all because they may have been very gentle and remember when God speaks at times it is with a still small voice and sometimes the spirit whispers not thunders

[11:21] I thought as I was reading the chapter down about the margin reading I've never lighted on it before that is because I've got a new holy bible here and it was not the same margin reading in the old one I have used for years so I prophesied as I was commanded and as I prophesied there was a noise margin thundering here is the law the law's loud thunders there was a noise a thundering and a shaking margin earthquake and the bones came together bone to his bone and when this new heart is given and the spirit begins to lead you into truth you may know something like that by terrible things in righteousness under the law so that your knowledge of the things of God begins with an earthquake earthquake in your conscience in your whole soul's feelings and a thundering and there you are before God a guilty sinner lost undone hardly know what you are or where you are and trembling lest God should deal with you in accordance with his thunderings when the law says pay me that which thou hoist and you cannot produce a stitch of the righteousness it demands and you have got to put your mouth in the dust of self abasement and admit your guiltiness before God if my soul is sent to hell thy righteous law approves it well you get those experiences sometimes when a new heart is communicated but sometimes it is like this the soul that with sincere desires seeks after

[13:27] Jesus love that soul the Holy Ghost inspires with breathings from above mark the hymn writer's word it is a great word a good word a proper word inspires the breath of God in man in a new heart and the sinner is feeling after God yes and many of you have been like that you're in you're out and you still feel a little help when you ponder the hymn writer's words when e'er to call the saviour mine my soul with ardent wish aspires can it be less than power divine which animates these strong desires a new heart is producing these desires breathed on by the spirit of God speaking as you were prompted from within and the prompting comes from heaven yes a new heart and now when this new heart is communicated you have to respond to the movements of it as it were there is a kind of spiritual heart beating and you must live your life in accordance with what your heart prompts you as before

[15:00] God to do a new heart will I give you it is a wonderful mercy to feel it's working and now following this word new when this new heart is communicated whatever you have been living for in your life heretofore you will have to reconsider it in the light of what your new heart prompts you regarding it hitherto before you were born again you live in for this life only and now with a new heart prompting you you were made aware life is real life is earnest and the grave is not its goal dost thou art to dust return this was not spoken of the soul and so your new heart prompts you teaches you that eternity has now got to take precedence of time and you are not living for this life only but there is a day to dawn when you will step out of time into eternity and you need to be prepared to take that step and from that time you will want to live your life in the light of that truth eternity tremendous sound aye it is the guilty souls are dreadful wounds but all with Christ and heaven be mine how sweet the accents how divine and now dear friends

[16:55] I do want to help you ask God to help me go back to when in your life eternity was impressed upon your heart and from that day on you have had to consider eternity as you go on in life's journey and how often you have felt prepare me gracious God to stand before thy face thy spirit must the work perform for it is all of grace a new heart prompting you you see as soon as you get a new heart communicated and you feel the workings of it within you find you must have a new aim in life you cannot be living just to line your nest well and pile up LSD and be comfortable with all the comforts this life can afford no no you have a new aim they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit what a beautiful expression that is the things of the spirit go back to what you sang spirit of truth come down reveal the things of reveal that your new heart would teach you open thou mine eyes margin reveal to mine eyes wondrous things out of thy law in other words you will want to see

[18:51] Jesus and see in him all your salvation all your desire and while you live your life in desire to earn the bread which perisheth and do that which is lawful and right before God with whom you have to do in living your life deep down in your heart you will have this new aim one thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his temple yes a new heart new aims not to live for the adulation of the great I inside you but to live unto God this prayer and this ambition mine living and dying to be thine and with this new heart you will not only have new aims new feelings new aspirations you will have new troubles you may have had troubles not a few before you were born again but they were all to do with the things of this life troubles connected with time and they were not soul troubles and now with this new heart you are concerned about your soul and its welfare and sometimes you cannot feel as you want to feel that matters are right between your soul and

[20:48] God and this new heart will make you feel then oh my God my soul is cast down within me leave not my soul destitute of evidence that I am a sinner born again make not my soul bear you want to know it is well with my soul yes you have new troubles there is that trouble arising from what you are by nature because until you get a new heart you do not know or believe what the whole heart really is like but now with a new heart you find what the word of God says describes it much better than you can from the soul of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it wounds and bruises putrefying sores the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint and you remember that scripture the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked mark that word desperately so that there is not a thing that other people have done that strikes you with horror and awe but what you could do it if what

[22:18] Martin Luther said happened to you temptation opportunity and inclination all met together at the same time unless God by his grace delivered you then you would go down like everybody else of whom you read or hear all this new heart makes you ever realize by the grace of God I am what I am new troubles and remember dear friends they're inside troubles many of them there are outside troubles man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards but when a man is born again he is born to uncommon troubles he is troubled because sometimes he says I would but cannot pray he is troubled because he looks at a scripture like this and he says

[23:26] I wish God would take away the stony heart out of my flesh for that is just what I feel to possess all to have a soft heart a broken heart a contrite spirit says the man with a new heart but alas all I can say is all for a glance of heavenly day to take this stubborn stone away you can do nothing with it and you dear young people remember this might help you and if you want to prove what the preacher is going to tell you you can look into the word of God and there you will find it I would never tell you anything outside the covers of the word of God because God should help me what is the hardest thing known under the sun it is a hard heart there is nothing harder tarmac may be hard concrete man can break it yes harder than adamant says the word of

[24:35] God and remember these people of whom I'm trying to tell you with a new heart they sometimes feel that they have the opposite a hard heart and it is so hard that they know deep down in their souls only God Almighty can break it man can do nothing whatever with it no oh but God Almighty does sometimes do something with it and how glad you are when he does what a sweet blessed hallowed feeling it is when you feel a gracious holy softness within your breast and you can be found at Jesus' feet close and in a right mind feel for the time being the stony heart is taken away and you have got this new heart and a heart of flesh and that heart of flesh means a heart to respond what God has to say to you and some things God has to say to you you might not like to hear otherwise you need to be in a right mind a right spirit to hear what God has to say to you sometimes

[26:00] Joseph spake to his brethren roughly as we heard on anniversary day and when poor sinners with a new heart hear the word of the Lord and it is to be a word of rebuke a word of correction a word that tells of judgment being laid to the lion and righteousness to the plummet you need divine aid to respond to it and say it is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good but sometimes God speaks in infinite kindness as he does in the gospel of his grace and you find in your heart a sweet response yes and in the dealings of God with you sometimes the new heart will well up with spiritual feelings and out of that abundance of the heart the mouth will speak yes as the image in the glass answers thee beholder's face thus unto my heart appear print thy own resemblance there a new heart will I give you you will have new troubles one of your troubles will be that there are some scriptures which as you read the word of God you feel to know so little about

[27:39] I mean a scripture like this grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ how little do you and I know about what it is to grow in grace I sometimes looked at that picture of the Lord Jesus these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree and finding none cut it down why come with it the ground let something better be planted there profitable to the husband man let it alone this year also and if it bear fruit well if not after that cut it down you see dear friend it has got to be this fruit or fire and now your new heart will be troubled about being fruitful in the things of God and that you often seem so little like a

[28:43] Christian I remember many many years ago how glad I was to light on this cochlea it has helped me many a time and they who fame would serve God best are conscious most of wrong within oh it is good to have it in your heart to be a real Christian however much you feel to fail in your lips and life to be like what you desire to be remember what God told Nathan to tell David that do it well to have it in thy heart to build me a house but it is not my will you should do it but David was to go down to the grave and take courage that God appreciated approved that he had it in his heart to do it and God searches your heart my heart and he knows we tell him the truth when we say I would do good but evil is present with me yes a new heart also will

[29:51] I give you much might be said about the new troubles but they will all arise from the malady which lies deep within with which you are being made every day as you journey on more and more acquainted which shall know every man the plague of his own heart yes but then there are not only troubles of that nature you may have troubles such as the world at large you may have affliction laid on you God may not the bottom out of your business you may have adverse circumstances crippling you but in the midst of it all your new heart will seek to behave aright not to rebel against God not to entertain wrong thoughts hard thoughts repinding thoughts concerning his dealings with you no no but to say let my soul live and it shall praise thee let thy judgments help me yes a a new heart also will

[31:12] I give you and now there are new pleasures oh they are pleasures which are spiritual in their nature look look look you when have you along life's way felt to be happiest as you have journeyed on when you have had some help by the way when you have had some intimation that God has remembered you with the favour that he bears unto his people when he has visited you with your salvation a new pleasure you remember before you were born again you made up your mind in your teenage life that you should have no more chapel going when you could do as you like but God did not allow you to do as you like and here you are many of you old and grey headed when you come up to the house of prayer with willing feet and your feeling is

[32:24] I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness and you find even though you do not always get what you would like to under the gospel you find it is good to be where you are because you are among the people with whom you hope to live and to die and to be with them in time and eternity too and we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren love is the golden chain that binds the favoured souls above and is the heir of heaven who finds his bosom glow with love new pleasures you think of the pleasure you've had sometimes when this word has been fulfilled then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and you flowed together in the things of

[33:26] God you realise the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace yes think of this pleasure when in the house of prayer the gospel has reached you with divine authority and power and you have said the watchmen that go about the city they found me and you could feel you were indeed one of the blessed inhabitants of Zion when you went on your way rejoicing in hope when you realise blessed is the people that know the joyful sounds they shall walk oh Lord in the light of thy countenance oh these are pleasures unspeakable but think of the pleasure when you were found at Calvary's cross and there see him who died thereon and feel for me all miracle of grace for me the saviour bled beyond words to describe a new heart will

[34:42] I give you there are these new pleasures and what a pleasure it is as you get toward the end of life journey to look back over the way you have come along and see where God has been with you where you have not always realised he was with you but in his light you can see where he was although you saw him not in the details of his workings so that having lived a long life you can look back and remember the way he has led you and healed having obtained help of God I continue unto this day oh that is a pleasure given to those who come along into life's evening time life's afternoon more often later afternoon it may be but at any stage in life's journey it is a pleasure to look back and see where God has dealt graciously with you as you have journeyed along thou hast dealt dealt well with thy servant oh lord said the psalmist new pleasure yes what a pleasure there is too sometimes as having come along in life's journey so far you have helped to look back and through looking back seeing the hand of

[36:11] God upon you for good you can take courage to look forward and heal yes I to the end shall endure as sure as the earnest is given more happy but not more secure the glorified spirit in heaven flowing from a new heart new pleasure much might be said along that line of thought but then there are other things I would like to set you thinking about regarding a new heart a new heart also will I give you you might say some of you might be some of you dear young people I wonder if I have a new heart do remember what I told you earlier on thus saith the Lord I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them did you know one name writer inquired in a way most apposite to poor sinners in such a case as you are in oh make this heart rejoice or ache decide this doubt for me and if it be not broken break and heal it if it be yes oh that word contrite godly scholars tell us it means in the original you might not like the sound of this pounded to pieces you know

[37:50] I've heard people say once or twice before the church telling out the tale of the dealings of God oh my friend I was broken all to pieces and now that is what it is to be contrite and there are two kinds of being pounded to pieces one is under the law when you are pounded to pieces and you have to say if thou lord shouldest mark iniquities oh lord who shall stand not the labour of my hands can fulfil the law's demands and you are absolutely dependent on sovereign grace to raise you up and deliver you from the hell that you deserve and there is a deliverance for poor sinners pounded to pieces under the law like that the lord will appear on their behalf and show them christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone which believe it what is sweet to realise the other is very painful i said what is sweet to realise is being pounded to pieces under the gospel i hope i have had that experience once or twice and when you get that experience you feel like our hymn writer earth dissolved by thy goodness i fall to the ground and weep to the praise of the mercy i found a great word equivalent to be impounded to pieces dissolved oh what an experience that is though when you are before god with whom you have to do close and in a right mind when you can feel the dealings of god with you forever gracious ever wise and the mercy is that he deals with you and that to fit you to dwell with him beyond the grave a new heart also will i give you there is a word i like and that is regarding good king josiah and now it was said because thine heart was tender and thou didst humble thyself before god when thou heardest his word against this place and against the inhabitants thereof and humbled thyself before me and didst rend thy cloaks and weep before me i have even heard thee also said the lord and good josiah had this promise i will gather thee to thy father thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace because thine heart was tender tender a beautiful adjective a tender heart and you know dear friend you go back many of you can do it by the grace of god go back to the dealings of god with you at your beginnings and when you were concerned to be found amongst his people in church fellowship oh how tender you were then in the things of god and you may look back to those years when you felt like that and look back with a measure of surprise that you have had

[41:50] such opposite feelings since then as you have gone deeper down into the things of god and journeyed along life's way through much tribulation but the fact that you had that tender heart is indeed a reality it's once upon our hearts we feel the love of christ impressed the mark of that celestial seal can never be erased a new heart also will I give you one that is me meek the meek will he guide in judgment the meek will he teach his way blessed are the meek the saviour said the dictionary does not tell you what the meaning is of the word meek as the saviour declared nor but it means to be as clay in the potter's hand to feel in his dealings with you hath not the potter power over the clay and there is a word in the epistle to the Romans that gives you a hint but God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you and now that word in form of doctrine which was delivered you means you were made in a mould and God has got for you and I hope he has for me

[43:33] I know he has a mould and it is that you and I if we are taught of God if we have a new heart he moulds us to his will he makes us willing to do his will great thing it is to do the will of God willingly he makes a poor sinner feel let but my fainting heart be blessed with thy sweet spirit for its guest oh God to thee I leave the rest thy will be done moulded meek and yes but I must come for the amen maybe the Lord help in us we must look at this subject another time a new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and there is a word here which

[44:36] I must remind you of because it sets forth a great truth but as it is written I have not seen nor heard neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love him but God has revealed them unto us by his spirit and that revelation is made in the new heart which he gives you and here is a truth you must never forget but the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually desired and Joseph Hart said the contrite heart and broken God will not give to ruin this sacrifice he will not despise for his spirit doing the

[45:47]  Lord help you to lay these things to heart amen to us