Sermon Notes for Rogation Sunday, 1 May 2016 Anno Domini (May Day), St. Andrews Anglican Church
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. 29 I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. 30 And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen. 31 Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. 32 Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord GOD, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel. 33 Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded. 34 And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. 35 And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited. 36 Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it. 37 Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock. 38 As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the LORD. Ezek 36:25-38 (KJV)
Water baptism is one of the two Sacraments of the Reformation Church. Here in Ezekiel, we have a fore-shadowing of this initiatory Sacrament of the covenantal relationship between a man or woman and their Lord. Though water baptism itself is no regenerative to the extent that the physical process itself washes and cleanses of sin, the inward and spiritual grace that is imparted either to the person, or to the child through the parent’s promise, secures the blessing of covenant for the child until he is able to publicly confirm that covenant by means of Confirmation. “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.” The evidence of a valid baptism with water is the new heart that follows the baptism (but it does not precede it). There are two profoundly important dates in this world to describe a person’s life – the date of birth, and the date of death; but in the Kingdom of God, there is only one of any account – the date of the new birth. There is no date of death associated with the new birth since it continues for Eternity.
I have seen men who were absolute scoundrels – alcoholics, adulterers, cowards before the enemy, etc – but once they have come to know Christ as Lord and Savior; the former characters are buried in the baptism of a new life. One would no longer recognize that the new man was the same fellow as the old; and, of course, they are not the same. The man is the very same, but it is the heart that is new. The heart of the Christian rules over the mind and body in the new man whereas in the old, the flesh of the body ruled over the heart and mind. “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.” A stone has no life in it just as the sinner, being dead in trespasses and sin, has no life in his stone-dead heart. It is the heart that provides life, not the brain. The life blood is supplied by the heart: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” Lev 17:11 Yes, God has given unto us on the altar the only blood that can truly give life – that of His only Begotten Son. The new heart that God grants to us when we receive His Son, Jesus, is bought and paid for at the greatest expense Heaven could ever pay. It is a clean heart and a full heart – not full of the old sinful nature of man, but filled with love and the spiritual nature of its Maker.
The new heart changes not only the desires of our hearts, but our manner of outward contact as well. “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.” It is not possible to obey God without the seal of His nature in our hearts, and that seal is love.
How I long to live in a land of my fathers that is righteous and lovelier than all other lands. The old days have gone glimmering when I hung on every word my father taught me of the Holy Bible and its application – not only to the spiritual aspects of life – but the mundane as well. My father was not perfect, but he was a perfect as any man I have ever known. He lived life according to the dictates of a conscience that was fixed on God’s Word. “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.” How I would cherish a return to the days when common decency and moral conduct prevailed in the land of my nativity; but that land is no longer the one of my memories, but the once and future Israel of God.
That perfect land, and that perfect Way, lies just beyond the veil of our purest imaginations. We may not know wholly what grandeur would best describe Heaven’s Land, but we can be sure that it exceeds every expectation of those imaginations. “29 I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. 30 And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen.” We often fail to grasp the hidden meaning of our travails on earth; and equally, we too often forget from whence come the showers of blessing in fruitful plenty and increase of crops. The travail of famine is the consequence of our own doing, but the showers of blessing flow from the open hand of God.
When the hand of plenty is opened to our gratification, suddenly we will awaken to our unworthiness of the blessing. The dark days of our sins loom large before us, and we are forced, not by our wills, but by that of God, to repent in sackcloth and ashes. “31 Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.” Have you ever loathed yourself? I hope you have, for until you arrive at the point of loathing the sinner and old man that you were, you can never come to the Table of the Lord. In speaking to the old Jewish Church that has greatly apostacized, God makes His will known to save them despite themselves. We too were saved despite ourselves, being dead as the corpse of four days. We were totally unworthy, and if we think we are worthy, we most certainly are the most unworthy of all. “32 Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord GOD, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.”
We are saved for a cause and for a purpose. We are not saved because we are such fine specimens of humanity, but just the opposite. It is for the glory of God that he can take rotting corpse and turn it into a kind and loving worker of righteousness. We are saved by grace, indeed, but that is unto good works, and as an example to the lost who God intends to gather into one fold. “33 Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded. 34 And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. 35 And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited.”
Like the Old Testament Church of Israel, we often believe we can reserve God to ourselves as was the hope of Jonah in defying God to go to Nineveh. “36 Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it. 37 Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock. 38 As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the LORD.” But the works of God in the hearts of His Elect is intended to broaden, not confine, His great love to all of His Creation whom He has chosen among the children of men. “. . . . the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” Romans 5:5 (KJV) It should be our prayer that the love of God is shed abroad to enlarge the boundaries of the Holy Tent rather than to slam the door to the Kingdom behind us. Are you the shining light to the world that God intends you to be?
