 One of the passages that gives people a little bit of problem, a little bit of pause, or has caused some consternation in the body is Ezekiel chapter 36, verse 27. Let's look at that passage and see what it means and what it doesn't mean. In verse 27, chapter 36, God makes a statement through the prophet. He says, I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will be careful to observe my ordinances. Well, this is in response to the people of Israel, the fact that they have a wayward heart, the fact that they keep engaging in sin, they are disobedient, they are not faithful. God addresses this issue. He talks about how this person who might be made righteous, maybe the atonement is now unrighteous because of the works that he continues to do. And so what is the remedy that God is going to bring about? That is him putting or changing their heart. Notice what he says in the previous passages. In verse 25, he says, then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean and I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will be careful to observe my ordinances. And the point is that people without the spirit will not be consistent in their walk. We are disobedient. So what is the remedy? He is going to change the hearts of men. We'll come back to this issue about cause because that's the issue. What does this word cause mean? But he also speaks of this in Jeremiah 32. Let's go there. He says in 32 verses, starting 39, he says, and I will give them one heart, speaking of his people and one way that they may fear me always and the point is that they will continuously fear me for their own good and for the good of their children. Look what he says. I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do good and I will put the fear of me in their hearts so they will not turn away from me. And so what God has stated that he is going to do, there should not be any ambiguity about what he means. He means to say that he is going to put, as he says, the fear of him in their hearts or in our hearts. He is going to give a new heart, take the heart of stone out and replace it with a heart of flesh. How is it going to do so? By washing, by sprinkling clean water, as he says and pouring his spirit into the heart. It needs to be understood that when the Holy Spirit is in a person's heart, there is naturally going to be a change, a new disposition to that heart and to the person who belongs to that heart. In other words, their desires, there's going to be some changes. And so here's where the issue comes in, going back to chapter 36, verse 27. And I will cause you to walk in my statues and the word that's used here is the Hebrew word, asa, which means to make, to do, to fix. So the question is, is God going to make us do good? Are we going to be like robots? Do we have a choice in this? Well, I think too often we focus on how it's going to be accomplished, as though God is going to physically move us and direct us by force, or is there an urging something that's happening from the inside? Well, what's going to happen is something from the inside is going to emanate that's going to cause us. It's not that he has to push us or turn us any sort of way, but it's something that's now happening with our heart. Jesus says in Matthew 15, 19, he says that for out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, and slanders. These are the things that come from a man's heart, the things that we say, the things that we think, the things that we do. Why? What's the issue? It's not our hands, it's not our body, it's the heart. The Bible tells that the heart is wicked, is desperately wicked. And so the issue is the heart. Jesus says in Luke 645, he says that the good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good. And the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil for his mouth speaks from that which feels his heart. So whatever is in the heart is going to come out either in word or in deed. And so again, what is the Lord's remedy? Well, simple. He stated he is going to give us a new heart. This is what Jesus means in John 3, when he says that we must be born again, born from above. We have a new disposition given to us as a result of the spirit, bringing about a brand new change or a regeneration, if you will, as it stated in Titus 3, this newness in our heart that is accomplished by the Holy Spirit in us. He's not pulling us or pushing us, but he is the agent. He's the cause of why we do things. We have a new disposition, new desires, if you will. We are a new creature. Now the Jews should understand this because they're told prophetically what God is going to do. As a matter of fact, there's a caution in the book of Hebrews, which is written to these Jewish believers or to a group of Jewish believers. And he says this, the writer says, take care, brethren, chapter three verse 12, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. And it's not that they will lose their salvation, but they intentionally, because of their heart, place themselves willfully away from what God has done. Make sure that that is not the condition of your heart. Now, will that happen? It cannot happen if you are a believer. This is why this is important to understand it. People might run to this text and say that because of this text, it proves that Jews who have placed their faith in Christ can then, in turn, have an unbelieving heart after having their heart regenerated and then fall away. The problem is that clearly is a contradiction to what the Lord says in Jeremiah 32. Let's go back to it. He says, I will give them one heart. So again, he's dealing with the issue of the heart. And when he gives them the one heart, what is going to happen? He says, I'll give them the one heart and one way that they may fear me for their own good. And look what he says in verse 49. I mean, verse 40, he says, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them that this is after they had been given this new heart. And he makes this everlasting covenant with them. And what is the result of this? He says, the result of this will be that he, God, will not turn away from them to do them good. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from me. So you see, it would be impossible if you have this new heart, this fear of the Lord placed in your heart, as he also says, writing on your heart or circumcised heart, that you then will not have an unbelieving heart. So the warning is for those who have an unbelieving heart. Not that you used to have a believing heart and now unbelieving, clearly those two can't be if a person was once believing, have the Lord to write on their heart to give them a brand new heart and then have an unbelieving heart because he just says they will never go away from him. So those that do go away are those who, in the head-wise, those who have a mental ascension to agreeing that, yeah, this is what God did, but internally, nothing has happened with their heart. Why? Because out of the goodness of their heart, good things are going to happen. But as Jesus says, out of the evil treasures of a man's heart flows evil things, such as unbelieving and intentionally moving away. And so however this is working, if the person wants to believe that he's going to physically make someone according to Ezekiel 36, 27, and he's going to physically make you to walk in his statutes, or there is this newness in the heart that because of that, it causes us, the heart causes us to want to do, right? Because let's be honest, we are caused to do things and think things and act in certain ways because of what's in our heart. And so when he says that after I put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, the issue for some people probably ought not to be how is it done, the fact that it will be done, that it will be accomplished. The main point of this passage is not how it works, what are the mechanisms behind how this works? In other words, opening, lifting up the hood and seeing how the engine works, that's not as important as the fact that we will walk into his statutes. We will walk according to what he says, and we will be careful to observe his ordinances. The reason why is because he has given us a new heart. Unless someone thinks that this only applies to Israel, it does not. This also applies to anyone, Gentile or Jew, who has been born of God. Jesus is speaking of being born again, referencing Ezekiel, when your heart is been born of water and spirit. Literally what he says in John 3, and it doesn't just apply to the Jews, but according to John 1, look what it says he says, but as many as received him, he gave the right to become children of God, even those who believe in his name. And the word he is, the believing ones, Toys Pistu-Euson, Istah Anomaiotu, which is those who are believing in him. And so those who are believing him, he says, who were born not of blood, not they were born of the will of flesh, nor were they born of the will of man, but they were born of God. That's all of us. John makes it clear that all of us who are born of God with this new heart, we are overcomers and so we will not walk away. There's something about the heart being changed, a brand new heart giving us a disposition that will make us internally want to do right. So does he make us? Yes, he changed our heart and that is the agent that causes us to walk with him and never to depart. Amen.