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[0:00] Welcome to our service this morning. We come together to worship God and we sit under his word and we pray that as we hear his word that we would listen to what he has to say from it. We can begin our service singing from Psalm 86. We're going to sing verses 11 to 14. Four stanzas from verse 11. Psalm 86. Teach me thy way and in thy truth O Lord then walk will I. Unite my heart that I thy name may fear continually. O Lord my God with all my heart to thee I will give praise and I the glory will ascribe unto thy name always.

[1:00] Because thy mercy toward me in greatness doth excel and thou delivered hast my soul out from the lowest hell. O God the proud against me rides and violent men have met that for my soul have sought and thee before them have not said. And so on these four stanzas Psalm 86. Teach me thy way and in thy truth O Lord then walk will I.

[1:29] It which me thy way, up in thy truth O Lord then walk will I. Yet night my heart you this The Lord, my God, with all my heart, the Jew is einundo unverschrichterै Давайтеовать Him, the Lord, my God, with all my people This Lord is hardly good 에

[2:49] If all I am, He covered me in righteousness of exile.

[3:06] I'm not delivered, but my soul, but all I will stand.

[3:25] O Lord, Thou guide me against my eyes, and I will stand, O day, and for my soul, and so now I will be, before then I will stand.

[4:07] Let's join together in prayer. Let us pray. O Lord, O God, as we gather in Your name, give thanks that we can follow the example set before us by Your servant, who spoke of ascribing to Your glory, simply acknowledging the fact that You are God, and all that we know to be true about Your characteristics, Your character, and the way that we have experienced it throughout our life.

[4:52] We give thanks for all whose eyes have been opened, and for all whose ears have been able to listen attentively to the word that You have spoken, whose mouth has been brought to declare the glories of Your name.

[5:22] We give thanks for the opportunity to meet in Your name today, and we seek Your blessing upon our gathering, whatever is ongoing within our midst, within our congregation, within our communities.

[5:42] We pray that we would be persuaded in our own hearts and minds that You are at work. Sometimes we see Your hand, and most often we are unable to discern what You are engaged in doing.

[6:05] But we do know, and we confess it, that there is not an individual present in whose life that You are not working.

[6:19] You are speaking to each of us directly, and peculiarly, according to the circumstance of our experience.

[6:32] throughout our life, we have encountered open disclosures of Your greatness. You have shut our mouth when we needed to be silent.

[6:48] You have opened our mouth when it was appropriate for us to sing Your praises. We marvel at Your forbearance when we speak, when we should be silent, and when we are silent, when we should speak.

[7:09] We pray, Lord, for Your blessing to reach into our midst, and that our congregation here would know the blessings of the Most High God.

[7:23] We are conscious of being met in Your name as people who form this congregation at the present time, mindful of the fact that like this, see, we are always in motion.

[7:45] Sometimes there is a high tide, sometimes there is a low air. but always motion, always coming and going, never the same.

[7:59] We are reminded of it when those who formed part of the number of the congregation are removed from the scene.

[8:11] Sometimes for a time, temporarily, sometimes permanently. sometimes You speak to us through the voice of death, and we are mindful of that as a congregation when a former minister in the congregation is removed from the scene of time.

[8:36] We acknowledge His labour, and we are thankful for them, and mindful of those whose lives were caught up with His during His ministry here, and even from those who knew Him from their youth, these memories, may they yet prove to be fruitful.

[9:02] We give thanks for a ministry that was spent extolling the virtues of Christ, and we give thanks for the Christ of which He spoke.

[9:15] as we think of this particular death, we are reminded of others, similarly, some from the ministry, some from the body of Christ here in the world, some we knew, some we don't.

[9:32] Always we are reminded that here we have no continuing city, we are simply found in this world from the time we are ushered into it from the womb of our mother, not knowing what lies before us or when our race will be run.

[9:58] What matters most is how we run the race and how we spend our days in this world. You have counseled us and encouraged us to run well.

[10:11] and to run with our eye upon Jesus, looking unto him as the author and finisher of our faith, to run with patience always looking to him.

[10:28] May that be the wisdom of our walk here in this world. So remember Lord the grieving and the sorrowful.

[10:39] Remember the Church of Christ that has once again been denuded of those who preached and proclaimed his name.

[10:52] And while the work goes on we often fear that what we see here is a testament to changes that need to be reversed and processes that need to be overcome.

[11:14] For the word of the Lord must go out and it will accompany that which you have purposed for it. to be to the heart of our hearts we are desperately saddened when we know that there are other parts of this world where your word is accompanied with great power.

[11:41] There are those who would embrace the truth with delight while others shed their hearts to the Christ of the gospel. Turn their back upon him and walk on without him.

[11:56] We pray Lord for your mercy for a day of quickening a day of outpouring that you would enlist the services of your servants who profess your name that they may be industrious at the throne of grace and they may cry out of a sense of need that you would come and measurely undertake for us empowering those who would set Christ before others to declare him freely fully and unambiguously preparing the soil into which the seed is sown that it may yield fruit to the glory of your name.

[12:45] Remember all the congregations of our islands of our islands all the congregations of our denomination that present that Christ to whomsoever will that the gospel would truly prosper in the hands.

[13:07] Remember our sinsic world pour out your spirit upon us that we may hearken to the word of life that sets salvation before sinners that encourages light in place of darkness that encourages wisdom instead of ignorance.

[13:34] we pray for our king and his family we pray for the parliaments that govern us in his name we remember our own local government and we pray for those involved in that we remember our churches assembly as they meet together in Edinburgh and we pray for your spirit to be disseminating peace amongst them that they would truly meet as brethren in your name declaring the indebtedness that is owed to you we ask lord that you would visit us as a generation who have so gone away from you but not unlike others when we read our scriptures and bibles we see there writ large the wantonness and the waywardness of our fallen people choosing death rather than life choosing the path that is broader as opposed to the path that is narrow we ask lord for forgiveness that you would bless each of us as we remember our needs in your presence bless the sunday school and the teachers and the children who are in their charge may the word come from their mouth with power that even young lives would hear the word of god believe to the saving of their soul be the means by which even they will teach the parents concerning the christ who has become their lord may this be true under your hand hear us now and watch over us grant mercy for sin in jesus name amen boys and girls i was i wasn't really sure what you were going to be hearing today in sunday school so my thoughts are possibly are probably quite different to what you are going to be taught today i was thinking this week you would have been aware of the fog that covers the earth around us most of us would have this week been aware of how the fog affects what we see and how we see it but because we've lived here and because we've seen days other than foggy days we know that the hills of faris and oog are over there and we know that the sea is out out there somewhere we've seen beautiful sunlight days and we have been impressed by the beauty of what we've seen but if you were just visiting and you have never seen what we have seen regularly you would need to be persuaded oh yes there are mountains there and there are hills and they are lovely and the sea is quite

[17:34] phenomenal in its beauty when it is calm all of these things it reminds us of what we see and what we can't see and what is hidden from our sight just by one single event or by one thing that we have no control over it reminds me of the way this world was as it progresses as it grows in knowledge of both its own surroundings there are many things that we know now that we once knew nothing about for example again thinking of the world in which you live many years ago people thought that the world that you live in was flat wasn't round like the earth that you know and that

[18:40] I know because we have been taught that the earth is round but many hundreds of years ago people thought that the earth was flat and they thought that if you went out in a ship and you sailed far enough that you would come to the edge of the world and you would fall off the end because they didn't know any different they hadn't understood that the world was the way we see it so it took discoveries it took the light that was given I believe by God to help man understand that this world that he created was indeed round and that there was no danger of falling off the edge and that the earth in fact was something that was not sitting on the shoulders of giants like

[19:40] Atlas and it wasn't fixed on pillars like some believed but that was suspended in the atmosphere and yet people for a long time believed many of these things and it's strange that one of the oldest books in the Bible the book of Job the servant of God was able to declare from God's own mouth that the earth the world that he lived in was actually suspended in the air it was held up by nothing that was how he described it and that was said by this servant of God hundreds and hundreds of years before the explorers and the scientists discovered otherwise so God tells us in his word many things and many of these things are actually considered to be foolish they're considered to be impossible because man in his wisdom thinks that he knows what God doesn't know or that they have the ability of knowing things that a

[21:01] God that they don't believe in has made known to us we live in a day where a lot is said about climate change rightly so and the fear that there is at one point that this world will destroy itself well if that's under God's hand that may be the case but one thing more wonderful is that the world exists it survives in total dependence upon the sun that we see in the sky in these foggy days we couldn't see the sun but the sun was there even when we knew it wasn't and the sun kept us alive even though we weren't actually acknowledging it and I'm not sure about the figures but the distance of the sun is from the earth is fixed and if that distance increases the earth will not survive because the lack of the heat from the sun will mean that we'll enter into what is the equivalent of an ice age the cold from the lack of sun will mean that the earth is unable to exist but if the sun becomes something that is closer to us it means that we won't survive either because just like the fear of climate change the world won't be able to exist because the heat of the sun will create disaster but man is not responsible for the distance between the earth and the sun but God is he has fixed the distance so that man depending on his own operation of the natural world he ensures that we live and that we survive and that we function perfectly as far as an imperfect world can and God is the one who has ordained that whether we see it as God has enabled us for the

[23:27] Lord's people they might not have been conscious of what God was doing but when the fog lifted and they saw God's hand they saw things that they did not see I have heard so often the experience of a believer a Christian when they came to faith the first thing that they were able to say was this I saw this world with eyes like I'd never seen the world before everything was beautiful everything had a new beauty that was hidden from sight and God opened it and yet so many today perhaps you're one of them and the world is clouded in this fog you're not seeing God in it you're not seeing the beauty of creation or the work of a creator and sadder still is the gospel that speaks to us of a new creation and the power of a saviour is just as much clouded from your sight and I hope that

[24:45] God will allow you to see these things and that if you're not able to that you'll know to go to God and ask him let me see help me to see open my eyes so that I can see through this fog and lift the fog and let me see the beauty of the hand of the God of creation when we bless these songs we're going to sing there is a word from Psalm 51 Psalm 51 verse 7 do do thou with hyssop sprinkle me I shall be cleansed so ye wash thou me and then I shall be whiter than the snow of gladness and of joyfulness make me to hear the voice that so these very bones which thou hast broken may rejoice all mine iniquities blot out thy face hide from my sin create a clean heart

[25:49] Lord renew a right spirit me within we're going to sing to verse 14 do thou with hyssop sprinkle me I shall be cleansed soul do thou with hyssop sing me I shall be hearts I shall be wiser on the snow O God, yes, and your joyfulness, make me pure in the light.

[26:58] The joy of the Lord, and your joyfulness, make me pure in the light.

[27:16] All my name will dishonor, my praise, my drum, my sin.

[27:34] Treat in the clean heart, O Lord, in your heart, I share with you.

[27:52] Has been out of thy sight, O Lord, in thy holy sin, I will restore me thy salvation's joy.

[28:20] Will I finish my hand? And will I teach thy ways unto those not unnecessary?

[28:45] And those that send your heart, shall we?

[28:56] O God, my salvation, God, me from blood guiltiness.

[29:22] Send me and shall my God, say, O thy righteous man.

[29:40] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. I'm going to read from the scriptures of the Old Testament. The book of the prophet Eszekiel.

[29:51] And we're going to read chapter 11. Ezekiel chapter 11 And Pelatia the son of Benaiah the princes of the people Then said he unto me son of man these are the men that devise mischief And give wicked counsel in this city which say it is not near Let us build houses this city is the cauldron and we be the flesh Therefore prophesy against them prophesy O son of man

[30:56] And the spirit of the Lord fell upon me and said unto me speak Thus saith the Lord thus have ye said O house of Israel For I know the things that come into your mind every one of them Ye have multiplied your slain in this city And ye have filled the streets thereof with the slain Therefore thus saith the Lord God You slain whom ye have laid in the midst of it They are the flesh and this city is the cauldron But I will bring you forth out of the midst of it Ye have feared the sword And I will bring a sword upon you saith the Lord God But I will bring you out of the midst thereof And deliver you into the hands of strangers And will execute judgments among you Ye shall fall by the sword I will judge you in the border of Israel

[31:59] And ye shall know that I am the Lord The city shall not be your cauldron Neither shall ye be the flesh in the midst thereof But I will judge you in the border of Israel And ye shall know that I am the Lord For ye have not walked in my statutes Neither executed my judgments But have done after the manners of the heathen That are round about you And it came to pass when I prophesied That Pellatea the son of Benaiah died Then fell I down upon my face And cried with a loud voice And said Ah Lord God Wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel Again the word of the Lord came unto me saying Son of man, thy brethren, even thy brethren The men of thy kindred And all the house of Israel holy

[32:59] Are they unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said Get you far from the Lord Unto us is this land given in possession Therefore say thus saith the Lord God Although I have cast them far off among the heathen And although I have scattered them among the countries Yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary In the countries where they shall come Therefore say thus saith the Lord God I will even gather you from the people And assemble you out of the countries Where ye have been scattered And I will give you the land of Israel And they shall come thither And they shall take away All the detestable things thereof And all the abominations thereof from thence And I will give them one heart And I will put a new spirit within you

[34:01] And I will take the stony heart out of their flesh And will give them a heart of flesh That they may walk in my statutes And keep mine ordinances unto them So shall they be my people And I will be their God But as for them whose heart walketh After the heart of their detestable things And their abominations I will recompense their way upon their own heads Saith the Lord God Then did the Jeroboam lift up their wings And the wheels beside them And the glory of the God of Israel Was over them above And the glory of the Lord went up From the midst of the city And stood upon the mountain Which is on the east side of the city Afterwards the Spirit took me up And brought me in a vision By the Spirit of God Into Chaldea

[35:02] To them of the captivity So the vision that I had seen Went out from me Then I spake unto them of the captivity All the things that the Lord had shown to me And so on there May the Lord have his blessing On this reading of his word And to his name be the praise I'm going to sing now from Psalm 119 Psalm 119 The fourth part From verse 25 To verse 32 My soul to dust cleaves Quicken me According to thy word My ways I showed And me thou herds Teach me Thy statutes Lord The way of thy commandments Make me a right to know So all thy works That wondrous are I shall to others show My soul doth melt

[36:03] And drop away For heaviness and grief To me according to thy word Give strength And send relief From me the wicked way of lies Let far in me be And graciously thy holy law Do thou grant unto me Thy chosen have the perfect way Of truth and verity Thy judgments that most righteous are Before me Before me laid have I I to thy testimonies cleave Shame do not on me cast I'll run thy precepts away When thou my heart enlarged hast These verses Psalm 119 From verse 25 Down to verse 52 My soul to dust cleaves Quicken me According to thy word My soul to dust cleaves

[37:05] Quicken me According to thy word He's find by My wise przez All my demons make me a right to go.

[37:52] So all thy words are wondrous, I shall do others' hope.

[38:10] My soul not held on drop of which are heaviness and grief.

[38:28] To me according to thy word gives and I shall reveal.

[38:46] From me, the wicked way of lies, let my ears open me.

[39:04] And may shall be thy holy law, do thou grant unto me.

[39:22] I chosen of the fair bed with of truth and verity.

[39:40] Thy judgment and most righteous are before me.

[39:54] I do thy testimony, see.

[40:08] I'll run thy presence with wisdom.

[40:27] My heart and heart given Can we turn now to the passage that we read In the Old Testament Scriptures The book of the prophet Ezekiel Chapter 11 We'll read at verse 19 And I will give them one heart And I will put a new spirit within you And I will take the stony heart out of their flesh And will give them a heart of flesh That they may walk in my statutes And keep mine ordinances and do them And they shall be my people And I will be their God We know that the prophet Ezekiel Fulfilled a prophetic ministry

[41:31] Around about 600 years before the birth of Christ Or before the time of Christ And the time that he was called to minister Not unlike the time that many of God's servants laboured The time was a difficult one It was difficult to serve the Lord faithfully Because there was so much lack of faithfulness Even on the part of the Lord's people At that time There were many who were considered In their own eyes To be God's people And yet they did not live As God's people They did not act the way God's people

[42:34] Were meant to act In Thursday evenings Over the last number of weeks We've been looking at the life Of the Old Testament Judge and prophet Samuel And Samuel laboured at the time At which the monarchy Was established in Israel He was God's servant The last of the judges And he was appointed by God To set up The new regime Of a king Ruling over Israel And Ezekiel So many years after Samuel Is going to see The end of that monarchy

[43:37] The monarchy Has gone on for so many centuries And it is now Going to come to an end And the reason for it Is found in the relationship That exists between God's people and himself The lack of it And the lack of faithfulness And when we see the verses That we've read here We find ourselves Coming to the end of a series Of visions that are given To the prophet Where the Lord speaks Through these visions To the people Reminding them of their obligations To him as their God And showing them plainly How they have gone away from him

[44:39] And you know You read at the beginning Of the chapter here The mention made of Five and twenty men Sitting as princes Of the people Either that means That they were Administrative heads Of the people Or possibly As some of the commentators Suggested that they were Part of the Levitical priesthood But they had Departed from God That is the main thing Whatever role they had They had it under God's hand And they were not Paying heed to God And I think it's just An evidence of the way Things are so often That Nebuchadnezzar The king of Babylon Had been instrumental

[45:41] In taking the best Of the people Out of Israel And taking them Into captivity Those who were high born And those who were learned And those who were privileged He had removed them And taken them into captivity And the conclusions That those who were Left behind was That they were now The cream of the cream They were now The ones who were Favoured by God Because God Had not taken them In this way So it's amazing How the judgments of God Can be misinterpreted By those who are Under judgment Their conclusions Were quite outrageous And yet They considered themselves To be favoured And they considered

[46:41] Themselves to be Beneficiaries Of what God intended For their judgment And that's the background To the words That we have here And amazingly As we find so often God still remembers His people And God declares His interest in them And his intentions For them That he will redeem Some And that he will Bless them And that he will Restore them To the fellowship That is broken And that he will Establish his name Once again In their midst Now at that point Some people Read these words And they're saying By virtue of What is there That The words of the prophet Are speaking Of events

[47:42] That are going to occur In the far distant future That what he is Declaring As if it is Going to happen Immediately To deal with The present circumstances The promises Will really be fulfilled In the distance And in the Long term And that may be The case Strangely I was Reading yesterday About the Interest that The Nineteenth century Church had In Jewish Evangelism And the Hope that was Held by The Boner Brothers In particular And Robert Murray MacJane That the Gospel was Going to Prosper Amongst the Nation Of the

[48:42] Jews And that They were Going to Be restored And that They were Going to Be brought Back Into The fullness Of the Fellowship That God Had promised To his People Which they Had abandoned But that They were Anticipating That this Would happen Soon And that It would Be Involving In The Restoration Of lands And that They would Inhabit The places Promised to Abraham Their father But they Would take Passages Such as This And apply Them Even though Ezekiel is Speaking as I Said 600 years Before the Birth of Christ That they Anticipated In the Nineteenth Century That this Event was Going to Be A Fulfillment Of a Prophecy Delivered By Ezekiel And many Other of The prophets As well Some of The promises

[49:43] That they Delivered Of God's Work Being The Fulfillment Of this Remnant Being restored And it was A remnant That was Spoken of Well that's Something To consider But we're Looking Today at One thing That God Does When he Restores Those who Have gone Away from Him to A right Relationship With himself Whether they Are Gone away By way Of back Sliding Or whether Their lives Epitomize What it Means to Live to The exclusion Of God In their Life We read In verse 17 Therefore Thus saith The Lord God I will Even gather You from The people And assemble You out Of the Countries Where you Have been

[50:43] Gathered And I Will give You the Land of Israel And they Shall come Thither And they Shall take Away All the Detestable Things Thereof And all The Abominations Thereof From Thence And in A sense That is A picture Of what God Does In the Life Of those That are Christless That are Totally Devoid Of Of The Fullness Of the Relationship That ought To exist Between the God Who is God Overall And those That are Obliged to Worship him And serve him So the Thing that Is spoken About here That is Going to Be Accomplished By God Is a Reminder to Us of

[51:44] A number Of things That are True First of All The Reason Why Restoration Is Necessary The Reason Why Rehabilitation Is Necessary The Reason Why The God Must Work In the Life Of The Nation Of Israel And All The Nations Of The Earth And Individuals Inhabiting Any One Of These Nations Is That They Are In Need Of Heart Surgery As he Puts It Here I Will Give Them One Heart And This Isn't Something That Is Limited To This Context It Is Something That The Prophet Will Return To Again But Each One Of The Prophets Will Reference This Need And Highlight This Situation That We Are In By Nature

[52:44] That There Is At The Heart Of The Gospel Being Proclaimed The Need Of The Heart And The Heart Needs To Be Under The Hand Of Heart Surgeon Heart Surgery Required But Once That Surgery Is Carried Out There Is Almost Inevitably Because Of The Nature Of The Surgery That There Is A Guarantee Accompanied What Is Done He Speaks Of Renewal He Speaks Of Restoration And That Is Guarantee Once This Surgery Is Done This Is What Results And The Third Thing That We Have Here Is That At The Heart Of The Heart Surgery Is

[53:44] This The Relationship That Is Broken Is Restored The The Relationship That Should Be There And Isn't Is Remedied And The Life Is Transformed As A Consequence Now We As A Generation Are Not Oblivious To The Wonderful Advances That Have Been Made With Regard To The Physiology Of The Heart And The Remedy That There Is Through Current Modern Medicine If The Heart Fails Or If The Heart Is In Danger Of Failing We We Used To Hear A Faith About Bypass Surgery And In In My Youth That Was Quite Radical It Was A Major Operation

[54:45] And It Involved A Very Very Dramatic Intervention On The Part Of The Surgeon Which Required A Great Deal Of Recovery Time Because Of The Nature Of The Procedure And Even Before Then Remember I Still Remember As A Young Person Hearing Of The First Heart Transplant A Christian Bannard And Watching That On Our News Program As Children And It Was So Significant And So Incredible That A Heart Could Be Removed From A Person And Replaced With The Heart Of Another Person But Advances Have Been Made In The Heart Surgery In The Department Of Physiology And Cardiology So That You Hear Very Often People Having

[55:45] To Go In To Have Stents Placed The Arteries Leading To The Heart That Were Clogging Up Parts Removed Parts Put In Place Sometimes That Is To Do With The Valves Leading To The Heart Or From The Heart He's Being Replaced Some Hospitals Have Departments That Are Constantly Almost On A Conveyor Belt System Seeing This Happened And Seeing This Happened And Some Of You Maybe Have Experienced That For Yourselves Maybe Not But It Happens Until You Know Of Some So That Means That If You Can Appreciate How It Happens At A Physiological Level You Remind Yourself Of How The Seeker Was Speaking To A People For Whom This Was Probably Quite Alien And

[56:46] He's Telling Them This Is What God Is Going To Do He's Going To Give Them One Heart And He's Going To Put A New Spirit Within He's Going To Take Away The Stony Heart Out Of Their Flesh And Give Them A Heart Of Flesh Language Like That Would Have Appeared Quite Amazing And Quite Impossible But Because You're So Knowledgeable And You're So Well Versed In What Doctors Can Do You'll Be Readily Able To Understand That Well It's Not So Much Of A Mystery But The Fact Of The Matter Is That What The Prophet Is Speaking Of Here Using God's Knowledge Is That This Is Something That God Is Doing What He Has In Mind Is A Spiritual Transformation

[57:46] A New Heart And A New Spirit And The Problem That They Have Is The Deceased Heart That Has Turned To Stone Because Of Sin Has Destroyed The Ability To Function As It Should

[59:36] God God's Answer For This Condition Is Radical Words Such As New Birth New Creation Renewal Regeneration Tell us That What He Has In Mind Is No Minor Surgery There Is No Minor Action That Will Deal With The Condition Of Our Heart By Nature There Is No Point In Going To See A Practice Nurse If You Got The Need For Radical Heart Surgery They Are Not Competent To Deal With It They May Advise You They May Tell You Of Ways To Alleviate Your Suffering But They Cannot Deal With The Problem That Requires Major

[60:37] Surgery And This Is What God Is Saying To Us In His Word The Needs Of The Human Heart Require Radical Intervention On The Part Of The Physician Of Souls And There Is But One And That Is God Himself Throughout The Scripture Jesus Met With A Man Of God A Person Who Believed Himself To Be A Theologian And He Told That Man You Must Be Born Again How Can I Be Born Again You Can Imagine The Wheels And His Head Going Round Can I Be Going Back In My Mother's Room In Order To Be Born Again But The Answer To

[61:37] His Predicament Was What Jesus Applied That The Way Of Life Was Standing Before Him The Very Person Who Could Remedy His Condition Was The Person Who Was Exposing His Need To Him The Apostle Paul When He Is Teaching In His Own Epistles He Tells The Person That Is Reading His Letter Be Not Conformed To This World Be Ye Transformed How What Is What Is The Answer That Has Us Living In The World As One Of The World Behaving The Way The World Lives To The Exclusion Of God Well The Answer Paul Gives Is By The Renewing Of Your Mind By The

[62:38] Renewing Of Your Heart Even That You May Prove What Is That Good And Acceptable And Perfect Will Of God Not Conformity But Transformation Initiated By God Himself Now The Fact Of The Matter Is That Because Of The Nature Of This Condition That We Are Not As Aware Of It As We Should Be Similarly It Can Be True Of A Person Who Has A Heart Condition Maybe A Congenital Defect Of The Heart Which Is What Sin Is It's There From Birth And We're Told About It Like Many Who Have A Congenital Heart Defect They Have No Knowledge Of It Until One Day They're Doing

[63:38] What They Normally Did And The Heart Ceases To Function And They Either Suffer If Their Fortune Fortune Is A Minor Heart Attack Or Worse Death Ensues Completely Oblivious To The Condition But You're Privileged You're Privileged How Are You Privileged Because You're Not Oblivious To The Condition You Have Been Told That You Have A Heart Condition That You Have Been Told Through The Gospel That There Is A Need For Radical Surgery That You Have Been Told Through The Gospel Who The Surgeon Is And What The Need For That Surgeon Means And That You Need To Go To Him Our Spiritual Problem Requires

[64:38] A Spiritual Cardiologist And When You Have A Heart Problem You Don't Want A Junior Doctor Although They May Be Skilled And You Are Saying To Yourself Well I Want My Doctor To Learn But For You You Want The Best You Want The The Specialist In The Field You Want Somebody Competent To Deal With The Problem That You Have As Far As Possible You Are In The Hands Of The Cardiologist And You Want The Specialist Cardiologist You Want The Person Who Is Most Able To Deal With Your Ridiculate Is That Not The Way It Is Well Most Certainly It's The Way It Should Be As Far As The Need Of Your Heart Is Concerned Spiritually You Cannot Go To

[65:38] A Priest You Cannot Go To A Minister You Want The Person That The Minister Depends Upon You Want The Person Who Is Able To Show You What Your Need Is And How That Need Is To Be Addressed Instinctively What We Do Is Remedial With Our Own Activity You Know Somebody Says Well Obviously Your Heart Is Not Function The Way It Should I Diet I Change My Feeding Habits I Change My Drinking Habits I Change My Sleeping Habits I Lose Weight I Follow A Strict Regime I Do All Kinds Of Things To Help Things Along But The Cardiologist Will Say Do You Know That Is Not

[66:38] Good Enough Your Heart Is Diseased Your Heart Is In Need Of Radical Transformation And That's The Way It Is Spiritually Tinkering Around The Edges Will Not Suffice Your Own Endeavors To Improve Things Make Things Better Which We Are Instinctively Drawn To Will Not Change What We Are By Nature We Cannot Do It We Are Incapable Of Changing The Way Our Heart Behaves By Ourselves I Need A New Heart A Heart Of Flesh Where Can I Get It How Can I Get It Well Listen To What God Is Saying He Is Saying Something Quite Simple He Says I

[67:38] Will Give Them One Heart I Will Put A New Spirit Within You I Will Take Away The Stony Heart And Give Them A Heart Of Flesh It's Not What You Do It's What He Does He Takes The Initiative And He Takes All The Doing From You And You Say Well Surely I'm Involved Somewhere Well You Present Yourself At The Door Of The Surgeon And You Tell Him You Tell Him You Know We Were Singing How The People Of God Ascribe To His Glory What What They Are

[68:40] Makes After Euchre you acknowledge that and by coming to him and saying I have this problem. Maybe I don't know the extent of it but it is a problem.

[69:00] Maybe if I listen to the word of God it will tell me how extensive it is and how truly rotten my heart is. One preacher says the following God specializes in taking the old, the unregenerate heart and infusing into it the life of his spirit the reality of his love which is through Christ Jesus and the warmth of his presence.

[69:35] No it's not. We are so proud we are so smug in our self-satisfaction the last thing in our mind is to present ourselves in the presence of God and say to him Lord help me but that essentially is all that you are able to do cry out to him beat on the very doors of heaven and say Lord help me because I cannot help myself. If I need a new heart then give me a new heart there is no if or but or maybe about it and do you know what if you do that if you honestly present yourself before God confessing your need of him there is a guaranteed success a guaranteed success if you are honest and earnest in the in your confession of your need of him and you come without excuses and you come without what you are going to do and what you are going to give to him you know that's the problem and many people think that they are going to come to God and well God you are going to have a bargain when I come you are really going to have somebody who is worth having when I come well let me tell you if you are where you should be you are nothing if you are where you should be you have nothing to take to God and that's true of every one of us but because he is the heart specialist because he is the cardiologist he knows how to deal with your heart he knows how to deal with mine and when he applies a scarper when he probes he uses his word and he uses all the means that are divine for telling you the kind of heart that you have and how it is going to be restored to where it should be perhaps you have seen on television and there is plenty plenty interest in various forms of surgery and you have seen the most skillful of surgeons and sadly a lot of them display arrogance that's the only word to describe because they are skillful and because they are endowed with great gifts they are very seldom as we see them anyway humble people although they should be because my honest opinion about them is if they have gifts in the realms of medicine these gifts are God-given gifts these abilities however much they strived and they labelled and they did all these things in order to gain these skills ultimately they are God-given but this surgeon this passion who is the great physician when he begins a good work he will continue it until the day of Christ Jesus you read what he says here what the success of what he did what this heart surgery results in it will result in walking in my statutes keeping mine ordinances and doing them they shall be my people

[73:35] I will be their God that's the end end product once God has done his work transformation ensues they become new people they become different people they become better people they have a better relationship with others they have a better relationship with God and God insists that is how this new heart reveals itself he requires it the person who believes that he's changed and he's not the person who believes that he's a Christian and their Christ-likeness is not visible what kind of heart surgery have they experienced God works in the life of the unregenerate and he works in order to create

[74:39] Christ-likeness in us and that the end product that we will be like him and that we shall see him as he is you know it's not something you can do it's not something I can do John Murray the preacher talking about the work of the Holy Spirit talking about the person being born again and he says offered this which is undeniably the case for any person who here believes that they have come to faith in Jesus Christ the change brought he says no combination no permutation or accumulation of earth born forces can explain it listen to it again no combination permutation or accumulation of earth born forces can explain it or effect it that's why

[75:54] God says I will put I will take I will give because this is something that he is not going to delegate to another this is not something he is going to ask another to do for them this is his doing and when he does it what he does must be acknowledged as his work extraordinary and I will not downplay it miracle of grace now if you believe today it is because God has done this work in you you believe what is right if you don't believe it is because God has not done that how do you know that

[76:56] God has done this work because you are no longer what you once were you have a different relationship to Christ above all else you have a different relationship to his people and you know that this could only happen with the work wrought by God alone if I ask you a question a topical question what do you think of old roads there's a lot of people complaining about old roads they're terrible full of pot holes the surfaces are shot what is the remedy that we see most often applied to them well there's a surface dressing there is an attempt made to heal our roads with the least amount of expense that is the way some people treat their heart they surface dress their heart they throw a few chips into the potholes that sin has made thinking that this will suffice the fact of the matter is it needs a radical transformation initiated by God carried out by God directed by God and leaving you without anything except the praise of God in your mouth

[78:42] I hope that God teaches you that you need something done to your heart and it's something that you need done today and your heart requires it earnestly if you were to speak to a person who experienced a heart attack and you asked them would you like to go through that again and they would most certainly know if you could have done anything to avoid it and they would most certainly say yes if I had known that this was what my lifestyle was leading me to I may well have done something to avoid the awful procedures that I had to endure friend you need to remember that your heart condition in the light of

[79:50] God's word is one that tells you the condition is terminal it's terminal and only the God of heaven can cure what is terminal because he has the power to do it may you look to him in the person of Jesus Christ in order for that to be true for you let us pray Lord we pray for you light to shine into our darkness that we may truly understand something of the reality of where sin has taken us and our inability by our own endeavour to recover from it enable us to trust in Jesus and to look to him for the saving of our souls in his name we ask it Amen sing from Psalm 115 the last four stanzas of the psalm

[80:53] Psalm 115 the last four stanzas the Lord of us has mindful been and he will bless us still he will the house of Israel bless Aaron's house he will both small and great that fear the Lord he will them surely bless the Lord will you you and your seed alone I more and more increase to the end of the psalm the Lord of us has mindful been the Lord of us has mindful been and he will bless through town name the Lord, he will then surely bless the Lord with you, you and you see, and more and more increase.

[82:30] O bless is Thine King of the Lord, who made the earth and heaven, the heaven gives earth and all's mercy.

[83:00] And who mansions are given, not yet nor whose silence go, God's grace do not reap heart, but heaven's word with heart and blood and will.

[83:37]  O bless is Thine King of the Lord.