Peter Barnes | Ezekiel 36:16-38
SERMON NOTES
THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT
Ezekiel 36:25-27; Romans 6:1-15
– Christopher Wright calls Ezekiel 36:24-30 ‘one of the most beautiful passages in the whole Bible’. It is parallel to Jer.31:31-34.
1. The promise of cleansing.
– 36:25; the Old Testament washings were invariably done by sprinkling (Num.19:16-19)
– they point to something greater (Heb.9:13-14; 10:22; Isa.52:15; Eph.5:25-27)
2. The promise of new life by the Spirit.
– 36:26-27a; what God demands in Ezek.18:31, He now fulfils
– John 3:3, 5-6; 2 Cor.5:17; note John Wesley (‘I felt my heart strangely warmed’) in 1738 and William Wilberforce (‘O! give me a new heart, and put a right spirit within me’) in 1786
3. The promise of new power to obey
– 36:27; again, what God commands in Leviticus 26:3, He now fulfils.
– Rom.6:17-18 (note struggle in Rom.7:19-25); Ps.119:32, 35