"Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, 0 house of Israel?" Ezekiel 18: 31.

In Israel of old all were not true Israelites who were so called. Likewise today, all religious people, as they are now, are not yet in The Kingdom of Heaven. Why? Because the most important thin' 9 is apparently missing - A Born Again Heart, or as Ezekiel puts it: "A new heart and a new spirit".

He asks the question: "Why will ye die, 0 house of Israel?" And then commands: "Cast away from you all your transgressions . . . . and make you a new heart and a new spirit."

David expressed his earnest yearning in his PRAYER For A New Heart. "Create in me a clean heart, 0 God; and renew a right spirit within me." (Psalm 51:10.) The sinner must realize his need and turn away from his sins. Even as Ezekiel warns in vs. 30, "Repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin."

Israel's sins were idolatry, immorality, usury, robbery, oppression. And our sins? All these and more. We harbor grudges, use bad words, and hatred is often allowed to live in your hearts. (I John 3:15 and 4:20.) So may our prayer be: "Create in me a clean heart, 0 God; and renew a right spirit within me."

There follows then also The PROMISE Of A New Heart. "A new heart 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." (Ezekiel 36:26.) God promises this new heart to all who truly desire it and seek after it. Have you noticed How ?

Have you noted what Jesus said to the man whose withered hand He healed? He said, "(You) stretch out thine hand." And to the lame man, "(You) take up thy bed and walk." And Paul says to the Ephesians (5:14), "Awake, thou, that steepest, and (you) rise from the dead."

In the same sense Ezekiel says, "(You) repent, and turn yourselves (18:30) and (you) cast away your transgressions . . . . make you a new heart" (18:31). Then follows, "A new heart also will I give you." (36:26)

How true it is that old things, old sins, must first be cleansed away. "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (II Corinthians 5:17.) And I will give you an heart of flesh." (36:26.) This is the heart that can bend, and give and take, and forgive and forget, a heart that lives, and a heart that LOVES. Stones do not live or love.

There are not only The PRAYER and The PROMISE ' but This Is POSSIBLE. "And the Lord will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live." (Deut. 30:6.)

Circumcision, a cutting away of a part of the physical body, was from of old a sign of God's Covenant with His people. It has since then also been used as a measure of health and cleansing. Thus it is a fitting symbol of the cleansing of the heart. In the New Testament Baptism symbolizes the same thing. David also cries out for cleansing when he prays in Psalm 51:7, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

This promise of cleansing extends even unto "the heart of thy seed". Truly this must come "in the way of personal faith" to us and our seed. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house". Acts 16:31. This cleansing is so complete that those who experience it will "love The Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul." Deut 30:6.

And The PURPOSE Of it All? "That thou mayest live." Deut.30:6 Ezekiel had asked: "for why will ye die?" God has no pleasure in the death of sinners. Therefore "Make You A New Heart." "That Thou Mayest Live."