Ezequiel 36:32

DISCOURSE: 1119
GOD’S MERCIES NOT GIVEN FOR OUR MERITS

Ezequiel 36:32. 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.

THERE is not any gift, whether of nature or of grace, from which the pride of man will not take occasion to exalt itself. But the design of God in his Gospel is, to counteract this propensity, and to make his creatures sensible of their obligations to him, and their entire dependence upon him. Hence, having declared, in the preceding context, what he intended to do for his Church and people, he particularly cautions them not to imagine, that he was influenced by any goodness which he saw in them; or that, after having received his blessings, they would have any thing to boast of: for to their latest hour they would have in themselves cause for nothing but shame and confusion.
From this caution the following observations naturally arise:

I. God, in imparting his blessings to us, has not respect to any good in us—

There is not in us any thing meritorious, to which he can have respect—
[Let our actions be weighed in the balance of the sanctuary, and every one of them will be found wanting. If we had done all that is required of us, we should still be only unprofitable servants [Note: Lucas 17:10.]. But we have not done all; nor have we done any part as we ought: and therefore instead of having any merit whereon to found a claim of blessings from God, we have need of mercy and forgiveness for our very best actions [Note: Isaías 64:6.]

Nor would it consist with his honour to make our goodness the ground of dispensing his favours—
[Whatever the measure of our goodness were, if it were considered in any degree as founding a claim for the Divine blessing, or as inducing God to impart his benefits to us, it would instantly become a ground of glorying before God. The possessor of that goodness might ascribe to himself some portion of the honour, instead of giving the glory of his salvation to God alone. But this would be to subvert the whole design of the Gospel, which is, to exclude boasting [Note: Romanos 3:27. See also Ezequiel 36:21.], and not to give God’s glory to another.]

Experience alone sufficiently shews that God is influenced by no such motive—
[If God had respect to any thing that is good in us, the most moral people would always be stirred up to embrace the Gospel, and the most profligate be left to reject it. But this is by no means the case: yea, the very reverse is more generally true, namely, that “publicans and harlots enter into the kingdom, before the more decent Scribes, or self-righteous Pharisees [Note: Mateus 21:31.].” God is indeed sometimes said to do things for the sake of Abraham, David, and others: but it was not for their righteousness’ sake, considered as meritorious, that God vouchsafed blessings to them or their posterity; but either to testify his love to obedience, or to manifest the immutability of his counsel [Note: Deuteronômio 7:6; Deuteronômio 9:4.]

The text goes yet further, and shews that,

II.

There is in us nothing which is not a ground rather for shame and confusion—

Doubtless the Jews were a peculiarly “stiff-necked people:” yet, if we have not the same sins to deplore, we have enough to justify the application of this passage to ourselves.
The sins of our unregenerate state may well fill us with confusion—
[Time may efface many things from our remembrance; but it cannot alter the nature of them, or blot them out of the book of God. Our sins are all in his sight, as if they were transacted but yesterday: and whatever degree of malignity they had formerly, that they retain at this moment: and consequently we should feel on their account all the shame, and sorrow, and confusion that they either did occasion, or ought to have occasioned, at the time they were committed. Yea, the whole mass of evil that ever passed through our minds ought to lie with a weight upon our consciences, so far at least as to produce an abiding sense of our extreme sinfulness.]
The infirmities of our regenerate state also should humble us in the dust before God—
[Who is not conscious of innumerable evils working in his heart? Who does not at some time feel the workings of pride, anger, worldliness, impurity, and various other corruptions? Who does not feel that these are properly “his own ways,” and that the exercise of contrary dispositions is the fruit of divine grace?

But let us take the best actions of our lives, and the holiest dispositions of our hearts: what are our prayers and our praises, when compared with the importance of the blessings we have received, or that we desire at God’s hands? What is our repentance, when compared with the number and heinousness of our transgressions? What is our trust in God? What our love to the blessed Saviour? What our zeal in his service? Do they bear any proportion to the occasions that call for them? We know that a godly person would be utterly ashamed of such services as a mere formalist makes the ground of his boast and confidence: and would not a perfect Being, if sent down to serve his God on earth, lothe himself, if he were to render no better services than ours? Surely then we ought to blush and be confounded before God, not only for the remains of evil that are within us, but for the very best actions we have ever performed.]
The emphatic manner in which these things are delivered, leads us to notice,

III.

The importance of being reminded of these things, and of having them deeply fixed in our hearts—

We are apt to take credit to ourselves, and to think ourselves as high in God’s estimation as we are in our own. But God would have us know, that there is no just ground for our vain conceit: it is even with considerable indignation that he reminds us of it in the words before us. We need to be well instructed in this matter,

1. That we may be led to humility—

[The knowledge of ourselves is indispensably necessary to the attainment of humility: but we must be ignorant indeed of ourselves, if we imagine that there either is, or can be, any thing in us to merit the Divine favour. The truth is, that no words can adequately express the unparalleled deceitfulness, and desperate wickedness, of our hearts [Note: Jeremias 17:9.]. If we know any thing of ourselves, we cannot but lothe and “abhor ourselves,” as Job did, “in dust and ashes [Note: Jó 42:6.].” And we need to have our extreme vileness and baseness frequently set before us, in order that we may know what we are, and “not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think [Note: Romanos 12:3.].”]

2. That we may be excited to thankfulness—

[While we entertain the idea of having purchased, as it were, or merited, the blessings we enjoy, we cannot possibly feel any lively gratitude for them in our hearts: instead of admiring the goodness of our God, we shall be ready to think hardly of him, if at any time his bounties are withdrawn from us. But let us once be convinced of our deep depravity, and we shall wonder that we have not long since been made monuments of divine vengeance. It will then appear no small mercy that we are on praying ground; that we have a covenant-God to flee unto; and that there is a Mediator, through whom we may approach him with an assurance of acceptance. Yes; these things, which are so little regarded by the generality, will make our hearts to overflow with gratitude, and our tongues to sing aloud for joy.]

Application—
1.

Let us concede to God the liberty of dispensing his favours according to his own sovereign will—

[To dispute this is needless; for he will not ask our permission [Note: Jó 33:13.], nor consult our inclination; but “will have mercy on whom he will have mercy [Note: Romanos 9:18.]” — — — Moreover, it is ruinous; for we cannot hope to participate his blessings, if we will not condescend to accept them as they are offered. We must “buy them” indeed, as the Scripture speaks; but it must be “without money and without price [Note: Isaías 55:1.].” Let us then acknowledge God’s right to “do what he will with his own [Note: Mateus 20:15.];” and abase ourselves before him, as “less than the least of all his mercies [Note: Gênesis 32:10.].”]

2. Let us be thankful that, however unworthy we are, there is a Saviour whose worthiness we may plead before him—

[Though God will not do any thing for our sake, yet he will for his dear Son’s sake. There is nothing that he will refuse us, if we go to him in the name of Jesus Christ [Note: João 14:13. See a pattern for prayer; Daniel 9:17.]. Nor will our unworthiness be any bar to our acceptance with him. On the contrary, the more we humble and abase ourselves, the more ready will he be to accept and bless us.]