Regeneration and True Christian Unity — Paul Washer

Again, it's a, wow, powerful voice there. It's a great privilege to be here. And I'm going to move around a bit tonight in the text. I want to talk. My wife says one of my great problems is I'm always trying to cram 30 sermons into one.

And she's pretty much right about that. But I want to talk this evening about how can we know that... Some people say, well, how can you be sure that a genuine Christian will really have these things in their life?

The Evidence of Regeneration in Christian Growth

How can we be sure that a Christian's going to grow in sanctification? How can you be sure that the Christian is going to cooperate with God? And so I want to answer that question. But then there's also another thing that I want to talk about a bit.

And that is we hear a great deal about radical depravity. And men are radically depraved. And we could go on and speak about that for quite a bit of time. But sometimes I'll listen to Christians. And they'll use basically the same type of language to describe themselves.

Well, I'm just an old wretch, wicked. My heart is just wicked. And who can know it? And all these different things. And after they finish, I always ask them this question. Well, if your heart is that way, just what did God do to your heart when He regenerated you?

Just what happened? I mean, is it true that the Christian still is just wicked by nature with a wicked, fallen, adamic heart? I mean, what's going on? If that's true, then just what happened to us when we got saved?

Ezekiel’s Vision of Regeneration

Now, I want to look at some of these things. First of all, let's go to Ezekiel. And I usually like to take this entire passage, but I'm not going to do that tonight because I want to hit on a couple of things in Ezekiel and a few in Jeremiah.

But in Ezekiel 36, verses 22, on through 27 and so forth, is one of the greatest descriptions of illustrations, anyways, of regeneration. And Ezekiel seems to be prone to that. The Spirit of God is just a tremendous manifestation of descriptions of what happens when a man is born again.

We have the question that's given to Ezekiel from God. God, Ezekiel, can these dead bones live? And we see a wonderful illustration of regeneration when the Spirit of God brings these bones together and puts sinew upon them and flesh and breathes life into them.

And so here, I want us to look at a few things. In verses 22 and 23, I'll just read it quickly. Therefore, say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, it is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went, I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst.

Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when I prove myself holy among you in their sight. Now, all throughout this, what are we hearing over and over? Israel profaned the name of God.

Israel profaned the name of God with their idolatry, their immoralities, and so on and so forth. And so, Israel is called on here not to look within itself to find a reason why God would save them. God says, I did not save you because of you.

And that's true. That's true for the entire course of the Christian life. He does not save men because of men, but in spite of men. He says this, I saved you for the sake of my own name, for my own glory.

And then he goes on to say that after he saves them, the nations will know that he is the Lord. Now, God had made covenant promises with Israel. And because of their disobedience and their wickedness, they were judged.

And in a sense, in that judgment, you know, there was the question of is God powerful enough to create a people and to preserve that people? And when Israel was taken off into captivity, it looked like every promise God had made was unfulfilled.

But by redeeming Israel and continuing His work, He got glory for His name. And what I want you to see here that's so very important, He got glory for His name, and through His saving work in the nation of Israel, the nations knew that He was the Lord, the one and true God, because no God acts this way.

All the other gods of all the other nations are false. This one true God is the only One who truly makes covenant promises and saves His people. And so one of the great purposes of the saving work of God among His people is to get glory for His name.

The Glory of God and the Failure of the American Gospel

Now, what do we have today in America? We have something quite the opposite. We have a Gospel, by and large, that's very impotent, very reduced from the true Gospel, that invites men into the fellowship of the church if they've prayed a prayer or gone through some little ride or nodded their head.

And then, because of our belief in such things as you can be a Christian and be totally carnal all the days of your life, and because churches refuse to obey Jesus Christ and practice compassionate and merciful church discipline, because we claim to love people more than Jesus does.

I hear people say all the time, oh, we're not going to practice church discipline. We love people. Jesus loves people. And He commanded His church to practice church discipline. So you're really out on a wire when you say things like that.

But because we don't practice church discipline, by and large, because our Gospel is not a full Gospel, we admit people into the church that really have no understanding. And when they stay in the church and live in wicked ways, the nations look at the church and they don't say, my goodness, behold the power and faithfulness of God.

But they mock God. And the prophecy is fulfilled that the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of us. So you see, one of the things you've got to realize, when we talk about church, church is not about people.

I want you to understand that. It is not primarily about people. And it is not primarily about meeting people's needs. Church is about the glory of God. One man who has a tremendously large church, he goes around everywhere teaching people how he did it.

And one of the ways he did it is he went to all the people in the magnificent city that he's a part of. He went to all the people that was there and he handed out questionnaires. What do you want in a church?

And so basically, he went to all the lost carnal people in the entire city and asked them a question. What do you want in the church? And when they filled out the questionnaire, he made a church that was according to what they wanted.

You say, well, that's terrible. But don't we do the same? I mean, it's all to degrees, isn't it? How far are you willing to go? Do you want to be a biblical church? Because it's only a biblical church that brings glory to God.

You see, as a minister of the Gospel, I will not be judged one day if I have a church of 10 or 10 ,000. I will be judged on my truthfulness, my dedication, my devotion to Scripture. And as a church that seeks to be, I know you do.

I know your leaders seek to be, and many of you seek to be truly a biblical church and to be constantly moving in that direction. You've got to see that the impetus here is the glory of God and His reputation among men and among the nations.

God’s Reputation and the Perseverance of the Saints

Now, we go on here. We see a perfect illustration of what happens when someone gets saved. But before we go to that, I want to talk about one other thing about reputation. When God redeemed Israel out of the land of Egypt, He's bringing them through the wilderness and they commit a heinous crime and God tests Moses.

And God says to Moses, Moses, basically, get out of the way. I'm going to destroy them and I'll make a people out of you. And Moses stands as the intercessor and he says no. And this is his argument. If you destroy Israel here in the wilderness, your enemies will say that although you had the power to redeem Israel from Egypt, you did not have the power to bring them into the land you promised to them.

So one of the things I want you to see in the work of salvation, we can always count on that He who began a good work will finish it. Why? Because His reputation is riding upon the work He's doing. This is about His name and not yours.

So God never begins a work of salvation that He doesn't finish. Now, people will take that and say, yes, of course. I mean, you know, He saves you and no matter what you do, He's going to take you on into glory.

No, that's not true. Because salvation is not just you being redeemed from hell and then one day you being placed into heaven. Salvation is past tense, the moment you believed you were saved from condemnation and wrath.

And it is present tense, in the life of the believer, you are being saved from the power of sin. And it is future tense, one day you will be totally delivered from a fallen world and flesh. And so when I say that He who began a good work and you will finish it doesn't mean that Bubba's going to get saved, live like hell and one day go to heaven.

But it means this, if Bubba truly gets saved, God is going to work in his life all the days of his life, transforming him, changing him, loving him, teaching him, directing him and disciplining him and then one day bringing him into glory.

And God's going to do it and make sure it happens because His name is riding upon it. You see that? Now, this is what He says in verse 24. Now, I want to read this with emphasis on the personal pronoun, I, because it's referring to God.

God here speaking. For I will take you from the nations, and I will gather you from all the lands, and I will bring you into your own land, and 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 I will put a new spirit within you and I will remove your heart of stone from your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh and I will put My Spirit within you and I will cause you to walk in My statutes and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.

Now, notice some things here. First of all, I. God says I, and then He says will. Most people have this idea that God saves man. And in salvation, you've got all these lost people and you have this impotent deity that's on the throne, weeping and wringing His hand saying, oh, I just want to save so many people, but no one wants to cooperate with me so I can't do anything.

That's not true. God has called forth a people and He resurrects them from the dead and makes them His people. But then, many people think that there is God on the throne going, oh, I've got all these Christians, all these children, and they just won't obey Me.

They just won't follow Me. I just want them so much to hear My voice and follow Me, but they just won't cooperate. That's not true either. That's a lie. It's not biblical. It's not Scriptural. It brings no glory to God.

Listen to what God's saying here. He's saying, I will take you out of the nations. I will bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and all your idols.

I will take out your heart of stone. I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit in you. And listen to this, folks. I will make you follow My commands. Now, do you see an impotent deity there?

Do you see a God wringing His hands just hoping someone will cooperate? No. You see a God who says, I'm going to create a new people. And in that new people, every one of them is going to have a heart for Me.

And they are all going to follow Me. And I'll see to it that the work I began in them, I will finish it. You see? So much for they've been a carnal Christian for 20 years. Now, he says first of all, in verse 24, he says, I will take you from the nations.

I will separate you. I will separate you from the rest of the world. Now, let me ask you a question. Is that a reality in your life? Can you point to God's work of separation in your life? Of Him separating you from the ways of this world, the things of this world, the desires of this world, the futile thinking of this world?

Can you see God doing a work of separation in your life, separating you from all that displeases Him? Can you see Him working that way? Can you look back in the past and see God working to separate you from all the things that are contrary to His nature and will?

Can you see a work of separation going on? Have there been times when even you wanted to bolt and yet you knew that it didn't matter? God had you caged in. You belonged to Him. He was in front of you, behind you, beside you, separating you and making you His own.

And jealously and zealously guarding over you. Is that a reality in your life? Can you look back and see how God has separated you from the world? But not only separate you from all that is evil, but He says also I will bring you into your own land.

He will not only separate you from all that is evil, He will bring you to Himself. You see, separation just in itself is nothing more than being a Pharisee. Legalism. Some people's Christianity is I don't do this, I don't do that, and I don't do those things.

But separation, biblical separation, has the purpose of I am leaving that which is dark. The darkness is now passing away. The true light is already shining. I'm growing in Christ. I'm being pulled away from these things of the world in order to cling to God.

In order to draw near to Him, to live in His courts, to live in His ways, to feel His pleasure, to fellowship with Him. Is that a reality in your life? Can you see God working in your life to separate you from things that are displeasing to Him, from temporal things of this world, and drawing you to Himself in fellowship?

Can you see that in your life? Now, he goes on in verse 25, and he says, then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Now look at that. You will be clean. I tell the story of I was raised on a cattle ranch.

And you could always tell boys who were either farmers or ranchers because every crevice of their body had dirt in it. Under my neck, dirt. You know, in the creases of your arms, dirt everywhere, dirt.

Displayed all the time outside. And I can remember I'd go in the house. Mom would say, take a bath. And one time I was about 9 or 10 years old and I'd walk in the house about 8 o 'clock at night in the summer.

She says, go ahead and jump in the bath. And I said, Mom, I don't think I will tonight. My mom looked at me and she said, you will take a bath. End of story. And so, I go in there. I mean, behold, look at this.

My mother has more power than your version of Jesus. My mom can make me take a bath. Your Jesus can't make you do anything. No, my friend. He says, I'll sprinkle clean water on you. You will be clean.

And then I go in there and I get in the bathtub. And you know how, I don't know if you've had boys, but this is the way boys do it. They love swimming holes, mud holes, fishing holes, every kind of hole you can imagine.

You get them in a shower. And I don't know, it's like acid rain. And so, you know, a little bit of water come out. I'd do like this. And then I'd grab a white towel and it'd be solid black. And I'd come out of there, you know, just...

And my mom could haul hay better than any man you've ever seen. She wrestled cattle, anything. My mom had so many calluses on her hands that you prayed that she used a washcloth. Because if she got a hold of your body, it was like a rasp.

My mom took one look at that towel of hers. She took one look at me. She put me back in that water. When my mom got done with me, the Shekinah glory of God was coming forth from my body. And she took off several layers of skin.

I'm convinced of it. Isn't it amazing that my mother has more authority over me than most people's view of Jesus Christ and His authority over them? God says, no, you're My people. I will clean you. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and all your idols.

Conformity to Christ Through God’s Cleansing

Now, if I could describe my Christian life in the last 25 years, if I could describe my Christian life, it would be this. God being loving and faithful to cleanse me from my filthiness and my idols. That would be it.

That's one of the greatest realities in my life. You know all this talk, all these young guys, I want God to use me, I want God to use me. It's really not what it's all cracked up to be. That's not the goal.

I want God to change me. I don't want to be what I was. I want to be like Christ. And He'll be faithful. I sing a song to my little boys. I did until they got old enough to know I had a terrible voice.

But when I was trying to put them to sleep, I would always sing this song. My sons, I am weak and I'm trembling. For the Lord I am always remembering. Oh, what a strong shepherd holds you in his arms.

He'll break you and make you his own. I feel like I have been broken into a trillion pieces. All by the hand of my God, not by the work of the devil. My body's broken with arthritis. Both my hips have been replaced.

My wrist is made out of metal. My elbow is soon to be replaced, they tell me. I've got more metal in me than a Tonka truck. I hurt all the time. My fingers hurt right now. I bless the name of my God. Because He has used these things in my life.

To do what? Cleanse me from my filthiness and from my idolatry. Is that a reality in your life? To be like Him? To be conformed to His image? I remember one time before I had my hips replaced, I lived in chronic pain.

The doctors had me on medication and everything. And I remember walking out one time in Peru. It was kind of drizzling. It was horrid. I was out on this old patio and it was dirty. And I was hurting so bad, I was just crying.

And I remember crying out to God, Oh God, why? Why? Why? And no, I didn't hear a voice. I didn't impress. But I remembered. It was almost like a film. All those times, my college years, crying out to God.

Oh God, I don't care. You know how you prayed when you were a wild college new convert. God, just kill me, grind me into powder. Do anything, but make me like Jesus. If I'd have known what that meant, I'd have never been brave enough to pray it.

Desiring God’s Work Rather Than Human Recognition

You know, one of the most horrifying statements in the Bible is God will give you the desires of your heart. It really is. You say, what's wrong with that? Well, let me give you an illustration. Pharisees desired to be honored of men.

God gave them their reward in full. And then they went to hell. I remember there was this guy in seminary with me. And man, he was, I guess, wealthy or something. I mean, he had a jacuzzi. A seminary student, you know.

Lived in this real nice apartment. Drove this great car and all this stuff. And he was always saying, Paul, disciple me. I said, man, I'm not wasting my time on you. Because all's he ever talked about is he wanted to be a pastor of a big church with a big TV ministry.

That's what he was all about. And I mean, if some important person from the SBC came on campus, you can be assured this guy would be snooping him out. He was all about knowing the right people. It was unbelievable.

Years later, I come back from the jungle and I'm preaching somewhere. I think it was Tennessee or something. And the preacher had the television on after church and Adrian Rogers was on or something. And we're in there eating.

And all of a sudden, Adrian Rogers goes off and I hear this new program comes on. You know, it's this, you know, day of power or something like that, you know. Be all you can be or something. And I know, well, you know.

So I'm eating and all of a sudden I hear a voice. I go, man, I know that voice. I know that voice. Who on earth is that? And it was that guy preaching to a great big church of lost people that, and what he was preaching was nothing more than baptized psychology, self-help, and your best life now.

And I went, well, God gives you the desires of your heart. I have other friends. I can remember doing nothing but them crying out, I want to be like Jesus. And I remember that voice. They're pastoring tiny little congregations in obscure places.

And they're like a rose in God's garden. Because they desired the better things. You see, it's about conformity to the image of Christ. And God will do it. It's not a question of anything. It's not a question of if He will.

He will do it. If you belong to Him. He will not let you go. He will discipline you. Now, let me say something about discipline. And again, I'm trying to put 30 sermons into one. A lot of people think discipline is a result of sin.

That's not always true. There's two types of discipline. There is discipline as a result of sin. We all know about that. When God may discipline us for sin. But there's another way in which God disciplines.

It's like training. For example, I had weak legs. I wanted to be a good basketball player. So every day after we'd feed the cattle, I'd run a mile home behind the truck with ankle weights on and all kinds of stuff.

I'd hurt really bad. But it was training. In the same way, God will discipline His children. When they stray off the line, He will discipline them for sin and bring them back. But He will also discipline them to greater godliness.

And it's not necessarily a result of sin. OK, now, let me just throw something out to you. Jacob I loved, Esau I hated. Now, the word hated there in the Hebrew means hated. If it meant something else, they'd have translated something else.

All right. It means hated. It means that God loved Jacob and he hated Esau. OK, that's exactly what it means. But when you look at it, you realize that Esau, God fulfilled every promise that He ever promised Esau.

Esau was so wealthy and so prosperous when Jacob came back into the land that he needed nothing from Jacob. So how is it that God demonstrated love towards Jacob and hatred towards Esau? In this, you never see one time God intervening in disciplining, correcting and training Esau.

Never once. But you see, God beating the living daylights out of Jacob every day of his life. And that is the manifestation of the love of God. He let Esau go. He would not let Jacob go. And when Jacob came back over into that land, he was limping and broken and had a new name.

You see, God will cleanse you from your filthiness and your idols. Now, this is also a great promise. It's a new covenant promise. Very important for those of you who have besetting sins. Now, this does not teach that one day on this earth, all of us are going to be perfect.

Not at all. We will always struggle with sin, but it is talking. You can have hope here about besetting sins. That God, you need to believe him, he will work in your life and continue working in your life so that some sin that is a besetting sin will be overcome sooner or later.

It will be. You'll see to it, because there's a great difference between a Christian who fights against sin, struggles with sin, lives in brokenness and repentance, and a Christian who is under the yoke of a besetting sin that is seeking to master him.

So he gives us hope here of a freedom and a greater sanctification. Now, here's how he's going to do it in verse 26. 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.

What does that mean? Well, first of all, we should be very careful not to do hyper, hyper literal interpretation here. A lot of people say heart of flesh. It must be a wicked heart. No, in this case, flesh refers to something good as opposed to a heart of stone.

If you had a statue of a man up here made of stone, you could prick him, kick him, prod him, beat him, electrocute him. Whatever you wanted to do, he would not respond. Why would he not respond? He's an inanimate object.

He's stone. But you take a man, a giant man, whatever. And if he's a man of flesh, you can do all those things and he's going to move. He's going to flinch. He's going to respond to the stimuli. That's what he's saying here.

I'm going to take out your heart of stone that cannot respond to divine stimuli, your dead heart of stone, and I am going to exchange it for a heart of flesh recreated in the image of God and true righteousness and true holiness that will respond to me.

Regeneration and the Bondage of the Will

So how can we be certain that God is going to accomplish the work in his people? Because of the work of regeneration. You see, salvation is not merely a human decision. It's a supernatural work of God whereby he literally makes you a new creature.

With a new nature. With a new heart, OK, now, and he goes on and he says, I will put my spirit within you. Wow. The very spirit of God that hovered above the waters, creating the universe, he's going to put this creating spirit.

He's going to put this recreating spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, he says. This word can also be translated, make you walk in my statutes and you will be careful to observe my ordinances.

Why? He's going to see to it. Why is he going to see to it? Because his reputation is online. How is he going to see to it? Through coercion and manipulating you? No, he's going to change you and give you a willing heart.

That's how. Let me share with you something about the bondage of the will. People get all upset when I say that a lost man can't respond to God. Well, it's true. A lost man cannot respond to God in the same way a dead man cannot respond to a doctor who says, hey, get up, come with me to the hospital.

And I think we can fix your problem. Putting the proverbial cart before the horse, aren't we? You see, here's the way it works. When you hear that men cannot come to God apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, you say, well, that's not fair.

I mean, if men can't come to God, then it's not men's fault. Well, you need to understand why men can't come to God. About Joseph's brothers, it says this, that Joseph's brothers could not speak a kind word to him.

Now, if you study the guys, all his brothers, they weren't they weren't mute. They all talked rather well. It says they could not. That's the language they could not speak a kind word to Joseph. They had tongues, they had lips, they had brains.

They talked all the time. So how is it they could not speak a kind word to Joseph because they hated him? It was their hatred towards Jacob that made them totally incapable of speaking a kind word to him.

And sometimes people say that, you know, oh, I could never forgive him because I hate him so much for what he's done to me. Right. You can. You won't and you won't because the enmity in your heart is so great against that person.

When I say men cannot come to God, they cannot come to God because they hate him so much. And that is a moral failure and that is cause for blame and guilt and judgment. OK, so how does anybody get saved?

Have you ever thought about that? Here's the way some preachers will look at it. I hear preachers say this all the time. If we just show the world, Jesus, they'll be saved. No, because Jesus showed the world Jesus and they didn't get saved.

Now, let me set up the scenario for you. So let's imagine we have a curtain right here and Jesus is standing behind it. Now, some people think if we'll just reveal Jesus, run the curtain, pull back the curtain and show Jesus, people will get saved.

No, they won't. Why? Because you forget the audience is blind. They're blinded by their own hatred. Have you ever heard that type of language? That man's just blinded by his hatred. He's blinded by his racism.

Men are blinded by their hatred toward God. So you pull back the curtain, they don't see anything. Whatever they see of Christ will make them hate him more. And that's why every bit of knowledge they get about God, they restrain it and push it down because they don't want any part with God.

So, so some preachers say, you're right, Brother Paul, we need to preach Christ, pull back that curtain and pray that the Holy Spirit opens up their eyes so that they can see him. Well, that's problem, too.

Why? If you open up their eyes and they see Jesus as he really is, the only thing that's going to come out of their mouth is crucify him because they have a heart that hates him. So in order for a man to come to Christ, you have to preach Christ.

The Holy Spirit has to give sight to the blind and he has to give them a new heart recreated in the image of God and true righteousness and true holiness. And with that new heart that is conformed to the image of God, they look at the image of God and are irresistibly drawn to him in love.

That's the way it works. And the ones that are drawn to him, he continues working in them to change them and he puts his spirit within them and he causes them to walk, not out of coercion, manipulation or fear.

It's just they're seeing more and more of him and they're being more and more conformed to his image and the spirit is strengthening them more and more so that they're growing in the things of God and obedience to his commands.

Jeremiah’s New Covenant Promise

Now, I want us to go for a moment to Jeremiah, Jeremiah 31. This passage of scripture is the longest Old Testament quotation in the New Testament, Hebrews chapter eight, it's quoted in almost its entirety, verse 31 of chapter 31.

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers and the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant, which they broke, although I was a husband to them, declares the Lord.

Now, what kind of covenant did God make with Israel when he brought him out of the house of Egypt? Well, here's first of all, let me let me just share something with you, folks. You need to understand this.

Israel came out of Egypt. The nation of Israel came out of Egypt. It was a physical nation. Descendants of a physical man by blood, the man Abraham. It was a physical people, just like calling the Mongolians or calling the Arabs or calling the Filipinos.

Or it was a physical nation. Most people have this idea that Israel, everybody in Israel was saved. Everyone in Israel was a God fear. Everyone in Israel was regenerate and the working of the spirit. No, Israel, by and large, Israel was a physical nation and only a small portion of that nation actually was God fearing.

You see a remnant, always a remnant, those people that came out of Egypt, no sooner did they get out of Egypt, they're in idolatry. Constant disobedience and murmuring. Do not think that this is a regenerate group of people and they're all going to heaven.

It's not. It's a physical nation. And in that physical nation was a small group of people who had truly been regenerate, whose hearts had truly been changed. They were a remnant. Now, he brings this physical nation out to the mount and Moses goes up and gets some laws, ten laws, ten words written on tablets of stone.

And he brings these tablets of stone down the mountain, these external blocks of stone with the commandments written on them and places them before the people. Now, the people are basically unregenerate, lost, wicked, without the spirit.

And what is Romans 6 and 7 tell us about that? The more the lost carnal man has the law pressed upon him, the more he kicks against it and fights against it. And so what do you have in the covenant with Israel?

You have tablets of stone being brought down, you have ten commandments external being brought to a group of people whose hearts were never changed and didn't love God. But he says the days are coming when I will make a new covenant that won't be like the covenant I made with them.

And how will that new covenant be? He says, but in verse thirty three, this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them and on their hearts.

I will write it. I will be their God and they shall be my people. He says the days are coming. When I will create a new people and they will not be just a physical nation. And I will not bring some external law down and try to place it upon them.

But I will create a new people and I will literally change their hearts. I will be their God. They will be my people and I will take my law and it will literally become a part of them. I will write it on their hearts and not just on a small remnant of them, on every one of them.