Now, the first thing I want to
do is to give you my appreciation and Shirley's appreciation for
all your kindnesses. You're very hospitable. You're
easy to get to know. It's just a wonderful place you
have here. We thank you very sincerely for
all of your kindnesses to us. and thank Brother Jim and Nancy. It has been a privilege and I'd
say an honor to be here. Thank you so much. Now, if you'll look at the book
of Ezekiel this morning, please. My subject would be the impossibility
of preaching. The impossibility of preaching. I remember a little old barefooted
boy way back yonder in Bryson, Texas. You don't know
where that is, do you? Yes, sir. Yeah, you've been there.
Don took me by there. It's the first time I've been
back since 1942. We went through there and looked
at Bryce and Texas. But that's where the Lord brought
me into this world, and there I was, a little freckled face,
barefooted boy. live there until 12 years of
age, and then we moved to the Houston area. But I got to thinking
about that last night, and I remarked to Shirley, here's a little old
barefooted nothing boy back in Bryson, Texas. And here he is
today, almost 71 years of age and standing up here. That is
the most amazing thing I've ever even contemplated. As we say in Texas, who would
have thunk it? Not me, not me. But God, he takes real crooked
sticks and strikes a straight blow with a crooked stick and
takes little old boys and allows them to live in this world and
sin and get into all kind of foolishness. And then at a certain
time in their life, he moves on their heart, reveals the Lord
Jesus to them. And in Psalm he says, I believe
I'll have you to be a preacher. A preacher. The impossibility
of preaching. Impossible. But here we are. God is chosen by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. That is amazing. Let's read Ezekiel. Thirty-seven,
the hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the
Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley
which was full of bones, and caused me to pass by them round
about. And behold, there were very many
in the open valley, and lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man,
can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou
knowest. And again he said unto me, Will
prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones,
hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto
these bones. Behold, I will cause breath to
enter into you, and you shall live, and I will lay sinews upon
you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with
skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall
know that I am the Lord.' And so I prophesied as I was commanded,
And as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a shaking,
and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I
beheld, aloe the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and
the skin covered them above, but there was no breath in them. he unto me prophesy unto the
wind. Prophesy, son of man, and say
to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the four winds,
O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. And
so I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into
them, and they lived. and stood up upon their feet
an exceeding great army." Now, the book of Ezekiel is a very
prophetic book. I believe chapters 36 through
40 has a lot of prophecy. And I don't propose to know what
will happen in the future. I believe Israel is God's chosen
earthly people. I believe that. Israel figures
prominently in the end of this world system. I do believe that. And it looks as if when the Lord
Jesus returns there will be a great battle, and I I believe it will
be in Israel. But if you want to figure out
all these prophetic things from chapter 36 to 40, well, you read
and do the best you can. And when you do, don't set any
dates. All men are setting dates and
events. naming all the nations involved. I don't know anything about that.
But if you read, let God speak to you. But I don't want to deal
with the prophetic teaching here. There's a spiritual application,
and that's what I'd like to deal with this morning. And if you're
one of the elect children of God, you'll understand the spiritual
application of what has been read, and so that is what we
will look at this morning. What is really taught here that
is of utmost importance is the restoration of every child of
God from sin. The making alive of these bones,
no one would doubt, was a miracle. But it's not any more of a miracle. In fact, there's a greater miracle
that God does, and he makes sinners alive from the spiritual death
which you as a sinner inherited in Adam. And so we look at it
in that light this morning. We'll have five divisions, the
prophet's vision, and then God's question, and then the prophet's
answer, and then the Lord's command, and then the prophet's dependence. And so in verses 1 and 2, we
have the prophet's vision. The hand of the Lord was upon
me and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me
down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones. and
caused me to pass by them round about. And behold, there were
very many in the open valley, and lo, they were very dry."
Now, the prophet Ezekiel saw all of this. Can you picture
him in your mind walking out into that valley and walking
among those dry, dead bones? Now, every preacher of God Every
prophet of God sees the same condition right now, the impossibility
of preaching. We look all over the world and
we see all the sons of Adam, and what are they? They are just
as dead in trespasses and sins as those bones were in that valley. And no doubt in this auditorium
this morning there are those who are dead in sin. What happened in that valley?
Well, I don't know for sure, but I suspect they had a battle.
And these bones laying out there were those who lost the battle
and they died. And so you get the application
immediately of what happened to this world. I preached not
long ago two messages on what's wrong with man, and I have a
third when I get back to deliver to the people there. There was
a battle in the Garden of Eden, and we lost and died. God said to Adam, in the day
that you eat of this tree, you'll surely die. You're not going to be bruised.
You're not going to be shaken up, but you're going to die.
Death. Death came. And when Adam ate
that fruit, he died. Not physically, we know that.
He lived a good long while physically, but he died spiritually. And
when Adam died, who is the father of us all, Adam
is your father. And when he died, death, condemnation,
judgment passed upon all men. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for that all sin." Romans 5, verse 12. Paul wrote in 1
Corinthians 15, 22, in Adam, all die. And when Paul was writing about
the conversion of the Church at Ephesus, he wrote to them,
and you hath God quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. And I want you to realize that. If God would come where you are
today and show you your death and And if he ever does that, you
can rest assured that he will follow that up with life in Christ. Because you cry out for mercy
when you see your terrible condition. And so this picture we're looking
at in Ezekiel 37 is not only the house of Israel, that shall
be restored from the grave, but is the spiritual world that has
been vested by sin and left full of many dry, dead bones. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God." We hear that and there is just usually
no reaction. Oh, yes, all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. My friend, if you come short
of the glory of God, you're going to spend eternity in torment. That's how deep that expression
is. And so we're saying here, and
you've heard this over and over, but we need to hear it again,
we are dead in sin, graveyard dead. And if God ever shows you your condition, wouldn't that
be wonderful? That's good. God came to this
old boy back there when I was 32 years of age and showed me
that I was dead in sin. I kind of suspicious there's
something wrong. But now that's as far as most
people go. They have a little suspicion.
Oh, yeah, I do things wrong. But what I'm talking about here
is when God comes and shows you the death. He showed me my death,
dead. That startled me, dead in sin. Now, when God shows you that,
The good news is if you get it, you've already been made alive. Mr. Bishop said, No man ever
yet did cry for a new heart until he had one. So all that's instantaneous. God shows you your death and
life is immediate. And so it's good. It's the grace
of God if you know you're dead in sin. Because if you know you're
dead in sin in your natural self, then you have life in the Lord
Jesus Christ. In the sons of Adam, there's
not even a glimmer, there's not even a spark of spiritual life. There is a song in most songbooks. I read it not long ago. It's
called Rescue the Perishing. You may sing it. I don't know,
but watch it. I don't think you do. Down in
the human heart, crushed by the tempter, feelings lie buried
that grace can restore. That's a life of hell. There's
feelings. What feelings does a sinner have
down inside? Hate, animosity, and all the
evil that you can even imagine. That's what's in the human heart.
And there are not any feelings in there that grace can restore.
Grace doesn't restore anything. Grace brings life to that which
is dead. because you and I don't have
anything to restore. We're without hope, we're without
help, we're without Christ, we're without God, and tragically we're
without any desire for God. Mr. Graham, some of the chief
evangelists say men are seeking for God. That's not so. Men are
not seeking for God. Men in their natural state hate
God, and just like Adam, they'll run and get behind a bush if
God comes around, or they'll get in a church house and hide
from God. How foolish that is, just like
these bones. Dead. Can you get a hold of that? Just like these bones. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. And so the true prophet of God
looks over the world. And I stand and think sometimes,
what am I doing? This is impossible. We look over
the world and we see nothing but dry, dead bones. Of course, if you've been made
alive, that's good, but I'm talking about men in general. Dry, dead
bones, and the battle in the Garden of Eden left them dead. That's the Prophet's vision.
He's out walking. and walks by the leg bones and
the skull here and walks through there, and there was a very great
number of those bones. A lot of people died there. And so the Lord said, You go out there among them,
the hand of the Lord. He carried me out in the Spirit
of the Lord. set me down right in the middle
of all those dry, dead bones. Now, the prophet's question from
God, verse 3, And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones
live? Well, Ezekiel, look at them. Can they live? Oh boy, what an
impossible thing. If you have any conception of
the spiritual deadness of natural man, if you have any conception
of what spiritual life is, you too have pondered this question. Can my child live? Can my mother
and my dad live? Can all of my neighbors live? Is there any possibility that
there could be life in them, life from God? Can these bones
live? And most people, preachers included,
don't know what dead in sin means. And I just have just a little
inkling of what it means. Most people, preachers included,
don't know what eternal life is. And we have just a small
inkling of what eternal life is. I heard a preacher say the other
day, God can't do anything for you until you change your love. In other words, he was saying,
don't love the world, change your love, start loving God.
Well, you try to do that, will you? Try, just, all right, let's
see you do it. Spiritual death is to be without
God, without light, without life, without knowledge, without hope. And it's the same as natural
death in one sense of the word. A dead person doesn't have any
feelings. And you go down to the funeral
home and you take the greatest symphony orchestra that this
world has ever known anything about, and you get them in there
and they play the most beautiful music, and there's a dead man
lying there. What does he do? He just lies
there. He doesn't move, he doesn't hear,
he has no feelings. He doesn't know what's going
on around him. You can take the greatest teacher
in the world and take him in there and he'll teach that man,
let me teach you something, and he teaches all day the greatest
things that man has ever heard of. And that corpse just lies
there. It's there. It has no life. And so the prophet looked at
these bones, and the bones are bleached and parched in the hot
sun. And God asked him, Can these
bones live? And as we look at those who hate
God and love evil and who are a law unto themselves, who are
self-willed, who crucified the Lord of glory, God asks us this
question. Can these bones live? Can those who hate God
love God? Can those who love evil seek
after holiness? Can those who are law unto themselves
bow to Christ's law? Can those who are self-willed
and filled with envy and strife and malice and hatred, can they
love God's will? And those who crucified the Lord
of glory suddenly say, I believe I'll crown him as king. Can they do that? That's what
modern day preachers tell us, that they can do that. If they'll make up their mind
and make that decision and suddenly stop in their tracks and say,
wait a minute, I'm going the wrong way. Let me turn around.
And they say, you have that ability. And we say this book teaches
there is no spiritual ability in man whatsoever. So that's
the impossibility of preaching. Job asked that question, how
can man that is born a woman be clean? Jeremiah asked that
question, Can the Ethiopian change his skin and the leopard his
spots? And he said, If they can, then
can you do good who are accustomed to do evil? If you ever see a
man think a little bit and change the color of his skin, then you
can do good. The disciples asked that question,
Lord, who then can be saved? Who? Who can be saved? And you'll find that question
running all the way through the Bible, and I know the modern
evangelist has all the answers. You see them on television. You've
probably visited the churches at times. Some of you probably
came out of churches. Like that, where they say, come
down the aisle, shake my hand, and meet me in the promised land. But is that the answer? Is he
a dead man? Come on down, old dead man, and
shake my hand. And you won't be a bag of bones
anymore. You'll have life. No, you won't.
You won't have life. Take some of these soul winners
and send them down there among those dry dead bones and see
if they can make any of them rise up and live. No, Ezekiel, don't go down there
and shake hands with them. That won't give them life. No,
no, don't do that. Can these bones live, God said? Have you ever asked that question? Can my children live? My children
are dead in sins and trespasses. Can my children live?" Boy, we
think about them, so ignorant, so puffed up with their own importance,
so involved in this world. We have a son who makes just
wads of money. He'll be 50 years old next year,
and he has no conception of what it is to live. And he's seeing
the good times in this life, but he has no conception of what's
the matter with him. He's dead. And we can talk with
him and plead with him and reason with him, but his mind is great
and he has other thoughts about things. And he will agree with
anything you tell him. He'll say, that's right. The
Lord Jesus Christ saves from sin. Oh, that's right. We hadn't
saved him. Can these bones live? Is there
a possibility that a dead sinner can be made to live? Is there
a possibility of that? What a question. The impossibility
of what I'm doing right now, impossible. And when you contemplate what
spiritual death is and what spiritual life is, you're going to ask
that question, can these bones live? Not can they make a profession
of religion. Don't let your kinfolks make
a profession of religion. Keep them away from that. For
all men are religious by nature. Don't let them decide for Jesus. Keep your children away from
things like that. It's not deciding for Jesus. It is, can they live? Can they
live the life of faith, the life of glory, the life of love, the
life of beauty, the life of truth, the life of peace, the life of
rest, the life of God? Can they live that? They've got natural life, but
that's a long way from spiritual life. There's mineral life, and there's plant life, and there's animal life, and there's the natural life
of man. And then there is spiritual life,
and spiritual life is as far above natural life as natural
life is above animal life. You can't teach an ape geography,
and you can't teach a natural man the love of Christ. You can't teach an ape mathematics
and you can't teach a rebellious child of Adam what it is to walk
with Christ. It's impossible. I can't do that. No matter the greatest teacher
come along, the greatest Bible teacher, he can't teach an old
sinner how to walk with Christ. That's not possible. It's a life
they know nothing about, and God says, can they live? And here is the Prophet's answer
now, verse 3, the last part. And I answered, O Lord God, thou
knowest, thou knowest. The only one who knows whether
they can live is the one who has the power to make them live. Thou knowest. Boy, that's the
way I am. Lord, you know. You know whether
my children will live or not. You know whether my neighbors
will ever come and visit that little old church where we are
and hear the gospel or not. You know that. I don't know that. Thou knowest." The same thing was reenacted
between the disciples and the Master. Look at Matthew 19, verse 25. When his disciples heard it,
they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? But Jesus beheld them, he just
looked at them, and he said, With men this is impossible. Oh, the impossibility of preaching. With men this is impossible,
but with God all things are possible. You notice it says in verse 25,
when they heard it, when they heard what salvation
is, what life is. They were exceedingly amazed,
and it will amaze anybody when they find out what salvation
is and what life in Christ is. It's amazing. And that's the reason Ezekiel
stood back and said, Lord God, thou knowest. And God comes today to true preachers, and he says to those who preach
the truth of a sovereign Christ, lift up your eyes on the fields
and look at the dead, dry, parched bones. Can they live? Can those
people who come to our Church on occasion and are not seen
anymore for a long time, can they live? I don't know. Lord, thou knowest, and Lord,
I can't give them life. I can prophesy all sorts of recipes
and rituals and ceremonies, and I can get people to join the
church, and I can get them dumped in the baptistry, but I can't
give them life. And I make that clear when I
preach. I'm in an impossible situation. And if you, right where you are,
if you ever will come to know what life is, God has to come
right where you are. And two men will come in and
sit down, and during the course of the message At first they're
not either one interested at all, and then all of a sudden
one will show interest and his ears will perk up and he'll say,
I never heard anything like that before. And he says, this is the truth.
And the other one still sits there thinking about something
else, going fishing the next day. But that man whom God comes
to while the preaching is going on, What happened to him? He's made to live. And he said,
there's the truth. And I've seen that happen a few
times. I've never had a thousand saved
at one time. Or two, I'm trying to think of
two at one time. And all these preachers' brag
sheets, I don't know much about that. I just don't know anything about
that. I could go into the tomb and anoint Lazarus with some
sweet-smelling perfume, but old Lazarus still would be dead. And I might roll a stone over
his grave, and all that would do would make the community smell
a little better. He won't stink up the neighborhood. He'll reform and get a little
better, and he won't be as mean as he was to his wife. And he
gets right proud of himself. He's a good man now, and he doesn't
smell so bad. But he doesn't have life. I can't
do that. And a man can't give himself
life either. those dead bones out there. Can
you see them? One looks over to the other pile
of bones and says, I'll help you out. I'll put you together,
you put me together. That's what these preachers are
doing now. These dead bones may perform
what preachers tell them to do, and I agree with Don. All the
one of them say if they do what a preacher tells them to do.
except believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."
They make all sorts of decisions, but life is not in their power. Ezekiel said, O Lord God, Jehovah
God, Savior God, Jesus Christ, Lord God, thou knowest, because
as a saving, redeeming God, As Jesus the Christ, you can make
them alive if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
Jesus to be Lord. Don't ever rebel against this. The heart of the message of preaching
is that the Lord Jesus Christ is just that, he's the Lord.
That's the heart of our message. And if you rebel against this,
as most religious people do, you will find yourself speaking
against God. Thou knowest, Lord, and I say
to the Lord this morning, these people out here, Lord, that I'm
speaking to right now, there's not one thing I can do except
tell them the truth. I acknowledge to God that he
must come in the power that only he has. He has the power over
all dry, dead bones to give life to whom he will. For as the Father
raiseth up the dead, and quickneth them, even so the Son quickneth
whom he will. John 5, verse 21. I'm not talking about religion.
There's a whole lot too much religion. But I believe God raised
up a prophet here and one there, and they're scattered all over
this country and all over this world who are telling the truth
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, Lord, thou knowest, and
now the Lord's command, verse 4, began, he said unto me, Preach,
prophesy, That's an unusual way to bring
life, to dry bones, but that's God's way. People say to me, Well, if I
believe what you believe, that sinners are dead, have no power
to give themselves life, then I wouldn't preach. And I say
to them, Well, go on home and quit trying then. Go to bed and
get a nap. You're not going to do anybody
any good. Go on about your business and quit saying you're a preacher
of the gospel of God's grace. God said, Ezekiel, preach to
them, and then verse 7, So I prophesied as I was commanded. I did what God told me to do,
and that's all we can do today is what God tells us to do. The
preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness,
but not to us which are saved. It is the power of God. The power of God. I have a power
that I'm delivering to you. It's not my power, it's the power
of God. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible. How? By the word of God. 1 Peter 1.23. So we deliver the word of the
living God, preach to them, and tell them to hear the word of
the Lord. And I tell every one of you dear
folks here this morning, hear the word of the Lord. Oh, if
you just hear the word of the Lord. See, you are not here just
to endure the preaching time. You are here to hear from God. And God is speaking, and woe
be unto you if you don't hear while you are in this place. But I know you don't have ears
unless God has given you ears. All right, we'll have to get
through. The Prophet's Dependence, verse
9, Then said he unto me, Prophesy, son of man, say to the wind,
Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O breath, And, of course, you know, when the prophet preached, verse
7, there was a noise, and behold, a shaking, and the bones came
together. And you know the story, but there
was no breath in them. And then God said in verse 9,
prophesy unto the wind. Of course, the wind Here is breath,
and breath is the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit that quickeneth
the flesh, profiteth nothing. So call on the Holy Spirit, and
I call on the blessed Spirit of God. The sovereign, omnipotent
Spirit of God must come on these proceedings. if anybody hears
to even understand what we say. Saul of Tarsus had religion,
doctrine, zeal, but he said when it pleased God to reveal his
son in me. He was 40 years old, and God
gave him life. God gave him life. God gives
this divine life. I say again that I think very
often how impossible this job is, and yet I love it, I relish
it. Almost 35 years I have spoken
the word of God, and God has blessed it and people have heard
it, and occasionally the Spirit of God really comes upon a person
and they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And if he doesn't
come, our words fall flat, because he crushes human foolishness,
and he shows sin as it is. And when he comes, we quit hating and start loving.
We quit complaining and start praising. We quit fault-finding
and began to see good. But you are just a dry, dead
bone without him. And I am, too, this preacher. I am not preaching down to you. But he gives life. Verse 10, I prophesied
as he commanded me. And the breath came unto them,
and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding
great army. I think we ought to be Mighty
grateful to our Lord for coming our way, don't you? I'm grateful
that he came my way. That little old barefooted boy
back there in Bryson, Texas. If you're ever in Texas, go through
Bryson, but don't look for a statue on the town square, because they
didn't put one up when I left.