Turn with me to Ezekiel 37. We're
going to take it a few verses at a time. Work our way down
through verse 14. The hand of the Lord was upon
me. This is Ezekiel speaking. 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."
The first thing I want you to see is the work of saving sinners
from their sins begins with the Lord sending His messenger. Ezekiel says here, "...the hand
of the Lord was upon me, He carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord. He set me down. He set me down. Our Lord said, How can they call
on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? Our God no more leaves the work
of sending His messengers up to men than He does electing
His children, redeeming His children, or regenerating His children.
He doesn't leave that up to men. He sends whom He will. Jeremiah 3.15, he said, I will
give you pastors after mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge
and understanding. There's not a chance, there's
not a maybe, there's not an if in that any more than there is
in the gospel of Christ. He said, I will and they shall. I will and they shall. Either
God's true and men are liars, or God's a liar and men are true.
He said, I will send you pastors and they shall feed you with
knowledge and true understanding. Ezekiel said, the Lord set me
down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones. Ezekiel
didn't go searching for this valley. The Lord set him down
in this valley. You think of how many valleys
there are in that land. And the Lord took him to that
valley and set him down in that valley, to behold that valley. He said, the Lord caused me to
pass by them round about. That valley was full of bones.
And he said, the Lord caused me to pass by those bones round
about, just to walk in amongst them. and look at them. Give
them a good look and observe what it was that was in that
valley. Who it was the Lord was sending
him to in that valley. You consider the condition of
these bones. It was a valley which was full
of bones. Verse 2 says, Behold, there were
very many in the open valley, and lo, they were very dry. In
a little while, he says that these bones were brought together
and joined bone to bone. That means they were separated.
They were scattered. These bones weren't even together.
They were just separated. This is a picture of the condition
of every individual particular sinner that God saves by his
grace. The immediate context for my,
for the sticklers at my, here it is, the immediate context
is God was going to gather his elect remnant out of the house
of Israel and restore them in the days of Cyrus the king. And
that's what he did. He fulfilled it. But it applies
to the necessity, the need, the condition of every sinner whom
God shall save by His grace. This is the description, lifeless
bones. Every unregenerate sinner is
out in the open valley, dead under the condemnation of God,
like that heat that came down from the sun and bleached those
bones white. under the condemnation of God.
Every sinner by nature is spiritually dead. Spiritually dead. Dead in trespasses and in sins. Dead. And some are twice dead. Dead in trespasses and in sins
and dead in religion. Twice dead. Romans 5.12 says,
Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by
sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sin. Every sinner here who is in your
natural born condition, the way you came from your mama, is that
you are separated from God. You are separated from Christ.
You have no ability whatsoever to give yourself life. You can
hear with your head, but you cannot hear with a new heart.
You are dead in trespasses and in sins. Dead in trespasses and
in sins. The Lord asked a question in
verse 3. And He said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? I titled the message, Can Dead
Sinners Live? Can Dead Sinners Live? That's
what he's asking. Can these bones live? What's the point of this? Why
is Ezekiel being made to know? Why has he been taken out here
by the Lord and sent down in this valley of dry bones and
made to see what he's up against? Why is that the case? Ezekiel
is being made to know that what he is called to do, he has absolutely
no power and no sufficiency to perform. Look at 2 Corinthians with me.
2 Corinthians chapter 2. 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse
14. Now thanks be unto God, Paul
is speaking, now thanks be unto God which always causeth us to
triumph in Christ. He's speaking of gospel preachers. And He maketh manifest the savor
of His knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God, whatever
the case is when the gospel goes forth, we are unto God a sweet
savor of Christ. in them that are saved, and in
them that perish. To the one we are the saver of
death unto death, and to the other the saver of life unto
life, unto God, that's what we are. And who is sufficient for
these things? Who is sufficient for these things?
Why is the gospel a sweet saver unto God of Christ? Why is the
gospel not life to everyone? There's one question, one answer.
Look at verse 17. For we are not as many." Paul
said, me and the true gospel preachers that the Lord has sent,
that he said, I will send and they shall feed you with knowledge
and understanding. We are not as many which corrupt
the Word of God. But as of sincerity, but as of
God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ. Dry bones hate
God. Dry bones hate Christ. Dry bones
hate His ambassadors. Dry bones hate His gospel. Who
is sufficient for this work? Deuteronomy 3, verse 5. The latter
part. But our sufficiency is of God. Now that's what Ezekiel is being
taught in the Valley of Dry Bones. Listen to Ezekiel's answer. Ezekiel
37. And I answered, O Lord God, thou
knowest. You know that's all I need to
know. That is all I need to know to put some jump in my step,
is He knows. I don't have to know, He knows.
That's all I need to know. The excellency of the power is
not of us, it's of God. God has purposed who He will
save. Christ has purchased those God
has given to him. And the Spirit of God shall regenerate
them and they shall follow Christ. Salvation is of the Lord. That's
what that means. Salvation is of the Lord. You
know, it became clear to me early on. The Lord sent me down in
a valley and let me see what God's preachers deal with. Let
me see the kind of folks God's preachers are preaching to. And
it became abundantly clear to me early on that unless the Lord
carried me out in the Spirit, I didn't want to go. I just didn't
want to go. Moses said, Wherein shall it
be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy
sight? Only one way. Only one way. Moses said, Is
it not in that thou goest with us? So shall we be separated,
I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face
of the earth. That's the only way you can be separated, is
if God goes with you. It's a mistake to run when God
hasn't sent you. It is a mistake to be run when
the Spirit of God hasn't carried you out. Because in ourselves,
Every preacher who preaches the gospel, every man who stands
up in the sight of God and determines to preach Christ and Him crucified
to God-hating sinners is totally unable, totally insufficient
to do anything to make sinners hear the Word he preaches. Absolutely
unable to do so. Well, here's the second thing
I want you to see. He gives his messenger a two-fold charge.
A two-fold charge. Here's the first thing, verse
4. Again he said unto me, prophesy unto these bones, and say unto
them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Now that's
the first charge, prophesy. It means preach. It means preach
the word. Preach the Word of the Lord.
Here's what He said. Tell them. Tell them, you are
dry bones. Tell them, you are dead, dry
bones. And tell them to do this. Tell
them to hear the Word of the Lord. Oh ye dry bones, hear the
Word of the Lord. These bones are dead. They're
dry bones. Why preach to them? They don't
have any ears to hear. They don't have any ability to
hear anything Ezekiel is saying to them. And the Lord says, go
say to them, oh you bunch of dead dry bones, hear the word
of the Lord. Why would you, why in the world
would a man be so ignorant as to say that? Because the Lord
said to. The Lord said do it. That's why.
The Lord said do it. Do it because the Lord said do
it. That's what I do in this place every time I speak to you.
Every time I preach here, I tell you what you are. Dry bones. Those of you who believe on the
Lord in your flesh, your flesh is still what it's always been.
Dry bones. And those of you who don't know
Him and believe on Him, you are dry bones. And I'm saying to you, hear this
word. Hear it. Hear it. How would that
accomplish anything for dead, dry bones who can't even hear? How's that going to accomplish
anything? Listen to the message Ezekiel was sent to preach. Here's
the gospel he was sent to tell them to hear. Look at verse 5.
Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones, Behold, I will The
Lord said, I will. I will cause breath to enter
into you, and ye 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 ye shall live. And ye shall know
that I am the Lord. The message of the gospel is
declaring God's works, not man's works. It's declaring God's works,
not man's works. It's declaring what God has done,
is doing, and shall do. Not what you ought to do, or
should be doing, or how you can get better elevated above your
brethren and be with God in a better spot. It's none of that. If you
want that, turn on Oprah. Turn on Dr. Field. Don't bring
God into it! This is what the Lord said, No
man can come to Me except the Father which hath sent Me. Draw
him, and I will raise him up at the last day. He told Nicodemus,
Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God. Why not? Because that which is
born of the flesh, that which comes out of a woman, that baby
that comes out of a woman is flesh. Sinful, depraved, hell-deserving
flesh. And that which is born of God,
born of the incorruptible seed of God, born of the Holy Spirit
of God, born of Christ Jesus the Word is spirit and live forever. Live forever. The Word of the Lord made Ezekiel
respond one way. One way. Look at verse 7. So I prophesied as I was commanded. That's why the Lord said, I will
send you pastors after my heart and they shall feed you with
knowledge and understanding. Because when He takes His pastor
out and sets him down in the valley of dry bones and carries
him out in the Spirit, He makes him to know He's the Lord and
I am a puny peon, nobody that can do nothing but has this treasure
in an earthen vessel and am totally dependent upon the excellency
of His power. Now you know what this tells
me? This gives me three reasons why men will not preach the truth
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Three reasons why. Number one,
they have not been sin of the Lord. That's the first reason. Number two, they do not think
sinners are as dead as these dry bones. And number three,
they do not think God is able to raise up sinners from the
dead and that He will do it only through His Word. They don't
believe that. If they did, if you stopped on
the side of a road at a car accident and you knew without a shadow
of a doubt that you had something in your car Maybe it's a some
kind of orthopedic device that you could put around the neck
of somebody and save their life You would not hesitate for one
moment to take that device and use it Exactly how it should
be used to put it upon the neck of that person to see that you
saved their life You know why? Because you know that will work
you know it has the power to perform its job, and you know
it will save the person and That's why men don't preach Christ.
They hadn't been sent. They do not believe that men
are dead. And they do not believe, they
deny the power of God. Have a form of godliness, but
deny the power of God. Alright, back to verse 7. He
says, 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, lo, the sinews
and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them above,
but there was no breath in them. The Lord God shook the bones. The Lord God drew the bones together.
The Lord God brought the the constraints upon the bones to
hold them together, and flesh upon them. But there was no breath
in them yet. Now what's Ezekiel to do? What's
he going to do now? Somebody falls under conviction.
Men begin to gather in to hear the Word. They begin to come
from the East and the West and North and the South. They come
in to hear it. They begin to rattle and to shake
at the message they're hearing. They express their concern. What do I do? Now what does the
preacher do? Oh, start coercing them. Start
trying to tell them how to walk. Start trying to tell them what
hoops they need to jump to to get into the church. Start trying
to get them in the baptismal pool as soon as you can. What
do you do next? What do you do next? Verse 9. This is the second charge God
gives to His preachers. There's only two. The first one
is, preach the Word. Here's the second one. Then said
He unto me, prophesy unto the wind. Prophesy, O 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. He says, pray. Pray to God, the
Holy Spirit, Come in effectual grace and make the word effectual
in their hearts. Come. Look back at Ezekiel 36
with me just a moment. Verse 26. Verse 25, the Lord says, I will
sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean. This
is the water of purification, the blood of Christ Jesus that
speaks better things than that water of the ashes of a red heifer
that sprinkles. This blood is sprinkled upon
the conscience and takes away the defiling of the conscience
and turns the sinner from dead works to serve the true and living
God. The blood of Christ. I'll sprinkle it and you shall
be clean. There will still be some things for you to get clean,
to get sanctified, to get purified. You will be when I do this. You
will be. From all your filthiness or from
all your idols will I cleanse you. I'm going to bring you away
from them. I'm going to sanctify you from them. When I do this,
you're going to flee from them immediately. a new heart also
will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I'll
take away the stony heart of your flesh, and I'll give you
a heart of flesh, and I'll put my spirit within you, and cause
you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments and
do them." You're going to believe me, but look down at verse 37.
Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by
the house of Israel to do it for them. I will increase them
with men like a flock. But you're going to ask me. You're
going to ask me to do it. But we just sing. Brethren, we
met to worship. Pray that the Holy One will come
down and manna shall be spread all around. Without the Spirit
of God blessing the Word that goes forth, You can hear it with
these ears, you can hear it with his head, but you can't hear
it in the heart with the spiritual ears of understanding. That's
why Peter said when they came up with an issue about the tables
and giving the widows the money and making sure that the offerings
were being spread out evenly among everybody, Peter said,
pick out... They had 8,000 people there already. Peter said, pick out seven men.
Faithful men to take care of this, because he said, I have
a two-fold charge given to me by God, and as a faithful watchman,
this is what I am commanded to do. We will give ourselves to
the Word and to prayer. Two things, to the Word and to
prayer. Here's a point to consider too.
We see the importance of prayer. We see how important it is. Brethren,
pray. Pray that God will bless this
Word. Pray that He'll bless this Word. Pray that it'll go forth
and accomplish the thing whereunto He sent it. Pray that He will
do. He will be inquired of for this.
Here's something to consider too. We see the importance of
prayer, but we see also the Lord bringing about that which He
requires. Do you see that? He will have
Ezekiel pray to him, and therefore he effectually commands Ezekiel
to pray. And what does Ezekiel do? Verse
10. So I prophesied as he commanded
me. I prayed like he said pray. You
see, God, when it comes to his messengers, it's no more a haphazard,
it's no more a thing of the will of man than it is in your salvation. He says, I will set them down
and show them this dead, dry bones and I will make them preach
my gospel even though it goes beyond all reason and I will
put prayer into their heart and give them hearts to pray for
my people. Whatever God commands you and I to do, He doesn't leave
it up to us to make sure it gets done. He effectually, irresistibly,
sovereignly, in power, works in the heart that which He has
commanded you to do so that He gets the glory. He gets the glory. Alright, thirdly, here's the
effectual result of God's grace, and we'll be done. Now, the Lord
God shook the bones, the Lord God drew the bones together,
the Lord God brought the sinews and flesh upon them, and the
Lord God made them to do four things. Verse 10. So I prophesied as He commanded
me. He preached and He prayed, and a breath came into them.
That's the first thing. Now, Ezekiel prayed just like
the Lord told him to. Ezekiel preached just like the
Lord told him to. But the breath came into them without Ezekiel. It came into
them of its own will. The Lord said, the wind blows
where it will. The Spirit of God blows where it will. God
will be inquired, but when He enters in, He's entering in.
When He enters in, He's coming in. And He enters in. That's
the first thing. Breath came into them. Here's
the second thing. And they lived. Now you get the
picture of that. Here these bones are, as dead
as Adam was when God formed him from the dust of the ground.
Everything's been done. The works have all been finished.
Everything has been accomplished. Everything is completed by God
Almighty alone, just like Christ Jesus has completed all the work. It's done. It's finished. And
then God breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life and
Adam opened up his eyes and he lived. He didn't say, wait a
minute now, I don't know about that. I don't know if I want
to live. He lived. He couldn't resist it. He lived. And you know what he
beheld when his eyes were open? He was in a perfect environment. Everything was done. Everything
was finished. There wasn't anything left for
him to do. It was done. If God ever opens your eyes through
this gospel, that's what you're going to behold in Christ Jesus.
It's done. It's done. And here's what they did. Third
thing, they stood upon their feet an exceeding great army. You know why they're an exceeding
great army? Because they have experienced
the wisdom and power of God. They know now how dead sinners
are really brought to life. They know now that only the Word
of the Gospel will accomplish this. They know now that only
the prayer of the saints are going to... God's going to bless
to honor this work and make it effectual. They know it because,
you know why? They've experienced it. It's
real to them. To some, the preaching of this
Gospel is foolishness, God Almighty said. But to them who are called
Christ is the power and the wisdom of God. And I have before me
right here an exceeding great army. Why? Because the weapons of your warfare
are not carnal. And now you know that. But they're
mighty. I have a friend who's in the
Air Force, major in the Air Force, good friend, Will McGee. I named
Will after him. And we joke with each other when
we talk on the phone. I said, what you doing these
days? He said, I'm standing on that
wall. I said, you want me standing on that wall, guarding this country.
That's what I'm doing, standing on that wall. He'll say, what
are you doing? I said, I'm standing on that
wall. But my weapons aren't carnal. Mine are mighty. I got something
stronger than an F-16. I got something mightier than
a stealth bomber. I got the Word of God. I got
the Lord of Hosts. I got the Spirit of God. He says, he came to that tomb,
and Lazarus has been in that tomb now for four days, and Martha
says, he stinks. He stinks. That's us. We stink. These bones been in the field
so long, they was bleached white, didn't even have any marrow in
the bones anymore. That's how dry we are. We'd be all stinking
by nature with just dead, dry, bleached out bones. But he came
to that tomb and he said, roll back the stone. You know what
the Lord told Ezekiel to do right here? By preaching this word
and praying, roll back the stone. And the Lord said, Lazarus, come
forth. And guess what happened? Well,
now let me exercise my will. Don't offend my free will. Let
me, no. Lazarus came forth. The Lord breathed life into them
and they lived and they stood up on their feet and became an
exceeding great army. Well, I said there were four
things that this effectual grace did. What's the other thing?
Somebody asked this question on our little question slot on
the computer, on the website. Somebody asked, why did the Lord
allow sin to enter in and death by sin? I'm kind of helping them with
the question, but that's the gist of it. Why did the Lord
allow sin to enter in at death by sin? Because when He overcomes
death in you by His power and His wisdom, you're going to know
and glorify and praise the great I Am. That's why. Look at verse 13. And ye shall
know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O
my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall
put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place
you in your own land. Then you shall know that I the
Lord have spoken it, and I have performed it, saith the Lord."
Now, if he speaks this, and He performs this, that leaves absolutely
no room for boasting from me, your preacher, or from you, the
one to whom He speaks. You and I have nothing in which
to glory save the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's all. That's all. And when He does
this, He says, you shall know. Moreover, the law entered that
sin might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more
abound. That's what He makes you to behold,
that as sin has reigned unto death, even so might righteousness
reign through Christ Jesus the Lord unto eternal life. That's what He makes you to behold.
God, whose rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ by grace, are you saying? Through faith. And that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God, lest any man should boast. Not of works, lest
any man should boast. What do we say to this? Look
over at Psalm 127. Psalm 127. was the application to us right
here where we sit, right here today. I hope you saw in the first hour
how we would store our residence with this word. Now we're seeing
in this hour that there's a two-fold job. Preach the Word and pray. That's the two-fold job. Preach
the Word and pray. Now, here's why. Psalm 127.1. I hear all these reports of men
being baptized and this church baptized this many and that many
and this many and that many. I want to see the number that
went out this month. I want to see the number that
left this month. It's nothing to get them in the
door. But you can't keep them there. Unless God does a work
of grace in the heart. Here's the lesson, verse 1. Except
the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city,
the watchman waketh but in vain. I'm the watchman of this city
right here. But if the Lord doesn't do this work, I'm laboring in
vain. If He doesn't keep this city,
it's vain for me to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread
of sorrows. For so He giveth His beloved
sheep. He gives. Lo, I watched it, this
is why. Children are a heritage of the
Lord. It's His portion. And the fruit
of the womb is His reward. He gets the glory. He gets the
glory for producing His children. You understand that? So what
do we do? We preach the Gospel. We pray
for Him to bless it. And one more thing. One more
thing. We wait on Him to work this work of grace in His time. in nine hours. Boy, that's a tough one for a
carnal man. Not for a believer, though. He's
experienced it. He's experienced it, and he knows
it so. And by God's grace, he can do
it. He can do it. Amen.