May the Lord be pleased to bless
us together this morning as we meditate in his holy word. Let
us turn to the prophecy of Ezekiel, chapter 37, and we'll read verses
nine and 10. The prophecy of Ezekiel, chapter
37, and reading verses nine and 10. Then said 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. So I prophesied as he commanded
me, and the breath came into them, And they lived and stood
upon their feet an exceeding great army. The Church of God through the
history of the world have passed through some dark times. Go back shortly to the time before
the flood. The world was in darkness and
there were only those eight souls that were delivered from that
terrible destruction where all those unbelievers were destroyed. And the Lord saved Noah and his
family and they were able to recommence the people of the
earth And yet, we see it wasn't long before, again, the people
turned away from God. And we know there was that occasion
when the Tower of Babel was being built and the Lord scattered
the people throughout the world. And then through the history
of Israel, there were so many dark times. And this was one
of them. We read off here. It was a time
when Israel were in captivity. That means they didn't enjoy
the freedom of their homeland. They were in a foreign place. They'd been captured, and they
were prisoner. And here they were then in Babylon. But the blessing is that the
Lord knew where they were, and the Lord knew what he would do. And the Lord knew how he would
appear for them and how he would bless them. And of course, since
that time, there have been exceedingly dark occasions, have there not,
in the world. You think in our country, the
dark ages, when the gospel was for the most part hidden and
not revealed and it was forbidden to be preached. And then, of
course, we've been reminded recently of that wonderful occasion when
Martin Luther was able to nail those theses to that door of
Wittenberg Cathedral 500 years ago last Tuesday. And what an
amazing effect emanated from that. He was only a humble monk,
but the Lord greatly blessed his work. his testimony, his
witness as the Lord granted him that wisdom and that spiritual
understanding and that strength to write those things which were
so against the Roman Catholic Church which was in charge in
those days. And if you just trace back history
then, you will note that that was in 1517. And at that time
there was darkness in Safar that was really only the Bible in
Latin which few could read and in actual fact many were forbidden
to read even that. And so what a time of darkness.
But from 1517 to 1534 the Lord wonderfully appeared so that
in that short period of time the Word of God was translated
into German, into French, into Dutch and into English. What
an amazing change. The Lord appeared and what happened?
His Spirit came upon the dry bones. Well now we've moved far
from there. In our nation, not only our nation,
the nations of the world, a time of darkness really again has
descended. And we're thankful the light
does still shine. It may be flickering, but we're
thankful it does still shine. And we're thankful still today
that we're able to freely gather together and to preach the Gospel,
indeed to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. What a blessing
then is ours, and may we really appreciate it, and may we thank
God for it. And more than that, may we be
concerned that we possess the life of God in our souls. That really is what Ezekiel was
directed to preach about here. He was to declare the whole counsel
of God and to speak that it wasn't just an outward effect, it was
the inward effect of the Spirit of God upon the souls of the
people. exactly the same that we need
today, in the churches, in our nation, individually, to know
the blessing of the Lord is indeed with us and upon us. This prophecy is quite remarkable. It stands out really in this
book of Ezekiel and it's very instructive to us. to see how
there was that preaching of the word again to young people prophesying
is really the same as preaching you and I can come and hear the
preaching of the gospel today in these times it was really
called prophesying as God raised up prophets to speak the word
of God and God today raises up preachers to preach the word
of God and we should be very thankful that we still are able
to hear the preaching of the Gospel. Well, this account here
is something which is very separating. You may say, well I don't understand
that. Well, may you understand it,
because what the Prophet describes here is the vast difference between
just an outward religion, just something which appears to be
alright, the outward form, and yet you see, what was lacking? Breath. We know, don't we, that
you and I cannot live naturally without breath. And my friends,
you and I cannot live spiritually without the breath of life, the
work of the Spirit in our hearts. Otherwise, we are dead. Otherwise,
we are just, as it were, possessed with an outward performance. And it's shown here as having
flesh and sinews and skin. But unless there's a breath,
there's no life. And that's the same today. You
see, we can do everything. We can come and we can worship
in the house of God. We can read the Bible. We can
pretend to pray. We can do all these things. And
we may think we're OK and we're sailing along on a nice calm
sea, hoping to come to heaven at last. But if that's all, we're
deceived. We need life in our souls. And that's what we have here
before us, so clearly described. Let us trace out the situation
firstly, because here Ezekiel was told, son of man, he was
asked the question, can these bones live? He was brought to
this valley, a deep valley, and in that valley what was there?
Bones, dry bones. I don't know if any of you have
seen dry bones, but you can see them. They're preserved in some
places, and I remember seeing in St. Brian's Church in London,
down in the basement, there was whole rows of skeletons, or rather
skulls, whole rows of skulls upon shelves, and in all bones
were all laid in lines, obviously representing hundreds of people. And yet you see they were absolutely
dead. No life at all. And so here was
Ezekiel brought to this valley and what did he see? No life,
just dead, dead bones. Most of the world is like that
today. Most of the world. Just dead,
dead bones. But then you see he is commanded
by God, and he's told to prophesy, preach to these bones and say
to 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 ye shall live. But there wasn't breath to begin
with. And I will lay sinews upon you and will bring up flesh upon
you. and cover you with skin and put
breath in you, but not yet, and you shall live, and you shall
know that I am the Lord. 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 flesh came up upon them, and the skin
covered them above. But there was no breath in them."
And how true that is. down through the ages, how true
it is today. People may hear the Word of God
in their natural ears. They may understand the Word
of God with their natural understanding. They may come together to worship
in a natural way, just to satisfy their conscience and think they're
doing the right thing. But what's lacking? The life of God. the life of
God. How vital it is then for all
of us to know that we possess the life of God. Well, there
was no breath. Did it stop there? Blessed be
God, it didn't. And so Ezekiel was commanded
to say, prophesy unto the wind. prophesy, son of man, and say
to the wind, thus saith the Lord God, come from the four winds."
That means from every part, north, south, east, west, we don't know
where that spirit comes from. But so he says, prophesy unto
the wind, son of man, and thus saith the Lord God, come from
the four winds, oh breathe and O breath and breathe upon these
slain that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded. Did he preach in vain? No. The God honored this preaching,
the preaching that he was commanded to preach. It wasn't his words. It wasn't his idea. He didn't
think, well, I get up today and I'll preach a wonderful sermon
on this. No, God commanded him what to preach. And so he prophesied
as he was commanded. And what happened? Wonderful
favour. The breath came into them. And there was no change. They were no longer dead. They
were no longer lifeless. They lived. They lived. And that's just like it for you
and me today. We need to live spiritually. The life of God within. They lived. And what did they do? Did they
continue lying down? No. They stood up. They stood
up on their feet. An exceeding great army. We're thankful today to know
that the Church of God is still an exceeding great army. And may we have the evidence
that we're amongst that army who stand upon their feet. Now before we comment on that,
just let's cast our mind to the New Testament and to the days
when the Lord Jesus was upon the earth. And there was that
wonderful occasion when Jesus was on the earth when that man
came to him called Nicodemus and He was um, he was embarrassed
to come to Jesus in the daytime so he came at night He was a
very able person he was a teacher and He came and Jesus said to
him Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God. What he was really telling him, that you're naturally alive,
but you need to be spiritually alive. And that's the same for
us today. Nicodemus saith unto him, how can a man be born when
he is old? Can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, verily,
verily, I say unto thee, Again, he reiterates this great and
important truth, except a man be born of water and of the spirit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of
the flesh is flesh. That's all it is. Flesh. Flesh, my friends, if we're only
flesh, we should die in the flesh. And that which is born of the
Spirit is Spirit. So how important it is for us
to possess the life of God. And here he tells us, marvel
not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. Natural man
doesn't want to understand this great truth. He doesn't want
to appreciate that he's spiritually dead, there's no life. He wants
to think he is alive. He wants to plan his own life,
he wants to walk his own life, do his own thing. He doesn't
want to submit himself under the mighty hand of God, no. He's not concerned about being
born again spiritually. Well, what a blessing today if
you and I are concerned to know that we are born again, that
we possess the life of God in our soul, so there is that breath
of life within us. Just as we need natural breath
to live, to possess the life, the breath of God in our souls.
And so the law tells us this, and this is why I read this,
the wind bloweth where it listeth. We all know that, don't we? The
wind blows, don't we? It goes round. We don't always
know where it comes from, do we? The wind blows. And the Word
tells us here, we hear the sound thereof. We hear the wind, don't
we? And canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit. The Spirit comes upon us. We don't know how it comes. It
comes through the mercy of God. It comes through the grace of
God. It comes because of the love
of God. And it comes into the heart of
all his people. And what is produced is, as Ezekiel
tells us in the previous chapters, we possess a new heart. We still
have the old heart. of our nature, but God gives
us a new heart, a spiritual heart, which seeks after eternal blessings. Well, today, this really is the
vital need for every one of us. It's not a question of just assuming
everything is all right. Assuming that, well, let's hope
at the end it'll be all right. Hope at the end the Lord will
come and take me home to glory. Unless we have the life of God
in our souls, unless we have the spiritual breath in our souls,
we will not go to heaven. Be quite clear about that. Do
not go on thinking everything's all right, because the devil,
you know what he tries to do? He tries to make us sleep. He tries to bring us into that
situation where we think I'm okay and there's no need really
to be worried about my eternal state. I read my Bible and I
do this and I do that and people think well of me. That doesn't
matter, it doesn't count. The vital thing is this, to know
the Lord Jesus Christ and to know the Lord Jesus Christ as
your Saviour and to know therefore the Lord Jesus Christ as a crucified
Saviour. You may say, well why is that
important? It's important because the Lord
Jesus Christ died in order to take away our sins. The Lord Jesus died so that we
might live. He died in our place. That's why it is so important
to know the Lord Jesus Christ as a crucified Saviour. And yet, do not stop there to know the Lord Jesus Christ
as the risen Saviour. The Lord Jesus Christ He did
die, he died in his human form, he died. But you see, the glory
of the gospel is, he was raised from the dead, a mighty conqueror. Where do we look today? For our
salvation, for the life of God in our soul. Where do we look today? There's
only one place, to the Lord Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. That's the only place of salvation.
And bless it be God, when this wind blows, when the Holy Spirit
enters into our heart. What that does is to reveal ourselves
in great need of a Saviour. We cannot then rely on our religion. We cannot rely upon what we've
done. We are taught and brought to
know by that Holy Spirit's work that it's what Christ has done
on our behalf to realise that the Lord Jesus
Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost. And that's
where you and I will be brought to, we'll realise we're a lost
and ruined sinner, there is absolutely no hope in ourselves. And what
does that make us do? Cry to God. Pray to God for mercy,
that He will look upon us, that He will have mercy upon us, that
He won't cast us off. We won't be dismissed as something
of no value. In ourselves we are. But you
see, in Christ we're of great value. It's a wonderful thought
to think and to know that we unworthy sinners are precious in the eyes of the
Saviour and we're so precious that He died to take away our
sins. What a mercy then this morning
if we have the blessed evidence of the work of God, the work
of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, which has produced a complete
change. And what that change does is
this. It brings the light of God shining
into our hearts. It's not the light of nature. It's the glorious light of the
Gospel. And that light, if it's shone
into our hearts, will never go out. Because it's the work of
the Holy Spirit. And bless God, the work of the
Holy Spirit never fails. No, the Holy Spirit is always
successful. And the work of the Holy Spirit
always brings honour and glory to God. What a favour then, if you and
I today possess this life of God in our souls, so that we
perhaps realise the truth of these words. It's not just an
outward profession, where there is no life, where there is no
breath, as Ezekiel says, but we are possessors of the life
of God in our soul. So this is true. The breath came
into us. This is what happened here. The
breath didn't just touch the outside. The wind just didn't
touch the outside. It came in. And that's what the
Holy Spirit does. It comes into our hearts. But it produces that new heart
within us. We are a changed person. And
we need to know that we are a changed person. And if so, it's very
humbling. You'll be very humbled before
God to think that He has come, none less than Almighty God,
the ruler, the creator of the universe, the one who rules and
reigns today. We might say very rightly and
very humbly to think that the great God has, as it were, has
taken time to come to you, taken time to come to me, and to reveal himself to us as
he does not unto the world. The vast multitude of mankind
is untouched by this wind of the Spirit, untouched. What a
mercy if this blessed wind of the Spirit has come upon us and
the Lord causes it to come in His time and in His way so that
His name will be honoured and glorified. It must be so. Let
us never forget our lives. small, insignificant as they
may seem to be, are for His honour and for His glory. And the Church
of God, blessed with this wonderful evidence and revelation of the
work of the Spirit in our hearts, desire to honour and glorify
this great Saviour who was so willing to come into this sinful
world to save our souls. It's good news, isn't it? The
Church of God never weary of hearing the good news of the
Gospel. Good news to our souls causes us to be thankful, causes
us to fall down, causes us to praise God for His love and for
His mercy toward us. And so this morning, my friends,
do you and I know and do we possess and do we have the evidence of
this great and glorious work within. Because if it is so,
we are a possessor of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what it means
is that we are part of him. And the Word of God, the Lord
Jesus himself spoke to his disciples. The eleven disciples in the upper
room on that amazing, wonderful night, the Passover night, when
the Lord Jesus Christ instituted the Lord's Supper, and he spoke
that glorious sermon to his disciples, and halfway through he told them
about this great truth. He said, I am the true vine. I guess most of us know what
a vine is. I expect you children know what
a vine is. A vine has grapes on it, growing. Hopefully it
has grapes and that's a vine and that's the illustration that
Lord gives us. There are many illustrations
in the Word of God and this is one. And he tells us this, every
branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away. And every
branch that beareth fruit, he purges it, that it may bring
forth more fruit." And just to say here that, of course, that
we know, don't we, naturally, fruit trees need to be pruned
so that they grow better. And that's the same in our spiritual
life. We need sometimes to have some
bits cut off, bits which are not profitable and not beneficial
in our life. We need to have them cut off.
What a blessing when God comes and prunes us back. Bits which
are dead perhaps, no life, get rid of them. There are things
in our lives which are dead, aren't they? They're no good,
they're no benefit. Let them be cut off. Now you're
clean for the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me
and I in you. This is the gracious words of
the Lord and there's no other plan and there's no other way
So may you and I be found abiding in Christ. Abide in me and I in you. Isn't that humbling? Isn't that
wonderful? Again, just realise Almighty God, billions of people
in the world. Why should the Lord take notice
of such an unworthy, sinful wretch as you and me? I'll tell you why. Because he loved
us, that's why. Abide in me and I in you, as
a branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the
vine. No more can ye except ye abide
in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. This is the church of God. The
whole church of God are part of this great and glorious heavenly
vine. He that abideth in me and I in
him, The same bringeth forth much fruit. And then he says
these words, for without me ye can do nothing. And you may say,
well, why is that? I'll tell you why it is. Because
we have to realize that all our life emanates from God. We cannot produce life ourselves.
We cannot produce a good work ourselves. It's all of grace. It's all from the Holy Spirit
of God. And what a blessing that is,
and what an evidence it is of the life of God in our souls,
when we realise that there's no ability ourselves. Mankind, for the most part, rely
on their ability. They think they get to heaven
because of their good works. That was just the situation which
existed in Martin Luther's day. Yes, the Christian world thought
they could merit the eternal life by purchasing that or working
for it. Well, the blessing of God came
upon Martin Luther, so he was able to speak those great words,
and one, of course, so relevant, that just shall live by faith. And my friends, you and I are
only made just by the work of the Blessed Saviour. Yes, we're
not just ourselves. We are unjust. And I hope you
all know that. There's nothing good. We're unjust.
But blessed be God when he gives us, through his Holy Spirit,
faith to believe in his finished work. that work on the cross,
so that we have to say, and we love to say, yes, my hope is
based on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And you young people may ask
the question, well why is it the blood? Leviticus tells us that life
is in the blood. and therefore blood had to be
shed to evidence life had been taken. And therefore the Lord
Jesus Christ, he shed his blood as an evidence that he'd given
his life, given his life that you and I might receive life. So that's why it is so necessary
to know that we are say through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why we read such words
as the Apostle Peter wrote when he said, you're not redeemed
with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation
received by your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ. Now then, if the Holy Spirit
has entered into our hearts and the light has shone, the glorious
light of the Gospel, that light will reveal to us the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now don't expect everything to
occur immediately, because the Word of God tells us it's here
a little and there a little. line upon line, precept upon
precept. The Lord comes by His Spirit
and reveals to us the things of God, reveals to us the Lord
Jesus Christ. Not all at once. You see, we're
told there is a spiritual growth. We want to be found growing spiritually. And you see, as we grow naturally,
we're able to do more and we're able to understand more. And
so it is in a spiritual life. The Lord comes and reveals to
us our need of a saviour, reveals to us then what the saviour is
and what he's done. And you see the more and more
the Lord blesses us, the greater the saviour comes. Oh yes, he
becomes more precious to us. And to be able to say, as the
hymn writer said, more precious far than earth and all its comforts
are, because all the comforts of life vanish and die and perish. The blessing of Christ is so
valuable, so precious. It's far more valuable than all
the things of life, because it brings with it eternal life. eternal life. And so here was
Ezekiel in his day, dark day, but a day when the Lord was still
mindful of his people. What a blessing perhaps today
in our lives, perhaps it may be darkness in our own soul. The devil wants to keep us in
a dark place and that's because we don't look up, that's because
we look down. We have a great glorious Saviour who ever lives. Yes, my friends,
there's no possibility of the Saviour failing because He has
done all that His Holy Father gave Him to do. He finished that
work on Calvary's cross when He spoke those wonderful words.
It is finished. The whole work of redemption,
the whole work of salvation was completed. And there today, our
hope rests upon what occurred at Calvary. Well, what a mercy when the Holy
Spirit then comes upon us and our spiritual eyes, not natural
eyes, we're thankful for that, our spiritual eyes are opened
so that we behold the great and glorious counsel of God. And
we behold, of course, in that the Lord Jesus Christ as the
living savior and the one who lives forevermore. And to think
that through his grace in giving to us the life of God in our
souls, we shall be found in glory with him eternally. No sin. No sorrow, no sadness, eternal
happiness. Yes, and Christ will be our song.
The song of the redeemed will begin it on this earth. It won't
be a strange song. No strangers enter into heaven.
No, those who are known by the Savior and those who know the
Savior. So my friends this morning, may
we have the evidence from the Holy Spirit that we possess the
life of God in our souls in this way, as it were described here,
as the breath of God breathing into our innermost heart and
the light from heaven shining therein, giving us to realise,
yes, we possess the life of God in our soul. and be able to fall
down and praise and bless God for his infinite love and mercy
to such unworthy sinners. And so, as the prophet says,
prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind,
thus saith the Lord God, come. from the four winds of breath,
and breathe upon these slain, and they may live. So I prophesied
as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived. May we know that we live. And stood up upon their feet
an exceeding great army, and just very quickly, standing,
What does that mean? We stand where? Upon Christ. That's where we stand. Yes, there
was no standing before. There was no foundation. When
the light shines, we stand upon the rock, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, may all of us know that.
And we're not standing on shaky ground. We're not standing on
sandy ground. We're standing upon that rock.
And that rock is Christ. And that's a foundation which
will never give way. safety eternally in Christ.