I turn back with me to Ezekiel
chapter 37. Spend a few minutes going over
the previous chapter in the in the previous portion of this,
this book, because you see, it's going to all connect together.
And this chapter 36 in chapter 37, I want you to see How the
covenant of God's grace is the center of all of these things. The promise of God to Israel. And in chapter 36 we read of
this covenant of grace that God swore that He would do for Israel,
not for their sake. If you read verse 18, now we're
not gonna take your time, verse 18 down to verse 22, he explains
the reason for this covenant. He said, you defiled it, you
are the sinner, you don't deserve it. Listen, I'm doing this for
me. Boy, that just makes religious
people stand up, their hair stand up on their back. They just hate
that, that God does everything for himself. God says, I'm doing
everything for myself because my name is great. He said, I
do this for my own name's sake. And so, what does He do? He testifies
of His eternal covenant of grace. He says, I will gather Israel.
That's the first thing He said I'm going to do. I'm going to
gather them. I'm going to sprinkle them with clean water. I'm going
to cleanse them from all their sin. What a covenant. Isn't that
good? He said, I'm going to give them
a new heart. Take out that heart of stone
and give them a heart of flesh. A new spirit will I put within
them. They're going to keep my statutes
and my judgments. What a promise. It's a promise. That's what God swears to do.
And He doesn't do it for you. He does it for Himself. Now He swore to do this for Israel. For Israel. Now did the covenant of God fail? You look at that little puny
nation over there, you say, is that what God did for them? Did
God's covenant fail? No. Because He's not talking
about national Israel. Well, God did deliver those people.
God did save them out of their captivity, but listen, not all
of them were saved. Not all of them were cleansed
of their sins. This is speaking about the elect. God's Israel. God's people. He says, I'm going to gather
them. I'm going to gather them from the four corners of the
earth. I'm going to gather them to myself. I'm going to cleanse
them with the blood of Christ. I swear I'm going to impart to
them a new nature, a new heart. They will keep my statutes and
my law. What is our law? Who are believers
in Christ? Is it not the law of faith and
love? That's the statutes that we keep.
It gives us the Holy Spirit. And God concludes in this covenant
this, Look at verse 34, or 38. This is the conclusion of this
covenant. I know I skipped a lot. This
is the introduction. I don't want you to think I'm
missing anything. I've just got to get through
this to get to the other one. Verse 38, he says this. As the
holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem enter solemn feast, so shall
the way cities be filled with flocks of men. They shall know
that I am the Lord. In other words, my church is
going to be full. Isn't this a comfort to know that God's
church is full at all times? That the church of God is not
lacking any members. Everyone who was ordained to
eternal life, what? Believed. The church is always
full, regardless of what numbers look like in the seats. It doesn't matter. That's not
the point. He said, My flock is going to
be full, going to be full of men, full of men. That's the
end of this covenant. Therefore Jesus said this, In
great faith, all that the Father hath given me shall come to me,
and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out, for I came
not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
Now what's the will of God? Didn't I just read it to you?
The covenant is the will of God. This eternal covenant of grace
to gather them, to cleanse them, they will be my people, I will
be their God. This is the will of God the Father. And Jesus said, I came to fulfill
that will. And this is the result, that of all he hath given me,
I should lose nothing. Why in the world we would ever
wring our hands in fret as though the church is not full? I think because of our faith
being so weak. Did he not swear to do it? How could we doubt? How could
we doubt him? And then now you go to Chapter
37 and in Chapter 37, there are two pictures of the fulfillment
of this covenant. God gives the covenant, He tells
you what He's going to do, and then He's going to show you illustrations
of how He's going to fulfill that in real time. And the two
pictures, the first one, we know very well, it is the picture
of the dry bones. In chapter 37, the Lord carries
Ezekiel out, in the spirit and he lays him out there and he
shows him this valley full of dry bones and he says, go out
there and look at them. He goes out there and looks at
them and he says, they're not just dry, they're very dry. There's no moisture, there's
no life whatsoever in these bones. He says, that's right. Now I
want you to preach to the dead bones. That's the most, in human
wisdom that would be the most foolish thing to do, wouldn't
it? Wouldn't you want to preach to the living? Nope. You preach
to the dead. That's what we do. Somebody one day came to preach
to this dead man. I was dead. Somebody came to
preach to me. God said, you go out there and
you preach to them. You preach the word to them.
You preach my promise to them. And in verse 4, He said, prophesy
unto these bones and say unto them, O you 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 sin upon
you and bring 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. That's a promise. That's what he was to preach.
And so he does it. And a most miraculous thing happens. The bones begin to rattle. They
begin to shake. And these bones of these soldiers
gather, scattered all over this battlefield. They're dead. And
they come together. And I like this. Bone to his
bone. And then he brings flesh on them.
muscle and sinew and veins and arteries and all that is necessary
for human life. He brings it on them. And then
they're standing there, but there's something missing in them. Breath. Breath. And he says, O son of
man, prophesy to the wind. Preach to the wind. And what is he to preach? The
promise of God. You promised to give breath to
these. Give breath to them. This reminds
me of the necessity of prayer. Necessity of prayer. You know,
God has elect people and he's going to save them. But God says,
I will be inquired of you. We should pray for the loss.
We should pray that God call his people. And you know what?
You will have an answer to that prayer. He will call his people. Everything God promised to do,
He did, didn't He? And life and breath came into
these. Now then, what does this mean?
He doesn't leave you to doubt. If you look at verse 11, He tells
you the whole meaning of this. He said, Son of man, these bones
are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say our bones are
dried and our hope is lost and we are cut off for our parts.
Isn't this exactly Our experience. When the spirit of God comes
to a lost sinner, the first thing he knows is this. I am dead and
there is no hope. Listen, if you've never been
there. You've never really had a need for Christ. If you had something you can
contribute. I remember there were many years
of things that I thought I could contribute still. I didn't realize
I was really dead. When God's people call out and
they are really dead, what do they need to hear? They need
to hear this, I will give you life. That's what he says. He
says in verse 12, prophesy to them that say that. Thus saith
the Lord, behold, all my people, I will open your graves and cause
you to come out of your graves and bring you to the land of
Israel. And you shall know that I am
the Lord when I have opened your graves. Oh, my people and brought
you up out of your graves. And this is exactly what the
Lord Jesus Christ said. He said the hour is coming and
now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the son of God and
they that hear shall what? Live. She'll live. It's the same,
same message. Same message. When God speaks life to the dead
sinner, what else can he do but live? I always like this. Is God asking
the dead sinner to live? Is He? Is He pleading with the
dead sinner? No, when God says live, you live.
That's my experience. That's the experience of every
one of these dead soldiers right here. My experience. When God
said live, I lived. And what's the evidence of life?
Is it not breath? And what is the breath of the
believer? What is the breath of those named in the covenant
of grace? It is faith in Jesus Christ. Faith is the breath of
life. It's the evidence of our election. It's the evidence of our being
cleansed. It is faith in Jesus Christ. Are you born again of the Spirit?
Not according to your works, but according to the will of
God? You know, He says to those that are quick, and you shall
know that I did it. Isn't that what happened when God gave you
faith? Do you not know this, that the
Lord did it? What part did you have in it?
I had none. None whatsoever. Lord did it
all. Lord did it all. That's what
it is to be saved according to this covenant. Okay, now then I want you to
look at this second picture here. This second picture in verse
15 through the end of the chapter is not miraculous. The other
one was outstandingly miraculous, wasn't it? The dead were not
just dead. I mean, that's one thing to have
a dead corpse right there, right? And it raised from the dead.
No, no. These were bones. They were no
flesh at all. It was a very miraculous thing
that happened in that other picture. But this one is very simple.
I'm going to give you the whole gist of it. God says, okay, you're
going to take two sticks. Go pick up two sticks. And I
want you to write the names of the tribes of Israel on one stick,
and the names of the tribe of Judah on the other. Two nations,
remember the ten tribes of Israel, and then you have the two tribes
of Judah. And He says, I want you to write the names on the
sticks. Then, I want you to take both
sticks and put them in your hand, and in your hand they're going
to be one stick. Not miraculous at all, is it?
Very simple little picture, but it has great meaning. Very great
meaning. And so he does this, he commands
him to do this very simple thing. Taking these sticks. And that's
in verse 19. And then when the people come,
they're gonna see the prophet walking around with these two
sticks. See him walking around, he got two sticks in his hand,
and he's walking around, walking around, It's all he does. And
if people are going to look at him and say, what in the world
are you doing with those two sticks in your hand? What does that
mean? I don't understand. And God says, well, I'm going
to tell you what it means. Don't you like that? You don't
let you guess. I know people like to guess because they like
to have opinions. I don't like to have an opinion.
I like God. Just tell me what it means. That
way, don't guess. That's what he's going to do.
Look at verse 19, saying to them when they ask you. Thus saith
the Lord, Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is
in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows,
and I will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah,
and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand. They shall be one in mine hand. Again, the whole house of Israel
comprised of these two nations. God swears He's going to bring
together. Here God promises a reconciliation
of the two nations. And listen, physically, now physically
this happened under the leadership of a man named Zerubbabel. God
did promise that these two nations would come together and be one
nation again, and they did do that physically under Zerubbabel. There's much more here than Zerubbabel. Much more than the historical
gathering of the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah. Much
more significance is here placed on this. Because we know this,
that the nation of Israel in the Old Testament always pictures
the elect. That's the purpose of this nation
of Israel. There was no other purpose for
them. They had a great purpose to picture God's elect. And what are God's elect made
of? Two nations, the Gentiles and the Jews. Two distinct people. And yet
God says, my people are made up of these two, Jews and Gentiles. Gentiles, like the northern tribes,
have forsaken the Word of God, while the Jews are pictured by
the tribe of Judah. The tribe of Judah continued
at least to fainly worship after the law of Moses, whereas the
ten tribes of the north, they completely abandoned them. This
pictures the Gentiles. We, by our people, completely
abandoned God and His Word completely. while the Jews had at least a
pretense of worship. But the main thing here is to
notice that both Israel and Judah are both pictured by sticks.
Why is this significant? Why gather two sticks? What's a stick? I told Audrey the other day,
go out there and pick up all the sticks out of the yard. They
once were attached to a living tree. But because of the wind
or they got old, they fell off and they are detached now from
the living. They are dead things. They are fruitless. They are
useless. And the only thing you can do
with them is burn them. They're no use for them. You
can't eat them. They don't provide any nourishment,
not going to provide any fruit, and you take a twig and you break
it off of an apple tree and you throw it on the ground, it's
not going to produce apples. It's dead. That's us. Spiritually, inside, we are dead,
unfruitful, incapable of being useful. We're no different than these
twigs dead and fruitless. But behold the grace of God in
taking these lifeless sticks. And inscribing the names of the
children of Israel on them. Consider you who are God's people. It was by God's sovereign will
to write your names in heaven from eternity. It was God's will to write your
names. Now, did the sticks have anything
to do with writing the names? Could they miraculously write
names on themselves? No. So it is with us. We could not have written our
names in heaven. We could not have forced God
to write our names. We could not merit God writing
our names. But yet this is true of every
one of God's elect, that our names are written in heaven by
God. We were dead sticks and now by
God we are reconciled. Who? Those whose names are written
down. God has inscribed our names,
not with the pens of men, but with indelible ink. Remember in Luke chapter 10,
our Lord sent His disciples out to preach and they were amazed. The spirits were subject to them. They cast out devils and demons. They were amazed. They healed
the sick. And they came back to Jesus and they said, wow,
look what great things that we've done. We're able to heal the
sick and cast out devils. And He said, no, no. That's a
very small thing. He tells them in Luke chapter
10 in verse 20, he said, notwithstanding in this, rejoice not that the
spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names
are written in heaven. Your names are written in heaven.
So as you see these two sticks, remember this, we by nature were
nothing but dead sticks, worthless and useless. Yet God in grace
has written our names in heaven. In Revelation 13, it tells us
that those are those who will worship the beast. Are those
whose names are not written? In the book of life of the lamb
slain before the foundation of the world. When was your name
written? God wrote it. When was it written?
It was written from eternity. Before the world began, our names
were written down in that covenant. The covenant, the covenant of
grace that God swore to do. I'm going to gather you. I'm
going to cleanse you. I'm going to give you a new heart.
You're going to be my people. I am going to be your God. That
is the covenant. Who is the covenant for? It is
for everyone whose name is written in heaven. Who is that? I don't
know. I know mine is. Isn't that great? That's pretty arrogant. How do
you know that? Well, because faith is the evidence
of that, isn't it? We'll get to that in just a minute. So consider this, that our names
are written by God. Praise God that he has written
our names in heaven. Those who believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, those who are written down by God. And these who are written down,
they shall be reconciled. Isn't that what you do when you
took the two sticks in his hand? What is he saying? I am reconciling
them. I am reconciling them. So those
whose names are written in the book of life, they are going
to be reconciled. How? How can these dead lifeless
sticks have any power to reconcile themselves? They canít. You cannot
reconcile yourself to God. No matter what you do, you cannot
make reconciliation for yourself. You have just as much power to
reconcile yourself as a dead stick does to put itself with
another one. You don't. The only way the elector ever
going to be reconciled is what he says. In in verse 19, they shall be
won in my hand, in my hand. And so now then let us look at
the hand that reconciles. Whose hand is it that reconciles
men to God? This is the hand of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. Go over to Second Timothy. Go
to Second Timothy and Chapter one. 2 Timothy chapter 1 and look at
verse 8. He said, Be thou not therefore
ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me as prisoner,
but be thou partakers of the afflictions of the gospel according
to the power of God who saved us and called us with an holy
calling. Now consider that our salvation
is by the power of God. Just as these two sticks were
reconciled in the hand of Ezekiel by the power of Ezekiel. Ezekiel
picked these sticks up and they're in his hand. It was by his power
they were reconciled. But this is a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That by the power of God we are
reconciled. By the power of God we are saved.
And you always notice what comes first, salvation or calling. Were you saved after you were
called or before you were called? Who saved us and then what? Called us. What kind of calling? A holy calling, a perfect calling. One that's effectual, not according
to our works, praise God, but according to His own purpose
and grace. According to His own covenant
that He made. He swore He was going to reconcile
us. He promised He would reconcile
us. Jesus Christ came into the world
to reconcile us. Shall He not then reconcile us? according to His purpose and
grace, which was given us in Christ, when? Before the world
began, but now is made manifest by the appearing of our Savior
Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. So then we see it is by the power,
by the will, and by the grace of God that all of His elect
shall be reconciled. So when the prophet took these
sticks into his hands, these sticks were now one. They were one with him. Consider
this whenever he moved his hand. The sticks moved. In their right, could the sticks
move on their own? Did they have any power to keep
themselves in union? No, their whole union depended
upon the strength of the one that held them. Consider that our salvation was
totally and absolutely dependent upon the strength and the performance
of Jesus Christ. All your salvation, all of it
is dependent upon the strength and the will and the power of
Jesus Christ. So God had put his elect, all
of his elect into the hand of Jesus Christ. Therefore, Jesus
became their surety. He became their representative.
He became their mediator. He became their rock. He became
their refuge. He became their righteousness.
He became their sanctification. He became their wisdom. He became
their high priest. He became their sacrifice. He
became their tabernacle. He became everything under them. Therefore, all the salvation
of the elect, both Jew and Gentile, listen to this, is in the hand
of Christ. You remember the illustration
of Judah and Benjamin. They were starving to death. And the only hope for them to
have bread was that Jacob should send Benjamin. He said, not will
give us bread if you don't send it. We're going to sit here and
starve to death if you don't send Benjamin. And Jacob said,
he's my only one left. And Judah came to him and said,
Dad, I'll be surety for him. I will guarantee when I bring
him, I'll bring him back. And he said, if I don't, let
me bear the blame. You remember what happened when
he came to Joseph? He came to Joseph in Genesis chapter 44.
Comes to Joseph, and Joseph seems like he's gonna take Benjamin
away. And Judas rushes up and says, no, please don't take him.
Don't you know that the life of my father is in the life of
the lad? If I don't bring him back, it'll
kill my father. I became surety for Him. Take
me instead. Can you not hear Jesus say the
same thing? The Father trusted Christ to
save His children. He put us and said, son, I trust you to
save them. And Jesus said, if I don't save
them, let me bear the blame. Don't you know that all the glory
of God is tied to the success of Jesus Christ? If Christ did not save all that
he purposed to save, the glory of God would fail. God's promise
would fail. God said, I'm going to save them,
and somehow Christ messes up and they're not saved. No. He put all his trust in Christ
to save them. And therefore Jesus Christ came
into the world as a man to fulfill the covenant of God. Everything rested on every work
and thought and deed of Jesus Christ. So then if the salvation of God's
elect are in the hand of Christ, was it successful? You want to know the division
of all religion rests on that. Was it successful? Did he actually
save or did he make it possible? The scriptures are quite clear.
Everyone Jesus Christ came to save. He saved. Saved. If Christ died for all men, there
would be no hell. That's just sure. But we know
there is. And therefore, we know that Jesus
Christ died for all that the father had given Him in a covenant
of grace. Go to John 10. John chapter 10. Jesus just preached to these
men and they didn't believe. And you look at verse 25, Jesus
answered and said to them, I told you, I preached the gospel to
you and you believed not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me, but you believe not because...
Now why did they not believe? Read it. Read it and tell me
why they didn't believe. Because you are not of my sheep. Got that? It's not backwards. He said,
he didn't say you're not my sheep because you don't believe. That's
how the world would have it read. It's not how it's read. You don't
believe because you are not of my sheep. As I said unto you, well, who
are the sheep? Well, they're the sticks. They're
the ones whose names are written down. They're the ones to whom
God gave to Christ. How are they manifest? How do
I know that my name is written in heaven? How can I rejoice to know my salvation was in the
hands of Christ? Listen, my sheep, here's a description,
my sheep hear my voice. What have I preached to you of
my own? Today, what have I preached to you of my own? Is any of this mine? I'm not
trying to give you opinions or my thoughts of things. No, I
preach to you what's Christ's. I tell you what he said. Hear
him and his sheep do. We hear him. We hear his voice. And I know them. I know them because the father
wrote their names down I know them because the father gave
them to me I know them and listen what he says and they follow
me they believe me you that are not my sheep will never believe
me but my sheep they hear my voice and they believe me they
follow me and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never
perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my what The sticks of Israel that are
reconciled by Jesus Christ, who can pluck them out of his hand? Who can un-reconcile you to God?
If Christ reconciled you, who can un-reconcile you? Let me
ask you this, could the stick take itself out? No. This is that prophet animated
the sticks. The sticks are animated by the
hand. Even so am I. My life is in his hand. And you
know what, he turns it wherever he wants to. Jesus Christ is my life. My life. I am in his hand. Because I am in His hands, no
one can remove me from His hands. You that are in His hands, no
one can remove you. We sing this song quite often. What though I cannot break my
chain or air throw off my load, the things impossible to man
are possible to God. Who? Who shall in thy presence
stand and match omnipotence, unfold the grasp of thy right
hand, and pluck the sinner thence? Faith to be healed, I fain would
have, O might it now be give, thou canst, thou canst the sinner
save, and make me meet for heaven. Who makes you qualified for heaven? Are you building up your qualifications? Just stupid. It's our nature. I'm not. That's that's who we
are. We got to be careful ourselves. Not to laugh at others because
of it, because we're prone to the same thing. I am not making
myself meet for heaven. He has already made me qualified. for heaven. Therefore, I preach with confidence. For this promise that God has
said. That he will save his people
from their sins shall not fail. He who promised to save his people
from their sins shall not fail. He shall not fail nor be discouraged. Isaiah 42, verse four. So now he who holds us in his
hands. He was redeemed us. He was reconciled
us. There is Jesus Christ, therefore
we praise God, the father for his electing grace and we praise
God, the son for his redeeming grace. We praise the spirit of
God for his calling. Grace is gathering grace. And thirdly, I want you, lastly,
I want you to see this. Everyone that is reconciled to
God has one king. Go back to your text. And look at verse 21. Say unto them, Thus saith the
Lord God, Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among
the heathen, whether they be gone, and will gather them on
every side and bring them to their own land, and I will make
them one nation. in the land upon the mountains
of Israel, and one king shall be king unto them all. And they
shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided
into two kingdoms any more at all. Neither shall they defile
themselves any more with their idols. with their detestable
things nor any of their transgressions but I will save them out of all
their dwelling places wherein they have sinned and I will cleanse
them so that they shall be my people and I will be their God
and David my servant shall be king over them. Isn't that interesting? David had been dead. David is
already dead. What does he mean David shall
be king over them? We know what it means. David's
son. David's Lord shall be king. You
that have been reconciled into the hand of Christ, who's your
king? Who's your king? God's government is not democratic. It's not a republic. It's a monarchy. He says, I'm your king. And his people say, amen. Would you rather have it any
other way? Would you rather be in your own hand? Not me. I don't often know which way
his hand's going to turn. I don't know. Providence is shifting, isn't
it? My thoughts, my feelings are constantly in flux, and I
never have any real ground or standing about what's going to
happen next. But if I know I'm in his hand,
what does it matter? We just sang that song. Our trials
are necessary, but there's but they must be short. Every trial we face is short. And if he's your king and you're
in his hands, can you be in any safer place? What else could you ask? He could have left this dead
stick on the ground. Thank God he took me in his hand. wrote my name in heaven, reconciled
me by his own blood, and then gathered me. Listen, even as
he promised to do, has he ever promised anything
that he won't do? A covenant in the hand of Christ,
a sure place, a resting place. Pray God that you would be comforted
and strengthened and know you're in His hands.