36 and we'll be looking at Ezekiel
36, but also into Ezekiel 37 I Want to give you specific verses
because we're not going to be covering each individual verse
throughout the whole but We will cover both of these in the title.
The message is this the fulfillment of God's covenant the fulfillment
of of God's covenant. Before we begin reading in Ezekiel,
over in Romans chapter 5, I'm sorry, chapter 8, Paul says,
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made us free
from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do,
and it was weak through the flesh, God sending His Son in the likeness
of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh. That,
here it is, the reason, that's the covenant, isn't it? That
Christ should come and pay the sin debt of His people. That
the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us. who walk not after the flesh
but after the spirit. You see, the covenant of God's
grace was ordained in eternity. It was purposed by God to save
His people from their sins. Christ came and fulfilled that
covenant promise. And the fulfillment of this covenant
is when He comes to us and gives us life. This is part of that
covenant that he gives us life. And so, I've entitled this the
covenant and the fulfillment of God's covenant. So the first
thing I want us to do is look at the covenant. I want us to
see again the covenant. And then, in chapter 37, God
gives us a picture of this covenant by the resurrection of those
dry bones. This is the fulfillment. He has
the covenant promise that He will and we shall. Then He shows
us the fulfillment of this in the resurrection of Israel, which
is our regeneration. That is the fulfillment of this
covenant. So let's see the covenant first of all the Lord in this
chapter 36 of Ezekiel sets out sets out for us the eternal covenant
of his grace His covenant of free and sovereign will and what
is the what is the summation of this covenant look at verse
29 you'll see the summation of this I will also save you from
all your uncleanness. So what is the purpose of the
covenant? It is to save Israel from their uncleanness. This whole covenant is not written
to everyone. It's written to Israel. It's
written to Israel. And we know this, that the nation
of Israel is only a type It's only a picture and a shadow of
God's true spiritual Israel, His elect people. Those named
in this covenant, that's who Israel are. They're the ones
named in this covenant. They are the ones God will save. He said that, I will save you. Now is that ambiguous? Is that something argumentative? Do you suppose there's any doubt
that He will save Israel? No. God said, I will save Israel. I will do it. And so, what God promised and
fulfilled to this physical people, now we know this, He did physically
save Israel, didn't He? They were going to be held captive
in Babylon, and God did deliver that nation. But there's a greater
thing here, a more wonderful thing, that is this picture.
He did fulfill His physical promises to Israel, but they were only
a shadow. The people of Israel, this nation,
now we know this, we're not ignorant, they were blessed, weren't they?
Above every nation, they were blessed. They had the covenant
promises given to them, the Word of God, the sacrifices, the tabernacle,
and especially this one, that Christ should come from that
nation. That was a beautiful promise.
They were blessed above all other people. But all the law and the
sacrifices, the prophecies and events of national Israel were
only intended by the Spirit of God to testify of His Son and
His perfect salvation to spiritual Israel. That's what this is for. So when you read the Old Testament,
isn't that what you do with the Old Testament? You see the nation
of Israel? You should apply this spiritually
to God's elect, to His church. Now, where do I get this? Go
over to Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. This is not
a shot in the dark here. I'm not guessing at this. I'll have you know that I've
looked up a couple of sermons on this text that I'm looking
at, and I've found a lot of them are trying to tell me that God's
talking about national Israel still. That He's going to do
something with that land over there in Palestine. That's not
what He's talking about. And I'm not guessing at this.
Romans chapter 9, and look at verse 2. Now Paul said this,
"...I've got a heaviness and sorrow in my heart, that I could
wish myself a curse from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen,
according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth
the adoption, the glory, and the covenants, the giving of
the law, the services of God, the promises, whose are the fathers,
and whom concerning the flesh Christ came, who is overall God
blessed forever. Amen. Now listen, not as though
the word of God had taken none effect. For they are not all Israel that
are of Israel." Now listen, Paul longed for the salvation of Israel.
He longed for his kinsmen to be saved. But these Israelites, to whom
the promises were given, and this is the promise in our text,
isn't it? I will save you. from all your uncleanness." That's
a promise to Israel, isn't it? Now listen, are all the Israelites
nationally saved? Well, no. That's not true. We know that's not true. Now this promise, is it of none
effect? Does that mean God's promise
is He missed the mark? That God somehow could not save
all that He intended to save? That's what Paul's asking. Is
the promises of God of none effect? God said, I'm going to save Israel.
And Israel, they're not all saved. Well, Paul, does that mean God
failed? Is His Word not really true?
He said, No. Why? Because He's not talking
to all national Israel. He's talking to spiritual Israel.
He said, Not all those that are of... He says, For because that's
why it's not a noneffect for they are not all Israel which
are of Jacob That's what he's saying Neither because they are seed
of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be
called. That is. Now he's going to explain
what that in Isaac shall thy seed be called is explaining.
He said, that is, that they which are children of the flesh, these
are not the children of God, but the children of the promise. Oh, what's he getting into? Election.
The children of election are counted for the seed, the children
of promise. And a prime example, he'll go
on in chapter 9 of there in Romans to give you that prime example
of Jacob and Esau both being children of Isaac. Jacob and Esau. Yet God having
loved Jacob and hated Esau before they were born. Showing forth the sovereign election
of God. Therefore, all salvation. All
salvation. is rooted in election. That's the fountainhead. That's
where it started. In election. Most people see
salvation as something that takes place in time. It did, but it
was rooted in election. Had there been no election, there
would have been no salvation. Rooted in God's sovereign election
of the Father, all He elected, all Israel are named in that
covenant of grace. And so God now sets forth this
covenant by the Holy Spirit so that all that are named in the
election of grace should see it, hear it, believe it, and
embrace it. And surely all the elect will.
Isn't that what he said? I will save you and you shall
be saved. I will, and you shall. I will
gather you, I will cleanse you, I will do this, I will do this,
and you shall have it. That's a promise of this covenant.
So God reveals in his covenant, the gospel, that we, the elect,
like Israel, we have defiled ourselves. In verse 17, he says,
Son of man, say, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own
land, they defiled it by their own way and by their own doings.
Their ways was before me as a uncleanness of a removed woman. God's telling that His people,
they defiled themselves. They've defiled themselves by
their ways and by their doings, by their religion and by their
actions. They have defiled themselves,
separated themselves from God. But we see the grace of God in
that God decrees a covenant to defile Israel. He decrees a covenant
to those who don't deserve it. To those who can't merit it.
To those who have been separated and defiled by their sins and
their ways. But such a covenant Such a covenant
is not like the covenant He made with Adam, is it? This covenant
is in no way like He made with Adam, or the covenant He made
at Sinai. Those were both covenants. They
were covenants of works. They were covenants of merit.
But this covenant is different. This covenant He will make with
His people is altogether of grace, free, sovereign mercy. And we know what happened as
what the result of both of those worst covenants were, don't we?
They failed. They failed. Adam failed to obey
that covenant that God had made with him. Thou shalt eat of all
the trees, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
thou shalt not eat, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou
shalt surely die. And we know he failed. Why? We're
all dead. That's how we know he failed.
Because sin entered into the world and death by sin and death
passed upon all men. And we know this, that Israel
failed that covenant at Mount Sinai. I know this, before Moses
got down, they had already made another god. They failed even before they
even heard it. And so God testifies the nature
of this new covenant is not like that covenant that they fail
over to jeremiah we're gonna see these this is a parallel
passage uh... jeremiah chapter thirty one it's
a parallel passage to this now it it would behoove you to just
take these two chapters thirty-six of ezekiel and and thirty one
and just perused and you'll see that there are parallel God's
given this same covenant, but notice what he says in verse
31 of Jeremiah chapter 31 He says behold the days come sayeth
the Lord and I will make a new covenant With the house of Israel
in the house of Judah not according to the covenant Which I made
with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand
to bring them out of the land of Eden Which covenant my covenant
they break? Although I wasn't husband unto
them, saith the Lord. But this shall be the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days,
saith the Lord, I will put my law in everyone's parts, and
write them in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall
be my people. So God has given the grounds,
then, of this covenant, this nature of this covenant is what?
It's all based in election. It's all based on the sovereign
mercy of God toward Israel. I'm going to save you. That's
the theme of the covenant. Now, what's the nature of the
covenant? It's not works, but grace. God
makes a distinction between these two covenants. It's not of works,
but of grace. Now then, what's the cause? We
see the content. He will save Israel. We see the... nature of the covenant grace
but what's the motive go back to your text go back to your
text and see the motive verse 22 therefore say to the house
of Israel thus said the Lord I do this not for your sakes
but for my own holy namesake now the cause the root cause
of this covenant is what the name and glory of God that's very important whatever god has purpose to do
for israel since he is attached his glory
to it we may be sure it'll be done you don't see that if he failed
devastation that would do name and glory god said i put my name
on this What happens when you put your name on a contract and
you fail to do it? You get bad credit, right? Your
name, you're tarnished. Do you realize what would happen
if God failed in His covenant? That His glory would fail. So
we can be sure of this, whoever is named in this covenant will
be saved. This is the surety of this covenant,
that God has attached His name to it, His glory to it. I don't
do it for you, I do it for me. Now listen, if He did it for
my sake, surely He would leave me. Right? If He did it for your
sake, surely He would leave you. Why? Because then it would be
grounded on us. It would be a worst covenant,
wouldn't it? It's not a worst covenant. It's
a covenant of grace. So it's all on Him. He said, I'm taking
the burden of this and I'm putting it on myself. I'm going to do
it. I'm going to do it. And what
is he going to do? He said, first of all, I'm going to gather you.
Look at that in verse 25. I'm at verse 24. He said, for I will
take you from among the heathen and gather you out of all countries
and will bring you into your own land. He will gather them.
He will gather them as a shepherd gathers lost sheep. That's the
idea here is that he is the shepherd and his sheep that he owns is
lost. And he promises, based on his
own glory, I will gather them. I will gather them, these lost
sheep. Who are these lost sheep? They
are all the elect that were given to Christ. Now who's the shepherd? The shepherd's Christ. We know
this. Jesus himself said that. I am
the good shepherd. The good shepherd that giveth
his life for the sheep. over in Ezekiel thirty four God
said this thus said the Lord behold I even I will both search
my sheep and seek them out as a shepherd seek it out his flock
in the day he is among his sheep that are scattered so will I
seek out my sheep and will deliver them out of all places where
they have been scattered in a cloudy and dark day He said, I'm going to get them.
I will find them. I will search them out. And when I found them, listen,
this is what he's going to do, I will set up one shepherd over
them and shall feed them, even my servant David. David's been
dead. David's been dead for a long... He's not talking about David,
but David's Lord, Jesus Christ. He said, I've given them to one
shepherd. And that one shepherd, he has
a job in this covenant. And his job is to gather them. Is to gather his sheep. And God
sends His servant, Christ, over all his sheep. And these sheep
could not be gathered except one thing be done. Justice must
be satisfied for their iniquity. God cannot and will not gather
His elect except their sin be taken care of, except their sin
debt be paid. That's why He said the good shepherd
doesn't just find the sheep, he gives his life for the sheep. Christ in this covenant of grace
for Israel said, I will give myself And what's the result
of His life-giving blood, of His atoning death on Calvary's
tree? It is this, verse 25, then, "...will
I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean." This water is His blood. His
blood. You know, there's nothing like
when you're filthy. I remember working on the farm
with my grandfather and I just remember just being so dirty
it just was dirt was all in your shirt all in your pants you didn't
you shoes and in your socks it was filthy it was uncomfortable
it was miserable sweaty and hot and I remember just getting in
that shower in the oh it feels so good that's what it is he
said I will cleanse you from all your iniquity all your sin
And he did that at the cross. Behold the greatness of his sacrifice,
in that it was not in general, but it was very specific. I will
cleanse you. You. Israel. I will cleanse Israel. I will not only offer this sacrifice,
but I will also apply it. It's not only that I provided
the cleansing, but I'm also going to cleanse you. I will sprinkle
water on you, and the result of my sprinkling is that you
shall be cleansed. Isn't that what it said in Hebrews? He hath purged us of all our
sins. purged us. And not only this,
He said, I'll give you a new heart. Verse 26, a new heart
will also give you a new spirit will I put within you and I will
take away the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a
heart of flesh. Why? Because the old heart cannot
believe on Christ. The old heart cannot do good
or be righteous. The old heart can only sin and
serve self. It can never come to God. The
old heart can never receive the Word of God. That's why you need
a new heart. And yet God says, I know what
you need. Isn't that wonderful? He knew what you needed. He said,
I know you need a new heart. And guess what? I'm going to
give you a new heart. I'm going to give it to you. You're not
even going to ask me. I'm going to give it to you.
I'm going to give it to you before you ask me. Matter of fact, you
can never ask Him for a new heart if He ain't gave you one. Jesus said, No man can come unto
me except the Father which hath sent me, and draw him. For they
shall all be taught of God. How shall you be teachable except
God give you a new nature that's teachable? The old nature's not
teachable. He swears He'll give us a new
heart. So all who have this new heart shall believe. And that's
what He means, I'll give you a heart of flesh. In other words,
you begin to feel your sin. You begin to know your nature.
You begin to understand who you really are and who God is. And
you have a longing that wasn't there before. A longing for Christ.
A longing for righteousness that only Christ can provide. And
that heart of flesh now yearns for Him and loves Him and serves
Him. Why? Because God willed it so.
I'll give you a new heart and the result of this is you'll
come after Christ. You'll believe on Him. now will
be your god and you shall be my people this leaves no room for doubt
or fear concerning israel does None of this is ambiguous. All
of it is very clear and plain. No matter where his people are,
no matter what they have done, no matter how vile or wicked
they are, and listen, no matter how steeped in evil religion
they are, God will find them. God will save them. Wasn't that
us? Steeped in our own religion,
doing our own way, and yet God found us. and saved us. Now why? Because He covenanted. It's a covenant of grace. God will gather them. He will
cleanse them. And so, none of those named in this covenant,
none for whom Christ died, none of those will fail to come to
Him and receive Him And believe on him, none will
fail. Jesus said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to
you. How can he be so confident? Because
of the covenant. Because God swore he would do
it. And he will do it. Now then, look over in the next
chapter, and God is going to give us something in this next
chapter, the experience. He's going to show us not only
the covenant that he promised to do, but He's going to give
us an illustration, a picture of how this is done, of the fulfillment
of this covenant. Now seeing the covenant promises,
the I wills and you shalls of God's grace toward Israel, God
willing more abundantly to show us the promise that He's given
us, in his word he displays the fulfillment in this chapter concerning
the resurrection of these drive boat i desire to know my part i desire to know if i am named
in this cup as if you're not made in this company You will
have no life. You will have no affection toward
Christ. You will not believe and you
will die in your sins. Only those named in this covenant
will receive these covenant promises. Now who is named here? Well, he describes them here.
Let us see this picture of salvation as he gives it to the prophet.
He said, The hand of the Lord was upon me. And he carried me
out in the Spirit of the Lord, and he set me down in the midst
of the valley, which was full of bones. And he caused me to
pass by round about, and behold, there were many in an open valley,
and lo, they were very dry. And then God asked him a question.
He brings him out in the Spirit. It's a vision here. It's a spiritual
vision. He brings him out here, and he
shows him these dry bones, and he said, look at them, examine
them. He did. He said, look, they're lifeless.
They're dry. And he asked him this question.
He said, son of man, can these bones live? Can these bones live? And the prophet gave the only
answer he could. Lord, you know. Look, if these bones are going
to live, you've got to do it. And the only way these bones
are going to live is if you want to do it, if you will to do it,
then they'll live. If you don't, they won't. Lord,
you know. That's what he's saying. Lord, you know. And then he tells him to do something
that's very odd. He tells him to prophesy to the
bones. He says, saying to the bones,
O you dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord,
I will put breath into you, and you shall live. He's telling
him, he says, I'm going to break sinew on you. I'm going to put
flesh on you. I'm going to give you life. That's
what I want you to preach to these bones. And so he did, and
the bones began to rattle, they shook, they came together, bone
upon his bone, flesh came on them, hair, everything, perfect. They all stood out there as perfect
men, perfectly complete except for one thing, they were without
breath. And then he said something else
that was strange, he said, preach to the wind, prophesy to the
wind. and he said to the wind all four
winds com and breathe on these us at the lord come and breathe
on me and give breath to these that have no life you know what
happened at the winds came in and they gave breath to them
and they live now let us see that this first of all want you
see this period this is this vision is not uh... literally
it's it's He brought him out in the Spirit. It was a vision. He was taken in the Spirit. And
so these dry bones, what are they? Who are they? They are
Israel. Look at verse 11. Look at verse
11. He said unto me, Son of man,
these bones are the whole house of Israel. I love it when God
don't leave anything to our imagination. We don't have to guess what these
bones are. They're the same people mentioned
in the covenant. They're Israel. And all Israel by nature, like
all of Adam's race, have been slain. We fell and we died in
Adam. So now, I want you this minute
to pass over humanity. I want you to take a survey of
all humanity. Examine the nature of all men
and what will you find? You will find dead, dry bones. Now what's the sense, why do
you say dry bones? What does that have to do with
anything? If I saw a bunch of bones over here and they were
wet with blood Wouldn't they just be just as dead as if they
were dry? Yes. But this is the point. He's saying, look, they're dry
because it's a picture that we have no righteousness at all. That we have no goodness at all.
Israel is empty of all life. We are dead, so dead that we
are dry, bleached by the justice of God and no life is left. Don't you know this is opposite
of what natural religion is teaching? That man has some spark of life
left in him? some goodness left in him, some
ability left in him. God says, no, my people are dead. My people are without righteousness,
without hope. Listen to what they said, Behold,
they say our bones are dry. Our hope is lost and we are cut
off for our parts. If any man is ever going to be
saved, this is the first thing God has to expose to His people.
You're named in this covenant, and this is what God's going
to teach you. You are dead, dry bones. No life in you. No hope. But see, the grace of God to
all His covenant people is that He comes to them. Isn't that
wonderful? What if He just stood back and
waited for the bones to come? God said, I've made the first
step, you make the second. There'd be no hope for them.
And we realized this, there would be no hope, but God comes to
His covenant people. And now God knew what He would
do. And now what does He do? He sends
a man, a human, to do something that human wisdom would never
think of doing. Preaching to dead bones. preaching
to dead bones. He sends him to preach to speak
to the dead and promise the promise of the will of God towards them.
I want you to know the only means by which God gives life to dead
sinners is through the preaching of the gospel. This is the means.
There's no power in the preacher. Listen, there's no power in my
word, but there's power in his word. And this is the means that
God has chosen to call His people to life. It's through the gospel. And so we are not left to guess
as to what we are preached. You know, when He said this,
He said, Son of man, can these bones live? That's what I say. Lord, You know. Tonight, I want
to preach the covenant. I'm preaching the covenant of
God's grace. I'm preaching exactly what God told this man to preach. He said, you tell them I will
give them life, that I will save them. And every time I preach, that
question comes to me, can these bones live? And all I can do
is put up my hands, Lord, you know. Lord, you know what you're
going to do. You knew what you were going
to do before you called me out here to look at these bones. You knew what
you were going to do before you told me to preach to these bones.
You know what you're going to do, Lord, thou knowest. But again, I don't have to guess
what to preach. We preach the gospel of Jesus
Christ. And it is solely the work of
God the Holy Spirit then to give life to His people. Yet God has
chosen to use the preaching of the gospel as a means of this
life and faith. Now I care very little for those
who believe to be saved without the preaching of the gospel.
Why? Because it's contrary to God's Word. That's why I care
little for anybody who teaches that. Anybody that believes that. It's contrary to God's Word.
Look over in 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Look at verse 17. Paul said this, he said, Christ
sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Well, how
do you preach it? Not with the wisdom of words,
lest the cross of Christ be made none of effect. For the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. Isn't that
what the world says to preaching to dead? Well, if you say everybody's
dead, then why are you preaching to them? That don't make any
sense. I don't care if it makes sense
or not. God said that's what I'm here to do and to you that
perish this is foolishness but to us We know this it is the
power of God unto salvation go to Romans chapter 10 Romans chapter
10 and look at verse 13 It says whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved oil Armenians get a get a hold
of that they they really messed that one up they just I they
think they got something they boast in that one a boast in
their vain salvation i think crisis some beggar asking
you please pretty please come to me if they'd read on that
find out that it's all of god he said how they shall they call
on him and who they have not believed all my goodness gotta
believe the call Well, how shall they believe
on Him in whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? Oh, here it is. And how shall they preach except
they be what? Sinned. Who's doing all the work here? God is. God's sending the preacher
with the message. God is causing you to hear of
Christ. God gives you faith to believe. And God gives you strength to
call on Him. Therefore salvation is what of
the Lord of the Lord just as much as it was of the Lord to
raise these dead dry bones So it is as much of the Lord to
save his covenant people. It is the Lord's work It is the
Lord's work to save his people So we preach knowing this, that
God will call His people to life. The message of the covenant is
what we preach, I will and they shall. They have it backwards.
Religion has it backwards. They say, I will believe and
God shall save me. They say, I will repent and God
shall forgive me. I will serve God and God shall
bless me. No, God says I'll save you and
you will believe. You shall believe. I'll forgive
you and you shall repent. I'll bless you and you shall
serve me. This is God's will. This is God's
work. And so we say, O dry bones, hear
the word of the Lord. And what does God do with this
message? The first thing He does, He causes the bones to rattle.
He stirs a man's heart. Have you been stirred? Does this
covenant message stir you? And God, what He does is He puts
a man completely together. Imagine if they were just dry
bones and all of a sudden now they're standing up. Now they've
got bone and sinew. They've got all that they need.
Isn't that what He did for us in Christ? He did all, made us
complete. And yet not fully complete until
when? Until He gives us breath. That's what they were standing
there. They were standing there complete. You see, I was complete
in Christ before I knew it. Before I realized it. He had
made me complete in Christ. But there was a day He came along
and he prophesied to the way to the spirit of god what is breath what is this breath is the evidence of life what is the evidence of spirit Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, less than evidence of things not seen. Faith is
the breath that the Spirit of God gives. You remember when
you started breathing? It kind of runs together. I'm just
glad I'm breathing today, aren't you? So is faith. Faith is a continual thing. It's
not a one-time event. When God gives life to these
people, to His people, they breathe out praise and thanksgiving to
God. Has God given you breath? Has
He given you life and faith? You know one of my favorite illustrations
of faith is when the woman said who. Would come to believe in
Christ. She just said I found myself
believe. She was believing before she
knew she was leaving. That's the way it is when the
Holy Spirit gives us faith and listen this is the fulfillment
of that. Why are you here. Breathing. Faith. because of the covenant
of praise. And you know what God says at
the end of that segment in Ezekiel? He says this, I have performed
it and I have done it. So who will the elect praise
for their salvation? We'll praise Him for His covenant. We were defiled. He chose us
for his own namesake. He gathered us. He sprinkled
us. He gave us a new heart, just like he said he would. And I know sometimes you and
I are so unbelieving. We fear as though he will leave
us. We are surrounded by our enemies. attacked daily, suffering greatly. And we say, Father, are you sure? Are you sure we'll make it? He said, you wouldn't make it,
but I will and you shall make it. May God give us strength. When all is seated against us,
His covenant is important. It's vital to our assurance. It's vital to our security. May God help us to see it, embrace
it, believe it. The covenant of God's grace fulfilled
in us. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.