The title of the message this
evening is, The Result of Preaching the Gospel. The Result of Preaching
the Gospel. Ezekiel chapter 37. The scripture
says, And the hand of the Lord was upon me, and he 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 round about, and behold, There were very many in the open valley,
and lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man,
can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou
knowest. And again he said unto me, Prophesy
upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, 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. I will lay sinews upon you, and
will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and
put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that
I am the Lord." 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 sinew, and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered
them above, but there was no breath in them. 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. Then he said unto
me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, Our bones are
dried, and our hope is lost. We are cut off for all our parts. Therefore prophesy, and say unto
them, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, O my people, I will open
your graves. and cause you to come up out
of your graves and bring you into the land of Israel. And
you 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 you shall live, and I shall place
you in your own land. Then shall you know that I the
Lord have spoken and performed, saith the Lord." Here we have
the history of this man Ezekiel being carried away by God into
a valley of dry bones, and God commands him to prophesy, to
preach to these bones. And God honors that message. And he raises up these bones
and he does what he says he'll do. He makes them to live. He
said, prophesy to the wind. And the wind came and gave them
breath. And I like this when he said,
behold, they say. You see, he even tells us what
these men who are risen, what they say. They say, our bones are dried.
Our bones are dried. And then he prophesied one more
time to them to give them comfort and peace concerning their standing
before God. Now, the result of preaching the gospel,
when we come together to worship God, we come together, what do
you expect to happen? What do you expect to happen?
Why do we come together to hear a man preach rather than spending
time relaxing at home after a hard day's work? Why would you come
here? What do you expect here? What
is so important here that you would rather be here than someplace
else? Do we come together because we
feel it's our duty? Well, we know it is. If we're
believers in Christ, we know it is our duty. The Scripture
says, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, as the
manner of some is. We know that. If we come expecting nothing from
the preaching of the gospel, most likely that's what we'll
get, because that is nothing Less, nothing more than unbelief. It is unbelief to expect nothing
when God has promised us so much. God has promised us so much by
this means of preaching the gospel. Believers in Jesus Christ, may
God give us faith to truly expect God to do what God said He would
do. The scripture says the preaching
of the gospel is to them that perish foolishness. Foolishness. The preaching of
the gospel of God's sovereign grace in Christ, of God's infinite
love and mercy for an elect number of people of Adam's race that
he chose before the foundation of the world, the preaching of
the God that chose them without looking at anything that they
would have done or could have done for Him. He chose them by
His own sovereign mercy, His own sovereign will to be His
children. And those that He chose, He chose
for His own glory. Not for their benefit, but for
His glory. Not that they would add anything
to Him, but that they should glorify Him because it's just
and right for us to glorify Him. It's just and right. We preach
the gospel message of Jesus Christ, the only eternal mediator. You see, Jesus Christ was not
plan B. He was always plan A. Matter of fact, there was no
plan B. There was always God's plan,
God's purpose, and it was always in Jesus Christ the Lord. It was always in Him. The Scripture
tells us that he was the Lamb slain before the foundation of
the world. Now, we know that he did not
at that time possess blood or flesh, but he was the eternal
Son of God, and he was slain in the purpose and the mind of
God from all eternity. You see, we have to think in
sequence. in matters of time. God does
not see things in a matter of time as much as He does in things
in eternity. God sees all things as an ever-present
now. Wonderful. Amazing how God sees
all things. We preach that this Jesus Christ
also, who was determined to be our Mediator, also came and accomplished
Our righteousness, He accomplished our atonement by His blood offering
to God. What a blasphemy when people
think that somehow Christ offered something to Satan. Friends, God is the one that
Christ honored. He honored His Father and He
glorified God by His death on our behalf. And God was pleased. God was satisfied with His one
atonement, with His one sacrifice. Forever He took away the sins
of His saints. That's the message we preach.
That's the gospel we preach. And we preach the gospel of the
Holy Spirit that has now gone out into the world. This is good
for us because none of us would ever be able to trace our lineage
to Abraham I don't think I can trace it
back just a couple of generations, but let's go all the way back
to Abraham. I'm not a Jew. I know this from my ancestry
that I do know. Praise God for His great mercy
that has shed His Spirit abroad in our hearts to give us the
light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ to cause
us to shout in our hearts, Abba, Father. This is the testimony
of the Spirit in each one of us who believe that He has given
us life. He's created in us a brand new
nature, a holy nature, a righteous nature that is accepted with
God. And everyone for whom Christ
died, the Spirit will call. He will call. This is the promise
of God. How then Do they believe? How is it that we believe? We know it was by the means that
God has ordained. We know that it was by the preaching
of the gospel that God saved us, that God called us from darkness
to light, from death to life, from unbelief to faith. God called
us by the preaching of the gospel. This gospel of grace, the scripture
says, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. What do we expect? What do we
expect? Peter tells us that the Word
of God is that incorruptible seed. It is that power, that
seed that generates The new nature causing us to be born again of
the Spirit of God. And this is the gospel we preach
unto you. That's what Peter said in 1 Peter
1 verse 25. He said, and this is the word
of God that is the power, the uncorruptible seed. This is the
same word that we preach unto you. Now, to the world, this gospel
we preach is foolishness. They account all who declare
the gospel to be ignorant because they do not progress.
You see, the world thinks somehow preaching is supposed to progress. It's supposed to go with the
times. The professions of this world,
they do progress. They do. Doctors. Now, would
you want a doctor that lived 200 years ago? I mean, when they
were doing leaching, I mean, you know, that's progressed.
We've gotten better. That job progresses. You know,
plumbers, they progress. I mean, I'm glad that we have
plumbing. Seventy-five years ago, I guess
it was not that common. You know, and electricians, all
kinds of things progressed. One thing that does not progress
is preaching. One thing that does not go along
with the time is preaching. Preaching is and always has been
the same. And this year in Ezekiel was
written 2,600 years ago. And friends, it is the perfect
model of preaching the gospel. It is the perfect model of what
God's people are to expect from preaching. It's perfect. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ
himself was a preacher of the gospel. Matter of fact, that's
his first message when he opened the book of Isaiah. He said,
the Spirit of the Lord is upon me to Preach the gospel. Preach the gospel. And is this not our experience? This is our experience, isn't
it? That by the preaching we heard the gospel and believed. The preaching of the gospel,
friends, is the wisdom of God that makes the wisdom of men
foolish. You see, they call us foolish,
but in truth we know who's foolish. Them that perish. Them that perish. Them that will not hear this
word. They are fools of the greatest sort. I like this in Acts. The apostle Paul, the scripture
says that he preached to the Jews and they opposed themselves. How did they do that? By not
believing the gospel. by not hearing what he preached.
Men are foolish to oppose themselves from life. They're foolish to
rely on themselves and their works to save them. So, God sent
this treasure of the gospel in those who were unlearned. totally opposite of what the
world believes. You know, the question I get
asked the most when they find out that I'm a preacher of the
gospel, they say, where did you graduate? That's the first thing
they ask me. Which seminary did you graduate
from? The same one John the Baptist
graduated from, the same one this man Ezekiel graduated from.
You see, it's not a progression. The gospel preaching has always
been the same. It has the same manner, and it
is the same message. We come not in the wisdom of
the world. We come not with enticing words.
Paul says that in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. He says, I came not
unto you with enticing words. I came not unto you with elegancy
of speech, but in fear and much trembling. You see, we're not here to trick
folks into believing. I'm not tricking anybody. I'm
not trying to entice people to entertain them. That's not what
preaching is. Preaching has never been entertaining
to the flesh. It's never been entertaining.
All but the inner man. The inner man is renewed by it.
The inner man feeds on it. The inner man of the believer
loves it and needs it more than anything else. David said, I
need it more than my necessary food. We need it to help bear through
these trials and difficulties of life. We who come preaching the gospel
of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, to this world it's foolish, but
to us it is the power of God unto the finished work of salvation.
We preach a finished work, a finished work even before it happens. God says, I declare things even
before they happen. What other God can do that? There
is no other God. There is no other God that can
do that. And so then what must we expect tonight? What must
we expect from this gospel when it is preached to us? Well, we must expect to hear the same thing you heard
last time. That's what you should expect.
When you come here, you should expect to hear the same message.
I may preach it from a different place, and I can use various
words, but it is the same message. It is the person of Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. This is power. It is this message
that wakes the dead and brings them to life. I remember a man, false prophet, evil, wicked
man. He preaches on television and
he promised that when he was going to have his revival, that
if people would put their dead relatives' hands on the television,
that they would be raised from the dead. Obviously, he's a liar, and the
truth is not in him, because I know no one lived by his message. No one. No one lives by a false
message. No one lives by a false preacher. If they're not sent, they're
not preaching the gospel, there is no life given from that message. They should expect nothing. Nothing. Because that's exactly what God
said He'll do for them. Nothing. In Jeremiah chapter
23, He said, I will not bless them. I will not. But we who
preach the gospel, we who hear the gospel, we expect greater
things. We expect not bodily resurrections,
but spiritual resurrections. People coming to life from the
dead. That's what we expect. That's
what we should expect. Why? Because God promised it.
Because God promised it. In Ezekiel 37, we read concerning
this preacher, Ezekiel. That's the first thing I want
us to see is the preacher. The preacher, Ezekiel, the scripture
says, he was, 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. This is clear. This is very clear that everyone
who is sent must be sent of God. I know that you could not tell
by looking at me that God had sent me. How could you know that
God has sent me to declare His gospel?" Friends, because I can
do nothing else. The hand of the Lord was upon
me. The hand of the Lord was upon me. Just like the Lord Jesus
Christ, when He preached, He said, the Spirit of the Lord
is upon me to preach the gospel. To who? To the blind, to those
in prison, to those dead. He sent us to preach to the dead. He carried us and He sat us down
where we needed to be. When I knew that the Lord's calling
to preach, I was absolutely and utterly confused. I was sure
that it was all my own imagination. It was my own thoughts that did
it. Surely it was my pride that was
welling up in me, and it was not God. And I received some wise counsel
from my pastor, and he said this, if God beholds you, He'll put
you where He wants you. He'll open the door for you. Don't try to exalt yourself. Don't promote
yourself. If God calls a man, he won't
have to promote himself. As far as I know, you had no
idea who I was before I was called here. And you know, to tell you
the truth, I didn't know this church was here. And this is
where God sent me. How do I know? I know because
you know. And you know because I know.
And we agree. We agree. God sent me here to
preach the gospel. You ever heard of those books
and things, How to Witness? You ever heard of that? How to
witness of Jesus Christ. They have classes and seminars.
You know, that's the most dishonest thing, to teach someone how to
be a witness. Isn't it? You only witness of what you
know, what you experience, what you see, and anything else is
dishonest. God's people are witnesses because
they witnessed something. They've experienced something.
They've experienced the grace of God. And so, this is why they
come to here, because they know this is where the power of God
is. They know. They can witness and testify
of that. Now, I've not seen the Lord Jesus Christ with my physical
eyes, but I know Him. I know Him. Jesus said that to the Pharisees. He said, you think you know him,
you call him your father, but if I was to say what my father,
I'd be a liar like you. You don't know who he is. And friends, that's the truth.
The truth is if they know nothing of a sovereign God, they know
not God. And we know it by the preaching
of the Gospel. And we know this because God
sent someone to preach to us. And He set them where He wanted
them. Now, where did He send them? Look at this, in your text, He
set me down in the midst of the valley which is full of bones. And He caused me to pass by around
about, and behold, there were very many in the open valley,
and lo, they were very dry." God sends preachers to bones. To bones. God sends preachers
to His church, which is dead. You see, I was always God's child,
but I was not always a believer in Christ. I was dead. I was dead, and God sent a man
to me, and you were dead, and God sent a man to you to preach
the gospel to you. We were dead in trespasses and
sins. I'll tell you, there's no more
unable person. Gil, you got up here and you
were having trouble getting up, but I'll tell you what, you got
up, didn't you? Got the water for me? I appreciate
that. I wouldn't expect that from a
dead man. I just wouldn't. I wouldn't expect the dead to
get up and get me some water. That would be foolish. And these bones, notice this,
they were not freshly dead. I had to look this up because
I wanted to know this. What's the longest period of those people,
you know, those people who have near-death experiences? You know,
I wanted to find out what the longest period of time was. before
they came back. And it was three days. Someone
said it was three days that he was in the morgue and he came
up. Well, okay, three days. These bones weren't three days
dead. These bones were very dry. In other words, they had been
there They had been there so long that the buzzards had picked
all of the flesh, all of the bones, and what the buzzards
didn't eat, the Middle Eastern sun had dried to a crisp. There
was no water. There was no life. And these
bones were scattered in an open valley. skeletons placed in a
row. They weren't put in a casket.
Their bones were scattered to the four winds. There is no possibility
that these dead people could bring themselves together. That's
how dead we were. That's how dead men are. They're
dried bones, scattered. Man's not bruised. Man's not
part dead. Man is completely dead. Completely dead. Have you ever
been dead? I have. I have. And this is to whom God sends
his men. Now, the reason that God calls
preachers to preach to the dead Life. To preach life to the dead. To the dead. Look at this in
our text. He said, The Lord said unto me,
Son of man, can these bones live? What a
question. What a question. And you notice
he doesn't answer in unbelief. He said, Lord, you know, if anybody's
going to make these bones live, it's going to be because you
did it. He knew where the power was.
He knew where the power came from. Otherwise, it's foolish,
isn't it? The world would be right if there
was no promise from God, if there was no power from God, if there
was no word from God, then preaching to men would be foolish and we
should go home. But I'll tell you this, I preach
to the dead because God knows. I say, God, if you are going
to quicken anyone, it's because you did it. You did it. He's
the source of all power. God sends his preachers to preach
the gospel of life to the dead. All preaching is simply to declare
what God has said. That's all it is. Look at that in the next verse,
he said, again he said unto me, prophesy
upon these bones and say. Notice that prophesying, that's
preaching. He said preach upon these bones and what? Say. Why? Faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the gospel. Say unto these bones. O ye dry bones, hear the word
of the Lord." I'll tell you, I know this, if
he was preaching to bones, they didn't have ears. They didn't
have brains to understand. They didn't have anything, any
faculties. The only reason Ezekiel preached
is because God said, preach. And not only did he leave it
up to Ezekiel what to preach, he told him what to say. We don't
guess what to say. I'm not here to guess what God
will do. I'm here to tell you what God
will do. That's it. Just simply declare the gospel. That's it. Say unto them, O ye
dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. saith the Lord God unto
these bones." If we don't preach, thus saith
the Lord, don't listen. If I don't tell you what God
says, don't you pay attention to me. And don't you pay attention
to any other man that doesn't say what God says. God says. God said, we preach not according
to the logic of men, but according to the wisdom of God and the
power of God, because He sent us to preach
life. He said, behold, this is what
we say, behold, I will cause breath to enter into you and
you shall live. Now, is that not simple? God
says, I will and you shall. God is always emphatic in what
He says. He always says what He means
and means what He says. He said, I will. I will give you life. Was there any chance He would
not give them life? Was there any chance the bones
would resist? How foolish! How foolish to think
the bones would resist the power of God's Word. I will and you
shall. And He said, I will lay sin upon
you and bring up flesh upon you and cover you with skin and put
breath into you and you shall live and you shall know that
I am the Lord. This is the message that we preach
to the dead. Behold, you dead, Jesus Christ. Everyone who believes on him
shall live. I know you don't have any power
to do that. No man has any power to believe, but God give it to
him. But yet I declare the gospel to everyone who's dead. God said,
I will give you life. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. What a wonderful thing. What
a wonderful message. What then are we to expect from
this preaching of the gospel? We should expect and be confident
that God will come and give life to the dead. That's what you
and I should expect from God. It's not presumption, is it?
If I have God's Word, it's not presumption. I mean, there's
many times that I've presumed upon God, and that's wrong. We should not presume upon what
God has not promised. Some people say, well, I'm just
believing God for this. Well, do you have a word from
God? Well, no. Well, you shouldn't believe that.
You shouldn't trust that. You should say, nevertheless,
not my will be done, but thy will be done. Because I don't
know what God will do. If God will give us life or health
or He'll make us sick or whatever God will do. I don't have any
promise of that. I have promise of this. I have life. I have
life. I have eternal life because it's
given to me. We should expect dead sinners to come to life.
Look at this in verse 7. Look at the response of Ezekiel. He said, so I prophesied as I
was commanded. Friends, I long to be faithful
in this. I long to be faithful in this. Pray for me that God
would keep me faithful to study the gospel and to declare it
to you. And what happened? There was
a noise. You notice wherever Paul went,
there was a noise? Everywhere the gospel is preached, there's
a noise. No one, no one escapes this gospel. No one. It always does something to everyone
that hears it. Always. What is that? I don't
know. I'm not aiming. I'm not aiming at anybody. I'm
just throwing it out. It's God that takes aim. These bones begin to shake. Friends,
this is the first sign of grace, isn't it, when a man begins to
shake. When Moses went to the mount,
the scripture says that Moses' knees shake. at the sight of God. Have you ever seen a holy God? Righteous God? Have you ever
seen what you are? God opens that door, he'll begin
to shake. God opens your door, he'll begin
to take the bones, and the bone comes to his bone. That tells me God is specific
in who he calls. He just doesn't put any bones
together. He puts the bones of his people together. And not
only does he do that, but he gives them perfection. It's not just bones standing
there anymore, is it? It's bones and flesh and muscle
and skin. And they were standing. These
men were once bones, and now they're men. But there's something
wrong. There's something wrong. Look
at this at the bottom of verse 8. Look at verse 8, And behold,
I beheld, and lo, the sinew and flesh came upon them, and skin
covered them above, but there was no breath in them. Friends, the gospel is not enough
that a man reform himself. Some men will stop at this. They'll be content with this.
They'll be content with reformation instead of salvation. But I'll tell you this, being
convicted of your sin is not enough. You must have life. You
must have life. And this is why he says, in verse
9, he said unto Ezekiel, Prophesy unto the wind. Prophesy, son
of man, and speak to the wind. Isn't that something? Speak to
the wind. As though the wind were a person. Well, he is. The
Spirit of God. He is a person. Prophesy to the
Spirit. This speaks of prayer. The man
of God who preaches the gospel must be a man of study and a
man of prayer. He must seek the Spirit to come
and to fill the men, fill the people with life. Speak to the wind and say, O
breath, come from the four winds, O breath,
and breathe upon these that are slain. So I prophesied as I was
demanded, and breath came unto them, and they lived, and stood
on their feet an exceeding great army." I know sometimes we don't think
about it, but you are in an army, and the Lord's our captain. Oh, what glorious banners we
can fly. Banners of victory. Our captain
has already won, even before he raised the soldiers from the
dead. Oh, our Savior is so great. And it's then we come to believe.
We come to know Christ. And look at this. What do we
say? What do we say when a man's born again of the Spirit of God?
What did we say when the Spirit of God came into us? Look at
this. Behold, they say, our bones are
God's. Is that not how you feel? That's
how I feel. Only a living man knows his nature. Only a living man can breathe
faith in Christ. Only one possessed by the Spirit
of God can understand where they came from, who they are, and what great thing God has
done for us. See, these men remember. that
they were dead. They remember. And then what does he say to
the preacher? He says, prophesy unto them. What do we prophesy? The same thing we prophesied
before. I will bring you out of your
grace. And you shall live and know that I am the Lord." He comforts us with the same
message He raised us from the dead with. This is why the Word of God is
ever fresh to the living soul. It's ever fresh. It never changes. But it's always new. It was from
old, but it's new. Every morning, his mercies are
declared to us every day. Faith is given to us. It's given
to us now. We believe now. We trust now.
And I know this. I know in part. I prophesy in
part. But soon he will raise me from
the grave. And I will forever be with him
and know him. As he knows me. I don't understand that. I believe it. I believe it with
all my heart because God said it. I have the righteousness of Christ.
I'm justified from all my sin. I belong to Christ and He belongs
to me. All expect great things from
the Word of God. And friends, God will give it
to you. God will give you exactly what you expect. Expect life. And He'll give it. I pray that God will bless this
to our hearts. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer.