Ezekiel 37. We've been in this wonderful
chapter all day. This really is a wonderful chapter. And in the end of this chapter,
our Lord promises a covenant of peace with his people. And that covenant of peace was
promised because of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the point I want to establish
for just a few minutes. The only reason peace was promised,
and oh, you just get a good look at us
and you You know that we're not worthy of peace with God. You
just know we're not worthy of peace with God. He is so pitiful,
he's so compassionate, he's so loving, he's so kind. But he is those things because
of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's because of the vengeance
and wrath and judgment and condemnation that took place on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Our peace was secured. It was made sure. It was made permanent by the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2 tells us that Christ
is our peace. He is our peace. Peace is not
a feeling. I always am so thankful when
a feeling comes. Don't you like feelings? I like
feeling things just as much as anybody else. But peace is not
a feeling. Peace is a person. And sometimes
I may not feel peace, but in Christ I still have it. Sometimes
I don't feel saved, but in Christ I still am saved. Sometimes I
feel like God ought to just strike me down right now. But in Christ,
I'm not going anywhere. He is our peace. And the reason is because, it
says in Ephesians 2, he broke down the middle wall of partition
between us sinners and the holy God. Slaying the enmity. between us. Enmity means enemy. We were the
enemies of him. And that's what he slayed, that
enmity, our heart and desire and feeling of being an enemy
of God. And he did that by the sacrifice
of his own body, reconciling us. So making peace. Peace was promised. It was performed
and it was forever settled in heaven by the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. Thank God for the death
of Christ. Thank God for the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. For that reason, we're gonna
remember that accomplishment of our Lord by observing his
table tonight. In this account in Ezekiel 37, the problem is
made known. And that problem is dead, dry
bones. That's the problem. Dead. That's the problem. You know,
you think about the truth and the gospel and people believing
it and not believing it, and you think, what is wrong with
everybody? What is the problem with people?
Here's the problem. Dead, dry bones. That's the problem. So the problem
is made known, and then here in this account, the remedy is
made known. The Lord God said, I will and
you shall. You know, I'm so thankful for
our songs in that hymn book. I really do like that hymn book.
But most of the songs that we sing don't convey I will and
you shall clearly enough to me. Sprinkle yourself in the blood
of the Lamb, How can I do that? I'm dead. I need him to plunge
me into the blood. Hide in the blood. I need him
to hide me. You hide me. And I love that
song and I want to keep singing that song for the record. But the point is, we're dead.
We're dead. Our Lord God said, I will and
you shall. So the problem is made known,
the remedy's made known, and then the end result is made known. The end result of I will and
you shall. The covenant promise of life
with Christ forever. Life with Christ forever. Now let's just read through what
we already looked at this morning. That's verses one to 14, okay? Ezekiel 37 verse one, it says,
the hand of the Lord was upon me and carried me out in the
spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley
which was full of bones. And caused me to pass by them
round about and behold, there were very many in the open valley
and lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, son of man,
can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou
knowest. Again he said unto me, prophesy
upon these bones and say unto 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 you shall live. and I will lay sinews upon
you and will bring up flesh upon you and cover you with skin and
put breath in you and 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 the flesh came up 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 up 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 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 it and performed
it, saith the Lord. This is what I'm gonna do for
you. All right, now in verse 15, it says, the word of the
Lord came again unto me, saying, Moreover, thou son of man, take
the one stick and write upon it for Judah and for the children
of Israel, his companions. Then take another stick and write
upon it for Joseph, the stick of Ephraim. and for all the house
of Israel his companions, and join them one to another into
one stick, and they shall become one in thine hand. The children of Israel, at this
time they were scattered abroad, and they were literally divided
from each other. There was a division. There was
a separation, they were separate nations. And the Lord said, I
am going to bring them back together. Man has a way of ruining everything,
doesn't he? All of God's goodness to them,
and they divided and they separated, and he said, I'm gonna bring
them back together again. Judah is where we get the name Jew.
Our Lord is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah. And Joseph, he was the greatest
type of Christ of all the sons of Jacob, the beloved son, sold
into bondage by his brethren. You know who sold Christ into
bondage? We did. We did, by his brethren. He was the one who ended up being
the deliverer, the savior of his brethren. In Christ, All
of his people are one. All of his people are one. None
of them are going to be lost. None of them are going to be
separated. None of them are going to be
severed. None of them. And that gives
me so much comfort. None of them. And our Lord said, Ezekiel, I
want you to declare that by illustrating it this way. Verse 15, the word
of the Lord came again unto me saying, moreover thou son of
man, take thee one stick and write upon it for Judah and for
the children of Israel, his companions. Then take another stick and write
upon it for Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and for all the house
of Israel, his companions. and join them one to another
into one stick. And they shall become one in
thine hand. He said reconciliation is going
to be made. Reconciliation for all my people. Again, in Ephesians 2, that's
exactly what our Lord did for us. It says that's exactly what
our Lord did for us. He broke down the middle wall
of partition by making in himself of twain one new man. He reconciled both unto God in
one body. And then he came and he preached
peace, not war. The war is done. The war is over.
The battle's over. It is finished. peace to them
that were far off and to them that were not. A complete rejoining
of all of God's people with God, to God. Verse 17 says, and join
them one to another into one stick, and they shall become
one in thine hand. And when the children of thy
people shall speak unto thee, saying, wilt thou not show us
what thou meanest by these? saying to them, thus saith the
Lord God, behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is
in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his fellows,
and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and
make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand. and the sticks whereon thou writest
shall be in thine hand before their eyes. And saying to them,
thus saith the Lord God, behold, I will take the children of Israel
from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather
them on every side and bring them into their own land. And
I love the thought of that, when our Lord comes back and he gathers,
you know, all of his people are scattered abroad, all over this
world. It's just gonna be amazing to see people come from one end
to the other, all gathered together. Verse 22, he said, and I will
make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel
and one king shall be king to them all. You know who that king is? That's
King Jesus Christ. You know, this side over here
said, well, we have our king, and that side over there said,
well, we have our king. He said, no, I'm going to bring
the two of you together, and there's going to be one king
over all of you. The Lord Jesus Christ, the one who David represents,
the son of David, who was mentioned right here in just a moment.
Verse 22, I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains
of Israel and one king shall be king to them all. And they
shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided
into two kingdoms anymore at all. Complete and total oneness. Verse 23, neither shall they
defile themselves anymore with their idols, nor with their detestable
things, nor with any of their transgressions, but I will save
them out of all their dwelling places wherein they have sinned
and will cleanse them. So shall they be my people and
I will be their God. How wonderful that announcement
is. I will save them. I will cleanse them. I will remove
them from all sin. I will be their God. They're going to be my people.
Our Lord secured every bit of that on the cross of Calvary.
He saved. He cleansed. He joined. He reconciled. And one day soon, we're going
to know the reality of everything he did. Verse 24, it says, and
David my servant shall be king over them. That's Christ. And they all shall have one shepherd. Who is that? That's Christ too. He said, I'm the good shepherd. Because I'm the one who laid
down my life for the sheep. I laid down my life. for the
sheep. This promise is your king is
going to be your shepherd. He's not going to hire somebody
else to be your shepherd. I'm the king, you be the shepherd. No, your king is your shepherd. He said, I'm going to feed you.
I'm going to feed you. I'm going to lead you. I'm going
to defend you. I'm the one who's going to protect
you. I'm going to be the one to comfort
you. I don't know if sheep ever get
depressed. I don't know. But this one does. I can envision a sheep. I don't
know how a shepherd would know if his, I don't know, maybe you
do. Hannah's the cat whisperer. She knows everything a cat is
experiencing and feeling. If you're a shepherd of a sheep,
maybe you know those things. But can't you see a shepherd
consoling a poor, pitiful, sad, hurt sheep? Our king said, I'm going to be
that for you. If you need someone to come lay
your head on, you're not going to be able to
shed a tear. There's not going to be any more tears. You're not even going to be sad.
But he said, I'm going to be that for you. The rest of your
days, I'm going to be that for you. Verse 24 says, And David,
my servant, shall be king over them. They all shall have one
shepherd. They shall also walk in my judgments
and observe my statutes and do them. Aren't you looking forward
to that? What he's saying is I'm going
to give them my righteousness. They're going to walk in my judgment,
not man's judgment, my judgment. They're going to observe and
do my statutes. I'm going to give my works and
my deeds to them. I'm going to make them holy.
I'm going to make them perfect. I'm going to make them just before
me by applying all of my works of righteousness to them. They're
going to walk in my deeds. That's just verse 25 and they shall dwell
in the land that I have given unto Jacob, my servant. I've
given the whole land to this sinner, this trickster, this
supplanter, but a redeemed sinner, trickster, and supplanter whose
name is now Israel. They shall dwell in the land
that I've given unto Jacob, my servant, wherein your fathers
have dwelt, and they shall dwell therein, even they and their
children and their children's children. That's a promise. Forever. And my servant David shall be
their prince forever. Their prince of peace. Well,
I thought he was their king. Oh, he is. He's their prophet. He's their
priest. He's their king. He's their shepherd. He's their
prince. He's their everything. He is their everything. Verse 26, moreover, I will make
a covenant of peace with them and it shall be an everlasting
covenant with them. Everlasting. David said, although
it be not so with my house. Did he make this covenant with
everybody? No, he did not. He made it with Jacob. the sons of Jacob. He made it
with sinners. He made it with sinners. And
David was a sinner. And David said, although it be
not so with my house, he hath made with me an everlasting covenant. Ordered in all things, ensure.
This is all my salvation, this is all my desire, the hope of
this covenant. He said, I'm the Lord, I change
not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. This covenant
of peace from this covenant of blood, this covenant of the cross
of Jesus Christ, it's an everlasting covenant. It is an everlasting
covenant. His broken body and his shed
blood has secured the promise of deliverance forever. Forever. You know, we're here
on this earth for a little while. You hit 35, and you think, well,
I'm at the halfway point. And then you start getting a
little older, and all you think, well, I'm on the downhill slide. I've been
here a little while. I'm about to be 50, 60, 70, 80. You think, man, I've been around
a while. Just wait till you've been there
10,000 years. And we're still talking about
this covenant. And we're still saying the same
thing in a billion, trillion, gazillion years that we're saying
right now. We're crying, thank God, the
covenant of the blood of Jesus Christ stands forever. First
time I heard about that covenant was 75 million years ago, and
it's still going strong. His body and His blood was enough
to fulfill His promise forever, forever. Verse 25, it says, they shall
dwell in the land that I've given unto Jacob my servant, wherein
your fathers have dwelt, and they shall dwell therein, even
they and their children and their children's children forever.
And my servant David shall be their prince forever. Moreover,
I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an
everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply
them and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them forevermore. My tabernacle also shall be with
them." That means embody. in spirit and in flesh, in actuality. After our Lord accomplished this
great salvation and secured peace by his death, with that accomplishment
being fulfilled, he didn't just bring victory over sin, he brought
victory over death. And he arose The same man he
was before he died. He arose the same man he was
before he died. Perfect, spotless, sinless. And this is what he said to his
disciples. He said, you touch me. He said, a spirit doesn't
have flesh and bones as you see me have. Only a spirit. He said, you touch this body
right here. You handle me. And his promise
to us right now is this very flesh and bone is going to dwell
with you in my kingdom forever. Verse 27, he said, my tabernacle
also shall be with them. Yea, I will be their God and
they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that
I, the Lord, do sanctify Israel. He said in the end, all the world
is gonna know that I, the Lord, do sanctify Israel. I, the Lord,
have cleansed my people. I've purified my people. I've
made a difference. I've set them apart. I've made
them a special treasure to myself. Verse 28, the heathen shall know
that I, the Lord, do sanctify Israel when my sanctuary shall
be in the midst of them forever. Forever. That's what our King
and Shepherd, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ accomplished for
us in sacrificing himself to redeem us back to God. And that's his promise, his covenant
promise, and it'll stand forever. It'll stand forever. Now, when
we observe this, we are remembering that. We're remembering this
covenant promise that he made, he kept, he secured, he applied
for us. What we're about to do, we're
about to do this in remembrance of him. All right, now I am going to
do something different.