Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church,
located at 905 Yadkin Street in Kingsport, Tennessee, would
like to invite you to listen to a message of sovereign grace
by their pastor, Gabe Stoniker. And now, Pastor Gabe Stoniker. I am going to be speaking to
you this morning from Ezekiel chapter 37. If you would like
to turn with me, I'll be in Ezekiel 37. And I'll begin reading in
verse one. It says, the hand of the Lord
was upon me and carried me out into 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 roundabout. And behold, there
were very many in the open valley, and lo, they were very dry. The Lord told Ezekiel to go out
into this valley full of bones. Apparently there was a battle
fought there. Because the end of verse 10 says, an exceeding
great army. So apparently there was a battle
fought there, but whatever the reason was for the death of these
people, Verse two says there were very many of them. Very
many. And they had been there a long
time because it was only bones. That's all that was left in the
valley. Just bones. And verse two says they were
very dry. No moisture in them. No life
at all. As dead as dead can be very,
very dry bones. Verse three, and he said unto
me, the Lord said unto Ezekiel, son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, oh Lord God,
thou knowest. And that's a good answer. That's
a good answer. Lord, you know. Verse four, again,
he said unto me, prophesy upon these bones. Preach to these
bones. He said, that's what I want you
to do. Preach to these bones and say unto them, oh, ye dry
bones. Hear the word of the Lord. Hear
the word of the Lord. Hear the word of the Lord. Error
comes. This thing of preaching and this
thing of of believing on Christ, this thing of salvation, let's
not take for granted that we can just believe everything we
hear on the matter. Error comes, many people fall
into error, false belief, a false hope. And error comes, being
wrong comes from listening to a man. Error comes from listening to
a man. Man has it wrong. People listen to men all the
time and they just trust that the man knows what he's talking
about. Man has it wrong. Anything that I say to you, me,
anything that I say to you that is not in this book is wrong. I'm speaking of my own thoughts
and opinions. They're wrong. If it's not in
agreement with this book. It may seem right to me. I may
believe I'm telling you what's right. There is a way that seems
right to man. This is what the scripture says.
There's a way that seems right to man, but the end is always
destruction. Always. A true preacher will
only preach the word of the Lord. That's it, the word of the Lord.
The scripture says, let God be true. And every man a liar. God only is true now. Here is a key to peace. If anyone needs spiritual peace. If anyone is struggling over
these things and searching for the true answers. Here's a key
to peace. This is a key to understanding
the scripture. This is a key to finding and
laying hold of the truth. If anyone is searching for the
truth, here's the key. Hear the word of the Lord. Hear the word of the Lord. As long as we are hearing the
words of men. If we're just listening to what
a man thinks and what his take is on it, no matter how much
we love the man, no matter how much we respect the man, as long
as we're listening to the words of men, we're going to stay so
confused. You ever feel confused? As long
as we're listening to men, we're going to stay so confused. We'll
never be settled on what the truth is. Our hearts will never
rest. believing, okay, this is the
truth. We'll never find peace. We'll never find contentment. We'll just remain in that condition. Look with me, if you would, at
Amos chapter eight, this is a difficult little book to find a very small
book and at the end of the old Testament, but if you can find
it, Amos chapter eight, verse 11 says, behold, The days come, saith the Lord
God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of
bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the
Lord. There will be a famine. You will
not hardly find it. The words of the Lord. And they
shall wander from sea to sea and from the north even to the
east. They shall run to and fro to
seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it. They'll seek
the word of the Lord and shall not find it. Somebody will say,
what do you mean shall not find it? Here it is. Everybody has
a copy of the Bible. And yes, that's true. But sadly, it is becoming more
and more the case. That men are not boldly declaring
what is in it. Everybody does hold a copy of
the scripture. But man does not know what is in the scripture
because men are not standing up in pulpits, boldly declaring
what's in it. The truth of the word is an offense
to the flesh. It really is. So men stand up
and they try to explain it away. They try to take the edge off
of it. They try to make it more appealing. To this sinful flesh and in the
name of the Lord, what they're doing is they're declaring their
own word. If they don't declare God's word,
they're declaring their own word. And the word of man will never
save anyone. The word of man cannot save anyone. The only hope we have is to hear
the word of the Lord. That's the only hope we have. All right, let's go back to Ezekiel
37 and hear the word of the Lord. Verse 11 tells us what this is
all about, what this valley of bones is all about. It says in
verse 11, Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the
whole house of Israel. He told Ezekiel. This is who
these bones represent, the whole house of Israel, they represent
all of God's people. He's not talking about the actual
nation of Israel. And the reason we know that is
because in Romans nine, the Lord said, the word of the Lord says,
they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. Just because a
man was born into Israel, that does not make him one of God's
particular people. These bones represent spiritual
Israel. all of God's elect, all those
that he's chosen to redeem, chosen to live with them forever in
new Jerusalem, the scripture calls it. So this right here
is salvation. This is how salvation comes. This is who it comes to. This
is the truth of the matter right here. Verse one, Ezekiel 37 verse
one 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." They were very
dry. We are all naturally dead in
trespasses and sins. Me and you, all of us, all men
and women are naturally dead in trespasses and sin. I cannot
convince you of that. I cannot convince you of that. I can't convince myself of that.
You can't convince yourself of that. No man can ever convince
another man or himself that he is spiritually dead in trespasses
and sins. It takes the spirit of God to
convince a man of that. The reason is because we cannot
naturally understand that. We cannot understand it. We we
are born into this world. We live life on this earth. We
grow up. We do things we we learn, we
breathe, we walk, we talk. And to hear that we are all dead
in sin. That's something that we cannot
naturally understand. But that is the word of the Lord. That's the word of the Lord.
And if that's what he says we are, then that's what we are.
We bow to his word, we hear and believe the word of the Lord
dead, very dry. As dead as dead can be. A dead
man and a dead woman can do nothing. Just be dead. That's all that
he or she can do, but the word of the Lord is to dead men. And dead women, that's what this
is telling us. And he is not about to say now
you all need to put yourselves back together. You need to fix
yourselves back up and you need to live again. He's not about
to tell him that at all. Verse three, he said unto me,
son of man, can these bones live? And that's the question. Is there any salvation for these
bones? Can life come back to these bones? Can life come back? These bones were born and they
died. Can they be born again? God created
man perfectly. He walked uprightly and he became
ruined in the fall. He lost it. Can man live again? Verse three goes on to say, and
I answered, Oh Lord God, thou knowest. I have nothing to do
with this. Only, you know, this is all in
your hands. Verse four, again, he said unto
me, prophesy upon these bones, preach to them, preach to them. That's the means that I've chosen
to use. Preach to them. Now see if you
can get this in your mind. See if you can picture this in
your mind. Can you envision Ezekiel standing out in a field? Just
standing out in a field, holding a Bible. Preaching to a bunch
of bones, can you see that man just standing there? Bones everywhere,
dead, dry bones, and there he stands preaching to these bones. He's not doing anything. Nothing
other than just standing there, reading God's word to them. That's
what preaching is. We declare the word of the Lord,
reading God's word to them. That's what he's doing. Can you
see that scene in your mind? That's why the world calls this
foolishness. They think that's foolish. How
foolish. You're just going to tell them
what God, you have a valley full of dead bones. And the question
is, can they live again? And all you're going to do is
stand there and read to them what God says. That's all you're
going to do. That's crazy. You're not going to gather up
all the bones. You're not going to go out and
gather them all together and try to organize them. You got to get all of these,
these types of bones together and those types of bones together,
and then see if you can get them put back together. You're not
going to do that. We've got to get them active.
That's what man thinks concerning dead bones. You've got to get
them involved in something. That's how life comes, you've
got to get these dead bones involved in something. When we do that,
it's just dead bones involved in something. That's all it is. The Apostle Paul said in Romans
1, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. The declaration of
the word of the Lord, the preaching of the word of the Lord. He said,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God unto salvation. God said, preach to them. Preach
to them, hear the word of the Lord. And here it is. Verse five. 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. He said, I will and you shall. That's the word of the Lord.
I will and you shall. That is the gospel. That's the
truth. That's salvation. God will and
we shall. That's opposite of what man says,
if you think about it. You think about what man preaches
when he's preaching his own word. It's the opposite of what God
says. Man stands up in pulpit and he
asked people, what are you going to do with God? I'm not going to do anything
with him. The question is, what is God going to do with me? It's not what am I going to do
for God? Not at all. My only hope is that
he has done something for me. That's my only hope. What is
the truth of salvation? How are men and women saved?
How are they really saved? Well, this man over here says,
you know, you have to give your heart to him and then he'll save
you. If you'll give your heart to him, he'll save you. Another
man over here says you have to accept him as your personal savior,
and then he'll save you. Another man says, God has done
all he can do. Now the rest is up to you. You're going to have to become
a good enough person. You're going to have to make yourself,
you're going to have to get yourself in a place where you really don't
need God to save you anymore. And then he'll save you. God
says we're all dead, dry bones. He said, stand in the midst of
them. Lift up your voice with strength. And cry, oh, you dry
bones. Hear the word of the Lord. I will. And you shall. That's the gospel. That is the
truth that is salvation. That's the gospel that came to
this dry bone. That's the gospel that came to
this dry bone. That's the message of this entire
book. I will. And you shall. God is not waiting on anyone. To ask him to save them, beg
him to say he's not waiting on man to move. This is God we're
talking about. God is not waiting on anyone
to let him save them. He wants to as soon as they let
me, I'll do it. That's not the God of the Bible. If you look at chapter 36, Ezekiel
36 verse 7. Says, therefore, thus saith the
Lord God, I have. You see that I have, he said
in verse 9, for behold, I am He said, I will. He said in verse 10 and I will. He said in verse 11 and I will. He said in verse 12, yea, I will. I will. I will. He said in Isaiah
45, I the Lord do all these things. I do all these things. That's
the word of the Lord. That's the declaration of the
Lord. I do all these things. He said in verse 18, I poured
my fury upon them. I did. He said in verse 19, I
scattered them. Verse 21, but I had pity. For
my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among
the heathen, whither they went. Therefore say unto the house
of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for your sakes,
O house of Israel, but for my holy name's sake, which you have
profaned among the heathen, whither you went. What is his holy name? What is the Almighty God's holy
name, Jesus Christ. That's his name. This is Jesus Christ saying all
of this. We've been talking about Jesus
Christ this whole time. If you're looking with me, look
at verse 23, Ezekiel 36 verse 23. And I will sanctify my great
name, which was profaned among the heathen, which you have profaned
in the midst of them. And the heathen shall know that
I am the Lord, saith the Lord God. Now, if you're reading it
with me, you may notice that it says I am the capital L, capital
O, capital R, capital D. Lord, all capitals. Sayeth the
capital L, lowercase o, lowercase r, lowercase d. Sayeth the Lord. I am Jehovah. I am Jehovah, the Almighty. saith Jesus Christ, God, the
God who redeemed us, the God who hung on the tree, the God
who did all these things. And he went on down to say, I
will, I will, I'm going to take out that heart of stone. I'm
going to give you a heart of flesh. Man says, you know, you need
to give your heart to Jesus. He does not want our filthy heart.
He does not want it. He said, I'm going to take that
out. That's what I'm going to throw away. I'm going to put
in a new heart, a heart of flesh, a living heart, the heart of
Christ himself. Verse 27, he said, I'm going
to put my spirit within you. Christ in you, that's the hope
of glory. And he went on to say, I will,
I will, I will. That's what I want you to preach
to the bones. God starts it and God performs it. It's all according
to his will and his word. Chapter 37, verse seven says,
So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was
a noise and behold, a shaking. Where was this noise and where
was the shaking? Amongst the bones. Within the
bones, when the word of the Lord. Comes to bones, creates a shaking. Things get shaken up. Verse seven,
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. When salvation comes to a center,
God makes that center complete. Bone came together to his bone. He does that by uniting a center
to himself. The notification of this book
is, you are now bone of His bone. His bone. Members of His bone. Psalm 34 says, He keepeth all
His bones. Not one of them is broken. He
was broken so that they might never be. Bone came together
to his bone. Verse eight says, 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.
That's the righteousness and the blood of Christ, which covers
his people. But it says there was no breath
in them, not from the preacher. The preacher cannot give life.
It takes the spirit of God to give life. Verse nine, then he
said 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. You cry out to God for his spirit. Lord, would you send
your spirit. and cause your people to live. And he said, if the Spirit comes
and if the Spirit gives life, this is how you'll know my people.
Verse 11. Then he said unto me, Son of
man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. This is what
they say. This is the evidence. Behold,
they say our bones are dried. and our hope is lost, we are
cut off for our parts. We're just dead, dry bones. That's
what they all say. I'm just a sinner. I'm just a
dead sinner. Verse 12, 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. I'm going to do this
for you. 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. I will and you shall. That is the Word of the Lord. That's the Word of the Lord. I pray that God might send that
Word to our hearts. I pray that God might cause me
to hear and believe His Word and cause you to hear and believe
His Word. Till next Sunday, may the Lord
bless His Word to our hearts. You have been listening to a
message by Gabe Stoniker, pastor of Kingsport Sovereign Grace
Church in Kingsport, Tennessee. If you would like a copy of this
message or to hear other messages of sovereign grace, log on to
our website at ksgctn.org. If you would like to come and
worship with us, our service times are Sunday morning Bible
study at 10 o'clock a.m., worship at 1045 a.m., and 6 o'clock p.m.,
Wednesday evening at 730 p.m. Please tune in next week for
another message of God's free and sovereign grace.