Turn to Ezekiel chapter 37. Ezekiel chapter 37. I have thoroughly enjoyed myself. Thank you for your hospitality, your generosity, This is the
first time I've really got to stay with Gabe and Hannah and
get to know them. And what a pleasure, what a pleasure
that's been this week. The Lord's given you a pastor
and he's given you a pastor's wife. And this is the first time
I've got to spend any time with Larry. And I enjoyed it. Probably have to have therapy,
but. Especially after that man that
didn't have a leg to stand on yesterday. No, you can wink at
her. After 41 years, you can look
at it. Let me get myself together. Yesterday,
we looked at a throne, a book, and a lamp. And this morning,
I want us to look at the preacher, the people, and the message.
If God's got a people somewhere, he's got a preacher for them.
And he's going to send them a preacher, a preacher of the gospel. And
he's going to preach. And God's going to save his people
through the preaching of the gospel, what the world calls
foolishness. They call what we are doing here this morning foolishness. But it's please God. is please
God through the foolishness of preaching, not foolish preaching,
but the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. So first we start with the preacher. He says, the hand of the Lord
was upon me. That's a powerful statement,
especially when you're standing here. That's all I want right
now. I want the hand of the Lord to
be upon me. Paul said, who is sufficient
for these things? Who is sufficient to handle the
glory of God? Who's sufficient to handle life
and eternity and judgment? Who's sufficient to handle these
things? But Paul goes on to say, but our God, our God is our sufficiency. I totally depend on him this
morning with the ability to preach the gospel, not my notes. Barnard
said, I have my notes. I hope I don't have to use them.
I know what he means. I know what he means. No amount
of formal education can make us sufficient preachers. It can't
do it. The ability to rightly divide
the word of truth and to preach it in power is of God. Repeating
the truth is not the same as preaching the truth. And God
has to enable us to preach the gospel in the power of his spirit. It's of God, the power is of
God and not of us. And he said that he carried me
away. Christ is our strength. In this
hour of preaching, Christ is my strength. He's our strength
in his service. He must strengthen us and direct
us where to preach the gospel. It's not up to me to just pick
a place. We pray for God's leadership.
We look for His leadership and we depend on Him to guide us
to the place to preach, to the people to preach to. He appoints
the place. He appoints the time, and he
appoints the service. He said, he sat me down. That's
what he did with you here. He sat me down in Spring Lake.
I'd have never thought of that. I'd have never thought of that
at all. And I'm sure you'd have never
thought of this place. But Ezekiel says, he carried me, and he sat
me down. And the place he sat me down
is sure not the place I would have picked. I wouldn't pick
a graveyard. He sat me down in a valley of
dry, dead bones. You know, one thing about preaching,
as you learn and you grow, you realize that you are preaching
to a lot of dead people. Now, I'm preaching to some people
here who believe the gospel. I'm also preaching to some that are
dead. I have no doubt about that, no doubt. And I pray, I pray
it would please God to give life that give life. Our natural tendency
is to look at the well-watered plains of Jordan. Why preach
here when in New York there's eight million people? That looks
like a better place to preach, but that's not where God would
have me. The best place for me to preach is where God put me.
He took Philip from Samaria, which had a great service going
on. It was a real good service going
on. People were being saved and he called him and sent him to
a desert place. Why go to a desert place? Because
there's one sheep there. It wasn't a group of people,
there's one. It was a eunuch in a chariot reading the word
of God. God preparing that eunuch and God prepared his preacher
and brought him, made their paths cross. Isn't God amazing? Isn't that amazing? The reason the Lord sends his
preacher where he sends them is because that's where his sheep
are. He sends his preachers where his sheep are. This valley of
bones is my people. This valley of dry, very dry,
been there a long time, Well, stars say very dead, but there's
really no degrees of dead, is there? I mean, nobody's just
barely dead. Have you ever heard that? Well,
he's barely dead. Now, I've heard of barely alive,
but I've never heard of barely dead. I mean, dead's dead. You
know, somebody called you this morning and said, John Chapman
died. Would you get it? Do you know what they meant?
But when we say they're dead in trespasses and sins, they
don't get it. That means dead, spiritually dead. We don't have
the life of God in us in any way, shape, or form. That's dead. We are dead to God. We're not
dead to one another. I reckon because we think we
can talk to each other, we can just talk to God. Not without
Christ you can't. A dead person can't talk to life,
the one who's life. Life has to give life for there
to be any communication. There has to be. And he says
here, he caused me to pass by them round about, as Moses took
that serpent and walked around the camp. He walked around, he
passed by, and he said, look and live, look and live. And
he said here that God caused him to pass by them. Why's that? Because they're dead, they can't
pass by him. They can't pass by him, they're dead. That's
exactly why. Isn't it amazing that God sends
his preacher among us? I know this. At one time, every
last person in this room was dead. Dead. And God sent a preacher to pass
by you and preach the gospel. How marvelous. How marvelous
the grace of God. that he would come into our midst,
that God Almighty would come into this world, assume our flesh,
become man, die for us, be buried, rise again, and then call preachers
and send them to a bunch of dead God-hating rebels. Isn't that
marvelous? That's marvelous grace. Henry
said one time, when grace ceases to be marvelous, to be amazing,
when grace ceases to be amazing, it ceases to be grace. When it's
not amazing no more to you. That God would look upon a dead,
depraved people like us and send his preacher. Oh my, what a,
what a, what a blessing. There's nothing in this scene
attractive about God's elect. There's nothing about us that's
attractive. I know we get in the mirror and
we comb and primp and we look, you know, mirror, mirror on the
wall. We think that's us. But God sees nothing attractive
about us at all. He sees the attractiveness in
Christ. And he sees us in Christ. And
that's where our beauty is. Our beauty, our worth, Our worth
is in Christ. He's my worth. I'm worthless
apart from him. I am. But this, he says here, behold,
they were very many in the open valley, and they were very dry. You know, I don't know what happened
here, but I know who lost. They did. Laying there dead. If we will give a serious look
at human nature, in human history, it will become evident we lost. We lost. When Adam met Satan
in the garden, he lost. And when that happened, we lost.
We lost the way to God. We lost the truth of God. We
lost the life of God. What is it that Christ says that
he is to us? The way, the truth, and the life. Everything I lost in Adam, I
have in Christ. Everything. All was lost, nothing
left. You know this earth is one big
graveyard? I assure you, there's not one
inch, there's not one square inch of this earth that something
hasn't died on it. It might just be a fish worm,
but something has died on it. This earth, Whole world is a
graveyard. It is, it's just a graveyard. He says here, they were very
dry. Been there a long time. Been there a long time. We've
been dead a long time. 6,000 years, roughly. Dead a
long time. No sign of spiritual life at
all. No spiritual intelligence. And listen, that's the only intelligence
that really matters. When life is over, the only thing
that really, really matters is my union to Christ. It's my connection to Him. Paul
said he counted everything lost for the excellency of what? The
knowledge of Christ Jesus, knowing him, oh, that I might know him
and the power of his resurrection, the power of his resurrected
life, that I might know him now. That's the only intelligence
that's worth having. Dead, he said, dead, the image
of God marred. You could write Ichabod over
this valley. And you could write Ichabod over
us, the glory's departed unless God does something. Unless God
does something for me and in me. You could write Ichabod,
the glory's departed. The glory of this people was
the image of God. The likeness to their creator.
But sin has taken that away. Sin has marred us, it's marred
our bodies, it's marred our minds. You ever think about the human
mind? I mean, the mind, to me, there's nothing more intriguing,
nothing more interesting to me, as far as people go, is the mind. The mind is just unbelievable.
Even with sin, look what we can still do. He marred with sin,
but it's marred our emotions, it's marred our desires, it's
marred everything. It's messed up everything. Absolutely everything. And it says very dry, which means
no moisture. No marrow in the bone. It's all
gone. It's all gone. All life, all
life, all spiritual life and strength is gone. Gone. And he said to me, God must speak
to the preacher first. If God doesn't speak to me first,
I don't need to be speaking to you. He speaks to the preacher first.
Our warrant for preaching is thus saith the Lord. That's what
it is, and nothing else. He gives us our message and the
people to preach it to. And God asked a question. Son of man, can these bones live? Can they live again? They're
very dry. Been there a long time. Sun bleached. The crows have
picked off all the flesh. They're very, very dry. Son of
man, can these bones live? See, God starts with his preacher
first. And he says here. And I answered, Lord God, thou
knowest. That's a good answer. That's
a good answer. God, only you know. Only you
know that a dead, depraved sinner here this morning, only you know
whether or not he can live again. Or she. He or she. You know.
I don't know. All I can do is stand here and
preach. That's all I am supposed to do. Only God can give the
correct answer to this question. Only God can give life. And if
he's pleased to do so, I promise you, you'll live. If he commands
life, you'll live. If he says live, you'll live. I need him to speak this morning,
you need him to speak this morning. Again, he said to me, prophesy,
that is preach. That's just what I'm doing. Preach
upon these bones, and say to them, O ye dry bones, hear the
word of the Lord. The first command he gives is
to preach to them. Don't entertain them. I'm not
here to entertain anybody. You're not here, Larry. Gabe,
you're not here to entertain anybody. We're here to preach,
thus saith the Lord. He commands Ezekiel to preach
to them and tell them, hear the word of the Lord. Hear what God
says. Listen to what God says. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. The first thing God commands
is for his word to be preached and for his word to be heard.
Hear the word of the Lord. Now if he commands you to hear,
you'll hear. You will hear. It is God who
commands the hearing ear and the seeing eye. It's God who
gives that. By faith we hear not only the
written word preached, but the living word. We hear Christ speak. We hear Christ speak. The Lord
speaks. And when we hear the word of
the Lord, we hear Him. We hear Him who is life. We hear
Him who is life eternal. Look over in 1 John. I started to quote this, but
I want to read it. Over in 1 John, first chapter. He says, that which was from
the beginning, 1 John chapter 1, that which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word
of life. We have seen life. We have touched
life. We have heard life. We've handled
life. Now listen, for the life was
manifested, and we've seen it, and bear witness, and show unto
you that eternal life, which was with the Father, was manifested
unto us. Eternal life is a person. It's
not how long you're gonna live. You're gonna live forever, even
if you wind up in hell. But now, eternal life is a person.
And John says, eternal life was given a body. We touched it. We heard life speak. Eternal
life, you know, eternal life was given a name, Jesus Christ. Now if you hear Him, if that
life commands you to live and to hear, you're going to live.
You're going to believe the gospel. You're going to believe the gospel. And he says there in verse 5-6,
Thus saith the Lord God unto the bones. Now he's speaking
to the bones, you see. He spoke to the preacher and
he told the preacher to preach. Now he's speaking to the bones.
Those dead, dry bones. You know what's amazing? I sang
this last night. You ever look at a skeleton and
think, that used to be a person. I mean, I looked at a skeleton
once and it just would not leave my mind. That used to be a person. That person used to walk and
talk and think and have a family and now it's laying there dead. It's just bones now, just bones. And he said, the Lord said to
these bones, behold, I'll cause breath to enter into you and
you'll live. I love this because God's saying this is what I'm
gonna do. It's not what you're gonna do. You've already done
what you're going to do. And I'll lay sinews upon you
and bring up flesh upon you and cover you with skin and put breath
in you and you shall live and you shall know when this happens
that I'm the Lord. That I'm the Lord. God tells
us in his word what he has done for us in Christ. You read that
in Ephesians. He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places before the world began. He tells us what
he's done for us in Christ. He's given us all heavenly blessings
in Christ. He has justified us in him, cleared
of all charges. None of them stick. The accuser
of the brethren, he can say, let me tell you what he did.
It ain't gonna stick. It's not gonna stick. Forgiven? That's priceless. If you know
what sin is and guilt is, boy, you know forgiveness. Forgiveness
is priceless. He's made us new creatures in
Him. Salvation's of the Lord, isn't it? It's of the Lord. He
purposed, God purposed to save these bones. Save this valley
of dead. It used to be an army there. A living, thriving army. Now
they're dead. But he says, you're going to
live again. You're going to live again. He purposed to save them. And he tells them that he's going
to give them life and everything they need for life. Not a toe
will be missing, not a finger, not a hair. You know, the scripture
says that not a hair of your head will perish. I expect every bit of that back.
I do. I honestly do. I expect every
hair that's fallen from my head to be restored. That's how thorough
I believe salvation is. That's how thorough it is. Nothing
be lost. Nothing. God has given us in
Christ life from the dead and all that we need to stand in
his presence complete. I have it all. You know, only
an idiot would try to add to something that's complete. In
Him, you are complete. Nothing, that means nothing lacking.
He's our wisdom. Christ is, listen, Christ is
made unto us. This is not just what He gives
me. This is what He is to me. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. And he said, because I live,
you shall live also. So I preached. I preached as
I was commanded. He didn't question the wisdom
of God standing there looking at those bones in that valley.
He just said, okay. And he stood up and he stood
and preached. He didn't question the power of God. God's preacher
preached. And you'll notice that's all
he did. That's all he did. He didn't
try to get those bones to do something. That would have looked
like the dumbest thing in the world, wouldn't it? Stupid. Thomas said, you can't fix stupid.
He preached. God will bless his word and nothing
else. And the sooner we learn that
as preachers, Boy, the sooner we learned that, the better.
The better. Ezekiel didn't try to put the
bones together. That would have looked like a
mess. He would have put the wrong bone with the wrong body, guarantee
you. Guarantee you. And it would have been a messed
up body. When I was a young boy, I used to, my dad never bought
us a bicycle, so we took different bicycle parts. I mean, it looked
like a freak show when we got done with it. We put a bicycle
together. And then we had parts from here
and parts from there, big wheel, little wheel. But at the end
of it, it was a bicycle. But I tell you what, you couldn't
call it a good bicycle. I mean, it looked like one, but
it was a mess. It was a mess. And if Ezekiel
had tried to put these bones together, and you know, God didn't
tell him to do that. God did not tell him to go over
there and start matching those bones up. He would have made a mess. This
is the job for the great physician. This is his job. This is his
responsibility. This is his work. This is God's
work. Salvation is God's work. So I
preached as I was commanded. And there was a noise, a voice,
is what that is. There was a voice. And behold,
a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone, and
the skin covered them about, but there was no breath in them.
Just a body, but life hadn't entered into him yet. When I
did, though, he says, yeah, when I did as I was commanded, things
began to happen. God began to save. He began to
do what he said he would do. There was a voice, God speaking,
God commanding life, God commanding bone to come to its right proper
body. God's commanding this. A new
creation is happening. That's what's happening. A new
creation is happening. A new man being made. A new man. Not a renovation. A new man. and a shaking. Someone said it's
a shaking of all false hopes being shaken off, the dust of
death shaken off, ignorance being shaken off, but there was a shaking
like at jail. You know, God might shake your
world, but then it might be like Lydia. He speaks and God just
opens her heart. It may be that way. It may take
a shaking for someone like that jailer. And it may just take
God quietly speaking to your heart and opening your heart. But I tell you this, not until
God does a work of grace in you by the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit will you live. You might, you'll get religious. I guarantee you, before you die,
you'll probably get religious. Most people do. Then he said to me, prophesy
or preach into the wind. You see, the Holy Spirit has
his work in this. He has his work in salvation.
Preach, son of man, and say to the wind, thus saith the Lord
God, come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon thee
slain. Sin has slain us, that they may live. If you'll
notice here, the whole work is of God. Not at any point did
they or the preacher contribute anything to their salvation.
He just preached and God commanded life. The preacher's told to
call upon the spirit of God. And that's what I do now. I do,
I pray, Holy Spirit, take the word of God and apply it to a
dead sinner here. Make him live. Make him live. The preacher is
told to call upon the Spirit of God to come and give life
to those dead bones, that dead body. The new birth is the work
of the Holy Spirit. The Father chose us, the Son
redeemed us, and the Holy Spirit regenerates us. You take any
one of them out, you don't have salvation. It ain't gonna happen.
Ezekiel did not tell those bones to do something for God, but
for God to do something for them. Come and breathe on. Well, if
we learn, we who preach, if we could just learn to preach and
then pray. Preach and pray that God bless
his word, God apply the word. God give life, like you did to
me, give life to them. I would to God that he would
give life to every person in this room. I do. My pastor said one time, he said,
God will save all he can wisely save. And he will. Brethren, we need God to do something
for us. We need God to do something for
us. And he says in verse 10, so I preached as he commanded
me. Obedience is priceless. And the breath came into them
and they lived just as he said they would. Nothing's impossible
with God. Life is his to give if he will. He quickens, the scripture says,
whom he will. I want you to get this. The saving
of a sinner is not a challenge to God's power. It's just a matter
of God's will. is never a challenge to his power.
It's a matter of his will. And they stood upon their feet,
an exceeding great army. They did as they were commanded.
He said, stand up. Christ said to that man who was
crippled, take up your bed and walk. And what did he do? He
took up his bed and walked. He says, these bones are the
whole house of Israel. These bones are my elect. My
elect. And they say, and they didn't
say this before, but now they say we are sinful. You'll never
ever admit to your guilt and your
sinfulness until God gives you life. Dead people don't repent. It's the living. When God commands
life, that's when you see how sinful you are. When God commands
life, that's when you see you were dead, but not till then. And they say we are sinful and
there's no hope for us. Boy, that's the one time there's
hope now. When you think there's no hope, that's the only time
there is hope. When you become hopeless and everything you ever
hoped in is gone, it's been shaken away, it's shattered. Now there's hope for you. Now
there's hope. Not until we have life do we
have repentance. Not until we have life do we
know how sinful we are. Woe is me, cried Isaiah. Oh,
wretched man that I am, cried Paul. And he didn't, Paul would
have choked and went to hell before he'd have said that until
God saved him. And when God saved him, he said,
I am a wretch. What do you know? I am a wretch. And I'm gonna wind this up. Here
comes the good news. Tell them, instruct them, behold
all my people, I'm gonna open your graves. I'm gonna bring
you out into the land of Israel, the land that I promised to your
fathers. I'm gonna take you to glory. We saw a little bit of
that yesterday. We got a little glimpse into
heaven yesterday. We have a large family, don't we? You realize
how large your, people always ask me, how many brothers and
sisters do you have? Well, in the flesh, I got four sisters
and two brothers. But in the spirit, it's innumerable.
It's innumerable. Death has no more dominion over
you, for sin has no more dominion over you. You're not under the
law now, you're under God's grace. God's gonna bring the Israel
of God. And I'm looking at some of the
Israel of God right here. I'm looking at it. I'm looking
at the true Jews. He's gonna bring them to the
promised land. And when he does this, when he does this, you're
gonna know that I'm the Lord. Isn't that something? God shall save us in such a way that when he has saved us, we
will know that the Lord saved us. It wasn't a cooperation. I didn't cooperate with him. Salvation is not a cooperation
of me and the Lord doing this together. No, it's the Lord doing
the saving. It's the Lord doing the saving. And you're going to know I'm
the Lord. And beside me, you're going to know this. And beside
me, there is no else. There is none else. There is
no other Savior. There's none. I'm going to put
my spirit in you, and you're going to live. And I shall place
you in your own land. Then shall you know that I, the
Lord, have spoken it and performed it. Oh, when God puts his Holy Spirit
in you, You'll live and you'll know that God is faithful to
his word. God is faithful to his word.
He'll perform that which he has spoken. That gives me great comfort. God's never broken a promise.
Never will. He would have to cease to be
God than to break a promise. Come unto me, all you that labor
and heavy laden, I'll give you rest. That's a promise. That's
a promise. And I had written at the bottom
of this, not until then shall we know how much we owe.