Too much. It really puts us in our place.
I mean, it spells out how little we actually understand. How little
we know. We don't know how God's grace
works. We don't know how his spirit moves, convincing us of
our sin. We don't know how Revealing Jesus
through the word can create faith in one of us. We don't understand
any of that. We know it. We don't get it. I don't know what his plans are
for my life. I don't know when it's coming
to an end. I don't know when this world ends. But I know who I believe in.
And I know what he is capable of. And that is all we need. And that's why God makes it so
plain. Because it needs to be. We know very little. So he makes
it plain and easy for us to understand, even though without the Spirit
we can't. But once we've been shown, he makes it easy for us
to hold on to that. Because that's how incapable
we are. So we'll be going back to Ezekiel,
the first 14 verses of Ezekiel 37, and that will be the main
scripture portion that we'll be talking about today. But right
now, let's quick turn to Luke 4, verse five through seven. Luke 4, five through seven, it
says, the devil led him up to a high place and showed him in
an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him,
I'll give you all their authority and splendor for it has been
given to me and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you
will worship me, it will all be yours. This is our Lord on
the Mount of Temptation shortly before he's taken into custody. So from the Lord's experience
on this Mount of Tentation, we can actually learn how the devil
works on all of us, on all of man. The devil's method when
he would motivate a man to worship him or to worship anyone other
than Christ. He takes them to a high place
and he shows them the kingdoms of the world. He says, I will
give you, I will give these things to you. I will give you everything
you see if you will just bow down to me. To win our hearts,
the devil shows us the glories of this world. In particular,
the tokens and the glories that we can earn. That's the exact
opposite of the gospel, right? It takes away anything we can
earn, it takes away anything we can boast in, whereas the
devil comes to us and shows us all these things that we can
boast in. Power and money and fame, importance
in this world, all aspects of this world that appeal to our
primal, mortal nature. And he promises all these things
to us to whoever will worship him. In this we learn the key
notes of Satan's message. The world, man, human will, and
works based on a reward-based performance. A reward for what
you've done. And we hear this voice, the voice
of the devil, in a lot of preaching. Today, it seems our nation has
given, the majority of our nation has given
over to like a satanic brand of Christianity. I know it sounds
harsh, but it's nothing short of true. Preachers set before man the
hope of blessing, achievement, and comfort in this world, all
hinging on worshiping the God that they
set forth. physical health, riches, victorious
living, success, happiness. All other such things are shown
to these people and they're told, God will give you all of this
if only you will worship him. That is not the voice of God. That is the voice of the devil.
It's exactly what the devil said to Jesus. in that moment of temptation. You can have all of this if only
you will worship me. The if you will is the key there. Conjunctions, if, but, those
words are the work of the devil when you're talking about the
gospel. Christ has finished the work of salvation, but, that
ruins it. It's a period at the end of that
sentence. You can have God's blessings,
if you will, also ruins it. The devil doesn't come out into
this world trying to convince people to worship him outright.
He's smarter than that. He knows that people aren't gonna
like, openly be okay with like satanic worship You don't see
that very little So he uses the name of our God
of our Savior These churches give their deal-making God the
name of Christ But that is not the Christ of
the Bible It is true that God sometimes
does say things like, if you will, but that is only to prove
that we can't do what's coming next. We can't do what is required
to earn his favor. God has never offered a blessing
to a fallen man with the expectation that that man would reach out
and achieve that blessing. That has never happened. God
has never offered a blessing that required achievement from
you or from any man. God doesn't rely on anyone to
do anything. God will bless who he wants to
bless. It's not up to anyone to accept that. That's the same
as saying it's up to them to allow it. What's the difference? If it's up to me to accept a
blessing, then it's up to me to allow that blessing. Do I
get to allow God to do anything? When the devil preaches his gospel,
he takes men to that high place and shows them their own glory.
But when God teaches his gospel, he takes man to a deep valley,
and he walks them through the regions of death. It is the exact
opposite of what so many of these churches preach. God doesn't preach life, he shows
us death first, and then life. When God preaches his gospel,
it's not success, but failure first. Not possibilities, inabilities. That's what he shows us in ourselves
first. It's not look at how good you
can be if you'll only let me help you. It's look at what you
are. You need me. It's not showing our achievements,
it's showing us our failures. It's not showing us our righteousness,
it's showing us our sin. It's not showing us hope in ourselves,
it's showing us despair in ourselves. That's where the gospel begins.
So it's not, hey everyone, you can have all of this. You can
have riches. You can have success. You can
have health. You can have all these worldly
gauges of happiness and success if only you will worship me. That is not a God. What our God does is shows us.
He basically just puts a mirror in front of us. with nothing
in between to cloak what we really are. He said, look at yourself. This is who you are. You don't
have hope without me. You are nothing but a failure
without me. So much so is this true. What
is man compared to in Ezekiel? And not only that, it doesn't
just say men, it calls the whole of Israel in Ezekiel. So this is specifically talking
about the people that God loves. God's people. What are they compared
to? Dry, dead bones. We often talk about being dead
in our transgressions and sins. often talked about, we are dead
without the life that God has given us. But what a picture
is this? We are not freshly dead. We don't need CPR. We are dry
bones. Not an ounce of flesh left. Zero life. left in those bones. There's nothing there. Nothing. That's what we're compared to. This lesson in Ezekiel is speaking
specifically, again, about the people of Israel. God's chosen
people. God's church. Christ's bride. Dead, dry bones. There are very important messages
and lessons for us to learn in this story, lessons that will
demean us and also uplift us, which is how the gospel works. As with all true gospel messages,
the message destroys any hope we have in our own abilities.
Destroys any hope we have in our own abilities. and holds
out perfect hope in the will and power of God and what he
has done through his son. In comparing us to dry bones,
God teaches us that we have truly nothing to offer, nothing good
and nothing beneficial and nothing profitable. Paul says it this
way in Romans 7. It says, "'For I know that in
me dwells nothing good.'" Very basic statement. Nothing
good. Anything good is not in me. It says in the NIV version, "'For
I know that good itself does not dwell in me.'" Which I actually
think is even better. Like good itself, the very definition
of good does not belong in me. To convince a person that they
have some weak spots is very easy. We all know that. It's
all inherent in who we are. We understand we're not perfect,
right? Some flaws, some deficiencies. Sure, we're all aware of that
truth. The difficulty comes in convincing
people that they have nothing other than weaknesses, that we have nothing other than
flaws, that in us dwells nothing good. It's a hard truth to hear. Even for someone that knows the
truth, even for someone that's been blessed to understand the
truth, it's still hard to hear. Nothing good dwells in you. Not without Christ. Very few understand that we have
never done anything other than sin. God used this illustration because
of what the Israelites themselves had said. They expressed their
own condition. If you go back to Ezekiel now, go to verse 11. Ezekiel 37, 11, it says, then
he said unto me, son of man, these bones are the whole house
of Israel. They say, our bones are dried
up. Now this is Israel speaking.
Our hope is gone. We are cut off. First they said
our bones are dried up. This is the condition of every
single man objectively across the board. Every man. This is
their situation. They are dried up dead bones.
By this I mean naturally speaking we are spiritually dead like
dried dead bones. We are dead by virtue of our
connection with Adam who is our representation. God promised
death to Adam if he ate the forbidden tree. Adam did, and he died. And in his death, we all died.
It says in Romans 5.12, Paul wrote, therefore, just as sin
entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in
this way, death came to all men, because all sinned in that sin. First Corinthians says, for as
in Adam, all die. I love how simple and plain the
Bible is sometimes. I mean, for as in Adam, all die. Doesn't get any easier to understand.
Adam holds a unique position in humanity. He was the representative
of all of us in the Garden of Eden. Whatever he did there,
it was imputed to all of us. Just as though we all did whatever
he did. No other natural man has ever
held that position. So, so closely we identified
with Adam that when he sinned, it was taken that each and every
one of us did the exact same thing. We are just as guilty
of eating the fruit. Even though none of us were even
alive. and wouldn't be for thousands
of years. But that's what that means. Like we are guilty of
Adam's sin. It's imputed to us. But we are
also dead by virtue of our own sinful nature. So even though
we are considered guilty of Adam's sin, we certainly can't make
any boast that we're any better than Adam. By the way, we live. We would have eaten the fruit
too. Adam's sin is not the only sin
we bear. We have our own. This shows that
not only was Adam's transgression his sin imputed to us, but also
his nature. We are like him. We are sinful
and rebellious against God. You ever notice that people do
not have to be taught to lie or cheat or steal? As a parent,
a lot of us are parents, we spend like 20 years trying to teach
kids to do good things. Don't have to teach them to do
bad things. We do that immediately. We don't have to be trained how
to be a bad person. But we do have to be brought
up to be a good person. It's not our nature. I mean, we have to teach them
to love and not to hate. We don't have to teach them to
hate. We have to teach them to share.
We don't have to teach them to be selfish. And I say them, I mean all of
us. We don't have to teach them to steal, but we have to teach
them to give. We don't have to teach them how
to hurt someone, but we do have to teach them how to help. Do
you see what I mean? It's our nature to go that way. We have
the same nature as Adam. Paul quoted from the Old Testament,
he said, there is none good, not one. And we are dead by virtue
of our own transgression. We are not only Adam's nature,
we follow in his footsteps. We act just like he did. We do
that which is forbidden. Taking what has not been given
to us by God. This condition, this bone dry
condition, describes our objective condition by nature. It also
describes how a believer can actually feel. A subjective experience of life
under God's hand. God's chastening hand can actually
make us feel like we're dead bones, even as believers. We've
all been there. There are times when our sins
weigh heavier on us than others. And sometimes those times can
be really heavy. I don't know if we fully understand,
I know we don't fully understand our true condition, but there
are times when we get closer than others, when we feel drier,
like drier bones than other times. And Israel said this too, again
in verse 11, it says, our hope is gone. said Israel, Paul told
the Ephesian Gentiles that before God's grace was fully revealed
in Christ, they were without hope. There is no hope for our souls
apart from Christ. All those without Christ are
without hope. And even those who are by the
grace of God in Christ go through periods when they cannot see
Christ in their hearts. Therefore, they have a sense
of no hope. And it's a terrifying place to
be, and it feels like that can't be right, but it is. We are human. You will go through times when
it feels like there is no hope. It's what they said right here,
our hope is gone. And these are God's people. But even in those times, these
dry, hopeless bones were Israel. They were laying there in that
valley, dead as dead can be, dry from the sun, and yet at
that very moment, they were God's beloved. They might be experiencing hopelessness, but that simply doesn't make
it true. If you are God's people, you
might experience hopelessness, but you are never truly hopeless. The Israelites went on to say,
after that, we are cut off. And here, that is why they had
no hope. Having been cut off from the
temple, they could see no way for their sins to be atoned.
That temple was a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and the
work he did on the cross. Anyone cut off from that work
has no hope. Going back to Paul's words in
Ephesians to the Gentiles, he wrote, you were separated from
Christ without hope and without God in the world. And there are
times when a believer feels cut off from God, having no hope
for they cannot perceive a connection to Christ. They cannot perceive how Christ
could possibly love them. It's not true. This is Israel speaking. We have
been cut off. No, they haven't. They feel like they have been,
but they never were. It's so important. There are times, again, when
a believer feels cut off from God, having no hope. They can't
perceive their connection to Christ. But do you require or
recall the words in Psalms where it says, as a deer pants for
running streams, so my soul is thirsting for God. This was the
cry of a Jew cut off from the temple. This is the cry of a
believer who feels cut off from Christ, thirsting for God. But for whatever reason, he could
not go there to the temple, that psalmist, and he felt cut off.
And likewise, we who believe go through those times when we
cannot seem to get Christ to come to us, or we can't feel
that connection. Without his presence, we are
without hope, and our bones are dry. It's depressing to hear that
our case can be that way, that we can actually feel that way
as believers. Many people do not like to hear
this type of message, because people just want to feel good.
And that's what we see a lot of churches just focusing on,
feeling good. But keep in mind that the devil
aims to make you feel good. The devil loves to make you feel
good. and make you feel good about your present situation. Even though you're in really
bad shape, the devil doesn't care about you. He will make
you feel great about things, even though things are not great without Christ. God, on the other hand, will
deal very honestly with you. In your heart, you know your
true condition. You know there is no good in
you. You may spend a great deal of energy trying to make something
good in yourself, or failing that, trying to make others think
there is something good in you. But you know better. And that's
a good thing. That's God. God's speaking honestly
about who you are and what you really are. You need to know
that. Would you not want a doctor to
give you an honest diagnosis before he talked about giving
you a remedy? In this vision that God gave
Ezekiel, God does not reveal what he's going to do to remedies
Israel off all condition. He's much more, excuse me, how
much more comfort can Israel draw from the Lord's remedy once
they are understood, once they are convinced that he understands
their true condition first? God focuses on the fact that
they're dry, dead bones, just as they just described themselves. Our bones are dry, we have no
hope, we are cut off. God says, I understand that,
and I have the remedy for that. He doesn't say, you guys are
actually just fine. He tells us the truth. and says,
not only do I tell you the truth, I am the one that can help. By telling Ezekiel all of the
humanly hopeless condition of Israel, Ezekiel can be sure that
whatever remedy God comes up with will be perfectly suited
for that awful condition. and that it will be enough, even
though it's that awful, because God understands the true depths
of the condition. Like, yes, I am pointing out
your absolute hopelessness because I can fix even that. Enough for dry, hopeless bones. In the same way, we should be
glad that the scriptures set for us a totally incapable of
arranging and performing our own salvation people. That's
who we are, completely incapable. We already know that that is
true. And since the scriptures acknowledge
that truth, we can be certain that whatever gospel God sets
forth in his book will be perfect for that condition. We are incapable
of saving ourselves. God knows that. So God has set
forth a gospel for that specific problem. And it will be enough. It says,
in Adam, all men die. He understands that. And he has
enough for every one of those lifeless corpses of his people
to bring them back to life, because he knows they died in Adam, so
he has life for them. What is the remedy for dry bones
spiritually? It's the sovereign grace of God. Listen to what God tells Ezekiel
to preach to the dry bones. This is verse five through seven,
Ezekiel 37. This is what the sovereign Lord
says to these bones. I will make breath enter you
and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you
and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin. I will
breathe in you and you will come to life. Then you will know that
I am the Lord. Notice, I love these, anytime,
God is talking about gospel, and he uses, I will. Like that
divine authority that only he has. I will. Not, I hope to. I plan on. If you'll only worship me, I
will. No buts, no ifs. I will. There's nothing about if you
will do this, I will revive you. It's actually silly to think
that dry bones could even hear what's being said, let alone
respond in any way. If we are dry bones, how would
it be effective if he said, if you will only rattle a little
bit first, then I will. What can dry bones do? No, he comes and says, preach
to Israel these words, I will breathe you life. I will revive you. God offered nothing to the dry
bones of Ezekiel's vision. He declared to them. There was
no offering. There was no, here is breath,
if you can muster strength to come get it. He declared to them,
you will have breath, and it is me who will give it to you,
and you will see that I am Lord. He finished it with that every
time. And someday, that sentence will
be true for the whole world. I look forward to that day. and you will see that I am Lord. So Ezekiel told them and the
bones reconnected, the muscle and the flesh was added to them,
yet it goes out of the way to specifically say they were still
dead and there was no breath in them. So no amount of preaching
the true gospel by itself can do anything. It's just the work
of man unless God is involved. Ezekiel was told a prophecy,
the wind to blow upon the newly reformed bones. And in Hebrew,
the word, and Joe talked about this all the time, the word for
wind and breath and spirit is the same word. So when he says
the wind would blow over these bones, he's talking about the
spirit of God. So this is a picture of the Spirit
of God giving life, the new birth, to his people. The Spirit of
God is called the wind and the breath of God just as God breathed
into Adam's nostrils the breath of life and Adam became a living
soul, a spirit. So does God breathe spiritual
life back into his people and they become spiritually alive
again. In this vision, that which was
once a very dry pile of bones is formed into full bodies, then
given life. So dead, broken sinners are reconstituted
and given life by God. It's that simple. In all of this, you will not
find the will or power of man involved at all. Not one iota
of man's will or man's power can be found in this vision. In verse 14, it says, I will
put my spirit in you and you will live. I don't mean to laugh, but it's
just so forceful and declarative and divine. I will put my spirit
in you and you will live. What does the receiver have to
do with that? What is asked of the receiver? What is expected of the receiver? Nothing. That's the only answer. Nothing is expected of the believer. I mean, think about the many,
many, many situations throughout the Bible. I was talking to Jeff
the other day, we were talking about the Last Supper. Christ is sitting
there with these, with his followers who dearly loved him, but just
absolute failures of individuals. What expectations did he have
for them at that moment as he knew he was about to go be crucified?
and he knew that one of them was gonna betray him and the
rest were gonna run away and do nothing but hide. What's expected
of us? Nothing. And yet God loved them
and loves his people with no expectations. If there are expectations,
we will fall short. So that's why he says, I will
put my spirit in you and you will live. I will settle you
in your land. I will bring you home. Then you will know that I, the
Lord, have spoken. I have done it, declares the
Lord. It's sometimes, and I don't,
I'm not ever going to assume I know what the Lord is thinking,
because my brain can't do that. But sometimes it is so clear
that he is saying the same thing in a simple way over and over
and over, like hitting the nail with a hammer again and again
and again, just to get it through our thick skulls. I will put my spirit in you and
you will live. I will settle you in your land.
Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have
done it. Over and over and over, it is
me, declares the Lord. I'm just so thankful for these
messages. these passages that just make it so clear and so
plain, the power, divinity, sovereignty of our God. And that with that
power and sovereignty, He has chosen to love a people for no
reason other than His will. dead, dry, thankless, incapable
bones. Yet the Lord says, I will put
my spirit in you, and you will live. God be praised for his powerful,
sovereign grace that can make dry bones into a vast living
army. And may God be pleased to do
that for you, to do that for your loved ones. But we trust God's will, and
He has a people, and they will live. Because He will put His Spirit
in them. Our Father, We're so thankful that we can
call you Father. We thank you for loving us as children. That's
exactly what we are. We need you as a Father. We need
your love. We need your guidance. We need
you to keep us close to you. We need you to pull us back as
we run away. We thank you for messages like
this, Lord. We thank you for passages like this that show
us what we are and bring us down to where we need to be so that
we can be brought back up in the hope of what Christ has done
and the promises that you've given us. So help us to focus on that. Not to focus on our shortcomings.
Yes, we need to be aware of them, but help us to look to Christ. to be overwhelmed by what he
has done and who he is and what that means for us. Let that be
the truth that's on our hearts. We thank you, Jesus, more than
we can say. We pray this in your name, amen.
You can take out your hymnals and
turn them to number 707, Pass Me Not, and we'll stand as we
sing. you