Turn back to Ezekiel 37. Paul had called me Tuesday morning
to preach and he said, how do you feel about preaching today? Well, I didn't know exactly how
to answer him. I was in total fear. I was in
total fear. And I just wrote him back Okay. That way, I wasn't okay. And so Tuesday and through the
week, I was looking for a message. I read many passages, but nothing
spoke to me. I was like every time I'd go
to a passage, it's like I would run into a brick wall. I can't
do this. I can't do this. I'm not able
to do this. But the Lord can. He can do this. He can do all things. He's God. Our God is God. It pleases God
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. I'm
trying to find a passage, but. In First Corinthians chapter
two, it says and I. Brethren, when I came to you,
I came not with excellent excellency of speech. I'm a stammering. sinner. I don't have wisdom of speech,
wisdom of men. I'm not a great orator. I'm a
sinner. And I'm endeavoring to tell other
sinners how I was raised from the dead. I was lost, but now I'm found. I'm still a sinner. And there
are times when I'm still dead and lost. I feel my lostness
and my deadness. I'm with you in much weakness
and in fear and much trembling. And my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the spirit and of power that your faith should not stand in
the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Okay, let's go to Ezekiel 37. I better get my notes. In verse 37, let's look at the
first two verses. 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 is full of bones. And he
caused me to pass by them round about and behold, there were
very many in the open valley and lo, they were very dry. There's a large field. He was
in the spirit and the Lord gave him a vision of a large open
field where there had been a battle. And it was such, it was a long, hard
fought battle. And, you know, they fought hand
to hand and the weapons they had, you know, were swords and
shields and spears, daggers, maybe axes. And there's a lot
of jabbing and thrashing and hitting and, you know, cutting
off heads, slashing arms. These bodies were disarrayed
in this field. And the Lord said to Ezekiel,
can these dead bones live? He told Ezekiel to walk around
the field. Look at it. Observe it. They're
all dead. There's not any moisture in their
bodies. There's nothing they have but
death. He caused him to walk through
the valley of the shadow of death. In verse 3 and 4 it says, And
he said unto me, Son of man, can these dead bones live? And
I answered, O Lord, thou knowest. And he said unto me, Prophecy,
prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones,
hear the word of the Lord. Let's turn to John chapter 1. The word of the Lord is the Lord
Jesus Christ. I was listening to a message
this week from Brother Gabe. And he preached when John chapter
one. And. It just it just thrilled
my soul. It was like dynamite went off
in me. I heard and my soul lived. Says here, in the beginning was
the word and the word was with God and the word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him and
without him was not anything made that was made. In him was
life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth
in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. Verse 10. He was in the world, and the
world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto
his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received
him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name, which were born not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God. And the word was made flesh and
dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace, and truth. And John bear witness of him
and cried saying, this was he of whom I spake. He that cometh
after me is preferred before me for he was before me. In John chapter five. in verses 24 and 25. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me,
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but
is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. The Lord told Ezekiel to preach
the Word. It's the Word that giveth life. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knows not God. It pleases God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them which believe. What I'm
doing right now, what Brother Paul does every week, is stand
here and proclaim God's word. And we believe that God's word
will not return void and that it will lift up cold, dead, sinners
to life. It says in Ezekiel chapter 1,
the hand of the Lord was upon me. Let's all turn to Luke chapter
4. He was in the Spirit that day. In Luke chapter 4, beginning
with verse 14, and Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit unto
Galilee. And there went out a fame of
Him through all the region round about. And as He taught in their
synagogues, being glorified of all, and He came to Nazareth
where He had been brought up And as his custom was, he went
into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it is written, Isaiah 61. He says, He said, the Spirit of the Lord
is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord, And he closed the book, and he
gave it again unto the minister, and sat down. And all the eyes
of them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him." My sole desire is that your eyes
should be fastened on the Lord Jesus Christ. His only hope for
cold, dead sinners. He said, He came to preach the
gospel to the poor. Anybody here poor in spirit? You don't feel like you have
any life in you? You don't have any desire for
the things of God? You're so unable to enter in?
Fasten your eyes upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, He sent
me to heal the brokenhearted. Is there anybody in here broken
hearted? Are you broken hearted over your
sin? Are you broken hearted of your
children? Broken hearted? You know where
man is born a woman is full of trouble. Troubles all around
us. Our Lord said in Isaiah 26 three
thou shalt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon
thee. Are we setting our eyes on the
Lord Jesus Christ? We can't unless the Lord enables
us. Without Him, we can do nothing.
Oh, I pray He does something for someone today. He came to preach deliverance to
the captives. Anybody in here captive? captive
to your sin, captive to the world. Oh, Lord, save us. Lord, save us. It recovers the
sight of the blind. Are you blind? Can you not see
anything of God's word? The Lord Jesus Christ said you
must be born again to enter into the kingdom of heaven, to understand
the kingdom of heaven, to see the kingdom of heaven. You got
to be born again. It's a mystery. It's a mystery. Turn to John chapter 6. I've
got these. Table I mean these paper. Bookmarks and it don't seem like
it helps me much. They're just in the way. Everything
about me is in the way. In John 6, verse 37, all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all
which he hath given me I shall lose nothing, but should raise
it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me that everyone which seeth the sun and believeth on him
may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last
day. All powers of God. Our God is
God. He shall do what he says. Back in Ezekiel, in verse 5, it says, Thus saith
the Lord unto these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter
into you, and ye shall live. I will lay sinews upon you, and
I will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and
put breath in you, and ye shall live, and ye shall know that
I am God. Our God wills, and we shall. He worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will. So I prophesied as I was commanded,
and as I prophesied there was a noise, Behold a shaking and
the bones came together, bone to his bone. They was preaching
and these bones started coming together. They've been out scattered
out in this field. You know, there were heads and
legs and arms and all manner of body parts out in this field. And he The Lord told Ezekiel,
preach to them, preach to them, live and you're here and your
soul shall live. Turn to Ezekiel chapter 16. Ezekiel chapter 16. Again, the
word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem
to know her abominations and say, thus saith the Lord God
unto is to Jerusalem. Thy birth and thy nativity is
of the land of Canaan. Thy father was an Amorite and
thy mother was a Hittite. His mother and father were God-haters. They worshipped other gods, but
not the true living God. And so he was born in nativity. In sin did his mother conceive
him. He was just a worthless sinner. And thou was born and thy navel
was not cut, neither was thou washed in water to supple thee,
thou was not salted, that you were not swallowed at all. None
pitied thee to do any of these things unto you, but to have
compassion upon you. But thou was cast out in the
open field, to the loathing of thy person in the day that was
born. That's what man is, dead in trespasses
and sins. We're not worth saving. We're
not worth saving. We need to be cast out. We ought
to be cast out. All we have, like sheep, have
gone astray. Everyone is seeking his own way. Man does not like to retain God
and His knowledge. Oh no, he doesn't want to hear
it. Doesn't want to hear it. And in verse 6 in Ezekiel 16,
And when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own
blood, I said unto thee, When thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee, when thou
wast in thy blood, live. When the preaching of the gospel
comes, it comes to lost sinners and it says, live. Live and your
soul shall live. Turn to Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah chapter 40. It says, Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak comfortably to
Jerusalem. Cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received
of the Lord's hand double for her sins. The voice of him that crieth
in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight
in the desert a highway for your God. Jesus Christ said, I am
the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And a voice said, cry. And he said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. You know, the flower springs
up, the grass springs up. It's looking mighty good, looking
mighty green. But then in the summertime, there's
a drought. and it turns brown and it looks
dead. And that's the way we are in
this life. We spring up as young, beautiful
little babies, soft skin, you know, and as we grow older, we
grow taller in stature, and then as we get into our 40s and 50s
and 60s, we start to wrinkle and start to lose our our faculties,
we can't see like we used to, we can't hear like we used to,
we can't remember like we used to, and then we die. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die. Okay, go back to Ezekiel. In verse 5 it says, The Lord
saith, Thus saith the Lord unto these bones, Behold, I will cause
breath to enter into you, and ye 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 ye shall live, and
ye shall know. that I am the Lord. So I prophesied
as I was commanded, and as I prophesied, there was a noise. Behold a shaking,
and the bones came together, bone unto his bones. Imagine
this, there's bones out here scattered in a field. They're
dead bones, dry bones. They have no hope of life in
their selves. Ezekiel came out and preached
the word. And they started shaking, you
know, and they started to be united one to another. And the
toe bone was connected to the foot bone. The foot bone was
connected to the ankle bone. The ankle bone was connected
to the knee bone. The knee bone was connected to
the hip bone. so on and so on. We all know
that song, Damn Bones. All these bones were scattered
in disarray. They reunited to other bones. These bodies were reformed back
to their original form, but they were still dead. They looked
pretty good on the outside, but were still full of dead men's
bones. Salvation is not by reformation. Salvation is by revelation. So while they seemed to be alive,
they were still dead. They had no breath in them. In
verse 9, verse 8, 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, Say to the wind, thus
saith the Lord God, come from the four winds, oh breath and
breathe upon these slain that they may live. And so I prophesied
as he commanded me and the breath came under them and they lived
and they stood up upon their feet as a exceeding great army. You know, the Spirit bloweth
where it lifteth. You know, we don't know where
it comes from. The wind. Just like the preaching of the
gospel. We don't know who's going to hear this. It's not by words
of my wisdom. It's not me. I don't have it. I'm not a great orator. I'm nothing. I'm so shallow. I'm unable to do this, but the
Lord can. The Lord can. In verse 11, it says, 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 from our parts. These dead bones were born again.
And they was raised from the dead. And they saw that they
was dead. They've come to life to know
that they was dead and that they were lost. A dead man doesn't
feel, a dead man doesn't see, a dead man does not hear. But
through the preaching of the gospel, a dead sinner is raised
unto life, and he starts to feel, he starts to move around, he
starts to, some may get mad, some may get glad, some may get
sad. But in time, they will see that
their only hope is the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he said unto me, son of
man, those these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold,
they say our bones are dried. Our hope is lost. We are cut
off from our parts. Therefore, prophesy and say unto
them, thus saith the Lord God. Behold, all my people, I will
open up your graves and and cause you to come out of your graves. and bring you into the land of
Israel. And ye shall know that I am the
Lord. When I have opened your graves,
O my people, and brought you up out of the graves, and shall
put my spirit in you, and ye shall live. And I shall place
you in your own land. Then shall ye know that I am
the Lord. I the Lord have spoken it, I
have performed it, saith the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. God has to choose who will be
saved. He has to preach the word to
these dead bones. And these dead bones are going
to live. The house of Israel is going
to hear. My sheep shall hear my voice
and they shall never perish. Awakened sinner comes to realize
that it's not by works of righteousness that we have done. But according
to his mercy, he has saved us. by the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly
through our Lord Jesus Christ. A dead sinner comes to understand
that he or she is lost and without hope. Their hope is built on
nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. They dare
not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. They know in their heart that
they're a sinner. That in their flesh dwelleth
no good thing. And they can't please God by
what they do. But the Lord Jesus Christ did. He pleased God by what he did.
He came in the world to save sinners. He came to be a sin
payment for sinners. He was made sin who knew no sin
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And He causes
a dead sinner to believe this Word as our only hope when we
look within all this vain, dark, and wild I'm still a sinner in
me, in me, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. But there's therefore
now no condemnation to them who are in Christ. And I pray the
Lord will apply his word to your heart this morning.