Well I'm grateful, we're both
grateful for the warmth and friendship and love that you've shown for
us already. Paul said if any of you haven't
spoke to him, well there possibly are a few, but I think most of
you got round to saying hello this morning and that was good.
Now I want you to turn to Ezekiel chapter 37. Do you ever read
a novel and you think, that was a clever plot? That man has got,
oh, that was a really clever plot. How he thought that one
up. Well, you know, when you read
Ezekiel 37 and you see what this says about God's purpose in saving
a people, you think this was more than mere human intellect
thought this one up. This is a story that was penned
with divine help. Ezekiel was inspired when he
wrote this. These are the scriptures which
speak of Christ, he said. And that's what we're looking
for tonight. We're looking for Christ tonight. Spurgeon said,
wherever we start, we want to find a road to him. You know,
this book is not just a book of interesting stories, though
it is that. There are interesting stories.
As a child, I used to love Bible stories. I really did. I don't
know if you did. I used to go and watch films
like Samson and Delilah and all those things. They had them all
at the cinema and I used to really love to go and see those stories
because they're good stories. But if you stay there, it profits
you nothing. You've got to find Christ. You've
got to look for Christ and find him if you want a blessing. Now
here we have this story and People have written songs about it,
this macabre scene, this sinister scene of this valley of dry bones,
and you know the song, them bones, them bones, them dry bones. What
we have here is not a biology lesson, you know, it's not just
about bits of calcium bone and sinews and flesh coming together,
that's not what we've got here. We've got God's plan of salvation,
his purpose in saving a people for himself, and it's all here
in this wonderful account. And I just want to go through
it simply, I just want to take you through it verse by verse.
It's been a tremendous blessing to me to look into this, to study
it again. Let's look at verse one. The
hand of the Lord came upon thee, and brought me out in the Spirit
of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of a valley, and
it was full of bones." Can you imagine that scene? A valley
full of bones. We went up to Pipeville to see
Gary Shepherd in the week, and there are a lot of valleys up
there. You know, it's windy country valleys, and imagine being set
down at those. Some of those valleys are full
of a lot of trash up there towards Pipeville. There's a lot of evidence
of the mining industry, but you imagine a valley full of bones. A lot of bones in there. Not
just some, not just a few bones, but it was full of bones. You
couldn't walk for the bones that there were in there. They were
everywhere. And bones speak of death. You find some bones if
you're out for a walk and you find some bones. Oh, you say
there was an animal and it died. Something died. They speak of
death. Now in verse 2, he says that
God caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there
were very many in the open valley, and indeed they were very dry."
God said to him, walk around, Ezekiel, walk around, take a
good look, pass around this place. And what he saw was that there
were very many. He couldn't count them, he couldn't
begin to count them. There were very, very many, and
they were very dry, very dead. You know, if you see a bone in
the butcher's shop that a dog would like to take and gnaw on,
it'll be a fresh bone. It'll have moisture in it. It'll
have bone marrow in it. But these were very dead bones.
Not fresh dead. These were very dead. These bones
were not an emergency case. You know, no good calling the
ambulance to sort out these bones. These were very dead bones. If
you go to London and you go to the British Museum, you'll see
there an Egyptian mummy. Do you know what an Egyptian
mummy is? A dead body of one of the pharaohs wrapped in cloth.
If you see that guy, you don't call for an ambulance to come
and revive him. Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation won't do any good
with one of those. They're long since dead. They're
very, very dead. No hope of resuscitation at all.
Now what's this speaking of? Well, it's speaking of us in
our natural state. Man in his natural state. Ephesians
2 talks about us being dead in trespasses and sins. Not sick,
not ill, not unwell in trespasses and sins, but dead in trespasses
and sins. Dead. This is the natural man. This is us as we are naturally.
1 Corinthians tells us in chapter 2 and verse 14 that the natural
man, as we are, we cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God.
We just can't understand them because they're spiritually discerned.
They're not naturally discerned. You can't explain to somebody
by just sheer intellect. and the power of your ability
to explain the things of the Spirit of God. We're dead in
trespasses and sins, Paul says, dead. It's a hopeless case as
it stands naturally, a valley full of dry bones. And this is
the world in which we live. This is us by nature as we are.
People are dead in trespasses and sins, unable to respond. Just as a dead man can't hear,
If you go down to the mortuary and you shout to a dead man to
tell him to get up, he's not going to move. You go and preach
a sermon, go down to the cemetery and preach, nobody's going to
get up. They're dead. And that's how we are. As far
as spiritual life is concerned, we're dead in trespasses and
sins. There's no human cure for this death either. You know,
back in Numbers, Children of Israel being bitten
by the serpents, the fiery serpents. And they were bitten by them
and they became ill and they were dying. And there was no
human cure. No human cure at all. The only
cure was to look to that brazen serpent and live. Well, this
death that Ezekiel saw here, it shows the state that we are
naturally. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. Well, verse 3. God asks Ezekiel a question.
He said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? Can these bones
live? So I answered, O Lord God, you
know, you know. Can they live, Ezekiel? No, of
course they can't. These bones can't live. They're
long since dead. Sinner, you've been dead since
Adam fell. When he fell, you died in him. He was your representative. You
died in Him. When He fell, that sealed it
for you naturally. But this question here is pregnant
with anticipation. Son of man, can these bones live? There's some anticipation in
there. It's good to see that one or two of the ladies are
pregnant in this assembly, something's going to happen, isn't it? You
know, they're not going to stay that way. Something's going to
happen. We're looking forward to some new children. There's
some anticipation. Well, this question is pregnant
with anticipation. Something's going to happen.
God says, Son of man, can these bones live? And what does Ezekiel
say? Oh, Lord, you know. You know. Why did Ezekiel Say that. Oh Lord, you know. Well, Ezekiel
knew God. He knew his God and he knew that
God knew. Can they live? You know, Lord. You are omniscient. You know
all things. You know the beginning from the
end. You know everything. And he's omnipotent. He's able
to do all things. Can they live? Certainly doesn't
look like it. They're dead. They're dry bones.
Very, very dry bones. Can they live? But you're God. You are God. Why does God know?
Because God ordains. That's why He knows. God doesn't
just stand there as it were with a telescope, and He's not a fortune
teller. He doesn't just see what's going
to happen. He hasn't just... He's not just
sitting back thinking, I wonder what's going to happen next.
Ooh, look there, that's what's going to happen next. No, God
knows because God ordains. My times are in his hands. You
know that plane I was telling you about this morning? Coming
over here with a threat, may not have been much of a threat,
but a threat of terrorist activity. And you say, well, I'm in his
hands. And if there was a terrorist,
that terrorist is in his hands. It's all in his hands. He controls
everything. He works in the affairs of men.
You look at the things that are happening in the world today. Throughout history, it's His
story. He ordains it. It doesn't just
happen. You know, the great world events
that we're seeing, things that you just couldn't have imagined
three or four years ago, and look what's happening. It's the
hand of God. He's just working in the affairs
of men. He moves kings. It says in one
of the Psalms that, maybe it's Isaiah, I forget, But right from
a prince, an ambassador, comes from one country to another,
and it's by the ordination of God. And a bird of prey flies. Have you ever seen birds flying
across the countryside? And you think, I wonder where
they're going? You know, they know exactly where they're going.
The flight of the bird is ordained by God. Amazing. You know, we just need to get
hold of that. How much God is in control, how
sovereign He is over everything. God knew, because God ordains. God does it. So that's why Ezekiel
could say, O Lord, you know. Then verse four, God gives him
a directive. Verse four, again, he said to
me, prophesy to these bones and say to them, O dry bones, hear
the word of the Lord. God says, Ezekiel, you, Ezekiel,
a man, a sinner. Ezekiel, just an ordinary man,
prophesied to these bones, preached to them. How's God going to do
something with these dry bones? He says to a man, a sinner, prophesy
to them, preach to them. Well, isn't that foolishness?
How's preaching going to raise these dead people? How's preaching
going to raise People in this world, we as we naturally are,
dead in trespasses and sins, how are we going to be raised
to life? God says to Ezekiel, preach to
them. Preach what to them? Preach what? The Word of the Lord. Hear the
Word of the Lord. And what does that mean? You
know, all sorts of people worldwide are standing up in pulpits and
they're preaching from this book. Lots of people say they base
their religion on this book. They're preaching, they think,
the Word of the Lord. Well, what is it to preach the
Word of the Lord? Well, I believe with all my heart
that what this means is to preach Christ, because Christ is that
Word. He is that Word, the written
Word. This Word written down reveals
Him. right through from beginning
to end, it reveals Christ. What was the purpose? Why did
God give us this book? Did he give us this book just
to tell us how to live, or to tell us what he's like, or things
like this? Well, he did give us all these, the book for all
these things, but the reason he gave us this book is to reveal
to his people the way of salvation in Christ, to make it known to
them. That's why he gave this book. And that way of salvation
is Christ. And so this preaching, the Word
of the Lord, is to preach Christ, who is the Word of the Lord.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and
the Word was God. The Word became flesh and dwelt
among us. That's what it is to preach the
Word of the Lord, to preach Christ. We can only know God in Christ. You know how Philip said, show
us the Father and it sufficeth us. That will do. We just want to see the Father.
And he said, Philip, have I been so long with you and yet you
have not known me? He who has seen me has seen the
Father. It's in Christ. This is what
Ezekiel was to do. Preach Christ to them. And that's
what we're to do. Preach Christ to dead sinners. A moralistic sermon telling people
how to behave is never going to raise a dead sinner to newness
of life. You can preach law to sinners
till the cows come home, and you will never transform or reform
anybody. In fact, we were thinking of
this just before. In fact, you'll do the opposite.
You'll just produce more sin. That's right. You'll just produce
more sin. You know that natural tendency of the heart. You see
the nice ornamental garden. One of my sons, the youngest
one, said one day, we're walking through a park and it's got this
beautiful grass and there's a sign there saying, keep off the grass.
And he said to me, do you know what that makes me want to do?
Go on the grass. So preach the word of the Lord.
Preach Christ. Preach God's salvation in Christ. Preach the person of Christ.
that He's God and that He's man. As we saw this morning in Galatians
4, that He came, God sent His Son to redeem us. He came, He
became subject to the law to redeem those who are under the
law. Preach the work of Christ to redeem His people. That Christ
chose them, that, sorry, the Father chose them, that Christ
came and purchased them, that he sanctifies them, that he justifies
them, that he's redeemed them. That's what it is to preach the
word of the Lord, to tell dead sinners that there is life in
Christ and that he got the job done. He really did get the job
done, not just to say it depends on you. You know how preachers
say, oh, you make your decision and then what Christ did will
apply to you. No, when he came, He came to
redeem a people for himself and he did it. He said it is finished
because he accomplished that work. He got the job done. He became for his people wisdom
from God. Oh, you want to know about God?
You want to know something of the things of God? It's in Christ. Christ Jesus became for us wisdom
from God and righteousness. all the righteousness that we
need to approach a holy God, an awesome holy God, that holiness
without which no man shall see the Lord, all in Christ, and
sanctification, sanctification set apart in Him, and redemption. All of those things are in Christ.
That's what it is to preach Christ. That's what it is to preach the
Word of the Lord, to point to Christ and to say, that's where
salvation is. You need somebody to live and
to die and to rise in your place, and Christ is that one. That's
what it is to preach the word of the Lord. So, Ezekiel came into this valley,
and there were all these bones, speaking of dead men, and God
sent a man to tell them that he'd made a way of salvation. That's what it is. When you come
and you preach the gospel, to a congregation of dead sinners.
And you pronounce it and they're dead. That's what God says do. Point to Christ. Point to Christ.
That's the only way. And God said He would cause life
to come in. And surely, verse 5, thus says
the Lord God to these bones, surely I will cause breath to
enter into you and you shall live. He would cause it. Christ
is the life. He is the light of life. And
if He comes in, you will have life. And you will have it more
abundantly. Christ is that life. In Him was
life. And the dry bones will live.
And dead sinners will hear of Christ and will believe Him and
will live. They will do that which they
can't do naturally because He, God, will cause it. I like that
story in the Gospels of the man with the withered arm. What was
the one thing that the man with the withered arm couldn't do?
Stretch it out. What did Christ tell him to do?
Stretch it out. What did he do? He stretched
it out. You see, he gave him the power to do that which he
couldn't do. And so God said he would do with
these dead bones, he would give them the power to do that which
they couldn't do, which was to live. And dead sinners, here
of Christ, They believe in him and they live. Oh, you know,
this word of God is powerful. It really is. It's powerful.
Hebrews 1 verse 3 talks about upholding all things by his powerful
word. And chapter 4 of Hebrews verse
12 tells us that the word of God is quick and powerful, sharper
than any two edged sword. It affects both the soul and
the body. It affects the spiritual side
of life, and it affects the physical side of life. It's a powerful
thing, is this Word of the Lord. You know, it really has an effect.
You know, in Revelation, when John was told to eat the little
book, and it was sweet in his mouth, and it was bitter in his
stomach, it affected his being. This is a powerful book, and
it's a two-edged sword. We don't have. We're blessed
because we don't have. the American tele-evangelists
over in Britain, at least not yet, they're trying to bring
one of them in on a satellite, but not many people have satellite
TV as yet. And we're blessed that we don't
have that. We saw one the other night, just as an example, we
saw one who was ranting and raving and he was quoting scripture
after scripture after scripture, and he was cutting himself to
pieces with his two-edged sword. He was wielding a two-edged sword
and he was just making a total mess of the job. All sorts of
things he was saying, he was quoting scriptures totally out
of context. This is why we have to, it's
a powerful thing, but we have to use it carefully and we have
to use it wisely. And, you know, not go off on
a tangent and listen to the ones whom God has given as gifts to
the church. Listen to your pastor because
he's been given gifts to explain this word, to handle it wisely,
to rightly divide it. It's a powerful thing is this
word of God. Anyway, changes happened. God
promised that he would put sinews on them and bring flesh upon
them and cover them with skin and put breath in them and that
they would live and then they would know that he is the Lord.
And in verse seven, so Ezekiel did it. He preached. So I prophesied
as I was commanded. I prophesied and there was a
noise, a noise. Can you imagine the scene? This
valley of dry bones, totally silent, just dry white bones,
bleached in the sun, long dead, long since dead. And he preaches
to them, and there's a little noise, a little rattling, a rattling
as the bones come together. And they come together and they
start to look like people. They're just a pile of dry bones
and they start to come together, bone on bone, and they start
to form skeletons. and the sinews come upon them,
and the muscle, and the flesh, and the skin clothes them around.
Amazing! I prophesied, and there was a
noise, and suddenly a rattling, and the bones came together,
bone to bone. Indeed, as I looked, the sinews
and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over.
But there was no breath in them. There was no breath in them.
They looked like men. They began to look like men.
They were covered with flesh. They look like men. Oh, there's
so much that's deceptive in this life. I don't know if you have
one here, but in Britain we have Madame Tussauds. Have you ever
heard of Madame Tussauds? It's a wax, waxworks, and they
make wax models of people, life-size wax models, and if you ever go
to London, you can go and visit Madame Tussauds, and there are
historical characters, and there are all the politicians of the
day, You'd be able to go there and you'd be able to see George
Bush there. And do you know they're so lifelike? They really are. They're so lifelike.
There's one of the London policemen, you know, with his London policeman's
hat. And people, many, many people
have been seen to go up to the policeman and to ask him the
time or the direction. He looks alive. He really does
look like a living policeman. Such a good impression of the
real thing. Do you know, there's so much
of that. in religion today. A certain
amount of preaching makes a lot of dead sinners look like God's
people. It really does. But no breath
in them. No breath. Lots of noise and
rattling as it all comes together. And they look like live people. They look like the children of
God. But no breath in them. Oh, beware of dead religion.
Oh, that he would keep us from dead religion. It's so deceptive. Fellowship here is so alive. Just cling to that. Keep looking
to Christ. Keep relying on him to keep that
alive. Well, they came together. They looked like living people,
but they weren't. What does he say? There was no
breath in them. Verse 9. Also he said to me,
Prophesy to the breath, that's what it says in my version, the
breath of life. Prophesy to the breath, prophesy,
son of man, and say to the breath, thus says the Lord God, come
from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain that
they may live. Breathe on these slain that they
may live. What's he saying? He's saying
this, call down the Holy Spirit on these people. Not in the way
that the charismatics abuse the Holy Spirit, but call down the
Holy Spirit. Oh, you know, without the quickening
power of the Holy Spirit, all that we do is in vain. All preaching
is empty. It's just, it's just vain words.
All supposed spiritual life is just a sham, unless He makes
it alive. We always so much need that.
Psalm 104, Verse 30 says this, you send forth your spirit and
they are created. Just turn over in the New Testament
to 2 Corinthians, 2nd Corinthians. Sorry, I'll get it right soon.
2nd Corinthians chapter 4. I love this verse here. 2nd Corinthians
chapter 4 and verse 6. See what it says here. For it is the God who commanded
light to shine out of darkness. What's he talking about? He's
talking about the creation of the world, the creation of the
universe. And who was it there back in Genesis chapter 1 verse
3? The Spirit of God was hovering
over the face of the waters. The Holy Spirit was there. That
God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone
in our hearts, who has given us spiritual light, shone in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God. Where? In the face of Jesus Christ. That's it. You want to see the
glory of God? It's in the face of Jesus Christ.
Who enables you to see it? Who shines that light in so that
you can see it? The Holy Spirit. The one who
is hovering over those waters at creation. The one who brought
it to life. 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 18. 1
Peter chapter 3. This is talking about Christ in his work. For Christ also suffered once
for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God,
being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit,
the Spirit of God. Instrumental in that, Zechariah
chapter 4, verse 6, don't turn to it, there's no need to. Not
by might, nor by power, but by your Spirit. by my spirit, sorry,
says the Lord. It's by the Spirit of God that
things happen, that things are brought to life, that dead form,
just the dead outward form is given life. And he says back
here in Ezekiel 37 verse 9, come from the four winds, prophesied,
come from the four winds. And that reminds me of John chapter
3, the wind bloweth where it listeth. You can't tell where
it's going to come from. prophesy, say, come from the
four winds, so is everyone. Christ told Nicodemus, so is
everyone who is born of the Spirit of God. The wind blows where
it listed. Oh, call down that Spirit upon
them. Breathe on these slain. Breathe on these who have been
killed, killed by sin. Breathe on them that they may
live. Verse 10, so I prophesied as
he commanded me and breath came into them. These These dummies
that were standing there, these ones that looked like living
beings, he prophesied to them and breath came into them and
they lived. They lived. Abundant life in
Christ. Have you experienced that? The
abundant life that there is in Christ. Romans 8, 21 talks about
the bondage of corruption, death and decay, just like that valley
of bones. but then being transformed into
the glorious liberty of the sons of God. Abundant life in Christ. In Revelation 11 we have that
picture of the two witnesses dead in the street speaking of
the church and the breath of life comes into them and they
stand on their feet in the street. They lived, verse 10, they lived. They stood on their feet and
they were an exceedingly great army. from very many, very dry
bones, to an exceedingly great army. Now, what do you know about
an army? Well, one thing you know is you
know how many you've got. And God knows who are His. God
knows who are His. You look at an army and it's
made up of battalions, and regiments, and platoons, and ranks, and
files, and squadrons. Over in England, we have every
year a ceremony called the Trooping of the Colour and I think the
majority of people watching it are actually American tourists
over there in the centre of London and usually it's a nice sunny
day and the Queen rides by on her horse and all the troops
come out in all of their regalia and the television cameras are
there and you can see them all marching in rank. Can you imagine
if there was one of them missing out of that rank? You know, you'd
see a gap there, one of them's missing. You can see with an
army how many you've got And so it is with God's people. He has a certain number. He accomplished
this work of salvation for His people. Those that He predestined,
those that He called, they're the ones that He did this for. Verse 11, He said to me, son
of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. The whole house
of Israel. You know, turn over to Revelation
chapter 11. I just want to show you this.
Revelation chapter 11. These bones, the whole house
of Israel. You know what we're doing here
is what it says in Revelation 11 verse 1, Then I was given
a reed like a measuring rod, and the angel stood, saying,
Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who
worship there. But leave out the court which
is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been
given to the Gentiles, and they will tread the holy city underfoot
for forty-two months. He was measuring the temple,
he was measuring the people of God. Those who worship there
at the altar, that altar is Christ and his cross. Those who worship
there are his people. But what does he say? Don't measure
those outside. Don't measure it. Don't be concerned
about that. It's the fixed number of the people of God, his elect
people, those that were chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world. That's who this whole army of
Israel is. And that's what these bones represent.
They came to life and they stood on their feet. An exceedingly
great army. And they were all there, all
in their ranks. A complete army. And that's who Christ died for. He died for all of his people.
It wasn't a let's see who will come situation. Let's go and
make something possible and then just sit back and maybe nobody
will come. I mean, if people understood
how dry these bones are, Well, they'd just give up preaching
straight away. They'd just give up. Because they're dead. Nobody would come. Could you
imagine that? Christ accomplishing that work,
and then sitting back to see who's going to take it up. Would
you have taken it up? Would I have taken it up? I know
I wouldn't have ever taken it up, as I am. No way. Without the
reviving work of the Spirit of God within. without the gospel
being shown, the glory of God being shown in the face of Jesus
Christ. I never would have seen that.
Never would have done. Human intellect never ever would
have shown me that. This is the whole house of Israel. Everyone chosen in Christ and
redeemed by Him. And all of them are going to
live. All of them. Why are we still
here? Why are we still here? Why are
we still preaching? Why is this world still rolling
on? Do you know why? The army is not complete yet.
There are still some to make up the ranks that are coming
in, but it's not complete yet. And as soon as it's complete,
this whole order of things will come to an end. Christ was obliged to intercede
and to stand surety for his people, and he fulfilled that obligation.
And none will be lost. He said none of them will be
lost. You've read, I'm sure, of the 99 sheep that was safe. Ninety-nine of them was safe,
but one of them was lost. And what did he do? He went out
after that one sheep that was lost, till he found it. That's
it, he's not going to be satisfied with ninety-nine. They've all
got to be there. The whole army's got to be there.
An exceeding great army. The Temple of God. The Church
of God is likened to the Temple, the building. And in that building,
there was not one brick missing. So what he says to Ezekiel is,
preach to dead men and women, and the Spirit of God comes into
all who are Christ's and makes them alive. Oh, this is a tremendous
thing. Tremendous thing. Now look at
verse 11. Then he said to me, Son of man,
these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, our
bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off.
What's that talking about? Well, notice this. These that
were dry bones, they now say. They say something. They're alive.
They've come alive. They say something. They have
some spiritual life. And what is it that they're conscious
of? That their bones are dry. They're made up of dry bones.
Isn't that how you feel? If you're in Christ, if you're
a believer, you love Him, you follow Him, but oh, you're conscious
that you're made up of a bag of dry bones. It's all flesh. Isn't it? Isn't that the way
it is? You know, we have newness of life, where the Spirit of
God is breathed in spiritual life, and yet we're still made
up of sinful flesh. Our bones are dry. Our hope is
lost. We're strangers in this land. We're wandering around. You know,
we're not all together. You say, well, where's the army?
It's scattered. You can't see it in battalions,
can you? You can't see it that way. It
doesn't look like a great multitude. You look around and, oh, there's
just a few, but there's going to be an exceeding great army.
But whilst we're in this flesh, we say, oh, we're made up of
dry bones. Oh, this sinful flesh. And our
hope is lost. You know, we just don't see the
army as it is. We're cut off. And we say constantly, in me,
that is, in my flesh dwells no good thing. We're strangers in
the foreign land. But look what God says. to Ezekiel,
verse 12, prophesy to them again, keep preaching to them. That's
why we need to keep coming back. You know, the manna had to be
gathered daily. It went off, it got maggots in
it. You know, you keep coming back, keep hearing this word
of the Lord, keep coming under preaching. He says to Ezekiel,
prophesy to them and say this to them, verse 12, Thus says
the Lord God, Behold, O my people, look, they're his people, O my
people, Oh, if you're in Christ tonight, that's he's talking
to you. Behold, oh, my people, I will open your graves and cause
you to come up. This these bones, they're going
to die. They're going to return back
to dust. But he says, I will open your graves and cause you
to come up from your graves and bring you into the land of Israel.
He's speaking about glory. He's speaking about eternity.
He's going to raise us up with him. Then you shall know that
I am the Lord." It's not always going to be so as we see it.
It just isn't. Things are not going to carry
on as they are. It started now. Ephesians 2 says that he caused
us to be alive. He's raised us up. We're tasting
these spiritual blessings. But we're in this flesh. But
we're going to be rid of all trace of these old dry bones.
As John says, we're going to be like him. for we'll see him
as he is. We shall all be resurrected. If we're in Christ, we're going
to stand up a great and mighty army in the land of Israel. That's talking about heaven.
And as we saw this morning, when we get there, we won't be in
this flesh where, although we have faith and we have hope,
it gets blurred. It comes in and out of focus.
There'll be no more. We will know. We will see. We
will experience. And we'll know that he spoke
and we'll know that he performed it. What a blessing. Look at
verse 14 there. I will put my spirit in you and
you shall live and I will place you in your own land. None of
these distractions around us. None of these distortions of
the truth. He will place us in our own land. Then you shall know that I, the
Lord, have spoken it and performed it, says the Lord. What a blessing
that's going to be. What a blessing it is now to
taste of that eternal life. Are you in that army? Do you
know you're in that army? Have you heard that quickening
voice of God? Have you been raised to newness
of life in Christ? Well, if so, you'll give God
all of the glory. It's all His work, all of it
from beginning to end. All of it. You'll stand amazed
and you'll wonder. We were talking this morning.
You'll just stand amazed and you'll wonder, Why this old collection
of dry bones here? Why me? Why me? There's nothing
in me to recommend me to God. Why this old collection of bones?
And you just have to say, well, I don't know why. I don't know
why. And you just praise Him for His grace in Christ. Praise
Him for His grace to me, a sinner. Amen. Let's bow in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
You for the life which is in Christ, and we thank You for
the quickening power of the Holy Spirit which is applied as Your
Word is preached. Oh, we thank You for this powerful
Word of God. Oh Lord, we pray that You will
anoint preaching here every time our brother stands up to preach
here. Oh Lord, we pray that You would anoint him with Your Holy
Spirit, that You would come into dry bones and that you would
make them alive by your Spirit. O Lord, we pray that your word
might be used wisely here and that the people might be taught
and might love it and grow and grow stronger in it. And O Lord,
we pray for that time when that army will be complete, when every
rank will be filled, when every stone in your temple will be
there. O Lord, we pray for that day. We pray that whilst we're
here we might not fail to point sinners to Christ, to show that
in Him is salvation, full salvation. And Lord, now we thank You for
these things in His name. Amen.