For the last few Sundays, we've
been spending some time on the great doctrines of grace, the
great teachings that God's word has. Now, God saves his people
from their sins, and then we get to see the great doctrines
of grace. I am one that became a Calvinist
and didn't know the first thing about the gospel. And I've never
met a Calvinist that wasn't mean. I was. I was mean because it
was my endeavor to convert everybody to Calvinism. Well, now I just
preach the gospel and let God take care of His business. And
if He ever saves anybody, they're going to agree with this truth
about grace. They'll understand that they,
too, were taken out of a pit and they were just as happy as
clams in the pit. Alright, look with me here in
the book of Ephesians chapter 2. We've kind of used this as
our text to look at these great truths that are contained in
the scriptures. In Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1 it says, who
were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us to gather with Christ. By grace ye are saved, and hath
raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the
exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through
Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through
faith, that not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which he hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. The past few Sundays we've traveled
through some of the great teachings of the Word of God, and the first
thing that we find God shares with us in the Bible about ourselves
is that we are totally incapable, unable, There is no ability in
ourselves to ever come to God. We are just stuck. There's no
way that we have the ability of crawling out of the pit we're
in. I'll never forget a preacher one time sharing with regard
to that pit that's mentioned over there in the Psalms, that
when religion people come by, they say, you know, I could help
you if you'd have never got in that pit. Or someone else comes
along and says, if you could crawl out of that pit, I can
help you. And then the Son of God comes by and lifts us out
of a horrible pit. He takes all of it because we're
in a terrible state. And the Bible declares over and
over and over that we're dead. We're dead spiritually. Now we're
animated. We have this heart that pumps
our blood around. We have lungs that breathe. We
can think. We go through our activities, what all that is. But there is a level that we
just do not have by our physical birth, and that is a spiritual
level. We cannot have fellowship with God because we don't have
life to have it with. So God has had to take the initiative. It's not you that took the initiative,
it's God that took the initiative. And God taking the initiative,
I like to think of this, God loved me before time. And in that, he elected a people. He chose a people. Now, Nancy
was in a church one time many years ago in Colorado, and the
preacher must have got wind that her husband believed something
about election, because he said, election is like this. There's
a bunch of blackbirds on the barbed wire fence, and God comes
along, goes bang, bang, bang, bang, and knocks a bunch of them
off. And she came home and told me, I said, that's exactly opposite
of what it is. There's a bunch of dead blackbirds
on the ground and God comes along and puts some, he gives them
life and puts them on the fence. We're not all alive and he knocks
some off. We're all dead and he raises
some up. That's what God does. He is the initiator. He's the
one that comes and does something on our behalf. He loved a people
before time, before the foundation of the world. There was a Lamb
slain. He had a people written down in the Lamb's Book of Life.
And it was all based on Him and not looking down through time
to see if anybody would raise their hand. They wouldn't. They
couldn't. It was unable. So God had to
take the initiative. We also found out that in order
for God to save anybody, sin had to be dealt with. Sin is
a bad thing. It's never a good thing. And
you visit with people who have been saved by the grace of God,
they're the ones that will really share with you how bad sin is. We find the Apostle Paul said,
Oh, wretched man that I am. And you know, religionists want
that to be before he was saved, but the Bible puts that after
he was saved. Oh, wretched man that I am. And
then it goes on in the very next chapter. And just remember, the
chapter markings were not there in the original. In the very
next chapter, oh, there is therefore now no condemnation to them that
are in Christ. So he looked at himself as wretched,
poor, and blind, but he also knew that in Christ Jesus, he'd
been raised to newness of life and that nothing could ever thwart
Him meeting God in person in that great day. Well, redemption
has to take place. Somebody had to die. Someone
had to die the death to take the place of his people. The
soul that sinneth, it must die. That's why the Son of God must
die. He must be the representative of His people. He is the representative
of His people. In order for Him to save anybody,
even though He loved them before time, and even though He laid
down His life, a ransom for them, we find out as we look today,
still nobody would come. He chose them before the foundation
of the world. He had love for them before the foundation of
the world. His son promised to die on the cross for them. He
did die on the cross for them. But you know what? To natural
man, even his lost sheep, that doesn't mean a thing. Nobody
stands, oh my goodness, I think I'll just go into the flock.
No, God has to do something else for us. He must get involved
in our lives again. As we find out, He must come
to us with the breath of life. He must raise us from the spiritual
dead. He must take us out of the position
that we are in by nature. We find that the electing father
is the great inviter. You know, one of my great passages
of Scripture that I just love to go to, and we're going to
go there for just a moment, in the book of Ezekiel, chapter
37. Would you join me there? What an illustration this 37th
chapter of the book of Ezekiel is to us today. Where did God
find us? Dead. There is nothing there
that would warrant any life. I grew up in an area down in
Northern California, and had lots of ranchers around there
in Northern California, Southern Oregon, and most of them raised
cattle. And every once in a while, something would happen to a cow
or a calf, and they died. And you know over time, The scavengers
came by and took all of the flesh off the bones, and time the bones
began to drop off, and here you have a skeleton of an old cow. Whatever happened to her, whatever
happened to the bull, whatever happened, they're still just
a skeleton. Well, to keep this in view for
us, God takes us to a valley full of bones, but they're human
bones. God never intended to save critters. He intended to save His people
from their sins. That's what He does. All right,
here in the book of Ezekiel chapter 37, we find that there is a prophet,
a preacher, and I've mentioned this in the past several times,
that if you and I lived in the days of Ezekiel, it would behoove
us to travel over to where he was, because he's a spokesman
for God. He is going to say more times
in this book, the Lord spoken to me, or the, this is the word
of the Lord in the book of Ezekiel. Now here in the book of Ezekiel
chapter 37, there's so much in the book of Ezekiel, and a lot
of it has been taken completely out of context today. Let's just
leave it as a message to the church and we'll have some understanding
about it. But here in chapter 37, beginning
with verse one, we find the hand of the Lord was upon me. Now
he's been called as a preacher. Now it's this week, Wednesday
night, we plan to look at Shamgar who, one verse in that list of
the book of Judges, One verse brings up Shamgar as the judge. Now he does a great thing. He
takes care of 600 Philistines with the ox goat. And I begin
to wonder, you know, there's more about him in the scriptures
than just that. Because as we follow other people
in the scriptures, we find out they're going to share with us
about what God did with them about this man, Shamgar. And
one of them is my friend Amos. Seventh chapter of the book of
Amos, it says, you know, I was a herdsman. and a gather of sycamore
fruit. And I wasn't seeking the position
of being a pastor or a minister or a prophet. I was really happy
with where I am. And God put me in the ministry
and told me to go preach to Israel. Well, I think probably Ezekiel
was about in the same boat, that he was just a common everyday
individual. And God came upon him and says,
I want you to preach. And here it says, "...the hand
of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit
of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of a valley which
was full of bones." Now there are some high qualities about
bone meal, did you know that? It makes good fertilizer. But
that's about all it is. Here it says, there's a valley
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. You know, when the Lord Jesus
came down to this earth, He spent most of His time around people
just like this. Every once in a while, he'd call
one to himself and give him life, but the bulk of them were just
dead bones, spiritually speaking. That man that was up in a sycamore
tree, he was just a dead man before the Lord said, Zacchaeus,
come down. Mary Magdalene, just a valley
of dry bones until the Lord called her. Matthew, just a valley of
dry bones before the Lord called him. And so we could find that
Paul, Saul of Tarsus. My goodness, that was a valley
of dry bones that God came upon. Someone preached the gospel to
him, probably was Stephen. But God called him, let's notice
here, caused me to pass by, the preacher passed by but couldn't
do a thing about it, said unto me, son of man, can these bones
live? And I answered, Lord God, thou knowest. The only one here
that knows anything about what can happen to these bones is
you, because to me, it's an impossibility to have life replaced into these
bones again and have them animate again. Now, animation professionals
can do that, but we can't. God is the only one. Okay. Again,
he said to me, prophesy. What does that mean? Preach to
them. Preach to the bones. What a waste
until God says it. What a waste. What are you talking
about? Well, it's kind of like Jesus
telling Peter, put your nets down on the other side. And he
said, we have fish, but because of your word. Now the Lord has
put us here. for the reason of declaring the
truth of the gospel to dry bones. And after they've been raised
to preach the goodness of God and the grace of God to living
creatures in Christ Jesus, that we have something to hang on
to in the days of peril. And that is the grace of God.
All right. He said unto them, prophesy unto these bones, and
say to them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Then
saith the Lord God unto these bones, behold, I will cause breath
to enter into you, and ye shall live. Now Ezekiel, all he could
do was preach. The Lord didn't even ask him
to go pile the ribs up to the ribs and the backbone to the
backbone. He just said, prophesy to the dry bones. And then the
Lord said, the Lord God said unto the bones, behold, I will
cause breath to enter you and you shall live. How much did
the bones contribute to the equation? That much, zero. They had no
contribution whatsoever. They are so much like us by nature. We have nothing to contribute
to the equation except our dryness, our sin. I will lay sin 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 that I am
the Lord. What does God do for the people that he raises up
from this position? I will reveal my son in you. And you know what? You'll quit
arguing with me. You will take me as the only
Lord God of all. You will not have other idols. I will do this. So I prophesied
as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was
a noise and all the shaking and the bones came together, bone
to bone. Who did that? God, in his efficacious
grace, came upon this valley of dry bones, and he began to
do the work. He called on a preacher, though,
to come. You know, that's what God said he would do, by the
foolishness of preaching, save them that believe. He would have
preachers preaching the gospel of his everlasting Son, and the
grace of God in Christ Jesus, of all that he did for those
that were desperately dead in trespasses and sin, You go preach
to them. Did I mention this Wednesday
night or was it last Sunday? Forgive me, I can't remember.
I can't remember how much you've forgotten maybe. But anyway,
Rob Barnard. Old Rob Barnard was asked to
preach one time and he came to that church and he said, I'm
going to preach to you my God, but I'm going to have to kill
yours first. You know what that is? I'm going
to have to tell you, your God is a false God. We heard that
about the unknown God. You know, there's thousands of
false gods. There's only one true God, and
He we must hear about. Now, we can't hear Him by nature.
We can't respond to Him by nature, but God will work that out. He
said, prophesy unto the wind there, and when I beheld, lo,
the sinews in the flesh came 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, and say
to the wind, thus saith the Lord God, come from the four winds,
O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded
me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood
upon their feet, an exceeding great army. How much did they
contribute? Not one thing. They did not contribute
one thing to be raised up into a great, exceeding great army. There is a great number that
only God knows about. There is a number that God has. It's a specific number, but it's
a number that we don't know, but God does. We find that God
Almighty has the ability of being the great inviter. He's the one
that can get involved and invite us. We never invite God to do
anything in our dead and trespasses and sin condition. We can't.
We don't invite God to come into our heart. Give your heart to
Jesus. He doesn't want your heart. That
thing is black as sin. He will give us a new heart. And where does that come from?
That comes from God. Turn with me, if you would, over
to the book of Romans, chapter 8 and verse 30, as we think about
this, that God must call with an efficacious call. You know,
the old church fathers called it the irresistible call, and
I don't know how many people have trouble with that, but that's
just exactly what it is. And why? After we're saved by
the grace of God, why would we ever want to resist it to begin
with? To resist it is death. but to
be given this irresistible, efficacious call, raising from the spiritual
dead, bring us to life from that plight we're in by the fall,
what a glorious thing that God does for us. So here in the book
of Romans, Romans chapter eight, and there in verse 30, we read
these wonderful words about what God does. It says here, moreover,
whom he did predestinate, Oh, nobody's talking. Whom he
did predestinate, them he also called. And whom he called, them
he also justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. You know, there's a wonderful
thing about God. He can call and it is real. His call is real, it's lively,
it's living. He calls in such a way. The scriptures
go on so often throughout and we find that God does the calling. 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 2,
let's look at that for just a moment. 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 2,
the scriptures share this. Under the church of God, the
saints. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 2. We don't make ourselves saints.
It's still an impossibility. But the Scriptures tell us here
in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 2, under the church of God, which
is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, call
to be saints, which with all that in every place call upon
the name of the Lord Jesus, our Lord, both theirs and ours."
Now, what's the response of those that are called? They call upon
the Lord. It's not the other way around.
We don't call and then he responds. He calls and then we respond.
We're able to recognize him as the Lord. We're able to recognize
him as the sovereign. We're able to recognize him as
the Lord God Almighty, the one that has been in charge of our
salvation in eternity past, carrying it out in time. God was not shocked
when Adam ate of that forbidden fruit. God was not shocked. God was not in a dither. God
was not trying to react to what had taken place there. He already
has the Lamb slain. He already has the covenant of
grace. He already has the names written
down in the Lamb's book of life. He's not shocked by this. Now
he's going to show what real grace is. that He would deal
with people dead in trespasses and sin. They are dead, dead,
dead in the fall. In Adam, all died. And in order for me to save one of
them, I have to have a reality about them before the foundation
of the world, before they were ever born. And as a result of
that, if I'm ever gonna save them, I have to have preparation
to pay for their sin. Nobody will meet God without
sin taken care of. We will have Him take care of
it, or should I say, He will take care of it for us, or we
will take care of it. There's no in between. There's
no purgatory to work it out. There's only right hand, left
hand. Welcome, depart. That's all there
is. There's no in between. I'm so thankful that we have a God whose voice
can raise the dead. We have a God whose voice Now,
that very voice of God, that very word of God framed the world
is what we find out in Hebrews 11 and verse 13. Verse 3, He
framed the worlds by the word of His power. He made the worlds
by the word of His power. You know, I have visited with
a lot of people that believe in creationism. God created the
heavens and the earth, God created man, God created everything,
God created the cherry trees, the fruit trees, all kinds, God
did it all. And then I say, well, what did
he do for you spiritually then? Oh, that was up to me. That's
evolution to the core. You can't believe that God is
the Creator and deny Him to be the Creator when it comes to
our salvation. He must be the Creator. In fact,
that's what He tells us He is. So, we find out that the Lord
God, at least three times during His personal ministry, used just
a few words to raise three people from the dead. Three words. Just a few words. Now, He created
all things by Jesus Christ. We know that. And for by Him
were all things created. We know that. And for Him and
through Him were all things and for His glory were all things
created. When He creates, it's His business and He does it for
His glory. You know what? He saves us for
His glory. Not that He needs glory. He saves
us because He's going to fulfill His covenant. but he saves us. Alright, turn with me if you
would to the book of Luke chapter 8. Luke chapter 8. In Luke chapter
8 we find the irresistible gracious call of the Lord Jesus exercised
upon people that are either on their way to be buried, buried
or being prepared to be buried because they're dead. In the
book of Luke chapter 8 the book of Luke chapter 8 and
in verse 49, verse 49. Now Jesus has been invited by
a father to come to his house and take care of a problem because
his daughter is sick. You know there are times the
Lord did that from a distance, but here and on the way A lady
comes up who has an issue of blood and touches his garment,
and they go through that discourse. And then by the time he's finished
with that, the servant of the man, the father, comes and says,
don't worry, the master, your daughter has died. Well, let's
notice here. In the book of Luke chapter 8,
verse, let's go to verse 52. And all
wept, and bewailed her. But he said, Weep not, she is
not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn,
knowing that she was dead. And he put them all out, and
took her by the hand, and called, saying, two words in our translation,
I don't know what it is in the original, made arise. And her spirit came again and
she arose straightway and he commanded her to give her meat. Maid arise. What a call to someone
that is dead that he could bring them life. And it was so simple. Maid arise. What power he has
in his voice. that He could create the worlds,
and then create new life, put life in us. Another example is
found here in the book of Luke, back up to the seventh chapter
of the book of Luke, and we notice here, again, what power that
the voice of God can raise the dead. Jesus raised this widow's
son, Luke chapter 7, and there in verse 14, they're carrying
him out to the graveyard. They're ready to take him out.
He's died. There is no hope from Him from
a physical standpoint. And the same is true about us. Without Christ, there's no hope.
And He said here, verse 14, And he came and touched the beard,
and they that bear him stood still. And he said, Young man,
I say unto thee, Arise. And he that was dead sat up.
Then turn with me, if you would, to the book of John chapter 11.
And we have here in John chapter 11, that great statement that
the Lord makes mention of here in verse 43. His friend has died. Lazarus has died. He's got word
about it before he died. And Jesus could have just as
easily healed him from a distance, but he let him go on and die.
Why? Because he has a purpose in this. He's illustrating a
point for the church. This is what I do when I determine
to do it. And that is, you are dead. All right, notice here, verse
43. And when he thus had spoken,
he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. You know, I've heard
foolish preachers say, if he hadn't used the word Lazarus,
everybody would have come out of the grave. Don't you think
that the Lord has the ability of selecting who He wants to
bring out of the grave? That He's powerful enough to
just simply say, come forth, and the person would? He didn't
have to use the word Lazarus, but He does. He identifies this
dead man for us. Lazarus come forth. Oh, the exceeding
greatness of his power that he does. And he did not ask permission
from Lazarus. He did not ask permission from
the young man. And he did not ask permission
from the young girl about raising him from the dead. Why? That
would be foolishness to ask permission of a dead person if he wanted
to do something, pleased to do something. And so it is with
us. You know, he's not pulling us out of the pit to put us into
a prison and shackle us up and say, I'm going to have you serve
me. No, you will serve me out of
love. I'm saving you from eternal death. I'm saving you and, you know,
to have the very thought here at this point that, well, I could
reject him. Why? Why? Would you ever have
that thought go through your head? that I could reject him
at that point, and he'd send me on. No. God in his grace is
so merciful, he comes upon those that he has purchased with his
own blood, the ransomed with his own blood, names he's had
written down in the Lamb's Book of Life from eternity, those
he chose out of pure grace and not any merit in us. And you know what that produces?
that no man should glory in his presence." We don't go, God,
I don't know how many people I've asked, you don't know what
a blessing you're missing if you don't have me in your church.
Oh yes, I do. I know what a blessing I'm missing,
none. And people say, no God, He doesn't
know the blessing I'd be to Him if He'd ever call me or if I'd
ever submit to Him. Oh my goodness, what trash is
that? We are only His creation, workmanship created in Christ
Jesus unto good works which He hath before ordained that we
should walk in them. What a glorious thing it is that
God would deal with anybody that has fallen in Adam And yet he
promised to raise up an exceeding great army. And you know what
the battle instrument of this exceeding great army is? The Word of God. That's our battle
instrument. And when we're taking the Word
of God, to a lost hellbound world, it is not what they want. I know from experience, it is
not what I wanted. Talk about free will. Free will
has never led anybody to a higher plane. It has always led us to
a lower plane. It has never raised us spiritually. It has never done anything for
us. We find out that our free will will always choose wrong
and never choose right. But God is merciful and can say,
norm come forth. And you know what happens? It
is so effectual that He brings us to life. He grants us life. Oh, turn with me to the book
of Ephesians chapter one, if you would. Ephesians chapter
one. In Ephesians chapter one, we read these glorious words
about this great work of grace that the Lord performs. Ephesians
chapter one, verse 18. There is some similarities that
he brings out here about the greatness of his power to raise
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, God was pleased to raise
the Lord Jesus Christ because the Lord Jesus Christ had fulfilled
all the requirements that were imposed upon him and he gave
his life a ransom. He was pleased to raise him.
The truth of it is he is pleased to raise every one of his lost
sheep to life. Here it tells us in chapter one
and verse 18 of the book of Ephesians, the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened. Oh my goodness. To get to see
Jesus. Get to see spiritual things.
To get to see grace. When the Lord saved me, I went
to the deacon of the church and says, you know, I can't explain
what happened to me, but I know more about grace now than I ever
knew in my life. That God would save a sinner. Understand ye, being enlightened,
that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what
the riches of the glory of his inheritance of the saints." My
goodness, look what we got, a full checkbook. It has no end. We use this check, there's another
one. We use this check, there's another one. Here it goes on,
and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us were to believe
according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought
in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him in
his own right hand in heavenly places? What is the exceeding
greatness of his power to us were to believe? God has given
us the belief. That's the fruit of being raised.
That's the fruit of the new birth, believe. I can believe what he
has to say now. Never could before. I would say,
oh, I believe that. But you know what? I didn't.
I didn't believe it. Didn't believe a word of it.
I had an unknown God, another God. All right, would you look
with me over here in the book of John chapter five, just a
couple more verses, just a couple more verses we'll look at here.
John chapter five, I just love this verse of scripture because
it shares so much that it's God's in charge of this whole business
of salvation. And here he says in John chapter
five, verse 21, for as the father, Raiseth up the dead. Jesus told
a group of people one time, let the dead bury the dead. What
is he talking about? Dead. Those that are dead in
trespasses and sin, let them take care of that menial stuff.
He used that word dead. They're still walking dead. The
walking dead. And here we find for as the father
raises up the dead and quickeneth them, oh, he has the power to
raise the dead. Even so, the son quickeneth or
maketh alive, who? Whom he will. Who did he give
his life for? Jesus said, I came not to be
ministered unto, but to minister and give my life a ransom for
many. Who did Jesus say? I'm the good shepherd, the good
shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. And you know what? We find out what a blessing it
is. Turn with me to the book of the
Psalms, Psalm 110. As we think about this efficacious
call, oh, to be made willing, to be made willing. by nature
we're unwilling, by nature we're unwilling to come, by nature
we're unwilling to recognize God, by nature we cannot see
grace, we want merit, we want our merit, our good works to
account for something. Now, I was talking to Brother
Mike this morning. I wrote a note to a friend of mine in Kentucky. He was bringing up something
about, and I said, I've just figured out why I was so mad
at the man who brought me the gospel. I told my wife, I hate
that man. And you know what he said? This
is what was the crux of the matter. I was a Calvinist, a five-point
Calvinist that didn't say much about it.
And you know what that man had to say? He said that unless you've
been born again, it doesn't matter what stripe you are. Unless you're
born again, it doesn't matter that you're a Calvinist. You
must be born again. You must have life from above.
And you know what? That made me so mad because I'm
depending on a profession of faith at 12 years old that my
pastor and parents talked me into. And when that Hit me that
my works oriented salvation was valueless. I hate that man. You know, when it was all said
and done, though, I said, I love you, Brother Henry, because you
just told me the truth. You told me about your God and
you had to kill mine first. All right. Psalm 110. Notice this with me. Psalm 110. Throughout the scriptures we
find this great truth that it is God that performs all things. He does everything necessary.
Psalm 110 in verse 3, thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. I'm not willing. Well, when it's
the day of his power you will be. I know what it is not to
be willing, then I know what it is to be willing, made willing.
Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. In the
beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning thou hast
the dew of thy youth. The Lord has sworn and will not
repent. Thou art a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. He is going to be the effectual
prophet, the effectual priest, and the effectual king. And when
His word has gone out, He will raise the dead. And He will raise them for their
life and glory and exercise His great power that He used in raising
Jesus Christ from the dead, the same power that it took. So we
are insignificant in the figure when we say, it is by my works. No, it has to be by His power. It must be of God. As we mentioned there in the
book of Ezekiel, one man that God had already raised from
the dead has been called on to preach to a whole flock of people
that are just dead bones. And he's asked the question,
Can these dead bones live? And the only answer he gave was,
Lord, thou knowest. And then the call went out. Lazarus,
come forth. And Lazarus is in the doorway
of that tomb. And the church says, hallelujah,
hallelujah. What a gracious God that would
take dead and give life so that we could bow before Him and say,
worthy is the Lamb that was slain. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain,
the Lord Jesus. Brother Mike.