If you will open your Bibles
with me to Ezekiel chapter 37. It's good to be with you all again.
Your brethren in Kingsport send their greetings. Ezekiel chapter 37. Start reading in verse 1. 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 was full of bones. and
caused me to pass by them round about, and behold, they were
very many in the open valley, and lo, they were very dry. And
he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered,
O Lord God, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, prophesy
upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the
word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto
these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and
you 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 you shall live. And you shall know
that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was
a noise, and behold, a shaking, and the bones came together,
bone to his bone. 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, 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 up upon their feet an exceeding great army. 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 for our parts.
Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God.
Behold, O my people, I will open your graves and cause you to
come up out of your graves and bring you into the land of Israel.
And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened
your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,
and shall put my Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I shall
place you in your own land. Then shall you know that I, the
Lord, have spoken it and performed it, saith the Lord." I love this
passage. The Lord God sent His prophet
into this valley full of bones. And this is a beautiful, glorious
picture of what our God is still pleased to do today. And that's
my prayer. I pray God will do for us what
He did for these bones. That's my prayer. The title of
the message is, Can These Bones Live? Can These Bones Live? We'll start in verse 1. The first
thing the prophet writes is the hand of the Lord was upon me. Present day preaching sure needs
that, doesn't it? The hand of the Lord was upon me. I need
that more than anything right now. And the reason is the hand
of the Lord is the power of God. And when the hand of the Lord
is upon someone, something happens. Something's about to happen.
I pray something's about to happen. The hand of the Lord was upon
me and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord. God carried
him out. God sends his prophet. Moses
said, if thy presence go not with me, carry us not up his. If God has not sent me, I don't
want to be here. We need his spirit. We need His
Spirit to dwell in our midst. We're only going to worship Him
in Spirit and in truth. The hand of the Lord was upon
me and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me
down. You know, it's a good thing when
God sets us down. I need to be set down. I have to stand here
for a few minutes, but I prefer to sit down. We need to be set
down. This world needs to be set down.
And only God can set us down. Where did he set him down? In
the midst of the valley which was full of bones. That's what
this world is. A valley full of bones. Why did
God set him there? To remind him what he was. We're just a bunch of bones.
And that's all we are. That's all I am. God calls sinners
saved by grace to go preach the gospel to other sinners. Look at verse 2. And caused me
to pass by them, round about, God in mercy sent his prophet
to pass by these dead bones, to pass right through the midst
of them. What mercy! What a wonder of
the grace of God that He would be pleased to pass by such a
people. Let's just consider these bones
for a second. What did they have to offer? They had nothing to
offer. There was certainly nothing attractive
about them. Do we get the picture? These bones had nothing to offer,
nothing to offer God. Verse 2, 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. These bones were out here
laying in this open valley for all to see. Whatever had taken place here,
there's one thing we know for sure. They lost. They lost. These bones are us. In the garden,
we lost. We lost. God created man in His
image. We lost it. We lost it. Whatever glorious state Adam
and Eve were in, they lost it. And that's how we come into this
world. Lost. Lost. And notice it says, not
only were they dry, lo, they were very dry. I don't know much
about bones, but they were very dry. They had
no moisture. They had no marrow. They had no blood flowing around
and flowing through them. These bones were without strength.
No strength. We're without strength. We have
no strength. We don't have a remedy for our
condition. We're a lot worse off than we
think. Sometimes we think we know how bad off we are, don't
we? We don't know. We don't have a clue. Now for these bones,
it's obvious, it was as bad as it could be. I mean, could they
have been in a worse condition? For us, it's as bad as it could
be. We can't get any worse. And we can't get any better.
In verse 3, And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones
live? That right there is what got
my attention in seeking a message for us today. Can these bones
live? I pray that I have your attention.
I pray that God has your attention. Is there any hope for these dead,
dry, very dry bones? Is there any hope for me? Is
there any hope for you? Verse 3, He said unto me, Son
of man, can these bones live? And I answered, and what an answer
this is, O Lord God, thou knowest. I don't know, they look pretty
dead to me. The Lord thou knowest. Only He
knows. You see, with men this is impossible.
Impossible. But with God, all things are
possible. Is there anything too hard for
the Lord? No. We worship a sovereign God, don't
we? Nothing is too hard for Him. Nothing. Look at verse 4. Again,
He said unto me, prophesy upon these bones. Ezekiel, you go
preach to these bones. But they're dead. What good is
that going to do them? Don't you see them? They can't
hear. They can't see. They can't believe. Isn't that our reaction to this?
God says, you go preach to these dead, dry bones. We say, how
foolish. How foolish. Nothing's going
to happen. We're just going to be speaking in vain. They can't
hear. Turn over with me to 1 Corinthians
1. This matter of preaching the
gospel is so foolish to the world. I've heard that most church services,
they have somebody speak for a few minutes and then it's all
something else. God's commanded us, just like Ezekiel, to prophesy
upon these bones. That's what God's been pleased
to do. Look here in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18. For the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto
us which are saved it is the power of God. I'm not here on
my own power, I just told you the Lord's our strength in everything,
in preaching, in everything. But unto us which are saved is
the power of God, verse 19, for it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For
after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe." This is foolish to
us by nature, isn't it? But this is the power of God.
This is the wisdom of God. Verse 25 says, "...the foolishness
of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger
than men." This is how God has been pleased to speak life into
dead sinners. Ezekiel, you go preach through
these bones. I'll tell you what, that gives
me hope for when I stand to preach. God just might give life. God just might give life. I thought
about this this morning as I was praying for God to be with us.
Some bones, somewhere, maybe here, are going to hear God speak
today. Doesn't that make you rejoice?
Some bones are going to hear His voice. They're going to live.
Verse 4, back in our text. He said unto me, prophesy upon
these bones and say unto them. What am I going to say to them?
Oh ye dry bones. Tell them what they are. That's
the first thing we've got to learn, what we are. We're dead. These men, I don't know how long
they were dead, but they were dead. We don't have to wonder
if they had a little bit of life left, do we? They were dead.
They were dead. We're dead. What do you tell
Isaiah? You go tell them they're grass.
Tell them they're nothing. These bones were dead. And what
can a dead man do? Nothing. I can't do a thing. I can't do anything. Well, that's
interesting because the next thing he told them was, here.
Oh, you dry bones, here. Here what? The Word of the Lord.
He commanded, he told them, you can't do anything. Then he said,
do something. Here the Word of the Lord. Well,
how are they going to do that? The same way we will. The same
way we will. God must quicken them. God must
give them life. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. We don't produce faith. Faith
is the gift of God, not of works lest we should boast. God must
give faith. God must give the hearing ear,
the hearing heart, the eyes of faith. That's the only way these
bones were going to hear. That's the only way we're going
to hear. You can hear me speak all day. We've got to hear Him
speak. Verse five, thus saith the Lord
God unto these bones. It's not enough to hear the voice
of a man. It's just not enough. He told Ezekiel, while you're
speaking to these bones, I'm gonna speak to these bones. That's
why we preach, thus saith the Lord. It's not what do I have
to say, it's what does he have to say. 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. Ezekiel couldn't save him. We're
going to see that in a minute. I can't save you. I can't save
myself. I can't contribute to it. This is God's work. It's God's work from start to
finish. Verse 5, Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones, Behold,
I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. What a hope. What a hope. You know what Ezekiel told these
bones? He told them what God promised to do for them. I'm
here to tell you what God has promised to do for His people.
I'm here to tell you what He's done. What He's done. God said,
go declare this message. I will and ye shall. What a message. What a message. That's the gospel we preach.
I will and you shall. Can these bones live? Can these bones live? I believe
they can. I believe they can if the Lord
will. If the Lord will, we shall live.
Verse 6, and I will lay sinews upon you and will bring up flesh
upon you and cover you with skin. That covering is the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the substance of the body. His blood, His righteousness,
we need His covering, don't we? If we don't have His covering,
just like these bones, we will not live. We will not live. If Christ is not there, there
is no life. It doesn't matter what you have.
If we don't have Him, if we don't have His blood and His righteousness,
we will not have life. Verse 6, I will lay sinews upon
you and will 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. Can these bones live? Well buddy,
they're about to. Oh, they're about to live. And you know what the amazing
thing is? They don't even know they're dead. They don't have
a clue. Now let's make sure, as we go
through this, let's make sure we know well and clear what role
these bones played in this. They're about to live. Alright.
Verse 7. So I prophesied as I was commanded. The Lord gave Ezekiel this miraculous
command. You see these bones, you preach
to them. Ezekiel did not question God. He did not question the
power of God to give these bones life. He did not question the
wisdom of God in telling him to preach to them. He simply
prophesied as He was commanded. I pray God would help me and
us to do the same thing. Prophesize we're commanded. He
did not try to get these bones to do something. He did not say,
hey bones, listen up. You want to live? Who doesn't
want to go to heaven? I mean seriously. We're not commanded
to invite you. It's not an invitation. He didn't
ask these bones to do something. He didn't ask these bones. Now
if you'll just put yourselves together and start giving yourself
life and make a decision for God. Give yourself life. Yep,
I want to go to heaven. Alright. No. I prophesied as I was commanded. He preached the Word of the Lord.
He said, thus saith the Lord. You know what God's promised
to bless? The Word of the Lord. He said, My words shall not return
unto me void. It's going to prosper in the
thing I please. It's going to accomplish that
which God's pleased for it to accomplish. Where God sends it, it's going
to get the job done. Even when preached to dead bones.
God's Word is quick, sharp, powerful. More so than any two-edged sword.
Verse 7 again, So I prophesied as I was commanded, and as I
prophesied there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the
bones came together, bone to his bone. When the word of the
Lord comes to a sinner, you know what happens? Things get shaken
up. When we start hearing what God
has to say in His word, our whole world turns upside down. That's
the best thing that could ever happen to us. We began to think,
I've never heard anything like this before. These bones have never heard
anything like this before. They started coming together.
It all started making sense. Now, here's what I want us to
see here in these next two verses. These bones started coming together.
As Ezekiel is preaching, something starts going on. They started
to see some things. They started to see the sovereignty
of God in the Scriptures. They started to see, wow, we're
dead. We're totally depraved. They
started to see election. They started to see these things.
Look at verse 8. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews
and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them, but
there was no breath in them. See, these bones, they were at
the point of believing the right doctrines. They even had the
appearance of righteousness. They started looking pretty good.
That's as far as religion can get people. I'll tell you, there's
some people in religion that look awful good. There's a lot
of Calvinists. But there was just one problem.
Did you see the end of verse 8? But there was no breath in
them. No life. No life. Ezekiel couldn't give them life.
I can't give you life. Our calling is not to get people
saved. We can't do it. God must save
and God alone. Our calling is to preach the
gospel. and wait on the Lord. He'll bless it as He sees fit.
Our brother just prayed, Lord, save such as should be saved.
He will. If there's some dead bones here that God's purpose
is to save, they're going to be saved. If today's the day,
they're meant to hear it. They're going to hear it. Verse 9. 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." You pray to the Spirit of God.
You know what my prayer is? God, make Your Word effectual
to our hearts. We have such a cold and dead
heart. We need God to cause us to hear,
to receive what He has to say. We need God to come give us life.
I love what He prayed. He said, breathe upon these slain. They've been slain. We've been
slain. Our sin has killed us, separated
us from God. We need the Holy Spirit to quicken
us or we're just going to stay dead and be religious all we
want to. No life. No life unless God breathes
life into our soul. Verse 10, So I prophesied as
he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived,
and stood up upon their feet an exceeding great army. Can these bones live? They're
living. They're living. By the grace
and power of God Almighty, these bones can live. No other way. When the Spirit of God breathes
life into a dead sinner, that sinner lives. That's God's Word. God makes the dead to live. And
I love how it says, they stood up upon their feet an exceeding
great army. Perhaps these men were soldiers
and they lost. They lost. They were dead. They
were goners. God gave them life. God gave him life. And here they
are standing again. And they stood like they never
stood before. How did these men stand? He said
they stood upon their feet in an exceeding great army. They
stood in Christ alone. No other way to stand. The house
that's founded upon the rock, that's the only house that's
going to stand. Every other foundation has just
sank to sand. On Christ the solid rock we stand, brethren. He is
our life. That's how they stood. The Spirit
of God put Christ in them, the hope of glory. Verse 11. Then he said unto me, Son of
man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. These bones
are the elect of God. These bones are God's people.
We are His bones. And I love this. Psalm 34 verse
20 says, He keepeth all His bones. Not one of them is broken. You remember at the cross, the
Jews said, let's get this thing over with. Let's break their
legs. They broke the thief on the left's legs. They broke the
thief on the right's legs. And then they come to the man
in the middle, our Lord. And they said, He's dead already.
No need to break His legs. Why? Did it just so happen that
they decide, well, we won't break his legs. No! It says that the
scripture should be fulfilled. A bone of him shall not be broken. Do we see the glory in that statement? A bone of him shall not be broken. Why? When he instituted the Lord's
Supper, this is what he said. He said, this is my body, which
is broken for you. We're complete in him. We shall
not be broken. I love that. Verse 11, 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're cut
off for our parts. That's our confession, isn't
it? Our bones are dried, our hope
is lost. We're cut off. I was as far from God as I could be.
I mean that. I was as far as God as I could
be. But God. But God. But God, who is rich
in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, even when we were dead in dry bones, hath
quickened us together with Christ by grace, ye are saved. This
is our state, brethren, until God does something for us. This
is the state of all lost men and women in religion right now.
Without Christ, having no hope, without God in the world. But,
now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by
the blood of Christ. That's how we're saved. by the
blood of Christ. Look here in verse 12. Therefore
prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold,
O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come
up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.
Our God has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And because of that, we don't have to suffer an eternal death.
Now that's what we've earned. God's given us life. God's given
us life. Christ suffered our eternal death
for us. He went to the grave for us. And he will bring us into the
land of Israel. Christ went to the cross. My
brother just read it. He went to prepare a place for
us. And as a result of what Christ did, where He went for us, what
He went to do for us, what He accomplished for us, we can confidently
sing, we're marching to Zion. Beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're
marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God. I can't
wait to get there. I can't wait. Verse 13, And ye shall know that
I am the Lord. When God saves us, we know He
is the Lord. This flesh doesn't know God.
This flesh can't give ourselves a revelation of God. God must
reveal Himself to us. And when He does, when He saves
us, we know He is the Lord and beside Him there is none else. Like Nebuchadnezzar said, when
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were delivered out of that fire,
he said, there's no other God that can deliver after this sword.
If I'm saved, God had to save me. Verse 13, and you shall know
that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves, O my people,
and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my Spirit
in you, and you shall live, and I shall place you in your own
land. Then shall you know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and
performed it, saith the Lord. I ask one more time, can these
bones live? And I'm talking about you and
me. Can these bones live? Soon we're going to die and our
bodies are literally going to look like these bones would.
Whether we like it or not, the day is coming. And when that
day comes, is there any hope for us? Can these bones live?
O Lord God, Thou knowest. What message does God have for
us? What's the message we need to
hear? O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. I will and you shall. I will give you life and you
shall live. Not a moment sooner. May God enable us to hear the
word of the Lord. I know we're not going to hear
unless He enables us to hear. May God enable us to hear the
word of the Lord, and if He does, we will know He did it. He did it. Praise God for making
these bones to live. Amen.