Today we're going to look at
a portion of scripture that's probably familiar to us. But it is a portion of scripture that is absolutely incredible. I was thinking about this this
morning. I woke up thinking about this message this morning. And then I went back to bed,
fell back to sleep and woke up again thinking about this message. And I started to think that we're
just like a bag of old dried bones in our natural state. Just bones with no life. Physically
alive in our natural state when we're born into this world, but
Spiritually, just dead as a doornail. Just dead. No life. Spiritually dead in trespasses
and sins, the scripture says. And that means just graveyard
dead. You ever been out in the woods? or even just anywhere
and seen a place where they dug up bones, animal bones, or find
animal bones out in the woods and they're just blanched, sun-dried,
nothing on them that shows any sign of life, just a dead, dry
bone. But one time, that was part of
a living being, wasn't it? A living animal. but there's
no life in it now. It's just dead, dry bones. Well,
the name of the message today is, can these bones live? Can these bones live? Turn, if you would, to Ezekiel
chapter 37. Ezekiel chapter 37. Again, keep in mind that when
we're When we're born into this world, we're alive physically,
but spiritually we are just dead. Just dead. Keep that in mind
here. This portion of scripture is
absolutely incredible. Can these bones live? Dead bones,
can they live? Ezekiel 37. We're going to read a portion
from 1 to 14 here. Ezekiel 37. Verse 1 to 14, the hand of the
Lord was upon me and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord,
that's Jehovah, all the time we see Lord here it's Jehovah,
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
there was very many in the open valley and lo they were dry,
so this was a valley and it was just full of bones. Probably
been a great battle there or something, just full of dead
man's bones. And it sounds like the birds went and picked all
the flesh off them, which they do. And all that was left was these
bones, just these bones. A valley of them. A valley of
them. Open valley, and lo they were
very dry, the sun blanched. And he said unto me, Son of man,
can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou
knowest. Oh, what a statement, eh? Can
these bones live? And Ezekiel says, O Lord God,
thou knowest. See, our God, he knows everything,
doesn't he? He knows where every one of his sheep are dead in
trespasses and sins. Dead like these dry bones. Just
dead. And someone says, well can that
sinner ever be saved? Lord thou knowest. See when someone
says, when someone says, well that person can never be saved,
I say don't ever say that. Because God saved me and he saved
you. He can save whomever he wills.
And so can that sinner be made alive? Lord, thou knowest. You know, Lord. I don't know,
but you know. I know you have the power to
do it. I know you have the power to
do it. And I know if that, if them bones can live, if that
sinner lives, if that dead sinner lives, dead in trespass and sins,
if he's ever made alive, if he's ever born again, I know, Lord,
it's you. I know it's all you, and I know
you know if that person will ever be made alive. Oh my. Again he said unto me, prophesize
upon these bones and say unto them, O you 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. They're
just a bunch of bones. But see, This isn't just anybody
saying this. These are the words of Jehovah
Elohim. The self-existent one, the strong and mighty one. Adonai,
the ancient of days. God. It says, Thus saith the Lord God
unto these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you,
and ye shall live. Is that not what God did to us? Now Adam, he was just made out
of the ground, right? And the Lord breathed the breath
of life into him, didn't he? And he lived. You know, by the power of the
Holy Spirit of God, he gives us life. A new life. We become new creatures in Christ.
The old nature, the dead nature. Now we have a new nature in us,
don't we? Now we're governed by a new nature. Now we live.
We truly live now. in Christ and Him alone. Look at all the I wills as we
read this. This is marvelous because I can't. We can't, right? We can't give
ourselves life spiritually. We can't regenerate ourselves. We can't save ourselves. Look
what the Lord says. Oh, I love this. And I will lay
sinews upon you and bring up flesh upon you and cover you
with skin and put breath in you and you shall live. You shall
live. And you shall know that I am
the Lord. Oh my goodness, this is wonderful.
This is wonderful. So I prophesized as I was commanded. See, God's preachers, we just
preach what the Lord tells us. We preach Christ and Him crucified.
That's why I put that on Bolton every week. We preach Christ
and Him crucified. Ezekiel didn't doubt the Lord,
did he? He said, Lord, you tell me to preach, I'm gonna preach
it. I think there's a bucket of bones over there, a whole
bunch of bones, but Lord, I love it, Lord thou knowest. So what
does Ezekiel do? So I prophesied as I was commanded.
And as I prophesied, there was a noise. And behold, a shaking.
Bones started rattling, beloved. These bones start shaking and
rattling. My, and bones came together,
bone to the bone. Could you imagine watching that?
Bone to the 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 birth in them.
See, religion, in religion, there's a lot of bone rattling. But there's
no life. See? A lot of bone rattling.
No life, though. No life. 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 might live. My. So I prophesied as he commanded. There he says it again, doesn't
he? He can do whatever God tells him to do. So I prophesized as
he commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and
stood upon their feet an exceeding great army. Then he said unto
me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel." Who's
Israel? Who's the true Israel of God?
Who's the true Israel of God? God's elect. From the four corners, the wind
comes from the four corners. My, these bones are the whole house
of Israel. Behold, they say, our bones are
dry and our hope is lost, and we are cut off from our parts.
Therefore prophesy and say to them, thus saith the Lord God,
behold, O my people, I will open your graves and cause you to
come out of your graves. Is that not what he's done for
we who are the people of God? Has he not bought us up from
being dead in trespasses and sins and bring you into the land
of Israel? And you shall know that I am
the Lord when I have opened your graves and all my people and
bought you up out of your graves and shall put my spirit in you
and you shall live. You shall live. Look at I, I,
I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this because there's no hope
for us. And I shall place you in your
own land, and you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken
it and performed it, saith the Lord. The Lord willed it, and
the Lord performed it. Isn't that wonderful? God planned
and purposed our salvation, and then God performed it. God the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit covenanted in eternity
to save a people. And God himself came and performed
that salvation, obtained that salvation, didn't he? And we
who were dead are made alive in Christ. And I'll tell you
what, this whole army, it represents all the people, people that no
man can number, beloved, who were one time dead bones. That's where I was. Was it where
you were? Just a bunch of bag of dead bones I was. Oh, but
the Holy Spirit made me alive in Christ. Regenerated by His
almighty power, given a new heart that hungers and thirsts after
righteousness. My, and the scripture before
us here is a prophecy of the restoration and resurrection
of the Jews out of Babylon, and the return to the land of Israel
in the days of Cyrus. In a distance view of the prophecy,
it refers to the resurrection of the dead in the last day,
particularly to the resurrection of the body of God's saints and
the everlasting life and glory. Do you know that we're going
to be in heaven as soon as we die, but our bodies are going
to lay in the ground? But one day, do you know we're
going to receive glorified bodies, beloved? Glorified bodies? Oh my. This vision also speaks
a word of promise to God's church in every age. So that includes
us right now. When the church of God or any
part of it is but low, but low and languishing, God promises
to pour out his spirit upon the church, to pour out his spirit
upon the church. My oh my. And that primary reference
of this passage speaks of spiritual resurrection. We were who were
born dead in trespasses and sins, raised to life, spiritual life. Again, we were born into this
world with a dead nature, beloved. But now, when we're born again,
we have a new nature. A new nature now. We're new creatures
in Christ. We still have this physical body,
don't we? But we have new life in us, beloved. Now we have an
understanding, like he said, they're going to understand who
I am. Did you have an understanding
before God saved you of who God really was? I had a God cooked up in my mind
who I thought he was, but I found out that's not who God is. But
now I know who he is. By his grace and his mercy, he's
revealed himself to us, hasn't he? And now we know who he is. We know about his holiness. We
know about his righteousness. We know how his wrath has been
appeased that was against us in Christ Jesus, our Lord. What
a wonderful, merciful Savior. We know what God's done for us
now. We know what we are. We're sinners who do not deserve
mercy, but because it pleased God, he showed mercy and grace
to us. because it pleased Him to do
so. That's the answer. That's the answer to our question
when we say, why me? Because it pleased God to do
so. We're never going to fully grasp that, but it pleased Him
to do so. He says, I'll have compassion on whom I'll have
compassion, and I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. Like
we saw on Wednesday night, the apostles, They were preserved, except for
Judas, who never was one of the elect. Who never was one of the
elect. God keeps his people. He gives
us life. My, it's so wonderful. And when Ezekiel wrote this,
the Jewish hope for this future was very low. Very low. And in verse 12, verse 12, what
about them? Great joy, look what it says.
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. Now he brings us into rest, doesn't
he? But what joy this would have
brought the Jewish people. to know that they were going
to leave Babylon and go back to the land that God had promised
them. Look a little further down in
this chapter, in addition to Israel being restored to her
land, Israel is to have new spiritual life. Look at Ezekiel, actually
go over one chapter, Ezekiel chapter 36. Verses 24 to 27. And this definitely speaks of
God's love. Look at this. Ezekiel 36, starting in verse
24. And again, I will. Look what God's doing, beloved.
We're just being acted upon. For I will take you from among
the heathen. Praise God, he took us from among
the heathen. Praise God. And gather you out
of all countries, and of every kindred, tribe, tongue, and nation. God's people are made up from
every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. and will bring you
into your own land. Oh, what a rest we have in Christ.
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean. Your sins and iniquities will
I remember no more because of the shed blood of Christ. You'll be clean from all your
filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new
heart will I give you. Oh, he's given us a new heart,
hadn't he? New creatures in Christ. And
a new spirit will I put within you, and I'll take away the stony
heart out of your flesh, and I'll give you a heart of flesh.
Oh, my. This is God's work, isn't it?
And notice who's doing it all? I will give you this. I'm going
to do this. You can't. I can't. I can't give
myself a new heart, can you? But God gave me a new heart.
He gave me, He put a spirit within me. My, and I'll put my spirit
within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. There was a time
we didn't walk in the statutes of God, did we? We walked in
our own will. But now, now we got a new heart.
And now, now we want to live our life for God. Don't we want
to live our life for Him? We want to walk in His ways.
We want to live life pleasing to Him. And we know all we have
to do is rest in Christ. And when I say we live our life
unto Him, we're just living our life trusting Him, resting in
Him. Now, are we going to struggle?
Of course we are, because we're humans. But now we walk in His
ways, don't we? We didn't before. I didn't before. Now we do. Now we got a new heart, beloved.
We got a new spirit within us now. Those dead, dry bones are
now alive. Those who are said to be dead
and trespassed as sins are now made alive by the power of the
Holy Spirit of God. Born again. And remember, our
Lord said, ye must be born again to see the kingdom of heaven.
Right? It's vital. It's vital. Look what God's done. So we see
here a vision of the great resurrection, and we know that all the Old
Testament scriptures testify of Christ, don't they? And the
master himself said that, he said, just search the scriptures,
for in them you think you have eternal life, but they are they
which testify of me. And you were not coming to me
that you might have life. These bones were dead, weren't
they? But they got life from the God, didn't they? He made
them alive. And our Lord said there in John
5, 39 and 40, that you're not come to me that you might have
life. See, that's us in our natural state. That's why we have to be made
willing in a day of God's power. And hallelujah that he does that.
What a blessing. What a blessing that He makes
us willing. It's with cords of love. I died
for you. I bled for you. I left the glory
of heaven for you. I bore the wrath of God for you.
Now your sins are all forgiven. Cords of love. See, it's the
goodness of God that leads men to repentance. It's the goodness
of God. It's absolutely wonderful, beloved. Colossians. Turn with me if you
would to Colossians chapter 2 and then put your finger in John
chapter 5. Colossians chapter 2 and then
John chapter 5. You know, every one of God's
people will be saved. They'll be made alive. They're
born dead in trespasses and sins, but by the power of God the Holy
Spirit, they will be made alive. They will be born again. Look at this in Colossians chapter
2, verses 11 to 13. Look at this. Oh my. Remember those dead bones
were given life, right? Verse 11 to 13, in whom, that's
being Christ, also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without
hands and the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh
by the circumcision of Christ. Buried with him in baptism wherein
you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of
God. See, God's done heart surgery on us. He's raised the dead corpses who hath raised him from the
dead. And you, look at this, being
dead. Now that word dead means graveyard.
That means dead. It's not mostly dead. It's not
kind of dead. It means dead. It means lifeless. And you, that was my state. That
was our state. Being dead in your sins, in the
uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together. That
means you're born again, beloved. How? With him, heaven forgiven
you what? All trespasses. Every single
one of them. In Christ. In Christ. It's no wonder God's people rejoice
in our salvation. No wonder. We have all our sins
forgiven. Now turn, if you would, to John
chapter five. See, we died in Adam, but we're
made alive in Christ, beloved. And we see the authority which
the Son of God has, the power. See, we saw in the Old Testament
there that God has the power, doesn't he? He has the power
to raise those dead bones up. He's the only one who has that
power. Look in John chapter five here. He's got the power. Who's
got the power? The Lord Jesus Christ. He's got
the power. John chapter five, verses 19
to 23. Then answered Jesus, and said
unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing
of himself, but what he seeth the Father do. For what things
soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father
loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth. And he will show him greater
works than these, that ye may marvel. For as the Father raises
up the dead, well, that's what he did for us, isn't he? and
quickeneth them. That's what he did for us. Even
so, the Son quickeneth whom he will, because they're both God. They're equal in power and in
might. For the Father judges no man
but hath committed judgment unto the Son. Everyone who is going
to stand at the great white judgment throne will stand before Christ. One they said, well I don't believe
in him. Well there he is. There he is. And the sheep and
the goats will be divided. And the goats will be cast into
hell. And the sheep will go into everlasting glory. And you know
the only one who made them to differ? Is God. There's absolutely nothing the
sheep did to merit that salvation. to gain that salvation. It's
all by the grace of God. Because it pleased Him to save
them. Bring it home. Bring it home,
beloved. It pleased God to save me. Oh my. Wonder of wonders that
God would save a sinner such as I. And then keep a sinner
such as I. Because I'm still a sinner, I'm
just a safe sinner now. But what an incredible thing
to be saved. And when it says he shall save
his people from their sins, you know what that means? It means
rescue in the Greek. He's rescued us from our sins,
brother. We've been rescued. You ever
see somebody drown out in the lake and they rescue someone?
We've been rescued. We were drowning in the sea of
sin. We were going under. We were
down and his hand reached down and pulled us out, beloved. And saved us. Saved us from our
sins. My, what a Savior. So all judgments unto the Son,
and it says that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor
the Father. Look at this, he that honoreth
not the Son honoreth not the Father, which is sent him. Jehovah Witnesses,
they say they believe in Jehovah, but they deny the Son. He's a
lesser God. Well, what does this scripture
say about them? He that honoureth not the Son
honoureth not the Father, which is sin. They're preaching another gospel,
beloved. And that's one that's easy to find out. Now look at the next two verses,
next verses here in John chapter 5. These verses speak of the
spiritual resurrection of God's elect and the new birth, which
we looked at there in Ezekiel chapter 37. Look at this, John
5, 24, and we'll just, we'll read to verse 29. Very, very
I say unto you, heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent
me, hath everlasting life. Look at that. You got it. You have it. And it's a gift
from God. Now look, the thing I marvel
about this verse, right? Remember how we saw in Ezekiel?
I will. I'm going to do this. They shall
live. Look at this. He that heareth
my word and believeth on me. How do we hear? How do we believe
on God? By being born again of the Holy
Spirit of God, right? And granted faith to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. See, it's all God. Hath everlasting
life. Are you trusting Christ right
now? If you're not, you don't have
everlasting life. But if you are, this scripture
declares that you have everlasting life. But Lord, my faith goes
like this. It's not dependent upon us. See, what our Lord's bringing
forth here is that everlasting life is dependent upon Him. Look at this. Hath everlasting life and shall
not come into condemnation. You mean there's going to be
no TV screen putting all my sins in front and telling me what
I did wrong and I'm going to lose this and gain that? Well,
that word there is no condemnation. That means no judgment. God's people will never be judged
because our judgment fell upon Christ. It fell upon Him, beloved. Isn't that wonderful? That makes
my heart sing, I'll tell you that. But it's passed from death
into life. Remember them dead, dry bones?
No life in them? They couldn't live, right? But the Lord said, can these
bones live, Ezekiel? Well, if you say so, Lord, Thou
knowest, Lord. Look at this. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, the hour is coming, now is, when the dead shall hear
the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.
Beloved, we've heard the voice of God. We've heard the Savior. Just like he said, Lazarus, come
forth. He says, Tom, come forth. You come forth, brother. Out
of that state of being dead in trespasses and sins. All by the
power of God. And that's true for every one
of us who's a believer. Isn't that wonderful? For as the father hath life in
himself, so hath he given to the son to have life in himself.
And look at this. Now who has all the power to
make them dead bones live? and hath given him, the Lord
Jesus Christ, authority to execute judgment also because he is the
son of man. Marvel not at this, for the hour
is coming, it's coming, in which all that are in the grave shall
hear his voice and shall come forth. They that have done good unto
the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto
the resurrection of damnation. The giving of life and salvation
to sinners who are dead spiritually, it's a greater miracle than the
restoration of Israel or the resurrection of dead bodies.
This life all comes by the power of God the Holy Spirit, giving
life and granting faith and repentance to those who by our natural birth
are dead, graveyard dead in trespasses and sins. And he makes us alive,
beloved, unto God. in and through the Lord Jesus
Christ. My. And two great mysteries of
God. The Son of God became the Son
of Man. What a mystery. The Son of God became the Son
of Man. And number two, elect sinners
by His grace, become the sons of God. Two great mysteries there. Let's look at our text again.
Let's go back to Ezekiel chapter 37. Let's look at our text again. It shows our spiritual state.
Verses 1 and 2 show our spiritual state. We come into this world
just dead, just dead, blanched, dead bones. Ezekiel 37 verses
1 to 2. The hand of the Lord was upon
me and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord and sent me
down in the midst of a valley which was full of bones. Again,
there'd be a great battle, just full of bones. and caused me
to pass by them round about and behold there were many in the
open valley and lo they were very dry dead blanched white bones that
desert sun had beat down on them my oh my and here before us is
the truth about man's nature We're dead, just like these bones.
We come into this world just dead in trespasses and sins.
This is a good place to bring people, to show them our natural
state, too. It's a good place when you're
talking to folks about Christ, to bring them here. To bring
them here. And there had evidently been
a great battle fought in this valley years before, and many
men were killed and their bodies still laid there, and they were
scorched in the sun. And their bones were scattered
all about. I imagine the Karen's and stuff had come and picked
all the flesh off and maybe carried a bone over here or carried a
bone over there. And they were just scattered everywhere. Picked
over. And they were so dry now that
not even a dog would pick up the bones. They're so parched
there's no marrow even left in them. They're just nothing. Just a bunch of dead bones. All
the moisture's gone, all the marrow's gone, dried up out of
them. They must have sat there for many, many years. So what
a picture we have. Before us in these bones, they're
devoid of life, aren't they? There's no life in these bones.
And they can't put themselves back together. They can't put
themselves. There's no life. They're lifeless.
They're helpless. They're dead. And we're just
like those bones, beloved, in our natural state. We're just
like those bones. Scripture declares we're dead
in trespasses and sins, right? There's none righteous, no, not
one. There's none that do it good. There's none that seek
it after God. Can a dead man talk? Can a dead man pray? Can a dead man worship God? See,
we couldn't even worship God in our natural state. My, oh, my. And people in religion
call on dead men to do things to be saved. Do you know that?
They say, well, walk this aisle. Can a dead man walk an aisle?
Can a dead man pray a prayer? Do you see what's missing when
they do that? I'm telling you, this is true.
You know what's missing there is Holy Spirit regeneration. Because they put the decision
in the man's hands. But we know that a dead man can't
walk an aisle. We know a dead man can't come
forward. But I'll tell you, I'll tell
you who can come forward. I'll tell you who can flee to
Christ. Someone who's been born again
of the Holy Spirit of God. They can come forth and testify
at Christ, can't they? See, but it's not the coming
forth that saves them. They're already born again of the Holy
Spirit of God. Why do we trust Christ? Because
we're born again of the Holy Spirit of God. A dead man can't
trust Christ. A dead woman can't trust Christ,
can they? They're dead. But a person who's alive can.
And I'm talking spiritual things here. I'm not talking physical
things here. My, oh my. So we were dead and
without hope. But I'll tell you why. Can that
sinner live? Thou knowest, Lord. And you know
what? Every one of us who believe are
a monument to the fact that those bones can live. Those bones can live, can't they?
Oh, by the power of God, thou knowest, Lord. You know, you
know. If the Lord gives us an interest
in Christ, we are gonna run to Him. I'll tell you what, we are
gonna run so fast to Him, it's not funny. And we're gonna just
trust on Him. Our faith may be weak. I'll tell
you what, we may go through years being weak in faith, but the
Lord's gonna, He's gonna grow us. He's gonna grow us. Oh my. Now look at verse three
here. These bones are just lifeless,
dead bones, helpless, hopeless. They're nothing. There's no life
in them. But you know what's impossible with man is possible
with God, right? He said unto me, son of man,
can these bones live? I love Ezekiel's answer. And
I answered, oh, Lord God, thou knowest. Oh, Lord God, thou knowest. You
know. I don't know, but you know, Lord. You know. And the Lord's questioning
him is very striking, because he's not asking for information.
Right? Remember, always remember this.
When the Lord asks a question in the scriptures, he's never
asking for information. He's not. He's not. I always have to chuckle when
the Lord asks a question, because, like I said, he already knows.
He already knows what they're going to say. You know? Oh, Adam, what did
you do? Well, it's the woman you gave
me, Lord. And then he looks at Eve. What did you do? Oh, it's
the snake. He wasn't asking for information. He wasn't, beloved. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my. So he's not asking. But notice
how the servant, notice how Ezekiel answers humbly, humbly, right? Lord, thou knowest, Lord. I have
no clue, but you know. You know, Lord. Can these bones
live? Well, let us ask these questions. Can dead sinners live
unto God? Can unjust men be made just with God? Can those who
love darkness be made to love light? Can those men who hate
God made to love him? Can men who love wickedness be
made to hunger for holiness? Well, what great instruction
is here for the church, isn't it? What great instructions here
before us. What great truths are taught
before us here in the scriptures. Lord, thou knowest. Yeah. That
can happen, Lord. You know. You know. And we're proof of that. We're
proof of that, beloved. My. A dead sinner can no more give
himself life than a dead person can raise himself from the grave
by their own power. Just can't happen. Just can't. And think, just like these dead
men, these dead bones, we, just like a dead man, we lack the
power, we lack the ability to save ourselves, to raise ourselves
from the grave, to make ourselves alive. We can't do it. But God has the power. God has
the ability. God has the will to make the
dead alive, beloved. And only he can do it. Can these bones live? O Lord,
Thou knowest. Thou knowest, Lord. Look at the
next verse, we see again, He said, prophesy unto these bones
and say unto them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. The
Lord commanded the prophet to prophesy, to preach to these
dry bones. That's what prophesy means, to
these dry bones. And God's servants obey the command
of his master, say, oh, you dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.
Hear the word of the Lord. My, this is what every gospel
preacher in the Lord's churches do. Every time we get an opportunity
to stand and to meet, we're preaching to dry bones, beloved. Now, some
of you are alive, but some of you are dry bones. My, some of
you are alive though. Sinners dead in trespasses and
sins, that's dry bones, that was my natural state. And preacher
stands up and proclaims life for the sinner in Christ. Only
in Christ. And we are God's people, we rejoice,
don't we? We rejoice. And see, this just
shows us, this passage shows us our utter inability to save
ourselves. To save ourselves. Listen to
this, 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. For Jews require a sign, and
the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. Unto the Jews a stumbling block,
and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called,
both Jews and Gentiles, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom
of God. Because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verses
21 to 25. So the preacher stands up and
holds forth Christ, who is the bread of life, who is the only
savior of sinners, the great sinner substitute. Do you have
any hope outside of Christ? I don't. I don't have any hope outside
of him, none at all. And we preach Christ who is the
word of God. Our sermons are filled with Christ, about his
person, his obedience, his blood, his righteousness, his intercession
for us, his great sacrifice of himself. He gave himself for
us. We saw on Sunday school a couple
of weeks ago, he gave himself for me, as a believer can say. me. My, what a Savior. What a Redeemer. And when Christ
is preached, who He is, what He did, why He did it, and where
He is now, those who are given ears to hear by the power of
God the Holy Spirit, hear and flee to Christ. Flee to Him. And God the Holy Spirit gives
life Gives life to those, I was dead beloved and he made me alive. My, I was like them dry bones. He gave me life. And that's why we preach, flee
to Christ. He is the only one who can give
you life, eternal life. It's His. He's obtained it. And
He gives it to whomever He pleases Him to give it to. My. And God the Holy Spirit gives
life to the dead sinner through the preaching of the Word. Faith
cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. This is why,
this is why, why Paul said we preach Christ and Him to crucify.
This is why he didn't get caught up in all these other things. I'll tell you. We don't have
to learn how to live a life under God. God teaches us that, doesn't
he? In his holy scriptures. And he
constantly, through the scriptures, is pointing us to Christ. See,
the problem for me, and for all of us, I know this, is that we
get our eyes off Christ. And then things start to tailspin.
Is it so? For you all? I know it is for
me. Things start to tailspin, and
I go, I start, oh, woe is me. Oh. You remember when they used to
shoot planes down, woe, you know, they start spinning down, going
down the ground, and it's like the Lord just goes, no, you're
not going to hit the ground. No. You're not going to crash and
burn. You're right here with me. But
sometimes he lets us go low, doesn't he? But he always picks
us back up, beloved. Always picks us back up. And
he hasn't went anywhere. We're spinning down there. It
is for me anyways. I'm just being honest. That's
how it works. My oh my. So this is why Paul was determined
to preach nothing but Christ and him crucified. This gospel
preaches the power of God to salvation. Let's look at the
next two verses, and we'll see that this was not a message to
tell the dead bones what they could do, because they couldn't
do anything. He didn't say, hey, you bones,
get up and rise up. Come on down here, bones. Pray this prayer with me, and
then you'll be saved. They're a bunch of dead bones. Can't
do nothing, can they? Can't even move. No, what's proclaimed here is
God's free and sovereign grace, beloved. Look at this. Thus saith the Lord God unto
these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and
ye shall live. I'm gonna do that, God says.
Remember he told us in Ezekiel 36 he can give us a new heart? I'm going to do this. This is
my work. This is marvelous. And I will
lay sinews upon you and bring up flesh upon you and cover your
skin and put breath in you. Again, God's not telling the
bones what they can do, is he? They can't do nothing. Again, he says it again here.
Look at this. This is wonderful. And ye shall live. And then he
says this, and ye shall know that I am the Lord, that I'm
Jehovah. Now we know. Now we who are born
again know he's Jehovah. We know now. What a wonderful work of grace
that God has done. And it doesn't say, I've done
all I can do, now the rest is up to you, bones. No, he says,
I will do this. I'll give you life. And you know me. You know me by my almighty power.
This just shows the grace of God. It's just overflowing with
the grace and mercy of God, these texts here. Very striking. Behold, I will
cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. Those dead,
blanched white bones shall live. And I'll lay sinews upon you,
and bring up the flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and
I'll put breath in you. And ye shall live. See, if God
says live, right? We live. Remember? Lazarus? Come
forth. What happened? Did Lazarus say,
well, I'm not quite ready yet? Lazarus was dead. And all of
a sudden, here comes Lazarus, right? Remember, he's bound up. Right? The Lord said, unbind him. That's
what happens when you preach the gospel. The grave clothes
start falling off. Isn't that wonderful? Unbind
him. My oh my. I'll put breath in you and you
shall live and you shall know that I am the Lord. God says
I'll do these things. The bones can't do nothing, but
God says I'm going to do this. You're going to live. You're
going to know me. You didn't know me before, but
you're going to know me now. You're going to know who I am. And God's preachers are are sent
to preach to dead sinners, telling them and proclaiming them who
God is and we're told to preach to God's people. Comfort ye,
comfort ye, my people. Oh, what comfort we find here,
right? Oh my, this is wonderful. God raised me from my spiritual
deadness and gave me life by the power of the Holy Spirit
of God. Life for a dead sinner only comes through the power
of the Holy Spirit. Our master again said, you must
be born again. And we have a picture of it right
here. You must be born again. You must be regenerated by God.
You must be made alive. You who were dead. We who were
dead. You must be saved from your sins. And notice what we see here.
This is a work of God and God alone. It's all Him. Now look at verses 7 and 8. So
I prophesied as I was commanded and as I prophesied there was
a noise and behold a shaking. The bones are rattling together
and the bones came together and bone there's bone and bone that
was over there came back over here and went back together with
the bone it was supposed to go to. And I behold, and lo, the
sinews, the muscles, and the flesh came upon them, and the
skin covered them above, but there was no breath in them. No life yet. Let us observe here, amidst the
effects of the prophets preaching, there was a noise, there was
a shaking, and bones came together to bone, and sinews and flesh,
yet there was no breath in them. So what can we learn here? What
can we learn here? We can learn that after all man's
preaching, unless God the Holy Spirit makes it effectual, it's
nothing. All it will do is cause rattling
bones. But God, if God the Holy Spirit
does a work, there'd be life put into those rattling bones.
There'd be life. God must work a work of grace,
saving grace, salvation by his almighty power. Sinners may shake
under the word. Human strength like the sinews
in the flesh may make a stir. But the quickening power and
the new birth of the soul, this is all the work of God. You must
be born again. It's a work of God. And again, this shows us again
that salvation is of the Lord. It's His doing. It's all Him. And then let's look at the next
verses, and we see the prophets again doing what he's commanded.
The Lord's telling them to do it, so he's doing it. 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 this land that they may
live. So I prophesied as he commanded
me, and the breath came unto them, and they lived. They lived. and stood up upon their feet,
an exceeding great army." You know God's people are a number
no man can number? There's an exceeding great army,
beloved. And there's no life-given power
in the gospel of itself apart from the Holy Spirit of God. There's only life in it when
the Holy Spirit takes it and regenerates a dead sinner. Breath must first flow and then
these bones can live. They can live. And notice here,
the entire dependence upon God. The entire, all Ezekiel is doing
is prophesizing to those bones, right? Remember the raspberry
from Norm? I know we've said it almost every
week, but remember that? It's got to go through the gospel
trumpet, doesn't it? And the Holy Spirit makes it effectual.
And it's wonderful. And it was because of the word
of the Lord that these bones knit themselves, bones to bone,
because of God's power, and covered themselves with flesh. It was
all a work of God. It was because of the word of
the Lord that life came into these motionless bodies and transformed
the valley of death. You know what it transformed
it into? A valley of life. A valley of life. And you being
dead in trespasses, sins are the quickened. Valley of life, beloved. Valley of the living. And this
is all by the power of God. We see here before us the free
and full salvation of God on full display. God gives life through the preaching
of his gospel, beloved. And it says, and breath came
into them, and they lived and stood up upon their feet in exceeding
great army. There was a day when the Lord
said, live. To each one of us who believe, live. And we live now, aren't we? We're
living now. Oh my. So what we've seen here
pictures God's salvation, salvations of the Lord, pictures the regenerating
power of God, the Holy Spirit, in which we just looked at, where
those who are dead spiritually are made alive in Christ. In our conversion. And we're
given faith to believe. We can't muster up faith. It's
God giving faith, beloved. comes from God. It's given to
us like a gift. Like you give, you guys can give
your granddaughter gifts. God gives us gifts. This is for
you. It comes at a cost, but it's for you. Because I love
you. Because I love you. And a result
of God giving us life, we live. Let's read verses 11 to 14 and
then we'll be finished. Then he said unto me, Son of
man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they
say, O our bones are dried, and our hope is lost, and we are
cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto
them, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, all my people, I will
open your graves, and I will 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, and
all my people, and brought you up out of your graves. And ye
shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live. Hallelujah. You shall live. And I shall place
you in your own land and you shall know that I am the Lord.
I the Lord have spoken it and performed it. Look at that, saith
the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. It's
Him who performed it. It's Him who planned it, purposed
it. It's God Himself who performed our salvation, obtained our salvation,
the Lord Jesus Christ, by the shedding of His precious blood.
And one day we're going to see Him. Oh, what a day that'll be. We're going to see him face to
face, beloved. Face to face, we're going to
see him. Oh, how wonderful, though.