That's so good. Thank you, Kathy.
If you would open your Bibles with me to Psalm 136. I've been
so looking forward to this evening, and I thought about this Psalm. It proves my theory that God's
people can't hear about God's mercy once too often. Psalm 136. O give thanks unto the Lord,
for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. O give thanks
unto the God of gods, for his mercy endureth forever. O give
thanks to the Lord of lords, for his mercy endureth forever. To him who alone doeth great
wonders, for his mercy endureth forever. To him that by wisdom
made the heavens, for his mercy endureth forever. To him that
stretched out the earth above the waters, for his mercy endureth
forever. To him that made great lights,
for his mercy endureth forever. The sun to rule by day, for his
mercy endureth forever. The moon and stars to rule by
night, for his mercy endureth forever. To him that smote Egypt
in their firstborn, for his mercy endureth forever. and brought
out Israel from among them, for his mercy endureth forever. With a strong hand and with a
stretched out arm, for his mercy endureth forever. To him which
divided the Red Sea into parts, for his mercy endureth forever. And made Israel to pass through
the midst of it, for his mercy endureth forever. But overthrew
Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, for his mercy endureth forever. To him which led his people through
the wilderness, for his mercy endureth forever. To him which
smoked great kings, for his mercy endureth forever. And slew famous
kings, for his mercy endureth forever. Sihon, king of the Amorites,
for his mercy endureth forever. And Og, the king of Bashan, for
his mercy endureth forever. and gave their land for an heritage,
for his mercy endureth forever, even an heritage unto Israel
his servant, for his mercy endureth forever, who remembered us in
our lowest state, for his mercy endureth forever, and hath redeemed
us from our enemies, for his mercy endureth forever, who giveth
food to all flesh, for his mercy endureth forever. Oh, give thanks
unto the God of heaven, for his mercy endureth forever. I'm thankful, aren't you? All
right. OK, if you would, turn in your
hymnals to song number 337. We'll sing, Teach Me Thy Way, O Lord. Teach me thy way, by guiding
grace of the Lord. Teach me thy way. Help me to walk aright, more
by faith, less by sight. with heavenly light, teach me
thy way. When I am sad at heart, teach
me thy way. When earthly joys depart, teach
me thy way. In hours of loneliness, in times
of dire distress, in failure or success, teach me thy way. When doubts and fears arise, Teach me thy way when storms
o'erspread the skies. Teach me thy way. Shine through the cloud and rain,
through sorrow, toil, and pain. Make thou my pathway plain, teach
me thy way. Long as my life shall last, teach
me thy way. Where'er my love be cast, Until the race is run, until
the journey's done, until the crown is won, teach me thy way. OK, if you would now turn to
song number 287, Like a River Glorious. Like a river glorious is God's
perfect peace, over all victorious in its bright increase. Perfect yet it floweth, fuller
and fuller Perfect yet it groweth, deeper
all the way. State upon Jehovah, hearts are
fully blessed. Finding as He promised, perfect
peace and of his blessed man. Never foe can follow, never traitor
stand. Not a surge of worry, not a shade
of care, not a blast of Touch the spirit there. State upon Jehovah, hearts are
fully blessed. Finding as he promised, perfect
peace and rest. Traced upon our dial by the Son
of Love. We may trust Him fully, all for
us to do. They who trust Him wholly, find
Him wholly. State upon Jehovah, hearts are
fully blessed, Finding as He promised, perfect peace and rest. Turn if you would this evening
to Matthew chapter 15. Matthew chapter 15, and I'm gonna
begin reading in verse 10. And he called the multitude and
said unto them, hear and understand, not that which goeth into the
mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of the mouth,
this defileth a man. Then came his disciples and said
unto him, knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after
they heard this saying? But he answered and said, every
plant which my heavenly father hath not planted shall be rooted
up, let them alone. They be blind leaders of the
blind, and if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into
the ditch. Then answered Peter and said
unto him, Declare unto us this parable. And Jesus said, Are
ye also yet without understanding? Do not ye yet understand that
whatsoever entereth into the mouth goeth into the belly and
is cast out in the draft? But those things which proceed
out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the
man. For out of the heart proceed
evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,
blasphemies. These are the things which defile
a man. But to eat with unwashing hands
defileth not a man. So there we see what comes out
of a dead, natural heart. And now let's see what comes
from a new heart. Then Jesus went thence and departed
into the coast of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan
came out of the same coast and cried unto him, saying, Have
mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously
vexed with the devil. But he answered her not a word.
And his disciples came and besought him saying, send her away for
she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am
not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then
came she and worshiped him saying, Lord, help me. But he answered
and said, it is not me to take the children's bread and to cast
it to dogs. And she said, truth Lord, get
the dog's eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table.
Then Jesus answered and said unto her, oh woman, great is
thy faith. Be it unto thee even as thou
wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. May
the Lord bless his word. Let's seek the Lord in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we come
to you tonight a thankful and a needy people. Lord, we're so
thankful that you've brought us here this evening, that you've
sent a man to open your word to us. Lord, we pray that you
would leave us not alone. We need thee. We need you to
open your word to the hearts of your children. Lord, we pray
that you would take away our stony natural hearts and give
us, Lord, hearts that cry, have mercy on me. We're so thankful for the mercy
that you've shown us in our Lord Jesus Christ, that through his
perfect obedience in life, and being made sin on the tree, that
you can have mercy on sinners such as us, that our sin can
be put away and we can be made righteous in Christ and come
to thee, to thy throne of mercy, crying, Abba, Father. Father, we pray that you, that
we would not ever take that gift for granted. calls us to ever
be mindful of thy mercy and thy truth and our Lord Jesus Christ. Again, we ask that you would
honor your word here this evening, that you would send your spirit
to be among us, that you would anoint your word to the hearts
of your children and bless us. Lord, that you would have mercy
on our souls And we pray this as we pray all things in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, our speaker tonight is Pastor
Roland Browning, pastor of the Grace Baptist Church in Dingus,
West Virginia. Roland has been a friend for
a long time. Our children were little and
never even dreamed of being grandfathers then. We've been friends a long
time. Pastor's such a dear group of people, and I have so looked
forward to hearing him preach, to hear what the Lord's given
to you. So Roland, you come preach Christ to us. Well, good evening, everyone.
I have looked forward to this since Brother Frank called me.
Sorry, my wife couldn't make it with me. She had already had
plans to be out of town this week. She sends her love and her affections. As we look into the scriptures, I'll be looking at Ezekiel chapter
37. That's a story that I'm sure
most of you have heard. I'm sure your pastor's probably
touched on it, preached on it. But I want to look at it in just
a little bit different view here this evening. Again, this is
not something new. This is the Gospel. The Lord asked Ezekiel, when
He took him into the valley of dry bones, He asked him a question. And He said, can these bones
live? The title of the message is,
Lord, Thou knowest. No one but God knows. And as
we look at these dead, dry bones, look at our family, our friends,
our relatives, our neighbors, and that's who these are. Outside
of the grace of God, that's where you and I would be. But as we
go through this, as we read through these 12 or 13 verses. Remember that this story took
place years ago. I don't know how many years ago
it was. Hundreds or thousands. If you listen to the scientists
on TV, this world has been here for millions of years. I don't
know how long it's been here. And I don't know how long this
story has been in place here. When the Lord took Ezekiel out
into this valley. But ever how far or ever how
long it was, These bones had been there for quite a while.
The scripture says they were very dry. And so it is with our
family and our friends, our relatives. What does it take for our family,
our friends, our children, our grandchildren to live? This is what this is about. This
is what this story is about. What does it take for these dead,
dry bones to live? That's what we want to try to
look at. Mr. Spurgeon said that there
will be a native government in Israel. Most commentaries that
you look at is talking about this was a picture of natural
Israel. which is a picture of spiritual
Israel. All down through the Old Testament prophets, natural
Israel represented and pictured spiritual Israel. And that's
what this is talking about here tonight. That there will be a
native government in Israel again. I don't know if there will be
or not. I know that they are a government in Israel. But this
question that we have before us, can these bones live? If so, there must be at least
two things happen for life to come to dead bodies. At least
two things. Let's read here in Ezekiel chapter
37. We'll read the first two or three
verses. Ezekiel said, 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 called me to pass them round about. And behold, there were very many
in the open valley, and lo, they were very dry. How long? How long have you and I been
in this open valley, dry, dead? Some of us, I don't know about
many of you, about your background, but I was in religion for several
years. In a works religion that knew
nothing about God. We used this Bible, we read this
Bible, and we talked about God, but we didn't know who He was.
I made a statement years ago. I was speaking some words. And I made a statement. Brother
Paul Mahan called me last week. He said, you made a statement
one time. He said, I want you to repeat what you said. And
I knew what he was talking about. I knew exactly what he was talking
about. I made the statement that we was in religion. And I knew. I knew here. That what we was
doing was not right. But I didn't know what was right.
We was dead. The reason we didn't know it,
we was dead. There was no life in us. We was
going through the forms and the fashion, but there was no life
in us. I looked this morning at home
in Revelation chapter 3 of the letter to the church at Sardis. And he said, you have a name
that you live as and are dead. Well, that's what we were. And
I'm afraid that's what our families are. Those that are in false
religion, that's what they are. They have a name. We wear the
name of Christian. We go to church. We make professions. We support this. We support that.
But there's no life there. No God-given life. So what must
take place in order for men and women such as you and I that
were dead in trespasses and sin, what must take place that we
may live? That's what the Scriptures ask.
The Lord asked Ezekiel, can these bones live? And the question is, to us today,
what does it take for our family to live? And this is a serious
question. I've got sons and I've got grandkids
that have no interest in the Gospel. My son was raised up
under the Gospel. They heard it with the ear, as
some of your family did. But they have no interest in
it. What can we do? What must be done in order for
them to hear the gospel with the heart? The scripture says, Whereby one
man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And so death
passed upon all men for all that sin. That's our natural state.
were dead, just like these bones were dead, been dead for a long
time. There's most likely been, the
commentaries say that most likely there had been a great battle
here in this Valley of Dry Bones. And they'd been there for a long
time. This battle was fought and they simply left the dead
where they was at. They never went back and buried
them. They left them where they was at. For if God leaves us
where we're at, there's no life, there's no help. The scripture says we were without
God, strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope in
this world. That's a picture of you and I
by our nature, and that's a picture of these bones that we're talking
about here. Mr. Luther said, if a man could
fully see or fully view this thing of sin and the lost
condition as it really is, it would drive him to insanity.
Men will say, oh, I know I'm lost. I know if I die tonight. They don't know that. They've
got a hope somewhere, or they would not make such statements.
The man told me, he said, I know that if I die tonight, I'm going
to hell, but I'm going to have plenty of company. You're not
going to enjoy that company. It's going to be a torment. Even
the numbers that you have with you are going to torment you.
It'll only make your torment that much grievous. So are we
to remain there like these dry bones without hope? Without Christ, without God in
the world, just as dead as these bones are. And he said, verse 3, now the
question here. And he said unto me, Son of man,
can these bones live? Now God didn't ask this question
for Ezekiel to answer it. Ezekiel could have answered it
in several different ways, but the wise old prophet said, Lord,
only you know. Oh Lord God, thou knowest. That settles the matter. Nothing
in my hands I bring, nothing that I can do, nothing that I
have been, nothing I can do, nothing that I will ever do will
bring me to the place that God is pleased with me. And that's
what our kids and that's what our grandchildren are hearing
every day. All you got to do is turn over
a new leaf. All you got to do is decide to
start doing this and quit doing that. There's no life there. Can these bones live? This question
the Lord asked the prophet. Can these bones live? And you
go to the religions, you ask them this question. Why no, we're
alive. All a man has to do is walk an
aisle, make a profession, turn over a new leaf, join the church,
start living for the Lord, and everything's okay. You read from
cover to cover. And you find that in this book.
You just find it anywhere. Even find the thought of it.
It's not here. Men have brought these things
up in their own imagination. So they can pat themselves on
the back and say, look at us. Look what we're doing for the
Lord. You never hear anything about what God has done for me.
What the Lord has done for me in putting away my sin. You hear
what I've done for the Lord. Dead, dry bones. Dead, dry bones. For that we may understand, the
issue here is life and death. Can we do good that are accustomed
to an evil? No. The Scripture says we can't. Can the cursed tongue praise
the Lord? The Scripture says no. Can hate turn to love naturally? No. Can pride and arrogance become
humility? Oh, we may straighten our lives
up, we may quit doing this, and we may start being better to
our family and friends, and we may not argue with them as much,
or this and that, but there's no life there. Can the fragrance of a rose,
one writer wrote, Can the fragrance of a rose come forth from the
grave? No. The only thing that comes
forth from the grave is the smell of death. And Ezekiel said, O Lord, thou
knowest. Thou knowest. The preacher had
no power to accomplish such a miracle. Your pastor had no power to give
life. He can't give it to himself,
much less give it to you. The dead bones have no power
to raise themselves. Well, all I've got to do is straighten
up. I heard a man tell another man this several years ago. He said, you've been a pretty
good fellow all your life. He said, all you've got to do
now is join the church and start living for the Lord. Where's
life come from? They're still dead. Dead in religion. So a dead sinner has no power
to give himself life. I don't care how much he wills
to, how much he desires to, he has no power. He has no power
to take the first step. All you got to do is take the
first step and God will meet you in the middle. Tell the dead
man laying in the coffin to get up. All you got to do is raise
up. It's impossible. And so it is impossible for those
dead bones, which is representation of all men by nature, to do anything
to give themselves life. What must happen? What must happen? Prophesy. God must send someone to you
or bring you to someone that preaches the Gospel. You must
hear the Gospel. There are no ifs, ands, and buts
about it. I've heard men talk about, oh,
I was saved out in the field. I was saved in a tree stand one
morning while I was hunting. Where did you hear the Gospel
at? Well, I've never been to the church of any kind, but the
Lord spoke to me. If He speaks to you, He's going
to speak to you through His Word. That's what He tells all through
the Scripture. He spoke to the children of Israel
through the prophets, which was a spokesman for Him. As our Lord
came forth, He spoke to the people through the Son of God. And as
the apostles came forth, He spoke to the people through the apostles.
And if He is going to speak to you and I today, He's going to
speak to us through the preaching of the Gospel. It says, Please the Lord, by
the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe. Nowhere
else do we find how man is going to be saved except through the
preaching of the Gospel. You say, well, you're making
too much of this. Oh no. You cannot make too much of the
Word of God. The Word of God is life itself, and we must hear
it in order to have life. So the first thing that must
happen for my family, your family, my friends, your friend, they
must hear the Gospel. They must hear the Gospel. Prophesy
unto these dead, dry bones. You tell them, as much as possible
as who they are and what they are. And then you tell them who
Christ is and what He's done. Leave it right there. Leave it
right there. Verse 4 said it. Again, He said
unto me, prophesy unto these bones, and say unto them, Oh,
you dry bones. Oh, you dead, spiritually dead. You're dead in trespasses and
sin. Hear. Oh, what a blessing. Hear the
Word of the Lord. Give us ears that will understand. Give us hearts to receive. Give
us someone to tell us the truth as a matter. Tell us that we
have no hope within ourselves, and we have no hope in anybody
else in this world. The only hope that you and I
have, the only hope that our family has, is to know something
about Christ. And that's what the Gospel does.
It tells men and women who Christ is. That's as simple as you can
make it. You say, well the gospel is this,
the gospel is that. Read the first verse of Revelation
chapter 1. The testimony of Jesus Christ
that God gave unto His servant that things must shortly come
to pass. This is the testimony of God
concerning His Son. And that's what this whole book
is. This is a revelation. of what God says about His Son. He spoke to the old prophets
in types and shadows and pictures, and He gave them laws. You do
this, you do this, and you shall live. You do this, and you shall
die. And the people couldn't adhere
to it. When Moses went up onto the mountain,
The people told Moses, said, you go talk to God for us. Now
I'm paraphrasing this. You go up there and talk to God.
And whatever God says, we'll do. And Moses went up on behalf
of the people, and God gave him the Ten Commandments, written
in stone. And as Moses came back off the
mountain, he saw the people of Israel worshiping a golden calf. They took off their earrings,
they took off their necklaces, they took off their jewelry,
and they melted it down and made him a god. And they bowed down
and worshipped it. And Moses cast the law of God
down. And this law that was written
on stone broke. That's the broken law of God
that must be adhered to. And all through the Old Testament,
God gave them sacrifices, which is a picture of the sacrifice,
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only sacrifice that
he was ever well pleased with. All the sacrifices that they
offered in those days, it stayed the hand of God. Brother Wade,
our pastor years ago that preached the gospel to us, nobody knew
but him. He said the Old Testament believers
were saved on credit. Now, I didn't understand that
then and I'm not going to try to explain it now. But he said
they were saved on credit until Christ came. And Christ paid
the sin debt for Old Testament believers and New Testament believers. I understand that. But while
the Old Testament believers was kept by the prophets, teaching
them and showing them and offering these sacrifices. He had a whole
tribe. The tribe of Levi had nothing
to do except attend to the temple. All the days of their life, they
worked in the temple, preparing the sacrifices, preparing the
offerings before the Lord. This one twelfth of all Israel. did this. But was God pleased
with that? No, the scripture says that was
a schoolmaster or a schoolmarm to bring us to Christ. It was
just showing us pictures and types and shadows until the person
came. And when he came, this old law
was put away. Brother Henry said it was like
when you take off your clothes, the old wore out clothes, you
fold them up and put them away. Now we have the new clothes of
the righteousness of Christ. We were kept under the law then,
but now we're under the period of grace. His mercy endures forever. Can you imagine that? But it
only endures forever to the sheep of God. There was no mercy showed
unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Hittites, and all these
other heights and sites. He walked in and sent His people
in and destroyed them. Where was His mercy at? His mercy
was toward the children of Israel. And so it is in our day. Oh,
the world prospers under the hand of God, yes. But there's
no saving mercy here. There's no saving grace here.
He's long-suffering to usward. Usward. The reason that these
Other people prosper because the blessings are so poured out
upon us that it runs over and they are blessed by it. That's
the only reason. Well, I'm getting off my texture.
Let me get back to where I need to be. But the Lord said, the
Lord told Ezekiel again, prophesy unto these dead dry bones. My ways. Well, what if we do
this? What if we make an offering?
What if we make a sacrifice? My ways are not your ways, says
the Lord. When I say prophesy, speak to
the people, that's exactly what is to be done. And that's what
Ezekiel did. And he spoke unto the people.
And because they Because these dry bones were so dead. And because
our family and friends are so wrapped up in works religion,
if they're in religion at all, that's what they're in, most
of them is, anyhow. It takes the power of God to
separate them. He said, come out from among
them and be as separated people. will be your God, and you shall
be my people." Does us coming out is the result of us being
His people? No. He sends forth the gospel
and says, come out. And then He sends forth the Spirit
and we come out. That's as simple as it is. We
hear the gospel with not only the ear, but He applies it to
the heart. And he speaks into the heart
and says, come unto me. Come unto me. And because of
our dead understanding, we say, well, I don't know if I can hold
out or not. You can't. I don't want to make a decision
and then not be able to fulfill it. You won't, or you can't. There's no strength in you until
God gives you strength. Paul said it this way in 1 Corinthians,
talking about his brethren. He says, for after that in the
wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. Now all through
the Old Testament Scriptures, God showed Himself in different
ways and different manners. Even into the New Testament Scriptures,
He showed Himself in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then He gave
the apostles power. He gave the apostles power to
heal. He gave the apostles power to
stand in the face of death and proclaim the Gospel. But after
that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God,
what's He going to do? Is He going to just give up on
us? Oh no. It pleased God. What pleases
God? Who pleases God? It pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. You
say, there it is. I've got to believe. Well, go
ahead and try that. You just go ahead and try to
believe God. You don't have the power to believe God. You don't
have the understanding to please God. You don't have the ability
to stand before Him and say, Lord, here am I. I'm pleasing
to You. You will be cast into the pit.
Unless you come with the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, robed
about you from head to toe, cover every inch of you, you will never
be accepted in the presence of God. Only the Son of God can
give us life. And that's what Ezekiel was going
to tell these dry bones here. That they must hear the Gospel.
Let me find where I'm at here. Verse 5 and 6. This message. that God gave his
equal to preach is the same message given unto men today. It's the
same thing. There's no way for the Old Testament
prophets to preach and there's no way for the New Testament
prophets or preachers to preach except by the power of God. God
must give it to them. And it rings of the free and
sovereign grace of God. If you say, well, I don't see
the grace of God and the sovereignty of God in Old Testament Scripture,
then you're missing it. It's there. It's there. Pray the Lord to give you understanding. Pray the Lord to enlighten your
hearts, enlighten your mind to where you can see the Lord Jesus
Christ openly betrayed from end to beginning, God created the
heavens and the earth until the end of all eternity. That we
may see, that we may understand, that we may know who Christ is. Verse 5 and 6. This is what God
told Ezekiel to tell these dry dead bones. Thus saith the Lord
God unto these bones, behold I. Behold, I will. Not your will,
I will. This is what is pleasing to God.
I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinew. If I understand this right, this
is that thin layer of fiber, I suppose what you would call
it, that adheres to the bone and holds the flesh to the bones,
if I understand what Sid New is. And he said, that's what's
going to happen first. I'm going to lay Sid New upon
you, and I will bring flesh upon you and cover you with skin. Now remember, these are dead,
dry bones. This is the work of God. And
so it is with you and I. We must have the power of God
given unto us even to believe. We don't have this within ourself. Faith is the gift of God. Faith is not something we conjure
up. Faith is not something that we decide to do. Faith is given
of God. Just like this sinew was given
upon these bones. And then flesh was put upon these
bones. And then skin covered them to
the point that now they're a body. But they lay there dead. Dead. And you and I may hear the gospel
for years. We may sit under the gospel for
years and hear it with the ear. But look here. I will put flesh upon you and
cover you with skin and put breath in you. That's the Spirit of
God. When He breathes upon them farther
than this, He tells Ezekiel what to do. He calls it the four winds. But without this breath, without
the blowing of the Spirit upon you and upon me, we will lay
here in the church, we will sit here in the pews, and we're dead
in trespasses and sin. That's the reason that He tells
us to be watchful. Remember what you've heard. Remember how you heard it. You
hear it by the grace of God. And God gives it to you by His
grace to remember. Remember who you are and what
you are. Remember where God found you.
Not where we found God. Men talk about, oh, I found Jesus. Brother Don said, I didn't know
He was lost. when God comes to us in the power
of the Gospel. And He starts this work, if we
can use start in the mind of God. Like I say, often times
we just, we grab words that we understand what they mean. And
this is not the way God works sometimes, but because of our
weak understanding, our weak mind, we have to use words that
we know what we're talking about. He that has begun a good work
in you will perform it. And when He begins this good
work in you, it comes to you through the preaching of the
gospel. Then He gives you faith to believe it. He gives you a
heart to receive it. And then He works within that
new heart a love. A love for Christ and a love
for His people. That's why it's so easy to come
and preach to believers. I told the folks, I believe it
was at Rocky Mount, I believe it was, I'm not sure. I went
up and preached for them. And I said, you're easy to preach
to. All I got to do is tell you what you want to hear. That's
easy. Oh, sometimes we struggle with
what text we're going to look at and how we're going to present
it unto the people. But just tell believers who Christ
is. That will suffice them. Nothing
else will. And this is what God told Ezekiel.
You tell them what I've done for them. You tell them that
I've put skin upon their bones. And I've put breath within them. And because there was breath
within them, there was life there. There was life. And he tells
them, I believe it was in verse 12 or 13, to breathe, to call
for the wind. Yeah, verse 7 here. Let's look
at verse 7 down through verse 10 for just a minute. He told Ezekiel to prophesy.
And Ezekiel said, so I prophesied. He tells his ministers to go
into the world and preach the gospel. What do we do? We go. We go when we're called. If it's
equitable for us to do that, if we have the opportunity to
do it, if we have the time or whatever it is, if everything
lines up, we go. These men went by the word of
God. One pastor calls another pastor.
They do everything that they can to make that appointment.
It's a joy to them. It's a pleasure for me to be
asked to come and preach somewhere. So this is what Ezekiel said.
The Lord said, prophesy. So I prophesied. As I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was
a noise. Oh, this noise. that there may
be a noise among us this evening. Not just the noise of me speaking,
but the noise of you hearing. The noise of you believing. The
noise of you holding on to the Word of God. Enjoying it. Sitting
on the edge of your seats to hear more. That's the noise he's
talking about. That happens when the Gospel
is preached. And there was a noise. And behold, a shakening. And
the bones came together, bone to his bone. I looked at this
sometime back at home. And none of these bodies had
two less arms. None of these bodies had missing
an arm. They was complete. That's a picture
of us in Christ. We're not missing an arm. We're
not missing this. We're not missing that. And we
don't have things mixed up. When we're in Christ, we are
complete in Him. Perfect in Him. And these bones
here came together. Bone to His bone. He didn't have
someone else's arm. He didn't have someone else's
leg. He had His own. And so it is with you and I.
We have our own faith. God-given faith. He gives it
to us individually. He gives it to another over here
individually. And then we come together as
a body, as a family. And we say, we believe! We believe! And when I beheld, lo, the sin
knew, and the flesh came upon them, and the sin covered them
about, but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me,
prophesy unto the wind, prophesy unto the wind, prophesy,
son of man, and say to the wind, thus saith the Lord God, come
from the four winds, oh breath, and breathe upon these slain,
that they may live. That's what the gospel tells
us. You preach the gospel You tell men and women their condition,
and you tell them the only hope that they have is to turn their
eyes upon Jesus. I love that song. I mean, I don't
know if it's a scriptural song to a point, but turn your eyes
upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face,
and the things of earth will go strangely dim in the light
of his glory and grace. That's what we do. We turn our
eyes from looking at our dead, dry bones, and we fashion our
eyes upon the Son of God. Life itself is found in Him and
Him alone. And we turn our eyes upon Him.
So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came. Oh, this is the blessing of God
unto a people when they hear the Gospel. Breath comes to them. And they lived. They lived. Now they lived naturally. I don't
know what happened to these bodies. I don't even know if this is
a... Some says this is a... What's the word I'm looking for?
Just a story. It never happened. I don't know
if it happened or not. It could have or it couldn't have. But
God uses these things to tell us and to teach us. What happens
when you hear the gospel? When you hear it by the power
of God, life comes to you. And you live. Once you were dead,
but now you're alive unto God. Once you was dead and trespassing
sin, but now the gospels came. And I live. Breath is coming
to me and I breathe. My heart beats because God has
purposed it to do so. There was a noise. If the true
word of God is preached in the power of God and in the spirit
of God, there'll be a stir. Brother Henry said, you don't
hear the gospel unless it has some kind of effect on you. You'll
either be mad, sad, or glad, he said. So shall my word be
that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void.
This is the confidence of preaching the Gospel. God said if it goes
forth, He will prosper it. He may prosper it one to the
salvation of one and to the condemnation of another. It's His Word. He can do with it what He wills.
To the same message it may be life unto life, and to another
it may be death unto death. Only God can do this. Frank don't
have the power, I don't have the power, neither does any other
man, to speak the words of life to you except through the Spirit
of God. It will accomplish. My word,
when it goes forth, it will accomplish that which I please. And that's all we ask. Lord,
thy will be done. Lord, if it's Your will, save
our people. It must be by Your power. It
must be through the preaching of the Gospel. And it must be
through the hearing of the Gospel. And it shall prosper. It shall
prosper in the things whereinto I send it. Oh, that God would
send His Word forth. Send it forth. Let's read through
v. 11 down through v. 13. Then he said unto me again, Son
of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. See, this is
a representation of natural Israel. But it's a picture of spiritual
Israel. These bones are the whole house
of Israel. Behold, they say, our bones are
dry, and our hope is lost. We are cut off for our part. Therefore, prophesy and say unto
them, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, 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, O the journey
that God brings his people. out of deadness unto life. Why
is this? And you shall know that I am
the Lord. That's the end of it. That's
the end. The goal of the preaching of
the gospel is for God's people to know that God is Lord. That Jesus Christ is King. He
rules, He reigns, He guides, He directs, He is in control
of all things. Brother Phillip spoke this morning
in Romans 8.28. We know that because God teaches
us all things. All things. All things work together
for good to them that love God, to them that are called according
to His purpose. And my word shall go forth on purpose, and it will
accomplish that which I send it to do. It shall not return
unto me void, but it will prosper wherein I send it. And you shall
know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves, when
I have opened your heart, when I have opened your eyes and give
you life. Then you shall know all my people,
and brought you out of your graves, and shall put my spirit in you,
and you shall live. And you shall live. Page is here. And I shall place you in your
own land. What is that? In the presence
of God. Right in the very presence of
God. That's our inheritance. That's our inheritance. And God
says, I'm going to place you in your own land. Now I know
He's talking to natural Israel here, but He's speaking to us
spiritual Israel. Then shall you know that I the
Lord have spoken it and performed it. Saith the Lord, I did this for
you because you were dead. You could not do things on your
own, but I did these things for you that you may know that I
am Lord, that you may reverence me, that you may have faith in
me, that you may look to me and find rest for your soul. That's
what the gospel does when God is pleased to send it forth.
He sends it forth with power, accompanied by the Spirit, and
dead people are raised alive. And we live. We live. Thank you. Roland, thank you so much for
that. I feel so refreshed, don't you? So encouraged. I can't hear
once too often that if Christ did all the saving for me, I'm
saved. I just love that. And hearing
that message also just humbled me, made me so thankful. There's
a valley of dry bones here in Ashland, in Dingus, in Rocky
Mountain, Lexington and Danville and Pikeville and all these places
around. And God sent a preacher. He didn't have to, but he did. And his people live. Oh, I'm
so thankful. That was, that was so good, Roland.
Thank you so much. Now, uh, after Sean leads us
in a closing hymn, um, we've got some, some refreshments,
some, uh, ice cream and, uh, ice cream social is what I was
told. But as Roland pointed out, it looks like there's more ice
cream out there. and we'll have something to eat and stay around
and have a time of fellowship. Some of you men, if you would,
set us up some tables here so everybody can just be comfortable
and sit together and enjoy some time of fellowship. Before Sean
comes, let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, we thank you for
enabling us to be here tonight and hear this message of your
sovereign grace in our Lord Jesus Christ one more time. Father,
we bow before you. We worship, we thank you how
you've sent your gospel to us, how you've been pleased to save
your people through the doing, the dying of our Lord Jesus Christ. And you've given us this gospel. You've given us your word to
tell us who he is and how he's accomplished this salvation for
his people. And Father, we pray that you'd
cause your spirit to blow upon us, that you would blow life
into us and give us faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to trust
him and him alone. Father, I thank you for this
time of fellowship, the food that we're about to enjoy in
this time of fellowship, and Father, pray you'd bless it to
us. Father, we ask that you'd Go with us when we leave here
this evening and go back out. Prepare to go back out in the
world tomorrow that you go with us. Keep us safe and watch over
us and bring us back at the appointed time. Father, it's in Christ's
name. For his sake and his glory, we
pray. Amen. All right, Sean. Okay, if you would turn in your
hymnals to song number 257. Stand as we sing, "'Tis So Sweet
to Trust in Jesus." 257. Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
just to take Him at His word, just to rest upon His promise,
just to know, thus saith the Lord. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust
Him, how I've proved Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious
Jesus, we pray to trust Him more. Oh, how sweet to trust in Jesus,
just to trust His cleansing blood, just in simple faith to plunge
me neath the healing, cleansing flood. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust
Him, how I've proved Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious
Jesus, O for grace to trust Him more. trust in Jesus, just from sin
and self to cease, just from Jesus simply taking life and
rest and joy and peace. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him,
how I've proved Him o'er and o'er. I'm so glad I learned to
trust Thee, Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend. And I know that Thou art with
me, will be with me to the end. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Thee,
how I've proved Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious
Jesus, oh, for grace to trust Him more.