If you will, turn back with me
to Ezekiel 37. My message this morning, I have two titles. The first
one is preaching to bones. That's what God commanded his
prophet to do. Preach to the bones. The second is in a form of a
question, can these bones live? You might ask yourself, what
do these bones need to live? They need direction? They need
counseling? What do these dry bones need
to live? Now Ezekiel was a prophet who
lived and prophesied some 595 years before the coming of Christ. And because of the strange visions
he wrote up, the prophet's writings were forbidden for anyone under
the age of 30 by the Catholic Church for hundreds of years.
His writings, Ezekiel talked about these wheels and eyes within
the wheels and he talked about dry bones, all these strange
things that he prophesied of. But what natural men call strange,
the believer sees and perceives and acknowledges and rejoices
in. He doesn't run away from it. He embraces it. And so it is in chapter 37 of
this prophet's writings. There's three things which give
me some confidence as I approach what some call a strange vision
to have a right understanding of it. First of all, because I know
it speaks of my Redeemer and His work of salvation. How do I know that? Because I'm
told that in the scripture. To Him give all the prophets
witness. Isn't that what it says over
in the book of Acts? Acts 10, 43. To Him give all
the prophets witness that through His name, whosoever believeth
in Him shall receive remission of sins. Every prophet in this
book foretold of that, they declared that. Now our Lord, when he was talking
to these two ignorant disciples of his, and we're so ignorant.
God has to teach us everything. He has to unlearn us all the
religious things that we picked up in our young life. And he's
talking to his two disciples here and they said, well we thought
Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ. We thought. And he said, old
fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the Lord has spoken
about him. And beginning at Moses, verse
five books of the Bible, beginning at Moses, and listen, and all
the prophets and the Psalms, he went through and preached
to them everything in this book concerning him. Then the scripture
said, then opened he their understanding that they could understand the
scriptures. Secondly, I have some confidence
in preaching from this text because I'm plainly told that all scripture
is given by inspiration of God and it's profitable. There's
profit in it. We say there's no profit in reading
these strange visions. God said there is. He said all
Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and all Scripture is
profitable for doctrine, and for reproof, and for correction,
and for instruction in righteousness. And thereby we're truly furnished
to fulfill our calling as ministers. They're no part of the Word of
God that's unsafe. Don't you let somebody tell you,
oh, don't read the book of Revelation. That's not safe. Oh, yes, it
is. Yeah, it is. It's safe. No part
of the word of God that is unsafe, unprofitable, or unintended for
you to hear and understand. Moses said to Israel, who ignored
the words of his law, He said the secret things belong unto
the Lord our God. People are always wanting to
know about the secret things. But those things which are revealed
belong unto us and our children. What's revealed? Everything in
this book. If God didn't intend for you
to know it, he wouldn't have written it. It was written for our understanding.
The Word of God is the revealed will of God and His testimony
that He's given to us eternal life and that this life is in
His Son. You can learn that in Jeremiah,
you can learn that in Isaiah, you can learn that in the book
of Ezekiel. Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And then thirdly, I have some
confidence in preaching from this text because I know and
understand the gospel of Christ. I know what this gospel teaches.
I know what it declares. I'm a subject, I'm going to begin
my subject in the form of a question and according to the prophets,
one which only God can answer. Only God can give an answer to
this question. Can these bones live? This is a question that every
God-called messenger is made to answer and made to see by
the Spirit of God. Knowing that all things are of
the Lord, I want to point out to you this morning seven things
that when they come to pass will fully answer this question, can
these bones live? First of all, it begins where
everything finds its beginning with the hand of the Lord. Ezekiel
said, the hand of the Lord. That's how he began this prophecy. The hand of the Lord was upon
him. What's that mean? Well, the hand of the Lord has
to do with the power of the Lord. The power of God. None can stay
his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? This has to do with
his power. Everybody who gathered together
to crucify Christ did what God's hand and God's counsel determined
before to be done. And speaking of his beloved sheep,
Christ said, I give unto them eternal life and they'll never
perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My father which gave them me
is greater than all, and no man's able to pluck them out of my
father's hand. And I, my father, am one. The
hand of the Lord is the power of the Lord, and God always speaks
about the right hand of his power. He over and over and over in
the scripture. What is the right hand of his power? It's the Lord
Jesus Christ. in psalm chapter eighty verse
seventeen he said let thine hand be upon the man of thy right
hand the son of man whom thou madest
strong for thyself would you agree that's the hand
of God's power is in his son To the ascended victorious Christ,
the Father said, sit thou on my right hand until I make thine
enemies thy footstool. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
King of kings, the Lord of lords, he's the blessed and only potentate,
and he is the Lord of the dead and the Lord of the living. No
man liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself. Whether
we live, we live under the Lord. That's right. Old Balaam out
there with his bad heart. You reckon he was livin' for
Balaam? He thought he was. But no man livin' to himself.
Whether we live, we live unto the Lord. Whether we die, we
die unto the Lord. Whether we live, therefore die,
we are the Lord's. We're in His hands. I tell you,
that's shocking to a man who don't know that. That's shocking
to that person, girl or boy or whoever it is. It's shocking
to them because they think everything's in their hand. Everything's not
in your hand, it's in His. You're in His hand to do with
whatsoever He will. You're in His hand. Now you talk
about put a man in desperation when he finds out he's in God's
hand. And God would be perfectly righteous
and perfectly just to do whatsoever He will with that man. He can
save him by His grace to the glory of His mercy and grace,
or He can send him to hell and charge him with his own sins.
He's the Lord. He's the Lord. But here in our text, the hand
of the Lord is not coming in some general sense, but in a
particular sense. It comes to an individual. Comes
upon Ezekiel. And I tell you, when God deals
with his elect, it begins with the hand of the Lord laying hold
on him. You'll know it when it happens.
You're not gonna say, well, what happened to me? No, you're gonna
know exactly, isn't that what our Lord said at the end of this
teaching, at the end of this lesson? He said, then you'll
know that I am the Lord. I'm the Lord that prophesied
this, and I'm the Lord that performed this. You'll know. The hand of the Lord was upon
me, he said. And you're not gonna see this
until it is. It's not in you to see this until
it is. Ezekiel's over here among what
he thought was the living. He was over here and everything's
all laid out. He had a mother and a father
and sisters and brothers and everything's all here and he's
living life in the general sense just like we do. He didn't know
anything about bones. And secondly, he speaks of the
spirit of the Lord. Now don't forget what I just
showed you from the scriptures. The hand of God is Christ the
Lord. That's the hand. So when he speaks
of the spirit of the Lord, he's talking about the spirit of Christ. Now wait a minute, preacher.
I think you're really reaching here a little bit, am I? Turn with me to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1. In 1 Peter chapter 1, the apostle
clearly reveals the gospel of Christ and all his elect being
begotten unto a living hope, that is a hope based upon the
success of a risen Savior who keeps us by the power of God
through faith unto salvation. And in that great day of the
Lord, we shall receive the end of our faith, even the salvation
of our souls. Now watch this, 1 Peter 1, verse
10. Of which salvation? That salvation that he just declared. Of which salvation the prophets
have inquired and searched diligently who prophesied of this grace
that should come to you? Verse 11. Searching what or what
manner of time, now watch this, that the spirit of Christ, which
was in them, did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings
of Christ and the glory that should follow. What was in them
speaking about these things? The spirit of Christ. The Holy Spirit is often called
in the Scripture the Spirit of Christ. Because our Lord said
when He comes, when the Holy Spirit of God, the Spirit of
truth, and Christ is the truth, He tells us that plain. When
the Spirit of truth has come, He will not speak of Himself. And I'm telling you in as clear
words as this preacher knows how to use, anybody who cries
from the pulpit, the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost,
don't know the Holy Ghost. He will not speak of himself,
but he'll take the things of mine and show them unto you. That's his purpose in coming.
That's what God has purposed who sent him. He's gonna speak
of Christ, and so he did in these prophets. He spoke of that grace
that should come. Our Lord said, he shall glorify
me, for he shall receive of mine and show it unto you. The power
of God lays hold on men by the spirit of Christ. He lays hold
of them, moves them, puts them where he wants them to be. Shows
them what he wants them to know. The prophet said, he carried
me out. He carried me out in the spirit
of the Lord. You ever been carried out? Well,
I have. Not like Ezekiel, but when he
comes, he'll carry you away from all these things that you thought
you knew. He'll carry you right out of that mess where he wants
you to be and show you what he wants you to know. So we've got the hand of the
Lord, which is Christ, and we've got the spirit of the Lord, which
is the spirit of Christ. Now here's the place of the Lord. Here's the place. He set me down
in the midst of the valley, which was full of bones. God the Holy Spirit carried him
away from those he had known all his life and from life as
it is, as we look around, buying and selling, marrying and giving
in marriage and all these things going on that we call life. This
is what we call life. This is how we, even in our minds,
even if we don't say it with our mouth, it's still what we
believe in our mind. We look around and we're right
in the middle of it and we're involved in it. I got a son who
just had twin baby girls. All these things are going on,
they're going on, they're going on. But they detract from things
as they really are. And now the Lord's gonna take
him out of this, and he's gonna take him out here to this valley,
and that's where he takes him. And this valley was full of bones. carried him away from those he'd
known all of his life and set him in the midst of a valley
full of bones. There's nothing around him that
even hints of the living. I don't imagine there was a weed
growing in that place. There's nothing around him with
any preaching potential. Somebody said, I think I'll go
to San Francisco got some preaching
potential there. There's no preaching potential
in this valley of dry bones. It's just dry bones. He does
not see this valley as a great missionary field. He sees it
as a monument to the dead. He does not glean from this valley
any dreams of building some great following. What he does do is
sit there wondering why the Lord brought him out here. What in the world do these dry
bones have to do with me? That's what Ezekiel's thinking
about. He's not thinking about some power he's got. No. Now
he's wondering, why me? Why am I out here in the middle
of this dead, dry bone? Then secondly, verse two, it
says, he calls me, the spirit of Christ did, he calls me to
pass by them round about. Didn't leave him sitting there
looking way out yonder at some dry bones. He caused him to go
out where those bones were and look at all of them. He caused the son of man, which
is what he calls Ezekiel, he said, I'm going to cause you
to go out here and inspect these bones. I want you to see them
for yourself. And so he does. He caused me
to pass by them round about. Take a close look at them, make
a thorough survey of everything that you see, and here's what
he learned. Behold, there were very many in the open valley,
and they were very dry. That's what he learned, looking
at the bones. There's a lot of them, and they're
all dry. I remember my brother telling
me early in the ministry, he said, if I believe what you believe,
he said, I wouldn't preach at all. If I believe God had an
elect and all he's gonna save was his elect, he wasn't gonna
save anybody else, he said, I wouldn't preach at all. And I said, on
the contrary, if I believe what you believe, I wouldn't preach
at all. If I believed in the will and
works of men, that everything was up to them, God done all
he can do, now it's all up to you. If I believed that, why
would I bother to preach? Because there's none that understandeth
and none that's seeking after God, why would I preach? What would be the point? But that man chosen of God to
be his ambassador must be, shall be, and continually convince
that man is nothing more than dead, dry bones. He got no more
potential than them bones. He got no more ability than them
bones. Dead, dry bones. And the place
where God has chosen to send his preacher and build his church
is in the valley of the dry bones. These bones, he said, are the
whole house of Israel. This is my church. This is my
lake. The valley was not filled with
wounded men who needed cared for. It was not filled with confused
and delirious men who'd lost their way and needed some direction.
This valley was not filled with people who had lost sight of
godliness and needed some moral reform. The valley had no potential
of life. These bones just laid there sticking
up out of the sand like monuments testifying of their death. All right, are you with me so
far? The hand of the Lord, the power of God, moved. And when it did, the Spirit of
the Lord carried him out into this valley. And then the Spirit
caused him to examine these bones, take a close look, a close look. And then fourthly, here's the
question. And this is the question which will set the tenor of how
this man shall minister the gospel of Christ. Can these bones live? Now if
they can, if they can, then I'm gonna preach like I'm preaching
to you. I'm gonna make all my preaching appeal to you. I'm
gonna make all my preaching directed at you. But if they're dead,
dry bones, all my preaching gonna talk about him. All talk about him. This is what
sets the tenor of how a man ministers the gospel of Christ. Sue White had been gone a pretty
long time. Pretty long time. Any of you
boys ever go out there at the cemetery and see if she's up
walking around? No. How come? She's dead. She's dead. By God's own testimony, this
world died in Adam. Death passed upon all men. Not physical death, although
that happened too, but spiritual death. He said, by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men. You invite folks to come here,
don't be selective. We do that, don't we? This man here, he's smart. We'll bring him. We'll bring
him, because he's got the mind that can perceive these things.
No, he's dead. He's dead. Well, I don't want
to ask him. Man, he's been a rebel since
he was born. He'd take his diaper off and
turn it around the other way just to show you he wasn't going
to do what you wanted him to do. He's a rebel. I ain't bringing
him. He's dead. He's dead. Don't be selective in those you
invite to come and hear the gospel. They're all dead. Now, some are
dead in religion. and some without it, but they're
all dead. Some are moral and dead, and
some of them are immoral and dead, but they're all dead. You
see what he's teaching Ezekiel? These people, Ezekiel, to which
I'm sending you, to prophesy and to give my promises and to
command to do what I commanded them to do, they're all dead. Can these bones live? Well, here's
the fifth thing. It's the only answer I've ever
found anywhere in the scripture to that question. Here it is.
Oh, Lord God, thou knowest. Will anybody live here today
to whom I'm preaching, to whom I'm delivering the word of the
Lord? Will anybody here live? Oh Lord God, thou knowest. I don't know. I can't see any further than
your outward countenance. I can see you when you smile,
and I can see you when it seems like you're understanding what
I'm saying, but I can't see your heart. God looks on the heart. I know this, and I believe this,
and I leave it where God put it in His own power and purpose. Two things are absolutely sure. Two things Ezekiel learned that
day that are absolutely sure and certain. If the bones are
left to themselves, they're never going to live. They laid out there till they
bleached dry. No sign of life. No evolution
going on in the valley of dry bones. They just laid out there
dead and dry. Left to some potential, some
ability, some freak of nature, some unforeseen circumstance.
They'll continue on in their state of death until God calls
them before his throne and their damnation becomes eternal. They'll
stay just like they are. Zekiah learned that. If it's
left up to these bones, they're never going to change. Never
going to change. And then secondly, if their salvation
depends on some ability in him, they're never going to change. Never going to change. We're not sufficient, Paul said,
of ourselves to thank anything of ourselves. But our sufficiency is of God
who hath made us able ministers of the New Testament. And so
I answer with Ezekiel, O Lord God, thou knowest. But this much
Ezekiel learned. What's impossible with man is
possible with God. Now if we truly believe this, we're
gonna wait for God's reply. And God's reply is gonna set
the tenor of our ministry. All right, here's the sixth thing. He said unto me, who said? Who's doing the speaking here?
The Spirit of Christ. He said unto me, prophesy upon
these bones. Get up here, look out over this
valley, and preach to the bones. Boy, ain't many people sign up
for the ministry if they really believe that. Preach to the bones. You wouldn't sit down and try
to figure out how to woo a man down the aisle if all you could
see was dry bones. Now you've already said I can't
do it. These bones can't do it. Oh Lord
God, thou knowest if these bones can live. I don't know. All right. He that knows said preach to
the bones. Well, why don't we just give them all
Bible and let them figure it out for themselves? Cause they're
bones. They're bones, that's why. Why
can't I just pass out a bunch of pamphlets and give it to them,
drop it out of the airplane, fly over some foreign nation
or fly over Africa with a big plane, just dump it out, just
let them fall wherever they will, let them figure it out on their
own. They're bones. They're not gonna figure it out. stand up before this great valley
of death and destruction and preach to them. Now listen to me. I'm not commanded
to sing to the bones. I'm not commanded... You know
a lot of churches turn their Wednesday night meeting into
what they call a worship service, and all they have is singing.
They call that worship. He didn't command Ezekiel to
sing to the bones. Now I can, I can and I do sing
to the Lord. I want to sing his praises and
sing my gratitude to him, but I'm not going to sing to the
bones. You know, years ago when I pastored
that little church down in Ball, Louisiana, we took the undeveloped
part of the church cemetery and we moved the fence back a little
bit and that's where we built the parsonage. And I don't know
how many of our subcontractors that would furnish the concrete
and different things would back up there and say, you feel okay
living out here next to that cemetery? I said, I feel a lot
safer about them than I do about folks across the street. I don't
fear the dead. I fear the living. Them dead
folks ain't going to do nothing to you. I'm not going to sing to the
bones. I can't go out there late in the evening and sing to the
bones. I sing to the Lord, and I'm not commanded to pray to
the bones. My prayers are to be directed
to the Lord. And I'm not commanded to fellowship
with the bones. That may come in time. That may
come in time. What I am commanded to do by
the only one who has any say-so in the matter is to preach to
the bones. What am I going to tell them?
What can you say to dry bones? Huh? Well, here's what the Lord said
to Satan. Oh, ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. They can't, but they can if he
will. Huh? Lazarus was dead, wasn't
he? The Lord stood before that tomb
and he said, Lazarus! Somebody said if he hadn't called
Lazarus that whole graveyard would have got up. He said, Lazarus! Come forth. Who heard him? That dead man in that tomb. You see, if your dependency is
upon God and not the bones, then you do what God told you to do
and you don't look at the bones and what good is that going to
do? That don't even enter into it. It's what God said to do. He'll
take care of the power behind it. He just told me to preach. Preach to the bones. Here you the word of the Lord. What did he preach to him? What's
the word of God say to him? Huh? He tells him where this
life is in his son. In his son. We've just gone through
that in our Sunday school lesson, so I won't recap over all that,
but he tells you everything that you need to know about Christ.
That's the word of the Lord. Jesus Christ is the spirit of
prophecy. Hear ye the word of the Lord.
And then last of all, what does the word of the Lord have to
say to these dry bones? Ezekiel 37 verse five. Thus saith
the Lord God unto these bones, behold, I will cause breath to
enter into you and you shall live. Who's gonna cause that breath
to come? Billy Graham? Darwin Pruitt? No. No, the Lord
God will cause that spirit of that breath to blow into them.
And I'll lay sinews upon you and I'll bring up flesh upon
you and I'll cover you with skin and put breath in you and you'll
live and you shall know that I am the Lord. God doesn't save
anybody who don't know who saved him. I asked a fellow one time, I
said, what's your hope? If God took you out of this world
right now, right now, and called you up before the judgment seat
of Christ, and asked you what's your hope, what would you say?
Huh? What would you say? Everybody that God saves knows
what to say. My hope's in Him. All in Christ. Christ is all. He's all. Every dead sinner who hears the
word of the Lord and lives has the same testimony. I know that
He's Lord. He's Lord. How you know that? Because I used to be a dry bone. That's why. And so God's prophet preached
to the bones, and he gave them his word, and as he did, there
was a noise. There was a noise. And a shaking. I don't know so much about the
noise, but there was a lot of shaking on my part. You shake when you hear the voice
of the Lord speaking to you. And he looked at those bones,
and those bones began to shake, and a great noise, and they began
to resemble a man. There was a great battle fought
in that valley, and people were whacked up with those big battle
axes and swords, and there were bones laying everywhere. And
all of a sudden, bones began to come under bones. This bone
from over there and over here, all coming together. And they
began to resemble a man, but there was no breath in them,
and so God called on him to prophesy unto the wind, that is, the Holy
Ghost. Thus saith the Lord God, Come
from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain,
that they may live. And so the Spirit of Christ did
as he was sent to do. What's all this got to do with
us? Ezekiel 37, 11. He said unto
me, son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. This
is all God's elect. This is where they were. And
this is where they are and what they are. And they're my workmanship. and
I'll have all the glory. And Ezekiel knew it from start
to finish that it was all of the Lord. And all those bones
testified of him. Every one of them knew
it. Every one of them knew it. Put
them where they belonged in his kingdom. Put them exactly where
they belonged. Exactly as he promised them before
the foundation of the world. He said, 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'll put you in my kingdom. What's that mean? Under His rule. He's king in His kingdom. I'll put you in my kingdom, and
then you'll know. that I the Lord have spoken it
and I have performed it. Oh, may the Lord God do that
very thing here today for Christ's sake. Thank you.