It is my pleasure to be here
this morning. I enjoy preaching the gospel
to this congregation. I enjoy it. It's like watching
someone who's thirsty drink water. That's what it's like. And that's
what it's been like for me preaching here. Turn to Ezekiel chapter
37. Ezekiel chapter 37. Let me read the first 14 verses
and I'll lead us in prayer and then we'll look at some verses
here. The hand of the Lord was upon
me. and carried me out in the Spirit
of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which
was full of bones, and caused me to pass by them round about. And behold, they were very many
in the open valley, and lo, they were very dry. And he said unto
me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord
God, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy
or preach upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones,
hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto
these bones. Behold, I will cause breath to
enter into you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon
you, and will bring up flesh upon you. and cover you with
skin and put breath in you and you shall live and you shall
know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied or I preached
as I was commanded. And as I preached there was a
noise, a voice and behold a shaking and the bones came together,
bone to his bone. And when I beheld lo the sinews
and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above,
but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy
to the wind, prophesy, say, son of man, and say to the wind,
Thus saith the Lord God come from the four winds, O breath,
and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied,
I preached, as he commanded me. And the breath came into them,
and they lived, and stood up upon their feet an exceeding
great army. Then he said unto me, Son of
man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they
say, our bones are dried and our hope is lost. We are cut
off for our parts. Therefore, preach and say to
them, thus saith the Lord God, behold, O my people, I will open
your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves. and
bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am
the Lord when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought
you up out of your graves, and shall put my Spirit in you, and
you shall live, and I shall place you in your own land. Then shall
you know that I the Lord have spoken it and performed it, saith
the Lord. Heavenly Father, We do pray for
thy help this morning in preaching, in listening, in worshiping. Help us to give unto thee the
glory due unto thy name. Enable me, Father, to rightly
divide the word of truth. Send forth thy word in power. Rejoice the heart of your people. Instruct us by your spirit that
we may grow in grace and in knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Bless
Don as he's away preaching and give him a safe journey back
home. Father, thank you for your many mercies. Thank you. In the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. I titled this
message, Can These Bones Live? Can These Bones Live? God takes
Ezekiel. And sets him down right in the
middle of a graveyard and then tells him to preach to them And
he asked him this question Can these bones these dead these
very dry bones can they live can that I? Want us to first notice this
this morning the first thing God does He starts with the preacher
He starts with his preacher He says here in verse 1, the hand
of the Lord was upon me. Paul said this, who is sufficient
for these things? Who is sufficient to stand in
the middle of a graveyard and to preach to a bunch of dead
sinners and life be given? Spiritual life given. Who is
sufficient for that? Paul gives the answer. God is
our sufficiency. God is my sufficiency this morning. It is God who enables us to preach
in the power of His Spirit and to rightly divide the word of
truth. No amount, no amount of formal education
can make us sufficient to preach and handle life and death. to
preach the gospel of God's glory and handle eternal matters. No
amount of formal education can make us sufficient for that.
The ability to rightly divide the word of truth and preach
it in power is of God. It's of God. It's not of us at
all. Hollering and shouting doesn't
give power to the message. I like what Doris Mayhem said
one time. She said, when in doubt, shout. That's what you get with
these preachers on TV. When in doubt, shout. They just
get louder and louder. That's not power. That's not
power. Power is when God speaks to your
heart and you hear Him and you live. You live. Notice he says here,
the hand of the Lord was upon me and he carried me out in the
spirit. He carried me. And he sent me
down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones. He carried me. Christ is our
strength in his service. He must strengthen us and direct
us where to preach the gospel. It's not in a mini-mini-mo. It's
where, Lord, would you have me to go? Where would you, here
am I, the prophet said, send me. He appoints the place, the time,
and the service. He sat me down, he said, in the
valley of bones. Who would, who in their right
mind, seriously, would go to the graveyard? Who would walk,
go to a graveyard to hold a Bible conference? Who would go to a
graveyard to start a ministry? God. God. He takes His prophet, His preacher,
and sets him down in the middle of a graveyard. This doesn't look like a place
for a tent meeting, but it's where God would have me. Our
natural tendency is to look at the well-watered plains of Jordan. Our natural tendency is to look
where the population is, the masses are. But have you ever
really noticed? Where are the congregations where
the gospel is preached? It's not in the big metropolises.
It's not in the New York cities. It's not in the Chicago's. I'm
not saying it's not there somewhere, You find them here, little towns.
You'll find them scattered throughout this country in small places.
Small places. The Lord sends his preachers
where his sheep are. That's where he sends his preachers,
where his sheep are. And this valley of bones, God
said, is my people. Are you serious? Look at this
valley. Look at these bones. He says
they're very dry. Look at them. They're bleached.
They've laid there so long, they're bleached out. There's no marrow
left in them. And yet, God says, this is my
people. This is my people. This is our
condition by nature. This is a very vivid picture
of us. This is my people. And he calls
me to pass by them round about like he did Moses with that serpent
on the pole. And Moses went through the camp.
Moses, Moses walked through the camp. He went because the people were
bitten. They weren't able to come to him. These people that Ezekiel is
going to preach to are dead. They're dead. They're not going
to come to Ezekiel. They're not going to take the
first step. They're dead. You know, there are no degrees
of dead. There are no degrees of dead. When the scripture says
we are spiritually dead, that means we're dead. That means
there's not one ounce of life, spiritual life, in us in any
way, shape, or form. It's not there. No degrees of
dead. Dead is dead. But here's a marvel of grace
that God would pass by. That God who's infinite in wisdom
and knowledge and who can comprehend God. He's the light to which
no man can approach. He's the creator of all things.
He can go a lot of places. What glory surrounds His throne,
His presence. Paradise! Paradise! Paradise is not a beach somewhere.
Paradise is where God is. And he left that place. He left
paradise and came into this world. To what? Speak to a bunch of
dead sinners. I don't want anything to do with
them. There is nothing in this scene
attractive about God's elect. Behold, he says, they were very
many in the open valley, and they were very dry. Been there a long time. Bleached
out. And there's one thing for sure,
one thing for sure here, in verse 9 he talks about it being slain.
A battle went on here. And it's very evident who lost.
You don't have to try to figure out who lost. They're laying
in front of you. They're laying there, dead. You don't have to be super intelligent
to see that they lost the battle, that they were slain. And if
we will give a serious look at human nature and human history,
at humanity, we will realize they lost. They lost. Humanity's lost. God says there's none good, no,
not one. You say, that's a pretty broad
statement. It's a true one. There's none
good, no, not one. That's what God says. You see,
God's standard of good and our standard of good are completely
two different standards. God's standard of good is absolute
perfection. Ours is way below that. Way below
that. When Adam met Satan in the garden,
when Satan came into the garden, Adam lost. He lost. He lost the battle. And when
he lost, we lost. We lost the way to God? They tried to build, it wasn't
too long after the fall, they tried to build a tower to heaven.
How ignorant is that? How ignorant is that? We lost
the truth of God. Talk to the average person on
the street about God and see if it even closely resembles
what's written in the Word of God. It doesn't even resemble
it, who he is. And we lost the life of God.
We lost it. Lost it. All was lost, nothing
left. This earth is one big graveyard. It is. Every inch of this earth, something
has died on it. Something has died on it, every
inch of it. It's just a big graveyard. And he says here, they were very
dry. This tells us there was, I put
here very dead, but like I said, there's no degrees of dead. And
it's been that way for a long time, 6,000 years around that. Been that way a long time. Like
Lazarus, who laid in the grave for four days, and his sister
said, but now he's, and by now he's stinking. Boy, do we stink. That's why the perfume industry
is so lucrative. We stink. We really spiritually
stink. Dead. The smell of death. The
smell of death all over us by nature. Dead, the image of God
marred. You could write Ichabod over
this valley. The glory has departed and is
not coming back unless God shows up. Unless God shows up. The glory of this people was
their image of God. Wasn't that the glory of Adam?
Created in the image of Almighty God. And that is so marred, and
that has been so marred by sin, you can't even hardly see a trace
of it. Very dry, no moisture, no marrow
left in the bone, all life is gone. This is, this is a people
that God has commanded Ezekiel to preach to, to preach to. And he said to me, God's speaking. God must first speak to the preacher.
If the preacher don't get it right, the people's not going
to get it right. I tell you, the congregation's not going
to get it right. If I've got it wrong this morning, you're
going to get it wrong. Unless God gives you ears to
hear. He recognizes the difference. Our warmth for preaching is,
thus saith the Lord. He gives us our message and the
people to preach to, just like he did his ego. And here's a
question that God asked. Son of man, can these bones live? Standing right there in the midst
of that valley, and that valley is covered with bones from one
end to the other, and he says to Ezekiel, can these bones live? Can these bones possess life
again? Can these bones love again? Can
a sinner Can a sinner, a dead dog sinner, can he ever love
God again? Can he ever worship God? Can he ever sing the praises
of God? Can the image of God be restored in these dead bones? And I like his answer. I like
his answer. His answer is proof that he's
been taught of God. Verse 3, And I answered, Lord
God, thou knowest, thou knowest. Can any here this morning live? Lord, thou knowest, thou knowest. Only God can give the correct
answer to this question. Only God can give life. Lord,
thou knowest, life is yours to give. It's in your power. You are the potter, and we are
the clay. He can make us live. He can make
us live. Only God can give life, and He's
pleased to do so. Sinners can live unto God. Again, He said to me, Preach.
Preach. Oh, the importance of preaching. It is pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching. What this world calls foolishness.
What I'm doing this morning, the world calls foolishness.
Well, it is pleased God by what I'm doing this morning to save
them that believe. It's pleased God to do that.
Preach upon these bones and say to them, O ye dry bones, Here
comes the command, and it comes from God. And He says, hear the
word of the Lord. Oh, that God would enable us
this morning to hear Him speak. Not me, but Him. That you could hear Him in power. He commands Ezekiel to preach
to them and tell them to hear the Word of the Lord. Hear it. Hear it. Faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the Word of God. Listen to Him. The first thing
God commands is for His Word to be preached and for it to
be heard. It is God who commands the hearing
ear and the seeing eye of faith. It's God who commands that. And
by faith we hear Not only the written word, but the living
word, the Lord Jesus Christ. We hear Him. We hear Him. There was a time that when I
was 20, from 20 years of age to about 23 years of age, I had
made a profession, me and my wife both, and I went to the
services and it was a, what was that? Independent missionary
something Baptist church. It was about this long of a name.
And we went there every Sunday, faithful as can be. Faithful
as can be to the service. And we'd go in, sit, and that
man couldn't preach a lick. I'll tell you the truth, because
that man didn't preach the gospel. And we would leave there and
come back, leave again, come back. And one day, I stayed home. And I heard my pastor, Henry
Mahan, on television. And I'm telling you, there was
a difference. I heard. I heard. I heard the gospel. I heard it
in power. And I could not stomach going
back to that other place. I heard. It changed us. It was a life-changing experience. I heard the word of God in power.
These bones are commanded to hear the word of God and they
heard it in power. It's like Paul said to the Thessalonians,
that the word of the gospel came not into you, the gospel came
not into you in word only, but in power and in demonstration
of the spirit. If you hear the gospel, if I
hear the gospel in power, I promise you, you and I will never be
the same. will never be the same. Christ has given us life from the dead. And I realize that I know now
that all I need is Him. I have everything I need in Him.
He's the wisdom of God. All I need to know is in Him. That's all I need to know. He
is our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, and redemption.
And God requires no more than that. If He did, it would be
written here. Christ said, because I live,
you shall live also. Because I live, you live. So I preached as I was commanded.
He didn't question the wisdom of God. Are you serious? I'm
standing in a graveyard. He didn't question God's wisdom
just as Abraham didn't question it. He staggered not in unbelief,
but he believed God. Though he were dead, Sarah's
womb was dead, he believed God. Ezekiel preached. He said, I
preached as I was commanded because he believed God. He didn't question
the wisdom of God or the power of God. He preached. Who knows
what might happen? It's of God. The creator of heaven
and earth is the one who has commanded me to preach. Who knows
what he's going to do? He has the power to do it. That's
for sure. God, he has the power to make
you live. He has the power to do it. He didn't try to get these bones
to do something. If you were standing out there
and you were listening to him and he's out there commanding
those bones to do something, you would think he was the greatest
idiot ever walked on this earth. And yet there's men who stand
in the pulpit and do that. And get away with it. I think, what idiots. commanding a bunch of dead people
to do something. He preached as he was commanded
and God blessed his word and he did nothing else. He just
preached. That's all he did. That's all
he did. He didn't try to put the bones together. There's no
way we can do that. He would have put the wrong bone
with the wrong body. I assure you that wouldn't happen.
But the great physician knows what bone goes to who. When I read that, I thought,
he knows how to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. He knows
how to do it. He has the power to do it, the
wisdom to do it, and the right to do it. It's God's work. So I preached as I was commanded,
and there was a noise. And that could be translated,
and there was a voice. There was a voice. As I said,
you've got to hear another voice besides mine, a voice that God
speaks, a voice that you hear in the heart. So I preached as
I was commanded, and there was a noise, a voice, and behold,
a shaking, and the bones came together. Ezekiel's just preaching. That's all he's doing. That's
all he's doing. He's not out here trying to make
it happen. Sarah did that and messed up. Got Hagar, Abraham,
let's move this thing along. I'm getting old. He didn't do anything but do
what I'm doing right now, preach. The best thing we can do is preach
the gospel and then leave it alone. God began to say, he began to
do what he said he would do. He said, you preach. And those
bones started coming together. Can you imagine that sight? All
those bones scattered and now they're all coming together. There was a voice, a noise or
a voice, God speaking. God is commanding life. God is,
a new creation is happening right before His eyes. There could
be this morning, in the preaching of this message, A new creation
happening right before us. A child being born this morning
right before our eyes. Who knows? Who knows? A shaking. All false hopes have to be shaken
off. A shaking. God has to shake us. He does. He has to shake us.
Give us life and shake us. Get rid of these false hopes.
It takes a while to get the grave clothes off. It takes a while. Not until God does the work of
grace in us by the indwelling of His Spirit will we know what
this is all about. Not until then. Then He said
to me, Preach unto the wind, son of man, preach. Preach, son
of man. And say to the wind, thus saith
the Lord God. You see, before this, the sin
youth come together. They stood up as a mighty army,
but there was no breath in them. They look alive. They look like... He looked like
a Christian. He looked like one. I tell you
what, without the Spirit of God, you're not one. He that has not
the Spirit of God is none of his. You can act like it, look
like it, talk like it, but you're not. Christ in you is the hope
of glory. But then he says here, and I
want you to notice the whole work is of God. Not at any point
did Ezekiel contribute to this work. He's told to call upon
the Spirit of God. Call, he says here, upon the
wind. And we know the wind represents
the Spirit of God. Call upon the wind, thus saith the Lord
God, come from the four winds. Come, O breath, come, O Spirit
of God, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. Ezekiel didn't tell those bones
to do something for God, but for God to do something for them.
Lord God, give life to a dead sinner here this morning. Breathe
upon them. Breathe upon them the spirit
of life. We need God to do this work for us, don't we? We need
God to save us. Salvation is not a cooperation.
It's not me cooperating with God. It's God saving me from
my sins. So I preached, he said in verse
10, so I preached as he commanded me. He didn't go beyond that. He
didn't try to embellish it, make it better, make it sound good,
make it sound attractive, like the military does. Be all you
can be. And then he joined up. And it's not what you thought.
The battle, when, boy, when the battle hits, you know, the Lord
never fools anybody. He said, it'll cost you everything.
Follow me, it'll cost you everything. You have to give up everything. It costs you. Sit down and count the cost.
That's what he says. Before you follow me, sit down
and count the cost. So I preached as he commanded
me. Obedience is priceless, isn't it? I want to listen to a man
preach who preaches as God has commanded him to. And the breath came into them
and they lived. They lived. He started out in
a valley full of very dry bones, scattered all over that valley,
a slain people, a dead people, And by the time he left there,
there was a multitude standing on their feet alive. Only God
could do that. Only God. Just as they said they would.
Nothing's impossible with God. Life is His to give. If He wills,
He quickens whom He will. He can give life. Saving a sinner. You know, God
saving you is not a challenge to Him. Well, you'd have to think off
the high of yourself to think you're the challenge of God. You're a nut that would be easily
cracked. Saving a sinner is no challenge
to God, it's a matter of the will of God. He'll have mercy
on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will, he'll harden. He'll
leave them alone. God can save you, God can save
me, or God can leave me alone. It's his royal prerogative to
do whichever he wills. And I'll tell you what he'll
do, whatever is wise. Whatever is wise. And they stood upon their feet
an exceeding great army. Don't think there's just going
to be a few in heaven. There's a multitude. You know,
when it speaks of heaven, it speaks of it as a country. It
speaks of the elect as a number which no man can number. an exceeding great army. The preacher did as he was commanded.
He preached and they did as they were commanded. They heard the
word of the Lord and they stood up. They stood up. And God says to Ezekiel, these
bones are the whole house of Israel. They are my elect. That's
what he said. These bones are my elect people.
And they say we are sinful. And there's no hope for us? Here's
a good mark of repentance. You know, you can't repent until
God gives you life. You can't do it. I can make you
feel bad and you can say you're sorry, but that's not repentance.
Repentance is a real, actual turning from and turning to.
It's turning from your old life and the old principles of this
world and it's turning to God. And look over in chapter 36.
In chapter 36, look here. God says He's going to give them
a new heart. He said, I'm going to take you from among the heathen.
I'm going to sprinkle clean water upon you. I'm going to cleanse
you. And I'm going to give you a new heart. I'm going to put
my Spirit within you. I'm going to do this. I'm going
to save you from all your uncleanness. And I'm going to call for the
corn. And I'm going to increase it. And I'm going to lay no famine
upon you. And I'm going to multiply the fruit tree. And then in verse
31, Then shall you remember, after I do this for you, then
shall you remember your own evil ways. After I give you a new
heart, until then, you don't remember that because you don't
think you have an evil way. In good prison, they don't think
they got evil ways. Then shall you remember your own evil ways
and your doings that were not good and shall loathe yourselves. in your own sight for your iniquities
and for your abominations. You loathe yourself. You loathe
yourself. When I hear, and I've heard this
speaking to different people over the years, they speak of
their past, well, basically with a grin on their face. It's like
they speak of their past like, this is, boy, you don't know
what I used to do. You don't know how bad I used
to be. You're worse than, you're a lot worse than you think you
are. But I tell you what, if you loathe yourself, you don't
really want to talk about that, do you? If you loathe yourself,
and your evil ways, if your ways are evil, you don't want to talk
about it. I don't want to bring it up. I don't want to bring
it up. I had a man tell me, this had
been years ago, talking about what he used to do, what he used
to be, and I mean, he was just going on and on and on and on
and on. And I thought, man, you're enjoying this too much. You're
enjoying this conversation too much. He said, you'll loathe yourselves in your own sight. for your iniquities
and for your abominations. Not until we have life do we
have real repentance. Not until then. Paul said, Woe
is me! O wretched man that I am! That's
a cry from a saved man. Now comes the good news and I'll
close. Tell them, instruct them, teach them, and say to them,
behold, you have a people here, you have a people that's saying,
we are so sinful, we are so wretched, there's no hope for us. Would God save a wretch like
me? Would God save someone like me? Would He save someone like me?
He says, you tell them, behold, O my people. He's not calling
them bones now, is he? He started out, talk to these
bones, preach to these bones, tell these bones. Now he said,
O my people. My people. I will open your graves and bring
you out in the land of Israel. I'm going to bring you to the
promised land. The land that I promised your
fathers I'm going to fulfill. I'm going to bring you home.
I'm going to bring you home. I'm going to see a little bit
of that in John 14 this evening. I go away to prepare a place
for you. If I go away and prepare a place for you, I'm coming for
you again. I'm coming to get you. I'm not sending for you. I'm not
going to say, go fetch him. I come for you. And you're going to know when
this happens, when this is all over, when you and I stand in
God's presence, you and I are going to know this, that I am
the Lord, the Sovereign. I'm Him. I'm the One. 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." Live. To have life. Eternal life is to know God. Don't think. Don't think. Because
you can walk around in this body and you can reason and you can
think and you can talk and you can communicate that you have
life. You have the life of this flesh. You have what we call
this earthly life. But you don't have the life of
God until he commands and he puts his spirit within you. God's going to save in such a
way that we will know that He's the Lord and beside Him there
is none else. And He says, I shall put My Spirit
in you and you shall live and I'll place you in your own land.
There's a place God has for us. Christ said, I go prepare a place.
He said, I'm going to put you in
your own land. And you'll know that I the Lord
have spoken it. he anoints of me, and performed it as I promised,
saith the Lord. When God puts his spirit in you,
you shall live, and you will know that God is faithful to
his word, and he will perform that which he spoke. But not till then, as the song
goes, not till then shall we know how much we owe. Not till then. Can these bones
live? Can these bones live? Can these
people that I'm speaking to this morning, Lord, can they live? And the answer is, Lord, you
know. You know.