Let's take our Bibles now and
turn back to the text that I read to you earlier, Ezekiel 37. This chapter is a vision given
to the prophet to show him the true condition of Israel and
where their hope comes from. That's what this vision is all
about. And I do not know all the applications
of this vision. Some of the old writers said
it speaks of the resurrection of natural Israel again, and
the bringing of them to become a nation. Spurgeon made some
accusations of that sort, that they would one day take possession
of their land and be a nation again, and that this verse had
a direct application to that. And maybe it does, but if so,
It has already been fulfilled. And then others say it speaks
of the resurrection of the dead in the last and terrible day
of the Lord, when all Israel shall be saved and all the nations
be put under their feet. And I can again see how this
prophecy could fit this particular chapter. But the primary sense
of this passage has to do with God's spiritual Israel, God's
elect, who shall undergo a spiritual resurrection. They come forth
from the womb speaking lies. They're dead in trespasses and
sin. But in His good time, they'll
undergo a spiritual resurrection. and be made by the power of God
to receive their promised inheritance. This is the great mystery which
has been hidden from ages and generations that Paul talks about,
been hidden from the foundation of the world, but manifest in
these last days through the preaching of the gospel. Someone said this,
there are two great unfathomable mysteries declared in the Word
of God all the way through. When you read these things, these
Old Testament Scriptures, and you read about these visions,
and you read about all these things, there are two great mysteries
declared in this Book from beginning to end. First of all, how the
Son of God would become the Son of Man. That is a mystery. That is a mystery. Great is the
mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. Manifested as a man, born of
a woman, made under the law, the eternal Word, John said,
made flesh and dwelt among us. And we saw His glory. We perceived
His glory. And then the second great mystery
is how fallen, depraved, condemned sinners can become the sons of
God. How the Son of God can become
the Son of Man, and how the sons of men can become the sons of
God. That's another mystery. It's
a mystery. Listen to this verse here in
John chapter 1, verses 12 and 13. As many as received Him,
to them gave He power to become the sons of God. even to them
that believe on His name, which were born, not of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
That's a mystery. That's a mystery. And these things
are mysteries that can only be seen and known through the preaching
of the gospel and the power of God's Holy Spirit. So may God
the Holy Spirit be our teacher as we attempt to speak on these
things this morning. The Lord opens his vision to
his prophet with a sad and terrible scene. He takes him out. The
hand of the Lord was upon him, upon this messenger, upon his
servant, Ezekiel. And in the Spirit, he was carried
out into this valley, into this wilderness. And he sat him down
right in the midst of it. And on the valley floor in this
great wilderness was bones. Bones. A lot of bones. Many bones. God put him in the
midst. And then it said God caused his
prophet to pass by them. He not only put him down in their
midst and he stood there and he looked around. But God led
him around. He caused him to go around and
view these bones up close. To see them. To see where they
were. To see how they were. To see
how many there were. To make a careful survey of all
the bones. The Lord will have His messenger
to be convinced of whatever truth He is preparing him to preach.
He is going to convince him. The Lord caused him to see that
there were very many, not just a few, and that they were a long
time dead. They were very dry. Not recently
passed away. And he made him to see this when
he took his survey, that they were scattered, bleached, and
dried by the scorching sun. And then having his prophet to
thoroughly examine the bones. He took a long time. There is
no time limit here. But there was some time that
passed by. He walked him all through that big valley and let
him behold all those bones. And having his prophet to thoroughly
examine all the bones, he asked him this question, Can these
bones live? Now you've seen them. You've
examined them. You've been up close to them.
I've set you down in their midst. Can they live? Can they live? Can God's Israel, now long time
dead, now scattered in the wilderness, picked clean by the scavengers,
can God's Israel in this condition live? Can they live? Well, you cannot effectively
minister to men until this question be asked and answered. You have
to know the answer to it if you're going to speak to His Israel.
You cannot effectively minister to men until you've asked this
question and this question's answered to you. There are five
things I want you to see this morning in this prophetic vision
that describe to men and women how God saves chosen sinners
and makes them to receive His promised inheritance. First of
all, He'll have every one of them, every one of them, to know
and experience their true condition. Every last one of them. There's two powerful and irresistible
forces at work in this world, sin and grace. That's what was
going on in this valley. Sin and grace. And no message
and no man is worth listening to that does not deal with these
two things. If he don't deal with these two
things, tune him out. Turn your hearing aid off. He
ain't worth listening to if he don't deal with these two things. These bones tell a story if God
the Holy Spirit will enable us to hear it. They tell us that
all life has been forfeited in a great battle. These men were
dead. God took His prophet out there. He knew these people were dead,
but He didn't know. He didn't know. He wanted them
to examine these bones. He wanted them to thoroughly
Examine them. Look at them. See their condition. See how many there were. An assault was made which resulted
in the death of all mankind. A battle was fought for the throne
of God. And like Satan of old, man said
in his heart, I'll ascend unto heaven. I'm going to ascend unto heaven.
I'll exalt my throne above the stars of God. I'll sit upon the
mount of the congregation. I'll be like the Most High." And the results were the same.
Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. By one man, the Scripture said,
sin entered into the world and death by sin. Do you believe
that? Do you believe that? Do you believe
that these people out here that we buy groceries from and go
down to Hardware and sit there and have a conversation with
them and we tell them what we want and they go get it? We know
them. We know them. Some of you grew
up with them, went to school with them. Do you believe they're
dead? By one man, sin entered into
the world and death by sin. Death by sin. And so death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned." My friend, man is dead. Spiritually,
he's dead. And I've been down to the valley,
and I've been made to walk among these bones. And more than that,
I've been one of the bones. Man is dead, and because man
is dead, God's estrel is dead. He can't build or buy or reproduce. He can't take back what he lost. He cannot recover himself from
the valley floor. He can't make the sinews return
upon the bones or the flesh to cover his bones. He's dead. He's
dead. Man cannot of himself live, nor
can he make of himself another man to live. What these bones were physically,
Adam's sons are spiritually. These bones, our Lord said, is. They are the whole house of Israel. You look at these bones because
that is how Israel is. They are dead. Man dead by the judgment of God.
How is he dead? He is dead by the judgment of
God. By the offense of one judgment came upon all men the condemnation.
As in Adam, all die. And nothing of the true majesty
and glory of God can be seen effectually until God convinces
the sinner of his sin. You can't talk to it. Try to. You can't talk to it. What do
you mean I don't have a choice? What do you mean I don't have
a free will? election, you mean to tell me
you think Christ only died for some? That God only chose to
save some out of all mankind? Why don't you believe that? Because
you're dead, that's why. You're dead. If you wasn't dead,
you'd hear the Word of the Lord. A man dead by the judgment of
God. He said, here's condemnation.
Light came into the world. This is what the Lord said. He said, this is condemnation.
Light came into the world. And men love darkness rather
than light. You can find reasons to not love
me. You can find reasons to not believe
me. But you can't find any reason
not to believe the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a perfect man.
He was a perfect man. He didn't do any wrong. He never
even thought anything wrong. Those Jews who wanted nothing
more than to find something they could accuse him of found nothing
in him. Satan who wanted nothing more
than to find anything in him couldn't find anything in him. Couldn't do it. Why? Because
there was no evil in him. He was a perfect man. He went
about doing good. Every day. Every day. Went about
speaking good. Every day. Every day. Here's condemnation. Light came
into the world. And men loved darkness rather
than light. Why'd they do that? Because their
deeds were evil. Man's dead spiritually. All dead. All under the condemnation
of God. All together, Paul said, made
unprofitable. And as salvation is a work purposed
of God to manifest the glory of His name, He'll establish
His people's true condition first, that His glory can be seen and
manifested in them. Whose glory is being manifested
in today's religion? Let me just ask you that. Whose
glory is being manifested? Man's glory. Man's glory. You ever seen, you hear these
prophecy preachers talking about the number of the beast, 666?
Do you know what 6 is? That's the number of man. So
what's he saying this mark of the beast is? That man who preaches
man, man, man. That's it. That's it. That's what they preach. Who's
getting glorified in this thing? Man. Man's glory. Man's will. Man's love. Man's
works. What about the works of Christ?
What about God's works? What about those things which
He's done? There's no glory to God in talking
some poor, deceived sinner into a profession of faith. There
is no glory to God in sprinkling an infant with water or putting
a wafer into his mouth and telling him that he has received Christ.
This is the body of Christ. Now Christ is in you. Because
I ate something that looked like an Alka-Seltzer. God ought to send you to hell. There is no glory to God in the
sprinkling of an infant with water or putting a wafer into
the mouth of a child and telling him He's received the Lord. There's
no glory to God in making a prophet like unto ourselves. All we've
accomplished is making someone twofold more the child of hell
than we were. And no glory to God in convincing
a man or a woman to reform their life in the hope that their decisions
and commitments will win the favor of God. I'm telling you
this as clear as I know how to tell you. that free will works
religion is an abomination to God because it denies the testimony
of God concerning man's true condition, and because it makes
the work of Christ of none effect, and it robs God of His glory. The preachers who do not preach
the total depravity of men have never been enabled of God to
see man in his true condition. That is what is going on here
in this valley. God took His prophet whom He was going to
send to Israel with His message, and He took him out and He convinced
him of the true condition of that nation. You want to know
what these people are to whom I am sending you? Here they are,
laying here in the dust. They are just bones, lifeless
bones. God will have His preacher first
to know and declare the spiritual death of the sinner. Somebody
told old brother Barnard, he said, you can catch more flies
with honey than you can with vinegar. He said, I am not trying
to catch flies, I am trying to kill sinners. That is the truth of it. And
then secondly, we learn here to look to the Lord for the answer
to these questions. Can these bones live? You got
an answer? Boy, I wouldn't. Philosophy and
science, so-called, and worldly reasoning can't commence to begin
to answer that question. Can these bones live? Where will you go to find an
answer? Will you go to traditional religion? Will you take a course
in religion? Will you just look within and
say, well, here's what seems right to me? Where will you go
to answer this question, can these bones live? All of nature
and this world and all of the ages and generations put together
cannot penetrate this subject. The man who truly knows and understands
his condition waits for God to speak on the subject. Let's see
what God has to say. God asked the question. Let's
let Him answer it. Can these bones live? Oh, Lord
God, thou knowest. Oh, I tell you what a day it
will be if the Spirit of God ever puts that attitude in you.
Oh, Lord God, thou knowest. I'm not interested in having
some man speculate on the unknown or share his opinion on this
subject. What I want is for somebody to
take the Word of God and tell me what God has said on this
matter. Can these bones live? And then
thirdly, God declares to His prophet what is to this day still
astonishing to me. Absolutely astonishing to men
when you tell them. The means by which God's dead
Israel can live. God answered this question, can
these bones live? Oh Lord God thou knowest. Preach
to the bones. Huh? Preach to them. Ezekiel didn't say that, but
he thought it. He thought it. Prophesy. up on the bones. Preach to them. Now tell me the
truth. If you were out there in that
valley full of dead, dry bones, and the Lord said, can these
bones live? Would preaching even enter into
your thought as to the means of how these bones would live?
No. No. We'd be wondering something
like, well, they might if we could get a little DNA out of
them. And we can find a scientist who's cutting edge, who can take
that DNA, and he can maybe regrow another person just like that
one who was dead. That's how we think. That's where
worldly wisdom goes with things like this. We try to find some logical way
to perform the work, something, anything, except the power and
wisdom of God. My friend, those who are convinced
that mankind is dead in trespasses and sins wait upon an answer
from God, and when they get it, they act on it. When God said
prophesy upon these bones, He was not giving to His prophet
an opinion. He was not giving to His prophet
an option. He was declaring to him how dead
sinners are raised from the dead by the commandment of God. When
Ezekiel preached, he said, I preached, I prophesied as I was commanded. Isn't that what he said? The
preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.
It was then and it is now. Can you even imagine Ezekiel
out there with his little Gideon Bible going over there and taking
those bony fingers out of the sand and trying to get that little
Bible in there and tell him, you read this, you'll be all
right. He didn't try to figure out ways
to do this thing. Why do we? Why do we? Why does this generation run
off to this and run off to that? We'll have a bake sale. We'll
do this. We'll do that. We'll build a gymnasium in here.
That'll draw them in. You set yourself out in the valley
full of dry bones and gymnasium ain't going to come into your
mind. Let's put a $5 bill and tape
it up on our seat and tell them it's up under there. You might
be the one sitting there. You might get your $5. We'll
fill the place up. Not after you've been in the
valley, you won't. All of these hoodwinking things that these
false prophets use today, you try to apply that to Ezekiel
out in that valley full of dry bones. It won't enter into your
thinking. Here's what you're going to say.
Oh, Lord God, Thou knowest. And when the God who does know
says, do this, that's what you better do. That's what you better
do. Preach to the bones. Actually,
if you look here, He doesn't tell him to preach to the bones.
He said, preach upon the bones, because they're dead. You can't
preach to a dead person. But you can preach upon Him.
You can put the words out there. You can say the words. I hope
you can see the difference here. Now, I preach to you that God
has given life. I preach to you. But I preach
upon you that have never received the life of God. Maybe God will
make those words effectual to your heart and make you live.
When He does, I can preach to you. Until then, I'm just preaching
upon you. We don't preach because it's
logical. There's nothing logical about preaching. We don't preach
because it seems like the thing to do. We preach because it's
the commandment of God and the means that He's declared to bring
life to dead Israel. Listen to this Scripture. After
that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God.
It pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. Why didn't Ezekiel just have
a sharing session? A fellow asked me that one time. He said, if I come, am I going
to be able to give my opinion? I said, when church is over,
you can. No, he said, I mean while you're talking, can't I
ask questions? Don't you all have sharing sessions? No. No. Why didn't he have some audience
participation? You think that even entered his
mind? Anybody out there, anybody out
there, the Lord working in, raise your hand. You see the foolishness of what
I'm talking about? I'm not making things up here.
I'm telling you how it is. This is how religion deals with
dry bones. Why didn't Ezekiel have an invitation?
Huh? As we sing this hymn slowly. Why didn't he have some crosses
and flags and candelabras and some mood music playing in the
background? Why didn't he appeal to the bones? Because they were dead. Because
they were dead. He preached upon the bones because
preaching is what God commanded him to do. Life from the dead
requires the presence and power of God. And while preaching to
unregenerate men and women will always be foolishness, to them
which are called it is the power and wisdom of God. One side of
the dead dry bones and all thought of worldly wisdom goes out the
window on it. It's gone. It's gone. Listen to me. Once life came
into those risen souls, they believed and were convinced and
satisfied with God's ways and means. I read this Scripture
to you. in Sunday school over here in
Titus chapter 1. How that in these last days,
Titus 1 verse 3, but hath in due times manifested his word
through preaching. That's how God did it. Ezekiel
didn't refuse God's command because the people might not like it.
They were dead. What they liked and disliked,
whether or not they were going to get... You reckon the thought
of them getting up and leaving even crossed his mind? No, they
were dead. They're just going to lay there.
They can't do anything. Spiritually, I'm talking about
spiritually. You obey God because the whole
matter was beyond His power and ability. And when we see this
thing beyond us, beyond us, then we'll stop and we'll listen and
see what God has to say on the matter. And then when God tells
us, when He tells how He's going to save these sinners, we'd better
obey Him. We'd better listen to Him. And
then the fourth thing I want you to see here is the objects
of this preaching. The whole house of Israel. God
has an Israel, a true Israel, a true Jew. And naturally, they're
made up of Jews and Gentiles. Paul said to the Galatians, for
we are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been
baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Now watch this, for
there is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither bond nor free,
there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ
Jesus. And if you be Christ, then are
you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. And
then lastly, here is the fifth thing. Let's just think for a
minute about the wonderful effects of grace. The bones moved. When old Ezekiel preached, he
preached at the commandment of God. But I don't think even when
he preached that he really believed anything was going to come about
with old bones. But he preached. He preached just like God told
him to. And when he did, it said there was a noise and a shaking and the bones began
to move. Huh? My soul. There's always a noise when the
gospel is preached and a shaking. The old rebel cries out, it's
hasty, it's hasty, it's foolishness, and he shakes his head. But the
believer makes a joyful noise and he's shaking out of his sleep. A coming together. making them
whole, bone to his bone. Believers are not dead bones
put together by somebody, but they are brought together by
the power and Spirit of God. And they begin to take upon themselves
the image of a true man. And again, the prophets commanded
to preach, but this time, not to the bones. This time, not to the bones.
but for the bones. This time his preaching is to
the Holy Spirit of God. And it's not by his own design
and not for his own glory. And it's not by his own authority,
but by the commandment of God. And while my mouth and my voice
may be heard by you, and my faith and my heart looks to Him. It
looks to Him. I preach some to you, and I preach
some to Him. Because I know I can't do the
work. I can't do the work. Oh, I tell you. Breathe upon
the slain, he said, that they may live. Breathe upon. My friend,
the Holy Spirit and the preaching of the Gospel go together. They
go together. Paul didn't say, I know your
election of God because the Spirit came unto you in power. That's
not what that verse says. I'm talking about 1 Thessalonians
chapter 1. He said, because our gospel came not unto you in word
only, but also in power and the Holy Ghost. They go together.
They go together. It didn't say God chose them
to salvation by sanctification of spirit, but by sanctification
of spirit and belief of the truth were unto He called you by our
gospel. And Paul did not say, the natural man receiveth not
the Spirit of God. He said he receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God. Dry bones and dead sinners are
raised to stand as a living, breathing army of God by the
preaching of the gospel in the power of God's Spirit according
to the commandment of the everlasting God. And this, not something
else, is how God gives life to dead sinners. That's what this
whole vision was about. He convinced this man that except
he did exactly what God told him to do, those bones were going
to lay in that valley dead. And those bones represented the
whole house of Israel. The whole house of Israel. And that's how it is, my friend.
We preach the gospel to men and women. And then we wait on God
to move. And He'll move if we do what
He commands us to do. He will move. He will move.