And these verses that make up
the 37th chapter of the book of Ezekiel, our primary reference
this morning shall be to the first ten verses. We shall read
a bit further than that in our reading here to begin with. Here
is the picture of all pictures of how God in the gospel of His
Son raises dead sinners to life. You don't need me to tell you
that there's great confusion on that subject. Most people
believe that God does all He can and then the rest is up to
us. There's no truth at all in that statement. If it is, we
may as well go play golf or a little bit cold for that, but you know,
do something. But here in these ten verses is an absolute wonderful
presentation of how God saves sinners. So let's look at it
carefully. We call it Six Lessons for God's
Preachers and God's People. And if you don't know this, you
ought to. You cannot think rightly about anything else unless we're
right about the Lord Jesus. If you get that wrong, Everything
else is wrong and ain't nothing else right. I'm telling you,
that's the case. Christ is all. He's everything. Alright, let's
read, shall we? Ezekiel 37, verse 1. The hand of the Lord was upon
me. These are the words of the prophet
Ezekiel. And carried me out in the Spirit. This is called Ezekiel's
vision. God carried me, He said, in a
vision, in the Spirit, and sent me down in the middle of the
valley which was full of bones. Why that valley was full of bones,
I'm not sure. Perhaps a tremendous meeting
of armies took place in that place, or perhaps it was a place
where people were actually buried. I don't know. I don't think that
matters. But here's the case. He caused me to pass by, I'm
sorry, set me down in the middle of the valley which was full
of bones and caused me to pass by them round about. And behold,
there were very many in the open valley, and lo, they were very
dry. Been there a long time. The sun has bleached them white. And the Lord said unto me, Son
of man, that's Ezekiel's title that the Lord gave him, Son of
man, can these bones live? Can dead sinners live? And there's only one answer to
that question. And I answered, O Lord God, you
know. Ezekiel didn't know, and I guarantee
you this preacher doesn't know, and no preacher that's God's
preacher knows whether the Lord will be pleased to give a sinner,
a dead, helpless, decaying sinner, to give him life or not. He may. He certainly can. But it's if
he will. If he will. Again, said the Lord,
He said unto me, verse 4, prophesy, and in my mind I just put a little
word preach. You know, there ain't a whole
lot of difference in preaching and prophesying at times, and
this is one of those times. He said to me, prophesy upon
these bones. Ezekiel now wants you to talk
to these dead bones. and say unto them, O you dry
bones, hear the word of the Lord." What a picture of how it actually
is right now when the gospel is preached to men. Verse 5,
Thus says the Lord God unto these bones, listen to this, here is
a Graphic illustration of what God must do for the soul of a
sinner in order for him to be raised from death to life. Behold, thus saith the Lord God
unto these bones, behold, I'm losing my place. Here it is.
Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you and you shall
live. There's no if, no and, and no
but. Now here are two words that you
have to learn in order to understand the grace of God in Christ. The
first one is, God says, I will. And then He says, you shall. Now don't get that confused. If you say, if we will, God will,
you've ruined it. You've inverted it. It's upside
down. We cannot do this. Let me read
it again. Verse 5, Thus saith the Lord
God unto these bones, these dead, dry, helpless bones, Behold,
I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. And I'll lay sinews upon you,
and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin. And, bring the subject and the
verb, I will put breath in you and you shall live. Now there's those words again. I will and you shall. Let's finish that sixth verse. And you shall know that I am
the Lord. There's nothing like a person
being delivered, born again, saved, converted, whatever you
want to call it, to find out who God is. Verse 7, so I prophesied
as I was commanded. I preached just like God said.
As I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a shaking, and the
bones came together, bone to his bone. Now remember, this
is a vision, but it's a graphic picture of what actually takes
place in the work of God's grace. When I beheld, verse 8, lo, the
sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered
them above, but there was no breath in them. They looked alive,
but they weren't alive. You can't look at a human being
and with any kind of accuracy, oh, that person is saved and
that person is not. Oh, no. Oh, no. We might be persuaded
by things that we can see with these natural eyes. God's grace
can only be held through spiritual sight. We don't have that until
we're born again, and even then we don't see everything clearly.
We're like the man in the gospel when the Lord touched his eyes
and he said, do you see anything? And he said, I see me and his
trees walking. That's our problem. We see things
out of focus, not like they really are. All right, let's see what
verse we're on. Verse 8. Let me read this again. 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
unto the wind. And in John chapter 3, the Lord
Jesus uses the wind as a type of the Holy Spirit. And that
is exactly what is being done before our eyes in this passage.
prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, come from the four
winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may
live." Now, there ain't no literal wind that can cause a dead person
to live. This is the wind of the work
of the blessed third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit
of God. So I prophesied as he commanded
me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood
up upon their feet, an exceeding great army." Now, there's the
picture. And there's more than six lessons,
but I want to try to deal with six of them this morning when
we come back to this. But let me read just a few more
verses because this is real important. We look at this passage in a
spiritual sense, but it also must have an application for
the day and time in which Ezekiel preached. The children of Israel
are in captivity, and God is promising to deliver them from
that captivity. And so if we'll read just 11
through 14, we'll have a little better understanding of this.
Then said he unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole
house of Israel. And now we read it through gospel
eyes and we say these people represent the whole house of
spiritual Israel. Behold, they say, our bones are
dried and our hope is lost. We are cut off for our parts. Therefore, prophesy and say unto
them, Thus saith the Lord God. Behold, O my people, I will open
your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves and
bring you into the land of Israel. 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. 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." Now, this
text is speaking of Israel not only in a national sense, but
also in a spiritual sense. I don't think we'll have time.
I've got some verses written down. But in Romans chapter 11,
in at least four or five places, you'll run into statements referring
to Israel that come from these very words and this very illustration. So this picture illustrates what
God promised to do for Israel in the near term and He did.
They were returned from captivity and they did have their land
back and their city and their temple and so forth. But it's
also, it is also a wonderful picture of God's grace in regard
to poor dead sinners under the power of the gospel in the hands
of the Holy Spirit of God. Now before we start these six
lessons, I want to remind you of what you should already know.
Some statements in your Bibles, and I managed somehow or another
this morning while you were still asleep. to scribble out enough
of these verses that I think I can make it out without having
you to have to turn to it, because I know we're going to run out
of time if we do that. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians the
first time, chapter 1, verse 21, he wrote, it pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And that's exactly what is in
front of us in Ezekiel 37. Prophesying is a type of preaching,
especially when you consider what Ezekiel was commanded to
say. Glorious indeed. You don't need
me to tell you, but I have to anyway. Preaching is a lost cause
among today's religion. If it's on the stove at all,
it's on the back burner. In most places, it's out the
back door. And I'm telling you, when God
saves sinners, it is by the foolishness of preaching. You can read it
in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Secondly, when Paul wrote to
the Romans, chapter 1 and verse 16, he said, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. For it, that gospel, is the power
of God unto salvation. It is through the preaching of
the gospel that God saves sinners. So why do we want to do it through
everything under the sun except preaching? Pray tell me. The
power of God unto salvation. Thirdly, James chapter 1 verse
18 reads something like this, Of God's own will not your will,
not my will, of God's own will begat he us." How? With the word of truth. It is a feeble attempt on the
part of a preacher to try to tell you what this book says.
This morning we're trying to do that from Ezekiel chapter
37. God's own will begat he us with
the word Now, if you'll mark your place, I want you to turn
to this one reference. And I'll confess it's because
it's rather lengthy and it would have taken me an hour to have
written these words because of my shaking right hand. I mean, I could have scribbled
them, but nobody could have translated them, not even me. John chapter
5. If you'd turn there just for
a second, this will reward our time and effort. And it's an
easy passage to find. Everybody knows where the Gospel
of John is in the Bible. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Four evangelists. What is our subject? God's raising
dead sinners to life in Christ. Here are two indispensable statements
back-to-back in John chapter 5, verses 24 and 25. Let's just read them. That's
all I want to do. I just want it to sort of settle
on your mind just a little bit. John is the only one that gives
us double verilies. The Lord Jesus frequently used
these words. Mr. Hawker says that literally
the word means amen. It has to do with the truth.
Amen. Amen, amen, I say unto you, he
that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, not will
have, but has everlasting life. A sinner cannot believe as long
as he's dead in trespasses and sin. The very fact that a person
is said to believe means that God has raised him like those
bones in Ezekiel 37 from death to life. has everlasting life,
and shall not come into condemnation." Can't ever be condemned again.
No charge against us. The slate is clean. Shall not
come into condemnation, but is passed. Past tense. Is passed
from death to life. Alright, verse 25. Amen, amen,
I say unto you, the hour is coming. And now is when the dead shall
hear the voice of the Son of God. My friend, when dead men
hear, God is at work. That's exactly what we see pictured
in Ezekiel's vision. When the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God, they that hear shall live. They're already alive, but they
don't know it. But now they do. All right, back to our text.
Let's look at the first three verses. Now, we're going to overlap
and re-overlap on some of these, but I just want to get these
six things across, if I may. The first one has to do with
this. What is the state and condition
of the bones? And that is an exact portrayal
of our spiritual existence before Christ, before we're converted,
before we're saved. All right, let's read it. Verses
1 through 3. The hand of the Lord was upon
me and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me
down in the middle of the valley which was full of bones. caused
me to pass by them round about. And behold, there 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. You alone know. Today's religion
tries to get people to do But if they had time to think about
it, they never do. Get them down to the front, what
they call getting them converted, which is an absolute sham. Do
you see anything like that pictured here? Or in John chapter 5, or
1 Corinthians chapter 1, or Romans chapter 1, or James chapter 1? The state and condition of these
bones, very dead, very dry, and very many, and that's the state
of mankind, very dead, an uncountable number, and very dry, not even
a prospect of things changing until God comes in the power
of His grace. In Ephesians chapter 2, verses
1 through 3, Paul describes to the Ephesians how it is that
God raised them from the dead. He said, you has God quickened,
made alive, quickened, raised from the dead, resurrected. That's a glorious picture in
this vision of Ezekiel, in this chapter, and everywhere the Scripture
speaks in similar language. How on earth Did we decide that
man is fallen everywhere except his will? I don't understand
that. And there's a whole lot more Baptist churches that are
free will than the ones that's got it on the sign. I say if
they're man enough to put it on the sign, we ought to at least
say thank you. We don't have to question that.
We know it. It's just about everywhere. So
what's the first lesson? What state are people in? when
the gospel comes to them. We're dead, spiritually blind,
spiritually dead. I'm not talking about physically.
I'm talking about spiritual things. We can't see. We're blind. We're deaf. Our will is perverted,
reversed. If God only saves willing people,
no one would be saved, not a single one of us, not me and not you.
If He did not make the unwilling willing, there would be no such
thing as salvation among the human race. This is the condition
that all men are in. It has not changed in these thousands
of years since Ezekiel made this prophecy. It is the very same. It was the same when our Lord
walked this earth. It was the same under the apostles and it's
been the same every century since. All right, here's the second
lesson. Verse 3, by itself. God said to me, son of man, can
these bones? Ezekiel could have said, well,
Lord, I'm a man of faith. I think I believe they can. Well,
what would Ezekiel's believing have to do with the outcome?
If God alone can give life, my believing something doesn't make
it so, and neither does my not believing make it not so. So
the second lesson is to learn to distinguish real, valid, gospel
questions compared to the garbage that's floating all around us
on every television, every radio, and virtually every pulpit in
this land. asking every question but the
right one. What is the question? God said
to Ezekiel, can these bones live? Can sinners really be raised
to a resurrection of life in Christ in the gospel? Really? Truly? Can God without so much
as one single physical contact with our person can communicate
life from eternal glory to a poor sinner down here in this hog
pen on this earth. He says, well, I'll just remind
you of this. There's another beautiful picture
in the same book of Scripture called Ezekiel, and there it's
chapter 16. That infant has been tossed out
into an open field and has died, and God passes by, and He said,
it's the time of love. I said to that deserted, dead
infant, live. Yea, I said unto you, live. That child lived, was raised
to life. Here's a very similar picture
in Ezekiel chapter 37. Can these bones? What's the answer? Only God knows. I don't know. You don't know. All of us together don't know.
God alone knows. See, this is not a physical transaction. It's not visible in flesh and
blood. This is a spiritual transaction. that takes place where these
eyes cannot penetrate and where this human nature of mine, my
brain if I had one and my heart and my affections and everything
else, cannot discover these things. Be perfectly oblivious that anything
has transpired and lo and behold, God has saved a sinner right
in front of us and we did not know it because it's spiritual. The answer to the question, Lord,
You know. Oh, how You know. Thirdly, pick
up now at verse 4 and let's read through verse 6 again. I'll go
ahead and give this one away. If these three verses don't say
this, if two of you will stand up when I get through reading
it, if it doesn't say what we've just said it is, I'll quit. Verses
4 through 6. Here's what it is first. Salvation
is always a miracle. A miracle of God's mercy and
grace in Christ. It's miraculous. Let's read it
and see if it is. Again He said unto me, prophesy
upon these bones. Say unto them, O you dry bones,
hear the word of the Lord. And preachers can plead and beg
and use every underhanded method that has ever been discovered
and cannot truly bring a man to God because we don't come
to Him until He first comes to us. Oh, you dry bones, hear the
word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God unto these
bones, This is God speaking to dead men. Behold, remember those
words, here they are, I will, you shall. If you'll keep those
words in order, it'll stand you in good stead in understanding
a lot of things. But you get them mixed up and
you don't stand a Chinaman's chance. Behold, I will cause
breath to enter into you. and you shall live." Now that's
as simple a statement as to be found anywhere and yet one of
the most controversial in our generation. If you told your friends and
your relatives, and if I told my friends and my relatives,
here's how God saves sinners. God will and we shall. We'd have a fight on our hands.
And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon
you, and cover your skin, and put breath in you, and you shall
live." It's not a matter of if you're willing, you can live.
If you'll let God do this, He'll save you. That's garbage. If you understood how much dishonor
that saying stuff like that brings upon the God of the Bible, you
would beg for mercy never to let it cross your lips again.
You shall know when God saves a sinner, you shall know who's
God and who's not. You shall know that I am the
Lord. All right, anybody going? Say those verses, don't say salvation
is a miracle. Here's your shot. All right. Too late. Number four. Number
four. Verse seven. So I prophesied
as I was commanded. What else could Ezekiel do? The
Lord said, son of man, prophesy to these bones. So I prophesied. And as I was commanded and as
I prophesied, there was a noise. old as shaking, and the bones
came together, bone to his bone. Now all the noise sometimes is
not complimentary now. When the gospel comes to town,
it makes some people glad and it makes the rest of them mad.
And if it doesn't do that, it can't do the other. You can't
make the gospel not be offensive. If you do, you don't have any
gospel. You've defused it. You've taken the breath out of
it, the life out of it. The gospel is intended to cause
us to be upset, wake us up from this spiritual death that has
us in its grip. I know one thing for certain.
When the gospel came to this church in 1981, it won all fun
and games, ladies and gentlemen. It made a bunch of people mad.
I ain't apologizing for it. I didn't do it. So what is the
lesson out of verse 7? Ezekiel couldn't make these bones
live. It is lesson number 4, to depend
totally on the power of God and His grace to give dead, helpless,
God-hating sinners life. That's how it's done. In 2 Corinthians 5, 17, it's
called a new creation. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creation. Behold, old things are passed
away. Behold, all things are become
new. In John chapter 3, in verse 3, it says, the Lord said to
Nicodemus, you must be born again. And he's talking about a spiritual
operation of grace. Nicodemus was a ruler and a leader
among the Jews and the Jewish religion. And he could not see
past the physical. He said, how shall a man be born?
Shall he enter his mother's womb a second time and be born? It's
also called a resurrection. Remember John chapter 5, verses
24 and 25? And in Matthew 11, 27, it's called
God's revelation. The gospel is indeed a revelation. Now, if we hadn't talked about
that so much, we'd look at that, but our time is going to leave
us if we do. So come back to the chapter, and let's pick up
back at verse... I can't read that. Let me start
at verse 6 and go through verse 8, and that'll just leave us
two verses, and I think we can handle that. Verse 6, And I will
lay sinews upon you, and bring up flesh upon you, and cover
you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live. And
you shall know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was
commanded. And as I prophesied, there was
a noise, 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. There was still no breath, no
breath. People look good, smell good,
eat good, still lost, still spiritually dead. You don't have to be a
bank robber to be a sinner. You don't have to commit a crime
to be lost. My soul, there's more lost people
on church roads than most anyplace else. Some of us ought to confess
that we've got first-hand knowledge of that because I've been there
and done that. So have many of you. No breath. All right, here's
lesson number 6, verses 9 and 10. Then said He unto me, Prophesy,
preach, perhaps we should insert the word pray, unto the Spirit,
unto the wind, the Holy Spirit, preach, Prophesy and pray, son
of man, and say to the wind, thus says the Lord God, come
from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain
that they may live. So I prophesied, I preached,
and I prayed. By the way, if we ever see people
converted in this place, I don't think it will take place without
somebody praying. breath came into them, and they
lived and stood upon their feet in exceeding great honor. What has prayer got to do with
sinners being saved? Prayer means that we leave the
saving to God, and we plead with Him that He would be so pleased
as to save our children, our family, our relatives, our friends. neighbors, whoever, pray. It's God's work. It's God who
must do so. He surely pictures that for us
in Ezekiel calling on the four winds to come and put breath
in these dead bodies that now look like they're alive. They've
got sinews and flesh and skin, I presume hair. breathe life into these dead
sinners. He did. That whole prophecy is
a picture of God's grace to the nation of Israel, and it is also
a glorious picture of the resurrection of the dead when the Lord Jesus
returns to this earth. But we give it its prominence
from where we look at it, that it is a glorious type and picture
and explanation and exposition how God saves sinners, no matter
where it is, or when it is, or who it is.