Well, I want to tell you a story. Old men have this privilege of
telling stories that they've heard down through the years.
But this one I haven't told many places. In fact, I haven't told
it for a long, long time. But David Collier, reminded me
of a dear friend of mine that died many years ago, and this
story involves him. David mentioned a message that
Brother Herman Moore and Darwin remembered his name. Brother
Herman Moore preached at our Bible conference in the early
80s or 70s. The title of the message was
There's a man in glory. Anybody here remember that message?
David does. Darwin does. There it does. There's a man
in glory. Herman and I were good friends,
and he was getting up in years. He and his wife were walking
through a checkout counter at a grocery store one afternoon. And as the young lady was ringing
up the sails, he looked at her and she was crying big tears,
rolling down her cheeks. And Herman said to her, said,
young lady, said, is something bothering you or you have a problem?
She said, my parents have kicked me out of the house. I've got
no place to live. He said, how old are you? She
said, 16. He turned to his wife and he said, honey, could we
take her into our home and give her a place to live? His wife
said, I'd be glad to. So they took that young lady
into their home. She finished high school. She
went to college. She graduated from college and
became a physical therapist. She became fairly wealthy. She had two or three places of
business And Herman died. And this young lady wrote me
a letter. I never met her. I don't remember her name. But
she wrote me a letter back there in the, I suppose, in the 80s,
early 80s. And she said, Brother Herman
died and Mrs. Moore is living in Clayton, North
Carolina. And I'd like to do something
for her. I'd like to send an offering,
$500 every quarter, for my business to help her out. Would you let me send it to your
church and you send it to her?" I said, honey, I can be tickled
to death to do that. So that went on a long, long
time. I said 10 or 15 years. I can't recall all the dates
because I haven't thought about it until you brought up that
But that blesses you, doesn't it? That blesses you. It surely
does. Herman Moore, a man in glory. And he said this, he said, if
there can be one man in glory, there can be another one. Alright,
now let's open our Bibles to Ezekiel chapter 37. Brother Barnard said to me one
time, he said, now, Brother Mahan, he said, the Scriptures are bifocal. I said, what do you mean bifocal?
Well, he said, there's the initial application. You read this verse
here, didn't you? These verses in Ezekiel 37. He said, there's the initial
application that God will bring the Jews back to their land.
And then, You've got the Gospel here, just as clear and simple
and plain as anywhere in Scripture. Everywhere you turn in the Scripture,
whatever it may deal with, it deals with Christ and Him crucified. That's the reason Paul said,
I'm determined not to throw anything among you, save Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. And Charles Spurgeon brought
a message from this text right here. I know you used to be reading
it again. You've heard it. Verse 1-14 of Ezekiel 37. Spurgeon brought a message in
1865 from this text. And this is what he said. Now
there was no land of Israel then. It was gone. It had been gone
since Titus tore the place up. But the Jews had been wandering
from place to place all over the world ever since then. But
Spurgeon said this in 1865. He said there will one day be
a native government in Israel. One day. The state of Israel
will one day be incorporated again as a nation. He said that
in 1865 there. One day the state of Israel will
be incorporated as a nation. The Jews will one day return
to Palestine. Millions of them. One day. They will walk upon the mountains
of Israel. One day, they will sit under
their own fig trees. And this came to pass in 1948,
when Harry Truman pressured all the countries to make Israel
a state. And Israel is a state and a mighty
state, even after the terrible Holocaust, where six million
Jews died. Right after that, in the 40s,
In 1948, that's when Israel became a nation. And that's what we're
dealing with here. But we're not dealing with that
tonight. If you want to, you can write
this down. Write down and keep this verse
in mind as you study this later. Romans 11, 25 through 29, tell
you the same thing. Romans 11, 25 through 29. Israel will be a nation. But
here you have, and here's what I'm preaching tonight, the glorious
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The greatest miracle of all.
The greatest mystery of all. Not that the Jews will return
to their nation. Not that God will someday bless
them. I'm not dealing with that. But
I'm dealing with the greatest mystery of all. The death, burial,
and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the greatest
miracle of all. My Father is omnipotent, and
that you can't deny. He's a God of might and miracle
that's written in the sky. It took a miracle to put the
stars in place. It took a miracle to hang the
world in place. But when He saved our souls and
made us whole, it took a miracle of love and grace. Our God is
a God of miracles. And let me deal with this now
from this standpoint, the fall of man and the substitutionary
work of our Lord Jesus Christ. All right, look at verse one,
verse one and two. 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 a valley which was full of bone. 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." Well, what's
happened here? Well, there must have been a
terrible battle fought. There must have been a terrible
battle fought in this valley, and many, many men were killed,
and their bones lay scattered about on the ground. The bones
were blanched by the burning sun. The bones were dry, dry
as dust, and in the sand. No moisture, no marrow. Oh, one old preacher said even
a dog wouldn't have picked one of them up, those bones that
lay in all about that, all about that. And it pictures us, it
pictures for us the fall of man. That's our nature, that's us.
Dry bones in a dry valley with no moisture and no marrow at all. Martin Luther
said, if a man could get a full view of his sin, if he could
really understand his helpless state, if he could really understand
his terrible lost condition, like these dry, dead bones in
that valley. That's what we are. He said if
he could get a glimpse of it, he would lose his sanity. Paul put it this way, at that
time you were without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel, strangers from the covenant of promise, having no
hope And without God in this world, that's what happened to
us when Adam fell, plunged us into this state of total, total
death and despair. I was sitting in my desk one
time years ago, sitting at my desk, and the telephone rang. And I picked it up, and the voice
on the phone, a young lady said, Brother Mahan, she said, Would
you come to the hospital and visit my husband?" I said, what's
wrong? She said, well, there's been
an accident at the Armco steel mill and some explosion and he's
been hurt. And she said, he's scared. He wants to talk to you about
the Lord. Well, I knew the man. His wife
attended church, but he's never been interested in hearing about
the Lord. come to hear me preach. I said,
well, I'll be glad to come. His name's Ed, Ed Simpson. So
I drove down there, and I walked in, and he was lying there in
the bed. They had a bandage on his head.
And she said to me, she said, now Ed's going to be all right,
Preacher. I said, he's just really scared
right now. But he shook up. He said, he
wants to talk to you. So I walked over by the bed.
And I said, Ed, I'm sorry about your accident. And we talked
a minute. And he said, preacher said, I
want to talk to you about salvation. I said, OK, that's good. I got
my Bible out. And I said, now, Ed, let's start
where we have to start. Do you know that you're a sinner?
God saved sinners. Christ died for sin. Do you know?
that you're a sinner. And he looked at me, and he said,
I wouldn't say that. I said, well, what would you
say? Well, he said, I haven't always done what I ought to do,
and I never have stolen anything. I've been talking that way, you
know. He said, but I'm not a sinner. And he turned and looked at his
wife and said, I'm a honey. She said, I reckon not. But I
closed my Bible. And I don't try to be a smart
aleck. I try not to. I try to tell the truth. But
I just said to him, I said, well, Ed, I don't have anything for
you. Nothing. The Lord came to seek
and to save the lost, and you're not lost. He died for sinners
of whom I'm cheap, and you're not a sinner. So really, Ed,
I don't have anything for you. But I said this, I'm going to
leave, and if you decide you want to come hear me preach and
find out you're a sinner, I'll talk to you about the Lord. Man's
got to be lost to be found. And that's what we have right
here. That's what Ezekiel's saying here, a valley full of dry, dead
bones. All right, let's watch the next
thing here in Ezekiel 37. Three. And He said to me, the
Lord said to Ezekiel, He said, Son of man, can these bones live? In this condition, these dry,
dead, parched, bleached bones, no life, no moisture, nothing. Can they live? Can they live? Can these bones, can they have blood and breath and bodies and
live again, can they? Well, let me tell you this. That's
what this book's all about. That's what this book is written
about. This is the message of this book. Those bones can live. This is the reason why our Lord
came into the world and died on the cross, that these bones
might live. That's the reason that God sent
His Son to die for sinners, that they might live. And the Lord
asked this, can they live? Can they live? Can the Ethiopian
change his skin? No, but God can. Can the leopard change his spots?
No, but God can. Can the fragrance of the rose
issue from that pile of bones? No, but God can make it smell
sweet. Can the cursing tongue praise
the Lord? No. But God can make it, praise
the Lord. Can hate be turned to love? Can
pride be turned to humility? Can death be swallowed up in
victory and life? Can it? Here's the answer. Listen. And He said to me, Son
of man, can these bones live? And I answered, and that's the
only answer you can give. Oh Lord, thou knowest. Thou left up to me, they won't
live. Left up to them, they won't live.
But you're able to make them all live. You're able. That's
what that leper said. When our Lord came down from
the mountain and that leper ran up to him, and he said to him,
he said, Lord, if you will, you can make me whole. And the Lord
said, I will. And he made him whole. That's
right. The hymn writer wrote this, God, my Redeemer, lives. He's exalted in the skies. He looks down on my dust and
he bids it rise. Can these bones live? Lord, you
know. Well, watch this now. This is
the third thing, verse four. Can these bones live? Lord, you
don't want to know. And he said to me, well, preach
to them. The Lord said to me, prophesy
to these bones, saying to them, oh, you dry bone, hear the word
of the Lord. You know, I suppose that if I
walk into a valley of dry, dead, parched, blanched, white bones,
dead bones, And I walk through, the very last thing that I think
about doing is preach to them. That's just about the last thing
I try. What about you? Preach to them.
Preach to them. But my friends, that's God's
way. That's God's way. Listen to these verses. I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It's the power of God and the
salvation to everyone that believes it. Listen to this verse. It pleased God. by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. James said this, of
his own will begat he us. What? What with? With what? The
word of truth. That's how we're begotten, with
the word of truth. Peter said, we're born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible seed by the
word of God, which lives and abides forever. This Word is
the Word of Life. Ezekiel stood and looked at those
horrible, dry, dead bones, and the Lord said, Can they live?
He said, Lord, you know. You know. You know. Oh, my. I'll tell you this, though. Life-giving
sermons are sermons filled with God Almighty who gives life. That's right. Life-giving sermons
are filled with Christ, who is our life. There's a man in Pikeville, Kentucky. His name was Larry Woods. And Larry had heart trouble.
And Larry had a heart attack. He went to the hospital and was
seriously ill. And his wife brought a preacher.
And the preacher went up there and talked him into a profession
of faith. It's not too hard to do. When a guy's got a heart
attack and he's dying, you can pretty well talk him into some
kind of profession of religion. And this man talked Larry into
a profession of faith. Well, it so happened that Larry
Woods, was in the bed next to a man by the name of Ted Thompson. Ted knew Christ. Ted Thompson
knew the Lord. Ted Thompson knew the Savior. He knew the Gospel. Well, he
was laying there listening to a tape with his headphones, and
Larry started talking to him about his profession, about he'd
been saved. I've been saved, Ted, I've been
saved. And Ted took off his earphone and laid down and said, tell
me how you got saved. So Larry started telling him
about how he got saved, how he said he got saved. And Ted said
to him, Larry said, I don't want to upset you, I don't want to
hurt your feelings, but make it a profession of faith,
not salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. God's
the one that saves. And if God saves you, you're
saved forever. And Larry just quieted down. And Ted said, why don't you listen
to this tape that I've been listening to? So we handed him one of our
tapes. And he started listening. He
got another one. He got another one. To make a
long story short, the Lord did save Larry. And Larry came to
the Pikeville Zebulon Church under Brother Brother Tom Harding,
and he died not too long ago and went to be with the Lord.
But it's the Word. It's the Word. It's the Word
of God. Feelings come and feelings go. And feelings are deceiving. Our hope and warrant is the Word
of God. Nothing else is worth believing.
So I'm going to trust in God's unchanging Word. Till soul and
body sever, the words of men shall pass away. His Word abides
forever. I passed by these bones, dry,
dead bones, dry, dead sinners, lifeless sinners. And God said,
Can they live? Can they live? And I said, Lord,
you know. Well, preach to them. Preach
to them. Well, that's what he did. Let's
look at verse 5. Thus saith the Lord God unto
these bones, Behold, this is the message that God gave Ezekiel
to preach to them. Behold, I will cause breath to
enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews upon you, and
bring upon you flesh, and cover you with skin, I'll put breath
in you, and you'll live, and you'll know that I'm the Lord.
I'm the Lord. What is this message? It's the
message of sovereign grace. That's what your pastor preaches.
That's what I'm trying to preach, the message of sovereign grace.
Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. The
Lord said, Behold, I will give you life. I will cause breath
to enter you. You're going to live. Because
I'm going to put sinews upon you and bring flesh upon you.
I'm going to cover you with skin. I'm going to put breath in you,
and you'll live, and you'll know that I'm the Lord. It's not,
I will if you will. That's not what the Lord is saying.
It's not an appeal to the bones. Well, bones, do the best you
can. Come to Jesus. It's not in the
power and persuasion of the preacher. It's a proclamation of what God
Almighty will do. I will, what's this? Let's look at this again. Verse
six, I will, I will, I will, and then go down the last line,
and you shall. I will, I will, and I guarantee
you, you shall. I will and you shall. There was
a... I'm full of stories tonight.
I think of these things. But there's a young lady in our
church named Becky. And she was a beautiful young
lady. And she had a lot of boyfriends.
And she'd bring them to church. And she'd always bring her boyfriends
to church. And then she'd quit going with
that one and find another and bring him to church, you know.
But I'm glad, I'd stick with that. I'd love to preach to him,
just bring him to church and I'd preach to him. Well, he got
serious, I thought. He got serious about the gospel.
So one day, he and a young man came to the house and knocked
on the door. And I went to the door and she
said, I forget his name, Darcy will remember it, but I forget
his name. He's gone later. Anyway, she
said, My boyfriend wants to talk to you about the gospel." Good. I said, come on in. So we went
in and sat down, and she pulled up a chair, and ours did, and
he and I sat on the sofa, and I talked to him about the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I gave him the best I could,
a testimony of how God saves sinners. We sat there and talked
a good while. And we prayed. And I closed the conversation. I said, now, you come on to church. Come on and hear the Word. It's
the Word that convicts. It's the Word that gives faith.
It's the Word that saves. And so you keep on listening.
But he said, how will I know what I'm saying? I'm not smart, but I do know
how to answer that question. I said to him, How did you know
you were lost? Well, he said, God showed me
I was lost. Well, I said, God will have to
show you when you're saved. I can't do it. That's where we
mess up when we try to give them a hope in something else than
the Lord. How will I know I'm saved? How
do you know you're lost? God showed me. Well, He'll show
you that you're saved. So salvation is of the Lord. Let me show you over here in
Ezekiel 36. Look across the page. Ezekiel 36, beginning with verse
24. This is what the Lord says about
salvation. I will take you, verse 24, I
will take you from among the heathen. I'll gather you out
of the countries. I'll bring you into your own
land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall
be clean. You should be clean from your
filthiness From your idols will I cleanse you. Watch out. Watch
now. A new heart will I give you.
A new spirit I'll put within you. He does it. I'll put my
spirit within you. I'll take away your stony heart. I'll give you a heart of flesh.
And I'll put my spirit in you. And cause you to walk in my statues. And you will keep my judgments
and do them. And you shall dwell in the land
that I gave to your fathers. And you shall be my people, and
I will be your God. Salvation is of the Lord. In His execution, in His application,
in His sustaining perfection, in His ultimate glory, it's all
of the Lord. Alright, now the next four verses,
I want you to watch this. I want you to watch this. Here
are two situations. Now the Lord said, can these
bones live? Lord, you know. Well, preach
to them. Preach to them. Preach the message
of grace. Preach sovereign, redeeming,
effectual, particular grace. Preach grace to them. Don't leave
it up to them. Preach what I will do. I will
do this. So, he said in verse Seven. What's this now? So I prophesied. I preached as I was commanded. Now, here's two situations. First,
you've got preaching without the Spirit. Preaching without
the Spirit. Then you've got preaching and
the Spirit. What's the difference? So I prophesied
as I was commanded. I prophesied and something happened.
There was a noise. There was a shaking. There was
a stirring. The bones came together, bone
to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the centers
and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them. But
there's some problem here now. No breath. No life. There was a noise. There was
a shaking. There was a stir. I guess it's
about like some of these present-day revival meetings, all this activity,
but no life. activity, hand-waving, noise,
all these things, all these things. They looked like men. They had the form of godliness. You've heard that, having a form
of godliness, but denying the power thereof. They appeared
outwardly to be men, but no breath, no breath. Doctrine, as true
as it is, will not give life. Only God can give life. Let me
show you that in John chapter 3. This is Nicodemus. He was
a man of the Pharisees. teacher, all these things. It says here
in John chapter 3, verse 4, And Nicodemus said, Well, how can
a man be born when he's old? Can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb and be born? And Jesus answered and
said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born of
the water and the Spirit. Is that the Word and the Spirit? Born of the Word and the Spirit,
he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the
flesh is flesh. Looked like men, had the appearance
of men, had the activity and all these things, but no life.
No life. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Alright,
now watch the next verse. And here we have the Word and
the breath. The Word and Life. And I hear
it in verse 9. Verse 8 says there's no breath
in them. No breath. But then verse 9, Then he said
to me, Prophesy to the wind, Prophesy, 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 as he commanded me, and the breath came unto
them, and they lived. They stood up on their feet,
an exceeding great army." Now look back at John 3 and watch
this. John chapter 3, verse 7. Christ said, Marvel not, I say
to you, you must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth. You hear the sound thereof. Canst
not tell whence it cometh, or whither it goeth. So is every
one born of the Spirit. That's what God's done for us.
Preached the Word. The Spirit of God came and applied
the Word, and made the Word be effectual to our hearts. Gave us faith in Christ, love
for Christ. Not just activity, not just noise,
not just a stirring, but a heartfelt worship of God Almighty. One
of the old timers, I forget who it was, but one of the old timers
wrote this. He said, here are five questions
for those who would have a saving interest in Christ. Here are
five questions for men and women who have a saving interest in
Christ. Here they are. Number one. Are
my desires for Christ, are they sincere? Are they genuine? You can't seek Christ with a
divided heart. You can't seek Christ with a
dividing heart. You'll seek me and find me when
you search for me with all your heart. So that is his first question. Are my desires sincere? Are they
genuine? Secondly, are my desires for
Christ, are they honoring to Him? Now, God's holy. God's just. God's righteous.
And I cannot expect to be saved at the expense of His character.
God must be holy, must be just and justified, must be. I cannot
be saved at the expense of His character. So are my desires
for Christ, do they bring Him glory? Did he give him glory?
Thirdly, are my desires for Christ, are they permanent? Or is it
just an emotion? Is it just a passing fancy? Is it just something that I've
thought about right now and I'll forget later on? Are my desires
for Christ permanent? Jacob's were. He held on to Christ
and he said, I won't Let you go till you bless me. I'm here
to stay, and I won't let you go till you bless me. Fourthly,
do my desires for Christ lead me to seek Him where He's found? And that's what I've been working
on here for Ezekiel 37. Preach to Him. Preach to Him. Preach to Him. So I preach to
Him. And God Almighty made the Word
effectual. Nobody's going to be saved without
the Word, the Gospel. It's got to be preached. And
my desires for Christ, they must lead me to seek Him where He's
found, in His Word. In His Word. Of His own will
begat He us with Word truth. And fifthly, Will my desires
for Christ know no rest until I can cease from my own labors
and find my rest in Him? I said it is cease from my labors
and striving and find my rest in Him. Come unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden. I'll give you rest. Take my yoke
upon you. Learn of me. And you'll find
rest. Come unto Me and I'll give you
rest. And then you learn, keep learning from the Word of Me
and you'll find more rest, more rest, more rest. Charles Spurgeon was one of the
great preachers. And the amazing thing about him,
he learned his gospel early in life And he stayed with that
gospel until he died at 58 years of age, never departing from
that gospel. And he wrote this poem when he
was 16 years old. That's when God saved him, I
think by 16. And he wrote this poem. And this
is what we're talking about here in these five questions that
this man asked. This is what Spurgeon said. What
the hand is to the lute, what breath is to the flute, what
fragrance is to the smell, what the spring is to the well, that's
Jesus Christ to me. What the mother is to the child,
what the God in pathless wow, what is awe to trouble wave,
what is ransom to the slave, What is water to the sea, that's
Jesus Christ to me. That's salvation. Our Father, we thank You for
Your Word. We thank You so much that You
have crossed our paths and taught us from Your Word. Thank You
for faithful preachers who have preached to us Your Word. Thank
you, Lord, for blessing it to our hearts and giving us a love
for the Lord Jesus Christ, a love for your truth, and a love for
one another. Thank you, Lord, for your mercies
and blessings upon this congregation. Thank you for these dear, dear
friends who've been so faithful and loyal all these years, stood
by the Word, stood by the pastor, stood in Christ and for Christ. We thank you for them. Ask your
blessings to continue upon this congregation and this dear pastor. Lord, we pray that you take the
message tonight and make it effectual to every heart. Give us above
all things, above all things, faith in A love for our Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. In His name we pray. Amen.