God Instructing His Preachers With A Very Heavy Hand

Q: What does the Bible say about preaching to the spiritually dead?

The Bible instructs preachers to address sinners right where they are, as seen in Ezekiel 37, where God commands Ezekiel to preach to dry bones. In Ezekiel 37, we see God instructing Ezekiel to preach to a valley of dry bones, which symbolizes the spiritually dead. God's command to Ezekiel highlights the necessity of addressing individuals in their current state of sin and death. Preaching is not about waiting for individuals to be awakened or to seek God on their own; it is about proclaiming the Word of the Lord to the lost as they are. The essence of this action demonstrates God's sovereignty, as life must come from Him, not from human effort. As preachers convey the truth of Scripture, they reveal the dire state of humanity and the need for divine intervention to bring life to the spiritually lifeless.

Q: How do we know God's sovereignty in salvation is true?

God's sovereignty in salvation is affirmed in Scripture, particularly in passages like Ezekiel 37, where He promises to grant life. The belief in God's sovereignty in salvation stems from numerous Scripture passages that underscore His authority over life and death. In Ezekiel 37, God directly asserts His power to breathe life into dry bones, demonstrating His control over resurrection and spiritual regeneration. The promises throughout the Bible reinforce that salvation is initiated and completed by God alone, illustrating the principle that it is not through human will or effort that individuals come to faith, but through the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, as the Apostle Paul notes in 2 Thessalonians, God chooses individuals for salvation, a choice made before the foundation of the world—furthering the understanding that salvation is entirely of grace and rooted in God's unchangeable will.

Q: Why is it important for Christians to preach the Gospel boldly?

Bold proclamation of the Gospel is essential because it confronts the reality of sin and offers hope in Christ, as shown in Ezekiel's mission. The bold proclamation of the Gospel is crucial for Christians as it serves both to expose the truth of human depravity and to declare the hope found in Jesus Christ. In Ezekiel 37, God commands Ezekiel to preach to the dry bones, illustrating that preachers are called to speak truthfully about the condition of those they address. This message is not to be watered down or altered to please the listener; rather, it must be conveyed with clarity and conviction. The Gospel confronts the lost with their need for salvation while pointing them to the only source of hope: Christ. Furthermore, preachers and believers alike are to trust that through the foolishness of preaching, God will work powerfully, as the Holy Spirit uses the message to call His elect to life. Therefore, it is vital for Christians to be unashamed in their proclamation of the truth.

Q: What does it mean to be taught of God in ministry?

Being taught of God means receiving divine instruction that deeply informs preaching and ministry, as indicated in Ezekiel's calling. To be taught of God in ministry signifies an experiential understanding and revelation that goes beyond human education. In Ezekiel 37, God actively instructs Ezekiel, emphasizing that effective ministry arises from divine teaching rather than merely academic learning. This divine instruction encompasses both the knowledge of Scripture and the transformative experience of encountering God's truth personally. God teaches His ministers about the desperate condition of humanity without Christ, as well as the incredible grace and mercy available through Him. A preacher who has been taught by God understands the weight of their message, drawing from personal experiences of grace to share authentically and powerfully with their audience. Thus, they become vessels through which God conveys His heart to others.

Ezekiel 37, and I'll begin reading
here in verse 1. And 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, 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. Again he said unto me, Prophesy
unto 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
ye shall live. I will lay sinews upon you, and
will bring flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put
breath in you, and ye shall live, and ye shall know that I am the
Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded,
and as I prophesied there was a noise, and behold, a shaking,
and the bones came together, bone to his bone, and when I
beheld, lo, The sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the
skin covered them above, but there was no breath in them.
Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto 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 and stood
upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Then he said unto
me, O son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.
Behold, they say, our bones are dried, our hope is lost, we are
cut off for our part. 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 ye 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 have put my Spirit in you,
and ye 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." I considered this passage
last week, and I considered it really as God instructing His
preacher with a strong hand. God instructing His preacher
with a strong hand. Now, I appreciate those men in
our day and our forefathers who have had the opportunity to attend
a higher education, to go to seminars, to have the means available
to them to study church history. to be instructed by some of the
great theologians in the past. They've applied themselves. And
I appreciate those men that have taken the time and the labor
and the money to educate themselves in the ministry. I don't want
to in any way this morning have you to believe that I don't appreciate
men who have applied themselves to the ministry. But having said
all of that, Having said all of that, what you and I are always
in need of in the ministry, in our preacher, are those men who
have been instructed of God. Men who have been taught of God
have been sent of God Himself. John the Baptist was a man sent
from God. That's the kind of man that you
and I need. men who have been taught, men
who have been left alone with God, men whom God has shut up
and taught the things of the Lord. We need this morning men
who have experientially been laid ahold of and taught to see
taught to know and taught to feel from their heart what they
are to preach. There's one thing to be taught
of men and take notes and preach to others, and there's another
thing again to be taught of God. and tell others what God has
taught you. And that's what we find here
in verse 1. The Scripture says, The hand
of the Lord was upon them. The Lord got hold of this man
and carried him himself. This man was helpless. Things
was out of his control. God was going to teach this man
something experientially. That's what we see in this preacher. So he carries him out here in
this valley, and he says here, it was full of bones. God was
going to instruct this man how to preach. He was going to instruct
him what to preach. And notice what he says there
in verse 2, that he calls me to pass by them round about. God caused him not only just
to go there and to look out over this valley of bones, but He
caused him to consider their state. He went in and out among
these bones. My, don't you imagine that was
a burdensome vision? Don't you imagine it was a fearful
vision? He saw these bones and they had
been slain. This man began to consider. He wasn't going there just to
take a glance and to leave. No, God was instructing this
man. He says, you go in and out of
these bones. Take heed to them. Consider. Let your imagination wonder what's
happened to these bones. Over here he saw a skull that
had been split. Over here he saw a shoulder bone
separated from his arm. Skeletons, but they were scattered
all through this valley. And this prophet considered the
condition of these bones and the sheer number of them. And
he reached this conclusion in his own heart. He says, there
are many of them. There's many of them. The valley
is full of them. And he says, this I see about
these bones, that they're very dry. Many of them, something
awful has happened to them. They've been slain. Their meat
has dried up, it's decayed, wild beasts have scattered their skeletons. It was a sad and burdensome and
fearful sight. And brothers and sisters, that's
the way it is when God calls a man to preach. And He takes
in hand to instruct that man of the condition that men and
women are into that He is sending him to preach to. And here's what he asked the
preacher in verse 3. Look at it. After he's let him
go in and out and consider all of these bones and the awful
condition that they're in, then he asked this preacher this question
in verse 3. He said unto me, O son of man,
can these bones live? And I answered and said unto
him, Lord God, only thou knowest. I bet he reached this conclusion.
I bet the preacher reached this conclusion. If it's left up to
me, they can't live. That's one of the lessons he
learned. If it's left up to them, they'll never live. If it's left
up to other men to give them life, they shall never live. Lord, I know this much. If you don't give them life,
they cannot live. That's the conclusion that this
preacher suddenly reached. Lord, I don't know, you know,
I don't know how many, I don't know who, but I know this, if
you don't give them life, they can't live. With man, this is
impossible. When God takes in the hand to
instruct his preacher, He teaches him of the sad and fearful state
of the lost. That they're lifeless. That they're
hopeless. They're faithless. They have
no love. They have no regard. They have
no reverence for God. They are dead and been long dead. And here's the conclusion he
reaches. Lord, I don't know who, I don't
know how many, but this much I know. If you don't give these
bones life, they will never live. They will never live. We must preach to men right where
we find them. Now we learned that from this
text. We must preach to men right where we find them. And that's
what we find in verse 4. Look at this. Again, He said
unto me, Preach unto these bones. Preach unto these bones. We cannot wait till men are awakened. We cannot go around and find
somebody that is concerned about their souls. We can't wait until
somebody cries out, what must I do to be saved? We must go,
brothers and sisters, and preach to men right where we find them. But you say they're dead in trespasses
and sins. These bones were dead. But the
first thing we're told, to go preach to men right where you
find them. And secondly is this, God told
this preacher not only to preach to men right where he found them,
but address them in the condition that he finds them in. Say to
these dry bones, look at it in verse 4, say unto these dry bones,
O you dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. You see what he
did? He not only addressed these dry
bones, right where they were, but he addressed them as the
condition he found them in. How were they? Dry bones. Lifeless
bones. And the only remedy, he says
here, is to hear the Word of the Lord. Now, brothers and sisters,
look at this. How foolish, how foolish this
seems. Doesn't this seem foolish to
you? Here God takes this man out in the midst of this valley,
bones that had been scattered, that had been long dead, they
were dry and parched for the sun, and the Lord commands this
man to preach unto these bones, and to talk to these bones, and
to dress them as dry bones. and to command them to hear the
word of the Lord." Now, don't that seem ridiculous to you?
It seems useless? Preach to these dry bones? Preach
to dry bones? The preacher who is instructed
of God with a strong hand has no choice as to what to preach. And he has no choice who he preaches
to. God's made that choice. I've
got no choice who I'm going to preach to, and I've got no choice
what I tell people. God has not told me who to preach
to, and he's told me what to preach. He's instructed his preachers. He knows what the world wants
to hear. I know what the world wants to hear, brothers and sisters.
I do. I have learned now, over the
last 20 years or so, I know what the world wants to hear. The
world wants to hear smooth things. The world wants to hear things
that's appealing to their flesh, that makes them feel good about
themselves. That's what the world wants to
hear. And the poor preacher, he would love to please the world. Now, you take a preacher and
he says, no, there's nothing in me that wants to please the
world. Well, he's probably lying to you. I'm telling you, I find
something in me that wants to please the world. I know what
the world wants, and I know there's something in my wretched old
nature, my sinful old flesh, that wants to please the world. But that man who has been taught
of God, and instructed of God with a strong hand, cannot help
but preach what he has been taught. Why do we preach to man? We address
him right where we find him, and we address him in the condition
that he's really in. He's in a prison house. Here's
what we tell men. Here's what we confront the world
with. He is in a prison house. He is in darkness. He is a slave
to sin and to self. In His present condition, He
is fearful. He is ready to perish. He has
no hope. He's without God in the world.
He is as dead. Here's what we confront the world
with. We confront lost people with this. We confront unbelievers
with this. And we tell them that they are
as dead spiritually as these bones were physically. And strictly from a carnal standpoint,
I know nothing so foolish and ridiculous and that so stirs up shame and
embarrassment in a preacher's heart as to go telling the world
these things. Could you imagine great men coming
by and seeing this preacher out there in this valley? Can you
imagine, here comes the local scientist, or the doctor, or
the lawyer, or some great general with his troops? The mighty and
the wise of this world, here they're coming by, and here they
look over to their left, and what do they see? They see this
one man out in this great valley, Out in the midst of dry, scattered
bones, and what's he doing? He's talking to them. He's preaching
to them. As though they heard. He's telling
them the condition that they're in, and what's going to take
place with them. He's preaching to them. And what do you think their opinion
of this preacher is? Well, look at that man, they
say, how utterly ridiculous he is. What a silly man he is. How
foolish, how needless. Has he lost his mind? Don't he
have any decency? Don't he have any respect? Is
the man mad? There he is speaking to those
bombs and insulting them. Is it not bad enough that they're
in that condition, but he addresses them as dry bones, lifeless bones? Don't he have any respect at
all? What's the poor man doing? He's mad, they say. What's he
intending to accomplish by such a thing? There's no wonder some dear preachers
have sought to get out of the ministry. It's the most foolish
thing I ever did in my life. It's the most embarrassing thing
I ever did in my life. There's no wonder some men go
home and say, God, if you'll forgive me of my presumption,
I'll never preach again. What does the Scripture say about
preaching? God has chosen by the foolishness of it. to save
them that believe. Moses said, Lord, don't
send me. I can't speak. Jeremiah said,
I'm just a child. Don't send me to preach. And
there's been a lot more since then that's tried to get out
of it. And a lot more that started to do it that wanted out of it
when they saw what was involved in it. Because preaching is standing
in the midst of a bunch of dead people, telling them that they're
dead, and commanding them and exhorting them to hear the word
of the Lord. And looking at it from a natural,
carnal standpoint, that's the most foolish, ridiculous thing
in all of this world. The very nature of preaching
the gospel is such that no man will begin to do it and continue
to do it in truth unless God instructs him with a strong hand
and holds him up in it and causes him to continue to
do it and to make him say, woe is me if I preach not the gospel. Do I teach the things concerning
man or God, the Apostle Paul said? Am I preaching the things
of God? Or am I preaching the things
that belongs to man? Do I seek to please men? If I
yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But
I assure you, brethren, the gospel which was preached of me is not
after man. It's offensive to man. I neither received it of man,
neither was I taught it of man, but by revelation of Jesus Christ." This man, this preacher here,
in my text was instructed of the Lord to address these bones
as he saw them. And he said, all I see is dry
bones. Dry bones. Then address them
that way. Address them that way. Oh, you
dry bones. You're not alive. You're not
healthy. You're not clean. You're not
holy. You're dead. You're dead. You're dry. You're lifeless. How do we address the unbelievers?
We tell them this, your carnal mind is enmity against God. Your very souls are dead in trespasses
and sins. The devil is your father. Your
own conscience accuses you. The law of God curses you. God
Almighty says that you are guilty before Him. There is nothing
to be said There is nothing to be said to the unbeliever that
can comfort him. Any comfort that you would give
them is only temporary, and it only further deceives their soul. What could this preacher say
to these bones but tell them the truth? Oh, and dear soul, listen to
this poor preacher this morning. Has God given you life? Has God
given you life? Has He given you the life of
Jesus Christ? If not, then here's your present
condition. You're dead. Has God given you a new heart? A heart of flesh to know Him
and to love Him and to follow Him? If not, then your heart
is as hard as an adamant stone. You're ignorant of Him and you're
hateful towards Him in your very mind. Has the Lord Jesus washed
you from your sin? Then your conscience is defiled
and you're filthy yet. Does Jesus Christ dwell in your
heart by faith? If not, the devil dwells there. Do you live with a good hope
that God has given you through His grace? If not, then you have
the hope of a hypocrite and you're ready to perish. You say, Bruce,
that's not very comfortable. No, it's not. It's not. It's not comfortable for you
to hear it. It's not comfortable for me to
tell it. And there's times I would rather
crawl under my bed than speak it. And if God had not left me
alone and instructed me, I would not stand and tell you the truth
this morning. You say the gospel is offensive.
Yes, it is. Yes it is, brothers and sisters,
and I tell you why it is. It addresses us right where it
finds us. It will not cover us. It will
not deceive us. It addresses us right where it
tells us the truth about ourselves. Are you fleeing this morning,
dear soul, from the wrath to come? If not, the wrath of God
abides on you. Oh, God instructed this man.
He instructed this man. Confront these bones right as
you find them. Dry, lifeless, and hopeless. And the preacher dresses them
so. He didn't wrap his words in eloquent speech. He didn't
paraphrase what the Lord told him. He didn't hide the truth
behind a whole paragraph of senseless illustrations. He didn't say
you're like this or you're like that. No, He said you're dry
bones. You're dry bones. Oh, have mercy. The devil comes
to me sometimes and he says, aren't you ashamed of yourself
to speak to these people in such a manner? This is too blunt,
he tells me. At least you could tone it down. At least you could make it more
appealing. You're ashamed. You're ashamed. That's what he
tells me. You're ashamed. No wonder you
don't have a big congregation. You're ashamed. Nobody's going
to sit under you long. Oh, you don't have to tell me
preaching the cross is offensive to the flesh. You don't have
to tell me how the devil can make the blood rise up in your
face. He can do it. And if God Almighty does not
call a man and does not instruct him with a strong hand and hold
him up and give him grace to suffer the shame and the embarrassment
of preaching, he'll quit. He will quit. He'll quit because
it costs him too much. It costs you too much to be a
preacher of the gospel. He'll quit because of the persecutions
that he has to face because of it. He'll quit because he's afraid
of those he preaches to. He's afraid of their faces. I've
looked at the faces of people while I was preaching to them,
and they looked like lions with their mouths open ready to swallow
me up. I have saw that in people. You say, did they mean to do
that? I doubt it seriously. I doubt it seriously. If we had
to stop here this morning, wouldn't it be so discouraging? This would
be so discouraging, wouldn't it? But look in verse 5. Look
here in verse 5. Thus saith the Lord God unto
these bones. Look at that. He's preaching
to Himself. Ain't that wonderful? Thus saith the word of God into
these bones. He's doing it through the preacher,
but he's doing it. He's speaking to the bones himself.
The poor preacher is not in this alone. God is right there with
him. Not only with him to uphold him,
but he's preaching himself. He's preaching through this preacher. You speak to them, he said, and
you call them dry bones, and tell them to hear the word of
the Lord." And he turned right around and said, Well, Lord,
God says you need bones. God's talking to them. Now, isn't
that wonderful? The Lord Jesus said something
like this. He said, I'm going to send you
out to preach. What he told his apostles, his disciples. And
you're going to be called before governors and tribunals and courts. And they're going to persecute
you. They're going to send you out of the synagogue. But he
said, when you go there to preach to them, don't you be so anxious
as to what you're going to say. For it's not you that speak. My Lord, wait a minute now. It's
not them? It was them speaking. You remember
James and John stood before the Sanhedrin and said, You've taken
Him and by wicked hands have crucified and slain Him? It was
them preaching. But the Lord Jesus said, No,
no, not really. It's the Spirit of your Father
speaking in you. Ain't that what He said? Speaking
in you. When the Lord is sending you
back to heaven, He told His disciples, He said, you go and preach the
Gospel to every Christian. And I'm with you. I am with you. I'll stand with you. A man, brothers
and sisters, who will stand and preach the Word of God, and nothing
but the Word of God, and all the Word of God, he can know
God's going to stand with him. And God's going to preach through
him. And that's enough encouragement.
The Lord working with them, confirming His Word, is what the Scriptures
say. I love this passage of Scripture
that we find over in 2 Corinthians 5.20. We are ambassadors for
Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. by us. God is warning the lost. God is encouraging His people. God is calling men to repentance
and faith. God is doing it Himself by the
poor preacher. Paul said we have this treasure
in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. And here's something else that
we find encouraging here in this fifth verse is this. Look what he says. God's purpose. God's promise. Thus saith the
Lord God unto these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter
into you, and ye shall live. You shall live. God is going
to work a great miracle. And how is he going to do it?
Through this poor preacher standing out in the middle of this town,
addressing these people. Ain't that wonderful? He's going
to work a great miracle, and he's going to do it through preaching. The Lord is speaking to these
bones. And what he's going to do for
them, they don't even know it. You know, I don't think the Lord
was so much talking to the bones as He was speaking, so the preacher
would know. Ain't that important? It's more
important at this point in time that the preacher knew that God
was going to do something by His preaching. It's more important
that that preacher know that than these bones to know. Is it not important this morning,
brothers and sisters, I ask you, Is it not important to us to
know that God Almighty has many elect people in this world that
He's not yet called? But He's going to call them.
He's going to give them life and reveal Christ to their understanding. Isn't that important for us to
know that? Don't that encourage you so much? They don't know
it yet. But the important thing is for
us to remember it. Let me show you a couple of verses,
right quickly. If you'll turn your Bible over to 2 Thessalonians. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Hold Ezekiel right quick and
turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. I know that everybody I preach
to is not going to be saved. I realize that. But I truly believe this, that
God has some elect people, some chosen people, that he's going to call by my
preaching. By my poor preaching? I believe
that. Look what he says here in 2 Thessalonians
2. We are bound, verse 13, we are
bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
Lord, because God has from the very beginning chosen you to
salvation. Before the world was, He chose
you to salvation. And here's the way He's going
to save you. through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth, were unto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. He chose you. And He called you. How did He
call you? Why, in the first book that Paul wrote to this church
in Thessalonica, he said, you were worshiping idols. You were
in darkness. You had no life, no hope. You
were in a perishing state. But I came to you, he said, and
preached the gospel to you. And as I was preaching to you,
what happened? Why? He said, the Holy Ghost
brought the Word to you with power and assurance and much faith and confidence. Through preaching. Through preaching.
Ain't that encouraging? He comes to this poor preacher
and he says, this is what I want you to preach to these bones.
What I'm going to do to them. And what I'm going to do for
them. Look back over here in our text again. Here in verse 5 and verse 6,
he says, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall
live. I will lay sinew upon you. I will bring flesh upon you. I'll cover you with skin. I'll
put breath in you. And ye shall live, and ye shall
know. Now, brothers and sisters, when
you see things like this, remember this. This is the covenant of
grace. This is covenant language. It's
not, it's not you do and then I'll bless. It's I will and you
shall. Ain't that the way it says it?
The covenant of works says you do this and you'll be blessed.
You do and you shall live. But the covenant of grace is
not based upon such flimsy things. The covenant of grace is based
upon this. You're dry bones. But I will
breathe upon you. I will give you life. And then
you shall live. See, it's not based upon human
will. It's based upon God's sovereign
will. It's based upon God's promise
to bless. I'm going to bless you, He says.
I'm going to give you life eternal. And then what's going to happen?
You're going to live. You're going to live. Oh, he's got a
wonderful covenant. And here he is telling this preacher
that looks so ridiculous out there in the middle of this valley,
preaching to these bones. He tells them, here's what I'm
going to do. I know what you're doing. He
said, it looks ridiculous to this world. I know it looks foolish
to this world. But I'm telling you this to encourage
you. I'm going to do a great thing
upon these bones. I'm going to breathe upon them,
and they're going to live. Oh, that will encourage you to
keep on preaching, won't it? Oh, brothers and sisters, go
everywhere. Preach to your neighbors. Preach to your visitors in your
home. Preach to your children. Preach to your parents. Preach
to your siblings. Preach to everybody you can hem
up for a little while. Preach to them. Because God may
do a wonderful thing in their hearts. He may give them life
and rebuild His Son to them. Thus saith the Lord unto these
thorns, Even when they're at the point of dry, I'm going to
give them life eternal. If I knew any other way that
God saved sinners, I'd quit preaching and go do that. I would. I'd quit preaching and I'd go
write comic strips. I just saw last week in the paper
now where they're putting out the new Christian comic strips. And they're expecting great things
from it. Fiction, books on prophecy, films. All kinds of different things
this world is turning to. And if I believed that God was
using that to save, I'd quit doing this and go make some big
money. And get people saved too. But the only thing he told this
man here, oh, son of man, preach to these bones. Preach to them. So, look here in verse 7, so
I preached. I preached. Why did you preach?
Because I was commanded. Because I was commanded. Don't
that settle the issue right there? Somebody will say, well, we've
got them on one side. They'll say, well, you guys are
just going to hang on to this preaching as long as you can.
But what good is it doing? It's got old. Ain't that what
the world tells us? This preaching has got old. Everybody else is
going to something else. You fellows are trying to hang
on to the past. Why don't you quit preaching and do what the
world is doing? It's useless anymore. Useless? Useless? Is preaching useless? Brothers and sisters, I ask you
this morning to look up to heaven. Turn your eyes towards heaven.
And who do you see there? You think preaching is useless?
Look around the throne. And who's there this morning
while we're here? There's a multitude that no man can number there
around that throne. And the spirits of just men make
perfect. They're free. They're holy. They're worshiping their Lord
and Savior. How did they get there? They
heard the gospel through the lips of prey and they believed
it. That's how they got there. Useless? No, they ain't useless. And we have men, on the other
hand, that tell us, well, these people are dead in sins. They
can't hear nothing. God's got to do something for
them first. No sense in going to preach the gospel to these
people. They're dead. Why would you even want to do
that? If God ever does anything for anybody, it's going to be
through the preaching of His Gospel. And He commands us to
do it, doesn't He? And that settles the issue. So
what do we do? We do as we're commanded. We preach. We preach. I know it's foolish. I know it's
foolish. I'm telling you, I know it's
foolish. I know it's embarrassing. I know it's uncomfortable. But
we're just going to keep on doing it. And when the Lord brought you
to faith in Himself, when He's given you life eternal, you know
what you'll say? That wasn't so foolish after
all. That did something I never suspected
would do. And what did it do? Look here in verse 7. So I preached
as I was commanded, and as I was preaching, something almost spontaneous
took place. There was a noise. And behold,
a shaking. And bones came together, bone
to his bone. Then the sinew came upon the
bones, and attached the muscle to the bone, and the meat came,
and the skin came over it all. What was taking place? Well, something that often takes
place when a sinner becomes convicted. He becomes convicted of sin.
Some strange things start taking place when men begin to sit on
the gospel. I remember when I became convicted
of my sin, one of the first things I thought, boy, I need to go
get me a Bible. I need to start reading the Bible.
Is that what you think this morning? That's what you need to do. That's
what you need to do. It would be good to go get a
Bible and start reading it. Boy, I'll tell you what I need
to do. I need to get in church over there. I need to get in
church and start hearing what these people got to say. Yes,
you do. Yes, you do need to do. Boy, I've got some sins in my
life. I need to get out of this lifestyle I'm in. Yes, you do
need to get out of it. Yes, you do. There's nothing
wrong, brothers and sisters. when men and women become concerned
enough that they start trying to clean their own life up. There's
nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong when that
Ethiopian became so convicted and convinced of his need that
he left Ethiopia and drove all the way to Jerusalem to find
out something about God? There's nothing wrong with Mitty
and her friends gathered there where prayer was wont to be made. God uses these things. When a
sin is voiced, when a conscience begins to cry out, there's a
voice in the conscience. Have you ever had your conscience
cry out against you? Boy, you lay there all of the night and
you can't sleep and your conscience is screaming, oh, you're condemned. Oh, look at you. If you died
before morning, the wrath of God is upon you. Look how you're
living towards God. You're angry with Him. You broke
His law. You sinned against His Son. Oh,
your conscience screams at you. You hear this voice, and you're
trying to shake yourself loose from your sin. God uses things
like that. But after you sit down and start
reading, after you've gathered with the Lord's people, after
you've tried to get out of your sins, you know what? Still your
problem is, you still don't have any life. You'll do just what these people
did. You'll start coming together
and getting organized and getting your act together. You'll start
doing that. You can't have it. But after you've done all of
that, finally you realize, I'm still dead. I still don't know
the Lord. I'm still guilty. So what happens? Verse 9, you know, sometimes
we say, well, we preach to them, we witness to them, that's all
we can do. But you know, really it's not. That's not all we can
do. Here's something we can do, too.
He commands us to do it. Look in verse 9. Say, then said
he unto me, Preach unto the wind. Preach, O 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." Everybody
can preach, but I tell you, all of God's children can pray. I'm
up here this morning trying to preach, and you can't get up
here and preach with me. But you can go home and pray. And
go home and pray just like the Lord tells you to pray. Oh, Holy
Spirit. Holy Spirit. Come and give life. Come and grant repentance. Come
and begin a good work. Oh, it's useless without you.
Nothing's effectual if you don't make it so. The preacher's preached
too much weakness. He's stumbled and stammered.
Send the mighty Spirit and let Him be the interpreter. The service
is closed. Don't let the lost forget the
message. Oh, you can't preach, but you
can pray. Go home. Go home. And pray to this Anne
Ferguson sister. May God bless this message.

God Instructing His Preachers With A Very Heavy Hand

What does the Bible say about preaching to the spiritually dead?

How do we know God's sovereignty in salvation is true?

Why is it important for Christians to preach the Gospel boldly?

What does it mean to be taught of God in ministry?

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God Instructing His Preachers With A Very Heavy Hand

What does the Bible say about preaching to the spiritually dead?

How do we know God's sovereignty in salvation is true?

Why is it important for Christians to preach the Gospel boldly?

What does it mean to be taught of God in ministry?

Sermon Transcript

About Bruce Crabtree

Comments

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