Let's open our Bibles, the book of Ezekiel,
chapter 37, that's
the 37th chapter of Ezekiel.
And we read here about the valley of
dry bones.
Verse 1.
The hand of the Lord came upon me
and brought me out in the spirit of
the Lord and set me down in the
midst of the valley and it was full
of bones.
Then he caused me to pass by them
all around and behold there were very many
in the open valley and indeed they were
very dry.
And he said to me, son of man,
can these bones live?
So I answered, oh Lord God, you know.
Again he said to me, prophesy to these
bones and say to them, oh dry bones,
hear the word of the Lord.
Thus says the Lord God to these bones,
surely I will cause breath to enter into
you and you shall live.
I will put sinews on you and bring
flesh upon you, cover you with skin and
put breath in you and you shall live.
Then you shall know that I am the
Lord.
So I prophesied as I was commanded and
as I prophesied there was a noise and
a sudden rattling and the bones came together
bone to bone.
Indeed as I looked the sinews and the
flesh came upon them and the skin covered
them over but there was no breath in
them.
Also he said to me, prophesy to the
breath, prophesy son of man and say to
the Lord God, come from the four winds
of breath and breathe on these slain that
they may live.
So I prophesied as he commanded me and
breath came into them and they lived and
stood upon their feet in an exceedingly great
army.
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus says your people, if we do
not have your spirit, we too are dead.
And we invite your living God, you have
conquered death and you have conquered evil, we
invite you to be present with us at
this time.
We ask you to bless your word.
Amen.
What came to my heart about this text
is this.
God doesn't fail.
And his pity, his mercy is revealed to
all flesh.
This story shows us yet again that nothing
is too difficult for God, nothing is impossible
with him.
That which we discard and cast aside as
utterly useless, God is able to revive it.
Remember Jesus raised up Lazarus from the dead
after four days in the grave where there
was absolutely no hope for resurrection.
The mind of man says, well, his corpse
is putrid and he has no hope for
resurrection.
The mind of man says, well, his corpse
is putrid and he has no hope for
resurrection.
The mind of man says, well,
his corpse is putrid and he has no
hope for resurrection.
The mind of man says, well, his corpse
is putrid and he has no hope for
resurrection.
The mind of man says, well, his corpse
is putrid and he has no hope for
resurrection.
The mind of man says, well, his corpse
is putrid and he has no hope for
resurrection.
The mind of man says, well, his corpse
is putrid and he has no hope for
resurrection.
The mind of man says, well, his corpse
is putrid and he has no hope for
resurrection.
The mind of man says, well, his corpse
is putrid and he has no hope for
resurrection.
The mind of man says, well, his corpse
is putrid and he has no hope for
resurrection.
The mind of man says, well, his corpse
is putrid and he has no hope for
resurrection.
The mind of man says, well, his corpse
is putrid and he has no hope for
resurrection.
The third exercise is taking the line between
the fear of God and the man of
God being taken to one side by the
Lord, revealing to him what he has on
his heart regarding his people.
So God speaks to his prophet and shows
him this valley of dry bones.
Then the prophet relates to us how he
was then brought into the valley and as
he walked through the sight he beheld, there
were many bones, it was full of dry
bones and they were very dry.
We should ask the question, what brought these
bones here, that there should be such a
large quantity of dry bones, why so?
Are these people who have died in battle
and weren't buried?
What has happened, is there a mass grave,
have people just died there and nobody bothered
to bury them and then there was a
drought and that's why the bones are all
dry?
What brought about this situation?
I want us to quickly realize who these
people were who are here symbolized as the
dry bones.
This is Israel, the nation of God, the
chosen people, these are the
ones who have become the many dry bones
in the valley and it says they were
very dry and in huge quantity.
It is self-evident that there was absolutely
no life in them, it was a hopeless
situation, it was something just to be left
outside in the wilds and there was rottenness,
there was no possibility of a reversal of
the situation.
But nevertheless, despite the rottenness that had happened,
these were still the bones of the elect
of God, God's chosen.
Those who had followed the Lord previously and
through whom the Lord had worked, they were
a people at one time through whom God
could obtain glory.
They had not been removed out of God's
heart.
God still has hope that he can collect
them together as his chosen people and wash
them and cleanse them.
But let's make this more applicable to ourselves.
Dry bones, dry bones without flesh upon them,
no sinews, not even a hint of life.
Take your own life Christian, put yourself into
this position, death, the absence of
life, the falling into hopelessness where others even
say well is there anything that can come
out of this person anymore?
The children of Israel by this time, they
had gone through many different things.
They no longer worshipped God.
They had drifted into idolatry, learning from the
surrounding pagan nations about their religions.
They had forgotten about their God.
And they began to even think well, even
God doesn't see us anymore.
He doesn't truly care about us.
And so they began to do whatever they
felt like doing.
Remember the children of Israel when they were
in Babylon.
There in Babylon they were also under great
oppression.
They were not able to meet together.
They were also like dead people.
Under the oppressive hand of the dictator of
that day and they were incapable of doing
what they should be doing as the people
of God.
In fact even their being in Babylon was
a consequence of the life that they lived.
As a consequence of their sin, they had
been made captive and carried off to a
foreign land.
In a land where there is no unity
with God.
There was no life among them.
There was no fellowship with the Lord.
After all they were the ones who had
deserted God.
They were the ones who had been worshipping
their idols.
They had fallen into their own habits, evil
habits.
And thus they find themselves in the land
of captivity.
Child of God, a similar experience may have
befallen you.
You might come indeed to services, but in
actual fact you are a captive.
Maybe in the sight of God you too
are dry bones.
There is no life.
The evidence of God being in your life
is just not there.
And so God took Ezekiel on a tour
through these piles of dry bones and after
the tour Ezekiel said, well I saw no
life, only dry bones.
It might be that we are a large
crowd, but in actual fact we are dead.
It might be that we are many in
a service, but in actual fact there is
an absence of life.
May the Lord help us in that.
Examining our own state as to whether the
Lord is alive and whether his life is
in me.
God then asked him a question.
Son of man.
These piles of dry bones which you have
observed, can they live again?
And so he answered, oh Lord God, I
don't know.
You know.
You have the knowledge whether these dry bones
can come to life again.
Your understanding surpasses mine.
You have the knowledge and the insight as
to whether these dead dry bones can come
to life again.
It was easy for the prophet to hastily
answer, Lord, it is absolutely a hopeless case.
There is nothing that can be done.
Humanly speaking, that was the automatic response that
there was just no indication or any sign
of life.
However, he looked at it in relationship to
God and saw it with God's point of
view saying, well Lord, I don't know whether
this can happen, but you do.
You know alone whether these bones can become
living people again or child of God.
This scenario can happen so easily.
And it's very easy for us to judge
it by saying it's hopeless, that person is
useless, there is no chance of them coming
back to life.
And we might write a person off and
say they'll never experience the grace of God
again.
Their sin is just too far gone.
They've reached the point of no return.
And you judge the matter without true understanding.
But he, the prophet says, Lord, I don't
know, but you know whether these bones can
be revived to be alive again.
He left it over to the Spirit of
God as to what he would do, for
after all, all life resides in him.
And now as the prophet hands over the
matter back to God, the Lord then reveals
to him what he says about the matter.
And here is God's answer.
He says, son of man, prophesy now.
Go to work and tell these bones, this
is what the Lord says.
Now the onus is on the prophet.
It is now the responsibility of the preacher
of the gospel.
Go about your work, speak, and speak to
that which is dead.
Speak to these things which are as dead
as planks.
For this is what the Lord God says.
Now he didn't fight against God's suggestion.
He did not contradict what the Lord had
said.
He didn't enter into a debate and say,
Lord, I can never do this.
These things are really dead.
But he did exactly what God had said
and obediently fulfilled God's command.
And he spoke to these dead bones.
Let's look again at our lives, brethren.
What are they like before the Lord?
Is there still life towards God?
A zeal for the Lord?
Or maybe you've got to the point of
being astonished at what's happening to you.
You might enter into spiritual confusion and you
don't know what direction you're going in.
You don't know whether you're Arthur or Martha,
whether you're heading north or south.
There is such a condition.
So the question is aimed at you.
Are you that which the Lord has called
you originally to be?
Another indication of death may be this.
You're tired and you don't know what to
do.
Even if others come to a service and
they sing enthusiastically.
Or a person says, I can't sing because
I can't learn.
And even if there's a song written up
for you on the screen, there are others
singing around you and they are praising God
with real worship.
But you just keep quiet.
Now I excuse you if you're just incapable
of singing.
After all, we're not all the same.
Maybe you're really genuinely afraid of missing the
key to the point that you confuse those
around you.
But if there is true worship in song,
if there's genuine singing and you just don't
participate, it is a sign, an indication of
spiritual death.
Maybe you are aware of the heavy load
of sin that is weighing down strongly upon
you.
That's an indication also of death.
There are many dry bones and they're really
dry.
The indication here of these dry bones is
that they've been dry for a long time.
This indicates a long absence of the presence
of God.
Is that perhaps depicting your condition of child
of God?
Maybe you who no longer experience any sweetness
in being in the house of God.
You no longer hear God's voice speaking to
you at all.
And you find that there's no relationship between
you and God anymore.
Instead, there is pride.
There is haughtiness.
There is the response, I know.
And you obey your own instincts now even
when you know that they are against the
Lord and in conflict with Him.
It doesn't help to continue in a land
of deception when you understand your condition.
The Lord says, Ezekiel, God's prophet, he said,
Ezekiel, you prophesy to these bones.
Let something happen.
He said, prophesy to these bones and say
to them, hear the word of the Lord,
O dry bones.
And indeed, he prophesied to these dry bones.
Amazing, as he spoke the word, things happened
simultaneously.
There was a shaking.
There was a working of the word in
these bones.
There was a moving and a shaking of
these bones.
A rattling and a coming together.
One bone came from there and joined with
another from over here.
People who had looked at this scene might
have run away.
They might have said, these are spooks or
ghosts arising from the dead.
One bone coming from here, another from there,
coming together.
And they jumped together.
There was a stirring and a shaking among
the bones.
But take note, the word says, even as
the bones were rattling and coming together, there
was not yet any life in these bones.
It was just a stirring.
Be careful, dear Christian.
There are many possibilities of stirrings and movements,
but there's a continuation of death.
You might be stirred up by things which
happen and you think it's life, but it's
still death.
You might also think that any movement, any
rattling of bones indicates life, but it might
just be further deception and death.
There is an absence of life.
There was just a noise and a rattling.
There were no sinews or flesh upon them.
The Lord said, now, son of man, continue
prophesying to these bones and call upon the
breath, call upon the Spirit of God to
breathe.
That the Spirit of God would bring about
life in these bones.
Child of God, never stop until it's the
Spirit of God Himself who is operational in
your life.
Don't be satisfied or console yourself by saying,
well, at least I'm around, at least I'm
present.
Maybe the Spirit of God is gone from
your life.
You need to have that consciousness of the
Lord by His Spirit being with you.
Here is this great work happening in a
Christian.
God says, prophesy to these bones.
Speak to them.
Speak to the one who doesn't yet believe.
Maybe the person sitting close to you.
You know them well.
You know that they haven't yet met with
the Lord.
Do you have an urge and feel the
need to share with them, to bring them
to the Lord?
Maybe instead you're criticizing them.
Maybe gossiping about them.
Maybe slandering them.
But you don't have a heart to share
with that person that they too would get
to know the Lord.
This also teaches us that should you go
and share with the person about the things
of the Lord, what type of person you
ought to be.
If you want to try and help somebody
in suffering, a lost soul, it is important
that you need to be in prayer.
You need to seek God's grace to be
present with you as you go to that
person.
But when you go to them, that you
are conscious of the Lord's presence, for only
He can work in that person's life.
In our preaching, in our witnessing, we need
to be assured of the Lord being there
Himself.
For a rattling and a stirring is simply
not enough.
There is something else that is necessary.
There needs to be flesh upon these naked
bones.
There needs to be sinews upon these bones
before there is life.
There needs to be skin upon the flesh,
then that it is made into a person.
But when the prophet of the Lord was
speaking and the Lord God was at work,
miracles happened.
Those who were absolutely dead as we've read,
they stood to their feet an exceedingly great
army.
This is what moves me, that when this
work of God was complete, when the dry
bones in the valley had got together and
stood up as an army, stood up as
people alive, standing to their feet, then they
became a great army.
Are you aware that God is not satisfied
with the condition in which you find yourself?
God is expecting much more of you.
He wants you to be part of His
great army.
Why is it then that when you hear
the word of the Lord being prophesied, the
spoken word comes to you, that you don't
stand up together with God's people and be
a soldier in the Lord's army.
And as they came together and stood up
united as an exceedingly great army, the Lord
was well pleased and He was able to
use them as His instruments again.
Don't remain in a condition of spiritual sickness.
If you're aware that things are not right,
when you hear the word of the Lord,
stand up, take action.
When the Lord speaks to you about your
life, when the Lord Jesus reveals to you
that there is life for you, then it
is so important that you believe what Jesus
says.
Believing and obeying what Jesus says.
As Jesus said on the cross, it is
finished, it is complete.
He had perfected and completed His task in
coming to this world.
So the one who does not have that
completion and that fulfillment of all things, he
now has to come to the Lord for
that.
For Jesus has done His work.
He has completed His work.
He has spoken.
No matter how dead you might be, you
must hear Him.
And since He has spoken, we must all
hear Him.
And in hearing His word, we ought to
stand to our feet, being His great army,
through whom He can be proud of His
army, through whom He can work, and His
task and His commission can be fulfilled.
The plans of God can come into fulfillment
through our lives.
If that has not yet happened in your
life, you owe a debt to God.
Maybe the Lord is saying of your life,
what else do I need to do?
I have done all these different things.
I have dug around this person.
I have done this and that for them.
What else needs to be done for them
to rise up?
The word of God spoken to us is
alive.
And what is spoken to us ought to
bring us life.
No matter how dead we've been, we ought
to experience the life-giving power of His
word.
What is of crucial importance is, are you
being obedient to what His word says?
So, how are these bones with regards to
us?
Are we dry bones that do not hear
the word of God?
But these bones that God speaks of here
heard His voice.
Having heard, there was a rattling and a
stirring, showing that a new life was coming
about, bringing life to these bones.
So, child of God, never rest until you
know that the Lord's work has been brought
about, has been completed and is being done
in your life.
Maybe you know that you have not done
what you ought to do.
There are still gaps in your life and
there are still things that are wrong in
you.
Identify then with this life from God.
Identify with the life which we receive from
Jesus Christ, He who denied His life for
us, who denied everything to save us from
our sins.
Is that work which He did still important
to you?
Or has it not been satisfactory to you?
What then is holding you back?
That you should not be in this great
army of God.
What I know is this, a soldier of
God, each soldier of the Lord is known
by Him.
And each soldier has his particular commission which
he ought to fulfill from his Lord.
And no one else is going to do
your work unless you do it.
So rise up, O child of God, hear
the word of the Lord, stand up in
obedience to Him, for He wants to fulfill
His plans and His task.
Maybe your problem is you don't bow.
You don't agree to humble yourself.
And you say, I have these reasons and
according to me, this is my opinion.
And the way I know the story is
this, rather hear what does God have to
say, and do what the Lord says to
you.
Forget what is your own.
Forget your own opinions and ideas, and your
own way of seeing things.
Humble yourself before the Lord and say, Lord,
you speak to my life.
Lord, raise me up.
Lord, work in my life.
If that isn't our cry to the Lord,
in its stead will be, in its place,
the devil will pour in all manner of
filth and rubbish into our lives.
But you have the opportunity to be obedient
to the Lord and to say, Lord, I
do hear your call.
I want to stand up, rise up and
be a soldier in your army.
And so this great army of God stood
up.
And then it was ready for action, for
service in the Lord's work.
Where are you?
How is your life?
What is it like?
Maybe you're a young person.
The Lord is speaking to you.
You understand the condition that you're in.
You know you're just white bones.
You know you're dry.
But the Lord intends to bring you back.
Maybe in your youth, as a young person,
you are influenced by the noise and rattling
of bones.
And you are not satisfied with your condition.
Or you're not satisfied with what the Lord
has taught you.
And you decide just to go your own
ways.
And so you sideline yourself from God.
But God seeks you.
He loves you.
He has a special, unique place just for
you.
Maybe you say, oh, nobody cares for me.
Nobody loves me.
If they do, they just scold me.
Or anybody who sees me, they just criticize
me.
So it just proves that I'm a condemned
person.
Satan is only deceiving you and bluffing you,
oh child of God.
It's Satan who tries to condemn you and
to widen the gap between you and God.
But the Lord seeks you.
He wants you to come to that exact
place, that calling, that specific, unique place that
he has for you.
Therefore, come to Jesus.
Do not try and escape from God.
Don't try and run away from life.
Don't try and name lists of things that
sidetrack you.
Just do the one thing.
Say, Lord, I hear your word.
And Lord, from now on, I want to
rise up.
I want to do your will.
I want to be one who's trustworthy in
the unique position and place where you've called
me to be.
For God has called you.
He has work that is just for you.
And as you are seated here, you have
a debt towards God.
And you need to pay this debt and
be in God's place, that God can use
you.
The Lord used this prophet and gave hope
that these children of Israel could be returned
and could be revived again.
He's able to change the condition of your
heart.
He can take this heart of stone in
you and he can give you a heart
of flesh.
And so the Lord says that these bones
can be my people again.
They can return to me.
So the Lord gives a message of hope
for he loves his people.
He has elected them for himself.
And he loves you too.
Chosen you.
Even though you might feel condemned.
And you feel utterly useless.
But the Lord has a specific intention for
your life and it's not for somebody else,
it's just for you.
Maybe you don't even pray.
Maybe in the past you used to be
free to pray and others would be blessed.
But now you don't do it.
In a service you can't lead sons.
Even though in the past you might have
been a help in that life.
But now you've deserted your post.
The Lord calls you.
Return to your place.
Return to your position.
The Lord desires to give you life.
That there might be something that happens in
truth in your life.
That there might be a real relationship between
you and God and that you know it.
So that when you pray you are conscious
of the fact that there's communion with him
and he hears you.
That you're one with him.
And that there's nothing that divides you.
The word of the Lord says, Behold, the
hand of the Lord is not shortened that
it cannot serve you.
And his ear is not too heavy that
it cannot hear.
So in your deceived state, God wants to
stretch forth his arm, his saving arm.
He listens with his ear.
He wants to restore you to life.
So what will you do about it?
Will you leave here and just go your
way again?
Will you leave here and just go your
way again?
Knowing that there is sin that is pressing
against you, when will you ever confess this
sin which troubles you?
For how long are you going to go
in and out of services with it?
Even though you know that your present condition
brings no satisfaction to you?
So why do you go out of the
service in the same troubled condition instead of
saying, Lord I come to you and I
bring to you this burden?
Tell the Lord, tell Him your problems, tell
Him your sorrows, tell Him all that you
have done.
For He does intend to help you today
and He wants you in that place.
You need to know it.
There is a place which God wants you
to be at.
And remember He cannot use you until you
have been sanctified.
You need to receive a new heart.
Let it be the end of this heart
of stone.
And receive this heart of flesh, a soft
heart in other words, that is receptive to
the Word of God.
That the Word of God can work in
you and that the Lord can glorify Himself
through you.
The Lord calls you.
He wants to send you.
When will you stand up?
When will you be part of God's army?
May the Lord help us.
Let's bow and pray.
Lord we thank you that with your Word
is the power of life.
Thank you Lord that when you said, let
there be light, there was light.
And when you say to the one who
is crippled, rise up Lord, you give him
the power to rise up.
Lord help us therefore to obey your Word
and to trust you to provide that miraculous
power.
That miracle of dry bones becoming human life,
God filled life again.
Lord to the one who is in this
hopeless condition of not ever thinking that they
can be restored and revived again.
Stir them up Lord with hope.
Help them Lord to respond in obedience to
your Word.
To cast off their sins.
Trusting in you Lord to enable them to
do it.
Lord you have proved you can do it
by dying and rising again.
Grant Lord that in this audience there would
be those who obey immediately your Word.
That you might build for yourself Lord a
mighty army.
Through whom you can work.
Be with each one of us Lord as
we part.
Grant Lord that we won't just be stirred
and shaken and rattled.
But that we might move into life and
receive that breath from above.
We ask it Lord Jesus so that you
would be glorified.
Amen.