Now, the first thing I want to do is to give you my appreciation and Shirley's appreciation for all your kindnesses. You're very hospitable. You're easy to get to know. It's just a wonderful place you have here. We thank you very sincerely for all of your kindnesses to us. and thank Brother Jim and Nancy. It has been a privilege and I'd say an honor to be here. Thank you so much. Now, if you'll look at the book of Ezekiel this morning, please. My subject would be the impossibility of preaching. The impossibility of preaching. I remember a little old barefooted boy way back yonder in Bryson, Texas. You don't know where that is, do you? Yes, sir. Yeah, you've been there. Don took me by there. It's the first time I've been back since 1942. We went through there and looked at Bryce and Texas. But that's where the Lord brought me into this world, and there I was, a little freckled face, barefooted boy. live there until 12 years of age, and then we moved to the Houston area. But I got to thinking about that last night, and I remarked to Shirley, here's a little old barefooted nothing boy back in Bryson, Texas. And here he is today, almost 71 years of age and standing up here. That is the most amazing thing I've ever even contemplated. As we say in Texas, who would have thunk it? Not me, not me. But God, he takes real crooked sticks and strikes a straight blow with a crooked stick and takes little old boys and allows them to live in this world and sin and get into all kind of foolishness. And then at a certain time in their life, he moves on their heart, reveals the Lord Jesus to them. And in Psalm he says, I believe I'll have you to be a preacher. A preacher. The impossibility of preaching. Impossible. But here we are. God is chosen by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. That is amazing. Let's read Ezekiel. Thirty-seven, 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. And again he said unto me, Will prophesy upon 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 you shall live, and I will lay sinews upon you, and will 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.' And 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, aloe the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above, but there was no breath in them. 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. And 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, the book of Ezekiel is a very prophetic book. I believe chapters 36 through 40 has a lot of prophecy. And I don't propose to know what will happen in the future. I believe Israel is God's chosen earthly people. I believe that. Israel figures prominently in the end of this world system. I do believe that. And it looks as if when the Lord Jesus returns there will be a great battle, and I I believe it will be in Israel. But if you want to figure out all these prophetic things from chapter 36 to 40, well, you read and do the best you can. And when you do, don't set any dates. All men are setting dates and events. naming all the nations involved. I don't know anything about that. But if you read, let God speak to you. But I don't want to deal with the prophetic teaching here. There's a spiritual application, and that's what I'd like to deal with this morning. And if you're one of the elect children of God, you'll understand the spiritual application of what has been read, and so that is what we will look at this morning. What is really taught here that is of utmost importance is the restoration of every child of God from sin. The making alive of these bones, no one would doubt, was a miracle. But it's not any more of a miracle. In fact, there's a greater miracle that God does, and he makes sinners alive from the spiritual death which you as a sinner inherited in Adam. And so we look at it in that light this morning. We'll have five divisions, the prophet's vision, and then God's question, and then the prophet's answer, and then the Lord's command, and then the prophet's dependence. And so in verses 1 and 2, we have the prophet's vision. 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." Now, the prophet Ezekiel saw all of this. Can you picture him in your mind walking out into that valley and walking among those dry, dead bones? Now, every preacher of God Every prophet of God sees the same condition right now, the impossibility of preaching. We look all over the world and we see all the sons of Adam, and what are they? They are just as dead in trespasses and sins as those bones were in that valley. And no doubt in this auditorium this morning there are those who are dead in sin. What happened in that valley? Well, I don't know for sure, but I suspect they had a battle. And these bones laying out there were those who lost the battle and they died. And so you get the application immediately of what happened to this world. I preached not long ago two messages on what's wrong with man, and I have a third when I get back to deliver to the people there. There was a battle in the Garden of Eden, and we lost and died. God said to Adam, in the day that you eat of this tree, you'll surely die. You're not going to be bruised. You're not going to be shaken up, but you're going to die. Death. Death came. And when Adam ate that fruit, he died. Not physically, we know that. He lived a good long while physically, but he died spiritually. And when Adam died, who is the father of us all, Adam is your father. And when he died, death, condemnation, judgment passed upon all men. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all sin." Romans 5, verse 12. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15, 22, in Adam, all die. And when Paul was writing about the conversion of the Church at Ephesus, he wrote to them, and you hath God quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. And I want you to realize that. If God would come where you are today and show you your death and And if he ever does that, you can rest assured that he will follow that up with life in Christ. Because you cry out for mercy when you see your terrible condition. And so this picture we're looking at in Ezekiel 37 is not only the house of Israel, that shall be restored from the grave, but is the spiritual world that has been vested by sin and left full of many dry, dead bones. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." We hear that and there is just usually no reaction. Oh, yes, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. My friend, if you come short of the glory of God, you're going to spend eternity in torment. That's how deep that expression is. And so we're saying here, and you've heard this over and over, but we need to hear it again, we are dead in sin, graveyard dead. And if God ever shows you your condition, wouldn't that be wonderful? That's good. God came to this old boy back there when I was 32 years of age and showed me that I was dead in sin. I kind of suspicious there's something wrong. But now that's as far as most people go. They have a little suspicion. Oh, yeah, I do things wrong. But what I'm talking about here is when God comes and shows you the death. He showed me my death, dead. That startled me, dead in sin. Now, when God shows you that, The good news is if you get it, you've already been made alive. Mr. Bishop said, No man ever yet did cry for a new heart until he had one. So all that's instantaneous. God shows you your death and life is immediate. And so it's good. It's the grace of God if you know you're dead in sin. Because if you know you're dead in sin in your natural self, then you have life in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the sons of Adam, there's not even a glimmer, there's not even a spark of spiritual life. There is a song in most songbooks. I read it not long ago. It's called Rescue the Perishing. You may sing it. I don't know, but watch it. I don't think you do. Down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter, feelings lie buried that grace can restore. That's a life of hell. There's feelings. What feelings does a sinner have down inside? Hate, animosity, and all the evil that you can even imagine. That's what's in the human heart. And there are not any feelings in there that grace can restore. Grace doesn't restore anything. Grace brings life to that which is dead. because you and I don't have anything to restore. We're without hope, we're without help, we're without Christ, we're without God, and tragically we're without any desire for God. Mr. Graham, some of the chief evangelists say men are seeking for God. That's not so. Men are not seeking for God. Men in their natural state hate God, and just like Adam, they'll run and get behind a bush if God comes around, or they'll get in a church house and hide from God. How foolish that is, just like these bones. Dead. Can you get a hold of that? Just like these bones. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. And so the true prophet of God looks over the world. And I stand and think sometimes, what am I doing? This is impossible. We look over the world and we see nothing but dry, dead bones. Of course, if you've been made alive, that's good, but I'm talking about men in general. Dry, dead bones, and the battle in the Garden of Eden left them dead. That's the Prophet's vision. He's out walking. and walks by the leg bones and the skull here and walks through there, and there was a very great number of those bones. A lot of people died there. And so the Lord said, You go out there among them, the hand of the Lord. He carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord. set me down right in the middle of all those dry, dead bones. Now, the prophet's question from God, verse 3, And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? Well, Ezekiel, look at them. Can they live? Oh boy, what an impossible thing. If you have any conception of the spiritual deadness of natural man, if you have any conception of what spiritual life is, you too have pondered this question. Can my child live? Can my mother and my dad live? Can all of my neighbors live? Is there any possibility that there could be life in them, life from God? Can these bones live? And most people, preachers included, don't know what dead in sin means. And I just have just a little inkling of what it means. Most people, preachers included, don't know what eternal life is. And we have just a small inkling of what eternal life is. I heard a preacher say the other day, God can't do anything for you until you change your love. In other words, he was saying, don't love the world, change your love, start loving God. Well, you try to do that, will you? Try, just, all right, let's see you do it. Spiritual death is to be without God, without light, without life, without knowledge, without hope. And it's the same as natural death in one sense of the word. A dead person doesn't have any feelings. And you go down to the funeral home and you take the greatest symphony orchestra that this world has ever known anything about, and you get them in there and they play the most beautiful music, and there's a dead man lying there. What does he do? He just lies there. He doesn't move, he doesn't hear, he has no feelings. He doesn't know what's going on around him. You can take the greatest teacher in the world and take him in there and he'll teach that man, let me teach you something, and he teaches all day the greatest things that man has ever heard of. And that corpse just lies there. It's there. It has no life. And so the prophet looked at these bones, and the bones are bleached and parched in the hot sun. And God asked him, Can these bones live? And as we look at those who hate God and love evil and who are a law unto themselves, who are self-willed, who crucified the Lord of glory, God asks us this question. Can these bones live? Can those who hate God love God? Can those who love evil seek after holiness? Can those who are law unto themselves bow to Christ's law? Can those who are self-willed and filled with envy and strife and malice and hatred, can they love God's will? And those who crucified the Lord of glory suddenly say, I believe I'll crown him as king. Can they do that? That's what modern day preachers tell us, that they can do that. If they'll make up their mind and make that decision and suddenly stop in their tracks and say, wait a minute, I'm going the wrong way. Let me turn around. And they say, you have that ability. And we say this book teaches there is no spiritual ability in man whatsoever. So that's the impossibility of preaching. Job asked that question, how can man that is born a woman be clean? Jeremiah asked that question, Can the Ethiopian change his skin and the leopard his spots? And he said, If they can, then can you do good who are accustomed to do evil? If you ever see a man think a little bit and change the color of his skin, then you can do good. The disciples asked that question, Lord, who then can be saved? Who? Who can be saved? And you'll find that question running all the way through the Bible, and I know the modern evangelist has all the answers. You see them on television. You've probably visited the churches at times. Some of you probably came out of churches. Like that, where they say, come down the aisle, shake my hand, and meet me in the promised land. But is that the answer? Is he a dead man? Come on down, old dead man, and shake my hand. And you won't be a bag of bones anymore. You'll have life. No, you won't. You won't have life. Take some of these soul winners and send them down there among those dry dead bones and see if they can make any of them rise up and live. No, Ezekiel, don't go down there and shake hands with them. That won't give them life. No, no, don't do that. Can these bones live, God said? Have you ever asked that question? Can my children live? My children are dead in sins and trespasses. Can my children live?" Boy, we think about them, so ignorant, so puffed up with their own importance, so involved in this world. We have a son who makes just wads of money. He'll be 50 years old next year, and he has no conception of what it is to live. And he's seeing the good times in this life, but he has no conception of what's the matter with him. He's dead. And we can talk with him and plead with him and reason with him, but his mind is great and he has other thoughts about things. And he will agree with anything you tell him. He'll say, that's right. The Lord Jesus Christ saves from sin. Oh, that's right. We hadn't saved him. Can these bones live? Is there a possibility that a dead sinner can be made to live? Is there a possibility of that? What a question. The impossibility of what I'm doing right now, impossible. And when you contemplate what spiritual death is and what spiritual life is, you're going to ask that question, can these bones live? Not can they make a profession of religion. Don't let your kinfolks make a profession of religion. Keep them away from that. For all men are religious by nature. Don't let them decide for Jesus. Keep your children away from things like that. It's not deciding for Jesus. It is, can they live? Can they live the life of faith, the life of glory, the life of love, the life of beauty, the life of truth, the life of peace, the life of rest, the life of God? Can they live that? They've got natural life, but that's a long way from spiritual life. There's mineral life, and there's plant life, and there's animal life, and there's the natural life of man. And then there is spiritual life, and spiritual life is as far above natural life as natural life is above animal life. You can't teach an ape geography, and you can't teach a natural man the love of Christ. You can't teach an ape mathematics and you can't teach a rebellious child of Adam what it is to walk with Christ. It's impossible. I can't do that. No matter the greatest teacher come along, the greatest Bible teacher, he can't teach an old sinner how to walk with Christ. That's not possible. It's a life they know nothing about, and God says, can they live? And here is the Prophet's answer now, verse 3, the last part. And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest, thou knowest. The only one who knows whether they can live is the one who has the power to make them live. Thou knowest. Boy, that's the way I am. Lord, you know. You know whether my children will live or not. You know whether my neighbors will ever come and visit that little old church where we are and hear the gospel or not. You know that. I don't know that. Thou knowest." The same thing was reenacted between the disciples and the Master. Look at Matthew 19, verse 25. When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? But Jesus beheld them, he just looked at them, and he said, With men this is impossible. Oh, the impossibility of preaching. With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. You notice it says in verse 25, when they heard it, when they heard what salvation is, what life is. They were exceedingly amazed, and it will amaze anybody when they find out what salvation is and what life in Christ is. It's amazing. And that's the reason Ezekiel stood back and said, Lord God, thou knowest. And God comes today to true preachers, and he says to those who preach the truth of a sovereign Christ, lift up your eyes on the fields and look at the dead, dry, parched bones. Can they live? Can those people who come to our Church on occasion and are not seen anymore for a long time, can they live? I don't know. Lord, thou knowest, and Lord, I can't give them life. I can prophesy all sorts of recipes and rituals and ceremonies, and I can get people to join the church, and I can get them dumped in the baptistry, but I can't give them life. And I make that clear when I preach. I'm in an impossible situation. And if you, right where you are, if you ever will come to know what life is, God has to come right where you are. And two men will come in and sit down, and during the course of the message At first they're not either one interested at all, and then all of a sudden one will show interest and his ears will perk up and he'll say, I never heard anything like that before. And he says, this is the truth. And the other one still sits there thinking about something else, going fishing the next day. But that man whom God comes to while the preaching is going on, What happened to him? He's made to live. And he said, there's the truth. And I've seen that happen a few times. I've never had a thousand saved at one time. Or two, I'm trying to think of two at one time. And all these preachers' brag sheets, I don't know much about that. I just don't know anything about that. I could go into the tomb and anoint Lazarus with some sweet-smelling perfume, but old Lazarus still would be dead. And I might roll a stone over his grave, and all that would do would make the community smell a little better. He won't stink up the neighborhood. He'll reform and get a little better, and he won't be as mean as he was to his wife. And he gets right proud of himself. He's a good man now, and he doesn't smell so bad. But he doesn't have life. I can't do that. And a man can't give himself life either. those dead bones out there. Can you see them? One looks over to the other pile of bones and says, I'll help you out. I'll put you together, you put me together. That's what these preachers are doing now. These dead bones may perform what preachers tell them to do, and I agree with Don. All the one of them say if they do what a preacher tells them to do. except believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." They make all sorts of decisions, but life is not in their power. Ezekiel said, O Lord God, Jehovah God, Savior God, Jesus Christ, Lord God, thou knowest, because as a saving, redeeming God, As Jesus the Christ, you can make them alive if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, Jesus to be Lord. Don't ever rebel against this. The heart of the message of preaching is that the Lord Jesus Christ is just that, he's the Lord. That's the heart of our message. And if you rebel against this, as most religious people do, you will find yourself speaking against God. Thou knowest, Lord, and I say to the Lord this morning, these people out here, Lord, that I'm speaking to right now, there's not one thing I can do except tell them the truth. I acknowledge to God that he must come in the power that only he has. He has the power over all dry, dead bones to give life to whom he will. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickneth them, even so the Son quickneth whom he will. John 5, verse 21. I'm not talking about religion. There's a whole lot too much religion. But I believe God raised up a prophet here and one there, and they're scattered all over this country and all over this world who are telling the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, Lord, thou knowest, and now the Lord's command, verse 4, began, he said unto me, Preach, prophesy, That's an unusual way to bring life, to dry bones, but that's God's way. People say to me, Well, if I believe what you believe, that sinners are dead, have no power to give themselves life, then I wouldn't preach. And I say to them, Well, go on home and quit trying then. Go to bed and get a nap. You're not going to do anybody any good. Go on about your business and quit saying you're a preacher of the gospel of God's grace. God said, Ezekiel, preach to them, and then verse 7, So I prophesied as I was commanded. I did what God told me to do, and that's all we can do today is what God tells us to do. The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but not to us which are saved. It is the power of God. The power of God. I have a power that I'm delivering to you. It's not my power, it's the power of God. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible. How? By the word of God. 1 Peter 1.23. So we deliver the word of the living God, preach to them, and tell them to hear the word of the Lord. And I tell every one of you dear folks here this morning, hear the word of the Lord. Oh, if you just hear the word of the Lord. See, you are not here just to endure the preaching time. You are here to hear from God. And God is speaking, and woe be unto you if you don't hear while you are in this place. But I know you don't have ears unless God has given you ears. All right, we'll have to get through. The Prophet's Dependence, verse 9, Then said he unto me, Prophesy, son of man, say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O breath, And, of course, you know, when the prophet preached, verse 7, there was a noise, and behold, a shaking, and the bones came together. And you know the story, but there was no breath in them. And then God said in verse 9, prophesy unto the wind. Of course, the wind Here is breath, and breath is the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh, profiteth nothing. So call on the Holy Spirit, and I call on the blessed Spirit of God. The sovereign, omnipotent Spirit of God must come on these proceedings. if anybody hears to even understand what we say. Saul of Tarsus had religion, doctrine, zeal, but he said when it pleased God to reveal his son in me. He was 40 years old, and God gave him life. God gave him life. God gives this divine life. I say again that I think very often how impossible this job is, and yet I love it, I relish it. Almost 35 years I have spoken the word of God, and God has blessed it and people have heard it, and occasionally the Spirit of God really comes upon a person and they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And if he doesn't come, our words fall flat, because he crushes human foolishness, and he shows sin as it is. And when he comes, we quit hating and start loving. We quit complaining and start praising. We quit fault-finding and began to see good. But you are just a dry, dead bone without him. And I am, too, this preacher. I am not preaching down to you. But he gives life. Verse 10, I prophesied as he commanded me. And the breath came unto them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. I think we ought to be Mighty grateful to our Lord for coming our way, don't you? I'm grateful that he came my way. That little old barefooted boy back there in Bryson, Texas. If you're ever in Texas, go through Bryson, but don't look for a statue on the town square, because they didn't put one up when I left.