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For our second scripture reading,
we turn to the book of Ezekiel, chapter 37, verses 1 through
14. Ezekiel 37, 1 through 14. The hand of the Lord was upon
me, and He brought me out in the
Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the middle of the valley. It was full of bones. And He led me around among them,
and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley,
and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, son of man,
can these bones live? And I answered, oh Lord God,
you know. Then he said to me, prophesy
over these bones and say to them, oh dry bones, hear the word of
the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these
bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live. and I will lay sinews upon you
and will cause flesh to come upon you and cover you with skin
and put breath in you and you shall live. And you shall know
that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was
a sound and behold, a rattling and the bones came together.
bone to its bone, and I looked, and behold, there were sinews
on them, and the flesh had come upon them, and the skin had covered
them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, prophesy
to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath,
thus saith the Lord God, come from the four winds, O breath,
and breathe on these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded
me. And the breath came into them,
and they lived and stood on their feet an exceeding great army. And then he said to me, son of
man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they
say, our bones are dried up and our hope is lost. We are indeed
cut off. Therefore prophesy and say to
them, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I will open your graves
and raise you from your graves, O my people, and I will bring
you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am
the Lord when I open your graves and raise you from your graves,
O my people. And I will put my spirit within
you, and you shall live. and I will place you in your
own land, then you shall know that I am the Lord. I have spoken,
and I will do it, declares the Lord. Thus far, God's precious
word to us. Dear congregation, last week
we remembered, of course, that glorious fact of the resurrection
of our risen Lord. This morning we are going to
revisit that glorious fact by looking at, yes, on the one hand,
a sobering passage, but on the other hand, a beautiful picture
from the Old Testament where we see God's resurrection power
on display. And so our text this morning
is found in Ezekiel 34 verses 1 through 14, and I've titled
this message for you, Resurrection Power in a Dry Valley. And the
message is divided in two points, confronted with death, and then
secondly, conquered by life. Confronted with death and conquered
by life. So first of all, we see that
Ezekiel here is confronted with death in an unusual way. We read
in verse 1 together, the hand of the Lord was upon Ezekiel,
and the Lord takes him to a valley. It had happened before, in chapter
1 and other chapters, that God took Ezekiel to a place he had
never been before. And it says then, the Spirit
of the Lord brings him to that valley. It's not a normal valley. But it's a valley where it looks
like there has been a battlefield, and there's all soldiers left
dead and wounded, and it's been so terrible. It's been all dead
and dry bones. No life whatsoever is left. All have died. And the Spirit shows Ezekiel
around in the valley. He needs to take a good look
for a moment. Not a superficial look, but a look that takes all in
what he sees in that valley. Now, what does he see? He sees
a valley, children, filled with bones. But not only Ezekiel needs to
take a good look, you and I need to take a good look this morning.
Through the Word of God, this passage comes to us, and verse
2 tells us the simple word, behold. And it says it again, behold. It means pay attention, look
at this. Let this sink in for a moment.
It's there for us, for you and me this morning, calling us to
have a good look as well. And so twice we are, as it were,
called to, through Ezekiel's eyes, look at this valley of
dry bones. And when we see that in our minds,
we picture it, and we listen to the word of God, what does
it say to us? There were very many bones. And it says there
about those bones, they were very dry. And the fact that Ezekiel
can see them tells us that they were all unburied. That was something,
was a terrible shame and a dishonor and a disgrace in the times of
the Bible. And here, Ezekiel is standing
right between all those bones in the middle of this valley
and realizing the devastating and destructive power of, yes,
death and sin. When he stands in that valley,
he must have immediately been realizing, this is what sin does. This is the result. Because of
sin, we all die. You and I need to die. And we
know that life is short. Some of you have maybe experienced
that recently. That's hard, when you realize
that. You stand maybe close to someone
you loved, who has died, and you see the devastating and destructive
power of death, and you realize, who can escape this? Who can escape this? Maybe someone wonders, why is
there Death in the world, and I said it already, didn't I?
Sin. Whose sin? You may be wondering.
Yes, Adam's sin. In Adam, we all died. When Adam took that fruit from
the tree, we all died in him. We all know that tragic moment.
When Adam, the first created being, took what God said, no,
forbidden. In him, we all died. It had devastating,
destructive consequences. The world has become like a valley
of dry bones, hasn't it? But that's not the whole answer. It comes closer to you and me. Our personal sinfulness deserves
death. In chapter 18, verse 20, Ezekiel
wrote before and he said, the soul that sins shall die. And not only that, the Bible
tells us after death, what then? The judgment day. And there's only two ways, heaven
or hell. That's what we deserve. Hell
is what we deserve, you and I. Now, not only Ezekiel is confronted
with death in that dry valley as he stands there, and we stand
with him for a moment, but also the people of Israel. The people
of Israel to whom Ezekiel was prophesying They were confronted
with death. If you look in your Bibles at
verse 11, for instance, you see there an explanation of this
vision of Ezekiel, and then it says there, then he, that is
the spirit, said to Ezekiel, to me, son of man, that means
literally in Hebrew, listen well, ben adam, which is son of Adam,
mortal being, someone who can die, son of man, son of Adam,
these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say,
our bones are dried up and our hope is lost. We are indeed cut off. Why are
they saying this? Because of their situation, what
was their situation? Israel found themselves in Babylon. It was far from the promised
land that God has promised them. And why? Because of their sin. They find themselves in a country
far away from the place they love to be, far away from the
promised land. They have not served God and
not give heed to God's warning after warning, but they did not
want to listen. And the Lord punished them by
taking them to that country. And they say here, Our bones
are dried. They're all lifeless. That's
the situation of Israel here. Our hope is lost. We have no
hope. We are indeed cut off. We are
destroyed. What does that tell us this morning? This is the picture for all of
us. If you are outside of Christ here, you have not come to faith
and repentance and trust in Him, you have no hope in Christ this
morning, then you are far from God. You are far from heaven. You are far from the promised
land. You are hopelessly lost without
faith in Jesus Christ. We are where we are because of
our sins. And by nature, we don't like
to have God as a God telling us what to do. We hate God, even
if it's maybe in a religious way or maybe an outright way,
it doesn't really matter. We hate God and we love ourselves
by nature. Do you realize that? If you're
still here this morning outside of Jesus Christ, sin brings death. You're far from heaven, far from
the promised land, hopelessly lost, dry bones. The Bible tells us that outside
of Jesus Christ, as we read from Ephesians 2, by the way, that
we are dead in trespasses and sins. Dead. Not responding to
anything. That's what we are by nature.
That's what we have to see for a moment in this dry valley.
That's what we are reminded of when we stand with Ezekiel in
this valley, looking around for a moment. Maybe there are other ways, too,
that you feel. Maybe even God has made you alive
this morning, and you still feel like a dry valley this morning.
Could be. Maybe your circumstances, maybe
your struggles with sin, you feel, I have no power to overcome. I feel spiritually dry. Maybe
there have been hard afflictions in your life, and you feel hopeless.
Maybe your life circumstances are difficult and trying, and
it seems God is far. You once had joy in the Lord,
but now... We are here to take a good look
for a moment, and to let this reality sink in for a moment. Even the hopelessness of it for
a moment. A spiritual death makes us hopeless. If we are dry bones, spiritually
speaking, that often fills us with hopelessness. But God is
a God of hope, glorious hope. He says it in his word. He reveals
himself in the word as the God of hope who can fill you with
joy and peace in believing so that you may abound in hope through
the power of the Holy Spirit. That's who our God is. Abound
with hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. Joy and peace
in believing. You see, when we are standing
in this valley, there's one thing that God wants us to do, to despair
of everything in ourselves. Every hope that we have apart
from Christ, apart from God. Despair of that. That's fine.
That's good. But don't despair of this glorious
God of ours. Never despair of God and what
He can do. So let's go for a moment back
to that valley. And there stands Ezekiel once
again. He has been preaching to the
exiles of Babylon. And as we read the book of Ezekiel,
unfortunately, the response was meager. But God puts him there
in that valley, and then he asks him a question. It's a question
in verse three. He asks him this, son of man,
again, the son of Adam, mortal being, Son of man, can these
bones live? I think that if Israel was looking
around to their situation, they said, no, no way. Absolutely
no. They can't live. That's how hopeless
the situation looked for Israel in that day. It wasn't going
to change anytime soon. I want to ask you that question
too. Son of man, congregation, can
these dry bones live? Think about your situation. Difficulties,
trials, maybe spiritually dry, or maybe some of us spiritually
dead. Can these bones live? There were
very many dry bones, it says. It would be similar to standing
on a graveyard. And the Lord asking that question
for each one of these graves, Can these bones live? Can these
graves be opened one day, each one of them, and rise? What is our answer? What does
Ezekiel answer? Oh Lord, you know. You know. Ezekiel knows the Word of God.
It tells him that with God there's deliverances from death. Psalm
68 verse 20. Ezekiel knows the Word of God.
Deuteronomy 32 verse 39. See now that I, even I am he,
and there's no God beside me. I kill, and I make a life. I
wound, and I heal, and there's none that can deliver out of
my hand. With that knowledge, He says,
oh Lord, you know. This is the God that he serves.
The God who kills and makes alive. The God who is able. The God
who is almighty. The power, God's power knows
no limits. Not then, not now, not today,
not in your life. God is sovereign. He can do all
things according to his good pleasure. He is holy. He hates
sin, and therefore he must punish sin. He has a perfect hatred
for sin, and he will punish it with death. And if we do not
repent with eternal death, and yet God also is a God of glorious
hope. Very likely, Ezekiel knew that
story of Job. What a miserable situation that
was, if you know the story. But in his most miserable point,
what did he say? Job 19 verse 25, For I know my
Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth,
and after my skin has been dust destroyed, yet in my flesh shall
I see hope, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall
behold, and not another. You see that? God is a God of
glorious hope, of resurrection power, even for a man like Job
in the Old Testament who was so distressed in such difficult
circumstances. He could see it. How is that
possible? It's the work of the Spirit.
But Ezekiel is not there. He knows his Bible. But he's
not there. It seems that he's very cautious.
He says, oh Lord, you know. He's not saying, no, you can,
but it's the Old Testament. God can take dead sinners and
make them alive. Have you experienced that? Do you know the power of the
resurrection in your life? Paul speaks about it in Philippians,
that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship
of his sufferings. Here is a God who tells Babylon
in a hopeless situation, I will bring you back. I can reverse your hopeless situation
as no other. He is a God who conquers death. Hebrews 2 verse 14 says it like
this, that Jesus partook of our flesh and blood. Why? That through
death, by entering into death, he might destroy the one who
has the power of death, that is the devil. So he's the one
who conquers death. And that brings us to our second
thought at this moment. Conquered by life. Consider what
a sight it must have been for Ezekiel for a moment. All these
bodies conquered by death. The picture that all of us are
by nature, dead in trespasses and sins, conquered by death,
and going to the grave, and if God does not prevent, going to
hell. That's our picture. That's who
we are by nature. Hopeless. But yet, what a change. Because our God is a God of hope
and a God of resurrection power, a God of life. How did this dry
valley change? In verse 4, Ezekiel was asked
to do a strange thing, a very strange thing. He stands there
in the midst of all those dry bones, and God says, stand up,
Ezekiel. Listen to my command and then
prophesy. And we could say, speak up, speak
the word of God. Preach, Ezekiel, in the graveyard. Verse four, then said he unto
me, prophesy over these bones and say to them, oh, dry bones,
hear the word of the Lord. Notice, this is the Word of the
Lord. This is the Word of the Great I Am, the God of hope,
the God who has life in Himself, who created everything with the
Word of His power, with a mere breath. This is the God of the
creation, who is and was and is to come. This is the Word
of the Lord. This is the Word of a covenant-keeping
God. He keeps His promises, always, ever. both his threats and his
blessings. Hear the word of the Lord, the
sovereign God, who spoke everything into being, who breathed breath
into Adam, the first created being, and he lived. This God,
hear his word. And so he stands up and prophesy.
And verse 6, we see what happens. There's something remarkable
that happens. God promises that this will happen. And I will
lay sinews upon them. That's muscles and tendons and
ligaments. And I will cause flesh to come
upon them. and I will cover it with skin,
God says, and I will put breath in you, and you shall live. And
this is why God does it. And you will know that I am the
Lord. So Ezekiel obeys, verse seven,
and as I prophesied, children, can you imagine what's happening
here? There was a sound, behold, a
rattling. And the bones are beginning to
move and shake and come together, bone to its bone, it says in
verse 7. And then they are covered with
muscles and tendons and ligaments, and they receive their skin.
But then, to our shock, what do we hear? There was no breath
in them. There's a lesson here. There's much that the Word of
God can do in our lives. There's much that religion can
do in our lives. We can be theologically sound,
orthodox in our confession. We can do everything Christians
are supposed to do. Good works, live exemplary lives. But what is that without the
power of the Spirit? What is that? How does that hold
up when one day you and I stand before God who peers right into
our hearts and sees there's not the breath
of God in this person? That's what you and I need. Because then still, God will
say, I never knew you. That's why this passage is so
glorious, and it shows our deepest need is the power of the Spirit
to enter into us. God's very own breath. Without
that, we will never breathe after God, never glorify Him, live
for Him, serve Him the way He wants, love Him. He created us. He is the only living God worthy
of our worship, worthy of your and my entire devotion. And that's
why God comes to him, to Ezekiel, and speaks a second time here.
And now Ezekiel's call to preach to the breath, or to prophesy
to the breath, It says there in verse 9, prophesy to the breath,
prophesy son of man and say to the breath, thus says the Lord
God, come from the four winds of breath and breathe on these
slain that they may live. Now we need to realize that breath
and or wind, it's also translated in other translations with wind.
It's the same word for spirit. Call upon the Spirit, Ezekiel. That's what God is telling him. Call upon the Spirit. And then the miracle begins to
happen. Do you see it? It's like Adam
being recreated. Breath comes into them. A lifeless body begins to live,
stand upon their feet, and then it says this glorious sentence,
an exceedingly great army. God's Spirit gives life in the
most hopeless of cases. These dead and dry bones become
alive. God opens, as it were, their
graves. What a picture what God does
when he saves us as we are dead in trespasses and sin. What a
hopeful picture we get here in this valley of dry bone. Resurrection
power in a valley of dry bones. And notice, it's God who does
it. God who instructs Ezekiel. God
who brings Ezekiel there. God who shows Ezekiel around.
God who instructs him to prophesy. It's all from God. And God who
brings his breath down. Life-giving breath. It's all
for his glory. And he does it. Why does he do
it? So that he can take dead sinners and bring them to the
promised land. to heaven itself, to glory, a
whole great army. He's going to do it. Are you
part of that? Have you been made alive? How
glorious, praise him today. Unworthy sinners, dead in trespasses
and sins. Why does he do it? I said it
already. For you will know that I am the
Lord. Ezekiel says it. We are going
to read that chapter tonight. In 36, he says, I don't do this
for your sakes. No, not for your sakes, but for
my sake. O house of Israel, because you
have defiled my sin, you have defiled my name, I do it for
my sake, for my glory, to show my power, so that you would serve
and love me. That's what he does. How glorious. Ezekiel 33 verse 11 says, Say
to them, as I live, declares the Lord, I have no pleasure
in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his
ways and live and turn back, turn back from your evil ways.
Why will you die, O house of Israel? That God invites us. Do you hear that? He invites,
come to me for this kind of power. Repent, trust in Jesus Christ. And that's why we read also Ezekiel
2 together. It's as if we stood, as if Paul
there stands in a valley of dry bones. And it is as if we can
see in that chapter, bone by bone coming together before our
eyes. Sinners before salvation, dead
in trespasses and sins, and then walking in their sinful desires,
and walking in step with Satan, the power of the air, children
of disobedience, doing the desires of sinful flesh, children of
wrath, even as others. Do you see the dead bones? That's each of us by nature.
But then, what do we hear? But God, it reverses it. But God, who is rich in mercy
because of his great love. Yes, that's why. Because of his
great love, wherewith he loved us. Even, even when we were dead
in trespasses and sins, made us alive together with Jesus
Christ. Think about that. God saved.
God gives resurrection power. He breathes us on lifeless sinners. He makes us alive together with
Christ. By grace you have been saved.
It's all of grace, nothing of us. Always undeserved. He makes us alive. How is that
possible? Because of Jesus Christ, who
rose from the dead. He's declared the Son of God,
according to the Spirit of holiness, the Holy Spirit, by the resurrection
of the dead. He is vindicated as the Son of
God, someone who's able to conquer death and sin and hell and Satan. He is the one who stood at his
friend's grave, weeping, but also saying, I am the resurrection
and the life. The grave of Lazarus, remember?
He took hold of death. He is the Prince of Life. He
strangled death. And He came forth in His own
resurrection with power. That's the God we serve. That's
the Savior you and I need. And His work is completely finished. Nothing in our hands we can bring,
we may bring. He says to us in the Gospel,
as it were, I will open your graves. I will bring you to the
promised land. I will, I shall be, you shall
know that I am the Lord. And I will put my Spirit upon
you, and you shall live. So I come back to that question
for a moment. Think about your life right now.
I come back to that question, can these dry bones live? After we have stood in this dry
valley, what do you say? What do you say? Absolutely, they can. Whether
you're spiritually dry, whether your circumstances are miserable,
hopeless, whether you're spiritually dead, whatever your situation
is, these bones can live. God is more than able and he
does it for his own glory. Listen to what Christ says in
John 5 verse 24. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever
hears my word and believes on him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment.
He has passed from death to life. I see him stand on Resurrection
Day, gloriously conquer the grave, but I know I know that one day
he, like the greater Ezekiel, will stand among all the graves
of this world. A valley of dry bones, indeed.
He will stand among all those graves, and there will be very
many. This earth is full of graves. If we could see all those graves
at once, we would ask the question, Son of Man, can these bones live? And we would say, really? But Jesus tells us in John 5,
Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are
in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have
done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done
evil to the resurrection of judgment. Do you hear that, Ezekiel? Here
is the greater Ezekiel. Here is the fulfillment of that
glorious prophet in the Old Testament. Here is a more glorious prophet.
He prophesies upon dry bones one day all the graves of the
world will open and hear his voice. He will open your and my grave
if we have died before he comes back. And we all rise in resurrection
bodies, but it is a difference. Did you hear that? How we rise,
whether we have trust in Christ or not. Quite a difference, don't
you think? And so it's a serious valley.
It's still a sobering valley, especially if you're outside
of Christ. What will it be for you? Resurrection
to death or shame or everlasting contempt? Or will it be resurrection
to glorious resurrection, life forever with the Lord? If you are in Christ this morning,
then don't fear. Rejoice. But if you're still
outside of Christ, then fear and turn to Jesus Christ. Trust
in Him. Hear His voice. Surrender your
life. Trust in Him with all your heart. He is more than able to
resurrect your life in ways that are beyond your comprehension. Can these dry bones live? Absolutely,
yes. I want to take you to one more
dry valley for a moment. We saw Paul's dry valley, we
saw the valley of dry bones at the last day, but come to one
more valley and then we close. It's just after the resurrection,
the greater Ezekiel, Jesus Christ, He stands suddenly among his
disciples, and there's these disciples who doubt and fear,
and there's Peter who had denied him, and Thomas who was full
of doubts, and many were discouraged, and it felt like a valley of
dry bones that day. And then suddenly there is this
glorious prophet, Jesus Christ. their Savior in the midst of
this spiritual dryness, deadness. And He comes and stands among
them and He begins to prophesy. You know what He says? Peace be unto you. Peace. Shalom. Peace. That's what Jesus Christ brings
to our souls when He makes us alive. That's what He brings
again when He revives us. And then He says, receive the
Holy Spirit. After what? After He breathed
on them. Do you see that? A valley of
dry bones. Now, Ezekiel needed to prophesy
to the spirit, to the breath, to calm down. But here is Jesus
Christ. He himself is life. He breathes and it begins to
live. Those disciples are receiving
peace and those disciples are being filled with the first installment
of the Holy Spirit. Receive the Holy Spirit. You see, Jesus Christ is still
the same today, yesterday, and forever. He does that still. He does that for spiritually
dead sinners. He breathes this upon them and
He makes them alive. And He does that for those who are discouraged,
and going through trials and hardships, and are fearful, and
maybe doubting, looking to circumstances. And when He breathes this upon
you, it is revival. Spiritual awakening. Is that what you're praying for?
Outpouring of the Holy Spirit? He's still the Prince of Life,
who conquers death and freely gives life to dead sinners today.
And He's still one who revives those who are dry. So one more
time the question. Can these dry bones live? Absolutely, yes. Amen. Let's pray together. Our glorious risen Lord. Resurrected Lord, breathe upon
us. with the power of your Holy Spirit.
Make Christ precious to us. He who was slain and rose from
the dead to conquer sin, death, hell, Satan, and all the powers
of death, to make dead sinners alive. Lord, we confess that
we do not fully grasp the glory of it. But we pray that we would have
tasted, each one of us, something of that glory. And may we know
the power in each one of our lives. Bless us, Lord. Bless us in Christ
Jesus with all your spiritual blessings. Bless us, Lord, fill
us with your Spirit. so that once again we can learn
to begin to live for your honor and glory. We pray these things
in Jesus' name, amen.
Resurrection Power in a Dry Valley
| Sermon ID | 428231211592372 |
| Duration | 42:19 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Ezekiel 37:1-14 |
| Language | English |
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