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.