Ezekiel

So the reading is taken from ezekiel 36, 24 to 32, and then Ezeek your 37 1 14.

For I will take you out of the nations, I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove you from your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

And I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. And then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors. You will be my people and I will be your god. I will save you from all your uncleanliness. I will call you for the corn and make it plentiful and will not bring famine upon you.

I will bring increase the fruit of the trees and the crops of the field so that you will no longer suffer disgrace upon the nations because of famine. And then you will remember your evil ways and your wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your sin and detestable practices. I want you to know that I'm not doing this for your sake declares the sovereign lord, be ashamed and disgraced for your conduct, people of Israel. And then, Ezeq, you're 37. The hand of the lord was upon me and he brought me out by the spirit of the lord and set me in the middle of a valley and it was full of bones.

He led me and fro to and fro among them and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me son of man, can these bones live? I said, sovereign lord, you alone know. And he said to me, prophesy to these bones and say to them dry bones hear the word of the lord. This is what the sovereign lord says to these bones.

I will make breath enter you and you will come to life I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin. I will put breath in you and you will come to life and then you will know that I am the lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together bone to bone. I looked and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin 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 it, this is what the sovereign lord says come breath from the 4 winds and breathe into these slain that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me and breath entered them and they came to life and stood up on their feet, a vast army. And then he said to me, son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say our bones are dried up and our hope is gone and we are cut off. Therefore, prophecy and say to them, this is what the sovereign lord says.

My people, I'm going to open your graves and bring you up from them. I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people will know that I am the lord when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my spirit in you and you will live and I will settle you in your own land. And then you will know that I, the lord, have spoken.

I've done it declares the lord. Well, thank you, Ruth. Good morning. My name's Rory, for those who don't know me, I'm 1 of the, members of staff here at at Cornerstone, and can you believe that I have been given this passage? For those who don't know, this is the passage that Pete always bangs on about, and I never get to preach in the morning.

So wow, but they have They've thrown me a bone upon fully intended. But this is an incredible chapter. So let's pray as we begin. That god may open our eyes to see great truths from his word. Let's pray.

Father, we do. Thank you and praise you, for this, this book of ezekiel, for the things that you have been teaching us through your words. And we pray father that as we come to this amazing chapter, that you will help us to revel in it, that you will help us to see our need for, you, that we will see our need for the lord Jesus Christ. We pray father. That by your spirit, you will show us that you'll show us life and that you will show us life in your son, the lord Jesus Christ.

And so he prays things in Jesus' name. Oh, man. I wanna begin by taking you on on my holiday with Jerusalem. Alright? Now picture that picture the scene.

Me and Tricia love going, for walks, and people have already doubting this because I don't look like the person who likes going for walks, but Me and Tricia decided to go for a walk, maybe I should say. And, we went into a lovely, sort of hilly pasture, nice green grass, lovely trees, lovely flowers, a street or a lake that just was flowing. Lovely bird singing. A peaceful place. This is a place that if, as I've described it, you might think that sounds like the ideal place for a picnic.

Crack out that basket, get the blanket out, let's enjoy some sandwiches. However, it was very hard to enjoy such an idyllic place. There's it. Look, there's a brother there, isn't it? He looks like he's carrying bones.

It was very hard to, enjoy this sermon because he's coming here to judge me. It was hard to enjoy this, this idyllic scene, and we didn't have a picnic because the place that we stood on was actually a graveyard. And in the middle, of this and and there were some really frightful places that that we knew that below our feet were the bones of innocent victims. And at the center of this graveyard, there was an ossuary. There was a house, a building full of bones.

Me and Drew were in Cambodia outside Pnom pen. That's how you say it. So I'm sure you're correct at the end. And there before us was the bones of many people who had suffered at the hands of Paul Pot in the Camaroos, and we were in a place of death. Now why have I started with that to get us cheery on mother's day?

Look forward to the Sunday roast and talk about Cambodia now? Because I think I'm trying to get you a flavor of what we see in the valley of dry bones. Do you see and come with me, with ezekiel in verse 1? And you'll notice that the hand of the lord was on me. And he brought me out by the spirit of the lord and set me in the middle of a valley.

And then this sentence sends chills down my spine. It was full of bones. And so here we have ezekiel. And god has taken him and let us go with ezekiel and and find ourselves in the valley of dry bones, and we see as as usual goes back and forth, looking at the various bones. Probably there's a femur.

There's a tibia. There's a sternum. I teach GCSEPE. I know my bones. A cranium.

And as he goes to and fro, and he sees these bones, what does he notice about these bones? Well, these are bones. That were very dry. In other words, these are as dead as bones can get baked by the sun. No marrow in it whatsoever.

Baked dry. Dead. Well, I was listening to 1. Preacher Don Cars, and he said there's no sign of life on these bones. There's not even a rotting mold of a corpse.

These are dry bones. This is a place of death. And then god comes to to ezekiel in verse 3. Did you see this? In verse 3, he comes to ezekiel and he says, son of man, can these bones live?

Sort of man, can these bones live? Now the answer, we all know what the answer should be, don't we? There he is a load of bones. Sort of man, can these bones live? Obviously not.

They're dead. But ezekiel, he I think he may have been stung before because he's like, oh, I've I know what alright. This has happened to me before. I'm not getting a falling for this 1 again, god. And so he replies in humility.

I said, sovereign lord, you alone, no. Yes. On the surface level, there's no right. There's no reason. There's no possible way that these dry bones can be can can live again.

But because you're asking me sovereign law, the almighty god of the universe, I better say that yes, you know. I don't wanna tempt. And so verse 4 to 6, read this with me. Then he said to me, prophesy to these bones and say to them dry bones? Hear the word of the lord.

What? Now I don't know if you've ever seen the bone before, but don't have ears. How? Can a bone? Here?

Yeah. That's what Zekiel has told to preach. Professor to these bones, dry bones hear the word of the lord. This is what the sovereign lord says to these bones. I will make breath enter you and you will come to life I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin.

I will put breath in you and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the lord. And so, ezekiel? Does as he's told. And I imagine even though he's in a vision, he would have felt pretty foolish.

I I sometimes when I'm when I'm teaching the soul kids or the rooted lot, the story of Jesus calming the storm. I sometimes say, if you tell, you go up to your bath and you start splashing around and then you go to the bath, stop will it you feel like an you'll feel like a fool. It won't do anything. And so as you can probably just thinking at this point, I've gotta preach to dry bones here. And so here I am prophesying to dry bones.

And he he goes, well, god's told me to do it. I better do it. And as he does it though, did you see? What happens? Suddenly, there's a it's a Rallen.

As he preaches to the bones. The bones start to shake and rattle. And then, like, magnetic force, they start to to come together. And the bones start to connect to the bones, and the head bone connects to the neck bone. And the neck bone connects to the shoulder bone, and the shoulder bone connects to the backbone, and the backbone connects to the And we sung when we used to sing it on count, we say bottom bone, but the the bottom doesn't have a bone.

They've heard the word of the lord. But then it doesn't stop there. In verse 8, he looks, and then suddenly there's tendons and there's there's flesh and I mean, it's an amazing scene. It's a there's an there's an incredible video. I wish I'd put it up here on YouTube.

Go and check it out when you get home. And it's a a dramatic reading of this passage, and it shows all the the the tendons and the capillaries and the blood vessels coming on to bones and skin starts to cover it. I mean, can you imagine that Ezekiel's there watching this and there's all the capillaries? I mean, it's incredible the capillary network. I once went to, there was a place in London called Body World.

That it was a weird place. It was basically dead bodies, that had been stripped of the skin so that you could see all the blood vessels that I thought that it was weird And, there was 1 pit 1 store where there was someone's hand that had been stripped of its, skin. And you could see every capillary in the hand, and it was incredible. Apparently, there is around there is around 10 to 40000000000 capillaries in the body, which would reach to about 9000 to 19000 kilometers if you stretch them all out. And ezekiel as he prophesies to these bones, sees the capillaries coming on, and he sees the ligaments, join, bone to bone, and tendons join muscle to bone, and he sees sees skin start to go across, and there are these bodies.

But verse 8. There is no breath in them. So is that it, ezekielts? Is that your job done? No.

God goes on in verse 9. He says to him, prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to it, This is what the sovereign lord says. Come breath from the 4 winds and breathe into the slain that they may live. And so I prophesied, as he commanded me, and breath entered in them, they came to life and stood up on their feet a vast army. Ezekiel is told to prophesy, and the breath of god, the spirit of god comes into these corpses, and they come to life, a vast army.

It reminds me. Don't know if it reminds you when the when the breath of god goes into these people. It should remind us of Adam when he was first created. He was created a a man, and god breathed life into Adam so that he would live. And here, god is breathing life into this people.

That is the valley of drivers. But what does it mean? Well, verse 11 to 14 explains this. Let read that with me now. Then he said to me, son of man, these bones are the people of Israel.

They say our bones are dried up and our hope is gone. We are cut off. Therefore, prophesy and say to them, this is what the sovereign lord says. My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them. I will bring you back to the land of Israel.

Then you, my people will know that I am the lord when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I, the lord, have spoken, and I have done it declares the lord. So who who are these people? And some people suggest that it's an army of just an army of Israel, but it doesn't doesn't say that.

Does it in verse 11, these people are the household or the people of Israel. We've been looking at the book of ezekiel. We've seen that the people of Israel have been judged by the living guards for their idolatry, for their rebellion against him, for their turning away from god and worshiping other things. We've seen that god is gonna bring judgment upon Jerusalem and that they will be decimated and they will be scattered all over the nations. And so they would say Our bones are dried up.

We've been killed as a people. Our hope is gone. There is no hope here anymore. There is no hope of being a people anymore. We have been decimated.

There is no longer an Israel. We are gone. We are hopeless. But what we've seen in ezeekium is that there is great hope in the hopeless situation. If it was down to Israel, there would be none.

Israel cannot save themselves. Israel are dead. They are dry bones. But with guards, all things are possible. And so god says I will come to the grave.

I will open them up. And there will be life. See, this is a land that should never recover. This is a country that should never recover. This is a country that should never live yet this country will live.

And so Israel, as he could have saying, will be resurrected. Israel will be a nation again and sure enough, 70 years later, they come back from the exile and they they inherit the land again. And so god is a god who can resurrect nations. He has the power to resurrect Israel. But I think there is so much more to this passage.

There's so much more because in this passage, we have resurrection hope for dry bones. See, I think this is just a small picture of a greater truth. Of a spiritual truth. This is a a picture of the spiritual condition of all people after Adam. The Bible is clear that it says that all have fallen short of the glory of god.

And as a result of walking out on god, we're all dead. We're all cut off from the living god because we've chosen to go our own way. And so If you read with me here, ephesians 2, and you might wanna turn to it yourself, or you might just wanna read it here. Look at what ephesian 2 says about our condition. As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air.

The spirits who is now at work and those with disobedience. All of us also lived among them at 1 time gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we will by nature deserving of wrath. The spiritual condition of every human being is that they are dead. In ezekiel 36, it talked about how people had a heart of stone.

A heart that couldn't please god. A heart that was dead to god. They're dry bones. They're the enemy of god. And so when you look out the the window and when you look at people, although, yes, they may be walking, and they may be talking, and they may be breathing physically here.

What god sees is dead people walking. Dead man walking. The walking dead. That shows robed it from the Bible. They're just zombies walking around.

Spiritual, dry bones. And and surely we should note that this is true, I think, because we all have the predicament that death is going to come. And not 1 of us is able to stop death. It's inevitable. And I think that's a a a picture of what happened spiritually as well that we are dead because dead people can do nothing.

If you ask a dead person to wake up, they will not wake up. If you as a dead person try and tell yourself to wake up, you won't say that. And so what is the greatest need of dead people that walk and get? Well, the great need is that god will come and make them alive. See, there is no hope in ourselves.

You cannot do anything to save yourself. You cannot stop death. You cannot deal with your spiritual death. So what has to happen? What has to happen?

God has to come to the grave. God has to come, in verse 12, and open the graves up and bring spiritual life to dead people. And so nearly 600 years later, a man comes to a dear friend's funeral. And he weeps because death is so abhorrent to him. And this man is 1 who also calls himself the son of man.

And this man also does what would seem to be the ridiculous. 4 days after the man's death. Take away the stone. Are you crazy, Jesus? In the King James version, he stinketh.

I think we should bring back that phrase, shouldn't we? Could use it for some of the teenagers that I just looked at then? He stinketh? Sorry. Sorry, Jamie.

He stinketh. A ridiculous notion. He's thinking. And then not only does he say move away the stone. When they do move away the stone, he shouts out to a dead man called lazarus, come out lazarus.

Now imagine I had done that when I was in up there in front of all the c the Cambodia officer and I said, come out, bones. Well, I think people would finally downright disrespectful. Wouldn't you? And and probably need to be committed to some sort of mental institution. Yeah.

Here, Jesus comes to the tomb. He says, come out lazarus. And the dead man comes out. What? The dead man answers the call.

How? How the dead men answer? Calls. They're dead because the same power that you see in ezekiel 37 is the same power that Jesus has in terms of the spirit power that calls dead people out, and he says lazarus come out, and Lazarus can do nothing but obey the command of the sovereign lords. And it's the same power, the same resurrection power that went after Jesus dies upon a cross for the sins of the world.

On the third day, that resurrection power, that spirit power, and nerveates Jesus to come out of the tomb. And so that he comes out and and uses sort of ezicalian ezicalian. Sorry. That's a different word. Word from ezekiel and says, to Mary.

I'm gonna go to my father and your father. I'm going to go to my god and your god. You will be my people and he breathes upon his disciples and says, receive my spirit, receive the spirit of god. The same resurrection power that you see in ezekiel 37, and John chapter, to 11, and now here in the resurrection of the lord, Jesus Christ that enervates him and that it's that power. At the resurrected lord Jesus Christ calls dead people to come out of death and come to life.

And he says I will give you a new heart Ezekiel chapter 36, and I will give you a new spirit, the spirit of god. It's it's like Jesus has to perform heart surgery on us. Your heart's so rotten. Your heart's so hard and dry and stony. That Christ has to perform a heart transplant upon you and take out that heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh and and and and give you the spirit of god.

So it's a bit like there you have the heart transplant. You're in the operating 30. You're dead. Jesus has given your heart transplant. I don't know if this, illustration works because I'm not a medical professional.

So all the medical pro professionals right now are are on hold going, this will be wrong. Or wait. This will be interesting. But not only does he give you the new heart, but he he's like he has a defibrillator. I'm sorry I've gone there.

Yeah. Yeah. And they're they're all, like, you would never do a defibrillator on a just a yes. Okay. Just bear with the illustration.

Yeah? And there they are. The heart's not work. They're they're they're not alive, so it has to go because we've all seen it in films. They have to rub it together, which I know doesn't happen, but isn't it great?

Clear. Please don't come and complain to me afterwards. It's just illustration. The thing is I'm in a family full of medical experts. They they probably gonna hate me after this.

But Jesus comes and he performs heart surgery by his spirits He brings dead people to life again. That is resurrection power. By his cross and by his resurrection. He storms out the tomb, and he shouts to dead people. Come out.

And for all those who obey that command, There is life. Did you see just how much the word life was used in this passage? Live. Live. Live.

Will you live? I mean, Ephesians 2 goes on. Amazing verses. First 4, but because of Christ's great love for us, god, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved.

And god raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. In order that in the coming ages, he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness towards in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of god, not by works, so that no 1 can boast.

For we are god's handy work created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which god prepared in advance for us to do. What mercy? What grace? Jesus comes to dead people. And says live.

But not just to live, clean slate. It's all wiped clean. Now go do whatever you want, but you now can live with purpose. Did you see in 36, first 27, I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my loss. Verse 31, you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will load yourselves for your sins and detestable practices.

You've been brought to life. To live with purpose, to take off sin, to live for Jesus, to be so taken up with him. I can now tryna obey him with my whole life. There is purpose in this new life. And as we live, we look forward to a future resurrection day.

See, there is a day coming, the Bible promises when all will be risen from the dead. All will be risen whether they are those who are answering the call of the lord Jesus Christ to live or they are those who have refused to answer that call. All will rise physically, and all will come forth before the throne of god, and we'll have to give an answer for what they did with the lord Jesus Christ and his call to live. And for those who are dead, they will be dead forevermore. But those who have answered the call will go to resurrection glory and will know the lord Jesus Christ, the savior.

The live giver, the death crusher, the tomb breaker. So brothers' sisters. It may have been maybe you're tired of what I've said. I'm sorry if that's the case. But can you see what the resurrection has achieved?

The Christ has called you out of the grave. To give you new life. So will you live? Will you live in the light of this? Will you live in the in the light that Jesus was willing to die and to rise again to call you to a resurrection future.

Will you listen to him from now on and obey him? Will you strive to put off sin and live in this resurrection hope now? But the other thing I think I I love about this passage is so freeing for us as Christians, isn't it? Did you notice that if you just cast your eyes down on on chapter 36 and 37, time and time again, it says I will. I will.

I will. I will. I will. I will. I will.

That's not as equal talking as the sovereign god. I will. And so there is hope for those loved ones and those peers around us and those in our schools and those in our colleges and universities and our workplaces. There's hope that god can resurrect dead people. I mean, I'm I'm sure you've all thought this, if if not being brave enough to say it, god would never they could never be saved.

They could never be saved. There's not a chance. They're so anti the gospel that they can never be saved, and that is correct. On your efforts, it's correct. But when god says I will, and when god calls to you to come out of the grave, you will answer.

And so what is the hope for us as Christians? Well, it's that I just go and I preach the word of god and god by his spirit will take people and take the truths of the gospel and the resurrection, and they will make them true for them, and they will walk out of the grace. There's great comfort in that. Okay. I can go and preach.

And even though we live in this town of Kingston and you look in the you look in this town, you think nobody here, this is a a barren land isn't it? This is a this is a dry bone land of Kingston and of London and of the UK and of Europe and of All this Western world is a dry barren land. And is there any hope for this? Well, yes. Because god is a god who calls people out of the grave.

And so we, Christian, brothers, and sisters, let us have confidence that the lord Jesus Christ is in the business of raising dead people to life, and let us go forth and tell people the great news of him who defeated death. And maybe today. Maybe you're here. And You realize that spiritually you are not alive. You're dead.

Today. This morning. This morning. Will you hear the voice of Jesus? Dry bones?

Hear the word of the lord. Listen to the son of man. Listen to Jesus as he stands outside the tomb of lazarus. And he says, come out. And will you respond this morning?

Come out. Come out and live. Trust and obey. Answer the call. Will you listen to him?

Will you listen to his call? He beckons you out and says dry bone live, lazarus come out today? Today. Receive the breath of god. Receive the spirit of god.

Receive life and live. Will you do that this morning? Jesus stands outside the tomb. He cries out. Come out.

What will you do with his call? Let's bow our heads. Heavenly father, we thank you for the things we've just been hearing, and we thank you that you have, as it were taken us this morning through your word and set us in the middle of a valley, and you have shown us that the world we live in is not dissimilar to the 1 in which Ezekiel lived in. That all around us are those who are without god and without life and without hope and without Christ in this world. And we do indeed live in a valley of dry bones, and we ourselves were among them once.

And we thank you lord Jesus that through your life giving word and by your life giving spirit, that you have made us who were once dead to be alive. And we thank you that the life giving message you have entrusted into our hands and that we have the only message, the gospel of a savior crucified and risen for sinners, which can bring life where there is none. And so we pray that you would give us confidence to go out and to share this message. We pray that when we ourselves are feeling dusty and dry, we would come again to your word and find life. We pray that passages like this would be yet another good reason to come to the prayer meeting.

And to gather together as a people and to say, oh lord, make these bones live. We can't do it, but you can, and you will through your people as we ask and as we speak. So help us with this in Jesus' name. Oh, man.