Can these bones live?

Sermon notes from Sunday 10 February 2019 am

Ezekiel 37 verses 1 - 14

The God of heaven keeps his promises.  Peter looking at the last days said "there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts.  And saying where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation .... For God is not slack concerning his promises, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3 verses 3, 4 and 9)  If the Lord was to come today there will be those who will perish.  How many will be left standing on earth and how many will rise to meet him in the air?  God has delayed his coming because there are those of us not saved.  In Genesis 12 God called a man Abraham.  He took him out of Ur of the Chaldees.  He gave him a promise "unto a land I will show thee."  He was told to leave his nation, to leave his home, everything behind him.  He wanted him to go to a land God would show him.  Then he promised through him a nation - Genesis 12 verse 2.  The nation of Israel would be built through Abraham.  When you hear about Israel today take in what is happening out there.  Do not think `it doesn`t concern me.`  God is beginning to work with Israel because we are in the last days.  We have been thinking of the last days when the Antichrist, the false prophet, Satan and the Lamb of God are involved but also included in our thoughts has been the nation Israel.  "I will bless thee and make thy name great and through thee all nations shall be blessed."  God has promised his blessing to Israel but also a curse on those who do not think about Israel.  God blesses the nations that bless Israel and curses the nations that curse Israel.  God will take up his dealings with Israel and that has already begun.  One day the Lord is coming to the air with the voice of the archangel and the dead in Christ will rise first.  If the Lord were to come to the air now how many will go to be with the Lord immediately?

What has God done through the nation Israel?  He has given us the word of God.  The Lord Jesus, the Saviour of the world.  God will take up his dealings once again.  The regathering of a nation - Ezekiel 37 verse 14 Israel is going to be in its own land.  Jeremiah 31 verse 10.  The picture we see before us.  Chapter 37 verse 1 "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."  Ezekiel looks down into the valley and sees nothing but a mass of bones covering the whole land.  He not only sees these bones but in verse 2 he describes them as "very many" and "very dry".  They had been here for a long time.  The bones are a picture of the house of Israel.  In verse 11 as Ezekiel looks on these bones he realises this is Israel.  God will deal with them.  He sees these bones coming together rattling, sinews, muscles, flesh coming on them, skin covered them.  The skeletons were standing on their feet.  God gave them breath.  Israel would be revived again.  In Genesis 15 we read that Israel will be in a foreign land.  400 years later God didn`t forget about them.  He brought them out of Egypt.  It took God 400 years to make a nation in Israel to be what he would have them to be.  He sees them taken out of Egypt into Canaan.  They turned their backs on God through unbelief so that they couldn`t enter into the land and it took another 40 years before it happened.  The same thing happens to you and I.  We come to that place of Kadesh Barnea, where we look into the Promised Land but somehow we turn our back on God.  How many have sat in gospel meetings, come to that place in your heart of hearts where you would love to be saved but you know very well you will not be able to keep it.  If you have sinned, come short of the glory of God, time after time you are brought to that place of reality, want to give yourself to the Lord but nothing happens.  You walk away from Christ once too often.  Many times we come to Kadesh Barnea.  We know what we have to do, somehow through our own unbelief we cannot do it.  God has something powerful for you.  A ministry for you.  Somehow we cannot go through with it.  You would love to come to know Christ as your own but somehow you cannot go through with God.  God will bring Israel back together, God will give them back to their land.  Even when God dispersed them into the land of Babylon after 70 years he brought them back again.  There are many in this valley and they are scattered across the land.  Ezekiel is a chapter about revival too.  This is not the church however.  We see God is speaking to Ezekiel and lets him see this great vision.  That is how revival comes.  People see souls lost and going out into a lost Christless hell.  That person gives themselves to prayer and God answers that prayer and sends revival.  Ezekiel had this great burden and vision - verse 15.  He takes 2 sticks and brings them together.  God will unite the nation of Israel again.  Moses at the burning bush, another picture of Israel feeding and leading his sheep.  He sees this bush burning and stops to look into the bush and meets with God himself.  Israel is a burning bush yet it is not consumed.  It is still burning.  We can see that through the affliction of Israel on many occasions.  Pharaoh tried to wipe out the nation of Israel by putting babies to death but still it burned.  In the time of the Medes and Persians Hamaan tried to wipe out the Jewish nation in one day.  God overruled and sent one little girl to turn the tide.  That is all God is looking for - individuals to do a work for him.  Isaiah 5 shows a picture of the vineyard with the walls broken down yet the Lord still used him.  Hitler tried to anialate the Jews with the gas chambers yet that nation is still blossoming.  Sadaam Hussain tried to cast the nation of Israel into the sea.  They are still there today - why - because they are God`s people.  He did not succeed.  God is reaching out to that nation and bringing reviving power.  The picture that is presented.

The penalty that is paid - verse 11.  Look at what the nation is saying "Our bones are dried and our hope is lost we are cut off for our parts."  Paul writing in the book of Ephesians said "That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." (Ephesians 2 verse 12)  These bones were not lying in a orderly fashion.  James 1 verse 1 "James a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad, greetings."  Ezekiel sees these bones scattered.  They have been there for such a long time.  They are scattered because of their failings.  God only had good things for them.  Jeremiah 29 verse 11 "for I know the thoughts that I think toward you saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end."  The nation of Israel has known the persecuting hands of many nations through the years - Syria, Nebuchadnezzar.  Time after time Jeremiah refers to himself and the other prophets speak of the message of God but the people turned their backs on God.  God has not forgotten about this nation.  God will bring them back together one day, to settle them in the land he has given to them.  On 15th May 1948 Israel was recognised as a nation.  2000 years before that a man called Isaiah the prophet had much to talk about Israel.  God speaking through him said the nation would be born in a day.  Isaiah saw that day when the nation would be brought into the land of Canaan in one day.  Not another nation in the world can boast of that.  That they were brought together in a day.  Nations are built up, evolve but Israel was different.  After years of depression caused by fighting.  Israel came from the 2 sons of Abraham - one of the sons of promise Isaac and one son of the bond woman Ishmael.  Ishmael would be a son born in conflict - they are the Arabs today.

Notice also here a programme that is running - verse 11.  These bones are the whole house of Israel.  Stand back and see what I will do with these bones.  They are a nation without hope but God will now do a mighty work.  We might say we are living in difficult days but these are also exciting days.  Was there ever a generation that lived as close to the Lord`s return?  We can go back to God`s word and see things happening as he said they would.  God is now saying it is time to go home.  Jeremiah 31 verse 31 "behold the days come saith the Lord that I will make a new covenant with the houes of Israel and with the house of Judah."  Verse 15 "from the north country and gather them from the coasts of the earth and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together, a great company shall return thither."  One day God will speak to the nation of Israel and will bring them into their land.  That is happening even today.  Ezekiel 36 is the setting of that scene, a programme that is running even now today according to chapter 3.  God asks Jeremiah in verse 3 "can these bones live?"  Jeremiah responds "Lord thou knowest."  God knows where Israel is today and he is bringing them back.  God knows where you are today.  God knows all about it.  He knows where we are in relation to himself.  Ezekiel was asked to preach.  Imagine standing in front of these bones.  The Lord is speaking to our hearts about something strange and difficult, will we say like Peter long ago when the Lord asked him to launch out into the deep after fishing all night and catching nothing, "nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net." (Luke 5 verse 5)  "There was a noise" - verse 7.  Nothing confusing.  Perhaps it was the noise of Syria who decided to let these people go back to Israel and rebuild it.  The sinews and muscles speak of strength.  Then the muscles and skin came together.  The skin speaks of protection, giving them balance, bringing them into their own land.  The last thing that would happen was the breath of God to bring them to life.  These things are happening before our eyes today.  It signifies the coming of the Lord to settle his kingdom.  He will reign for 1000 years.  Jerusalem will be the centre, the hub.  Where will we stand on that day?  Saved by the grace of God or lost in a Christless hell for all eternity?  I trust that we will be up and doing in these days.

Sermon notes from Sunday 17 February 2019

Ezekiel 37 verses 15 - 28

Ezekiel saw nothing in this valley but dry bones.  As he gazed around he saw many parts and they were dry.  This was the nation of Israel in its state at this moment in time.  In verse 15 God comes to Ezekiel to pick up the 2 sticks lying there.  We can see him looking at the 2 sticks, then God tells him to write the name of Judah on one stick and the name Ephraim on the other.  Then Ezekiel was told to join them together.  God was going to unite them again.  This is a continuation of the first scene.  God is adding more details.

First of alll we see a people that God is regathering.  As Ezekiel looked at the bones God asked him "can these bones live?"    Isn`t it wonderful how God teaches us lessons, he reaches down into our situations today and speaks to us.  God perhaps uses sickness to show a person their need of salvation or perhaps to trust in him more.  Remember Moses in the desert when he saw the burning bush.  God spoke to him right there and then.  Maybe God is speaking to you in these past days.  Peter was told by the Lord to launch out into the deep.  Peter told the Lord he had been out fishing all night and had  caught nothing but despite that he would cast the net down again.  Sometimes we have to be careful that we don`t set these things in the past history.  The God of heaven who spoke to Abraham, to Peter and to Moses still speaks to you and I today.  He is speaking into your heart even now.  Maybe there is something specifically on your heart and mind and God has been dealing with you this past week over it.  Ezekiel was asked if the bones could live.  He was then told to prophesy, pray and preach over them.  Maybe there is a situation in your life.  It is dead, no hope.  This morning God tells you to pray over it.  Pray for that child, that mother, that brother, that uncle, that friend, just pray for the situation.  Ezekiel has proclaimed the word of God over it and life has returned.  Israel was a nation divided, dispersed but now would be delivered.  God would reunite them.  He would bring them into a reunion and he would reign over them.  What a day we are looking forward to.  God called Abraham our of Ur of the Chaldees, told him he would give him a land he would show him.  God would now gather them once more.  When Abraham and Lot came up out of Egypt they had so much by way of herds and flocks that the land could not hold them.  God spoke to them about division.  Abraham told Lot to choose the land he wanted to live in.  Lot saw Sodom and Gomorrah and chose it.  God then told Abraham to look and see the land before him.  He told him that all he could see would be given to him and his family after him.  God gives his promises but never breaks them.  Leviticus 26 verse 42.  God has still his eye on Israel.  He will regather the nation.  He will also reunite them - verse 17.  Ezekiel is told to put the 2 sticks together.  Verse 21.  Israel is at present a divided nation today.  God gives us a picture.  In Matthew`s gospel Jesus spoke of the fig tree and when the buds come out we know summer is coming.  The nation of Israel is beginning to stretch forth and get a hold.  God will do a mighty thing with them.  Not since the days of Samuel, Saul or David has there been a united nation.  Rehoboam, Solomon`s son gathered together the old and young people around him when his father died.  He sought their advice.  The young told him to increase the taxes while the old said to lower them.  Rehoboam was very discontented, he rebelled against the word.  Jeroboam split the kingdom by taking 10 tribes to the north and left Rehoboam 2 tribes.  Assyria cam down and carried that northern kingdom into captivity.  140 years later Babylon then came down and took the northern kingdom into captivity.  Some were allowed to eventually return after 70 years but not all did.  One day God will regather and reunite the nation.  He is going to resettle them in the land.  Although the nation has rebelled against him, rejected him, God will regather them and resettle them in the land he has promised.  God has so much for you and I.  He has a great love for us.  There is no human love like it.  The love of God - that he would take his son and send him into this world and there he would watch as he was taken into Pilate`s judgment hall to be beaten and abused and then taken to an old rugged cross outside Jerusalem.  There God would turn his back on him.  Jesus was dying for your sin and mine.  There had to be a darkness on the land at that time.  Is there any love like God`s love for you and I?  That is the love God has for Israel.  Israel has only partially been in her own land.  This is a fulfilment of the promise to Abraham.  Ezekiel 36 verses 24, 34 and 35.  God will bring a reunion once more.  How could a people come back into this land and resettle there?  Israel was never really content, always looking for something else.  As a child of God we are guilty too - is God enough for us?  Paul said "I have learned to be content in whatsoever state I find myself in."  Even in the days of Samuel the people asked for a king to lead them into battle against the nations around them.  God will have to renew this people - verse 23.  What a relationship - is that what we really have today?  Have you got that relationship with God today?  People say "I would love to be saved but I could never ever keep it up."  No-one could keep the standard God has for us but he renews us.  He gives us a new heart.  The old things have passed way, all things are become new.  New thoughts, new ambitions, new goals are all given to us.  We will not want to live the way we used to live or do the things we used to do.  Ezekiel 36 verse 23.  Ezekiel 37 verse 22 God will reign over them.  The Lord will reign in Jerusalem.  Other nations will flock unto Israel.  There will be no negotiations in that day.  God will bring it to pass, he will bring the nation into the land, resettle them in their own land.