Revival In A Bone Yard

I suppose that , the vision of the valley of the dry bones, is the most familiar chapter in all of the book of Ezekiel. It was the setting for a very familiar Black spiritual. "Them bones going to walk around."

It is found in the concluding section of the book of Ezekiel which gives to us Judah's future.

God is trying to say to his people-there is a future.

The Bible is a book of judgment. We read much judgment in the Bible.

But the Bible is also a book of hope.

If it was only judgment there would be, indeed, great despair.

But the Bible doesn't leave us with a message of judgment. The Bible leaves us with a message of hope.

The children of Israel had just about lost their hope.

In fact we are told specifically in verse 11 that the primary purpose for this vision is to encourage the children of Israel. Despair and pessimism filled the air.

Ezekiel 37:11 KJV 1900

11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.

Some of the people of God who were in captivity were saying-it's all over, there's no hope, God can't do anything for us, the end is come.

Yet, God gives to Ezekiel this vision of the valley of dry bones to let the people know that there is hope and that there is a future for Israel.

ion of the glory of the Lord departing from the mercy seat and out to the door and out to the mount of olives and departed. But when you come to the concluding chapters of the book of Ezekiel you will find out that God predicts that one day God's glory would return and God's glory would fill the temple and God's glory and presence would be with the people again.

They would experience a resurrection. They would also experience a restoration. God would restore to them the temple. We will study about that at the end of Ezekiel. God will do a wonderful spiritual work and there will be a spiritual revival among the people of Israel and there are predictions made about this.

The glory of the Lord is one day going to return. In chapters 9 - 11, in the early chapters, Ezekiel saw this vision of the glory of the Lord departing from the mercy seat and out to the door and out to the mount of olives and departed. But when you come to the concluding chapters of the book of Ezekiel you will find out that God predicts that one day God's glory would return and God's glory would fill the temple and God's glory and presence would be with the people again.

So, the primary reference is to the children of Israel. But I'm going to make some practical applications tonight and I think we are certainly proper to do this if we understand the primary reference. To make application to the nations, to make application to the church, to make application to the family, to make application to our personal life.

Let's consider the revival in a bone yard. First of all, in the opening verse, I want us to take a look at the bones.

I. The Bones.

Ezekiel 37:1–3 KJV 1900

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, 2 And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. 3 And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest.

ezk 37.1-3

it looks pretty bad

In these opening verses Ezekiel tells us that the Lord gave him a vision of a valley of dry bones. We don't know if this was a literal valley and if they were literal bones or if this was just something that happened to him in the realm of the spiritual vision. It could have been an ancient battle sight where God took Ezekiel and let him see this scene.

In these opening verses Ezekiel tells us that the Lord gave him a vision of a valley of dry bones.

We don't know if this was a literal valley and if they were literal bones or if this was just something that happened to him in the realm of the spiritual vision. It could have been an ancient battle sight where God took Ezekiel and let him see this scene.

But we notice in these opening verses-what is shown. Ezekiel is shown this valley. He says that it is a valley that is full of bones. Bones are strewn all over that valley.

He says in verse 2 that God caused him to "pass them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry." They were dry and they were bleached.

What is a bone? A bone is a relic of life.

It used to have flesh and substance.

A pile of bones means that there has been life there at one time, but now there are only relics of life.

Illustration - you used to be excited about God, your future and hope

But lately it dry bones

You are out in the woods hunting and you run across a skull and some bones and you realize that you have the remains of an animal.

Long ago the birds have come and they have plucked the flesh from these bones and now those bones are dried out.

That's what Ezekiel sees-these bones, these relics of life.

God says, I want you to look around. Ezekiel walks around them and gets a good view.

God wants the seriousness and apparent hopelessness of the situation to really settle into the mind and spirit of Ezekiel. He wants him to get a first-hand view of the seriousness of the situation.

The seriousness of the condition

The first step toward doing something about a matter is to always get a fresh vision of it.

You may remember that God took Nehemiah outside at nighttime and let him get a vision of the wall that was torn down and let Nehemiah see the serious condition they were in before he was ready to do anything about rebuilding the wall.

You may remember that Paul took a stroll through the marketplace of Athens and saw all of those gods in Athens. That was what God used to stir his soul to preach that great sermon about the resurrection of Jesus.

Of course, our Lord Jesus Himself, one day approached the city of Jerusalem and looking down from the mountainside, He saw the city of Jerusalem. The Bible said that Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem and then later, you recall, He went right on into that city and right on out to the cross to die.

If you are not very careful you will get desensitized to the spiritual situation.

Look at our culture the place where our kids are being raised without God ...

We need a fresh view. We need to look again at the bones. We need to look again at the deadness and the dryness of the situation. We can get so desensitized that things just pass us by.

We are in the midst of dry bones and don't even realize it.....

Illustration - we watch programs that mock God and curse his name and we just dont think about it .

God says its a valley of dry bones - look around at the condition ...

The nudity and the vileness and the filth that is pouring like an open sewer into the homes of America.

If you are not careful, you let those kinds of things come into your home and it won't bother anymore.

God says to Ezekiel- "Ezekiel, I want you to see what is shown here. Look at this valley is full of dead bones, these relics of life, these museum pieces."

Maybe we need to take a little survey tonight and think about the home life of America. Many homes, even so called Christian homes, have become like a pile of bones.

There is no love, no relationship between husband and wife.

There is no discipline in the children.

The home and the family has degenerated to the point in America, that if we are not careful, the institution of the family in America is going to become a relic of bones-a pile of bones-just a museum piece.

We'll just look on the family life of America as a relic of the past-something that used to be.

Look at the churches in America. The churches have gotten away from their main vision and mission which is to win people to faith in the Lord Jesus.

They have become, in some places, liberal social movements.

Instead of preaching the gospel, they are preaching a watered down diluted message.

They have lost their identity and they are worldly and carnal. They are filled with unregenerate people. The Laodicean age of the church in America is rapidly becoming a pile of bones, relics of the past, museum pieces.

Individual lives are like that. Dead, dry, bleached.

No spiritual life.

Even some Christians who have at one time known life in their own personal relationship 3with the Lord, now when you look at their life, they are like a pile of bones.

They are relics of the past. They are living on what they used to be instead of what they ought to be and could be and can be by the power of God.

That's what is shown==a valley full of very dry bones.

Ezekiel 37:3 KJV 1900

3 And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest.

He is saying-Lord, it's an impossible situation as far as I'm concerned. We look at the seriousness of our day.

We look at the moral and spiritual collapse in America.

We raise the question-can anything happen?

Can there be a change? Can there be a revival?

Can there be a turning back to God?

We know that in ourselves, just like Ezekiel would say, "In me, I know that nothing can happen. If anything is going to happen, you are going to have to do it."

Our God is a God of the impossible. God can do the supernatural.

We need revival in America. We need a revival in our churches. We need a revival in our homelike. We need a revival in our personal life. Jesus Christ is a God of the supernatural. The Bible says, wilt thou not revive us again, o Lord God. God can send revival in America.

That's the bones. Now, let's move on to verse 4 and following and talk about-

II. The Breath.

Ezekiel 37:4–10 KJV 1900

4 Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5 Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: 6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord. 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. 8 And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. 9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

Get the picture. There stands Ezekiel in that valley with stacks of dry, dead bones all around.

In verse 4 it says, "Again he (God) said unto me (Ezekiel), prophesy upon these bones (preach to these bones), and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.

Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord."

The Lord told Ezekiel to preach to these dead bones. We don't know what was going on in Ezekiel's mind at that time, but I can almost imagine.

Here's Ezekiel standing in the midst of bones that are dead. No life in them whatsoever and God tells him to preach to the dead.

This book is a book that has life in it.

Hebrews 4:12 KJV 1900

12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

This Bible is alive and this Bible gives life and God is pleased by the preaching of the word to take things that are dead and make them alive.

You study the great history of revivals and you will discover that in the midst of every great revival, there were great preachers.

There was George Whitfield in his day.

There were the Wesleys in their day.

Every time God moves in revival, He does it through the preaching of the Word and that is why there is an effort today to do away with the preaching of the Word of God.

Ezekiel 37:7 KJV 1900

7 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.

Then, they don't want you to get on anything controversial. Don't get anybody upset. Don't ruffle anybody's feathers. Then they want you to move away from preaching altogether. They want drama. They want dialog. What they want me to do is come out here with a shirt opened to my navel with goal chain and sit on a stool and have dialog with you. Not in my lifetime!

"The toe bone connected to the foot bone, foot bone connected to the ankle bone, etc."

Ezekiel 37:8 KJV 1900

8 And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.

That's a miracle. They came to the exact location. A

About all you have now is a group of well-organized corpses.

Ezekiel 37:9–10 KJV 1900

9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

This is what Ezekiel is learning and what we have to learn.

So, God tells Ezekiel to preach not only to the bones, but to the breath. "Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind. . ." The word, wind, is the same word that is translated in the Hebrew, ruach. It is translated wind, it is translated breath, it is translated spirit. Preach to the wind. Preach to the breath. "O son of man, and say to the wind, thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, o breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live."

All is vain unless the spirit of the holy one comes down. You have to have the Holy Spirit. You have to have the divine breath of life to give life into a church or into a personal life.

This is what Ezekiel is learning and what we have to learn. All is vain unless the spirit of the holy one comes down. You have to have the Holy Spirit. You have to have the divine breath of life to give life into a church or into a personal life.

This reminds you of what happened in creation.

Genesis 2:7 KJV 1900

7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

When God created man in , verse 7, it says, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground." At that point in time all you have is an organized, dead corpse. Then it says, "And God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul." IT was the breath of God that brought life into man. The same thing is true about the new birth. When a person is born again, Jesus said in that you have to be born of the Spirit. God has to breath spiritual life into your heart.

John 3:3–7 KJV 1900

3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? 5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

john 3.3-

The bones, the breath now-

III. The Blessing for Our Church

Ezekiel 37:11–14 KJV 1900

11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. 12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. 13 And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, 14 And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord.

Verses 11-14. The primary meaning of this passage is to the nation of Israel. Let's talk about that because it is a remarkable prophecy. There is a prophecy here that there is going to be a national resurrection of Israel.

Verse 12 says that Lord will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves. He is saying that he is going to resurrect the nation of Israel.

They were carried off into captivity. They thought things were hopeless. They underestimated the power of God. God said, "I'm going to bring you out of the graves like dead people. I'm going to resurrect you from those nations where you have gone."

Not only a resurrection, but also a restoration. Look at the last part of verse 12. "I'll bring you into the land of Israel."

God will restore them to the land. That happened May 14, 1948.

Application for us - I can turn the dead dries our bones of religion into a life save breathing God directed revival.

There is hope.

Alive with excitement and salvation

Alive with hope for the future

Alive in seeing neighbors and friends coming to know Christ

, verse 8, God predicted that the nation of Israel would be born in a day. That literally happened May 14, 1948, when Israel was declared a nation again. This prophecy was fulfilled. They were restored to the land.

Notice what God says in verse 14, "And I shall put my spirit in you and you shall live and I shall place you in your own land." He is saying that there is going to be not only a physical, political restoration of Israel which has already happened, but God has predicted that there will be a spiritual resurrection.

One day Israel will receive its Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

All of these things we are witnessing, all that is taking place in Jerusalem now and I think these are the most serious days I have ever seen in my lifetime in Israel. Somehow all of that, in the overall plan and purpose of God is going to result, one of these days, in Israel recognizing their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. When he does there is going to be that great spiritual turning on the part of Israel and there will be a national turning to Christ as their Savior.

Primary application is for the land of Israel, but let's talk a little about church-our church. Do you know what will give life to a church?

The Word of God and prayer

The Spirit of God

do you know what will give life to your home

The Word of God and prayer

Lets stop making our mission field the enemy and pray for our town and community.

The dry bones of Fair view can come alive.

The word of God, prayer, and the Spirit of God. You can have just as much of the presence of God in Bible class as you want. We can have just as much of our world and the blessing of God in our church as we want.

closing here .....

The Bible says if you have never received Christ as your Savior, you are dead in trespasses and sins. But , verse 1 says, "You hath he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sin." That means you walked in to this building a dead sinner. It means that now, through the preaching of the word of God, God has spoken to your heart. The Word of God convicts of sin. It shows us our need of Christ. The Word of God confronts us. The word not only comforts the afflicted, but it afflicts the comfortable. The Word of God cleanses us. It does its work on the inside cleansing us. Right here in this building tonight, if you will ask God to forgive you of your sins and receive Jesus as your personal Savior-you who are dead can be made alive in Jesus. And Jesus said, the words that I speak unto you, "they are spirit and they are life."

Let's bow our heads in prayer.

II A Man Willing to Go

III

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