Tonight, I invite you to turn with me to Ezekiel chapter 37, that familiar story of the Valley of Dry Bones. Some of you may recall that we considered this text together about five and a half years ago, but now tonight I want to consider it with you in the context of Lord's Day 25. Lord's Day 25, so if you would also turn to page 32 in the back of the Psalter hymnal. But of course, as you know, this is indeed a most memorable story. And if there's only one thing that you know about Ezekiel, this may very well be it. So we want to consider this episode tonight in his ministry, like I said, along with Lord's Day 25. And let's turn to Lord's Day 25 first and give expression to what we believe with the answers to these questions. Page 32 in the back of the Psalter hymnal. Question 65 asks us, You confess that by faith alone you share in Christ and all His blessings. Where does that faith come from? The Holy Spirit produces it in our hearts by the preaching of the Holy Gospel and confirms it through our use of the holy sacraments. What are sacraments? Sacraments are holy signs and seals for us to see. They were instituted by God so that by our use of them, He might make us understand more clearly the promise of the gospel and might put His seal on that promise. And this is God's gospel promise, to forgive our sins and give us eternal life by grace alone because of Christ's one sacrifice finished on the cross. Are both the Word and the sacraments then intended to focus our faith on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross as the only ground of our salvation? Right. In the Gospel, the Holy Spirit teaches us, and through the holy sacraments, He assures us that our entire salvation rests on Christ's one sacrifice for us on the cross. And how many sacraments did Christ institute in the New Testament? Two, baptism and the Lord's Supper. We now give our attention to God's holy word, Ezekiel 37, the first 14 verses. 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. It was full of bones. He led me back and forth 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, O sovereign Lord, you alone know. Then 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. 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 from the four winds, O breath, 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. Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house 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. O 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. Oh, beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, what an amazing and a vivid picture of the powerful, transforming hand of God. What an amazing picture of the truth that He alone is the author and the accomplisher of new life. He alone revives one from spiritual death to make spiritually alive. What a picture of that new life of faith. And of course, as you notice, Lord's Day 25 is about faith. We might say it's about how faith is formed, where it comes from. It's about how faith is fortified, how it's nourished, how it's strengthened. And it's also about how faith is focused, where it's focused is to be. And Lord's Day 25 then introduces us to the sacraments and the catechism's treatment of the sacraments and their role in the believer's life of faith. As Answer 66 says, the sacraments are holy signs and seals for us to see. And this episode then in the life and ministry of Ezekiel, I believe, is a visible picture of what is taught in Lord's Day 25. We know the occasion of this vision for Ezekiel was captivity, the captivity of God's people in Babylon because of their sin against and rejection of their covenant God. And it's in the midst of this hopelessness that God instructs and equips Ezekiel to bring a word of hope. And no doubt, at least in my mind, what Ezekiel sees gave him confidence to preach the word with conviction. We notice here God's visible sign to Ezekiel. A sign of sin's reality in the first place. And secondly, a sign of salvation's remedy. First, a sign of sin's reality. The picture again, verses 1 and 2, In this vision, this visible sign of sin's reality, what a hopeless vision with an unimaginable sight. Now, Ezekiel was not just given a quick glance, Not just a peak, as it were. He was given a bird's eye view. He was placed right in the thick of it. He surveyed it. He was brought back and forth among it. And the hopelessness is seen in that there were bones everywhere. Not just a little pile here and then maybe way up in the distance, another pile over there. But the ground was covered kind of like the debris and the ash that covered New York City after the Twin Towers came crashing down on 9-11. You remember seeing those pictures? It was all over the place. Wherever Ezekiel stepped, there were bones. And along with that hopeless picture then, there was the stench of death. Not a literal smell, but there was the stench of death in that the bones were very dry. They were dry as dust. They were dead as dead can be. Not only was every bit of flesh stripped away from them, but the very bone marrow, the very vital sap of the bones that's necessary for life, it was all dried up. That which gave the bones vitality and life, which we know so much about today and know how necessary it is. It was gone. And therefore then, sin's reality came with a deadly meaning. This was a picture of complete desolation. It was a picture of the horror and the intensity and the finality of death. And it came with a deadly meaning for Israel, for Judah really here specifically. They were the ones in captivity to Babylon. But Israel too, we know from our consideration of Hosea, was in a bad way, especially by this time. And this valley made visibly real the hopelessness that God's people express in verse 11 when they say our bones are dried up and our hope is gone, we are cut off. And we know, of course, that they were experiencing only what they had been promised because of their sin and their rejection of God and His covenant. Captivity had stolen their very life. They were cut off, as it were, from the land of the living. They were reduced to a dismal low level of human existence. They had no quality of life. Physically speaking, we know that their capital city was destroyed. The temple was gone. The people had been carried away. It was a picture of extinction. Our hope is gone. They're talking really about the death of hope. They had none. They had lost the will to live. They saw nothing to live for. And they were beyond human help. But the deadly meaning of this valley is not only for Israel or Judah, but also for all of mankind. This valley of dry, dead bones is a picture of man lost in sin. It's a picture of you and me, apart from God. Because we know, beloved, that sin is the language of death. In Ezekiel 18, we read, The soul who sins shall die. And in Ephesians 2, verse 1, Paul says, And you He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. And we just sang in that versification of Psalm 73, to live apart from God is death. This valley of dry bones was a picture of the helplessness and hopelessness and desolation that sin brings. As we said this morning, sin only takes and takes and takes a little more. Gives nothing but death. When sin entered the world, and Adam grabbed onto it, he sentenced himself and all of mankind to extinction from the presence of the love and fellowship with God. And beloved, we know, we know clearly as we look around today, the world is filled with many walking corpses. Those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, Or those who reject Him, who is this one who is the only living water and bread of life, this one in whom, if you believe, you will live, even though you die. But apart from Jesus Christ, one is, spiritually speaking, nothing but dry bones, wasting away in the heat of sin. But again, there is hope. There's hope even here as God's visible sign is also a sign in the second place of salvation's remedy, the remedy that salvation brings. Notice, in spite of Judah's deadly condition, there is no obituary here. But there is the miracle of a new page of life written with God's very own finger as God promises to restore them. And this hope is expressed to Ezekiel in verse 3. He asked me, Son of man, can these bones live? You say, where's the hope there? It's just a question. A silly question at that. Because with this front row seat that Ezekiel had, any sane person, any thinking person, would break into laughter and say, you've got to be kidding, right? You're just joking. Because this would be like reconstructing a shattered glass jar that had shattered it into thousands of pieces. Now, no doubt, too, there was a tradition handed down in the sense that they knew that there were some who had been brought back to life in Israel's history. No doubt, word had been passed down from generation to generation that the Lord had used Elijah to bring the widow's son back to life and that he had used Elisha to bring the Shunammite's son back to life. But as amazing as that itself would be, at least those people, we could say, were dead only for a short time. Their bodies were still intact. But here was nothing but a pathetic pile of bones. Yet notice Ezekiel acknowledges the truth of God in his answer, O Sovereign Lord. In the original, it's Adonai Yahweh, O Lord God, as some versions translate it. He gives a confession of faith in that very expression, O Sovereign Lord, Lord God. He acknowledges the truth of God that on the one hand, this is the covenant God who loves and cares for His people, but on the other hand, this same God is the Sovereign Creator of the heavens and the earth, the One who made man to begin with. O Lord God, You know. And with this question that God asks him, Ezekiel hears, we might say, he hears mercy in the voice of God. And no doubt he knows, as the Lord Jesus Christ said many years later, of salvation with man, this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. He may have known what the Lord said to Abraham. Is anything too hard for the Lord? And no doubt Ezekiel knew that the Lord exercises control over life and death, even as the psalmist says of creatures in Psalm 104, when you hide your face, they are terrified. When you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When you send your spirit, they are created. And you renew the face of the earth. This hope is expressed by the Lord to Ezekiel, and it's expressed of Judah. Notice again, beginning in verse 12, Therefore prophesy and say to them, This is what the Sovereign Lord says, O 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. That's the language of resurrection. It's a language of new life. Opened graves, released from captivity, bringing them home. We know that literally it only happened in part for Old Testament Israel. There was a remnant that returned. But never again did the nation amount to much. Never again did a physical son of David sit on the throne. And therefore, you see, this is a hope that is expressed of us too. For you and me as well, as these words pointed forward to what all of God's people enjoy by faith in Jesus Christ, and that is new life, all because of Christ's one sacrifice finished on the cross, as answer 66 says. And as answer 67 adds, our entire salvation rests on it. That one salvation of Christ, or sacrifice of Christ finished on the cross. And salvation's remedy was seen when Jesus Christ appeared, ushering in the kingdom of God in the hearts of His people, because then spiritual Israel, all believers, reappeared as it were on the earth. And the church lives and breathes today because in Christ's death, God's people died to sin. And in Christ's resurrection, God's people live to Him. We know the cross was exile for our Savior. Exile from the world. Exile from His Father. The cross looked hopeless. The cross looked like the enemy was victorious, but He arose. And with that arose new life for His people unto eternal life. Beloved, this hope expressed to Ezekiel of God's people was then confirmed with a picture of new life. And that picture of new life was more real, it was more lifelike than Ezekiel could have imagined as what happens sealed, guaranteed the very Word of God. And this picture of new life took place physically in Ezekiel's vision. In verses 4-10, the Sovereign Lord tells Ezekiel what to prophesy. He tells him exactly what will happen. And boys and girls, as Ezekiel begins to prophesy what the Lord told him to say, All that the Lord said happened. It happened in reverse order of the decomposition that had taken place. The bones come together in perfect order. The tendons form on there. The flesh appears. And then there's the skin to hold it all together. By the power of the Word of God alone, these bones were reformed. They were formed again. Yet the job wasn't quite finished. These bodies were missing the most important ingredient. The animating spirit. The breath of life. And the four winds here represent the universal life-giving spirit of God. What we have here is a sort of a repeat of Genesis chapter 2. And creation of man when God formed man from the dust of the earth and breathed into him the breath of life. we have a repeat of that. God shows again that He is the Creator, that He is the life giver. This picture of new life took place physically in Ezekiel's vision. It takes place spiritually in Jesus Christ. As those who are regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God, given a new heart, they're given the gift of faith to receive Jesus Christ and all His benefits, They are new living creatures. They are those who no longer delight in sin and hate the things of God, but instead they now delight in God and hate sin. And in a sense, everything about them is new. There are new desires. There's a new joy, new attitude, new direction, new motives, new hope, a living hope, a new allegiance. The Almighty God Himself. They are different people. And they enjoy the remedy of salvation in Jesus Christ then because of the effectiveness of the instruments used. These instruments that are unfailing, that are powerful, that are exclusive, these instruments are the Holy Spirit Himself and the Word of God. The Word of God alone is what Ezekiel was given to speak. Makes it clear the fact that these bodies were not yet living. They needed the Spirit. They needed the Word of God. his Spirit. That word alone is what he was given to speak. His word alone is truth. His word alone speaks into existence as we think of creation again. Yet that word all by itself is ineffective apart from the Holy Spirit himself. It is his word. He makes the word effective. He alone gives new life. He alone makes alive. This word made visible by the Holy Spirit before Ezekiel's very eyes certainly again gave him confidence to preach the message of new life to these captives. He had seen firsthand the powerful hand of God in a way that we only know of from creation. And these same instruments, beloved, are true for our faith. Question 65 again, you confess that by faith alone you share in Christ and all his blessings. Where does that faith come from? The Holy Spirit produces it in our hearts by the preaching of the Holy Gospel and confirms it through our use of the Holy Sacraments. That spiritual life is given, new life, being made alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions, as Paul says in Ephesians 2, is only the work of the Holy Spirit of God. We read in Ezekiel 36, verses 26 and 27, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you 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. It is the work of the Holy Spirit of God, and He uses the tool called the preaching of the Holy Gospel. The Holy Gospel. The good news of Jesus Christ. Not just anything to say. But the preaching of the Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ and His saving sacrifice accomplished on the cross. And that in Him all of our sins are paid for and they are forgiven. And we are given His righteousness to stand before God. Only this is the remedy for sin's deadly reality. The Holy Spirit gives one the gift of faith to believe that only remedy. And He then rescues that one from the death of sin and Satan and hell and delivers that one to the light of eternal glory. But you see, His work is not just a one-time thing. Oh, salvation is justification is a one-time thing. But His work is not just a one-time thing and then He's done. But that spiritual life that is given is also a spiritual life that is nurtured. It's nurtured as the Holy Spirit confirms faith. through our use of the holy sacraments, as the catechism says. The sacraments show us, beloved, and assure us that what we believe, when it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ, that what we believe is just as real as the water and the bread and the wine. What are the sacraments? What are sacraments? Sacraments are holy signs and seals for us to see. They were instituted by God so that by our use of them He might make us understand more clearly the promise of the gospel and might put His seal on that promise. And this is God's gospel promise, to forgive our sins and give us eternal life by grace alone because of Christ's one sacrifice finished on the cross. We might say that the sacraments are like that vast army that came to life and stood up on their feet before Ezekiel to see with his eyes. And the sacraments are visible for us to see. To see what? The Gospel of Jesus Christ. They point us to that one sacrifice of Christ on the cross and its benefits for those who believe. The benefits of our sins being washed away and the benefit of the nourishment of Jesus Christ Himself unto everlasting life. Beloved, the sacraments are God's visible signs and seals to His church that we might see with our eyes that which we hear with our ears. God's visible signs and seals to His church of the power of His incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, and the application of Christ's work by the Holy Spirit. God's signs and seals of the very promise of God to forgive us of our sins and give us eternal life as answer 66 says. The sacraments along with the preaching of the word are what we call the means of grace. They are the means by which the Holy Spirit strengthens our faith and gives us increased confidence and assurance of the truth of the gospel. But not only is that spiritual life given, not only is it nurtured, but that spiritual life is also seen as we considered somewhat as we talked about gratitude this morning. you see beloved as believers we are god's workmanship we are his very own handiwork created in christ jesus to do good works that are to be visible we are to be visible for the world to see and they are to see god's mercy and grace and love and his saving work Paul makes that clear in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 with regard to the Corinthian believers and believers in general. He says to them in chapter 3, verses 2 and 3, You yourselves are our letter written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. People of God, believers, you and me, we are visible sermons. And if we are sermons that we ought to be, of what God has done for us as we see with this valley of dry bones, the world ought to look at us and they ought to see and say, wow, can you believe it? How could this be? Isn't that amazing? Therefore, we have to ask ourselves, is that the kind of sermon that I am? Is that what the world sees with me? Do they see the work of God, the powerful hand of God in my life? You see, a new life in Jesus Christ is such a drastic change from being dead in sin. It is such a drastic change as Ezekiel's valley shows us. Such a drastic change that can't help but be seen. Because it's drastic from dry bones, death, to new life. It's from dead hope to a living hope. It's from being cut off with no quality of life to having been given a heavenly quality of life. When someone has hope that they didn't have before, you can tell. It's clear. They express it. And we too, beloved, are to be amazed. We are to be amazed to see through these transformed bones in Ezekiel's episode exactly what God has done with us in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Because if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, this is what has happened to you. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that wonderful? Indeed, to live apart from God is death. But the soul that is revived by the breath of the Spirit for Jesus' sake lives and shall never die. And therefore, beloved, may we live by and walk in the breath of the Holy Spirit of God, standing on our feet with that vast army of God. Amen. Let's pray together. Oh, Father, help us more and more to understand and recognize that amazing, transforming work that You have done in our hearts and lives. That indeed we were dead as dead can be. We were without a single hope for this life or the life to come. But You have made us to be alive in Christ Jesus for His sake, because of His work. And Father, may it be that that life would be visible and evident through us. May we delight in showing forth that life, showing off that life by Your Spirit to the world around us. And may it be our desire that many would come to enjoy that life by Your hand alone as You would continue to build Your church as we have prayed so often to make her ready for the day of Christ Jesus. Oh Lord, hear our prayer for Jesus' sake. Amen.