Tonight, I invite you to turn with me to the prophecy of Ezekiel, Ezekiel 37. We read together the first 14 verses. That episode also serves as the text tonight for the sermon. I believe a familiar portion entitled, The Valley of Dry Bones. Ezekiel 37, beginning at verse 1, as we give our attention to the Word of God. 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. 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. And 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. I will not ask you tonight how many of you were thinking of the song, Them dry bones as we read this portion of Scripture. The foot bone is connected to the leg bone, or the ankle I guess first, so I won't even try to recite it. But beloved, no doubt what an amazing experience this must have been for Ezekiel. And you know, when we think of all the amazing wonders of God that are recorded in Scripture, of course it would be dishonoring to God to rate them, to put them in some sort of an order from most important to least important or something of that nature. But I do believe that this episode in the life of Ezekiel is definitely one of the most memorable. At least for most people who know their Bible and their Old Testament history, if you were to ask them to tell you something about Ezekiel, most likely this vision is what they would remember. But also, when we think of what Hollywood and the movie industry has done with certain stories of the Bible, turning them into entertainment and even changing, desecrating the true message of God's Word. I can only shudder to think what they would do with this story with all of their Hollywood imagination and their special effects. Yet what comfort for you and me as believers to be taught from this passage of Scripture to be taught in a very vivid way about the transforming hand of God. He alone is the author and the accomplisher of new life. He alone revived from spiritual death to make spiritually alive. Now the occasion for this vision was the captivity of God's people in Babylon because of their sin and because of their rejection of their covenant God. And in the midst of hopelessness, God commissions Ezekiel to bring a word of hope. And therefore, consider with me tonight this word of God. God's prophet prophesies of the hope for new life. You want to notice these things from these verses. First of all, the picture of hopelessness. Secondly, the miracle of recreation. And then finally, the promise of restoration. Now in this vision, and we don't completely understand how, but Ezekiel is seized by the hand of God and he is led by the Spirit of the Lord to this valley of bones. But the Lord doesn't simply give Ezekiel just a quick glimpse of this bony valley. Boys and girls, sometimes when we're driving down the freeway at 70 miles an hour and something catches your attention out the window, you might get a quick glimpse as it passes by, but that's it. Just a split second. You really don't get a good look at whatever it is. That's not what happened here. He is placed right in the thick of it. And as Ezekiel himself says in verse 2, he that is the Lord led me back and forth among them. Back and forth among that valley of bones. And that means that Ezekiel passes through the bones so that he could get a full picture of the situation. And that picture was the picture of hopelessness. Ezekiel was to understand what a hopeless situation there was. This was, there were bones lying everywhere. There were not piles of bones in the sense that there was a pile over here, and then a pile over there and then another pile over there. That's how we used to rake leaves, you see. To clean the yard up, make a pile here, pile there, pile there, then go back and pick them all up and then the yard is clean again. That's not the situation here. These were not piles of bones, but the ground was literally covered, blanketed with a layer of scattered bones. When I think of this, I think of the destruction left by the path of a tornado. And I'm thinking of a particular tornado. A number of years ago, Our family had the privilege of spending the summer in the small town of Chandler, Minnesota. Some of you are very familiar with this place and what happened. I worked there as a summer intern in the Christian Reformed Church. And two years before we lived there, a massive tornado hit this small town and literally, literally wiped out half of the town. All the houses, all the trees, everything flattened to the ground. And as we looked at the pictures of the aftermath, there were pictures of a valley north of the town that was blanketed with mixed rubble and debris. Trees, wood, shingles, kitchen utensils, bicycles, automobiles, clothing, and literally all of the physical possessions of the people of that town blanketed this valley all mixed together. That's what I think of when I think of this valley of dry bones. But this picture of hopelessness is then intensified as Ezekiel describes these bones as being very dry. And this picture, beloved, is to be very vivid to us. It's clear from what the Lord says that He will restore in verse 6. It's clear that the tendons and the muscle tissue and the flesh and the skin, the very breath was completely gone from these bones. The very bone marrow, the vital sap of the bones which is necessary for life was all dried up. We know how important bone marrow is, especially today as we deal with cancer treatments and as we think of our sister who we've been praying for for months, Catherine Ben-Drunner, who needs a bone marrow transplant literally for life. You see, not only that which covered the bones, the flesh, not only was that gone, but also that which gave the bones strength and vitality was gone. Not only had these bones been dead for a long, long time, which the extreme dryness points to, but they also were as dead as dead can be. This was a picture of complete desolation. It was a picture of the horror and the intensity and the finality of death. This picture concretized or it made visibly real the hopelessness that God's people themselves expressed In verse 11, as they say, our bones are dried up and our hope is gone. We are cut off. In a sense, this valley of dry bones gave an affirmative answer to Israel's complaint. Yes, Israel, you are dead. Now, boys and girls, it's not that every single person, not every single Israelite was literally dead. They were in captivity, which pointed to death. God's people had sinned. They had rebelled against Him. Their faith and their spirit was gone. Physically speaking, their capital city was destroyed. Their temple was gone. Many people had been slaughtered. Others had been carried away. And at this point in history, we could say that Israel was extinct. The people had no will to live. And as far as they were concerned, there was nothing to live for. Dry bones and no life left in them are a picture of extinction. In other words, God's people were beyond human help. Beloved, this picture of hopelessness is a picture of man lost in sin. This is a picture of each and every one of us, you and me, apart from God. This dead. Sin is the language of death. Ezekiel says in chapter 18, the soul who sins shall die. Paul says in Ephesians 2, verse 1, And you He made alive who were dead, this dead, in trespasses and sins. We sing from 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. You see, when sin entered the world, man sentenced himself to extinction. And after giving Ezekiel a front row seat view of this picture of the deadliest death, then God asks him in verse 3, Son of man, can these bones live? And Ezekiel answers, O sovereign Lord, you alone know. Can these bones live? After seeing a sight like that, most people, including maybe all of us, would break out into laughter and say, you've got to be kidding. What kind of question is that? It's impossible. To us, this would seem a little like reconstructing a glass vase that had shattered into a thousand pieces after hitting the tile floor. It's absolutely impossible. Now, of course, we need to remember that Ezekiel's own tradition knew of people coming back to life, but only in cases where death had been recent. And I'm talking about only those episodes that we are given in Scripture. No doubt the stories have been handed down from generation to generation how Elijah, of course the Lord, but through Elijah brought the widow's son back to life. And Elisha had raised the Shunammite's son. Yes, some who had died were brought back to life a short time later, but this pathetic pile of dry bones? Forget it. No way. But for Ezekiel, as God asks this question, Son of man, can these bones live? Ezekiel, as it were, hears mercy in the voice of God. And by the grace of God, Ezekiel knows that with God all things are possible. The Lord had said to Abraham, is anything too hard for the Lord? Ezekiel also knows that the Lord exercises control over life and death. Even as we read in Psalm 104 with regard to creation, you hide your face, the psalmist says, they are troubled. You take away their breath. They die and return to their dust. You send forth your Spirit. They are created. And you renew the face of the earth. With his answer to the Lord's question, Ezekiel casts himself upon the will and the power of God. O Sovereign Lord! Sovereign Lord! You alone know. And then God prepares a most wonderful message of comfort for Ezekiel to bring to God's people as the Lord then performs the miracle of recreation. Now in verses 4-10 we find that first the Sovereign Lord tells Ezekiel what to prophesy and then He tells him what the outcome will be, what the result will be, what exactly will happen. And then of course this word is carried out. And as Ezekiel begins to prophesy, there was a noise. And from the Hebrew, the idea from the word noise there is that it was a loud noise. And then the bones began to rattle and move back into place again. Amazing! In other words, by the very Word of God, these bones were re-formed. They were formed again back into the proper skeletal forms. And of course, this wasn't the work of the bones themselves, as is clear a little bit later when Ezekiel says, but there was no breath in them. This was the work of the powerful Word of God. But notice that this recreation, this reformation, is in the reverse order of the decomposition that had taken place. The bones come together first. Then the tendons, no doubt, with the ligaments and the muscles, attach the bones together. And then the flesh was restored around those bones. And then also the skin to hold that flesh in place. Again, what? And incredible, what an amazing sight this must have been for Ezekiel. Yet the job still wasn't complete, again, because indeed there was no breath in them. These corpses were still missing the most important ingredient, the animating spirit or breath of life. These corpses were still a picture of man lost in sin without the Spirit of God. Ezekiel is next told in verses 9 and 10 to 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. The slain are those who had perished by the sword or by famine or by some other violent death. Again, a picture of Israel's troubles. The four winds represent the universal life-giving Spirit. This is the same thing as we find in Genesis 2. See, God recreates in two acts as if it was a play. Two acts, just as He created Adam. God formed Adam from the dust of the ground. That was the first act. Yet there was no life until the Lord God breathed into His nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being. And Ezekiel now saw a valley filled with a vast army. Why? Because they had been filled with the breath of life. It is the Spirit of God who gives the breath of life. It is the Holy Spirit of God who makes the Word of God effective in your heart and my heart. We can't change hearts. I've said that before. I cannot as a minister change anyone's heart. That's not my job. That's the job of the Holy Spirit. My job is to preach the Gospel. You can't change anyone's hearts. We've tried with our children, haven't we? It doesn't work. We can't change their hearts. Steve Hoekstra came here tonight. He came before the elders a couple weeks ago, not because he had changed his heart. By God's grace, he was born and raised into a Christian family where he was taught the truth of Jesus Christ. But by the grace of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, working in his heart and in his life, he was now given the desire. to say, I believe. And the desire to say, I want to take my place in Christ's church, which He has done tonight. And as I think of His grandparents, Reverend Mrs. Hookstra, who are here tonight, who spent all those years in Africa, I can't help but to think that in some way they saw somewhat of the same thing that Ezekiel saw. Not literal bones being connected together and physical bodies coming back to life, but as the Word of God went forth, to people who have never heard, people who were dead in their trespasses and sins, that they saw life being given to these people. New life. They saw people come to life. This vision is clear, beloved, that there is no life apart from the Spirit. And all of this was to equip Ezekiel with a wonderful message of hope as the Lord God gives to His people then the promise of restoration. Ezekiel is to prophesy to the exiles in captivity of hope for new life. Now again, God makes it clear in verse 11 that this whole episode is a picture of Israel. In captivity, they were dead, which of course, they know. Again, they said in verse 11, our bones are dried up. Our hope is gone. We are cut off. Yet you know what? This should not have been a surprise to them because this is exactly what God said would happen to them if they broke covenant with Him. In Deuteronomy 28, we read in verses 25 and 26, The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them, and you shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. Your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away. And in the same way, Jeremiah prophesies of the result of breaking covenant with God. He says, I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life. Their dead bodies shall be for meat for the birds of the heaven and the beasts of the earth. This is what Israel was experiencing. They were as good as dead. Their hope was gone because in captivity they were cut off, as it were, from the living. Their cry was, it's all over for us. In Scripture, speaking of the bones in this way, it was speaking about life itself. Good bones points to prosperity and life. Dry bones points to trouble and death. Proverbs 17, verse 22 says, A merry heart does good like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones. Captivity had stolen their very life. And when they say that their hope is gone, they were talking about that their hope was dead. That they had no hope, they thought. And the language of being cut off is talking about loss of life. They had been reduced to a dismal, low level of human existence in which there was no quality of life. We would say to someone who's prutsing around like that, saying, well, go out and get a life. The experience of exile, you see, was like a graveyard. Israel was dead. But notice, there was no obituary here. There was no obituary in the paper talking about their lifespan, talking about those who had died before them, those who remained after them. There was no obituary talking anything about their life. Instead, when God asks, can these bones live? He was introducing the miracle of a new page of life written with His very own finger. His promise of restoration was that He would open their graves. He would release them from captivity and bring them home. God's people, in a sense, would be resurrected. Now, of course, this came to pass only in part in Israel's real physical history. Some returned from exile under Zerubbabel and Ezra and they rebuilt the cities of Judah as well. They built the temple again. But never again did the people really gain independence with a king from David's line sitting on the physical throne. Never again did they really enjoy peace. So what is this all about? Beloved, all this all pointed forward to freedom and the hope for new life. In Jesus Christ. All of this, every bit of this, is the language of redemption for the sake of the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. When Jesus Christ appeared, ushering in the kingdom of God in the hearts of His people, then spiritual Israel, the church, reappeared on the earth. The church lives and breathes in the Spirit today. Because in Christ's death, His people have died to sin. And in Christ's resurrection, God's people live. In Colossians 3, verse 1, Paul speaks of believers as having been raised with Christ. And in verse 3 of that chapter, it says that the Christian's light is hidden with Christ in God. Beloved, our Lord took the place of His people. Each one who would believe on Him by grace through faith. The cross was exile for Christ. Exile both from the world that rejected Him and exile from His Father at whose hand He suffered the punishment for our sin. The situation on the cross looked helpless and hopeless and the enemy looked victorious. But Jesus Christ arose and with His resurrection arose a new life for His people unto eternal life. And beloved, this promise of new life for the elect people of God is life. New life in the Spirit. Being rescued from the death of sin and Satan and hell and delivered to the light of eternal glory. In verse 14, the first part of verse 14, the Lord says, I will put My Spirit in you and you will live and I will settle you in your own land. Jesus said of the Comforter of the Holy Spirit whom He would send, that the Spirit would take what is Christ and declare it to Christ's disciples. Beloved, these dry bones, resurrected, restructured, and recreated are given the breath of life and they represent the work of the Holy Spirit of God in your life and in my life. And this confirms or supports what God had said a chapter before, chapter 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. The Holy Spirit of God works in the hearts and lives of God's people applying the very Word of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and delivering God's people from captivity to sin and bringing them home into the arms of the Heavenly Father. You see, beloved, God's design is that there be a spiritual revival in the hearts of His people. He alone gives new life, and that life is to be characterized by a new recognition of Him as the Sovereign One, the God of Psalm 139. And also it is to be characterized by a new relationship with God. He is my Father. I am His child for the sake of Jesus Christ. The last half of verse 14 says, Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord. Then you will know that I alone am God, the God of salvation, the God of eternity. Our God, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, regenerates us unto new life in Him. And beloved, this life then is to be for Him. It is to be a life unto new obedience out of thankfulness for the glorious exodus out of sin's clutches. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. God alone, through His Holy Spirit, transforms the hearts and lives of His people because Jesus Christ has paid the debt of our sin. He has made us free. And it's only in Him that Christians breathe that spiritual breath unto eternal life. yet beloved the world is filled with many walking corpses today those who do not know the Savior those who reject Him spiritually speaking are nothing but dry bones wasting away in the heat of sin and left to themselves it's a hopeless situation they can do nothing about it if that describes you tonight then our prayer for Jesus' sake is that the Holy Spirit of God would breathe His Word of truth in you and melt your heart of stone and recreate within you a heart of flesh. The promise of God. The promise of God. The guarantee of God for those who repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ by grace through faith is that they are restored with the Father. Never again to be exiled away from Him. Never again. But instead to live with Him in eternity. We said this morning that no one can take prayer away from you and me. And you know what? No one can take away our salvation either. How wonderful. What a blessing. From dry bones, that is from death to new life. From dead hope, no hope, to a living eternal hope. From being cut off with no quality of life whatsoever, to being given freely the heavenly quality of life. Is that new life in the Spirit yours? Yes, indeed. The soul that sins, it shall die. But the soul that is revived by the breath of the Spirit for the sake of Christ's redemption, who died for His people, that soul lives and it shall never die. 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. Shall we pray? Father, again we stand amazed when we consider Your miraculous work in our life. A work which we certainly did not deserve. We deserve that You should turn Your face away from us, from this world forever and ever, and cast us all into hell forever and ever. But You have looked upon Your people in Your mercy and in Your grace. You have taken a dead people and You continue to take dead people and give them new life in the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, may we rejoice in that new life. May we give to You the glory and the honor and the praise. And may we live a life that indeed pleases You in every way. Hear our prayer, O Lord, for Jesus' sake and in His name, Amen.