DRY BONES CAN LIVE AGAIN

We thank God that we can meet like this. We praise Him for His working amongst people. Some teams have gone out to preach the Gospel in Europe, Kenya, and some are in Malawi. God is working and touching the lives of people. Are we ready for Him to send us too? It is my prayer that we may be there where we should be when He wants to send us.

God is setting people free from the bondage of demonic spirits. In that we see that it is His work in the lives of people, don’t miss out on the Work He wants to do in and through you. Your life should be in tune with Him.

I read a story of a man who set his watch to the time of the big clock in town. Every so often he would check whether his watch was still in time with the big clock. Spiritually, is my life in tune with God’s timing? If not, it would be good to set it to God’s clock.

Ezekiel 37:1 – 10 37 The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. ² Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry. ³ And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

So I answered, “O Lord God, You know.”

⁴ Again He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! ⁵ Thus says the Lord God to these bones: “Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. ⁶ I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.” ’ ”

⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone. ⁸ Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them.

⁹ Also He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the ^[a]breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” ’ ” ¹⁰ So I prophesied as He commanded me, and ^[b]breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.

This is a wonderful text. God can take dry bones and make them into something valuable, into living creatures, into a great army, as we have read. Man cannot do that, but God can. Even though they were dry bones, without life, God can bring back life. That is what He wants to do for everyone – that is His desire – He wants the best for us.

Today I’ll speak about that wonderful deed where God brings life into dead bones.

In another verse in Ezekiel, God says, I will put my Spirit in them and give them a new heart. I will change their hearts, make them new. Isn’t that something wonderful, something great?

Matthew Henry said – no created power could restore human bones to life, God alone can cause them to live. Skin and flesh covered them, and the wind was told to blow upon these bodies, and they were restored to life. This is a picture of spiritual dry bones, and how God can bring them back to life. The wind was an emblem of the Holy Spirit of God. It represented His quickening powers. This vision was to encourage the despondent Jews who were in exile in Babylon, being a prediction of their restoration after their captivity. It is also a clear indication of the resurrection of the dead and the conversion of the most hopeless sinner, to put His Spirit in us and keep us by His power, through faith, unto salvation.

As I read this portion, I wondered: how did they become dry bones? How is it possible that His people, that served Him, found themselves in this position?

In the Jewish culture the lowest degradation is a dead body that hasn’t been buried. Some say it is the biggest disgrace you can commit against a person – to leave his bones unburied. The last respect is to bury a body, but here we find the nation compared to dry bones, just left lying outside. It is the lowest point spiritually. How did this happen?

As I read, I thought, let me go back in their history. You can go back too – I felt compelled to go and see, how did they get here?

God is Love, He loves us, and I agree with that with all my heart – He gave His Son to die on the Cross for us – Jesus gave His life for us – there is no doubt in my mind – He loves us. Our minds cannot fathom God’s grace either. He bestows grace on us despite the way we have treated Him with our sinful actions. There is no greater love in this world than the love that God pours on us. There are churches where it is said that God is love and that is all we should preach about. It is true – God is Love – but there are also those who say one should not preach about sin. Well, go and read Ezekiel, it is God’s word. There is no doubt in my mind that as much as God loves us, we will experience the opposite if we harbour sin. Do yourself a favour – go and read the first 20 or so chapters of Ezekiel. It is frightening what God did to His own nation, His own people, when they sinned, He did not spare them. If we sit with sin in our lives, it will be the same with us. God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. If you say you are a Christian and if you knowingly continue with sin – in Ezekiel it says, God will have no pity on you.

Shouldn’t my thoughts and desire be – God, I don’t want to displease you.

One third of the nation of Israel died of disease, another third of the nation died by the sword, the last third was scattered all over. Why? Because of the sin they committed. No Christian should tell me that God is love, God is grace, I can do what I want - nothing will happen to me.

If you forget everything I say today, take this with you - God hates sin. He hates it with a passion. He detests it. And if we as Christians knowingly sit with sin in our lives, and we don’t want to deal with it, God will deal with us. If He did not spare His own people, why would He spare us?

Dear Christian, the attacks the devil is using today may have changed from the past. We as parents must be wide awake for ourselves and especially for our children. If we can’t overcome sin in our own lives, how can we expect our children to overcome?

If I am jealous and irritable – how will my child overcome jealousy and irritability? Not just that – these days you hear things that you never heard about years ago. We saw the dangers of sexual impurity if a boy and girl were together. But today the same sickness of lust can be found between cousins, brothers, sisters. And if you think that is unreal – ask some people, they will tell you. Maybe it is even closer to home than you think. A daughter wants to sin with her father – that is the attack of the devil. We must stay close to God, and the Holy Spirit will lead and help us. If we have sin in our lives, we grieve the Holy Spirit – how can He help us? God’s wrath will be upon us. Unconfessed sin makes us easy prey for the devil to destroy us.

Read Ezekiel and you will see God’s view on sin – it will open your mind to how God detests sin.

Ezekiel 5:5 – 6; 8 – 9

 ⁵ “Thus says the Lord God: ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations and the countries all around her. ⁶ She has rebelled against My judgments by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are all around her; for they have refused My judgments, and they have not walked in My statutes.’

 ⁸ therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Indeed I, even I, am against you and will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. ⁹ And I will do among you what I have never done, and the like of which I will never do again, because of all your abominations.

Here we read about God’s holy anger because of sin – He said, I will do to you what I have not done to anyone else. It is almost unbearable to read it.

Verse 10

¹⁰ Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments among you, and all of you who remain I will scatter to all the winds.

Can you imagine such a thing?

Verse11b

¹¹ ‘Therefore, as I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you; My eye will not spare, nor will I have any pity.

If God destroyed His own people because of sin, do you think He will spare you because you sit with sin? If He does, He is not the same God anymore. I’ll highlight a few things God had against His nation. Compare it to your life. If God speaks to you, make haste to put it right.

God, through Ezekiel told them they were stubborn, rebellious. They refused to take advice. Sometimes when people speak to you, it is God speaking to you. Do you take their advice? Or are you stubborn?

They were more wicked than the pagans – they did things which even the world does not do and failed to follow even the moral laws that were common amongst pagans. God said to them – amongst all the nations I have put you, you have done worse than them. There where you are at work, in town, where you live, with your family – are you an example? If you are not, God is not pleased with you.

He mentions idol worship – In the book of Ezekiel he speaks to them 40 times about worshipping idols. In Hebrew an idol refers to something without shape. It is not helpful, but something that just distracts you. Tell me, that which you are busy with – does it benefit and help you, or does it waste your time? There are things we do to relax – maybe sport – there is nothing wrong with that, however, you can be consumed by it, yet it has no spiritual benefit to you. And God will look at that thing and say – I am not pleased with you. Make sure that that which you do is pleasing to God.

Their silver and gold has become a stumbling block and source of sin to them. I don’t think I need to say much about that – let God speak to you.

He talks to them about pride. He describes it as being arrogant in God’s eyes. Do you know that there is the sin of wanting to be something or somebody of importance before people? Is there anything of that pride in your life?

Jealousy – in the nation of Israel there was jealousy and God hated it. If someone receives more than I got, I become unhappy and envious. I can be guilty of sticking my finger in God’s eye, because I am not happy with what He has given me, His dealings in my life, as, according to how I see it, He blesses others more than me.

Chapter 14:9 (read the Amplified)

⁹ “But if the prophet [who speaks without My authority] is enticed to speak a word [of his own], it is I the Lord who have caused that prophet [to speak falsely to please the inquirer, thus allowing himself to be a party to the inquirer’s sin], and I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him from among My people Israel.

The prophet who speaks without My authority. Remember a prophet can be teacher, someone who proclaims God’s word – this word can include all of us. If you speak without God’s authority and you speak out of your own cleverness – God will make you speak that which the listener wants to hear. Here we read about the sin of the enquirer. The one who wants to hear the latest gossip, where some person has done wrong again and so he lends his ear to evil. God can even cause you who speak what the evil person wants to hear.

Verse 10

¹⁰ They [both] will bear the punishment of their wickedness; the sin of the [counterfeit] prophet will be the same as the sin of the [hypocritical] inquirer,

If you want to hear gossip stories, God will bring someone to you to tell them to you, because your ears love to hear it. If you speak glibly – you will end up speaking evil. Just think of it. It says here – if you are enticed to speak out of your own – if you speak quickly in a conversation without praying - God what do you want me to say, let me not make a mistake – you will say the wrong thing. You will be just as guilty as that one with the evil ear.

I encourage you to go and read it – there are things in here that I had never read before. I’m sure it will become clear to you when you read these verses that God does not tolerate sin. Maybe you say, it is a small thing here and there – but if God hates it, shouldn’t I as a Christian make every effort to avoid it totally?

Dear Christian, as I said to someone recently, it is not complicated – when God speaks to you, make it right – when God reminds you of something, go and confess it – you don’t need to lose your head about it – just do what pleases God – let that be your desire. He is faithful as He says here – I will put My Spirit in you. I will teach you and show you. I will convict you if there is something that shouldn’t be there. But have an ear to hear.

When that still small voice convicts, obey it. I remember when God started working in my life in a new way in purifying me, I kept a little notebook in my pocket. When I was convicted of something, I wrote it down. I made a decision that if I write it on this little paper, I will confess it. I did not allow myself to be confused later with doubts, I faithfully brought it into the light and God helped me and I received His mercy.  I remember the day when I experienced full freedom and the bliss of complete forgiveness, and I prayed that this relationship with the Lord would always be mine. We are fortunate. Rev Stegen taught us what to do. Take that sin, bring it to the light, get prayer and be saved from of it. With God’s help overcome so that you don’t fall in that sin again.

I once asked Rev Stegen about confession of sin because some people say you don’t need to confess in the presence of a person – you confess and pray to God alone. He answered, confession before another person is the beginning of revival. Exposing your life before a man of God, confessing that sin where two or more are gathered to pray – he said, that is revival. Then he said, and if you stop doing that – it is the end of revival.

Dear Christian, God wants each of us to be revived and to experience revival. He wants us to know that there is nothing between us. He wants it for everyone. Just do it – why don’t you want to do it. And let no person ever tell you again that you can just sin and God’s grace will cover it.

I don’t want you to stand before God one day and say, but God I thought everything was covered. There will be some there who thought they are in right standing with God but the Bible says God will say – I don’t know you. Do not tolerate sin in your life – not one sin, big or small. God will reward you. You will know it. You will see when you do that, that His word is true. Never be shy. Sometimes one thinks if I go and confess that sin, what will they think of me – it is not like that – God will respect you for bringing that sin into the light. He will help you. Do that.