Text: “And He (the Lord) said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord, Thou knowest. Again He said unto me, Prophesy upon 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.”
Ezekiel 37:3-5.
Good
morning, Christian saved by God’s grace!
Of ourselves, we are and always have been, and always shall be -
NOTHING. We had absolutely no desire to
hear the voice of God, nor to be a part of His Body, the church worldwide and
international. Yet, by His Sovereign grace alone; through God-given faith
alone; given by His grace alone, you and I are Eternally saved. Wow!
Hallelujah! What a gracious
Saviour!
Verse 4. “The voice of the Lord
is powerful. As the voice of God in nature is so powerful, so is it
in grace; the reader will do well to draw a parallel, and he will find much in
the Gospel which may be illustrated by the thunder of the Lord in the
tempest. See that ye refuse not Him that
speaketh. If His voice be thus mighty,
what must His hand be!” (Charles Haddon
Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 142)
“For
by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift
of God; not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in
them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10)
Nothing
in God’s original Creation was created without God’s voice - the Word of
God. Likewise, nothing concerning the
Eternal Salvation of our souls was regenerated within us, except by that same
Divine Word of God being proclaimed.
Thanks be to God.
“So
then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” (Romans 10:17)
“Chaos
knows not how to resist Thee, it hears Thy voice obediently, but the obdurate
heart repels Thee, and Thy mighty voice too often calls to it in vain. Thou art not so great and wonderful in
creating worlds out of nothing as Thou art when Thou dost command a rebel heart
to arise from its abyss of sin, and to run in the ways of Thy
commandments.” (J.B. Massillon
1663-1742)
The
heart of fallen mankind is totally depraved.
Only a fool would refuse to acknowledge the fact that Adam’s fall into
sin in Eden’s Garden was a fall into total depravity, not merely a partial fall
from grace, that would leave some yearning for Spiritual fellowship with his
Creator Lord. When Adam/Eve disobeyed
God’s commandment - all Creation reeled under God’s curse for sin; all future
generations of mankind would be born of woman, fallen, in the image of fallen
Adam, as opposed to the sinless image of his Creator Lord God. That is why we ‘…must be born again…’!
“The
heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who (but God
Himself) can know it? I the Lord search
the heart, I try (test) the reins, even to give every man according to his
ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” (Jeremiah 17:9-10)
Yet,
the Lord God takes the initiative to go seeking His fallen creature, like the
story of the Prodigal son in Luke chapter 15:, “…when he (the Prodigal son) was
yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell
on his neck, and kissed him.” (Luke
15:20) Now, this is what I call
’Sovereign grace’! Hallelujah!
“Man
became God’s enemy wantonly, without the slightest offence given on God’s part,
but man did not make advances towards reconciliation, or express regret because
peace was broken. The first overtures
for peace are not made by man the offender, but by our aggrieved and offended
God…Reconciliation of man to his Maker is never achieved by man, but is the
work of God from first to last, and to God must be all the glory.” (C.H.
Spurgeon, Spurgeon’s Expository Encyclopaedia, Minister’s Redemption, page
9)
Today,
throughout the nations that have been utterly blessed by the proclamation of
the glorious Gospel of Christ and Him Crucified for sinners - millions have now
turned their ears and their hearts away from the One true God, Jehovah, and His
dear Son, Jesus Christ. Apostasy reigns
where once Scriptural truth presided - as the full filth of Sodom is exalted
throughout our sin-sick societies, and political leaders wallow in the mire of
corruption and immoral sleaze. Only the
thunder of God’s voice can awaken our nations once more from the Eternal sleep
of Hell’s doom that is upon our people.
Verse 4. “The voice of the Lord
is full of majesty. The King of kings speaks like a king. As when a lion roareth, all the beasts of the
forest are still, so is the earth hushed and mute while Jehovah thundereth
marvellously.” (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury
of David, page 142)
“Oh
may the evangelical ‘Boanerges’ so cause the glorious sound of the Gospel to be
heard under the whole heaven that the world may again be made sensible thereof;
before the voice of the Son of Man, which hath so often called sinners to
repentance, shall call them to judgement.”
(George Horne 1730-1792)
Thought: You and I are the Lord’s evangelists - let us
renew our efforts to be the voice of God; proclaiming boldly the glorious
Gospel of Jesus the risen Christ.
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