From the 24th chapter of Matthew. Verily I say
unto you, this is Jesus speaking, this generation
shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled.
Now watch something very carefully. Heaven and
earth shall pass away, but my words shall not.
pass away. You have heard me say it over and
over again. God's Word needs no defense. The
Bible needs no defense. God needs no defense.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the true Messiah,
needs no defense. The Holy Spirit needs no defense.
The Word of God speaks for itself. And the greatest
proof for the authenticity of the Word of God
is prophecy. Always know that. Never forget it.
And I repeat it. The greatest proof that you
and I have for the authenticity of the Holy Bible
of God's Word is Bible prophecy. God cannot lie.
The one who has kept His Word in the past will
keep His Word today. The Bible is not just a
treatise on theology or morals or history or
science or any other topic. It is a revelation
of God, of the fallen man, the way of salvation.
and of God's plan and purpose in the ages. You
and I can stake our very life on the faith of
the Lord. Ezekiel had a vision that God gave
unto him. And think how many years ago More than
1400 years before Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem.
Think of it. God knows no such thing as time.
And one thing is sure. God will keep his word.
Not only to Israel. Not only to Abraham and the
seed of Abraham. Every one of us personally.
All right? Let us take just a few minutes and
review Ezekiel's vision of the Valley of Dry
Bones. And the 37th chapter of Ezekiel opens
with this strange sight. It was a strange vision,
believe me. Which God gave to the prophet Ezekiel.
And the amazing thing is... that before the vision
ended, God himself gave the interpretation. There
could be no mistake whatsoever as to the interpretation
of the vision that God gave to Ezekiel. Listen.
The hand of the Lord was upon me, carried me
out in the spirit of the Lord. set me down in
the midst of the valley which was full of bones,
and caused me to pass by them round about. And
behold, they were very many in the open valley,
and, lo, they were very dry. I just read the
first and second verses from the 37th chapter
of Ezekiel. upon this valley, filled with the
bones of human skeletons. Something happened.
He spoke instinctively. He asked a question.
Can these bones live? Can a miracle take place?
Is it possible, humanly speaking, for these skeletons,
these human skeletons, skeletons, glitched and
dry, to live? And while he was asking the question,
he also answered it. Oh, Lord God, thou knowest.
Continue reading. Fourth to the sixth verses.
And God spoke to Ezekiel, saying, and this is
what God said, 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. i will lay thin news
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 what a prophecy what a prophecy don't stop
there Whatever you do, don't stop there. The
prophet was obedient unto the Lord. And it continues.
And 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. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews
and the flesh came upon them. and the skin covered
them above. But there was no breath in them.
This is amazing. The prophet had just looked
upon a valley of dry bones, human skeletons,
parched and dry. And the word of the Lord said,
prophesy unto them. And as he did so, Something
happened. Flesh and sinew came upon these bones.
Something else happened. And breath came into
them. That breath signifies spiritual life. Ezekiel
continues. Thus saith the Lord God. come from
the four winds o breath breathe upon these plain
that they may live and so i prophesied as he
commanded me and the breath came into them and
they lived and stood up upon their feet an exceedingly
great army what a sight What a sight to behold!
How the prophet must have stood there in amazement,
in wonderment, to see this great miracle take
place before his very eyes. But the amazing thing
is, God did not leave the prophet in doubt. He
did not leave you. He did not leave me. He did
not leave the Gentile world, neither Israel,
in doubt. as to what he was talking about. Immediately,
he gave the interpretation of the vision. The
same chapter. I'm still in the 37th chapter of
Ezekiel. You've got to accept it. You can't explain
it away. You can't spiritualize it. You can't.
It's there. All right. Begin with the 11th verse.
There it is. These bones are. Now, I'm not taking
some man's interpretation. I am taking the very
word of God, the highest authority in heaven
and earth. These bones are the whole house of
Israel. Now, the graves that he was talking about
are the nations of the world. in which Israel
had been buried nationally for centuries. And
always remember, whenever we speak of Israel,
whenever we think of the Jew being God's chosen
people, they are an earthly people. And this
earthly people has been buried nationally for
centuries. But the day has come, even in our
present generation, when the Jew has been established
again as a nation. And these graves are the nations
of the world in which the Jew has been buried
nationally for centuries and literally centuries.
Oh, sure, for a very long, weary period of the
world's history. The oppressed Jew has said,
Our bones are dry, they're parched. Our hope
is lost. But sometimes I wonder, if really away
down deep in the recesses of their heart, they
really had never lost hope. Sometimes I wonder,
I wonder if instinctively the Jew, whether it
was in Germany or Russia or here in the United
States of America, if somehow instinctively he
knew that there was hope and that he would be
returned to his own country. Now the Lord has
a message for his people. In the 12th and the
14th verses, I'm continuing to read from the
37th chapter of Ezekiel. Behold, O my people.
Now watch. We know this is not to the Gentile.
For he has just said, these bones are. the whole
house of Israel. He continues talking about the
same people. 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
and shall put my spirit in you and ye shall live
and I will place you in your own land. Then shall
ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, performed
it, saith the Lord. Oh, this is thrilling. This
vision of the restoration of the nation of Israel
does not represent, as some may think, a physical
resurrection to a second chance. It's amazing
sometimes. how stupid even some of our best Bible
scholars can be. We always like to spiritualize
things. We always like to put a different interpretation
on it than God intended. When it is so plain
that if you're spiritual at all, if you have
any leading of the spirit, and if you're just
without... prejudice, let the Holy Spirit be
your teacher, the one who has spoken, is as simple
as can be. Yeah. This nation of the restoration
of the nation of Israel does not represent a
physical resurrection to a second chance. This
would be absolutely contrary to all the positive
teaching of the Word of God. What a man does
with the Lord Jesus Christ in this life determines
forever the destiny of his never -dying soul.
We do not have another chance, whether we be
Jew or Gentile. We do not have another chance
after death. Our destiny, so far as spiritual
life is concerned, is determined right here before
the soul leaves the body. And you cannot absolutely,
there is no scripture, I'll challenge any Bible
teacher to show me any scripture that proves
that we have a second chance after death. Now,
here, right here in this life. And what is true
for the Gentile? What is true of the Church of
the Lord Jesus Christ? What is true of the Gentile
is true of the Jew also. I repeat, what a man,
whether he be Jew or Gentile, does the Lord Jesus
Christ in this life. Now, determines forever
the destiny of his never -dying soul. Moreover,
as we have often said, that every individual,
whether he be Jew or Gentile, must accept Christ
as his own personal Savior if he would spend
eternity with Him. What we see in this 37th chapter
of Ezekiel is God's prophecy of Israel's national
resurrection. Keep that in mind. God's covenants
to Abraham and Abraham's seed are earthly covenants.
The Jew as a chosen people are an earthly people.
Know that. For many dreary centuries, the Jew
has been buried in the cemetery of the Gentile
nations. But today, the Jew has come indeed into
his own, when God has opened the graves, so to
speak. He has led his people back to their own
homeland. National Israel has long been dead
in the graves of Russia, of Germany, of England.
of France, of Italy, of Canada. Long the Jew
has been dead nationally in the grave. But the
Word of God, and it's here in the 37th chapter
of Ezekiel, tells us that the day would come
when the Jew would be taken out of her graves,
and this... is exactly what has happened in our
generation. Think of it. Sure, bones have been
bleached throughout the passing centuries in
the valley of the nations of the world. But a
glorious resurrection has happened. A wonderful
resurrection. And if you are a person of any
intelligence whatsoever, You cannot take issue
with the fact that there has been a wonderful
national resurrection in Israel. It's there.
You cannot close your eyes to it. It's there.
They are now the head of the nation and not the
tail. All right, now watch. They're coming together,
the dry bones, as I've been reading to you from
the 37th chapter of Ezekiel. And indeed, they've
been covered with sinews and flesh and skin,
represent exactly what we are witnessing today
in Israel. Think of the thousands and thousands
of Jews who've returned to their homeland. But
remember, they are returning, they have returned
in unbelief. Now, when I say in unbelief, I do
not mean in unbelief so far as God is concerned.
Know that. Oh, sure. I just read to you from
a newspaper. of May the 31st, 1967. The Israelis
pray beside their tanks. They chant King David's
Psalms. They have not returned in unbelief so
far as God is concerned, but it's still unbelief
so far as the Messiah is concerned. But the day
will come when they will accept Jesus Christ,
not as an imposter, but they will accept him
as the nation, as their true Messiah.