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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Charles Holtry

The Gifted Corpse

I'm excited about this talk because I'm learning a lot as I'm teaching.

Remember looking at Ezekiel 37 and Thinking how does this apply or does this apply at all?

Obviously we see that the original interpretation to God's people in the Old Testament, but does it have an application for us today?

So we're going to be spending some time going through Ezekiel 37 verses 1 through 10, and we'll also be looking at 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

If you don't mind turning to Ezekiel 37 with me, we will go straight into our study.

While you're turning there, I'll explain the intent of this talk.

So I'm going to tell you what I'm hoping to tell you, then I'll tell you what I hope to tell you, and then hopefully you'll learn what I told you.

I believe that God's people, more than ever, must realize that we're a body.

Sometimes we've got into a habit of expecting certain body parts to do all the work, and the rest of the body parts kind of sit in atrophy.

I believe that God can do so much and He's simply waiting for His church as a body to be joined together and come together in a powerful ministry.

Ezekiel chapter 37 verse 1 says, the hand of the Lord was upon me and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones.

And he caused me to pass by them round about, and behold, there were very many in the open valley, and lo, they were very dry." I know I have some friends here of medical profession.

There's some research that's been done recently on how long you can find glimpses of DNA in dry bones.

I'm gonna put it that direction, not dry bones, bones.

And do you realize that bones that are left out in the weather, you can only get DNA, helpful DNA, for a few weeks.

Then you reach a point of being so dry that trying to get something out of it is just not going to work.

So when you look at the bones in Ezekiel chapter 37 verse 2, is there any hope of DNA coming out of this?

And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live?

And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest.

You know, there are times when people look at circumstances that seem impossible, and if you ask them if it's possible, they'll say no.

And he said unto me, prophesy upon these bones and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the God, word of the Lord.

Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.

And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live.

So I prophesied as I was told, 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." So which it says the bones came together, bone to bone.

Just a simple point here, it was not phalanges joining to phalanges, and joining to phalanges, and joining to phalanges.

You do not have an entire skeleton made out of fingers.

This was the correct bone coming to the correct bone.

This was as that, what's that old gospel quartet song?

The hip bone connected to the knee bone, that's right.

So the right bones are being connected together.

It's not just the combination of skulls forming a skeleton.

So it's not a combination of just 206 of 1 kind of bone.

It's 206 individual bones coming together into proper formation.

And when I beheld, Lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above, but there was no flesh or no breath in them.

So now, not only do we have the skeleton, we now have flesh and sinews, And not only do we have that, we now have what?

So you have something that holds everything together.

So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them and they lived.

And he said unto me, prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, thus saith the Lord God, come from the 4 winds, oh breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may live.

So I prophesied as he commanded me and the breath came into them and they lived and stood upon their feet an exceeding great army.

So I start out with dead bones and now we have a living army.

In fact, if you look in verse 11, it tells you, Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.

Truly a symbol of the people of Israel in Ezekiel's day.

But sometimes it could be a picture of God's church even today.

A church that doesn't look like life is possible.

I'd like to look at a few points here I found out.

We notice who it's being described, actually it's verse 11, not verse 12.

How did the words come, how did the bones come alive?

Prophesy unto the bones and they shall have life.

It is through the hearing of the word that life comes.

You know I found that if you want to see a church grow, fill it with the Word of God.

A living Word of God, not just talked about but actually heard and experienced and put into practical life.

You know there's a man by the name of Martin Luther and he said this statement, a friend of mine likes quoting this often I'll quote it with you today, every institution that is not unceasingly occupied with the Word of God must become corrupt.

Every institution that is not unceasingly occupied with the Word of God must become corrupt.

And so if you have the Word of God, it will keep a life in you.

It will keep a life in God's people, life in God's church.

Life comes from the hearing of the word of God.

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The Gifted Corpse

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