REVIVAL IN A BONE YARD
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Ezekiel 37
I suppose that Ezekiel 37, the vision of the valley of the dry bones, is the most familiar chapter in all of the book of Ezekiel. It was the setting for a very familiar Black spiritual. "Them bones going to walk around." Because of the knowledge of that song and because this passage of Scripture has been dealt with on so many occasions, it is very, very familiar.
It is found in the concluding section of the book of Ezekiel which gives to us Judah's future. God is trying to say to his people-there is a future. The Bible is a book of judgment. We read much judgment in the Bible. But the Bible is also a book of hope. If it was only judgment there would be, indeed, great despair. But the Bible doesn't leave us with a message of judgment. The Bible leaves us with a message of hope.
The children of Israel had just about lost their hope. In fact we are told specifically in verse 11 that the primary purpose for this vision is to encourage the children of Israel. Despair and pessimism filled the air. Some of the people of God who were in captivity were saying-it's all over, there's no hope, God can't do anything for us, the end is come.
Yet, God gives to Ezekiel this vision of the valley of dry bones to let the people know that there is hope and that there is a future for Israel. We are going to see that God promises that one day Israel will be restored to their land. They would experience a resurrection. They would also experience a restoration. God would restore to them the temple. We will study about that at the end of Ezekiel. God will do a wonderful spiritual work and there will be a spiritual revival among the people of Israel and there are predictions made about this.
The glory of the Lord is one day going to return. In chapters 9 - 11, in the early chapters, Ezekiel saw this vision of the glory of the Lord departing from the mercy seat and out to the door and out to the mou ...
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Revival or Ruin Series: The Riches of Romans
Romans 1:14-17
Tonight my subject is revival or ruin. Revival or ruin. There are two things that we find tonight as we look at the first chapter of the book of Romans particularly in the last half of this chapter.
Number one we find man's ruin and number two we find God's remedy for revival. We find the only hope in our way of life in America as we know it. The only hope for the spiritual recovery of this nation is found in Romans Chapter 1.
You know the book of Romans has been considered by the greatest of Christians to be the most important book in the Bible. The first commentators said that every great movement of revival in the history of the Christian church has been a result of a new study in the book of Romans.
All of us are well familiar with the thought that Martin Luther broke away from the Roman Church after the concept of justification by faith, which we find in the teachings of Romans, had gripped his heart and set his heart aflame in a way that he had never known before.
And we learn if we study the life of John Wesley that it was as study of the book of Romans in which he was involved when he said that his heart was strangely warmed in those prayer meetings in London.
I believe that every great revival that will ever come will come as God's people realize the truths and the riches that God has for them as He gave them to the apostle Paul in this letter to the Romans.
I think it is quite wonderful that in this year of Good News Texas we are in a study across our convention of this wonderful book and I believe God is saying, ''This is the year of revival. This is the year when I want to bless my people.'' This is the year when God's people will pay the price.
So in the first chapter of Romans what we find is Paul describing the belief of the gentile's world, those who do not know the word of God. In vivid and descriptive language, he takes the pen given t ...
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