Ger-16 Israel's Calvary Road — Art Katz

I'm happy for this opportunity to share, to thank Edwin and Peggy Fahner for arranging this meeting at the last moment, my last meeting in Zurich, in Switzerland and in Europe. After many months of travel, I'm happy for an opportunity to make one final statement here, the very echo of the crashing missiles that are now striking Israel, a very appropriate backdrop for the Samba message that I bear, the death and the resurrection again of Israel, which might be in an actual process while I'm speaking.

Israel and the Fulfillment of Prophecy

So have we ever seen a moment like this? We have talked about prophecy and enjoyed contemplating it and meditating over it, but never an hour when it's fulfilled in our very seeing. We have no further excuse for merely considering the last days as a concept.

They are in fact here, and it brings a very special requirement for us to church. So I have waited a long time for this. I have agonized long waiting for this hour, and now it's here. We're required to be earnest, to be saints indeed, and no more to be playing about the faith, but to be fulfilling it.

So though my Jewish heart is sobered by what is happening to my kinsmen, and realize that it's only a beginning of their sorrows and their calamities, yet I rejoice for the glory that will follow. So join me in prayer now.

We prophetic men are not automatic or mechanical. We never know how the word is going to come out. It's as the Lord himself chooses to express it, and we are only his available mouthpieces. And I want to draw your attention to the phenomenon, not merely because it's my calling, but yours as well.

The church's ultimate calling to be a prophetic entity in the earth, a voice for God that not only informs the earth and the nations, but that affects it, a speaking that causes event to take place in the earth.

This is our own destiny calling, and if we will not experience it in the earth and in time, we will be totally disqualified for eternity, because contrary to the popular impression, eternity is not an eternal vacation by which we play a harp sitting on a cloud, but by which we fulfill every purpose for which we are now being prepared, to rule and reign with him from heavenly places, over his creation, so long tortured and destroyed by the powers of darkness, but to be a glory to him when he brings a new heaven and a new earth, and the law shall go forth out of Zion, and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem.

So I haven't lost you? This is not too abstract? Not too distant? Eternity is at the door. We should have always understood that, and lived as if we believed it, for that hour is now. Let's join our hearts in prayer.

Lord, we bless your name. This is more than a meeting, and indeed every occasion by which the saints are gathered together should be, and we praise God for this, that our faith is real, and no more a mere Sunday phenomenon.

The Lord's coming is soon, an intervention into the affairs of men and nations, as it should be. It's not only the Muslims that should believe in a theocracy, but the Christians, for it's their Lord who comes as King, to rule and reign over this tortured creation, and Lord, we have a large request today, that this speaking and this hearing will actually facilitate your coming.

It will actually hasten the day of your appearing. Give me a mouth so to speak, and your people ears so to hear, and hearts so to obey, and receive our gratitude that such an hour has finally come, for which we have been called in the high calling in Christ Jesus.

Speak now, Lord, for your servants here, and we give you the praise in Jesus' name. Hallelujah. Amen. I'd like to turn for a few moments to Isaiah 51, 52, and 53. It's not that I'm playing games with you, but it's just the way that it happens to fall in my Bible.

On one side is 51, and a part of 52. The other side, Isaiah 53. And I won't have time very much to speak of it now, but I want to share the impression that recently came to me as my Bible opened in this way.

You look it up at your own leisure. The one side is the crucifixion of Jesus in Isaiah 53, the suffering and the death of the Lord, and Isaiah 51, and a part of 52, the crucifixion of Israel, the suffering and death of Israel, side by side.

Verse 11 speaks about a sorrow and a mourning that shall flee away when the redeemed of the Lord shall return to Zion. 51. What was the cause of the sighing and the mourning? Verse 13 speaks of the fury of the oppressor, and the events that are taking place right now are very suggestive of this.

I've been spending half the night reading issues of the Jerusalem Post. Such an astute journalism, astute, so sharp, so analytical, and so correct. It speaks about the implacable hatred of Islam against the Jew and against Israel.

Our Western minds can hardly follow this. We have a very different mindset, a very different tradition, many paths to truth. Yes, we believe in the rightness of the gospel, but we don't radically insist upon it for all men.

And we certainly would not persecute those who have another view. We speak about the competition of ideas and of thought. And let truth win out. That's not the Islamic mentality. The Islamic mentality is absolutely confident in its rectitude.

I actually believe that Saddam Hussein is waiting for fire to fall from heaven against Satan, the American Satan. He really believes this. As the false prophets of Baal cut themselves and leaped on their sacrifice and thought that God would consume their sacrifice by fire.

We're talking about totally deceived men. We're talking about satanic and demonic phenomenon that have come into the realm of politics and world events. The thing that used to be confined to closets has now become public.

And Western rationality cannot even conceive or understand it. One journalist talks about the fatuousness, the absurdity of a Middle East conference for peace. It's a no-win situation for Israel. It's non-negotiable.

You're not dealing with a mentality that is willing to make concessions. You're talking about an absolutist mentality that is willing for a total devastation and destruction. It wins even when it loses.

Because it's a holy war. And its God will be requited and satisfied. And the infidel will be destroyed. And their God sanctions and blesses such activities. This is fierce. This makes Hitler look like a boy scout.

This is altogether a new dimension of reality. Or rather, unreality that is made to stand for reality. Because it employs poison gas and has armament. Are we aware ourselves of what this hour is? This is a final clash of powers of light and darkness.

The shroud, the veil is being removed of the enmity of Satan against God and against his people. That's the root of the implacable hatred against the Jew and against Israel. Even in their unbelief. How much more in their believing.

And yet God allows it. Don't forget that. He is utterly sovereign. There's not a missile that falls of which he is ignorant. And I assure you that more will fall. To what end? Where is God? And why isn't he protective of his people?

Israel Drinking the Cup of Fury

Why does he say that Israel must drink from the cup of his fury in verse 17? Not just a little polite sip. Drink it to the full. The dregs of the cup of trembling and wring them out in verse 17. What is that cup?

In verse 19 it's a desolation and a destruction famine and disorder. You say, brother, that's already taken place. That's past. Yes, it's past and it's present and it will also be future. You know what our problem is?

We're naive and humanistic. And the cross has been so long absent from our Christianity that we have lost the whole sense of the centrality of suffering. And are even somewhat offended by it. Or that God would judge in a very real way to bring actual devastation and fury and destruction and disorder.

End the sword. Famine, end the sword. Verse 19. Verse 20. They are full of the fury of the Lord and the rebuke of thy God. Verse 20. Your sons have fainted and lie at the head of the streets as a wild bull in the net.

They are full of the fury of the Lord and the rebuke of thy God. Verse 20. Where are your sons? And how do they understand this particular thing? The increasing frustration of Israel. Which is, after all, eminently a Western nation.

We have shaped the West. We have given it its thought and its concepts. And yet we are placed in the Middle East. In an entirely hostile environment. Where we ourselves cannot even understand what comes upon us.

Or know how to receive them. And so our perplexity increases. And whatever device we establish to solve one ill, it compounds and makes worse another. We have so long waited for the coming of our Jewish kinsmen from Soviet Union.

And now we have no place to house them. Three families in one small flat. Mothers and daughters in one hotel room. And a big controversy whether to put them up in tents. And they continue to come by the thousands and by the thousands and thousands.

Why? Knowing that such risk of war awaits them. Such unemployment. Lack of housing. They had given up more material comfort in the Soviet Union than they conceivably expect in Israel. Why then do they come?

Because there is a fury being poured out in Russia as well. The fury of anti-Semitic hatred. By which the Soviet authorities have already assured the Jewish community, we are in no position to protect you.

We have a word for this in Yiddish. Surus. Oy vey. Surus. And we beat our chests. Trouble. Without solution. So I want to give some explanation of why God allows this. One reason is that we have not received the sufferings of the suffering servant.

Or we would not have been required to experience our own. Yes, we shall know mourning and sighing. All the more if our hopeful nation of Israel shall itself be destroyed. And we shall once again find ourselves cast out into the nations as refugees and exiles.

Hated and despised even into the nations to which we will again be driven. What a sorrow and what a grief. Because we rejected the man of sorrows who had taken our griefs upon him. But as we had not received his sufferings in our behalf, we are now required to receive our own.

It's tragic. But needful. So you look at these chapters. The one alongside the other. Crucifixion of Jesus and the crucifixion of Israel. Perhaps the one would not have been required if the other had been received.

Can you understand why Jesus wept? If you had known the day of your visitation. Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem. How often would I have taken you under my wings as a hen takes her chicks. But you would not. And now your house shall be left to you desolate.

And the Lord foresaw all the centuries to come. The two thousand years of calamities and holocausts. And the final one which is even now being prepared. By the implacable hatred and fury of darkness. That cannot be satisfied with anything less than our death.

No negotiation will suffice. One comforting thing for us who believe. However great the fury of the devil. Greater is the God who employs him. For his own glorious ends. And I want to give you a sense of what that end is.

Israel's Restoration and the Glory of God

Because the issue of it is indeed glory. Not the mere survival of Israel. Or the mere restoration of Israel. But an event of such a phenomenal kind. That God says I will sanctify myself through you before the eyes of all nations.

I am going to do a work of such a magnitude. Before even the eyes of the unbelieving nations. That not only will you know that I am the Lord who has done this. You who for two thousand years have not been willing to consider or acknowledge me.

But the unregenerate nations of the earth will also see. So great is my work through you. That they will be without excuse before me. In the day of eternity. And I don't know that you have the faith to believe in this.

This demonstration of the supernaturalness of God. In these last days. When we ourselves have learned too long to live with God only as a Sunday phenomenon. And don't expect his divine interventions. Certainly not in a visible way before the nations.

We hardly expect his intervention for ourselves. Rather to go to the medicine cabinet and to the doctor than to believe in his miracle for our bodies. How shall we believe for his restoration of Israel?

In the raising of them from the dead. As a resurrected nation. Not just made alive again. But in a totally new quality of life. Without which they cannot fulfill their calling. Which Paul says in Romans is without repentance.

The gift and callings of God. To be a nation of priests. And a light unto the world. That's more than Israel is presently capable of exhibiting. Or ever will be able. Even if every political and military problem was solved.

They are still human. All too human. That's what we Jews are. It's not that we are less human than you are. We are more. And a very impressive more. In our Jewish ability and skill and prowess and dynamic and energy.

But you took 700 years to establish Switzerland. We only required 40. And it's remarkable how much that has impressed the church. Because it is impressive. But it's not glorious. Shame on you. That you have complimented Israel in its human ability.

And we'd love to have seen Israel established on that basis. And thought that by that it might fulfill the prophetic scriptures. How could you have been so shallow? How quick to affirm and to compliment.

What did not give honor and glory to God. And celebrated only itself. What a statement that is about you. That you were so hasty to affirm that nation. Though it fell so short of the glory of God. Which is much the statement of your condition as it is of Israel's.

For we also have fallen short of the glory of God. And have not been very concerned about it. For we have all sinned or fallen short of the glory of God. From the prophetic point of view. Which is to say God's point of view.

To fall short of God's glory is as grievous in God's sight as to sin. And I want to tell you something with complete confidence. God's intention for Israel is greater than that. And for you as well. He'll take you further than you yourself would ever have wanted to go.

Because you are content with things as they are. You would even be satisfied with a false peace. So long as it spared you the inconveniences of a true peace. You would rather see something negotiated by the United Nations.

Or the Israeli desert transformed by their own skill. Then you would see God himself supernaturally. Either transforming that land or being the prince of peace. You don't have an apocalyptic expectancy of the coming of a king in another kingdom.

You would be pretty much content with the one that now is. If only it could be somewhat ameliorated and improved. Dear children, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And if I know anything about my God, he will have his glory.

And he'll not share his glory with another. No flesh shall boast of his presence. Jewish or Christian. For he is the God of glory. And in such a way shall he be made known to the nations. By whatever means it shall require.

Even death. That was what was required for Jesus. And that's what shall be required from Israel. And that's what shall be required from us. I don't say this to depress you. I say it that you should rejoice.

For it's a suffering that precedes his glory. Unto him be glory in the church. Not religious success. So I want you to turn to Ezekiel 37. The chapter of the death and the resurrection of Israel. Which has so long been in the scripture.

Kind of waiting for its moment to come. And I believe that moment is now. Personally speaking, I've always been rather disinterested in prophecy pertaining to Israel. I always thought that the evangelical curiosity about that kind of prophecy was somewhat unclean.

A delight in preoccupying ourselves with future things. What does the number 666 mean? And who will the Antichrist be? How interesting. As if to be occupied with those questions of the future safely insulates us from the present.

So praise God that the prophetic future is present. And not just a matter for our idle curiosity. But for our life, our being and our obedience. As I hope to show you in this chapter. That the object of God's attention in chapter 37 of Ezekiel is not just Israel.

Although the text says, what are these bones? These bones are the whole house of Israel. But there's another object of God's concern. Of his equal concern. Called the son of man. Whom he requires to prophesy to these bones.

Which is a radical and ultimate requirement upon that prophet. Even beyond his prophetic capacity to fulfill. It stretches him to a breaking point. Can these bones live, O son of man? Is the very first question that's put to him.

Why should God care? Because that son of man is us. A symbolic picture of the church of the last days. In his full prophetic constituency. No longer the congregations of the casual. The islands of individualism and opinion.

Who condescend to do God a service by coming to church on Sunday. I'm talking about the true people of God. The remnant church of God. The true body of Christ. Who understands that there's a purpose for its salvation and its being.

In the fulfillment of God's will. Beyond its own ability to fulfill. That's frightening. For us Swiss. Because we like to have a firm control on things. A firm understanding. And be able to do it out of our ability.

I mean, who's more impressive than we? I mean, Zurich is the equivalent of Jerusalem. So to speak. But we haven't understood God. How far he will go to bring us beyond ourselves. Painfully. Unbearably.

That he might be all in all. You think I'm speaking from some script? I didn't know how to put one word before another when I was called up out of my seat. I'm required to be a demonstration to you as well as a proclamation.

And by the same ability by which I'm speaking. And I'm impressed to hear it myself. It's quite coherent. And has quite a logic. Beyond my own ability. That persuades me it's very God. Who wants to awaken your faith.

That you might believe. For God in you. By seeing that phenomenon through me. For it's your calling. To be a prophetic presence in the earth. And to speak by the inspiration of his life. Not just a word of information or inspiration.

But the word that constitutes events. And an event nothing less than Israel's resurrection. You. My people will wait on you. Their death is already taking place. We can hear the crash of the missiles.

And the armies posed at their borders. And if it doesn't take place tomorrow, next week or next month, it will take place. Their death is sure. It's on the way. They will come to these scriptures. Verse 11.

Where they themselves say, we're cut off. Our hope is lost. We are cut off from our parts. Have you ever heard a Jew say that? Not us. You'll never hear that from us. Even the Holocaust could not bring such a confession from us.

The Jews that came out of it with the tattooed numbers on their house. Skeletons with a tatted shirt on their laps. How long does it take before we have two or three cars? And our kids are going to private schools.

While the gentiles are still scratching to make a living. What an ability we have to come up out of the ashes. That's what the rabbi told me in Romania. From which I've just come. Fifty years in Timisoara.

I said, what do you think of the present predicament of Israel? Oh, this shall pass. We'll come out of it. I'm a perennial optimist. I thought, you really are. The statement of our Jewish life. That's why God has to bring us to a depth of despair.

Where we ourselves say, we are cut off. We are without hope. We are as dry bones. When have you felt the dry bone last? Pitiful. There's no moisture in it. There's no life in it. It crumbles in your hand to powder.

It's something reduced to an absolute death. In which there's no hope of redemption. In exact proportion to our own deep-seated Jewish optimism. Our pride and self-sufficiency that has always characterized us as Jews.

Our death will be proportionate to that. And God waits for it. And will use the fury of the enemy to produce it. And it will come. And when it comes, will you be ready? When the Lord turns to you and says, okay, therefore.

The Prophetic Word and Israel's Resurrection

And commands you, prophesy to these bones. And say unto them, thus saith the Lord, be joined together. Have flesh put upon you. And let the spirit of life come into you. That you might stand as an exceedingly great army.

The redeemed of the Lord. Who return to Zion with singing. With everlasting joy upon your hands. And morning of Zion flee away. And restore the ruined cities. And build again the desolate wastes. Will you speak that?

And will you speak it as more than just a piece of information? For the commandment is to prophesy to these bones. And that is a particular form of elocution. Of which you've had little experience. Small talk, plenty.

Gossip also. And religious activity. But this is an ultimate word. A word of event. That when they hear this word, the bones come together. It's a work of God. It's the word of God as a work. An ultimate statement of faith.

By a people who have been brought to an ultimate place. That they might speak it. As one voice. Together. When they are commanded. I have the faith to believe in this. I've been talking to congregations in Yugoslavia.

That look to me like dry bones already. Dead. Pew sitters. They can't even make a smile. Except to look in a sullen way at the speaker. Who is speaking to them in a way that they are not accustomed to hearing.

And nervously sounding something that would upset their Sunday regularity. And yet I'm to believe that that's the key to the life of my people. Pray for my faith. I don't have it. I don't think Paul had it either.

He said, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live yet not I. And the life which I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God. Not even his own faith. Our faith was okay for charismatic things.

For our street evangelisms. But this, dear children, is ultimate. Can these bones live, Son of Man? How does this chapter begin? The hand of the Lord was upon me and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord.

He set me down in the midst of the valley, which was full of bones. How depressing. Anything that begins as depressingly as that has got to end gloriously. But if you'll not begin with that, you'll not come to the glory of God.

Can God bring you down like this? Into a valley. A depressing place. To see things as they actually are. And not as you would like them to be. Your wishful thinking. Wanting Israel to survive. To improve the situation.

To improve the situation that's in the world. The first requirement of a prophet before he speaks is to love the truth. Or his speaking is vain. The prophet is eminently the man of truth. And truth is always painful before it's glorious.

What is the definition of truth? Everything as God himself sees it. And not as we would like it to be. Or as it appears to us to be. Either about Israel's condition or our own. And if we'll not come down to the valley of our condition and see it as God sees it, how shall we behold Israel's condition?

This is more than Sunday Christianity. It's more than charismatic Christianity. It's more. And not everyone has a stomach for it. Well, you don't have to. This is entirely voluntary. God cannot force you to be prophetic.

There's an alternative. It's called apostasy. And many are already moving toward that. Even while they are faithful in their pews. Because they have already silently come to a conclusion. This far and no further.

This is enough for me. I like this kind of Christianity. I can handle this. This is pleasant. But to come to the place of prophetic use, there God does not spare you. He'll bring your marriage into death.

And your ministry. And so many aspects of your own life. That you don't know when you're coming or going. Or dead or alive. Or what your reputation is. Or how you're perceived or understood. There's nothing left of you.

He might have the possession. There's no one with whom God deals more ruthlessly or severely. Than those who serve as his mouth. And that's what verse 14 says. I shall put my spirit in you. And you shall live.

And I shall place you in your own land. Notice the sequence here. This is not the Zionist program. It's God's. And the first must necessarily precede the other. He takes away the first to give the other.

The glory of the latter house is greater than the other. There had to be a Zionist Israel. There had to be a Jewish state. That we Jews ourselves established. Because before there's a heavenly, there's an earthly.

And except that which is corrupt is sown into the grave. There's nothing that can come forth unto glory. But it will be clear who returns this people to the land this time. There'll be no controversy then.

Whether they have the right of return. It's his people. And it's his land. And his return. And he'll demonstrate that before the face of all nations. And all nations would have thought it impossible. Because for all effects and purposes, the Israel that is being returned was thought to be dead.

But then shall you know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it. This is critical. Then shall you know that I am the Lord. How long has our God waited for this? We will not have this man to rule over us.

Give us Barabbas. When this deceiver was alive, he said he would rise again on the third day. This deceiver who said, if you see me, you see the Father. I am the Father, I am one. And you will know that I am is the Lord.

Really know. Not know about your God. That's only religion. You shall know the I am that is the I am. The God who has mercy upon whom you'll have mercy. To the totally undeserving. It's the revelation of his glory.

Cannot help himself. It's what he is in himself. Demonstrated through a people who are clearly not deserving of anything else. That he might be glorified. And brought to life by his power. Not by their virtue.

But by his word. The word that is spoken. By the spirit of his life. For he is the life and the resurrection. That's God. And except Israel know him in that way. How shall they bless all the families of the earth?

But what about us? Do we know God in that way? As the resurrection and the life. The God who with his word raises the dead. A word. To know that is to know God. But it's not to be known academically. Only experientially.

And if we have not ourselves as the son of man experienced the resurrection power and life of God. How shall we believe it for Israel? Out of our own mouths. This is the question. This son of man company must themselves be eminently the people of the resurrection.

Who can say with Paul, for me to live is with Christ. Not my Swiss religious ability. This is a person. But it's not glorious. But up to now you have not needed to go beyond it. Your own capability has been sufficient.

For the extent of your involvement with God. But not for this. This is not only the chapter of Israel's destiny. It's ours. And it's only our relationship with Israel that requires it. You should have understood this long ago.

We walked in with this people. We have not chosen them. It's the mystery of God. The reciprocal relationship between the church and Israel. That by our mercy they might obtain mercy. Have they stumbled that they should fall?

The Church, Israel, and the Coming Kingdom

But through their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles. So as to move them to jealousy. Whichever way you look and turn. We are locked in with this people. Despite our unhappy history. We cannot escape it.

They cannot come to the fullness of their destiny. No, we are ours. Independent of each other. The church that will not take the issue of the Jews seriously. The issue of Israel is not the church. It's apostate.

For the issue of Israel is God's issue. The very issue of God. In the last days. Why? Because through them His kingdom comes. That's what the rest of this chapter says. I will take these two sticks. I'll make them one in my hand.

Verse 22. I'll make them one nation in the land of the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them. No more two nations. Verse 24. And David my servant shall be king over them. They'll all have one shepherd.

Walk in my judgments. Verse 25. They shall dwell in the land. And my servant David shall be their prince forever. The end of verse 25. Forever. What kind of David is this? It's the greater David. Who lives forever.

Of whom the first David was only the foreshadowing. But this David is both the root and the morning star of David. This is the Davidic kingdom. This is the theocratic rule of God. Of which the Islamic theocracy is an abomination.

Of which the thousand year rule of Hitler was a satanic grotesque. This is the millennial rule of our king. Who will be a king over them. When he restores them to the land. When he raises them from the dead.

And rules over them. Forever. Then they'll no more be pushed out of their land. Then his sanctuary will be with them. And he will dwell and reign there. For the word of the Lord will go forth out of Zion.

And the law of the Lord out of Jerusalem. The king will rule. Not only over Israel. But over all nations. For the earth is the Lord's. And the nations. And the fullness they love. It is his kingdom come.

Who can understand this? The weight of these issues. We're not talking about consideration for an ethnic minority. Appealing to your sentiment for the people of the Old Testament. Who gave us the prophets and the apostles.

This is a political issue. Cosmic rule and authority. Over creation. Forever. And it rests with one thing. The resurrection of the people from the dead. To whom and through whom his kingdom can come. Is it time to restore the kingdom to Israel?

The disciples asked. It was not time then. It's time now. It's the kingdom to Israel. But it's not the kingdom for Israel. For all the nations. Who shall learn war no more. And beat their swords into plowshares.

And their spears into pruning hooks. When the messianic rule of the Lord comes. Through his greater David. God will put his king on his holy hill. When he restores this people to life. That's why the heathen rage.

I can't imagine a better thing. The rulers and the kings of this world want to break the feathers of the Lord altogether. But they will not have this king to rule over them. I'm speaking by faith now.

I don't expect you to understand. Because you don't have an awareness of the principalities and the powers of the air. Because you have time, newsweek, Zeitung mentalities. You see things horizontally in the earthly level.

The political and the military factors. And haven't understood the greatest reality of all. Without which you cannot understand the Saddam Hussein. Cannot understand the PLO, Arafat, the Islam, the power.

It's the powers of the air. The rulers of this world's darkness. They have jerked and manipulated the nations over the millennia. Disarmed at the cross. But not fully defeated. Still able to threaten and to manipulate.

Through fear. Through hatred. Through ethnic and racial hatred. National idolatry. And want to continue to do so. And they know better than you. That when Israel is restored, another kingdom comes. And their rule is over.

And how do they deal with that threat? By annihilating that people through whom the threat comes. That's why the Islamic mentality is to destroy and to devastate this people. Which God will use in a measure.

To bring this people to its death. Of its own hope in itself. That it might hope in God. The God alone who could save them. And nothing political and nothing social and nothing religious can. But the God who can act out of his own power.

By merely speaking a word. But not through his own mouth. Through us. Son of man. Can these bones live? Can you be commanded? Prophesy? But Lord, I don't feel like it today. I'm not feeling too spiritual.

I was up rather late last night. To see the late late show. Another time. This is the issue of the church. And not individual virtual oh so believers. The son of man company. A corporate expression of his life.

That can be commanded. Not the islands of individualism. Doing what's right in his own self. Private cystic lifestyles. Unrelated to another. One people. Really one people. No phony ecumenical renewal.

An apostolic body. Of a prophetic statue. Habituated to being commanded. When he will, not when we will. To speak the word that he requires. In the authority and the power that accomplishes his purpose.

Because it comes as one speaking. In the ultimate expression of faith. That believes that these bones can live. Because he lives. We shall live also. We really know that. It's more than hopeful thinking.

It's ultimate faith. And one last thing. A faith that works by love. Or it doesn't work at all. You can have every other requisite qualification. You're disciplined. You can be commanded. You're one people.

You have the faith to believe. You can prophesy. Your word is an event. It's a true faith. But if you lack this one thing, all the rest is vain. A faith which works by love. And it's not here today. I'm not talking about sentimentalism.