We're in the book of Genesis,
if you would join me, in chapter 45. We're looking at the story
of Joseph as you're turning there. Genesis chapter 45, we're looking
at the story of Joseph. And Joseph has revealed himself,
or is it, I'm sorry, Joseph has heard his brothers confess their
sins of what they did to him. And here in verse 1 of chapter
45, we read these words, then Joseph could not refrain himself
before all them that stood by him. And he cried, cause every
man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him
while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept
aloud. And the Egyptians in the house
of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren,
I am Joseph. Doth my father yet live? And
his brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled at
his presence. And Joseph said unto his brethren,
Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near, and he said,
I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore
be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye sold me, For
God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two
years hath the famine been in the land, and yet there are five
years in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to
preserve you a posterity in the earth and to save your lives
by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent
me hither, but God. And he hath made me a father
to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout
all the land of Egypt. Hast ye? Hast ye? And go up to
my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God
hath made me lord of all Egypt. Come down unto me, tarry not. And thou shalt dwell in the land
of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy children,
and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds,
and all that thou hast. And there I will nourish thee,
for yet there are five years of famine, lest thou, and thy
household, of all that thou hast come to poverty. And behold,
your eyes see in the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it
is my mouth that speaketh unto you, And ye shall tell my Father
of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen, and
ye shall haste and bring down my Father hither. And he fell
upon the neck. He fell upon his brother Benjamin's
neck and wept. And Benjamin wept upon his neck. Moreover, he kissed all his brethren
and wept upon them. And after that, his brethren
talked with him. We'll pick up in verse 16 next
Sunday. Turn if you would now in your hymn books to... I mentioned this once already. Turn to Luke chapter 7 if you
would. Our Lord works all things out
for our good. That includes everything, including taking one of our loved
ones from us. If you weren't with us in the
Bible study, our brother Daniel Parks, known as D, D Parks, That's
Moose's son, passed away on Monday the 3rd. You know that was exactly
one year ago that they unplugged our brother Bill. Remember Bill
was riding his motorcycle on the way to the church for the
conference. Last year. And the fireman revived his body,
but his mind was never brought back. His body quit working the
moment they took him off on the 3rd of July last year. I thought it was appropriate
and very much a blessing for Chris Cunningham and the services
yesterday for Dee Parks. See, Dee was good friends with
Chris. very good friends. When Chris
would travel from College Grove to go somewhere and preach, Dee
Parks was the one who would normally preach for him. He described Dee Parks this way,
he said, Dee and I worshipped together. He wasn't
just talking about Sunday morning. I thought to myself, Bill and
I worshipped together, and I'm not talking about this anymore. I began to say this message this
way just a moment ago. Our Lord works all things out
for the good of His people. To remind me of my passing of
my dear friend, Our Lord has brought us to a section of Luke
where there's a funeral procession. Our Lord's been teaching much
up till now. Many things. His knowledge of the Old Testament
Scriptures. Many marveled at what He knew.
This one who had not attended any college classes, any teachings
of the great Scholars of that day knew the Testament Scriptures. Why? Because he was the one who
inspired the prophets to write them. That's why. They were writing
in the name of Jesus. Moses spoke of the things of
Christ, didn't he? Isn't that what he said on the
road to Emmaus when the two disciples were wandering along in sadness
and worry? He said, beginning at Moses and
all the prophets Spouted unto the Scriptures the things concerning
himself. He taught his ability to heal
in miraculous ways, his authority to forgive sin, the blessings
of God's elect and meekness, long-suffering, spiritual joy
and peace that was only found in him. And now we see something
astounding. On three separate occasions that
I know of, our Lord Jesus raised people from the dead by his omnipotent
grace, all power. In John 11, he raised Lazarus
from the dead, one who had been dead for four days. In the 8th
chapter of Luke's Gospel, our Savior raised the ruler's daughter
to life. But here what we see in Luke
7 is the first time that our Savior's power over death seems
to be given by raising someone from the dead. Look with me if
you would at verse 11 through 17 of John chapter 7. And it
came to pass the day after the day after that he had healed
a man, a man's servant, the day after he had proclaimed this
one who believed Jesus for who he was, had the greatest faith,
no greater faith in all of Israel had been seen by the Lord, the
day after that, that he went into a city called
Nain. And many of his disciples went
with him, and much people, so he had a large crowd following
him as he went through the city. Now when he came nigh to the
gate of the city, verse 12, behold there was a dead man carried
out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. So here
she is, a widow, she's got only one son and he's died, nobody
left to take care of her, and much people of the city was
with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her
and said unto her, Weep not. Weep not. And he came and touched the briar
coffin. And they that bear him stood
still, and he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. Arise. And he that was dead sat
up and began to speak. and he delivered him to his mother.
And there came a fear on all, and they glorified God, saying
that a great prophet is risen up among us, and that God hath
visited his people. And this rumor of him went forth
throughout all Judea, throughout all the region round about. What a sorrowful scene we're
given here. Our Lord is Shown his power. He's shown that he has the authority
to heal the sick. To give eyes to those who are
blind. Ears to those who can't hear. Feet to those who can't walk. And they come across A poor widow. Folks, you know,
today's world we... Our sister Donna, she's a widow. But she's in pretty
good shape for being a widow. In those days, back then, widows
would be in very, very... They didn't have... They didn't
have Social Security. Very, very few of them had built
up enough to take care of themselves afterwards. When a husband or
a son would die, that's it. People were too busy caring for
their own families. I mean, I'm sure there was some
help coming from someone maybe once here and there to some,
but that wasn't the norm. So we see this sad situation
of this woman who's weeping and mourning for her son's death.
Not only has she lost her husband, she's now lost her son, of whom
she loved, I'm sure. Imagine what Daniel, what Moose
is going through right now, and his wife Sandy at the loss of
their son. Imagine the sorrow that's going
through their heart. You know, I gotta stop there
for just a moment, because God's people's sorrow, yes, but not
like the world. Look up under Sermon Audio, Yesterday's
Messing by Chris Cunningham, and I think it's titled, When Believers Die. When Believers
Die. This is the title, I believe.
Look it up and listen to him preach. Oh, he preached a great
message. But hear this woman, this woman
taking her son to be buried. Our Lord and his disciples and
the crowds following him into the city, they ran into this
funeral procession. There'd be wailing. When our
Lord Jesus came upon the scene of woe, he stepped into the life
of this widow. He didn't stand back and let
her go. No, he had compassion. Can we not be thankful? Our God
is a compassionate God. Oh, that our Lord doesn't leave
us to ourselves and stand back and watch the procession go by.
No, that's not what he did at all, is it? He stepped into the
life of this widow at a time, possibly the greatest sorrow
she had ever experienced. He intruded where no stranger
ought to intrude. If you were to come upon a funeral
procession, what do we do in today's world? We stop and we
let the funeral go through, don't we? We don't let the, we don't,
we don't, okay, the light's green, you folks just stop what you're
doing, we're coming through. Our Lord stopped what no one
ought to stop. He interrupted the burial of
the dead. I don't know about you, but I'm
pretty thankful. I'm pretty thankful that the
Son of God making such an intrusion of grace is pictured here in
this passage for me. Multitudes of people are being
carried out today, folks. There's funerals going on all
around the world, all around us. People who are dying who are
completely unaware of their lost situation. The very situation you and I
were in at one time. That could be me in that casket. That could have been me. That
was me. That was each and every one of
God's children who walked through this. You know, I get this story
one time, somebody mentioned to me, said, you know, John,
you don't have to pound the pulpit so hard about our sin. We know
what it is. Yes, I do. How are you going to know the
depth of God's grace if you don't know the depth of your sin before
Him? Those two things go hand in hand. The world's dying because they
don't think they sin as badly as the Bible tells us that they
do. I'm not such a bad person. I
go to church on Sundays. I got into the baptismal. I give
money to the coffer. I do this, I do that. I'm not
a bad sinner. Oh yes we are. This never gets old to a true
sinner. And that is, we're not sinners
because we sin. We sin because we are sinners. That's why we need a Savior.
That's why the grace of God is so magnificent. It's such a sparkling
diamond to us. Because we know we can't do anything
in this flesh to earn it. To deserve it. Oh, how thankful God's people
are for our Lord intruding on our procession to death. People are being carried away
swiftly to the graves. They're being carried away in
glamour and glitter. What do they call it nowadays?
What do they call that? The celebration of life. What is that? It's a big party. Celebrations of life. Oh, my sister, she was such a lively
person. Everybody loved her. Let's get
around her dead body, which is starting to stink, and celebrate
what she was before she died. Daniel Parks specifically requested
his body not be brought to the church where the services were
yesterday. You know why? He wanted no distraction at all
to the people who came to see, to hear the message. He wanted
them to hear the gospel. The good news. The good news
to a sinner that Jesus Christ saves. to the uttermost. I don't know about you, but that
brings great hope to this poor sinner. Folks, unless the Lord
Jesus steps into our lives, unless He stops the funeral procession
and raises us from the dead by the power of His omnipotent grace,
unless He does so, We're bound for an eternity in
fire and brimstone. But here's something, whenever
the Lord intrudes into the lives of men and women in this world,
those who experience His intrusion, they bow before Him in reverent
fear, and they glorify God. Without question, our Lord's
miracles display the fact of His eternal Godhead and the omnipotent
power that is within Him. But they are intended to do much
more than that. Those words that we just read,
they are all designed to be pictures of His grace and salvation that
is freely bestowed upon His chosen people. You think that was the
only funeral procession in that day? Maybe in that little town it
was, but funeral processions go on every... How many people?
I can't remember the figure, but it's astronomical how many
people die every minute. Yet our Lord chose this one. Our Lord chose Lazarus when He
called Lazarus from the grave. Our Lord chose one of you. The day the Lord called me out
of darkness, I was the only one in the church who had never heard
the gospel before. I'm telling you, Gene Harmon
was pointing at me just like that. How many of you say the
same thing? I know Kathy said that many a
times. I don't like him because he's always pointing at me. I understood what she meant.
I understood. I understood. Our Lord's miracles display the
fact of His eternal Godhead, yet they are intended to do so
much more. This picture is designed to show
you and I, and those who have never heard the true gospel,
that salvation is of the Lord alone. Listen to Ephesians 2
verses 8 and 9. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. This dead man could do nothing
for himself. The people could do nothing for
him. All they could do was carry the casket that he laid in. down
to the gravesite and put him in the ground. This is a story, the story of
the funeral in Nain is designed to display, first thing is, the
consequences of sin. You say, well how is that? Have
you ever stopped to think why everything dies? Why the flower
comes up and then withers away. Why everything turns green and
if you don't water it, like we do, it just starts to die out
there. Folks, Death is the cause of sin. All
death. All decay is the cause of sin. This funeral procession is a vivid display of the consequences
of sin. The Lord's Word says the wages
of sin is death and everything that preceding death in this
world is but a forerunner of it. All funerals are sad, but
there is a picture of sadness without any mixture of pleasure. We stood in this very pulpit,
didn't we, at the funeral of Bill Sova. But is there anyone here who
would have desired him back? I miss Bill. I do to this day. But I would never desire him
back. He's in the glory of Christ.
He's in heaven itself in the presence of Christ Jesus our
Lord. Why would I want him to come back to this body of death? Because that's what we're in.
We're in a body of death. We're going to grow to a certain
day just as Daniel Parks did when the day of the Lord had
been marked for us. And we're going to leave this
world just as many as our loved ones have. Not a day sooner,
not a day later. There are no accidents to those
who know God. There are no accidents. Everything
happens for a purpose. I heard those words from her
brother Scott Freshour. You recall he was baptized last
Sunday here. He's working. He gets off at
like 4 or 5 in the morning, I guess. You know, after a hard night's
work, 12 hours of work on it, he just... I don't blame him. He might be at home sleeping
too. I heard him say this very thing,
he goes, God has shown me the truth in His sovereignty. Isn't
that what you first heard, James? The sovereignty of God. Finally,
the Lord has opened my ears to hear the story of the one who
deserves to be called God. The one who is God. There's no
accidents with him, there's no maybes, there's no mikes, there's
no chance, there's no luck. Here we see a widow burying her
son, who is her only son, everything in the picture, until the Lord
Jesus steps in his misery and sorrow, grief and woe. That's the world. That's exactly
what the case was with you and I. The corruption, the depravity,
sin and race are evident because of ours as the race of sick,
dying, sorrowful men. We live in a world of sickness
and sorrow, drudgery and death, wickedness and woe. I would understand
completely How somebody who does not know
the Lord would take their life. Would take their own life in
a world that is such as it is today. Sin is the root of all sorrow. Were it not for sin, the world
would be free of tears and cares. Were it not for sin, there would
be no sickness, no doctors, no hospitals. We wouldn't need any
of that stuff. In Romans 5.12 it says, Wherefore
by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and
so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Look
over at Revelation 21 verse 8. Turn over to the 21st chapter
of Revelation. Our Lord gives us a warning here
in verse 8 of Revelation 21 to those who are in unbelief to
those who walk as you and I once walked, it says in verse 8, but
the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers
and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters, all liars shall
have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone,
which is the second death. Blessed be to God, things change
when Christ comes into the picture. When the Lord Jesus steps into
a sinner's world of woe, all that was misery, all that was
seen before is now seen to be mercy. When He comes again, He'll
make all things new and remove all of His creation from all
of the evil consequences of sin. Look at Revelation 21, verses
1-7. And I saw a new heaven. And a new earth, for the first
heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no
more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city,
new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as
a bride, adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them. And they shall be his people. And God himself shall be with
them. Remember what the last verse
of our text said? The prophet has come among us
and God has visited his people. That's what we read right there.
He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and
God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. Verse 4, And
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall
be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. And He
that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto me, Write, for
these words are true and faithful. And He said unto me, It is done.
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto
them that is a thirst, a fountain of the water of life freely. He that cometh shall inherit
all things, and I will be his God, and he will be my Son. Secondly, we see the compassion
of our Savior here. We not only see the results of
sin, we see the compassion of our Savior. God the Spirit here
gives us a beautiful display of our Savior's compassion. It
says, And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and
he said unto her, Weep not. Weep not for Bill Silva. Weep
not for Daniel Parks. They're with Him. Weep not for
the world that is swallowing us up around us and waxing worse
and worse. Weep not for it. I have conquered
the world, he says to you and I, his people. I've overcome
the world. In the world we will have tribulation,
death, but our Lord has overcome all
of that through his Son, the Lord Jesus. How deep is this
compassion of our Savior's heart? Folks, I'm here to tell you this
morning, we only see a drop of God's compassion. When we get
to heaven, when we get to heaven, when we put this body of death,
when the Lord takes us out of this body of death into His beautiful
presence, we're going to see the depth of His compassion and
understanding. What we see right now, the magnificence
of His grace, the bright shining diamond of His grace, is just
a drop of how deep it goes. When we hear His word, I have
loved you with an everlasting love, that's just a drop of the
depth of His love for you and I. When we see God becoming flesh, so that he
might walk righteously on this earth, establishing a righteousness
for you and I who have none. When we see the depth of that,
oh, what wondrous things we will see when we stand with the Lord
in heaven. What wondrous things Bill sees right now. I love that
statement. I don't know who came up with
it, but somebody said something. You know, Bill was on his way
to hear a message from the Lord, not knowing that he was going
to hear it from God's own lips that very day. That excites me. Because there's
a day for each of us. when we will put away, when the
Lord will put away this body of death and will stand in His
shining glory forever. Our Lord showed His compassion.
You know, God didn't have to do that. He didn't have to send
His only begotten Son. He's God. He could have done
anything. Yet in the wisdom of God, His Son, the Lord Jesus,
was manifest for you and I. This very one who walked this
earth, he's compassionate because he can be touched with the feelings
of our infirmities. Isn't that what his word says?
Isn't that what it says? This is the one who wept with
Martha and Mary at their brother's tomb. This very one who wept,
God, in the flesh, wept. because he understands what Martha
and Mary were going through in the sadness of losing their brother.
If he understands that, is there anything that you and I could
be going through that our Lord doesn't understand? Not at all. Not at all. Our Lord meets with
the mournful procession, and he observes what has happened
and is happening. His heart is moved towards this
poor woman, and he doesn't wait for her to invite him. He doesn't
wait for her to make a decision. Oh, there's that guy, Lord Jesus.
Come on over here. No. Aren't you thankful the Lord
didn't wait for you? God's people are very thankful
that He didn't wait for us, aren't we? Because now that we can see,
now that we've been given eyes to see the truth about things,
we know we would have never come to Him, don't we? We know we
weren't looking for Him in truth. Yet He sought us out. He came
and interceded in the procession that we were on before He gave
us life. He just steps in. In His sovereign
mercy, He says to the woman, weep not. What a friend we have
in Jesus. Folks, there's no friend or comforter
that can be compared to our Savior Christ. Perhaps those two words
sounded strange to this woman. Perhaps even cruel. What do you
mean, don't weep? What do you mean, don't weep?
I can't help it. My sin is overcoming me. I'm
nothing but sin from the top of my head to the bottom of my
feet. I'm nothing but sin before God. What do you mean, don't
weep? Our Lord says, it's finished. Salvation is complete in Him,
and He cannot fail. In all the days of our darkness,
He is light. Brother Clay Curtis preached
a message last Tuesday night, titled, When Believers Walk in
Darkness. Another message, I highly encourage
it. This poor sinner that stands
before you was highly blessed. My Lord was exalted above all
things in that message. He just blessed me, blessed me,
because you know folks, as we walk through this valley of the
shadow of death, we will walk in darkness at times. There's
no, there's no question. You will. You will. Christ Jesus himself walked in
darkness, didn't he? My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? You think that was dark? Oh,
to have God Almighty turn his back on you is as dark as dark
can get. To leave you to yourself, to
follow what you think and what you feel light is, that's darkness. Thirdly, we see the character
of our Sovereign. This story sets before us the
character of the Almighty. Merciful. It says in Romans 10.20,
turn to Ezekiel chapter 16. And while you're turning there,
let me read from Romans 10 verse 20. I was found of them that
sought me not. And I was made manifest unto
them that asked not for me. Oh, the mercy of God for His
people. In Ezekiel chapter 16, look at
the compassion our Lord has. Look at the character of mercy
our God has. In verse 6, And when I passed
by thee, the Lord said, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood."
This is the same thing, folks. When he passed by, he was passing
by through this city, and here he comes upon a funeral procession,
and he sees this man polluted in his own sin. He sees this
woman torn with anguish and sorrow over the loss of her loved one. I saw thee polluted in thine
own blood, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood,
live. Remember the day when the Lord said that to you? I do,
just as clear as a bell. I'll never forget that day. Some
folks, you know, I wish everybody could remember
the day like I did. Some don't, though. The Lord
works differently in every person. Some the Lord brings into in
a gradual way. They may let them hear the Word
of God for a while, and then they may wander off a bit, like
our brother Scott. That's what happened to Scott.
called him out of darkness, he came, he heard the preachers
preach at the conference, he was blessed by the messages,
and then for some reason, the Lord just let him go, and he
wandered off and went into Presbyterianism for a while, went into Free Willism
again for a while, but then the Lord wouldn't leave him there.
The Lord brought him back. Going on, says, I said unto thee
when thou wast in thy blood, live. I, saith the Lord, have
caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field. And thou hast
increased, and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments. Thy breasts are fashioned, and
thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. Now
when I passed by thee and looked upon thee, behold, Thy time was
the time of love, and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered
thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee, and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest
mine. Fourthly, we see the conditions
of salvation, and I'll be quick about this. This event was brought
to pass by God's wise and good providence, specifically to show
us the conditions of our salvation. The first one is this, it had
to be the will of God. These folks, if it hadn't been
the will of God, if it wasn't God's will to save this man,
they'd have just kept right on going, wouldn't they? If it had
not been the will of God to save you and I, would we have not
just kept on going wherever it was we were going at the time?
Absolutely. Absolutely. Secondly, it had
to be the work of God. There was nothing going... They
couldn't do anything about this man being dead. Only Christ can
give life. And that's exactly what He has
done to each and every one of His children. In the day of His
love, when He saw us polluted in our own blood, the Lord Jesus
Christ walks by and He says, live. With the power of God,
He says, live. I'm not quite ready yet, Lord.
Can I check back with you on that in a couple days or so?
You know, I'm really having a great time watching football right
now. This is not a good time for me to do this. When our Lord
passed by His disciples on the seashore, He said, Come, follow
Me. The power of God spoke, and they
followed Him. When the Lord passed by through
rescue and said, I see you in your puddle of blood, John Reeves,
live, John Reeves lived. Oh, you know what, I skipped
one. At first I said the will of God. Secondly, it's the word
of God. I said secondly, it was the work
of God. That's actually the third one. That's alright though. Let's
go back to that second one, the word of God. The word of God
had to come. The word of God had to come.
What does it say in our text? It says, young man, I say unto
thee, arise. Which follows right along with
what we just said a moment ago, so I'll leave it at that. But
blood atonement... Well, first off, all who obtain
God's salvation must be ransomed from the curse of the law. That's
what the Lord Jesus did for us by the sacrifice of himself,
Calvary. Listen to the words of Galatians chapter 3. I'll
turn there because I'm kind of out of time. So I'm just going
to turn over there quickly and read it for you. In Galatians
chapter 3, Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. Chapter 3, verse 13, being made
a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree. That the blessings of Abraham might come unto the
Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise
of the spirit of faith. The sacrifice of Christ must
be done. Blood atonement alone, though,
does not take anyone to heaven. Every ransomed sinner must be
delivered from the prison and grave of sin and power by God
the Holy Spirit in regeneration. Listen to John 5.25, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the
dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that
hear shall live. None will ever be saved except
Christ be formed in them, except that they be made new creatures
in Christ, except that they be born again, as we read in John
3, verses 5-8. Jesus answered and said, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which
is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must
be born again. And then in verse 8, the wind bloweth where it
listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but cannotst tell
whence it cometh and whither it goeth. So is every one that
is born of the Spirit. You must be born again. No one
has any hope of glory until he has been made to be a partaker
of the divine nature. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
15. Actually, I'm going to change that. Turn to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 4. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. There's another work that is
necessary as the ransom of our souls by the blood of Christ,
and it's just as necessary as the new birth. Every chosen,
blood-bought, heaven-born soul must be transformed in the resurrection
glory into the very likeness of our Savior. That means every
child of God will be transformed, must be transformed into the
likeness of our Savior. 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 13-18,
we read these words, But I would not have you ignorant,
brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that sorrow not even
as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus
Christ died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus
will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the
word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain under the
coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, and the
dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we, which are alive and
remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet
the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with
the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another
with these words." Folks, just as we have heard in this passage,
nothing of salvation is man capable of doing for himself. We need
a mediator. We need a go-between. We need
a sacrifice. Where is the sacrifice, Father? Don't worry about it. God will
provide it Himself. And now what Abraham said to
his son? Nothing to fear. Fear not. Our Lord is that sacrifice. He is our mediator. He is our
proof of our resurrection. He is our all in all. Sin has
left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Amen.