As we turn together in the Word
of God to the chapter that we read, the Gospel according to
Luke, chapter 7, and the text you'll find in verses 13 and
14. And when the Lord saw her, he
had compassion on her and said unto her, Weep not. And he came
and touched the beer, and the lay that bare him stood still.
And he said, young man, I say unto thee, arise. As we have been looking out on
the Lord's Day mornings of the various miracles of the Lord
Jesus Christ, we come now to the 12th miracle that the Lord
Jesus Christ did as he walked here upon the earth. And this
is the first time that we read that he raises up somebody from
the dead, someone who had their life had expired, their soul
had left their body and they were about to be buried and the
Lord Jesus raises them from the grave, from the dead. We see
in many of these miracles that the Lord Jesus Christ performed
that they were motivated by a compassion that as he looked upon that physical
sickness and the way in which that was detrimental to the life
of that person he looked upon them with compassion and concern
and therefore dealt with that sickness. When we saw him healing
the man with leprosy, he goes against all of the cultural rules
that would have taken place, even the ceremonial laws that
would have taken place, and he goes near to the leprous man. Everybody else we saw went away
from the leprous man but Christ goes forward and touches him.
Instead of being contaminated and made unclean himself, the
man is cleansed from his leprosy. He's able to go back to the temple,
he's able to offer up those sacrifices which were ordained by God for
him to offer as he is healed from his leprosy. So here we
see the Lord Jesus again in concern. having love to the widow who
had now lost her son, her only son. And when the Lord saw her,
he had compassion on her and said unto her, weep not. We read that as the Lord Jesus
was passing by this city called Nain that they were bringing
out a dead man, the only son of his mother and she was a widow. It seems to point us to the difficult
life that this lady was in and that this lady was now going
to be in an even worse state. We know that in those days there
was not the health system, the welfare system for people to
be provided for. and the situation that is presented
to the Lord Jesus Christ moves him to act upon and for this
lady. And as we see the Lord Jesus
Christ going about his day-to-day life, we see him fulfilling the
whole law of God. we looked at recently as Jesus
himself sums up the law to love God with all of your heart soul
and mind and your neighbor as yourself and so as Christ came
to fulfill the law not only did he love God with all of his heart
soul and mind part of the fulfillment of the law was to love his neighbor
as himself and as we see Christ walking around the villages we
see what it is to truly love our neighbor as ourself We see
that Christ had the horizontal relationship with God correct
and therefore the upward relationship and therefore the natural relationship
is also in order. And we see that even with our
own lives. If we have a good relationship, a close walk with
God then that will also give us a compassionate heart for
those who live around about us. As we walk with the Lord, walk
in the Spirit, that will also give us a concern and a desire
to love our neighbour as ourself, to deem others greater than ourself
and as we see the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, this is the
example that he set Not only is he seeking to prove to those
round about him that he is the son of God but he is also step
by step fulfilling the whole law of God, loving God and loving
his neighbour as himself and how it is when we see people
in difficult situations and there are times when we may want to
help but we are unable to help. Lord Jesus Christ is able to
help and is the only one who is able to help in this specific
situation. There is nobody on earth who
is able to raise the dead. It is only God who has the authority
and the ability to give life and to take life. The scripture tells us that death
has come into the world because of sins. We look at the beginning
of the Bible we see that Adam and Eve they were able to live
a life without death yet because of their disobedience death entered
in. Romans tells us, Romans chapter
5, it tells us there, wherefore as by one man sin entered into
the world and death by sin and so death has passed upon all
men for all have sinned and so Christ came face to face with
the reality of the effects of sin upon his creation as he deals
with the various sicknesses that were in the world at that time,
now he comes face to face with death itself. The ultimate judgment
that has been bestowed upon the human race because of sin. All have sinned, the scripture
tells us, and fallen short of the glory of God. And the evidence
that we see around us, the evidence that sin is real, is that death
is also round about us. and it's only God who can raise
the dead. John the Baptist is currently
in prison and he hears of all that the Lord Jesus Christ is
doing and so he sends out two of his disciples to go and ask
the Lord Jesus Christ, art thou he that should come? or should
we look for another? Remember that John had been told
by God that when he was baptising people that the one whom he saw,
the Spirit of God, descending like a dove, this was the one,
the chosen one, the Lamb of God, and even confessed it. Behold
the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. But now
his life had changed. He had been ministering, he had
been baptising, he had been seeing a success but now through his
faithfulness to the Lord he finds himself in prison. Even John
the Baptist in prison becomes doubtful. And so he sends forth
his disciples to go and find the Lord Jesus and ask him that
question. And the Lord Jesus tells the disciples, go your
way and tell John what things you have seen and heard and how
the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the
deaf hear, the dead are raised and the poor have the gospel
preached to them. And so part of the message that
the disciples were to go back with to encourage John was not
only that people were being healed but that the dead were being
raised to life. how that must have encouraged
him. Being in jail, being doubtful and then receiving the message
that people are being healed. Not only are they being healed
but the dead have been risen to life. John would have known. It is only God who can raise
the dead. It's only God who gives life
and God who takes life and who God can raise up somebody whose
soul had already departed from their body. We think of the prayer
of Hannah when Hannah had been seeking the Lord for a son and
then she had, God had blessed her and given her a son Samuel. She then sings a song or a prayer
unto the Lord. In 1 Samuel chapter 2 from verse
6 it says, The Lord killeth and maketh alive. He bringeth down
to the grave and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor and maketh
rich. He bringeth low and lifteth up. he raises up the poor out of
the dust and lifted up the beggar from the dunghill and sets set
unto them princes and to make them inherit the throne of glory
and the pillars of the earth are the lord's and he has set
the world upon him and so she acknowledges as she comes to
the lord to ask of him for a son she understands that she has
no ability to do that of her own and therefore she must come
to God and God has heard her cry. She goes directly back to
him and gives him all the praise and honor. It is God who makes
alive, God who gives life but it's also God who takes life. It is God who is able to take
a soul and put it back into a body that has dead and that person
that may be able to live. And so John the Baptist is encouraged
that this is indeed God manifest in the flesh. This is indeed
the Messiah that has come to deliver the Jew and Gentile from
their sin. This is indeed the Lamb of God
that was to come into the world. In the book of Ezekiel it tells
us that all souls belong to the Lord. There are many things that
men can do. The Bible tells us as time increases
knowledge will also increase. And we live in a day of, I suspect
every generation says it, but an increase in knowledge. There's
so much advancement in knowledge. So many things that can be done.
You think of David's brother who rushed into the hospital,
given a stent, and in other countries, these people that they would
have died. But here, life is able to be preserved. They're
able to act very, very quickly and to deal with the problems. But they can't give life, and they can't kill. God is the one who gives and
makes life. Everything around us, trees,
plants, grass, it's all living, it grows, it breathes. The insects,
the animals, they're all alive, they're living things that have
been created and it's God that gives life to them. the fish of the sea, the birds
of the air, are all the creation of God and he enables them to
live. He makes them. He gives life
and he takes life. Though I said that man is God
that kills, man does kill. But he doesn't have the authority
to take life. We live in a day where man has
become like God. He believes that he can choose
when to end life. We have the thing that was passed
through in the government of euthanasia where someone who
is unwell, suffering, is able to ask for drugs that can end
their life or even their relatives are able to say we want our relative
they're suffering too much they need to they can die. Man has
stepped over the line. The Bible says it's God and God
alone to kill and to make a life. Yes there are wars When it comes
down to the actual choice of killing and dying man does not
have that authority. Think of abortion. I read in Iceland they have eradicated
Down syndrome 100%. There has been No Down Syndrome births for some
time. Why? Abortion. They give the woman a choice.
Every pregnancy, do you want a test to see whether there's
any abnormalities in this child? And then the woman is encouraged
or left to decide, do we kill it? Or do we let it live? Today in our own country, thousands
and thousands of babies are aborted because they think they may be
unwell or they think that their child will be a problem in the
family. They think that it's going to
affect the finances of the family. It's going to cause too much
stress. It's going to upset the lifestyle of that person. And so we have abortion on demand. You can go, you can take a tablet
or you can go to the clinic and it's your choice as to whether
you allow that baby to live or you kill it. They say it's my body, it's my
choice. The Bible tells us that life
belongs to God. It's only God who gives life.
Hannah prayed and asked the Lord for a child and then when she
was expecting a baby and delivered that baby she gave thanks unto
the Lord and acknowledged that God closed her womb and God opened
up her womb and that God gave her that child. Women do not
have that right to terminate or to kill a baby in their womb
because it's going to upset their lifestyle or use it as some form
of contraception or any other reason. That's God's choice. God is the one who gives life
and who takes life. Think of suicide. Suicide in
our country has increased. All the means that there are for people
to enjoy themselves all the pleasures that this world
has to offer come with stresses and strains of life. People come to the end. They come to a point of darkness. They feel that they have no hope. They kill themselves. Suicide. It is a permanent solution to
a temporary problem. All problems in this world can
be dealt with. There's always hope. There's
always God. There's always the Lord Jesus
Christ. There's always the Holy Spirit. There's always the Word
of God. There's always believers who can share your burden. And
yet so many people feel to be abandoned and lost and without
hope and they feel that the only hope that they have is to end
their life, to self-murder. And some of the situations in
which people pass through are extremely difficult. Yet there
is always hope. But self-murder is a sin. And the Bible says no murderer
shall enter the kingdom of God. And maybe you may have been feeling
like that. Maybe you have been feeling like
you want to end it. Or don't. Get on your knees and plead to
the Lord for help. He will comfort you. He's a God
of all comfort and he will help you. He will provide for you. The situation that you are passing
through is just an earthly temporal situation that can be dealt with. And God is able to raise you
up out of that desperate position of despair as Hannah prayed,
he raises up out of the dunghill. He makes the beggar a prince
and he can bring those who right at the wits end, right at the
depths, right at the edge, he can bring them to a position
of hope and help in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so God only
has the authority to take life and the ability to give life. when man steps over and begins
to do things that only God should be doing. He's stepped over into
God's domain, he has no authority to do so. There are cases obviously
in abortion where the fetus or the baby may be a threat to the woman's life
but I think every single case must be looked at in those cases
in an individual case-by-case basis and no decision must be
taken without prayer and careful consideration of the holy word
of God but if normally Taking of a baby's life is sin, it is
murder and we live in a society that just destroys babies here,
there and everywhere just for the pleasure of the mother. Think of Hitler, what did he
want to do? He wanted to eradicate the Jews.
He wanted to eradicate minorities. He wanted to eradicate disabled
people. And so he just began to kill
them and to destroy them and to push them out of society.
And that's exactly what the Western world is doing. Although maybe
not quite so public, they look into the womb and they see there,
oh, it's deformed, or it's going to have a difficult life, or
it's going to cause you parents a lot of stress. Better just
to get rid of it. We're trying to create a perfect society where
everybody can live happily ever after. It can't happen because
this world is corrupted by sin. Death reigns. But Jesus Christ gives hope to
those who are in despair. And he saw this lady and she
was in despair. Everything had been taken from
her her husband now her son and she is weeping and Jesus takes
compassion upon her and tells her don't weep don't cry anymore
because I'm going to do something and so he stops the funeral procession and he says young man I say unto
thee arise If you remember last week we had the man with the
withered hand. Naturally speaking that man had
no ability to use that hand. And yet under the command of
Christ, Christ gives him the ability to do what Christ had
commanded him to do. And here presented to all those
round about is a complete impossibility. The boy was dead or the man was
dead. The Bible tells us that death
is the separation of soul and body. It's just there, just an
empty body. There is no life. A shell. And the heart stops
beating. The body goes cold. Lifeless. Everything begins to decay. presented to man was a complete
impossibility yet the Bible tells us that nothing shall be called
impossible with God and maybe like I've said you've been there
at the depths even this week But the Bible says nothing shall
be called impossible with God. Your depth is an opportunity
for God to bring you up out. And the depths of this woman,
the depths of despair that she was in was an opportunity for
Christ to manifest his authority over life and death itself, his
deity. that he is God manifest in the
flesh, that God indeed had come to earth, Emmanuel, God with
us, that God had visited his people. That is an opportunity
that was presented to Christ to magnify his deity. That he is indeed Emmanuel, God
with us. If you think of Ezekiel, Chapter 37, Ezekiel is presented
with a valley of dry bones. is presented with the value of
dry bones, an army that had been destroyed many years before and
now just all that is left is bones and these bones are very
very dry. God asks him, son of man can
these bones live? An impossibility. Of course they
can't live. It's like going into a graveyard
and preaching to the gravestones and people will be saying, oh
what are you doing? I'm hoping they may hear you. They think
you're mad. It is an impossibility that dead bones could ever live. Yet the scripture says nothing
shall be impossible with God. And so Ezekiel says, the Lord
you know. I know that's impossible but
I know that nothing shall be called impossible with thee.
O Lord God thou knowest. And again he said unto me prophesy
unto these bones and say unto them O 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. Exactly what happened. Ezekiel
prophesies in his vision and bone upon bone and before him
becomes a great army. Before the Lord Jesus Christ
is this impossibility and yet he speaks a word. Soul enters the body, the heart
begins to beat, life is commanded and the young man he lives. What impossibilities do you have
in your life at this moment in time? Have you brought them to the
God who is able to do the impossible? The God who is able to do far
more than we can ask or think? This lady thought, there's no
hope. I'm taking my son now to the
grave. I'm going to bury him and now I'm going to sleep alone. she failed to realize the power
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Mother, he says, stop your tears. Think of how many mothers have
wept over their children, wept over their children that have
physically passed away yet how many mothers weep over their
children that are spiritually lost. that have been carried
out of this carried out by the world and you weep for their salvation you weep
for their lost condition you weep for their circumstances
in life yet the Lord Jesus says weep not The world is carrying many, many
people away to a lost eternity, to their grave. Like a funeral procession. Yet the Lord Jesus Christ, he
is able to stop the situation. There are many men that have
been touched or boys that have been touched by the tears of
their mother. I remember once myself, my mum
ringing me up on a Sunday morning. I was somewhere crying down the
phone and she said, I don't know how much more I can take of this. And I'd sat under how many sermons
had no effect Let the Lord use the tears of my mother to touch
my heart. Tears of despair. Tears of no hope. Tears of only
God can deal with this now. Only Jesus can deal with this
now. And Jesus did deal with it. See,
not only is Jesus able to raise the dead to life, he's always
able to raise the spiritual dead to life. At his word, the dead
will live. Young man, I say unto thee, arise. And he that was dead sat up and
began to speak. And they delivered him to his
mother. began to speak. Evidence of life. Remember Talitha, we get to Talitha,
little maid I sound to thee arise. And he says give her some food. Evidence of life. The body has,
the spirit has now entered, the heart is beating, the mind is
functioning properly and he begins to speak. Isn't that how the Lord works? He gives a voice to those who
are dumb. He gives ears to those who are
deaf. He gives a soft heart to the
hard-hearted and he gives life to those who are dead in trespasses
and sins so that they live. He says, I am come that they
might have life, that they might have life abundantly. Not that
they might continue on in a dumb condition, but that they may
live, that they may speak, that they may hear, that they may
act. So the man obeys the Lord Jesus Christ, he gets up and
he begins to speak. Have you risen up? Has Christ
brought you to spiritual life? Have you began to speak? Have
you began to act? Have you began to live? Have
you began to demonstrate all that Christ has done for you? It is an evidence of life. Ultimately it also demonstrates
to us What will take place at the end of time? The dead will
hear the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ and they will rise from
the grave. We take this sad picture that
is being shown to us from the scriptures. All of our lives
are going to end like this. if Jesus doesn't come again.
All of our lives are going to end up with us laying upon or
laying in a coffin being carried by some people and by maybe our
family and friends weeping over us. That is how everybody comes
to leave this earth. We are carried out. that is not the end although
that's the end of our earthly life that is now the beginning
of the spiritual journey by which we will enter into that spiritual
state and just as Jesus stopped this
funeral procession to raise this young man to life So Christ will
one day enter into time once again and stop this world and everything that's going on. The
events of this world will stop. And everyone who is in the grave
will hear the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every person that has ever died
will hear the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle tells
us those who are still alive at that time will be changed
in the twinkling of an eye and will be brought to meet him in
the air. But Jesus says in John 5, verse
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. For as the Father hath life in
himself, so he hath given to the Son to have life in himself. and hath given him authority
to exercise judgment also because he is the son of man. Marvel
not at this for the hour is coming in the which all that are in
the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth They that
have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done
evil unto the resurrection of damnation. This is the voice
of the Lord Jesus Christ declaring that those who hear the voice
of the Son of God they will live. They will be raised from the
grave when they hear his voice. As Christ says to the young man,
young man I say unto thee arise, that young man and others who
were also raised from the dead at that time lived their life
and then died, they were buried, they now wait for the voice of
the Lord Jesus Christ to come again, they wait for Christ to
descend from heaven with a shout and then his voice will command and every person that has ever
died will be raised from the grave and will stand before the
Lord Jesus Christ to be judged by him. Those that have done
evil unto the resurrection of damnation and those that have
done good unto the resurrection of life. Their good obviously
we know is not good of their own standing but through the
goodness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who have trusted in Christ
will be raised to the resurrection of eternal life never to die
anymore in the place where there is no tears and no sorrow no
sadness and no more death. those who have done evil who
are outside of Christ will die to die forever. The resurrection of damnation. Everything will stand still when
Jesus comes again. Jesus stopped the funeral procession
and Jesus will come and stop this earth and he will say arise and all the dead will hear his
voice and they will come out of the graves or the sea will
give up its dead and they will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ
to be separated into heaven or into hell. May the Lord grant
us then that hearing ear Whether we're a young man or a young
woman, to hear the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ and to arise
and to obey Him and to follow Him. Weep not, young man, I say
unto thee, arise. May the Lord add His blessing.
Amen. Let's sing our final hymn from
Gadsby's, hymn number 120. 120. With joy we meditate the
grace of our high priest above. His heart is made of tenderness,
his bowels melt with love. Hymn 120, tune 131. ? Who joyly made you take the place
? ? Of the High Priest above ? ? His heart is filled with
tenderness ? ? With the hope that we'll find ? ? Trust in
us, in hope in willing ? ? In us, the faithful friend ? ? Whose
broad strolled temptations gleam ? ? O'er the earth's boundless
sea ? ? And what let innocent and pure ? ? The great ? While Satan's fury doth seep
o'er ? ? And it raises to rise ? ? In the haze of fable-fished days
? O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the
bombs bursting in air, ? Broken flags upraised there to
our name ? ? Now bruised and weakened, never praised ? ? Those
called the leaders of the day ? ? The humble veil addressed ? ?
Is the city of Utah ? ? Which shall not take her heavenly place ? May the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ and the love of God the Father, with the fellowship and
communion of the Holy Ghost, be with us now and for evermore.
Amen.