Brethren, let's turn to Luke
chapter 7. Picking up in verse 11, we come
to an account of a widow and her only son had died. This is a widow and her only
son had died. And we're told in verse 11 that
it came to pass the day after. This is the day after he had
healed the servant of the centurion, when he did that miracle for
the centurion and his servant in Capernaum. And the day after,
Christ went into a city called Nain. And that wasn't very far
from that area. And many of his disciples went
with him and much people. Now when he came nigh to the
gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the
only son of his mother. And she was a widow, and much
people of the city was with her. Now this account is brought to
our attention for one reason, because our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ took notice of it. And he went to this woman. And
so he brings our attention to this woman who has lost her only
son. Otherwise, we would know nothing
about this. And there's many gospel pictures that we'll look
at here. There's several here that we'll
look at in what our Lord does and the miracle that he performs
in raising this man from the dead. But before we look at that,
just notice the compassion of our Lord and Savior for this
woman, this widow who has nothing. Her husband has died, her son,
her only son has died, and she's left desolate. She can do nothing
for the Lord. She can give him nothing. She
has nothing for the cause. And yet our Lord takes notice
of her and is very compassionate toward her. And this is what
our Lord does for his people. He takes notice of our infirmities. He knows our sufferings. He knows our sorrows and our
temptations. And he is very compassionate
and loving toward his people. He takes notice of you as He
took notice of this woman. Verse 13 says, And when the Lord
saw her, He had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep
not. Don't cry. Don't cry. Weep not. Why would He care so? because
the Lord loves his people, he's kind toward his people, he's
very compassionate toward our sorrows. We're told by the Hebrew
writer that he was touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
He was touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Hebrews 2.18
tells us that in that he himself had suffered being tempted, he's
able to succor or care for them that are tempted. And losing
your husband, losing your only son, that's a temptation. That's
a troubling thing. That presses us sore and concerns
us and makes us to think and wonder, Lord, where are you for
me? Why this, Lord? Why this? And yet he knows the temptation.
He knows the temptation and he's very kind to his people. It is for our good. And he cares
for you. And that's why Peter says to
us, cast all your care upon him for, He careth for you. That's who we have to turn to
in our greatest hour of need. Our little hours of need and
our greatest hour of need. Turn to the Lord and pour out
your heart to Him. We often turn to others, but
they can often do very little for us. but the Lord is able. The Lord is able and he does
care. He is compassionate and he shows
us that here in his word. And now the notice of our Lord
here for this widow and her son, it foreshadows what we see in
his own death on the cross. It speaks to what our Lord bore
on the cross. We're told that when he was hanging
on the cross, He looked down, and he saw his mother. He saw
his mother standing there, and she was a widow. Some say that
Christ was her only son, and not just the Catholics. There's
other brethren who note that James and Joseph were probably,
I think, Cleopas' children, but they were called brethren. Jacob
calls himself the brother of Laban. And so that's how they spoke
of him. But whether or not he was the
only son, I don't know. But he cared for his mother when
he looked down upon her. And he saw her standing there
and the disciple standing by whom he loved. And he saith unto
his mother, woman, behold thy son. Then saith he to the disciple,
behold thy mother. And from that hour, that disciple
took her unto his own home. And so he cares. He takes notice. He's not indifferent to the cares
and the needs of his people. He provides. And though it's
dark sometimes and terrifying to us, he provides. He cares. He does it very lovingly. Trust him. Believe him. Look
to him. Cry out to him. Pour your burden
out to him. But he cares. He does, and He'll
show you, He'll reveal that to you, whom He loves, because He
delights to show that He is the true and living God of His people,
that He is the God who hears the prayers of His saints. And then when we see Christ in
this, now we know that if that's so, and that's a type of foreshadow
of what our Lord saw in His death on the cross, so it is that we
know that when we look at this miracle here, we're seeing the
blessings of His redemption for His people. This is speaking
of Christ's redemptive work and what He accomplishes for His
people. And so we'll see these blessings
pictured in what he does for the son, what he does for the
widow, and what he does for this widow as the son, as the son. We'll see these three things.
So our Lord sees this widow whose only son had died, and our Lord
raises this man from the dead. Look at verse, we'll pick up
in verse 13 again. When the Lord saw her, He had
compassion on her and said unto her, weep not. And he came and
touched the buyer, that's the coffin. And they that bear him
stood still. And he said, young man, I say
unto thee, arise. And he that was dead sat up and
began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother. Now there's two things that we
first see from this in looking at what our Lord does for the
Son. One is that our God is able to
raise from the dead. He is able to raise his people
from the dead. That grave, that law of sin and
death, which we know in the grave that we can't free ourselves
from it, We all die. We're all going to lay our bodies
down in the dust. Yet that grave has no power over
the Lord. Our Lord has power over the grave.
He has power over death. He is life itself. And he's able to raise his people
from the dead. And the other thing that we are
to understand from this is that the Lord's people are spiritually
dead. And He's the one that raises us from spiritual death. He gives us spiritual life in
Himself. And so, first of all, you that
believe Christ, He promises you that He shall return again and
you shall be raised from the dead. You shall be raised from
the grave. He shall lift you up. He shall
gather you together to forever be with the Lord at His return. Turn over to John 5 and verse
28. 28-30 Our Lord is speaking of
this work that Our Lord shall do for us in raising us, our
bodies, from the dead. He said, Marvel not at this,
for the hour is coming in 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. Now he goes on and he says in
verse 30, I can of mine own will do nothing. And what do you mean? How is it that the eternal son
of God can of his own will do nothing? Well, because here he's
here in the flesh as the servant of God, of his father. He's here
as the servant. He's serving the father. He's
serving for his bride. And so he's saying, I'm not here
doing my own will, though he's perfectly aligned with the Father,
but it's his office here. He's speaking as the Christ.
And he says, as I hear, I judge. And my judgment is just because
I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which
hath sent me. Now turn over to John 6. And
again, just stay in this area. John 6, verse 40. And here we're
told exactly what the Father's will is. Repeating again for
us, this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which
seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting
life, and I will raise him up at the last day. You shall be
raised from the grave, you shall be raised from the dead, according
to the very word and promise of your God. He is able, and
we see that here. We see that even Isaiah speaks
of this, Isaiah 26, 19, the Lord says, thy dead men shall live,
together with my dead body shall they arise. We shall be raised
from the grave. And that also speaks of what
we're looking at next, how that we are raised spiritually, given
life in the Lord Jesus Christ. I think Many people today, given
how we've been raised in America, and many of us have gone to church
at least a little bit, and one thing that we're certain of is
that God raises the dead. I think a lot of people would
agree with that and believe that now. It was hard for the Greeks
when they heard it. They didn't believe it, but But
now I think it's pretty common that most of us understand that
we shall be raised from the dead. But what seems far-fetched and
unknown and mysterious to man is that we must be given spiritual
life. that we don't just make a decision
or make a change in our life or turn over a new leaf and start
doing things right. No, we need the grace and power
of God to give us life, spiritual life. Otherwise, we will not
hear the voice of Christ. And what we do hear will be as
just the voice of a man and something to be ignored and something to
be cast aside. And we won't hear what the Lord
says. And we may be religious, and we may do a lot of things,
but we'll be dead in trespasses and sins doing them with an uncircumcised
heart. A heart that is but the carnal
flesh of man that knows nothing. And so we need spiritual life. And that's why the Lord tells
us ye must be born again. And most of this world who has
an understanding of Christian doctrine, phony Christian doctrine
thinks that they're the ones that get themselves born again
by something that they do. And that's not what the Lord
teaches. He shows us we need life. We're that dead, we're
that corrupt, we are so vile and sinful in our nature that
we are dead in trespasses and sins and we need the Lord to
raise us up from spiritual death. Otherwise we shall not believe.
We will not hear and we will not believe, we will not turn
to the Lord and call upon him. And there's no faith, because
faith is not of the flesh, it's a spiritual fruit, it's a gift
of God, a spiritual fruit, a fruit of the Spirit. And so once again,
we see this back in John 5, John 5, verse 25 and 26, this is before
he's speaking of the grave here, he's speaking of our spiritual
resurrection. 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 hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. And so what our Lord does in
raising his people from spiritual death, that's a picture here.
And we all must be partakers of that first resurrection. The
first resurrection isn't the resurrection from the grave.
The first resurrection is when Christ comes and gives spiritual
life and raises us from spiritual death. That's the first resurrection
of which the second death has no power over us. We died in
Adam, that's the first death. And then when we die and lay
our bodies in the grave, that second death, there's nothing
to fear. There's no more work for you
to do. It's all been done by Christ, you that believe Him,
you that come to the Father, trusting the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ alone, and have no confidence in His
flesh, but every confidence in Him. And so He raises us up,
He raises us up, for as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath
He given to the Son to have life in Himself. Now, back in our
text, you can go away from John 5 now, Luke 7. Luke 7, 14 and
15. And he came and touched the buyer,
and they that bear him stood still. And he said, young man,
I say unto thee, arise. This young man was dead. He could do nothing. And those
that carried that man, that coffin, they stood still. They could
do nothing. Man has no part in this salvation. You that believe Christ are the
happy, passive recipients of His almighty, sovereign grace
doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves and what we do
not deserve. He does it all. He does it all. They stood still
and this young man was dead, clearly dead in trespasses and
sins. And so our Lord speaks with power
so that his people hear to the saving of our soul. When we preach
this gospel, the good news that Christ has come, the Father has
sent Him, this is God's will that all who see Christ and hear
His voice, that they live unto Him. It's God's will. He works
this in His people. This is what He does for His
people. And so this word comes unto His
people with power. That same word which is foolishness
to some, is glorious and made powerful to others. It's the
dynamite that blows open the grave, that removes the stone
that lays over our grave and removes us out from under the
law and brings us into the light of Christ. He does this, and
this man, this young man, he sat up, verse 15, and began to
speak, and Christ delivered him to his mother. And so, Again,
when our Lord gives life to His people, we begin to speak. We begin to sing the song of
redeeming grace. That becomes our language. We
speak of what Christ has done for us. We speak not of what
we've done for the Lord, which is very common in dead letter
religion. We speak of what Christ has done for us in redeeming
us graciously. graciously giving us, raising
us from the dead. And so that's what we see there. We begin to speak the language
of grace. And his people hear and understand
that same language and rejoice in it. When we speak to others
and they say, I believe in Jesus, and then they go on telling you
all that they do for the Lord, it's so sad and disappointing.
But when they speak of what He's done for them, I understand that
language. I know that voice. That's the
voice of my Savior speaking in that one. That's His spirit present. Because we boast in what He's
done. He's our glory. He's our boast. And that's going
to come out. You're going to hear it. You're going to hear
it. And so the Lord in wisdom then takes this newborn child
of God and he gives him to the care of his mother a picture
of the church. A picture of the church. He brings
her to the mother as a picture of the church, just as the Good
Samaritan, who found that half-dead man, meaning he's entirely spiritually
dead, but he's still alive physically, half-dead. And he bound up his
wounds, put him on that beast of burden, a picture of Christ,
and brings him to the inn, which is the church. That's why the
Lord has his church here. That's why we beg the Lord. And
pray, Lord, keep us faithful, because this is where you bring
your people, that they may be ministered to. And he said, whatever
it costs you, whatever expense, whatever you lay out, I'll give
it back to you full when I return. I'll give it back to you. And
we have a glorious inheritance in Christ. And so our Lord delivered
him to his mother. And we know Jerusalem, which
is above, is free, the mother of us all. And so that's what
we see here. So in this sense, our Lord raises
this man from the dead, a picture that we shall be raised, just
as he promises, from the grave. But first, we are raised spiritually. We are given spiritual life in
our Lord. Now, the second picture that
we see here from this passage is what our Lord did for this
woman. Our Lord gave her a son that lives. Our Lord gives her
a son that is alive. And through our Lord's redemption,
our Lord is teaching us, and one of the things he declares
to us in the gospel is that we are delivered from the law. We're
not under the rule of the law. We're not in Moses's house. We
are in the house that Christ the son has built. We are delivered
from that body of sin and death by the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we are now made members of the body of Christ and we are in
his household. And so that law with its curses
and bondage, which was upon us, has nothing more to say to us.
It's threatenings and lightenings and thunderings. It has nothing
to say to us. It's not falling upon us. We're
in Christ's body. We stand complete in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so what we see what our Lord
does for this woman is what Paul wrote of over in Romans 7. Turn over to Romans 7. Romans 7 and let's pick up in
verse 2. Think about this, this is a widow
that our Lord does this for. For the woman which hath a husband
is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth. But if
the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
So then if while her husband liveth she be married to another
man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she
is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though
she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also
are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should
be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead,
that we should bring forth fruit unto God. And so here's this
woman who is a widow. And her husband is a type, her
former husband is a type, a picture of the law. And he's dead, and
she's dead to him. And that law of her husband has
no more say over her, no more power over her. And by her former
husband, a picture of the law, she had fruit unto death. Her fruit by that husband was
dead. He was dead. And so she had nothing
now. Nothing to stand before holy
God. Nothing to bring to the true
and living God. She's desolate. Desolate. No fruit. Now look at verse 5. For when we were in the flesh,
the motions of sins which were by the law did work in our members
to bring forth fruit unto death. unto death." That's what is pictured
here. She had a husband and they had
fruit unto death. It's just death. It was nothing.
She was not profited whatsoever by her fruit. Verse 6, but now
we are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were
held that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in
the oldness of the letter." What our Lord Jesus Christ did is
He went to the cross and He died bearing the burden of His people.
He bore us in Himself. He carried us in our sin. He carried us to the cross and
laid down His life. And so that we died in him to
the law. So that the law has nothing more
to say to us. And when he was buried, we were buried. And when
he was raised again, we were raised again. And we're not married
to the law anymore. We're not married to Adam and
his inheritance. We're married to Christ. He's
our husband. We stand in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he now brings forth fruit
in us. He brings forth fruit in us by
His Spirit and grace. And He said, young man, I say
unto thee, arise. And he that was dead sat up and
began to speak, and he delivered him to his mother. What this
picture is, in that sense, is that the Lord has given her fruit,
living fruit. Our Lord is our righteousness.
He is our righteousness. We have fruit by the Lord, our
husband. That's how we bring forth fruit,
to the praise and glory of God, by the Spirit of our Lord, by
His grace and His power. And so what Christ did for this
widow was as a faithful and living husband who wrought living fruit,
who in giving her her son, gave her a living fruit, living fruit.
He bears living fruit in His people. All right, now this brings
us to our final picture, that we see here, and it's just interesting
that only Luke records this, and Matthew, Mark, and John,
they don't record this, but Luke records it, and here it reveals
what our Lord did for His church as the Son. As the Son, right? And so the scriptures tell us
the desperate case of this woman. She was a widow, meaning her
husband was dead, and And her only son was dead also. So when
you were a widow, especially at this time, they didn't have
things laid up for themselves. They didn't have insurances and
things like that. And she was in a desperate case
because her son, who was a young man, but he was an able man to
provide for his mother. That was her provision. He was
going to care for his mother. But he's the only son, and now
he's dead. What is she to do? Zechariah 12.10 describes the
only son for us. It gives us a sense of just how
meaningful this is. And if you have only one son,
you know just how dear that child is to you because everything
is riding on that one son. that one child. And Zechariah
12 10 says, and I will pour upon the house of David and upon the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications. And they shall look upon me whom
they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth
for his only son and shall be in bitterness for him as one
that is in bitterness for his first born. And so the scriptures
help us understand it. An only son is, Wow, everything's
there. And everything rests on them. And if you lose that one child,
where do you turn? Where do you turn? It's devastating
in that. And I believe that's why the
Lord emphasizes to us that Christ is his only begotten son. That's
how precious Christ is. He's His only begotten Son. We're
adopted sons and daughters. Christ is His only begotten Son.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting
life by Him. And so the Father gave His Son,
His most precious Son, and spared Him not but delivered Him up
for us all. And so by His death, He went
to the cross willingly for His people, for the salvation of
His people as the only Son. And having accomplished the will
of the Father, He obtained our eternal forgiveness. He obtained
our eternal redemption. He's reconciled us to God. He gives us all the blessings
and fruits of His life. And what He has wrought for us,
for our good, for our provision, for our safety, to cover all
our wants and our needs, him that when this life is over it
ain't over it's just begun in the Lord Jesus Christ we have
a wonderful inheritance in the presence of Almighty God and
so being raised from the dead our Lord now speaketh his voice
yet speaks he's fruitful he's that seed that went to the ground
and died and produces an abundance of fruit and an abundance of
fruit And it just keeps going and growing and growing and growing
and his voice yet speaks just like this man when he raised
from the dead. He speaks his word and he speaks it with power
into the hearts of his people to bless you, to give you life,
to give you an expected end in him. Not in what you do or don't
do, what you say or don't say, but all in Christ. And all that
you need, He gets you. He provides for you whom He loves. And so, our Lord is that Son
who was raised from the dead. to provide for his mother, to
provide for his church, to provide for his bride, really, the bride
and the church. He's raised for us so that we
are not left desolate. not ruined and destroyed. And
so this miracle, brethren, contains all these gospel pictures of
what our Lord has accomplished for his people and does work
in every one of us. And he delights to declare these
things to you this morning to encourage your hearts, to give
you a rejoicing in him. Be glad, brethren. and know His
compassion for you, His love for you, how tender He looks
upon you and cares for you. Turn to Him always, trust Him,
believe Him. He is able and He loves to, He
delights to bless you in Him. Amen.