Let's turn to Luke chapter 7.
And let's read verses 11 through
17. And it came to pass the day after,
that he went into a city called Nain. Many of his disciples went with
him, and much people. Now when he came nigh unto 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. And when the Lord saw her, he
had compassion on her. And he said unto her, weep not. And he came and he touched the
beer. And they that bear him stood
still and 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. 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. This is a picture of every sinner
saved by grace. Every sinner. Any man that God
has called with an effectual calling, revealed himself in
his heart, should be able to identify with this figure. He
was dead. He had no hope. He had no plea,
he had no understanding, he had nothing. He was laid on a pillowed
stretcher and on his way to the grave. Isn't that where God found
us? On our way to the grave. But for his grace. But for his
grace. There's several things I want
us to see here. And the first is this, I want
us to see in this picture the consequence of sin. By one man,
sin entered into the world. That's what the scripture says.
And death by sin. Why do men and women die? Because of sin. Adam was not
made to die, made to live. God breathed in him the breath
of life. He had life in him. What caused him to die? Sin. Sin. By one man, sin entered into
the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sin. Scripture says in Adam, all die. The one thing that we all have
in common is death. Death. What is death? Death is a condition. It's a
condition. It begins with a depraved nature. A nature that knows and loves
only sin. That's our condition, we're sinners. We're sinners. Believers are
brought to see this and to lay hold of
this, believe this, act accordingly. We're sinners. We're sinners. I haven't killed anybody, but
I know murder's in my heart because God told me it was. And just because God in his mercy
has given me some restraining grace and kept me from being
as evil as I could be don't mean I'm not the sinner that he says
I am. Death is a condition and it begins
with a depraved nature, a nature that knows and loves only sin. It exists to fulfill the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, is what it says. Ephesians chapter
two when he's describing that death from which some were quickened. And so by nature were the children
of wrath even as others. And know this, sin reigns in
men. You may not think it does. That's
one of the things that sin does. It camouflages its works. Sinners
don't know they're sinners. Sinners think they're doing God
a service when they kill his servants. Sin camouflages itself. You can't see it. You don't diagnose
it. You live in all them years, you
never thought of yourself as a sinner, a bad, evil sinner
according to the word of God. Sin disguises itself. It disguises
itself in religion. It disguises itself in false
refuges. It disguises itself in human
reasoning. But we're sinners. We're sinners. Death is a condition. And secondly,
death is a judgment. He said the wages of sin is death. Sin entered, death passed by
one offense. By the offense of one judgment
came upon all men to condemnation. Scripture said, sin, when it
is finished, bringeth forth death. And then thirdly, sin is a debt.
It's a condition. It's a judgment. And it's also
a debt. And this debt must be paid. It
must be paid. Because God is just and holy. A full satisfaction
for sin is demanded. It's demanded. My sin must be
paid for. Which one? All my sin. All my sin. That which I see
and that which I don't see. That which I acknowledge and
that which I don't acknowledge. Sin has to be paid for. God understandeth
your thought afar off. He knows the thoughts and intents
of your heart. And he reveals them in his word. Jesus Christ bore our sins in
his own body on the tree. Why? Because the debt has to
be paid. Nobody gonna be saved apart from
the debt being paid. The scripture says he put away
our sins by the sacrifice of himself. Sin demanded death and
he paid the bill. He died the death. And in Hebrews
9.12 it says by his own blood he entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. How did he
get it? Through his blood. He died. He died. The life of the flesh
is in the blood. And he said, I've given it to
you upon the altar. And then the second way God deals
with sin is called the second death. Eternal death, everlasting
judgment, eternal suffering. Everlasting punishment, he said.
And hell is forever. Why is that? Is that just something
some man wrote down on the pages to scare people so they'll go
do what they're told? No, sir. No, sir. Hell is forever
because you can't pay the debt. He's gonna continue to extract
from you payment for your sin forever because you don't have
what it takes. to pay the debt. We can never satisfy the justice
of God. Our Lord preached this in a parable
and he used the unjust steward when he talked about it. The
steward came and he owed a great debt and his master called him
in and he pleaded to his master and his master I said, OK, you
can go. Just forget the debt. Just go.
And as soon as he left there, he saw a guy on the way home.
Now remember, God just forgiven him this great debt. Now he's
on his way home, and he sees this guy that just owed him a
little bit. Man, he got a hold of that guy. He said, you're going to pay
me everything you owe me or else. And the master found out about
it, and he called the man back in. And he said, didn't I just
forgive you this great debt? And now you gonna go down and
punish him? He said, I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna
turn you over to the tormentors, and they're gonna extract from
you until the uttermost has been paid. That's what hell is. That's what it's all about. I
have no idea what kind of punishment is involved in it, but he uses
the worst of things in this world to describe it. And even if they're
just pictures, I just can't imagine. I can't imagine. Everlasting fire. Can you imagine? I mean, I burnt myself on the
stove several times cooking, just burnt myself a little bit.
Man, how painful that was. Can you imagine? being destroyed
in fire. Even if it's a picture, it's
still describing a torment. And so he describes it in this.
He's gonna turn them over to the tormentors. So the first
thing we see in this is the consequence of sin. One preacher said everything
preceding death is just the forerunner of it. All of these things that
we suffer in this life, it's just a forerunner of death. Funerals of the unbelieving,
to me, are the saddest events that you'll see in this world. Men and women going out of this
world without a hope, without any basis of hope, without any
anything. superstitious experiences and
so on. Going out of this world without
a hope to stand before the eternal God, it's the saddest thing.
A sad thing. And here lies one who'd send
away the day of mercy. He loved darkness rather than
light. I've heard it all, people talk
about Well, here's the gist of it. They wanted to fully experience
life before making any serious commitments to God. I'm too young, I got too much
living to do. Maybe after a while, when I've
got children and they're raised and I'm settled down, then I'll
make some kind of commitment. Then I'll make some kind of decision.
Then I'll make some kind of arrangements for heaven. Every sinner is pictured
in this man headed to the grave. He's on his way to the grave.
He's been carried there, because he's dead. He's dead. When did we die? Well, in Adam,
all died. And that death passed upon us. So we're dead in this world.
You don't think of yourself that way, but you're dead. You have
to be quickened who are dead in trespasses and sins. We're
being carried. Carried by what? God's providence.
God's providence. You're being carried to the grave. And that brings me to the next
thing I want us to see in these verses. A gracious intervention. This was a funeral. Nobody in that congregation had
a single thought of this boy living again. Nobody. He's dead. He's dead. I've had to part company with
loved ones, my wife, dear ones in the past, my mother, my father,
my sisters. I have one sister out of nine
siblings. lived in this world. I watched
them all die. Seen them part this life. I never
had one thought on the way out to the cemetery of that coffin
opening up and any of them setting up and starting to talk. You've
been to funerals. Any of you ever had that thought?
Nobody here had that thought either. They were going to the
grave. Going to the grave. And I want us to see several
things here. First of all, I want you to notice what prompted the
intervention. Luke 7, 13. He had compassion
on her. On her. He saw this widow. He saw her plight. Her husband
had already died. There was no one to care for
her in this world but her son. Her son. And now he's dead. And it could hardly be denied
that he had compassion on the dead man because he raised him
from the dead. But what began this intervention
was his compassion for her. Says it two or three times in
the verse. And what prompted this resurrection
was his compassion for her. When the Lord saw her, It says,
he had compassion on her and said unto her, weep not. Weep not. Our Lord's intervention
was not sought after. Nobody saw him and started begging
him for mercy. He saw them. God's intervention
always begins with himself. It has to do with what's in him,
not what's in you. And you're not gonna hear this
from religion. Religion's gonna start talking about what's in
you. There's a little bit of good in all men. I've heard them
say it. God's gonna have compassion on
everybody. Really? He didn't have any on
Judas. He didn't have any on Esau. He
didn't have any on Pharaoh. He said, I'll have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. Our Lord's intervention was not
sought after, nor was anyone in that place looking for it.
It began and ended with him. What does he tell us about himself?
He's the author and finisher of our faith. It's beginning is with him. Paul
said, here's my hope for you people. Here's my hope for you.
He that hath begun a good work in you. Who began that? Christ
did. He'll perform it under the day.
Under the day of Jesus Christ. He doesn't start things and quit
in the middle. He finishes what he begins. He's
the author and finisher. She was a widow. She had no one
but her son to support her. Her case was sad, but it was
no sadder than ours. We're in the same shape. My children
are in the same shape. My neighbors are in the same
shape. People I worked with over the years, they're in the same
shape. We think we have this, that,
and the other, and we can draw from it, but in reality, we have
nothing in this world of any lasting value. We have nothing. Whatever we have here is the
gift of God, and it should be viewed and used for his glory,
whatever it is. If it's the widow's mite, he'll
bless it. He'll bless it. She had a son. Now he's dead. And there's nothing she can do
about it but moan. And this is the lot of every
believer. Our children are given to us of God and only God can
raise them out of this Adamic plague, this death. Only God
can intervene. But take comfort in this. Our
Lord will intervene for some. And that's why this account is
in the scriptures. That's why it's here. It's to
give hope. God's not gonna send everybody
to hell. God's gonna save some. He's gonna have compassion on
some. He's not pleased with every case
to let nature take its course. This was no accidental encounter.
He says in Christ we also have obtained an inheritance being
predestinated. according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will."
Oh, it'll seem like chance when it happens. It'll seem like just
an accidental occurrence. I just happened to be there on
that day. This man just happened to be
visiting. I had a daughter, she was about,
Cynthia, you all know her, and she was about five years old,
I think. Melissa's 10 years older than
her, and she was over at the neighbor's, and they were riding
a three-wheeler around in the yard. And the little one snuck
out of the yard and went over there, and Missy just put her
right up in front of her on the three-wheeler. And when they
started down over the hill, and she gassed that thing, Cindy
took her hand down like that, and her little finger went right
behind the throttle. That thing went straight down
over the hill and hit a pine tree about this big around. She
hit it with her face. And they threw her clothes away
at the emergency treatment center because they thought she was
gone. Somebody said, as luck would
have it, there was a renowned neurosurgeon visiting Alexandria
at that time, had just finished up a meeting, and was there when
they brought her in. And he came in and treated her.
Was that an accident? It's no accident when God saves
a sinner. It'll appear like it. It'll appear
like it was just chance. I just happened to be there on
a certain day. No, it's not chance. God does
things on purpose. On purpose. It'll seem like it. It'll be
some friend who invited you to come or some father who saw to
it that you were carried there, it'll seem like some random situation,
but in reality, it'll be the providence of God. Whom he did foreknow, he also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. And
whom he did predestinate, them he also called. Who'd he call? Them he predestinated. Called
how many? Every one of them. All the same
way? No. No. Salvation's of the Lord, isn't
it? It's of the Lord. Every sinner
is dead in trespasses and sins, and every sinner needs raised
from the dead. And then think about this. I
want us to see in this the work of our sovereign Lord. God is
sovereign. There's nothing beyond his rule,
not even death. Nothing is beyond his rule. He's the Lord. And if he weren't
the Lord, if he weren't the sovereign, if he had no power in heaven
and earth, he couldn't save a slave, let alone a sinner. God's sovereign
and all his works are the works of a sovereign. And in the life
of this widow and her dead son, Jesus stepped in and took over. He said, stop the procession.
Stop the procession. I got something to say. Young
man, rise up. Don't you know everybody in that
place? Their eyes was fastened on him. What's he saying? This
guy's a lunatic. He's interrupted this funeral.
He's telling that guy to do what he can't do. I tell you to do
what you can't do every time I get up here. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. But you can't. But you will,
because he's sovereign. And it's God that worketh in
you, both the will and the do of his good pleasure. He told
that, he said, sit up. That man sat up, started to talk. Jesus stepped in, who is the
Christ, and he took over, and he disrupted the course of this
world. And some say the Lord never goes
where he's not invited. I thank God that's not true.
He wasn't invited there, but he sure was welcome. Huh? He wasn't invited. He's standing
out there knocking on the door. He can't open the door. If he
wants in the door, he'll kick it off the boat bar and jam. He'll come in. He is the door. Sovereign don't seek your permission,
nor does he wait for your invitation or your approval. The sovereign
always takes the initiative. Always. He said, and listen to this.
I'm so sick of hearing religion talk about man letting God do
this and letting God do that. Listen to this. He said, I was
found of them that sought me not. That's what God said. I was made manifest unto them
that asked not After me, that's Romans 10 verse 20. And there's
a beautiful picture of this in Ezekiel 16. He laxens all of
his elect Israel unto this little baby who was cast out in the
sand. He said, none I pitied thee to do anything. Your navel
wasn't cut. Right after birth, they just
flung you over in the sand and went on their way. And he said,
when I saw you, when I passed by and I saw you, he said it
was a time of love. And I said under that little
baby, live. Live. Huh? Does that have God's name, sinners?
That's the way he saved this sinner. Sovereign always takes
the initiative. We preach sovereign grace, not
just grace. Grace intervening, grace making
provision, grace accompanying the means, effectual grace, word
spoken and the dead obeying the voice of the Son of God. Is it any different since the
Lord Jesus ascended back into glory? No, sir. No, sir, it's
the same. His work is in us and for us
and through us. And it's all the work of a sovereign.
The work of a sovereign. When our Lord said to the widow's
son, I say unto thee arise, he that was dead sat up. When God speaks, you gonna do
what he tell you to do. Lazarus, come out of that tomb.
He can't, he's wrapped head to toe in grave clothes. He's got
linen wrapped tightly around him. He looks like a mummy laying
in there on a piece of stone. How's he gonna come out of the
tomb? He came out of the tomb, didn't he? I don't know if he
floated out or, I don't know how he come out, but he did.
And then the next thing the Lord told him, he spoke to those grave
clothes and he said, loose him and let him go. And they did. They did. The so-called savior this world
worships is a weak, helpless beggar. Just listen to him describe
him. He's a weak, helpless beggar.
Without man's permission and will, his hands are tied, and
even when they are so-called saved, he can't keep them from
falling. They fall back into perdition.
He can't preserve them unto life everlasting, not without their
help. With Jesus of Nazareth, there's
no such Savior. He can save to the uttermost
them that come unto God by him. And there's three things that
mark the sovereign work of God upon the sinner. Three things. Don't ever forget this. The will
of God. Whose will was done that day?
God's will. God's will. No sinner will ever
be saved apart from the sovereign eternal will of God. A man's
will should be brought to comply with the will of God, not the
other way around. Our Lord's coming into this world.
He said, I come to do thy will, O God. Everything about salvation
is according to the will of God. Everything we pray for, we are
to submit with these words, not my will, but thy will be done. The second mark of the work of
a sovereign is the word of God. God has ordained that salvation
of his elect through the preaching of the word, the word of God. I have no gospel apart from the
word of God. If it's not written in this book,
I shouldn't be preaching it. I have no right to interject
things. I have no right to add things. He tells you about that
in Revelation, what it means to add or take away from this
book. This man was raised from the
dead because Christ spoke the word to him. And even so now
faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God. So the first
mark, if God does a sovereign work on you, he's gonna do it
according to the will of God. He's gonna do it according to
the word of God. And he's gonna do it with the
work of God. It's God that worketh in you. Isn't that something? That man
to whom Christ will speak shall be made to hear, made meat. to
be partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light. And this
is the work of the Holy Spirit of God and it's the only reason
any man can be able to minister or be ministered to of God. It says Elijah was a man subject
to like passion just as we are and he prayed earnestly that
it might not rain and it didn't rain. God attended his prayer, it didn't
rain. until he prayed and asked for
it. He prayed again and the heaven
gave rain and the earth brought forth fruit. This man rose up because the
Holy Spirit of God worked in him. And the work of the Spirit
is to reveal Christ to us and in us. And by this revelation
to bring us to trust Him and rest in Him. And then lastly,
and I hurry, I want us to look at a sure conclusion. This is
what happens wherever our Lord manifests his sovereign grace.
Verse 16. The very last line. God visited
his people. God did. Was there anybody there
who didn't say that? They all said it. What else you
gonna say when a dead man rises? Huh? God hath visited his people. What do I say when I see the
dead raised through the gospel of Jesus Christ? God hath visited
us. This is what we pray for when
we come into this place. It's the very heart of our worship. We want God to visit us. Everything
that we need, everything that we're trying to promote requires
God's presence, not just mine. It's all just empty, It's just
empty junk. You know, you gather, you meet,
you go do this, you go do that. Okay, it's Sunday, we gotta,
huh? My soul. God bested his people
on this day. On this day. He spake to the
dead, and the dead sat up. He intervened. He interrupted
their plans, and he did according to his will, and he effectively
worked in the midst And it says, and there came a fear, a fear
on all. What kind of fear? They were
scared to death of him? No, that's not the kind of fear
it is. Listen to this. A fear came upon them all, and
they glorified God. They were struck with the awe
of the presence of God. And that's what they said, God
has bested us. He bested us. All right, thank
you.