The Scriptures are all about
the way God saves a sinful people from the eternal death that their
sin requires. And where is it required? It's
under the merciless justice of God. Now, God is a God of mercy,
but be in no doubt, the justice of God is merciless. The justice
of God cannot overlook sin. How will God save sinful people
from the eternal death their sin requires? How will he do
that? Job, as we read in chapter 14 and verse 14, asks, if a man
die, shall he live again? Of course. A man dies. All of us die. All of us are
mortal. If a man die, shall he live again? Is that not one of the most profound
questions you can ask? If a man die, shall he live again? if a man, you know we see people
go to their graves, people die all around us all of the time,
people die it's a fact it is appointed to every one of us
to die, to die once and then the judgment and in that judgment
this is the next question that Job asked how should a man be
just with God how should a man be found just with God having
died because you must be found just to live you must be found
just to be confirmed in that eternal life. You must be found
just to escape that second eternal death of hell. How should a man
be just with God so that he'd die not that second death? The answer, the scripture gives,
is a redeemer must come as a substitute. The redeemer must come to pay
the law's penalty, to pay the law's sin debt. in place of the
people God chose to save. That's what must happen. The
Redeemer must come. But he must come in accordance
with the eternal purpose of God. God had decreed how he would
come. God in his word had decreed.
And if his word says it, it must be established. It must come
to pass. God had said that from Abraham
the seed would come, that from Abraham all the nations of the
earth would be blessed in his seed. That seed, that Messiah,
that Redeemer, must come from Abraham. In Isaac shall the seed
be, not Ishmael, in Isaac, in Abraham's only Isaac shall the
seed be. In Isaac shall the seed that
will bless his people come. In Jacob, in Jacob Esau, Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated, have I left to himself? In Jacob
it must be. And of Jacob's sons, it was from
Judah. for the Messiah is the Lion of
the tribe of Judah. And the scepter of kingly power
will not depart from Judah, he will always be the Lion of Kings,
until Shiloh come, until the Messiah come. He would come from
the line of David. He, the Messiah, this Redeemer
who would come to save his people from their sins, is great David's
greatest son. Great David, King David, Great
David, the man after God's own heart. He is Great David. He
must come from that line. Where would he be born? The scriptures
say it. Bethlehem, Ephrata. Bethlehem
in Judea. Not another Bethlehem. That one. When would he come?
At the right time. At the appointed time. After
the 70 weeks of Daniel. Exactly. It must all be in accordance
with God's purpose. But Following David, and then
the first part of the reign of Solomon, idolatry started to
creep in. And the kingdom was divided.
And there was Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, and then there was
Jeroboam, who broke away and formed the northern kingdom of
Samaria, Israel, in the north. And the sins of Jeroboam are
mentioned again and again in the scriptures. They were sins
of idolatry. They were sins of false religion. False religion? that which is
reasonable to the flesh. Does the flesh think it sounds
reasonable? It's false. For the truth of God is not reasonable
to the flesh, but it is to the eye of faith that God gives his
people to see it and believe it. And in those days, with this
string of evil kings culminating in Ahab, whose wife Jezebel was
from the land of Tyre and Sidon to the northwest on the Mediterranean
coast, great idolaters, terrible evil religion, Baal worship,
and she caused Ahab the king of Israel to fall into even greater
sins of rebellion and idolatry and false religion and Baal worship. And there was in the mind of
this man Elijah Things were in a terrible state. He knew the
truth of God. And here it was. Were they susceptible
to the whole lot being cast off by God? You know, like in the
days of the flood when God said, I've seen enough, I've had enough.
The wickedness of man is great. I will destroy what I've created.
I will save just eight souls alive in the ark. Was it again
a case that they were susceptible to being cast off by God? So
Elijah is raised up in the purposes of God. And he prayed fervently,
because as James tells us, the fervent prayer of a righteous
man, of a man made righteous by the justification that God
has accomplished in the gospel, the fervent prayer of a righteous
man avails much, accomplishes much, achieves much. And he prayed fervently. But
how did he pray? Did he just pray for what he
wanted? He prayed in accordance with God's word. Deuteronomy
had said, I will bless you, my people, but if you go after idols
and false gods, I will punish you. I will bring serious, serious
problems on you. There will be no rain. And he
writes, there's the word of God. It says, idolatry, God says he
will withhold the rain as chastisement, as punishment, to bring them
back to that straight path. I'm going to pray for it. I'm
going to pray in accordance with God's word. So he does that.
And God says, yes, I'll do that. There is not going to be any
rain. Go and tell Ahab. Go and tell him. Go and tell
this wicked king. Go boldly and tell him. that there's going
to be no rain. So he goes, that's where we first
meet him. Elijah the Tishbite comes, and he goes and tells
Ahab, they shall not be due nor rain these years but according
to my word. Why does he do it? Because God's
word has said, idolatry will be punished in this way. And
what was the objective of this drought, of this lack of rain
for three and a half years? The objective was to restore
the path from which Messiah would come. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
Judah, David, and so on down to Christ, coming at Bethlehem
in Judea to save his people from their sins. In this drought,
of course, Elijah himself was subject to the drought. He needed
to be sustained, so God sent him to the Brook Cherith, the
most unlikely place. Not to the flowing River Jordan,
which took ages to dry up, but to the Brook Cherith, the one
that had a reputation for being the first to dry up. Go there. Go there. It's unlikely. and
don't worry about your food for I've commanded God says I have
commanded the ravens to feed you there and they brought him
meat and bread morning and evening for a year and then the brook
dried up what does he do then? does he panic? no he waits for
God to tell him arise go to Zarephath where's Zarephath? in the very
country that Jezebel comes from in the very place that the idolatry
that now is afflicting Israel comes from Go there, and go there
to be sustained, because I've commanded a widow woman to sustain
you there. Not some strong guy with loads
of riches and lots of food from the merchant ships of Phoenicia.
No, a widow, go there. Sovereign grace, confounding
natural reason. But what was it all for? Let
me get to the point of this message. What is it all for? What is this
gospel all about? that Elijah stood for, that he
stood alone for. Why was it so important that
Messiah must come? What is it all about? Do we lose
sight of what the gospel is all about? What is the gospel all
about? It's a matter of life and death,
truly. It's a matter of life and death. And this faithful widow is taught
that fact. that it's a matter of life and
death by the death of her own son. She was resigned to the
death of both of them because before Elijah came the barrel
of meal and the cruise of oil was down to its last drops and
she was coming out to gather some sticks and then she was
going to put the oil and the meal together and make one last
cake and cook it so that she and her son could have their
last meal Very poor meal. But that's all there was. And
then she said, we're just going to sit down and die because there's
nothing else we can do. People are dying all around us.
That's what she was going to do. She was resigned to the death
of both. And then Elijah came. Elijah
came. And Elijah's word to her, according
to the command of God, Elijah and the widow and her son were
sustained for what seems like more than two years. Because
that barrel of meal, which had next to nothing in it, every
time she went to it, there was always some there. And that little
cruise of oil, that little vessel of oil that you needed to make
the cake, every time she used it, she went the next day, and
you know what? There it was again. the barrel
of meal didn't waste, and the cruise of oil didn't ever run
out in those two years, they were sustained. And they were,
as we always tend to view blessing, as that which is blessing in
the flesh, with material things, oh haven't we done well, haven't
we Haven't we had a good pay rise? Aren't things going better
for us economically? Everybody feels good about things
when the economy's going well. You know, the politicians, it's
the thing that they must do. This is blessing as we would
see it, because others are dying all around them. But then, look
at this, read it with me. 1 Kings chapter 17 and verse
17. First Kings 17 and verse 17. And it came to pass after these
things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell
sick. And his sickness was so sore
that there was no breath left in him. He died. And she said
to Elijah, what have I to do with thee, O thou man of God?
Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance and to
slay my son? And he said unto her, give me
thy son. And he took him out of her bosom,
and carried him up into a loft where he abode, and laid him
on his own bed. And he cried unto the Lord, and
said, O Lord my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow
with whom I sojourn by slaying her son? And he stretched himself
upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said,
O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come unto him
again. And the Lord heard the voice
of Elijah, And the soul of the child came into him again and
he revived. And Elijah took the child and
brought him down out of the chamber into the house and delivered
him unto his mother. And Elijah said, see, thy son
liveth. And the woman said to Elijah,
now by this I know that thou art a man of God and that the
word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth. This is chastening
with an objective. God's chastening of his children
is always with an objective. We know that he chastens his
people. Hebrews 11 verse 6, Whom the
Lord loveth, he chasteneth. Those that he leaves to get on
and prosper on their own and forgets about, he doesn't love
them. He's not concerned with them. But those that he loves,
he chastens. And why does he do it? It's to
wean us. And sometimes it takes us longer
than other times. Some of us need more of it than
others do. But it's to wean us from worldly dependence and affections,
the love of the world, the love of the things of the world, and
to set our minds on things of eternity and salvation. To cause
us to lay up treasure in heaven, and not upon earth, where moth
and rust corrupt. She says, is it because of my
sins? Verse 18, she says, are you come
unto me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my son? Is he dead
because of my sins? Is this what's happened? For
the soul that sins, it shall die. Is it because of my sins
that now he's been killed? It was the sin of Adam. The first
sin, by him, Romans 5.12 tells us, by one man, that Adam, sin
entered the world, and the result? Death by sin. And what do we
read in the scriptures? So-and-so lived a certain time,
and he died. So-and-so lived a different time,
and he died, and he died, and he died. Death by sin. But now,
At this time, in this famine, after such blessing, that barrel
of meal not running out, that cruise of oil never running dry,
such great blessing, the obvious hand of God for good, in grace
on Elijah and this widow woman and her son, when others around
them are dying because of the severe famine. Why now, at this
time, for this poor widow, who's been faithful in everything? She heard the voice of Elijah,
and she took it as the voice of God, and she did what he asked
her to do, and she fed and sustained them. She was commanded by God. But now, at this time, what a
severe blow. After all this blessing, her
son, imagine how dear to her this boy must have been. She's
a widow woman, but she has a son. Her husband's dead. and she has
a son, must have been the dearest thing to her, and he dies in
the midst of this famine all around. Isn't it just heaping
trouble upon trouble? Sin deserves death, yes for sure,
but now at this time? Is this not a severe thing? What's
it for? Why is it now being done that
this child gets sick and dies? It's so that she might know.
She, this widow woman from Zarephath. Not from, you know, when Jesus
was speaking in the synagogue in Nazareth, he said there were
plenty of widows in the days of Elijah, plenty of them, plenty
of them. Loads of widows that Elijah could
have gone to, but God sent him to a widow from Zarephath, a
foreigner, an idolater, and showed her grace. This is our God. I
will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have
compassion on whom I will have compassion." He'd had compassion
on this widow woman. Our God is a God of sovereign
grace. And because she's his child,
he's chasing her. That she might know certainly
that God's grace is unto life eternal. What is salvation for? Life. Unto life eternal. Life from the dead. Life from
the dead. This is what this is about. Life
from the dead. Do you know this is the first
recorded raising from the dead in the scriptures? This raising
of this widow's son by Elijah. under the hand of God is the
first one recorded. There are others in the scripture.
I mean, all of them, they were raised from the dead, and they
grew older and then they died again. None of them were raised
as in Christ was raised from the dead. No, they all died again,
but they were raised from the dead, and this was the first
one. There were two more in the days of Elisha, the prophet that
followed Elijah. Then in the time of Christ, as
he walked this earth, he came to that village of Nain, and
there was a widow and the funeral cortege that was carrying this
woman's dead son, grown adult dead son, and they're going to
bury him. And Jesus touches him, and he raises him from the dead.
That's another one, where he raised a dead man from the dead
to life, and he sits up and he's alive. There was Jairus' daughter.
whom Jesus raised from the dead. There was Lazarus. When Jesus
in John 11 comes to the tomb, Lazarus, come forth. There was
Lazarus, raised from the dead. When Christ was crucified, we
read in the gospel accounts that many saints, many believers were
raised from the dead. The graves gave up their contents.
They were showing how powerfully what Christ was doing was about
life, about life. In the Acts of the Apostles,
in the account of Peter going to that place where they were
mourning because Dorcas, alias Tabitha, she had died, she'd
done many good works, she was known for being a very charitable
person, but she died and Peter goes there and he raises her
from the dead under the hand of God, with the power of God.
Then Paul was preaching late into the night and there was
that young man Eutychus who was sitting on a windowsill high
up and he fell sound asleep. If ever you think I preached
for too long, you should have been there then when the Apostle
Paul preached for hours and hours and this lad Eutychus fell sound
asleep and he fell off the windowsill and he landed down on the floor
and it killed him. He was dead. And he was raised
from the dead. Possibly even Paul himself, because
you know once he was stoned, and they carried him away from
that stoning as though he were dead. Whether he actually was,
we can't be 100% sure, but possibly even Paul was raised from the
dead. What are these all about? What are these miracles for?
They're to speak to us today, you and me, that there is life
after death. that God can raise the dead. That after, if a man dies, shall
he live again? The answer to the question is,
yes. There's this widow's son. There are the ones in the time
of Elisha. There's all of the ones in the earthly ministry
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the time of the apostles.
Yes, yes, if a man dies, shall he live? Yes. It's most implausible
to fleshly reason and to the evidence all around of everybody
dying. But the Holy Spirit has recorded
these instances, these miracles. What is a miracle? We use the
word miracle too glibly. A miracle is something which
completely confounds the natural order of things. You know, we
say, oh, it's a miracle. No, it isn't actually. It might
be quite amazing, but it's not a miracle. A miracle is something
which utterly confounds the natural order. Raising from the dead
utterly confounds the natural order. Utterly confounds it.
These miracles were to tell us that we might know the answer
to Job's question, if a man die, shall he live again? Listen to
what our Lord Jesus Christ said. Let me read you some scriptures.
John chapter 10 and verse 10. Jesus said this, I am come that
they, who's they? My sheep. He's talking about
his sheep. Who are his sheep? His people.
The people of his choice. The people of his flock. The
ones that he laid down his life for. I am come that they might
have, why? Where did he come? I am come
that they might have life. In this world of death. In this
world of sin and of judgment it is appointed to man to die
once and then the judge. I am come that they might have
life and that they might have it abundantly. Where sin and
divine justice demands death pointed to man to die once and
then the judgment unto death Christ came to silence the laws
demands so that his elect might live eternally I am come that
they might have life and have it more abundantly John 11 25
the account of Lazarus Lazarus and his two sisters Martha and
Mary lived at Bethany a short distance from Jerusalem I can't
remember exactly, four or five miles from Jerusalem, something
like that, maybe a bit closer. And Jesus would often resort
there, and they loved him, and he loved them, and his disciples
would resort. You can imagine, it was a house
of great warm fellowship, of the kind of fellowship that we
hope to have next weekend when people come here and join with
us. And they often went there, and they had such a good time,
but while Christ was away with his disciples, In Galilee, Lazarus
fell ill, and he died. And there was great sorrow, terrible,
presumably he was a fairly young man, and he died, and his sisters
were utterly distraught. It would have been a terrible
thing then, you know, when the economy was so much based on
the work of the man, they relied on him. And Jesus comes. and talks to Lazarus' sisters. And if you believe, if you believe,
Jesus said to, I can't remember if it was Mary or Martha, he
said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth
in me though he were dead, yet shall he live." Do you hear what
this is about? He that believes in me, though he were dead, yet
shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Yes, we die physically, but that
eternal death of hell shall never die. Do you believe this, he
said to her? And then he miraculously raised
Lazarus from the dead. How dead was Lazarus? Was he
just stunned? Had he just fallen off a windowsill
and was stunned? He'd been dead four days. Jesus
said, roll the stone away from the tomb. Take the lid off. Do
you ever see reports from places where there have been serious
earthquakes? And there's been great disaster.
And you see the reporters holding something over their mouth and
nose. because the stink of death is so horrible. It's just such
a vile, revolting smell. And Jesus says, take the stone
away from the mouth of the cave. And they say, oh no, you can't
do that, he's been dead four days. It'll be a really horrible
smell. Take it away, take it away. Lazarus,
come forth, come forth. Lazarus, come out of that grave. What's it for? It's to prove
the reality of his promise. to prove the reality of his promise
about life. In verse 4 of that chapter earlier
on, before they got to where Lazarus was, Jesus told his disciples
that this sickness of Lazarus is not unto death, but for the
glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. How is God glorified? He's glorified
as His Son is glorified, as His grace and mercy saves His people. In what does God display His
greatest glory? Show me your glory, said Moses,
to God. This is my glory that I'll show
you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will
have compassion on whom I will have compassion. That is God's
greatest glory. John chapter 20 and verse 31,
John the Apostle writing at the close of his gospel account,
these things he says, what I've written, these signs, these accounts
of the life of Jesus, these are written that you might believe
that Jesus is the Christ. Why did the Holy Spirit prompt
John to write his gospel, the gospel of John? These are written
that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and so what does that do for me? And that believing you might
have life through his name. in a world of death, and of sin,
and of judgment. That believing, you might have
life through his name. This is the gospel's purpose.
That the people of God's choice, that the people who are the subjects
of his grace, those who are written, where are their names written? It tells us, Revelation 21 verse
27, talks about this, the Lamb's book of life. Those whose names
are written in the Lamb's book, it's a Lamb's book of Life! Life! The Lamb's Book of Life,
that they might live. Though they're sinners in the
flesh, that they might live. This is what it's about. 2nd
Timothy, chapter 1, verses 9 and 10. The Apostle Paul is talking
about this to Timothy, and he talks about God, who has saved
us. and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, not because we've been better people
than others, not according to our works, but according, why?
According to his own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest
by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ. He's come! He's
accomplished salvation. He's died on the cross. He's
satisfied the law in the place of his people. And as a result,
who has abolished death? What a stark, vivid statement
that is. Who has abolished death. Do you hear me? You know, we
all have fear of death in the flesh. We all do. We all fear
dying. All of us, from the youngest
to the oldest. But it says in the Bible, that in the gospel,
our Lord Jesus Christ has abolished death for his people and has
brought life and immortality to life. Immortality? You don't
die. Immortality to light through
the gospel. What's the proof of a prophet?
The scriptures tell us. The scriptures told the Old Testament
Jews. This is the proof. People will
rise up saying they're prophets. Now this is the proof. What he
says If it's a message from God, it will come to pass. And if
it isn't from God, it will not come to pass. Messiah must come
to save his people from their sins and give his people eternal
life. He that believes in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. How can we know that that's true?
How can we know it's true? The raisings from the dead recorded
in scripture give us proof of it by the prophet Elijah, Elisha,
by the Lord Jesus Christ himself, by Peter and by Paul. How can
we know the truth of it? These raisings from the dead
recorded in scripture are to confirm this to us, that what
God has said about life after death is absolutely true. The
true gospel accomplishes its objective. Sinners are truly
saved. Sinners who must die, for it's
appointed to man to die once, the soul that sins it shall die,
that sinners who must die have life through his name. Now, let
me challenge you. Is this for you? Those who believe
are those given faith by God. Saved by grace, through faith,
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Given sight
to see eternal things, the things of the Spirit of God. Delivered
from the fear of death. Those who believe it are delivered
from the fear of death. Listen to this, Hebrews 2, 14
and 15, for as much then as the children, his people, his believing
people, are partakers of flesh and blood, this is it, this is
us, you know, you can pinch us and it hurts, you can stab us
and it hurts, you can tickle us and it makes us laugh, people
of flesh and blood, he also, Christ also, himself, likewise,
took part of the same, why did he do it? That through death,
he might destroy through his death, he might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them
who through fear of death, is that not mankind in general?
They laugh it off, they make light of it, they say it doesn't
matter to them, they say they're not interested in it. Them who
through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Fear of death. It's the common
lot of man. outside of Christ. Unless he
has delivered you from that fear of death, you will be frightened
of dying. You will be in bondage because
you're frightened of dying. But he has delivered his people
from that. And confidence. This is those who believe have
confidence in my state after death. I know I'm going to die,
but I have this confidence. It's the confidence that Job
had. Job 19 verse 25. Job said this, the one who asked
the question, if a man dies, shall he live again? If a man
dies, what can I do to be right with God when I die? This is
the great question. Job in his suffering said this. He who asked that question said
this, I know, I know, that my Redeemer lives, and that he shall
stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my
skin worms destroy this body, my flesh is going to rot in the
grave, I know that, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I
shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another.
Though my reigns be consumed within me, though this physical
body is going to be destroyed by the decay of death, yet I
know this confidently, I shall see him in my flesh. I know he's
going to come. He'll stand on the earth and
I shall see him. When Christ was crucified, there
were two thieves, one either side, two felons, two criminals,
who were dying for their crimes, and one of them carried on cursing
and railing at the Lord Jesus Christ, but the other one, in
a moment, by God's grace, saw who this was and what he was
doing, and said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
Lord, remember me. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
this day, today, this very day you shall be with me in paradise. You're dying, you're bleeding
to death on the cross, this death of agony, but this day you shall
be with me in paradise. As Paul said, to be absent from