Well, I want to look this morning
at the next miracle that occurs in Luke's gospel, chapter 7,
from verses 11 down to verse 18. And I've called this the
power to give eternal life. And having said that, I'm immediately
going to refer to John's Gospel, chapter 17 and verse 2, which
is the prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ the night before he was
crucified in that upper room, when he finished saying all the
things that he had to say to the disciples and he prayed to
the Father. And in verse 2, he prays to his
Father, Thou, the Father, hast given him, the Son, power over
all flesh. He has power over all flesh,
that He, the Son, should give eternal life to as many as thou
hast given Him. This is it, this is salvation.
God, the Father, has given the Son power over all flesh to give
eternal life, the gift of eternal life is in the Lord Jesus Christ
it is his to give he came to bring life to those the father
had given to him in the election of grace before the beginning
of time and it's not just life all things have life So many
things have life, but this is eternal life. This is everlasting
life. I am come that they might have
life and have it more abundantly. This is what we're talking about.
This is the theme of the Gospel of Grace. Eternal life in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And it's such a contrast to death. The death that is all ours by
virtue of what we earn. God is just. The wages of sin
is death, says Romans 6, the last verse. The wages of sin
is death. And life is in such stark contrast
to that. Jesus speaks throughout the Gospels,
especially in John's Gospel, of giving life to those who believe. Of giving life in Him. Of Him
being the resurrection of the life. of him being the light
of life, of that life being in him. In verse 31 of chapter 20
at the end of John's gospel, he talks about the things that
have been written, and why have those things been written, why
have those things been recorded? That you might believe that Jesus
is the Christ of God, the Messiah. the promised savior the one by
whom God has promised from the beginning of time from Genesis
chapter 3 before that right the way down through the record of
scripture the one by whom God would save his people from their
sins believing that Jesus is the Christ the son of God and
in believing you might have life through his name this is it have
life through his name. Do you have that life that Jesus
speaks of? Is it your possession? Is the
Spirit of God, as we were looking in Romans 8 earlier, witnessing
with your spirit that you are the children of God, that I am
one of the children of God? Is that happening? Do you have
this life that he speaks of? Or do you long for the peace
that comes with knowing that you have eternal life in God's
Son? Well, how do you have it? If
you do, how is it that you have that knowledge of eternal life?
It comes, firstly, by the will of God. The will of God. This is absolutely clear. This
salvation and having this eternal life is by the will of God. John 1, we read it very often,
I'll read it again, verses 12 and 13. This is Jesus, to them gave he
power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on
his name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. John 5, 21,
for as the father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them,
quickeneth means makes alive, even so the son quickens, quickeneth,
makes alive, who does he make alive? those whom he wills to. Those who who wills to. Those who he wills to. Those are the ones that he makes
alive. It comes by the will of God. If you have this eternal
life that God talks about, that God promises, if you do it's
because of the will of God. And only because of the will
of God. Secondly, it comes by the word of God. the Word of
God. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. It's by the foolishness of preaching
that it pleased God to save those who believe. How shall they hear
except God sends a preacher? How shall they preach unless
they are sent with the message from God? I'm not talking about
people who stand up with oratory and spout religious nonsense.
I'm talking about people sent by God. to preach the gospel
of God, the gospel of the grace of God. And it's by grace that
you are saved, says Paul to the Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 8.
By grace, only by the will, the sovereign will of God, the love
of God, the grace of God. By grace are you saved, through
faith. That's how you apprehend it.
And that, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. It comes
by the word of God. First, it comes by the will of
God. Then it comes by the word of God. And then it comes by
the work of God. For there must be a work of God. There must be. There is no salvation
without a work of God. There cannot be. It isn't just
that, oh, he's decided to, how does he save? How can God continue
to be just and yet still justify the ungodly? How does he do that?
There must be a work of God to save his people from their sins.
He must come and ransom those who are under the curse of the
law, who are in bondage under the curse of the law. He must
come and pay redemption's price. And Christ came, and was made
a curse for us. Cursed is everyone that does
not continue in all things written in the book of the law to do
them. That's you and me, every minute, all the time. That's
us, under the just condemnation of God. We cannot stand before
God. We cannot have any hope of this
eternal life that he's speaking about. Our just condemnation
is written there. But, Christ, bless God for this,
Christ has redeemed us He's paid the price. He's bought us back
from the curse of the law. How did he do it? He did a work.
He was made a curse for us. In that garden where he was loaded
with the sins of his people on the cross of Calvary. You know,
he sweat drops of blood at the prospect of what was about to
happen. Father, if it be your will, let this cup pass from
me. If it's possible, let this cup
pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
yours be done. and on the cross that sin was
loaded upon him. He bore the sins of his people,
we read, in his own body on the tree, that he might ransom from
the curse of the law. And then in time he comes for
all those that he ransomed in time at the cross of Calvary,
he comes and regenerates by his Holy Spirit. who come and make
alive to see and give the Spirit of God and the new birth that
there might be a new man in that fallen corrupt flesh that sees
the things of the Spirit of God and rejoices in them. But that's
not the end of it. Those of us that are still here
now, that's not the end of it because the work of God is not
finished until he brings us to glory. to sinless perfection,
transformed in resurrection, that because Christ was raised
from the dead in newness of life, never to die again, because He
was as the first fruits, we, His people, will be raised like
Him and will be taken. to that situation which we call
heaven, which we call glory, and this is what Revelation 21
verse 4 says about it, and God shall wipe away all tears from
their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow,
nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain for the former
things, all the sin is passed away. That's it. It comes by
the will of God, by the word of God, by the work of God. But how do we know that he has
the power to do these things? If you believe, you know by faith. You know, that's how you believe
that God created the world. It's not by science alone. I'm not saying creation contradicts
science, not in the slightest. but it's not by science that
you know that God created the worlds Hebrews 11 tells us it's
by faith that we understand these things and by faith you believe
a literal resurrection you know all the religious folks today
that are talking about the resurrection the vast majority of them do
not believe in a literal resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ They
don't believe that. They talk about the spirit of
the thing. They talk about the lessons behind
it being the important thing. It doesn't really matter whether
you literally believe it or not. But by faith you believe a literal
resurrection. You know that he is alive forevermore. You know that because he lives,
you will live also. But what about those who saw
his earthly ministry and heard his words? Those that then were
not believing? Maybe you, today, who are not
believing. It was his miracles that showed
his power. They authenticated the words that he spoke. His
power over sickness. His power over death. His power
of raising from the dead. And following the miracle that
we saw last week in the first ten verses of Luke chapter seven,
the healing of the centurion's servant that servant who was
close to death but he healed him and he didn't even go and
touch him he didn't even go near him he just said a word and that
centurion had known all along this was the promised one who
would come and the very next day he goes to a place not far
away the city of Nain so let's just read verses 11 down to 18
the account of this miracle And it came to pass, the day after,
that he went into a city called Nain, 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. And when the Lord saw her, he
had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not, And he came
and touched the buyer. 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. And there came a fear on all,
and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen
up among us. and that God hath visited his
people. And this rumor of him went forth throughout all Judea
and throughout all the region round about. And the disciples
of John showed him all of these things. What we see here is a
tragic scene. This is the city of Nain, a small
town I guess, a few miles from Capernaum. You can look it up
on your Bible maps later. And as they come to the city,
the day after this healing of the centurion's servant, coming
out of the city is a funeral procession. A funeral procession. Just like we see today, except
not with motor horses. They were carrying a coffin.
There was a funeral procession. Death is all around us. As I
said earlier, it's the wages of sin. I once heard somebody
say that the first three letters of funeral are fun. trying to
make light of it. I tell you. A funeral is not
fun. All funerals are sad. Many are
tragic. Some are especially tragic. Here was one that was especially
tragic, this funeral. Here was a man that was carried
out dead, a dead man carried out. And verse 14, he was a young
man, because Jesus said to him, young man I say unto thee arise.
He was a young man. And not only that, he was the
only son of his mother. the only son of his mother. And
she was a widow. Her husband was dead and gone.
And now her only son was gone. Her only support, there was no
welfare state then. Her only means of material support
was taken away. She was entirely at the mercy
of her neighbors to help her. She was entirely at the mercy
of the Jewish legal system to support her. No welfare state. Her only son taken away from
her. What a tragic, tragic situation. What a tragic state sin has brought
this mother to. Her only son, her only means
of support, dead. Why? Because of sin. Because
of sin all around us. All of the pain and the loss.
All of the fear for the future that there must have been. This
was a particularly tragic scene. All funerals are tragic, but
here is one that was particularly tragic. And this is as a result
of sin. And we need to realize, all of
us need to realize, that this is where sin has left all of
us in relation to eternity. You may feel as though you're
absolutely in the prime of life with everything ahead of you.
Can I tell you that like this funeral procession coming out
here, you're all on your own funeral procession now. We're
all marching towards that day when it will be you or me in
that coffin. going to that crematorium or
that graveyard. That's the truth. Let anybody
stand up and tell me that I'm wrong. You can't. Nobody can. It's absolutely true. Even now,
you are in your own funeral procession. What a tragic scene sin has wrought
amongst us. But look at verse 13. When the
Lord saw her, when Jesus saw her, I use the name Jesus deliberately
because this is the man Christ Jesus. This is the Son of God
clothed in human flesh. This is the man, Jesus, Joshua,
God saves. This is the Savior walking the
earth. When the Lord saw her, he had
compassion on her. He had compassion. What a comfort.
Does that not strike you? What a comforting thing this
is. This is God in human flesh. What do we know about God in
relation to sin? God hates sin. What does the
scripture say? God is angry with the wicked
every day. Who are the wicked? Those who
disobey the law of God, transgressors of the law of God. God hates
sin. We read of God being of purer
eyes than to behold iniquity, yet God became flesh and walked
among us in the likeness of sinful flesh. He who is of purer eyes
than to behold iniquity became flesh that he might walk among
us. He cannot look upon sin without feeling that it must
be punished. He justly punishes sin. He must
condemn it. He cannot overlook it. We read
that he will by no means clear the guilty yet. In his son, our
God has compassion on sinners. Here's a scene which is the result
of sin. And when the Lord saw her, he
had compassion on her. Not specifically the sin of this
widow or this young, but the sin of the human race, just as
we are by nature. When he looked upon her, he had
compassion on her. This is the God who so loved
the world, as we read in John 3.16. that he gave his only begotten
son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but
have everlasting life. God so loved a mixed race world. A mixed race world, because what
that verse is doing is not talking about everybody that ever lived,
it's talking about a mixed, people from every tribe and tongue and
kindred, as the elect is described in Revelation. But they're sinners,
a world of sinners, God so loved a world of sinners, God so had
compassion on a world of sinners, that he did something about it,
he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. He that spared not His
only Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not
with Him? He delivered Him up for us all
to pay the law's ransom price. How shall He not freely with
Him? How shall He not with Him freely give us all things? He's
a God of grace. He's a God of compassion. I tell
you, look at this. Here is a God of compassion.
God must punish sin. I am a sinner. I must be condemned
justly before the law of God. But God is a God of grace and
of mercy. He's a just God, but he's also
a justifying God. He's a God who is able to justify
the ungodly. He's a God who is able to take
away sin and wash away sin and declare righteous those who are
by nature unholy. And it's all of grace. And it's
all of free grace. And as that old hymn says, and
if free grace, why not for me? Why not for me? What does Jesus
say? Come unto me all you who are
elect before the beginning of time. Well, of course, that's
what he's saying, but he doesn't say that to searching sinners.
He says, come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden,
under a burden of sin, and I will give you rest. And I will give
you rest. So he has compassion. And he
said to her, weep not. End of verse 13. Here we see
him intruding into this funeral. There's a funeral coming out
and he looks at this tragic situation and he knows all things. He knows
the details. He knows that this is the only
son of a widow. He looks at this tragic scene and he has compassion
on her. In his sovereign grace he has
compassion on her and he intrudes into that funeral. He says to
her, weep not. We often see in comedy and drama,
people make an issue of that point in the wedding service,
where, you know, when they're asked, does anybody know of any
lawful cause why this man and this woman should not be joined
together in holy matrimony? And, you know, the number of
comedy writers that have made a thing of it, where somebody
jumps up unexpectedly, because it's the thing you never expect
to hear. and says, yes, I do, that man's been married before,
and then they turn around and they go, oh, whoops, sorry, wrong
wedding, and then scurry off out of the church. You know,
they try and make light of that. You don't do that with a funeral.
You don't interrupt a funeral. You know, if you, I mean, even
all but the most insensitive, when they see a funeral procession
today, they're cautious. You know, if it's a dual carriageway
you might overtake it in your car gently, but mostly people
that have got some feelings and some sensitivity don't go roaring
by and making a great fuss about the funeral procession getting
in their way. They have care and concern and sensitivity about
these things. It's a shocking thing to interrupt
a funeral. Here are sad, fragile people
in a moment of grief, in a moment of deepest sorrow. It's so insensitive
to interrupt it. But our Lord Jesus Christ stepped
in to that situation and interrupted it. And of all the funerals that
day, and there would have been many throughout the land, there
would have been funerals all the time, but of all the funerals
that day, Jesus sovereignly interrupted this one. You know, like we read
about a certain centurion, and we read that again and again.
In his sovereign grace, he sovereignly interrupted this funeral. This
widow, this funeral procession, they weren't seeking Jesus. They
weren't like the centurion, who, as soon as he heard, knew. See,
he was seeking. He knew. He knew the scriptures.
He knew. But this widow wasn't. She wasn't, we don't read of
her seeking, or the funeral procession, they weren't seeking Jesus. And
he didn't ask them, did they want to let him interfere? No,
he just sovereignly stepped in. We read Ezekiel 16, verse 6 says
this, This is God speaking of his people in their sin and how
he saved them. And when I passed by thee, I
saw thee polluted in thine own blood. It's a picture of sin.
I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, live, live. justifying the ungodly. Yea,
I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, live. Thy time
was the time of love. This is of grace. I covered thy
nakedness. He clothes his people with the
righteousness of Christ. I washed thee with water. He
washes our sins away in the blood of Christ. Yea, I throughly washed
away thy blood from thee. This is the cleansing of the
precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I anointed thee with
oil. I clothed thee. I put jewels
and a crown upon thee. As Isaiah 65 verse 1 says, God
via the prophet says this, I am sought of them that ask not for
me. I am found of them that sought
me not. This widow woman wasn't seeking
Jesus, but she found him. I am found of them that sought
me not. Have you been seeking him? or
have you known the truth that as we sometimes singing that
hymn he moved my soul to seek him seeking me where these people were in this
funeral procession jesus stopped them he stopped the procession a dramatic thing to do a sovereign
intrusion he stopped the procession and he said weep not don't cry
i remember When I was a teenager, my grandad died, my mum's dad,
and my mum was very upset. And, you know, there was a lot
of weeping going on when her dad died. And I remember saying
to my mum, don't cry, mum. But, you know, that was just
empty words, wasn't it? I mean, you know, I was sincere,
I meant it, I really felt for her in her sorrow, but I had
no power to change anything about the situation for which she was
weeping. I couldn't bring him back to life. I couldn't stop
the fact that he died. I couldn't do anything to ease
the pain and the sorrow that she felt in her loss. I said,
don't cry mom, weep not. But I had no power to do anything
about it. I had no power to remove the
cause of her crying. But Jesus Christ could say it
because he had power to take away the cause of the weeping.
He had power in just a word, just a word. They all stop the
procession. Weep not. Weep not. Why? Why not? Why shouldn't she weep?
He says, young man. He comes to the buyer, the coffin.
He comes, verse 14. And they that bear him stood
still. The whole thing stopped. And he said, young man, I say
unto thee, arise. Just in a word. He had power
just in a word over a dead man. Do you believe that's possible?
Oh, no, I couldn't possibly believe that. Oh, no, no, no, not, not
raising the dead. No, I couldn't believe that.
Hebrews chapter one and verse three, the son of God, the eternal
son of God upholds all things by the word of his power. it's
not does he have the power to do this one thing he has the
power to uphold all it's only because of his word now that
the laws of physics hold everything in place. The laws of physics
are his word. He spoke it. He holds it together. He holds the planets in their
orbits, the galaxies in their place. He holds all things together. He holds this earth together
as it is. He holds the molecules together
that are in the legs of the chair that you're sitting on now. He
upholds all things by the word of his power. Is it too much
for him to say to this young man dead, young man, I say to
you, to you, arise? just in a word. The Son has life
in Himself. He is the light of life. He is
the Word of God, the Word that speaks, and His Word makes every
living cell. You know, we're hoping for some
spring soon. Winter's maintaining its grip
here, but we're hoping for some spring where we see everything
burst forth into life. And it's his word that makes
every living cell. It's his word that makes the
dead seed germinate. It's his word that gives life
in conception and birth. He has the words of eternal life,
as Peter said to him. He and he alone. He upholds all
things by the word of his power. And when he commands the dead
to rise, They're unable to stay dead. He has power in a word. He has the power to give eternal
life. And this man was brought back
to live the rest of his life. He was brought back to life.
He sat up and began to speak. And they all saw it. And it was
genuinely true. He was brought back to life to
live the rest of his life. Like the other two raisings from
the dead that we see amongst the miracles. There's another
one in chapter 8 of Luke. Jairus' daughter was raised from
the dead. And then in John chapter 11,
there's Lazarus who was raised from the dead when Jesus said,
I am the resurrection and the life. But they were raised from
the dead only to die again, a mortal death, because they were raised,
they were resuscitated, if you like, from a condition of death
to continue their life in this flesh, only to die again. It was demonstrating that Jesus
has the power over death and over life. And it was a stunning
transformation from death to life. but it was illustrating
the fact that he has power over eternal life so it is with eternal
life he gives eternal life the one who spoke and that corpse
and this doesn't happen all the time does it? Whoever has heard
of it, apart from the miracles of Christ, whoever has heard
of it, apart from occasionally with the prophets like Elijah
raising the widow's son, whoever has heard of it, it is such a
rare thing. It's all in the purposes of God,
but it illustrates this, that what he says is true. He has
the power of eternal life. power in a word. I say to you,
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, that God hath visited his people. And this rumor of
him went forth throughout all Judea, and throughout all the
region round about. And the disciples of John showed
him of all these things. What was the reaction of the
people? The reaction of those that saw
it? There was a fear came upon all. There was a fear. Something remarkable has happened. They couldn't refute it. You
say, oh, I don't believe what the scriptures say about the
miracles. These are irrefutable miracles. There were enough people
there for it to be easy to refute it if there was any suggestion
that it hadn't happened. But they couldn't refute it.
They witnessed it. Plenty of people saw it. But
how has it happened? How has it happened? It doesn't
happen. How has it happened? It must be God's work. Oh, how
does God work? Well, we've read in the past
of God doing things by Elijah and Elisha and these other great
prophets. Without doubt, Jesus is a great
prophet. And that's as far as they went,
it would seem, most of them. Here is a great prophet, not
the great prophet. Not like the centurion that we
saw last week. His reaction to hearing of Jesus,
ah, this is the one. Apart from the healing of his
own servant, he believed when he just heard what Jesus had
done. He knew here was the promised
Redeemer. Here was the promised Messiah. Here was the One. Here
is God who is able to do all things. He was a believer. He
knew the truth. What is your reaction to this?
It might be one of these things. Perhaps it's unbelief. You know,
we live in such an unbelieving generation. I'm not saying that
in the past everyone was a believer, not at all. But we live in a
generation which is so unbelieving. It's at the very core of our
educational system. Unbelief, along with the rest
of this unbelieving generation, You know, they try to rationalize
absolutely everything. Everything that we see can be
explained just by the application of scientific law. No, it can't. That's what they like to think,
but no, it can't. No, it can't. Or perhaps you're
not quite in that camp of unbelief, along with the rest of this unbelieving
generation. Perhaps there's a bit of impression
that there's something more that can't be easily dismissed, and
I'm sure there's some truth in it, but it's not for me just
now. I've got so many other things to do. So many other fish to
fry, as they say. I'll get back to this later when
I'm a bit older. No, I don't want to have anything
to do with that now. Maybe, maybe, God speaking, and you're shocked
to discover when you read things like this, that in Christ alone
is the power of eternal life, that in Christ alone, I better
take notice of this, you're finding yourself perhaps inclined to
believe the testimony of Psalm 2. Do you know what it says?
He says, Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings of the earth. Be instructed,
ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and
rejoice with trembling. Listen. Kiss the sun, lest he
be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled
but a little. Blessed are all they that put
their trust in him. This is the one, this king, this
son of whom that psalm spoke is this one who saw this funeral,
who sovereignly intruded, who had power in a word to give eternal
life. He alone has the power of eternal
life.