May we stand while we call upon God's
name and pray.
O thou eternal and ever-blessed God, who
paintest not, neither art weary, and of whose
understanding there is no searching.
Thou who art the creator of heaven and
earth, who doest all things according to the
counsel of thine own will, and who hast
gathered us together on this occasion, confronted again
with the reality of thy word, that it
is appointed unto all men once to die,
and after this the judgment.
We beseech thee, O Lord, that we may
be solemnized than you, remembering that thus we
are, and to thus we must return.
That thou, O Lord, dost fulfill thine own
will and thine own purpose, that none can
stay thy hand, nor say unto thee, What
doest thou?
O Lord, grant us of thy assurance that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to
come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other
creature, will be able to separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord.
And grant that our attention, our thought, may
be focused upon thy revealed will unto us.
We praise and bless thy great name, that
thy word is sufficient for every situation into
which thou dost place us, and that there
is no circumstance for which thy grace is
not sufficient.
May we know, O Lord, in truth, that
Jesus died and rose again, and that those
who sleep through Jesus thou wilt bring with
him.
Do thou bless to us, O Lord, thy
word.
May it be written upon our hearts as
with the point of a diamond, and may
we know that thy word is forever settled
in heaven.
And as thou hast given us such abundant
manifestation of thy faithfulness in the way thou
hast preserved thy servant through the years, in
which thou hast maintained him in faithfulness, and
hast been his guide even unto death, that
thou art the God of the covenant, ordered
in all things and sure.
Grant us, O Lord, thy grace, and bless
us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly
sin Christ Jesus, for his name's sake.
Amen.
Death is always an abnormality, and death is
an evil.
Death brings sadness, and it is always compassed
about with mystery.
It is an abnormality because it was not
the loss of man that he was created.
It is an evil because it is the
wages of sin.
It brings sadness because it separates us from
our loved ones.
And it is mysterious because we know so
little about the unseen beyond.
In the scripture, the shadow falls to a
very large extent upon the world of spirits,
gives us little information respecting the situation and
the activity of those who have gone to
the world of spirits.
But the scripture provides us with enough information
to warn the ungodly and to comfort believers.
Not enough, indeed, to satisfy vain curiosity, but
enough to satisfy faith.
There is nothing that illumines the thick pall
of darkness that falls over the death of
the wicked.
How significant, then, is the word of the
apostle in that passage I read.
Even of others who do not have hope,
there is not one ray of light or
hope to illumine the darkness that enshrouds the
death of unbelievers.
And there is not one ray of light
because neither heaven nor earth or hell knows
of any comfort that can be imparted to
the ungodly in their death.
The broad expanse of eternity opens out before
them without one ray of light or hope.
And we might ask the question very urgently,
is there no light that can be cast
upon the death of the ungodly?
And the answer is absolutely none because heaven
has not provided it.
By way of contrast, how eloquent and significant,
therefore, are the words of the apostle in
that same text.
Ye follow not, even of others who do
not have hope.
Now, he does not say that they do
not follow at all.
Some people think that it is more Christian
and exhibitive of more fortitude not to mourn
at the death of the godly.
It is an unscriptural attitude.
The scripture represents death as the occasion for
mourning.
The silver cord has been loosed and the
golden bowl has been broken and the mourners
go about the street.
Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus even
though he knew that presently he would raise
him to life again, raise him from the
dead.
And yet he wept.
And we read of Stephen that devout men
carried Stephen to his burial and made great
lamentation over him.
Yes, the house of death is quite properly
and necessarily the house of mourning because there
is an abnormality there.
There is an evil there.
There is sadness there.
And after all, there is the shroud of
mystery.
But nevertheless, the apostle does say, ye follow
not, even of others who do not have
hope.
And the thought is that there is light
to illumine the darkness that enshrouds even the
death of the godly.
And why, for what reason?
There are five I shall mention.
First, the sting has been taken out of
death for them.
The sting of death is sin and the
strength of sin is the law.
But the sting has been taken out of
death for the godly because they have been
relieved from the burden of sin's guilt and
from the bondage of sin's power.
And you must remember how significant the words
of the apostle are here.
If we believe that Jesus died and rose
again, them also who sleep through Jesus will
God bring with him.
And the reason why the sting is taken
out of death is just precisely that they
are united to Christ in the virtue of
his death and in the power of his
resurrection.
As he was delivered up for their offenses,
he was raised again for their justification.
The second truth that throws light upon the
death of the godly is that the righteous
sleep through Jesus.
That's the exact word of the apostle here
in this passage.
They sleep through Jesus.
And whether he meant to say it or
not, it is still true that they are
put to sleep through Jesus.
It's a biblical truth.
You know the tenderness, the love, and the
care with which a mother puts her infant
to sleep.
The infant may not want to go to
sleep, but that does not detract in the
least degree from the tenderness and the gentleness
and the love and the care with which
the mother puts the infant to sleep.
And it is just that that is true
in a supereminent degree, on a transcendent plane
with respect to Christ and his people.
It is he who puts them to sleep.
He attends their departure and when their time
has come in accordance with his own appointment
and with his own mediatorial lordship, he puts
them to sleep.
And that's exactly the figure that the scripture
uses with reference to the death of the
godless.
And not only does he put them to
sleep, but they are dead in Christ.
They are asleep in him.
They are not separated from him.
And the body is laid in the tomb.
How beautiful is the word of the Westminster
Catechism.
The souls of believers are after death made
perfect in holiness and do immediately pass into
glory.
And their bodies being still united to Christ
to rest in their grave to the resurrection.
The fifth, the third, truth that shows light
upon the darkness that surrounds the death evil
of the godly and injects hope into it
is that they go to be with Christ
at death.
There's no interval.
To be absent from the body is to
be present with the Lord and present with
the Lord in his exalted glory.
You remember, of course, the story of the
rich man and Lazarus.
We are told that Lazarus was carried as
the angels into Abraham's bosom.
Well, of course, Abraham's bosom is just a
figure.
But the truth is that they are carried
as it were into our Lord's own bosom.
They are carried into the immediate presence of
the Lord that they love.
And oh, what an immediate transformation there is
from the sorrow that surrounds their actual departure
and sometimes between the struggle that attends their
actual departure and their presence, their immediate presence.
The fourth truth is that they will be
glorified with Christ at his glorious appearance.
Now apparently it was that doubt that occasioned
this particular revelatory word of the apostle in
the fourth chapter of the first epistle to
the Thessalonians.
The Thessalonians were concerned that those believers who
had departed this life would not enjoy the
rapture, would not enjoy the glory of Christ's
appearing.
And he writes unto them that they are
not to have any concern in that matter.
The first thing that will happen when Christ
will come in his final consummate glory is
that the dead will be raised and Christ
will descend with a shout with the voice
of the archangel and the comfort of God.
The dead in Christ will rise first.
The corruptible then will have put on incorruption
and the mortal will have put on immortality
and then they will enter in in the
integrity of their reconstituted personality into the fellowship
of Christ's consummated glory.
Have we pondered, my friends, the glory of
this stupendous event?
Then will be brought to pass the saying
that is written death is swallowed up in
victory.
O death, where is thy sting?
O death, where is thy victory?
The last enemy that will be destroyed is
death.
And the fifth and final truth from which
I wish to say a word as that
which injects life and hope into the death
of the godly is that they will always
be with the Lord.
They will be snatched up into the air
to a meeting of the Lord and they
will always be with Him.
That is to say they will never be
separated from the confirmation of Christ's glory.
However much we must emphasize the glory that
belongs to Christ in His exalted face, exalted
far above all principality and power and might
and dominion and every name that is named
in this world and in the world to
come, nevertheless we must never forget that the
confirmation of Christ's glory is yet in the
future when He will come in the clouds
of heaven and He will descend from heaven
with a shout, with the voice of the
archangel and with the trumpet of God.
It is then that He will sit upon
the throne of His glory and then and
only then will be the final fruitage of
Christ's prayer.
Father, I will that they also whom Thou
hast given me be with me where I
am that they may behold my glory which
Thou hast given me.
Think of it, meeting the Lord.
When He will come bodily, physically and gloriously
to meet Him, do our minds, our hearts
gravitate by the irresistible attraction of interest, of
love and of hope towards that glorious event
when Christ will be manifested in His matchless
glory?
I say we can measure the outreach of
our faith, the depth of our love and
the outreach of our hope by the extent
to which we gravitate in our thoughts to
that event when the Lord Himself will be
finally glorified and when the people of God
shall enter into the complete fellowship of Him
in that exalted and final glory.
That is the confident assurance that we have
with respect to our departed friends.
Some of you have lost a husband.
Some of you have lost a father.
Perhaps some children not here present have lost
a grandfather.
Some of you have lost a pastor.
And then all of you, if you only
knew it, have lost a friend.
I have lost the one whom I probably
deemed my dearest friend on earth outside of
my own family.
There was no one on whom I relied
for moral, spiritual and prayerful support as our
dear departed friend.
But oh, however much sadness is connected with
his departure, what a glorious prospect is presented
to us.
What an assurance we have that he is
now in the full enjoyment in his disembodied
spirit of the Lord he loved and that
when Christ will come again a second time
without sin unto salvation, he, with all the
people of God, is awesome, without spot or
wrinkle or any such thing holy and without
blemish.
Let us now stand while we call upon
God's name in prayer and receive the benediction.
O Thou our God, the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus, the Father of mercy
and the God of all comfort, who comforts
us with the consolation of the everlasting gospel,
may we know, O Lord, I knew, the
power of Jesus' resurrection, the fellowship of his
suffering being made conformable unto his death.
And may we indeed be closed as we
are confronted with the sovereignty of Thine apartment,
closed with humility, imbued with true confliction, realizing
that we are confronted anew with the wages
of sin, which is death.
And may we, O Lord, confess our sins.
Blessed forever be Thy great and holy name,
that if we confess our sins, Thou art
faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Enable us, O Lord, to follow in the
footsteps of Him whom we expect shortly to
commit to His last resting place in this
earth.
O grant us that the example of godliness,
the example of faithfulness, the example of love,
of joy, of peace, of longsuffering, of gentleness,
of goodness, of faith, of meekness and of
temperance, which have been so signally manifested in
His faith and in His life, we might
emulate so that we shall follow in the
footsteps of the cross.
That we shall not be discouraged, that we
may remember that Thou art the Lord God
Almighty, that Christ is exalted at the right
hand of power, and that we may lay
hold upon Him who, though He was dead,
is alive again and has the keys of
hell and of death.
Blessed forever be Thy great and holy name,
for the light and the joy, the assurance
that Thou hast given us, that all who
are in the graves will hear His voice
and come forth, those who have done good
unto the resurrection of life and those who
have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.
We pray, O Lord, that the good measure
of comfort, in accordance with Thy holy sovereign
purpose, may be administered unto each one in
this particular situation and on this occasion.
Do Thou strengthen with all might, by Thy
Spirit in the inner man, her who has
been bereaved of a faithful and loving husband.
Do Thou sustain her now and in the
days to come.
And may she more and more know this
presence, that is divine from its salted state,
and who has given all authority in heaven
and in earth.
Out of His wholeness may she receive grace
or grace.
Bless abundantly also all the other members of
His family, and may they know, even though
they have lost a father or a grandfather
or a brother or a friend, that Thou
wouldest, O Lord, give unto each one that
measure of grace that is necessary for sustenance,
for continuance in the faith, for obedience to
Thy word, so that we all may come
in the unity of the faith and of
the knowledge of the Son of God unto
a perfect man and to the measure of
the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Do Thou, O Lord, bless the people who
have been bereaved of their past.
Do Thou grant unto them beauty for eyes,
the oil of joy for morning, the garment
of praise, and give them ever to remember
that the Chief Shepherd is still watching over
His flock and that He will minister according
to His goodness, according to His wisdom unto
them.
O grant, we pray, that the testimony of
truth that hath been borne for these years
in these parts through the faithful ministrations of
Thy servants might be continued and that even
now abundant truth may be shown, that Thou
wouldest graciously grant that the word sown throughout
these years may take root down and spring
forth upward, bringing forth fruit some seven, some
sixty, and some a hundredfold.
And do Thou grant that those who are
careless might be aroused from their indifference.
And now, O Lord, do Thou dismiss us
with Thy blessing.
And may the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and the love of God, and the
communion of the Holy Ghost be with us
all.