...speak, and I broke down.
I set my mother at her for confidence
and assurance.
Well, my mother was crying, and it just
broke my heart.
So I sat down.
The other end of the pew sat an
old gotter.
And he stood up and said, Young man,
there's a sign beginning, and from that day
until this.
A special time of remembrance and honor to
God, Dr. W.A. Criswell.
A great loss for the world, but we're
so pleased that we still have Dr. Criswell.
And he held high the eternal flame of
the truthfulness and authority of God's word.
I just preached incessantly on the infallibility and
the inerrancy and the inspiration of every syllable
of the word of God in the Bible.
Dr. W.A. Criswell.
And I feel that the preacher will stay
true to the inspiration of the word.
That so many problems that you face in
the social world will solve themselves.
Now, let's join the service live from the
First Baptist Church in town Dallas.
First Baptist
Church in downtown Dallas.
This is where adults,
dignitaries, seminary, Criswell College personnel, choir, orchestra, all
to give honor to long time pastor, pastor
emeritus, Dr. W.A. Criswell.
The family will be entering shortly, and we'll
be here just to simply make sure that
you know who is speaking.
As we step through this historic service and
allow you to be a part of the
legacy of a man who loved the Lord
deeply, served him faithfully through all these years.
We will begin our service of worship, remembrance,
and celebration by joining our voices to sing
hymn 521.
On Jordan's stormy banks I stand, I am
bound for the promised land.
This is our hope and our confidence in
Jesus Christ.
Hymn 521, standing together to our family and
to worship the Lord Jesus Christ.
On Jordan's stormy banks I stand,
I am bound for
the promised land.
It's an honor to a great man of
God, Dr. W.A. Criswell.
The great loss of the world, but we're
so pleased that we still have Dr. Criswell's
legacy.
He held high the truthfulness and authority of
God's word.
I just preach on the infallibility and the
inerration of every syllable of the word of
God in the Bible, Dr. W.A. Criswell.
And I feel that if the preacher will
stay true to the inspiration of the holy
word, that so many of those problems that
you face in the social world will solve
themselves.
Now, let's join the survivors from the First
Baptist Church in downtown Dallas.
Many in this auditorium, which is filled to
capacity, have been here for many years.
Adults, dignitaries, seminary, Criswell College personnel, choir, orchestra.
I want to give honor to longtime pastor,
pastor emeritus, Dr. W.A. Criswell.
His family will be entering shortly and we'll
be here just to simply make sure that
you know who is speaking as we step
through this historic service and allow you to
be a part of the legacy of a
man who loved the Lord deeply, served him
faithfully through all these years.
We will begin our service of worship, remembrance,
and celebration by joining our voices to sing
Hymn 521.
On Jordan's stormy banks I stand, I am
bound for the promised land.
This is our hope and our confidence in
Jesus Christ.
Hymn 521, standing together to honor the family
and to worship the Lord Jesus Christ.
Hymn
521
On behalf of
the family and the great congregation of the
First Baptist Church of Dallas, I want to
welcome all of you here.
And as is our custom week by week,
those of you who can, I'd like for
you to kneel with us as we go
before the Lord in prayer.
Our Heavenly Father, your
church is today not in defeat, but in
the celebration of victory.
As we come this day to glorify the
Lord Jesus Christ and to honor the life,
the mission, the message, and the man, W
.A. Criswell.
Father, it's in these moments we pray your
spirit be real in our midst to bring
comfort to the family and comfort to a
grieving church.
As we think back, Father, how as a
10-year-old came to give his life
to you, that all he longed to do
was to have a church on the corner
in the heart of the city.
And from that simple desire, you took a
man and used him around the world to
shape this planet for the cause of Jesus
Christ.
We come, Father, to honor you.
We come to worship, and we come, Father,
not as those who have no hope, but
we come, Lord Jesus, knowing exactly where the
pastor is, safe in the arms of Jesus.
Use this hour, O God, to reach the
hearts of those who've yet to believe, so
that as able, even though dead, yet he
speaks.
For we pray it all in the name
of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen.
You may be seated.
Dr. Mack Brunson, current senior pastor of the
First Baptist Church, leading us in our invocation.
The Bible says, Grace you have received through
faith, and that is not of ourselves.
It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest anyone should boast.
As we worship together, we thank God for
his amazing grace.
Hymn 330, join us as we sing together
the first, second, third, and then the last
stanza of amazing grace.
Hymn 330.
Dr. Rick
Wells, president of the Crystal College, now speaking.
Milestones, memories.
The great fourth century bishop, Athanasius, has come
down to us in church history as the
father of orthodoxy.
One church historian writes that he almost single
-handedly rescued the church from the pagan intellectualism
of his age.
By all accounts, Athanasius died in January.
And many years it was a custom in
the eastern churches to celebrate his homegoing on
January 18th, which is Almighty.
Athanasius was a scholar of the First Bank.
He was a marvelous writer.
He was a matchless statesman.
He was a very skilled and tireless administrator.
But above all else, Athanasius was a great
pastor and a great preacher.
And from his pulpit in Alexandria, he rescued
the church.
On one of those occasions when the homegoing
of Athanasius was celebrated, on one of those
January 18ths, another of the church fathers named
Gregory, who was known to us as Gregory
Nazianzen, preached a funeral oration, a panegyric, on
Athanasius.
I can imagine, inasmuch as this took place
in Constantinople, I can well imagine that the
scene there was, in many ways, like the
scene here today.
Constantinople, the great imperial city, throngs of people
in that great church to hear the bishop
of Constantinople preach an oration on the great
Athanasius.
And the emperor would have been there and
the empress would have been there, but the
church also would have been filled with deacons
and with statesmen and other dignitaries and with
merchants, shopkeepers, and business people, just like today.
Just as here in this great sanctuary and
in other parts of this church facility, in
other parts of our city, hundreds and thousands
are here to give, um, honor is due.
And in doing that, to give glory to
God.
In his funeral oration, which has been recorded
for us, Gregory Nazianzen began this way.
To speak of and to admire fully would
be too long a task for the present
purpose.
And it would be a form of a
history rather than a eulogy.
Someday I want to write one, he said,
that history, but can't do that now.
But he said, we must do what we're
doing for three reasons.
First, we must do it to satisfy the
longings of our own souls.
Second, we must do it because it is
right to give honor to such a one
as Athanasius, as it is right for us
to give honor to such a one as
Wally Amos Crystal.
And third, said Gregory, we must do it
to give testimony to the world.
Before I read some of the milestones and
tributes that have come, milestones of Dr. Crystal's
life and tributes that have come to him,
let me read just one word of Gregory's
about Athanasius and see if it does not
fit today.
He was brought up from the first in
religious habits and practices.
But he also studied literature and philosophy so
that he might not be utterly unskilled in
such subjects or ignorant of matters which he
was, however, determined to despise.
For his generous and eager soul could not
brook being occupied in vanities like unskilled athletes
who beat the air instead of their antics.
He did not lose the prize, no.
From meditating on every book of the Old
and New Testament with such a depth as
none else has applied to even a single
book, he grew rich in contemplation, rich in
splendor of life, combining them in wondrous sort
by that golden bond which few can weave.
The fear of the Lord, Gregory preached, is
the beginning of wisdom.
But when wisdom has burst its bonds and
risen up to love, it makes us friends
of God and sons.
Almost everyone in this room knows the basic
facts of Dr. Crystal's life.
He was born on a Sunday morning, a
cold December 19th in 1909 in Eldorado, Oklahoma,
to godly parents.
He went home to be with the Lord,
as is also well known, this last Thursday,
January 10th, in the early hours of the
morning.
At the age of 92, or as he
would be wont to say, in my 93rd
year, he is survived by his wife, Betty,
of course, their daughter, Mabel Ann, and sons,
Chris Crystal and his wife, Rachel, and Paul
Jackson and his wife, Kristen, and five great
-grandchildren.
As is also well known, he spent his
childhood and adolescence in the Texas Panhandle.
He was licensed to preach by First Baptist
Church Amarillo Church on July 27th, 1927, almost
three-quarters of a century ago, gospel.
He always said that he always felt called
to preach.
In his autobiography, he says, I hardly remember
a day in my childhood or my youth
when I did not feel called to preach.
He just wanted to be a preacher and
a pastor of God's people.
He attended Baylor University during those Depression years.
He was graduated in 1931.
On to the mother of our seminary, Southern
Baptist Theological Seminary.
He was graduated with a Master of Theology
in 1934.
He was a scholar.
He completed a Ph.D. under Hersey Davis
in 1919 and wrote a dissertation on John
the Baptist.
While he was in seminary, he was pastor
of several churches, and at one of those,
there was a pianist named Betty Davis.
They were married on Valentine's Day, 1935, in
the chapel of the seminary.
Almost 67 years.
Following his doctoral studies, he went on to
pastorates at Chickasha, Oklahoma, where their daughter, Mabel
Ann, was born, and to Muskogee, Oklahoma.
Then, following the 47-year ministry of Dr.
George Truitt here in this great church, on
September 27, 1944, he was called by this
great church to be its pastor.
We've always celebrated, for all these years since,
the first Sunday of October as the beginning
of ministry here, which stretched for more than
half a century.
You know, there are many similarities between Constantinople
and Gregory and that oration to Athanasius, but
there is one great difference, and that is
that almost everyone who is here today, who
is listening to the sound of my voice
in one of our remote locations, worshiping together,
almost everybody here knew him personally, and he
touched your life in some personal way.
So all of you, offer your own tribute.
I, myself, am a Christian because of Dr.
Crystal.
I was a lost pastor.
And I came to the School of the
Prophets, Dr. Patterson, and I sat right up
there in that balcony, right there.
Dr. Crystal stood right here, and he preached
on the assurance of salvation.
He told about standing before the gates of
heaven, and the Lord asked you, by what
right do you enter my heaven?
What would you say?
And I had no answer.
And as Dr. Crystal would like to say,
the balcony round down, one of the stairwells,
and the press of people on this lower
floor, a couple of you, a family of
you, or just one somebody you come.
And that's how I became a Christian.
Maybe it was that wonderful visit you ever
had in his study before you were baptized,
after having completed that little booklet, joining the
church, or maybe it was just putting his
hand on your head if you were under
me and saying, lad, maybe
you were somewhere hopeless and listening on the
radio and heard him preach the unsearchable riches
of Christ.
This is what you've been looking for all
your life.
You could all offer your tributes.
We can't possibly include them all, but here's
some from family and friends.
From Ann, anyone who knows me knows my
deep love for my father and mother.
The funny and humorous times and the many
personal ones we had.
But the most important and most gratifying of
my life was the moment Jack Pogue and
I founded the Crystal Legacy.
What better thing could we do than to
watch my parents' life work to millions of
people every day?
He studied every morning of the week, preparing
his sermon for us all.
At dinner every Saturday night, he said to
us, I have it in my head.
Now I must get it in my soul.
Jack and I will continue his legacy until
God comes.
From Chris Criswell, Mom did most all the
work in rearing me from a baby.
She made family life possible for Dad to
do what God called him and chose him
to do.
For her, it was a handful.
But even though he was so busy, he
made time for me.
Every Saturday morning, we would walk nine holes
of golf at Lakewood Country Club.
Parenthetically, we never rode the cart because the
one time we did, he turned it on
its side and threw the golf clubs all
over the fairway.
He could never figure out the point in
chasing a little white ball around, so for
him it was just exercise and being with
me.
Then we would come home and have homemade
pancakes.
He would take me to church afterwards, to
the numerous weddings and funerals he did every
Saturday.
Then to the YMCA and home late in
the day.
He was as often as possible at the
breakfast and dinner table and would pray with
me at night going to bed.
He was always available for me.
The effort he put into the lives of
people is amazing to me.
His positive attitude and never give up are
one of the greatest attributes of his.
A plane crash in the Amazon couldn't slow
him down.
A fainting spell wouldn't keep him from finishing
a wedding from a folding chair.
A pastor that tried to destroy this great
church didn't stop him.
Even sickness and illness couldn't bring him down,
at least until God told him it was
time to go early last Thursday morning.
Every single conversation we had when I would
call from Virginia was, we're coming up, we're
coming up.
Never a hint of negative words or defeat.
Dad couldn't do a lot of things.
He never could sing or carry a tune,
but he is singing with the angels now.
He was never the athletic sort, but he
is talking to the sports heroes now.
Being a Southern Baptist preacher, he could never
dance.
But he is dancing his way down the
streets of gold.
But what Dad could do, he did better
than almost anybody.
He preached about heaven, and he has already
met St. Peter and entered through those pearly
gates.
He knew church history, and he is talking
to Luther, Truett, Calvin, and I know for
sure that he is having a blast with
Spurgeon.
He knew the Word of God, and he
is surrounded by Moses, Abraham, David, Paul, and
John.
Dad loved to evangelize, and he is visiting
with people from the Amazon jungle to Alaska,
from Israel to England.
He loved the people here, and he is
talking to all the members of our families
who have gone on before us to where
he is now.
How much he loved the people, and how
happy he is now with them.
Above all else, Dad loved to preach and
write, and he preached, and he preached, and
he preached, and he wrote, and he wrote,
and he wrote 54 books.
And then he built, and he built, and
he built, and after that he expanded, and
he expanded, and he expanded.
You want to know where Dad is right
now, right this very second, I'll tell you.
On his own planet, standing behind a pulpit
with a chair behind him, organ and piano
and musical instruments surrounding him, and people seated
in the pews, and standing in the aisles,
he is shouting and preaching at the top
of his lungs, and the choir is singing
with the musicians playing to the majesty of
God.
Can you see that?
He will all be there one day.
He's preaching God's word, and while among us
he preached hell, fire, and brimstone, he is
now preaching about only one thing, the glory
of God.
He is giving glory to God for the
great things he has done.
He is giving glory to Jesus for the
great things he has done, and he is
giving glory to the Holy Spirit for the
great things he has done.
Can you imagine it, being at this place?
Oh, what a place.
We will all share one day with Dad.
And it goes on and on and on
and on and on and on forever.
What fulfillment and what a future for Dad
and for all of us.
My hope is that while we remain here
for a little while, until Dad calls us
to be with him, we remember the words
spoken by my Dad through those 50 years,
and memorialize these words here at First Baptist
Church Dallas in some way.
Words that by the Great Commission we are
all obligated to remember.
From that balcony round to this lower floor,
down one of these stairwells, down one of
these aisles, a family you, a couple you,
a one somebody you, on the first note
of the first stanza come, while we stand
and while we sing.
Words can never express my love and unending
appreciation for Jack Pogue and all that he
has done for Dad over so many years.
Thanks also to all those who helped out
over the years, the doctors, the nurses, everyone.
Goodbye, Dad.
I love you and I will miss you,
but I know you are where you want
to be, where you have always dreamed of
and preached of.
I will come to see you soon.
Your son, Chris Crystal.
And from Paul, a tribute to Papa.
I am to this day amazed by Papa's
calm demeanor in our family.
While the rest of us would bicker and
struggle over some small issue, Papa does praise
God and move on.
I wish I could look beyond the little
things more often like he could.
Over the years he gave me advice and
instruction, but if there were only one message
he would have me remember and pass on,
it would be to always have faith in
God and pray continually.
That instruction has not failed me.
I will truly miss him, but I celebrate
his eternal life with Jesus.
And then quoting this from 1 Thessalonians, Be
joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all
circumstances, for this is God's will for you
in Christ Jesus.
And this from Jack Pogue.
Looking back at Dr. Crystal's ministry and life,
I think of the 71st psalm where the
psalmist writes, But I will hope continually and
will praise you yet more and more.
My mouth shall tell of your righteousness and
your salvation all the day, for I do
not know their limits.
I will go on in the strength of
the Lord God, in the attention of your
righteousness, of yours only.
O God, you have taught my youth, and
to this day I declare your wondrous works.
Now also, when I am old and gray
-headed, O God, do not forsake me until
I declare your strength to this generation, your
power to everyone who is to come.
These are some of Dr. Crystal's messages in
his life.
All he ever wanted to do was lay
down his soul for Jesus.
His message was simple and life-changing.
You are saved by the grace of God
through faith in Jesus.
Look!
Look to Jesus and be saved.
Anybody can look.
A little boy or a little girl can
look.
A teenager can look.
An old man or an old woman can
look.
Anybody and everybody can look.
Just simply look.
Look to Jesus and live, for why should
you die?
That was the heart and soul of all
his message.
In sleep, Dr. Crystal was totally committed to
the Lord God during the many, many months
that he was ill.
He would often talk in his sleep, and
one night he preached an entire sermon.
Other times he would talk about Jesus, about
revivals, about church gatherings and congregations.
He would give invitations to accept Jesus as
Lord and Savior.
Once he said to an unnamed person, When
I give the invitation, God is going to
give us a big harvest.
We have to be ready.
Whether awake or asleep, he had his eyes
on Jesus and his cross.
The pastor was the kindest man I have
ever known.
He loved everyone, and he always, always had
something kind to say.
He would always say to me, I am
praying for you, son.
He had a wonderful and kind face.
As you looked into his face, you could
sense the Holy Spirit of the Lord.
Dr. Crystal was a man full of faith
and the Holy Spirit.
He had a life-changing impact on everybody
he met.
His hunger for the Scriptures gave us a
hunger for the Scriptures.
His looking to Jesus encouraged us to look
to Jesus.
His devoting himself to the work of the
Lord encouraged us to work for the Lord.
And above all, his preaching that the Bible
is the inerrant word of God gave us
the assurance that the Bible is the literal
word of God without error and that we
can trust our lives, our souls, and our
destiny to the Christ of that gospel.
Thank you, dear God in heaven, for such
a devoted and loving measure who had a
heart full of love for you and for
us.
Preacher, I love you with all my heart
and soul, and I thank you for living
your life in a way that is an
example of how God wants me to live
my life.
Because of what Jesus has done for us,
I will see you again someday in heaven.
At that time, we will be together for
all eternity.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for so great a
salvation, and thank you, Heavenly Father, for putting
Dr. Crystal in my life and for the
impact he had on me.
A long time family friend, Dr. James Simple.
Dr. Crystal was endowed with a remarkable gift.
He possessed a brilliant intellect, a pastor's heart,
the fire of an evangelist, and the preaching
skills of an orator.
He was a missionary in zeal and compassionate
in heart.
He was equally at home in the halls
of learning, dressed in academic regalia, or in
a children's Sunday school class, dressed as a
cowboy.
He was never aloof from his people, and
each person was made to feel important in
his presence.
He moved with ease among the rich and
famous, but he never lost the common touch.
Any small favor he received was rewarded with
a personal note of appreciation.
We shall miss him, and we are not
likely to see one like him again.
Mr. Billy Graham wanted so very much to
be here and simply could not, but in
his stead, bringing a closing tribute from Mr.
Graham and representing him, Mr. Cliff Arrows and
his wife, Ann.
So Cliff, we invite you, and then I'll
have a closing word.
Thank you, Doctor.
I'm indeed honored and privileged and greatly humbled
to be able to say a word of
appreciation and tribute from Billy and the Billy
Graham Association to the family and to this
great church.
Dr. Crystal was his pastor, and he always
referred to him as his pastor.
And a very special way to have done
so was well.
And he is so sorry that he couldn't
be here today, but I'm delighted to share
this word from him.
And Mrs. Crystal asked that I read this
letter which he wrote to her.
Dear Betty, The Lord called W.A. home
at the right time.
As the Scripture teaches, there is a time
to be born and a time to die.
We know that his soul is alive in
the presence of Jesus.
Of all the people I have known, I
believe he was one of the great Christians
of the 20th century.
God used him in a remarkable way.
Even though I had not seen him in
a long time, I already miss him.
The Lord has used you too, Betty, in
a wonderful way, not only as his wife,
but as an example to others and the
wonderful thing for so many years.
Next time I come to Dallas, I hope
to come and see you with the ideal
of Christian affection, Billy.
And then to this church family, He would
add, It is almost impossible to evaluate the
life and ministry of W.A. Criswell.
He had a multiplicity of gifts.
He had one of the most loving hearts
ever known.
His devotion to Scripture inspired thousands of young
clergy from many denominations.
His preaching was electric in its power.
He was anointed by the Holy Spirit in
an unusual way.
His counsel and love to me meant more
than he ever knew.
I have many memories of our times together.
In recent years, I did not see him
often, but the memory of years past had
a spiritual impact on me.
Dr. W.A. Criswell will be greatly missed.
Our loss is heaven's gain.
And I would just say that for those
of us on the team, and the older
ones, Bev Shea is 93 in two weeks
and will be in his 94th year.
And Billy is already in his 84th year.
And I'm the youngest of the three.
But I'm so grateful that he touched our
lives and will continue to touch our lives.
We feel this is our home as well.
And we just want to assure you, the
precious family, and all of us on the
team of our love, and as we hope
to come back to this city in just
a few months, the memory and the love
and the encouragement that Dr. Criswell always gave
to Billy, always.
The encouragement that he gave to me as
I met with him on several occasions.
His gracious word, his gracious spirit, his love
for the Lord will be a great inspiration
to us.
And the word that I would leave with
you from him and from Bev Shea and
myself is found in the words of King
David to his son Solomon just before he
passed away.
He was concerning the building of the hospital.
And in 1 Chronicles 2820, the word to
the family, the word to the church, to
the college, to all that will be represented
is this.
Be strong and courageous.
Do the work.
Don't be fearful or discouraged by the size
of the task.
For Yahweh God, my God, is with you.
He will not fail you or forsake you.
For he it is that will see to
it that all the work is finished correctly.
So be strong and courageous.
Could we have just a word of prayer
together?
Precious Father, how we thank you for your
word from which we get our greatest strength
and courage and faith.
And we thank you for the tributes that
have been given, that will be given, the
words that will be shared.
Thank you most of all from the promise
of your word.
Be strong.
Be not dismayed.
You are our God and we will follow
you.
So we need not fear.
We can trust you and we commit our
way to you.
Bless this precious family and this precious church
family, we pray.
And our hearts as we continue to worship,
to celebrate the man we have loved all
these years, but most of all to celebrate
the resurrection of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ.
For it is in his wonderful name we
pray.
Amen.
We'll hear a voice of Cliff Barrows for
the Billy Graham team.
As it was said of the great Bishop
Athanasius, we say of our great pastor, In
him true wisdom burst its bonds and rose
to love.
Thanks be to God.
Coming now to sing is Dan Beam, longtime
staff member with Dr. Criswell and beloved soloist
in our church.
Oh, what is
well with my soul.
It is with my
soul I sing.
Coming to speak now, Dr. Robert Jeffress, who's
the senior pastor of Spadma's Church of Wichita
Falls, talking on the leadership of Dr. Criswell.
Mrs. Criswell asked me to speak today on
the subject of Dr. Criswell and his role
as pastor and puppeteer in this local congregation
here.
And it is such an honor to be
able to do that.
The explosive growth of this church under Dr.
Criswell's ministry is a matter of public record.
You have it contained in that beautiful program
in your hands.
And so today, if your permission, I would
like to speak from a more personal perspective
about Dr. Criswell's ministry.
God in his graciousness allowed me to view
the pastor's ministry during the 46 years of
my life from three very distinct vantage points.
For the first 30 years of my life,
Dr. Criswell was my pastor.
When I was five years old, he knelt
with me in his office right across the
street and led me to faith.
When I was seven, he baptized me.
When I was 15 and felt God's call
to the ministry, Dr. Criswell counseled me.
Later, he presided over our wedding ceremony, my
ordination service.
He conducted the funeral services for my parents.
He has been my pastor, and I will
forever appreciate the way he so faithfully pastored
me and my family.
But then, Dr. Criswell gave me the privilege
of serving on staff here for seven years
as minister to youth, and I had the
opportunity to see Dr. Criswell's genius and his
dedication as a pastor from a completely different
perspective.
He often said to me, he said, Now,
son, someday you're going to have a staff,
and if you want to know how to
run a staff, you watch what I do.
Watch it carefully.
Observe everything I do, and then do just
the opposite, and you'll be a success.
Oh, he sold himself short.
He was a tremendous church builder.
And then for these last 17 years, he's
been a fellow pastor, a friend, and a
confidant to me.
I say without Criswellian hyperbole, anything and everything
I've learned about being a pastor, I learned
from Dr. W.A. Criswell.
And today, in the very few moments, I'd
like to share with you just three lessons
I've learned from watching Dr. Criswell over six
years.
The first lesson he taught me by his
word and by his example was, creatures' only
message is the Bible.
Time Magazine, years ago, described Dr. Criswell as
a country preacher with a PhD.
Remember that?
Dr. Criswell's life and ministry reminded all of
us that you don't have to commit intellectual
suicide to believe the Bible.
He believed the Bible.
He believed every word of it was feos
nustos.
Remember, Paige, you'd say that so often when
we hear feos nustos, God breathed.
When I was a student in college and
sat in those religion classes and listened to
professor after professor talk about the inconsistencies and
the contradictions and the errors in the Bible,
I often thought of Dr. Criswell and what
he had taught me.
A steady diet of that kind of instruction
led many of my students to abandon their
faith.
But because of the strong foundation Dr. Criswell
gave me, I was able to keep the
faith.
And I credit him for that.
I will be eternally grateful to Dr. Criswell
for what he taught me about the Bible.
He believed every word of it.
And he believed that the preacher's task was
not just to preach about the Bible, but
to preach the Bible itself.
One time, Dr. Criswell said, the power of
the preacher lies in his thus saith the
Lord.
When the preacher stands in the pulpit, he
is not to stand up and say thus
saith Einstein or thus saith Dr. Sounding Brass
or thus saith Dr. Dry as Dust.
He is to say thus saith the Lord.
And that's what he did.
He preached the Bible.
Shortly after he came here as pastor, he
announced that he was going to preach through
the Bible from Genesis to the maps.
He was going to preach verse by verse
and chapter by chapter.
Those of you who are long timers here,
you remember that.
People predicted that the pastor would lose his
congregation by doing that.
People wouldn't come and hear the Bible, just
the Bible they predicted.
But during those 17 years and 8 months,
this church exploded.
This great sanctuary could not contain the crowds
that would come Sunday morning and Sunday evening
to hear the Word of God.
And when Dr. Criswell preached the Word of
God, he didn't preach it with the cool
objectivity of a professor.
He preached it with the fiery fervor of
an evangelistic pastor.
When Dr. Criswell was a student at Baylor
University, he preached in various churches.
And early on, he drew some criticism for
his flamboyant speaking style.
And this concerned Dr. Criswell.
So he went to a speech teacher to
ask any suggestions she might have to offer.
And so the speech teacher listened to two
sample sermons.
And when he had finished, that young redheaded
speech teacher dismissed him with her blessings saying,
everyone isn't going to like you, but I
promise you everyone will listen to you.
And how we listened.
He taught us that the Bible was the
preacher's only message.
And Dr. Criswell taught me that the preacher
is to work hard at his job.
He's to work hard.
Dr. Criswell was the most unbalanced person I
have ever known in my life.
He didn't hunt.
He didn't fish.
Except with Chris, he didn't play golf.
Dr. Criswell had no use for small talk.
You seldom found him at the Rotary Club.
By his own admission, he could count on
one the number of close friends that he
had.
Why was that?
He was obsessed with his calling from God.
He took seriously Paul's instructions to Timothy to
pour your life into your ministry.
And he did just that.
Who's ever been a church member here knew
Dr. Criswell's schedule by heart.
From six in the morning until noon, he
spent in the study at the parsonage pouring
over the scriptures.
And then after a light lunch, he would
go and do the work of the church
and visit the hospitals and go exercise at
the YMCA.
By the way, even that was a ministry
in a way.
Mrs. Criswell heard this story from yesterday.
She was coming through town and visited the
church, Dr. Brunson's Sunday night, and she sat
up in the balcony.
And there was a young, attractive woman whom
she described as a yuppie type.
And they were introducing themselves and that young
woman said this, said, my husband and I
moved here from Los Angeles, California.
And the reason we are in this church
is because Dr. Criswell won my husband to
the Lord at the YMCA.
Even in his exercise, he was ministering.
In the evening, he would attend the various
functions of the church and then return back
home to the study for another hour or
two in God's word.
That was Dr. Criswell.
He poured himself into the ministry.
Last Saturday evening, I was going through some
old videotapes of various milestones in my ministry
that Dr. Criswell was a part of.
And I pulled out a tape from over
20 years ago when I was minister of
youth here.
I'd asked Dr. Criswell if I could bring
some of our ministerial students over to tour
his study at the Parsonage and if he
would talk to those students.
And he graciously accepted.
And it was a video of our tour
of his study and the words that he
had to say to those young seminary students.
And Dr. Criswell made a statement that I
will never forget.
He said, the preacher ought to know as
much about his subject, the Bible.
The doctor in the congregation knows about his
subject, medicine.
Or the attorney knows about his subject, the
law.
And that translates into hard work.
Dr. Criswell poured himself into the ministry.
The preacher is to work hard at his
job.
And the lesson I learned from Dr. Criswell
was that the preacher is also a pastor.
Yes, we know Dr. Criswell was a model
puppeteer, a respected theologian, a prolific author.
But first and foremost, he was a pastor
of God's people.
He had sought and he had found the
shepherd's heart.
Even though he spent hours upon hours poring
over the scriptures every day, he also conducted
weddings and funerals.
He also called prospects on Saturday evenings.
He also conducted staff meetings.
He was involved in every facet of the
church's organizational life.
The same Dr. Criswell that might be parsing
Greek verbs and might also be putting on
a Batman or an Easter Bunny costume in
the afternoon to go to children's camp.
We all know the story about one Sunday
school teacher in this church in the children's
division who was talking to her students and
she asked a little boy, when were you
saved?
And the little boy replied, when Dr. Criswell
was a rabbit.
He was our preacher, but he was also
our pastor.
I realize that in the sanctuary today or
maybe watching in a satellite location or perhaps
at home on television, there may be many
of you who may not have known Dr.
Criswell personally only from a distance or touched
by him through his sermons or through his
books.
But there's a great throng of us here
today in satellite locations who were personally touched
by Dr. Criswell.
Maybe he married you.
Maybe he counseled you or your children when
they were saved, baptized you.
Maybe he spoke an uplifting word to you
when you were down.
Maybe he sent you a note of encouragement
in that inimitable scrawl of his that he
would send to you.
But in some way, he touched your life
personally.
Whether you're here today in this sanctuary or
you're in one of the satellite locations, if
Dr. Criswell touched your life personally as a
way of expressing your gratitude to him, would
you just stand wherever you are?
Yes, I was touched personally by Dr. Criswell's
ministry.
Mrs. Criswell and Chris Paul, I want you
to look around as if you could see
the lasting legacy of Dr. W.A. Criswell.
You be seated.
Dr. Criswell often asks this rhetorical question.
You've heard it a hundred times from this
pulpit.
He used to say, why is it that
we are not judged by God the moment
that we die?
And he replied by saying, because our influence
doesn't cease when we die.
Like a rock in the middle of a
pond, a person's influence radiates ripples upon ripples
of influence for the generations to come.
I'm convinced that Dr. Criswell's influence in this
church, in this world, will be felt for
the generations to come because he invested his
life in God's Word in the hearts of
God's people.
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the
Word of our God shall stand forever.
God bless you forever, my mentor, father in
the ministry, my pastor, Dr. Criswell.
Dr. Robert Jeffords speaking and now coming, Dr.
Paige Patterson, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
I'm profoundly honored today that the family has
asked me to speak of Dr. Criswell's vision,
the pastor's vision.
In the Old Testament, one of the words
used to describe a prophet was that word
kose, which meant seer.
The wicked king Ammon said to the prophets
in chapter 7 and verse 12, Don't prophesy
anymore here, O seer, but go to Judah
and prophesy there.
So prophesiers, to whom God gave great visions,
that certainly qualifies our pastor as belonging to
the genre great prophets of old.
He was a man and is a man
of remarkable vision.
May I simply remind you of that which
you also know concerning some of that vision.
The early years of his ministry here were,
of course, associated with the building of the
church.
But by the late 1950s and early 1960s,
keenest of his literaries began to flow from
his pen.
In 1957, for example, fearing young people growing
up in the churches were being convinced that
Darwinism was not just a theory, but an
actual fact.
From his pen came Did Man, just sermons
delivered right here in this very pulpit.
The next year, 1958, five great questions of
those was, If a man dies, shall he
live again?
He began by noting that the warrior was
buried with his armor and the American Indian
with his bow and arrow, testifying to the
universal confidence in life after death.
He closed the message by citing that same
Job who asked the question, If a man
dies, shall he live again?
I know that my Redeemer liveth, and on
the latter day shall stand upon this earth.
And though the worms destroy this flesh, yet
I myself shall see the Lord.
And it was in that confidence and that
vision that he worked all the days of
his life.
From 1962 until 1966, five volumes on the
Apocalypse, on the book of Revelation, without a
single doubt, the greatest testimony in the history
of Christianity to preached sermon series in the
book of Revelation rolled from the pastor's desk
at Swiss Avenue.
And then in 1969, and who could ever
forget it, there was the book, Why I
Preach That The Bible Is Literally True.
So cognizant was he of the growing disbelief
that reigned in so many areas, and so
aware was he of the downgrade controversy that
had sparked much of the activity of the
one that he so honored, Charles Adams Spurgeon,
that the future of any denomination lay squarely
in its confidence and word, Why I Preach
That The Bible Is Literally True.
But then the Bible wouldn't save you, and
so in that very same year, actually the
next year, 1969, there came a moment that
none of us here could ever forget.
I was standing way up there because I
couldn't get a seat.
It was New Year's Eve.
It was Sunday night, New Year's Eve.
To cite him and remember it, some of
my little old ladies say that they could
listen to me preach all night.
So he said, we will begin 7.30
a.m., and we will preach all night,
preaching in the New Year.
Finally at 11.30, somebody left, and I
got a chair.
But there were very few available.
I preached that famous sermon that was later
put into print, The Scarlet Thread of Redemption,
from Genesis all the way to Revelation.
And then in 1979, sensing that there needed
to be an answer to many of the
problem texts of the Bible, Dr. Criswell published
the Criswell Study Bible.
And in 1980, Criswell's Guidebook for Pastors, so
that pastors coming after him might have a
map and a compass to take them through
the way.
Then he came to the 1970s, and in
those years of the 70s, they were the
years of expansion to worldwide ministry.
In 1971, Criswell Institute, now Criswell College, was
begun right here on these premises.
And Dr. Criswell had a vision for reaching
that pastor who committed his life to the
ministry during life and had never had to
go to seminary.
That same year of 1971, the Criswell Foundation
was begun so that it would be possible
for him to leave everything he had to
the work of God through this Criswell Foundation.
In 1972, fearing for the education that many
young people were receiving, he began the First
Baptist Academy.
In 1973, the first meeting of the School
of the Prophets right here in this great
auditorium as he expanded his ministry to pastors
all across the face of the globe.
In 1970, the radio station KCBI gave him
an opportunity to preach to people at 3
o'clock in the morning.
You say, what good did it do?
I received a call one day from a
woman who said, would you please give Dr.
Criswell a message for me?
I said, I will.
She said, I can never sleep.
I can never sleep.
And so she said, I was struggling last
night at 3 a.m. and I happened
to tune in KCBI and I heard his
sermon.
And she said, I responded to his invitation.
I received Christ as my Savior.
She was one year old and I never
knew what I was missing.
She said, as soon as Jesus came into
my life, I went to sleep and slept
for the first time in many months.
She said, would you just tell him thank
you?
And I certainly did.
The Dallas Life Foundation permitted me to minister
to those who were homeless began in 1990.
He not only had a vision for the
church, he also had a vision for the
country.
Do you remember when, in the midst of
the Cold War, and it seemed as though
our nation were about to compromise with Marxism
around the world before the days of President
Reagan, even he preached that famine, death, end
to taunt, warning legislatures everywhere, don't compromise with
unbelief.
That pamphlet made its way to the halls
of Congress.
I have seen it myself in the office
of more than one senator.
It made it all the way to the
Oval Office and, as a matter of fact,
became the Reagan plan to set our country
back in a place of strength.
He had a vision for the nation.
Would you ever forget 1985 over here in
the Convention Center when that unbelievable sermon was
delivered, whether we live or whether we die?
I tell you, the 45,000 who were
stuffed in that place last night will never
forget it as long as they live.
He had a vision for the world, and
the world vision was to reach people for
Christ.
I have in my hand some of that
handwritten scrawl that you have spoken of, and
with the help of the gift of interpretation
of tongues, I shall read you what he
wrote.
This is written in 1990, and it is
my vision for Criswell College.
I want you to hear this.
Number one, it is to be dedicated to
the inerrancy, fallibility, inspiration, and authority of Holy
Scripture.
Truth without error.
But this is the part I want you
to really hear.
Number two, it is to be a school
built for glory of God, to magnify the
Lord Jesus and his mission and meaning to
the world, and especially for the saving of
the lost.
This above all else, the saving of the
lost.
It never happened very many times, but one
or two times I saw it when he
stood there, and no one came to Christ
in the invitation.
The most forlorn look I think I've ever
seen on a man's face.
He lived to see men have faith in
Jesus Christ.
And then I would just like to say
one final thing about his vision.
He had a vision always to be a
teacher of preachers.
Hence the school, hence the way that he
walked with all of us day in and
day out.
And so very, very much from him.
I remember the day when he called me
into the office, and I sat down expecting
some learned discourse, and he said, Lad, take
off your shoe.
I said, excuse me?
He said, take off your shoe.
I'm a man under authority, and I believe
in pastoral authority, and so I...
He said, turn it over.
I turned it over.
He said, look at it very carefully.
Examined it very carefully.
He said, is there anything about the bottom
of your shoe that commends itself to your
soul?
He said, is there any aesthetic value to
it?
I had no idea what the word meant,
but I could tell that the way the
question was asked, he meant there was not.
And so I said, no, pastor, there isn't.
He said, then you will remember next time
don't wash your feet when you're on the
platform.
Out at our airport in Chicago, we got
separated.
I could see him trying to find me
because I had his bag.
And as he looked around, I said, over
here, doc, see, it's me.
And he shouted back across the den, it
is not me, it is I.
I got it right.
Oh, my God.
Four hundred people looked at me and thought
to say, are you crazy that you can't
understand a thing like that?
He taught me about the providence of God.
As you know, on the platform, we were
given very serious instructions.
Everybody keeps his feet on the floor.
Everybody keeps his coat buttoned.
Everybody kneels to pray.
We've seen the congregation for very apparent aesthetic
reasons.
And everybody uses a hymn book when we
sing.
And everybody opens the Bible when we preach.
And everybody gives an offering when the plates
are passed.
And whoever is on the end takes it
up from the platform.
So, in the preacher's prayer room one morning,
he said to me, lad, I got off
without any money.
He said, borrow something from you to give.
I took my billfold out, having forgotten that
it was one of those rare I actually
did have cash on me.
I had two crisp one hundred dollar bills
in my fold.
He peered over my shoulder when I opened
the billfold.
As I looked at those two one hundred
bills, I heard a deep voice say, lad,
you see the gracious providences of God.
He said, there is one for you and
there is one for me.
I thought maybe I wouldn't give mine.
He gave his, and then the man on
the end came and stood before me.
And Dr. C turned and looked at me
until I gave the other one.
He taught me about the providences of God.
But in concluding, let me tell you that
he taught me about storms.
He was greatly agitated one day, I suppose,
I hate to admit it.
I went in to see him about something
and it was a storm in my life
at the moment.
And he said, lad, you're all worked up.
That was fairly obvious.
I said, well, pastor, who wouldn't be?
He said, I wouldn't be.
Now he said, I want you to listen
to me, son.
He said, all your life you'll be in
a storm.
Any faithful preacher of the word of God
will spend his life in a storm of
some kind.
You can't do anything about that.
All you can be certain of is that
you remain personally in the center of God's
will.
Now he said, if you'll remain right in
the center of God, then he said, hunker
down in the old ship of Zion and
ride out the storm and enjoy the amazing
tender providences of God as you go through
the storm.
And you know, I saw him do it
at time and time and time again.
He taught me about storms and on the
night of the 10th he sailed into the
roughest seas ever sailed.
And while he was making his way through
those rough seas, Jack Pogue's voice was the
last he ever heard as Jack read, Let
not be troubled, you who believe in God,
believe also in me.
In my Father's house are many mansions, and
if it were not so, I would have
told you.
I go to prepare a place for you,
and if I go to prepare a place,
I will come again and receive you to
myself, that where I am there you may
be also.
And somewhere there along the line, Mr. Pogue's
voice receded into the background, and I'm absolutely
convinced that he heard a deeper voice that
said, Be still, and the sea stopped its
raging, and then he heard a voice say,
Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter
in to the glory of the Lord.
Thank you, Pastor, for many things, but most
of all for teaching me to ride through
the storm.
Oswald Chambers, the most widely read devotionalist of
the last several generations, once said that giants
dwindle into ordinary men when you really get
to know them.
But Oswald Chambers never met W.A. Criswell.
He was a giant among us.
He was an inspiration.
I speak for all the preachers who are
here, multiplied thousands, who are not here, but
who look to him as that standard bearer.
And let those who one day may be
prone to rewrite history and seek to temper
his influence, let them know that what Charles
had in Spurgeon was to the downgrade controversy
of 19th century England.
He was much more to 20th century American
critique.
Many will remember him in various ways, a
photo or a Bible, a baptism, a letter,
a sermon, a touch.
I'll remember him in his pajamas on Saturday
evenings when I would go by Swiss Avenue
and he would be back in his study
and I would go in and share with
him what I was preaching the next morning
here in this sacred desk and we would
talk and kneel at that sofa that was
there every Saturday.
He'd put his hands on my head and
pray for me.
I'm commissioned to speak of his influence this
morning.
Influence.
That word comes from Latin.
Inflow is what it really means.
The word picture is that of two rivers.
Two rivers merging together.
One a mighty force, a mighty river.
The other a smaller stream and as they
merge, the smaller tributaries caught up and carried
away in the swift current of the mighty
river.
And so when we speak of someone influencing
us, what I'm really saying is that we
have been caught up in their flow.
We have all been caught up in his
flow.
Why was his influence so great?
He was not the source of the river
and would be quickly to remind us all
that that source was the Lord Jesus Christ
himself.
His river just seemed to have a deeper
channel than ours.
It flowed so clear.
Its water was so pure.
His river was so deep.
And we're all influenced by his love and
by his life and we are here today
because we've all been in his flow and
that's his influence.
And so I say, flow, river flow.
Flood the nations with grace and mercy.
Send forth your word, Lord.
And let there be light.
As we think about his influence, we realize
that really, W.A. Criswell was our apostle
Paul.
Like Paul, he brought an intellectual pursuit that
was coupled with a passionate pastor's heart.
When we preach, we aspire to learn the
languages of the Bible.
When we heard him so naturally expound the
Greek for over a half a century from
this pulpit, he stretched us to move beyond
simple sermons or modern motivational preaching where we
just took a scripture and lost the time.
To preach the word of God.
Paul may have left us half of our
new...
but W.A. Criswell left us a passionate
love for it.
And anyone's life has merged with his, has
been caught up in his flow.
He influenced us to stand upon the word
of God.
Yes, he is our Paul.
Dr. C., we are caught up forever in
your flow.
Dr. Criswell was our Caleb when I became
the pastor of this church.
He was already in his 80s.
Like Caleb, who was at age 85 in
scripture, Dr. Criswell was still looking for a
new mountain to climb.
He was still looking for that mountain where
the grapes of Esau and Western honey flow.
Anyone whose life had merged was caught up
in the flow of fresh new challenges and
fresh new innovations.
Yes, he will have been.
Dr. Criswell, we're caught up in your flow.
As we go from this place today, we'll
not be weary in well-doing.
For like you, in due season, we'll reap
if we faint not.
He influenced us.
W.A. Criswell was our David.
King David led Israel, the Bible says, with
the integrity of his heart and the skillfulness
of his hands.
And if there are two things that distinguish
and characterize the ministry of W.A. Criswell,
it was the integrity of his heart and
the skillfulness of his hands.
I've known preachers who had a tremendous amount
of intellect but little integrity and are no
longer in the race.
I've known others with a tremendous amount of
intensity and passion and could move congregations but
who had little integrity and are no longer
in the race.
I've known others with a keen amount of
insight and discernment but little integrity and are
no longer in the race.
He was our David.
He led us with the integrity of his
heart and the skillfulness of his hands like
David led us with the value of relationships.
He loved his family and he loved his
friends.
In fact, he loved everyone.
He had his souls in life but it
never entered his mind that anyone would have
an evil thought of him.
David and Jonathan had such a relationship.
Their hearts were knitted together and would, to
God, every preacher have a son like Jonathan,
like Jack Pogue, whose hearts were knitted together
in ministry.
Dr. Criswell, we're caught up in your role
and influenced by your life.
Dr. Criswell was our Barnabas.
Like Barnabas, he was a constant encourager.
Years ago, 25, 30 years preaching in First
Baptist Church of Richmond, Virginia.
And after the service, he went to one
of the associate pastors there.
And as they were eating, the associate pastor
revealed to him that they were fellow students
at Southern Seminary in Louisville decades earlier.
He said, Dr. Criswell, I've never told you
this, but I was discouraged.
I'd given up.
I was quitting.
I went into my dorm room and I
packed my bag early on that morning and
I packed all of my clothes and I
had everything in my suitcase and just as
I closed the latch to leave the seminary
and leave the ministry, I heard a booming
voice.
And I went to my window and I
looked out in that morning sun and there
in Mullins in the courtyard, you were standing
there by yourself with your hands reached to
heaven singing, It pays to serve Jesus.
It pays every day.
It pays every step of the way, though
the pathway to glory may sometimes be drear,
be happy each step of the way.
He said, I went back to that bed
and knelt at that bed and rededicated my
life to God and unpacked my suitcase and
have been in ministry ever since.
He was our boss.
Every one of us have a testimony.
Dr. Smith, we're caught up in your flow.
Flow, river, flow.
W.A. Criswell was our John on the
Island of Pats.
Talk about influence.
No one influenced Christian pre-millennial thought more
in the 20th century than W.A. Criswell.
Like John exiled on Patmos, also over 90
years of age, the preacher loved his glorious
appearing.
He thought about it.
He thought he would be caught up together
in the rapture.
He thought he'd be caught up together to
meet the Lord in the air.
He loved the Lord's appearing.
John may have written about the apocalypse, but
no single person who ever lived loved our
Lord's coming and looked to our Lord's coming
more than our pastor.
He was our John on the Island of
Pats.
He leaves us with a renewed passion for
our blessed hope.
W.A. Criswell, we're caught up low today.
He had two heroes in ministry.
He was with them.
W.A. Criswell was our Chrysostom.
John Chrysostom of Antioch in Syria was the
great patriarch of Constantinople.
He was called Golden Mouth.
His oratorical excellence was known throughout the whole
world and has been kept alive by church
historians down through the centuries.
And not since Chrysostom, his hero, has there
been a hero known worldwide for his pulpit
prowl.
This is W.A. Criswell.
Like this hero of his, we have the
printed word.
Like the hero Spurgeon, we have his 54
books.
But when we come to read the books
of these great heroes of the past, it's
linear.
And we can't tell where Chrysostom, that great
creature, inflected a text.
Or we can't hear the passion in his
voice.
But for the first time in church history,
we now have, thanks to the Criswell Foundation,
W.A. Criswell dot com.
Anywhere, all over this world, can enter the
World Wide Web at W.A. Criswell dot
com and not just read his text but
sit there on that video stream and hear
the passion in his voice.
Hear the unction that is within him as
he preaches the Word of God.
On the day that he died, on Thursday,
it began to be spread throughout the world.
57,000 people visited that website.
Yes, Dr. Criswell, you are our Chrysostom.
And we caught up in your flow as
your influence leads all.
And finally, W.A. Criswell was our Spurgeon.
Like his world-renowned hero and mentor of
the 19th century London, Dr. Criswell was a
church with no peer.
Like Spurgeon, he has left us a college.
Like Spurgeon, he has influenced the world.
One of the first people that contacted me
on Thursday morning after his death and had
already heard about it was our mutual dear
friend in Israel, Zali Jaffe.
Dr. Criswell loved Israel and was greatly loved
by the people of Israel.
In fact, on one of our last visits
together to Israel, Zali Jaffe took us to
see Yitzhak Rabin, Dr. Criswell's last visit.
Rabin was the Prime Minister of Israel, that
great old crusty war general.
It was just a few weeks before he
was assassinated.
And Dr. Criswell and I sat in Rabin's
office and we walked in and it was
a bit tense at first.
I remember seeing him just whole big and
calloused.
And as we sat down, Dr. Criswell leaned
over and patted Prime Minister Rabin on the
hand and said, Now sweet boy, I want
to tell you why we're here.
And Yitzhak Rabin crumbled in his hand.
And Dr. Criswell went on to expound to
him his love and the promises of God
concerning his covenant people.
He was influential all over the world.
I know our United States Senator, Kay Bailey
Hutchison, is here today.
He loves you, Senator.
Every time I would come back from Washington,
he'd want to know what that pretty girl
is working on up there in Washington.
Spurgeon, Dr. Criswell left us a great church.
Mack Brunson, God's man.
In God's place, at God's time, the
mighty river of W.A. Criswell's influence flows
now into the 21st century.
I look around this auditorium today and I
see the leaders of the greatest missionary sending
denomination in all of world history.
Every one of us could testify today that
he is our standard bearer.
That we are everyone caught up in his
flow.
Morris Chapman, our leader.
I remember Morris when Dr. Criswell nominated you
at his conference.
Richard Land, our man in Washington.
Jimmy Draper, he's out of the country and
couldn't be here today.
Vines, former president of the convention.
Dr. Jack Graham, he rejoiced at all the
success God has given you in this city.
Seminary presidents.
Dr. Moeller, president of his alma mater, Southern.
And I'm so thankful W.A. Criswell lived
to see what God is doing.
James Merritt, president of the Southern Baptist Convention
is here this morning.
James, I want the whole world to know
how much he loved you.
And was so proud of you.
And him in these last days meant so
much to him.
Paige Patterson was his boy and we're all
caught up in his flow.
And today over 13,000 students are in
our 6th Southern Baptist Seminary.
Caught up in his flow.
You know a lot of people talk about
women in ministry today.
But he valued women in ministry decades ago.
He built this church with the likes of
Libby Reynolds and women.
While people are talking about how important it
is today he's been doing it for decades.
Dr. Dorothy Patterson is here today.
Southeastern Seminary, the fastest growing seminary in the
world.
What many people do not know is that
out of all those thousands of students at
Southeastern today 439 of them are women.
Dr. Dorothy Patterson is caught up in that
flow as she leads them.
There are more women at Southeastern Seminary today
enrolled than in any non-SBC Baptist seminary
in the entire world.
We're all caught up in his flow.
Yes, he's our Spurgeon and so much more.
Last Thursday he slipped into the presence of
the Lord he loves so much.
He preached about that moment often and always
with a childlike wonder.
Years ago in a sermon from 2 Kings
in his indelible way let me just close
words.
He put it like this.
Think of that ultimate day when God says
it is enough and he needs to appear
before the judgment seat of Christ.
Where is my hope?
Speculation of modern theology and theism will not
do.
Let me hear again the old text.
Let me sing again the old psalm.
Let me trust my soul in the same
Lord.
The lyric in Miller from God.
There's a fountain filled with blood drawn from
Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunge beneath that flood
lose all their guilty stains.
The dying thief rejoiced the fountain in his
day and there may I though vile as
he wash all my sins away.
He continued and when that day comes and
we enter into his presence the trumpet sounds
and there are the patriarchs Abraham and I
see no one Isaac and Jacob but I'm
not one of them.
There are the prophets of the Old Testament
Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel but I'm not
one of them.
There go the sweet Israel David and Esau
and the sons of Korah but I'm not
one of them.
There go the glorious apostles of the New
Testament Peter, James and John and Philip and
Nathanael but I'm not one of them.
There go the martyrs of Christ Stephen, Ignatius,
Paul and Anarola Tyndale, Hus but I'm not
one of them.
And then a great mulch no man can
number These These are they who washed their
robes and made them white in the blood
of the Lamb Therefore they are before the
throne and shall worship and serve him day
and night I belong to that great throne
of the redeemed Wash and be clean Trust
and be saved Look and live Where is
W.A. Criswell?
Not here but this is the house he
lived in.
He is that great multitude which no one
can number He lived for this moment He
preached for this moment It is his mission
day and we would not hold him back
if we could He is now a part
of that great multitude not on his own
merits as worthy and noble as they were
but because of our Savior's blood And in
the words of his favorite hymn Dear dying
Lamb Thy precious blood shall never lose its
power Till all the ransomed church of God
Be saved to sin no more I'm so
thankful that years ago My little stream Merged
into his river And I came under his
influence And went up in his flow Thank
you preacher For leading us With the integrity
of your heart And the skillfulness of your
hands We'll always love you We're caught up
in your flow And we'll carry on With
a prayer in our hearts And abide in
our prayer I'm
so thankful
that years ago And I came under his
influence And
went up in his flow Thank you preacher
For leading us With the integrity of your
heart And the
skillfulness
of your hands of the great George W
Truett and you'd better believe there ain't no
one in the world that's up to that.
God has his ways my father exclaimed and
I tell you that boy is going to
be the greatest successor any great pastor ever
had.
How come you're so sure asked the old
timer because that boy is my son.
Father replied leaning forward gesturing to make his
point with a razor still in his hand.
Anything you say said the old timer but
I don't think I'm today.
When W.A. Criswell drove into Dallas no
one had an idea not the committee that
called him not the church that called him
not the denomination that he would serve not
his family and least of all W.A.
Criswell had no idea what God would do
in his life and through his ministry in
this place.
It reminds me of an old testament prophet
who appeared in the ninth century just out
of nowhere maybe from Oklahoma we know he
just appeared out of nowhere and there he
was his name was Elijah whose name means
my God is Jehovah and Elijah's name became
synonymous in Israel with the word and the
power of God just as W.A. Criswell's
name in the 20th century became synonymous with
the word and the power of God.
In fact when you look at these two
men Elijah in the old testament W.A.
Criswell in our day you come to understand
that in rare moments of human history God
anoints a man to a special task and
I want to show you something in just
the next few moments.
Dr. Patterson up in my office asked me
what I was going to preach on what
text my text this morning is 1st and
2nd Kings.
God first of all for a defender of
the faith.
Now you read this in 1st Kings 17
verse 1 Venetia Elijah the Tishbite who was
of the settlers of Gilead said to Ahab
as the Lord the God of Israel lives
before whom I stand surely there shall be
neither dew nor rain these years except by
my word.
Elijah just showed up he was there he
just appeared evidently according right before Ahab as
R.G. Lee would say he was the
toad that squatted on the throne of Israel
and Jezebel was the adder that coiled up
beside him it was a petticoat government.
He had the throne but she was the
fat.
He had the position but she was the
power.
He was wicked during the days of solemn.
There was introduced into Israel idolatry through all
of the many wives that he had married
but at no time did the nation come
down to as dark a moment as it
did under the rule of Ahab and it
was Elijah who appeared like a meteor streaking
across the inky black darkness of the spiritual
night of Israel and he came with this
word he came and he said as the
Lord the God of Israel lived.
He testifies who the true God is in
a nation that has forgotten God it needs
a man who is a defender of the
faith to stand and say there is but
one God and it is Jehovah God.
He not only testifies but let me tell
you what else he does he comes to
the place not only identifies who God is
but he testifies his place about his place
before God said before whom I stand.
I want to tell you something when you
get so carried away with who God is
you'll be less impressed with everybody else and
God needed a man in ninth century Israel
who was not impressed with everybody else but
would to stand before God and God alone.
That's exactly exactly what God did in the
nation.
He reached down and he picked up a
man who was willing to stand listen before
a deit or denomination before kings or council
before popes or potentates and say this is
the word of God.
W.
A.
Criswell was the great defender of the faith.
He would say with Charles Haddon Spurgeon since
God wrote it mark its truthfulness.
Come search ye critics and find a flaw.
Examine it from Genesis to Revelation and find
an error.
This is a pure vein of gold unalloyed
by quartz or any earthly substance.
This is a star without speck a sun
without blot without darkness moon without paleness glory
without dimness.
Bible it cannot be said of any other
book that it is perfect and pure.
We of thee can declare that all wisdom
is gathered in thee and without a pull
of folly.
This is the judge that ends the strife
where reason fails.
This is the book unattained by any error.
Pure unalloyed perfect truth.
Why?
Because God wrote it.
I charge God with error ease.
Tell him that his book is not what
it ought to be.
Blessed Bible thou art truth.
When God needed a defender in our day
he reached down and anointed W.
A.
Criswell to be that defender.
God looks for a defender of the faith.
He also looks for a man and calls
a man who will stretch himself out in
a straight.
When you come to the life of Elijah
rarely do you ever think about the tender
side of the prophet Elijah and ministry of
him appearing for Ahab.
We think of him falling down fire on
Mount Carmel.
We think of him being carried up and
went into heaven and into the presence of
God.
But rarely do we think about the tender
side of ministry.
But do you remember when he goes, when
Elijah in first Kings chapter 17 goes to
Seraphath and there the widow has a little
boy, a lad as Dr. Criswell would say,
who died.
And one of the most tender verses in
all the Old Testament and certainly in the
life of Elijah is this.
And he said to her, give me your
son.
Then he took him from her bosom and
kept to the upper room where he was
living and laid him out on his bed.
You remember what the great prophet did?
He stretched himself out on the boy.
And you may not understand that unless you're
a preacher.
Because when it comes to ministry, there are
days when it feels like somebody has just
given the life out of you.
You give and you give and you give
for a man who is willing to stretch
himself out for others and give his life
to a lost world in ministry.
That was W.A. Criswell.
And you know, the interesting thing is what
is it about a man's heart that makes
him so willing to stretch himself out and
just give and give and give to the
man himself thinks there is nothing he can't
give.
I want to tell you a story that
Mabel Ann told my wife Susie the other
day.
It'll give you a little insight into the
heart of the preacher.
Just a couple of years ago, Dr. Criswell
found what he thought was a great treasure.
He had gone shopping at Sam Moons.
Now that is not the most discriminating antique
in the earth.
But he went in there and found two
Chinese urns for about $4.99 each.
And he was convinced he had found the
treasure and wanted it for Mrs. Criswell's Christmas
or birthday.
And he wanted her to put it up
on the both of them.
So he brought them and he was so
excited.
Mabel Ann over and he showed him that
Mabel Ann was saying that, look, this isn't
quite what you think it is.
This isn't nearly the treasure.
And he said, no, no, this is a
treasure.
I found this.
And he said, I want you to wrap
it up.
And she'd wrap it up and put it
up away.
And then he'd call her and say, come
bring it to me.
Let me in.
And he looked at it and he thought
this was a great treasure.
And Mabel Ann made an observation that I
think will give you as great an insight
into the man's heart as anything.
And she said this.
She said, Dad was always able to see
treasure in the ordinary.
The way he made you feel.
That whenever you were in his presence, you
walked away and it was not that you
were so impressed with him is that you
were so impressed with how he made you
feel about yourself.
It was the pastor's heart.
God looks for a man who will stretch
out and ministrate for us.
But God also looks for and God calls
a man who is willing to fortify the
truth for the future.
Do you remember in second Kings, that great
chapter, chapter two, Elijah knows that he's going
to die.
And so he begins to make journey from
Gilgal.
He goes to Bethel.
He goes to Jericho and from Jericho across
the Jordan.
Do you remember that it's anything to read
this second chapter of second Kings.
And he is constantly, Elijah is constantly saying
to Elijah, he says, Elijah, please stay here
for the Lord has sent me as to
Bethel or to Jericho or to the Jordan.
Do you remember the words of Elijah as
the Lord lives and as you yourself live,
I will not leave you, Jack, as long
as I read that for the rest of
my life, you were his Elijah.
You were there by his side.
But the interesting thing is what Elijah says
to Elijah on this last leg of the
journey.
He comes to him and he says, ask
what I shall do for you before I'm
taken from you.
Now, let me tell you something.
Men that are dying don't generally think about
themselves, do they?
What he was thinking of was two things.
In each one of those places, Gilgal, Bethel,
Jericho.
Gilgal was the place of beginning for Israel.
Bethel was the place of the altar of
prayer.
Jericho was the place of victory for Israel.
But in each one of those places, scholars
tell us that there was a school of
the prophets there.
And he went and he went back to
fortify those men with the truth.
He went, give them an example.
He went back to show them what it
was to be a man of God.
W.A. Criswell in our day was God's
man to fortify the truth for the future.
Just last night over at Dr. Hawkins' house,
we were looking at the 1998-1999 pastor's
conference down at Dr. Vine's church in Jacksonville,
Florida, First Baptist Church there.
And oh, he was in his element.
Seven to ten thousand preachers in that place,
and he was in his heart with these
preacher boys and just pouring out his life
experiences with them because he wanted to ensure
that the next generation would have a solid
foundation on the word of God.
And it changed lives.
It marked the next generation.
In fact, I've got a letter I want
to just share that was sent to me
just the other day.
This was a letter that was written to
Dr. Criswell earlier this year.
I don't know if you remember me or
not, but I'm the Presbyterian pastor who came
to First Baptist Church in 1954.
Under your ministry, I became a Baptist.
For the past 31 years, I've been working
with Jerry Falwell at Liberty University and Liberty
Baptist Theological Seminary.
Thank you for your faithfulness to teach and
for the word of God.
Thank you for your faithfulness to proclaim the
word of God in truth.
Also, thank you for being filled with the
Spirit and letting the word of the Lord
speak through you to me.
At a time of deep need in my
life, you spoke to me through the word
of God.
I will always be grateful for your life.
Sincerely yours in Christ, Elmer Tate.
He wanted to fortify that next generation.
But you know, God calls a man who
will be obedient until God calls him home.
They make their way down to the Jordan,
which is symbolic of crossing over.
And as I've shared, Elijah looks at Elisha
and he says, for you, and you thoughts
of what Elisha said to him.
He said, I want a double portion of
your spirit.
Dying men don't normally think about themselves.
I shared with the congregation this Sunday morning
that you know what consumes your thought in
life will consume your thoughts.
I believe in death.
You're consumed in life with money and with
material things and with possessions that, let me
tell you something at the, you're going to
think about who's going to get there, hang
all your playthings and do with it what
you know would.
You're loomed with a success.
And at that moment of death, there will
come the harsh reality that no one is
there for you.
But look at the man of God here.
In the moment that he knows he's about
to be taken, up, he thinks, what can
I do for someone else?
And how can I minister to that next
generation?
And so he says to Elisha, ask me
what I can do for you before I
go.
It's amazing to me.
I have prayed not for the position, not
for the fame, not for the power, not
for the popularity, but just to be a
man of God like him.
My last real conversation with the preacher was
two weeks ago.
He was on some medication for the pain.
His mind was clouded just a little, that
great mind that was always so amazingly clear.
I walked into the room and Jack shared
with me, he said, who I am.
Probably did not know the day of the
week or all of those kind of things.
But I walked over to his chair and
it was obvious he did not know who
I was.
But with all the strength and all the
vitality of life, he looked up at me
and took my hand and he said, oh,
are you here for the revival?
And I said, preacher, I pray so.
You see, here was a man in the
last days of his life.
His mind clouded by medication and yet mine
had been so saturated down through the years
with the things of God that on his
heart was the fact that he wanted God
to bring revival to his people.
That was W.A. Criswell.
Now let me ask you something.
Are you ready for the revival?
Is there anybody in this place or listening
to me who's never trusted Jesus Christ as
Lord and Savior?
Is there any one person here who's never
confessed Jesus Christ as your Lord?
What better moment?
What better time?
What better hour?
The Word of God says that today is
the day of salvation and now is the
acceptable time.
And maybe through all that's been said and
through this great life that's been lived out
before us, God is speaking to your heart
at this moment.
You say, what do I need to do
to know his God?
All you need to do is just receive
him.
That's the good news of the gospel.
That in this very moment, your sins can
be lifted and that that weight of guilt
can be lifted.
That you can live with a security that
your future is safe in the hands of
Jesus Christ.
Just by in this moment, just opening up
and saying, Lord Jesus, I invite you into
my life.
I receive you as Lord and Savior.
To as many as received him, to them
gave he the power to become the sons
of God.
You say, but now wait a minute, he
did that but he died.
Oh listen, his crystal blue eyes that twinkled
like the stars in the dark firmament may
be shut in death, but they're closed just
a moment.
That great booming voice that would crescendo and
reverberate around this preaching palace may be silenced
in death, but only briefly.
Those hands that reached out to sinners and
pleaded with people to come to Jesus Christ
may have fallen in death, but let me
tell you something, only for a moment.
Say, how do you know?
I know because of the word of God
and let me tell you something, the grass
may wither and the flower may fail, fade,
but the word of our God will stand
forever and ever and ever.
...by the Church of Dallas and Orchestra.
Celebrations and
prayers are with the family of Dr. Criswell
and the entire family of First Baptist Church
in Dallas.
Thank you for being a part and may
God continue to bless the memory and legacy
of one of his most active servants.
This is Christian Radio.
That's Selah with It Is Will, Adam Myrick
on your Voice for Hope.
It's at 28 on this Wednesday afternoon and
we thank you for joining us for an
afternoon that has been certainly one that will
not be soon forgotten by those of us
that have been a part of this.
You've been enjoying a really a worship service
in a way, remembering the earthly life and
legacy of W.A. Criswell from the Sanctuary
of First Baptist Church.