This sermon was preached on Sunday
morning, April 17, 1983, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville,
New Jersey. Now will you join your heart
with me in praying that God would be pleased to speak to us from
his word, that he would give grace to his servant to have
the composure necessary to deliver that word and that none of us
will leave this place without having heard the voice of God
to our hearts. Let us pray. Our Father, we bow in your presence,
very conscious that each of us lives on the edge of eternity.
And we pray, O God, that as we reflect upon the truths of your
words so powerfully and eloquently manifested in the life of our
beloved brother, who now looks upon your face with joy, O that
we may know that word coming home to us with power. We pray
for the careless and the indifferent, for the giddy and the flighty,
For those to whom the world to come is but an empty notion,
O may the powers of that world be felt in their hearts this
morning. And for those of us who by your
grace do seek to live in the light of that world, O Lord give
us a sharpened perspective, a clearer vision, a more resolute determination
so to live. there shall be given unto us
an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. Meet with us then in the ministry
of the Word, we pray, through Him who loved us and conquered
death on our behalf, even our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now as Pastor Nichols has already
intimated, we do meet this morning under the dark cloud created
by the sudden home-going of our beloved brother and our friend,
Mr. Richard Denzel. Because our brother
deeply loved the living God revealed to sinful men in the person and
work of Christ, He abhorred anything that robbed that God of glory
that was due to him. I can remember occasions when
our mild-tempered and mild-mannered brother would bristle with holy
anger when he heard or observed something that was a blatant
detraction from the glory of God. And I know in the light
of that deep-settled principle of his heart The last thing he
would have approved of would be anything that would be a eulogizing
of his person or a praising him for what he was as a man, as
a husband, as a father, as a father-in-law, as a brother beloved, or as a
friend. His unreserved confession concerning
anything that was praiseworthy as the confession couched in
the language of the Apostle Paul who said, I am what I am by the
grace of God. However, since God has taken
away from us a man of no little stature in our midst, as I have
prayed about the ministry of the Word, I have been constrained
to speak to you this morning on this very relevant subject
of some biblical truths highlighted in the life and death of Mr. Denson some biblical truths highlighted
both in the life and in the death of our brother and in this sense
then it can be said of him as was said of Abel in Hebrews 11
and verse 4 that he having died yet speaks And though it pleased
the Lord to bring our brother to himself through the door of
death this past Thursday night, he, having died, yet speaks to
us. And as I have prayerfully reflected
upon what his life and death say to us in terms of pointing
in the direction of fundamental biblical truths, I want to set
before you first of all the fact that his life and death is a
clear and eloquent description of the greatest inheritance we
can leave to our loved ones, our fellow believers, and to
the world. Mr. Demsel's life and death constitutes
a clear and eloquent description of the greatest inheritance,
the greatest legacy we can leave to our loved ones, to the people
of God and to the world. I want to ask you a very personal
question this morning. The question is this, have you
ever soberly asked yourself, what is the greatest legacy I
can leave to those who are left behind when I die? Is it the legacy of a beautiful
and spacious and stately home passed on to my children in my
will? Is it the legacy of adequate
provision in terms of life insurance? Is it the legacy of a famous
name? What is really of great worth
in terms of those that will be left behind to mourn in the hour
of my death? Have you ever asked that question?
you ought to. Because you see, if you're going
to accumulate an inheritance worth anything, you've got to
do it while you're alive. If you're going to have a noble
legacy to leave in the hour of your death, you can't accumulate
it on your deathbed. And I say the life and death
of Mr. Denson is a clear, an unmistakably
clear and eloquent description of the greatest inheritance any
man, any woman, any boy, any girl can leave to his loved ones,
to the people of God, and to the world. Do you know what that
inheritance is? The inheritance that our brother
has left for all of us to enjoy? It is nothing less than this.
It is the inheritance of a well-attested profession of a saving relationship
to the living God through Jesus Christ our Lord. His legacy,
His inheritance left for all of us is the legacy of a well-attested
profession of a saving relationship to the living God through Jesus
Christ, our Lord. Now, what do I mean by that mouthful
of words? Well, I mean simply this. He
left us the legacy of a profession of a saving relationship to the
living God through Jesus Christ. And what is involved in that
profession of a saving relationship to the living God through Jesus
Christ? Well, it involves simply three
things. It involves, first of all, the
unreserved acknowledgment of personal guilt and sinfulness,
the unreserved acknowledgment of native unworthiness to receive
anything from the hand of God but wrath and judgment. The Bible
says of you and of me, as it said of Mr. Denzel, all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. All we like sheep
have gone astray. We have turned every one of us
to his own way. The scripture said, Of him as
it says of us, there is not a righteous man upon the face of the earth,
but just man who does not sin and who does only what is right.
And it was the unreserved acknowledgment of our brother that the Bible's
description of him was true. He loved the hymn that we sang
because it embodied his own consciousness of sin. Weary of earth and laden
with my sin, I looked to heaven and longed to enter in. But there
was the confession, how can I enter? I am unclean. I am a sinner. I am vile. So vile am I. That profession of a saving relationship
to the living God through Christ not only involves the unreserved
acknowledgment of personal guilt in sin, but it involves the childlike
acceptance of the divine testimony concerning Christ, the only Savior
of sinners. You see, the same Bible that
said of Him and says of us that all have sinned says This is
a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners, 1 Timothy 1.15. That Bible says, thou shalt call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins,
Matthew 1.21. That Bible records the words
of Christ himself in John 14.6 in which he said, I am the way,
the truth, the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. That Bible says without the shedding
of blood there is no remission of sins. That Bible says that
the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. And it was Mr. Denzel's joyful
confession, that in childlike humility he embraced the testimony
of God about his Son, that his Son was all he claimed to be,
the incarnate God, that his Son was all the Bible says he is
as the only but the adequate Savior of the vilest of sinners. That confession of faith involved
in the third place the wholehearted embrace of the Savior Himself. The wholehearted embrace of the
Savior Himself, John 1.12, as many as received Him, to them
gave He the right to become the children of God, even to them
that believe on His name. Mr. Denzel made such a profession
of a saving relationship to the living God through Jesus Christ,
a profession that involved those three elements, the unreserved
acknowledgment of personal guilt, the childlike acceptance of the
testimony of God concerning Christ, and then the wholehearted embrace
of the Savior. But you see, it was a well-attested
profession. There are many who profess those
things, but their profession does not stick when compared
with what the Bible says happens to all who make that profession
in truth and in reality. For you see, the Scripture tells
us that if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things
are past. Behold, all things are become
new. To attest something is to determine
it to be true or genuine. And though God alone can read
the heart, the scripture tells us by their fruits you shall
know them. The great legacy, the great inheritance
left behind by our brother is this inheritance not merely of
a profession of a saving relationship to God in Jesus Christ, but a
well-attested profession, one that was manifested in a life
of universal holiness without which no man shall see the Lord,
Hebrews 12.14. One that manifested that love
of the brethren, 1 John 3.14, which is the index of having
passed from death unto life. One that manifested a love for
the person and the people of God and of Christ. It was indeed
a well-attested profession, because you see, that profession was
no barrier to His own children coming to Christ. It was attested
in their eyes, attested in the eyes and affections of his wife
and of all of us who knew him. And I say in your presence, choosing
my words carefully, there is no greater inheritance that you
can leave to your loved ones, to the people of God, and to
the world, but that inheritance left by our brother of a well-attested
profession. of a saving relationship to the
Living God through Jesus Christ. Now you say, why is that such
a wonderful inheritance? Well, let me give you three simple
reasons as to why it is, and this comes out not only of the
truth of the Bible, but the experience of the past hours. First of all,
because with that inheritance, our loved ones and the people
of God our loved ones and the people of God can rejoice concerning
the present state of the one who's departed from us. You see,
it is no little thing to leave behind this inheritance that
enables the people of God and our loved ones to rejoice in
solid confidence that everything that the Bible says about the
departed spirit of a saint is true of us. Now what does the
Bible say about the departed spirit of a true child of God,
of one who is indeed a Christian in reality? The Bible says such
things as these, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, to be absent from
the body is to be present with the Lord. Philippians chapter
1, to me to live is Christ and to die is gain, verse 21. And then in verse 23 he said,
I desire and to depart and to be with Christ which is far better. Or Hebrews 11, 23 speaks of the
spirits of just men made perfect. And I say from deep pastoral
sensitivity what a blessing it was to go into a home just a
matter of minutes after our brother was taken and sit down with loved
ones and while mingling tears with theirs to turn to such portions
as I've quoted in your presence and to know as much as any mortal
can know of a fellow mortal that while we sat in a living room
and grieved Our dear brother looked upon the face of Jesus
with joy that he was beholding face to face the things we still
see through a glass darkly. I tell you what a legacy to leave
your loved ones. The legacy of the rejoicing they
can have for you. Though they feel the sting and
the pain and the bitterness of that radical and abnormal wrenching
of death, to be able to say, not in some kind of pious drivel,
we grieve not for Him, but for ourselves. We can only rejoice
that He sees face to face what He longed most to see, the Savior
who and died for him. My friend, listen to me. Listen.
I don't care what else you leave your loved ones. You could leave
them the whole world! Leave them without that ground
of rejoicing, and you've left them impoverished. Because if
they think biblically, they have to think of the awful reality
of the soul leaving that body, going to the region of the damned,
to be held in prison until the day described in the passage
we read this morning, only to be joined to that body and to
sink into hell forever. All of the lovely, soothing words
cannot talk your lost soul out of hell. All the preacher's pious dribble
will release your soul from hell. You say you love your wife, you
love your mom, you love your dad. How can you love them when
you leave them the legacy of a broken heart that absent from
the body is to be present with the damned? loving, selfish creature. What a legacy you leave! What
a horrible legacy when you live and you die in your sins. I say Mr. Denzel's life and death
teaches us clearly and eloquently the greatest legacy we can leave
is a well-attested profession of a saving relationship to God
because, reason number one, loved ones and the people of God can
rejoice concerning the present, the present state of the departed,
but secondly, because loved ones and the people of God can draw
solid comfort concerning the future prospects of the one who
is gone. You see, it's one thing to rejoice
in the present state of the soul that's departed, but then come
the agonizing hours that our dear friends are passing through
today. They must stand by the earthly
remains. We've only known our brother
as God made us all to be, body, soul, entities. We were not made
to exist as disembodied spirits. Had sin never entered, there
would be no death, no wrenching of body and spirit. And so we
do not, thinking biblically, talk as though, well, the body's
just the external shell, it's nothing. God doesn't put that
estimation upon God made man in his own image.
He made him a body, soul, entity. And so come the agonizing hours
of realizing that there must be a time now when there is that
separation and the agony of placing those precious earthly remains
into the earth, the cold, damp earth. What do we say in the
face of that reality? Well, we read in 1 Thessalonians
chapter 4 Comfort one another with these words. What words? He was a nice man. He was a good
husband. No, here are the words with which
we convey solid comfort to one another. 1 Thessalonians 4 and
verse 13. We would not have you ignorant
brethren concerning them that fall asleep, that you sorrow
not even as the rest who have no hope. He says, you are not
to sorrow as those who have no hope. Sorrow, yes, but your sorrow
is conditioned by this great reality. If we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so them also. This is a beautiful
description of death for a Christian that are fallen asleep in Jesus. Will God bring with him? For
this we say unto you by the word of the Lord. This is not the
word of any church. This is not the word of any formulary
of any prayer book. This is the word of the Lord.
We who are alive and left unto the coming of the Lord shall
in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep. For the Lord
himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice
of the archangel and with the trump of God. Now notice, and
the dead in Christ shall rise first. Speaking of their bodies,
those bodies are still in a way we cannot fathom in union with
Christ. Your bodies are temples of the
Holy Spirit, we are told. And if the Spirit of Him who
raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you, He that raised
up Christ shall quicken your mortal bodies. I cannot understand
how and in what manner, but it is enough for faith to rest in
the dictates of God. The dead in Christ shall rise
first. Then we which are alive and remain
unto the coming of the Lord shall be caught up together with them.
What a legacy, what an inheritance to leave behind. A well-attested
profession of a saving relationship to God in Jesus Christ. For it not only gives to loved
ones and to the people of God the basis for present joy as
they think of what we will know when we, in the language of the
Old Testament writer, awake beholding His form or his likeness, but
also to give them the basis of solid comfort concerning the
future of these earthly remains. They've only known us in the
touch of these hands, and in the look of these eyes, and in
the warmth of our embrace. They've only known us in the
words we've shared with lips and tongue that now lie cold
and lifeless. and will be placed into the earth.
Thank God for this basis of solid comfort. Thank God that tomorrow
when we stand with tear-filled eyes and heavy hearts by a graveside,
we can in a sense defy that earth to keep the remains of our brother.
Because as surely as we stand by that graveside, the Lord shall
descend from heaven with a shout, the voice of the archangel and
the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise!" This is
the Word of the Lord. Then I say this is the greatest
legacy we can leave for the third reason, because friends and neighbors
will be forced to reckon with the great realities of divine
revelation. When we leave behind us in our
death the inheritance of a well-attested profession of a saving relationship
to God in Jesus Christ, we not only leave something that is
the basis of present rejoicing for the people of God and loved
ones, of solid comfort for the people of God and loved ones,
but we leave something that is a prod to the conscience of all
unconverted people who had any dealings with us. You see, the
great fact of man's accountability is stamped upon man's consciousness,
Romans 1 and Romans 2. Man cannot escape that he is
a creature of God, answerable to God, but he continually tries
to put that knowledge down. That's why when he hears the
Bible preached and his sin declared and the only way of salvation
declared on the one hand, there is an echo within his own breast,
God's voice without meeting God's voice within. It is true! But
he loves darkness rather than light and he seeks to retreat
from the light and pressure of the Word upon his conscience.
And when he retreats and meets a true Christian, Everything
that is echoing in the chambers of his heart in virtue of his
being made in the image of God, everything he has heard thundered
into his ears from the proclamation of the gospel is now, as it were,
exemplified in a life and he cannot escape the fact that that
life reflects the great realities of the Word of God and of my
own consciousness as a creature made in the image of God. What
a wonderful legacy to leave to a world that is determined to
send itself to hell to think that I might leave a roadblock
in terms of what my life was. What a legacy to leave to your
neighbors, a roadblock in their path to hell. A finger pointing
away from hell and destruction and the emptiness of this life,
pointing to the reality of God and Christ in heaven and the
world of the Spirit. And a true Christian does that
just by living as a Christian, just by being what he is. I read something the other day,
and I could not help but think of our brother when I read this.
someone who was privileged to have close contact with Professor
Murray, the late beloved professor of theology at Westminster Seminary. Speaking of his life, this individual
said that his life had almost a revelatory character. And then
he said this, when doubts insinuate themselves upon my mind, can
it all be true? One can still hear a voice that
says, if it's not true, How then do you account for Professor
John Murray? You see what he's saying? When
the devil would insinuate doubts, looking at a man who exemplified
a well-attested profession of a saving relationship to God
in Jesus Christ, that it's not true. How do you explain him?
And I thank God I can stand here and say to the praise of God,
it's not all true. How do you explain a man like
Dirk Denzel? There's no explanation. And you
see it's the fact that there is no other explanation that
is a prompt to the conscience of the unconverted. My friend,
are you going to leave that legacy? So that your children, even though
they may not be in the faith, as we have reason to believe
each of his are, but even if they are not, Would they be forced
to stand by your graveside and say, I've not yielded to the
pressure of truth, but I know, I know, I cannot escape the conviction
that it is true. The people you work with Are
you a prod to everyone who has any dealings with you in the
shop, in the office, on the street, over the back fence, in the playground? Everywhere you go, are you a
constant monument? There is a God. There is a heaven. There is a hell. There is an
immutable law of God. There is a Savior. There is a
Holy Spirit. So Jesus meant when he said,
you are the light of the world, you are the salt of the earth. I say Dick Denzel's life and
death is a clear and an eloquent declaration concerning the greatest
inheritance any one of us can leave to loved ones, to the people
of God, and to the world. You don't have to be in your
sixties to leave that inheritance. You dear children, listen to
me for a minute. Do you love mommy and daddy? Do you love
mommy and daddy? You know the greatest thing you
can give to mommy and daddy? You know the greatest thing you
can give to mommy and daddy? You know what it is? You say,
but pastor, I don't have lots of money to give them much. You
don't need a nickel, a dime. You don't even need a penny to
give them this. You say, I'm too small, and even if I had
a lot, I couldn't carry it and give it to them. What's the greatest
thing I can give to Mommy and Daddy? Oh, you dear children,
listen to me. Little ones, teenagers and older,
listen. I speak as a father. The greatest
legacy, the greatest gift you can give to Mommy and Daddy is
solid grounds to believe that you're in Christ. And if you robbed them of that,
I don't care what else you give them. You've robbed them of their
most priceless possession. If you died today, would you
leave that inheritance for your mom and dad? Would you? Could they say as they stood
by your lifeless remains, I know He, she looks upon the face of
Jesus. I grieve and I pain and I ache
because I will never feel the warmth of the embrace of that
son or daughter again. I'll not hear his or her voice
again in this life, but I rejoice that he or she looks upon the
face of Jesus. He or she is free from sin. and pain and disappointment and
death. Dear children, if you have any
love for mom and dad, go to Christ in all your sin. Go to Christ
in all your lostness. Go to Christ in all of your guilt
and all of your undoneness. And don't give yourself rest
until you know that you're in Christ. There is no pain like the pain
of a parent's heart who contemplates the death of a son or daughter
in a state of sin. Then I must hasten on and underscore
the fact that if you're to leave such a legacy, some of you better
stop living the way you're living. You have a profession of a saving
relationship to God in Christ, but the attestation where the
rubber meets the road is pretty paltry. In other words, if you
had died on Thursday night, I couldn't preach the way I'm preaching
this morning. Can I make it any plainer? Can
I speak with any more precision to your conscience than that?
Some of you members of Trinity Church for years, but the attestation
of your faith is so meager. In the judgment of charity, we
would pray in terms of your profession and in terms of the paltry little
pickings of attestation, and you would be buried as a Christian. But I tell you, I couldn't preach
the kind of sermon I'm preaching this morning on the occasion
of your death. You know why? Because your life
is so shoddy where the rubber meets the road. I couldn't walk
into your office The minute I identified myself, believed that everyone's
conscience in that office who's been there longer than a week
knows that if I'm your pastor, then I must believe the Bible,
and I must walk straight, and I must be narrow-minded because
they've seen your life. I couldn't open my mouth and
have a grip on the conscience of your work associates because
your pattern of life would totally neutralize any such opportunity. You ought to hang your head today
and weep, not for Dick Denzel, but for your shoddy life. Like
a lot, you've rubbed shoulders with sodomites so long, it's
hard to tell whether you're one of them or not. God have mercy
on some You know who you are. Your own conscience is thundering. And you're sitting there saying,
I know, I know, if I had died on Thursday, I doubt pastor could
preach that way of me. Well, friend, what are you going
to do about it? Well, it's time you started whacking
off right hands and plucking out right eyes. If your business
is destroying you, destroy your business! Go to heaven with glory
as a poor man, but not with glory living the way you're living.
Shoddy, misplaced priorities. Oh, may God have mercy. If you
want this inheritance, my friend, you've got to begin to lay it
up by a radical transformation of your life's priorities and
patterns. If you want to have a grip on
the conscience of your children, if you want your children on
the occasion of your death, to have the privilege that Dick's
three children had on the occasion of his death. Through their bitter
tears to say, again, not in pious drivel, but out of the depth
of burning conviction, Dad looks upon the face of Jesus. We grieve
not for him. If you want to give your kids
that legacy, you better stop fooling around. Stop playing
around, my friend. Start seeking first the Kingdom
of God and His righteousness! Get rid of your toys! Life's
too short, man! What a legacy! What an inheritance! May God help us that we'll leave
it, but I hasten on. And I'll touch these other two
things much more briefly. That was the main burden that
was on my heart this morning. But there is this second area
in which His death and life speak to us, and it's this. It's a
powerful reminder that extensive influence and usefulness in the
Church of Christ do not depend upon special gifts for public
ministry. The life and death of our brother
is a powerful reminder that extensive usefulness in the Church of Christ
does not depend upon special gifts for public ministry. Mr. Denzel was among us many
years. He never held an official office.
He was never on the Board of Deacons. He was never on the
Board of Elders. He never preached a sermon from
this pulpit. He never taught class. And yet
we feel the pain of his absence. Why? Because he had an extensive
influence and great usefulness amongst us. And you see, his
life and death teach us that extensive usefulness and influence
do not depend upon special gifts for public ministry. the great
truth of Romans 12 and of 1 Corinthians 12 that we are the body of Christ
and God has given diversity of gifts within that body and our
brother took the gifts that were given and he sought to commit
them to God and to use them for the extension of the kingdom
of God. He had the gift of parenthood,
being a father. And he so sought to fill that
role that his three children rise up and call him blessed.
His daughters-in-law, I should say his one daughter-in-law and
his two sons-in-law can rise up and call him blessed and say,
we are better daughters, we are better sons, we are better daughters-in-law
and sons-in-law because of his life. His example, His pattern,
His placing His feet in paths that we can follow and in so
doing follow Christ. He lived long enough to see each
of His children come to open profession of faith in Christ,
to marry in the Lord, and to establish God-honoring homes. I say the man who lives to see
that is wealthy. He makes the Rockefellers look
like paupers. And again, I speak, I trust,
as a Christian father. I've not asked God that I might
live to be 90, but I've said, Oh God, let me live long enough
to see each of my children come to a well-attested faith in Your
Son and be safely and happily married in the Lord. And maybe
as a PS, see a grandchild or two. Let me go home. Every parent finds an echo, don't
they? You know what I'm saying? The
usefulness as a parent, oh some of you have a distorted view
of what it means to be useful. waiting for some great opportunity. No, no, friend. God's given you
precious lives to mold as future husbands and fathers and citizens
in Christ's kingdom. Give yourself to that task! There are few members in this
church and many friends, very few, who have not known the hospitality
of that home. It'd be amazing if I were to
ask how many of you have sat at Rich's table for a meal as
a guest in that home there would not be 5, 10, 15, 20 dozens and
dozens of hands probably several hundred hands would go up in
this place this morning an extensive usefulness in the ministry of
hospitality consistency in the means of grace and we all without
renting pews we all get feeling more comfortable in a given place
I don't know who will fill that place down there, but we'll miss
him. Faithfulness in the means of grace, the supportiveness
in the ministry. At times when those of us who
must labor in the Word and in doctrine and in oversight wonder,
is it all worth it? We look to men like Dick Denson
and we say, yes, God, it's worth it. Who in his prayers and in
his whole demeanor made it evident that he knew no little part of
helping him on to heaven. was the ministry of his overseers
and he was unembarrassed to make that known. And how many, how many a juniper
tree has been kept off our back because of his warmth of encouragement
to press on in the work. I say his life and his death
are a powerful reminder that extensive usefulness in Christ
Church does not depend upon special gifts for public ministry, because
we believe in the primacy of preaching, because God in grace,
and it's been all of grace, has been pleased to bring blessing
to this people through the ministry of the Word of God. We can very
easily get a distorted view of the place of that ministry in
the total life of the church. Yes, it is to be primary, but
it is not the exclusive means of the advancement of Christ's
kingdom. You remember God said to Moses,
what is that in thy hand? And when he said that to Dick
Denzel, Dick said, in my hand is the stewardship of three precious
children. In my hand is a home, a wife,
the means of a steady income. Lord, that's in my hand. And
it is as though he said, Lord Jesus, It is yours to be used
for your glory, for the benefit of your church, for the advancement
of your kingdom. Many of us sit here today enriched
because he understood that usefulness was not dependent upon special
gifts for public ministry. Do you understand that? Can you
see it in the life of our brother? Why is he missed? Because of
the measure of that usefulness. But then finally, and oh, I trust
that you'll gird up the loins of your mind and seek to apply
yourself carefully to this final strand of thought. His life and
death are a sober warning concerning the certainty and the possible
suddenness of death. The Bible says in Hebrews 9.27,
it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh
judgment. It is appointed once to die,
but little did we know that that appointment was made by the living
God for this past Thursday night. Our hearts were full of encouragement.
All the reports were that whatever the recent setback was, He was
so much better. And we were talking and thinking
in terms of his returning home the beginning of this coming
week. It's just that the home is different now. It's not the
home in Clifton, but it's the home in the presence of Christ,
the suddenness, the suddenness, the suddenness. And oh, my friends,
surely God is speaking to you and to me this sober warning
to consider afresh the certainty of our own death, yes, but also
the possible suddenness of our death. So you're trying to scare us,
no? Just facing reality. Just facing reality. I'm not
holding up phantoms. Mr. Denzel will be laid in the
earth tomorrow morning. That's reality. When we anticipated
he'd be returning to his home, that's reality. And my friend,
as long as you cannot produce from the living God some index
that you're going to live another day, another week, what right
have you to go on playing Russian roulette with your never-dying
soul. That's what you're doing. Scripture says, boast not thyself
of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. Do you know, do you know that
you'll see next Lord's Day? On what basis do you know it?
Will you say, I hope But my friend, all of your hopes and your wishes
and your longings and desires cannot stay the angel of death
when he is sent from the throne of the Almighty. And there aren't
enough specialists in every specialized clinic in the world to keep your
life sustained one second beyond the moment of God's appointment.
It is appointed unto men once to die. a time to be born and
a time to die. And the hour is coming when that
violent, that abnormal wrenching of soul and body will occur in
you and in me. And the scripture says that the
person who is unprepared for that is a fool. Luke chapter
12 records the instance of the man who made preparations for
everything but death. God says, thou fool, this night
shall thy soul be required of thee. And oh, may God help us
to face afresh the certainty of our death. You cannot avoid
it. The only thing certain, the moment
you cried that first cry in the delivery room, is that you'd
breathe your last breath somewhere. The only thing we can predict
with certainty about anyone born in this life is that he will
die. Barring those alive at the return
of Christ, it's appointed unto men once to die. And coupled with that is the
possible suddenness of our death. In the old Anglican prayer book,
the people of God prayed from sudden death, Good Lord, deliver
us. He does not always answer that
prayer. And it's a general rule that men die exactly as they've
lived. In seeking to prepare my own
heart for this morning, I went back over that incident in the
book of Numbers. Some of you will remember it.
You have the incident of that man, that very mixed character
called Balaam. who's being seduced by Balak
to prophesy evil against the people of God, and he can't do
it, and God constrains him to prophesy only good, and in the
midst of all of this mixed state of affairs, he cries out, Oh,
that I might die the death of the righteous. He sees the latter
end of the people of God and says, Oh, that I might die the
death of the righteous. And someone picking up on that
wrote this simple little couplet, Oh, let me die his death, the
prophet cries. Then live his life, the sacred
book replies. Oh, let me die his death, dear
friend, dear relative, dear member of Trinity Christ. Let me die
the kind of death that Dick Denzel died. His last words to his loved
ones, I am at rest, I am content in the will of God. I am content
in the will of God. Oh, that I might die the death
of the righteous! That I might give some broken-hearted
pastor the solid basis of preaching on my death as he's preached
on the occasion of Mr. Denzel's death! Oh, that I might
die the death of the righteous, you cry! Let me die his death! The member of Trinity cries,
then live his life. The book of God replies, a life you cannot live until
you first of all make the confession he made, coming in all of your
naked undone And saying, God, everything you say in your Word
about sinners is true of me. It's true of me, not somebody
out there and over there and out yonder. But, O Lord, like
a publican I stand. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And then in childlike humility,
accept everything God has said about His Son. that He is all
He claimed to be, that He did what God says He was sent to
do. He died for sinners, was raised
from the dead, is seated at the right hand of God the Father
Almighty, and then with unreserved abandonment embrace Him as your
Savior and Lord. Trust Him to be your Savior. Trust Him to give you of His
Holy Spirit that you might have power to live a transformed life. Then that profession will be
well attested as you manifest the power of a new creation. Dear friend, if you would die
His death and live His life, and that life begins at the cross,
It begins at the cross, but then it's carried on in the unglamorous,
faithful submission to the ordained means of grace. Our brother is
a reminder of the things we studied in the Sunday school class this
morning. Faithfulness in the means of grace, keeping priorities
straight, not allowing the weed beds of the cares of this world
to choke out the Word. In some of you, the very Word
that caused him to flourish has been utterly choked by the cares
of this world and the lust of other things entering in. Oh,
may God help some of you to go home today and with vicious hands
pull out the weeds by the dozens. In the name of God, friend, do
it today! All of your petty little resolutions
have come to naught. You are right where you were a year ago, two years ago, three
years ago. And I fear you will die that
way. And it will take Herculean acts as a Christian. God help the
poor preacher that has to go through that agony. And all he
can cling to is the threadbare hope that maybe the profession
was real in spite of all of the absence of solid evidence. That's what some of you are leaving
us as your pastors. It's a lovely legacy you're leaving
us. That's the legacy you're leaving
us. That's the legacy you're leaving us. To bury you with
a broken heart and Herculean efforts to believe that possibly
grace was there in spite of all Thank God there are many of you
whose profession is well attested. And when the Lord takes you,
you'll have that wonderful inheritance left behind on your death. We'll be able to rejoice that
you look upon the face of Jesus. We'll be able to rejoice as the
earthly remains are placed in the ground. that the day of resurrection
will see you coming forth resplendent with the glory of Christ himself. Your life will be a constant
monument when anyone wants to reflect upon it, that God and
heaven and Christ and the Bible were real. My friends, you can
have your big bank accounts, they don't attract me. You can
have houses and lands, they don't attract me. If I can leave that
legacy, that's all that matters. Whatever
else comes in alongside is incidental. Is that your perspective? Is
it? Are you living in such a way
to indicate that it is? May God write upon our hearts
the lessons from the life of the dear man of God. whom the
Lord has taken from us. Let us pray. Father, we bow in your presence,
sobered in the face of the great realities of the brevity of life
the certainty of death and of judgment. We confess we are humbled
in the presence of a consistent, quiet, godly life. O Holy Father, help us to look
with holy abhorrence upon anything that would keep us from leaving
the kind of inheritance that our departed brother has left
We pray that our thinking would be altered with respect to what
is the true path to real usefulness in your kingdom. Holy Father,
in mercy, draw to yourself boys and girls, men and women. Oh
God, use the occasion of our brother's home going to call
many to yourself. To call some who are yours. out of that path of spiritual
barrenness into a path of fruitfulness. Oh God! What can we say? What can we ask? What can we
plead? But that you would have mercy
upon us. Continue now to uphold dear Mrs. Denzel, Rich and Ruth,
Frank and Margaret, Jeff and Joanne, especially during the
afternoon hours as they must stand by the remains of their
departed loved one. Oh God, as you've poured grace
into their hearts in these past hours, come again, so uphold
them that they may be a monument of your power and of the great
realities that they all profess. Be their portion this afternoon,
this evening, at the funeral service tomorrow. Oh God, may
such glory flood that place that none will be able to gainsay
the reality of salvation in Christ. Lord, hear our cry. Continue,
continue in your grace to uphold and support us as your people.
As we seek to adjust to this loss, O Lord, we bow our necks
to your wisdom, to your sovereign right to do as you will with
your own. Hear our cry and answer us for
Jesus' sake. Amen.