Thank you. The Lord Jesus Christ once told
his audience, I am the resurrection and the life. And from that statement, great
comfort was drawn by those who listened on that occasion. And those words comfort still
the Lord's people, who know something of the constant faithfulness
of Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We have helpfully heard earlier
today something of the good hope of the Lord's people with respect
to eternal life and glory. We believe and are sure that
the Lord Jesus Christ, the son of the living God, is able to
raise up again all who come to him believing. for he is able
to save to the uttermost all them that come unto God by him. It is our firm conviction that
Sarah Meany, my mother, knew something of this hope of eternal
life. And as has been mentioned, she
left an extraordinary testimony of her faith and confidence in
these words which she penned during the final days of her
mental alertness. I think you will agree that there
was a tremendous awareness of mind expressed in those words. even with respect to an understanding
of her own diminishing condition. She says, we do not lose heart,
though outwardly we are wasting away. And I don't think that
there would be a better expression possible for the disease of Alzheimer's
than that we are outwardly wasting away. To all intents and purposes,
with all the senses of our awareness, we see that that is true. It
is a wasting away. But she says, even there, we
do not lose heart. We don't faint. We don't succumb. We don't give up. because we
believe that the Lord Jesus Christ holds on to us. We talk about
holding on to Christ, but there comes a time when we can hold
on to Christ no longer, and then we know the experience of Christ
holding on to us. That's what we call persevering
by his grace. Do you know what an object lesson
is? I know some of you do because some of you went to Sunday school
with me. I know that you know what an
object lesson is. I think mum left us an object
lesson. Those who saw her in her closing
years Those who saw her in those days
towards the end of her life could hardly recognize her from the
woman that they once knew. We saw a wasted body. We saw her shriveled form. We heard her incoherent noises. We saw her wasting away in front
of us, as she knew and testified she must. Her body, this flesh,
must progressively decay and perish, as it does for us all, sooner
or later. More quickly or more extendedly,
these bodies must perish and decay. But Mum left another testimony
too. She left, in these words, not
only the testimony of a body outwardly wasting away, but of
a spirit that was being daily renewed. What does it mean to
be renewed day by day? First thing that I want to draw
your attention to with respect to that element of the promise,
that renewal is this, that it is God's work in his people. It is God who renews his people. It's God who is active in the
lives of his people. My mother lay utterly passive
in that bed, totally dependent for bodily nursing upon her carers. And as she did, her saviour was
ministering to her soul. Her saviour was bestowing spiritual
care upon her. He was guarding her day by day
and night by night. He was sustaining her even in
the frailty of her physical frame. And he was whispering peace to
her soul. That's what she testified. That's
what Paul said. She was being renewed day by
day. Every good and perfect gift is
from above. All spiritual grace comes from
God. The Lord's people are chosen
in the eternal purposes of God. The Lord's people are justified
before the holiness of his perfection. The Lord's people are sanctified
and made perfect in his presence. They are converted in time. They are preserved all the days
of their life. And these good gifts are God
at work in the lives of his people. That's daily renewal. And it
flows from the love and the grace of God to the soul of his people. The second thing is this, not
only is it God who is active in this daily renewal, but it
is an undeserved blessing that we receive. All we have to bring
is our sin. All we have in this flesh, in
this body, is our unworthiness. The degree to which we have fallen
short of the standard of God's holiness is immense and there
is no good thing in us. Nothing in our flesh, nothing
in our actions, nothing in our will, earns or deserves God's
mercy. And yet, For the love of his
people, his mercies are new every morning. Lord Jesus Christ says
to us, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore,
with loving kindness have I drawn thee to myself. And graciously,
he replenishes those tokens of love He regularly restores, He
refills, He renews, and He blesses His people. And we note that God's gracious
gifts flow to His people because of what the Lord Jesus Christ
has accomplished. It is not what we have done,
but what He has done that makes the difference. God protects,
God preserves, God provides all goodness for His people because
the Lord Jesus Christ died. and rose again and ascended into
glory. And there is seated on the right
hand of God on high, interceding for his people, speaking daily,
speaking constantly on behalf of those whom he has loved from
eternity. Many years before mum was born,
the Lord Jesus Christ died for her. He did not die for everyone,
but he died for her. Many years ago, the Lord Jesus
Christ rose from the dead for her. He did not rise for everyone,
but he rose for her. Many years ago, Christ ascended
into that place of glory, and he said to his disciples, I go
to prepare a place for you, and if I go, I will come again and
receive you to myself. He does not make that promise
to everyone, but he made it to her. So united are the Lord's
people to their Savior, that those for whom he died, even
in this life, are said to be seated together with him in heavenly
places. And we look at the form of mother
there lying in her bed, apparently oblivious to so much else that
is going on around about her. And we can say that though her
body lay there, her soul was seated in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then
you too know something of what it means to share in that daily
renewal that she experienced. Funerals are times of loss and
sorrow, but there is comfort too. And
let me give a word of comfort to you, which is also a comfort
to me. The troubles of the Lord's people,
whatever they are, are but light and momentary. We've remarked
already about the fact that my father spent the last 15 years effectively. So that's not long since he retired. The last 15 years dedicated to
looking after my mother's well-being, first in the house and then in
the care home. But what is a year? What is a
year? What is a decade? What are these
15 years that have been thus expended? Perhaps there were
other things hoped for in those retirement years. Perhaps there
were other things anticipated. It wasn't to be. But what are
those years in comparison to an inheritance of eternal glory? all the sights and sounds of
those who enter into the Lord's presence. The angels, the saints
that have gone before, the crying out to the praise of Almighty
God, the joy that is experienced by that blood-bought people who
enter into the experience of God's glory. And so, as the verses before
us declare, We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is
unseen. Not on sickness and frailty,
not on weakness and death, not on man and flesh and all our
laboring and our best efforts and trying to make the best of
a best, not at all. We look beyond the grave. We
look beyond suffering. We look beyond parting. We look to grace. We look to
God's love. We look to the glories yet to
be seen. We look to the Lord Jesus Christ,
the author and finisher of our faith. who for the joy that was
set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God. The word of God says, the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. And these we see by faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. First Corinthians chapter two
and verse nine says this. It is written, I hath not seen
nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things
which God hath prepared for them that love him. Holy Father, Grant us eyes of
faith to see. Grant us ears of faith to hear. Grant that these temporal bodies,
as they waste away and perish, might live in eager anticipation
of seeing those eternal glories that mum now does. Amen.