for certain. And that our Lord does all things
well. And we never question His good providence. There's not one that's here tonight
that is not truly heavy-hearted in the sense that we've lost
a sister. And we have a brother that's
hurting, and we hurt with him. But we rejoice. Now, I want to
tell you something. Rejoicing in the Lord does not
mean that it's that little jumping around, fake, flippant. You rejoice in Christ believing
His Word. Let's take our Bibles. I want
you to turn with me to Hebrews chapter 10. I'm going through
the book of Hebrews. You know that. We are on the
midweek. But I'm not going where I would
normally be going. I'm going to skip ahead a little
bit. I'm going to look at one verse of Scripture and say a
few words tonight that I pray will be of comfort to God's people. And that's what we need. We need
some comfort. The Lord commands, You comfort
My people. You comfort My people. Hebrews
10, verse 37, Hebrews 10, verse 37, For yet a little while, And he that shall come will come
and will not tarry." Let's pray tonight. Our Father, as we come before
You this evening, we come as a group that has been brought
together. Lord, those that You've given
a heart for the Lord Jesus Christ always desire to come together. And in Him, and by Him, and for
Him, we call upon You and know with assuredness that being accepted
in the Beloved that we are able to come before the throne of
grace and to call upon You as your
children. Lord, we ask You tonight to help
us. I pray for Gene and for his family.
I pray for those that, Lord, are at this moment in need of
comfort. Comfort us. Lord, we ask, we
knock, we seek, and we pray that this evening, Lord, You might
be honored. For it's in the name of the Lord Jesus we pray. Amen. For those of us that for a while have to, we have to, remain in
the valley of the shadow of death, this earthly life. We have to. It's the Lord's will that we
that sit here this evening It is God's will, the Lord's will
that we are here. If it were not the Lord's will
that we be here, He would have taken us. It is appointed unto
man once to die. While we are here and we realize
that by faith that Almighty God has done that which is pleasing
in His sight. We need some comfort and we need
some assurance when we are vitally made to be
brought to the realization that this life is but a vapor. Now,
we know that. We know that by faith, that God
Almighty has spoken. Now He says, My sheep hear My
voice. Now we've read that. We've read
that in the Scriptures. And that's His voice. That's
His Word. And we know it. We hear it. We read that. My sheep hear My voice. I know them. They follow Me. Now we hear the voice of God. in the Scriptures, but we hear
the voice of God in our conscience. We believe that by faith. That
word is not just ink on paper. We believe that. We're assured
of that. The Spirit of God has taught
us that. So we hear His voice in our conscience,
in our heart, but we hear His voice in providence. We behold the providence of Almighty
God. Now you know and I know that
He does all things according to His will in the army of heaven
among the inhabitants of the earth. We have no right to question
Him. We're bought with a price. We're
not our own. But take heart. And here's the
comfort. Yet a little while. And He that
shall come will come and will not tarry. Now you think. Just
think for a moment. Just a little while. Just a few more setting suns
and we'll all go the way of the earth. Now, you know that. This is not
our home. We're sojourners here. And we're vitally made aware. When a believer contemplates
the certainty of leaving this earth. The Word of God alone affords
us great hope. Now listen to the Apostle Paul
under the inspiration of God's Spirit. O death, where is thy
sting? O grave, where is thy victory? You know, from that word we realize
that there is something that is miraculous and instantaneous
when it comes to a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ leaving
this life. There is something that is miraculous
and instantaneous. I want you to turn to 2 Corinthians
5. 2 Corinthians 5, verses 6-8. This is the assuredness that
we have. The only surety that we have, but for the Word of God, but
for God's Word. What saith the Scriptures? What
else do we have? 2 Corinthians 5, 6-8, Therefore we are always confident, knowing that whilst we are at
home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not sight. We are confident. I say, and
willing rather to be absent from the body and be present with
the Lord." Now, here's what the apostle was saying. Right now, for us sitting here, and realize
that this is a vapor, I'm telling you. I'm telling you, by faith
I know this and you do too, that this is just, I mean, frail,
frail. This body that is miraculously,
marvelously made, that Almighty God who made us, our God, our
Lord, He who rules, He who reigns, He who owns us, This body is
here only as long as He is permitted to allow us to be here. But we
are in this world at this moment. There may be someone here tonight
that won't be here in the morning. Who would have ever known? But
right now we're in this world. But we are absolutely, this is
what Paul said, we're confident. Verse 8, we're confident. Willing rather to be absent from
the body and be present with the Lord. There is something
that these corporal eyes can't see. There is that which we cannot
actually look at with our eyes right now, but we absolutely
know it so. To be absent from this body, present with the Lord. Death? Where's your sting? Where's the
sting of death? Something that's instantaneous.
Right now we see that in ourselves, that is in our flesh, dwells
no good thing, but we are confident that in Him, in Christ, in the One that has
everlastingly stood as our surety, in Him who has absolutely been
the One who has stood for us, answered for us, lived for us,
died for us, rose for us, intercedes for us right now. We're confident
of this one thing, that in Him we're accepted before God Almighty,
justified by His imputed righteousness. And we know that we shall be
changed, being found in Him from mortality to immortality. Look
at 2 Corinthians 5, verse 1, for we know that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building
of God and house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. Now, there's some confidence in God's Word. And that's the
confidence that we have. That's the assuredness that we
have. We are absolutely confident that
the departed saints are with the Lord. They're not somewhere in limbo. They're with Him. How do you know, Marvin, for
sure? I've got His Word on that. I've got His Word on that. That
thief asked him, said, Lord, when you enter into your kingdom,
will you remember me? And he said, Verily I say unto
you, today you will be with me in
paradise. That's a wonderful thought. In this life, we've got pain
and struggles, heartache, disappointments. And then we began to contemplate,
we began to think upon the glorious presence of our Lord. And being
in that glorified state, And thinking about it, his old
brother Scott wrote, you know, no more pain, no more sickness,
no more jail, no more heartaches, no more birthdays, forever, forever
with the Lord. Now, we're in a straight. That's what Paul the Apostle
said. He said, I'm in a straight. He said that in Philippians.
Let me just read this to you. Philippians 1, verse 21 to 23. He said, For to me, to live is
Christ, and to die is gain. Lord, that's
so. I know that's so. But if I live
in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor, yet what I should
choose I want, I don't know. Or I am in a strait betwixt two,
having desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better."
Now you think about that. The worst thing to an unbeliever,
the worst thing that could possibly happen is for him to leave this
world without a substitute, but for a believer. To leave this world, to live
right now, the Apostle says, me to live is Christ. To die
is gain. There's a victory that's wrought. That the passing from this life,
the passing from this body, is a blessing. Unbelievers don't
understand that. But I'm telling you for a believer, there's a victory. Victory that's
wrought in Christ. Paul would say, and my heart
yearns to be with Him, but he said, I leave my state into the
hands of Him that knows better than I do. Now this is going to sound strange
to an unbeliever, but a believer thinks of the glorious entrance
into the presence of Almighty God. And I'm telling you, their heart
rejoices in that. They rejoice in that. The glorious
victory in Christ. He's going to come. Just a little
while, he said. A little while. He that shall
come will come. He will not tarry. So David said,
under the spirit of God's direction, teach us to number our days that
we may apply our hearts to wisdom. Teach us to contemplate. Get up every day realizing this life is not long. We sorrow because of the loss
of our sister, but the Lord whose voice we always
hear said this through the Apostle Paul, I would not have you to
be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which were asleep, that
you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope, which have
no expectation, which have no confidence. For if we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, even so, them also which sleep
in Jesus will God bring with Him. Oh, the comfort of hearing the
voice of the Lord, the voice of the shepherd, my sheep. I
think so much on that passage of Scripture. My sheep hear my
voice. And as we're brought to remember, the Lord said that we are to
sorrow not. We sorrow. We are heavy. This is a heaviness to Him. We're
human beings and we're frail creatures. And when we have the
loss of one of our own, we're in heaviness. And no doubt about
that. But listen, He said that you
sorrow not even as others which have no hope. Don't sorrow that
way. We have a hope. Christ who is our hope. Even in the departure of God's
people, we hear His voice again. Now
listen, He said, Father, I will. That they also whom Thou hast
given Me be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory,
which Thou hast given me, for Thou lovest me before the foundation
of the world. Father, I will. Those that You've
given me be with me." You know, if it was left up to
us and our frailty and our flesh, we'd just hang on, wouldn't we? Now, you know we would. I mean,
we might as well be honest about it. But let me tell you, as I said,
I remember saying this at Brother Scott's funeral and at Brother
Rob's funeral, His will is going to be done.
Not our will, but Thine be done. Lord, if it be Your will, nevertheless,
not my will, but Your will. Father, I will at those that You've given me.
be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. Eye hath
not seen, ear hath not heard, neither hath entered into the
heart of man that which God has prepared for those that love
Him." We're the ones that need to be comforted. We're the
ones. We're the ones that still have
to go through this. And it's all according to His will. It's
according to His good pleasure. It's according to His purpose
that we're still here. But I'm telling you for the departed
saints, oh, the glorious homecoming. And we rejoice in the Lord. Hear the blessed words, last
scripture, of our Lord concerning those that He has everlastingly
loved and answered for, lived for, died for, rose for, intercedes
for. John 14. I mean, listen, this is our Lord speaking
here. John 14, 1-3, Let not your heart
be troubled. You 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 and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be
also. Look at verse 27. Peace I leave
with you. My peace I give unto you. Not
as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. Do you know why He said that? Because our hearts are prone
to be troubled and for us to be afraid. Afraid. But at His Word, at His Word, we find some comfort
tonight that the world knows nothing about. Our Lord was pleased to take
our sister, and though in our flesh We miss her. We rejoice in the
Lord. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. We
are not those that have no hope. Thanks be unto God which giveth
us the victory. Bless His holy name. Gary, would you turn and find
that song Victory in Jesus. Victory in Jesus.