and we're glad in it. I'm going
to have Brother Gary come up and lead us in some singing and
then we'll have our service. Brother Rupert Rivenbark speaking
and then I'll have a few comments about our brother and friend,
and then we'll rejoice together. Brother Gary, you come. Would you be kind enough to take your
hemlock, please, to number 52? I think we can stand, please. Majestic Queen of Heaven, from
upon the Savior's brow, His head with rain of glory crowned,
his lips with rain foreclosed, his lips with rain foreclosed. No mortal can with him compare
among the sons of men. Better is he than all the men
who build the heavenly train, who build the heavenly train. He saw me once in deep distress
and flew to my relief. For me He bore the shameful cross
and carried all my grief, and carried all my grief. To Him I owe my life and breath
and all the joys I've had. He makes me triumph over death,
and saves me from the grave, and saves me from the grave. Remain standing if you will.
Turn to 266. 266 please. Faith, faith is earthly joy,
Jesus Pray every tender thought, Jesus
is mine Darkness of wilderness, earth has no resting place Jesus
alone can bless, Jesus is mine my soul away, Jesus is mine. Here would I ever stay, Jesus
is mine. Perishing flames of flame, born
thus for one brief day, have strung my heart away. Jesus is mine. Farewell ye dreams of night,
Jesus is mine. Lost in this dawning light, Jesus
is mine. All that my soul has tried, left
but a dismal void. Jesus has satisfied, Jesus is
mine. Farewell mortality, Jesus is
mine. Welcome, eternity, Jesus is mine. Welcome, O loved and blest, Welcome,
sweet scenes of rest, Welcome, my Savior's breast, Jesus is
mine. I counted a tremendous honor to be able to have a part in the funeral of
Scott Richardson, a man who befriended me a long,
long time ago, and I've never understood why. and a dear friend to myself,
my wife, and our congregation. But to try to capture in a few
minutes the marvel and the mystery of this man is impossible. He taught me many things. for
which I'm indebted. We visited many times, spoke
on the phone an enormous amount of times. So the first thing today that
I'd like to accomplish is to read a little short passage
out of Ecclesiastes and relay a few things concerning Brother
Richardson. I'm expecting now for your pastor
to take care of all that I leave out, which will be a tremendous
amount. And my wife has assured me that
if I get long-winded, I shall get a look that you would not
believe. And I wish somebody was sitting in front of her so
I couldn't see. But here it is. I'll not ask you to turn. But
I will tell you, unless my memory fails me, when I finish, where
the Scripture is. It comes from Ecclesiastes. A good man is better than precious
oil. And there's not but one really
good man. And that's not Brother Scott
or any of us. but all who are in Him, truly
in Him, are made good in God's sight. A good name is better than precious
ointment and the day of death than the day of one's I'll never forget the first time
I used this scripture in a funeral. A Baptist preacher, you know
what they call generic Baptist, free will Baptist preacher was
there and he came up to me after the funeral and he said, man,
I would never dare take this reading in a funeral. He thought
I'd lost my mind because I'd never had one, you know. But
this is how it is. Which one of you, if we could, would call this man back? We're trying to figure out whether
to be sad or glad, and it's a combination of the two. It gets more interesting, listen.
It is better to go to the house of mourning, sorrow, grieving,
than to go to the house of feasting. And we are told a reason for
that. For that is the end of all men, and the living will
lay it to heart. Now who are the living? Those
made alive in Christ. As a lost man, with no beginning work of grace
in the soul, attending a funeral won't do you a bit of good. In
fact, if you go to most down our way, it'll do you a great
deal of harm. But the living, the believers will lay it to
heart. It's a sobering thing. And we
need this. Sorrow is better than laughter. For by the sadness of the countenance,
the heart is made better. It's a medicine. It's a remedy. It's a cure. It's called the
balm of Gilead. The heart of the wise is in the
house of mourning or sorrow, but the heart of fools is in
the house of mirth or laughter." So here we are. We do mourn in a way, but not a kind of mourning that
is sinful. with gladness and joy at our
brothers being released from this world in which we live.
Second passage. I haven't looked at my wife yet,
so I can't tell you. That was Leviticus 7, 1 through
4. Second passage is in the book of Psalms. It goes like this.
It's David's Psalm. This is what you and I should
consider personally ourselves. Not about somebody else, but
about me. Lord, make me to know my end. My end. Heaven or hell, my end. One of
the two. There is no middle ground. Lord,
make me to know my end. and the measure of my days, the measure of my days, not how
long it is. The next phrase is when it, I'm
sorry, when, while, let me, what it is, the nature of it, not
the time of it, not the circumstances of it, But what it is, that I
may know how frail I am, how little there is that stands between
us and the grave, the most minute thing, or the
most catastrophic thing, or somewhere in between, that we're going
to leave this world unless our Lord returns. David said, behold,
still continuing the same passage, you've made my days as an handbreadth. That's not very big. At best, 86 years old, seems like nothing goes by so
quickly. is as nothing before you. Verily, truly, every man at his
best state is altogether vanity." And then you find that little
mysterious word, sila. Let me read a couple more verses
and we'll come to it again and I'll tell you what I think it
is. You probably won't agree and that's fine. Surely every
man walks in a vain show. Surely they are disquieted in
vain." What gets us bent out of shape? Eternal things, important things,
or things that tomorrow won't meet a hill of beans? We're just quieted in vain. He
heaps up riches and has no clue who they'll wind up with. And if he wants to be real religious,
he can give away some of his money after he's dead. It ain't
even his then, it's somebody else's. That's real generosity. couldn't turn it loose while
he was alive. Wait till he's gone. And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in You. Deliver me from all my transgressions. Make me not the reproach of the
foolish. David said, I was dumb. I opened
not my mouth." Why? Because God did it. God did this. It's an appointed day. It cannot
be changed. Remove your stroke away from
me. I am consumed by the blow of
your hand. When you with rebukes do correct
me for iniquity, you make his beauty to consume away like a
moth. And this man believed that and
preached that with all his heart. Surely every man is vanity. Now here's what I think of the
word SELAH. It's found in many places in
the Bible, not only in the Psalms but elsewhere. It's found in
odd places and places where you might expect it. But if it means
anything, it means at least this. It points us to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Whatever we have read that closes
with that word, we are to seek to find Christ in those words. That is important. That psalm
is titled to the chief musician, and there ain't but one chief
musician, and that's none other than Christ
himself. He alone can make the soul to
sing. Gloomy days like today are happy
days. It is the Savior Himself in our
poor hearts by faith. Be kind enough to take your hymnals
one more time to number 70. And I think if you would, I'd
like to ask you to stand again, please. Number 70. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee Holy, holy,
holy, merciful and mighty God in three Persons, Blessed Trinity Holy, holy, holy, all the saints
adore thee, Casting down their golden crowns around the classic
scene. Cherubim and seraphim, falling
down before thee, with word and heart and evermore shall be. Holy, holy, holy, Lord of darkness,
I see, Though the eye of sin's old man die, Lord, we may not
see. Only Thou art holy, there is
none beside Thee, perfect in power, in love, and purity. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
All thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three Persons,
blessed Trinity. You may be seated. Thank you. Let's pray together. Our Father, how wonderful it
is to be able to call upon You in heart, to worship in heart,
to thank You in heart by the Lord Jesus Christ for His sake and for His honor We are so thankful that today
you've allowed us the privilege to be able to come together in
this blessed and wonderful time of rejoicing and thanksgiving
in the display of your immeasurable and indescribable grace. Oh, how good you are to your
people. How wonderful to behold the miracle
of saving, keeping power. Lord, would you bless our hearts
as we listen to your word. Give us, I pray, ears to hear.
For Christ's sake we ask these things. Amen. I, too, came here a while back to echo the words
Brother Rupert, I know that few preachers would ever have
the privilege that I've had as a pastor to be able to come and
be somewhere to sit and to listen to my pastor. And the Lord in
His infinite mercy and grace allowed me. Can you imagine? Allowed me to be able to be here. Almighty God 55 plus years ago
established a candlestick in Katy, West Virginia. As I've
said before, where in the world is Katy, West Virginia? Well,
I'll tell you where it is. It's a place where God was pleased
to raise up a pastor and call some people out of darkness. saved them by His grace, kept
them by His power, taught them, taught them well. And these people, by the grace
of God, were faithful to a man that you talk to him and he really didn't have a whole
lot to say about himself. Last time I asked him to preach,
He said, well, I probably won't be able to do you much good. I said, well, why don't you preach
anyway? Often when our loved ones are
sick, we pray that the Lord, according
to His will, would heal them. I thought a lot about that passage
of Scripture when that leper came to the Lord and he said,
Lord, if you will, you make me whole. I remember that a lot, Paul. But you know, it's one prayer that is going
to overrule every time. Any prayer that I or you or anybody
else would ever pray. There's one prayer that I can
tell you is going to overrule eventually. And it's John 17,
24. I'll just read this to you. If
you've got a Bible you want to turn, John 17, 24. Father, now
this is the Lord Jesus Christ praying. This is the high priestly
prayer. 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. That prayer is going to be answered
every time for God's people. What we're talking about, what
we're considering in the passing from this life into eternal glorious
life of not only our dear friend, Brother Scott, for every object of God's mercy. What we're talking about is the
will of Almighty God. I will. The will of God to receive His
own unto Himself. Oh, what a joy that is to Him. That just amazes me when I think
about that. He would be pleased to have one
such as I. And I'm not just saying that,
I mean that. I know myself a whole lot better
than you know me, and He knows me infinitely. He said, Father, I will. they may be with Me, beholding
My glory." You think about the glory that
is given Him, that which You've given Me, the obedient Son, never, never, never deviating
in one thought in one deed, in one word, He never, I do only,
always those things that pleases my Father. Glory that was given Him, I'm
talking about God-Man, Mediator, the Father who said this is my
beloved Son, I'm well pleased. And Him who is the spoken of
One that Father is well pleased with, He says, Father, I will. Those that You've given Me in
everlasting, eternal, electing grace, I want them to be with
Me. They can behold My glory. To behold His glory! Wow! I don't even know what that means,
Donny. I have not seen, the ear has
not heard, neither has entered into the heart of man that which
God has prepared for those that love Him. Beholding His glory. But I'll tell you this, that
glory, that immeasurable, indescribable, this little frail creature right
here that is nothing more than a voice, I cannot set forth because my
mind cannot perceive it, but whatever it is, The Lord willed
that His people behold it, and I can tell you right now, Brother
Scott, right now, behold this by sight, that which you that
believe can only behold by faith, right now. Oh, you're right,
Rupert, I wouldn't wish him back. In my heart, in my frail flesh,
I miss seeing him. He'd walk around that corner.
I'd be sitting right there in that desk. He'd walk around.
He'd say, Whoa! How you doing, Marv? I'd say, I'm doing good, old
buddy. I miss seeing him. But I'll tell
you what, knowing that the will of the Lord Jesus Christ for
him right now This is the will of Christ. This is the will of
the Savior. I will. I will that they be with me. What a privilege. That's a privilege
that's given. And a joy that's only going to
be realized in that day. Not today, for us at this moment. But it could be. Not at this
moment right now, but it could be the next time I snap my finger. The Lord Jesus Christ. He came in time. But I tell you this, He never
began. He never started. Psalm 822,
the Lord, and that's capital L, capital O, capital R, capital
D. That is Jehovah. Triune God. Oh, here's a great mystery. God
Himself, who was made flesh, and God Himself possessed me in the beginning
of His way. Before His works of old, I was
set up, anointed, prophet, priest, king, from everlasting. He never began. He was manifest
in time. Yes, He was. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,
and the Word was made flesh. But He never started. He has
stood as the everlasting surety, betrothed everlastingly. He said, I was by Him as one
brought up with Him. I was daily His delight, rejoicing
always before Him, rejoicing in the habitable part of His
earth, and my delight I looked that up. Blinding joy. My delights. Blinding joy. His delights were
with the sons of men. Can you imagine? He everlastingly
with blinding joy beheld those that He everlastingly loved oh He said I've loved you with
an everlasting love and I will those that the Father's given
me I will that you be with me that you may behold my glory
that glory was given to Him by the Father Now that prayer, that high priestly
prayer, that gives great joy and comfort to God's people. And we behold there, Father,
I will. We behold not only His desire,
yes, that was His desire, that is His desire, but that's His
right. He has a right. This is what
I will by right. John 17 verse 2 says, As thou
hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given him. Oh, he ever stood, ever stood eternally. who chose a people, an elect
people in Christ, chose them in Christ, gave them to the Son,
the surety, He who would answer. And He never looked at them again
for satisfaction. He looked at the Son. They are
your responsibility. My need is to do the will of
Him that sent me and to finish the work. And all that the Father
has given me are going to come to me, shall come to me. And
Him that comes to me, I will in no wise cast you out. Father, I will. Be with me. His will, His right, is the assurance
and the fulfillment of that everlasting covenant. His will. His will. That's all my hope
right there. If He set His affection on me,
if He's everlastingly loved me, if He said, I will have you,
I will be there. I'll be there. David said in 2 Samuel 23, 5,
Although my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me
an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things insure. David said,
This is all my salvation and all my desire, although he make
it not to grow. now in that his will is going
to be accomplished he said my counsel shall stand it's not by accident it's by
purpose all things work together for
good to them that love God to them who are called according
to his purpose God does everything on purpose Knowing that His will is going
to be accomplished, something precious in His sight is going
to have to take place. And the Spirit of God, in Psalm
116.15, recorded something of the heart of God and allowed
us the privilege to read it, to know it. This is what the
Spirit of God taught us, precious. in the sight of the Lord is the
death of His saints." Valuable is what it means. Rare, that's what precious means. Valuable, rare, honorable, costly,
splendid. Something unimaginable, something indescribable,
something precious. happened right in front of us
last Tuesday morning between one and two o'clock. Something
precious in the sight of God. He said by irresistible power
to our dear friend, to the pastor of many of us who are sitting
here, not only those that are members but many of you that
knew him and loved him, come up hither. It's time. It's time. It's time. And our dear friend, who, like all of God's people,
is set apart in Christ, redeemed by the precious blood of the
Lamb, called with a holy calling, holy calling, given faith to
believe what Almighty God had eternally willed and purposed
and accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ, He left this world. And I'll tell you this, I knew
Him just well enough. I knew Him just well enough. He was rejoicing. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of the saint. God Almighty removed from this
world. One, as all the objects of His
mercy, He removed them from this world and added them to the host
in that one. That's precious in His sight.
Take them out of this world. Struggled, hurt, sick, lonely. He'd talk to me sometimes. He'd say, Marvin, I'm so lonely.
I said, I know you are. I said, I know just how you feel.
I know how you feel. He said, yeah, I know you do. Precious. By the death of his
saints, the triumph of the work of redemption is shown. Now I'm
going to tell you something, the world doesn't know anything
about this, but I'll tell you it's precious in the sight of
Him who does know what's going on. And it's precious, though we
see in part and know in part, it's precious to us too. But precious by the death of
His saints we behold the reality of our profession. This is what
I mean by that. You watched, you saw, you witnessed
the keeping power of God. He said we're kept by the power
of God through faith. And you know what? We watched
that. We saw it. It was His time. It was His time
according to His time. To everything there is a season,
a time to ever purpose unto heaven, a time to be born, a time to
die. And he who exercises all things after the counsel of his
own will called him. And he who said, I'll never leave
you, I'll never forsake you, was faithful to his word. The Lord said, I will give you
pastors after mine own heart. And he did that. He gave a pastor
here. He gave a pastor. I mean, he
was a pastor. It wasn't a job to him. It was a calling. Man, it's wonderful
to see. see one of those. And the Lord, according to His
heart, He said, I'll give you pastors after My own heart and
they'll feed you with knowledge and understanding. My, we saw that. He was loved and He was respected
by many. Being here just a few years,
there's so many of you here that personally saw him for years,
years, years longer than I did. He was one of the most quoted
men. He and your dad, your pastor. Two men, Brother Henry Mahan,
Brother Scott Richardson. We just love him and respect
him. Every once in a while he'd come
up to me He'd sit down and he'd say, I got something for you. And I'd say, okay. And he'd tell me something. And
I don't have much sense, but I got enough sense to know that
my little fickle memory is not very good, so I jotted down a
bunch of them. I'm going to just read a couple
of them, a few of them to you, just things that you've heard,
These are some things the Lord taught him and then taught us. I've got something for you. You
know, he had a way of saying things, knowing how to say it.
And people understood just exactly what he was talking about. He
just knew how to say it. And you thought, man, I wish
I had said it like that. He said, God never changes. This is what he told me when
I first got here, right at the beginning, talking about preaching. He said, God never changes. Lay down the immutability of
God and build every message upon that truth. In the place that
you make God to change, therein, he said, you err. Not God. He told me this about partaking
of the Lord's Supper. He said, in the times that we
partake of the Lord's Table, simply eat the bread and drink
the cup. The less that's seen of the preacher, the more the
Lord's honored. There's a lot of preachers around
here and we're so silly so often. hear somebody say something.
Your dad said something one time. He said, Don't cut a man off
for a word. Why didn't I think of that? Here's what Bruggs Scott
said. He said, If a fellow preacher
or another believer is incorrect in his understanding of a certain
passage of Scripture and the discrepancy is not one of fundamental
truth, he said, be patient with him. The Lord will teach him. God Almighty had to do something
for Himself before He could do something for a sinner. He had
to be just in dealing with sin in the person of His dear Son
before He could justify a sinner. God Almighty never shows mercy
at the expense of His justice. He said before the foundation
of the world, God Almighty put a people that He everlastingly
loved into the Lord Jesus Christ and where He put them, He kept
them. Where they are now, they've always been. The way God sees
them now is the way God's always seen them. He never changes. He said if the Lord Jesus is
all you have, you have enough. He said you can't talk to men
about God unless you talk to God about men. Any refuge built at the time
of storms will cave in when the sun shines. He said, love that
looks across is admiration. Love that looks up is adoration. Love that looks down is mercy. The watchword, he said, of every
believer is the Lord be magnified. I was preaching a while back
on the resurrection. I got done and what I was talking
about is this body, sown in corruption, going to be raised in incorruption, sown in weakness, raised in power,
honor, glory. These eyes, these ears are going
to be changed, but this body, this body, this body, The resurrection
is not a new creation, it's a resurrection. That means this body that's going
back to the dust is going to be changed and this body, as
Job said, these eyes, I'm going to see God. This body, this frail,
weak body is going to be changed. And I asked Brother Scott to
close in prayer, in his prayer. He said this, he said, I didn't
shout out loud, but I did in my heart. The last time he spoke
here, I'd always ask him to read, and he'd read and he'd make a
few comments. And if you'd see his notes, you'd just
say, how'd he follow that? But he did. He did do that. I jotted these things down. I
had Linda make a copy of them out there if you want them. There's
some copies of what he said. But he didn't say everything. He didn't say everything that
he had written down on here. He was talking about what heaven
is going to be to us, the believers. He said, no more darkness, no
more dying in a ditch. Now you have to think about this.
Now this is coming from a man that God has taught some things.
No more sickness, no more crooked roads, No more jail. No more sin. No more pain. No more crime. No more war. No more headaches. No more fears. No more confusion. No more lacking. No more vanity. No more waiting. No more going astray. No more reproach. No more afflictions. no more misery, no more oppression,
no more curse, no more dishonoring God. Our name will not be called
Jacob anymore." And then he put down here on
the bottom, and I thought this was strange at first, but I thought,
you know what? What a thought. He said, no more
birthdays. will be forever with him no more
birthdays not getting older just with him today we do celebrate and I do
rejoice I love this guy he's been my friend he has been a
friend to me I mean just man just be able
to pick up the telephone and call him. I did appreciate that. I appreciate the time that I
had with him. I know many of you do too. I'm going to have
Brother Gary come up and we're going to have him sing a chorus. If you don't know it you just
listen to it. Maybe if he sings it twice you'll
learn it the second time. So let's stand together.