Can you see me? It's evident
they didn't have me in mind when they built this. But our family thanks you for coming
out and showing your love and respect to our family and to
mom and dad. We give thanks. It's an honor. It's an honor for me to stand
here and do this. To preach my dad's funeral is
an honor. It's not easy, but it's an honor. And I told them, I told mom and
dad, I said, if I don't go before you, I said, I'll do your old
funeral. I said, because it's an honor
to do that. I want you to know that the best
day of a believer's life is the day they die. The Apostle Paul
said, for me to live is Christ. That's my life. I don't have
a life without Christ. But for me to live is Christ. To die is gain. There's no loss. There's absolutely no loss. My
dad lost nothing. We did. We did. You know, we lost his presence
and that hurts. And that'll hurt for a while,
but I'm glad he's where he is. I wouldn't bring my dad back
into this world for nothing. That would be, that would not
be good. That'd be selfish, wouldn't it?
That'd be selfish. I thank God he's rejoicing and
I expect to see him again in a little while. I fully expect
to see him again in a little while. And I'll love him like
I ought to have loved him. There's a lot of times I wasn't.
They had disciplined me and it would make me angry. But I'll
love Him like I ought to love Him. He'll love me like He ought
to love me. I'm glad He is where He is. I'm
glad the suffering's over. No more sorrows, no more tears.
That's what the Word of God said. Do we believe the Word of God?
I do. I stand on the Word of God and I believe it and that's
where I draw my strength from right now. It's God's Word. And
my brothers and my sisters and I thank God for our parents. My, so nobody on this earth had
two better parents than we had. God gave us good parents. They
loved us. They made good provision for
us. We never went hungry. Well-clothed and warm home and
a safe home. A safe home. And I thank God
for our parents. You know, when I was a boy, I
asked God to let my parents live till I grew up. I remember that.
I remember that. I asked God to let them live
till I grew up. Well, evidently, it took me a
long time to grow up. Dad, 91 years old. It took me and Celia
a long time to grow up. But I thank God for the long,
full life he gave Mom and Dad. He gave them a full life. I was
telling mom this morning, I said, you all had a full life. You
didn't bury any of your children, your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren.
There'd been no major sickness. I said, you've been blessed.
Blessed of God to have such a life. And that's to rejoice in, rejoice
in that. I told him one time, he was talking
to me about the will. And I said, let me tell you something.
I said, you all gave me great memories and that's all I need.
That's all I need. The memories you gave me is enough.
You don't have to leave me anything. You gave me great memories. Now,
Dad and Mom were married 72 years. That's more than most people
live. But 72 years, and they stayed committed to each other.
They stayed committed to each other through the good times
and the tough times. I tell you what, when they had
tough times, we didn't know it. We kids didn't know that. We
didn't know it. But they did. They had it. I had my barber
last time. He found out when me and my wife
were married for 46 years. He said, what's your secret?
I said, shut up and do what she says. I said, no. After that, I said,
no. I said, the secret is stay committed to one another. And
Christ is the center of the home. That's it. That's it. And then you can shut up and
do what she says. I have to say, Dad tried his hand at a lot of
things. A lot of things. He drilled wells,
he had a produce stand, had a restaurant, car lot, farming, which he never
got over selling. I did. It broke my heart when
we, Dad sold the farm about a month later, we moved into town. I
didn't want, you couldn't get me back on that farm for nothing.
Everything that was happening was happening in town. But he
didn't get over that. He regretted that. But that's
gone now, too. What would it matter? What would
it matter? It wouldn't matter at all. Traded cars. My soul, if anybody knew him,
he traded cars. But that's what he liked to do.
That's what he did. Dad and Mom took us to Disney
World. Can you imagine taking seven kids to Disney World? You'd
have to take out a loan on your house to do that now. They took
us to Disney World. Seven kids. We drove down there
in a station wagon and no air conditioning. They took us. Took us to the
beach. I remember the first time we
went to the beach, us boys would get in there in the bedroom.
We'd act like we were swimming on the bed. That's how backwoods
we were. Living out there on that farm.
We was gonna go see the beach. Took us hunting, fishing. Dad
took us to do that a lot. Dad loved the deer hunt. 90 years
old and he had to be taken out to deer hunt last year. Me and
James took him out there. He lasted an hour. But that's
all right, he win. He just enjoyed it. He had done
that since the 50s and never missed a year. He just enjoyed
it that much. And James and I, being older,
went a lot of places with Dad. Rex was a lot younger than us.
We went a lot of places with Dad, and we learned a lot by
watching him, and we learned by doing, which is the way sons
and daughters ought to learn, is by their parents. Parents,
you are examples. You are examples to your children.
Be good examples. And the home, listen, the home
we grew up in was a quiet home. It was a quiet home. Mom and
dad could take us anywhere, and you wouldn't know seven kids
were in the house. You wouldn't. Dad was strict. Dad was strict. He meant what he said. I wish
sometimes he didn't, but he did. Because he told us sometimes,
when you get home from church, you're going to get a whipping.
He never forgot it. I'm telling you, he never forgot
it one time. I mean, it was like, why don't
you just have a memory lapse or something? But he never did. If he told us that, if he told
us, he did it. That was a man of his word. I'll
tell you what, he was a lot tougher than I realized. He was a lot
tougher than I realized. He broke his hip, his thigh,
his wrist, his nose, his cheek, his elbow, his back, caught pneumonia,
COVID, and still was ready to go. Wow. I never realized how tough he
was. Dad and Mom were workers. They were workers. There was
no grass growing under their feet. They were workers. Our
home was always clean. It was. It was always clean.
Not that us boys Had anything to do with that. The girls and
mom kept it clean. Our yard was always neat. We
were the weed eaters. We had to get down on our knees
and pull grass around the fence and around the house. Then I
invented the weeder after I grew up. Dad said to me once, he said,
I don't know. He said, I don't know what your
mother's gonna do when I die. I said, I do, Dad. I said, she's
going to vote Republican. That's the first time I got dad,
he didn't know what to say. He didn't know whether to cry
or laugh. He just dumbfounded. I can't believe you just said
that. But we had a good home. We had good parents. We had good
parents. Had a good father. I didn't have a perfect father.
I've got one perfect father in heaven. But I loved the one he
gave me. He gave me a good one. But the
one thing I am the most thankful for, and I've told Dad this,
the one thing I'm the most thankful for is this. One Sunday afternoon,
Vicki and I went over to Mom and Dad's to eat. As we all did, we would go over,
husbands and wives, bring the kids over, And mom would cook. We didn't bring a dish, did we?
Mom cooked for all of us. Not a word was said, not a complaint. We did that for years. But I
went over there one Sunday and mom, dad was watching Henry Mahan
on television. And dad said to me, This man
is preaching the gospel. He said, that's the gospel. I'd
made a profession when I was 20 years old. I was 23 when this
happened. He said, that man is preaching
the gospel. I sat down and I listened, and I heard the gospel. I heard
the gospel in power like Paul wrote to the Thessalonians. He
said, the gospel came not unto you in word only, but in power
and in demonstration of the Spirit. And for the first time in my
life, I want you to listen now, for the first time in my life,
I was afraid of God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. For the first time, I was afraid
of God. I had a right fear of God for
the first time, and not a place. Not a place called hell. Salvation
has nothing to do with the place. Salvation has nothing to do with
heaven and hell. It has nothing to do with that. It has everything
to do with me being made one with God and how can God do that?
How can God be a just God and save a wretch like me? And I
tell you what, I didn't even know what a wretch I was. I remember
I told somebody when I first made a profession, I said, I
used to be a sinner, I'm not now. Well, that changed. I found
out I'm a sinner, a wretched man all the way home. I'm saved
by the grace of God. I'm saved by grace. Grace alone. And I learned that. Preachers
are selling a place and Christ has an insurance policy. Jesus
Christ is not an insurance policy. Jesus Christ is my life. Jesus
Christ is my justification. Jesus Christ is absolutely everything
I need to stand before God minus everything else. Everything else. And I heard that and I learned
that. Here's what I heard and learned and Dad believed. I learned
for the first time that God is sovereign. God is sovereign. And God could leave me alone
and be just in doing so. God could leave me alone. I never... It was not this Jesus who wants
to save me or save you if I let Him. I don't need a God that
I have to let do something or not do something. I don't need
that kind of God. I need a God who can reach down
and get a hold of me and lift me out of the pit. That's the
kind of God I need. I don't need a God who asks me
if I want to be saved. I need a God who saves me. That's
what I need. I need one who saves, not tries
to save me. It was not me accepting Jesus
as my personal Savior. I found out, listen, I found
out I was in His hands, He's not in mine. I don't ask anybody,
what are you going to do with Jesus? No, what's He going to
do with you? What's He going to do? He's the
Lord, I'm not. He's the potter, I'm the clay. And it changed
my whole world. It changed my whole, it turned
me upside down. I am in the hands of the sovereign
God of heaven and earth. And listen, until we worship
Jesus Christ at His sovereign throne, we've not yet worshipped
Him. And we've not yet been saved. I want you to listen to what
our Lord said in the High Priestly Prayer in John 17. He said, Father,
the hour has come. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son
may glorify Thee, as Thou hast given Him power over all flesh. including mine. Listen, that
He should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given Him. He has power over all flesh,
mine and yours. He has power over all things.
Satan, Satan has no power at all. You know Pilate said, don't
you know I can release you? Don't you know I have the power
to release you or crucify you? And that's the only time the
Lord spoke. He said, you don't have any power at all except
to be given you from above. A dog can't even bark at me without
his will. It can't do it. Moses in Exodus
33, he said, Lord show me your glory. Show me your glory. You know what God said? And this
is the Lord speaking to Moses, the Lord Jesus Christ speaking
to him. He said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee,
I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be
gracious to whom I'll be gracious, and will show mercy to whom I'll
show mercy. It's His. It's His. I think one
of the reasons that America's in the mess it's in is straight
from the pulpit. They've watered down God so much that when you
have no fear of God, you don't have any fear of the law, you
don't have any fear of anything else. It starts with God Almighty
is where it starts. It's like that leper said, he
said, Lord, if you will. He didn't say, here I am, I accept.
No, he said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. I am at
your mercy. I'm at your mercy. This is the
gospel dad believed. This Jesus who wants to but can't
because I won't let him. The Bible knows nothing about
that Jesus, nothing. Here's what the Word of God says
about my will. In John 5, 40, you will not come
to me that you might have life. If Jesus Christ did not have
power over all flesh and my flesh, I wouldn't come to Him at all.
I didn't give a flip about God or Christ or anything else had
to do with Him. I didn't. I didn't. I love darkness
rather than light. And that's the way we are born
into this world, every one of us. We love darkness rather than
light. It says over in Luke 22.67, they
said, Art thou the Christ? Tell us. And he said unto them,
If I tell you, you will not believe. Face the gifts of God. If God
doesn't give it to you, you ain't going to believe. It's not in
our nature to believe God. The Scripture says the natural
mind is enmity at war with God. God has to save a sinner. He
has to save a man before that man will ever want to be saved.
God has to give light before you'll know you was ever in darkness.
God has to give life before you'll ever know that you were dead
in trespasses and sins. I want you to listen to this
scripture. I'm giving you a lot of scripture. You know, when
I was at the house of mom and dad's, I took some of his tablets. of his writings. I didn't realize
he wrote so much, and as solid as can be. This gospel, he believed
this gospel. But listen to 2 Corinthians 11,
verse 4. For if he that cometh preaches another Jesus... What
do you mean, another one? Christ said they'll come saying,
here's Christ, there's Christ. Preaching another Jesus whom
we've not preached, or if you receive another spirit which
you have not received, or another gospel. Another gospel, there's
a lot of versions of it out there, but there's only one gospel,
and that's the gospel of God's glory. The gospel of His redemptive
glory, which you have not accepted, you might well bear with me.
Make sure, make sure that the Jesus Christ you believe is the
right one. It's the one revealed in this
book. Make sure it's the right one. Don't just take the preacher's
word for it. That's why John said in 1 John,
"...try the spirits, whether they be of God, because there
are many false prophets going out into the world. Satan has
many false preachers in pulpits, using the name of Jesus Christ,
but they won't preach his character, they won't preach who he is,
who he is, what he did, where he is, and who he did it for. Now briefly, I'm going to briefly, I'm going to give you the gospel
that Dad believed. First of all, to do that, I've got to go back
to the garden. I've got to go to the garden. Someone said,
wrong on the fall, Wrong on it all. If you get wrong on what
happened in the Garden of Eden, you won't get any of it right.
You'll never understand the cross. You'll never understand what
happens in the heart of a sinner when God saves that sinner. You
won't understand it. When Adam fell, did he die? Did he die? Did Adam die spiritually
or was he just wounded? When people think of a fall,
they think you can get up from a fall, don't they? You can't
get up from dead. In Adam, all die. In Christ,
all are made alive. That's what it says. You know,
I've learned this about dead. The scripture said we're dead.
We're spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. I've learned this.
There's no degrees of dead. You know that? Someone may be
barely alive, but they're never barely dead. We are spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins. It says in Ephesians 2.1, And
you hath He quickened or made alive who were dead. He made
you alive. What can a dead person do? Nothing. Nothing. Completely, completely
at the will of the Lord. Completely at His mercy. And
there's no better place to be than at His mercy, because He
delights to show mercy. It says in Colossians 2.13, And
being dead in your sins, In the uncircumcision of your flesh,
when you were that way, He made you alive. Hath He quickened
together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses? And that's
past tense. Having forgiven you. All of Adam's
children are born spiritually dead. We do not have the life
of God. This is why the Lord said in
John 3, you must be born again. Secondly, and I'm going to go
through this quickly. What happened at the cross? To
understand the gospel, you have to understand what happened at
the cross. Listen, the cross is not a rescue
attempt on the human race. It's not a rescue attempt on
the human race. It's God redeeming sinners. It's God purchasing
sinners. It says in 1 Timothy 3.16, here's
what you have to understand, and I realize this, who died
on that cross? That makes all the difference
in the world. Who died on that cross? The scripture says the
Son of God. God in human flesh. Without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the
Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory.
John 1.1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God, and the Word was made flesh. and
dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory as of
the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth." In Acts 20, 28. Now listen to
this. I'm going to show you who died
on that cross. Take heed, this is Paul talking
to the elders of Ephesus. Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves
and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath purchased
with His own blood." Who purchased me? God did. God in human flesh
suffered the penalty of His own law in my place. He took upon Him flesh that He
might have blood to shed in my place. His blood answers for
my sins that I ask forgiveness for. For whom did Christ die? Sinners. Ungodly. I tell you what, Christ is going
to save sinners. He's going to save sinners. But
the hardest thing to find is a sinner. You can go to the prison
and can't find them. Go to the prison and see if you
can find a bona fide sinner according to the Bible, a biblical sinner.
You can't find them. They've got an excuse. They've
got an excuse for what they do. They've got an excuse for why
they're there. A sinner is one who has no more excuses. He has
no more excuses. Did Jesus Christ redeem those
for whom He died or did He not? Did He? Did His blood pay the
price? Did His blood pay the price? It absolutely did. Or
did He leave, now listen, did He leave the end result up to
a bunch of God-hating rebels? Is God going to take the death
of His Son and leave it to a bunch of people who are born into this
world who hate Him starting now? I'm so thankful, I'm so thankful
that God saved me by His grace without asking me if He could.
Because I'd have said no. I would have said no. And God being sovereign, He says
He gives no account of any of His matter. He's not going to
ask us anything, is He? I tell you what, everything you have,
you own, belongs to Him. It belongs to Him. When Job,
he took Job's ten children. God's a God of means. Satan wanted
to do it, but Job didn't charge Satan. He said, the Lord giveth,
and the Lord taketh away. And he doesn't ask if he can.
Boy, you learn that, you learn to worship God. When he cried, it's finished.
Was it? Do I have to put the finishing
touches on it by faith? No. We don't finish the Gospel. We
don't finish salvation. It's finished from Alpha to Omega
by our Lord. Did he satisfy God's law or did
he not? Absolutely. He died under the
penalty of the law. He died. Faith does not make... Now listen, this is important.
Faith does not make effectual what Jesus Christ did at Calvary.
You know what makes that effectual? The one that did it. Who He is
makes what He did effectual. My faith does not put the finishing
touches on it. Faith is a gift of God. He gave
it to me. You know why I believe, you know
why I believe the gospel, you know why Dad believed the gospel? You
couldn't help it. I can't help it. I'd have to
lie and say I don't. It's a gift. It's a gift. The wages of sin is death. The
gift of God is eternal life. He doesn't ask you if he can
give you a gift. I'm not going to ask you if I can give you a gift, Mike.
I'm going to give it to you. And last of all, last of all,
What happens when God saves a sinner? I'm going to be brief here. What
happens? Well, there's a new birth. The Lord said in one place,
you don't put new wine into old bottles or the old bottle will
burst. You've got to have new wine.
There's a new nature is what he's talking about. It's not a renovation
of the old man. It's not me cleaning up my act.
It's not me doing certain, quit doing this and I start doing
that. That's not it. It's God creating me anew in
Jesus Christ. It's a new nature. I still have
that old nature. I still have that old, I still,
like one preacher said, I still have one leg that wants to go
dancing. I still have it. I still have it. But I have a
new nature that's born of God, created in righteousness and
true holiness. That's of God. That's of God. I'll ask you a question to make
a point here. What did you have to do to be born into this world?
Absolutely nothing. I had nothing to do with my first
birth and I have nothing to do with my second birth. That's
of God. That's of God. You must be born again to believe. Believing does not cause the
new birth. You know that faith and repentance are the evidence
of life and not the cause of it? You know how you know somebody's
alive? They're breathing. They're hungry
and thirsty. Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst after righteousness. That's signs of life. It's signs
of life. The new birth is not begotten
by faith, it's begotten by the Spirit of God. It says this in
James 1.18, "...of His own will beget He us with the word of
truth." One preacher said this, and it's so true. It's so true. He said, God saved me against
my will with my full consent. God saved me against my will.
You better hope he violates your will. You'll go to hell. I'm
telling you, you and I love darkness rather than light. We love that
nightlife more than we do that light. We love it. It's a nature
that was not there before. It's not the renovation of the
old, it's the creation of the new. The same power it took to
raise Jesus Christ from the dead is the same power it takes to
make a sinner alive in Christ. And the evidence of it is that
faith and repentance. And here's the purpose of it,
and I'm going to close. To conform a multitude of sinners purchased
by Christ that no man can number, He's gonna populate heaven with
the people just like His Son. You know, if God didn't, and
listen, if God didn't choose me, I wouldn't have ever chose Him.
I wouldn't, there wouldn't be nobody saved. Nobody, you know
what the angels, the angels of fail. And then there's the angels
that did not fall. You know what they are called?
The elect angels. That's what they're called. It
says in 1 Corinthians, not many mighty are chosen. Not many mighty,
not many. He's chosen the foolish things
of the world. I'm so glad. I fit that category. When it
says Christ died for sinners, I fit that category. It ain't
a good thing about me. I ain't had a good thought in
my life. That's not being full of sin. Sin is my nature. Sin is what
I am. Sins are what I do because what
I am. I can stop doing that and it will come out in another direction.
It's like it's going to leak out somewhere. Because it's what
I am. It's the root. It's the root. Like Jonah said,
salvation is of the Lord. This is the gospel Dad believed.
And he told me to sit down there. He said, that man is preaching
the gospel. I heard the gospel. God has never
saved anyone by giving them a chance. God has saved everyone on purpose
and by grace. From Alpha to Omega. And it's
for the glory of His Son. I'm going to read this to you
and I'm done. They asked what scripture we
wanted to put in this. And this was the one that came
to my mind. John 14, 1-6. Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, he's talking to his disciples, he's saying,
I know you believe in God, I know your heart. You believe in God,
believe also in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions, many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you,
a place of acceptance. He's not going up there building
a little cabin, it's a place of acceptance. I lost my place in
Adam. I lost the way, the truth, and
the life. Christ has made to me the way, the truth, and the
life. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come
again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may
be also." That's where Dad is. That's where he is. And whether
I go, you know, and the way you know. And Thomas said unto him,
Lord, we know not the way, whither thou goest. How can we... Thomas
said unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest. How can
we know the way? And Jesus said to him, I am the way. He's not
just showing me the way. He is the way. I am the truth. He's not just telling me the
truth. He is the embodiment of truth. Truth is a person. Life
is a person. The way to God is a person. And
he said, and I'm the life. He's the life of God. Jesus Christ
is the life of God. I don't beg anybody to accept
Jesus as their personal Savior. I tell you what I do. I pray
God to have mercy on a bunch of sinners like me and you. Because
He delights to show mercy. He delights to show mercy more
than you and I delight to have it. I guarantee it. He's never
turned away a sinner. Never. And Jesus said, I'm the
way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes unto the Father
but by Me. He is it. From Alpha to Omega. I'm not interested. I saw a sign
come here somewhere. It said, are you looking for
the rapture? Absolutely not. I'm looking for
Jesus Christ. I'm looking for Jesus Christ.
I'm looking for a person. He stood before Martha and Mary,
and they were crying. He said, your brother will rise
again. They said, we know he'll rise in the resurrection. He
said, Martha, I am the resurrection. You're looking at it. The resurrection
is a person. I'm already resurrected in Christ. Now my body's got to be resurrected,
but I'm seated at God's right hand right now in Jesus Christ.
I'm there in Him, in my representatives. I tell you this, one old preacher
said, don't you move a hair or a hand, but you come to Christ. You look to Him. Don't you come
up some morning bench. Don't you do that. Christ is
our altar. Paul said, we have an altar that they have no right
to eat of that serve the temple. Jesus Christ is my altar. He's
where I come to. I come to God through Him. Okay,
Mike. This is the gospel Dad believed.
It's a gospel for sinners. It's not a gospel for good people.
Christ didn't die for good people because there's not any. There's
not any. That's what God said. I didn't
write the Bible. He did. O Lord my God, when I in awesome
wonder Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made, I see the
stars I hear the rolling thunder. Thy power throughout the universe
is still. And forest plains I wander, and
hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees. When I look down from lofty mountain
grandeur, Sing it with me.