Savior, I know, built you in
the ages before me. Glory, glory, All right, back to Psalm 116
now. As I said, I want to tonight
to celebrate the homecoming of one of our dear sisters in Christ.
This will be our funeral for her. Believers celebrate the passing
of other believers into the land of the living. the dead bury
the dead. Believers celebrate the living. This is the land of the dead.
This is the land of the dead. Those who are dead in trespasses
and sin with Christ, who is life, is the land of the living. Psalm
116, a verse we all know very well, verse 15. Psalm 116 verse 15 says, Precious
in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Precious
in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. The word
precious there means honorable. You may remember Peter using
that same word in 1 Peter 2. Verse 7, he says, to you who
believe he is precious. He is an honor. It's an honor to know Christ. It's an honor to be found in
him. It's an honor to be loved by
the King of Glory. It's an honor to be in his family. It's the highest honor that can
be bestowed upon a human being. It's to know him. To you who
believe he is precious and the death, the scripture says, the
death of God's saints is a high honor. A high honor, it's God's
people's crowning time and it's their glorification, it's our
graduation. But it's not something like when
we graduate from school or something where we get congratulations
for it. No, at that graduation, Christ
gets all the congratulations for what he has accomplished.
At death, the highest honor is bestowed upon the saints. Christ himself meets his people
at the gate of glory and says, Enter ye into the joy of the
Lord. The King of glory meets his people
personally at the gates of heaven. It's not Peter. I don't know
where they got that. It's Christ himself. To be absent
from the body, the scripture says, is to be present with the
Lord. And he shall say, Enter thou
into the joy of the Lord. Enter thou into the things I
have prepared for thee from the foundation of the world." Virgie
fell asleep and woke up in the arms of Jesus Christ. Think about
that. Looking into his face. I don't
know whose face she saw last, but the next one she saw was
the best. His face. We talk about him, don't we?
She's looking at him. We long for him. She has him. Actually, like John said, we
touched him, we handled him. She's actually doing that. We
remember him and what he said. She's listening to him right
now. I don't want to break my own rule now. Quit that, Jeanette.
I love you, Roberta. I said, no tears. Honorable, it says, in the sight
of the Lord is the death of his saints. Honorable. That word
precious also means much set by. Much set by, or very valuable. Very valuable is the death of
God's saints in his sight. It's very valuable in this. It's
a time of great testimony. unto the Lord Jesus Christ. The
deathbeds of God's saints have been the greatest testimony to
the living Lord, haven't they? Tell them of God's saints. I've
seen them on their deathbeds, and it's been the time of greatest
glory and testimony and praise unto the living Lord ever. More
is said at the dying of a saint than a whole lifetime lived.
It's a time of testimony for him. It's a time of fellowship
for the church. It's very highly valuable. It's a time set by when the Lord
draws his people together, and it's a time very valuable for
God's people. It unites our hearts. The word precious also means
dear. Dear. It's dear. In the sight
of the Lord, dear, very dear. is the death of his saint. Sweet
entrance. Sweet reunion. A time of real
introduction. We think we know him now. We're going to see him as he
is. We're going to know him then. We know him part now. We're going
to know him then. Soon as we see him. Not going
to be I said it's a time of real introduction. It's not going
to be any introduction per se. I'm the Lord and we're going
to know. We're going to know as we have
been known. We're going to say like Sheba,
I have heard of you and now I see you. And the half has never been
told. Or like Job, I have heard of
thee and now I see you. You know, Virgie was always talking
about her church, always talking about her church
and her preacher, her preacher. Well, and we were nothing, you
know, we're nothing really, mere servants of the Lord who loved
her, her real Lord and her real friend and her real lover. I kind of thought of Rebecca.
You remember when the old servant of Abraham went to look for a
bride for Isaac, and he tried to tell Rebecca about Isaac,
whom she had never met before, and she believed him. And she
went with him to meet Isaac, and She she I bet she. Felt a real fondness for that
servant. But you know when she saw Isaac.
I bet you forgot all about that. And. And this is no. Front to us at all, but one side
of Jesus Christ. Burgess forgotten all about us.
Oh, yeah. Isaiah 65 says, The former things
shall not be remembered, nor come to mind. One side of Jesus
Christ. Forget everything else. Everybody
else. Right? One side of him. The text
says, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his
saint. Precious, a high honor. Invaluable. A thing set by. In the sight of the Lord. In the sight of the Lord. You
know, faith is to see things as God sees them. God sees things
as they are. And if we see things with these
eyes only, we don't see things as they are. And we see things
wrongly. Scripture says we walk by faith
and not by sight. The scripture says the things
that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen
are eternal. We look at death as being final. That's the reason we sorrow.
If we saw things like God sees, we wouldn't shed a tear. We wouldn't weep one tear if
we saw things as God sees it. We look at death as final. God
sees it just as the beginning, the glorious beginning. We see death as a loss, don't
we? Oh, we've lost someone. God sees it as great gain. Great gain. This text says, precious in the
sight of the Lord. We need to have this sight. It's
the death of his saints. The only reason it's called death
here is so that we might understand it as the ending of this life. But it's not death. It's far
from it. It's not death. It's life. It's not death to the believer.
It's life. When our Lord told the disciples
that came to him and said, Lord, Lazarus is sick. You remember
what he said? He said, Lazarus is sleeping. And they said, well, if he's
sleeping, he'll do well. Oh, yeah, he sure will. And then our Lord said, Lazarus
is dead, so that they might understand what he meant. His life here
is ceased. And that's when they got sorrowful. And remember when Martha and
Mary, Martha came running to him and said, Mary came running
to him and said, Lord, if you'd been here, my brother hadn't
wouldn't have died, he said, Mary, I am the resurrection and
the life. He that believeth in me shall
not never die. Never die. Lazarus sleepeth. Lazarus sleeps. So the end of
this life is not death. It's the beginning of real life. Now, the believer has life in
Christ now. We do. But it's just the foretaste,
isn't it? It's just a taste. We've just
dabbled. We've just touched our tongue in the tip of the ocean
of life. We've just touched our little
toe in the tip of that vast, cool ocean of life. Haven't we? We've just touched it, tasted. We've just tasted and seen that
the Lord is gracious. Then we'll be totally engulfed
in our gracious Lord. not just going to experience
his grace, we're going to be in the one who's gracious. And
taste life. We shall have life the Scriptures
more abundant. A lot more of this, only better. And trying to, and I thought
about this, I'm trying to describe what we shall be, what Virgie,
I can't stand here and describe what Virgie said, because I hadn't
seen Paul did, and he came back and said, I can't describe the
things I've heard, the things I've seen. Trying to describe
what we shall be, or where we shall be, is virtually impossible. We haven't seen. Eye hasn't seen,
ear hasn't heard, neither have entered into the heart of them
The things that the Lord had prepared for them that loved
him. The joy, the inexpressible, indescribable joy. Unspeakable. The scripture is
called a joy unspeakable. Have you ever had joy and you
tried to express your joy? These words are not sufficient. And it's the same thing we enter
into when we hear the gospel at times. We try to describe
the joy of the gospel to someone else, but you've got to experience
it, don't you? You have to experience it. And this fellowship is merely
a foretaste of glory divine. So death is really life to the
believer. It's not death at all. It's really
life to the believer. Because Christ, the scripture
says in 1 Corinthians 15, that Christ triumphed over death.
Scripture says, O death, where is thy sting? O death, where is thy sting?
Virgie could speak. She said, there was no sting
at all. I didn't feel a thing. Didn't feel a thing. Just like
the Lord said, O death, where is thy sting? Christ removed
it. That's where? A honeybee or any
kind of insect that stings you. The hurt of that insect is in
its stinger. But once that stinger is removed,
that thing cannot hurt you. Well, Christ said death can't
hurt you. It's not going to be a hurtful
experience. It's not going to be a painful experience. It's
like the old song says, you've got to walk that lonesome valley,
you've got to walk it by yourself. No. Though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, thou art with me, the scripture
says. There is another scripture that tells me that Christ himself
is going to lead us into the halls of glory. Back when he
was standing, when Christ stood at Stephen's death and bid him welcome, he did the
same thing to our dear sister. Old death, where is thy sting?
There is no sting. Christ removed it. The old writer
said death stung itself to death when it stung Christ. Death stung itself to death when
it stung Christ. Oh, grave, where is thy victory?
People, we're not going to stay dead. Christ proved it. He came
out of the grave and said, I've been there, got nothing to fear.
Come on. Come on. Christ says, come on. We're going to follow him. We're
going to follow Virgin. Don't worry about it. Ellen,
are you next? Don't worry about it. It's not
a sting. It's not a pain. It's just sweet
sleep. Do you worry about going to sleep
tonight? You look forward to it, don't you? You hope you have
it. He giveth his beloved sleep.
And you wake up in joy in the morning. Joy in the morning. Unexpressible joy. Grave wears
ostrich. Victory. Christ triumphed over
it. He walked out of the grave and
so shall we. So shall we. Friday morning, we're going to
put an old, worn-out body in the ground. But Tuesday morning, young Virgie
walked into glory. Young Virgie. Her youth has been
renewed like the eagle. She walked into heaven. and her
glorious young body. We're going to put an old, worn-out
body, and it needs to be put in the grave. It's time. It's
worn out. It's time that's been spent. But Tuesday morning, long before
we put the body in, Tuesday morning, a young Virgie walked in there.
Precious, an honor, valuable, a dear, sweet thing. Much set
by is the death, the life, really. of his saints, because it is
precious to the Lord, precious in the sight of the Lord. We're
going to miss her, and right now it's really not as precious
to us as it should be, but it is to the Lord. Scripture says
it's precious to him. Why? Because he sees things as
they really are, and he sees this as a removal of Virgie from
a life of sin and pain and sorrow to glory. Glory. That's the best description of
heaven and glory. That's an old term, isn't it? Glory. I'm going to glory. I shall be glorified from sin
to glory. It'll be an entrance. It's precious
in the sight of the Lord because it's the entrance of one more
child. One more child of his. One more child's come home. It is precious in the sight of
the Lord. It is honorable in the sight
of the Lord because it is a brand-new shout of triumph for Christ's
redeeming grace. The saints of heaven said, look,
another one that Christ bought with his blood. She made it because of what Christ did. It's
another shout of triumph. He saved another one. Isn't it? Another shout of triumph. Fresh
praise to Christ by all the saints. They don't know who's coming. Huh? Do they? They don't know
when another one's coming. Do they? They might think the
last one that came was the last. And another one pops up and they
shout again. Another one! Is there more? Look at this number. Oh, there's
lots more. Lots more where she came from.
Look, one more. Virgie Jones. Praise the Savior who loved her
and washed her and saved her and called her and kept her.
It's honorable in the sight of the Lord and in the sight of
all heaven. And look at this last line. This
is glorious. He says, Precious in the sight
of the Lord is the death of his saints. His saints. I want you to turn
over to Isaiah 43 with me. Isaiah chapter 43, his saints. Ezekiel chapter 18, the Lord
says, All souls are mine. is the sense in which all human
beings belong to the Lord who made them. Right? All souls are
mine. Scripture says, The dust shall
return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto
the God who gave it. All souls are mine, the Lord
said, but there is a special sense in which God's people are
his. His saints. His saints. I thought about this. All men
and women shall someday stand before their God. We're going
to sit down. We'll stand a while, and then
we're going to be seated. And then the rest are going to be
stood before him to be judged by him. We're going to take a
seat, stand. All people belong to the Lord to do with as he
pleases. Well, the scripture says it pleases
the Lord to make you his people. Look at Isaiah 43, verse 21. He said, This people have I formed
for myself. They shall show forth my praise.
Now, God made the heavens and the earth and everything for
his glory. Everything is for his glory, and all people will
someday give him glory. They are giving him glory right
now. Even the damnation of some people will give God glory. Everything
gives him the glory. But he says, these people, talking
about his saints, the ones he saved, the ones he washed in
his own blood, the ones he covered in his righteousness, these people
have I formed, predestinated, conformed to the image of Christ. These people have I formed for
myself. We'll cast out the rest of them.
as dross, as chaff, as goats. These? They're mine. They're
mine. His saints. They're called this
several different ways in the scripture. His people. His people. His children. These are what,
how God refers to His His children. They're called His flock. He's
the shepherd, and they're His flock. You're not my flock. You're
His flock. His saints. His. Why? His because they're His
by choice. He chose them. He hand-picked
them. Like I picked my bride. I did. And she chose me. But Christ
hand-picked His saints. hand-picked them, hand-chose
them all. They elected them. They're His by purchase. You're
not your own. He bought with a price. He paid
a high price for these people. They're His. They're not their
own. Bought with the precious blood of Christ. They're His
by calling. He calls them all. He calls them
by His gospel. They're His by adoption of God. Are you in Christ? Are you in
the family? They're His saints. Believers belong to the Lord.
Like Solomon said, well, I am his and he is mine. You know, I thought about Gomer
in light of this verse that says, precious in the sight of the
Lord are the deaths of his saints. They're his. I thought about
Gomer. You know the story of Gomer over
in Hosea, how she had many lovers. many lovers. You know who she
belonged to, don't you? She went through a life of suffering
and this and that and the other and attributed many things to
many people. But you know who, you know who
was caring for her, don't you? You know who she belonged to,
don't you? Hosea. He was her husband. And we've
known and loved and been known and loved by many people. But
we've always been his. He said, I've loved them with
an everlasting love. They're mine. We've been his
from the beginning. He foreknew us, foreloved us. He foreknew and foreloved Virgie
Jones. You know, Virgie married a Ray,
didn't she? There was a Ray, and she married
a Ray. And then she married a Jones.
After Mr. Ray died, she married a Jones.
But you know who was her real husband, don't you? Isaiah 54 says, Thy maker is
thine husband. Now, you can marry, like that
woman, the Scripture says, those people asked the Lord, Lord,
here's a woman who married this man, he died, married this man,
he died. Who shall she be in heaven? None of those. Christ. You know what Burgi's name is
now, don't you? It's Christ. It's Christ. Our eye-maker is
thine husband, always has been. And this is one from whom nothing
and no one can separate you. You're going to lose him someday. Who shall separate you from the
love of your real husband? Nobody. Nothing. He might divorce
you. He might. Hope he doesn't. But
he might. Christ won't. Didn't he say that
in Isaiah? He said, where is your bill of
divorcement? I won't divorce you. Death won't separate us
from Christ. It will join us. Eternal union. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of his saints. They're his saints. His saints. They belong to him. They belong
to him. Cannot I do with mine own what
I will? He said. The Lord took what was rightfully
his. He took her. And we're going to miss her.
And we'd like to have her back. We really would. She wasn't going
to be back. No way. And really now, we wouldn't
want to have her back, would we? Would we want to bring her
back to this? The Lord spared her, didn't he?
Spared her more suffering and sorrow. Isaiah 65. I'll read
this in closing. Isaiah 65. Precious in the sight
of the Lord is the death of his saints. They're his. He said
that in Isaiah 43. This people have I formed for
myself. They shall show forth my praise.
That's what Burgess is doing right now. That's what she's
doing with a perfect voice, with a perfect heart, singing. There's one voice singing a little
louder than the other ones right now, unless there's been a saint
die since her. And that one sings the loudest. Isaiah 65, because our death
is to be with him who loved us forever. Our death is to be with
him. who loved us forever. We look
forward to it, and as I've said so many times, and as we shall
read here, he looks forward to it. He looks forward to it. Like
our text said, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death
of his saint. He'd greet her and say, Darling. Guess what
he calls his people? Darling. Look it up sometime. They're called a darling. Here's
Darling Bee, and he says to his saints when Hello, darling. I'm so glad to see you. My Lord and my God. Just like
Mary. My Lord and my God. You live. You live. He looks forward to
the entrance of his precious. Look, let's read these verses
in closing. Isaiah 65, 17. Behold, I create
new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered.
nor come into mine. But be ye glad and rejoice forever
in what I will create, that which I create. Behold, I create Jerusalem
a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem
and joy in my people." The Lord, and I'm not being light or flippant,
I'm being scriptural here, the Lord is so glad to see Virgie
Jones. Just glad to see her. That's
what he said there, isn't it? He loves, folks, he loves his
people more than we do. He loves his children more than
we love our own. Are you glad to see your children? He says, I'm going to joy my
people. Ain't no more weeping. The voice of weeping shall be
no more heard in her. Why would you weep when there's
inexpressible joy? It might be that holy laughter. Nor the voice of crying. There
shall be no more an infant of days, nor an old man or woman
The child shall die a hundred years old, and sinner being a
hundred years old shall be accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit
them. They shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. They
shall not build another and inhabit. They shall not plant and another
eat. As the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine
elect shall long enjoy the work of their hand. They shall not
labor in vain or bring forth for trouble. They are the seed
of the blessed of the Lord, their offspring. And it shall come
to pass that before they call, you know, now we call and hope
for an answer. It says here, Before they call,
I'll answer. We're going to have a question
asked here, and we'll say, Lord, you say, Lord, how do you? Not going to have to ask. He
knows what things we're going to add. Before they call, I'll
answer. While they're yet speaking, Lord, I'll hear. The wolf and
the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw
like the bullet, and the dust shall be the serpent's meat.
They shall not hurt. I'm reminded of a scripture if
I can find it real fast. Scripture says this, and I said,
no tears. In Psalm 126, it says, When the
Lord turned again, the captivity of Zion, we were like them that
dream. But it's not going to be a dream,
it's going to be a reality. Then was our mouth filled with laughter,
and our tongue with singing. Then said they among thee, The
Lord hath done great things for them." That's what we say about
our sister. The Lord hath done great things
for us. We're glad. We're glad. And we're so glad. We're so glad to have known Virgie
Jones and so glad what he's done for her and so glad that she
is where she is now, really. This thing. He on the number. Five hundred twelve. Here come
up five hundred. Twelve. We'll have some. Refreshments downstairs. Stand
with five hundred twelve. OK. Some day the silver cord will
break And I no more as now shall see But oh, the joy when I shall
wave Within the palace of the King And I shall see him face
to face, And tell the stories day by day. And I shall see him face to face,
And tell the stories day by day. Let's sing the second as the
last. Someday my earthly house will fall, I cannot tell how
soon shall be. But this I know, my all in all,
has now a place in heaven for me. That's the music. And I shall
see Him face to face, And tell the story saved by grace. And I shall see Him face to face,
And tell the story saved by grace.