good to see each of you this
afternoon. And it's a sad occasion that
brings us together. And yet it's a rejoicing time
in that Roxanne has gone home to be with Christ. And the scripture says that's
far better. And though we weep, yet Our tears
are not for her, but for us, for ourselves. And we're thankful
that God blessed us with her, and thankful that all of you
folks have had a chance to know her and love her, and siblings
and the rest of the folks in the family. God bless you with
a lovely person in Roxanne, and we ask God's blessings upon you. We're going to sing a song here
in just a couple of minutes, but let's have prayer together
as we begin the service. Lord, we're thankful for your
goodness and your mercy to us through Christ Jesus. Lord, you're
good when you give, and you're good when you take away. As Job said, when all his children
were killed, he said of our Lord that he giveth,
and the same Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In this service, we ask for your
mercies. We ask that you'd comfort the
family. And we ask that as the word of
the gospel goes forth, that you'll bless it to the hearts of all
who are here. Thank you for the gift of life. You give life. And Lord, you
sustain life. And at your predetermined appointment,
you take life according to your will. Bless us with the presence
of thy spirit. These things I ask in Christ's
name and for his sake. Amen. I wonder if you'd get your
psalm books. Let's sing 236. amazing grace. It's a well-known
hymn. The fellow who wrote it wrote
Newton, John Newton. I don't think he would ever have
imagined that his great hymn would be so publicized as it
is in our day. You probably know John Newton,
that he was a traitor of slaves by day, and he was a drunkard
by night. And then God taught him the gospel
of salvation in Christ. And he became a great preacher
and a great songwriter. He made this statement sometime
during his ministry, He said, when he got to heaven, he said,
I'll get there one day. But he said, when I get there,
there'll be three things that will absolutely astound me. He said, first of all, there
will be some people there that I never expected to see. He said,
secondly, there will not be some people there that I fully expected
to see. But he said, The most astounding
and amazing thing of all will be that I shall find myself there,
right in the presence of our Lord. And it's all due to his
amazing grace. 236. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost. Was blind but now I see Was grace
that taught my heart to fear And grace might give relief How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed Through many dangers, toils and
snares, I have already come. Tis grace that brought me safe
thus far, And praise will lead me home. When we've been there ten thousand
years, Bright shining as the sun, We've no less days to sing
God's praise than when we first begun. One of the more familiar portions
of scripture that are read. At funerals, I'm going to read
to you now the 23rd Psalm. It's the Psalm of the Shepherd. Those who are the Lord's sheep,
they know the voice of the shepherd, that is the Lord Jesus, our great
King and Redeemer. John chapter 10. The Savior introduced himself
as being the shepherd of the sheep. And David says, this is
hundreds of years before the Lord Jesus came. David said,
the Lord is my shepherd. He speaks with confidence. I
hope you can, hope you can say that. that he's your shepherd,
he says, I shall not want or I shall not lack for anything. And the reason he says I don't
lack for anything is because of who the shepherd is, the son
of God. It says he maketh me to lie down
in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness, and he does it for his name's sake. And then
he says, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil. And he says, and here's the reason,
for thou art with me. He says, thy rod and thy staff,
they comfort me. He continues and says, thou preparest
a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest
my head with oil. My cup runneth over. My cup of blessings runneth over. And then he says, surely, Goodness
and mercy, those twin graces, he says, they shall follow me
all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house
of the Lord forever. May the Lord add his blessings
to the reading of his words. of Jesus, blest, unmeasured,
boundless, free. Rolling as a mighty ocean in
its fullness over beneath me, all around me, is
the current of thy love leading onward. ? Leading homeward to
my glorious rest above ? ? Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus
springing forth today ? ? His praise from shore to shore ?
? How he loveth ? ? Ever loveth ? ? Changeth never, nevermore
? ? He watches o'er his loved ones
? ? And I, too, call them all his own ? ? How for them he intercedes
? ? Watcheth o'er them from the throne ? ? Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus
Christ ? Every love the best. Tears an ocean vest a blessing. Tears away. ? Sweet of rest ? Oh, the deep,
deep love of Jesus ? Tis a hand of hands to me And it lifts me
up to glory, for it lifts me up to Thee. Aren't you thankful for the deep,
deep love and kindness of the Lord Jesus Christ? Great love. In fact, the Savior said, greater
love hath no man than this, that he laid down his life for his
friends. Most of you are family, and I
Remember some of you from Roxanne's baptismal service a few months
ago. She was quite ill then. And yet she contacted me and
she said she wanted to publicly confess her faith in Christ. And she wanted to do so in front
of her family. And she wanted you to hear the
same gospel that she loved and that she had been watching on
the computer and on the television as she watched our services,
she and Greg, together quite often. Just for your information,
if at a later time You want to watch this service. It is being
recorded. It is being live streamed, and
you can go to our church website at any time, and you'll be able
to watch and listen to this service once again. To Roxanne's dear mother, and siblings,
and all the rest of you. And to you, Greg, our church
holds you up in prayer. We trust that God will give sustaining
mercy to you during this time of grief. Yesterday, Greg sent me a copy. of Roxanne's obituary. I don't get the Huntington newspaper,
but it was in the Huntington newspaper, and I was able to
find it, but he sent me a copy of the obituary, and I'm sure
those of you who watched the excellent presentation here just
a few minutes ago started off with her obituary. And here's
how the first line went. Roxanne Neal was called home
on Tuesday, October the 8th to be with her lord. To be with her lord. Remember
that statement. I'll go back to it in just a
little bit. As I said, I met her the first time when she emailed
me, reached out to me. Y'all used to come here when
you lived in South Point. And Greg's sister over here, Linda,
is a member of our congregation. And I think you told me you sit
at the back. Is that right? What is it about
the back seat that y'all love so much? You know, the old saying
is you have to come early to a Baptist church to get a back
seat. But be that as it may, that's
a habit that Lynda hasn't lost. But hey, I'll take you anywhere
you can come in and sit down. I'll preach to you. And I'm thankful
that the Lord revealed the gospel to Roxanne And as I say, she
reached out to me and asked me if she could be baptized, if
I would baptize her. And I questioned her a little
bit because if anybody says to me, or when somebody says to
me, I want to be baptized, well, I want to know the reason why
they want to be baptized. And she gave a good answer. You
see, baptism that was administered to her right back here behind
me. Baptism doesn't wash your sins
away. Not at all. What can wash away
my sins? Nothing but the what? Blood of
Jesus. That's exactly right. But it
is the answer of a good conscience toward God. And she wanted to
publicly identify with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ with
his preacher and with his church in this area. What do we know about God? I'll
start the message off with that. What do you know about God? Well,
the Bible says he's holy and righteous in all of his ways.
Holy and reverent is his name. Please don't call me reverent.
That name is reserved for just one. That's our Lord. Don't call any man on this earth
reverend. Our Lord is reverend, and He
is holy, and He is just. The Spirit of God teaches us
who God is. is so holy and righteous in all
of his ways that he charges his angels with folly. The Bible
says the heavens aren't even pure in his sight. He's too good to let sin go unpunished. His mercies are over all of his
works, but make no mistake about it. Every good thing that you
have is due to the mercy of God to
you. And you may say, well, I'm a
self-made man. I'm a self-made woman. Well,
I'll tell you this, if you've had any successes in life, it's
only due to the mercy of God. We must attribute all things
to Him. He's good. He's good when He
gives. And He's good when He takes away.
He is holy in all of His ways. Well, what do we know about us?
Well, the Bible says all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. We're all sinners. That's me
too. Sometimes I think people believe,
maybe they have the idea, preachers are preaching down to you. I'm
only elevated so that you can see me and hear me better. But
this does not indicate in any way my statue above you as far
as a human being. I'm a sinful man just like all
of you are sinful people. The Bible says we all came into
the world alienated from God We're sinful. You say, well,
I know I've done some wrong things. We're sinners before God. And you're not a sinner because
you feel like it. You're a sinner because God says
you are. The Bible says all of sin comes short of the glory
of God. That's you, me, and everybody
else. There's only been one perfect
man who ever walked on this earth, and that was the Son of God,
born of a virgin. He's the only one who lived without
sin. He was the sinless Savior. And because He was the Son of
God and sinless, that's why He was qualified to be the Savior
of us sinners. But the rest of us, we're all
alienated from God. Now here's what I'm getting at.
Remember I said at first statement in her obituary, She's gone home. She was called home on Tuesday
to be with her Lord. If the Lord is holy and reverent
and righteous, cannot condone sin, He won't even allow it in
His presence. If our God is holy and we're
sinful, well, then how can anybody be accepted in His immediate
presence. You see, that's really the dilemma. Because we're not worthy to stand
in His presence. We're not fit for His presence.
When the angels sent, you know, Lucifer and a third of the angels,
they sent with him. You know what the Lord did? He
kicked them right out of heaven. You can't come up here anymore.
You're out. Well, what makes you think God
would receive you when you die? What would cause
God to receive me when I die, when He's holy, just, and pure,
and I'm sinful, and wretched, and unrighteous? Why would I
ever entertain the thought that God would welcome me into His
holy heaven? Why would God welcome you into
His holy heaven? You're alienated from God. God
said your sins and iniquities have separated you from me. It's
like a big barrier, a big wall between us. Here we are on this
side and God's on the other side and God says you can't come in
here unless you're perfect. So what makes any of us think
that we can enter into the presence of God since we're sinners? I'm not fit for His presence.
Hey, let me ask you something. Have all of your thoughts this
day been honoring to God? Huh? All of your words, your
motives, And if we're anywhere near honest, we've all got to
say, I'm guilty of sin. That's me. It's you, Greg. It's
all of us. And those who are watching, it's
all of them. And no matter what we may call
good deeds, God said He looked down from heaven upon the children
of men to see if there were any that did seek Him. And He says
they're all gone out of the way. They've all gone astray. There's
none that doeth good, no, not one. That's what God said. Read
the book. Read the Bible. You see, we do
good and we measure good by our own definition. But our Lord
measures good by the definition He gives it, which is perfection. And we're not perfect people,
and you know that, and I know that too. So what makes me think, what
would cause you to think that God will accept you and receive
you when you leave this whole sinful world? Well, I tell you, we have some
enemies that have got to be overcome. Satan's got to be overcome. Would
you agree with that? Satan's got to be overcome. Can
you do that? Can you do that? Read the Bible. 2 Timothy chapter 2 says, Satan
holds all men captive at his will. You don't realize it, but
you're a captive. He holds you captive at his will.
He held me captive at my will. And somebody says, well, just
exercise your will and come to Jesus. But there's a will greater
than mine. It's the will of Satan. He holds me captive. He holds
you captive. Somebody's got to overcome Satan. And the Savior did. That's one
of the reasons He came. Read Hebrews chapter 2. He came
to destroy the works of the devil. And then there's another issue,
and that's our sins. What's to be done about our sins?
You can cry a bucket of tears over your sins, it's not going
to put any of them away. You can go in every baptistry
if you could ever get around the whole United States. You
can be baptized in every baptistry if you wanted to be, but not
one sin is going to be washed away. and saying to God, I'm sorry
I've sinned. Well, it's good to say you're
sorry, but that doesn't do anything about them. That doesn't get
rid of them. You say, well, I just need to
exercise my will and come to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Savior
said in John 5, 40, and ye will not come to me that you might
have life. And he says in John 6, 44, no
man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me to
draw him, and I'll raise him up the last day. I had a fellow one time, years
ago, I was riding with him, and he said, you know, you know,
Jim, he said, getting saved is as easy as falling off a log. I said, really? It's as easy
as falling off a log. He said all you got to do is
say yes to Jesus. I said what about the purpose
of God in this? What about what God had to do?
No wonder Peter said we're saved with great difficulty. There's
something God had to do. He had to honor His own law and
justice in pouring out His wrath on sin because He will not forgive
any sin at the expense of His own justice. He can't do it. That's why the Bible says He's
holy. The seraphim in Isaiah chapter
6, they said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of glory. It takes the purpose of God to
save. That's not falling off a log. God had to do something back
in eternity past in order to save sinners. It took the purpose of God. It
took the power of God. That's what it takes to save
a sinner. It's infinite, omnipotent, divine power. Somebody's got to lift you up
out of the pit of sin. Somebody's got to wash you off
in the blood of the Son of God. Somebody's got to establish your
going. Somebody's got to put you on
the rock, Christ Jesus. Somebody has to give you spiritual
life. That's not as easy as falling
off a log. And the person of Christ had
to come. Don't tell me it's easy getting
saved. It took the Son of God to come
down here, lay His glory aside, and join His deity to our humanity,
and live a life full of testings and trials and betrayals and
mockery. And it took His own death It
took His suffering, it took His agonies upon the cross of Calvary
to save sinners. No, it wasn't easy. Nothing easy
about it. I say, shame on those who say
such things. It took the Son of God Himself
to come down here and redeem us. I do believe, Roxanne, entered
into the presence of her Lord, don't get me wrong. And I believe
she was welcomed by the Savior. I think he's the first one to
welcome in, in the glory. I think he kissed her on the
cheek and gave her a warm embrace and said, welcome home. Everything's
been prepared for you. But still there's this question,
on what basis did God receive her? I'll give you a few things. Number one, because God chose
her unto salvation before the world began. Second Thessalonians
2.13, after writing, Paul wrote that Many will believe and follow
a false religion, he said, but we're bound to give thanks unto
God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you unto salvation, whereupon he
called you by our gospel. You remember when the Lord chose
70 disciples and he sent them out? And they came back, he gave
them unusual power. They could heal, they could cast
out demons. And they came back kind of high-fiving
one another, said, well, we had power over the demons, didn't
we? We could heal the sick and cast out devils. He said, yes,
you were given that kind of power. But in this, rejoice not. You
read it for yourself in Luke chapter 10. He said in this,
rejoice not. Don't rejoice in what you've
done. He said rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Where are they written? In the
Lamb's Book of Life. Revelation 13, 8 says that. Revelation 13, 8. Our names were
written down in the Lamb's Book of Life before the world began. God chose a people unto salvation. He made everybody. He can do what He wants to with
His grace and do what He wants to with you and me. And amongst all those who were
saved, He chose Roxanne and millions and millions of
others. And I tell you what, He took
His indelible as it were, and he wrote down her name in the
Lamb's Book of Life. It's been there forever. She's
been one of the Lord's children. You see, the reason the gospel
of Christ came to her in power The reason God saved her and
brought her to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ is because her name
was written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the world began.
You've got to trace this back to God. We don't trace salvation
to ourselves. We don't give you a big congratulatory
hug and say, well, I'm glad you finally came to your senses and
let the Lord do something for you. You can't let the Lord do
anything for you. He has to do something for us. He has to make us... Psalm 110... Where is that reference? I can't
remember. 110 verse 3 says, Thy people shall be willing in the
day of thy power. I'm not going to give you congratulations
for something that God enabled you to do. Jonah said salvation is of the
Lord. It's of the Lord. Not of us. If you believe on the Lord Jesus
right now, if He's your all in all, come on in. If He's your confidence, if He's
your trust, that's not due to your willingness. It's not due
to your goodness. In fact, you're a sinner, but
you're saved by grace. Trace it back to God. Don't try to take God's glory
and salvation. He doesn't take that kind of
thing lightly. He said, he said, I am the Lord,
that's my name. My glory will I not give to another. When I talked to Roxanne about
these things, she said it's all of the Lord. That's what she
believed, wasn't it? It's all of the Lord. And that's
what she wanted me to tell all of y'all this afternoon. God saved her, God chose her
unto salvation. Why is she with the Lord? Because
Christ bought her with his blood. He bought her. Hey, when you
go to the store and you buy something, you pull out that credit card
or pull out cold hard cash and you buy something, you expect
to get what you pay for, don't you? Is there anybody that would
be satisfied to pay for something and then not get it? No. We're
going to get what we pay for or we're going to have a fuss,
right? Our Lord Jesus came down here and he bought his people
with his bloody sacrifice. The Bible says we were redeemed,
redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. He bought us. He didn't buy heaven for us.
He didn't buy salvation for us. He bought us. He bought Roxanne. And he had to have her. He paid her sin debt. She wasn't
in debt to the justice of God any longer. Anybody whose debt's
been paid, they're out of debt. See, there's nobody in hell for
whom the Lord Jesus Christ has paid their debt. That would be
heresy. For a debt to be paid and then
God still charge it to you? For your substitute to have died
and then God kill you too? That's not justice. Ever sing
the song Rock of Ages? Augustus' top lady said, twice
payment, God will not demand, first at my bleeding surety's
hand, and then again at mine. There's nobody in hell Christ
died for. Everybody he died for is going
to wind up in glory. She was bought. Bought with the
blood of the Son of God. You see, he couldn't fail. Isaiah
42 says that, he shall not fail. The angel said to Joseph, thou
shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from
their sins. And he did save them. That's
why his dying breath was, it is finished. It is finished. I'll tell you why Roxanne went
to be with Christ. Because he suffered the wrath
of God in her stead. He was her substitute. And she went to glory because
she's born again of the Holy Spirit. The new birth. This is where religion today,
most all of it, puts the cart before the horse. Preachers say,
trust Jesus and get born again. Wrong. That's not right. be born again by the very power
of the Holy Spirit, then you'll believe. Let's don't get to cart
before the horse here. Spiritually dead sinners can't
believe. They have to be given life, and
then we believe. Roxanne was quickened by the
power of the Holy Spirit, and then she believed on Christ.
You see, just as we cannot give ourselves physical life, we cannot
give ourselves spiritual life either. We're born again of the
Holy Spirit. Why is she in glory? Because
God gifted her with faith, repentance toward God and faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. There is the glory of salvation. God save sinners. You see, I
hold to the same doctrine that Jonah held to. He got swallowed
by that great fish. There he is in the belly of the
whale. Seaweeds around him. Couldn't
get out. And God finally brought him to
say, salvations of the Lord. If I never get out of here, the
Lord's gonna have to get me out. And all of a sudden, that big
fish had a tummy ache. And here comes Jonah out in the
vomit. Who freed him? The Lord did. Roxanne was freed by the power
of the Holy Spirit. And then she was kept safe until
God called her home. Home. She's gone home, Greg. That's where the father is. The
many mansions, many dwelling places that Christ went to Calvary
to prepare She's gone home to her dwelling place. Body was diseased. No more. Now that's over. She's taken the glory and now
she has a heavenly body. She will never know any effect
of sin ever again. I'm thankful for that. Pancreatic
cancer. That's what my daddy died of
back in 1974. It's a ruthless disease. And
yet it was the instrument God used to take my dad home to glory
It's the instrument God used to take Roxanne home to glory. And whatever instrument he uses,
I promise you this, we're all leaving here. It may be by way of cancer. It
may be by some accident. It may be by heart disease. You
don't know. The instrument of death may already
be at work. in your body. And for the children
of God, that's okay. It's okay. Because thanks to the grace of
God given to us in Christ, we're safe whether we live or whether
we die, right? She's taken to glory. And someday,
someday these ashes, God's going to gather them together. It's
going to be a glorious resurrection. And the scripture says this in
1 Thessalonians chapter 4. I would not have you to be ignorant,
brethren, concerning them which are asleep." You know, sleep
is another name for death. It's God's name for the passing
of His children. It's just sleep. You remember
reading in John 11 when Lazarus had died, the Savior said to
His disciples, our friend Lazarus sleepeth. Right? That's what
He said. Our friend Lazarus sleepeth. The disciples didn't understand.
Then he told them, he said, well, he's dead. But really, the body
sleeps. The soul goes back to God who
gave it based upon the grace of God. So he said, I would not
have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep,
that you sorrow not, even as others who have no hope. We sorrow. But we don't sorrow as people
who have no hope. We have a good hope in Christ.
What does the word hope mean in the Bible? A confidence in
our God based upon the certainty of the Scriptures. God's faithful
promises. He says, for if we believe that
Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus
will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the
word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the
coming of the Lord shall not precede or prevent them which
are asleep. Listen to this, for the Lord
himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. The Lord himself. Who's coming back for our bodies? The Lord himself. Remember what the Savior told
his disciples there in Acts chapter 1 when he ascended up to heaven? He blessed them and ascended
up to heaven. The angel of God said to them,
the angel said, why do you stand here gazing up into heaven as
if you're never going to see him again? said this same Jesus,
this same Jesus that you've seen go up into heaven shall so come
again in like manner as you've seen Him go. He went back to
heaven. He ascended to heaven because
He successfully saved the people of God's choice. He's been exalted. He rules and reigns. He's executing
the will of God. Read Revelation chapter 5 sometime
about that book that was written within and without, on the front
and on the back. Totally full. What is that book?
It's the book of God's eternal decrees. The book that's sealed
with seven seals. And you know what the Lord Jesus
is doing? Executing God's will. He's breaking the seals loose.
He's bringing to pass the purpose of God. And when the purpose
of God has been fully executed, He's coming back. The King is
coming. Are you ready for Him to come?
I'm ready. We stand as it were on tiptoes
of faith looking for the coming of our Savior. He's coming again, the Lord Himself. He's going to descend from heaven
with a shout, Voice of the archangel and the
trump of God, the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which
are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them
in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever
be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another
with these words." My dad, my mom, by the grace of God, they
were believers. I shall see them again, and I think we'll join arm in arm
and praise the name of the Lord Jesus, our Savior, our King,
and we'll worship Him forever and ever." What are people in
heaven doing? They're worshiping. That's what they're doing. They're
singing praises to Christ. That's what Roxanne's doing.
Scripture says they're singing salvation unto our God and unto
the Lamb. She's singing, she's rejoicing
in the grace of God given to her in Christ. Well, may the
Lord bless all of us with the saving knowledge of His Son,
He who loved us and gave Himself for us. has taken our sister
in Christ, Roxanne, home to be with you. And knowing the condition her
body was in, I wouldn't want her back. No. She got a heavenly
body. Like John Newton, who wrote Pilgrim's
Progress, his family gathered around him. He had eight children.
And they were crying. He said, don't weep for me. He
said, I go to my Heavenly Father. I go to my beloved Savior. You
have to stay here in this sinful world. Don't weep for me. He said, weep for yourselves. I hope that God will give you
understanding of the message you've heard today. You know,
David, you played that song, Come Thou Fount, there before
I first began to speak. What about, I want to play that
and Joe, you want to come lead us in Come Thou Fount, number
17.