this past Thursday, the Lord
was pleased to take our dear sister, Doretha, out of a worn-out
body, take her unto Himself. And I rejoice tonight that she's
with the Lord. Now, she being a very private
individual and not wanting attention drawn to herself, she had left
instructions to Brother Russell and also to her daughter Becca
that there was to be no visitation and no funeral service and no
gravesite service. And of course, that's the way
it is. As I thought about her passing,
I did feel like that as a family of believers, and she has been
a part of this family. Well, she's a charter member
from 1955 when the church was established. I felt like that
we needed a time, call it closure if you want to, but just for
us as a body of believers who several of you worshipped with
her for many, many years, it'd be a time for us to rejoice in
the Lord taking her home to glory and a time to remember a life
of service unto our Lord, and a life of
service to young people. I went over Thursday morning
to visit with Russell. And as most of you know, Doritha,
the Lord took her on her birthday. In fact, yesterday would have
been their anniversary. But I went over to visit with
Russell Thursday morning. I had a very good visit with
him. I read him these words of our
Lord Jesus. He said to his disciples, let
not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. And then the Savior said, in
my Father's house are many mansions. Where is Doritha now? She's in the Father's house.
That's a sweet thought, isn't it? Gone to the Father. You're
going home. He said, in my Father's house
are many mansions, many dwelling places. He said, if it were not
so, I would have told you. The Lord was never dishonest
with His disciples. He was always straightforward
with them. He talked to them as a loving
parent would talk to His children. He said, well, He's the Savior.
He is also the everlasting Father. Isaiah 9.6 says that. And here
were some disciples, grown men, and they have heavy hearts. And
he said, if this wasn't so, I would have told you. He said, I'd go to prepare a
place for you. Where was he going? Well, he's
going to the cross of Calvary. And there He was going to prepare
their salvation for them. And His sufferings and His death
would ensure that they would indeed enter into the Father's
house. We know that the reason the Lord's
people at the moment of death go into the presence of God is
because the Lord Jesus died for them. That's the way to glory. So I said this morning, that
gate into the tabernacle is the only way in. And there's only
one way into God, only one way into His presence. And that's
a new and living way. Christ Jesus, our Lord, He said,
I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, he said, I will come again and receive you unto myself
that where I am, there you may be also. And early last Thursday
morning, he came for her. And immediately she was with
him where he is. in heavenly glory. What happened to her, the Lord
came and took her unto himself. And we all love Doritha very
much. She is a loving mother, a dear
sister to Mackie. She's a school teacher for 35
years. Several years ago, she started
taking the young people back in the fellowship hall or somewhere. I wasn't here then, but they
went and she had helped with the work that the students had
to do. And I expect some of you, did
any of you, oh yeah, I see some hands back
there. I figured it had to be somebody here. Not all of you
that old. There were some that were helped
by Doretha. I think she started off, Russell
was telling me, as a science teacher and then for a little
bit taught English. And then Don Fitzer was superintendent
of Boyd County Schools, and they had an opening for a math teacher.
And he said, I got one. And that was Doretha. and she
was an excellent math teacher. Our grandson, Ethan, came in
this weekend upon hearing of the passing of Doretha. She got him through Algebra I
and Geometry I. She came over to our house and
sat down with him, and as a result, well, he wound up with really
good grades. He wasn't doing too good in math
before she took him under her wing. She was very patient. And
so we're thankful for her assistance to him. And remember him. He's going back to Fort Bragg
tomorrow. As you probably know, you're watching the news that
they're called in several, two battalions from the 82nd Airborne,
which she is of the 82nd Airborne, and I'm going to go over due
to what's going on in Afghanistan, so be remembering them. But she was a big help to a lot of
students. And she was loved by all who
knew her, as far as I know. I sure loved her. I remember
the pickles that she'd bring. And she'd always make us a pillow
and bring a pillow to us for various chairs. And she'd always make sure we
had lots of popcorn. She is thoughtful, sent out cards,
and just a lovely lady. But all of those things that
she did, those don't even enter in as to the reasons why she's
in the father's house. And I just want to share with
you the reason she is in the Father's house right now is because
she was a vessel of mercy for, prepared unto glory. God chose
her unto salvation, not for any good that He saw in her, because
she is a sinful person like all the rest of us. He chose her
because He would. He loved her because He would.
She is in the presence of the Savior, not because of any worthiness
in her, but because of the worthiness of her substitute, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He was given all of the sheep,
those that the Father had chosen unto salvation. The Lord Jesus
was given the sheep and old eternity. And He was her eternal surety,
she being one of His sheep. He's always been responsible
for the salvation of Doretha. She was ordained unto eternal
life. She had a Savior and the Son
of God before she ever became a sinner. She was justified by the grace
of God. Forever. Forever. She was joined to the Lord Jesus
Christ. One with Him. Which is true of
all of those given to Christ in the eternal election. And she was one of the sheep
for whom the shepherd came into this world. This good shepherd
who laid down his life for the sheep. He came to save her. He came to rescue her. He came to do for her what she
could not possibly do for herself. He came to pay her indebtedness
to the justice of God. The wages of sin being death,
He came to die for her. He came to pay everything that
she owed to God. And when the Savior shed His
blood to His death, when He had said those words, it is finished.
She was debt free. An object of redeeming grace. Like all of us, she owed a staggering
debt to God. But the Savior redeemed her. He paid everything she owed.
And He gave to her a perfect righteousness. A righteousness likened to His
own, for He established righteousness for her by His obedience unto
death. He was delivered for her offenses,
and He was raised again because of the fact that He justified
her. Our Lord Jesus made her at peace
with God. That's true of all the people
of God, isn't it? Everything's alright between
us and the Lord. He's at peace with us. In fact,
He's always been at peace with us through our eternal Savior. After our Lord's resurrection,
40 days later, He ascended back to glory as the intercessor,
as the advocate for all of his people. She didn't know it when she was
a young girl and before the grace of God was revealed to her, but
she had an intercessor. She had an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. And He had already taken care
of that sin problem for her. And He went back to glory, and
He did for her what He does for all of His people. He directed
every facet of her life. to bring her to that time and
place when she would be directly confronted with the Gospel. God
sent her a preacher. That's a wonderful thing. Somebody
to be honest with her. She heard the truth. And she
heard that salvation's in the Lord Jesus. And God the Spirit did a work
of grace within her. Miraculous. She was born again
by the power of the Spirit. And she then saw the Kingdom
of God, the Kingdom of Grace, the Kingdom of Salvation. Throughout
her earthly journey, the Lord guided her always an unseen hand, directing
in every facet of her life, just like He directs everything in
your life, you who believe God. Every unusual turn, every time
something happens that even causes you grief or pain, the Lord's
directing all of that. And He did that for Doritha. He guided her. Just like the
psalmist said, Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, with Thy
purpose. You say, I don't think my life
has meaning. Take those words back. Your life has meaning. For back
behind your life is God's eternal purpose for you. For you. And everything that happens to
you, back behind it all is a loving, good, and wise providence. The God of providence. There
are no accidents. Things happen to us on purpose. Everything. Everything. Thou shalt guide me with thy
counsel, and afterwards receive me unto glory. That's what the
psalmist said. Last Thursday, on her birthday,
the Lord, according to His eternal purpose, He quietly took her
unto Himself. a peaceful passing over. And immediately she was absent
from the body and present with the Lord. And she then saw the face of
the Lord Jesus in reality. She had seen Him by faith. She
had looked to Him by faith. When the Lord said, look unto
Me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth, when He spoke those
words effectually to her heart, she looked. And she lived. And she lived her life as all
the people of God do, looking unto Jesus, the author and the
finisher of our faith. And then the Lord took her unto
Himself, and now, She sees Him face to face. Her soul is with the Lord, and
her soul occupies now a heavenly body. Her physical body, worn out,
weakened by a very severe stroke, what, about three years ago?
one from which she never really recovered. She left that body behind. And that body will be committed
to the earth in the morning. She now, her soul occupies a
heavenly body. And she's in the presence of
all of the other saints of God who've gone on before her singing the song of redemption. You see, all of the people of
God, we know the song of redemption here. We've learned it already.
We know we're redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus. And when she stepped into glory,
And she heard all the saints of God singing, worthy is the
Lamb that was slain, who has redeemed us to God by His blood. She just joined in singing too. And she could sing and does sing
at the top of her lungs, salvation unto our God and unto the Lamb
on His throne. She's with the Lord Jesus. No
more effects of sin. That's all in the past. No more
age. No more disease. No more illness. No more struggles with a sinful
nature. That's all in the past. She dwells in the house of the
Lord forever. Having said all of that, I know
that, and of course many of you have known Doretha much longer
than I have, but each of us in our own way,
we have a Sarah, But we also have a joy. It's
a mixture in it. We miss her. For a long time,
she sat and worshipped with us. And then, after she had the stroke,
and fairly recently, at least up into the last, what, three
or four weeks, she was in the wheelchair, and parked right
over here. Brother Russell with her. Listened
to the Word of God. Always kissed her on the forehead.
Always greeted her. And she greeted me. She's just
a dear soul. And you all know that. But as I thought about her passing,
and I was actually speaking to one of the men of our congregation.
night before last. And he mentioned a verse of scripture
to me, and I immediately knew that's what I want to use in
this service. And it's right here, Matt read
it to us in Luke chapter 23. It's actually the words of our
Savior as He walked toward the cross of Calvary. He had borne
his cross, but the Sanhedrin, the Jews who hated and despised
him, they did not want him to die before he was crucified,
so they compelled Simon of Cyrenaeum to carry his cross. He wasn't asked to carry the
cross because Jesus stumbled. The Scripture doesn't say that. He wasn't asked or compelled
to carry the cross because our Savior grew weak. The Scripture
doesn't say that. Those, I'm convinced, who compelled
Him to carry the cross was the evil Jewish leaders who did not
want to be deprived of seeing him suffer in agony and die the
death of a felon. So as he walks along, verse 27
says, they're followed, and I'll just read two or three verses
here. There followed him a great company of people and of women
which also bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus, he turned toward them and he said, daughters of Jerusalem,
weep not for me. I don't need your tears, that's
what he said. And I truly believe that if Doritha
could speak to us, she would say something like this, don't
weep for me. And we don't. We don't weep for
her. I rejoice for her. I'm happy
for her. We weep for ourselves. because
we will be deprived of her fellowship and her lovely face and the lasting
friendships that she's made through the years. And I think she could
say, don't weep for me because I've fought a good fight. I finished
my course. I've kept the faith. You know
who keeps the faith? Those who are kept by the power
of God. That's who keeps the faith. They
keep the faith of God's gospel. They keep the faith of God's
elect. They keep the faith of this message
of redeeming grace, of sovereign effectual grace. They keep the faith. How many
times did Brother Mahan say, true believers don't quit. She didn't quit. And I think
she'd say, don't weep for me because I've lived a full life.
God gave her 91 years. But really, whatever age you
are when you die, you've had a full life. Whatever age, you've
lived a full life. And I would think she'd say this,
don't weep for me because I am now where I've wanted to be ever
since I saw the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. I've wanted to be with Him. I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied
now. I'm in the home of everlasting
light and love and life. Don't weep for me. And I'm sure
she'd say, don't weep for me because I'm finally and fully
free from every effect of sin. What is it that we long to be
freed from but sin? That's all of our problem. This
is what bogs us down. This is the battle that we fight
every day. The new man against the old man. The flesh against the spirit. She's done with that. And I think she would say, don't
weep for me because I'm in the presence of a very happy people. And I'm in the presence of the
angels of God. And everybody's singing the praises
of King Jesus. Won't it be wonderful when we
get home to God and every voice, every heart, every person loves
Christ Jesus, the Savior. Won't that be wonderful? When
nobody's talking about freewillism and nobody's talking about, well,
I did this and I did that. No, nobody in heaven's talking
like that. They're all praising the Lamb
of God who loved them and gave Himself for them. Some think that that passage
of Scripture in Hebrews chapter 12, which says, seeing then we're
all so compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. Some people think that that means
that the saints in heaven are watching us and kind of cheering
us on. They got much more important
business to attend to than watching us. They're watching Him. Every eye is focused on the Lord
Jesus. I don't know, maybe after 10,000
years we might sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in
the kingdom of God and listen to them brag about the mercies
of God in Christ Jesus to them. But we'll be very contented,
and I know we can't comprehend this, we can't comprehend an
unending worship service. But that's exactly what heaven
is. It's unending worship. And I've said this before, if
you don't enjoy worship here, if you don't enjoy hearing about
the grace of God here, if you don't enjoy hearing about sovereign
grace, effectual grace, redeeming grace, keeping grace, justifying
grace, glorifying grace, if you don't enjoy that here, you would
not be happy in glory. you would just feel so out of
place there. But the fact is, if you don't
worship and glorify Christ here, you're not going to be there.
No. And I think you should say, don't
weep for me. Because that which has happened
to me is said to be precious in the sight of God. Tell you, the Lord doesn't call
too many things precious in His Word. He calls His Son precious.
And He says those promises that are made to us, those are precious.
And the faith that He gives us, that's precious. But He says
the death of His saints That's precious in His sight. If that's
precious in God's sight, it ought to be precious to us too. Because
another child of God's gone home to glory. And I think something else here. I think should say, don't weep
for me because you who know God, or rather, who are known of God,
will see me again. And all together we'll worship
the Lord. Scripture says we will know in
heaven as we're known. And I'm persuaded we'll know
all of the family of God. We'll know all of our brothers
and sisters. Ever wondered how Peter, James,
and John knew Moses and knew Elijah? They lived a long time
before those three favored disciples. We'll know one another in glory.
Our relationship will be not based on an earthly relationship,
but a spiritual relationship. I'll know Nancy in heaven, my
sister. When brother Russell is taken
home to glory, he'll know Doretha, sister in Christ. Sister in Christ. We'll know the family of God.
You'll know me and I'll know you. I told Russell, thirsty
when I visited, we visited with him this afternoon a little bit
too because Ethan wanted to go over and tell him how much he
appreciated Doretha. But I told him, thirsty when
we were visiting, I said, you know Russell, wouldn't it be
wonderful if the Lord would so purpose this that when we get
into heaven, all of the people that we've worshipped with on
earth, it'd be nice if we could all worship together in heaven.
That'd be nice. All the saints of God that you
know, and due to having so many Bible conferences here through
the years, you folks have met a lot of people. It'd be nice
if we all worshipped together, arm in arm, as it were. I don't
know how that'll be, but it'd still be, whatever it is, it'd
still be wonderful. But let me give you this before
I quit. Let me just stick right to this
context about the Savior. There were some people looking
at Him who were very happy to see Him going to the cross. He has a crown of thorns on His
brow. He's been slapped and beaten.
His face is bloodied. His back resembles the furrows
of a garden. Just flesh ripped from the bones, as it were. And
there were people who were happy. Happy to see him suffer like
that. because they considered him to
be a blasphemer. He said he's the Son of God. They will find out one day, he's
the Son of God alright. And they're going to meet him
again. But they're not going to be the judges. He's going
to be the judge in that day. And then there were unconcerned
eyes, unconcerned expressions. The soldiers, oh, they've had
many executions that they've carried out. This was their job. They were calloused to this sort
of thing. This was just another felon that
they were commanded by Pilate to put to death. But there were some people who
were quite sad. Their hearts were heavy. I don't
know how many of them were believers. The Scripture doesn't tell us.
It just says a great company of people and of women who wept
uncontrollably. And as he moved through the street,
willingly going to lay down his life for his shield. He just kind of turned around
and said to them, don't weep for me. Don't weep for me. And I think he said that for
several reasons. Number one, don't weep for me
because this is the fulfillment of my purpose. You don't know it, but I'm the
lamb. I'm the lamb who was slain from before the foundation of
the world. This is happening on purpose. You want to weep, weep over your
sins. Weep over your guilt. And I think
he would say, don't weep for me, for I'm the prophet. And I've spoken about this time,
but you didn't hear me. He even told one of the Pharisees,
Nicodemus, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. That whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. Don't weep
for me. I'm the prophet. I'm the prophet
that Moses spoke of in the book of Deuteronomy. And don't weep
for me because I am the priest. And I'm going to render to my
Father the sacrifice that He demanded and His law requires
for the satisfaction of His offended justice. I'm going to offer the
sacrifice and I am the sacrifice. I'm the priest. And don't weep
for me because I'm the king. I'm orchestrating all of this. I'm in charge of all of it. You wouldn't even be in this
group weeping were it not for my purpose to have you here.
He's the king. Don't weep for me, but weep for
yourselves. Weep for yourselves and for your
children. Our Lord knew He had already
appointed this, that in 70 A.D. the Romans were going to come
through Jerusalem and tear it all to pieces. Thousands upon thousands of Jews
were going to die. He said, you go ahead and weep
for yourself. But there's another day He had in mind, and that's
that last day of judgment. And he says in verse 30, then
shall they begin to say to the mountains, fall on us, and to
the hills, cover us. He is looking toward that day
when as the judge, he will sit upon his throne. And people say,
rocks and mountains, fall on me. Hide me from the face of
the Lamb of God. judgment. He says this in verse 30, and
I'll give this to you in quit. Then shall they begin to say
to the mountains, fall on us and to the hills cover us. And
then he says, for if they do these things in a green tree,
he's the green tree full of the sap of life. bearing fruit for
the glory of God, the fruit being all of the elect given unto Him,
saved by His blood as sacrifice. He's the green tree. He's the
green tree who died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
But He says, if these things are done in a green tree, and I'm going to bear this, due
to imputed sin to me. What shall be done in the dry?
What about people who die laden with their sin? And I would say
to all of you, you do not want to face God bearing your sin. Oh, may God lead you and me,
everybody who's watching, lead us to Christ Jesus, the only
Savior of sinners. That's the only hope we've got. Otherwise, we're just dry kindling. That's all we'll be. Just dry
kindling. And the wrath of God will lick
us up and everlastingly destroy us. but the people of God. It shall always be well with
the people of God. Nothing can harm God's children.
And I give you this. I wanted to read this. And you
don't have to turn here if you don't want to. You know, Romans
chapter 8. It says, Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution,
or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, as it is written, for
thy sake, we're killed all the day long. We're accounted as
sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things, we're
more than conquerors through him that loved us. He says, for I am persuaded.
This is my persuasion, Paul said. that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord." Her death didn't separate her from
the love of God. Her death took her into the very
presence of God. And we're happy for her. And
we bid her a temporary goodbye until we see her in everlasting
glory. And then we'll join arm in arm.
Hey, Sister Dorit, it's good to see you. What a wonderful
savior we have. And we'll just all sing and worship
together. Only it'd be wonderful there.
Just be wonderful there. Well, let's pray. We thank you,
Father, for the love of God in Christ Jesus, for this great
salvation. And we're thankful for the sweet
and precious memories we have of our sister, Doretha May. She is a blessing to us, Lord.
We thank You for giving her to our congregation. Thank You for
the wedded bliss of Russell and Doretha for some 67 years. Pray that You'll bless him. Strengthen brother Russell. We're
thankful for him. What an example He has been through
the years of faithfulness. And Doretha has been an example
of faithfulness too. I pray that we, Lord, will be
found faithful to the cause of Christ as well. And that no matter how many years
you're pleased to give us, May we live them for the glory of
God. May we live them rejoicing in
Christ Jesus. May we live them basking in the
love of God. May we live them enjoying the
salvation and the full forgiveness of our sins through the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. May we live them ever thankful
for the imputed righteousness of the Savior that is ours. And may we live them in the good
hope of seeing the Savior face to face someday. Bless these, bless the words
that have been spoken. These things we ask in the name
of our Savior. Amen.