Galatians chapter 2 says there in verse 20, I want
you to look at verse 20 with me for just a minute. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. How do you
die and live at the same time? How can you be crucified and
yet be alive? Yet, not I, but Christ liveth
in me. I'm not living by myself, not
living on my own strength, not living my life in the flesh.
It's Christ that lives in me, that's why I'm alive. And I live by the faith of the
Son of God. I don't believe that means the
faith that we have in Him, but I believe that the faithfulness
of Him who loved us is what that means. I live by the faithfulness
of the Son of God. Now sometimes, which I don't
know about you all, but faith is very, very hard for me to
come by occasionally. Sometimes I feel like I don't
have any. But right here, that's what it says, I live by the faith
of the Son of God. Faithfulness of the Son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me. Now this message here that I'm
going to use tonight would have been the message if I would have
preached it Saturday. We could go Saturday. It would
have been what I would have said at Mary's funeral. This is the
message right here. This is what I would have said. And I used a little of it when
I was taught. But there are two books in the
scriptures. Two books. Not the Old Testament,
not the New Testament. Look in Genesis 5 with me just
a minute. Here's the first book that I
want to talk about. Genesis chapter 5. There's two books. Well, there's more than two,
but these are the two Books, you're either one or the other. The Apostle Paul said, I want
to be found in Christ, not having my own righteousness. God's going
to find us either in Christ or in Adam, one or the other. I
remember a young man years and years ago, sitting out in our
backyard, we had a picnic table out there, and we were sitting
there, and Scott Richardson was sitting there. Back in those
days, preachers stayed with us all the time. There was a young
fellow there from Indiana. He was sitting there at the table.
He had made a profession some time before that. He had what
they called a bachelorette. He quit. In fact, he never was
a believer. But to make a long story short, Brother Scott called him brother.
Called him by his name. And he says, God said, I'm not
your brother. He said, I'm not saved. And God
said, well, if I don't catch you in Christ, I'll catch you
in Adam. You know, we're brothers one way or another, either in
Adam or in Christ. But look what it said here in
Genesis 5.1. This is the book of the generations
of Adam. In the day that God created him
in the likeness of God, may he end. Did you hear that? Male
and female created he them and blessed them and called their
name Adam in the day that they were created. There's a great
change right here now. And Adam lived 130 years and
begat a son in his own likeness. Not after the likeness of God. Not after the likeness that God
made him in the likeness of God himself. Adam fell and he begat
a son in his own likeness after his own image. And called his
name Seth. And he begat sons and daughters
and all the days of Adam were 130 years in verse 5 and listen
to this and he died Go down to verse 8 and he died Go down to
verse 11 and he died Everybody in that book and then the book
of the generation of Adam died died died to life in God, died to righteousness,
and became alive to sin. And that's why they died. Now
look in Matthew chapter 1 with me just a moment. Here's another
book. Here's another book. Matthew
chapter 1. And then these two books are
the books of the generation of Adam. Death, wherefore as by
one man, death entered into this world, because death is passed
upon all men, and that all men have sinned. That one man's sin,
that one man's disobedience became our sin, became our disobedience. Sin and curse came upon the human
race because of that one man. And now look here, the book of
the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of
Abraham. And you go down through there, Jews begat Pharisee, and
Jacob begat Isaac, Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, Jacob
begat Judas and his brothers, and you go right down through
there. Not nobody died. Everybody in
this book If you're in the book of the
generation of Jesus Christ, Abraham rejoiced to see my day and saw
it and was glad. Jacob hath a loved and Esau hath
a hated. The son of David, Sennomachathron,
all raised up to sit on the place of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
that book of life, the book of Moses in Jesus Christ, this is
the book where no one dies. And Paul talked to the Philippians,
he said, talk about my fellow labors, whose names are in the
book of life. And oh beloved, and I tell you,
this book of life, you know where it started at? There's those
names who are written in the book of life of the Lamb slain
before the foundation of the world. God don't write His people's
names down in the book of life and put them in the book of the
generation of Jesus Christ when they believe. They believe because
He already put their name in the book of life. My name was
there, and if you're a believer, your name was there, and if you're
going to be a believer, your name was there. And it's just a matter of time
before the Lord Jesus lets you know if your name's there. Mary's name was written there.
It was written there before I ever met her and before she ever met
me. It was written there before me and her ever laid eyes on
one another. It was written there, beloved, before we ever became
believers. It was written there. Why was there Herman and Ethel named
after Mary Elizabeth Tucker? You know why? Because that was
the name God said to name her. You know why she became Mary
Elizabeth Tugger Bell? Because God said I'm going to
cross your path with this woman and you and her will be united
in marriage and live your life. And by God's grace bring honor
to his name if you'd enable it. Oh listen, names are written,
names are important. Names are important. God even
told people what name to give their children sometimes. And
I'll tell you something about it, beloved. My name, Mary's
name, and your name was in all of these books. Her name was
also in the book of Adam. My name was in the book of Adam
too. What do you mean by that? That means that we were dead
in sins. Shapen in iniquity, conceived in sin, under the curse. God pronounced on Adam. We lived
in sin, were shaped in sin, and loved sin, delighted in sin,
and rejoiced in sin. But blessed be the name of the
Lord. That's not the only book. If that were the only book God
left us in, we'd be at all men most miserable. But bless the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here's something that I repreached
on this morning. Christ came into this world to
save sinners. Huh? Look what he says over here
in Matthew 9. Look what he says in Matthew
9. Mary wrote down some scriptures. She said, these are some of my
favorite scriptures. And this is some she wrote down
on the list of the pallbearers she had, on the songs to be sung, on the
people who was going to sing them. She wrote down some scriptures,
said these scriptures are precious to me. Look what it says in verse
11. Well, in verse 10 it said, it
came to pass that Jesus said, it meet the house. Behold, many
public and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it,
they said unto his disciples, why eateth your master with publicans
and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he
said unto them, they that behold, they don't need a doctor. You
know who needs a doctor? People that are sick. Sick, sin
sick. Soul sick. Sick of all the flesh and all
the misery that they go through. But he says, you go and you learn
what that means. I'll have mercy. I don't want
anything you've got to offer. I don't want any sacrifice you
can give me. For I've not come to call the
righteous, but sinners. Sinners to repentance. Sinners
to repentance. And I tell you what, that's the
thing, sin must be atoned for. Whether it's in me, whether it's
in you, whether it's in Mary, wherever it's found, sin must
be atoned for. And this man only receives sinners
and eats with them. But all sin must be atoned for. Sin must be paid for. But not
only was her name in the book of Adam, that generation of all
those that died. You know why she died, I'm going
to tell you. She died the same reason I'm
going to die and you're going to die because we in this body,
this flesh is under the curse. God said today, you die if you're
going to die. You die spiritually and then
we're going to die. If there wasn't any sin in us, no sin
in our bodies, we would live and we would never get old. We
would never get weary. We'd never get sick. We'd just
be in perfect health all the time. But it's because of this horrible
thing called sin, this awful thing called the curse. And I
told her, and I told her, and I tell you, and I tell anybody,
bless God, we, when you leave this world, you're out from under
that curse once and for all. You don't bear its effect anymore,
but you'll bear it all the way till the time you close your
eyes. Death's ugly. Death's hard. Why is it hard? Why is it ugly? Because it's
sin and the curse. Because of this miserable, miserable
thing that Adam done to us. But bless God forevermore, she
was also not in that book of the generation of Adam, but she
was in the book of the generation of Jesus Christ. She was in that
book of life. And this life is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that's what he says, what
Galatians 2.20 says, the Lord Jesus gave himself for me. For me. For me. And she could say that
and gave His life for me. She could say, Lord have mercy
on me and Christ would have mercy. She'll say, Lord I need you and
Christ would come to her need. And we do the same thing. But
look what Gary's done quoted, but look at this with me just
a minute in John chapter 11. John chapter 11. Verse 25, you see the life is
in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where life is found. Oh,
we have death in Adam, but we have life in Christ. we still
heard the effects of that curse and God said we go from dust
we come to dust we gonna go back but the Lord Jesus Christ he
gave Mary life from the dead look what he said here down in verse 21 this said Martha
unto Jesus Lord if you'd been here my brother had not died
you reckon he wouldn't have? Oh yeah, he would have. You don't
reckon the Lord Jesus was with Mary and she died. The Lord Jesus is with me and
I'm going to die. They're going to dig a grave
and put me right beside it. I don't care. Christ is with
you. That's why Paul says, you know, the life I now live, I
live by the faith of the Son of God who loves me. Everyone who Christ loves and
everyone who Christ died for, they're still going to have to
go by way of the grave. Paul didn't. Abraham didn't. Abraham went and brought his
own grave. Took his wife, first one that he put, first one to
go in his tomb that he bought was his wife. As the first person he buried
was Sarah, his wife. And oh, but I know that even
now, whatsoever you ask of God, God will give it thee. Jesus
saith unto her, thy brother shall rise again. Martha had faith. She believed in what Gary read
tonight. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again
in the resurrection at the last day. Now listen to what our Lord
Jesus Christ said, I'm the resurrection. I'm the resurrection from sin.
I'm the resurrection from death. I'm the resurrection from corruption. I'm the resurrection from death
of sin. I'm the resurrection that gives
you life from your death and sins, from your sinfulness, from
everything about you. I give you life. I resurrect
men from the dead. The hour is coming and now is
when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God. And
they that hear what happens to them, they live. And he that believeth in me,
though he were dead, dead in trespasses and sins, yet shall
he live. Now he wasn't talking about Lazarus
believing right here, because Lazarus couldn't believe it.
He was already dead. And oh, listen. He that hath
the Son, what does he say? Hath life. Hath life. And let me tell you something
about this life that Christ gives. It's eternal life. Eternal life. I've got all the life I'm going
to have right now that Christ gave me. I believe in Him. And I know and I dread, you know,
I was here to take care and see that Mary was taken care of and
that she was put away and things went well, but now who in the
world is going to do that for me? What, my children are going
to do it? You're going to do it? Who's
going to speak over me? Will Bruce Crabtree still be
around? But it's going to happen. But
I have eternal life. She had eternal life. That's
why you could look her in the eye and kiss her on the brow
and hold her hand and hug her and say, sweetheart, go ahead
and let go. Just go ahead and everything's
done. It needs to be done. Go ahead
and go on to be with the Lord. Quit it all, just go on, let
it go on. Just go on. Because that's life. We're nothing but a body here.
And Mary didn't enter into eternal life when she last breath left
her body. She had eternal life in Christ
from before the foundation of the world and God gave it to
her in Christ. Just as sure as her eyes closed
in death and how she threw that last breath, she went to glory
that quick! Now what kind of body she has,
I have no idea, but I know where she's at! And she, the first thing she
saw, The last thing she saw was me when her eyes were open, but
the last thing she saw when they were closed was the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's why she said she had
life in Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, I
give unto my sheep eternal life. They shall never perish. Nobody
is going to pluck them out of my hand. And nobody is ever going to pluck
them out of my father's hands. For my father which gave them
me is greater than all. She said several times, the sicker
she got, she said, Lord, won't you just take me today? Just
take me today. Let me go sleep tonight and wake
up with you. But that wasn't the way the Lord
meant for it to be. Tell you something about dying.
There's two things about it that I know for sure. If you die suddenly,
you're going to leave people's hearts hurting, wondering, why
didn't I get to say goodbye? Oh, if I'd only knew it was going
to happen. So dying suddenly, that's good for the person who
does. That heart attack, just go like that. That's good for
the person it happens to. It's hard on the people left
behind. And the thing about somebody lingering and lingering, you
get to say goodbye. You get to spend a lot of time
with them. But either way it goes, it's still a heartache. It's still dying. It's still
fading away. It's still leaving you. It's still left by yourself. So there ain't no, nothing romantic
about it. Nothing beautiful about it other
than to go be with Christ. Dives in. Look at Ed, he took you what?
He just withered up to nothing. But how in the world could our
Lord Jesus Christ save Mary from her sin and death and give her
this eternal life? I'll tell you how he did it.
By burying her sin in his own body on the tree. He took her sin and made it his
sin. Took her death, made it His death. Took her curse, made it His curse. Took everything that was against
her, and took it to Himself. In that Christ died unto sin
once, likewise we die unto sin once in Christ. And that's why
Paul says, I'm crucified with Christ. When was she crucified
with Christ? When Christ was. When Christ
died, she died. When Christ was buried, she was
buried. When our Lord Jesus Christ arose,
she arose with Him. We are so in union with our Lord
Jesus Christ that everything He does, everything He did, we
partake with it. Is that not right? Oh, what a
blessed gospel when He has. That our Lord Jesus Christ, He,
He, He is the one who did it. What would it have been like
if we had to believe that she or me or you or anybody had to
do something to get ready to die other than Christ making
us ready? Oh listen, here's another one
of her favorite scriptures, 2 Samuel 23.5. 2 Samuel 23.5. She wrote this one down. She
wrote this one down. She wrote this down. I'd read her the scriptures.
We'd be sitting and she'd say, read to me. And I was reading
through the Proverbs at the time. And she says, you know, God makes
a big distinction there all the time. Talks about the fool and
then the righteous. Talks about the fool and then
the wise. God made such a distinction between
the wicked and the fool and his people over here. They always
say the wicked are this way, the foolish are this way, but
the righteous are this way. And the path of the just shineth
more and more and more unto the perfect day. And it shined and
it shined and it shined. And now it's a perfect day. Perfect
day. look what he said here now verse 5 although my house be
not so with God yet he hath made with me an everlasting
covenant ordered in all things you know what that means? that
means everything is going to happen to you in this life And this thing is sure. This
is all my salvation. It's all my desire. Although
he made not my house to grow, though he made not salvation
to grow in my home. That's what he means. But why
did our Lord Jesus, turn back to Galatians with me just a minute.
Why did our Lord Jesus Christ bear her sin? Why did he die her death? Why did he become the sacrifice
for her sins? Why did he do that? First reason
is because he loved her. And he didn't start loving her
when she existed. He said, Yea, I have loved thee
with an everlasting love, and with cords of loving kindness
I have drawn thee. And having loved his own, he
loved her right to the very end. I loved her. Oh, nobody, I don't
think, I don't doubt it. I did, I do. I don't just did,
I do. But I'm not a drop in the, what
I love her does not a drop in the bucket to how Christ loved
her. How Christ loved her. Oh, how
he loved her. You know how much love it took
for somebody to bear sins? Say, I love you enough that I'll
take everything, all your sin, I'll take all your shame, I'll
take all your guilt, I'll take Adam's sin that you have, I'll
take everything you've ever done, and I'll bear myself. And then
after I bear them, I'm going to turn around, and I'm going
to give you my obedience, and I'm going to give you my righteousness,
and I'm going to clothe you in that. I'm going to put a wedding
garment on you, Cause you gonna send out the marriage supper
of the Lamb and you got to have a wedding garment to be there.
Huh? That's what it says here now.
I live, blessed part of verse 20, I live by the Son of God,
the faith of the Son of God who loved me, who loved me, who loved
me, and gave himself for me. Tell you another reason why he
did that. Because she was one of his elect. One of his elect. No, you're
not. You've not chosen me, but I've chosen you. I chose you
in me before the foundation of the world. I set my affections
on you. He was one of his sheep. He said,
oh, listen, I lay down my life for the sheep. And that's one of them sheep. She
was one of them lost sheep until he found her. And He come found
us, come way out in the wilderness, come way out in the sea, and
come way out there in this awful, awful religion and all the things
that we were in. And found her. Found her. And said, oh listen, picked her
up, put her on His shoulder, and you know when He set her
down? And she got into glory. You never did find the Lord Jesus
Christ taking that sheep off his shoulder. Oh my! Well, and I tell you,
the Lord made a promise to her. And he kept it. He kept it. He said, I go away to prepare
a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I
will come again. I'll come to where you are. I'll
come again. And I'll receive you. You put
your name there, put anybody's name there. I will receive you
unto myself. Said where I am, where I am,
you can be there with me. Oh, where I am, where I am. Where is he at? People have such carnal notions
of heaven. They'll talk about streets of
gold, walls of pearl. But we want to go to be with
Christ. He said, I'll receive unto myself
that where I am, there you may be also. So wherever Christ is
right now, that's where the Lord, that's where she is. Today, he
told that seed, today, today you're going to be with me in
paradise. And to be absent from the body
is to be present from the Lord. David, when he lost his son,
before he lost him, he wept and he mourned, and he wouldn't eat,
he didn't wash, and he caught the folks whispering around.
He got up and he asked them, is the child dead? And they said,
he is. He got up, washed himself, had himself a meal. They said,
what's the matter with you? He says, I can't bring him back
where I am, but I can go where he is. I can go where he is. One last verse, and let me read
it to you. If you want to read this, Psalm 17 and verse 15. I want you to read this with
me. psalm 17 15 as for me I will
behold thy face in righteousness I'll behold your face in your
righteousness and I'll behold you with a face that is righteous
my face will be righteous your face will be righteous You got
to have a righteousness before you can face it. And I will behold
thy face in righteousness, and listen to this, I shall be satisfied
when I awake with thy light. Lord Jesus, thank you. Thank
you for the grace of God, the love of Christ, the electing
grace and sovereign mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, what
a blessed, blessed hope we have. Not only for her, but for ourselves. All the ones that's went before
us. So many we love, so many we know. And Lord, we have to
part because we know that it's your will. It's your will, Lord, that we give up those we love. You take them to be with yourself. You know what's best for every
one of us. You know what's good. And Lord, we would never do anything
but kiss your blessed hand of providence and bless your holy
name because no one's like you. Oh, Father, thank you that she
went to glory, not by anything she did, had no hope in you because
of anything she did. She went to glory because everything
that you did for her, and you did for us. God bless your holy,
glorious name. Lord Jesus, thank you for that
blood that cleanses from all sin. God bless these dear saints,
meet their needs, strengthen and encourage them. Lord, I thank you for every home,
every family, Please keep them and preserve
them. In Christ's name I pray. Amen. Amen.