If you would, turn to Proverbs
chapter 18. I'm just going to read one verse. And then actually, maybe go back
to where Paul read for a little bit. Proverbs chapter 18 and the very
last verse, 24. A man that hath friends must
show himself friendly, and there is a friend that sticketh closer
than a brother. That's what I want to try and
talk about this morning, is a friend closer than a brother. We are
here on Sunday as normal, but this
is anything but normal. Preachers are to comfort the
people of God. That is one of our duties, is
one of our jobs. It's a privilege. It's also one
of the hardest things to do. And especially at this time.
Because this is a grieving time. We have just lost a brother,
David McCollum. And we who knew David and who
loved David feel the loss. It is a loss. However, those
who knew David and who loved David and who also know the Lord
know this is a time also of rejoicing. For a brother in Christ has got
to go home. That's the truth of what we believe. That's the truth of this book.
That's the truth of the word of God. He takes care of his
own in this life and in the next. We are mourning our loss. It's our loss. But we are to
rejoice in his gain. It's hard to do sometimes. It
is. And I got it written down here.
There are some words I want to say specifically this morning,
and what it is is what Paul read this morning. Precious in the
sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. But my description of my brother,
David McCollum, who is gone from us, cast on is a man that I considered
my friend. And this verse says, a man that
hath friends must show himself friendly. David was friendly
to me from the very first day I met him. And I've never forgotten it.
That was one of the best days of my life. And I think Walter,
I can say it for him, it was one of the best days of his life.
Because on that day we met Earl, and Uni, and David, and Red,
and Jack, and Ellen, and Neil, and Edie. That was a long day. But it was a good day. But I
do remember David from that very first time. He was friendly to me from the
first day we talked to the last day we talked. And I thank God
for that. And I also thank God for what
we talked about that last day that we talked. Actually, who
we talked about that last day we talked. On that last day we talked, we
talked about Christ. Why? Because it was important
to him. Christ was important to David.
And that's what we're here to do, to try to preach Christ today
and as celebrate his joining the Lord, going home. A man of friends, this is another
bit of a translation, a man of friends must show himself friendly. Now David was a member of this
assembly when I met him. I was not. He was a member of
this assembly when we joined. And he was friendly to me through
the whole time, up until now. As I said, I considered David
as my friend over the years, through the course of our relationship,
grew. Now, any fault in that friendship,
I believe, lies on me. Any lack or depth is because
of me. I have lots of acquaintances,
but I have few people that I consider friends. And if you really want
to know the truth about it, Most of them are in this room. I've
got a few others, not many, three or four. Maybe one in my family, physical
family. But I do want to say this. Our
friendship, our fellowship was in Christ. I am persuaded that myself and
David McCollum worshipped the same God. Most people don't know how rare
that is or how wonderful that is. I believe David McCollum is still
my friend right now where he is. Because David McCollum is
not dead. I remember when Earl stood up
here and said that. He says, when I'm laying here, he says,
don't anybody ever say that I'm dead, because I won't be. And
I'll say that here. I do not believe David McCollum
is dead. I believe what David McCollum
is, is absent from the body. Paul wrote it in 2 Corinthians.
Therefore, we are always confident, knowing that whilst we are at
home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. That's not without
the Lord. We are absent from. For we walk
by faith and not by sight. We are confident, I say, and
willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with
the Lord. Today I know David is absent
from the body. And I totally, as much as I can,
believe that David is present with the Lord today. I believe that David right now
is with his friend who sticketh closer than a brother. And I,
for one, am comforted a little by that. Because there is a friend that
sticketh closer than a brother. Now, this word here, is different
than the first word friend at the beginning of this verse. I didn't go into the controversy
about a man that hath friends should show himself friendly.
Because there's a big controversy about that. Half of them believe
one thing, half of them believe another. And actually I think both of
them are true. But this part here, this word friend is definitely
a different word than the first word friend. The first word friend
is talking about acquaintances, a friend. This is talking about
a loving acquaintance that sticketh closer than a brother. We have friends here. I have
friends in this room. But it's not the same thing as
the friend that sticketh closer than a brother. That's Jesus
Christ. I'll say it plainly. That's Jesus
Christ. Our Lord is our friend. loving friend who sticks closer
than a brother Hebrews 2 says for both he that
sanctified that's Christ and They who are sanctified That's
believers are all of one For which cause he is not ashamed
to call them a brethren Saying I will declare thy name unto
my brethren Who's going to know the name
of the Lord who's going to know the name of Jesus those to whom
the son declares In the midst of the church will I sing praise
unto thee and again I will put my trust in him and again behold
I am and the children which God hath given me. There is a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother, and it is our Lord Jesus Christ. He
is not ashamed to call us brethren. That's a glory. That's a miracle of grace. We don't really know what an
amazing statement that is, because we don't really know ourselves
as we really are. What I know is bad enough to
where I'm ashamed of myself, not proud of myself, even though sometimes I act like
I am. But the Lord of glory, the only
begotten Son of God, God himself manifest in the flesh, calls
us his brethren. You read other places in this
book, and you'll see we're called worms, maggots, red maggots. less than the small dust of the
balance. And, not but, and, in His Son
we are the children of God. We are considered brethren by
the Son of God even though we be maggots. even though we are
depraved and still depraved now. That is profoundly amazing, wondrous,
tremendous, and stupendous. And the world treats it like
it's nothing. Oh, just believe. Everything will be fine. It takes the work of God to make
a believer. Takes the power of God for you
to believe him Jesus the only begotten son of
God is both the friend and the brother of his people He's the friend that stick is
closer than a brother He is perfect man, perfect God,
and he is perfect friend and perfect brother. He told us, the writer of Hebrews
wrote it in 13.5, let your conversation be without covetousness, and
be content with such things as ye have, for he hath said, I
will never leave thee, never forsake thee. There's a friend
that sticketh closer than a brother. It is the man, Jesus Christ. Our Lord was accused of being
the friend of publicans and sinners. He said, John the Baptist didn't
come eatin' and drinkin', y'all said he had a devil. I come eatin'
and drinkin', you say I'm a gluttonous man, a wine-bibber, a friend
of publicans and sinners. You know what? He didn't deny
it. He did not deny that he was a
friend of publicans and sinners. He had a publican following him.
He called him while he was at receipt of custom. Met another one named Zacchaeus
up a tree told him to come down today. I'm going into your house He didn't deny it matter of fact.
He said I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance Do you know your center? Do you know you're a sinner?
Now, I don't mean, well, everybody's a sinner. That's true. Everybody is a sinner. And everybody
knows that, even though they won't admit it. But do you know
you're a sinner? I remember one of the first times
I ever heard Henry Mahan said it. He says, and I think he was
quoting a song, but I have no idea what song. One of these
days I'll look it up. But it says, a sinner is a precious
thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so. If you know personally, deeply,
that you're a sinner, Christ had these words for you. He came
to call sinners to repentance. There's none righteous, no not
one, but there's a lot that think they are. Christ didn't come
to call them. He came to call sinners. There's
a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. And he is the
friend of publicans and sinners. And he came to call sinners to
repentance. The next thing I was going to
look at was precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his
saints. This word precious has a very
simple meaning. Valuable. Valuable. It's used many times
in the Old Testament and mostly it's in the context of precious
stones. There's only two times that this
is used in this context as with a person. It's talking about
precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
The other one is in Isaiah, and I think I can find it. In Isaiah
28 and verse 16, the same exact word, precious in the sight of
the Lord is the death of his saints. The same exact word is
used in Isaiah 28 and 16. It says, therefore, thus saith
the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone,
a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth
shall not make haste. precious, valuable. In the sight
of the Lord is the death of his saints. Yes, we are called worms. We are called maggots, less than
the small dust of the balance. And that's what we are, as fleshly,
carnal, fallen sinners. However, however, By His grace,
by His power, by His work, those that are in Christ, chosen from
before the foundation of the world, are also called the sons
and daughters of God. And the death of one of those
is valuable in His sight. We ain't valuable in our own
sight. David would have told you that. He told me that. I'll tell you that. Some days
I see no value in myself at all. Some days maybe a little bit.
But some days none at all. But the death of David McCollum,
I believe, was valuable, precious in the sight of the Lord. were precious in his sight because
in his sight he sees his son. Guess what? That friend that
sticketh closer than a brother. If you're in Christ, you're in
Christ. If you're in Christ, you're in Christ because he put
you in Christ. If you're in Christ, it's because
Christ brought you in. And once you're in Christ, I'll
never leave thee. I'll never forsake thee. There's
a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. And in the side of the Lord is
the death of his saints. That's what it says. We are frail
mortals. We are earthen vessels. Walter had been preaching on
death passed upon every man. But precious in the sight of
the Lord is the death of his saints. Because never forget, never forget
that chapter that most churches will never preach from, or if
they do, they'll just lie all the way through it. We are vessels of mercy aforeprepared by Him. God has prepared unto glory those whom He called both Jew
and Gentiles. We all are mortal. We all die
the death of the flesh. even though we do know what Christ
said we do die this body dies but
and our Lord said he that liveth and believeth in me shall never
die that's why I said what I said
I believe David is absent from the body But he's present with
the Lord, because he that liveth and believeth in me shall never
die. And he asked Martin, Believest
thou this? Do you believe this? I believe David McCollum did
believe this. We are told in his word that
we know we have passed from death unto life because we love the
brethren. And I can tell you this from
personal experience, David loved the brethren. I've never seen anything like
it. As I always say, it leaks out
on you. And I do believe it's true. As
the tree falls, so shall it lie. And if that tree's in Christ,
when it lies down, it's going to be in Christ. My conclusion. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Sayeth your God. I know this seems strange. It may seem strange for some
to be the way a memorial service goes. But this is how we do it. Because there are those. I've
been to funerals before. I've been to memorial services
before. Well, Zachariah put it this way.
I don't know any other way to do this than to read it. For
the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a
lie and have told false dreams. They comfort in vain. Therefore, they went their way
as a flock. They were troubled because there
was no shepherd. We are not to comfort in vain
in this place, in this assembly, in this gathering of the family
of God. We do comfort, wherefore comfort
one another with these words. We are to comfort his people
with the truth. Otherwise it is just comfort
in vain. We use words to comfort, but
we are to use his words, not our own. Words are all we have,
but we're to use his. The friend of sinners, the one
who is not ashamed to call us brethren, the friend that sticketh
closer than a brother, is coming again. And I believe David McCollum
will be with him. For God This is 1 Thessalonians
5 and verse 9. For God hath not appointed us
to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our
Lord Jesus Christ. We're appointed, but we're not
appointed to wrath. There are vessels of mercy of
four prepared unto glory. He's the one that chose them.
He's the one that prepares them. He's the one that brings them
in this world. And he's the one that takes us out. This is the way. This book teaches
us. This is what the God who is in
the heavens has done whatsoever he had pleased. But to obscene salvation by our
Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep,
we should live together with him. Wherefore, comfort yourselves
together, and edify one another, even as ye also do. We are to comfort each other
the way we always do. We comfort. Our fellowship is
in Him. It's in Christ. It's in a person. Our salvation is in Him. It's in Christ. It's in a person.
The person of God manifests in the flesh. And our comfort is
to be in Him. In a person. of God's elect is a comfort to
God's elect. We preach that God has not appointed
us to wrath. We preach that God has appointed
us to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the Christ that David
McCollum and I talked about. You know how I know that? He
told me. He wasn't shy about it either. I'll miss it. I do miss it. And I shall miss it. And I know you guys do, too.
Our Heavenly Father, we are thankful again for this time and this
place. But most of all, thank you, Lord,
for all that you have done for us, all you've done to us, and
all you're going to do. Be with David's family and with
all of us in this time of our loss. And we try to rejoice in His
gain at the same time. Thank you, Lord, for your salvation
in your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.