Owen Rowe Funeral Message "To the Glory of His Grace"

I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever for the good of them and their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good But I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul. He says prior to that, he's going to gather them out of the countries, whether I've driven them in my anger or my fury and great wrath, and I will bring them again under this place and I will cause them to dwell safely. What a glorious God. I love the I wills of God and I love the promises of God fulfilled. in his church and amongst his people.

For any of you who know anything of Gabe and his family, his two daughters, Isabella and Sophie, were baptised on Wednesday night. You can look it up on the internet and hear the message that Gabe preached to them. One of the things that was so sweet in both of their testimonies is that they waited and they had a reverence for God and they didn't want this to be something light and flippant and I was just so pleased and those verses came to me in response to all of that. So Gabe sends his love and fond regards to you as does Greg and our other brethren over there.

We have a great God who has come before him in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for who you are. We thank you for the high wills that you declare about what you do in the hearts of your people. Heavenly Father, We rejoice. We rejoice in who you are. We rejoice in seeing your hand upon your people throughout this world, Heavenly Father.

We thank you that all the promises that you have made are signed and sealed in the blood of your dear and precious Son and they are all yay and amen in him. And Heavenly Father, we especially pray for the funeral service on Tuesday in Bermagui, that you would be with us and with your people, and that you would bless your word, Heavenly Father, and be gracious to us at that time. We thank you again for the life of Owen, but we thank you especially for where he is now, Heavenly Father, and the glorious resurrection to newness of life that you bring in this world in your people, but also it's a sign of a glorious resurrection when we leave this world and a glorious, glorious resurrection when our bodies are raised out of this soil and we are brought to be with the Lord forever in the most glorious creation. Our Father, we pray that you would cause those things to be precious to us, for your Son to be precious, that all of the thoughts and all of the new creation is just fixed on your dear and precious Son. What a wonder, Heavenly Father, to see Him as He is, to be made like Him, to be in His presence and in the company of all of His people forever without sin. Oh, Heavenly Father, what a glorious Saviour, what precious blood, what mighty power is exerted in the hearts of Your people when You cause them to believe.

Bless Leanne as she travels, Heavenly Father. Bless her in her absence from us and cause us to be people of prayer for her and cause us, Heavenly Father, to be mindful of the many people that we know throughout this world who, for various reasons and circumstances of life, can't be in fellowship. And we just praise you, Heavenly Father, that you make means available for them to know that they're cared for and they're loved. Bless her, heavenly Father. Bless us all. Bless us today. Bless us this morning, for Christ's sake. For it's in his name we pray, amen. We're gonna sing number five, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

Well, on Tuesday I'm speaking at Alan's funeral and as I did with his wife Helen and others, it's really nice for us to contemplate the passage that he, nine years ago, asked me to preach from this passage of scripture. And I just wanted to read it this morning and then after we sing again, I want us to go back and just ponder it carefully.

It's Ephesians chapter one. So if you turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter one, this is one of those extraordinary passages of scripture where Paul led by the Holy Spirit, God has written this, and this is the biography of all of God's children in this world. He's written Owen's biography. It's a long, long life he's lived, from before the foundation of the world and into a new creation.

It speaks so gloriously of who God is. It speaks wonderfully gloriously of who God is. This is, as it were, as if the veil of heaven was opened up and we glimpsed into the transactions of God with God and what that means in the lives of his people. It is just a goldmine. And from verse three down to verse 14 in the original is just one sentence as if Paul was so captivated with what and who God was and the wonders of redeeming love and salvation, which he knew in the most marvelous way as all of God's children do.

And he just wrote one sentence. These are when she was helping people. Read and write, she was known as the full stop lady. Every time I mention there's a 203 word sentence, Lisa immediately thinks, well, where are the full stops? Well, we have them here, but just remember, this is just one train of thought in the mind of the apostle as he was led by the Holy Spirit. So let's begin where it begins.

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. That's written to you, right now. Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will.

To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. in whom we have redemption, through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him. in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ, in whom you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory.

Owen also wanted me to read a few verses out of Ephesians chapter two, and this is also part of Owen's biography, and it's your biography as well. Verse one, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past. in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

But God, but God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ. By grace are you saved, and has raised us up together and made us to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved, Through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Well, the definition of failure is someone trying to do anything other than read that and to have that as Owen's last words to his family and to the people gathered around and the people he loves far and wide and loved him far and wide. It's just a wonderful testimony to the power and the grace of God. I pray you'll pray for me as I try. and read that and make obviously just a very, very few comments. It's meant to be pouring with rain down there and we'll be in a marquee and it's outside and it's difficult and there are quite a number of people in the family that find the very words that we have read offensive in the extreme and would say and have said that that's not my God. And so I want, you know, I just covered your prayers and obviously for Owen, all of this is something that I don't know to what extent they witness these things, but if Christ is present with his people and he brings his body with him wherever they are, then I'm not sure of what it is, but I know that all he is is rejoicing. He's just rejoicing in his God and saviour and he must work all things for his good. So that's what's laid before us and I just want to have a look at those verses this morning because the more I've studied them this week the more amazing they are.

It's just like being in this extraordinary, I don't know, I've been trying to think of analogies. One of the best ones that I can think of is when I first went snorkeling in the in the tropics and you just look around and you see this amazing thing and then you look somewhere else and it's amazing eventually your eyes get sore because you can't stop looking because it's just amazing and more amazing and more amazing and such is this glorious passage of scripture what an extraordinary description of our God what an extraordinary description of the power of God for this not only to be who he is, but to be this, to have this applied in our hearts and in our lives, such that we are made and we are drawn to love him who is here declared, to love him who is here declared.

I'm going to miss Owen. I'm going to miss the fact that he was one who prayed for us over and over again, and I'm going to miss the fact that he was one who I found just sweet fellowship whenever we went there. It was such a blessing for those of us who were there, Graeme, and others who have been down there on many, many occasions, and it was always just sweet fellowship. But one thing that I'm particularly reminded of is that nine years ago, Owen had a crisis. He was in his late 80s at that stage and he had a crisis. The Lord brought into his life a crisis, a crisis in that fellowship down there.

Owen Owen was, by the grace of God, caused to make a stand alongside and with the Lord Jesus Christ. And I often think that Peter said that the trial of your faith, which is of greater worth than gold, often think that people, you'll know you know the gospel when you're forced to make a stand and the Lord forces you to make a stand and you say, this is where I stand, I'm standing beside him and I don't care what the rest of the world says. If I have him beside me, if I have his fellowship, if I have his smile of approval and I have his will being done, and that was just a heartbreaking time in Owen's life. But the Lord caused him to make a stand, and it was remarkable. It was remarkable. Peter fell in the most appalling way, and the Lord said to him, When you're converted, you'll strengthen your brethren. And we are born again once, but there are so-called, or for want of a better word, but the Lord used that word, Peter was a saved man.

Then the Lord did a work in his life. For me, that meant that the last eight or nine years of Owen's life were the best of all, because he had experienced something in that trial where he was He was forced by God. He was forced by the power of God. He was forced by the love of God. He was forced by the truth of the scriptures to say, here I stand. And it was a blessing. Our fellowship with him after that time was just completely different. It was just so, so wonderful.

And we don't wish for crises to come into our lives or anyone else's lives, but when the Lord brings them, when the Lord brings you to a place where either you stand here and you stand with God, or you stand with the world, and you can have a whole lot of fellowship and a whole lot of sweet fellowship with the world, and the Lord will make his people just to stand. immensely and amazingly. A lot of you know the situation that I'm talking about and we don't need to raise it too much but my point simply is that the power of God and the grace of God is living and active in the hearts of his people in this world and he will bring them to that place. He will bring them to a place where they will have to make a stand And I rejoice in that. And Owen could say, in a way that he maybe never said before, for a minute, he says, I know whom I have believed. And he is able, he is able to keep all of that which I have entrusted into his hands.

We're gonna sing again, and I will try and, number 47 we're singing. I need thee every hour, thank you Norm. and we'll just spend a little time together looking at these amazing words which are his, in a sense, last will and testament to us. Thank you. Number 47. you Sweet words. So if you turn back within your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 1.

Owen's given me a delightful task and in the mercy of the Lord I'm the last one after five or six people to speak at the funeral down there and I'm charged with committing his body to the earth and what a what a solemn and serious time it is when you're standing beside a casket of a soul that has gone into eternity and you're declaring things about that person and about that person's God. In so many ways I'm just so thankful that The burden is the Lord's and not mine, and he will have his will done. I'm praying that this will be a blessing to us this morning, that we will just rejoice in. This is Owen's last will and testament.

I've been talking to Norm and I've been talking to others about the false religion that is abounding as promised in this day. And one of the marks of it is that there's no fear of God. One of the marks of it is that there is a confusion in what they say. And when I'm listening, I just keep thinking, can you just tell me really plainly and clearly what you say? Because they take on one hand, give with one hand, and they take on another hand. All of a sudden, it seems like it's all of God and all of grace. And all of a sudden, next breath, they're saying it's all of man.

And one of the problems is they just do not define God. They do not define man as man is defined in the scriptures and they do not define God as God is defined in the scriptures. But this is God's declaration of God. This is God's declaration of God. And the great promise of God is, and it isn't, whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And here is his name, this is his character. This is the words of God.

And I've already dealt with the fact that these are words that come to people who know themselves to be sinners. This is written to sinners. The man who wrote this was a sinner. And listen to how he begins. This is Paul, this sinner. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God. By the will of God. Paul's an apostle. The church exists by the will of God. The preaching of the gospel exists by the will of God.

And listen to how often he speaks of his will in these verses. I just want to try and summarize it. We've read it and I'm going to, I'm set for failure, but I just pray that we'll get some blessing out of it. But in verse four, it talks about his choosing and it says that we should be holy. This is God's promise, isn't it?

His wills and his shalls. In verse five, it's according to the good pleasure of his will. In verse nine, he's having made known unto us the mystery of his will, which he, at the end of that verse, he purposed in himself. Verse nine, verse 11, sorry. According to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.

God has a will. God has a purpose. And that purpose is revealed in glorious clarity here. This is a God who wills and it is done. This is the God who speaks creation into existence. This is the God who speaks reality into existence. This is the God who speaks history into existence. Every tiny last little bit of it. And listen what this God, according to this will and this purpose, And this sovereignty declares these people to be. Paul is writing to a particular group of people. They are the saints. That means they're the holy ones at Ephesus.

And to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Where are all the faithful to be found? in Christ Jesus. How did they get to be in Christ Jesus? We'll find out about that soon enough. God put them in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world. Don't you love that description of all the children of God? This is what God declares his children to be. He says they are saints. They are the faithful in Christ Jesus.

So it's a letter written to the church at Ephesus, it's a letter written to all the saints and all the faithful in Christ Jesus throughout all time. It's a personal letter to us right now. The ink is fresh on the page, brothers and sisters. And listen to what he goes on to say. Grace be to you. This is the fruit of what it is to be saints and faithful. They are the ones who are the recipients of grace. And we'll find out more about grace. This is a great declaration of what grace is. And what does grace bring?

When God has come to a saint and a faithful one in grace and revealed the Lord Jesus Christ to them, they have peace. I love that word. I love the sound of that word. Peace. Peace. And look where the peace comes from. It comes from God, our Father. Don't forget the personal pronouns. They are the saints and the faithful in Christ Jesus. They have received grace and they receive it from God, our Father. And from the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that peaceful? It's extraordinary, isn't it? Because the next verses have created so much division amongst so many professing believers.

None of God's children argue with a single word of this. God's children love all of what follows, they do. They realise it's all by grace and they're at peace. Whenever God says something, we can say, yes, I'm at peace with that. God did it, God said it.

Then he says, blessed be the God and Father. Who is the one to receive all of the praise and all of the glory for all of this? Blessed be the God and Father of our, don't forget how often he says our. Over and over and over again he speaks of God's children being in him and we call him our Father and our Saviour and our Lord. He's my Saviour. He's my God. He's my Lord.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us. with all spiritual blessings. He's blessed us, in fact that word with can be translated in, listen to it, he's blessed us in all spiritual blessings, in heavenly places, in Christ.

What a great place to have all of your blessings. They're all spiritual blessings. We have material things that come into our lives and we ought to be thankful for the creation and the relative peace that we have in the midst of this creation, living in this land of luxury. But our blessings are spiritual blessings. These material blessings can be taken away in a heartbeat. All you need is the tiniest little thing to go wrong in your brain and all the physical blessings you have are gone forever.

Aren't they? But these are spiritual blessings. I love the fact that they're spiritual blessings. and they're in heavenly places. Nothing down here is going to pollute them in any way at all. Nothing can get in there to change them. And they're all in Christ. Paul would go on in Ephesians 2, he says, we're seated together with him right now in heavenly places. We're seated in the heavens in him, in Christ, in Christ.

14 times, I think, in this passage of scripture, he talks about us being in him. according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. I love this word according to. There are seven times that word is used in this passage of scripture and I wanted to try and expound on it in light of these according to's. This is the first of these according to's. You might have remembered in Ephesians chapter 2 when he spoke of what we were doing in this world and when we lived under the power and dominion and walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air." This word, according, means on account of, or owing to, or the cause, or through.

It's the channel. So we're blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places according as. He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. All of our blessings are according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. That we should be holy without blame before Him in love. You know I love reading those verses. The Lord's going to present his church, that glorious church, the fullness of him who fills up all in all.

He says he's going to present you, Colossians 1.22, holy and unblameable and unapprovable in his sight. Don't you long for holiness? Don't you long to live in this world? rejoicing in the holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

God's children love the thought of being holy. And I love what he says, we should be holy. Not that we should do holiness, but God's children want to do holiness. I don't want to be a sinner. I don't want to have the sin that I am and the sin that I do to be the primary thing that causes all of the pain and interactions I have with other people. God's children want to be righteous. They want to live. faithfully in this world. They want to be seen as faithful. Most of all, they want to be seen as faithful to him.

This is his work of what he does in the hearts of his people. Listen to what he does. He has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. This is God's love language. This is God's love language. We love him because he first loved us. When did he first love us? Before the foundation of the world. God's children love the electing saviour.

And there's another according to, at the end of verse five, according to the good pleasure of his will. Listen to what he goes on, this is the channel, this according to is the good pleasure, God's good pleasure is going to be done. God is always going to achieve what is good. God does it, it is good.

Listen to what he goes on to say. having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. What's predestination about? It's to himself. That's what he says, isn't it? It's to himself. Adopted children are chosen children. They are loved children. They are accepted children. What a wonderful thing that he's adopted, but it's to himself. When parents adopt a child, they adopt it to themselves. They go and say, this one is mine, I'm choosing that one for myself, and I'm gonna take it to myself.

That's exactly what God the Father did, adopting these children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. It pleased God to make you his children. It pleased the Father. God is pleased with what is going on in the lives of his people.

To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. This is a creation. He made us accepted in the beloved. That word accepted means to be graced. The glory of his grace wherein he has graced us in the Beloved. And now we have this wonderful description of the Beloved's work.

And it's according to the riches of his grace. So the first according to is all the blessings, blessings, spiritual blessings in heavenly places, blessings in Christ. The second according to is to the adoption to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. And this one here is the according to the riches of his grace, he's redeemed his people. You listen to what he says. This is what God says about God. in whom we have, this is a possession of all of these saints, and all of these faithful ones, and all of these elect ones, and all of these predestinated ones, all of these adopted ones.

We have redemption, not that we might have if we do something. God's children have redemption. They have been bought with a price. God has bought them back to himself. And the price? the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.

Grace of God, is so amazing, isn't it? This passage of Scripture tells you that the grace of God is eternal. This passage of Scripture tells you that the grace of God is absolutely sovereign. This passage of Scripture tells you that the grace of God is electing grace.

It's powerful grace. It's redeeming grace. Grace provides the remedy and grace accepts all that it provides. The riches of his grace. The riches of his grace. Wherein, verse eight, wherein he hath abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence. Don't you love that? He abounds to us. It's not as if he's reluctant to give. He abounds to us, bound toward us in all wisdom.

The blessed Holy Spirit is now in view, isn't it? How wise is God? How wise is God? Don't you love the fact that he has hidden these things, Matthew 11, 27. God has hidden these things from the wise and prudent, the religiously wise and the religiously prudent. He has hidden these things from them and he has revealed them unto babes.

Adopted babes brought to himself We have all blessings, according to. We have adoption, according to. We have a redemption, according to the riches of his grace. We have revelation, according to. Listen to what he says. Having made known unto us the mystery of his will. We have just read the will of God. This is the will of God. And how do we know the will of God?

It must be revealed. God must reveal it to his people. He makes it known. He's manifested his name to his people. He manifests the name of God. He manifests the character of God to his people. The mystery of his will, it's a mystery to this world. And God's children delight in the fact that it's way, way, way beyond their comprehension, but it's all wrapped up in one person, in him, in him. According to his good pleasure, It's according to the good pleasure of his will, it's according to his good pleasure, listen to this, which he has purposed in himself.

Who gets all the glory? Who gets all the peace when God gets all the glory? When God, by grace, does all the work, God's children get all the peace. He's purposed this in himself, verse 10, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, with both which are in heaven and on earth, even in him.

He's gonna gather it all together, all of it, all of it. We'll see later on after the break that he makes his enemies his footstool and he has all this power far above all principality, power and might. In whom? This is the last one of these accordings in this section of the verse. We have an inheritance, listen to it. in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.

It's the will of God for this to be revealed. It's the will of God that he abounds toward us in all wisdom and prudence. It's the will of God for him to choose. It's the will of God to call his people to himself. It's the will of God to take people that were born into another family and say, you're mine, you're in my family now.

You belong to me. He works all things. I love that, don't you? He works all things. You know Romans 8 really well, but one of the things that is so significant, isn't it, is that we forget that God is working all the time. For we know, this is something that God pulls in Romans 8, 28. We know that all things work together. All things are worked together for the good of them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. And listen to this will of God.

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren, Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. It's all past tense, it's all finished.

What shall we say then? What's the response of the child of God to this? If God before us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him? freely give us all things, graciously give us all things.

If you have Christ, you have everything. What an inheritance you have. What a remarkable inheritance. We're joint heirs with Christ. And the result of it all, this is the will of God, that we should be to the praise of his glory. The praise of the glory of his grace in verse six, that we should be to the praise of his glory.

The glory of God, who first trusted in Christ? Who entrusted all of his name, all of his family, all of his adopted children? He entrusted them into the hands of Christ. All of God's reputation as God, he entrusted into the hands of his son. and particularly on the cross of Calvary. He trusted him. How glorious, how glorious, how much should he be praised. And listen to what he goes on to do. In whom you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.

No one, no one trusts God without having heard the gospel. just mark it down. Romans 10 makes it absolutely clear. That's why God's churches preach the gospel all the time. Every message is a gospel message. Every message is a description of God. Every message is a Christ-centred message declaring this Christ, declaring these particular things about this Christ. It doesn't matter where it is in the Scriptures.

You trusted him after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom after that you believed, and you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. In the old days, they used to seal letters, didn't they? It means that it can't be tampered with anyone else. No one else is gonna get there. God seals his people to himself, which is the earnest of our inheritance. It is the seal, it is the deposit that we have until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory. under the praise of His glory.

Who gets all the glory? God gets all the glory. His people receive the grace. His people have this made known to them. And His people have peace. They have peace with God. Grace to you and peace from God our Father. Do those words bring you peace? They brought Owen peace. He, like all of God's children, longed for the salvation of all of his family and all that he had contact with.

We want them to share our peace. We want them to share our rejoicing. We want them to share the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in us and with us. And we want him to get all the glory to the praise of his glory. He gets all the glory and we get all the peace and we get all the rest. And we are given by the hand of God Almighty the faith to believe. The last one of those according to is we'll look at after the break, but in verse 19, according to the working of his mighty power, we believe. We just say amen to all of that. Amen. What a saviour, what a God, what a salvation, what a revelation. Let's rejoice.

Owen Rowe Funeral Message "To the Glory of His Grace"

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Owen Rowe Funeral Message "To the Glory of His Grace"

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