It's likewise an honor to be
asked by Granddaddy to speak at his funeral. One more. At approximately 8.15 a.m. on
Thursday, December 3rd, 2014, The Lord Jesus Christ came to
1879 Lower Salt River Road to bring Oscar J. Bailey home. Praise God. Praise God. This is truly a sad time for
us. Us or his family, all his family, those of us who knew.
But I want us to make sure we know this is not a sad time for
him. He asked me, it's probably been going on two years now,
it's been a while since he asked me to do this. And as I gave
thought to it and prayed about it, I sat down with him and I
asked him certain things that he would want said, certain songs
he would want sung. This is one of the verses he
mentioned to me. I want to read it to you because this brings
great comfort to me in this time. Revelation 21 verse 4 says, and
this is concerning God's people, says, and God shall wipe away
all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain. And he that sat upon the throne
said, Behold, there's a party like this. I make all things
new. What a thought. Ecclesiastes
7 verse 2 says, It is better to go to the house of mourning
than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all men.
and the living will lay it to his heart. This is the end of all. I pray God might cause us to
lay this to our heart. The text I'd like to speak to
you from for a few minutes is found in Hebrews chapter nine.
Verse 27 says, it is appointed unto men who wants to die. This was appointed. Let me understand
that. This was appointed by God. And
He died at exactly His appointed time. Now, for those of us who
have been aware of the situation, especially those of us who've
been there with Him, we saw this coming. We've seen this coming
for a while. Somebody will die, and it will
be said, oh, that was a terrible accident. What a tragedy. Oh, well, that could have been
avoided if, according to God's word, we all die at our appointed
time. There's no such thing as an accident
in God. No such thing. Job 14, verse 5 says this about
man. His days are numbered. The number of His months are
with Thee. Thou hast appointed His bounds
that He cannot pass. Our days are numbered. Ecclesiastes
3 verse 2 says there is a time to be born and a time to die. And both of those are God's appointed
time in God's time. Everything that happens in this
world happens in His time. Job also said when the Lord sent
Satan to try him greatly. And know that Satan couldn't
have touched him if the Lord didn't say go. He said, but don't kill him. He tried him greatly. He took
away everything that man had. And this is what Job had to say
about it. Now the Lord hath taken away. I pray that our response is what
Job's response was. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Something happens we don't understand,
we question it. Why, Lord? That's not the right
answer. We need an idea. And it takes God to give us faith
to say this and mean it. Amen, Lord. Amen. Very soon, our life will be over. Very soon, you and I will have
our turn. Oscar Bailey lived what I consider
to be a long life. Almost 83 and a half years. He
had a long, good life. But he'd be the first to tell
you that it didn't seem all that long. You know, as a child, you
think, 83, whew, that's a long way away. Well, I tell you what,
I'm around a third of his age, and every day that goes by, it
doesn't seem so old. It's going to be a year before
we know it. Life is short, and it goes
by so fast. James 4.14 says, what is your
life? We need to think about that.
We need to ask ourselves this question often. What is your
life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and
then vanishes away. So short, so quick. And we ought to consider what
truly happens when we die. I tell you this, a lot of what
happens evokes me. And I'm going to try to talk
to you about what happens when we die. Deuteronomy 32, 29 says,
that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would
consider Hebrews 9.27 says, it is appointed
unto men once to die, but after this, the judgment. Death is not for you. For Oscar Bailey, judgment
has come. And soon, very soon, judgment
is coming for you and for me, very soon. What is the judgment? It doesn't say any judgment,
the judgment. What is the judgment? It's meeting our maker, capital
M. We're going to meet our creator.
We're going to meet the king, the sovereign God, who rules
and reigns over heaven and earth, all things. And when we stand
before him, We must give an account to God
of the things done in our body, whether they be good or bad,
2 Corinthians 5. I hope we understand how serious
this is. We must stand before Him who
said He is able to destroy both soul and body. Hebrews 10.31 says it is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God. I pray God
will teach us what a fearful thing that really is. It's not
going to take it lightly. To some, judgment will be to
condemnation. Judgment will be to life eternal.
God will be the judge. God will be the judge. People often say only God can
judge me. I tell you that's a foolish thing
to say. Because He will judge us. And
He is a righteous judge. Everything God does is right
because God is holy. Here's what he said in Nexodus
34, 7. He said, I will by no means clear the guilty. It's not happening. He said,
the soul of the sinner, it shall die. It shall surely die. Native 1, 3 says, God will
not at all Psalm 1 verse 5 says, The ungodly
shall not stand in judgment. Psalm 5 verse 5 says, The foolish
shall not stand in thy sight. David said, If thou, Lord, shouldest
mock an inquisitor, who shall stand? God is holy. God is just. And He will judge us with a perfect,
righteous, holy judgment. Does that make you tremble like
it does me? The sad reality is many give
this no thought. The sad reality is many, their
time will come. They had no hope. They never
took this seriously. Well, I'm here to tell you, and
I promise you, Oscar Bailey wanted me to tell you this. This is
the most serious thing we could ever consider. Soon we're going to be God judging.
Very soon. Now, I want to tell you the hope
that our beloved Oscar Bailey had as he anticipated. He knew it was coming. I want
to tell you the blessed hope he had as he anticipated And I am so eternally grateful
that he had this blessed hope. I want to read you Hebrews 9,
27 and the first part of verse 28. It is appointed unto men
once to die, but after this the judgment. So Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of men. Oscar Bailey's hope was in Jesus
Christ. More specifically, His hope was
in who He was and why He came into this world. Well, who is
He? He's God manifest in the flesh.
The Word made flesh who dwelt among us. He's God Almighty. He's the Son of God and He's
God the Son. He's the Father's only well-beloved
Son. Why did He come into this world?
1 Timothy 1.15 says, came into the world to save sinners
of whom I am chief. And in the blessed providence
of God, Oscar Bale learned himself to be just that, a sinner. Very few know themselves to truly
be a sinner. He learned that not only had
he sinned, everybody would say that, He learned he'd sinned
against God. The psalm said, against thee,
thee only have I sinned. Our sins against God. He learned
that his sins had separated him from his God. And that's what
sin does. It separates us from God who
made us. And he learned that that's the
result of that. That he was worthy of eternal wrath and damnation. He learned by the gospel of God's
grace, that his carnal mind was enmity against God. That's a
hard thing to learn. You know, everybody likes to
talk about their love for God. Oh, I love Jesus. By nature,
we don't. He has to put his love in us. He sheds abroad the love of God
in our hearts when he reveals Christ to us. That was his hope. He learned that his religion,
all his life until God saved him, was vain, it was empty,
it was useless. And that his works, and not just
his works, his best works, could not save him. Nothing he did,
and he would tell you this, could bring him any closer to God,
but only damn him forever. He learned that he didn't That's what it is to be a sinner.
As Paul the writer said, a sinner
is a sacred being. The Holy Ghost hath made him
so. And here's why. Only a sinner needs a Savior. Christ said, I came not to call
the righteous, not those who have a self-righteousness that
are ready to meet God, that are ready to walk right through the
gates of glory. He said, I didn't come beggars, the young God when Christ
died for the young God. He came to call sinners to repentance. And he did. He called that man
to repentance. Oscar Bailey needed a Savior.
I pray we do too. His hope was that Jesus Christ
was once offered to bear his sin. we can't put away our sins. And
if we're going to stay and accept it in God's sight, we must have
no sin. We must be as holy as He is. And his hope was that
that's exactly what happened as a result of what Christ did
on the cross. He bore his sins in his own body
on the cursed tree. He bore his curse. He bore his
judgment. He bore his wrath. He bore his
eternal death. And he did so successfully. He
needed a substitute. Read Isaiah 53. He who knew no sin, and that
by that blessed substitution He made Him and all His people
to be the very righteousness of God in Him. Ephesians 1 tells
us, He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Oscar Bailey's hope was not in
anything he could offer God, but in God's mercy upon Christ
said, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. And he said, I'll
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I'll be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. His hope was that all for whom
Christ died shall be saved. His hope was that by himself,
the Lord Jesus Christ actually perfected forever, then better
sanctified those whom God the Father chose from eternity unto
salvation. His hope was that as his Lord
bowed his head and gave up the ghost, when he cried, it was
finished. His hope and mine is that it
was finished. There's nothing left to be done. You're mine. His salvation was the free, sovereign
gift of God. Romans 6.23 says, the wages of
sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord. He did nothing to save himself,
and praise God, there was nothing he could do to lose his salvation. It's a gift, a gift of God. And
all of this, his hope, was that even his faith to believe God,
or perhaps especially his faith, even that, was the gift of God. 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. Is this your hope? Are you a sinner in need of a
Savior? Do you need Christ to be your all in all? If so, then listen to these two
verses together. It is appointed unto men once
to die, But after this, the judgment. So Christ was once offered to
bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him shall
he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. He's coming back. Praise his
holy name, he's coming back. He came and was offered for sins
once, and that's all it took. I would wait. You know, this
man spent the last many years of his life doing waiting. In many ways. But especially on this. He was
waiting for this day. Lord Jesus is coming back a second
time without sin. He was made sin, but he's coming
back without sin. Buried, he carried my sins far
away. unto salvation. He's coming back
a victorious Savior. And He shall appear. He's going
to come back for those that look for Him. You're looking for Him. By the grace of God. Oscar Bailey
was looking for Him by the faith that God gave him. Truly, he
was thankful to be here. I've never met such a thankful
person. Never asked for a thing in his life. And yet He's so free to give
everything He has to us who do not deserve it. But you know, that's a good spiritual
picture. God doesn't need nothing. He
has for the nothing. All things are His. The cattle on a thousand
hills. But the desire of His heart,
what He was waiting for, was to be with His Savior. And I rejoice to know He's not
waiting for that anymore. He's not looking for Him anymore.
He's beholding His Savior face to face, beholding His face in
righteousness, awakening in His likeness, seeing Him as He is. Amazing. I'm jealous, honestly. makes my heart rejoice just a
thought. That verse I just quoted, it says, I'll be satisfied. That's
when I'll be satisfied. You know, he was content, I believe,
all the time. But now he's satisfied. What was it worth? For us, it's time to say goodbye. Today I say goodbye to the kind,
loving, selfless, tender-hearted man I call Granddaddy. For all of us who are in Christ, it's see you soon. I got to thinking
about that. The last thing I said to him,
Wednesday night, Lord Jesus said, I am the resurrection
and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. It's right for us to mourn, but
I pray that we don't sorrow as those who have no hope. God has
given us hope, given us a blessed hope in his word. He said in
John 14, he said, I go to prepare a place for you. He was talking
to his disciples. He said, if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself
that where I am, What is the place he prepared
for us? The place is Christ himself. He said that where I am, there
you may be also. He came to the cross, but he's
seated on his throne in glory. And that's where he brings all
his people to himself, in glory, at the feet of his Savior. You see, heaven is not what we
often He told me a couple weeks ago
when I was staying up with him, he said, get your rest. He said
it twice. I said, I'm fine. I said, you
get your rest. Praise God, he's getting his
rest. He's not on a farm. He's not on a tractor. He's not
driving a truck. He's not holding a fishing pole.
He's in the arms of his Savior. Worshipping Him. He's resting. And soon those
of us in Christ will be resting right along with you, with our
Lord Jesus Christ. My dad mentioned that he worshipped
God. By God's grace, he did. And that's
where I must thank God, most of all, for using this name to
bring my parents, and me, and others, under the sound of the
gospel of Jesus Christ, the new crucified. Had he not, I'd have
no hope. I stand here and tell you he
worked his way to heaven. He did great. God's well pleased. He
marched right. But that's just not so. He was
a sinner who needed a savior. And praise God, he had one. He
has one. This is what I'm going to take
away. They're about to take his body away from us. I just read
it. move and have our being. And
now he's loving and praising the Lord his God with an unsinning
heart. Praise the Lord. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, oh, how
we thank you for your goodness. Lord, you truly are a holy God.
You are a just God who must punish all sin. But how we rejoice to
know that you are a God who delights to show mercy to all who need
it. You said, all that come to you,
you are in no wise cast out. You're the bread of heaven. You're
the water of life. And you said, whosoever will,
let it come. And yet you said, all who will come are those whom
the Father gave to you. I'm so thankful. Oscar Bailey had, I pray that
you will make Christ and him crucified, the hope of each soul
here. I pray that now and in the days
to come, you will bring great comfort to Nancy, OJ, Mona, Carla,
everyone here who is so greatly touched by this dear man. Lord,
take away our tears, comfort our hearts, let not our hearts
be troubled. But I pray you'll do so by causing
us to look to Christ. Cause us to look for him. Long
for his appearing as our dear Oscar did. Please have mercy
on us. Please forgive us of our sin.
Please bless the words spoken today. For Christ's sake, amen. When we talk about the funeral
preparation, He asked for a specific song to be played at his funeral.
It was sung by a dear brother in Christ, David Coleman, who
went to be with his Lord a year and a half ago. They worshipped
God together for many years, and they had the same blessed
work. The name of this song comes from
Colossians 3.11. All appear for an age of poverty. We're there yet in peace and
joy with all. I ask the lonely mother which
helpless widow would She told me Christ was all. I stood beside a dying babe. There lay a saint with aching
head, waiting for Jesus. I marked his smile, was sweet
as day, and as his spirit blessed me.