I asked Brother Lindsey to take
care of this eulogy this morning and I'm so glad I did. I knew it would be difficult to
do that and to try to preach to you. I was asked several times
this morning, I said, had folks tell me they'd be praying for
me and it would be difficult, it would be difficult to preach
for Brother Bob's funeral. And one compared it to preaching
my parents' funerals. And I said, no, this won't. It
may be emotional, but it won't be difficult. It would be more
like marrying my daughter. You know, I got along fine until
we caught one another's eyes, and it got a little emotional.
But I was glad for the marriage. And I can't tell you how glad
I am for Bob Ponce and the joy he and his Redeemer have together. It was difficult preaching my
mother's funeral and then my dad's funeral. They were both
in hell. This man is with the Redeemer. This man is with God his Savior. I pray that you will hear God's
word today and that God will be pleased to grant you his grace. For some of you, like my parents,
are going to hell and I ask that God will stop you in your mad
rush to eternal damnation. It is better to go to the house
of mourning than to the house of feasting, for that is the
end of all men, and the living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow
is better than laughter, for by the sadness of the countenance,
the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the
house of mourning. That is to say, wise men, wise
women, think often of dying. You will be wise to think much
about death. This is the end of all men. Take a look. Take a look. This is the end
of all men. Will you lay it to heart or will
you be a fool? Brother Bob Ponce, our dear brother, our cherished,
cherished friend, husband, grandfather, great grandfather,
father, Beloved as he has been is gone. His body lies before us in this
coffin, dead. Bob is not dead. Bob's gone. This body is just the temporary
tent God prepared for him in which he served God his Savior
while he lived. Brother Pottser trusted, loved,
and worshipped God our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He was
loved, chosen of God in eternity, redeemed by the precious blood
of God's dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who laid down his life
for him, bore his sins in his body on the tree, and put away
his sins by the sacrifice of himself. The Lord God at his
appointed time of love came to call Bob and give him life and
faith in Christ by the almighty, irresistible power of his grace.
Like Enoch of old, this man walked with God. And now the Lord's
taken him. But like Enoch of old, before
the Lord took him, he received testimony from God that he pleased
him. He received testimony from God
that he pleased him. That is, God spoke peace to his
heart by faith in Jesus Christ. assuring him of acceptance with
God through the blood and righteousness and in the person of his own
dear son. The only way any sinner can please
God is in Christ. He had testimony from God, believing
on his son, that he pleased him. Oh, God help you to believe him. and receive testimony from God
in your conscience that you too are accepted of God through the
blood and righteousness of his son. Though we now commit his
body to the earth until the resurrection, Bob is more alive today than
ever. Our Lord Jesus said concerning
him, he that liveth and believeth in me shall never die. never die. Now our brother enjoys
life like we can't imagine it, in the perfection of heaven's
glory with Christ. No tears, no pain, no sorrow,
no sin, no regret, How often I repeat those words,
how little they're understood. Oh, the joy of heavenly glory
with Christ our Lord. He beholds his Savior face to
face, completely satisfied in his likeness. There's nothing
I can say that will in any way affect this dear man. Nothing
I can say that will in any way affect his eternal being, his
everlasting being with Christ the Lord. But I pray God will
give me a word for you and force you to hear it. Soon you too
must die. Soon you will take your last
breath. You may have gray hair and you
may be young and think you have the world by the tail on a downhill
pull and everything going your way. Soon, at God's appointed
moment, you will breathe your last breath and when you do,
you will meet God in judgment. You will meet God in judgment. The holy Lord God, whom you have
hated from your youth up, The holy Lord God who is of pure
eyes and to behold iniquity. The holy, just, and true God
who has sworn the soul that sinneth it shall die. Who declares he
will by no means clear the guilty. You must meet God in judgment
as soon as you leave this world. Will you lay it to heart? You
may try to convince yourself Well, I believe a man dies like
a dog and when he breathes his last breath, it's all over. You
try to convince yourself, but you can't. Keep trying, you can't. You keep trying, but you can't.
It's impossible because God Almighty has put a word in your conscience,
inscribed some facts in your soul. that you can't silence,
and you can't erase. They just will not be silenced.
Constantly, constantly, these things keep coming up. Constantly,
they keep bothering you. See? Righteousness, Judgment,
Eternity. Seeing, Righteousness, Judgment,
Eternity. Seeing, Righteousness, Judgment,
Eternity. You try to push it aside. Seeing,
Righteousness, Judgment, eternity and you try to push it there,
sin, righteousness, judgment, eternity and they will not be
silenced. Oh I pray God they will not be silenced until they're
silenced by the sin atoning blood of Jesus Christ sprinkled on
your conscience by the grace and power of God giving you faith
in his son. Let me raise and answer three
questions very briefly. I often ask myself this question,
Don, how will it be for you when you're on your deathbed, when
your body is trembling with pain, gasping for breath, when the
cold sweat of death is on your brow, when you're compelled to
face the fact that soon you will meet God? I ask that question
frequently through every day. I make it my purpose to ask myself
that question frequently through every day. And with all honesty,
all the honesty my depraved heart can muster, this is the calm,
confident answer of my soul. My sin, oh, the bliss of this
glorious thought. My sin, not in part, but the
whole, is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. It is
well. It is well with my soul. But pastor, how can you know?
How can you be sure? How can you know that you're
ready to meet God in judgment? Nobody can know that. Oh yes,
oh yes. I can be certain. of peace in
that hour. I know so because I've been there.
I know what it is to experience it lying on a hospital bed immediately
expecting death. I know what it is to do so with
complete calm and peace. I stand before God right now
in peace. The only ones here who can believe
what I'm telling you are folks who know God. You who know God
can believe what I'm telling you. I am not afraid of God. I used to be. Oh, I was terrified
of God like you. I couldn't stand the thought
of death or judgment and hell and eternity. But I'm not afraid
of God anymore. I call him with great confidence. I call him my father with great
joy. I call him my father with great
peace. I do so through faith in his
son. Now, hear these three questions
and I'll be as brief as I can. Hear them, hear them. How good do you have to be to
go to heaven. How good. How good. What does God say? What does
God say? Now some of you probably have
said this sometime in the last few days. Some of you probably
have said this. Boy, he was a good man. And in
the light of his goodness, oh, look what's before him. If you'd
ask him, he'd have told you otherwise. You see, he knew God. He knows
God. No, no, no. Your goodness won't
do it. Because your goodness is just
sin. Your goodness is full of selfishness. Your goodness is
full of corruption. How good does a man have to be
to go to heaven? As good as he can be. Oh, no.
No, no. You've got to be better than that. Do the best you can
do. No, you've got to do a whole
lot better than that. God says, walk before me and be thou perfect. God says, be ye holy, for I the
Lord your God am holy. God says, God says it must be
perfect to be accepted. Our Savior spoke to some folks
one day, and this is what he told folks who were religious
people. Folks who went to church regularly,
folks who read the Bibles and memorized scripture and had religious
slogans on the bumper stickers and wore Sunday school buttons
and all that stuff. He said, except your righteousness
shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.
You shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. What? exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees? Those men prayed three times
a day. They fasted twice a week. They gave tithes of everything
they possessed. They were the most religious
folks the world knew. Everybody would look at a scribe,
at a Pharisee, and say, there, if anybody goes to heaven, that
man will, that man will, they're good men. Our Lord said, you've
got to be better than that or you're going to hell. What is
it that God requires? God requires perfection. Listen
to what God says. There shall in no wise enter
into the city of God anything that defileth, neither whatsoever
worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, but they which are written
in the Lamb's book of life. Brother Don, that shuts me out.
I hope you know it does. I hope you know it does. God
will never accept the best I can do. He will not, He cannot in
His strict holiness, justice and truth accept anything less
than perfect righteousness, absolute holiness, absolute perfection. If there's any spot any iniquity,
any perversity, any corruption found in me at all. I cannot enter into God's presence. We're sinners, sinners by nature,
sinners by choice, sinners by practice, and sinners at heart. Not me, not me. You're not. Aren't you fine? I'll tell you
what I suggest you do. I'll tell you what I suggest
you do. You good ladies. You good gentlemen. I dare you. I dare you. Just lean over to
the person sitting beside you right now and tell them the things
you've thought in the last ten minutes. I dare you. I dare you. What you are at heart is seeing. Nothing else but sin. Nothing
in you by nature but corruption. That's the nature of man. Oh,
how dare you say that? How dare I not say that? That's
what God says in his word. All that comes out of man's heart
is adultery and fornication and murder and blasphemy and lasciviousness
and covetousness and idolatry. That's all that comes from the
heart of man. Well, if that's the case, Is
there no hope for anyone? No hope for anyone? Oh yes, for
you see what God requires, what God requires, God gives
and God alone can give. God requires perfect righteousness
and God requires complete satisfaction. God requires that you be righteous
and that you not only have a righteous record, but that you be righteous
inwardly. God does not have a righteous
record, but a righteous nature. And it requires satisfaction
for your sin. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. The Lord God sent His Son into
this world. in the room instead of sinners
like you and me, to live on this earth in perfect righteousness. Jesus Christ, the God-man, his
name is Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord our righteousness. He perfectly obeyed God's holy
law in every detail with every breath of his life. for the full
age of a man, not for himself. He did no thing. He didn't know
anything. He obeyed it as the representative
of his people. When Christ lived in obedience
to God, I was in him and lived in obedience to God in him. And
then when he died upon the cursed tree, the Lord Jesus Christ bore
my sin. in his own body on the tree. And when God found sin on his
son, God slaughtered his son because his son fully deserved
to die. When he was made sin for us,
justice drew forth its dreadful sword and slaughtered the darling
of heaven because he was made sin. You think God won't punish
sin? When God found sin on his son,
he withheld nothing of his wrath, nothing of his fury, nothing
of his vengeance, but poured out the whole of it all upon
his son at one time. But when he died, Every sinner
loved of God from eternity. Every sinner chosen of God from
eternity. Every sinner who shall ever believe
on the Son of God in time died in Him. And now God is just to
justify the ungodly. But still God requires more.
You've got to actually be righteous. You've got to actually be righteous.
God didn't pretend to make his son sin, he made him see it. And God doesn't pretend to make
sinners righteous, he makes them righteous. In the new birth,
Jesus Christ comes into the heart of a man. God the Son takes up residence
in your soul. God comes and gives you new life,
making sinners new creatures in Jesus Christ. So that in us
that holy nature of Christ himself and believers are made partakers
of the divine nature through faith in Jesus Christ the Lord. I know most of you are religious.
You've made a covenant with death and with hell. but it will soon
be dissolved. You have a religious bed and
you stretch yourself on it but you can't really stretch out
and be comfortable on it. You have religious clothes you
wrap yourself up in but they're too narrow and you can't quite
wrap yourself up in them. That's exactly how God describes
man's religion in Isaiah 28. You've chosen the wide gate,
and you're walking in the broad way of free will religion, and
works religion, man-centered religion. It is the road to death.
It ends in everlasting destruction. Your refuge is a refuge of lies,
if your refuge is not Jesus Christ crucified. Your refuge is a refuge
of lies, if your refuge is not in God's free grace alone. Your
refuge is a refuge of lies, if it's a refuge you built. A refuge
that depends on you! And God will destroy it and you
will perish under his wrath. The scriptures speak plainly,
speak very plainly. The only refuge for guilty sinners
is in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I urge you then, believe on the
Son of God. Trust the Son of God. Perhaps
you ask, but Pastor, how can I know if I'm one of God's elect?
How can I know that Christ died for me? How can I know that I've
been predestined to everlasting life? How can I be sure that
God the Holy Spirit has called me? How can I know whether or
not he will save me? If you choose Christ, It's right where you are right
now. If you choose Christ, it's because He chose you. If you
call on Him, it's because He's called you. If you come to Him,
it's because He's come to you. If you have faith in Him, it's
because He gives you faith. You can't work it up. You can't
somehow muster it within yourself. We command you to believe. God
commands you to believe. But you can't believe unless
God raises you from the dead. Faith is His gift. If you get
God's salvation, It's because God gives it to you and God works
it in you. God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation. God in love predestined you to
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to
the good pleasure of his will. But only, only, only if you believe
God can you know these things. Come to Christ. Come to Christ
now. God help you for Christ's sake
to come to Him. Oh, God help you to believe. Oh, Spirit of God, bless your
word to these immortal souls for Christ's sake. Amen. Let's stand together and Lindsay
will lead us in another hymn. After the graveside service,
the ladies at Grace Baptist Church have prepared a meal for you.
If you could stay and join us, we would love to have you there
for a meal after the graveside service. We'll sing the first, the second,
and the fourth stanzas only. There is a mountain filled with
blood, strong for our immanuel sin. And sinners plunge beneath
that flood, lose all their guilty stains. their guilty stains, lose all
their guilty stains, and sinners plunge beneath that blood. Oh, the guilty saint, the dying
thief, rejoiced to see that fountain in his day. And there may I, O poverty, wash
all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. And there may I move by lessee. Hence by faith I sow the stream,
Thy flow we would supply. Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die. And shall be till I die. And shall be till I die. Redeeming love has been my theme. And shall be till I die. God of all grace, our Heavenly
Father, O God, how we thank you, we thank you for your matchless
free grace, for your wise, unerring providence, for the free pardon
and forgiveness of sin through the blood of your darling Son.
Will you be pleased, for Christ's sake, to call our chosen sinners
this hour Give them life and faith in our Redeemer. Give glory
to your name. Will you comfort, strengthen
the hearts of your people, especially for this family. I ask particularly
for Sally, God, make her rejoice in your goodness. In the midst
of sorrow, to rejoice. In the midst of heartache, to
give thanks. for your great goodness. Thank you for bringing this man,
this woman, their family into our lives, making us so much
a part of one another's lives. Thank you for your goodness to
them in your grace and your goodness to us in making them ours. Thank you now. For the glory
our brother enjoys and the glory we anticipate. Amen. Remain standing, please.