When I received word yesterday
morning, actually Friday when I first learned that Linda would
probably not live here another day or two, and then yesterday
morning received word that the Lord had taken her home to glory,
lots of things began to flood my mind. Marv and Linda and their
family had been dear friends for a long, long time. I've known
them longer than I've known most of you. Shelby and I were talking
last night, coming home. We're all getting to the age
now where if you don't bury me, I'm going to bury you soon. We're
saying goodbye to a lot of folks, at least temporarily, for some
forever. But I thought about their family.
Pain of loss. Sometime back, when James Lee
was dying, a young fellow said to me, I don't understand why
people, that bothers people. I said, well, you haven't lived
long enough to be there yet. You'll find out. You'll find
out. Believer leaves this world. In
a lot of ways, it's more difficult than losing someone who's not
a believer, not related to you. They leave a bigger void. Leave
a bigger void. Somebody leaves the world who's
important, they leave an empty spot. And you miss them. And
you pray for Marvin Linder's family. Their kids are remarkable. God gave them grace to raise
four children that are four of the most delightful. well-mannered
people I've ever known in my life. They're all grown now,
just about when I'm still in high school. And I remember a lot of fond
memories over the years. The last song I heard Marvin
and Linda sing together down at Cherokee, Shelby and Skip,
Sandy and I were down there, and they sang, It Is Well With
My Soul. Convinced me it was well with
their souls. I remember our last conversation right before we
left Cherokee. Last personal face-to-face conversation. I talked with Linda a good bit
and with Marvin. I remember the last words, her
last words to me. And a lot of scriptures. Oh,
a lot of scriptures came to mind. You know how it is, just one
after the other. Here's the first thing. Let's
turn to some of them, will you? Jeremiah 12. Jeremiah chapter
12. In fact, I didn't sleep much the last couple
of nights. Last night because I was trying
to get ready to preach to you, the night before because I was
thinking about our friends. And I woke up in the middle of
the night, this text was on my mind. Jeremiah chapter 12, verse 5. If thou hast run with the footmen,
and they have wearied thee. Talking about time of war. serious
war, serious war, hand-to-hand combat, foot soldiers after you,
and they've worn you down. Then how canst thou contend with
horses? And if in the land of peace wherein
you trust it, they will aid you, then how wilt thou do in the
swelling of the joint. Linda left here in peace. How
are you going to leave here? If you're wise, you'll give that
some consideration. How are you going to leave here? Doctor comes to you and tells
you you're dying two or three days, two or three weeks, two
or three months at best. How are you going to handle it? I've given you some thought.
Serious thought. I want you to just mull it over
for a little bit. I'll give you some thoughts of my own in a
minute. Turn to John chapter 11. Lazarus was dead. Martha was a little upset with
the Lord. We're too pious to say it, but
I've been there, Merle. I've been a little upset with
God a few times. I wish it weren't so, but that's just fact, because
I think I know better than him, and I think I'm smarter than
him, and I think I'm better than him, and I think I can do things
better than him in my foolish, proud sin and corruption. Often that's the case. Martha
and Mary were both a little upset with the Lord. Lord, if you'd
been here, our brother wouldn't have died. Nobody ever died in
your presence. All you had to do was come down
here. Wasn't a long trip, but you waited. And Jesus said to
Martha in verse 25, He told us that, He said, Martha,
You know your brother's going to rise again. She said, I know
he's going to rise in the resurrection. I'm not a Sadducee. I was raised
up to believe better than that. I know he's going to rise in
the resurrection. I know he's going to come back
to life one of these days. My doctrine's straight. You hadn't
got it yet, Martha. You hadn't got it yet. That was
what it said, verse 25. I am the resurrection. The doctrine of resurrection
is not going to do you one fragment of good, but the resurrection
will. I am the resurrection and the
life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. Now look at this next line. And
whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. What? Never die. I wish we could put
that word out of our vocabulary with reference to God's people.
The scriptures sometimes speak of the believer as dying, but
always just to accommodate our foolishness and our limited grasp
of things. Our Lord says plainly here, anybody
who believes in me will never die. Never die. Now this body
going to, but that's not me. Thank God this is not me. You
just look at the tent I live in. There's a big difference.
That house over yonder, that's where the Faulkners live. But
if you drive up there and say there's the Faulkners, you're
crazy. That's just where we live. We're not even there right now.
We're not even there. It's just a tent. That's all.
What you're looking at here, that's not me. That's not me.
And when you drop this tent in the ground, don't fret about
it. It's going to rot. And that's
what we want it to do. That's what it ought to do. That's
what it's going to do. No matter what you do to it,
it's going to the dust. Say, well, we can bomb it and
keep it forever. No, you can't. When God burns this earth up,
he's burning it up. It's going to the dust. It's
going to the dust. That's exactly what ought to
happen with it. I remember when we buried my mother. I get so
sick of folks, the religion as well as the practice of bringing
religion into their business and playing on people's emotions.
It's all fabulous down there and it's no time to get us to
spend a bunch of money on a vault. You've got to have this. As a
matter of fact, I wouldn't even spend any of my money. My brother-in-law
said, I'll take care of this. You don't have to worry about
it. He said, what about my money? I wouldn't worry about that.
He said, this will keep the water out, and this will keep the elements
out. I said, mister, you need to learn something. My mother
is dead. And her body is going to rot
in the earth. I don't care what you do with
it. And yours too. Yours too. This body will go
into the earth. But he that believes in me shall
never die. Shelby and I talked to Linda's
oldest daughter yesterday. She said, I thank God my mother
is more alive than she's ever been. Never die. Believest thou this? Sure enough,
do you? Never die. And then our Lord
came to Liza's tomb in verse 40. And Jesus said to her, said
I not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest
see the glory of God. He said Martha, honey, hang on
for a minute. I ain't done yet. This is just the end of this.
This is just the end of this chapter. Not even the end of
the chapter, this is just the end of the middle of this sentence.
Just hang on! Believe me, before I get done,
you're going to see the glory of God in this, in everything. In everything. And you're going
to see the glory of God in your brother, standing right in front
of you again, full of life. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. But we know, we know. Isn't it amazing how
often Paul uses that kind of language? We know. He does it,
I think, for a number of reasons. He does it to reassure the believer. Now forget about your carnal
doubts and fears. You've got them. I know you do.
I know you do. You struggle with these things.
I know you do. But get down to the core things. Lindsey, we
just know. We know. Say, well, you were
raised believing that. I don't know how much that's
got to do with how much it doesn't. Thank God that's the case. We know. Well, if you'd been raised in
another society, you wouldn't believe that. Thank God I wasn't raised
in another society. We know. We know. We know. That if our earthly
house and this tabernacle were dissolved when this piece of
clay crumbles, We have. We have. Now get what it says
in this passage. First it says we know. We know
because God revealed it to us. We know because God the Holy
Spirit dwells in us and bears witness with it. We know because
our conscience declares it. We know because this word declares
it. We know because Christ has already
taken possession of it for us. We know. And we know that as
soon as we drop this robe of flesh like that dying thief,
we have. Isn't it amazing he didn't say
we're going to have? He said we have. We have. I don't have any idea. And it's best we don't. Men can
speculate and argue and fuss all they want to. Folks write
books about stuff they don't know all the time. Here the apostle speaks by inspiration
and says somewhere, somehow, between the death of the body
and the resurrection of the body, the believer still has a body.
I have no idea what it is. Moses and Elijah had a body when
they appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration, didn't they?
And it was different, Merle, than the kind of body we have
now. I know it was different because the apostles would not
possibly have had any way of recognizing who they were. But
something happened on that mount giving them all a foretaste of
what's happening right now. And when Peter and James and
John saw them, they said, that's Moses and Elijah. That's Moses
and Elijah. They knew them just as well as
they knew the Lord Jesus. It was an identifiable state beyond
some kind of, you know, people get the idea that some folks
say, well, our souls sleep until the resurrection. Some folks
deny the resurrection altogether. Some folks say, actually, we're
not asleep. We're kind of just floating around
like gaseous bodies, clouds in the air, like ghosts. No, no. Look what it says. We have a
building. A building of God. A house not
made with hands, eternal in heaven. For in this, in this one here,
we grow. We know, we have, but right now
we grow. We groan for a lot of reasons. Sadly, we often contribute to
one another's groanings. I looked at numerous other passages
yesterday and I kept praying, God, oh God, prevent me from causing any hurt
to your people. and give me grace to heal any
hurt that's there. But best we can do, we just grow. Grow. In this body of sin, unbelief,
murmuring against God, we grow. You fellows who hunt, you go
out in the woods in the wintertime, and cold, cold day, and you hear
those Huge trees just crack under the weight of the snow and the
wind. Paul says the whole creation
groans. That's kind of where this tabernacle
is here. Of my heart in this tabernacle. My soul in this tabernacle. And groaning. Groan. Groan for what? earnestly desiring to be clothed
upon, earnestly desiring to live, to live, to live. Have you ever been about to drown? Have you ever had somebody pull
you out of the water? If I had been so choked, so strangled,
you thought surely this is my last breath. That's what it's
talking about. That earnest desire to live. In this tabernacle, we grow with
a desire to live. Really live free of sin. free of the groaning, the pain,
the toil, desire to be clothed upon with our house, which is
from heaven. If so be that being clothed, we shall not be found
naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened. Not for that we would be unclothed.
It's not just that we're, boy, I'm tired of this, I want to
go home. That's not it. Oh, no, no, no. My soul, It wouldn't be possible for a
man to live in this world and live with greater blessedness
than I enjoy in this world, I don't believe. In my home, in my family,
in the church family, I thank God for His blessings on me here,
but my problem is not our child. The groaning, the groaning, the
real pain is not caused by you or anybody else, but by me. I'm not groaning just to be free
of the cares of life. I'm groaning because I want to
live before God. Now, we're groaning that mortality
might be swallowed up of life. You see that? Grown to live. And he that did this is God. Thank God for the groan. He that
hath wrought for us the selfsame thing is God, who has also given
us the earnest of the Spirit, the down payment, the foretaste
of heaven's glory. Therefore, look at this now.
He said, we know, we have, we groan. We are always confident. Knowing that while we're at home
in the body, we're absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith,
not by sight. We are confident, I say, in willing,
rather, to be absent from the body and to be present with the
Lord. Turn to the book of Revelation,
if you will. Chapter 14. You remember John had a vision
of that 144,000 of God's elect. The number represents the whole
of God's elect. Don't let those things confuse
you. It's not talking about a specific number of people. It's talking
about the whole body of God's elect, the whole Israel of God.
And John said, well, who are these folks? And he said to me, these are
they which came out of great tribulation. Remember what the apostles said,
we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God?
You're not going to get there any other way. You're not going
to get there any other way. Boy, the way you talk, preacher,
this is not a health, wealth, prosperity, be happy all the
time gospel you're preaching. No. And folks who tell you that
are lying to you. This life is not health and happiness. This life is not prosperity. God never intended it to be.
Never. This life for his people is a
struggle, a warfare, a battle, a constant fight, a fight for
your heart and your soul. But they washed their robes,
made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they
before the throne of God, and they serve Him night and day.
Now look at chapter 14, verse 13. I heard a voice from heaven
saying, Write, Blessed are the dead. But they never die. No, they
don't. He's speaking again to accommodate
our puny understanding of things. We take our friend and put her in
the ground. Last time I saw her I kissed
her on the cheek and I was fairly sure I kissed her goodbye for
a while. She hugged my neck, kissed me
on the cheek, she said goodbye. Blessed are the dead, but not
all of them. I buried some folks very dear
to me who are damned. Damned forever. Can't even think about it, much
less talk about it. Oh, but blessed are the dead
that die in the Lord. There's the blessedness. From henceforth, man, had a good life, good family,
good house, good name, good reputation. Drive by somewhere and you see
somebody and say, oh, boy, the Lord sure blessed him. When this is over, Rex, from
henceforth, we are blessed. The blessing was given us from
eternity in Christ. The blessedness we begin to experience
here, but oh my soul, when we get done here, from henceforth,
blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. Yea, saith the Spirit,
that they may rest from their labors, from their toil and groaning,
pain, heartache, struggles, warfare, rest. I don't have any idea how we
will continue to serve our Lord in heaven's glory between the
death of this body and the resurrection of the body and the Lord's second
coming. I don't have any idea even how we're going to serve
him in the new heavens and new earth when he makes all things
new, but I can guarantee you this. We're not going to spend
eternity sitting around with white robes on and wings on our
backs and halos around our heads, strumming hearts floating on
clouds. We're going to serve him. But, Merle, we're going
to serve him with no labor. No labor. No weariness of body
or of soul, of heart or of mind. I get done preparing a sermon
and then preaching it, and I'm exhausted. I'm just exhausted. The teaching, the pressure, the
weight of the burden of the Word of the Lord, the care of the
souls of men. I'm just exhausted. Oh, but soon I want to rest.
And I want to serve them, but I never did. They'll rest from
their labors. And their works do follow them.
Now that's important. That's important. Not go before
them. They follow them. They follow
them. Somebody says, they twist and
rest the scriptures to their own destruction and yours. They
say, you give us money and lay up for yourself treasures in
heaven. Your works will go before you into heaven and you'll get
your bigger crown, bigger star, bigger yo-yo, bigger house on
Main Street. And if you don't, you'll get there, but you'll
get in by the skin of your teeth and you'll be a pauper and live
in the back alleys and the slums of the New Jerusalem. I wish somebody would put a ten
cent bounty on preachers heads and shoot them. I wish it was
legal. I'm sick, sick in my soul with
the religion of this age. The works will follow Him. They labor and serve Him. And forever what they do for
Him will praise Him. Look at verse 20, or verse 6
rather, chapter 20, Revelation 20 verse 6. Blessed and holy is he that has
part in the first resurrection. You've been born of God? That's
what he's talking about. When our Lord comes, there's
not going to be two-seconds comings or three-second comings. He's
not coming in secret and then come in public. There's not going
to be a rapture and then a resurrection. Those things just aren't so.
I know they're written in the margins of your Bibles and in
the footnotes, but they're just not so. The first resurrection
is the new birth. Oh, blessed is that man, that
woman who has part in the first resurrection. On such, the second
death has no power. Judgment has no power. No power. Hell has no power. They shall
be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign a thousand years.
Chapter 21, verse 4. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes. That's just almost unbelievable
in your acts. Just almost unbelievable. All
tears? If God didn't wipe them away,
there'd be lots of tears. I weep now over my sin, and I
see it then more clearly than I see it now. I weep now over lost men, and
I'll understand things then better than I understand it now. I weep
now over our sons and daughters. I went now over a lot of things.
I went now over my own belief, my faults and failures. But God's going to fix it so
that we see everything just like He does. We're going to be glad for everything. Every weakness exposed has driven
us into the arms of Christ. Every fault and failure has made
us cling to Him. The sin and fall of our father
Adam that made a way for redemption and our sin and corruption that
drove us to the Savior made us to know the wonders and glories
of redeeming love and grace. The damned will see that it's right. It's
right. God's done right. Nobody's going
to hell except folks who fully deserve it because of their own
deliberate, willful rebellion against God Almighty and the
light He's given. We'll understand it's right. and we'll look back at the trials and we'll smile. I can almost imagine something
of this. We'll look back upon the most
painful experiences we've had in this world and laugh at our folly for letting
them bother us so much. Why didn't you just believe God?
God wiped with all tears in their eyes. And there'll be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither
shall there be any more pain. Listen now, listen. For the former
things. Better that just takes in everything?
There is. That doesn't matter. and there's nothing that matters
really but Christ I wish I could learn to live
like that now nothing else really matters these
former things these relationships I love that dear lady sitting
there but one of these days You and her and him and I are going
to have the same relationship in perfection. The fact that
she was married to me on this earth and loved me so well here
on this earth won't compare with our union in Christ. Former things. I've had some adversaries. I've
got some now. Former things. I was concerned about retirement,
former things. Concerned about how I was going
to take care of things, former things, former things. Worried so much about educating
my children, former things, former things. I wonder if we'd go ahead and
kiss him goodbye. Passed away. Gone. Chapter 22. He showed me a pure river of
the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne
of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of
it, on either side of it, of the river, there was the tree
of life, which bear twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit
every month. And the leaves of the tree were
for the healing of the nations. Oh, wonder what all that is?
I don't know. I know it's got something to
do with Christ and His work. And I do know something about
the things that follow. There shall be no more curse. But the throne of God and of
the Lamb shall be in it. And His servants shall serve
Him and they shall see His face. And His name Be in authority. It's on our lips now. And we
hope it's in our hearts, as confident as it is. I'll be on authority. And you're
going to see it as plain as day, and me too. God's going to stamp
us as he is. And there shall be no night there. Thank God for an endless day. No night of weeping. No night
of darkness. No night of corruption. No night
of despair. No night of emptiness. No night
of watching. No night! And they shall need no candle.
You're not going to need me to tell you anything. No candle. Be the light of the sun, for
the Lord God gives them light. They'll reign kings with Christ
forever and ever. And one more text. Turn with
me to Psalm 84 if you will. I'll quit. Verse 11, For the Lord God, Jehovah, the self-sufficient,
self-existent, eternal God Elohim, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
God Supreme, God over all, blessed forever, The Lord, the triune
God, is a sun and a shield. The angel of the Lord campeth
round about them that fear Him. The Lord, our great, all-sufficient,
self-sufficient, eternal, triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
the Lord will give, what a word, No merit here, nothing you earned,
give. Not an offer, gift, give, give,
give, give. Grace. Grace. Oh, to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness like a fetter. Bind my wandering heart to Thee. How I love free grace. The Lord
will give grace. He'll give it to every chosen
redeemed sinner at the appointed time of love. He'll give it to
every sinner who believes Him. Believe Him. He'll give you grace. Believe Him, He'll give you the
grace of pardon and justification and sanctification, eternal life.
He'll give it! Grace! And believe Him, in the
midst of your heartache and trial, He'll give you grace. Sufficient
grace. Comforting grace. The Lord is
my portion, saith my soul, therefore I hope in Him as grace. Grace. He'll give you grace to meet
your needs. Grace in every time of need.
Grace to revive your soul. Grace to help you. He giveth
more grace when the burdens grow greater. That's the reason He
sends the burdens. To send you the grace. He sendeth
more strength when the labors increase. To add affliction He
addeth His mercy. To multiply sorrows. He multiplies
peace. He gives us grace through Christ
the Lord. He gives us grace when we need
it. He gives us grace constantly,
readily, at home and abroad, on the land and the sea, as your
days may demand, so your strength will ever be. of his fullness have we received
grace. Look at the next line, and glory. That little word and, that's an indestructible rivet. I don't know anything at all
about indestructible rivets. About anything I've ever had
had a rivet in it, I popped it soon. But this is a rivet that
permanently, forever, indestructibly, unites grace and glory. If God gives the one, he'll give
the other. The text does not say the Lord
will give grace and perdition. It does not say the Lord will
give grace in purgatory. It does not say the Lord will
give grace and bring you into glory. He says the Lord will
give grace and the Lord will give glory. If we have grace,
we'll have glory. God won't give one without the
other. In fact, the two are the same. Grace is the bud, glory
is the flower. Grace is the fount and glory
is the river. Grace is the first fruit. Glory
is the full harvest. If we have grace, we'll never
perish. We'll have glory too. The Lord
will give us the glory of heaven. What's that talking about? Who
knows? Nobody down here. When John describes heaven's
glory, when it's described for us in the scriptures, it's described
in earthly language. But it's described in earthly
language to give us some indication of the splendorous beauty and
glory of that place. Whatever it is, streets are made
out of gold. Walls are made out of jasper.
Whatever it is, whatever it is, nothing material matters. Whatever it is, nothing of a
carnal interest is in the least concern. Whatever it is, it's
beauty and riches and blessings and peace and light and joy. It's heaven. Eye has not seen
nor ear heard. Neither has it entered into the
heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that
love Him. We'll just have to wait to find out. It's the glory
of eternity. We talk about eternity. We talk
about it all the time. We sing about it. I preach about
it. But we don't have any idea what eternity is. We're time
creatures. We talk about the endless ages
of eternity. Isn't that smart? Endless ages? Eternity? They just don't go
together. Eternity is not endless because
it doesn't have any beginning. Eternity doesn't have any ages.
It's eternity. And He'll give us the glory of
eternity. He'll give us the glory of Christ Himself. Heirs of God in joint heirs with
Christ. Pay no attention, I said it earlier,
pay no attention to those folks who talk about the, you know,
crowns and reward, all that nonsense. He'll give us glory. All of it! The glory of absolute victory
over sin, death, and hell! Over flesh and the world! The
glory of perfection! Perfection! Perfection! Holy! Unclaimable! Unreprovable in
His sight! He'll give us the glory of rest! The glory of life! Oh, life, life. Pilgrim cried
as he ran from the city of destruction. Life, life, eternal life. He will give us the glory of
eternal life. I talked to Marvin last night,
and he told me this. He said, I asked Linda this week. He said, I just knew God was
going to teach her some things in this who had learned another
way, responded to something I had said to them some time back. He said, Linda, I want to know,
what has the Lord taught you in this? Really, what's he taught
you? I really want to know. And she
said, well Marvin, I have never before been so completely convinced
of the complete, utter uselessness and insufficiency of my righteousness
and good works before God. And I've learned this. I have
never seen so clearly as I now see. the complete, absolute sufficiency
of Christ and His righteousness.