I'm reading from the 27th Psalm. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When
the wicked, even my enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat
up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an host should encamp
against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise
against me, in this will I be confident. One thing have I desired
of the Lord, and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the
house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty
and glory of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple In the
time of trouble he shall hide me. In the secret of his tabernacle
shall he hide me. He shall set me up upon a rock. And now shall mine head be lifted
up above mine enemies round about me. Therefore will I offer in
his tabernacle sacrifices of joy. I will sing, yea, I will
sing praises unto the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with
my voice. Have mercy also upon me, and
answer me. When Thou saidst, Seek ye my
face, my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.
Hide not Thy face far from me. Put not Thy servant away in anger. Thou hast been my help. Leave
me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. When my father
and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. Teach
me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path because of
mine enemies. Deliver me not over into the
will of mine enemies, for false witnesses are risen up against
me, and such as breathe out cruelty. I would have fainted unless I
had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the
living. Wait on the Lord. Be of good
courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on
the Lord." We're going to bow in prayer. I'm going to ask Brother
Charlie Payne if he will come lead us as we pray. Our blessed and loving Heavenly
Father, we come unto thee this afternoon to praise and to glorify
thy holy name. Rejoicing, our Father, that in
thy kindness and mercy thou hast given unto the sons of men grace
to glorify thee, to bow at thy feet and worship thee with our
souls and with our hearts and with our spirits. So this evening,
our Father, we come to give Thee thanks, and we come especially
to praise Thee and to thank Thee that Thou hast allowed us to
know this dear one here this evening. We thank Thee, our Father,
that in Thy good providence and mercy Thou didst bring him to
hear the gospel. We praise Thee, our Father, that
He was one of Thy sheep, and when He heard, He followed Thee,
and a stranger He would not follow according to Thy exceedingly
great and precious promises. And, our Father, we thank Thee
for the privilege of knowing Him and being associated with
Him. We thank Thee, our Father, for the witness that He gave
to us, the inspiration through Him that we receive from Thee.
And, Our Father, we have so much to thank Thee, for we rejoice
that Thou hast called him to be with Thee, to behold the glory
of the Lord. We thank Thee, Our Father, that
in Thy mercy Thou hast given to a sinful person the privilege
of beholding Thy face through the merit of our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank Thee, Our Father, that
we have good hope that in Thy own good time that we shall behold
thee and those dear ones who are there waiting for us. And
we pray this evening, our Father, for the comfort of the blessed
Holy Spirit to touch the brokenhearted family here and friends. And
we know, our Father, that this is a time of rejoicing that thou
hast been pleased to bring one of thine own home. And we do
rejoice this evening, though with a broken heart, that we
give thee praise and glory and worship, and ask our Father that
thou would give us humble spirits before God to bow at thy feet
and say, even so, Father, not our will, but thy will be done. These blessings we ask in Christ's
name, and for his sake. Amen. Prepare to prepare. Excellent. Last night I dreamed an angel
came He took my hand He called my name He bade me love the other way I saw a man, I heard him say He said if I'd be lifted up I'll
draw all men to me He turned and then I saw the nail-scarred
hands that bled for me I touched the hem of his garment
that fell round him there My life, my heart I gave, my soul
was in his care When I awoke My heart beat so And in the dark I saw a glow This was no dream He turned my
way Again I heard my Savior say He said if I'd
be lifted up I'll draw all men to me He turned and then I saw
The nail-scarred hands that bled for me I touched the hem of his garment
that fell round him there My life, my heart I gave My soul
was in His care Juanita, let me say first of all that in a measure I have been where
you are and I have sat where you are sitting and I know from
experience what you are feeling, a measure at least. And I believe
I know the questions that are going through your mind because
the same questions went through my mind under similar circumstances,
and I have found the answers. I know where the answers are
found, not in our creeds and not in our traditions and not
in our old sayings, but the answers are found in God's Word. I believe I know the questions
and I believe I know the answers. The Word of God is the source
of all faith. The Word of God is the source
of all comfort. The Word of God is the source
of all assurance. I believe there are six questions
that are on your mind right now. And as I say, they were the questions
that were on my mind and the questions, the answers for which
I carefully and diligently searched God's Word. The first question
on your mind, I know, is this, and I believe you already have
the answer. What was Raymond's relationship with the Lord? As
his pastor and close friend, I know beyond a doubt that his
faith and hope were in Christ alone. Not once, but hundreds
of times, we talked about salvation. Not once but hundreds of times
we talked about eternal life, eternal life in Christ. Raymond
knew for two years how long he had to live, and in that two
years he gave a strong, positive, certain testimony of his confidence
in Christ. Not one time in our conversation
did he ever allude to his own works, or his own merit, or his
own righteousness, but always to Christ, his strength, his
rock, his foundation. I never have in twenty-eight
years of preaching the gospel, twenty-eight years of ministry,
I never have seen a man exhibit more grace in his dying hour
and more peace than this man exhibited. I have been at the
bedside of many people who knew that they were leaving this earth
and going to meet God, and I have never in twenty-eight years seen
a man exhibit more grace and more confidence and more peace
in Christ Jesus the Lord. And as for his confidence and
faith in Christ and his resting in the Savior, I feel that at
this moment you can have complete joy and complete confidence and
there can be no greater comfort. If I were preaching the memorial
message for a man for whom I had doubt, there could be no joy
in my heart at all, nothing but deep and lasting sorrow. But
when I stand over the form of one who died in Christ and died
in the faith, and one for whom I can have the utmost assurance
that he knew Christ. There's sorrow, but there's got
to be joy. There's got to be praise to the
Lord. Raymond has achieved, by the
mercy of Christ and by the grace of our Lord, exactly what every
believer in here wants, above all things, to be like Christ.
And that's the first question I know that's on your mind. What
was his relationship with the Lord? You already know the answer. And I know the answer. Christ
was his hope and his confidence. My wife was visiting in Lexington
at the hospital when he was there. These are typical answers that
he gave to people. She said to him, Raymond, you've
been a great blessing to us in these days. Your confidence and
your faith have been a blessing to so many people. He said, Doris,
it's not I, it's Christ in me. It's Christ in me. The last day
of his life, I stood by his bed and I said, Raymond, what's your
favorite verse of scripture right now? He said, Philippians 1.20,
that Christ may be glorified whether in my life or in my death. For me to live is Christ, to
die is gain. He quoted that verse to me in
the last few hours of his life. I've never seen a man die with
more confidence and assurance. Now the second question I know
is on your mind is this. How does a person acquire eternal
life? Juanita knows the answer to this.
She knows how Raymond found this assurance, and that is in Christ. But all of you here don't have
the answer to that. All of you can't die like Raymond
died. All of you don't have the faith like this man God gave
this man. So that's on your mind. Preacher,
how does a man get this kind of peace? How does a man get
this kind of assurance? How can a man lie on the bed
and the doctor tell him it's a matter of days or hours, and
yet he can smile and say, it's all right, it's all right, it
won't be long now, I'll be with the Lord. Where does a man get
that kind of assurance? Well, let me tell you, first
of all, he doesn't get it through work. Because the Bible says,
now listen to God's word, it's not by works of righteousness
which we have done. There are many people, Christ
said, will say unto me in that day, Lord, we prophesied in your
name and cast out devils and did many wonderful works, and
I will profess unto them I never knew you. So Raymond didn't get
this confidence in his works. And secondly, you don't get it
by the deeds of the law. We know what the law says, thou
shalt not steal, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not bear false
witness, but the scripture also says, by the deeds of the law
shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. So he didn't get
this confidence in the deeds of the law. And then he didn't
get it by church membership. Judas was a member of the church,
and he sold his Lord. Simon Magus was a member of the
church, and Philip said to him, one of the apostles, Peter said
to him, Your heart's not right with God. And now, since the
pharaoh were members of the church, and yet they carried their bodies
out in disobedience to the Lord, God had stricken them, smitten
them dead. Where does a man get this assurance?
How does a man acquire eternal life? Listen to the Word of God. Now listen to it, 1 John 5, 11. This is the record. God hath
given to us eternal life. And this life is in his Son.
And he that hath the Son of God hath life, and he that hath not
the Son of God hath not life. Do words mean anything at all?
Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh
to the Father but by me. The way to God is not through
church membership, it's through Christ. The way to God is not
through this baptismal pool, it's through Christ. The way
to God is not by the law, it's not by the deeds of the flesh,
it's not by the works, it's not by trying to be good, it's through
Christ. Christ came to save sinners like
you and me. If I'm depending on my works
to take me to God, my works are not good enough, because in order
to stand before God I've got to have perfect works, clean
hands and a pure heart. I don't have that, but Christ
did. And as my representative, he obeyed that law and died for
my sins. That's the way to God. We are
not redeemed, Peter said, with corruptible things, but with
the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without spot or blemish.
Isaiah said, He was wounded for my transgressions. He was bruised
for my iniquities. The chastisement of my peace
was upon Him. By His stripes we are healed.
What is the gospel? Christ died for my sins. That's
how Raymond could get that confidence and assurance. He knew that no
good thing dwelt in the flesh. He knew that in the flesh no
man could please God. He knew that the flesh could
produce nothing but sin. But he knew that Christ, dying
on the cross for him, presented to God a perfect offering and
a perfect sacrifice and a perfect substitute. And because of Christ's
death, burial, and resurrection, God could find no fault in the
one who receives and believes in Christ. That's how a man gains
eternal life. Now, if you're lying on the deathbed
and you're depending on your works, you've got a lot to worry
about. You've got to worry whether or not they're good enough, and
they're not. If you're lying on the bed of affliction depending
on your church membership, you have a lot to worry about, because
you may not be in the right church. If you're lying on the bed of
affliction and you're depending on your baptism and your good
deeds to take you to God, you've got a lot to worry about. Because
your good deeds and your church membership and your baptism may
not be according to God's commandments. But if you're lying there depending
on Christ, you know where He is. He's at the right hand of
God already. And you're seated in Him. And
you're accepted in the Beloved. And what Christ is, you are.
And where Christ is, you are. And what Christ has, you have.
Because you're joint heirs with Christ. Now when you come to
this place, you depend on what you want to depend on. But none
of it will suffice but Christ the Lord. That's how he could
have that kind of assurance. Somebody said he had courage.
More than that, he had grace. He had Christ. And brother, when
you come to the end of the road, when God calls you home, if you're
in Christ, you can have complete assurance that you're accepted. Now here's the third question.
I know this is on your mind. What happens when a believer
dies? What happened at 340? Saturday morning, yesterday morning,
Saturday morning. Where is the soul? Now, we've
got a lot of theories about that, and a lot of fantasies. But as
I said, during the past few years, I've examined this because it's
been on my mind. The Bible says, the Word of God
says, to be absent from the bodies, to be present with the Lord.
That's what the Bible says. that when Raymond left this body,
when he breathed his last breath, and by God's grace he gives his
beloved sleep, Lord, when I die, let me die the death of the righteous.
And he breathed out his last breath. The Scripture says the
body returns to the dust from which it came, the soul to God
who gave it. Our Lord said to the thief who
died on the cross next to him, he said, Today thou shalt be
with me in paradise. today. Not after a period of
time. Not after serving so many years
in a place called purgatory. Today. That's what the Bible
says. Thou shalt be with me in paradise.
Today. Paul said, I have a desire to
depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Turn to 1 Corinthians
chapter, 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I want you to listen to this.
Now when a believer closes his eyes in death and the soul leaves
the body, the body sleeps. You say, why does the Lord call
it sleep in regard to a believer? One reason is because it's not
death. In Christ there can't be any
death. The believer doesn't die. You don't even refer to the believer
as death. The body sleeps. The soul doesn't.
The body doesn't. Your soul never sleeps. When
God breathed into Adam the breath of life, he became a living soul.
And that soul never sleeps. Your body sleeps. Your body sleeps
even now in life, and someday it'll sleep in death. But for
the believer, there is no death. Christ abolished all death. When
the unbeliever dies, his soul and body dies, his soul an eternal
death, his body eternal death. But for the believer, it's sleep.
And his soul goes to be with God. And listen to me. That soul
is not a disembodied spirit floating around up there in the form of
a ghost like the fantasy and theories say. It has a building. It has a body right now. Listen
to 2 Corinthians 5. We know that if this earthly
house of this tabernacle is dissolved And that's what's happened. It's
dissolved by disease and dissolved by affliction, and it's dissolved
by the hand of God and goes back to the dust. But we have a building,
we have a body, eternal in the heavens. Now listen to me. When
Samuel appeared to Saul in the Old Testament, as Samuel had
died and had buried his body, and his soul had gone to God.
When Samuel appeared to Saul, Saul saw a body, a man in a body. When Moses and Elijah appeared
to the disciples in Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration,
Moses had died, and his body had been buried. But when he
appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration, the disciples saw a man in a
body. And when the believer died, Raymond
has a body right now. You say, well, why resurrect
this body? I'll tell you why, because Christ
bought this body on Calvary's cross. He redeemed his people,
soul and body, and he's not going to lose any of us. And the final
victory of Christ will not be realized until this body is raised
from the tomb and we stand in the image of our Lord, body and
soul, purchased by his blood on Calvary's cross. He bought
all of the believers. All right, the next question.
I know it's on your mind because, as I say, it's on my mind. When a believer dies, his soul
goes to be with God, and his soul has a building, a body,
eternal, prepared by God to be absent from this body, to be
present in a new body, in the presence of the Lord. And then
someday this body is going to be raised. In 1 Corinthians 15,
listen to this. I'll say some among you, there
is no resurrection of the dead. If there be no resurrection of
the dead, listen, if there be no resurrection of the dead,
here's how important it is. We're going out to the cemetery
in a little while, and we're going to go where I've been a
number of times. I buried a son, I buried a brother,
I buried a mother. You're going to bury a husband,
a daddy, a loved one. But I'm telling you, we're putting
them in the ground in hope. We sorrow not as those who have
no hope. We know that this body's coming
out of that grave. If it come not out of the grave,
listen to the scripture, if there be no resurrection of the dead,
Christ is not risen. If there be no resurrection of
the dead, our preaching is in vain. If there be no resurrection
of the dead, your faith is in vain. If there be no resurrection
of the dead, you're false witnesses of God. If there be no resurrection
of the dead, you're yet in your sins. If there be no resurrection
of the dead, we're all men, of all men, most miserable. But
there is a resurrection. And this corruptible shall put
on incorruption. This mortal shall put on immortality. This body buried in weakness
shall be raised in power. This body raised in shame shall
be raised in glory. This body buried, a physical,
sinful body shall be raised, an immortal, incorruptible, eternal
body just like Christ. I want to show you from Luke
chapter 24. Now, I know this is on your mind. What will our body be like? when
we're raised from the grave. What will it be like? Well, John
said it's going to be like Christ. Beloved, behold what manner of
love God hath bestowed on us that we should be called the
sons of God. We know that when he shall appear we'll be like
him. What was his resurrected body like? Listen to it. In Luke
24 he appeared to his disciples after he had risen from the grave,
and they were afraid Why, they had seen him crucified, they'd
seen him buried, and here he was standing right in front of
them, and they were afraid. And he said to them, don't be
afraid. Behold my hands and my feet.
It is I myself. Handle me. Touch me. A spirit, a disembodied spirit
does not have flesh and bones like you see me have. touch me."
And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet,
and they touched him. And then he took a piece of meat
and a honeycomb and ate it. Brethren, one of these days when
God raises this body, my body, your body, we're going to be
raised just like the mastiff. And these cartoonists that picture
foolish pictures of people floating on clouds with halos, wings,
and hearts. Picture them for foolish people
who don't know anything about God's Word. We're going to be
raised an incorruptible body just like our Lord, a body of
flesh and bones. That's what Scripture says. We're
going to be just like Christ. Now then, will we retain our
identity? I know you're thinking about
this now. Will we retain our identity and will we know each
other in the resurrection? That's mighty important. It may
not be important to some of you who haven't said goodbye to loved
ones, but it's important to us, isn't it? Very important. But I can answer that for you.
Number one, when Samuel appeared to Saul, Saul knew him. And Samuel
knew Saul. When Moses and Elijah appeared
to Christ and the disciples, they knew him. They knew them. When Lazarus died and came back,
when Christ raised him, he'd been dead four days. When Christ
raised him, he came back. Who'd he come back as? Lazarus.
That's who he was all the time. He was Lazarus in life and Lazarus
in death. When David's son died, David
said, he can't come back to me, but I can go to him. And when
Christ appeared to his disciples, he said to them, after he had
been buried and rose again, he said to them, what did he say?
It is I myself. When Job was talking about dying,
he said, I know that my Redeemer liveth, and no worm shall destroy
this body. In my flesh I am going to see
the Lord, I myself and not another. My friends, How shall I praise
God in heaven for saving me if I'm not me? How shall I praise
God for saving me if I don't remember what took place on this
earth? When the rich man died and lifted
up his eyes in hell, Abraham said, Son, remember what happened
on the earth. He remembered. Lazarus in Abraham's
bosom, you think he was less intelligent than the rich man?
He remembered the earth too. Of course we are. We could never
praise the Lord for saving us unless we're the same people.
And then in the second place, in heaven we shall know as we
have been known. I'll be wiser there than I am
now. I forget people down here now.
My memory's not too good. But I'll have a good memory then.
I'll remember them then. Now last of all, where Will our
eternal abode be? Where is it going to be? Where
is heaven going to be? The scripture says that John
said, I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The old heaven and
old earth had passed away. God's going to make a new heaven
and God's going to make a new earth. Wherein dwelleth righteousness. And you know, John, when he saw
the holy city, He didn't see it in heaven. He saw it coming
down out of heaven, descending right here to this earth. God's
going to make a new earth. There's nothing wrong with this
world except sin. And when God takes the sin away,
He takes the disease and the darkness and the tears and the
blight and the plagues and the frost and all those things. In
the Garden of Eden, this was a perfect world. And in Romans
chapter 8, God tells us He's going to make it over again.
He's going to make a perfect world. And that new Jerusalem,
the holy city, is going to descend out of heaven. It's 1,500 miles
long and 1,500 miles wide and 1,500 miles high. And if everybody
in that city had a lot 100 by 150 feet, there'd be room for
17 trillion people. And if you visited every room
in heaven, If every cubit mile was a room, and you visited every
room in heaven, starting with the day Adam was created, to
this present day you'd still have 365,000 rooms to go. It's a big city. There's nothing wrong with this
earth except sin, and Almighty God, one of these days, is going
to take away all sin. all sin. Our Father in Heaven, comfort
our loved ones with the presence and power of Thy Holy Spirit.
O Lord, take away those old prejudices and traditions of others, and
open our eyes to behold the Word of the living God, from which
we draw so much comfort and strength and assurance. Let us see first
of all that Christ alone is our hope and our salvation. In Him
we can have complete confidence, never in ourselves. We met Him
at the cross, we're at the cross now, and when we leave this world,
let us still be at the cross. For it's at the cross that I
first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away.
It was there by faith I received my sight, and now, because of
His cross, I am happy all to-day. We thank Thee for Thy grace and
mercy to Raymond. Thou hast called him unto Thyself.
Now bless and comfort and strengthen his beloved family. Keep them
according to Thy will. In the name of our Lord we pray,
Amen.