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[0:00] The prophet Isaiah said it, They will enter heaven with singing,! Everlasting joy will crown their heads,! Gladness and joy will overtake them,! And sorrow and sighing will flee away.

[0:21] ! And our Lord Jesus Christ said it, Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.

[0:31] In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

[0:54] Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going, and how can we know the way? Jesus answered, I am the way, and the truth, and the life.

[1:08] No one comes to the Father except through me. Good afternoon. welcome and thank you for joining us in this memorial service for our dear, beloved Letty.

[1:26] It's our desire to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ this afternoon in our singing and in our praying, in our reading of Scripture, and in the preaching of His Holy Word.

[1:38] Lord, and may all of us be focused on our own mortality. For as we think about it, we realize that every one of us here are just a breath away from death.

[1:52] And may we all, like Letty, embrace and experience humble and continuing repentance to God for our sins, and a precious living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[2:10] that's the only way to forgiveness, the only way to peace, the only way to God. Now let us all pray.

[2:26] Almighty God, our Lord, you are worthy to receive glory and honor and power and blessing, for you have created all things by your will, your wisdom, and your word.

[2:41] You are the one who has given life and who takes it away. You are the author, the finisher, the perfecter of our faith. You are the infinite, eternal, unchanging God in all of your perfections.

[2:59] And so we rejoice that though people die, our Lord lives. and though the creatures are nothing but fading grass and broken reeds, yet our Lord is the solid rock, the eternal glory in heaven.

[3:23] and so we beg of you, be with us this afternoon. You've given every one of us life who is here today, and yet we are here because of death, the death of one of your precious ones, our beloved Lettie.

[3:39] and we pray that as she lived for you, so as we live, when we die, may we really live again in the presence of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, in whose name we pray.

[3:57] Amen. I'm Stan, the firstborn of mom's eight children, my brother Tom at the piano, and his dad mentioned, we've come to worship and adore mom's God.

[4:18] For great is her Lord and most worthy of praise. How awesome is our Lord most high.

[4:29] Our God reigns in our chaotic, sin-scarred world, and he does whatever pleases him. The Lord gives, and the Lord has taken away.

[4:43] But may the name of the Lord be praised. Two weeks ago, I shared with many of you how the psalmist in chapter 33 urges us to focus our attention in singing to him.

[5:03] Make music to him. Sing to him a new song. And that must always be our top priority as we bring him our worship in singing.

[5:20] But there is a verse in Ephesians 5 that instructs us that there is another aspect to our singing.

[5:32] Our singing is also to minister to one another. So here is your opportunity to minister to the hearts of our family with passionate, robust singing.

[5:51] Glorify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. O Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the world's thy hands have made.

[6:24] I see the stars I hear the rolling thunder Thy power throughout the universe displayed that sings my soul my Savior God to thee how great thou art how great thou art how great thou art and when I think that God his Son not sparing sent him to die

[7:37] I scarce can't take it in that on the cross my burden gladly bearing He bled He bled and died to take away my sin then sings my soul my Savior out to thee how great thou art how great thou art how great thou art and sings my soul my Savior love to thee how great thou art how great thou art how great thou art when I shall come with sorrow and love and love and take me home a joy shall fill my heart then I shall bow in humble adoration and then proclaim my God my God how great thou art and sings my soul my Savior

[9:29] God to thee how great thou art how great thou art how great thou art and sings my soul my Savior to thee to thee.

[9:55] How great thou art. How great thou art. I'm Rob.

[10:14] I'll read from Proverbs 31. A wife of noble character, who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.

[10:25] Her husband has full confidence in her. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of his life. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue.

[10:39] She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed. Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting.

[10:53] But a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Amen. Amen. Hi, I'm Charlie. I just want to say thank you for that singing.

[11:04] It ministered to my heart. I'm going to read some things that God has to say to us that are written down for us in 2 Corinthians 5. As I was reading through this, it hit me, these are things that we could not know, that we would not know, unless God himself revealed them to us, and we are so thankful that he has.

[11:29] Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.

[11:41] We are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight.

[11:53] We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.

[12:06] We implore you, on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

[12:27] Amen. As our family has shared memories, I just marvel at the mercy of God that he chose to give us eight kids the privilege of having a mother like mom.

[12:50] But there is a far, far greater wonder, and it's the wonder of all wonders, and something I'll never be able to grasp.

[13:02] Why in the world would a thrice holy God give up his one and only son for the likes of hell-deserving sinners like me?

[13:20] Listen to how the Apostle Paul expresses it in Ephesians chapter 2. As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world.

[13:37] All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

[13:52] But, because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.

[14:11] That word even is meant to shock us. We were made alive even when we were dead.

[14:23] When we could do absolutely nothing to save ourselves. And that's exactly why Paul concludes the way he does.

[14:34] Charles Wesley was one hymn writer who couldn't fathom the absolute beauty of this amazing love found in this God of the gospel of grace.

[15:10] Would you stand and sing with me three verses of his song, And Can It Be? And Can It Be?

[15:29] That I should be An interest in The Savior's blood Dying for me Who caused his pain For me Who went To death Pursued Amazing love How can it be That Thou my God Shouldst die for me Amazing love How can it be That Thou my God

[16:32] Shouldst die for me All my imprisoned Spirit lay Past Thou in sin And Nature's Night Thy Night Diffuse The Quirking Rain I I I How can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

[17:52] No condemnation now I dread, Jesus and all in Him is mine.

[18:12] Alive in Him, my living head, and clothed in righteousness divine.

[18:30] Oh, I approach the eternal throne, and claim the crown to Christ my own.

[18:48] Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

[19:10] You may be seated. Thank you. I want to express on behalf of the family our heartfelt appreciation to all of you, not only for your support and prayers for us in Mom's going, but for the many years of this difficult trial.

[19:29] You have been there for us, and we have sensed your prayers and your support. Thank you. All men are like grass, and their glory is like the flower of the grass.

[19:47] The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever. And because it stands forever, we have it in times like this to go to and to be taught.

[20:04] What to think, what to believe, what to do. And as we turn to the word of God in times of loss, we find a fellow named Job who faced the loss of all ten of his children in a single day.

[20:21] And in his grief, he fell to the ground in worship. And through his tears, he said, The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away.

[20:32] Blessed be the name of the Lord. His response to such loss is recorded in the Bible to teach us.

[20:43] What should our response be when loved ones are taken from us in death? And the answer is that worship is the appropriate response.

[20:59] Not of the loved one, but of the lover of her soul, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we too pause today to worship God and to say concerning our mother that the Lord gave her to us, and the Lord has taken her from us, and therefore the name of the Lord is to be praised.

[21:20] Now I want to tell you first of all about her salvation, because that's the most important thing about my mother. One of the biggest lies being told today is often told at funerals, either implicitly or explicitly.

[21:37] It happens this way. The good deeds of the deceased are rehearsed for all to hear, and then the conclusion is drawn or even sometimes stated, that because she was such a good person, she is surely in heaven today.

[21:55] And so the lie is repeated, that people can get to heaven by being a good person. And I want to tell you that nothing would grieve this family more than that anyone should leave this service today thinking that Lettie Heaney is in heaven because she was a good person.

[22:17] And so I'm charged to tell you as straightly as I know how that that's not the case. And that our mother is in heaven only because of the wonderful grace of Jesus Christ.

[22:34] Period. Period. All her good works put together did not earn her one second of eternal life. For as it's been written and read already, it is by grace that you have been saved through faith.

[22:52] And this itself is the gift of God, not of works so that no one can boast. He saved us not because of righteous things we have done, but because of his mercy.

[23:06] The plain truth is that our mother did not deserve to go to heaven. For the Bible gives us God's assessment of all humanity when it says in Romans 3.23 that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

[23:27] And our mother was no exception. The only thing she contributed to her salvation was the sin that made it necessary.

[23:40] Everything else was fully provided by her wonderful Savior, Jesus Christ. She didn't have a perfect righteousness, which is absolutely essential for anyone who's going to live with the perfectly righteous God because nothing unclean can enter his presence.

[24:04] And this was mom's view of herself. She viewed herself as a hell-deserving sinner unworthy of heaven. Nearly 30 years ago now, when she became a member of this church, she wrote out her testimony of how the Lord saved her so many years ago.

[24:28] And I pulled it out this week, and I read again of how she grew up going to Sunday school most every Sunday and was taught to be good.

[24:39] And she assured us that she made real efforts at it. She says that during her school years, she lived a fun-loving but self-centered life with little knowledge of God's word, which she said was, quote, due to do no doubt to my lack of interest in it.

[25:00] You see, her interest was in herself and in her fun. But then seven months after graduating from high school, she became restless and troubled.

[25:13] The things I had found as fun had lost their luster. My restlessness caused me to open the Bible on my own. Repent and believe had been the cry from the pulpit since I was 12.

[25:27] Now I was wanting to know what it meant. She thought repentance was a deep grief for her sins. And yet she feared that she didn't have enough of that grief in order to be saved.

[25:43] And so she struggled and she prayed much about it. And finally, one night in her confusion, she says, I simply told God that I knew I had sinned.

[25:57] I knew I was lost, but that I wanted him to forgive me and I wanted to live the rest of my life for him. You see, in repentance, she turned from going her own way and she turned unto the Lord Jesus Christ, looking away from anything of herself, all of her efforts to be good.

[26:22] Indeed, all of her trying to grieve enough over her sin, she turned away from it all and she cast herself upon the free mercy of God in Jesus Christ.

[26:34] And he saved her. Because not the labors of my hands could fulfill thy law's demands. Could my zeal no respite know?

[26:46] Could my tears forever flow? All for sin could not atone. Thou must save and thou alone. You see, no amount of grief for her sin could pay for one of them.

[27:01] No, there was one who was put to grief for her. The man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. He died that she might be forgiven.

[27:13] He died to make her good. That she might go at last to heaven saved by his precious blood. There was no other good enough to pay the price for sin.

[27:25] He only could unlock the gate of heaven and let her in. For the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanses from every sin.

[27:37] each one who trusts in the Savior. There's a very old cemetery in Ireland with a woman's gravestone.

[27:50] And on it is engraved these words. I gave him my sins and he gave me his righteousness. Again, as we heard, for God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

[28:12] And so by faith, mom gave her sins to Jesus. And he bore them to the cursed tree where he received the punishment that she would have received for eternity.

[28:25] He was damned in her place. Suffering death under God's wrath that stood against her. And all that her sins might be forgiven.

[28:39] Forever blotted out in the blood of Jesus. Paid in full. And in exchange, forgiving him her sins, he gave her his righteousness.

[28:52] His perfect obedience to every command was put on her report card in heaven. And his Holy Spirit was put into her heart and made her a new creature.

[29:04] And Monday at her death, her struggle with sin was over forever. For her spirit was perfected in righteousness and made fit to live in the perfect environment of God's holiness forever.

[29:19] You see, she got into heaven the same way that thief on the cross got in. She got in the same way that Saul of Tarsus, that murderer of Christians, got in. She got into heaven the same way anyone gets in.

[29:33] By the free grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. His blood and righteousness. His life and death. His good works, not hers.

[29:46] Glory to his name. Now I ask you, was God not good in not letting her die in a lost condition while she was a religious young lady just trying to be good?

[30:02] Trying to stir up more grief for her sins? If she died in that condition without Christ, she would be perishing this day.

[30:14] But what a grace that he loved her as a sinner. And that he gave his one and only son to live and die for her. And that he gave his Holy Spirit to draw her to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus.

[30:29] That's the most important thing about my mother. I want to tell you secondly about her growing understanding of the grace of God in the gospel.

[30:43] Her growing understanding. You see, the wonderful grace of Jesus is a deeper ocean than what mom first realized. And isn't that the way it is for all of us?

[30:54] The longer we live, the deeper we see that grace flows. And in her testimony, she speaks about a passage in Luke 7 that will help us understand some important things about her.

[31:09] Indeed, it took up about half of her testimony. Now, in Luke 7, besides the Lord Jesus, there are just two main characters in this account.

[31:20] First of all, there's a certain Pharisee named Simon, a very religious man, proud of his own goodness. and he'd invited Jesus for dinner.

[31:32] And so Jesus went and was reclining at the low table with his feet stretched out behind him as was the custom. And then the other main character entered.

[31:43] It was a certain woman. A woman who had lived a sinful life in that town. It's a woman with a reputation. We don't know her name, but everyone in town knew about her immorality.

[31:58] You can bet she wasn't on the guest list that day. But when she heard that Jesus was eating at Simon the Pharisee's house, she came into the house with her jar of perfume and stood behind Jesus' feet weeping.

[32:17] Now, you must know something about her to understand this passage. You must realize that she had just recently been saved. She had just recently put her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and had been forgiven all of her sins.

[32:32] So as she's weeping that day, her tears are a mixture of grief for her past sins. Oh, but also the heavy mixture of gratitude and love for this Jesus of Nazareth who had forgiven her sins.

[32:51] And so her tears ran down her cheeks and splashed onto Jesus' feet. She stooped and wiped them with her hair and then she took out and kissed them and then poured perfume upon them.

[33:04] Now, the Pharisee's just sitting there watching all of this happen. And he thinks that this scene has just exposed Jesus to be the farce that he is. And he says to himself, not aloud, just within his own mind, he says, if this man really was a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is, assuming that he would not allow her to touch him if he knew.

[33:37] Well, Jesus not only knows her character, but he also knows what Simon is thinking and he answers Simon's thinking, Simon, I have something to tell you.

[33:48] tell me, teacher, he said. Two men owed money to a certain money lender. One owed him 500 denarii.

[33:59] A denarii was a day's work. One of them owed 500 denarii. The other, 50. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both.

[34:14] Now, which of them will love him more? Simon replied, well, I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled. You've judged correctly, Jesus said.

[34:30] And then Jesus makes a personal application to Simon and to the woman, but especially to Simon. you see, you see, as the host, the loving and hospitable thing for Simon to do would have been to have washed the feet of his guest, to greet them with a kiss as they did, to put some oil on his head, to soothe his skin.

[34:57] And so Jesus, speaking to Simon, turned toward the woman and said, do you see this woman? I came into your house and you did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.

[35:17] You did not give me a kiss, but this woman from the time I entered has not stopped kissing my feet. and you did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet.

[35:33] Strike one, strike two, strike three. Simon was outstripped in love in all three accounts by this woman of ill repute.

[35:50] And then Jesus tells why she loved him so much because her many sins have been forgiven.

[36:02] That's why she loves me much. But he who has been forgiven little, loves little. Do you see the principle?

[36:14] Forgiven much, loves much. Forgiven little, loves little. And Simon's little love proved that he didn't feel forgiveness.

[36:27] His high opinion of himself left him thinking he didn't require much of this thing called forgiveness. And that was the reason for his cold heart toward the Son of God.

[36:40] Forgiven little, he loved little. But this woman, her much love shows she couldn't get over the fact that Jesus had forgiven all of her many sins.

[36:52] She wasn't the same woman she used to be. She's now forgiven. She's a new creature in Christ. And she was not doing these loving deeds in order to be forgiven as if she could earn forgiveness.

[37:07] Not at all. She was already forgiven. And rather, it was her sense of having been forgiven so much that welled up in gratitude and love and service to her Savior.

[37:18] her. And I suggest that you will never rightly understand Letty Heaney unless you realize this about her.

[37:31] Her life of love and service was her response to the grace of the Lord Jesus in forgiving her her many sins.

[37:43] She loved much. She served much. much. Because she knew she had been forgiven much. Now, this was a growing realization for her.

[37:57] She tells us in her testimony that even after her conversion to Christ, she continued to be troubled by the fact of her lack of deep grief for her sin. And she talked to the Lord about it many times.

[38:09] She would hear others who had such grief for sin and were now so full of love for Jesus. And she wanted to feel more of that love for Christ and be struck with a sense of wonder at His forgiveness of her.

[38:26] And then she came upon this passage in Luke 7. And it seemed to explain her dilemma that he who has been forgiven little loves little. And she drew the erroneous conclusion that the reason she loved less was because she had sinned less and therefore had less sins forgiven her.

[38:50] And that only others who had fallen deeper into sin than she had and were forgiven more could therefore love more. You see, she was a basically moral young lady before she was converted.

[39:03] And she thought, well, I guess just this deeper sense of grief and greater sense of love for Jesus and forgiving is only for those who have really gone into the far country.

[39:15] And yet it didn't sit well with her. She says, I could never understand why God set up such a plan as that. As I really did want to love him more.

[39:27] But then God opened her eyes further to the sinful depravity of her own heart. That was the Lord's answer to her. She came to understand Romans three.

[39:40] There is no one righteous, not even one. Not even a moral farm girl from Remington.

[39:52] There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away. They have together become worthless.

[40:04] There is no one who does good, not even one. And the lights started coming on. And she had came to understand Ephesians 2 that was read for us.

[40:19] And she saw that she was dead in her transgressions and sins in which she used to walk. And that she would have continued to walk in her transgressions and sins all the way to hell had God not interrupted her and stopped her and given her a new birth and made her alive with Christ.

[40:43] In her own words, she says, it was not until I understood the doctrine of depravity that I understood the real meaning of that verse. Luke 7 47 and the real meaning of the greatness of his grace to save me who was so depraved that I would never have sought him.

[41:03] That was a shocker, she says. But Luke 7 47 is true. Her many sins have been forgiven for she loved much. And she concludes her testimony this way.

[41:17] Now that I see how lost I was, how sinful I was, my love has grown and grown. I'm so grateful that he showed me the bad news about myself.

[41:34] What blessing it has been to ponder over his love for me. And so she came to see herself side by side with that woman in Luke 7, forgiven of her many sins.

[41:48] And that's what caused her to sing from the bottom of her heart in that alto voice. I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how he could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean.

[42:07] He took my sins and my sorrows. He made them his very own. He had no tears for his own grief, but shed drops of blood for mine.

[42:19] Oh, how marvelous. Oh, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me. me. That's why she was amazed at forgiveness.

[42:31] And that's why she served much. And that's why she loved much, because she knew herself to have been forgiven much. I may not work my soul to save for that my Lord has done, but I can work like any slave for love of God's dear son.

[42:48] Forgiven much. She loved much. much. She worked from forgiveness, not toward it, not to earn it, but because of it, she worked.

[43:00] And as a safe sinner by free grace, she gave herself to those good works which God had prepared in advance for her to do. Now, most of us here were on the receiving end of those good works, those light labors of love.

[43:15] She took her place beside her husband and was his helper. and brought up her children. Most of her good works were done in the kitchen, the dining room, the laundry room at 523 West South Street.

[43:31] She had eight or nine anchors that kept her pretty close to home base. And from her home, her powerful influence was indelibly left upon us. It was on her lap that we first heard the holy scriptures which are able to make us wise for faith in Jesus Christ.

[43:51] She taught us to work before we played. And she was a hard worker herself. She taught us to garden, to do chores, and taught us the right way to do chores.

[44:08] And it was God's love in her that enabled us to grow up secure in a mother's love for us. secure in a mother's love for a father.

[44:20] And we learned that quite early. We lived across from the school, as you know, many of you know. And that meant that we could come home for the lunch hour and eat lunch together as a family.

[44:33] And dad would come home from BCI and we'd come home from school and we'd be able to eat together. Well, in those early grades, we would get home before dad would. And so we'd all be there waiting for dad while mom was fixing lunch.

[44:48] And each noon we played the same game that mom taught us, and that was to, at the very first sound of that screen door opening up in the garage, we'd drop whatever we were doing and make a dash for the door to see who could be the first to smother dad with kisses.

[45:06] And we inevitably beat mom to the door every time. It seemed she always had to watch a pot boiling on the stove or wash the food off of her hands before she came.

[45:19] But we noticed that though she got the last kiss, it was also the longest kiss. And so everything in this first graders world was bright.

[45:31] With a mother who loved my father and my father who loved my mother. That was the love of God in her that gave us such a security growing up.

[45:46] And over the years many of you have tasted of her hospitality. I just wonder, how many here have ever eaten something that my mother made? Could I see a show of hands? Okay, some of you missed out.

[46:00] At one point I thought that she was giving McDonald's a challenge for the number of meals served. she was in her element to show hospitality.

[46:13] And the more around the table, the better. Giving of herself. Why did she live this way? Well, if we have ears to hear, we'll hear what she's saying in this testimony. G-R-A-C-E.

[46:28] The grace of God had captured her heart and reigned for over 65 years. Freely she had received. Freely she therefore gave.

[46:41] So the God of all grace is the one who's to be praised. Yes, her life and service. But then we must say something about her lingering illness and death.

[46:56] God was good to give mom to us as long as we had her. We just celebrated her 84th birthday on the 10th of April. And he gave her good health and strength for so many of those years for her many tasks.

[47:15] But you know, God's goodness didn't come to a screeching halt 10 years ago when her health broke. No, even during these last 10 difficult years, goodness and mercy has followed my mother every day of her life.

[47:33] First through those five years of memory loss and Alzheimer's, then through the last five years of additionally being bedridden by her stroke, lying there day after day, year after year.

[47:45] It was still goodness and mercy from her Lord. And God was good to give many of us the opportunity to serve mom in her own home and to put into and in the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 5, 4, to put our religion into practice by caring for our own family and so repaying our parents and grandparents for this is pleasing to God.

[48:13] And I say family, did we not come to appreciate how much she did for us in our helpless condition so many years earlier? And did we not learn more of God's love for his weak children?

[48:31] And learn more of what it means to honor father and mother? To love wife as Christ loved the church? And haven't we learned to work together in harmony?

[48:44] And have we not learned to appreciate our own mental and physical health more? And haven't we learned to see the world through the eyes of another? Have we not been cast upon the Lord and found him absolutely faithful to the end?

[49:01] Have we not come to know him better through this lengthy trial? More of his love and sympathy with our weakness. More of his sufficient grace for every need.

[49:16] And has it not made us prize more the promise of a new heaven and a new earth where only righteousness dwells? With a new body and a new mind for the people of God.

[49:30] In an eternity where there is not even a trace of the curse of sin and its effects. And has it not made us long more for that day and to love Jesus more who purchased it all for us?

[49:44] Oh, it has been good for us that mom was afflicted. You say, John, aren't you just trying to put your best spin on a bad situation?

[49:55] No, that's exactly not what I mean. What I mean is God is good and all he does is good. What I mean that as for God, his way is perfect.

[50:08] Perfect. It's the best that infinite wisdom could devise. The best that infinite love could plan for his children.

[50:21] And if we were not so blind and short sighted, we'd see it more clearly. For now we walk by faith and not by sight. Though there's much we don't understand for his ways are indeed far above our ways.

[50:36] It is enough for us to know that God has done it. And that he has his reasons. And that he is wise and just and good.

[50:47] He's too wise to be mistaken. He's too just to be unfair. He's too good to be unkind. And by and by when the morning comes and all the saints of God are gathered home, we'll tell the story of how we've overcome and we'll understand it better by and by.

[51:11] Yet, even of these last 10 years, we gladly say the Lord gave. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Lord. And now the Lord has taken away.

[51:24] And we say, blessed be his name. Wasn't God good to take mom to be with him at last? In one sense, God took her from us little by little over the last 10 years, perhaps to shield us from the shock.

[51:44] He knew we needed that. It was a kindness. But he took her to be with him in a moment. And wasn't God good in the very timing of mom's death?

[51:56] Some of us were out of out of the state and away from home. just days previous to her death. And yet he waited to take her until at least all the local children could be present at her bedside and recite the 23rd Psalm and sing the praises of Jesus and pray together.

[52:21] As we saw her take her last breath. God was good. That was a kindness. Those are moments that will shape us.

[52:32] For the rest of our lives. And hasn't God been good in that he's not taken her from us forever? No, not forever. For we who belong to the Lord will see her again.

[52:45] The separation is only until he comes. Until he comes on the clouds and takes us to be with him or comes for us believers individually in death.

[52:56] death. And then together we shall be with the Lord forever. And grandchildren, that was mom's prayer for you.

[53:09] That the circle would be unbroken. And so we bow with Job and we worship. What a God we have. The God who gives and the God who takes away.

[53:22] In perfect wisdom, love and faithfulness. Blessed be his name. You know, we love mom a lot, but Jesus loved her more.

[53:35] He loved her more. He had her on his mind in his prayer to the father just hours before his crucifixion. You remember there? John 17. The Lord Jesus, the eternal son of God, lifted his heart to heaven and said, Father.

[53:50] Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am that they may see my glory. The glory I had with you before the creation of the world because you love me.

[54:06] I want the ones you've given me. Given me to lay down my life to purchase them. I want them to be with me forever to see my glory.

[54:19] That was his prayer. Isn't it something that in the heart of the son of God? There was an unfulfilled longing. It had not yet come to pass.

[54:30] He wanted to have his people with him. To see his glory. You know, every believer knows communion with the Lord Jesus, even now.

[54:45] through the spirit of God. But there's still distance. He's there in a body at the father's right hand. We're here on earth. And that's that's distance.

[54:56] He wants gone. I want them here to be with me. We've got several weddings planned for this summer at this church. Two of them have their sweethearts on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

[55:10] There's some distance between them. And and those couples will not be satisfied until that distance is gone. They want that loved one to be with them.

[55:23] And that's the heart of Jesus for every one of his own. He loved his bride. He laid down his life for them. And his prayer was, Father, I want them with me to see my glory.

[55:35] And on Monday. Eleven fifty three. In the morning. Jesus prayer was answered in part.

[55:47] Just a tiny answer to that prayer. When he took my mother into his presence. The very thing he had asked for that she might see his glory.

[56:03] Oh, it was an answer in part. And it happens every time a child of God is taken from this life to be with the Lord. The Lord who gave her to us has now taken her to be with himself.

[56:21] She's with him now. She's with him now. Beholding his glory. Oh, she loved to see his glory in the scriptures while she was here. She now beholds him in a different light.

[56:35] She saw his glory dimly here. She now sees clearly there. For her faith has turned to sight. And she would say about all she ever read in the scriptures, family and friends, it all happened just as he said it would to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord.

[57:00] To depart and to be with Christ is indeed better by far. No one who trusts in him will ever be disappointed.

[57:14] And oh, he's more wonderful than tongue can tell. Indeed, the half has never been told. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

[57:27] And it's precious in his sight because it brings his loved one to himself. And so this morning as we laid our mother's body to rest, her spirit is with the Lord and we rejoice in that.

[57:45] But that's not our final hope. The blessed hope that we have is in our Lord Jesus Christ that when he comes again, he will raise her body from the dead and reunite her with her soul and body and soul.

[57:58] She will be with the Lord forever. I've never seen someone die before Monday.

[58:10] And I must say there is something of a defining moment when the last breath is taken. because as that last breath find you, it leaves you for eternity.

[58:34] Do you come to that last breath without Jesus? Then you are left without Jesus for eternity.

[58:47] Do you come to that last breath with Christ? Then you are with the Lord Jesus forever and ever.

[58:58] And death has a way of cutting to the very core of the one thing needful. What's important in life? Why do we want to live anyway? What's worth living for really?

[59:11] Well, what will you have the moment after your last breath? When wealth is worthless, when popularity is forgotten, when the pleasures of sin are all over with and gone.

[59:26] Oh, I tell you, what is Jesus and his righteousness worth in the day of death? Worth in the day of judgment? When I shall launch in worlds unseen.

[59:39] Oh, may I then be found in him dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne. On Christ, the solid rock, I stand.

[59:50] All other ground, all other being good, all other grieving for your sin, all other things you do is sinking sand. Is Christ yours?

[60:02] Is his righteousness yours? My friend, do you have such a savior in life and in death? Do you have such a savior that will take you in your last breath into his bosom forever and ever?

[60:15] That will take you with him to that final judgment and there plead his own goodness on your behalf? Or will you go to plead your own righteousness, which is like filthy rags?

[60:32] Oh, we commend this Lord Jesus Christ to you this afternoon. He's a great savior. He's willing and able to save all who come unto God through him because he always lives to make intercession for them.

[60:51] Don't let another day go by rejecting Jesus. As we close, I want to state publicly that it was one of my life's greatest privileges to grow up in the home of Letty Heaney and to call her my mother and to be on the receiving end of so many goodnesses of God that came through her instrumentation.

[61:17] And I'm sure every one of my brothers and sisters would say the same. We do honor our mother according to God's commandment. We, her children, do arise and call her blessed.

[61:27] Her husband also, and he praises her. But our highest praises are for her Savior who rescued her from her sin and self-centeredness and forgave her and made her what she was to all of us and what she will be for all eternity.

[61:48] She and we owe it all to the wonderful grace of Jesus. So I'm going to invite you to take your hymnal and turn to 702 and lay all of our praises at His feet as we sing wonderful grace of Jesus number 702.

[62:08] wonderful grace of Jesus greater than all my sin.

[62:38] How shall my tongue describe it? Where shall its grace begin? Taking away my burden setting my spirit free for the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.

[63:08] Wonderful the matchless grace of Jesus deeper than the mighty rolling sea Higher than the mountain sparkling like a fountain All sufficient grace for even me Broader than the scope of my transgressions Greater far than all my sin and shame O magnify the precious name of Jesus Praise His name Wonderful grace of Jesus Reaching the mighty host I is to have been pardoned Say to the autumn host

[64:12] Chains have been torn asunder Giving me liberty For the wonderful grace of Jesus Reaches me Wonderful the matchless grace of Jesus Deeper than the mighty rolling sea Higher than the mountain Sparkling like a fountain All sufficient grace for even me Broader than the scope of my transgressions Greater far than all my sin and shame O magnify the precious name of Jesus Praise His name

[65:16] Wonderful grace of Jesus Reaching the most defiled By His transforming power Making Him God's dear child Purchasing peace at heaven For all eternity And the wonderful grace of Jesus Reaches me Wonderful the matchless grace of Jesus Deeper than the mighty rolling sea Higher than the mountain Sparkling like a fountain Sparkling like a fountain All sufficient grace for even me

[66:20] Broader than the scope of my transgressions Greater far than all my sin and shame Oh magnify the precious name In the name of Jesus Praise His name Let's pray Oh Father what can we say For the value and the merit of our Lord Jesus Perfect life and His atoning death How can we thank you enough For all that He has won For poor sinners Who cast themselves upon His mercy We thank you for the difference It makes in life And in death We thank you for the difference It made in mom We thank you that eternity

[67:21] Will ever be unpacking The wonder of Christ's Wonderful grace That though He was rich Yet for our sakes He became poor That we through His poverty Might be made rich And we turn to you for comfort In this hour And how thankful we are That our comfort rests Not upon man and his works Not a woman and her works But rests upon Christ And His finished work He said it's finished And in that cry All was accomplished For our salvation So we thank you for the comforts We find in the gospel In the day of death And this day today And we thank you for your mercies To mom and dad Over these past ten years Thank you for the way You have shown them Your grace Indeed is sufficient

[68:22] I pray for dad That you would Remember that he is dust And come and strengthen And help And uphold him with your Righteous right hand And continue to show to him That your grace is indeed sufficient Lord please teach us all To number our days aright That we might gain A heart of wisdom A heart that prizes Christ Above all else A heart that trusts in him A heart that obeys him A heart that looks to him alone For eternal life So that when it comes Our time to die We may have nothing left To do but die So come and hear us And answer us As we ask these mercies And offer our thanksgiving In the wonderful name of Jesus

[69:22]  Amen