and a peace that endureth. Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide, strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. Blessings of life with ten thousand beside. Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies I see. to me. Amen. Please be seated. Great is God's faithfulness to us. The learn of God's faithfulness to Bob Cooey as his son, Glenn, comes and presents the eulogy regarding the life of this dear man. Glenn, would you please come? My father, Robert McCornack Cooey, was born in Bend, Oregon on March 29, 1938, to Glenn and Gladys Cooey. His parents met when they were both teaching high school there, and his father would later become the first pastor of Westminster Orthodox Presbyterian Church in that newly formed denomination. In 1944, when my dad was six, his father was called to Knox OPC in Silver Spring, Maryland. They saved their ration stamps to make the trip across country due to the war. He would live there for 11 years. In fourth grade, he began playing the trombone and would enjoy playing in band all through high school. He did well in school, but did not learn phonics and was so glad that all of his children did. He was always calling out to us from his home office, how do you spell? Dad began working at a very young age, delivering papers at age nine. He kept an account book, carefully tracking his earnings, and was always faithful at tithing. In grade school, he had a Boston Terrier named Snooki whom he loved and bred many times, which eventually earned him enough to buy his first car. During high school, he worked in a hardware store, a photography studio, and a machine company. He was active in youth groups that his parents organized and helped lead, as well as being a Boy Scout. Every summer, he went to the Machen League's summer camp and still has had friendships late in life from those summers. In 1955, his father was called to First OPC of Long Beach, California. While it was traumatic for my dad to leave his friends just before his senior year of high school, he finished high school at Long Beach Polytechnic High School, forming friendships that he had until his death. On February 29, 1956, my dad joined the United States Marine Corps Reserve at the age of 17. His fellow Marines would often joke with him for enlisting on leave day, telling him that his service would be four times what he had originally anticipated. He went to Calvin College for one year, but ran out of money and didn't really care for the cold weather. He returned to Long Beach to attend Long Beach City College, studying engineering. During his time in the Marine Corps Reserve, he obtained the rank of corporal, serving as acting platoon sergeant until he received an honor roll discharge after six years of service. In 1960, Dad married Carol Comar, whom he had met in the Long Beach church. They were married for six years, and the great joy and delight of their marriage was their daughter, Robin. In 1966, Robert's dad drowned in a boating accident on a church youth outing near Naples, Florida. after saving a young girl's life and refusing a life preserver so that others might have it. At the age of 27, it was an incredibly difficult time in my dad's life. That summer, Robert's mom moved to Long Beach, California, where she lived and became an integral part in his and our family's life. So she went to be with the Lord at the age of 91. In September of 1969, he met my mom, stating that he could not get over the beautiful smile on her face. Less than a year later, my parents were engaged and married in December of 1970. My dad had begun working in the computer field in 1963, which he would continue to do until his death. He worked for Monarchs International for 12 years, taking wonderful trips around the world with my mom. In 1972, he was ordained an elder in the Reformed Presbyterian Church Evangelical Synod in Woodland Hills. After a year, my parents moved to Cerritos, where they would live for 26 years. They had four children within six and a half years, Christine, Jennifer, Mary, and Glenn. They would eventually move to Downey, California, where they lived for 19 years. His neighbors there remember him as the friendly fellow with the big blue and white Packard who told great stories. In 1982, my dad was elected moderator of Presbytery and also to its credentials committee. The next 10 years would prove to be hard for Dad with financial difficulties and hardships in the church. However, persevering through these hardships would later shape who we all turned out to be. He loved the Church of Christ and served on the sessions of Cerritos Valley OPC, Covenant Community Church, Garden Grove OPC, and Westminster OPC. In 1995, Dad started working for Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, where he worked until his death and was well known and loved. He worked so hard to provide for his family, and we are ever so grateful for his tireless provision for us. For the last 12 years of his life, my dad published the plea for prayer, keeping the church informed of the prayers needs of its loved ones serving in the military. This work of service turned out to be one of the great joys of my dad's life, as he corresponded with and affected the lives of so many chaplains, men, and women serving in the military. He served as ruling elder for nearly 45 years and served on church committees for 25 years. To quote my dad's own writings, It is clear to me that God has been very good to my family. I certainly am a sinner, but God has graciously forgiven my sin. All my children have professed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and are serving him in various ways. And now he's adding grandchildren to make my full quibble ever fuller. His grace is not sufficient, but boundless. God has been and is so good to us. Praise his name. More could be added, but for now this is sufficient. As my mother said, you know the rest of the story. Thank you, Glenn. You know, I've known Mr. Cooey for, I call him still Mr. Cooey, for 15 years. And as I look out at this congregation here today, many of you have known him so much longer than I have. And it's interesting, when you know somebody when they're older, that kind of gets fixed in your mind. Then you see pictures of him when he's young, and you're like, who is this guy? So we look forward to a presentation of his life in pictures, and get to see what he looked like when he was younger. I've given some pastoral advice from the previous speaker as to how long it should be. This will be quick. But 48 years ago, Pastor George Maladon performed a wedding ceremony for Bob and Martha, and his music is the track music for this presentation. didn't realize that they selected the non-beat. So, So, you so so so So, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. so so so so Thank you, family. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, with the psalmist we say, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to your name be the glory given, just as we who know you do not grieve as those who have no hope. Neither do we remember or comfort one another as those who have no God, no Father, no Savior. Father, you are the giver of every good gift, every perfect gift. You have given us a perfect Savior in your Son, Jesus, and you have graciously given us all things, good gifts necessary for serving you here on earth. As we recount your blessings and name them one by one, today is a day to remember what a blessing you gave us in Bob Cooley. We gladly acknowledge your gift to us in Bob as a husband, as a father, as a father-in-law, and a grandfather, as an uncle, and as a friend to the young and old alike. We, his church family, thank you for your gift of a brother in Christ, a father in the faith, a servant leader in this congregation, in the regional church, and in the denomination. All glory to you, our God, you have given and you have taken away. Teach us the secret of being content in our plenty and in our want. Help us to do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Bring the comfort of your spirit's work to Martha and her family. May you in increasing measure be their joy and their portion now and for eternity. And for our church family, we pray that you will raise up other dedicated and faithful servant leaders with the zeal for your word and a willingness to sacrifice many things for the good of your kingdom. This we ask in Jesus name and for his sake, amen. Mary and I are reading this on behalf of the five of us kids. If you were Bob Cooley's kid, you woke up in the morning more than once to dad singing in military bugle style with the lyrics, it's time to get up, it's time to get up, it's time to get up in the morning. You spent 4th of July with dad repairing everyone's bike and then going on a family bicycle parade to a pancake breakfast at a local park. You watched as your dad regularly stopped on the side of the freeway to assist other drivers and put out several car fires. You wondered what great snakes in the morning were, who Sam Hill was, and when things got really intense, you heard about great screaming eagles. You memorized every Bible verse in elementary school in the King James Version while everyone else memorized them in the NIV. You knew that you could buy anything, Dodgers, Marines, Packard, Alfa Romeo, or Scottish for dad's birthday, and it would make his day. At home, your job was to shut off dad's printer after you saw that the prices for pork bellies had printed. You learned basic auto mechanics and could not only change your own oil and filters, but could take directions with only the directions of the compass, no left and right for a Cooey. You knew how to properly use a CB radio. You knew by a young age that you should sand only with the grain and never against it, and you have something precious Dad made you out of wood. You could run a rototiller, and your friends had to help you weed the garden before you could play on a Saturday. You shoveled fertilizer, mowed the lawn with a push mower, even in the rain, and turned the compost pile. You grew up in Cerritos, but your dad worked like he was on his mom's farmstead in North Dakota. And he wore a cowboy hat, cut-off jean shorts, and boots to do all his yard work, which all our Beach Street neighbors can attest to. You learned how to get things done from your father, and how to have the patience of Job from your mother. You were raised with a strong work ethic, taught to respect your elders, and answered the phone. This is the Cooey residence, may I ask who's calling? If you were Bob Cooey's kid, he would fly across the country just to see you for a weekend because he loved you that much. You went to church for approximately nine hours every Sunday. and battled Sunday drivers on the way because you were always running late. You sat in the fourth pew on the left and never missed church unless you were feverish. Sometimes you waited so long for your dad to stop talking after church that you played games in the car with your friends. Several times you left your brother at church because, well, there were so many of us already in the car and it was hard to keep track of the quietest one. If you were Bob Cooey's kid, your friends wondered why there was a gavel on your living room shelf. You learned things the Cooey way. You failed the first three times, but by the fourth time you knew how to do it right. If you were Bob Cooey's kid, you prayed for all the men and women serving in our military at every family gathering, complete with specific stories of soldiers overseas. You learned how to treat your aging parents by watching your dad care for his mom for 30 years after the loss of his own dad. As an adult, you knew that the best thing to do after dinging your car was to drive it over to dad for a quick repair. You still talk about the red 1967 Alfa Romeo with black leather interior that one of us totaled with great sadness. If you were Bob Cooey's kid, you knew that his greatest achievement in life was marrying Martha. You knew that she was loved and treasured and that after 47 years of marriage, he was so grateful for her and for her love and care for him. If you were Bob Cooey's grandchild, you were his greatest delight and caused him to stop anything he was in the middle of. If you were Bob Cooey's kid, you knew you were loved. And he told you that every time he talked to you. You will miss him more than words can say and are so grateful for his legacy of faith in Christ. I'm reading on behalf of Robert Needham today. In thinking about my dear brother in the Lord, Bob Cooey, I do know that he would have wanted Christ's name to be honored, his Lord Jesus' preeminence in all things jealously guarded, and his Heavenly Father glorified in any remarks about him. That the Holy Spirit will enable me to do so in these thoughts is my prayer. In the early 1970s, in one of our first in-depth conversations after meeting him, following a worship service at the congregation where he, Martha, and the children worshiped, we discovered we both had a deep and abiding passion to be faithful to scripture, and especially where the integrity of God's word was being attacked, as in the debate, which has gone on for years, raising doubts about the ordinary length of the very extraordinary days of creation, as set forth in the opening chapter of the Bible. Bob dearly loved and believed the word of God with all his heart. Bob loved to tell me about the early struggles and sacrifices in Oregon, which his parents experienced as they left the unbelief endemic in the Presbyterian Church of the USA to cast their lot with the newly formed, in June of 1936, Presbyterian Church of America, which 18 months later, by court order, had its name changed to Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Somewhere early in all this, looking back at personal history, we made the amazing discovery that we had had common friends in Bend, Oregon, where Bob's dad, Glenn Cooey, had labored to establish a new OPC congregation, the first OPC congregation in the entire northwestern United States. The family in question was the Jewell family, consisting of the husband, Ewert, wife, Jane, and their only child, Robert. In those years in Bend, the two Roberts established a friendship which had as its common bond their mutual commitment to the Lord Jesus and the church. Ewer Jewel, for years the superintendent of schools in that part of Central Oregon, was also a ruling elder in the Bend congregation, and was also instrumental in the formation of the OPC congregation in Portland. As a freshman at Reed College in Portland, I met a junior, Bob Jewell, who I soon learned was the son of Ewerton Jane Jewell. He invited me to worship at First OPC in Portland, where I was converted under the powerful preaching of Pastor Carl Allfelt. What joy it was when we retrieved memories of our blessed experiences with the Jewell family and memorable times in the high desert and mountains which surround Bend. Years later, from 1954 to 1955, as a junior or senior in high school, Bob wrote a remarkable research paper on the then radical, highly engineered torsion bar suspension system being installed by the Packard Motor Car Company in its senior 1955 models, a first in automotive history. Years later, he found for sale a 1955 Packard Patrician sedan locked to a carport roof support with a logging chain wound around the carport, upright, and the driver's side center posts through the open windows. After Bob had rescued this mistreated classic, beginning a meticulous restoration which lasted over the years to the present, on one occasion he related to me how fascinated he had been by the torsion suspension. One of his most adventurous efforts with his Packard was driving into the 2013 General Assembly held in Moraga, California. Nearly 20 years ago, Bob thoughtfully gave me the memento of a copy of his research paper. However, the most intensive and extensive aspect of my own relationship with Bob was our many years of serving together on the General Assembly Standing Committee on Chaplains and Military Personnel, which also meant commensurate service on the Presbyterian and Reformed Commission on Chaplains and Military Personnel. Bob's knowledge of the OPC Book of Church Order was such that for years his presbytery entrusted to him the serious matter of conducting the required examinations of ministerial candidates in the OPC form of government, a skill set which well equipped him to serve superbly as a secretary of the GA Standing Committee. But in my opinion, Bob's most powerful and profound personal ministry to the kingdom of his beloved savior was his intense pastoral care for believers serving in the military. He accomplished that primarily through the huge effort of keeping roster of all those, including changes in duty assignments, changes in rank, prayer requests from family members, as well as a monthly devotional at the beginning of each month's distribution. This effort was greatly appreciated by families, and with few exceptions, those in uniform who knew they were being remembered daily in prayer throughout the OPC. It is of no small significance that since declining health forced Bob to discontinue his monthly prayer report, nobody has had the vision or willingness to continue his published reminder to pray for those in harm's way while wearing the uniform of a United States service member. During his years publishing the prayer reminder, a number of men from sister denominations expressed to me that they wished their church had something comparable to what Bob had so selflessly distributed on behalf of personnel serving in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard. Robert McCormick Cooey treasured his Scottish heritage and in particular the contributions of the Scottish Presbyterians to the Reformation of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Both as a confessing believer and as an ordained officer, we are blessed to be able to testify that Bob also fought the good fight and that he kept the faith in the presence of many witnesses. Respectfully submitted in the service of Jesus Christ, R.B. Needham. the long and the short of it. As his family, his friends, maybe his co-workers and members of his church, you've all seen Bob heading your way across a room and thought, this may take a few minutes. Bob did not consider, how are you, simply a casual greeting. He wanted to know and he wanted to help. He didn't accept, I'm okay, easily. And if your pump needed a little priming, he would share himself with you so you could respond accordingly. He wasn't nosy, he genuinely cared. As you've heard, he was raised in a Christ-loving, church-serving, OPC family. His dad went to glory over 50 years ago. So many of us do not remember Glenn, but we knew his uncle Bruce and his mom Gladys very well here in Southern California. Both the Cooey and McCornack sides of the family contributed greatly to who Bob was and how he loved and served those around him. His deep knowledge of and love for Jesus Christ was modeled before him and planted in him from his earliest days. He appreciated his family and faith heritage, and he made every effort to live it out in a worthy manner. When he fell short, it hurt, and he actively pursued confession, forgiveness, and repentance in heaven and earth. He knew his own sin, and thus the deep, deep love and mercy of Jesus. In a single exchange with Bob, You could be admonished, corrected, and heartwarmingly encouraged. Most of that was communicated with his expressions, although he had no shortage of words. Bob always had an admiring sparkle in his eye or an empathetic tear at the ready. Bob loved serving his Savior in the church. Worshipping, he was always here, apparently nine and a half hours of Sunday. Serving on the session, praying for or overseeing the flock, serving the sacrament and leading the congregation in prayer were all done with joy and a deep sense of responsibility. In this age of instant and quick, Bob unapologetically was neither. Speaking for myself, when I worked on a project with Bob, I worked a little harder because I knew he expected it and I didn't want to disappoint him. He prepared well and he executed what he had prepared. A number of years ago, Bob served as the moderator of the OPC General Assembly. As you may know, one of the responsibilities of the moderator is to deliver a sermon at the beginning of the General Assembly meeting in the following year. As a ruling elder, not a teaching elder, preaching was not his forte, and he felt that deeply. More months, weeks, days, and hours were poured into the preparation of that sermon than any delivered on that occasion before or since. Bob embodied the expression decently and in order. He enjoyed his role as designated compliance officer for Robert's rules and was relied on for his expertise. As you know, Robert's rules of order lay out how things are to be done in a deliberative body, like the presbytery, so that everyone is heard in a fair, if not courteous way. Those rules are essential in a general assembly or a presbytery meeting, or things would be much harder to accomplish. Those rules are far less strictly followed or even needed in a session meeting where things are more intimate and less formal. This informality was sometimes hard for Bob to appreciate, and coupled with the erosion of his auditory acuity, things could get frustrating for him. On a particular evening, there was a somewhat lengthy and hard to follow discussion in our session. A motion was crafted, clarification was requested, the vote was taken and recorded, and Bob looked around the table getting each of our attention and said, brothers, I love you, but I would not want to go into battle with you. Our thankful hearts with Martha and Bob's children and grandchildren loved and will sorely miss Robert McCornack Cooey. He will very profitably not be easily forgotten. John, I'm glad you brought that last anecdote up. It saves me from having to bring that up. He was such a soldier in every circumstance of life. And sometimes he would take a stand where the rest of us were not on the same side, but he was gracious and firm at the same time. Just add that the year that he served as moderator was the year that Westminster called me to serve. here as the pastor and it was a very difficult decision coming out of a difficult circumstance back east. It was not an easy decision and I didn't make the decision while I was going to General Assembly and he was the moderator and like every day it was like, have you made your decision yet? But it was great to have him as one of the key souls and faces welcoming me into service at this church and the following year then serving at that time when he delivered that sermon that he spent so much time on. Um, and I actually referenced it in my message a little bit later. So what a, what a dear man deeply missed. I told my son that, uh, Mr. Cooley had passed away. He goes, he said, man, I'm going to miss how he says hello. Hi. They did that so well. And praise God for him. Thank you for these remembrances. In many ways, I wish Bob Needham could be here to deliver the message. There are several here that would do a better job than what's before me. So pray for blessings upon the sermon in a moment. Now let's turn our attention to the singing of God's praise. It is well with my soul, hymn number 691. And let's rise to our feet once more and give praise to God for his great goodness. like a It is. It is. my soul. Oh, Satan should love it, though trials should come. Let this blest assurance control that Christ has regard It is. With my soul it is well, it is well. is nailed to my soul. my soul. my soul. Lord, praise the day when the faith shall be sighed. The clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trump shall resound. my soul. Please be seated. Now turn to the scriptures, and several have been chosen to come and read selections from the Holy Word. Let me ask you each to come now and to read from the Bible. I'm going to read from Psalm 121. I will lift up my eyes to the hills, from whence comes my help. My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve you from all evil. He shall preserve your soul. The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth and even forevermore. I'm going to read John 14, verses 1 through 6. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in me. 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 to myself. That where I am, there you may be also. And where I go to you, and the way that you know. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going, and how can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That in the age to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God. Not of works, lest anyone should boast. Mr. Lajudas, who is a longtime friend and fellow servant of Mr. Cooley, is going to come and lead us in prayer before the message. This morning in my morning prayers, this scripture came to mind from the Gospel of John, chapter 12. Now, there were certain Greeks among those who came to worship at the feast. And there came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked and saying, sir, we wish to see Jesus. It's with those words we wish to see Jesus that will be the context of my prayer that we bring before the throne of grace today. Preface my prayer from Psalm 30. I will extol you, O Lord, for you have lifted me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me. Weeping may endure for a night, but my joy comes in the morning. Sing praise to the Lord, you saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holy name. Will you pray with me? Father, you know that I have given long thought to this moment. A lot has touched many lives here. is very evident as we sit in this sanctuary today. I am not alone in confessing that my heart is both heavy, yet filled with gladness, sorrowful, yet rejoicing knowing that, though absent from among us, my brother, our brother in Christ, is not here. But he is, in fact, where he longed to be, in the presence of his beloved Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. There is an empty place in our midst. His absence reminds us of that first day of the new dawn when the sun rose over an empty tomb. And similar words were heard in the hearing of brokenhearted, why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen. Lord, you number our wanderings. Put our tears into your bottle. Are they not in your book? We come before your throne of grace with tears, yet they are tears of joy, knowing that Bob is not here, knowing that he has faithfully finished the race, and so must we. His faithfulness prods us on. This is not the prayer of one standing before you, O Lord, but the prayer voiced of many gathered here today. Bob Cooley was many things to many people. He was a friend, a confidant, a counselor. He was a husband, a father, a grandfather, a brother in Christ. He was an elder. a fellow servant, a churchman who loved the truth and doing things right, one who loved Christ. O Lord, how should I pray? How should I entreat Thee to bless us as a preface to the hearing of Your Word? What would be on Bob's heart Were he here in my place at this moment, would he not have us hear the words of his heavenly Father, this is my beloved son, hear ye him? Would not Bob pray for the blessing to behold his beloved Savior with fresh eyes of faith? To hear and to take to heart Jesus, the Lord of glory, the very Savior, to those who lay claim to him as such? but not Bob Cooley pray that the Lord of glory would be lifted high and exalted in our midst. So for that father is my prayer. That father is our prayer. Open our eyes that we may behold wondrous things from your word and the greatest and most wonderful thing of all is Jesus Christ and him who all saving grace and infinite mercies reside. It was said recently, in the hearing of many here, that we could do nothing greater to honor our friend, our brother, the father and elder of the faith, confidant and counselor that we knew Bob to be, than to honor his God, the savior of his soul. Lord, we recall the words of Jesus who said that there was no greater than John who went before him in the wilderness preparing his way And what was John's response when he first saw Jesus in that wilderness, when his eyes first fell upon our Lord? He proclaimed, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We would pause in this prayer for a moment, therefore, O Lord, and consider well, right now, the sheer joy that Bob Cooley now beholds in his eternal moment. and also consider the prospect that one day we may, too, hear as Bob most certainly and assuredly has heard, with all grace and humility, well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord. We will hear that, that is, if we remain faithful and true to the end as he did. So Father, I beseech you, most gracious and loving God that you are, by all of your tender mercies and loving kindness, bless us now in a ministry of the word, to the hearing of that word. Bless our very gathering together to that awesome end that we too may behold the Lord of glory exalted both now in this moment and forevermore. For I believe This is the heart of our beloved friend and brother in Christ, Robert Cooley, that if he would be here right now, that he would hear Jesus Christ exalted. But again, he is not here. He resides with thee in glory, Coram Dale, before the face of his God, and that indelible smile is smiling brightly. before the face of his God. What glory. So truly, Lord God, you have turned our mourning into dancing. You have put off our sackcloth and clothed us with gladness to the end that our glory may sing your praise and we will not be silent. Oh, Lord, our God, we give thanks to you both now and forevermore. To that end, we do pray in the glorious name and the authority of Jesus Christ alone, to whom be all glory, praise, and honor. I thank the family for the privilege of opening God's word briefly for us today. I know the hour is late and I'll try to shorten things up as best as we can. There is food waiting for us after all. After the service, we look forward to further fellowship and sharing of these stories and accounts that this dear man has brought into our lives. One of the most, if any adult that's sitting here today probably recognizes this illustration with which I'm beginning our message, one of the most poignant and gripping scenes in all cinematography has to be the end of the movie, Saving Private Ryan. The soldier, now many years past his prime, well into his old age, is standing before that cross-grave stone in Arlington Cemetery, struggling within himself whether the sacrifice that had been made by others specifically for him had been merited by him, that his life was worth it. Those words of the captain as he died on the bridge, James, earn this. earn this," had echoed in his heart where he said, I remembered those words every single day of my life. And so with a very shaking and tremulous voice, he looks into the eyes of his wife and he says, tell me that I've lived a good life. Tell me that I'm a good man. The picture of somebody laying down their life for somebody else is such an awesome act of heroism. We have somebody here who is in military dress, and those who are in the military recognize that one of their favorite verses in the whole Bible comes from the Gospel of John, chapter 15. No greater love than to lay down your life for your friend. But dear ones, it is not a mortal soldier, but the immortal one who spoke those words. It was those lips that spoke to Bob of the everlasting life that he alone can give. I want to bring us to a different scene then in a real life and not on a stage of a man staring death in the face and a very different struggle going on in his heart. One that is not at all a struggle that is of this world. If you would, if you have your Bibles or you want to just follow along, please open to Philippians chapter one. Philippians chapter one, the epistle of joy written by the apostle Paul towards the end of his life, wrote these lines to those that were so beloved to him. He speaks of a trial going on in his heart. He's facing death. He's in prison. He does not know how things will turn out. And he says, if I am to live on in the flesh, that will mean fruitful labor for me. And I do not know which to choose, but I am hard pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and to be with Christ, for that is very much better. Yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, so that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again. This is the scene of him being in prison. Chains are upon his wrists. He is facing potential execution, which, according to tradition, would indeed take place a considerable time later under the blade of Nero. He's struggling between choosing death and to be with Christ, which he says is not just better, but far better. far superior, much more so, and to remain so as to be a blessing to the needs of the church. By the way, anybody who wants to say that to be a really truly dedicated follower of Christ means that you must escape the world needs to reconsider what Paul says here in this passage. But the secret of this mystery, this struggle going on in his life, is found in these famous words of verse 21 that precede what I just read. For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Literally, in the Greek, it's just, for me to live, Christ. For me to die, gain. The verb is supplied. Who cannot see then this radical and whole-souled outlook, this mindset of Paul's in the first half of that verse, to live is Jesus. It doesn't say just to live for Christ or to live by Christ, but just to live Christ. This is a statement that does not fit with men who don't know Christ. Men who don't know the purpose of this life, to know the Savior who has come to rescue us, to bring us to the everlasting life by saving us from our sins. The motto of man in the flesh naturally, and all of us have felt this, is for me to live is me. I live for me. I am the first and I am the middle and I am the end of all of my considerations and outlook and thoughts and so forth. And if you are saying that for me to live is me, then to die is loss. Great loss. We look to ourselves for our all in all. We look to ourselves first, middle, and last. We may dress it up, we may make it sound sacrificial and beneficial to those around us, but in the end, without Christ, we put ourselves first, naturally. We are self-seeking, self-serving, and at bottom, selfish. And that's how Paul was, even with all of his stringent religiosity and his convictions as a Jew before he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. At the bottom of all of his religion was his own righteousness, his own goodness, his own merited salvation. God owes me heaven. I'm a good man. I've merited this. You should bring me in. But then he met Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus, who said for whoever wishes to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospels will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous sinful generation, the son of man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels. This Jesus, who appeared to Paul, became the very life of his soul. That's what's at the heart of this first half of the verse for me to live as Christ, because he is all in all to me. He is my life. He is my salvation. He is this this heavenly reality that he has brought down with him as part of his kingdom, as Christ should be for every soul. Why should we say this? What does this mean? How are we to implement these things? Well, the why is simple because Jesus, why does Paul say to live as Christ? Because for Paul and for those who believe upon him, Jesus lived for him. We can say I live for Christ because Christ lived for me. Christ laid down his life for me. Jesus died in my stead is the confession of the church. Jesus lived for Paul. Jesus lived for you and for me, and Jesus died for us. How can we not live for him? He had become the life of Robert Cooey. And Bob was gripped in his soul by this wonderful Savior, this Redeemer, whose great joy it was his to finally see the one that he believed in in the middle of last week. What is this all about then? It's about becoming one with Christ, being united to him by faith on your part and the spirit of Christ on his part, such that we are so joined together with him. Spurgeon, in his Morning and Evening on January the 7th, writes on this verse, Paul's words mean more than most men think. They imply that the aim and end of his life was Christ. Nay, his life itself was Jesus. In the words of an ancient saint, he did eat and drink and sleep eternal life. Jesus was his very breath, the soul of his soul, the heart of his heart, the life of his life. Yet this alone is the true life of a Christian, its source, its sustenance, its fashion, its end, all gathered up into one word, Christ Jesus. What are you living for? What's your life going to be when you come to your end and look back over the time that God allows you in this brief span of time? I hope that it's filled with the same faith that gripped Paul and which Bob evidenced in his life. How does this come about? It's by trusting in Him. The mystery is solved. How do we live Christ? By having faith in Him. In Galatians 2, the great apostle writes, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. And the life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. No greater love than this, than that a man laid down his life for his friends. But this is God himself coming to be the savior of a great host which cannot be numbered. This faith invariably, in an indestructible fashion, brings a bond between Jesus and the believer, such that nothing can separate us from Jesus. This produces this union of love that is described in Romans chapter 8. What can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus? And the apostle goes through and lists all of these things. Things past, things present, things future, things in time, things in eternity, life, death. None of these things can separate us from this one who has purchased us, who has written not merely our names upon the very palms of his hands, but has written us there. We who are beloved by him, not in a merited way, but freely by grace. As Jesus told those outside of the grave of Lazarus, that he was the resurrection and the life, that he who believes in me will never die, and though he die, yet shall he live. It's kind of a paradoxical statement on the surface anyway. never die, and if he does die, yet shall he live." What does that mean? Well, it means there's a part of the Christian, his soul, in union with Christ, has been saved from sin and been renewed by Him, and that life cannot die. Your life is hid with Christ in God. You are hidden safely there that death does not and cannot disrupt. that true, personal, living union, and with it, communion. The body, however, does die, but it will be quickened again. Christ has come to save us head to toe, not just the insides, but the outside, as he himself was raised bodily from the dead. But dear ones, how different this is for the one outside of Christ, who placed all of their hope in the basket of this world. We all, all of us, have some ultimate, I'm living for blank. And at the bottom of that, I believe ultimately outside of Christ, you're living for yourself. You've made yourself the end all the be all of your life. And when the heavy foot of death then comes down upon such a life, it crushes with one fell blow all that we count dear. but not for the believer, not for Paul, not for all who share in the same faith, who have Christ as their savior from sin. They find that not only to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, but that their body rests in sure hope of the resurrection. And as I said before, the reason for this is Christ has come to bring a full salvation. Christ is real. His redemption is true. We have found it so. And there is coming a new heavens and a new earth that your eyes will see. And I hope that everybody here more than merely sees it, but enjoys it and is bid to enter in. This is what is behind this testimony then, as Paul completes it, to die is gain. Bob's spirit has said farewell to trials, to tears, to temptation, and even to transgressions. What a burden is going to be lifted when we no longer have any sin. No worry. No heartache. Nothing that would interrupt the joys of the immediate presence of a perfect and wonderful loving God. But actually, that does not capture everything. To just focus on the evil for which we are exempted, and not take account of the higher, better, richer blessings in store for all of Christ's true followers. It is better, says Paul, far better. Far better than what? William Jay says it would be saying little to say that it was far better than his trials, far better than being stoned at Philippi to fight with beasts at Ephesus, than to be a night and day in the deep, to be in perils among false brethren. It would also be little to say that it was far better than all his temporal comforts. These a Christian does not undervalue, yet he is grateful for them and enjoys them with a relish peculiar to himself. I can't help but think of seeing all of these pictures, all these unique delights that God has given to us in knowing this man. That's what makes it so overwhelming at funerals, isn't it? Because we know that that's been taken from us. But as we are brought into God's presence, it is something even superior to the good things of this life. Even the means of grace and comforts of the Holy Spirit don't compare to what we have in the immediate presence of God. To be with Christ is far better, says William Jay, than any of these, as the day is far better than the dawn, and the inheritance, the vintage, are far better than the earnest and the firstfruits only. Our communion with him here is distant and often intercepted. There it will be perpetual and immediate. We love the streams, but what is the fountain? We love the house of prayer, as Bob did, but what is the temple in which they serve him day and night? Yes, think of all things at the best, in one rich thought unite, all purest joys of sense and soul, all present love and light. Yet bind this truth upon your brow and clasp it to your heart, and then nor grief nor gladness here shall claim too great a part. All radiance of this lower sky is to that glory dim. Far better to depart it is, for we shall be with him. He has joined with the spirits of just men made perfect. He has come to the city that is above, where Christ, where his heart had longed for now for many years. As I've said earlier, Bob was one of the pivotal men of this congregation, who greeted me as I considered the call to this church in late spring of 2003. And that was the year that he served as moderator, where I was a commissioner, still praying and struggling in my heart to accept that call. And as I said, the following year I served with him at the GA as he brought that opening sermon as retiring moderator. I bring this up because the title of his sermon was, Ministers of the Word, Have You Been With Jesus? That was the name of his sermon. He was charging all of these pastors, ministers of the word, have you been with Jesus based on Acts 4 and the boldness that came to the apostles from having been with him. But dear ones, think about it now. Bob knows now most fully what it means to be with Jesus. He knows wonderfully. His life race is finished, and he bids you to follow on and serve the Lord with all that is in you for what time that he gives. To have Christ is to have all things, and what a confidence we have in him. Do you know him, dear hearer, this day? Where will you be for eternity? None of us knows what a day will bring forth. We don't know what will happen later on today or tomorrow. God has not promised you more time. This might be your last day. This may be your last week. This may be the last month of your life. The sun may come up for the last time for some of us very soon. We can't know that, but we can know where we will spend eternity is the promise of the word of God. The sovereign God makes that clear. And know this, that heaven then is a prepared place for a prepared people. Are you prepared to meet your maker? The sure hope of heaven has already shined in our world. Has it shown in your heart? Has it reached you in the inner person to change you, to deal with the hardness and rejection of God in your life, to bring you to himself through such a merciful savior as Jesus truly is? I think Bob would have liked this closing allusion, since it comes from his homeland of Scotland. I loved his attempts at Scottish brogue. He loved to talk about the Scottish Presbyterians. These are the words of Archibald Campbell, who was a Scottish Earl in the 17th century and a Covenanter, writing a letter to his daughter-in-law, sent from the city of Edinburgh, where he was to be executed that very day. for his firmly held Christian beliefs and opposition to unbelief. He says, what shall I say in this great day of the Lord wherein in the midst of a cloud I have found a fair sunshine? I could wish no more for you, but that the Lord may comfort you and shine upon you as he does upon me and give you that same sense of his love in staying in the world as I have in going out of it. He rejoiced knowing that he would see his savior that day. It was learned that the night before he slept quite contently, though knowing the sun would rise upon him for the last time the following morning. He urged another in his life with these comforting lines, we must not part like those not to meet again. We will see Bob again. We will rejoice forever in that world where goodbye is not heard. Let us long for that world. Let our hearts be fixed upon things above in their proper light, not on things on the earth where Christ is seated at the right hand. He who is Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, and most of all, the King of Grace. Dear one, if you know him not, come to him. If you do know him, make him known. And may God's blessings be upon us this day and be bettered because of rejoicing in the life of this dear servant. Would you please join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for the comfort and hope that we have in the Lord Jesus. We thank you, Lord, for that famous catechism question, the Heidelberg, that our only comfort in life and death is that we are not our own. but that we belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to a faithful Savior, Jesus, who has fully paid for all of our sins with his precious blood, has set us free from all the tyranny of the devil, who preserves us in such a way that without the will of our Heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from our heads. Indeed, all things must work together for our salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he assures us of eternal life, and makes us heartily willing and ready from now on to live for him. Lord, we thank you so much for this life. Lord, this is a trophy of your grace. As one minister who stood behind this pulpit not too long ago had instructed whoever it is that is to give his charge that when we die, Satan loses another one. We are not his possession. We are freed from our sins. And Lord, you have caused a great salvation to glorify yourself. And we thank you, Lord, for this life. We pray again, Lord, for comforts for his nearest and dearest. Lord, help them to be buoyed by the great hope that they have of the resurrection, where you will bring your children together again as one family. We pray, Father, for the children, but especially for the grandchildren, that you would raise them, nurture them in the ways of the faith, and help them, Lord, to know that they have a grandfather who loved them dearly, prayed for them incessantly. and would love nothing more than to see them live for Christ and to find death as a great gain beyond our highest imagination. We ask, Lord, your blessings upon these few thoughts from your word this day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's close with praise to the Lord for his great goodness. O God, beyond all praising, hymn 660, would you please stand with me? and sing the love amazing that songs cannot repay have every gift you send. Get blessings without number and blessings without end. We lift our hearts before you and wait upon your grace. you. Will our tomorrows be filled with good or ill? We'll triumph through our sorrows and rise to rescue still. And make a joyful duty a sacrifice of praise. Our Heavenly Father, we pray your blessings upon us as we are dismissed from this auditory. We pray, Father, your grace to be upon us, the grace of your Son, the Lord Jesus, that saves us from our sins, that the love of God would be shed abroad freely and richly in our hearts, the communion, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit abide in us. Lord, look upon us in your mercy this day, that you'd bless and keep us, make your face shine upon us, be gracious to us, and lift up your countenance upon us, and give us everlasting and unsurpassed peace. We thank you, Lord, for these blessings, and we thank you, Lord, for the great hope that we have, where eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it so much as entered the heart of man, what God has prepared for those that love him. O Lord, may that be the pearl of great price. Even Jesus, our Savior, who is heaven to us, may he be our all in all. Bless us in the continued fellowship that we have downstairs. We ask Lord your grace to be with us the remainder of this day. In Jesus' wonderful name, we pray. Amen. We are dismissed.