Aum. Aum. Amen. Good job. Good job. Aum. Dear family, children, grandchildren, friends, students of Professor Herman Hanco, we gather together with real sorrow in the death of a beloved man. Yet we gather with hope. We gather with thankfulness to God. We gather with joy even in the gospel of the resurrection and the life that we have in Jesus Christ our Savior. That's who we seek to praise and honor this morning, this afternoon, that we have a sovereign, gracious, powerful, blessed Savior. who has delivered us from sin, and from death, and from the grave, unto a glory that hath not even entered into the heart of man to conceive. To the praise of the glory of God. Let's come before our Savior in prayer. O righteous God, Gracious Savior, Thou who has spoken to create all things by the word of Thy mouth, Thou who has spoken to call Lazarus from the dead, Thou who has spoken already to many of us with the call of the gospel to repent and believe, and hath drawn us irresistibly to be translated out of darkness into thy marvelous light. We come to praise thee and we ask that thou would speak today thy same powerful word, so that as the God of all comfort, thou will comfort our souls, strengthening our faith and lifting our hearts up unto the hope of the gospel. We thank thee for our beloved Savior, who has said, I am the resurrection and the life. Give unto us faith in the promises of thy word, and his promise that the hour is coming when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. May we live today in the light of the gospel and go forth glorifying thy name and thy name alone. We pray these things for Jesus' sake. Amen. The family asks that we sing, first of all, Psalm number 29. 29, we remain seated as we sing the three stanzas, number 29. My soul he led, I praise the Lord. ♪ And he was right ♪ I only want to see what pathway love will show, to life where death will fly, where truth You turn with me in God's Word to Psalm 71. Psalm 71 is known to be the psalm of the aged believer. An appropriate psalm to read as we think upon one who is approaching the grave. And really, that is all of us in this life that leads into a physical death. Psalm 71. In Thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. Let me never be put to confusion. Deliver me in Thy righteousness and cause me to escape. Incline Thine ear unto me and save me. Be Thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort. Thou has given commandment to save me, for Thou art my rock and my fortress. Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man. For Thou art my hope, O Lord God, Thou art my trust from my youth. By thee have I been holden up from the womb. Thou art he that took me out of my mother's bowels. My praise shall be continually of thee. I am as a wonder unto many, but thou art my strong refuge. Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honor all the day. Cast me not off in the time of old age. Forsake me not when my strength faileth. For mine enemies speak against me, and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together, saying, God hath forsaken him. Persecute and take him, for there is none to deliver him. O God, be not far from me. O my God, make haste for my help. Let them be confounded and consumed that are adversaries to my soul. Let them be covered with reproach in this honor that seek my hurt. But I will hope continually and will yet praise thee more and more. My mouth shall show forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day, for I know not the numbers thereof. I will go in the strength of the Lord God. I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only. O God, thou hast taught me from my youth And hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works. Now also when I am old and gray-headed, O God, forsake me not until I have showed thy strength unto this generation and thy power to everyone that is to come. Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high. Who has done great things? O God, who is like unto Thee? Thou which hast showed me great and sore troubles shalt quicken me again and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth. Thou shalt increase my greatness and comfort me on every side. I will also praise Thee with the psaltery, even Thy truth, O my God, unto thee will I sing with a harp, O thou holy one of Israel. My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee, and my soul, which thou hast redeemed, my tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long, for they are confounded. For they are brought unto shame that seek my hurt. The text that we focus on for a few moments this morning is verse 16 of Psalm 71. I will go in the strength of the Lord God. I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only. Beloved family and friends of Professor Herman Hanco, the message this morning is not about the man that we have recently buried. In fact, I intentionally avoid talking about the man and his accomplishments. This morning I point the grieving to what alone comforts. And that is not to man's works, but to Christ's works, not to man's righteousness, but to God's righteousness in Jesus Christ. I exhort you, beloved, that you make the confession of this text your confession as you go forth from here. I will go in the strength of the Lord God. I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only. And let the righteousness of God be your hope. Let the righteousness of God be your confession. And let the righteousness of God be your glory." Listen, beloved, to the Word of God. Your father and grandfather and colleague and professor would confess this. You can hear him say it. I will go in the strength of the Lord God. I will make mention of thy righteousness and thy righteousness only. Listen to this as his confession, but then make it your own. King David wrote this psalm by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And he wrote it, as I said earlier, when he was aged and soon to die. Some think that he wrote it just a few moments before he faced death. As his physical strength waned, David cried, verse 9, "'Cast me not off in the time of old age. Forsake me not when my strength faileth.'" As one does in his sunset years, David contemplated his life from the womb all the way to the approaching tomb. And as he contemplated all of his life, Notice in the psalm that we read that he does not speak of anything that he has done. He does not talk or think about his feats, his accomplishments. As the aged believer ruminates upon his life, he does not talk about his battle against Goliath and the Philistines, but rather his mind dwells on God's faithfulness. God's righteousness in particular. The theme of the aged believer as he dies and that which sums up the gospel is in those two words, one in the original, thy righteousness, thy righteousness. that encapsulated the gospel for the psalmist. And it's repeated five times through the psalm. Notice that with me. Verse two, deliver me in thy righteousness and cause me to escape. Incline thine ear unto me and save me. Verse 15, right before the text, my mouth shall show forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day, for I know not the numbers thereof. And then you have our text, verse 16. We'll come back to that. Verse 19. Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high. Who has done great things, O God? Who is like unto thee? And then the last verse. My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long, for they are confounded, for they are brought into shame that seek my hurt. And some who are gathered here this morning and this afternoon may think, what's so great about that? Should we contemplate something else in the time of death? But the aged and the dying man clings, hear him. No, I will talk, I will make mention, I will confess thy righteousness even of thine only. So beloved, I speak as a dying man, I do, as a dying man to a dying people. The gospel of grace sung by an aged saint who is a psalm singer of thy righteousness. That's what an aged believer wants at his memorial service, that the people remember at a memorial service God's righteousness. So what is that? God's righteousness, first of all, must be understood as an attribute of God, as a perfection or a virtue of God. And we may not stop there, but we begin there. It is Jehovah's virtue or perfection, whereby His will and His activity, all of His willing and doing, are unwaveringly consistent with a perfect standard of holiness. With His standard of holiness. Deuteronomy 32 verse 4 describes His righteousness as a rock. He is the rock. His work is perfect, for all His ways are judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity, just and righteous is He. Whatever God chooses to do is perfectly consistent in harmony with His standard of holiness. To help us understand it, think of the opposite of righteousness. The opposite of righteousness is a word in the Bible called iniquity, and it literally means crooked. It means crooked. While righteousness is straight, the opposite of righteousness, iniquity, is crooked. So think about a straight line. A perfectly straight line. Iniquity would be to walk perpendicular to that line, backward on that line, zigzagging upon that line, instead of walking on that line. But someone who is perfectly righteous walks in a perfect parallel along that line, never wavering from a moment from that standard. That's God's righteousness. Nehemiah 9 verse 8 says about God and His righteousness, Thou hast performed Thy words. Thou art righteous. God speaks words revealing His will, revealing His standard, words of prophecy, words of promises, words of judgments. And then He walks that line. And He never wavers from it because He is perfectly righteous. That word judgments I mentioned last. should cause a trembling in us. Because it brings up the fearful aspect of His righteousness that is essential to know and understand, and that is His justice. A fundamental aspect of God's righteousness is that He is just. So that when He says, and He has said, In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. He will walk that line, because he is perfectly righteous. He is a righteous judge, has said with his law, here is my holy standard that man must follow, and I will render unto every man according to his deeds. And as a righteous God then, he will fulfill his word. He will judge righteously. And all those who do not walk in obedience to that holy standard must face the wrath of God. All things against you, and then death as a passageway unto hell eternal. That's not cruel, and that is not unfair. That is the righteousness of God. Which brings us to the point of God's righteousness that helps us understand the gospel. We may not stop at defining God's righteousness as an attribute of God. Because Scripture shows us that righteousness is not only a perfection of God, but it is also that which He grants or imputes unto us. But if we stop, if we stop at the righteousness of God as an attribute of God and that alone, then stopping there means there is no gospel. Stopping there means that we are in a terrifying predicament. The aged psalmist of Psalm 71 could not have left defining God's righteousness in this way, for then he would be terrified like a man named Martin Luther, who was honest with himself, as you should be honest with yourself. Martin Luther, when he looked at the righteousness of God only as an attribute of God, as a perfection of God, said, I hated that word. the righteousness of God, because to him it only meant that man must meet that holy standard or face the righteous justice of God. And perhaps that is how some of you have come to this service. You've heard that this is about God's righteousness and you don't really want to listen to that. Maybe it's boring. Maybe it's not sentimental enough. Maybe it's a fearful word. Perhaps that's the real issue. Because man's conscience knows what is written in the scriptures. There is none righteous. No, not one. But the gospel is that God's righteousness is that which is imputed, imputed to his people. That's how the psalmist even back in the Old Testament understood it. He saw it as gospel and not only is an attribute of God that demanded perfection. Listen to him speak of righteousness again as his salvation. Verse 2, deliver or save me in thy righteousness. Verse 15, my mouth shall show forth thy righteousness, and the note is and is in italics, it's not there in the original. My mouth shall show forth thy righteousness, thy salvation all the day. He is making salvation and righteousness synonymous with each other because he understood, the psalmist knew, that God's righteousness is his salvation. God's righteousness is that which God gives to him, imputes to him. Impute, beloved, is a legal word. It's a word that is precious to the reformed. Impute is that which God as the judge declares regarding the sinner, the ungodly, You are righteous, perfectly righteous as I am righteous. That's his declaration to his people. That's his declaration to all those to whom he gives faith. I take a righteousness that is outside of you, a foreign righteousness, an alien righteousness, and I count that righteousness as your own. And because you have that righteousness, and only because of that foreign righteousness outside of you, you have eternal life, you have hope, you have everything, all the blessings of salvation. I put that on your account, the righteous judge says, on your records as though that for unrighteousness is yours. And you ask, how can that be? How can a wretched sinner like myself, like yourself, be counted righteous and be worthy of eternal life? There is only one way, and that's in the name Jesus. That too is in the text. Lord God, I will go in the strength of the Lord God. Literally, that's the Lord Jehovah. And who is Jesus? His name means Jehovah. Salvation. Or as Jeremiah put it, the Lord, our righteousness. The second person of the Trinity, God the Son, took on flesh and became a man so that he, as our representative, could live a life of perfect righteousness in our place, as our substitute. And upon that basis alone, alone, God declares his people. righteous and worthy of life. Thine only, the aged believer says. I will make mention of thy righteousness even of thine only. By that the implication is Not mine, O Lord. Not mine. That's not what I look to for assurance of my forgiveness. That's not what gives me confidence when Satan comes to me, as the great accuser always does on my deathbed as an aged believer. Not the labors of my hands. could fulfill thy laws demands, could my zeal no respite know, and could my tears of repentance forever flow, all for sin cannot atone. Thou, righteous God, must save and thou alone. Did David and does the aged believer have good works? Yes. Those justified or declared righteous will be sanctified. They will live a righteous life led by the Good Shepherd who leads them on the paths of righteousness. Yes. But the point of this passage is not to deny sanctification and a life of godliness that will proceed. But the point, beloved, is this. that the dying believer doesn't want to talk and think about all that he has done, but he wants to cling to the righteousness of Jesus only. That's what he wants to ponder as Satan fires his darts of doubt. That's what he wants to ponder when he needs to be sure of his salvation when death approaches. That's what he wants to think about when he fears death, that last enemy, might drag him down to hell. The believer says, not my righteousness, no. I will make mention of thine and of thine only. And that's not only the aged one who is on the bed languishing and about to face that last moment, that last breath, but that's your experience too. When you lay your head down in your bed at night, not knowing for certain whether you will wake up the next morning and your sins, your sins rise up against you and you need the peace of knowing God's righteousness is yours. You don't look to your good works. You don't rest in what you've done, your comparative righteousness to other people, but you look to Jesus only, not mine, thy righteousness. The believer says, when he wants the peace of forgiveness, I count all that I've done in my life as done that I might win Christ. Filthy rags are my righteousness, like that filthy liner under my bedridden body. Don't weave a single stitch of my filthy rag righteousness into the warp and woof of Christ's robes of righteousness given to me freely. That's all I want. And so I call you this afternoon to think and ponder and find your confidence in Him alone. Only with His righteousness is there peace for you today as you think about your own death. I have been to funerals where the righteous works of a deceased person were listed. And I'm not saying it's wrong to talk about the dead and how God has used that person. But the message of a funeral can sometimes, even when it is not explicitly spoken, be such a catalog of the righteous deeds of man or a woman, that those gathered there hear a message, though not explicitly spoken, You have to be like that man. You have to be like that teacher. You have to be like so-and-so to know you're going to heaven after you die. So you need to hear this dead man confess not mine, but thy righteousness and thine only. Christ's righteousness, and I remind you this afternoon that his righteousness consisted of a passive obedience as well as an active obedience. By passive obedience, I did not refer to Christ's passivity. But Christ's righteousness included a passion that is an obedience to suffer every single thing that His Father called Him to suffer in our place as the punishment due unto us, His elect people. He humbled himself, God the Son did, when he was conceived in the womb of a sinful virgin Mary. What suffering he endured immediately when he was in that womb. And then all through his life, from womb to tomb, he suffered in poverty. He suffered the rejection of men. He suffered the temptations of Satan. He suffered the very church leaders and the people he had come to save rejecting him, hating him, denying him. betraying, condemning, flogging, hitting, spitting upon him, crucifying. Voluntarily, he obeyed his father and took on the sufferings that were due us. so that it is as if you had in your own person suffered and made satisfaction to God for your sins. That's his righteousness, count it as ours. But more, Christ's righteousness includes his active obedience, not only his passion, but his actions. Consider his perfect heart. Consider his sinless nature, from the moment of his conception onward, marvel at his perfect love, all his heart, mind, soul, and strength toward God and toward his neighbor. Every commandment he obeyed with that perfect love committed not a single sin, but more, never omitted the good that he was called to do. His life was a life of perfect prayer, how's yours? never ceasing in his prayer, with perfect trust to God, full of compassion, yet never compromising the truth. Flawless in his preaching and in his miracles of healing, marvel at the righteousness of God revealed in Jesus Christ. But marvel more, be astounded that all of His righteous works are counted, are reckoned as yours, as mine, though He had nothing to do with them. Do you know how many, how much His righteousness is? John 21 verse 25, there are also so many other things which Jesus did, John proclaims, the which of they should be written. Every one, I suppose, that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. That's how he ends the book. John is admitting, along with the other gospel writers, we can't include all the works of righteousness which Jesus has done. It's impossible. And if we were, if we were to include it written down in books, the world could not contain all the righteousnesses of Jesus Christ. And that is counted as ours. Don't you see why we're not merely saved from hell and brought back to the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve? Don't you see why we're brought to the heights of heaven that we cannot even comprehend? Because of the merits of the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. That's why, and that's the only reason why, now listen to the words of a dying man, the last words of a man named John Gresham Machen. I am so thankful for the active obedience of Christ. No hope without it. No hope without it. That's the hope of the child of God who believes. And will this word of God leave a believer apathetic? Will this word of God make someone antinomian? Since, since, perhaps someone might say, since Christ is my righteousness and he's done it all, I don't have to walk along the path of righteousness, do I? No, beloved, not the true believer. The true believer who hears this gospel of God's righteousness will say along with the psalmist, listen, I will go, I will go in the strength of the Lord God, I will make mention of thy righteousness even of thine only. I will not isolate myself and sit in my room and pursue my own selfish desires, but I will go, I will get up, I will do as much as I can in my thankfulness to God and gratitude for so great a savior that I have. Because the righteousness of God is not merely a doctrine that we hold to as churches. The righteousness of God, imputed to us freely through faith alone, is not only that which God says in heaven. The righteousness of God, thine only, is that which reverberates in the heart of the child of God through faith. And it's a power. It's a power. We live by faith. in that righteousness of God. I will go. I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me. For me to live is Christ. Of Christ, through Christ, and unto Christ. And to die is gain, always gain. And listen to the aged psalmist, remember he's aged. He means, I will go forth as a witness. Verse 14, I will yet praise thee more and more. You would think, and Agent Solomons is slowing down. More and more I will yet praise him. Verse 15, my mouth shall show forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day. He wants to continue as a witness more and more. He means I will go forth, I will be a teacher to the next generation of this righteousness. Verse 18, oh God, forsake me not until I have showed thy strength unto this generation. I want generation after generation to hear this righteousness of God. He means I will go forth in the battle. You notice through Psalm 71, he talks about his enemies even in his old age. Before the enemies of the gospel, he ends, my tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long, for they are confounded, for they are brought into shame that seek my hurt. There is a battle going on. Beloved, there is a battle going on until the day you die. And yes, it's a battle that includes a battle against sin and immorality. But there's a battle that is, first of all, about doctrine. A battle for sovereign grace. A battle for the righteousness of God, imputed to us freely, received through faith alone. Which many, which many have fought, along with the psalmist. I am as a wonder, verse 7, unto many. David says, and that word wonder is not a positive wondering. They are gaping at me. Wow. Why is he so worked up about such fine points of doctrine? I am as a wonder unto many. but thou art my strong refuge. And with Jehovah as my righteousness, there's courage to go forth in the battle, even unto the grave. Verse 20, though thou which has showed me great and sore troubles, thou shalt quicken me again. and shall bring me up again from the depths of the earth. So confident is he in God's righteousness given to him that he is sure that this righteous God, according to his promises, will raise his body from the depths of the earth. Invigorated by the gospel, the believer says, I will go forth Not, of course, to establish mine own righteousness, but to praise God for His so freely imputed to me. As a dying man to a dying people, I say, your legs once able to walk briskly or to stand behind a pulpit firmly, will one day no longer be able to hold your weight. Your piercing eyes will grow dim. Your hands wants able to work skillfully or to grasp the scriptures, will have to lay down its sword and may grasp at air. Your mouth wants able to witness or to preach. will gasp for a last breath. Face death. Face death with this confession. I will go in the strength of the Lord God And I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only. And that's our hope. We sing now from psalm number 416. 416. We sing stanzas one through three. First three stanzas, and we arise and sing those stanzas, 416. Amen. In thy tender care. in me, that I may, to memory of a and tell him me. Oh, may God thy faith retrieve me. Let him still my refuge be. I shall let his soul his grace for the love We sing now Psalter number 241. 241. We sing the first seven stanzas. One through seven. And on the last stanza you may have a seat. One through seven of 241. Oh, Lord. A faithfulness that never dies, that standards changeless in the skies. Behold our truth and praise His name, And with the Lord himself command, For who among the mighty shall In all thy works and blest designs, Let us close in prayer. Our Father, who art in heaven, as thy dearly beloved children, beloved more than we can fathom, we pray that thou would hear us and hear our cries through our righteous Savior, who intercedes for us We thank Thee. We thank Thee for Him. We thank Thee for the heart of the gospel given to us, Thy people, of righteousness, perfect righteousness, imputed unto our account, justification because of Jesus and Jesus only and received through the gift of faith alone. Make the gospel of power unto salvation within our souls, that we might have firm hope and ardent love, a life of gratitude lived unto thee. And now, O God, the God of hope and comfort, fill us with all joy and peace in believing that we may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. concludes our funeral service today. The family invites all of you to join them for a time of lunch and fellowship that will be held in the back area of the church. Thank you all for coming. It's good.