First of all I want you to know that the details of this service with minor additions were laid out by our brother Bill well in advance of his home going. The details were laid out right down to the tunes that were to be played for the hymns that he chose. As I said, it would certainly be his desire that this service would be to the honor and glory of our great God. The interment will take place on Monday, as you will see in the bulletins, at 10.30 at Greenwood Cemetery. It is open to all who wish to and are able to attend. You will also have noticed as you came in that there is a tent outside. refreshments will be provided afterwards and it would be edifying and wonderful if we could join together afterwards in fellowship and encourage one another. To begin, let me read from Charles Haddon Spurgeon. This is Spurgeon's devotional for the morning of June the 29th. the day on which our brother Bill went to be with the Lord. The text for the morning is, Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. Let us not imagine that the soul sleeps in insensibility. Today thou shalt be with me in paradise is the whisper of Christ to every dying saint. They sleep in Jesus, but their souls are before the throne of God, praising him day and night in his temple, singing hallelujahs to him who washed them from their sins in his blood. The body sleeps in its lonely bed of earth beneath the coverlet of grass. But what is the sleep? The idea connected with sleep is rest, and that is the thought which the Spirit of God would convey to us. Sleep makes each night a Sabbath for the day. Sleep shuts fast the door of the soul and bids all intruders tarry for a while, that the life within may enter its summer garden of ease. The toil-worn believer quietly sleeps, as does the weary child when it slumbers on its mother's breast. O happy are they who die in the Lord! For they rest from their labors, and their works do follow them. Their quiet repose shall never be broken until God shall arouse them to give them their full reward. Guarded by angel watchers, curtained by eternal mysteries, they sleep on, the inheritors of glory, till the fullness of time shall bring the fullness of redemption. Oh, what an awakening shall be theirs! The winter of the grave gives way to the spring of redemption and the summer of glory. Blessed is death since it, through the divine power, disrobes us of this workday garment to clothe us with the wedding garment of incorruption. Blessed are those who sleep in Jesus. Shall we pray together? Our gracious, merciful, and Eternal God. We come into the very presence this day of the Great and the Eternal Lord. We come, our Father, into the presence of One whom we readily acknowledge is the High and the Lofty God, and yet He is a God who in mercy and in grace condescends to dwell with sinners. those who have found life, forgiveness in Jesus Christ. And Father, we plead for your blessing and your presence this day. We come and we ask our Father that your grace and mercy might oversee this entire day and this service. We come and we ask that comfort might abound to all those who grieve. And we come, our Father, most of all, to ask that in all that is done and said, that the glory and the honor and the praise might redound to your holy name. We ask this in the name which is above every name, in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. I'll ask you to turn now please to your bulletins and the first hymn which is printed, Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah. O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave Please be seated. You will also find in your bulletins a selection of verses from the scriptures that are apropos today. Philippians 1 Our brother Bill was a man like us, with faults and failings, and yet he exemplified the statement, to live is Christ, and he lived in the hope that to die in Christ is infinite gain. The Apostle writes, for I know that this will turn out for my salvation, through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. The charge that the Apostle gives to Timothy is the charge that our brother, by his life and by his example, gives to us. The Apostle's valedictory is also appropriate. I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and will turn their ears away from the truth. But you, be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. In 2 Corinthians 5 we find a passage that ministers to us, for it reminds us of where our brother is. We know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven. If indeed having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent grown, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality might be swallowed up by life. Now he who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased, rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. And then 1 Thessalonians directs us to that great day, when all of God's people shall be together, and we shall meet again, never depart, and shall rejoice together in the presence of our God. I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. I'm going to ask you to join me in prayer once again and let us seek the face of God together. Shall we pray? Almighty and gracious God, we praise you and thank you today for who you are. We praise you and thank you for salvation and life eternal and forgiveness and mercy in Jesus Christ. We thank you that our brother Bill is a monument to your saving grace. We thank you, our Father, that in your grace and goodness you have used him and you have used him mightily You have used him to glorify and honor your name. You have used him as an instrument in the salvation of many. And you have used him so wonderfully to build up your people and strengthen them and edify them and teach them in the things of God. So it is with thanksgiving and praise that we come before you today. It is thanking you upon every remembrance of our brother that we come before you. We come to praise and to magnify the God of all grace for what he has done. We in this church would praise and thank you today for our pastor and our friends one who has been a spiritual father to so many. And many here today, gathered from many places and many churches, would also thank and praise you this morning for what he has meant to them, and the way in which you have blessed them through him and through his life and through his ministry. And so we come and praise you today and thank you for your goodness to us through your servant. But our Father, we also come thanking you and praising you that we may commend to you his family. And our Father, we do commend them to you. We thank you for them, for they are precious to us. We pray for Hetty. We pray for your rich blessing upon her. We thank you that you have sustained her. We pray that that sustaining grace might be ongoing. We thank you for the testimony that she has been, even in these days, to your sustaining grace. We pray for Mark and Carolyn. We pray for Steve and Allison. We pray for the children. We pray for the grandchildren. We pray, Father, for the family members. Oh, Lord, we commend them to you. And we pray, Lord, that you might prove to be their refuge and their strength and their very present help in trouble. We pray that you might make them deeply conscious of where their loved one is. We pray, Father, that in these days that you might give them grace to look to you and to seek comfort from the One who is the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort. We pray, Lord, that you might be so close on this day, on Monday, and in the days ahead, that they might continually be moved to praise and thank you for your goodness to them. We pray, Lord, that you might glorify yourself in this way. We pray for your blessing upon this church, upon brothers and sisters in Christ who also grieve and who also have experienced such a deep loss. Lord, we recognize the truth of the passage that says that we do not grieve as others, And the reason is because we know we shall see him again when we also cross over that river. And we too shall be gathered together on that day and together we shall praise our Lord together. So we thank you for that. We thank you also that we too may look to you and we too may find comfort and grace to help us in time of need. from the throne of grace, from the Lord Jesus Christ, from the Holy Spirit. And our Father, we would also pray today for the cause of Jesus Christ. We feel a loss in this regard also, for we recognize with thanksgiving that you have done great things through our brother and through his leadership at large. and we will feel very keenly the loss of his leadership and example, his wisdom and his ministry. But Father, we recognize that Jesus Christ is the head of his church, and that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church of Christ, and that the Lord Jesus will build his church, and that God is sovereign and that he is the Lord Omnipotent who reigns, and all things shall proceed according to your will. And so we pray for the cause of Christ, we pray for your church, and we pray that it might prosper, that you might bless the churches even represented here, that you might bless their labors, and that they might see days of great fruitfulness and that the cause of Christ, which our dear brother loved so dearly, might prosper to the honor and glory of our God. Our Father, we come before you today as needy people, but as those who in Christ are rich, and we commit ourselves to you, seeking your comfort, your grace, your mercy, and praying that you might honor and glorify yourself We ask these things in and through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Let us sing once again, please, and we'll turn to the second hymn that we have printed in our bulletin. He who would valiant be against all disaster, let him in constancy follow the Master. Let's rise. Please be seated. Brian Robinson is pastor of Westminster Bible Chapel in London and he has known and worked with Bill for close to 30 years and we look forward to what our brother has to say. Mark, Stephen, Carolyn, Alison, grandchildren, grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Bill left me with one final task from his lips and that was to reflect for a few moments on his ministry while giving Christ the glory. And this is perhaps the hardest thing that he has ever asked me to do because there are others here that are more worthy at this moment. But I want to say a few words and in saying a few words They will be personal, but I hope to reflect through these words your own personal feelings about our brother in Christ, William Payne, pastor of this congregation and pastor of pastors. I thought of The words of David, Saul, and Jonathan in life were loved and gracious, and in death they were not departed. They were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions. O daughters of Israel, weep for Saul, who clothed you in scarlet and finery, who adorned your garments with ornaments of gold. How the mighty have fallen in Basel. Jonathan lies slain on your heights. I grieve for you, Jonathan, my brother. You were very dear to me. Your love for me was wonderful, more wonderful than that of women. How the mighty have fallen. The weapons of war have perished. The first time I ever heard about our brother, Pastor Bill Payne, was When I was still in university, someone mentioned to me that there was a minister in Burlington who actually preached the biblical doctrines of grace publicly. Doctrines which are largely obscured even in the best of churches, and doctrines that I myself had only recently come to. So I determined then and there to visit Calvary Baptist and see this great site for myself. I remember the nights as clearly as if it were yesterday. It was a warm, sunny Sunday evening, and Brother Bill was expounding on the Minor Prophets. In fact, his text was, The Son of Righteousness shall arise with healing on his wings. and I sat enthralled. His voice was pleasant and he had an appealing English accent, although some claim it was from Liverpool. The scriptures were open to our eyes while he made application to our thirsty souls. Little did I know at the time that that was the beginning of a lifelong friendship with one of the finest Christian men that I have had the privilege and pleasure to meet. Someone once said to me, you're Pastor Bill's right-hand man, aren't you? I said, no, I'm Pastor Bill's left-hand man. I'm the fellow who keeps getting in the way. I'm the fellow who tries to help but only makes things worse. I try to subtract from his burden by adding to them. Brother William was born a leader, a leader of men, and he led naturally because one recognized instinctively that he possessed remarkable and superior gifts, not only naturally but of the spirit. And I believe that if he had been leading the charge of the Light Brigade, I would have followed him into the mouth of the cannon. I always felt that our dear friend deserved lieutenants. Unfortunately, more often than not, he got privates acting as lieutenants. Bill was one of the most unaffected pastors I've ever met. You were drawn to him because you felt fully at ease in his company. Everyone, from the smallest child, the awkward teenager, parents, middle-aged, elderly, single, lonely. He was genuinely interested in every age group and was as comfortable at home with the great and the small. He treated the younger women as sisters and the elderly as his mother. Young men as brothers and gray-haired as his father. And he made everyone feel special and important And it was all done without hypocrisy and without pretense. I put a lot of thought this past week into the question, how do you sum up this man's life and what he meant to us all? I don't know. And perhaps it can't be done. I would say if you ask me one word, I would say balance. Balance. He was the bubble in the centre of the level. I found most preachers a half a bubble off-centre, and sometimes a whole bubble, but not Bill. He was like a buoy in a storm. Tossed ocean, he was always sitting upright. And I sat in a hundreds of meetings with your pastor, your husband, your father, and your grandfather. And I seldom, if ever, saw him lose his patience or his temper. Well, once or twice, with me. But that in itself qualifies him for sainthood. He was without question the heart and soul of the revival of Calvinistic Baptist doctrine and practice in Canada. His profound influence made the Canadian contribution distinct from the revival of those biblical doctrines in the United States of America and in England. It was he who introduced us to John Owen, John Bunyan, the Puritans, the Continental Reformers, It was he who preached the doctrine of total depravity, unconditional election, definite atonement, the effectual calling, and the perseverance of the saints when it was unfashionable to do so. And he paid the price, and he was willing to do so. And when our spirits flagged, it was he who encouraged us to close ranks and stand firm. And if these doctrines remain alive in the hearts of men and in the hearts of their churches, the laurels fall at his feet and the glory is given to God. Often in driving home from the Fritz Fellowship with fellow pastors, we would say almost simultaneously, what will we ever do without Bill? And the answer is, We're about to find out. Professor at Toronto Baptist Seminary teaching another generation how to preach and teach the Word of God, which he loves so dearly and which is now open on this casket, his Bible. He was the editor of Reformation Canada, the moderator of the Sovereign Grace Fellowship of Baptist Churches, the moving force behind Fripps, a forum for Reformed Baptist thought, the founder of the very successful Cary Conference, plus a counselor, visitor in hospital, youth leader. On top of all this, he was a gentle, loving, and romantic husband, who raised two fine Christian sons, who in turn married two lovely Christian young ladies. plus influenced some very talented grandchildren whom he doted on with a special love, care and prayers. And he did all this with less than robust help so that the results can only be contributed to the sovereign grace of God whom he worshipped and the Christ he loved and exalted. To say that we will miss him is to say nothing at all. What will we do without our Chinese pole? How will we resolve the great question to clap or not to clap at the Kerry conference? And I still remember Hedy and Bill touring the scary conference after a stormy rainy night, he in his blue pork pie hat rallying the troops as we stood by our fallen tents and sogging cereal. And I always remember how he came through those stormy nights looking so unscathed and unscarred. I'll always remember those warm, manly bear hugs. A man who wasn't afraid to say to another man, I love you. He loved to tease. He loved to be teased. And at our last pastor's conference, I was washing up for breakfast and Bill came up behind me and he grabbed me and said, why you great big tub of lard. And the men and I had more laughs about that that whole day than you can imagine. I love that man, and here I think I speak for us all, and I regret but one thing, that I don't have one more opportunity to tell him how much he meant to me, to my people, and to all of us. He was a pastor. but he was a pastor's pastor. He served the church, but all the other churches rested on his shoulders. He was a father, but he was a father's father. Above all, he was Christ's servant. He was Christ-centered with a God-honoring ministry, a ministry that is not finished. but will go on reverberating through the ages. I ask myself the question, why did we love our brother so? What was it that drew us to him? And I think it was this. He was a sinner, saved by grace, elected in eternity past by the God he loved, cleansed and sanctified through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that he preached Christ crucified, called effectually by the Spirit. The love of God spread abroad in his heart. persevered until he had gained the crown. What was it about our brother that we love so much? We saw in him, we saw in him a man being transformed into the likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ. I think that was it. Not perfect, with change, transform. So we could say to ourselves, that must be something like Jesus was when he walked on earth. There are some of you that are sitting here this afternoon, who have sat under his ministry for a long, long time. And you think it's normal, but it's not normal. A ministry like Brother Payne's is very rare today, exceedingly rare. And some of you have heard him plead with your souls that you might repent, that you might believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know what heaven is like, but I would urge you today to remember your pastor, his faithful ministry. And if you're still outside of Jesus Christ, you would run to Christ, get down on your knees and ask the Lord Jesus to save you. I don't know what heaven's like, friends. We have some glimpse of it in the Word of God. But this much I know. Perhaps there'll be a shout in heaven today. And our brother will say, what's the shouting about? And they'll say, don't you know, the angels in heaven are rejoicing because one sinner repented. And you'll say, one sinner, where? Here in Burlington, on Appleby line. That's the greatest memorial. I didn't know this about Martin Luther. I just read it recently. But he was dying. He was lying on his deathbed. The priests came to him, the confessors. He could hardly speak. And they said, Luther, are you willing to die on the doctrines that you have preached? And Luther, gathering all his strength, shouted, yes. lapsed into silence and went to glory. Was Brother William Payne willing to die on the doctrines that he lived and preached? The resounding answer of his congregation is yes. Yes, a thousand times yes. And today, as he himself said, when you hear the news that Brother William Payne has died Don't believe it, for he was never more alive than he is today. Amen. Loved with everlasting love, let us sing this wonderful hymn loved with everlasting love, led by grace, that love to know. Let's rise and sing. you Kirk Wellam is well known to us. He is a pastor around Sarnia, but really he is from Trinity. So we look forward to what our brother has to say to us. from the word of God. I want to direct your attention again this afternoon to a passage that Carl read earlier, 2 Timothy 4 verses 1-8. If you have access to a Bible and want to turn there, please follow as I read I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. For I am ready, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that day, and not to me only, but also to all who have loved His appearing. Pastor Payne was many different things all at the same time. He was first and foremost a pilgrim of Jehovah, who was being guided by his grace through this barren land. He knew his share of weakness, but he also knew what it was to be upheld by Jehovah's mighty hand and to be fed, as we sang earlier, on the bread of heaven into whose presence he has now entered. He was a son to his parents, he was a husband to his wife Hetty, a father to his sons Mark and Stephen and his daughters-in-law Carolyn and Allison, and a grandfather to his grandchildren. He was the founding pastor of Trinity Baptist Church. He was affectionately regarded by many of us as the Bishop of the Sovereign Grace Movement here in Canada. He was an incredibly gifted preacher and teacher, a writer and editor, the director and Chinese poet of the Canadian Cary Family Conference, and he was last but by no means the least a mentor, a trusted advisor and helper. As I thought about what I would say to you this afternoon, it was this last aspect of Bill's many-faceted life that determined for me what passage I would open up for you. This was confirmed when I spoke to Carl on Thursday evening, and he told me that one of the scriptures that he had selected was 2 Timothy 4, verses 1-8, because that was One of the first passages to jump into my mind and I did what preachers often do. I kind of did a circle from there and thought about different texts in the Old and New Testament. But I found myself being drawn back to that as the day went on on Thursday. And then when I talked to Carl on Thursday night and he said, why that one? And I told him and he said, yes, that's why I chose it for all those reasons. I felt that was the Lord's confirmation that that's what I should do. 2 Timothy is the last canonical letter written by the Apostle Paul, and like 1 Timothy it was written to a young man, to a pastor, to whom Paul was a mentor. Though in recent years 1 and 2 Timothy have been dubbed the pastoral epistles, they are not academic manuals of pastoral care. They are warm and yet powerful personal letters written by a mature apostle who was nearing the end of his life to a close associate, and if you add Titus to that group of epistles, to two close associates who were still in the midst of the battle and would be for some time to come. What draws me back to these letters this afternoon, and particularly to 2 Timothy 4 verses 1-8, is that they capture what Pastor Payne was all about, what he communicated by his words and by his life to those of us who were his Timothys in the faith and in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only that, I believe these verses have something to say to every one of us, regardless of the nature of our relationship to Pastor Payne. Something about what is really important in life and in death. Something that I know Bill would want rehearsed for you once again as we remember his life and his ministry and the Savior who was at the center of both. I want you to consider 2 Timothy 4.1-8 in the light of three things. First of all, these verses tell us about the ground that is beneath our feet. In verse 1, Paul says, I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and at his kingdom. We all live in God's world. He made it. He made you and He made I. He has revealed himself to us so clearly and in so many ways that the Apostle is absolutely right when he writes in the first chapter of Romans that we are without excuse. There is no way that we have any excuse for denying his existence or his claims upon our lives. And one day, just as surely as we are gathered in this place, we will be gathered before him. We will stand in his presence. God who made the world has told us that he is going to judge the world, the world of the living and the world of the dead. And he is going to judge them by means of his Saviour, by means of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom he raised from the dead and who he has appointed to judge when he comes again in glory and in power. This is reality. This is the world in which we live. It's the ground beneath our feet. It's the context of our lives, even though sometimes we are not as aware of it as we should be. This reality should shape every facet and it should mould every aspect of our lives. It shaped Paul's life. It was one of the things that drove him on. It focused his attention. It shaped his priorities. It steeled his resolve. What is true of Paul? I believe was also true of Pastor Payne. While he had a wonderful sense of humor and enjoyed many things about life, he was always conscious of this certainty, that we must stand before God. I wonder this afternoon if this is true of you. Is this the framework in which you are living your life? There is a second thing in these verses And that is the need to preach the word. In verse 2 Paul says, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, exhort with all longs, suffering and teaching. In the last verse of the previous chapter, Paul exhorted Timothy to consider the scriptures, the scriptures given by God, breathed out by God, the scriptures which are profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." Now in chapter 4 he tells Timothy to preach that word, to open up those scriptures. Timothy is not to preach his own ideas. He is not to amuse people with stories and anecdotes. He is not to tell them what they want to hear. He is not to regurgitate the wisdom of the age. He is to preach the word. He is to do so with solemnity. He is to do so with decisiveness. He is to preach it as he has never preached it before. He is to be ready to do this all of the time. He is always on call. There is no off-season for Timothy. No public and private life. He is always on standby, and he is to preach the word of God in such a way as to bring about repentance and faith, growth and grace, and love for God, even though Paul knows that the giving of these things are in the Lord's hands. Pastor Paine was called by God to preach the word, and preach it he did. In a superficial age when preaching and preachers are looked down upon, he was unashamed to preach, and he was unashamed to be known as a preacher. Not only that, but I know from watching him on many occasions that he loved to sit under the preaching of the Word of God, especially when that preaching exalted the Lord Jesus Christ and displayed the wonder of his person and of his work. I can still hear him say, and I think I will always hear him say, that we must preach the counsel of God. He was right. He was right because he was biblical. The whole counsel of God includes what we affectionately call the doctrines of grace. And many of us know them and love them, though they are still despised and caricatured, because he had the courage to proclaim them publicly in ways that we could understand. He was no closet reformer. He was not some undercover lover of the word of God. Everybody knew where he stood. What a glory it is to know that God is in control, that he is the sovereign king of the universe, that he has chosen to save out of the fallen mass of humanity a truly international people. What a glory it is to know that he has secured the salvation of these rebels by the death of his son. So that it is not a matter of what may be or could be, but it is an infallible certainty because Jesus has accomplished salvation. Because Jesus has died the just for the unjust to bring us to God. What a glory it is to know that there is a call of God that is irresistible. Irresistible because it is accompanied with resurrection power so that those who are dead live. What a glory it is to know that the Lord will keep those on whom he has set his love, for whom his son has died, those who have come just as they are to Jesus. All this Bill preached and much, much more. He preached it in such a way as that it never undercut the free offer of salvation to whosoever will. And he preached it with all long suffering and patience. And God blessed it. Pastor Payne is gone now, but the command to preach, the command of Paul to preach, remains. Preach the word, he says. Paul told Timothy to preach it as he had never preached it before because the time was coming when people would no longer endure sound doctrine. They would have itching ears and to get relief they would heap up for themselves. They would go out and recruit and hire and educate teachers who would tell them what they wanted to hear. They would turn away from the truth and turn to fables. I don't know whether these days in which we live are the final manifestation of the prophetic words of Paul here in 2 Timothy 4, but I do know this, they are a manifestation of these words. Preaching is not well tolerated today, but I for one am thankful for Bill's faithfulness and willingness to swim against the current. For me and for many others, he gave flesh and bones to what Paul meant when he said, be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry. It rests on us who remain to take up where he left off. To keep on preaching and teaching the word. To pray that the Lord of the Harvest would send workers into the fields to encourage good preaching. by our support, by our attendance. It is one thing to lament the lack of good preaching, it is another thing to encourage it in tangible ways. And of course, we must put into practice the lessons that we have learned. The last thing I wanted to say from 2 Timothy is about the difference that the gospel makes. That passage speaks about the ground beneath our feet, the context in which we should live our lives in light of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, in light of that day of judgment when we stand before him. It speaks about the need to preach the word even when that is unpopular, when it's difficult, when it costs us something. But it also talks about the difference that the gospel makes in a person's life. 2 Timothy was written near the very end of Paul's life, probably during his second Roman imprisonment. He was under arrest, but we don't know why or even where he was arrested. There are indicators in the text that he had already had a preliminary trial, but at that trial nobody stood with him. He was abandoned. He was alone. Now all he had to look forward to was his final trial and almost certain death. In fact, in verse 6, He tells us that he can sense the nearness of death. He says, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure is at hand. He was about to pour out his life blood for the sake of Christ. The end is near. He is about to tread the verge of Jordan, that place where anxious fears can arise as we are called upon to wade out into the swelling current. Don't feel sorry for Paul. He moves quickly from the theme of sacrifice to one of triumph. He says his departure is at hand. The word he uses is a word that is used to speak of a vessel being loosed from its moorings, or of a soldier taking down his tent when the order comes that it is time to move on. Paul's departure is at hand, but it is a loosing. It is a freedom from all the concerns and struggles that he has known. Something more glorious awaits. Not only that, but as Paul looks back on his life, he can say by the grace of God that he had fought the fight. Whether that is to be interpreted as a military battle or an athletic contest doesn't really matter this afternoon. He had fought the good fight. He had finished the race. You notice he doesn't mention winning the race, but finishing the race, that's what is important. He had kept the faith. Possibly a reference to an athlete keeping the rules of competition, or a soldier being faithful to his oath of fidelity, but I prefer the sense of keeping the faith like a steward who holds on to that deposit that has been entrusted to him, and in this case the faith would be the gospel, that objective deposit that we find in the scriptures, Paul has kept the faith, that which has been entrusted to him by God, he has held on to it to the very end. I say in all of this, we see what a difference the gospel makes, where it is believed and where it is obeyed. Where we make Jesus the object of our greatest desires, where we look unto Him who is the author and the finisher of our faith, we are not overwhelmed with regret. Instead, we are able to face death, our last foe, with all of our weaknesses and all of our perfections, and we are able to say, by the grace of God, yes, we fought the fight, finished the race, kept the faith. Paul goes one step further. He says, finally there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, not to me only, but also to all who have loved his appearing. Not only was Paul about to be loosed from his life on earth when he wrote these words, not only was he able to look back with a holy sense of accomplishment, but he was able to look ahead, down the corridor of time to that day, when he would receive the crown of righteousness, which I believe should be taken as the crown which is righteousness in the sense of perfect righteousness, which is the climax of the process of sanctification. this crown to be given him by the righteous judge so that there was no danger of it being taken away or fraudulently given, given to Paul and not only to him but to all others who have loved his appearance. Pastor Payne often spoke about these things while he was alive. Now he has and is experiencing them. Last Sunday afternoon It was his time to be loosed, to take down his tent. He waded swiftly into the Jordan, no doubt with the prayer on his lips, when I tread the verge of Jordan, bid my anxious fears subside. Bear me through the swelling current, land me safe on Canaan's side. Songs of praises, songs of praises I will ever give to thee, I will ever give to thee. By God's grace he had fought the good fight, he had finished the race, he had kept the faith, and there is laid up for him the crown of righteousness. As Brian and Carl have already expressed, we are going to miss his presence greatly. I cannot imagine Trinity without him, or the Terry, or Fripps, or the Pastors Conference. But I want to tell you this, this afternoon. We should not, we must not mourn for him as those who have no hope. He has crossed over. He is in the presence of Jesus and the redeemed. And he now awaits that day when all things will be made new. And it is all because of the gospel. And it is all because of the one who is the gospel incarnate, Jesus Christ. So the question that must be asked, the thing that he would want impressed upon everyone this afternoon, is this your hope? Has the gospel made this kind of difference in your life? Because it's not just a gospel for Apostle Paul and Pastor Paine. You notice how Paul brings it home in such a wonderful way that is so encouraging to me and I trust you. What is true of him, he says, is also true to all those who have loved his appearance. A legacy is something that is left to someone in a will or handed down by a predecessor. The threefold legacy of Pastor W. E. Payne is that he showed us what it meant to live in the light of Christ's appearing and of his kingdom. He preached the riches of God's grace in Christ with all longsuffering and teaching. And he demonstrated the difference that the gospel makes in life and in death. and that is why he is remembered so fondly this afternoon, and that is why we will miss him. Last Sunday evening, I finished a series of messages in the book of Daniel. If you are familiar with that book, you know that chapter 12 ends with these words, the Lord saying to Daniel, but you go your way till the end, for you shall rest will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days. My parents called a few hours later with the news that Pastor Paine had died. And that text comforted me. He was so very tired. His physical body finally failed him. It was time for him to rest from his labors and to enter into the Sabbath rest of God. May this be true of us all. Amen. Indeed, may we be able to sing honestly and from our hearts, as our brother Bill Lloyd to sing, Bold shall I stand in that great day, For who ought to my charge shall lay, Fully absolved through these I am, From sin and fear, from guilt and shame. Thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are, my glorious dress. Let us sing this wonderful hymn to the glory of our God. Let's rise. you Please be seated. you The bride eyes not her garment, but here her dear bridegroom's face. I will not look on glory, but on my King of Grace, not on the crown he giveth, but on his pierced hands. The Lamb is all the glory in Emmanuel's land. Shall we pray? Our gracious and merciful and loving Father, how we bless you today for the comfort that you can bring to your people. We commit to you the family of our dear brother, and we pray that you might care tenderly for them and grant to them the grace that they need to sustain Strengthen them in these days, we pray. Give them grace to look up. Give them grace to find comfort in our brother's blessed condition and in the nearness of their Savior. Grant comfort also to those who are brothers and sisters in Christ, friends, those who have loved him, and bless them, we pray. And indeed, our Father, in these days, may the glory and the honor and the praise redound to your holy name. We commit ourselves, we commit the cause of Christ,