Give attention to God's Word. You might want to follow along with me if you'll turn to page 414 in those Bibles in front of you. Page 414. We're going to be looking at two passages in God's Word this morning as we reflect on Margaret's life and her homegoing. We're going to look at Psalm 73, a psalm written by a man named Asaph, who was a hymn writer. And we're going to look at the words of Jesus in John chapter 10. I'll begin reading with just verse 1. Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. May we pray. And as I pray, I want you to pray for me. I am inadequate to bring God's Word to you. I am incompetent. The Bible tells me that about myself. And so I need you to pray for me. So as I pray out loud, I want you to pray in your heart and ask God to speak through His Word to the heart of each person here today that we would have an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit according to the truth of God's infallible and inherent and life-giving Word. Would you pray with me? Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we come to you this morning in the name that is above every name, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Now, Lord, you know my inadequacy, frailty, and weakness. Lord, we pray for that fresh anointing, that fresh infilling of the Holy Ghost. so that Lord Jesus, you would speak from your heart to the heart of each person here, from the youngest child to the oldest person. And Lord, for those who have never crossed over to know Jesus, that today would be the day of crossing over. Lord, we pray for those who are burdened and confused and angry and hurt and wounded, who know you but feel cut off and bewildered. not from me, but from you. Lord, get me out of the way and speak with this mouth to people, heart to heart. For Jesus' sake, amen. Page 414 in those few Bibles, Psalm 73, verse 1. The psalmist gives a confession. He says, surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. Now the Bible teaches us very plainly that no one in this life has ever been perfect but the Lord Jesus Christ. Only Jesus is perfect. What is this purity of heart? The purity of heart is a description of those who have had a life-changing experience by coming to know the living God. It's another way of saying that somebody's been born again. What does it mean to be born again? You know, we're born in this world naturally. We're born, conceived in the womb of a mother and then born. We're born once. But to be born again is to experience the power of the Holy Spirit changing us and giving us a new nature. And so the pure in heart are those who have experienced the power of God to change them. And so the psalmist looks at the Lord and he says, you know, God is good. And he says, he's good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. The true Israel of God, that is those people in the Old Testament who weren't just born physically, but who had been born again and spiritually as well as physically had become the seed of Abraham. But I want you to look at verse 2 with me. Please look. It's so important that you understand that God's Word has something to say to us. And my words are no better than anybody else's words. But God's Word has something to say to you today. And I want you to look at verse 2 with me. Because I believe that God has a message for us today as we reflect on Margaret's life. But as for me, my feet had almost slipped. I had nearly lost my foothold. when I envied the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." You see, that's an experience in life that people have. And if we're honest with our own feelings, from time to time, no matter how close we are to the Lord, no matter how much we know the Lord, and how long we've known the Lord, we all get this feeling at times. We look around us, and we look at how well-off certain people are, and we say, you know, I don't understand it. Here I am, I'm just finishing the last payment on my car, and the thing is ready for the junk heap. And look over there, the so-and-sos. They have a brand new Mercedes Benz or Lexus or Cadillac. And look at them. They've been on a vacation to the Bahamas. And look at them. They're in good health. Here we are struggling with this and struggling with that. Listen, brothers and sisters, those are experiences that we all We understand that at times we are assaulted with thoughts like that. We say, what in the world is going on? Here I have busted myself working hard, sweating hard, toiling hard. I've gotten up in the morning before daylight and I've had my my life right with the Lord, and look at me, I'm struggling, I can't seem to make ends meet, I've got trouble after trouble after trouble, and there are the so-and-so's over there, Mr. and Mrs. so-and-so, and they're doing so well. And notice, the experience of this is the psalmist, and you know how I love the Bible, because the Bible's the only honest book I've ever read! It's the only honest book. biographies of great people, even Christian people, and there's always a whitewashing in there. Only the Bible tells us the truth. Only the Bible opens up the heart of man and the heart of God. And so here's the heart of man and he's saying, he's being honest and he's writing and he's pouring out his heart to God and he's saying, Lord, I don't understand it. Life doesn't make sense. And he describes it as, As for me, my feet had almost slipped. I nearly lost my foothold. Why? Because I started looking at circumstances, and I began to lose sight of the promises of God. Verse 1 is a great promise of God. God's good. But he said, I began to lose sight of it. And then he goes through a description, I won't read it all with you, but starting at verse 4 there on page 415, and he goes down and he describes what the wicked are like. In verse 12 he concludes, he says, this is what the wicked are like. Always carefree. They increase in wealth. But then he comes to verse 13. And this is the heart of the matter. As he looks at life, as he looks at circumstances, as he compares his own experience with what he believes the promises of God should apply in terms of his life. He says in verse 13, surely in vain have I kept my heart pure. In vain have I washed my hands in the sin. All day long I've been clean. I've been punished every morning. So notice in verses 13 and 14 as he has taken the promises of God and begun to say, you know, but that's not working for me. He may be doing this for other folks, but he isn't doing it for me. Then this doubt begins to creep in. And he begins to go through and say, why did I get up in the morning and pray? Why did I miss that extra 30 minutes of time in order to read my Bible and pray and intercede? Why did I stop what I was doing when I knew it was wrong and say, Lord, forgive me. Give me grace. Help me not to do that again. Why did I do that? See what he said. Then he goes on further. He begins to think in verse 15, important words, page 415, Psalm 73, verse 15. He says, if I had said, I will speak thus, I would have betrayed your children. In other words, he begins to reflect, man, you start speaking negative stuff on people, you put unbelief in them, you put negativity in them, you put bitterness. Our words sow life, they sow death. And he begins to think, you know, I know I'm thinking all this stuff. It's eating me alive. But he said, if I start speaking this way, I'm going to be sowing bitterness in other people. Then he comes back to the Lord and himself in verse 16 and he says, when I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me. Can't make sense of it. Here's the Word of God. Here's the promise of God. Here's my life. Why are they not connected up? And he said, I tried to make sense of it, but I couldn't make sense of it until verse 17. Till I entered the sanctuary of God. What's the sanctuary of God? For Asaph, it was a literal sanctuary. For Asaph, it was the temple of God built by Solomon in Jerusalem. It was the place where God dwelt, the Shekinah glory of God dwelt inside the Holy of Holies, and where God dwelt and inhabited the praises of His people. As long as He was outside the sanctuary, He couldn't make sense of it. How does that apply to you and me today? Well, we could say it applies to church, and in a sense, that's true. It applies to your quiet time, and in a sense, that's true. But what I want to tell you is, if we want to say in a practical way what it is to go into the sanctuary, it's to get in the presence of God. It's to get in the place of worship. And in the place of worship, you've got to come clean. You've got to be honest with God. You've got to say, God, I'm having these doubts. God, I'm having these fears. God, I feel this bitterness. God, you know, I said something to Mrs. So-and-so I should not have said. God, I entertained thoughts I should not have entertained. I was jealous. I was envious. You see, when you get in the sanctuary of God, it's where you get to do business with the Lord. It's where you say to the Lord, Lord, create in me a clean heart. Renew a right spirit within me. You know, David is a great example of what a person needs to do. David was a believer. David committed a great sin. In fact, he committed two terrible sins. David committed adultery, then David committed murder in order to cover up his adultery. Under God's law in the Old Testament, both of those sins were capital crimes. And David lives in distance from God during his time. And then one day, God sent the prophet Nathan. told David a story and said, Thou art the man. At that point, David entered the sanctuary. At that point, David got his heart right with the Lord. So I want you to understand that the psalmist describes in Psalm 73 an experience that I'm going to tell you that every honest person here has had. So if you say, Neil, I've never known this experience, you're just out of touch with reality. Everybody who's honest and has lived very long in this world I don't care how much you love Jesus. If you're honest with yourself, if you're in touch with reality, you've had thoughts of bitterness come into your mind. And the only way to deal with them is to get in the sanctuary. We're going to come back to that psalm in a moment, but I want to turn with you now over to the Gospel of John, because there's some striking contrasts. John chapter 10. If you're using those pew Bibles, page 759. John chapter 10 and verse 10. John 10.10. Wonderful verse. He says in John chapter 10 verse 10, page 759, the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. The ultimate thief in this world is Satan. He comes to what? He comes to steal and kill and destroy. He comes to get our mind off of Jesus. He comes to get our mind off of the promises of God. He comes to get us to focus on our problem without looking up. That's how he's able to steal. That's how He's able to kill and that's how He's able to destroy. But look at what the Lord Jesus says, I have come that they may have liked and have it to the full. And I want to tell you that that's true still today. It was true Friday night between 6 and 7, August the 1st, 2008. Jesus came not only to die on the cross as our substitute to take our that we deserve, and to give to us His perfect life, His righteous life, credited to our account. But He also came through the power of the Holy Spirit to give us a new quality of life that He describes as an abundant life. But dear ones, even though Jesus died and rose again for that, sometimes the devil can block us from getting into the sanctuary, the place of worship where we lay our burdens down, the place of worship where we lay our guilt down, so that we don't experience personally, moment by moment, that abundant life. But I want you to see, Jesus came into the world to give us an abundant life. And he goes on and says some other things here. I want you to turn over to the next page, page 760. And listen to what he says here. There's some folks that are not believing what Jesus has said. And it's near Christmas time, It's the Feast of Dedication, verse 22, John 10, 22. That's the Jewish Feast of Hanukkah, near Christmas. And he's there, and there's some folks really speaking some unbelief. And I want you to notice these words. They're very important. Page 760, verse 25. Jesus answers, I did tell you, and the Lord sees the Messiah, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me, but you do not believe because you're not my sheep. I want you to see verse 26. Not everybody is one of Christ's sheep. Not everybody. I want you to notice, Jesus loves everyone. Christ died for our sins. But not everybody is a sheep. I want you to notice that the people that are challenging Jesus and telling Him, well, you're not really the Messiah, are you? If you were the Messiah, tell us plainly. He said, I did tell you plainly, but you don't believe, and the reason you don't believe is you're not my sheep. I want you to notice these are not my words. These are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, you do not believe, verse 26, because you are not my sheep. Now listen to what He says about the sheep, and they follow me. Now look at verse 28. Please look with me if you will. Open those Bibles. I want you to see that this is God's Word. These are not my words. If they were my words, they'd just be a pack of lies. Turn on television, you're going to hear some truth, some lies. Listen to the radio, you're going to hear some truth, some lies. Listen to political speech, I don't know how much some is what, but you won't hear all the truth. Whichever part. But I want you to see that this is God's Word. And God cannot lie. Look at God's own Word. Verse 28. I give them. Who is them? That's the sheep. That's those who've come to a point in their lives where they put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Believers of Christ's sheep. Listen to what he says about believers. Because if you will focus with me for a few minutes on the Word of God, you will go out of here with a peace and a joy in your heart, no matter how you came here. Look at what God's Word says. I give them, that is the sheep. Who are the sheep? Believers. Those who have come to realize, I'm not good enough to go to heaven, but the Lord Jesus Christ was good enough in my place. It's not my sacrifice that will turn God toward me. It's the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, being a believer. So listen to what He says about believers. Listen to what He says about the sheep. Verse 28, I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. I want you to see that. They shall never perish. Now I want you to see something else. No one can snatch them out of my hand. I want you to realize something. I don't know what the future holds. But somebody said, I know who holds the future. I don't know what's going to happen to me in my life. My mother was a brilliant woman. She taught at Vanderbilt University briefly. She was a school teacher and a nurse. When my mother turned 69, she began to experience senile dementia. The last eight years of her life were very different than the other years of her life. I don't know what the future holds for me. I have no promise that says that I won't experience something very difficult, very debilitating. I've not got an absolute promise from God that says I won't go through a period of time of insanity before I go to be with the Lord. I don't have that promise. Do you have a promise like that? Do you have a promise that says that when you get near the end of life you're not going to experience dementia? That your forgetfulness will get so forgetful and you'll get so confused that you've forgotten your own name? Do you have a promise, an absolute promise that says that will never happen to you? Well I've got an absolute promise right here and I want you to see this absolute promise because this promise is for you if you will put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And here it is. And it's John chapter 10. And it's verse 28. And he says, no one can snatch them out of my hand. I don't care what happens to me. I don't care if I become crazy as a pet raccoon. You know what? If I had put my trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, I can't pluck myself out. And nobody can pluck me out. I want to give you some assurance this morning. I want to give you assurance that the Lord Jesus Christ didn't just die for us, but He died to keep us, and it doesn't depend on us to be kept. I want you to understand that. I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded that He, not me, He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. I want you to understand that. It's not me that keeps myself saved. It's Christ who keeps me safe, being confident of this very thing, that He who hath begun a good work in you will see it through to the day of Jesus Christ. So I don't know what lies ahead for me. Will I go nuts? I don't know. Sometimes I wonder why I ever sold my motorcycle. Because if you ride a motorcycle without a helmet, you can avoid it. In the words of Paul to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1, I know whom I believe. And I'm persuaded that He's able to keep that which I've committed to Him against that day. Look at what else Jesus says. Verse 29, My Father who is given to me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of My Father's hand. I am the Father of one. I want you to see it. Here's the hand of Jesus. He says no one can pluck them out of My hand. Here's the hand of the Father. No one can pluck Him out of His hand. I am the Father of the world. We're preserved in Jesus Christ. Now if we look back at Psalm 73, for a moment before I'm done, we see in Psalm 73 that a believer can get to a point in life, frustrated with life, with the difficulties of life, that a believer can make difficult choices that are foolish and simple. That's it. Difficult choices that are foolish and simple. Believing I'm acting in love, believing I'm serving my family, I take my own life. Is it possible to do that and be a Christian? Absolutely. Now I'm going to go to Mecca. Margaret took her own life. Everybody in the room knows that. So I'm not telling you something you don't know. But I'm going to be blunt with you and I'm going to be honest with you because God's called me to be a preacher and that means I can't sugar coat truth. I want to tell you something. About a little over two years ago, Margaret experienced a severe physical injury and was left with severe debilitating pain. And she tried this and she tried that. And she went to some doctors down at the state capitol. And she began to be on medicine, and that medicine altered the chemistry in her brain. And the result of the altering of that chemistry in her brain, that beautiful experience of the presence of the Holy Spirit and the joy of the Lord, got numb. The Jesus that she came to know in 1974 at a Dave Wilkerson crusade in New Orleans as a 14-year-old girl, always with her. The Margaret that I met about 1987 when she and Eddie moved up here, that vivacious, brilliant, bright, sparkling woman with those sparkling eyes and that brilliant mind and that passionate heart, passionate for Jesus, passionate for people, passionate for those who couldn't help themselves. In a life of severe pain, as medication began to dull, there began to be confusion. This is what I want you to see, page 415. Verse 17, until I entered the sanctuary of God. I want you to understand that the medication and the pain was like a roadblock to the sanctuary. She would pray. I knew Margaret well. My wife and I prayed with her many times, as many of you have. She never gave up knowing and loving Jesus, but in the and the effect of the chronic debilitating pain and the suffering, she couldn't seem to connect. What I want you to know is this, my brothers and sisters, even though she didn't feel connected, she was connected. Even though she didn't feel the presence of God at times because the psychotropic drugs put a barrier between her and the sanctuary, she's still with the Lord. She was still with the Lord. I want you to understand something. As the psalmist deals with this business, as he talks about in verse 21, look with me for a moment, page 415. When my heart was breathed and my spirit embittered, can a Christian get bitter? Absolutely. Did Margaret get bitter? Yes, Margaret got bitter. Did Margaret make a sinful choice? Yes, Margaret made a sinful choice. May I say the truth? I realize I probably run the risk with most sermons I preach of being run out of town on a rail and being tarred and feathered, but I'm going to tell you the truth. She made a sinful choice. She thought she was acting in love, but she made a sinful choice. But what I want you to know is this. Where sin did abound, grace did much more abound. I want you to know that the love of God is greater than our foolishness and sinful choices. I want you to know that that beautiful life that she lived for the Lord all those years was not forgotten by the Lord. I want you to know that in those last two years of pain and shutting down emotionally and feeling at times cut off from everybody and feeling that dullness, does that take God and pull Him off His throne? Does that pull Christ off of His cross? Does that put Christ back in the tomb? I want to tell you that our God is bigger than that. And I want to tell you that the love of God is bigger than that. I want to tell you that though we sin, and listen, if you understand yourself, everybody in this room has made sinful choices. And I'll tell you this, the Word of God says if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. So if you're here today and think that you don't still struggle with sin and sometimes lose the battle, if you think that's you, you're nuts! According to the Word of God, you deceive yourself. You see, I stand daily in need of the blood of Jesus. So do you. But I want you to know, the blood of Jesus is sufficient. Sufficient. It's sufficient. The Word of God says, 1 John 2. And He is a propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but even for the sins of the whole world. I want you to know that Jesus Christ, between the hour of 6 and 7, Friday evening, August 1, 2008, was still sufficient. And she was still His little lamb. And He gathered her in His arms on that carport. He gathered her in His arms. The Good Shepherd reached down and took her and brought her home. Listen to what the psalmist says. He says, when I began to get bitter, he says in verse 22, I was senseless and ignorant. I was a brute beast before you. Look at verse 23. He says, yet I'm always with you. See when the psalmist didn't feel like he was with the Lord, the Lord was always with him. I'm always with you. See, the Lord was with Margaret on that carport. He was with her in the bedroom. He was with her that whole day. He was with her those last two years, even though the psychotropic drugs blocked the sanctuary. He was with her. He was with her just as much in the day that she first opened her heart to Jesus as a 14-year-old. When He says, finally, yet I'm always with you. You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel. And afterward, you will take me into glory. I want you to know that in spite of bitterness, God takes His own to glory. I want you to know that in spite of making stupid decisions, God takes His own to glory. And listen to the words of the psalmist finally in verse 25. Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Those who are far from you will perish. Margaret was never far from God. You destroy all those who are unfaithful to you, but look at the last words. But as for me, it's good to be near God. I've made the Sovereign Lord my refuge. I'll tell of all your deeds. Margaret is with Jesus. I do not doubt that. Why do I not doubt that? Because the Word of God says, Ephesians 2. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. I celebrate the work and life of Margaret, a wonderful person. A kind, generous, sharing person. But you know what? If that's all I had, I have no hope. But my hope is in the Lord Jesus, who loved her and gave himself for her. Jesus loves you. My challenge to you today is, whomever you are as you sit here, come into sanctuary. Come into sanctuary. You can come to church every Sunday and not come into sanctuary. You can read your Bible every day and not come into sanctuary. Would you come into sanctuary with me as we close? Would you take the hurt that you're feeling? Would you take the anger that you feel? Would you take your sense of shame and humiliation that you feel? The embarrassment that you feel. Would you take it and will you come into the sanctuary with me? And would you lay it before the altar? Would you lay it before Jesus' feet? Would you say, Lord, I can't bear this. Lord, it's too much for me. The anger, the feelings, the guilt. We always feel guilty, most of us do, when we lose someone we love. Because we always remember words we said and words we didn't say. That's a common human experience. Would you take the guilt that you feel and come into the sanctuary with me and put it at the feet of Jesus, and then would you believe with me? Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. Would you believe with me if we confess our sins? He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Won't you come to Him now? If you've never come before, won't you come now? And if you're a believer, but you've got this barrier, this roadblock, somebody said something to you, somebody hurt you, somebody wounded you, would you ask the Holy Ghost to remove that roadblock and would you just come into the presence of God and say, Lord, I've got blood on my hands, I've killed a man. I haven't been able to have real dealings with you for 40 years. Would you come into the presence of the Lord now? When you come in the sanctuary, just tell the Lord honestly, here it is. Cleanse me. Take it away. I want to tell you. Jesus said, All the Father gives me will come to me, and Him who comes to me, I will in no wise be cast out. Jesus will receive you. Lord, as we remember the beautiful life of this woman who was not only beautiful of face, but beautiful of heart. Lord, as we think and celebrate her wonderful life of service to you, and for those of us who knew her well, particularly your own family, Lord, intimately, the difficulty and pain that she went through the last two years, would you give us to remember that beyond all that, there is a faithful Savior who at the cost of his own blood has fully paid for all our sins, and he has welcomed her, and he will welcome us. Lord, comfort us with the Word of God. For Jesus' sake, Amen.