AT A BURIAL MEETING
(i) A TROPHY OF GRACE
Robert McClean
Galatians 2: 20; Ephesians 2: 4-10; Revelation 3: 12
One thing that can be said about our brother is that he was a trophy of divine grace. He knew it. He was conscious – he would have said it himself – that he was a rebel – but then who of us is not a rebel? – yet he came to know this One. It says, “but in that I now live in flesh, I live by faith”. He knew the Son of God, “the faith of the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”. Our brother knew the reality of that, “the faith of the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”. Oh! What a wonderful thing! What a wonderful triumph that we can gather here! It is a sober occasion; death is a sober thing. God would speak to us. In the presence of death God speaks. But then you may ask, What is He saying to me? He would say that this one had faith, “The faith of the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”.
In Ephesians, I was thinking of where it speaks of grace. It speaks of God’s great love – our brother knew the great love of God. What a change, a witness to us. There are those here who can witness to the change in our brother’s life when the Lord Jesus came into it. If you were to go into his house you would find, on the wall, in every room texts and there are other things that would be the mark of one whose faith was in God. This chapter speaks of grace. I said of him that he was a trophy of divine grace. Oh! I trust that each one here is a trophy of divine grace. It says, “ye are saved by grace”. Then it says, “that he might display in the coming ages the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus” – I thought of that in relation to Revelation, the word to the overcomer in Philadelphia. Where we have read it is the Lord Jesus Himself dictating a letter to the apostle John to be sent to these assemblies, and He has this word to the overcomer. We are not here to eulogise our brother, he had his faults as we all do, but all that is past and in the coming ages, God is going to display, so he will be like a trophy. We might have our trophies and be very proud of them, but think of God’s trophies. What a great thing it is to be one of those trophies!
In Revelation chapter 3 it moves on beyond being a trophy even. This was the scripture that came to mind when I heard of our brother’s death – that he was an overcomer and that he would be a pillar, just as he was a trophy of divine grace, he would be “a pillar in the temple of my God”. This is the Lord speaking Himself. Our brother was often affected by the Lord’s words when He said, “I ascend to My Father and your Father, and to my God and your God” (John 20: 17) – the fact that the Lord brought us in and included us. Here the Lord speaks of “my God”, that is the portion that our brother will have. We see that he is in death now, but the Lord will raise him and then it says, “he shall go no more at all out” – to be in the presence of the Lord, as will everyone that trusts and loves Him. Then it goes on – think of the Lord, you may say, inscribing on that pillar, “the name of my God”. God is happy to have His Name inscribed on that pillar that will be our brother in that temple. “And the name of the city of my God”. Our brother liked that Psalm which speaks of Zion “This one and that one was born in her” (Ps 87: 5), that is the city of my God, “the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven, from my God, and my new name”. That would be the name of revelation of the Lord; it is what is new, not what is old, not what has gone before, it is what is new. Our brother had a link in his life with what is new. Even the fact that the Lord was pleased to take him on the Lord’s Day would connect him with the start of a new week, the eighth day it speaks of in some places, but here the Lord is inscribing these things. It is like a trophy that has the name of the person that won it written on – think of these names – the Person that won our brother’s soul for God. Think of God’s Name being inscribed on that pillar.
May we be encouraged by that. No doubt the Lord would speak to us and speak to our souls and ask us where we are. Will we, will you, will I be a pillar in His temple? He would raise the question with us, but there is no question in relation to our brother who is now with Him. May the Lord encourage us and bless His word.