Pastor Willie Mullan Burial Service - 26th December 1980

I looked unglowed from countless cross a healing fountain

streams. It cleansed my.

Heart and now I sing. Praise God, I am breathing.

Forever. And when I reach that light,

more blood. That more don't ever be.

I cast my blood. I keep your speed.

I am redeem. I am redeem, I am redeem.

I stay in for I am. Oh, praise the.

Lord, let us bound prayer, our gracious eternal Father, as we

bow again in Thy holy presence. We thank Thee from the depths of

our hearts that we can sing. I am redeemed.

We bless Thee for the blood that has cleansed us, the blood that

has redeemed us and made us thine.

And we thank Thee, our God today, that the blood shall

never lose its power till all the ransomed of Church of God be

saved to send them more. O Lord, we thank Thee for all

that Thou has done for us and all that Thou dost mean to us.

And as we start the day at this open grey of Lord, we pray that

Thou would help us to number our dears and apply our hearts to

wisdom and grant our God that we who are thine that we may live

for Thy glory, that we may live close to Thee as the dears.

Goodbye, grant our gracious God, at the end of life we may hear

thee say, Well done, good and faithful servant.

Remember those who'll stand around this grave today, who

know not Jesus Christ as their Saviour or God.

Help them to realise that life will end someday and grant our

Father God that they may make that great choice of Christ

before that moment arrives, that they may know that they're in

the glory As we stand around this open grave.

Lord, we thank Thee for the memories of the One who's gone.

Lord, for over 50 years we have known and walked and played with

them and preached with them down through the years.

Lord, we pray that I would just help at this time.

You know all about it. You know just the things that

are in our minds. You know the sadness that

they're in our hearts. But Lord, we leave all with

Thee. We know that Thou art the God

who knows the best, and your ways are not our ways.

We do pray for those who mourn. We realise our gracious God for

that we woman Yonder and Lurgan to die.

We know our hearts broke so hard, Lord, but we thank Thee.

Thou art still the God who can comfort, and we pray thou will

draw near and pour in the oil and wine.

Thou will be very nearer. Lord, thou hast promised to be a

husband to the widow and the father to the fatherless.

Lord, you'll keep your word. We know you well.

You never break it. Rest Donald and Michael.

Thank thee for them for thine. Praise thee our God, for the

stand lift took. Bless all the family circle we

leave them all, and I care shall Lord undertake and help as we

stand at this grave. Bless our friend as he speaks to

us. Grant our gracious God that

again we may feel the presence of the Lord, and that the voice

of God may be heard at this open grave for Jesus Christ our

Saviour's sake. Amen.

Man, if you want to put on your hearts, it's quite all right,

it's cold. We'll have no dishonour to the

Word of God. If you feel the cold, just put

your heart on you. Understand, we're reading some

verses from the Epistle to the Corinthians, the first letter in

chapter 15. Moreover, brethren, I declare

unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye

have received, and wherein you stand, by which also ye are

saved, if you keep in memory what I have preached unto you,

unless you have believed in vain.

For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I

received. How?

That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day

according to the Scriptures. For since by man came death, by

man came also the resurrection of the dead.

For as an Adam all die, Even so in Christ shall all be made

alive, every man in his own order.

Christ the first fruits, afterward they that are Christ

that is coming, then cometh the end.

He shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God, even the Father,

when he shall have put down all all rule and all authority.

For he must dream till he has put all enemies on the respite.

The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we

shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of a

nigh the last trump for the trumpet shall sound, the dead

shall be raised incorruptible, we shall be changed.

For this corruptible must put on in corruption.

This mortal must put on immortality.

So when this corruptible shall have put on in corruption, this

mortal shall have put on immortality.

Then shall have brought the pastor, saying, It is written,

Death is swallowed up in victory.

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

The sting of death is sin. The strength of sin is the law.

But thanks be unto God, which giveth us the victory through

our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren,

be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the

Lord. For as much as you know that

your labour is not in vain, in the Lord, we know the Lord well

bless his own precious work. Just before I come to the

preaching of God's Word today, I'd like to preface my remarks

with some remarks I made outside our brother's home in the town

of Lurgan this morning. I feel there may be those here

who were not present with us this morning, and I think

perhaps these words will be words of help, words of comfort,

and certainly words of testimony from God's precious and holy

book. We're met here, and very sad,

and in very testing and in very tragic circumstances.

An eminent, honoured, and much years servant of the Lord,

Perhaps the most eminent and honoured and most years servant

of the Lord in our generation has died, and the circumstances

of his death are both to us mysterious and alarming.

His passing has thrown over us all a deep blanket of gloom, not

only in this province but everywhere else throughout the

world. For His name was known and His

ministry was witnessed. Now, as God's people, we dare

not and cannot run away from this issue.

Thank God we don't need to run away.

We have got God's book. It's a lamp to our feet and a

light to our way. Our feet may be walking in

places they have never stepped before, and our way may be

trying, more trying than we've ever been called to tread

before, but nevertheless, the light of God's Word, brethren

and sisters, still shines. And it doesn't shine dimly.

It shines more and more unto the perfect day.

Our beloved brother Willie had been passing through deep

physical sickness, in fact, to two of his brethren, he

confessed just a few days ago. As he sat with them and wept, he

said, I am very sick, more sick than anyone can understand.

He had suffered from a stroke and also there were accumulating

circumstances which put up danger signals that physically

our brother's constitution was beginning to break up.

But added to those physical complaints that he had, there

was deep mental stream, a stream that came directly from his work

and labour of love for Christ. The man of God is often

misunderstood, he's more often misrepresented and he has to

walk a very lonely and difficult pathway.

And our brother was walking that lonely and difficult pathway.

Added to that, he had a great fear upon him that he was in

danger of bodily attack. That was why he kept a looted

shotgun beside his bed, and that was a fact.

No doubt that that gun was with him in the study at the time of

his passing. I have been tremendously struck

in the last days with the great similarity between the death of

our beloved brother and the death of one of the most eminent

of God's workers and Saints in Scotland in the last generation.

I refer to Hugh Miller, the great Scottish layman, the

friend of Thomas Chalmers, the associate of Robert Murray

Mcsheehan and the Bonner brothers.

And Hugh Miller died by a shot from his own gun, which was let

off by his own hand, in similar circumstances to our brother's

passing now, even although our brother's mind and our brother's

nerves were at stream, even although his reason reeled under

those bewildering circumstances through which he passed.

And the dark shadow that was coming down upon his life, Yet

amidst that ruin of mind and of body, there was still kept

intact his tender heart and his love for the Lord remained

unbroken. When you go home from this

service, take down your Bible and read the 69th Psalm.

For weeks, Willie Mullen was living in that Sam.

It is a terrible Sam, A Psalm of the mire, a Psalm of

overwhelming waters, a Psalm of the pit opening her mouth, a

Psalm of bitter misrepresentation, of physical

failure and failure of mind and soul.

And the last outline that Willie Mullen ever meet was upon that

Sam. I hold it in my hand today, and

he speaks about the man. And Willie was that man in deep

waters, standing in a place where his feet could not find a

place to stand. The mire, the midnight, And what

a dark midnight it was for him. Then there came the moments, and

then there came the magnet. But at the end there came the

mystery and the melody. And today we can say sunrise has

come for Willie Mullen, and the shadows of all fled away.

Brethren, the word of God says the last enemy that shall be

destroyed is death. And over in the book of Jeremiah

there is a word of the prophet, a word of judgement.

And the prophet says, this year thou shalt die.

The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death, and this

year thou shalt die. I want to dwell on those words

for a moment or two. Death firstly defined, it is an

enemy. Death further described, it's

the last enemy. Death finally destroyed.

Thank God it will be destroyed. And standing on the verge of

this grave we say and triumph. Old death, where is thy sting?

Old grave, where is thy victory? The sting has been removed by

the neo pierced hand of Christ and the victory of the tomb has

been eternally smashed in the glorious resurrection of the

Saviour. And because he lives, we shall

live also. And then we update.

Death faithfully declared this year.

Thou shalt die. Death firstly defied.

It's an enemy, not a man standing around.

This grieve today doesn't know that death's an enemy.

We know that death's an enemy. Some of us here have lost a very

dear friend, one whom we love, one who we were close with, one

we knelt in prayer with, one around whose shoulders we often

put her arm, and had sweet and blessed fellowship together.

Deaths an enemy, It has robbed us of a friend.

Beloved, there are two men standing here, and they know

that deaths an enemy. For death has taken their dear

father from them, robbed them of a dear man of God, a father who

prayed for them, who instructed them in the things of God, and

who saw them led to Christ, to the place of pardon and peace.

And they know that death is an enemy.

There's a dear we mother down there in Windsor Ave today, our

sister Mary Mullen, and she knows that death's an enemy.

There's a vacant chair. Her beloved partner, her dear

one, will never sit in that chair again.

Why? Because death is an enemy.

Yes, in the town of Lurgan knows that death is an enemy.

A man that was at the back and call of suffering, sorrowing and

disheartened and depressed people that all hours of the day

and night got in touch with them for help, comfort, solace and

encouragement. He's no longer there.

An enemy has a peanut work. An enemy have done this and he's

gone. And what shall I say of the

whole Church of Jesus Christ, From many, many places, from

many denominations, from all sections of the commute

Christian community, There goes up a groan.

Today to heaven. We have lost a brother, beloved,

his vacancy in the pulpit. His vacancy on the Gospel

platform, his vacancy among God's people.

We know an enemy has done this. And what is more, our dear

brother Willie knew that death was an enemy.

And the closing moments of his life, when the dark shadows came

down, when the door was shut, That it's not for us to open and

will only be explained to us when we see face to face.

For now, we see through a glass darkly.

But Willie knew that death was an enemy.

Death is an enemy. It's an intruder.

When the world was me and there was no death.

Death is the first born of sin by one man.

Sin entered into the world and death by sin.

And so death passed upon all man, for that all have sinned.

But I want to tell you, dear unseen one, that death is a

terrible enemy for you. For some of us.

We know that that enemy has been dealt with.

We know that we'll never cross Jordan alone.

We know that will not fierce the king of terrors and the terror

of kings in a row. But when death comes, it'll be a

real enemy for you. It's going to rob you of your

opportunity ever to be seen. And that's the greatest

opportunity a man can have. Not for pleasure, not for

riches, not for placings among society, but the opportunity to

hear the gospel, the opportunity to hear the sweet message of

God's love, the message of the bleeding Saviour, the substitute

Son of God, the way of salvation through faith.

By Greus alone that opportunity will be gone.

Be Tulia to preach over your grieam, friend, Tulia to pray

for you when the shrouds on the corpse.

Tell me, if this was your grieam, would it be a crisis

green? Would it be a crisis corpse in a

crisis round and your soul in a crisis hell?

Face it today, friend. Death is an enemy that's going

to take from you your own soul. What shall a man give in

exchange for a soul? But the text has death further

described. Blessed God, even in this word

there's a word of hope for us. It's the last enemy.

Now we all have to fierce enemies down here and we have

many battles to fight. We have to fight enemies of the

body, enemies of the mind, enemies of the soul.

We all of our sadness, we all know what it is to pull down the

blinds, to wear the black clothes or mourning to weep over

our loved ones. We all have to fight life's

battles. But one day there's going to be

the final battle, the last enemy.

We breathe 17,000 breaths a day, but we'll only breathe, thank

God. One last breath, we're going to

meet the last enemy. But I'm and I glad today that

there was one who met that enemy.

The one who came from heaven's glory towards him, The one who

was rich, yet for our sakes became poor.

The one who came from God's throne to the Manger to be among

the cattle the Word made flesh, and the one who walked to

Calvary, and the one who died upon that cross for you and me

see from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow

mingled down, That ere such lovers sorrows meet, or thorns

compose. So Richard cried.

He met the last enemy. Death finally destroyed.

The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

Death has had its celebration over our brother's body, but the

final celebration will be over the corpse of death itself.

One day this coffin lid will split.

One day this griev will give up. It's these earthly remains.

One day on the lip of this griev, the redeemed body of

Willy Mellon, united to its glorified spirit, Shall arise up

when the trumpet sounds, and we shall all be changed at the

twinkling of an eye at the last trump, when the dead in Christ

shall rise 1st. And we that are alive and

revealed shall be caught up together with them in the clouds

to meet the Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the

Lord. Thank God there's a voice that's

going to say give forth, and this grieve shall give forth,

and this body shall come forth, and they'll not be a mark upon

it. Amen.

Praise God, it'll be a redeemed body.

May it like unto the Lord's most glorious body, brethren, while

there is mourning. And when they carried Stephen to

that grieve, there was great lamentation.

But praise God, there's joy today we sorrow not even as

those who have no hope for if we believe Jesus died and rose

again, those also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

Our brother had a favourite hymn.

It's an old hymn. It's not on your sheet and was

written by Richard Baxter, the Puritan and the prisoner in

those days of severe punishment. And they read this often in the

last days He was upon this earth.

He called his Son's attention to it.

Christ leads me through no darker rooms.

Just let me get these specks up, Lord.

It belongs not to my care whether I live or die.

To love and serve Thee is my share, and this Thy grace must

give. If life be long, I will be glad

that I may long obey. If short yet, why should I be

sad to welcome endless day? Christ leads me through no

darker rooms that he went through before.

He that enter God's Kingdom comes, must enter by this door.

Come Lord, when grace hath made me meet Thy blessed, blessed

feast to see. For if thy work on earth be

sweet, what will thy glory be? My knowledge of that life is

small, the eye of fear is dim, but tis enough that Christ knows

all, and I shall be with him, with him.

Amen. The last enemy that shall be

destroyed is death. Death finally destroyed.

Death fearfully declared this year thou shalt die.

There's not a man here knows who next will pass this way.

It could be the preacher, it could be some hearer standing in

the crowd today. Tell me, how is it with your

soul? You know that verse came to me

as I thought upon our brother's passing the word of the

Prophet's servant to a poor stricken woman.

She had laid the dead body of her child on the Prophet's bed.

Her hope was gone. The light of life was

extinguished. And the old prophet said, Is it

well with the child? And she answered it as well.

The only thing that's worthwhile is to no friend.

It's well with your soul. And there was one thing that

Willie would want me to do today and that would be invite sinners

to the cross, to invite man and woman around this open air

graveside to come to the Lord Jesus Christ and receive Him as

their own and personal Saviour. The Lord is here.

He's here in a peculiar manner. We are privileged to stand here.

This is an historic occasion in the history of God's work in

Northern Ireland. Friend, you're here not seeing.

Meet Christ today. Go from this grave side with

everlasting life burning within your soul.

He that half the sun, half life, and that's what you need today.

It's not a church or a sacrament.

It's Christ and Christ alone. God grant today you'll close

with him. Just come to him now the gospel

invitation. How wonderful it is him that

cometh unto me. I will in no wise cast out.

What a take end Mr Nicholson used to say.

You got many takes in and life but what a take in this has to

be taken into Jesus. May God help man and woman to be

taken in to Christ. Brother Willie, we're not saying

good night goodbye, we're only saying good night.

We're going to meet you in the morning.

You love the Saviour and a little field not far from here,

After hearing the word of God under Brother Tucker, you fled

for refuge and you laid hold on eternal life and you were born

again. You loved the Lord, you loved

His book, and you loved His people.

You preached the gospel faithfully.

You prayed with earnestness. You were a shepherd to the

flock. We will no longer join you

behind the shafts of the gospel blind you've gone to your

reward, but we'll meet you. And our last word is today.

We praise God for you, and tomorrow we'll praise God with

you. Amen and Amen.

Friends, I would like you to sing just now the glory song.

I want you to sing it for my dad, and I want you to sing it

for dawn. I want you to sing it for me,

and I want you to sing it for my mother.

The glory song. Glory, Glory.

Hallelujah. When all my.

Labourers and trials. Are old and I am safe on that.

Guilty. Bullshore just to.

Be near the dear Lord, I are told.

Oh well, through. The ages be glory for me, all

that will be glory for me, glory for me, glory for me.

When by His grace I shall lurk on His face, that will be glory,

may glory oh me. Oh, and I like it.

Office in my. Night.

Grace I am accorded in heaven and a place just to be a right

to look on his face. Who will throw.

Today is the glory for me. All that will be glory for me.

I believe it. Glory for me, glory for me.

When by His race I shall look on His face, that will be glory.

Glory or me. Friends will be there.

I. Have a lot long.

Ago joy like a river and love me will flow from my spavour in all

oil through the ages, be glory for me.

All. That will be glory for day,

glory for day, glory. By his grace I shall.

Look on. His face, that will be glory.

Just before we pray on behalf of the Mullen family, Missus Mullen

and Donnie and Michael and their wives, the little ones, the

grandchildren, I'd like to say for them and in their name, a

very warm and sincere thank you to the great warmth of love and

friendship and help and Christian Greece that has been

imparted to them through the people of God.

At this time, we'd like to say thank you in their name to you

and we'd like to especially thank the members of the Royal

Ulster Constabulary who did such a special job today and getting

all the funeral cars through all the intersections in the city

and right through to Newton Ards.

I thought it was a fine tribute to a great man of God.

And, you know, I remember Willie saying to me after I was seeing

James Mae Kendrick came to Newton Arge for a mission.

And he said, I got friendly with the preacher.

And one day I was walking down the street and he said James

Mackendrick stopped. And he said, Willie, of all this

crowd walking along the pavements of Newton Arge knew

who we were. They'd be taking off their hats.

And Willie said, I looked at them and I said, Sir, they might

take their hats off to you, but certainly not to an old trump

like me. And the great man of God put his

hand on his shoulder, and he said, Will he now?

Are we the sons of God? And it doth not yet appear what

we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall

be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

And you know I smiled today as I saw those policemen salute the

cartage, the man that was once a down and out Sinner sea of by

Greece. Even the authorities of the land

paid them a high respect today. And for this we are grateful to

everyone, to the funeral undertaker and to all who did

their job. We say thank you in the Saviour

name. Your work and labour of love

will not go on rewarded. Let us pray.

Father in Heaven, we thank Thee that we have had thy blessed

presence with us over these past days and especially at these

services. We thank thee for wisdom.

We thank Thee for help. We thank thee for grace.

And today, Lord, as we're going away, we're not going away sad

but glad. We're not going away in a gloom.

We're going away with a glimpse of glory in our souls.

Our brother has gone in to see the King in his beauty.

He has reached the land of far distances, and Yonder he stands

in a robe of white, praising his Lord.

Lord, he won souls for thee down here.

He was wise in the winning of souls.

And now it's said that those that turn many to righteousness

shall shine as the stars forever and ever.

And we thank thee that no pellets from a shotgun can

extinguish that star. It'll shine forever in the Milky

Way of heaven because he had everlasting life.

We bless thee for the triumph of grace in the life of Willy

Mullen. And we bless thee that grace

were sin abounded. Grace did super abound and we

sought and it was the work of God indeed.

Bless our sister Mary today. Put your arms around her.

Whisper sweet peace to her heart.

We thank thee for Donnie and Michael, for the grace of

God-given to them. We thank thee that today they

know their mother's Saviour and they know their father's God,

and they're walking with the Lord.

Bless their dear wives and their little ones.

Be with them especially, and bless our dear province.

Send to us more gospel preachers like Willie Mullen.

Send us more men of God like this dear servant.

Send us more mightily used servants of the Saviour, and

grant those of us who are left to keep our handles to the

plough. May we not look back, but may we

plough a straight furrow and keep right on to the end,

fighting the good fight, enduring the cross, despising

the shame. And now may thy grace and Thy

mercy and Thy peace be with us all today, tonight, and

tomorrow, until the day breaks and the shadows all flee away,

and the people of God said Amen, unshorted, Hallelujah, Amen.