Funeral Service of Pastor Willie Mullan - 26th December 1980

We're going to sing the first hymn on the sheet.

There's a lamb that is fairer than die by faith.

We can see it afar, for the Father waits over the way to

prepare us a dwelling place there.

There's a love the decearer than day, and by faith we.

Conceive the. Far for the father waits over

the way to prepare us a. Dwelling place there.

In the sweet I am by, we shall be on that beautiful show.

In the sweet I am high, we. Shall.

Be on that beautiful show. We shall.

Sing on the beautiful shore, love the Lord, Be a song of the

blessed and the spiritual song of the world.

Not the sight for the blessing of rest.

In the sweet by, by we shall meet on that beautiful shore.

In the sweet by, by we shall. Meet.

On that beautiful shore, who are bountiful Father of all, we will

offer the tribute of praise for the glory of skin of His love,

and the blessings that ha Lord has in the sweet.

By and by we shall be on that beautiful shore.

In. The sweet by and by.

We. Shall be on that beautiful

storm. That is bound prayer.

Our gracious God and Father, we bow very humbly this morning in

Thy presence, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Lord, we come before thy throne this morning with saddened

hearts. We ask thee, our gracious God,

that thou who art the God of all comfort, that Thou would comfort

each heart that mourns to die. We bless the Our Gracious God

that Thou art not only the God of all grace, but Thou art the

God of all comfort. And so we leave everything and

Thy gracious, tender, loving hands.

Amen. We thank the our Gracious God

that Thou art like a Father that pennies your children.

We bless the our gracious God that Thou was promised never to

leave us or forsake us. Does we bow today?

Lord, we realise that our ways are not thy ways and we realise

there are things in life that we cannot understand, but we bless

Thee, Thou will reveal them all and the glory land our gracious

God. Like one of old.

We would say, I would rather walk in the dark with God than

go alone in the light. I'd rather walk by faith with

Him than go alone by sight. And so, Lord, we can leave all,

and I care We remember the doubted sight of Peter so long,

long ago. What I do is know they know us

not, but Thou shalt know hereafter.

And we believe, Lord, the mysteries of life will be

unrolled to us and revealed to us and the other side.

And our gracious God there we shall know even as we are known.

We thank Thee for the memory of the one who is departed this

life. We bless thee for the work,

Lord, that thou allowed them to do in thy name.

We thank Thee for the day that would save him Yonder and Newton

Arms and bring them to yourself the way you've blessed them.

And Lord, we look back on almost over 50 years of fellowship

together as boys in the same town.

Lord and as preachers of the old fashioned gospel, Lord, we we we

bless thee for those memories and ask the our gracious God

that I would help us to keep through to thee and these dark

days. We we look to thee for thy

blessing. Lord remember Mary and the boys

and all the rest of them. We ask thee that all been near

them, and that will bless them and help help them Lord, at this

time, and and just granted that comfort thy need, that Thy will

comfort them with it at this time.

Shall Lord undertake and bless and help?

We pray and glorify your name through it all.

We beseech of Thee for Christ our Saviour's sake.

Amen. Amen.

Amen. Going to read the 103rd Psalm.

Psalm 103. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and

all that does within me. Bless his holy name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul. Forget not all his benefits.

Who forgiveth all thy iniquities, Healeth all thy

diseases? Who redeemeth thy life from

destruction? Crown of thee with loving

kindness and tender mercies. Satisfieth thy mouth with good

things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles.

The Lord executeth righteousness and judgement for all that are

oppressed. He made known as we as unto

Moses, and his acts unto the children of Israel.

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slew to anger and

plenteous and mercy. He will not always chide,

neither will he keep his anger forever.

He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us

according to our inequities. For as the heaven is high above

the earth, so great as His mercy toward them that fear Him, as

far as the East is from the West, so far hath He removed our

transgressions from us. Like as a father petteth his

children, so the Lord petteth them that fear Him, for He

knoweth our frame. He remembereth that we are dust

As for man, as deers are as grass.

As the flower of the flee feels, so he flourisheth, For the wind

passeth over it, and it is gone. The place thereof shall know it

no more. But the mercy of the Lord is

from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his

righteousness unto children's children.

And we know God well, for He always does honours and blesses

His own precious word. We're going to call upon our

brother, Mr William Weatherall to sing by special request of

our late departed brother Willie.

The storm is passing over. This was a particular favourite

of Pastor Mullins. Now, if you know the chorus,

will you please join in? Without music may be a wee bit

difficult. Angry way and the storm is

passing over. Hallelujah,

Hallelujah, Hallelujah. The storm is passing over

Hallelujah. Stars.

Disappear and distant lights grood in.

My soul is filled with fear. The seas are breaking in.

I hear the master cry. Be.

Not afraid, his eye and the storm will soon be over.

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, the storm will soon

be over. Hallelujah.

Now he has reached that distant shining shore.

Praise God. Free from all of the storms,

he'll rest forever more safe within the Vale beyond all

earthly Gale and the storm for him.

Is older. Hallelujah.

Praise God, Amen. We meet today in very sad

circumstances indeed and this for us is a tragic hour.

An eminent, honoured and much used servant of Christ.

Perhaps one of the most eminent and most honoured and most used

servant of Christ in this generation, has died in

mysterious and alarming circumstances.

Circumstances that have shaken us all and have cast a gloom

over all our province and over all parts of the world in which

our beloved brother's name and ministry was known as God's

servant. Today I must honestly face the

facts, and so must we all. We cannot run away from these

facts, but as God's people, thank God we can meet them with

the Bible in our hand. And this Bible has a message in

the darkest hour. It has a light in the most

difficult of circumstances, and it has sustaining promises in

the hour of our deepest need. I want first of all, to deal

with the human circumstances surrounding the death of our

beloved brother, and then I want to glean from the Scriptures

some lessons that God would have us learn at this solemn and

testing hour. Our beloved brother had been

passing during the past weeks through a period of deep

physical, mental, and spiritual turmoil.

Those of us who knew him knew about the effects of physical

sickness, A punished human freedom.

He had a stroke, and there were accumulating circumstances in

his body which were dangerous signals that our brother's

physical constitution was breaking up.

In fact, to two of his brethren he sat and wept and he said no

one knows how really sick I am. And a few days ago he had some

long conversation with Mr TF Thompson, TB Thompson of Garba,

and he talked about his need to have hospitalisation and to have

a period of complete rest. Those of us who knew our brother

knew that he didn't talk like that when he was at his usual

self. His buoyancy, his courage, his

joy, his zeal for the Lord were two prominent characteristics of

his life. But with those physical

disabilities, those dangerous signals that signified his

physical anguish, he had great mental and spiritual anguish as

well. He had a great fear of bodily

attack. That was why he always had his

loaded shotgun beside his bed. And that was why, no doubt, he

carried that gun to that little study the day of his passing.

I have been tremendously struck with a unique parallel between

the death of our beloved brother Willie and the death of a great

Servant of God in the past century, Q Miller, one of the

founding fathers of the Free Church of Scotland, the close

associate of Thomas Chalmers and of Robert Murray Mcsheehan and

the Bonner brothers. Humiler died in similar

circumstances to our beloved brother.

His health broke, and he died, like our brother, by a shot from

his own gun, discharged by his own hand.

Now, even although our brother's mind and health was reading, yet

in the bewildering hour through which he was passing, and the

horror of the terrible darkness which was descending upon his

spirit, his faith in his Saviour still held, and amidst the ruin

of his intellect, his tender heart for the Lord remained

unbroken. I have in my hand a very

precious document. It is a silent and eloquent

witness. To what I have just said, that

our brother's tender heart and faith in Christ was unshaken to

the very end. During the past weeks, our

brother has been dwelling upon Psalm 69.

I want to direct your attention to that, Sam.

It gives us a comment upon our departed brother's feelings, the

spiritual strains and stress that he was under.

And many of these stresses and strains came as a direct result

of his labour of love for the Lord and his commitment to God's

truth and service for Christ. This Psalm he told his sons that

he was dwelling on continually. Let me read some of its

tremendous verses. See of me, O God, for the waters

are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire where there

is no standing. I am come into deep waters where

the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying.

My throat is dried, mine eyes filled while I wait for my God.

They that hit me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine

head. They that would destroy me,

being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty.

Then I restored that which I took not away.

O God, thou knowest my fallaciousness, and my sins are

not hid from Thee. Let not them that we are in

Thee. O Lord God of hosts, be a shame

for my sake. Let not those that seek thee be

confounded for my sake, O God of Israel, because for thy sake I

am borne reproach. Shame hath covered my fears.

I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and of an alien unto

my mother's children. When I wept, and chasing my soul

with fasting, that was my reproach.

I made sackcloth also my garment, and I became a proverb

to them. They that sit in the gate speak

against me, and I was the song of the drunkards.

And that Sam goes on with these terrible words.

Deliver me out of the mire. Let let me not sink, let me be

delivered from them that hit me. And out of the deep waters.

Let not the water flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow

me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.

Hear me, O Lord, for thy loving kindness is good.

Turn unto me according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies,

and hide not thy fears from Thy servant.

And that was a verse he quoted so often to his two sons.

Hide not thy fears from Thy servant, for I am in trouble.

Deliver me speedily. And in this little card that he

carried about in his in a little book during his past days, he

made his last outline, an outline on Psalm 69.

The man, the mire, the midnight. And no one knows what the mire

was like for William L No one knows what that midnight was

like for Willy Mullen. The magnet, the moments, the

marks, the melody, and the mystery.

He being dead, brethren, yet speaketh.

And he speaketh today to all our hearts.

Just for a few minutes, as I meditated upon our brother's

passing, the Lord brought to my mind those verses that Jim has

read for us. Like as a father pitieth his

children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.

He knoweth our freedom. He remembers us that we are

thus. There are three things that I

want to draw your attention to in that great and wonderful

promise. First of all, there's the Lord's

mercy. Let's get our feet firm on this

rock granite today, like as a father pity of his children, so

the Lord piteous them that fear him, the Lord's mercy, them that

fear him. The fear of the Lord is the

beginning of wisdom. And one day on that field

outside Newton Ards, having listened to Doctor Tucker

preaching upon the great day of God's rocks, Willie Mellon, by

the grace of God, began to fear the Lord.

And God did a work of triumphant, sovereign, eternal

grace in his heart. But he was born again for all

eternity. God saved him by the precious

blood of the Lamb. And let me say today, amidst the

darkness and the mystery that God's mercy is from everlasting

to everlasting upon all of those that fear him.

We have not only God's mercy in this text, but thank God, we

have God's mind in this text. He knoweth our freedom.

God knows our freedom because he himself framed us.

He made the body this mysterious bit of flesh and blood.

God formed it. But there's something that man

cannot understand, and that's the spiritual part of man's

being. The doctor with the body and the

slab can dissect the briam, but he cannot understand the mind.

That's beyond human dissection. And let me say today we thank

God that God's mind is. He knows our freedom.

Oh God, thou dost know how frail I am.

God knows the frailty of the human freedom, and then we of

God's memory, He remembereth that we are dust.

There are things today that God doesn't remember.

Thank God He doesn't remember our sins, for they're cleansed

away in the blood of the Lamb forevermore.

Out of the memory of God are the sins of God's redeemed people,

but he remembers that we are but dust and all we could dwell

today upon the mercy of God. It's unfeeling, it's

unclimbable. The foot of man has never stood

on the summit of the everlasting hills of God's mercy.

The mercy of God is unreachable and unclaimable.

I believe in mercy higher than the heavens today, thank God.

The mercy of God is unfathomable.

There's not a Plumb line a man's making or imagination can

measure the infinite depths of the mercy of God.

And thank God, today the mercies of God are inexhaustible.

And in that little study, in the darkness, in the tragedy, in the

sorrow and in the mystery, there was one thing that still was

there. It was the mercy of Almighty

God. Mercies that cannot feel.

No circumstances condemn them, no power of hell can quench

them, no force of the devil can overthrow them.

They stand triumphant in every circumstance.

The mercy of Almighty God. And today, as a father pity of

his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.

He knoweth our friend. He knew our brother's friend,

and he remembered that he was only dust.

There are some lessons that we need to learn today.

We need to learn this lesson that the best of man at their

best are only men at the best. You know, sometimes God's people

commit a terrible sin and they think that God's servants are

Superman. They think that they have some

sort of distinguishing gifts that raise them above the

temptations and the trials and the distresses and the

disappointments of their ordinary fellow human beings.

God had only one son and He made him a minister, and when He made

him a minister, He sent them down to this earth to be

attempted at all points like as we are, yet without sin.

And let me tell you today that every man, the most honoured,

the most anointed, the most used, there's only a man of the

best. And the scriptures teachers that

what of old father Abraham, what a man he was a man that

staggered not that the promises of God through unbelief, but was

strong in faith giving glory to God.

But we read abide us failures and God doesn't cover them up.

God records them so that if we may take warning and not only

take warning but be encouraged as we read of these great men of

God. I was thinking today of one of

the greatest of them all, the prophet of fire, Elijah, the man

that confronted Ahab, the man that confounded the prophets of

Beal, the man that challenged the nation.

And then he ran away from Jezebel.

He lay down under the tree and he said, Lord, let me die.

Lord, let me die commenting on that.

The Holy Ghost said he was a man subject to light passions as we

are, so I could go on. What of the mighty Samson

himself Yonder, standing in the cathedral of the Philistines,

the shrine of their worship? And he was prepared to take his

own life in order that the lives of the enemies of God might come

to an end. But when we turn to the New

Testament, there are steps out in the great chapter of faith.

That man Samson. Many people would have judged

him in his day, but when the chapter was finally written, he

stands vindicated by the God of heaven.

Brethren, let's learn the lesson.

And if ever you need to pray for God's servants, you need to pray

for them today. They're in the front line of the

battle. They're meeting an onslaught

that you know nothing about. There is one thing about every

preacher, and it's this, that he walks a lonely path.

There are paths that no one can accompany him along, and there's

experiences that he must endure alone.

Let us ever remember that. The second lesson we need to

learn today. It's not what a man does before

he's converted. It's not what a man does after

he's converted that has anything to do with the salvation.

That salvation is in Christ and of Christ alone, and we need to

emphasise that today. We need to get our feet on the

solid granite of the Lord. The Lord is our salvation.

He doesn't change. No pellets from a shotgun can

wipe out eternal life. That's in the soul of a man

that's redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.

Brethren, these are practical truths that we need to emphasise

today. I give unto my sheep eternal

life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man

pluck them out of my Father's hand.

We need to learn today that grace is a free, undeserved,

unmerited fever of God. And if I'm ever going to get to

heaven, it will be on free grace alone.

And there was no man preached that truth and revelled in that

truth more than our brother Willie Mullen.

I remember him saying many times in my pulpit, how many sins did

the Lord atone for? And they didn't atone for them.

All that of a lost soul. But thank God alone that we're

all future. When Jesus died, he atoned for

every one of them. But he used to say, remember

this as a family text. The Lord has laid on him the

iniquity of us all. All our iniquities were laid on

Jesus. Let's learn that truth today.

Let's learn today that we're not see it by works before or after

conversion. Many people would say, you're

right. We're not see it by works before

it. But then, having begun in the

Spirit, they would try to perfect themselves in the flesh.

But today we are seeing by the free, undeserved, unmerited

grace of God alone. That's the granite on which we

stand. That's the impregnable rock of

holy ages, the rock Christ Jesus upon which we build.

Then let us learn finally this great truth that God's purposes

and ways are not known to man, that God works out His own will

after the counsel of His old heart, that He's absolutely

sovereign in all His workings. None can stay his hand or say to

him, what do us now that He's the God who works his own way

after His own counsel. And one day when it's all

finished, we poor frail mortals of the dust shall learn in the

Chronicles of God's eternal purpose how God planned it all.

Our brother had a favourite hymn.

It was a hymn of Richard Baxter. I want to read you a few verses

of it. It was a great blessing to him

in these past few days. He used to read it to his sons.

Lord, it belongs not to my care whither I die or live.

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

give. If life belong.

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 than he went through before.

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

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

see. But 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. And brethren, that is the

message that I would like to leave with you.

There is one portion of Scripture.

And when I heard of my dear brother's passing, this verse of

Scripture arose with great power in my soul.

And I want just to finish today by reading these few words of

Scripture to you. They are, of course, the lament

of David over Jonathan, and what a lament they are.

And as I thought about our brother's passing, I thought how

appropriate these words were to all our anguish and to all our

grief, because nothing has gone into our soul like the death of

our dear brother. Tell it not in Gaths.

Publish it not in the streets of the Philistines, lest the

daughters. Tell it not in the streets of

Ascalon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest

the daughters of the uncircumcised triumphs.

Ye mountains of Gulpoa, let there be no Jew, neither let

there be rein upon you, nor fields of offerings.

For there the shield of the mighty is vilely castaway, the

shield of soul, as though we had not been anointed with oil from

the blood of the slave, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of

Jonathan. Turn not back, and the sword of

Saul returned, not empty. Saul and Jonathan were lovely

and pleasant in their lives and their in their death.

They were not divided. They were swifter than eagles.

They were stronger than lions. Ye daughters of Israel, we were

Saul, who clothed you in scarlet with other delights, who put on

ornaments of gold upon your apparel.

How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle?

Oh, Jonathan, thou was slain in thy high places.

I am depressed for thee, my brother Jonathan.

Very pleasant hast thou been to me.

Thy love to me was wonderful. Passing the love of woman.

How are the mighty fallen and the weapons?

A war perished, if there be any here today.

And you know not the Lord Jesus Christ could I say to you today,

you need them. You need them in time, you need

them in death, you need them at the judgement bar.

You need them for all eternity. Soon the place that knows you

will know you no more forever. We are going down the valley 1

by 1 with our faces toward the setting of the sun.

Dear unsaved one, dear christless one, dear

unregenerate one, this day come to Christ, close with the

Saviour. Call upon his name.

Thank God, He will save you. Hallelujah, He will save you.

Now. May God give us all grace, and

whatever our need may meet it in the inexhaustible treasures of

that mighty grief. We're going to sing a very

appropriate hymn. Her brother Donnie found this

hymn. That's number written in a

little note that our brother left.

And I know that this sums up the desire and the joy and the goal

of our brother Willie. When my life's work is ended and

I cross the swelling tide. Amen.

Where my life's? Work is ended and.

I cross the swelling. When the right and Lord this

morning I shall see, I shall know my Redeemer.

When I reach the other side, and his smile will be first to

welcome me, I shall know Him. I shall know Him.

I'd still redeem by his side. I shall stand, I shall know him.

I shall know him by the print of the nails in his hand.

Oh the soul thrilling rapture when I view his blessed face,

and the lustre of his kindly beaming on all my full.

Heart will. Praise Him for His mercy, love

and grace that prepares for me a mansion in the sky.

I shall know Him. I shall know Him.

I should retain by His heart. I shall stand.

I shall know Him. I shall know Him by the fruit of

the nails in His hand. Oh, the dear ones in glory are

they beckon me to come, and are parting at the river, I recall.

To the sweet veils of Eden I shall sing my welcome.

O but I long to me, my Saviour, first of all I shall know Him, I

shall know Him, I shall retain by his heart.

I shall stand, I shall know Him. I shall know him by the print of

the nails in his heart. Throw the cakes of that city in

a rope. Of spotless light.

He will lead me where no tears shall ever fall.

In the clouds of. Ages, I shall mingle with thee

light, but I long to meet my thy Saviour first of all.

I shall know him, I shall know him, I sweetened by his heart.

I shall stand, I shall know him. I shall know him by the print of

the nails in his heart. Oh, that will.

Be glory for me, glory for me, glory for me.

Oh, and by his grace I shall look on his face.

That will be glory. Be glory for me.

Father in Heaven, we thank Thee for thy presence, the presence

of God day that has brought comfort and help and assurance

and healing to our hearts. We thank Thee today that God is

a God that pityeth his children, that he pity of all of those

that fear Him. He's our Father.

Thank God we have seen thy mercy in the book, we have seen thy

mind in the book, and we have seen thy memory in the book.

And our hearts are refreshed. Our souls are blessed, we can go

out and face the future knowing that it is well with our brother

and bless God it is well with my soul.

Bless our sister Miri. Put your loving arms around her.

Help her to hear the still small voice.

Help her to know the touch of the neo pierced hand.

Bless Donnie and Michael here in your presence.

Thank God they're your children. Thank God they know their

father's God and they love their mother's saviour.

And we thank thee that they're not on their way up Science

Hill. Bless their dear wives.

Bless the little ones today, the grandchildren.

And oh God, we thank thee that blessed are the dead that die of

the Lord. Yes, have this, for they rest

for their livers and their works to follow them.

We thank Thee for the great multitude of sea of man and

woman that came to Christ through the ministry of our

brother. He that with us souls is wise,

and our brother was wise in the winning of souls.

And those that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the

stars forever and ever. And bless God, there's a shining

star in the firmament of heaven today, a brother that's gone in

to see the King and his beauty. And the trumpets have sounded on

the other side. Lord bless us as we leave her

here below. Keep us fearful, keep us strong,

keep us true until the day comes when we cross the river.

Friends, I am there that I have loved long ago.

And we think of our brother today and countless more that

are in the glory land. We're going to meet them again

in this sweet pie and pie. We'll see them.

But best of all, we'll see Jesus and sing and shout the victory.

As we travel to the burying ground, go with us and around

the grave give us a word to men and women.

We pray and grant that this day God's signal, blessing and

divine benediction may be upon us and upon the people of God.

O spread thy covering wings around till all our wandering

seat. Then at our fathers plestable,

we'll all arrive in peace. And now unto Him who is able to

keep you from falling, and to present you without a flaw

before the glory of His presence, with exceeding joy, to

the only wise God, our Saviour, the glory, majesty, dominion,

and power, now and forevermore. And the people of God sent and

shouted Hallelujah, Amen and Amen.