My first wife, Shirley, died on November 2, 2018, after battling cancer for several years. My wife, Vickie, and I were married on August 22, 2020. Shirley had admonished me to re-marry all through her bout with cancer, and the Lord led me to the wonderful wife i now have and love so dearly.

The message here is what Shirley had told me she wanted said at her funeral. I hope it will be a blessing to you.

Shirley Huntley Hughes Funeral Service: November 6, 2018

Tabernacle Baptist Church, Greenville, SC
[Message preached by Richard Hughes (her husband)]

I want to thank you for being here this morning, and I want to thank the Lord for my wife. I cannot tell you how much she loved her family and how proud she was of all of them. You know, if you had her for any of her classes, that she loved her students, as well. And, she loved the Lord.

We, over the time of her cancer, we talked about many things; and, we spoke about this service quite a few times. If we were to get in everything that she had said that she wanted us to do at one time or another, the church would be serving supper by the time we finished. However, she did tell me what I was supposed to say. So, I told her I would do my best.

This is Shirley’s admonition, her last pieces of advice. And, I think she was especially trying to drill the last of these items into my head one more time. They are four little things: (1.) Love God, (2.) Love the Bible, (3.) Love People, and (4.) Learn to Listen.

You may ask, Preacher, why should we love God? Should we love Him because He made us? Should we love God because of the comforts we have or because of the country we live in?

Well, the Bible answers that question: Why do we love God? We love him because He first loved us.

We are speaking about His Salvation, His Son, Jesus Christ. We are talking about the blood Christ shed at Calvary. We are declaring the forgiveness of our sins. We are focusing on the resurrection of the dead. Because God first loved us, we can anticipate enjoying an eternity with God, without sin and without our old nature to battle. It is all because He first loved us.

First John 5:1 states: Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. You remember what the Lord said to Nicodemus, Ye must be born again (John 3:7). I have heard all kinds of discussions about that statement. Different folk, friends and family -- many outside of family, even outside the church -- but the simple answer is this: somewhere in your life you have to become obedient to the Spirit of God and understand that you are the lost sinner and that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour.

John 3:15 states, Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. In so doing, the Apostle John answers something that we read in the book of Acts. It regards the day of Pentecost and the folks coming to Christ. At the very last of the second chapter of Acts, we read the following words: ...such as should be saved (Acts 2:47). Who should be saved? How do you interpret that

statement? As John has already declared: Whosoever believeth in Him should be saved!

You are not going to picture the following from John in Revelation 5: there is the Lord on the throne, God the Father. He has a book in His hand. The four and twenty elders are seated before Him, and the four creatures are crying, Hallelujah! The angels begin to sing. The church is present. They begin to sing, Worthy is the Lamb! The Lamb himself steps forward -- and some voice in the background is heard saying, What right do you have? No, that is not going to happen! That is not going to happen!

Every person there must first come to a love and to an appreciation of Jesus Christ before they arrive in Glory. And so, what Jesus declared comes into play: Whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness (John 12:46). We who are saved from God's wrath, and all who shall be saved as we were, will know what right the Lord Jesus Christ will have to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing.

I am so thankful that, because of simple faith in Jesus Christ, there is a connection to the second thing Shirley said, Love the Bible, Love the Word of God.

Romans repeats this statement twice: Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed (Romans 9:33; 10:11). You read what the Lord says about the White Throne judgement and what those who stand in judgment, even religious men, declare. They will say, Have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? (Matthew 7:22). Yet, they are standing in shame before the Lord. It is not what we have done: it is what He has done!

But, if you put simple faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you will not be ashamed when you see Him. So, we are to love God; and, we are to love the Bible. Faith cometh by hearing (that is saving faith, now) -- saving faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. That is hearing with the heart.

This is the faith once delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3). It is the faith for which we who have trusted in Christ contend. It is the faith of God described in Romans chapter 3 (verses 3 and 21-26). And, it is interesting to me that the Bible points out that this faith is God’s righteous.

How do I know God is righteous? You might think, Because God is God, that’s why.

NO! NO! NO! That is not why God is righteous, because God is God. God is righteous because God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). God did something to prove His righteousness!

As a matter of fact, in that same chapter (Romans 3), the faith of God is also called the faith of Jesus Christ (Romans 3:22). They (God the Father and God the

Son) are in agreement with how we get saved, how to save man. Though all have sinned, all may be made righteous, justified freely, by God’s grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Calvary is Christ’s righteousness!

The truth is that Jesus shed His blood, not just for the church -- not just for me; not just for you -- Christ shed his blood for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). This is the reason why Jesus is just in His judgement. The Word of God is the light to our path. It declares to us that He is righteous to justify all which believe in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:26).

The third thing that Shirley told me to say is this, Tell folk to love people. James says something at the beginning of chapter two in his epistle. He writes, Have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ (that same faith of which we just spoke a moment ago) -- Have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect of persons (James 2:1).

Be impartial with your neighbors. Treat all right. That is the fulfillment of God’s commandment.

You remember Exodus 20:12 -- Honour thy father and thy mother. Then, you have the list: thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet aught of thy neighbor. Well, how do you do that?

You love them; you treat them right. You treat them as you would treat anyone else. Godliness with contentment is great gain.

Shirley spent much time on the fourth item in her list, the idea of learning to listen. She was the sweet side of our marriage; I am what is left after that.

She would say, You should be a little kinder. Some students might think back over the past and -- go ahead -- give Shirley a big, Amen! But, learn to listen.

Can I say, Learn to listen to God, to His Spirit.

The number one thing that Jesus said about the Holy Spirit is that He would reprove this world of sin (John 16:8). Do you remember what that sin is? It is this: ...because they believe not on me (John 16:9). We can look at many places in Scripture that describe sin, but the Lord focused our attention on the one main issue, the point that makes the difference between eternal life and eternal death.

We need to listen to God’s Word. When I say that, I mean specifically Acts 15:7. This is Peter’s testimony at what is actually the first church council, the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:4-29). Peter declares what they all knew, despite their disputing. He stands, draws their attention, and reminds them that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.

Peter is speaking of his preaching in the house of Cornelius (Acts 10:19-48). The apostles and the brethren that were in Judaea heard that the Gentiles had also

received the word of God (Acts 11:1) as the result of Peter's visit. Peter identifies the word of God (Acts 11:1) as being the word of the gospel (Acts 15:7).
You need to hear the word of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and believe it.

Faith, saving faith, comes by hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is faith in the gospel of peace (Romans 10:15). And we only find this gospel of the grace of God in the Word of God, the Bible! It is the testifying of the gospel of the grace of God that the Apostle Paul calls the ministry which he received of the Lord Jesus (Acts 20:24). We need to be good ground for God and receive His message.

We also need to learn to listen to one another. If you want to do something to honor my wife in the next 24 hours you sit down with a cup of coffee and your wife; and, you listen to her awhile. Get everything else out of your mind, turn the phone off, put it aside -- just focus on her.

Ladies, if you would get around your husband and just listen to him for awhile. Get your children. Make them the focus of some time.

Well, I have said what Shirley told me to say. I appreciate your being here. Shirley and I had no idea what we would be doing with our lives when we first met. I remember she was going to take a mission trip to Scotland, a summer trip with some other Bob Jones University students. I told her, The Lord had not called me into missions. And, I thought we were going to part company.

While she was away, the Lord nailed down in my heart that that was the lady I was to marry. No matter where we went, no matter what we did. And we wound up at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Greenville, SC. We spent close to a lifetime here, and we were happy to do what God privileged us to do.

These two children that God gave us have been very special and precious. You know your Mother's dedication.

You could do things long ago that you cannot do now, I guess. Back then, the nursery was just off the chapel. When we would come to school, the babies would wind up in the nursery. Shirley would have a break between a class or an hour where she was not teaching, or she would take part of a lunchtime -- oh, yes, she was right there with that child in that nursery. And that was a blessing; that was a help.

Having them attend here and be among the students. I do not know if they appreciated it as much, but I liked having them around. I liked keeping an eye on them and just seeing them grow. Shirley was the same way. I cannot complain about a thing.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is a guarantee. There is only one name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved. And Christ's gospel, according to Acts 11:14, are words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved. So, the opinion that Shirley is absent from the body and present with the Lord is not just something I want to say. It is not just something that comforts me, nor is it

something I tell you because I dread saying she has gone in the other direction, that she is in Hell. No. No! The Bible declares that we shall be saved from wrath through Christ, being now justified through his blood (Romans 5:9).

I guess I want to illustrate what I am trying to say, in closing, with this example. I grew up as a Catholic, a Roman Catholic. I made a new acquaintance the other day who told me he would say a rosary for me, because of Shirley's passing. I had not heard someone speak of saying the rosary since I was a child.

No offense to anyone; no offense to that individual. However, you understand that religious culprits will take something that is the Bible, that is the Word of God, that is good, that is right, that is a blessing (I am referring to the Our Father, the words of God); and, that is the hook they will use.

Once they have you agreeing with something Biblical, they will then move you in another direction. They will have you say words to Mary, who cannot hear them, five times for every time you repeat the Our Father. Even if Mary could hear them, she could not do anything about your need.

Men will use human reasoning and touch on emotional feelings to convince others that Mary can hear and can motivate Christ on your behalf. But take the Bible for what it says. There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5).

I know Shirley is in heaven. I know she is in God’s presence. I know she is with the saints who have gone on before her. I know this because of what the gospel of Jesus Christ declares, and I believe the Gospel!

I am going to follow her someday. One of these days, I shall know Him when I see Him face to face. On that day, I am going to be right beside her, along with the multitudes of folk who have trusted in Christ's gospel; and, I am going to join in His worship and in His praise.

Since they are having a time, praising our Lord and Saviour over there, can I get you to join with me now and just say, “GLORY, HALLELUJAH!”