The life of Queen Elizabeth II. G'day I'm Martyn Iles,
and this is The Truth of It. And yes, I do want to pay tribute to
the Queen, of whom I've been an admirer for some time. Because,
and I think this is becoming clear to us all over the last
few days, when we looked at the Queen, we saw someone who stood
out. Someone whom we regret losing. Because something made
her different. She was different indeed as we can tell
from much of the rest of her family. And steadfastly so,
whilst they made various mistakes and got into various
jams, she always tended to rise above, and she always tended to
remain faithful and steadfast. She was different
among world leaders, in an age of distrust and of skepticism, of
world leaders like never before, we see a woman who was in that
world and yet she's globally mourned and respected in her
death. She's held in high honour. We also see someone
who is different to the culture around us, because she embodied
virtues which are quite simply rare in our day. In fact, there is
a family of virtues, and I'm going to pick a couple of these
in relation to the Queen. But there is actually a family of
virtues which are quite distinct, which are quite rare
and which are fading from our societies. These are virtues
like mercy, meekness, faithfulness, forgiveness,
duty, service, these sorts of things, and there are others as
well. They tend to be actually, the virtues of Jesus. The
virtues which He not only embodied through His work, but
which He continually highlighted - not to be served,
but to serve. You know, duty to God. Duty to neighbour. I am
meek in heart He said. Things like this. Blessed are the
merciful. A family of virtues. And they came into the world
with either a renewed force and vigor, or for the first time
through His Gospel. And perhaps that is why several of these
shone in the Queen's life. Because the thing that made her
different to most, especially among world leaders, was I think
first and foremost, her faith in Jesus Christ. And I'll show you
that with some quotes, where she really does tick off all the
most important things about faith in Christ. First of all
she says this, and this were in her various addresses that
she filmed over the years. She said, "Jesus' teachings have
been handed down from generation to generation and
have been the bedrock of my faith. His birth marked a new
beginning. As the carol says, the hopes and fears of all the
years are met in thee tonight." Here's another one. "History
teaches us that we need saving from ourselves, from our recklessness
or our greed. God sent into the world neither a philosopher, nor
a general, important though they are, but a saviour with the power
to forgive." Again, "The teachings of Jesus Christ and my own
personal accountability before God provide the framework in
which I try to live my life." Another she said, "Each day is a
new beginning. I know that the only way to live my life is to
try to do what is right, to take the long view, to give all of my
best in all that the day brings, and put my trust in God." And
she says also, "I have been, and remain very grateful to you for
your prayers, and to God for His steadfast love." Her faith set
her apart. You know in the world leader groupings of people, it's
not a common thing. But also, I think just as importantly, the
fruit of that faith. Which brings me back to these virtues
which I mentioned, this family of virtues that we find so
clearly embodied in Jesus. I would like to highlight two which I
think really shone through in the Queen's life, and really
made her starkly separate from the culture around us. The
first one is faithfulness. And the second one is duty. I
believe that they both begin in a very important and symbolic
way with this statement, which she made very deliberately, on
television when she was just twenty-one. She said "I declare
before you all, that my whole life whether it be long or short,
shall be devoted to your service." Now, why does that
speak of faithfulness? Because she was faithful to her word.
Perhaps this is why she never abdicated. Maybe that's why she
appeared so frail at the swearing in of the new Prime
Minister, because she said, "My whole life whether it be short
or long." Just as she said, she fulfilled it. And we live in an
age when words are so, so cheap. We constantly say what we do
not mean. And we constantly forget what we said, or ignore
what we said. Oh, that was me then we say, and so we don't
keep our word. And that is deeply sinful. Consider this,
the book of James is jam-packed with wisdom, and with all sorts
of principles for living a life that honors God, and it runs
through so many things. And yet, when you get near the end of
the book in chapter five, all of a sudden, we're startled
with this statement. James says, "But above all, above all".
And you think, wow, what could this momentous thing be, that
it's the most important thing that James has to say, out of
all of this wisdom, and all these important principles for
honoring God. He says, oh, "above all", he says, "let your yes be yes,
and your no, no. So, that you may not fall under condemnation."
Above all he says, "be faithful to your word." And that makes a
whole lot of sense when you realise that our very salvation
depends on a word. The Word, the Promise of God. Genesis 3:15, all
that time ago promised a saviour. It was a word. Now, we
are promised many things. Not least of which, is the
completion of our salvation in Heaven. Words. And that first
word in Genesis 3:15, God kept it. He was faithful.
Throughout the rolling eons and against all the odds. And now
again, we know that God is faithful to His word. So be
faithful to yours. The second thing I want to highlight, the second
virtue, duty. The word to which she was faithful was a
commitment to duty, and she showed us that it is better to
live out of duty than out of rights. She showed us that it
is better to live for others in sacrifice, than to live for self.
And this stands out so, so starkly among a self-righteous,
a grasping, a self-centred, a needy, a demanding, a selfish
people. You know, I once heard it put this way, you know, if
there was a planet of aliens, and they sent an
expedition to Earth to study the human race. And they had a
project to answer some questions and one of those
questions was, what does this species worship?
What do these people worship? And they came into the world
and they disguised and they walked around. It wouldn't take
many hours of television. It wouldn't take many glossy
magazines. It wouldn't take many listening to self-help
coaches, and observing the way people behave for them to write
down, they worship themselves. We're in a day when it's all
about, we all want our rights. We all demand our due. We all
want for ourselves what we can get for ourselves. We all live
with ourselves on the throne of our lives. We are grasping black
holes of want and desire. And frankly, it's sickening and it
is destroying us. This is one major reason why the West is
immiserated and depressed, beyond anything we can measure in the
history of measurements. We've forgotten the meaning of life.
And it was described and modeled by Christ Himself, and
He summed it up, the whole of it in terms of duty, not rights.
In terms of others, not self. And in terms of sacrifice, not want.
First, it was a duty to God. That's the first and greatest
commandment, to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and
strength. And love in this sense, is action sacrificially for the
cause of God, to love God and secondly, a duty to neighbour.
The second greatest commandment, to love others
with the love that we would so instinctively turn on
ourselves. It isn't about me at all. Queen Elizabeth showed us
that. I think she set her course at the age of 21,
declaring her commitment to others in duty. And later, as we
read just before, she added her dependence on God's guidance,
the words of Jesus Christ and His steadfast love and indeed
His forgiveness. This is a life well lived. And I'll say it
again, it really isn't about you at all. What a revolution we
would see in our times, if we could undo this great cultural
mistake of rights over duties, self over sacrifice, and our
changing desires, over steadfast faithfulness. And indeed, false
gods in favour of the true God, who the Queen evidently, in her
statements and her fruits, served. And that is why, I would
like to honor the life of Queen Elizabeth II, so much so
that I won't even scrunch up the paper. I'll fold it this
time. I'm Martyn Iles, and that was The Truth of It.