A Reason For Living

Very nice to see you. Thank you for coming, especially those who have made an effort to come over many miles. We do appreciate that in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Tonight will conclude my week-long visit with the assembly. I appreciate their hospitality and their care and their kindness and we'll, having come to know you, will pray for you and for the gospel outreach. And if this is your first time here in this hall, don't let it be the last time.

This is a place where Christians gather who have experienced salvation and all they're interested in is not winning you to church or to system. All they're interested in is winning you to the person of Christ. Now as announced, tonight I would like to relate to you my personal story of conversion.

And I want to read with you, first of all, a few verses in the gospel of John, chapter 1. John's gospel, chapter 1 and verse 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

Notice, God's revelation in and through creation. Now verse 17. For the law was given by Moses.

God's revelation through the law, his moral revelation. Let's read on. But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

Third revelation, grace, not works. Revelation, please, chapter 15, verse 4. Revelation 15, verse 4. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? For thou only art holy, for all nations shall come and worship before thee. And that's the reason now for thy judgments are made manifest.

God's revelation through judgment. So we have clearly read this evening that God has revealed himself. In other words, you can know him.

No excuse. You see, people find it rather difficult to believe that God is so hard to get to know, and I'll tell you why. Our Savior has proclaimed while he was here that God in the past, in order to reveal himself, sent prophets.

The people killed him, for they did not like the message that the prophets proclaimed. Then the Savior said, finally God sent his well-beloved son, thinking no doubt that they would reverence his son, but they killed Christ too. Why? Because they didn't like what he said.

And the apostles too, we know that history reveals that all the apostles, likely except John, they were martyred just the same. Why? People didn't like what they said. Now that may be your reaction tonight.

For you see, I am going to tell you some of my experiences since childhood. I'll tell you why. Because although salvation takes place at a flash of a moment, within one second, but conviction or recognition as to why we need Christ may take weeks, months, even years.

So I never heard the gospel until I came to Canada, which took place in the late 50s. So I must by necessity go back to my childhood days when God began to deal with me. Now let's be unmistakably clear this evening.

If ever, and I don't know you, some of you, if ever you want to be in God's heaven, you have to be sure about four or five things. First of all, God will have to show you that you're a sinner. That's right.

God will have to reveal to you what sin is in his sight, never mind in the sight of others. God will have to reveal to you and show you that this book is true from cover to cover. You cannot afford to pick and choose.

What I mean by this is this. Some folks have no difficulty believing in heaven, but they don't believe in hell. If that's your case, you'll never see heaven.

You'll never get saved. For see, Jesus taught both, equally spoke more of heaven, and more of hell than of heaven. You have to learn that this is the authoritative, reliable, inspired scriptures.

God breathed and he cannot afford to pick and choose what you like and what you don't throw out. God will have to teach you that not only you and I are sinners, but God will teach you that he is a judge and not you. For see, we meet thousands of people and they judge everything by what they like.

Look, when you come to the God of the Bible, when you come to the Old and New Testament, you're standing accused in the dark, and God is your judge. And then you have to learn that both heaven and hell is real, and you have to learn that you cannot save yourself. That's a critical time.

And then ultimately what you will learn or accept is a fact that salvation is not by works, but by grace and faith in the Lord Jesus as the Redeemer. See, let's be plain about these things, for that's what the Bible teaches. Now, let's start.

I have to go back to my childhood days. You see, God has revealed himself and he will deal with you, he will deal with me. But the question is, will you accept God's testimony? The only thing I do remember along the religious line was when I was six and seven or eight years of age, we lived in the mountain area of Silesia, which is now Poland, but before the Second World War was East Germany or Germany.

My dear mother, she took us to a Protestant Sunday school. Now, that was good, but all we learned was the Ten Commandments. That was good, but not good enough.

I do remember the Sunday school teacher was a young woman, and every Sunday she drilled into us the catechism, or thou shalt not, thou shalt, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, and she provided a good foundation. However, they never told us how to be saved. They never told us God loved us.

They never told us that Christ died for us. It's a personal thing. They never did.

You see, that's all they had, the Ten Commandments. Now, I'd like to say for clarification, in case there's somebody here tonight and you believe in the golden rule in order to take it to heaven, you're sadly mistaken. I'd like to present to you a threefold reason why the law was given.

First of all, Romans says, the law was given that every mouth might be stopped and all the world become guilty. That's the convicting reason of the law. James says, the law was given that we might see ourselves as an admirer and recognize who we are, sinners.

Paul, writing to the Galatians, says the law of Moses had an educational purpose to teach us something. That is, we cannot keep the law. Oh, come on, I want to ask you a personal question.

Have you kept the law? Come on now. You see, oh, how foolish to believe in the golden rule and to think that the golden rule will take into heaven when there are things in your life you know full well you've broken the law. I don't have to go into details.

And, dear friends, tonight, I want to assure you that the law of Moses, God-breathed, authorized by God, today is just as valid as it was given 3,500 years ago. Because they're spiritual leaders and they say the law is absolute. Says who? Christ taught that God will exact every sin that men and women commit, boys and girls.

The law today is just as much as in force as it was when it was given. It was given that we might recognize that we need a redeemer, that the law is totally insufficient to take us to heaven. The law just shows us up what we are.

Now, this is what I learned. Lesson number one, God's holiness. But I learned something else.

That's one of the fundamental truths of the Bible. And I learned it when I was the age of these boys and girls sitting right in the front row. I learned one of the chief truths in the Bible, that man is totally morally depraved.

Totally sinful. You say, how did you learn that? See, I was only nine years of age when the war was over. When I was a teenager, reflecting upon those terrible years that took the lives of 60 million people from 1917 till 1945.

You see, I couldn't help but begin to think. For, see, when you hear the artillery and hundreds of bombers flying over your town and destruction on every hand, whole cities like Madison, imagine 85 percent bombed, thousands of people died in one night. I did not recognize it when I was nine years of age.

But when I was a teenager, I'm going ahead of myself and began to look for the answers. I could never understand how so-called, now listen could war each other and kill themselves by the millions and remain Christian. That's a downright hypocrisy.

There's no Christianity in that. I couldn't accept it. Not that I'm a judge.

You see, it doesn't make sense. Christ came as a prince of peace. Oh, you say this world has known no peace.

Exactly. Since the second war, we've had 50 wars and it's getting worse and worse and worse. Look at any given family.

Tell me, is there peace and tranquility? How come so many families are splitting up? Look at the communal picture. Look at the world picture. Look at the international scene.

There is no peace. And there will never be peace until individuals accept the prince of peace. And you see, because 2,000 years ago, the world and its systems crucified the prince of peace, there will be no peace until they receive him individually.

There is no such thing as nations being Christian. Well, listen, history told you that, didn't it? As a teenager, I found that out. I'm going ahead of myself.

So here it was. I learned the total depravity of the human race when one day there was a notice given all men, all women and children have to leave the town. The Russians were coming.

And I'm not going to single out the communists, the Russians have the bad boys because I'm not talking to you as a German. I'm not talking to you as an American. I'm talking to you as a born again Christian now.

It is true that along the line of history, certain nations are more depraved than others and they will be judged by it. But there's not one nation who can say that we are a Christian land, including America. Not at all.

Only he or she can claim to be a Christian who knows Christ. You see, I traveled in the Middle East quite a number of times and the Jewish people turn around and said to her, you call this Christianity? They butchered us by the millions. I told them no born again Christian would ever kill a Jew.

My personal, my greatest threat was a Jew, the Savior. Oh, once you're Christian, you have a different outlook altogether on history. I learned one of the fundamental truths of the Bible, the total depravity of the human race.

When ultimately the enemy overtook us, the higher escalon officers recognizing that there would be no mercy for them, they committed suicide. I was only a nine year old boy and I'm going to say something gruesome because you see that God used that to wake me up. You could see any day in 1945, you could see bodies floating down the river by the hundreds.

Screams at night, rape, torture, murder, a life didn't mean that much. Just like that. Enemies, foes, cauldron of humanity, war unleashes the basest of human feelings.

She had left a lasting impression. After all, you see mothers bury their children, malnutrition. Some people didn't even get a decent burial.

So this is what I saw when I was nine years of age, had left a lasting impression when I was a teenager, I had to get to the root of it. Well then, although I never heard the gospel, but during those years when I was six, seven, and eight years of age, the devil made a bid for my soul. And that was through the philosophical teaching of Nazism.

They tried their best to make us party functionaries. I was too young to imbibe it. I was too young to assimilate it.

And as soon as the war was over, the communists having taken the country, they indoctrinated us twice a week with the doctrines of communism, and they tried to make us party functionaries. Again, I was too young, again, to fully understand their policies and so on. But both systems are originated by the devil himself.

Now, had I made the statement 50 years ago in relation to my own country, they would have shot me. Oh, yes. It is very difficult, I say, that any German man over 60 years of age now, who was part of the satanic system, Nazism, it is not impossible, but very difficult to win him to Christ.

You see, because the system taught you are your own God. The Bible is totally unreliable. That's what they taught.

It's just a myth, Moses and so on. You cannot go by it. And by the way, as a child of God, as a Christian now, as I study history, I come to an amazing discovery.

Oh, friend, tonight to expand your mind as to the truth that is before you. 500 years ago in the country that I came from, the Reformation was born. Martin Luther and others in Bohemia, in Switzerland, in England, God moved mightily upon the hearts of a few individuals who preached the pure gospel of the grace of God.

And thus thousands were delivered from a terrible, oppressive religious system. They got into the freedom of knowing their sins forgiven. They got into the wonderful relationship that a child of God enjoys with God in a personal way.

They got to know Jesus Christ as their Savior. That was 500 years ago. As a result of the Reformation, men aspire to spiritual things.

This is why after these 500 years, there was such a renaissance in the arts, in the music, and so on. You see, people turning to God affects people in every aspect, morally, culturally, socially, in every way. Darkness and spiritual ignorance will bring men and women into terrible darkness, as well as nations.

Now, follow me. That was the Reformation, wonderful for the country. But only 350 years later on, Europe, especially Germany, plunged into an awful sphere of spiritual darkness.

And a movement was created which we have come to know as the movement of higher criticism. Religious people, sad enough, military men, university deans and professors looked at the Bible and condemned it as the inspired word of God. And a whole nation, per se, turned away from the inspired scriptures.

You know what the result was? The country intellectually, culturally, to a certain degree, certainly spiritually, plunged into darkness. And men groped for the light. You see, friend, without digressing, if you recognize or try to find out the purpose in life, your relation to God, you have to answer three basic questions.

I faced it. Millions of people have. Question number one, tell me, where did mankind come from? Where did we originate from? You cannot hold both evolution and creation.

It's impossible. Question number two, most relevant, I say it to thousands of young people in this country who, because of the vacuum in their life, have turned to sin and drugs and have nothing. Question number two, what's the purpose of your existence? Why do you live? Come on now, what's the purpose of it? Question number three, most relevant in these days, when even scientists point to the ultimate cataclysmic judgment.

Where is mankind headed for? Come on, have you're thinking about it? Where is the whole human race headed for? Three questions you have to answer. Come back now. Higher criticism, when in Germany people turned against the word.

There was a spiritual vacuum. Man searched philosophical systems, and ultimately a man came on the scene who propagated the idea of man and superman. His name was Friedrich Nietzsche.

And this man produced in turn a man by the name of Adolf Hitler, who, not recognizing or accepting the truth of God, fell into terrible darkness, and that resulted ultimately in World War II. Did that make the picture plain? You see friend, God will hold a nation responsible for either rejecting or accepting Christ. God will hold you responsible what you do, not with a church system, nor with the faith of your fathers.

God will hold you personally responsible what you have done with Christ. You see, there's no church system that will bring it to God. Jesus, the only mediator between God and man.

No pastor, no priest, no preacher, no evangelist died for you. We can't save you. We need to save ourselves.

Oh yes. Oh friend, salvation is a personal link, a personal trust, a personal belief in Jesus Christ as your own personal savior. I'll come to that by and by.

So here was the total depravity of the human race. Oh, I say I remember scenes, I'll never forget them throughout eternity. The law, yes, God's moral revelation.

I learned that as a six, seven year old, and that convicted me when I was in my teens, when I come to my teen years for the benefit of teenagers in just a moment. I learned the awfulness of sin all round about me. So then after the war was over, we settled in what was up until two years ago, East Germany.

But the situation was such, unless you join the communist party, which we didn't want to do, you never get ahead in business or you never get a job. So we didn't like the idea at all. So my mother made attempts to get out of the country.

At this particular time, thousands upon thousands of East Germans fled the country illegally. They were smuggled across the border. The government would not give them exit visas.

Anyone who had half a brain to see what was going on, they cleared out. But you see, we couldn't go. We never got a visa, nor we'd never get a passport.

So ultimately, we went to the border station. Mother secured the help of a discharged customs official. And in the middle of the night, it was May 1948, under the danger of our lives, we were smuggled across.

It was a country similar to Wisconsin, rather hilly. At this time, the communists had not built what we have come to know as the Iron Curtain. In later years, that was extremely difficult, if not impossible to cross, because they had mines, electronic detection gear, dogs, armed guards, searchlights, and everything else, almost impossible.

But in those days, all they had is about 150 feet of denuded bush and the forest. And we just had to wait for cover of darkness. And at any given moment, we had to make a dash as fast as we could across the border.

And we were safe in what we call the American zone. Now, for a little while, and you see, I'm only telling these things to relate to you, that certain of these experiences God used to lay a foundation. Now, the recognition that you cannot keep the law is not salvation in itself.

You'll see, won't you? In a little while, I'm going to come to the climax. But these things all God used to bring before me basic truth, which at that time, I did not gather from the book. See, what God can teach you in life.

So now I'm going to talk about my teen years. Glad to see you, young man. Very glad to see you.

But I'm going to tell you something. The teen years are the most important years in your life. Don't have to repeat it.

The teen years are extremely important. You know why? You see, young man, young woman, you stand at the threshold of discovery. You stand at the threshold of looking for the purpose in life.

Let me tell you something. If as a young boy, young girl or teenager, you do not yield to the Savior, the likelihood is that the devil of the world and sin will get a hold of you. That is knowing the gospel.

That's right. That's why we stress it. We can say boys and girls and teenagers, but this is why we stress again and again, trust Christ while you're young.

I know the grace of God can reach and save you in your 80s. But you see, we have found out this, that the older men and women get, the more settled and the more willful and the more obstinate they become, the more and more they're guided by their own settled opinion and not the word of God. You see, because you get sick.

You've heard the old adage, haven't you? It is easy to bend a young tree, but you try it with an eight-year-old oak. Oh, boys and girls, young teenagers yield to Christ while your mind is receptive. And before you get into this awful wicked world, too many have been absorbed by sin and evil.

And there's awful more licentiousness that we see all across the country. It's getting worse and worse and worse. See, the teen years are years of searching.

The teen years are years of life commitment. Oh, it remains to be seen when the devil gets a hold of you and you get into that company, how you will turn out. A life that knows a person that knows the Lord Jesus certainly is sheltered and preserved.

God had preserved me from many a thing and I lived what I call a moral, clean, upright life. But that's not the reason why God saved me. Come to that in just a little while.

So you have the teen years. And in my teen years, I tried to get the purpose in life and I investigated certain religious systems. There's nothing, absolutely nothing.

Ritual, dead, stiff, ceremony, no life, no truth, no substance. Just outward. So then I turned for a little while to politics, talking about corruption, evil.

Then to culture. Then I had thought, well, there's one avenue I hadn't tried because in those days, the wages in the old country in the fifties were rather meager. I made five dollars, not an hour, not a day a week.

That's all I got, five dollars a week. So I'd set my vision to come to Canada. At this particular time, there were representatives of Her Majesty's government who went to Europe trying to solicit young people who were willing to come to Canada, not afraid of hard work.

And so I thought, well, I'll go and, you know, have nothing to lose. And I got my physical exam and passed it. And before long, I said goodbye to my mom and dad.

And I do remember I never saw dad cry before. But here he said goodbye to his 19-year-old boy, a tear trickled down his cheek. Dad was never given to emotions.

You know, in the light of parenthood, when your son or daughter leaves, never mind to the next town, but to another continent, and you don't know what's going to happen. Mother says, well, Fred, we were always able to trust you, and I'm sure you'll be able to make it. Neither mom nor dad were saved.

And so here I was, said goodbye, and I came to this country. You see, behind the scenes, God was moving. I didn't know it.

God can bring circumstances in your life just the same. By the way, you say, Preacher, does my experience have to be the same as yours a thousand times? No. You see, there are many ways that lead to Christ.

Now, I'd like to clarify that, because people say many roads lead to God. That's nonsense. That's not scriptural.

And some say, well, you know, it's like the spokes of the wheel. We come all different ways. That is not taught in the Bible.

There are many ways that lead to Jesus, but only Christ leads to God. You see, the African may come a different way. The criminal might come a different way.

Oh, yes, the blood of Christ can save criminals. The Savior intimated that the people who live raven, sinful lives possibly likely will yield to the Savior quicker than the self-righteous. You see, in the days of Christ, there are self-righteous people, and they hid behind the religious system.

They hid behind Judaism. They hid behind immorality. But oh, as soon as the Savior tore away the veneer of religion and pointed out the sins that they carried on in spite of religion, they got raging mad.

By the way, tell me, who crucified Christ? Come on, who crucified Christ? Not the common people. Basically, the religious leaders. Oh, he exposed them.

And you see, when you have your sin exposed, there's one or the other thing you can do. Either yield to Christ or fight Christ. And the final analysis, it wasn't the Jews, not the Gentiles who crucified Christ.

You know what the Bible says? It's your sins and mine that nailed the Savior to the cross. He died for your sins. So here I was, trying to come to Canada, make a new life.

I have to inform you about certain details. I boarded the boat. I had saved up enough money, $65, which in the 1950s was like $300 today.

But on board the boat, somebody got a hold of my wallet and stole most of it and left me $7. It must have been a kind and considerate thief. $7.

So I had no other choice to disembark in Montreal. I had at this time in my possession a little motor scooter and a little three horsepower motor scooter. That little thing took me 120 miles to the gallon.

I wish I had kept it. With the gas prices, I need a thing now. All right.

So I made it from Montreal to Toronto and all I had at my possession, of course, other than personal possession, was a letter of introduction to a certain Protestant pastor who was a friend to our neighbor who was a pharmacist in Frankfurt on Germany. Now, of course, I was too proud to tell him my dire need. And it's amazing what God can do.

In the basement of the church, there are two elderly ladies. Their husbands were apparently elders. And one looked me over as only a mother can because I had just got into a terrible thunderstorm before I went to church.

I had only $2 in my pocket. You see, even before I was converted, I had to live on faith. She said, young man, how long have you been in this country? I said, I just arrived this very morning.

Chris, number two, do you have a place to stay? No. Well, she said, we have a room in the basement. If you don't mind, you can have it.

I never asked her. She didn't know my circumstances. Oh, God was good.

So she took me home and she never asked me for rent until I had a job. And that was my first concern. I didn't get a job the next day.

So here I was in Canada and trying to be happy and content by becoming rich. You see, I thought that was life. Come on, how about you tonight? I'm sure I don't have to tell you it's not the attainment of wealth that will bring ultimate happiness.

Oh, tell me in God's name. Wealth cannot purchase heaven. It can purchase a beautiful home, a long holiday, a Cadillac, but never a way to heaven.

Cannot be purchased. And I know people who are incredibly rich, but they're just about as tough and hard as a brick or a stone. Oh, it's not rich, his friend.

So here was, and I began to really wonder now because I realized it isn't a job, it isn't money. So I thought, well, it's the North country. I always loved nature.

That's why I like your country. So I purchased a little car, purchased a little inflatable rubber craft, purchased a gun, purchased fishing gear and head up to Northern Ontario to find peace with God, whoever he is in the Northern bush. You know, you can't trust too many people.

I had no friends at this particular time. I'd been in this country for a year. Have you ever taken a little rubber craft and go to remote islands, spend the night all by yourself? All you hear is the owls.

You open the tent on the morning. First thing you see six o'clock in the morning, six foot snake. I thought I better get out of here.

So I made it back to Toronto. And in my search for the truth, you know, one day, oh, it's amazing. I didn't know God.

I didn't know Jesus, a savior. But one day as I walked along the street, you know what I did? I lifted my heart to God. And I said this to myself, I said, Oh God, if there's a God in heaven, show me the way because I don't know it.

I didn't know. Well, to me, God was irrelevant. God was a million miles in space.

But I turned to him because I said, well, if there's a God that they talk about, I said, God helped me. And he did. Yes, he did.

Through a set of circumstances, I was forced to move into a downtown area, which I didn't like because of the color of the people that lived there. But it was just exactly this place where God had on Wednesday evening, a number of evangelical brethren, as well as sisters who preached the gospel. And after my work ended at two o'clock in the afternoon, I had the whole afternoon open to myself.

So I walked up and down the streets and finally came to a park. It was in September, 1958. So I heard somebody shouting.

I thought, well, it's a fight and he's going to win. That was a fight. All right.

Because you see, these brethren preached the gospel of the grace of God. And looking back now, I know full well that God had a plan in an eternity by God. You see, friend, the principle is this.

If there's a seeking soul, I say a seeking soul, not a resisting sinner. If there's a person on the right hand or on the left hand side and you know, or do you want to know Jesus as Savior, you want to have this peace, peace with God. You want to be right with God.

I say, if that's your desire, God will move all heavens. He's promised that. For a seeking Savior and a seeking sinner must meet.

Christ says, if you ask, it shall be given. If you knock, it shall be opened. If you seek, you will find.

A lot of people rebel. A lot of people, they resist. A lot of people, they fight the truth.

So here, for the first time, I met people that preached the gospel. You know, I do not remember what the communists taught us. Forgotten the whole thing.

I do not remember what the Nazis taught us. But over 30 years ago, I remember nearly everything what these men taught in the open air, they preached the gospel. I thought, that's strange.

These people don't have clerical garb. They handle a Bible. They look like to me, folks from different walks of life.

One was only 18. The oldest was 65. And they all have the same message.

Very simple. Man is a sinner. Man is proud.

They'll storm God's throne. Only Christ can save. The world is doomed to judgment.

Only Jesus can save. Simple truth. So after the meeting, I sat in the little bench over on the side.

Two young men detached themselves and made a beeline right for me. And I thought, oh, I'm going to get it now. When the spokesman came along, likable young fellow.

And he didn't know my ethnical background. He said, we saw you sitting through the whole open air service. And he made a very wise approach.

He didn't just preach a little further. He said, what do you think of our preaching? It gave me a chance to express myself. And he didn't know that I was no expert in the English language at the time.

I said, you boys are right. Because, you see, intellectually I grasped the truth that they had proclaimed. Because when I was a boy, I was brought face-to-face with the Ten Commandments, which convicts and can save.

As a boy of nine, I was brought face-to-face with the reality of sin. And as a teenager, I was brought face-to-face with the aimlessness of life. And that's what they touched on.

You see, it made sense to me. And then they told me of their personal experience in Christ. And as soon as one fellow said that he was as sure as being in heaven as though he was already there, I tell you, and I'm not even Irish, I got quite worked up.

I thought, who do you think you are telling me on the way to heaven? No one will know that. Yes, we can know. I know it now too.

You see, God has revealed himself. God is good. I'll come to that in a moment.

So here was the first contact, and they invited me to gospel meetings, which I did attend. I attended a Bible reading, I attended a prayer meeting, and I could sense the presence of God in that little gathering. You see, in Europe, I was used to going to great cathedrals.

Millions of dollars went into the construction of these tremendous buildings. Tremendous organ cost millions of dollars. Wonderful choir, but basically dead spiritually.

Nothing there for my soul. Oh, anybody can tell me how to improve the world. You see, but that's not the gospel.

Here I met some simple people. They had a personal experience with Christ and I could sense it. But you know what really didn't, what I didn't really like and I couldn't understand is, these people talked about being saved.

How do you get this? How do you make it your own? I thought it was by process of intellectual persuasion or assimilation, and again, I never got anywhere. And they read verses to me and I attended meetings. And how to be saved, they talked about faith in Jesus and believing and I thought, well, if I just believe enough.

But I had to realize that I couldn't save myself. And I say, I struggled with this for at least two weeks. But you see, friend, tonight, don't fight God's truth.

You get nowhere. Just bow to what the Word of God, I know it will take the starch out of you to realize that not only are you a sinner. Oh yeah, that's plain talk now.

But you can save yourself by the grace of God can. But all you're struggling and all that you do is absolutely to no avail. But God will have mercy upon you if you come God's way.

And I did. Oh, see, what did you do? See, I recognized intellectually the truth of God, but how to be saved, I didn't know. So I asked the preacher sometimes, I stayed behind and sometimes would go down to the basement.

And that's one thing I didn't understand at the first. Not only the preachers, but I went down with the elders of the assembly and they both knelt down and they prayed so earnestly for God to open my eyes. I thought these people know God.

But I didn't know how to pray. But in my desperation one night, I just said, oh God, if there's a God in heaven, I don't know how to be saved. But oh God, help me.

God, show me. And again, God heard and God answered. So one night I stayed behind again.

The preacher opened the Bible and he realized that I had come to a crisis in my life where I had to settle this. And by the way, you have to learn not only about sin, you have to learn about the Bible being inspired and absolutely reliable. You'll have to learn that God is holy, heaven and hell exist.

But you also have to learn that salvation is of the Lord and you can save yourself. So he read verse 37 of John 6. He asked me to read it out loud, which helped me. And this is a verse I'm quoting to you now.

All Christ says, all that the father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Now, in my spiritual desperation, in my hunger after salvation, I was desperate. I received some hope by reading this word.

Now, I'll tell you this. For the first time in all my life, I did something that pleased God almighty. Oh, you say, what did you do? Because I thought salvation is not by works.

No, it isn't. For the first time, I looked for salvation, not in myself. I looked for salvation outside of myself.

And here, Christ made me a promise saying, all that the father giveth me shall come to me and I want to come to Christ. Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. So for the first time, I stepped out by faith and recognized that if the Savior provided I come, will not cast me out, nor tell me what will he do.

Come on. You follow me? I will in no wise cast out. I recognized if I only would come, he'll take me in.

That's the idea. I took hold of it by faith. First thing I did to please God.

You see, Hebrews says, he or she that cometh to God must believe that God is, that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him. So I received great hope, but I wasn't saved that night. I went home, came back the next night.

First one in the hall. I moved up to the third room from the front. I don't exactly remember what the preachers all preached about, but after the meeting, the desire to settle the matter became very strong.

There's a young man sitting next to me who had been saved for about four or five years, and he looked at me and you heard the old adage to take a bull by the horn. He did that. He said, Fred, he faced me right on.

And it's sometimes good friend to have a man to man talk. Nevermind beating around the bush. You have gathered that tonight.

That's why we haven't come here tonight to do. He said, Fred, you've been coming for three weeks. You know, you need a savior and you want to be saved.

And what's the matter with you? How are you like that? What's the matter with you? I said, I don't know. He said, look, if you really want to know Christ as your savior, you see, I was spiritually still in darkness. I knew certain truth, but I didn't know all the truth.

He said, look, if you want to know Jesus as savior, there is an exact time when you receive him. See, I didn't know that. I thought ultimately this will come to me like the snow in December, like the spring flowers in May.

Gradually somehow figure will hit me. You know, like an electric shock. That's not how you get saved.

He said, now look, he quoted Paul's letter to the Corinthians. Behold, now is the day of salvation. If today you hear his voice, harden up your hearts.

Today is the day of salvation. Behold, now is the accepted time. He quoted that.

I said, well, if this is what it takes, I will do it tonight. That very moment I had the greatest satanic attack I've ever had in my life. Oh, you smile.

Satan, friend, will use every armament in his arsenal to keep you in your sense, your pride, your religious affiliation. What will your friend say? What will your husband think? Satan knows exactly how to get you. Oh, yes.

So I said, I'd like to do it tonight. I'd like to do it tonight. I said, why? What am I going to do if I get saved tonight? And what happens if I do something next week? If I say something or do something that is not becoming as a Christian, you see, sin bothered me.

I recognize Christ died for sin and for sinners, but how do you live? How do you make it good? How do you keep on going as a Christian? Well, he said, Fred, the Bible is very plain on this point. As long as you get to Christ, you're going through the door. If once you are saved, as John says, if we as Christians born again, if we confess our sins, he is just and faithful to forgive our sins and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanses us from all sin.

You see, I knew that God had made provision after salvation. The way was clear. I had no more excuse.

Well, you know, oh, well, I remember that moment. All the parts, all the pride, all the resistance gone out. I met the preacher.

He couldn't save me. I said right in the front, I don't know where our salvation is not feelings. That's a real thing.

You know, when a person meets Christ, I had nothing to say. I began to just uncontrollably to weep. You know, you meet God and God will reduce it just about that much.

You meet God and there'll be no more arguments, no more pride. God is a judge. You're the accused.

You're the condemned. Oh, I cast myself on the mercy of God and I was ready. Oh, I would have done anything to get saved.

I want to test you now. Come on. This is, this is important.

If it would mean everlasting life, would you not crawl on your knees from here back to Hillsborough? Never mind what the people will say. They'll test your pride. Oh, you don't have to do it for salvation is not to be obtained by what you do penance or otherwise.

You could shut yourself up in a convent for the rest of your life. That doesn't mean salvation. No, no.

It's the work of Calvary that you trust him. You accept the divine person and that very divine person will come into that lab of yours as he did. As far as I was concerned on the 13th of October, 1958, all resistance was gone.

I'm a preacher, wise man sat down with me and he said, Fred, just read one verse, John five and 24. I'll read it to you. I'll quote you from the original as the savior taught it.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, personal message, he that heareth my word and believe that him that sent me half eternal, everlasting life shall not come into condemnation, but as passed from death unto life. You know what salvation is? Salvation is just resting upon God's word in relation to what Jesus has done. All I took in that when Jesus died, you see, before I was converted, even in the churches, I knew that Jesus died for sinners.

That didn't do me any good. But the moment I took in that when Jesus died, he died for me. That's the idea, a personal thing, intensely personal.

I saw that because Christ bore my sin, I will never suffer judgment. Hell will not be my portion, but on account of the promises of the savior who cannot lie, I had everlasting life. You see, people say you have to wait till the last judgment day.

That's not what the Bible teaches. He that heareth my word, believeth him that sent me half. What does it mean to have? I've got it.

Don't have to wait till the last judgment day. Oh, God is good. He wants you to know.

He is light. He wants you to be in the light. He is life.

He wants you to have life and the assurance of salvation is taught from cover to cover. Oh, tell him in the closing moments, do you want it? Come on. Oh, much depends on it.

Would you really like to know peace with God? Oh, yes, you can experience it tonight. Oh, yes, you can. Don't have to wait till the last judgment day.

God has already judged. He judged Christ in your state. Sin question has been dealt with.

It is finished. Not by working, nor by praying, nor by toiling. So Jesus did it long ago by just receiving the offered mercy of God by grace, God's revelation.

For if you do not come by grace, you're going to experience God's judgment. God forbid. You see, we have to make a choice.

Light, darkness, life, death, heaven, hell, Christ, the devil. Oh, yes, a choice has to be made. You young people, don't you ever get the idea, will you? That just because your mom and dad knows Jesus, this will ultimately come your way.

You're dead wrong. You have a responsibility to strive. You have a responsibility to settle the matter yourself and you better do it when God is working.

Are we going to close? If you have any questions, if you have any inquiries, I can save you. But surely, like others have helped me, I can show you the way, maybe lead you to Christ, or make it known, please, at the end of the meeting. No pressure, no coming forward, you know, no signing anything.

Salvation is the work of the Spirit of God and nothing that you do will bring it about. Shall we pray? Our Father, now we commit us to Thee and we thank Thee again for the attention shown. We pray Thee to bless Thy word and the testimony.

We remember Paul who gave it many times for the benefit of the hearers. We commit us now to Thee and ask Thee, Lord, to accept our thanks for refreshments to be provided in the basement and grant to God that the spiritual desires of the people will be towards Thy Son. We think of this awful, sin-sick world in the thrall of the end times.

We think of the judgments of God that must fall upon it because of continued sin. So we pray Thee to have mercy upon poor individuals, for Jesus' sake. Amen.