Testimony, Jerry Jennings

So I'll read a verse of scripture with you. Figured some of these young brethren would be their heels would be on fire getting up here. But they weren't.

First time I ever told or was going to tell how the Lord saved me, I waited and waited and waited. And finally, I took a run for the podium. And when I got to and I didn't look up, I was looking down at my feet.

And when I got there, Sam Hamilton was on the podium and I was looking for a hole to fall into. So I just fell in the first seat there. So I'll read a verse of scripture with you.

I want to read verse six of chapter five. For when were ye yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. I was born out in South Dakota in an old wooden house in 1939.

Now you know how old I am. Getting kind of long at the tooth. And my my mom was in this old house having a baby.

She had a baby girl. And after she had that baby girl, she thought she's done. And then the doctor said to her, says, well, no, you're not done yet.

There's another one coming. That was me. And my dad was down at the, he was at the beer joint.

That's where he lived. My dad was an alcoholic. He died an alcoholic.

And he died an alcoholic's death. But there was a man in the neighborhood and his name is Crackie. And he brought a lump of coal over to the house and put it in the stove.

My mom told me and warmed the house up a little bit. And life went on and on. 1948, my dad went fishing with his cronies, fell out of the boat and drowned.

And I remember laying out in the grass a day or so after that, looking up into the sky. Now, I'd never heard the gospel, neither had I ever saw the insight of a Bible. I was looking up into the sky.

And I was doing what kids did in those days, you know, they look into those clouds and they can see all different kinds of forms like a horse and a cow. And, you know, that's how we had our fun. And that's all I found.

We didn't have a lot of computer stuff. And I began to realize that there was a God. I don't know how I realized that in that day, but I did.

And I got to thinking in my mind someday I was going to have to go meet God and I knew I wasn't ready. And you know something else? I didn't know how to get ready. And I didn't know how to get ready for a long time until I was 34 years of age.

And I could tell you stories tonight that make your hair stand on end and you'd have trouble sleeping. I'm not going to do that. But in the fall of 1973, a lady came to the house and left a gospel track and an invitation.

I'd never seen a gospel track in my life. I did a hitch in the Army. I did a hitch in the Navy.

I went to Korea, went to Vietnam, and I never heard anything or saw anything in all those years and never met anybody that seems to know anything. And all those years I was troubled about my soul. I didn't know I was troubled about my soul.

I was just troubled. And there was an emptiness in my life and I didn't know what it was, but it was Christ wasn't there. And I wasn't saved, but I knew someday I was going to die.

And I knew that if I died, that God had put me in hell. And if he did, he was right and I was wrong. And I'd never heard the gospel.

And yet I knew that. Some of you have heard it over and over again. And don't even consider that.

Sad. 1973, a woman came to the house, left a track, God's Way of Salvation. And my wife handed it to me when I came into the house after work.

And I said, well, what is that? And she says, well, that's, I think that's religion. She didn't know either. And I said, well, I could use a little religion.

And she said, no, you could use a lot of religion. But I didn't need religion. What I really needed was Christ as my savior.

So we went to hear the gospel and it was among Baptist people. Can you imagine that? And boy, I'll tell you, them old time Baptist preachers, they'd drag your heels over the fires of hell. And if you didn't know where you were going after you heard them, they'd tell you where you were going real quick at the door.

They'd get ahold of your hand and you didn't, you know, you didn't want to give your hand to them because they'd hang on to it. Boy, they'd get right after you. Which way are you going, boy? I was a boy in them days.

I'm an old man and I'd have to tell them I was on my way to hell. I listened to the gospel preached four nights on the way home. On the eve of the fourth night, my wife told me that she was saved.

And I said, how do you know that? And she told me how in her mind, she linked up that lamb in the land of Egypt with the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world. She said, He took away my sin. I said, there's got to be more to it than that.

She said, well, if you think there is, you'll just die and go to hell. I didn't want to hear that. I want to tell this real quick because I want to tell you something else too.

I don't want to leave some time. So anyways, we kept going to the gospel meeting night after night after night and finally one night. And this preacher probably quoted this verse who knows how many times in a series of about three, maybe three, four weeks of gospel meetings.

For while we were yet without strength in due time, I never heard that. I never heard that at all. I heard this, Christ died for the ungodly.

And I knew in a snap of your finger that described me. And he went on to tell about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the majesty on high. And he said, that's proof positive to you and me that God has accepted his sacrifice for your debt of sin and mine and God is satisfied.

And I thought in my mind, if, and I wasn't in it, but doubt if God is satisfied, I'm satisfied too. And then there was an ad in the paper, re-preach Christ crucified, bring your Bibles and no collection. Now, who do you suppose put that in the paper? It was the brethren from the gospel hall.

And so I said to my wife, I said, I'm going to go see if there's anything there. Because we'd gone everywhere else looking for, we don't really know what we were looking for. And we went to this meeting and the meetings were over.

And then after quite a long time, there come a knock on the door one night and we went to the door and Dick Brule was there. And I said, come on in, man. I said, where have you been? He says, where have you been? I said, I've been right here.

And where have you been? He said, I've been looking for you. I said, here we are. So he came in.

You know what he asked us? How did God save you? I said to my wife, go ahead and tell him that shouldn't be too hard. So she told first and I told second, that's a man for you. Make your wife do it first.

So he said, if you're saved, what are you looking for? I said, I don't know. He says, how do you worship? And I says, I don't know that either. He says, well, I'll tell you what I think it is.

And he told us a simple little way, explained it real simply that he during the week, he would appreciate something of the person of Christ and on the Lord's day morning, he would give that back to God. And that made sense to me. So we started sneaking away to the gospel hall here, but it was on Clinton street.

And then finally the old Baptist preacher found out we were sneaking away. He said, where are you going? He said, going down to Clinton street to the gospel hall. Well, he says, I tell you what, if I wasn't a John the Baptist Baptist, he says, that's where I'd go.

And he says, if it don't work for you, come on back. Well, it worked and we've never gone back there anyway. So when you say dying, if you're not saved, why not? God has done everything he's going to do to save your soul.

He's not going to do one thing more. He gave the very best of heaven for the very worst of earth. He gave his son to die for your sins and mine.

And God is satisfied with his sacrifice. And there is no reason that you could ever come up with in your mind why you're not satisfied. If God is satisfied, my friend in the meeting, young and old alike, you can be satisfied as well.

And I'll tell you the moment you're satisfied, you're satisfied for all eternity because there's nothing in this world that's going to satisfy you. And the only one, whoever will is the Lord Jesus.