Testimony, Paul Elliott

This is Paul Elliott speaking. I thought that it might be profitable I just pass on to you my testimony as to how that God has dealt with me and given me assurance that when I leave this world I will go to heaven. I was born 67 years ago, the 1st of April, a little town of Applington where I still live and I sometimes tell people that I was born twice in the same town.

The eldest of 10 children and reared as a boy to go to the Sunday school in the Presbyterian church and I was sprinkled in that church possibly when I was about 10 or 11, I still remember it and made a member of the church but I was glad when it was over and I didn't seem to have any joy in it and although I could take the communion as it's called I never did. I didn't know what it was for and those early boyhood days I felt unfit and it wasn't long after that I and perhaps at that time I had convictions that if what my Sunday school teachers told me that I had to be a good boy to expect to go to heaven that I couldn't qualify because I had the conviction that I was a sinner. I learned to swear and steal watermelons with the boys and lie to get out of a licking and those things convicted me often and sometimes I would wonder why it was so much easier for me to do wrong than to do good and things that I knew I ought to do I didn't want to do and things that I knew sometimes I hadn't ought to do that's just what I wanted to do.

So my father was not very religious, I helped him in the barber shop between times as a boy and handyman and a lot of shaving those days and lather them up and so on and he wanted to break me in to be a barber but I wanted to be a farmer. I worked on the farm two or three summers when I was 16, 17 and a year or so younger plowing corn and so on and I drifted away I didn't go to Sunday school my father told me I didn't have to he didn't think it was doing me any good and this went on till I was 18. I was occupied and having a good time I like sports of almost any kind and so I tried to get as much out of life as I could and I remember well on the 4th of July I look forward to celebration in the hometown and I'd worked on the farm and my father told me I could draw five dollars so that 4th of July morning boss said well you get the chores done I'll take you into town and he gave me a dollar bonus so I came to town with six dollars which was a lot of money in those days and so I thought I was going to have a real good time.

The first thing that I planned to do was I was going to eat all the old Henry candy bars I could because they I hadn't only had one or so and they were 10 cents a piece and I ate two of them and I was satisfied. Went down along the street and things were beginning to open up and I stopped at a stand where the nickel a throw or a punch you had a chance to get a nice box of candy. First thing I know I'd taken 15 punches and 75 cents was gone and I still didn't have any kind of candy and I thought to myself well I could have went into the drug store and bought a very nice box of candy for that 75 cents and I don't think in those days until I was saved I was nearly 21 and I probably spent over a quarter in any gambling of any any form it seemed to have cured me and I spent the day went to the ball game which I enjoyed probably most of all but that evening I come home quite early I had some of my money left and I thought to myself I wish we'd had a fourth July like we generally had we boys had earned some money mowing lawn and so on and get some firecrackers and fireworks and dad would get about three gallon ice creams and cones and I enjoyed a lot more well I can see now that God was speaking to me and teaching me that the world didn't satisfy.

When I was 18 I began keeping company with my wife and she went to Baptist church in fact I found out later her father was a real born again man her mother had died suddenly of a stroke after they moved to town off the farm and so I thought if I was going to go with her it looked better if I would go to the Baptist church at least on Sunday night I'd take her home so I started going to the Baptist church one was just as good another to me because I didn't know what was right and so before long I was also going Sunday morning to the young men's class meanwhile about that time there's two men came to our town put up a tent in the town park they were having meetings of course my folks didn't go and I didn't go but my wife's father always interested in the Bible he went and he liked the preaching it wasn't any denomination but he knew there was only one way to heaven and those men talked about being saved and knowing that they had everlasting life and he said on the way home and he talked rather broken German he said those men have no more as I got he had the same thing he had experienced after coming home from Germany used to tell how that troubled about his soul God had saved him in the one day and so many a night that I would go about nine o'clock to the tent and take walk my girl home I went in one night and one of the men had a chart up that I'd never seen before I don't remember much about it but I know that hell was pictured on there and also the lake of fire I never heard of the lake of fire but I was 18 and young and strong and pride of myself and having good wind and so on I thought well maybe I'm going to hell but I've got lots of time so I dismiss it from mine never went back and about two years later we were still going together and meanwhile I was afraid sometimes that whatever this thing was they talked about being saved that my girlfriend might get it and it might be all up between us because I sensed there was something different about it but being there was so much talk against it in the barber shop I was working for my father by this time barbering right along graduated from high school and there was ridicule so much and my father was against it and thought they were after the money and one thing and another so I absorbed that and that was my frame of mind too but this particular Sunday my wife's brother and I were great friends we took our girlfriends and went over north about 35 40 miles to visit a favorite aunt of theirs and she had a couple of boys we had dinner and spent some time playing riding around and on the way back we stopped at one of my wife's brothers lived over about 15 miles north of us on the farm and some of her brothers had gotten saved and they were all older than her except one and I kind of steered shy of those saved ones because I I didn't know what didn't want to get mixed up in it and anyhow we stopped in it was about supper time we stayed for supper and he came in from doing his chores and washed up and sat down at the table and bowed his head and gave thanks and right there God spoke to me the reality of his prayer and the love that he expressed to God for his son and so on was it really made me feel like crying but I was too proud for that but I thought he has something I don't have I wish I had what he has I wish I could pray like that and then the thought come up where did he get it but this time the meetings were over north of town in a building that had been the UB church it wasn't used for church purposes that they'd gotten they were having meetings I had never gone but we had talked about going that night because I didn't say a thing at the table but that was all running through my mind and I thought if we go to that meeting tonight I'm going to listen and find out about this thing which I did the man that spoke that night dwelled quite a little on John 3 16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life and he said there are 25 words in the verse and the word son is right in the middle now he said we'll take the first part and consider that for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son and he said now let us all ask ourselves a question do I believe that can I make that part of the verse my own and I said to myself well certainly I can't I've always believed that I believe in the bible which I'm thankful for I had no thought in my mind that the bible wasn't true that's so prevalent today thinking well how do I know there's a heaven and how do I know there's a hell I didn't occur to me so he didn't dwell so very long on that part of the verse and he went to the last part that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life now he said you notice it says have everlasting life and what you have you no longer hope for in other words you you've got it well I said to myself that's surely true he said now let's all ask ourselves a question do I have life and I said no in the first place I didn't know you could have but the more I thought about it the more wonderful it seemed to me now he said you'll notice that God links believing and having together whosoever believeth in him should not perish which means should not go to hell but have everlasting life now he said there are people that say well I believe all right but I don't have everlasting life he said if you persist in saying that well then you're making God out a liar because you can't separate the two if you believe you have if you don't have you don't believe and I said to myself well that's what's wrong with me I always knew there was something wrong but then then I have never really believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as my savior and I determined that this is what I would like to have many things as a boy we being a large family we were poor I never had a bicycle I always wished I could have one many things like that and I thought well if this is for sinners well then this is a gift for me so my interest had awakened after the meeting one of my wife's brothers another one of them that I knew better he said to me will you go along Tuesday night they were going to have meetings that week yes I said I will so I went along Tuesday night and of course Wednesday night I couldn't go because it worked I began to go to the meetings whenever they had meetings and I began to learn things that I had never known before I hardly knew one verse in the Bible I didn't understand it and I didn't know that the most important thing in all of in all Bible was was the cross and I heard the cross preached on a lot and why Jesus shed his blood I was despised rejected a man of sorrows the queen of the grief another thing that cleared up to me I often wondered there are three churches in our town and I often wondered how many of those that went to these churches were like me they were supposed to be Christians but I had no assurance that I was a Christian and which church was right and but I learned that the Bible says that he that hath a son hath life he that hath not the son hath not life well that meant I could belong to any church or belong to all of them but if I didn't have the son I wouldn't have eternal life it was not the question of a of a denomination or a religion it was a question of a person just like being married at that time I wasn't married well I was wanting to be married but it was poor times my wife was a couple years younger than myself I believed 100% in being married but I wasn't married but the time came when there was a transaction and we assembled in my father-in-law's house and had a wedding ceremony and the preacher pronounced us married from that time on if anybody asks me if I am married I say I am I don't say that I hope I am I don't say that I feel I am I don't say that I think I am I just say that I am and I have the preacher's word for it and what makes me married is a person my dear wife she's still living so as long as she's living I'm living I'm married it's not my belief in being married that makes me married it's because that she is my wife I accepted her and she accepted me the preacher pronounced us married but now I'm more sure that I'm saved than I am that I'm married because I have God's word for it that I am saved and I was saved before I was married and my wife was saved before we were married but I was saved first although she heard the gospel before I did but I think one big reason why I got saved first was because I knew that I was a sinner I knew that I was ungodly I didn't drink I didn't smoke I had never been in jail I'd never been arrested but I was ungodly I had a filthy tongue had a hot temper evil thoughts and the more I heard of the gospel the more I saw the word of God condemn me the bible says we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags I had no trouble in understanding that I was born a sinner when I heard it from the bible psalm 51 says behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me I knew my parents were good people but I knew they were not saved because they were against me being saved and they wanted nothing to do with it but in fact they never got saved from after that I did and another thing that I learned a little about the spirit of God there were times when I would be uh working at barber chair I would be thinking about my soul and where I would be in eternity then again I could be occupied with the frivolous things of life and things of time and sense just like I always was before and I knew I learned from the bible that the spirit of God was in the world to convict men of sin the righteousness of judgment to come and so I knew that at times the spirit of God was dealing with me and the bible says my spirit shall not always strive with man he that being often approved hardened at his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy so I feared that then I learned about what is sometimes called the rapture of the church that was that when the day of grace was over the church age in which we live that the church being complete or the bride of Christ the last soul being saved the heavenly bridegroom the Lord Jesus Christ who went to the cross and shed his blood to redeem a bride and cleanse four sinners he was coming to the air and he was going to take his people home first Thessalonians 4 says the dead in Christ shall rise first I learned that when people died they either went to hell or heaven the body to the grave but the soul as the bible says absent from the body present to the Lord that's the saved that are on their way of which it says find it but those on the broad road and Jesus declares in Matthew 7 many there be which go in their act they die on the broad road or in their sins like the rich man and Luke he died he lifted up his eyes in hell and was in torment I could see that they would depend if I ever got off that broad road then I learned there was only one way that was off of the broad road only one exit into the eternal life and Jesus says I am the door by me if any man enter in he shall be saved and again he says I am the way the truth and life no man cometh unto the father but by me and all these things that troubled me another thing that I learned was there was more than one death in the bible there's a physical death that I always feared I always was afraid of death because there was something told me Paul you're not ready and I certainly wanted to go to heaven but I also learned that I was dead in trespasses and sins when the Lord told Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shall surely die that involved more than physical death it meant spiritual death which is separation and Adam lived to be 930 years but when they partook of the forbidden fruit they sinned and separation was immediate between the holy God and his creatures that's why that they were afraid and although they clothed themselves with fig leaf aprons I believe they had a conscience that God was not satisfied because why did they hide behind the trees the garden Adam our God came walking through the garden the cool of the day and he said Adam where art thou and then you remember how that he clothed them later on recorded in that chapter with the skins of animals those innocent animals died in order that Adam and Eve might be clothed with a garment that satisfied God this point forth to the cross as well pointed forth to the blood of the innocent one God's son dying on the cross for the guilty in order that they might have a room of righteousness that would meet the eye of God because none of us can ever satisfy God in ourselves as Romans 3 says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God but it also teaches that upon receiving Christ as your own personal savior of being born again God imputes to the believing sinner his son of perfect righteousness and this is expressed furthermore in the gospel by Luke chapter 15 the prodigal son when at last repented and said I'll go to the father and I'll say father I have sinned and I'm no more worthy to be called thy son make me as one of thy hired servants the father ran and kissed he put a ring on his finger which speaks of the eternal covenant and eternal life because there's no end to a ring and he put he called for the best robe and put it on him that you see is God's righteousness the Lord Jesus Christ anyhow this went on for some months I'd go to meetings and I reasoned that in order for God to save me I would have to get better and much to say that I would be fit to be saved by reforming and so on but I learned that this was to no avail finally I was invited in the month of December by my wife's brother to go to Waterloo where an evangelist was preaching in the hall I had planned to play on a basketball game that night I played on the town team and when he asked me I had to make a decision it was either to go to the ball game or to the gospel meeting which would it be and I realized that I stood beside the barber chair that should I get killed going to the ball game I would be in hell I knew that because I wasn't prepared and this decided a I said I'll go to the meeting never thinking that that would be the last gospel meeting that I would sit in unsaved I went to many a gospel meeting since but everyone has been since I'm saved and we went and the man preached on Romans 3 and in that chapter we find what is sometimes called 14 charges against man and his sin that begins by what then are we better than they that is the comparison of the june gentile no and no wise because we have before proved that we're all under sin there is none a good no not one and I knew that it all spoke of me that I was guilty well after the meeting perceiving that I was concerned about my soul they talked to me prayed with me and exclaimed explained scriptures to me but I couldn't see it I couldn't get the assurance that I was looking for that I was a possessor of eternal life and finally they had a word of prayer with me I wept about my soul and they asked me after that if I believed that God was satisfied with his son well you see that took my mind off of myself to think of but how I could know that God was satisfied with Jesus and a verse came to me that we find in the gospels where God spoke from heaven and said this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased and I knew right there that God was satisfied with his son then the question was asked are you satisfied with Jesus and I knew there was not one single solitary reason why I shouldn't be be satisfied with the lamb of God who is pure perfect holy and sinless and undefiled and out of love for you and me when voluntarily the cross knowing that it was to be despised and hated and scorned and punished remember how they prayed in the garden of Gethsemane for my father would be possible let this cup pass from me would nevertheless not my will but thine be done there upon the cross praying for his tormentors he drained that bitter cup to its last dark drop suffering not only the hatred and the injustice of men but bearing the wrath of God in those last three dark hours well I didn't get saved then but when I got home and first I got on my knees and prayed and asked God to show me this did no good open the Bible I found no no relief I went to bed and undress laid down beside one of my brothers who was sleeping and I thought as I lay there there's nothing I can do I'm lost and unless God saved me I'll have to go to hell and I thought of those questions my answer was the same I knew that God was satisfied with Jesus I was satisfied laying there in the dark John 3 16 came to my mind and what was there that God put it there for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him just when that whosoever I saw in a flash that takes me in I rested for the first time upon God's promise and I knew instantly that I had everlasting life that joyous moment when God to me a vision gave of Calvary I'll never forget I rolled out of bed and I thought now I can thank God for the first time for the Lord Jesus Christ for he is mine now if I live till December the 14th this year I will be 47 years in Christ 47 years on the way to heaven as we sometimes sing is is not only precious to me but as sweeter as the days move by because life is so short and so uncertain James says what is your life it's even as a vapor we're here today and we're gone tomorrow remember the proverb says boast not thyself of tomorrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth and again a verse that spoke to me for what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul for what shall a man give in exchange for his soul when we think of the times that are upon us it I'm sure what the Bible describes as the last days the coming of the Lord is very near for as it was in the days of Noah so shall it also be in the days of the son of man as it was in the days of not first God passed judgment upon the world with a flood because of their sin and corruption and secondly it was fire those ungodly cities of the plain were destroyed by fire fire in the days of blood and it said that the people knew not until the day you see they were warned but they paid no attention to it and we find in this day we have hardness and indifference to the gospel people occupied with pleasure and with the things of this life and hurrying on as fast as time can take them to certain doom unless they are born again now I trust that God will bless this testimony and that glory might be brought to his beloved son in his worthy precious name