Testiomony, David Yoder

Psalms 37, verse number 4. We're told in ministry today that sometimes we take passages out of context for the gospel, so you'll have to forgive me. Psalms 37 and 4 says, delight thyself in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thy heart. He shall give the desires of thy heart.

Now I want to read in Isaiah chapter 53, a well-known verse, but we're going to read it. Isaiah 53, verse number 5. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Now for those here who do not know who I am, my name is David Yoder. I'm from the Manchester Assembly in Iowa, and I just want to very briefly to tell you tonight how God reached and saved me. I could tell you a long story, but I'm not going to.

I could tell you of how everything transpired that led up to where I even was privileged to hear the gospel. Everything that transpired to the point where I was raised in a gospel hall under the sound of God's word. God is merciful.

He really is. How I was reached and saved, the plan really was all set in place over 2,000 years ago when Christ died upon the cross. That's the only reason that anyone can stand up here tonight and tell them how, tell you how they were reached and saved.

See, over 2,000 years ago, Christ went to the cross, and he suffered, and he bled and died. And from that moment, events transpired that made it so that my dad, who was raised in an Amish family, he put everything in place to the point where he started searching the word of God. See, tonight, my friend, if you've never heard the message of the gospel, if this is your first time hearing it, you don't have to hear it again.

In fact, you never have to hear it. My dad was saved, and he never heard the message of the gospel, but he had God's word in his hand. You can go home tonight.

If you want to be saved, you can go home, and you can open God's word. And his word is powerful, and his word can convict, and his word can save. See, my dad, growing up in an Amish family, in an Amish culture, the thing that made him seek to read the word of God is one day there was a man, a preacher, a bishop, who was so upset with my dad over something that my dad hadn't even done that he yelled at him for two hours.

And my dad had the thought that, I'm going to find out what's wrong with this man. So he went home, and he got a New Testament Bible. He went and bought one, because all they had was a German Bible.

He went and bought a little English Bible. He opened it. He read it, and he was searching what's wrong with this man, that he would be this mad at me for something I didn't do.

And he found out I have done something, that he was a sinner that Christ came to save. Events that transpired led my dad to leave the Amish. And the only thing I can ever say that I remember was growing up in a gospel hall.

My parents went to a lot of different churches, and I don't remember a single one of them. First memory I have of anything was going to a gospel hall, sitting in a seat like you are tonight, hearing the message of the gospel time after time. And from a young age, I understood I had to be saved.

I needed to be saved. See, but as a young man, even if you grow up under the gospel, there's something you find out very quickly still, is that you're a sinner, no matter how good you think you are. And when I was young, I had a problem with lying.

And hopefully I've curbed that problem some now. But it was a stretch there, where I lied about just about everything, and my dad finally had enough of it. And so one night after a gospel meeting, I still remember the message that was preached.

It was the verse in the Psalms where it says, I am a worm and no man. And I don't know if that's decided what sealed it for my dad, but he was going to curb me of my habit of lying. Maybe he thought I was a worm, and I needed to have it beat out of me.

He told me every time you lie, you're going to get spanked. Now I know spanking is a touchy subject in today's world, but the Bible says spare the rod and spoil the child, and it worked for me. If you grow up in a family of 10 children, not a whole lot you can do that somebody else doesn't know about.

That includes lying. And I still remember one day, I wasn't the smartest kid on the block, and I did something, and I got away with it. I lied, and I got away with it.

I just thought, sure, dad was going to spank me that night, and he didn't. And the next morning, I was dumb enough to tell one of my siblings, I lied last yesterday, and dad didn't spank me. Dad came home, and I got spanked.

I learned that a very simple truth that you have heard in the gospel before. Be sure your sin will find you out. If I can't hide from my dad, how can I hide from God? How can you hide from God? Then I remember gospel meetings coming along.

I remember a lot of different series. The first one that really spoke to me was Robert Sersner and Larry Steers. I was seven years old.

1999, August of 1999, a series of meetings took place. I think they started in July and went into August. I remember a lot of people professing to be saved, and I wanted to be saved, or at least I thought so.

But I think what I really wanted is, I wanted to fit in. I wanted to be like everybody else who was being saved. I wanted to be part of the group, because every time somebody got saved, everybody went up to them and smiled and patted them on the back.

And that's why I read Psalms 37, that God will give you the desire of your heart. I have a question for anybody in our audience tonight that is not saved. What is the desire of your heart? I'm being serious.

If I gave you the option tonight, or if your parents had given you the option to come into gospel meeting tonight, or you can leave right now, we'll go to one of your friends' house nearby, and you get to play the rest of the night, or you get to come to gospel meeting and hear how you can be saved, which one would you have chosen? I'm not kidding. Which one would you have chosen? The Bible tells us that He will give you the desire of your heart. Do you desire to know your sins forgiven is that number one priority in your life? Seth, what's important to you? Well, I remember those meetings going on, and it seemed every night at the close, Mr. Sergener would say, all you have to do to be saved is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you'll be saved.

I tried to believe. I really did. One day I thought I felt different, so I told everybody I was saved.

My friend, salvation is not a feeling. Trust me, when you're saved, you'll feel different, but salvation is not a feeling. If all you're basing it on is feeling different one day, rethink it.

Salvation is not a feeling. I remember telling Mr. Sergener, because they told us, if you're saved, tell us when you go out. I didn't tell them that first night that I thought I might have had it, so the next night I told them, and Mr. Sergener and Larry Steers sat me down, and they asked me questions.

Well, you know what happens when you go up under the gospel, and you go to Sunday school? You know verses. You know answers, so they asked questions, and I knew answers, and so when we walked out the doors of the hall that night, I heard Mr. Sergener go up to my mom, pat her on the back, and say another one inside the door, and I thought, well, if Mr. Sergener says I'm saved, I'm saved. Don't let anybody tell you you're saved.

You get it for yourself. Don't let anybody tell you. So I went home, and I thought I was saved, and I tried to to live a good life, be a good Christian, and about a year went by.

I walked into, I think it was a year to the day, I walked into my dad's study, and I told my dad, and I said, hey dad, I've been saved for a year. My dad didn't really, he was reading his Bible, and he didn't really skip a beat. He was just kind of was quiet for a little bit, and then he asked me the question.

He goes, what do you know more about God today than you knew a year ago? And that got me thinking. Time went by. When you have siblings, you annoy siblings.

When you have six sisters, you rarely have to do dishes, and as a whole, I didn't have to dry many dishes. I had six sisters, but for some reason, sometimes I ended up in the kitchen, and one time I ended up in the kitchen, and I had a, you get those towels when you're drying dishes for a family of 12 that get wet, so I got one, and I was twisting it, and I snapped my sister who was drying dishes. I didn't need to be in the kitchen.

I snapped my one of my older sisters, my sister Barb, and she spun on a dime, and she was tired of me, and she goes, um, are you even saved? You want to talk about driving a dagger through your heart. I was done in the kitchen. I walked out, but it got me thinking, and I started thinking, and I came to the conclusion, I don't think I'm saved.

In fact, I know I'm not saved, but I didn't tell anybody, because pride is a powerful thing. So, you might sit here tonight, and you might think, if I, if I, if I get saved, what are my friends going to think? If I get saved, and I, and I do what I hear all the time, that all I have to do is put my trust in a finished work, and there's nothing I really do. Have I even earned it? You can't earn salvation.

Time went on, and I would sit and listen. First of the year rolled around. I'll hurry and finish.

First of the year rolled around, and testimony meetings would happen in Mansfield. That's where I grew up, Mansfield, Ohio. First of the year, testimony meeting, just like this, and for about the first two months, every Sunday night, it was just testimony meetings, and I loved it, because testimony stories, you don't really get preached at a whole lot.

I'd sit and listen. My brother Orva got up, and he told his testimony as how he was saved, and he told about how we had gone, my parents had gone to different churches, and they had altar calls, and my brother Orva used to go up, and they used to tell him he was saved, and he knew nothing was different. He just had a false profession, and I thought, that's like me.

He sat down, and a Mr. Brondis, one of the was riveting. He didn't grow up in a gospel hall, but I didn't listen to him that night. I was thinking, and I was going through verses, and I couldn't find anything.

I couldn't believe enough. I couldn't do anything enough, and finally, I thought to myself, this is it. I've got one of two choices.

I can pretend to be saved and be a good person the rest of my life, and nobody will know the difference, or I can just enjoy my life, because I'm never going to get this. It's not for me, and I opened my Bible one last time, and I opened it Isaiah 53 and verse 5, and I read it, and I stopped, and I read it again, and I read it like this, but he was wounded for my transgressions. He was bruised for my iniquities.

The chastisement of my peace was upon him, and with his stripes, I am healed. I thought, that's it. I thought, no, it can't be that easy.

I've been trying too hard for it to be that easy, and then I read verse 6, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath, he had laid on him the iniquity of us all. There's a verse in second Corinthians, I think it's 5 and 21, that tells us that he was made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

You want to know what that means? That God treated his son as if he was a sinner like you, so that you could be treated as if you were as righteous as his son. Tonight you can trust him, and if that is the desire of your heart, you can know your sins forgiven.