Testimony

I'll tell you in a few minutes how I got saved. Let me tell you this. Years ago, living up in Massachusetts, on the second Lord's Day after I was baptized, one of the overseers came to me and asked me and said, Dave, would you give your testimony tonight? Well, I did, and it took me four minutes.

I tell people now, when I give my testimony, it takes me 40 minutes. Well, tonight I'm going to get back to the four minutes and leave room for my other brethren. We'd love to hear you.

I've given my testimony here before, and most of you have heard it. But we're sitting there and time is wasting. Let's turn over to Psalm chapter 66, just to read a verse.

Psalm 66, verse 16, gives these words, Come and hear, O ye that fear God, and I will declare what he has done for my soul. That's the purpose of us being up here tonight. We want to tell you what God has done for our soul.

Turn over to John chapter 3. A well-known verse, John chapter 3, verse 15. One five. That whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

I was born and brought up in a Christian home. I heard the gospel preached from my earliest days. I was one of eight of nine children.

And one by one of those of those children in the family, My mother and father got saved. And one by one, my eight brothers and sisters professed faith in Christ and were saved. I was the only one in that family of nine children, 11, including my father and mother, that was not saved.

And when my younger brother, he's gone home to heaven now. When my younger brother got saved, I can remember, I'm not saved and I'm the only one. I'll be left behind alone if Jesus comes.

And that troubled me. And that troubled me for the next two years. That if the Lord comes, I'm going to be left behind.

And all my brothers, my sisters, my father and my mother are going to be gone up to heaven. And I'm going to go down to hell. I can tell you, I can tell you stories of how I was troubled during those years.

I remember, I'll tell you one. I remember going down to the city and we were with my mother. We were shopping at a large grocery store.

And for some reason, my mother said to me, stay out here with the shopping bags. And I'll go in and buy the things I have to get. And when I come out, I'll be out shortly.

Well, she wasn't out shortly. And I began to think, maybe the Lord has come. And I'm left out here all alone.

I picked up those shopping bags. And to this day, just a young fellow, I don't know how I picked up all those bags. And I went in the store and I start walking up and down those aisles.

And I said, if I tell my mother, if I see my mother, I'm going to tell her I want to get saved. I found her. I never said a word.

I went to a conference out in New Jersey. I went to see friends, had friends out there. So I went, drove down there.

I was 19 years old at the time. And I can't tell you a thing that was said, because I was there for other purposes. But on the way home, I was asked to stop at the home of some believers in Hartford, Connecticut, which I did.

I was living at this time in Tarrington, Connecticut. This was on a Lord's Day evening. And we sat there, a number of the Christians there visiting that home.

And about 11 o'clock that night, we were leaving. A young man came out of the home with me. And he said to me something about, Dave, when are you going to get saved? And I began to think.

I didn't say anything. He said, do you want to get saved? Well, I did. And I said, do you think we can sit down for a little while and have a conversation? It shook my head.

We sat under a streetlight. And that's why I wrote the track of my salvation, A Lamp by the Side of the Road. We sat under a streetlight with our Bible open.

And he began to bring out verses to me. Until he focused on this verse in John chapter 3, verse 15, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have eternal life. We sat under that streetlight.

Twelve o'clock, midnight. His wife and daughter were sitting in the car in front. They were to drive up to Boston.

I only had to go to Tarrington about 50 miles. One o'clock passed. One o'clock in the morning.

He's still there. And I had made my mind up. And I told God, I'm not leaving this place tonight until I get the matter of my sins taken care of.

He prayed. He spoke. He prayed.

He spoke. And I sat there, looking at my Bible, reading it under the streetlight. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life.

About 20 minutes past one that morning. I don't want to take too much time now. About 20 minutes past one that morning.

Early hour morning. I just bowed my head and said, there's nothing I can do to be saved. I'm going to have to go to hell.

Oh, I don't have to go to hell. Because Jesus paid it all on Calvary. And I received Him as my Savior and I shouted out to Joe, I'm saved! I'm saved! He looked at me.

How do you know you're saved? I said, it says right here that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. I have eternal life and God cannot lie. I have to say this.

In all the years that I've lived, it was the happiest moment of my life to know that my sins were forgiven and heaven as my home, the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. I didn't go home to Tarrington where I was staying. I drove up to Massachusetts, 150 miles away.

And I knocked on the door of my parents at 4.30 in the morning. My younger brother opened the door. Surprised to see me, like, what are you doing here? I said to him, Danny, I said to him the exact same words he had told me two years before.

Danny, I got saved tonight. My father and my mother and my sister gathered in that kitchen. And my brother.

And I tell you, there were praises that went up to heaven. The last of nine children had come home. You're saved tonight? Do you know Christ as your Savior? Are you going to heaven? Should the Lord come tonight? Are you going to be left behind? Tonight may well be your last opportunity.

It may be the last time the gospel is being preached. And any in this gathering, young or older, that know not Christ as your Savior. These words in John 3 and 16, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

You can have eternal life tonight. Trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.