Pillars of Faith

God's Witness Protection Plan

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Jim Gilley, Pastor

Series Code: POF

00:26 Hello, and we welcome you again to session number two
00:29 of our very special time together.
00:32 Pillars of Faith.
00:33 The word for today in today's world.
00:36 With our speaker Pastor Jim Gilley,
00:39 who, as we've said before, just some time ago
00:41 manned this desk as president of 3ABN.
00:44 But he has returned to give us the word of God.
00:47 His wife is with him,
00:48 and we're always happy to see Camille Gilley.
00:49 But we had a wonderful time in our first sitting.
00:53 Christ, Our Great High Priest, is the title of the message
00:57 that was delivered with power and with conviction.
01:00 And today, Jim is going to be speaking on the subject,
01:04 God's Witness Protection Plan.
01:06 That's kind of an intriguing title.
01:09 God's Witness Protection Plan.
01:10 We know what the witness protection plan is
01:13 and who it's supposed to keep us safe from,
01:15 but tonight we get to hear of God's witness protection plan
01:20 and how God will keep us safe from all hurt and harm.
01:25 And we are excited to hear what Pastor Jim has to say to us.
01:29 So we ask you to put on your listening ears and your praying
01:33 mindset as he brings us the word of God.
01:36 We know God has much to say to him and through him.
01:39 Our Scripture lesson for the evening comes from the
01:42 book of Isaiah, Isaiah 43, and we want to consider
01:47 verses 10-12.
01:50 Then we will pray.
01:51 And the next voice you will hear will be that of our pastor,
01:54 our friend, Jim Gilley.
01:57 Isaiah 43, and I begin reading at verse 10.
02:01 The Bible says, "'You are My witnesses,' says the LORD,
02:07 'and My servant whom I have chosen,
02:10 that you may know and believe Me,
02:14 and understand that I am He.
02:18 Before Me there was no God formed,
02:22 nor shall there be after Me.
02:24 I, even I, am the LORD, and besides Me there is no savior.'"
02:32 And verse 12, "I have declared and saved, I have proclaimed,
02:38 and there was no foreign god among you;
02:41 Therefore you are My witnesses..."
02:47 Shall we pray.
02:49 Gracious Father, how we praise You and thank You
02:53 for the power of Your word.
02:56 How we thank You that when the word goes forth,
03:00 lives are changed, hearts are touched,
03:05 destinies are re-arranged, lives are saved for eternity.
03:11 And so we commit and commend Your manservant to You
03:15 again this day.
03:16 Preach to him as You preach through him.
03:21 Bless him so that he may be a blessing to us.
03:24 Speak to him so that Your words will be spoken to us.
03:29 Give us open, attentive, and receptive hearts
03:34 and ears that we may hear the word of God,
03:38 but that also, dear Lord, we may be impressed,
03:41 and emboldened, and encouraged
03:43 to do that which we know is right.
03:47 Forgive us of every sin, and give us Your presence
03:51 and Your power this day.
03:53 And we praise You and thank You in Jesus' name.
03:58 Amen and amen.
04:00 Just now, our pastor, our friend, Jim Gilley.
04:10 Thank you, Brother C.A.
04:12 And it's good to be with Brother Murray again
04:16 and to hear his rich voice reading the Scripture
04:22 from the book of Isaiah.
04:24 "'You are My witnesses,' says the Lord."
04:27 This is what God has called us to be; His witnesses.
04:31 He talks about all of the great things that He did,
04:34 but then He says in the very next chapter
04:38 that He is going to do new things.
04:42 He says, in fact, in that same chapter in verse 19,
04:46 "Behold, I will do a new thing," He says.
04:49 "Behold, it will spring forth, that you shall know it.
04:55 And I will even make a road in the desert..."
04:58 And He goes on about these great new things that
05:02 He wants us to witness about.
05:06 And the greatest of which was His Son, Jesus,
05:10 who came, who lived, and who died on the cross.
05:17 You know, one of the great privileges that I had
05:19 over the years was to know H.M.S. Richards, Sr.
05:24 I knew H.M.S. Richards, Jr as well.
05:27 But knowing H.M.S. Richards, Sr. was a very special thing.
05:32 He was a man of God.
05:35 He loved the Lord and he was a man of experience.
05:39 He lived a long life, lived up into the 90's.
05:42 And he was still preaching right up until the very end
05:46 of his life.
05:47 And so he was a wonderful man.
05:51 The other day somebody gave me his last sermon.
05:54 I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet.
05:57 But I'm looking forward to listening to the last sermon
06:00 of that great man who loved the Lord Jesus Christ
06:04 and was great because of his commitment to Jesus,
06:08 and because he did love Him so much.
06:11 Elder Richards use to love to tell the story
06:13 about when he was a young man.
06:16 And he loved to preach the gospel.
06:18 And on Sabbath morning he would get on the streetcar
06:22 and he would ride out of Takoma Park where he was
06:26 going to college, and he would go out to what he called,
06:30 The Hill Church.
06:32 And this was a place where he was preaching the gospel
06:37 every Sabbath morning.
06:39 The conference had made him the pastor of that church
06:43 while he was going to college.
06:45 Elder Richards had gone out and been in evangelism
06:48 for a few years before he had gone back to
06:50 Washington Missionary College.
06:52 He was living in a little apartment where his grandmother
06:57 had also a room, and she would prepare his meals for him.
07:03 And so he would leave that apartment on Sabbath morning
07:07 and he would go out to preach.
07:08 One Sabbath morning he said that he was on the streetcar
07:13 and there was a young boy going up the street.
07:16 It was a beautiful day.
07:17 The boy was going skating.
07:19 He had his skates thrown over his shoulder
07:22 and he was sort of skipping along.
07:24 And there was a grouchy old man with an umbrella.
07:29 As Elder Richards says, a beautiful day and here this
07:31 man had an umbrella.
07:32 Which showed he was pretty negative about things.
07:35 He was predicting rain even though it was a beautiful day.
07:39 And he was waiting to board the streetcar.
07:43 And as the boy went by, the skates bumped into the man.
07:48 It angered him.
07:50 And the man turned and tried to hit the boy,
07:53 but the boy moved away from him.
07:55 So the wife pushed the man ahead of her
07:59 and pushed him on into the streetcar.
08:01 He went immediately to his seat and he began to exchange
08:05 a conversation with that young boy.
08:07 And the boy walked up close to the car.
08:09 He should have gone on.
08:11 There's no question about that.
08:12 But he walked up close to the streetcar,
08:14 and the man reached out the window with his umbrella
08:17 and he hit at the boy, and he struck him right in the eye.
08:22 Now this matter finally came to a court trial.
08:26 Elder Richards says he was asleep there in his little
08:29 apartment in Carroll Avenue, and early in the morning
08:35 he awakened, a man was shaking him.
08:37 It was a policeman.
08:39 He said it was the biggest policeman
08:41 he'd ever seen in his life.
08:42 It scared him to death.
08:44 He said he thought the time of trouble had started.
08:45 And so this policeman told him, "You're to be a witness today
08:50 in the trial."
08:52 So he went down to the courthouse.
08:55 This is where the trial was to take place for that man.
08:59 And he was being charged with assaulting this boy.
09:06 Elder Richards said he learned a lot in that trial that day.
09:09 He said that this man was put on trial,
09:13 and the witnesses were brought.
09:15 And he said the witness that took place before he did
09:19 was a school teacher, and she became very excited.
09:22 And she said, "Why, Judge, when that man looked out the window,
09:25 he looked just like a demon."
09:28 The judge said, "Whoa, wait a minute.
09:30 Have you ever seen a demon?"
09:33 She said, "No."
09:34 "Then how do you know what one looks like?
09:37 You just stick to what you saw.
09:41 And don't have another other expressions.
09:42 Just tell me what you witnessed."
09:45 Elder Richards said he kind of took some mental notes.
09:48 He decided he was going to be very careful in his testimony.
09:51 When he got up, he said, "Why, Judge..."
09:55 And he began to tell the judge what he thought
09:58 of a man that would do such a thing.
10:00 And the judge said, "Young man, I'm not interested in what
10:04 your opinion is.
10:06 All I want to know is what did you see.
10:10 What did you witness?"
10:13 You know, that's what a witness is supposed to do, isn't it?
10:15 A witness is supposed to tell what they have seen,
10:19 what they observed, what they heard,
10:22 what they saw with their eyes.
10:26 "'Ye are My witnesses,' saith the Lord."
10:30 That's what He's called us to do.
10:32 To tell what we've experienced, what our experience
10:35 with the Lord is.
10:37 Not an opinion, not an idea, not a theory,
10:42 but tell us your experience.
10:46 "'Ye are My witnesses,' saith the Lord."
10:51 The Bible says in Acts 1:8, Jesus said to them
10:56 just as He was leaving, He said, "I want you to be My witnesses
11:01 all over the world," He said.
11:04 He actually was more specific than that.
11:07 Acts 1:8
11:10 He says, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Ghost,
11:15 the Holy Spirit, is come upon you;
11:17 and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem..."
11:21 Starting right there at home.
11:23 "...and in all Judea, and Samaria,
11:27 and to the end of the earth."
11:32 "'You are My witnesses,' saith the Lord."
11:37 That's what the Lord has called us to do.
11:40 You know, He didn't say, "You are My judges."
11:44 He didn't say, "You are My prosecuting attorneys."
11:49 He didn't say that you are to prosecute and to accuse,
11:53 or anything of that nature.
11:56 He said you're to be a witness.
11:59 A witness of what has happened in your own life.
12:06 My friend, this is what we have been called to do.
12:12 To witness.
12:13 To tell the world what Jesus has done in us,
12:17 and through us, and for us.
12:20 And that is what it is really all about.
12:23 You know, when something exciting has happened to you,
12:26 you want to tell people about it.
12:28 It may be just something sort of mundane.
12:31 One day I was with my wife and we were on a vacation,
12:35 and we were in Florida.
12:37 And I say vacation; we had a few days off.
12:40 And my wife likes to go to the mall sometimes.
12:44 And that day she was at the mall and she was in one of
12:48 the department stores.
12:50 So I was wandering down the mall and a man came down the mall,
12:54 and he had a lot of shirts with him.
12:58 I mean, he was carrying a lot of shirts.
13:01 And he said, "They're having a sale at Penney's,
13:05 and they're selling shirts for two dollars."
13:08 Now this was just a few years ago.
13:10 These were not two dollars shirts.
13:13 Just all of a sudden the manager walked in and said,
13:15 "Put all these shirts on for two dollars.
13:18 I want them out of here."
13:20 So I ran over there.
13:22 And I bought shirts for myself, for my sons, for my son-in-law.
13:28 I bought shirts for all... Two bucks a piece!
13:31 I was buying shirts.
13:33 And when I walked out of there I had a whole load of shirts.
13:36 And I was saying to people when I saw them,
13:38 "They're selling shirts for two dollars."
13:41 I was telling what had happened, I was witnessing.
13:44 Even when I walked out of the store and was walking down
13:48 the hall of the mall.
13:50 Because I had found something that was kind of exciting.
13:54 You know, when you find Jesus, you can't contain it.
14:00 It will show up on your face.
14:02 And you will be a witness of our Lord.
14:09 I enjoy going to Israel.
14:12 You know you've heard me tell that many, many times.
14:14 Because when I'm some place and I can actually see
14:19 where things happened, it helps me understand
14:22 the Bible even better.
14:24 One of the places where I enjoy going is the spot
14:28 that the Bible talks about in Mark where there was a man
14:33 that was a demoniac.
14:35 He was possessed of the devil.
14:38 Let's read about that man.
14:40 It tells that Jesus, it says, "Then they came to the
14:42 other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarenes."
14:45 This is Mark the 5th chapter.
14:48 "And when He had come out of the boat,
14:50 immediately there met Him out of the tombs
14:53 a man with an unclean spirit..."
14:55 Right down by the shore he met Him.
14:58 Jesus just came out of the boat.
15:01 And here is this wild man.
15:04 It says that he had an unclean spirit.
15:07 "...who had his dwelling among the tombs;
15:10 and no one could bind him, not even with chains..."
15:14 They could not contain this man.
15:17 "...because he had often been bound with shackles and chains.
15:20 And the chains had been pulled apart by him,
15:23 and the shackles broken in pieces.
15:25 Neither could anyone tame him."
15:27 Wild man.
15:29 Filled with the devil.
15:30 "Always, night and day, he was in the mountains
15:33 and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones."
15:37 You know, there are cutters today.
15:40 I've seen some of these young people who have come
15:43 for counseling, and they would have places where they had
15:46 cut themselves many times.
15:49 This is a demonic possession that takes place.
15:53 And this man had that possession.
15:55 He was cutting himself with stones, it says.
15:58 "When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him.
16:02 And he cried out with a loud voice and said,
16:04 'What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?
16:08 I implore You by God that You do not torment me.'"
16:11 But this was the demon speaking from out of this man.
16:16 "And He said to him, 'Come out of the man, unclean spirit!'
16:21 Then He asked him, 'What is your name?'
16:24 And the demon answered and said,
16:25 'My name is Legion; for we are many.'
16:28 And he begged Him earnestly that He would not
16:30 send them out of the country.
16:32 Now there was a herd of swine that was
16:33 feeding near the mountains.
16:35 So all the demons begged Him, saying,
16:39 'Send us to the swine, that we may enter them.'
16:42 And at once Jesus gave them permission.
16:46 Then the unclean spirits went out and entered the swine;
16:50 there were about two thousand..."
16:52 Two thousand pigs.
16:54 "...and the herd ran violently down the steep place
16:57 into the sea, and drowned in the sea."
17:03 Now that was quite a moving experience.
17:06 You can imagine how the people felt that saw it.
17:11 But especially those that were taking care of the pigs.
17:13 They ran into town.
17:15 They got hold of the people that owned the pigs.
17:18 And they brought them out.
17:20 And you know, those people that were owning the pigs,
17:22 they were upset.
17:24 They asked Jesus to leave.
17:25 They said, "We don't want You around here.
17:27 You're too expensive.
17:29 We just lost 2000 pigs as a result."
17:33 It's amazing how many times that people will choose pigs
17:37 over the Savior.
17:39 Or how many times people will choose swine's food
17:44 instead of Jesus.
17:47 How many times!
17:49 And Jesus, He never stays where people don't want Him.
17:53 They ask Him to leave, He was ready to leave.
17:58 And then something happened.
18:01 It says they came to Jesus and they asked Him to leave.
18:05 And then they began to plead with Him to depart.
18:08 And the man said to Him, He got into the boat,
18:12 the man who was demon possessed begged Him
18:15 that he might go with Him.
18:17 Now he wasn't demon possessed anymore.
18:19 He wasn't out of his mind anymore.
18:22 This man was healed.
18:24 When Jesus heals somebody, they are healed.
18:27 This man was in his right mind.
18:30 But Jesus said, "I've got a more important work for you
18:33 than going with Me."
18:35 "However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him,
18:38 'Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things
18:43 the Lord has done for you, and how He has
18:46 had compassion on you.'
18:49 And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis
18:53 all that Jesus had done for him.
18:56 And all the people marveled
19:00 at what Jesus had done for this man.
19:03 You know, this is where witnessing begins.
19:06 It starts at home.
19:09 "Go home," He said.
19:11 "Go home to your friends, go home to your family."
19:14 Now he didn't just home.
19:16 He went throughout all the cities of Decapolis.
19:19 And whenever we're there, we always visit
19:21 at least one of those; and that's Beit She'an.
19:25 And we go there, and the ruins are tremendous.
19:29 You can see what an impact; this Roman city in Decapolis.
19:33 There were ten cities, Roman cities, that were built
19:36 along that side of the Sea of Galilee.
19:40 And it says that this man went through those cities.
19:44 Now these were not cities where Jesus would have been welcomed
19:47 most of the time to go.
19:49 So this man was able to go somewhere where Jesus
19:52 would not be accepted, not be even allowed
19:56 necessarily to come.
19:58 And Jesus told him, "Go home to your friends, to your family."
20:07 Witnessing begins at home.
20:10 Sometimes I see young people, and they, when you talk to them
20:16 about their home life, they don't want to be a Christian
20:20 because they've grown up with somebody who was not
20:25 a real Christian.
20:27 Somebody who gave a different picture of the Lord
20:32 than the Lord would have them give.
20:35 Go home to your family. That's where witnessing starts.
20:39 It starts at home.
20:41 I remember one time going into a home of a person that
20:46 everyone thought this man was such a nice person
20:50 and such a great Christian.
20:51 But as we were talking with his wife, she showed us
20:55 where she had been struck on her arm, the bruise
21:00 that she had received.
21:02 She showed us a hole in a wall where
21:04 he had punched with his fist.
21:06 She showed us a door that had been torn from its hinges.
21:11 And you see, this man was going home, taking off
21:17 his Christianity just like it was a coat,
21:20 leaving it at the door.
21:22 And when he went into the house, he was a horrible person
21:27 to live with.
21:28 Elder Fordyce Detamore tells about going to hold
21:31 an evangelistic meeting in the city where a lady had said to
21:36 to him over and over again, "Oh, Brother Detamore,
21:39 I want you to please come and visit my husband.
21:43 Please, he will not come to church with me.
21:46 Please come and visit."
21:49 Brother Detamore said he went to the home and he sat down.
21:53 Before he could say anything, the lady said,
21:55 "Oh, Brother Detamore, you don't know how hard it is
21:59 to live with a man who's not a Christian.
22:02 Elder Detamore said it was very quiet for a moment.
22:07 And the man looked at his wife and said, "You know, honey,
22:10 I think I'm just about as good a Christian as you are."
22:15 And Brother Detamore look at her and said, "You know something?
22:18 I think he is too."
22:22 She said, "You do?"
22:24 He said, "Yes, I do."
22:25 And the man looked at him and said, "You do?"
22:28 And he said, "Yes, I do."
22:29 That night the man came to the meeting.
22:32 He came every night to the meeting.
22:35 He gave his heart to Jesus, he was baptized.
22:39 A few months later this wife ran off with another man.
22:46 For years this man had been living with a very
22:49 inconsistent witness.
22:52 She had not been true to him all those years,
22:56 yet she had wanted him to join the church.
22:59 But he was the man who actually was closer
23:05 to being spiritual than his wife.
23:09 The man continued on in the church even after
23:11 his wife left him.
23:12 And Pastor Detamore, when he would tell the story,
23:15 said that man was now the head elder of that church
23:21 even after many years had passed.
23:26 We must be witnesses at home.
23:32 That's where it starts.
23:34 That is the most important place.
23:37 Go to your family, go to your friends,
23:40 and be a witness there.
23:43 The next place is at our workplace.
23:46 Sometimes in our workplaces we are not witnesses.
23:49 When I was a young pastor we had a man in the church
23:54 who'd lost his job, and the church, pretty much,
23:57 was taking care of him.
23:59 I don't recall that he was on any kind of state support.
24:05 At least if he was, it wasn't enough to keep him going.
24:08 So we had to take up offerings to help this man.
24:12 We kept hoping he would get a job.
24:14 And finally he did.
24:17 And we were so happy.
24:21 The next Sabbath I said, "Joe, how are you?"
24:24 He said, "Well, I'm not very good."
24:26 I said, "What happened?" He said, "I got fired."
24:28 I said, "You got fired, Joe?"
24:30 He said, "Yes."
24:32 I said, "Tell me about it."
24:34 Because here I was ready.
24:36 He said, "They fired me because I'm a Christian.
24:38 Because I'm a believer, I'm an Adventist."
24:42 I said, "Tell me, Joe."
24:43 Because I was ready to go and have a discussion with his boss.
24:48 I wasn't afraid to do that.
24:51 And he said, "Well, I went to work, and you have never seen
24:56 so much smoke in your life."
24:58 He said, "Everybody was smoking.
25:01 And all kinds of cursing and carrying on there.
25:04 Those workers, they're so hard and cold."
25:09 He said, "The next day I went back and I went through the
25:13 whole place and I passed out smoke signals,
25:17 and told them about smoking and how it was harmful to them,
25:21 and how they needed to quit doing that."
25:23 And he said, "The next day I took the Bible
25:26 correspondence course."
25:28 And he said, "I took those cards and went all through the plant,"
25:32 and he said, "I handed them out to everybody.
25:34 I said, 'You need to fill this out.
25:36 You need to be studying this.
25:37 You need to study what the Bible says.
25:41 And by the way, you're probably going to church.
25:43 If you are, you're probably going on the wrong day.
25:45 You need to study this.'"
25:48 He said, "The next day they fired me."
25:52 I said, "Joe, I'm sorry.
25:55 I probably would have fired you the first day.
25:59 Because that is not what God has asked us to do.
26:04 He didn't say, 'You are My judges.'
26:08 He didn't say, 'You are My prosecuting attorneys.'
26:12 He said, 'You are My witnesses.'
26:14 Joe, a witness is suppose to just live it.
26:19 Explain it when you're asked.
26:22 You whole life can be a great illustration if you will simply
26:27 allow people to see the difference in your life.
26:34 It can be such a difference."
26:37 I thought of another situation, a story I've told.
26:40 I've told it before on television, so some of you
26:42 may have heard it before.
26:43 Last time I told it, the gentleman that it happened to
26:47 contacted me and said that he had heard me tell the story.
26:52 And it's a true story.
26:55 You know, years ago typesetting was a profession
27:00 that was very popular.
27:02 Today it's all done by computer.
27:04 I can remember when they started going from typesetting,
27:08 and this was not that many years ago,
27:11 until they started going over to the computer
27:14 situation where they set all the type by computer
27:18 for newspapers and so forth.
27:21 This is one of the newspapers in the east.
27:24 And there was a man who worked there, and his name was Andy.
27:28 Andy was a Christian.
27:31 A very good Seventh-day Adventist Christian.
27:35 And he just quietly went about his work.
27:39 Working next to Andy was a man by the name of Harold.
27:42 Now remember, when they set type in those days,
27:45 it was set in lead.
27:48 If they set a line of type and they made a mistake,
27:51 they had to tear the whole line out and redo it.
27:55 It was a lot of work.
27:57 They were under a lot of pressure.
27:59 They had to get the newspaper out.
28:00 They had to get this type set.
28:02 They had to get all of this done.
28:04 So it was quite an experience and quite a work for them to do,
28:09 and not so easy as it is now with the computer where you just
28:12 delete and just go on.
28:14 They had to go back and really actually tear out a whole line
28:19 of this lead typeset and redo that line.
28:24 So it was a pressure job.
28:28 Harold would get very upset.
28:29 He was working next to Andy.
28:31 Harold had never given his heart to the Lord.
28:34 And he would get very upset and he would curse.
28:37 He smoked, they said, like a chimney.
28:40 He would talk about the weekend; he would buy himself,
28:43 not a fifth of whiskey, but a quart of whiskey.
28:47 And he said it would be gone by 24 hours later.
28:52 He would have drunk the whole thing himself.
28:56 He said that nothing was safe around him.
28:58 He said your wife wasn't safe, your money is not safe.
29:02 "Nothing that you had was safe around me."
29:05 He said, "That's the kind of person I was."
29:09 Then he said one day he was talking and he knew that
29:13 Andy was so careful about everything.
29:17 He said, "Andy, you know, I notice that you don't get upset
29:21 when you set a line of type wrong and
29:24 you have to take it out.
29:25 Never heard you us a curse word."
29:28 Andy said, "No, you haven't."
29:30 He said, "I also notice that when you get ready to eat,
29:34 that you bow your head and you're praying.
29:38 It looks like you're praying."
29:40 He said, "That's right, I'm having a blessing over my food."
29:45 He said, "I've noticed that when we tell dirty jokes
29:48 that you don't laugh.
29:50 You don't condemn us, but you just aren't around
29:55 when the punch line comes.
29:57 But I've never heard you tell a joke that was off-colored."
30:02 He said, "No, I don't."
30:06 He said, "Is that part of your religion?"
30:09 He said, "Yes it is."
30:11 Well he said, "Listen, I'd like to know a little bit more
30:14 about your religion.
30:17 Could you tell me a little bit about it?"
30:19 "Yes," he said, "I'll be happy to tell you about it.
30:23 Let's get together and study."
30:25 So he got together and went to his house,
30:28 and he sat down at the kitchen table.
30:32 And he got out his Bible and they began to look up text.
30:35 And Harold said, "Now wait a minute.
30:37 I don't know one book from the other.
30:40 I don't know, you're going from one book of the Bible
30:44 back to another book of the Bible.
30:45 And I don't know about this.
30:48 Listen, I've always been a Catholic.
30:52 If I get the priest to study with us,
30:54 would you study with the priest?"
30:57 Andy said, "Sure, I'd be happy to."
31:00 And so they began to study.
31:02 They went through those 28 lessons.
31:06 They studied the Sabbath, they studied the second coming,
31:11 they studied the state of the dead.
31:14 And on each one of these subjects, they would look up
31:17 every text.
31:19 And then Harold would look over at the priest and
31:23 he would say, "Father, is that what it says?"
31:26 The priest would nod and say, "That's what it says."
31:30 And they would move on.
31:33 And finally when it got down to the end of those studies,
31:40 Harold looked over to the priest and he said, "You know, Father,
31:43 you married my wife and me.
31:46 You have baptized all of our children."
31:49 They had five children.
31:51 He said, "You've baptized our children.
31:53 You have been with me when my wife and I had so many
31:57 problems and troubles.
31:58 And you have been with us and encouraged us.
32:02 And I will love you the rest of my life.
32:07 But as of this moment," he said, "I'm no longer a Roman Catholic.
32:13 I'm a Seventh-day Adventist."
32:16 And the priest looked at him and said, "Harold,
32:21 you're doing the right thing.
32:24 You're making the right decision."
32:27 And Harold gave his life to Jesus.
32:30 He went off to one of our colleges.
32:32 Now Harold was a very intelligent man.
32:36 And even with a big family, and working full-time,
32:40 he was straight "A" and he did four years of
32:43 college in three years.
32:47 And he became a Seventh-day Adventist minister.
32:52 All because the man he worked next to witnessed.
32:59 That man didn't pass out the smoke screens,
33:02 he didn't try to sign up people with a Bible course.
33:05 But when someone asked him about their faith,
33:09 because they saw that his life was different,
33:14 when they saw this and asked him, he was ready
33:19 to give an answer.
33:23 "'You are My witnesses,' saith the Lord,
33:29 'and My servant whom I have chosen.'"
33:33 Edgar A. Guest wrote a poem.
33:35 It goes something like this.
33:38 He said, "I'd rather see a sermon
33:40 than to hear one any day;
33:43 I'd rather one should walk with me
33:46 than merely show the way.
33:49 The eye's a better pupil, far more willing than the ear;
33:54 Fine counsel is confusing, but example's always clear.
34:00 And the lectures you deliver may be very wise and true,
34:05 but I'd rather get my lesson by observing what you do.
34:11 For I may misunderstand you and the high advice you give,
34:18 but there's no misunderstanding how you act and how you live."
34:28 Someone once said, "What you are doing is ringing in my ear
34:33 so loudly that I cannot hear what you are saying."
34:41 "'You are My witnesses,' saith the Lord,
34:45 'and My servant whom I have chosen.'"
34:50 As we said, we call this message,
34:52 The Witness Protection Program.
34:54 And the reason I have is that there are so many individuals
34:59 in the Bible that have run into so many different problems,
35:04 it looked like there would be no way that they could be
35:09 victorious through some of these things.
35:11 Recently I've been studying in the book of Acts.
35:14 And what a message the book of Acts has.
35:19 It's just tremendous.
35:21 This was an in-depth study that I did, and I was so blessed.
35:25 Even though I'd been through Acts before,
35:28 going back through it slowly, carefully studying
35:32 all of the things that have happened in there to Peter
35:36 and to Paul.
35:38 And we see that these were men, that they were doing
35:42 the very best that they could to have a winning experience
35:47 for the Lord, witnessing for Him.
35:49 And sometimes they were suffering from all kinds
35:55 of things that were happening to them.
35:58 Look at how many times that Paul was put into jail,
36:02 how many times he was beaten,
36:04 how many times he was shipwrecked,
36:07 how many times that it looked like there was no way
36:11 that he was going to be able to make it.
36:13 And yet he was there.
36:15 Because God brings us through these things.
36:19 You see, in God's witness protection program,
36:22 and He says that He will, He will protect His witnesses.
36:27 It doesn't mean that we won't have trials.
36:30 It doesn't mean that we won't have problems.
36:32 It doesn't mean that things won't happen to us
36:35 that are just really more than we can bear.
36:40 But what it means is that He will bring us through.
36:45 He will bring us through whatever it is that we face.
36:52 Because He is our Lord, He is our God,
36:55 He is our Savior, and He is the one who will change you
37:02 and He will change me when we give Him that opportunity
37:07 to do that.
37:09 I am so excited about what's happening throughout the world.
37:13 I see Paul, the great tent-maker.
37:16 There are a lot of witnesses that are going forward
37:18 and are witnessing for Him.
37:21 The board chairman of 3ABN, Bruce Fjarli, and his family
37:27 are part of those witnesses.
37:29 They're some of those witnesses that go out
37:32 into the world.
37:33 And they have been giving and giving and helping
37:37 in places like India.
37:39 They have organized over 900 churches.
37:44 That one family.
37:47 This was begun by Merlin Fjarli.
37:50 And Bruce and the family have continued it.
37:53 They, through their witnessing program, have a number of
38:00 orphanages that they've organized,
38:02 they've organized over 900 churches in India,
38:05 over 300,000 baptisms, and still growing.
38:11 Still going forward and witnessing.
38:15 You see, God is still multiplying
38:18 the life of a witness.
38:22 He is still multiplying those that are finding a way
38:28 to present the gospel, even in places where
38:33 you would never think that it's going to happen.
38:36 I remember that sometimes people get the idea that
38:41 evangelism is dead, that there's no way that
38:44 the witness is going to go forward.
38:47 Not too long ago I went to the memorial service for my friend,
38:52 Ron Halvorsen.
38:54 And I remember that his friend, Jim, was the one
39:00 that brought him the gospel.
39:03 And these two boys, growing up there in New York City.
39:14 And Jim's mother, grandmother, went to a meeting that was held
39:19 by R. Allan Anderson.
39:23 People thought that was probably a failure.
39:27 That meeting was thought by many people to be a failure
39:31 because there were probably only two ladies that were baptized
39:35 from that big meeting held in the Carnegie Hall
39:40 that would not have been baptized otherwise.
39:42 And one of them was Jim Londis' mother.
39:46 Grandmother, rather.
39:48 And she gave her heart to Jesus.
39:50 And she brought her grandson, Jim Londis, to Jesus.
39:55 And Jim went and found his friend, Ron Halvorsen,
40:01 and brought him to Jesus.
40:04 You remember the story, I'm sure you've heard Ron tell it.
40:08 It's a thrilling story about how Ron found the Lord.
40:12 Ron was out there in the gangs, but the witness
40:17 of Jim Londis, his buddy...
40:19 Didn't preach to him, wasn't preaching in a class,
40:22 or anything like that.
40:24 Years later, Ron had already been a successful evangelist.
40:29 At the point had already baptized over 5000 people.
40:33 And baptized thousands more even after that.
40:37 And we were together in Fort Worth, Texas.
40:41 R. Allan Anderson was an old man by this time.
40:44 He was there preaching at a camp meeting.
40:48 And I said to Ron, "Ron, have you ever shared
40:52 with this man who was spreading the gospel,
40:55 who thought that probably he had no effect there,
40:59 have you ever shared that with him?"
41:02 He said, "No, I haven't."
41:04 He said he didn't want to hear that.
41:05 I said, "Come on, Ron."
41:06 And I took Ron down to Elder Anderson,
41:09 introduced him to Elder Anderson.
41:12 And to Elder Anderson he said, "R. Allan Anderson, you,"
41:18 Ron said to him, "baptized me in New York City."
41:22 Elder Anderson shook his head, "No, son, I don't think I did.
41:27 Because," he said, "we only baptized
41:31 two elderly ladies there.
41:34 And that was my biggest failure in evangelism ever."
41:39 Ron said, "Yes, but one of those ladies brought her grandson
41:45 to Jesus.
41:47 Her grandson witnessed to me and brought me to Jesus."
41:54 And already at that time, Ron said, "And the Lord has
41:57 given me over 5000 baptisms.
42:00 So you see, Elder Anderson, your meeting was not a failure."
42:06 Tears came down his cheeks.
42:09 Tears came down his cheeks.
42:11 He thought that it had been a failure.
42:13 But, you see, when you're witnessing for Christ,
42:16 whether it's in a public meeting or one on one,
42:19 there are no failures.
42:21 There are no failures.
42:24 Sooner or later, when you're casting the truth out,
42:29 it's going to catch with somebody.
42:32 And it caught with Ron.
42:34 Ron battled right up to the end.
42:36 I was so happy that 3ABN was able to carry
42:40 the last of the series from Charlotte, North Carolina
42:44 when he did that series there in the Ovens Auditorium.
42:48 And it's still being shown sometimes on 3ABN,
42:52 particularly on the Proclaim channel.
42:56 You'll see it. What a wonderful series.
42:58 I hope they keep showing it till the Lord comes.
43:02 And Ron, it was so wonderful that he was able to give
43:06 that witness one more time so that thousands and millions
43:12 around the world were able to hear that message.
43:18 And it all goes back to a failure that he felt like,
43:24 R. Allan Anderson felt like he had, but it didn't.
43:29 When you witness, you see, you plant the seed,
43:33 and the Lord will water.
43:36 "'Ye are My witnesses,' saith the Lord,
43:39 'and My servant whom I have chosen.'"
43:45 We get to travel some now and then, my wife and I do.
43:49 And one trip we made, we stopped in London for a few days.
43:55 I was so happy to be able to spend a little time there.
43:59 Because I wanted to go down to Hyde Park.
44:02 There's a place in Hyde Park called, Speaker's Corner.
44:06 It has a history that goes way back into the olden days
44:10 when freedom of speech was really not available
44:14 anywhere in the world except the queen or the king
44:17 had set aside this area in Hyde Park and said,
44:21 "You can say anything you want to here.
44:24 Now you don't be saying it anywhere else,
44:26 but you can say anything you want to
44:28 in this particular place."
44:30 It was a protected place.
44:32 And people would go there and they would shout
44:35 their infidelity, and they would shout their faith.
44:40 And one night there was a young man preaching in Hyde Park.
44:45 And as he preached, there was a skeptic that kept trying
44:50 to get him to listen to what he was saying.
44:53 And he would shout out words to the speaker,
44:56 but the speaker ignored him.
44:59 And so this man turned to a man that was helping the speaker.
45:05 He knew that he was a helper because he had some tracts,
45:09 and he knew that when the speaker got through
45:12 that he was going to pass these out.
45:14 So he turned to the young man and he said, "Are you with him?"
45:16 He said, "Yes I am."
45:18 He said, "What do you know about Christianity anyway?"
45:21 The young man said, "I don't know much.
45:22 I haven't been a Christian very long."
45:24 He said, "Well let me ask you a question.
45:27 Give me the date of Jesus' birth."
45:31 He said, "I don't know the date of Jesus' birth."
45:34 He said, "Well tell me this, where was He born?"
45:39 "Well," he said, "I'm not sure where He was born."
45:43 "Ha, ha. Well where did He die?"
45:47 He said, "I'm not sure.
45:50 I don't know exactly where He died."
45:53 "Oh," he said, "you don't know very much about it, do you?"
45:57 The young man looked at him and he said,
45:59 "Sir, I don't know much about what you're taking about.
46:05 But a few months ago I came into this place,
46:10 and I was absolutely miserable.
46:15 You see," he said, "I was an alcoholic.
46:18 I drank up everything, every dime that I made.
46:24 I was mean to my family.
46:27 My wife, I would beat her.
46:30 I would never give enough money for the food,
46:33 or the family, the house that I have.
46:36 Never.
46:38 On top of that, I was mean to my children.
46:43 I hated myself.
46:46 I had absolutely no desire to live.
46:51 My children hated me so much that they would run
46:54 and they would hide when I would come home.
46:57 My wife cried all day long as she went about her work.
47:03 No, I was miserable.
47:07 I was going to take my life.
47:08 And one night I came here to this park and I sat down.
47:12 I was thinking how I would take my life.
47:16 And I heard this man talk about Jesus.
47:20 And how Jesus could change my life."
47:23 He said, "I sat here and I listened.
47:26 And he told me about a Man, Jesus, who went to a cross,
47:33 died on that cross, that I might have life.
47:39 How He was resurrected.
47:42 How He came from heaven, that He was the Son of God,
47:46 but He gave Himself for me.
47:51 And how He's coming back."
47:54 And he said, "I listened.
47:57 And I said, I want that one.
48:02 I want Him to come into my life.
48:08 I want Him to be my God.
48:12 To be my Savior, to be my King."
48:16 And he said, "That night I came here, I got on my knees,
48:20 and I gave my life to Jesus."
48:25 And he said, "I've worked every day since then.
48:29 I've been able to keep a job.
48:31 I haven't had one drop to drink."
48:35 He said, "I've been able to take money home,
48:38 and there's food now in our home.
48:42 On top of that, recently," he said, "I bought
48:45 my wife a new dress.
48:47 First time I've ever bought her a new dress."
48:52 He said, "I bought my kids some clothes.
48:56 And I'm good to them now.
48:58 They love me now."
49:01 And he said, "At the end of the day when I come home,
49:03 they run, when they use to hide from me,
49:06 now they run out through the front gate
49:09 and they jump up in my arms and they cry out,
49:12 'Daddy has come home. He's come home.'
49:16 No," he said, "I don't know these things
49:19 you're talking about, but I do know what Jesus
49:26 did for me."
49:29 My friend, that is what Jesus has asked us to do.
49:34 "'You are My witnesses,' saith the Lord,
49:38 'My servant whom I have chosen.'"
49:43 You see, the demoniac now had a message
49:46 that he could give throughout all of the Decapolis.
49:51 The man that was there with Andy, Harold, had a message
49:58 that he could give wherever he went.
50:01 Ron Halvorsen now had a message that he could share.
50:06 Why? Because it had been shared with him.
50:12 And we look at all of these and we see that it was the result
50:20 of a witness.
50:22 Someone telling what Jesus had done in their life.
50:30 How about you?
50:32 How about you?
50:33 "I wondered life's path with an easy tread,
50:36 I wondered where pleasures and riches lead;
50:39 until one day in a quiet place I met the Master face to face.
50:45 I met Him and knew Him and blushed to see,
50:49 that His eyes full of mercy were fixed upon me."
50:54 And then I turned my eyes upon Jesus,
50:57 looked full in His wonderful face;
51:02 and the things of earth grew strangely dim
51:07 in the light of His glory and His grace.
51:14 I have, many times in my life as a young man,
51:19 had Jesus shared with me.
51:22 But probably never so completely as when
51:28 I was a young man in college.
51:32 At that point I was wondering about the future.
51:36 And a man by the name of Leon Strickland
51:38 saw me out on the camp ground.
51:40 It was during camp meeting, and I was not in the meeting.
51:44 I was sitting out on the camp ground.
51:46 He was the assistant pastor of the church.
51:48 He stopped by and he said, "Jim, what are you thinking about?"
51:53 I told him, I said, "Look, I'm thinking that I'm going to
51:58 lose out on this world and lose out on the world to come too."
52:04 And he said, "Why are you thinking that?"
52:07 I said, "Because there's no way I can be perfect.
52:12 No way at all.
52:15 So I'm going to be lost, but at the same time
52:19 I'm going to miss out on some of the things
52:23 that could be happening here."
52:25 Because I was very active in sports.
52:27 I wanted to play professional baseball.
52:29 I knew that if I went into that, then my spiritual experience
52:34 was certainly going to suffer.
52:37 Leon Strickland explained to me righteousness by faith.
52:43 He witnessed to me as no one ever has.
52:47 I said, "Where did you get this?"
52:50 He said, "I got it from a book called,
52:52 Christ Our Righteousness, by Ellen White and Elder Daniels.
53:01 And so I said, "A.G. Daniels."
53:05 I said, "I've never heard of him."
53:07 He said, "He was the president of the General Conference.
53:09 And these are compilations from Ellen White
53:12 that he put together."
53:15 I thought the rest of that weekend about what he had said.
53:21 There was hope in Jesus.
53:25 Even though I knew I could never be perfect, and never would be,
53:31 I've wondered how about righteousness by faith.
53:36 Does that come from Jesus?
53:39 How about it?
53:40 That next Friday night a friend of mine called me.
53:43 He wanted us to go driving around.
53:45 And I said, "Well, let me get back with you."
53:48 I said to my mother, "Mom, do we have the book,
53:50 Christ Our Righteousness?"
53:51 And she said, "No, we don't have it."
53:55 We just had a few books, our little bookcase.
53:58 But I then began to look down and I saw one little book
54:03 wrapped at the bottom in brown paper.
54:09 And I knew before I even opened it,
54:13 that was, Christ Our Righteousness.
54:15 How it got there, mother said she never knew.
54:17 I'm sure she bought it at some sale
54:19 and didn't realize what she was buying.
54:22 I looked at the end of it, and stamped across the end was,
54:25 "Christ Our Righteousness."
54:26 I tore the cover off, the little page off,
54:31 the brown paper wrapping, and I began to read it.
54:35 I read that book through a number of times
54:39 before I read anything else.
54:41 And I found the assurance in Jesus.
54:47 A witness, Leon Strickland, sharing Jesus with me.
54:55 And A.G. Daniels sharing the writings of Ellen White.
55:00 When I read that book now, those statements don't seem
55:05 quite so electrifying, but.
55:07 Because remember, this was before the days of
55:09 Morris Venden, before the days of people like Heppenstall and
55:16 others that have taught righteousness by faith
55:18 in our church.
55:21 But this was a new beginning for me.
55:27 Oh, I'd known Jesus as a child, as a teenager.
55:33 But all of a sudden, as an adult I had made a decision
55:38 as a result of a witness that was talking about Jesus.
55:45 Not only talking, but living.
55:48 Because Leon Strickland was a real witness.
55:52 He was a man that was filled with the Holy Spirit.
55:57 Today is your opportunity, not only to accept Jesus,
56:02 but to determine that you're going to live in such a way that
56:05 you are His witness.
56:08 You are His witness of all of the great things
56:14 of the gospel in what He would share with you
56:20 if He was sitting with you.
56:23 What Jesus would share, He wants you to share with others.
56:29 Won't you enter His witness protection program?
56:33 A program that means that you are willing to witness,
56:38 knowing that you have the assurance of life eternal
56:44 through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
56:47 Father in heaven, I thank You today, Lord,
56:52 that we can have the assurance of life eternal
56:56 through Jesus Christ our Lord.
57:00 Father, I know that You are coming soon
57:03 in all the clouds of glory.
57:05 That Your Son, Jesus, will be coming
57:09 to reap from this world all of those
57:15 who have given their life to Him.
57:18 Father, today, I pray that You will help us to give our life
57:22 to Your Son, Jesus.
57:24 In His wonderful and powerful name we ask it, amen.

Home

Revised 2017-01-25