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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/john-fitzpatrick/testimony-john-fitzpatrick-3/
Now, it's a real privilege for me to be here, and this is the first time I've ever had a gospel series in the land of Iowa. And I went outside last night, and I said to Linda, that sounds like a little song.
Well, you know what? I guess it was the locust or something singing. And so I've got some things to learn about the land. And you've got some really beautiful big trees that I'm not quite used to. And I'd like to learn the names of some of them or so.
But tonight, we're going to look in the Word of God. I'd like to read a few verses in the opening of the meeting tonight. And so if you have a Bible, otherwise just feel welcome to listen along. Romans chapter 3, verse 23.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John acts in Romans over in the New Testament. Romans chapter 3 and verse 23. And it says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans chapter 5 and verse 8.
But God commended or God demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. John's Gospel, please. Chapter 3. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. John chapter 3 and verse 16.
The 16th verse of John 3. For God, soul of the world, he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, will not perish, but have everlasting life. And the final verse I'd like to read is in 1 Peter chapter 3.
The epistle of 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse number 15. The 15th verse of the third chapter of 1 Peter. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of hope that is in you with meekness and fear.
My desire, exercise, or burden, however you want to label it, would be tonight to tell you how I came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as my own personal Savior. I was born in the city of Yonkers, New York.
My parents, after World War II was over, my father worked on the ships there in the Long Beach area of California as a deferred man doing wiring, came back to Yonkers, New York where the families were.
They first bought a two-family home because they couldn't get anything else. And then at the age of five, they moved to a little area in Yonkers pretty near the Hudson River. And I looked back on it and God was in the move because where they moved was about two blocks from where I heard the gospel.
And in my journey of life, I was born an only child. I would have loved to have a brother or sister, but that wasn't my lot in life. But you know what? God's given me a lot of brothers and sisters in Christ.
And so he's made up for it completely. But you know, I had a friend there by the name of Tom. And Tom and I were almost like brothers, you'd say. My mother told him, don't come down to the house before seven in the morning.
It's just a little early. The two of us were probably wired with 440 back then. And my mother couldn't seem to figure out how two boys could run and ride bikes and race around all day long. But Tom had kind of an odd family because when Sunday came, at least in my thinking then, Tom couldn't go out and play.
And Tom had to go to meetings in the morning. And then he had to kind of stay clean because it was called Lord's Day, he said. And then Sunday night, they had to go to a gospel meeting. And then on Friday nights, they had what they called special children's meetings to hear the word of God.
He was the greatest pest you could ever find because he wouldn't take no for an answer. And so every week on the way home from school, he constantly, consistently, year after year, asked the same question.
I guess he was a little thick upstairs, but he really wasn't. And he wanted me to come to these meetings on Friday night. No, thank you. I'm perfectly happy the way things are. Uniquely or oddly, however you want to develop it, we're out of the sixth grade now.
I'll date myself. It's 1959. And Tom invites me to two weeks of special children's meetings in the morning. And he says, we'll have a craft. Well, however you call it, I went to those meetings. Now, the background that I had from the Bible was father was one religion and left as early as he could to get it over.
And mother was a different religion, if you want to call it, and I tagged along with her. And so all I knew from the Bible, and we didn't even really have a real Bible in the home, just a big children's story Bible with a few pictures, was what you would call Psalm 23.
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. And I would have known what's called the Lord's prayer where he's teaching to the disciples to pray, our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And so I was told I was christened at three days of age.
I don't remember anything about it. My parents tell me I cried. And I guess that's called whatever you sow, you reap. If you pour water on somebody's head, maybe that'll happen. And then in the fifth grade to join the church where my mother went, I was baptized in a tank of water in front of an audience.
I was quite nervous about the whole thing. They had stained glass windows and the man wore kind of a royal colored robe. And I guess they didn't understand the Word of God too much, but they called him Reverend.
But of course, the Lord's the only one that really is. And I became a member of that church. And I didn't know any more from the Bible. But if you were to ask me, John, do you think you'll be in heaven?
Well, I would think so. And why would that be? Well, I guess I'm not that bad a kid. And you know, I've been baptized and I joined the church. And so Tom, in his persistence, invites me to hear the Word of God.
There was a man came that had a shiny head like I do. And he was probably even a little rounder than I am. I might think if my memory's right. And they told us if we learn 10 verses, we'll get a New Testament.
That means you had to learn a verse a day. So I told Tom, I said, I won't be able to do that because we don't have a Bible. So Tom's mother said, that's no problem. I'll type it out. Now, some of you young ones wouldn't even know what the typewriter looked like back then.
It was all these keys you could get jammed together and had a ribbon that was full of ink or so. And so plunk, plunk, plunk, she typed out 10 verses for me. And, you know, I learned those verses because I wanted to get this little brown New Testament.
Now I read a couple of those verses tonight that I learned. I learned 10. I have learned a few more since, but one of them was, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And another was, but God commended or demonstrated his love toward us while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
And I would have learned John 3, 16. This was all new to me. And I don't have a photographic memory. So I had to work on it. And I worked on it. And the man spoke while he opened the word of God. And I knew that God wouldn't lie to us.
And I knew that the word of God had to be true. And he told us that we had to be born again. And he told us that if we weren't born again, we'd never be in heaven. I'd never heard anything like that. And then he used the word saved and he mentioned we needed to be saved.
And we needed to know the Lord Jesus as our savior. And he mentioned that we were sinners. And if our sins weren't forgiven, we were going to be in the awful place called hell. And so for 10 mornings, he pounded away words that I never heard before in my life.
And I realized that I don't even know what it means. How could it ever be that I really have what he's talking about? And I became very troubled. And then they had a family get together on Friday night for the parents to come.
My mother was one that was quite sick usually. And she died very suddenly at 62. And my father went to those meetings. And those meetings closed. And inside me, there was something that took place. I never knew about what the preachers call conviction of sin, or the work of the Holy Spirit.
But I left those meetings knowing, John, if you die the way you are, you're going to be in hell. Your sins are not forgiven. You are not saved. And I was very shy then. And I didn't ask anybody about it.
And so I can clearly say life hasn't always been smooth sailing. 1959 was the worst summer I ever spent in my life. And it wasn't that there was trouble in the home. It wasn't that the neighborhood wasn't good or anything.
You know what I mean? It was a little 50 by 100 lot. And it had asbestos siding on the house. Nowadays, they don't allow you to use it. But inside that little room in that house there, you had a troubled young lad.
And I could be riding the bicycle or racing around. And I'm sure the normal antics of the normal lad. And there was this little voice speaking inside, you're not saved. You need to be saved. And if you crash your bike on these hills we used to ride wild on, don't follow my words.
I realized if I die, I'm not going to be in heaven. And I was very, very troubled. I could have gone to Tom's folks and asked them, but I didn't. And I knew mom and dad didn't know anything about it. In fact, I mentioned to mom one time, I said, you know, they're telling us if we're not saved, we'll be in hell.
She says, Well, if I hear any more about that, you're not going to be allowed to go there anymore. So I decided I wouldn't say anymore because I knew what they were telling. I needed I was, I was troubled inside.
So Tom was as faithful as the clock chimes. I'm in the seventh grade, a new school, large classrooms. There were 365 of us that graduated in high school. And he wanted me to come to these Friday night children's meetings.
And you know what? I went and I went and I went. And on Friday night, in the fall of the year, I couldn't tell you the date. In fact, I'm still working on the date. If I have to pick up a piece of medicine for the missus, what the birth date is.
But after 51 years, I finally got it mastered for some reason. But I remember the event very well. I came home, my bedroom was in the little corner of the back. I'm laying on the bed, tears are coming out my ears, my eyes, no, not my ears, my eyes.
And there was a troubled young lad. I need my sins forgiven. I need the Lord Jesus as my savior. And I realized laying on that little bed and on the cross, he paid for my sins. And I trusted him. And I want to tell you tonight, salvation is real.
I want to tell you tonight at last. And I want to tell you tonight it's available to you. So my mother, I was sick for some reason about a week later. And she called up Tom's mom and she says, I think he's sick in the head.
All he wants to do is read that little Bible book that he has. Well, you know, I had an interest in the Bible. And then I got wondering, I wonder if I'm really saved. And I got over into first John chapter five.
He that hath the son hath life. And he that hath not the son hath not life. I want to tell you tonight, God's got a gift for you. Words couldn't describe how good it is, how great it is, how grand it is.
And you know, I don't know many in the audience. I know God knows you and I know God loves you. But there's something I know about you. If you haven't got the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, you'll never have peace.
And you don't have peace in this room tonight. Because peace doesn't come through a pill. It doesn't come through a process. Peace comes through knowing the person of the Lord Jesus Christ as your own savior.
And so I still got a lot to learn and I'm a slow learner, you might say. But that's where the journey began. And then I wanted to be baptized. And my mother's like, what do you want to be baptized for?
You've been christened. You've been baptized. And now why you want to be baptized again? What's the matter with you? I says, well, you see, I wasn't a Christian then. I wasn't saved. Well, she says, don't you know that everybody's a Christian that isn't Jewish or an atheist?
I says, well, you don't understand. A Christian is somebody that is trusted or come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior. Can I ask you a little question tonight? I won't ask you any at the door.
If Mr. Jennings wants to, that's up to him. Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ is your savior? This is between you and God. Because if you don't know him as your savior, the God who loves you and wants to bless you, wants you to know you'll never be in heaven at the end of life's journey.
And I know you're looking at me and you say, John, you're an old man. But you know, death is no respecter of anybody. Old people die, young people die. And the wisest thing anyone in the journey of life could do, the wisest thing anyone in this room could do is get alone with God and get alone with the word of God and get serious about salvation because it's available.
And it was paid for completely on the cross of Calvary. And it's beyond words to describe what it is to have peace, to have pardon, and to know what's well with my soul. As the years have moved on, I've had a few occasions where I wondered if this is going to be the end of the journey.
But you know, I could rejoice it's well with my soul. And so as time moved on, believe it or not, Tom, my good friend, had his dear cousin Linda get to know me in those children's meetings or so on. And wouldn't you know it, we got married.
Amazing how those things happen. 51 years has come and gone. They go very quickly. But the Lord Jesus is a faithful friend. And to never leave you, never forsake you. I talked to a young girl that was just going into college.
And she says, you know, John, I'm scared. All new environment and all. You know what the real problem is? She doesn't know the Savior. She knows about him. But there's never been a time when she trusted him, whom to know as life eternal.
When we got home on this last trip, why the text message or the email came. People don't like to talk to you as much nowadays. I don't know why. I still like to talk to people. But anyway, there's one of the dear men that we stayed with in San Diego.
He died in his sleep. And so I told Linda, I says, we need to go to the funeral. Six hours one way, we got a motel and came back late the next night. If you were to die in your sleep tonight, where would you be?
Because dear one in the audience tonight, there's a heaven to gain through the Lord Jesus Christ. And the good book says, if you die in your sins, where I am, there you cannot be. You see, John chapter three is a very well-known Bible verse.
And it's very clear. It's 25 words. And the center of the verse is the Lord Jesus, the son. But there's a little word in that verse that's very solemn and very searching. And it's in the present tense and it's perish.
For God so loved you and me. He gave his only begotten son, that whosoever, believe him, trusted, resteth in him, not perish, but have everlasting life. I often say, I'm glad it didn't say John Fitzpatrick.
You say that might be strange. My grandfather had that name. My father had that name. And I met a man in Pennsylvania, putting a roof on a house that came up to me. And he said, are you John Fitzpatrick?
I said, I am. He says, so am I. I wouldn't have known which one it was, but you know, whosoever means you, me, and anybody else. This salvation is available to you tonight. And you know, the word of God says, today, if you hear his voice, harden not your heart.
Do you know what the Bible says today? Because tomorrow may not come. In the States, and I'm in the States here, I used to be in Canada some, they're teaching in the cities now, what's called a stop the bleed course.
It's a free two hour course by a doctor and a medic. And I had the missus take it and I took it. And I said, why are you teaching us? He says, because we're living in changing, terrorist times. And we never know when there's going to be a problem.
We never know when there's going to be a shooting. And we want the civilians trained to be able to help stop massive bleeding. We are living in quickly changing, dangerous times. And none of us knows what the next day is going to bring forth.
And God wants to come along in your life and let you know that he loves you. And let you know that his son on that cool Roman cross, bore our sins, paid for our sins, and the exchange rate to heaven, it's not deeds or doing.
It's not going to church. It's not rites or rituals. It's not christening or baptism. The exchange rate to heaven is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. What does that mean? Trusting one you can't see. Trusting one you can't touch.
Trusting one that the word of God tells about. For God so loved you and me, he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him not perish, but have everlasting life. As the journey of life moved on, 17 years later, my mother passed away, and my father remarried, and my father came to know the word Jesus Christ as his savior.
We were up in Alaska. We came back home because mom was sick. And so we moved into the home area. And I remember when my dad came to the job I was working on, I was putting steam pipes in a house, and he says, I just took mom to the hospital.
I says, I'll be down tonight. I called up one of the elders where I was saved, and he married Linda and I, and he baptized me. And I said, Mr. Gordon, my mom's in the hospital. This is Saturday afternoon, I called him.
He says, well, John, I've got a house full of company coming tonight. I says, let's go Monday. I never forgot his words, and I never forgot his example. He says, John, company can come to my house any night.
We will go to the hospital tonight. He read with her John 14 and 6. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father but by me. Explained the verses, prayed with her, we left. At nine in the morning, the phone rang at 9 30.
At the breaking of bread, there was a little paper that was handed maybe a little later in the hour. Your mom has just died. That was the last opportunity for her to hear the gospel of the grace of God.
None of us knows what the next day is going to bring. I'd like to plead with you tenderly, earnestly. Please don't plug your ears to this message. It's real, and there's one that wants to bless you and give you peace and give you forgiveness and snap the chains of sin and put you in heaven and give you a new name written in the Lamb's book of life.
He says, come unto me. He's a gentleman savior. He's never going to force himself. He's never going to twist your arm until you plead for mercy or so. I read in the word of God that the Lord Jesus, as he passed through different villages and he proclaimed the gospel, he never made any pleas.
We make pleas as preachers, but I never find that the Lord Jesus did. And he passed on to the next community, and he passed on to the next village. It's not because I'm speaking or Mr. Jennings is speaking, but it's a golden opportunity that you can buckle down and make it a priority until it becomes a priority.
Number one, a 9 -1 -1 condition. I need my sins forgiven. I need a savior. You'll never get saved. We're not trying to tell you you can have the world and the Lord Jesus, but we're telling that you can have the savior of sinners.
That on that cruel Roman cross, he suffered and bled and died. And on that cruel Roman cross, on one of the cries of the seven cries, it is finished. All that anyone needs has been completely paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ.
I trust you'll consider these truths and ponder the path of your feet, because there's a God that loves you, and he wants to bless you, and he wants to give you forgiveness of sins, and he wants you to be in heaven at the end of life's journey.
For God so loved you and me, he gave his only begotten son, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, that whosoever will take him at his word as a guilty vile sinner, that on the cross he paid for my sins, will not perish, but have everlasting life.