Look in Revelation 118. It said, I am he that liveth and was dead. Behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of hell and of death. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter. Now hang on to that and go with me to the latter part of Revelation, chapter number 22. I want to read something to you there. I'm jumping from one end of the book to the other in Revelation, but I'm telling you, this really got a hold of it. Look at verse 17. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come and let him that heareth say, Come and let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Now look at the next verse. For I testify unto you, every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of this book of the prophecy, God shall take away his part of the book of life out of the holy city and from the things which are written in the book. Now turn back with me to Revelation chapter 2. Let me read some more verses to you. I thought this was so unique. It really got a hold of my heart. I'm telling you. I believe it's going to be something we can get a message from. Look in Revelation chapter 2 verse 1, unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write these things, saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. If you look in chapter 2 verse 8, and unto the angel of the church of Smyrna write these things, saith the first and the last, which was dead and is alive. Look at verse 12. And to the angel of the church of Pergamos write, These things saith he which hath a sharp sword with two edges. Look on down to chapter 3, verse 1. Wait, let me get 18. 218. And unto the angel of the church of Thyatira write, These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet like fine brass. Now go down to 3 and 1. The angel of the church in Sardis write, These things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars. Look on down in verse number seven. The angel in the church of Philadelphia write, These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he openeth, and no man shutteth, and shutteth, and no man openeth. Go to the last one, verse 14. Unto the church, of the letter C is right. These things saith the Amen, the faithful, the true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. Why these things? Why? What about these things? If I was going to write or ponder the message, I'd just say these things and you could ask all kinds of questions about them. Three things that jump out of this in my attention. Number one, right. Number two, these things. And number three, it amazes me that every church that he addressed, he introduced himself in a different manner. It all pointed to the same thing, that he was God, that he's the creator, that he's the author and the finisher of the whole thing. He addressed it. Each church introduced himself, pointed out the good things about him before he laid the bad ones on him. That amazes me how well he put that together. I've never seen that like that before. That was really getting a hold of my spirit. I'm sitting at the house beginning to study this, and all at once it seems as though the Spirit of God said, this is the message. Look at 1 John, now with me if you would, and I'll try to take the thought from this. Now, as you go to 1 John, and you look at the verses that we're going to be using, I wanted to just try to talk to you just a couple of minutes before I get into the actual message and say this. These things that we're talking about, And the importance of these things, or why we have need of these things, is based on the fact that over 300 times in the Bible, over 300 times in the King James Bible, it points out something about these things. I didn't have no idea there were so many verses about these things. So evidently there's a significance in all of these statements. And believe me, folks, we couldn't begin to cover it. In fact, I'm not smart enough to do it. But I do say this much. There are some things that are written in 1 John that is for our benefit as a believer. as a hope for the unsaved, an encourager to the one that's in iniquity, or a transgressor of God's law. But all the future is out of this world because of these things. And I'm excited about these things. Father, bless us. Use us just for a moment, we pray. Help us to bless your people in Christ's name. Amen. I thought about these things in 1 John chapter 1 in verse number 4. He said, These things are written, or these things rewrite unto you, that your joy may be full. Can I just park for a few moments right there? That's the first point of the importance of these things. I really believe today that the church ought to be the happiest people in the world. I believe they ought to be the most joyful people in the world. I'm telling you, folks, if there's ever been a group of people that I read about in this age that ought to be happy, it ought to be the family of God. Yet the children of God have a hope that's out of this world. They've been to Calvary. They've been born again. They've got their names in the Book of Life. They're full of the Holy Ghost, and they're on their way with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Hallelujah! What a glory! Hallelujah! My goodness, if there's ever a group of people that ought to be full of joy, it's the family of God. The Laodicean church, I believe most scholars and most ministers would tell you, would reflect upon the time and the seasons that we're in now. And because of that, he sees the lukewarmness. And it aggravates him to the point that I would rather you'd be cold or hot. Because if you're lukewarm, I'll spew you out of my mouth. I'm going to tell you something, folks, that's practically saying, you make me so sick, I could vomit you out. I believe he's talking to his people. talking to His children. In this day and age of modernism, when we think we can dramatize or we can put together the program and push the Scriptures aside, do away with the hymn book and sing the 7-11 group, I'm telling you folks, it's time to get back to Calvary and get back to the joy of the Lord. Nehemiah said, The joy of the Lord is my strength. I ask you tonight, how strong are you? And I'll tell you how you can answer it. How much joy do you have? How much joy do you have? These things are written that your joy may be full. I found out something about it when you say the word full. Aren't you glad when you go to the gas pump and it finally gets to full? That it don't cost no more for a while. Do you know why? There ain't no room for nothing else. Oh, did you get what I said? When it's full, there's no room for nothing else. I remember when I got saved. And I'll share my testimony right quick. I went to church. I was 482 miles from my dad's house. Joliet, Illinois, my brother had built a church. My wife came in and told me she had gotten saved. I want you to go to church with me, she said. And she started just absolutely aggravating me to death about it. You see, she was so full of joy. There wasn't room for nothing else. How aggravating are you about the joy that's in your life? Do you really frustrate people? Do they really raise their brow? Do they really see you coming and want to turn and go away? I'll tell you what that is. That's evidence of real joy. Let me tell you, if you're full of the love of God and the joy of the Lord is now the strength of your life, you cannot shut up about it. You won't sit down and you can't be still because the joy of the Lord has made you strong. Hallelujah. Glory to God. I thank God for the joy. The joy that's in our life. The joy. Not only to fill us full, but Jesus wrote in one of the Gospels and had it sent to us that your joy can remain. Oh, Lord. Even in this age, absolutely. You mean in this modernistic world? Absolutely. You mean in this day when you don't know what's going to happen from one day to the next? Even in this day, your joy can be full and it can and will remain if you'll allow Him to have the control. The joy of the Lord. I remember my wife kept telling me, you need to go to church. And finally, I got aggravated and said, if you'll leave me alone and not bother me anymore this week, I'll go to church Sunday. The joy of the Lord had a hold over her so strongly, she just said, OK. And she backed off. All down through that week, it was so peaceful in my house. I was so calm and so happy. She wouldn't bother me. Satan wasn't bothering me. God wasn't bothering me. I just, man, I finally got away from all of it. I'd go out and do my day. Come back in. She'd feed me. She took care of me. Oh, she was my wife. She loved me. She prayed for me. I didn't know it. She was praying for me every time I was away from her, and probably a lot of times was with her. She kept praying and praying and asking God to bring me in to find what joy she had just discovered. Oh, that Sunday morning rolled around. I got up out of the bed. It was just business as usual. I got up, pal. I went over there to the kitchen table. There sat my breakfast. She had fixed everything just like I wanted it. I sat down and I had my meal. And then I got up and went into the booth. I threw my bedroom to the bathroom and I happened to glance at the bed. There lay a pair of pants. They laid a shirt. They laid my underclothes. They laid my socks. They set my shoes. I thought, oh my God, this is the day I've got to deal with it. I thought I've either got to go and go to church with her, or I have just become the biggest liar that I've ever been before. Oh, my conscience convicted me. I got condemned to the core. And I went right on in and took a shower, cleaned up, put on my clothes, and off to church I went. What would you have done? Ladies, let me tell you something. You want to see your husband sing? Sing. Let the joy of the Lord make you strong in front of Him. Serve Him. Love Him. Be good to Him. Don't beat on Him. Don't mouthbeat Him. You don't mean He's already condemned for hell. And He's as miserable as hell itself. What He needs is somebody to love Him. Somebody to show Him the real joy of the Lord, you see. I knew something had happened to her because I saw the change in her life. I went into church that morning, and I really thought she had had a private meeting with a preacher. Well, I got through the singing all right. It didn't seem to bother me. When they went to prayer, that didn't bother me. But buddy, all at once, that old man of God got up there. He opened that King James Bible, and he started preaching about sin, talking about the condemnation of it, of the journey of it, the price of it, and the destiny of it, what it was going to do to my soul. He said, you're on your way to hell, and you deserve to go there! Well, I thought, my God, He don't like me. She kept on telling what she's told Him to cause Him to talk so mean to me. And I felt like crawling under a seat because I knew He was talking to me. That finger come right at me. Is it hitting you tonight? If it is, God's calling you. You better listen to it. That finger's not mine. That's God pointing at you. He got me. He pointed me right out. And right in the midst of all that, He said, but there's a way out. Oh, Lord, have mercy. It's right there now where I want to shout a little bit. You see, and He condemned me. He had me convicted. He had me on the way to hell. And I'm telling you, I could almost see the flames of it because of my past. But all at once, He said, you don't have to go there. There is a way out. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Glory to God. And he started telling me that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever would believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. Hallelujah. It is right about there that something got a hold of my heart. And I knew I had to make a move. I went to the altar. I couldn't get settled. I couldn't get satisfied. I was trying to do it my way. Let me tell you something, folks. If you want joy, you'll do it His way. I'm going to say why I'm saying that. I remember growing up in the Kentucky churches and I watched those folks, how they'd go to an altar and the congregation would gather around them and pray over them. And all at once you'd see that one just throw their hands up. They'd go to shouting and rejoicing in the Lord. You see, they've got the joy of God in my mind and my heart. I thought that's the only way I can get it. I've got to do it like them old-timers done it. I've got to go down on my knees like they are. Let them old gray-headed women gather around me. Let them old men get up there and start praying and beating on me. The devil will have to run away, and God's Spirit will fill me up. Folks, I wore the altar out trying to get it that way, but it didn't happen. One day, one of my brothers sat me down and said, Do you want to really get saved? Do you really want to be saved? I said, I want to be saved more than anything I know. He said, I'm going to tell you how. Listen to this. I want to show you how simple it is and how easily you're missing it. He said, Do you believe that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin? I said, Absolutely. He said, Do you believe He grew up and lived a perfect life? I said, Absolutely. He said, Do you believe He went to the cross and shed His blood and died? I said, Absolutely. He said, Do you believe He got up from the dead, the third appointed one, like you said? I said, Well, sure He did. I'm confident of that. He said, Do you believe He done all of that? I said, yeah. He said, you believe you've done it for the whole world? I said, sure. I believe you've done it for the whole world. He said, no, this is the question. I said, what's that? He said, did he do all that for you? Huh? Am I ringing a bell? Did he do all that for you? I said, what? Yeah, I guess. Yeah, that sounds logical. That sounds reasonable. He said, if you really believe that, all you've got to do now is ask him, forgive him, invite him in, and he'll come in your heart just like that. I said, I don't believe a word of that. He said, that's why you're lost. And he left me like that. About another week went by. I was pulling off the side of the road. I couldn't drive. I'd beg and plead. I wrestled for a solid week or two on that. I could not accept that. I come back home one night and went to bed. My wife always liked to talk when we'd go to bed. Why is that, you reckon? Maybe he can't get us quiet long enough to talk to us during the day. Boy, when I lay down, I want to go to sleep. I don't want to talk. And the older I get, the more I love my bed and my pillow. I'm laying there on the bed, and she keeps talking to me, and I'm wanting to pray so bad I can't stand it. I said, Lord, if you just get her to go to sleep, I can talk to you. And I started praying. Somewhere through the night, she went to sleep. In the meantime, I woke up. Bloody heaven come down. God saved me right there in that bed. I got carried away, and the Lord, my wife, woke up. She said, what's going on? What's the matter with you? I said, leave me alone! I finally found the Lord. He finally got a hold of me. Now He saved me, and I've got the joy of the Lord! Hallelujah! Glory! Hallelujah! Oh, what a night that night was! And I'll tell you something about that night. That joy is still here today. Not only to the fullness of times in my life, but He's here to stay. I didn't know He said, I'll be with you always, even to the end of the world. But He did. And He is. And He always will be. That's why these things are written, number one, that you can have joy. I didn't mention a thing about your bank account, your health problems, your family crisis, the government, the politicians. I'm not interested in a lot of that stuff. What I am interested in is knowing the Lord. Because if I have the Lord and I have the joy of the Lord, that means I'm a strong person in Him. Not that I'm doing anything, but the joy of the Lord now becomes my strength. He makes my hands better. He makes my arms stronger. He makes my feet swifter. I'm telling you folks, everything about you gets better because the joy of the Lord has now become the stronghold of your life. These things are written that your joy might be full. Number two, 1 John chapter 2 verse 1. I don't know about you, but I've run into some obstacles since I got saved. I've run into some problems, and I want you to know I failed God miserably. And in chapter 2 verse 1, he said, My little children, these things write I unto you that you sin not. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He's the perpetuation for sin, not for ours only, but for all of the sins of the whole world. Oh my Lord, I thought, my goodness, he's not only interested in my sins, but he's interested in yours too. And not only in yours as a believer, but He's also looking at that one that's unsaved tonight. He's the perpetuation for your sin. What does that mean, preacher? He's the go-between. He's the one that goes up before the Father on our behalf. He lifts us up to Him. And every time that He sees one of the children of God that needs to be touched or forgiven of their sin, it's reminded of the cross. And when He stands before the Father and says, this is one of them that I died for, they've come back. They're for every pity. And now, I want to forgive Him. And God sees me, not as I am, but He sees me in the blood of the Lamb. And I'm forgiven. I'm restored. And as David prayed long ago, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. Do you ever notice when a backslider comes back out to carry it away and get some time? You know why? Because he knows that second round has been an extra measure of grace that he didn't deserve, but yet God measured it to him because of this passage. These things are written that you sin not. God never excuses anyone for doing wrong. Never will He excuse us. Never will He excuse us. However, He will forgive us if we'll come back. Oh, my Lord. I said, He will forgive us. He will forgive us. Glory to God. And when forgiveness is granted, all the joy, the strength of it, becomes that stronghold once again. And once again, you feel like you can lift a mountain. Glory to God. These things. Why are these things so important? Number one, the joy. And also, number two, oh my goodness, the support of the believer from Christ when they've done Him wrong. You know, it's amazing to me. You know how we are when we do wrong to one another. We want to kind of hold that over one another's head. Calvary preached a message in our church on forgiveness and the revival last fall. And he made a comment that really stuck me. He said, you know, you can't do a whole lot about your memory. What's there is there. I mean, if somebody's done something to you that's wrong, it sticks. You can't help it. It's there. However, you do have a choice with it. You can choose to forgive and let it go, or you can harbor it up and let it destroy you by biting on you until you become bitter. But, oh, to those that will let it go. Ain't it amazing, even though you can remember vaguely in your mind where people have transgressed against you, But yet, you let it go and it don't bother you anymore. Why? Because you forgive them. You see, Jesus said, if you don't forgive your brother of his trespasses, then I won't forgive you of your trespasses. I was talking with someone this week about a family member of mine that done me a bad wrong years ago. I was a Christian. He was a Christian. He done me wrong. And I can't even remember the details of all of it, but I remember when it was all said and done, I prayed about it and I said, Lord, I'm convinced that's wrong, but I'm putting it in Your hands. And I'm letting it go. And I'm just going to depend on you to keep me happy. Keep me strong in joy. And let me walk in fellowship with you. Well, you see, I released it. And the blessing of God continued to flow. I was telling someone about that this week. And for my life, I can't tell you which one of them boys done me wrong. I forgot who it was. I didn't think I could do it. But I'm telling you, I cannot tell you who it was. And you know what? That just makes my joy even greater. Boy, if you can forgive and forget, you are rolling. I've been blessed to do that once or twice. Not very often. I had a preacher really mess me over one time. I went and told him about it. He didn't think he had. I said, I don't care what you say, you've done me wrong. Well, he said, I don't think I've done wrong. I said, well, let's make an agreement right now. Let's shake hands and drop it where it's at. And I said, let's let God settle it. I won't talk about you, and I hope you don't talk about me. We shook hands. I walked out and got in my car and started down the road. Now, here's what I said. I said, Lord, you know He done me wrong. You know He did. He done me wrong. And you know it and I know it. But I'm putting it in your hands. Do what you want with it. Almost seven years went by. One Sunday evening there in our church in eastern Kentucky, we got ready to start the evening service. I believe it was a Sunday or Wednesday morning. The side door opens. In walked that preacher. Right into the pulpit. Right up to the podium. Right up beside of me, he said, can I borrow the podium for a moment? I said, absolutely. I stepped over. I've got to keep in mind, folks, we didn't fight or fuss. We just disagreed and I left it alone. He walked over to the pulpit. The podium stood right in front of the mic. He said, I've come over here with one thing to do tonight. I've come to make it right with your pastor. I've come to make it right with you people. I've done your pastor wrong several years ago. And I'm telling you, folks, I had all put it out of my mind. I mean, I remembered what he had done. But I put it in God's hands. He apologized, walked over to me, apologized to me. I hugged his neck. We embraced right there in front of that whole crowd. I said, now, church, the Bible says when they ask forgiveness, we're to forgive. Let's get a song. I'm going to have him stand right out here, and I want everybody in this building, I want you to come up here and shake hands and hug his neck and let him know that it's God. Hallelujah! I'm telling you, folks, we've got to have the support of one another in the church family. Because there ain't none of us that's living above it. My dad always told us boys when he was raising us, nine boys and two girls, believe me, we had a lot of problems. He said, you'll get along or I'll whip you till you do. And if you think for one minute God will let you get away with it, you're kidding yourself. I chased the brother-in-law of mine all the way to his house one day for one reason, to apologize, because I'd done him wrong. He would not let me go home until I made it right. And that brother-in-law of mine was as contrary as I was. He wasn't going to accept the apology. I apologized two or three times. He said, leave me alone. I'll get over it. Leave me alone. Got in his car. God said, get after him. I followed him. I followed him all the way to his house. And I said, I'll go in your house and stay with you until you tell me you forgive me. And he turned around, and I could see frustration in his face. He said, OK, I forgive you. I said, that's all I need to hear. Got in the car and left. And from that day until this, we've never had a disagreement on nothing. Folks, I'm telling you, God says you're going to love one another. Because the truth of the matter is, you're going to mess up too. And when you mess up, you better be careful how you treat others, because they may be the very ones that have to come and help you out. My little children, I write unto you that you sin not. If you do, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ. The only way He can work is through hearts that's obedient to Him. And a believer that won't forgive is disobedient to Christ. Number three, 1 John 2.26. Now, after you've went through all this, it don't take a rocket scientist to figure this next one out. Chapter 2, verse 26, notice what it says. These things I have written unto you concerning them that seduce you. It's not a bit hard to identify the enemy when he's already nailed you. Think about it. I'm going to tell you something, folks. It's one thing to mess up. It's one thing to stumble and fall. It's one thing to blow it pitifully and make a disgraceful look and act in your life. But it's a whole lot worse than that when you let him come and do it again. I didn't get in this thing last night. I've been on this road when I was a little dark, skinny-headed thug. Lord, I mean, 129 or 30 pounds. Yeah, what a journey. I tell our church I weigh more right now than me and my wife both weighed when we got married. My hair was dark when I met Jesus. My hair is getting whiter every day. Aches and pains ain't coming up like I didn't even know existed in my body. I'm getting closer and closer to departure, and I know it. But I'm going to tell you something, folks, through that journey. I've had some pretty good licks. I've been hit pretty good. I've been broadsided. I've been leveled. I've been steamrolled. And I'm going to tell you, the first one's on me. I'm going to tell you, after that one, you're going to earn the next one. You're going to earn the next one. Because, you see, after you identify how the enemy attacks and you see he's coming through a certain avenue, you don't have to be an idiot to sit there on that avenue and let him just keep coming. You see, I'm going to change locations after the first one. I'm going to get in a different setting after that first one. I'm going to learn a lesson from the first one so that I can identify the enemy from a distance. Oh, I want to keep him at a distance. I don't want him up here in my face. I want to keep him at a distance. And the only way I can do it is when I feel the seduction of his power moving in whatever it is that's trying to frustrate me. I've got to push it back and go the other way and claim victory in Jesus. Hallelujah. These things are written. concerning them that would seduce you or draw you back the wrong way. I tell our people, if you're running with somebody that wants to miss church and they invite you to miss with them, I say get away from them. They'll hurt you. They may tell you they don't mean to, but they're hurting you when they draw you away. When there's Sunday school going on and you want to go and they don't, And they try to pull you away from Sunday school. I said, get away from that. You don't want that influence. I'm going to tell you something, folks. There are some types of religious activities in this world today, and I ain't going to get into all of it, but they're trying to do it in the name of Christianity, and God ain't even hardly in the ability, much less in the service. I'm telling you, if you're in a place like that, you need to get away from it. Hallelujah. And go to a church where you can be blessed. You owe it to yourself. I heard Cal Ray say this. Different times that our church, and he's told me this, as you travel from here to heaven, you owe it to yourself to stop by Rubyville one time. And you know what? When I got here, I seen why he said it. You owe it to yourself to stop by and see what God can do here. Now, let me say this. Our church is in an almost unique situation as this one is. And here's what I mean by that. This church is built where nobody thought you had a chance. That's the way it is. Ain't that right? I mean, you're in a little community. I told Carol when I came in and seen Ruby, I said, here's Ruby. Here's the big community of Ruby. I said, look sitting there at that building. Looks like a castle sitting up on top of this place. All these little small houses around. The crowds, the congregation, the population couldn't be that many. But look what a building. I'll take you to Columbus, Ohio. 1542 Greenleaf Road, Columbus, Ohio. Folks, we're sitting on a dead-end street. I mean, when you go to the end of the street, as far as you can drive, there's just a church. It's like there's nowhere to go when you get there. But up... You build a church here and look what a crowd. We built on to our church a few years ago, and you ought to see what a crowd, what God's done. It ain't nothing that we've done. It ain't nothing we've done. Oh, Lord, how mercy! And then I think of the birth of the baby. On Christmas morning, he lays in a manger. Everybody that would look at him as they walked by, why, that's just a baby. What can he do in this lowly state, in this little manger? What can he accomplish? Oh, but they didn't know the story. Glory to God. These things are written that your joy may be full. And if you sin, you have an advocate with the Father. Glory to God. And when the seducing spirit and doctrines of devils come by, we know better. Hallelujah. Because greater is He that's in you than he that's in the world. Jesus didn't waste His effort. Calvin Ray never wasted his. And contrary to the way I feel most of the time about me, I didn't waste mine either. Because God absolutely instructed it to be like it is. Number four, and I'm closing. Look at chapter 5. Look at verse number 13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. Oh, these things are written for our security. Oh, why these things? Because if there's ever been a time in the Laodicean age of the churches and the conditions they're in, buddy, we need the hope that surpasses everything that the world has to offer, and most of the church assemblies all over the land. I'm glad that I have a hope of eternal life in the name of Jesus Christ, because when I bowed before Him and I invited Him into my life, He come inside of my soul and He took up His abode with me. He abides! He abides! Hallelujah! He abides with me! I'm rejoicing night and day as I walk this narrow way. Why? Because the Comforter now abides in me. I was going down 23 this Friday, I believe it was, going down to see my mom. I was studying on this message of both that eternal part, that secure part. A couple of thoughts come to my mind, and I'm closing with this. I don't know what time it is, and it don't really matter anyway. I'm just going to close with these two stories. One of them was George Garton. He was one of the best friends to me at that particular time in our church because he was such an encourager to me. He was a Barnabas type. He didn't get out and do a whole lot in the church. I mean, he'd go on visitation with me. But his big thing with me was going out and making money that he could later call T-bone money. And what that meant was he'd go work at these little rental places where they had these storage containers or places where you could store your possessions. And he worked for one of those. And I'd call him up and I'd say, what are you doing? Oh, I'm making some T-bone money. And I knew what he meant. You see, every time you get enough of it together, you'd call me. You'd say, John, let's go to York Steakhouse. They've got some T-bones over there we need to talk to. And we'd go over and we'd eat those T-bones. And I'll tell you what, folks, I enjoyed that. We got started talking one day, though, while we were eating and enjoying our fellowship. And he said, John, I've watched you for a long time. I've heard you preach. And he said, there's a concern I've got for you. I said, what's that, George? He said, man, I wish you'd get a little more secure in that delivery. I said, what do you mean? He said, I don't know if you realize how secure you really are in the Lord. I said, keep talking, I'm listening. He said, I used to wrestle with it all the time as to whether I was saved or lost. Saved or lost. Feel good one day, feel bad the next. Back and forth I went. He said, I couldn't be happy. I'd be happy at times, then I'd be sad. I'd be happy, then I'd be sad. He said, one day I got in the book and started digging. And he said, I found some Scriptures in there that really helped me. And this one I just read to you. These things are written that you may know. That you may know you have eternal life. If you believe on Jesus Christ, you have eternal life. If you're trusting Him for the saving and the keeping of your soul, you have eternal life. He said, I'm going to tell you something, brother. Until you get it settled, you're secure. You're not going to be happy. And I want you to be happy. Because he said, Preacher, I'm happy. That buddy, he'd made every word of it. That man was the happiest fellow you've ever met in your life. He said, I'm not worried a bit where I'm going. I know where I'm going because God said I was going. And I believe Him and I trust Him. I'm secure and I'm on my way to heaven. Church, can I tell you tonight, you can't get in your mind how secure you are if you're a believer. The gates of hell can't prevail against you. Jesus said, if you're in my Father's hands, no man can pluck you out of His hands. We need to understand how great it is to not only be saved, but to know you're secured in your belief. My goodness, folks, we need to drive down some stakes and say, Lord, you said I could go to heaven, and I'm planning on going, hallelujah. It's not based on my performance, and it's not based on yours. It's based on what He's already done at the cross of Calvary. He either covered them, or you're still lost. I know that may not hit just exactly right everywhere, but these things are written that you may know. Now, if you really know it, then I'm going to close with this one. If you really know it, that means you can identify the seducing spirits of Satan. You can recognize his tactics. If you're really secure in the Lord, you can spot this stuff along. You may have some slip up on you, but most of them, you'll see them as I counted. And if you do see them, or do something wrong, lose your temper or whatever, because you're secured in the Lord, you know you've got to deal with that. So I'm backtracking now. You'll find yourself at an altar praying and asking God to forgive you and to help you get over it and go on. And then if you go back to the first one, after you've done that, backtracking from security, amen, think about that, backtracking from being secure in the Lord, all the way back to the confession of your sins to Him, it brings you right back to one thing, the very first one, that your joy can be full. The happy Christian is a person that's secured in the Lord, a man that recognizes Satan, and when he gets overtook by him, he repents and gets forgiveness, and he comes back to his present position full of joy again. The joy of the Lord becomes our strength. Now let me tell you what I'm going to close with on that. Another friend of mine in eastern Kentucky years ago, He couldn't decide if he was a Baptist or a Pentecostal. That's the kind I like to deal with. He couldn't decide. I'll tell you, he was a Pentecostal preacher for years. And he got into that Baptist church down there where I was going. And he just couldn't contain himself. I'm telling you, that guy could not sit. I believe he was one of the happiest men I've ever met in my life. And I just loved it, man. I like to see some Baptist people. Some of them don't know which they are. They just go and enjoy it. Amen. He would get in the service. Now keep in mind, this guy's up in his 80s now, when I get ready to close the story, but in his 70s and 80s, he'd get up in church and he'd start shouting. He'd sing that song, ready to go, ready to stay, ready my soul to yearn, ready for service, lowly or blessed, ready to do God's will. He'd sing that over and over. And boy, I'll tell you all at once, the Holy Ghost would come down on him. He'd get excited. And he'd shout and people would just sit and look at him. And finally he'd say, well, you can sit still if you want, but I'm going to run. And he'd take right down that aisle. He'd come down the outside wall. I watched him go out the side door and circle the church building and come back in. People sat and said, don't worry about John. He'll be back directly. Just keep on serving God. Keep on saying it. Keep on praising the Lord. He'll be back after a while. He'd done that for years. He aggravated the Baptist's death. He was at the hospital, Highlands Regional Hospital, next to Prestonburg, Kentucky. And I heard about him. They said he's not going to make it. He's up in his 80s now. Now, folks, he'd done that the whole time he'd come to church. I'm not kidding you. He could shout. I'm telling you, the guy got into it. Reminded me of my brother-in-law. Buddy, you're off to a good start. I went up to the hospital. Me and two or three of the boys are in the church. to see if we could be an encouragement to him, because I kind of thought, well, he's probably down. You know, he's got the news that he's not going to make it. He's going to die. I went up to the hospital. We got up there around his bed. He had all this stuff hooked up to him. And they took most of it off because there wasn't nothing else they could do. He's laying there on the bed. He looked up and seemed to kind of have a big smile come on his face. Oh, brothers, come on in here. We went in there and we started talking to him. To cheer him up, listen. If I'd ever seen anything get reversed, it was old John Marshall putting it back on me. Man, he'd raise them hands out and started praying and rejoicing. He got so carried away he couldn't hardly sit still. And finally, one of us asked him a question. John, I know you're getting close home. Can I ask you a question? He said, sure. I said, if you could do it over, what would you do different? He sat there for just a moment. And I'm telling you, this is what he done. Buddy, it was just like the Holy Ghost just hit him all at once, just like that. Bless God, if I had it to do over, I'd run a little farther. I'd jump a little higher. I'd shout a little louder. Right out of that bed he'd come and started running circles right around that bed and just rejoiced. Scared the nurses half to death. They didn't know what was going on. I said, let him alone! The Holy Ghost has him again! Why could he do that? I'm going to tell you why he could do that. Because of what these things say. He had eternal life and knew it. I listened to Cal Ray preach a message down at Seffner talking about, I can't remember, I believe it was Ballou, Ed Ballou, when he passed or before he passed. I'm telling you, Cal, I've come unglued when he's done this. Cal said when he got ready to leave or the last time he talked to him, he said, hey, you got anything you want me to tell your dad when I get there? Oh, Lord, have mercy. Folks, if that weren't secure believer, I don't know what would. A man on his dying bed said, hey, I know your dad's over there. Have you got anything you want me to tell him? You know what I found myself doing when I found one getting close? I said, hey, by the way, if you see Dad over there, would you tell him? I said, hello, and I'll be along soon. Glory to God. Security of the believer. These things are written that your joy might be full. Amen. That's why we need these things, the joy, the repentance, recognizing the enemy, but also securing our foundation and holding on with all we've got. Folks, I can't find heaven, but heaven found me. Therefore, heaven is coming to me to take me there. Well, I don't know where he's at. Because Jesus said in John 14, I'm going. I'm going. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe in me. And my Father's house are many mansions, and if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. I like to put John Meade right there. I go to prepare a place for John Meade. And John, if I go prepare a place for you, I'll come again. And I'll receive you unto myself. That where I am, there you can be also. Oh, my goodness, aren't you glad that you can know without a doubt that you're on your way to heaven.