A Pastor"s Pilgrimage

Well, before resuming our study in Matthew, if you're visiting with us, let me explain that we've been going through the Gospel according to Matthew. And then as we came to Matthew chapter 19, for six Sundays now, I've been speaking on the teaching of Jesus regarding to marriage and gender based on Matthew chapter 19. But before resuming our study of Matthew's Gospel, I wanted to give a personal testimony of my pilgrimage.

I'll explain why I'm doing that later. And as I thought of that, throughout my life there have been two great themes, two great anchors of Scriptures which have sustained me in all of life, in the mountaintop experiences and I've had many of them, and also in the valley experiences of life, and I've also experienced them. First of all, I want to reflect on the greatness of God.

I'm very thankful. I was raised in a home where I learned that God is great. That I learned not of a small God, but of a great God.

A God who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth. And I was taught to love the sky, and I've always loved the sky and the sea. That's why my favorite color is blue. For the Irishman, it's grass. They look at the earth. We in Scotland look at the sky, and Irish have chosen green.

Our flag is blue. Some would say we're more spiritual than the Irish. I would never say that, but some might. But I was taught that God was great. It's been estimated that there are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on the earth.

And that there are more atoms in one grain of sand than there are stars in the universe. Now, I can't prove that, but I know this, that God is great and greatly to be praised. In my home as a little boy, I was taught to fear the Lord. My mother was a big proponent and taught us, myself and my five brothers, that we were to fear God. Our family crest, the Monroe clan motto, is Dread God. There it is.

There's our beautiful tartan of the Monroe clan. And there it says Dread God. Now, I understand dread has changed its meaning over the years, but it means, in an old-fashioned way, to mean to fear God. The fear of God, after all, is the beginning of wisdom. And how important it is to understand that God is great and we are to fear God. He's the one who made us, the one who sustains us, and the one to whom we are accountable. Perhaps in today's vernacular, we would say that God is awesome. Dread God.

Why? Because He's great. Because He is awesome.

And I'm very glad that God in His grace put me in such a home where my father and my mother taught us a big God and that God was great. On September 1, 1715, King Louis IV, Louis the Great, died. He was called Louis the Great, a name of great honor, a name of great power, but now he was dead because kings, even great kings, even kings like Louis the XIV, died. And he had given instructions regarding his funeral which he wanted to be spectacular. After all, he was Louis the Great. And to dramatize the greatness, he had given instructions that the Basilica, where his funeral was to be held, was to be dimmed. And there was a special candle over the golden casket of Louis the XIV, Louis the Great.

Thousands waited in hushed silence as the Bishop, Bishop Bassillon went up. And he stood over the casket with that little candle and he snuffed it out and said, only God is great. I like that. You think you're great? Only God is great. And so that theme, the greatness of God, is what I want to talk about because it has been a pillar in my life.

Only God is great because God is the Creator of everything. What do we read in Genesis 1? If you have a Bible, you certainly can find this one. The first book of the Bible, the Old Testament, begins so wonderfully. Genesis 1, verse 1, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Verse 3, and God said, let there be light and there was light. God is the Creator. The Psalmist says in Psalm 33, He speaks and is done. He commands and it holds fast. Paul tells us in Romans 1 that God's invisible attributes, His eternal power and His divine nature and His greatness are seen in creation.

And the whole universe testifies to the power of an awesome, great God. When I was a little boy, 10 years old, I went to my grandfather's fishing boat. We have a picture of it, I think. It is what's called a herring drifter, mainly catching herring. As the herring would be around the British Isles, the Scottish herring fishermen like my grandfather followed the herring, they called them the silver darlings. And they had what was called a drift net. So in the early evening they put out their net. Long, long net. And it was out all night, hopefully, that the herring would come and be caught in the net and in the morning they would put it in. Now they catch herring by what's called a purse net. But this was the drift net, hard hard work.

And one time I remember my younger brother and I went out with my grandfather. Now this is the North Sea, this is not a little lake. It is cold. Is it cold? It's windy and it's stormy and there's the smell of the diesel of the boat and there's the smell of the fish.

And not to be sick is very, very difficult. But it was out on the boat, my grandfather was a very quiet man, a very godly man. My mother was the only, their only child. And he was a man who walked with God, as I say a few words. But there on the boat at night you would look up and see the magnificent stars.

Well out in the sea, away from all artificial light. And you look at the power of the waves and the power of the ocean, always, always moving, never, ever still the North Sea and learned that God is great as the Creator. The Psalmist says, the heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. John says in the prologue of his gospel that all things were made by him and without anything, and without him, nothing was made that was made. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Creator. God is so great, think of this, that he creates everything out of nothing. That's pretty impressive, isn't it? You want to compete with God?

You think you're great? There's nothing. He speaks and the worlds come into being. Hebrews 11 verse 3, by faith we understand that the universe was created by the Word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. The writer of Hebrews reminds us in the opening verses of Hebrews that God's Son upholds everything by the Word of his power, the very beat of your heart. The movement of your lungs is sustained by the very Word of God.

The planets, the whole universe is upheld by the Word of his power. That's greatness. The Psalmist says great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. That's why one of our great themes at Calvary Church is that God is great. Now, I understood that as a little boy, but over the years, my understanding of God's greatness has increased. Only God is great, not only because he's the Creator, only God is great because God is infinite and eternal. Here is Job in Job chapter 11, or as some people say Job chapter 11 verse 7. Can you find out the deep things of God?

The questions are rhetorical. Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?

Is there anyone here who can do that? It's higher than heaven. What can you do deeper than Sheol? What can you know? Its measure is no longer, its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea. What can we say about God? Many things we can say that God is infinite. By saying that God is infinite, we mean that God in his being and perfections is absolutely free of all limitations and restrictions and conditions. We are finite.

We have boundaries. God is infinite. And all of the attributes of God are held to an unlimited degree to infinity. Is God loving? Yes, God is loving. His love is infinite. Is God holy?

Not just a little bit holy. His holiness is infinite. He is infinite in his perfections and glory.

Job 5 verse 9, that God does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number. Think of the infinity of God. The infinity of God in relation to space is called his immensity. How big is God? God is immense. God is big to an infinite degree. God is so big that he fills all space absolutely. Jeremiah 23 verse 24, do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord. God is so big that wherever you go, God is there. Isn't that interesting? Remember the man Jonah who tried to run away from God?

How foolish. David says in the wonderful Psalm, Psalm 139 that you can't run away from God. Wherever you go, however high you go, however deep you go, whether you go east or west, God is there. God is present in the totality of his being at each point in space. Is God here?

Yes. All of God is here. That's why we say God is omnipresent. The greatness of God. And so I was taught, as some of you were taught, as a wee boy, that you can't run away from God. That you can't hide from God. Do you ever feel like hiding from God? The answer is yes, sometimes. Just get away from God.

Do your own thing. Utterly impossible. God is great in terms of his infinity regarding time. He is eternal.

That's difficult for us to grasp, isn't it? That God is eternal. God existed before time existed and he will exist after time ceases to exist. God created time, but God is not limited by time. God is outside our time frame so that Peter tells us that a day with the Lord is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day.

Blows the mind, doesn't it? God was never born and God will never die. So Moses writes in Psalm 90 verse 2, before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.

God existed, of course, before he created the universe. He is from everlasting to everlasting. Paul says of God that he is the immortal King.

He can't die. He's the Almighty, who was and is and is to come, is the chorus in Revelation 4. God's existence extends endlessly backwards and forwards throughout every moment of time. He's the great, eternal God.

He's without beginning and without end. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. How much did I grasp of that growing up?

I don't know, but I was taught some of that. What is our response to this? Awe, fear, humility, our own little smallness. He is huge, we are tiny, we're just a speck in the cosmos, and yet He loves me. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. He loves me.

I'm to love Him. I'm to worship Him with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to understand that eternal life is found only in the eternal God. There is no other way to know God than through Jesus Christ. He is the eternal God, and He is my refuge.

Jude around May 33, underneath are His everlasting arms. God is so strong that no problem of mine is a problem to Him. That He has said, John, I will sustain you, I'll be your helper, I'll be your rock, I'll be your shield.

Stop worrying. Trust me with all of your heart because I am the great God. And in my life, in the grace of God, in different circumstances I've learned to trust this great God. Not to worry, not to fret, but to be still, Psalm 46, be still and know that I am God. He is the everlasting God. I get tired, I get weary. Sometimes I'm joyful, sometimes I'm sad.

Sometimes I'm on the mountaintop, and sometimes I'm in the valley. God is constant. He is immutable. And He tells us then that those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary.

They shall walk and not faint. And in all of the circumstances of life, I've learned to trust this great God. He never gets tired. He never gets weary. He never pushes me away. He never says, I'm tired of you, John.

You're very slow in learning these lessons. No, He's with me, loving me, caring for me. This is the great God that I know and that I worship. Will you stand and read with me from Psalm 139, verses 13 through 18, as we think of the greatness of God. Will you personalize it? I'm personalizing it. This is my testimony. I trust it's yours.

For you, read it with me. For you formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance. In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God. How vast is the sum of them.

If I could count them, they are more than the sand. I awake and I'm still with you. Amen. Wonderful, wonderful verses. And so here is this great anchor that has sustained me throughout my life, that God is great. The second great theme, the second great anchor is that God is not only a great God, He's a gracious God, the grace of God. If you have your Bible, turn with me to Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 1, because my salvation, this is humbling isn't it, was planned by God the Father.

Yes, the salvation of John Monroe was planned by God the Father. Ephesians 1 verse 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love. In love, He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace with which He has blessed us in Thee, beloved.

Just stop there. In His amazing grace, God planned my salvation, not only before I was born, but before the foundation of the world. Before God created the heavens and the earth, Paul was telling me that God the Father planned my salvation, that He chose me in Christ before the foundation of the world. And I'm chosen, did you notice that verse 4, to be holy and blameless. I'm chosen to be like the Son of God.

And that one day, in the grace of God, I shall be perfectly like my Savior. All, verse 6, to the praise of His glorious grace. Oh, the love that drew salvation's plan. Oh, the grace that brought it down to man.

Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span at Calvary. Paul says this Gospel, in Romans 1 verse 1, is the Gospel of God. It's God's Gospel. It's God's good news. And Romans chapter 10 tells me that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. And that God in His grace don't ask me to explain why God would choose me.

I cannot understand it. It's all to the praise of His glory. And so we say, and you can say if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, the words of Paul at the end of Romans 11, oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways. Can you understand how God works in your life sometimes?

I can't. His ways are unfathomable. He's the great God that I have to remind myself every day that this God not only is great, He is gracious. My salvation then is planned by God the Father, and my salvation was accomplished by God the Son.

Ephesians 1 verse 7, beautiful verse, in Him that is in Jesus Christ. Notice what Paul says, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. Forgiveness. Yesterday I spoke to a young woman and she had a tattoo and I asked her about it and it was written, forgiven.

I thought, wonderful. And she told me that God in His grace had forgiven her. We are forgiven. I am forgiven. Notice how that came. The forgiveness of our trespasses according to all that I've done because I was a good wee boy.

No, I wasn't in fact a bad wee boy, my mother told me. No, it's according to the riches of His grace which He lavished upon us. The money paid, Paul is using the concept of redemption, the money paid to release a prisoner of war or a slave was called a ransom. The price paid for the redemption. In Haiti these missionaries have been kidnapped, you've been hearing on the news, and the kidnappers won $17 million, a million dollars for each person. Well, if the ransom was paid, I don't know if it's going to be paid or not, the prisoners would be redeemed.

They're in captivity, someone comes and pays this ransom and they are then freed. Redemption is the paying of a ransom to release a person from bondage, from slavery. And this is the concept that Paul is using here in Romans 1. The Romans and the Greeks took prisoners and put them into slavery and occasionally they would be bought out, they would be redeemed.

We are slaves to our pride, our selfishness, our ambition, our greed, our envy, our self-absorption. Think of this, that into that dark world of our trespasses, God the Father sends His Son to accomplish His plan of salvation, a plan which was devised before the foundation of the world. And He comes, we're singing about it, doesn't, haven't we? And He frees us from the chains of our sin that we are forgiven. And as a little boy who was reminded from Scripture by my parents of the fear of God, I knew that I was a sinful little boy.

And I remember, 9, 10, 11, 12, listening to preaching. And I didn't like some preachers because when they preached, I felt really convicted. You know, sometimes people say, well, you know, I'm very comfortable coming to Calvary Church. And I think, I don't know if I want you to be comfortable.

This is not a big arm chair, this is not a lazy boy. No, I hope you've experienced the conviction of sin, the work of the Spirit of God as you're confronted with the truth of Scripture and you say, that's got my name on it, that's for me. I'm a trespasser, I'm proud, I'm sinful. And as a little boy, I was convicted. I knew I could never get rid of my sin because there was a part of me that always took me to do what was wrong.

And I've said before from this platform, my father used to say, John, when are you going to learn to do what you're told? The conviction of sin. And I knew I needed God's grace. Now, notice what Paul says here, the price to be paid for the redemption of freedom is the precious blood of Jesus Christ. In Him we have redemption, verse 7, through His blood, referring to the cross, the forgiveness of our trespasses. In the magnificence of the Gospel, the sinless Christ comes and is a substitute on the cross for John Monroe, pays the price for the sins of John Monroe. And Peter writes that we are redeemed not with corruptible things as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ without spot and blemish. No spot on our Savior, no sin on our Savior, absolutely perfect and He comes, the perfect one, to die for a very, very imperfect person like John Monroe. And through the death of Christ and the cross and His glorious resurrection, all of our sins may be forgiven. Says Paul here, in accordance with the riches of His grace.

Don't you love that? It's not just grace. Paul's a great preacher of grace. It's not just grace, he said, it's the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us.

A rich man may give you something, but he doesn't lavish you with his riches. So it's what God does. It is grace upon grace upon grace upon grace.

It's like the overwhelming ocean which never stops. So in my life, I can testify. I'm sure all of the pastors and many of you could do the same thing. That it's not just a little bit of grace. In my life, God has lavished grace upon grace upon grace.

Totally undeserving. God's amazing grace flows like an overwhelming ocean. My salvation planned by the Father, my salvation accomplished by God the Son, my salvation was sealed by the Holy Spirit, verse 13.

In Him, you also, isn't this beautiful? When you heard the word of truth, what's the word of truth? The Gospel of your salvation and believed in Him.

What happened? We're sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory. So that when you come in saving faith to Jesus Christ, you're forgiven, your sins are forgiven.

But God does much more than that. He's told us He adopts us into His family, but here Paul is saying this Holy Spirit, He has this one that convicts you of your sin. He not only gives you new life, He indwells you and we are sealed. Those who are saved by grace are sealed and marked with a stamp of ownership. The seal of the Spirit stamped on John Monroe. I'm not my own, I'm bought with the Christ with a price. I'm a Christian. I'm a follower of Jesus Christ and the sealing of the Spirit is now, makes it obvious that I belong to God once I live by myself. No, I have the seal of the Spirit. It's a mark of ownership, but it's also a mark of security. Notice what Paul says, verse 14, regarding the Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.

It's the first installment as it were. It's the down payment of what is coming. Greek word here is used for the engagement ring. This week a young lady showed me her engagement ring.

Much bigger than the one I gave my wife, so I said don't show it to good name. Beautiful engagement ring. She's happy. Her face is shining. She's so excited that the man of her dreams has asked her to marry and she's got this beautiful ring, but that ring, however beautiful, is pointing to something much better. You think it's great to be engaged?

Hey, wait till you're married. It's pointing to something greater. It's the down payment. Yes, I love you, but now something greater is coming. The Holy Spirit indwells us. It's wonderful, but the Holy Spirit within us is pointing to something greater, this great inheritance. This is why we as pastors are singing about being almost home.

You say, why would you sing about that? Enjoy life here. Well, we do enjoy life here, but something far greater is coming. A future with my wonderful Savior. You say, how do I know that when I'm shaking by the difficult things of life and are you going to lose your faith?

No, because I am sealed with the Holy Spirit. And this is all of God's grace. The greatness of God, and the grace of God.

These two themes of Scripture continue to impact me every day of my life. I was saved by the grace of a great God when I was 12 years old. Going to a Christian camp to play soccer, I heard the Gospel of the grace of God.

I'd heard it from my mother's knee. I could have repeated it to the preacher. I knew many Gospel verses. I knew about the Gospel, but I did not know the Savior.

I think some of you are there. You know about Jesus Christ. You come to church.

There's something about this that you enjoy. But I wonder if you know Christ. Because I can say I knew about the Gospel. I could have told you it, but I did not know Christ until that momentous day. An unforgettable day in my life when I called out to the Lord Jesus to save me. I confess my sin and I look to Christ and Christ alone as the Savior who died on the cross for my sins and rose again. And I asked Him to come and to save me and He did.

The living Christ and through His grace His Spirit indwells me. And how I rejoice that now I was saved by grace. Is there a boy of 12 here today? A girl of 12?

11, 12, 13, 14? You've come here a few years. You've gone through Uanna. You go to Sunday school. Perhaps now you're in middle school. And you can give the answers, but you don't know Christ. Can I ask you today, why don't you receive Christ? Why didn't I do it before?

I can't really answer that question. But now is the day of salvation. Open your heart and receive Christ. Well, I did that when I was 12 and then I began to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Zebu asked one of those baptized, are you growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ?

That's a wonderful thing, isn't it? Not only to be saved by grace, but to grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And with God's help I began as a boy, as a 12-year-old to grow in the grace of God. And just before my 17th birthday and another momentous moment in my Christian life when I was baptized as a believer in Christ, that was so important to me. I realized this Jesus whom I was following, I must obey and He commands us to get baptized. And so I was baptized.

I took that very, very seriously. I realized I must tell others about Jesus Christ which I began to do in my school where there were very, very few Christians. And although my parents had bought me a Bible, I wanted a Bible that I wanted and I went to the Christian bookstore with a friend of mine and I bought a Bible. Now I've had Bibles before, but I bought this Bible and I began to read and study the Bible. I got together with a few friends of mine by their same age and we said we're going to have a Bible study. We didn't have a guide, we didn't have a mentor.

Nowadays everyone's a mentor. There were just four or five of us met in a restaurant and I remember we opened our Bibles and we started studying 1 Timothy. I don't know whether theology was right or not but we had a supernatural desire to read and to study this book. And I've been reading and studying it ever since, growing in the grace of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. You will not grow unless you commit yourself to read and to study the Bible.

Please do that. Well, my last year at high school, to the surprise of my family and the consternation of my father, I announced I wanted to become a lawyer. My father didn't like that. Christian lawyer didn't go together with him.

I used to tell the joke, I've told this before, so if you've heard it, you don't need to laugh again. But my dad, one of my dad, he was a storyteller, a bit of a jokester, and he, one of his favorite jokes about lawyers was the man's walking in the cemetery and he sees the headstone. John Smith, lawyer and an honest man.

He says, strange putting two men in one grave. So that's my father's view and he was serious. My older brother had pursued medicine, that was thought to be, you know, as a Christian we should have compassion on people and that was good. Lawyers, you know, why would a Christian be a lawyer? But I've believed then and I believe now that that's what God was calling me to do. No lawyers in the family. Spoke to my parents and I remember my mother saying to my father, my father was called Tom, she says, Tom, we've only really prayed two things for the boys.

That was us. One, that they would come to Christ and secondly, that they would do God's will in their life. And if John believes this is God's will, we need to encourage him. And so my father couldn't refute that impeccable logic of my mother and I said, Amen, Mom, preach it. So they gave me their blessing and I went off to law school at Edinburgh University.

I loved it. I qualified as an attorney, worked hard and after about three years as a lawyer, God in His grace brought a beautiful young Scandinavian woman into my life. And she graciously agreed to marry me.

It did take a couple of shots. Her English wasn't too good and shortly, probably just days after I met her, I said, you know, I'm going to marry you and she said, no, no, no, no. And I thought, you know, she's going to come around.

She's going to come around. Not because I'm irresistible, although I am, but I believed, I'm making a serious point here, I believed that God had brought her into my life. I had been praying for a Christian wife. Two of my brothers were married.

I wasn't, I wasn't in a rush, but I thought, you know, it would be nice to get married. And she came from another country on a mission trip and it seems as if God brought her right in front of me. When I saw her, spoke with her, limited English, although it was, I thought, I'm going to marry this young woman, Goodney Ingalls, Gunnarsson.

Strange name, but we'll change it to Monroe quickly. And so we got married in the Faroe Islands. She then moved to Scotland. I told her, look, I'm not going to live in the Faroe Islands.

I'm a lawyer. I'm not going to learn Faroese and Danish and go through law school and go and live in the Faroe Islands. If you're going to marry me, you're going to come to Scotland.

And she said, of course, I'll follow you wherever you want, or something like that. So here we are living in Scotland. Life was very good. I practiced law. I was a criminal prosecutor for some time in Edinburgh in a private practice. We were, I think, good lawyers. We certainly made a lot of money, and life was good.

I love law. We're involved in our church. And then, in a series of circumstances, God dramatically changed the course of my life, and no one was more surprised than myself.

Paul says this in Galatians 1, verse 15, "'But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles.'" I was having lunch with a lawyer friend of mine, and he said to me, John, do you think you're going to be a lawyer for the rest of your life? I said, absolutely.

I thought, what a silly question, you know? Later I found out that he was going to go into investment business, which he did. I became a multimillionaire, so that was a bad choice I made then.

But I said, no, I'm going to stay in law. As I walked away, have you ever had this experience? The Holy Spirit says, that was very arrogant. Isn't your life in the hands of God?

Don't you at least pray about such things? And that was the beginning of God doing a very strange thing in my life, turning it to a call to be a preacher of grace. I had read some books by the faculty at Dallas Theological Seminary. I'd met a couple of their students who were doing their doctorates in Scotland, and I thought, you know, this is the place where I'm going to go. The logo of Dallas Theological Seminary then, I think it still is, 2 Peter 4 verse 2, preach the word, kirokson ton logon in Greek, preach the word. In season and out of season, I thought, God is calling me to preach the word.

I thought it was going to be in Scotland. So I said to Goodney, we'd only been married a few years. Goodney, I'm going to resign from my law practice, and we're going to go to Dallas, where I'm going to be four years at Dallas Theological Seminary.

From our savings, we're going to sell everything we have, and we can support ourselves through these years. And Goodney was in shock and really could hardly discuss it. I said to her, look, this is of the Lord, I want you to pray about it. She prayed about it, and after some time, my beautiful wife that God gave me came and said, John, let's do it.

We believe this is of the will of God, we will do it. We told our family, they were in shock. I told my partners, they were in shock.

We sold our home, we sold our cars, I had some money in the business, made a deal with my partners that they were going to pay me out over four years, and we left for Dallas. We'd never been there. It was an act of faith.

It's a wonderful experience. Going from Scotland to Texas, the Texans couldn't understand Goodney, and she couldn't understand them. And I tried to teach Texans how to speak English, and there we were.

Through every step, we experienced the grace of God. On graduation, we were looking for God to lead us back to Scotland. I had a former client who was in Pittsburgh. He'd asked me to preach in his church.

I'd done an internship there as a student. A group of people, about a hundred of them, a pastor, and they called me. And we really didn't want to go to Pittsburgh.

I talked to some of my professors and they said, Pittsburgh? They were all from the south. And after a few months of waiting and waiting on the Lord and expecting the Lord to lead us elsewhere, it became clear that we would go there. And small church, no office, no secretary, no records, and there we began.

A wonderful experience. And I can testify that God's grace is all sufficient. And through the years, God has lavished His grace on us. Grace upon grace upon grace.

Judy and I resolved when we left Scotland that we were never going to ask anyone for a penny. We're going to set out by faith, and I can testify. My dad said, God is no man's debtor. I can testify. Please hear me. If you put Jesus Christ first in your life, God will take care of you.

That's the promise. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. I should have mentioned that during her time, during her time in Dallas, God blessed us in adopting a little boy who was two days old, and we called him Christopher John Monroe. And God graciously gave us this little boy who grew up, as many of you know, into a very big man, bigger than me, for 37 years.

And then six months tomorrow, God took him home. People have asked me, is your faith shaken? Are you angry with God? Do you have questions with God?

And I can say, not boastfully, but as a testament of the grace of God, no. Good ni and I are not angry with God. God's a great God. God's blessed us. God gave us Christopher for 37 years. He didn't need to give us for one day.

We have three wonderful grandchildren, Alex, Ian, and Kara, and we're assured that one day we will see our son again. He has gone home. We are almost home, and we will be with Him for all of eternity. Do we question God? I don't understand God.

God is infinite in His wisdom. I'm told to submit the Lord. The Lord gives.

The Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. We reaffirm our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and believe that God is great and God is gracious. And after serving in various churches in February 2006, we came here to Calvary Church, and step by step God has guided us.

I've written this booklet, which is available as you leave. It's called Eternal Security, Finding Certainty in a Chaotic World. And I'm grateful for my executive assistant Michelle and Donna Peterson for the format and setting it out. In a sense, it's my personal story, but it's also presenting the very, very important truth that when you trust the Lord Jesus Christ, He gives you eternal life. That night when I committed my life to Jesus Christ as a 12-year-old boy, the leader of the camp came and read these verses. John 10, verse 27, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. And no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them me is greater than all.

And no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one. And I learned that as a little boy, that as I had trusted Christ, I was eternally secure.

It's a wonderful truth to grasp as we go through life. On the mountaintop, praising God, in the valley, I am — what does the Scripture say? I am given eternal life. Here's why we can sing as pastors. We're almost home. We've received eternal life.

Not because we're pastors, but because we have sinners coming to Christ. He gives us eternal life and they will never perish. I will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand as we go through life.

Just think of it. I am in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. I like to take my wife's hand.

What does that do? It's a symbol of love. It's a symbol of security. It's a symbol that we are together.

We are one. Just think of it, that God in His grace not only saves John Monroe, He takes my hand and puts it in the hand of my Lord Jesus Christ. And no one can snatch me out of His hand.

Furthermore, says Jesus, my Father who has given them to me, that's Ephesians 1, that I am chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world that God had planned the salvation of John Monroe and He gives me to the Son and says Jesus Christ and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. Think of it, brothers and sisters, as you go through life. Life is tough. Life is difficult.

Life sometimes has unexpected obstacles and seeming disasters, but you're in the hands of Jesus and in the hand of the Father and they are one and there is no force in all of the universe which can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I ask you as we close if you've never done it, to place your faith in Jesus Christ. And if you are a follower of Christ, to rejoice. And maybe if you're wondering if you can lose your salvation or not, get this book. Read it.

Look at the verses. Perhaps use it in your life group. Use it in a Bible study.

Use it with your husband or your wife or your children so that you too will have this great assurance that He will hold me fast. Father, we thank You for Your grace and for Your greatness. We are staggered at it. And there are some here who are tired, who are weary. May they come to Christ. Jesus says, come unto me. And we thank You that through all of the circumstances of life that You hold us and You hold us fast. We rejoice in that. In Christ's name. Amen.