Taking God At His Word

In John 17:16, Jesus says of His disciples "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” It reminded me of a song we sang years ago in church.

¶ This world is not my home. I'm just passing through. My treasures are laid up, somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven's open door, and I can't be at home in this world anymore. ¶

The words to this song took on a little more meaning for me as we laid to rest the body of my brother Delrick on August 25. He received a cancer diagnosis in July and his decline was very rapid. But after his diagnosis, he made it clear that he did not want anyone moping around or being depressed. He said if God healed him, it meant that he had more work to do. But, if God did not heal him, then he would die and be forever in His presence. For Delrick, either way, he was good because both were win/win for him.

Delrick did not want a funeral, just a visitation for family and friends and then a burial. He wrote something that he wanted read at his burial that I want to share with you.

“If you died today, do you know where you’ll spend eternity? I did. Prior to 2016, my eternity would have been in hell. The Bible says that all liars, fornicators, adulterers, etc. will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

If I had died back in 2016, because I was doing those things and some, I would have died in my sins. True, like some of you here today, I was raised in church with the belief “once saved, always saved.” However, that isn’t the case.

Would you like to know where I am? I’m at home in my Father’s house. I’m in the mansion prepared for me. I’m where I want to be, safe in God’s quiet, peaceful house. I no longer suffer the pains of my earthly body. I’m in the presence of my creator. I see face to face – God.

Would you like to know what I’m doing? I’m engaged in the sweet enjoyment of my redeemer. I’m singing hallelujahs to Him Who sits on the throne.

Would you like to know the company I keep? It’s better than the best of earth. Here are the holy angels and the spirits of just men made perfect. I’m with my family and friends who came before me.

Lastly would you like to know how long this will last? Forever and ever! You have a choice to make while you’re still breathing. Heaven or Hell.” Delrick J. Johnson

My brother was a very private person, but since 2016 he would tell anyone who would listen that he loved God and that they needed to be saved. Now the reason I wanted to share what he wrote is because of what he said about “once saved always saved.”

You see, my brother, like most of us who grew up in a Baptist church, was taught the doctrine “once saved always saved.” He had watched how so many Christians lived their lives with one foot in the church and with one foot in the world because they believed that once they had been baptized nothing they did after that affected their salvation.

In 2016 my brother began to read the Bible on his own. He set aside the things he had been taught and simply looked to God to reveal Himself to him through His Word. And God did. My brother came to understand that “once saved always saved” was not true simply by reading the Bible and keeping the verses used to teach it in context. My brother chose to believe what God had said about the teaching and not what man had said about it.

For example, in Revelations 3:5 the Bible says, "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I (Jesus) will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels."

The only way a person's name can be blotted out of the book of life (the person is saved) is if his name was in the book of life. Jesus tells us plainly that it is possible to have our names removed from the book of life, to no longer have salvation.

In 2016, Delrick began his journey to understanding the singular truth most in the Church miss – believing what God says in His Word is the only way home.

My brother had chosen to live his life on an unchangeable foundation: the Bible, God’s Word. He took God at His Word. Over time, he began to see the Bible, God’s Word, the way His Father sees it.