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.
Turn with me to Psalm 138:2. It says, “I will worship toward Thy holy temple, and praise Thy name for Thy lovingkindness and for Thy truth: for Thou hast magnified Thy word above all thy name.”
We know that God’s Word contains His promises to us. In the Hebrew, the word "above" is a preposition that means “upon, over, against, by, to, or for.” Now we know that nothing and no one is above God. We also know that a person’s word is only as good as his or her willingness to keep it.
With this in mind, a case can be made for rendering "above" as "upon". We could read that last part of Psalm 38:2 this way: “…for Thou hast magnified Thy word upon all Thy name.”
When God gave us the Bible, He also gave us His word – His personal guarantee – to fulfill every promise in it. In other words, He put His name and His reputation on the line that He would be faithful to bring to pass His Word.
Ladies and gentlemen, without God, there is no word to magnify. His name and His Word are one!
And we see that God and His Word are the same to Abraham in his response to God’s commandment to leave his family.
Let's look at Genesis 12:1. “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:”
Now turn to Hebrews 11:8. "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went."
Abraham heard the word of the Lord and believed the word of the Lord, and because of that, he did what the Lord commanded him to do. He didn’t understand everything. He didn’t even know where he was going. But Abraham knew God, he knew His word, and he trusted Him.
“By faith” – Abraham took God at His Word. We are here in Hebrews 11. Let's read verses nine and ten.
(9) By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
(10) For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
The word "sojourned" means “to be a stranger, to dwell at a place only for a short time.” The person living in a strange country is living “in a country of people who are not like him.” Spiritually, the people in the country are “hostile and an enemy” to the person, to what the person believes, and to the person’s way of living. ¶ This world is not my home. ¶
Abraham was able to live in a country – in a society, in a culture – that was hostile to him and everything he believed because he knew God and he knew that He would keep His word, His promise, to him. Abraham lived by faith. He simply took God at His word.
When my brother decided to believe God’s Word without man’s interpretation – without man’s “interference” – he concluded that if he did not make some changes in his life he would die in his sins and go to hell. He went from a person who was very private to one of the loudest heralds of the Gospel, especially to the members of our family who are not saved.
Do you believe God’s Word the way He believes it?
? Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). Do you believe Him? My brother did. If this world is not our home, we must believe this too.
? Jesus spoke prophetically about His disciples when He says in John 17:14, “I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” And in John 17:16 He says, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Do you believe Jesus is also talking about you? My brother did. If this world is not our home, we must believe this too.
? In First John 1:5, the Bible says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Do you believe you need to repent when you sin? My brother did. If this world is not our home, we must believe this too.
? In Isaiah 8:11-12, the Bible says, “For the LORD spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, 12 Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.” Do you believe what the world believes and fear what the world fears? My brother didn’t. If the world is not our home, neither should we.
? In the face of opposition from the religious leaders, the apostles said in Acts 5:29, “We ought to obey God rather than men.” Is this how you live? My brother lived this way. If the world is not our home, we should too.
Jesus changes lives.
Ladies and gentlemen, my brother’s life was not perfect. Far from it. But when he came to know Jesus, it changed him and I mean, it really changed him. At the visitation for family and friends, my uncle told me several times that he had never seen such a change in a person’s life as he had seen in Delrick. The change was so dramatic that he believed that Jesus Himself had visited Delrick. Knowing how Delrick lived before 2016, I wouldn’t be surprised!
Let's look at one more passage, Colossians 1:12-14.
(12) Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
(13) Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son:
(14) In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.
Jesus delivered us from Satan’s authority. When we truly begin to grasp and understand the fullness of what that means, our lives will change dramatically too. We will no longer side with the world against our Father. We will no longer see the Bible, God’s Word, as a book to consider as we go about our lives. Instead, our lives will be one that imitates the life of our Father – believing what He believes, saying what He says, and acting the way He acts.
Let me close with this.
There is a scene in the movie, Big George Foremen, that describes what my brother came to understand, what some of us now understand, but what most of the Church doesn’t understand.
When Foreman tells his manager that he will no longer be a boxer but a preacher of the gospel, his manager didn’t believe him. Foreman says, “Remember when you told me that you traded one uniform for another?” (His manager had been a boxer but had to give up his career when he was drafted into the army.) He said, “That’s what I’m doing. You can understand that, can’t you?”
His manager responded, “I had no say, George. My choice was made for me.” Foreman’s response was simple, but oh so powerful – “So was mine.”
Please stand.
