Saved and Sanctified - Testimony of Alan Bartley

A new speaker at Listooder, Alan Bartley introduced himself to the young people by providing an insight into how he came to know the Lord Jesus Christ and experience the joy of sins forgiven.

Reading from Psalm 116, Alan consider the Psalmist's claim in the first verse. God had done something for the speaker in this verse, therefore he loved Him. "I love the Lord because..." indicates that there was something which caused him to turn his affection towards God. He had an encounter with the Lord.

Alan was the youngest of 8 children, in a typical 'Presbyterian' home. A religious home, but apart from the profession of his mother at an early age, a home without the Lord.

At 8 years of age, Alan lost the 'hero' of his young life. His father passed away, leaving a grieving family that would never be the same again. The loss of his father caused him to realise, for the first time, that he also would face death at some point in his life.

As he entered his teens, Alan had little desire for the things of the world, and got heavily involved in the local church. Sadly, the church did not appear to teach the Gospel, and Alan never realised that he needed to be saved.

One of his brothers, who was religious and 'good-living' had come to know the Lord in this time, but since little change could be seen in his life, this had little impact on Alan. However, when another brother, who had been caught up in the things of the world, got saved, Alan began to notice a radical change in his life. His brother began to pray, study the Bible, speak about the Lord and even bought Alan his first Bible. Shortly after this, 3 of his sisters also came to know Christ as their Saviour.

But despite this influence, Alan began to drift away from Christian things. He began to lose interest in the church and felt his life was taking a direction away from the things of God. He had little interest in hearing about his need for Salvation, or his need for Christ.

Yet at the age of 17, he was convinced to attend a Gospel mission, and reluctantly attended. As he left the mission that evening, walking out into the darkness of the night, he became acutely aware of the darkness of his own heart, and the grip of sin on his life. God was dealing with him.

He returned to the mission each night, where he learnt about the Lord Jesus Christ, His love, His death, His forgivness and His Salvation. As Alan sat in the Gospel mission, during one of the meetings, God spoke to him, calling him to repent of his sin. In realisation of his need of Christ and His work of Salvation on the cross, Alan came to Christ for forgiveness. He immediately felt the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and knew that He had changed.

But for Alan that was just the beginning of his journey. He knew his sin had been dealt with, he had been redeemed, but he also quickly realised that he still had the old sinful man within him. 

Becoming critical of others within the church, growing more and more frustrated with the inconsistencies in his life, Alan saw that he was missing out as a Christian. He knew that he was not experiencing the joy seen in the Christians of the Bible. He knew that his prayers were not being answered like the prayers of those believers. For him, the Christian life was just not working. And it frustrated him.

But God is merciful. Even though we often neglect Him, hold things back from Him and constantly sin against Him, He graciously wants to bring us to the point where we realise that He is the perfect guide for our lives. He is the perfect provider, the perfect comforter and the perfect protector. God brought Alan to that point. 

God showed Alan that he had been putting many things before Him and His Word. He showed him that he had been keeping certain aspects of his life back from God, refusing to yield his life to the Lord.

God gave Alan the strength to do just that. And for 25 years, time after time after time, Alan has seen the Lord leading him through his life. He has seen true miracles from God and experienced what it was to live fully for Him.

Closing with the hymn 'Go through with God', Alan encouraged the young people to put the Lord first and seek Him early in life, before the devil draws them away into a life of sin and emptiness.

Above thine own ambitions here,

Another voice is sounding clear.

It is the call of God to thee:

O leave thy all, and follow Me.