"You shall not follow a crowd to do evil. . ." Human beings were created as social creatures and so every human being, every boy, every girl, every man, every woman, everyone wants some friends.

People will do almost anything to get friends. And to get friends people want to fit into the social groups to which they belong. So, in order to fit into a social group, people will do what other people are doing. Have you noticed that? There are certain people that are thought leaders of different facets of our life, for example.

When I was in college, all of a sudden it seemed all the girls decided they wanted their dresses shorter. I got to thinking this through in my mind. A year ago their dresses were not this short. What changed their mind? Well, what changed their minds was that certain fashion designers had promoted certain fashions in Paris. Then it came from Paris to New York and it was on television and radio, in magazines and newspapers. Pretty soon people were told, if you are going to be fashionable, you have to dress this way.

If people once think that everybody that is part of the "in" crowd is doing something, you will be amazed at what people will do. Now, I will not recount the atrocities to you, I could, but I do not want to take your mind through the slime of the history of this world. If I were to recount to you what people have done in different societies--especially pagan societies--because everybody was doing it, you would be shocked.

But people will do what everybody is doing because they want to fit into the group. They want to have friends. So if everybody is doing it, they will do it so that they will fit into the group. That is the tyranny of the majority. The Bible has a lot to say about this. Moses said it as good as anybody. We just read it in Exodus 23:2. What did he say to do? He said, Do not follow a multitude to do evil. Do not be tyrannized because everybody in your social group is doing something, do not you be tyrannized into doing it.

We learn this when we are small children. We learn the tyranny of the majority when we are small children. Let me tell you a story that happened to a young child of nine years of age. Her name was Ellen Harmon. She was going home from school one day and an older girl got angry with her for some trifle. She became so angry--now as adults when we get angry with each other usually what we do if we have money is to go to court and we sue each other. That is the way we fight. A lawsuit is a battle, a war. So we fight each other in court. That is what we do in the United States, especially if we have money.

But when you are children, you do not go to court. When you get angry with somebody, what do you do? You get physical. Is that not what children do when they get angry? And this girl was angry. She picked up a stone and she threw it at Ellen Harmon as Ellen turned around. The stone hit hard right by the nose. The blood started gushing out of her nose.

You have, by the way, some very fine blood vessels in the nose. Sometimes when people get high blood pressure, they get nosebleeds and physicians have a terrible time getting them stopped. The blood gushed out of her nose and she lost so much blood that she collapsed down on the ground. Of course, the people came, picked her up and tried to wipe the blood off her face. They took her home but she lost so much blood that she was unconscious for a time.

But that was not the worst of it. After she came to, she was very weak due to her blood loss. It is possible that she could have had a head concussion of a rather serious nature as a result of that stone hitting her in the nose. So she was very severely injured and she gained her strength slowly. As she was starting to get better and she was still weak, not only had the stone caused a head concussion, but it had also disfigured her face. I want to read to you what she said about this. "I gained strength very slowly as I became able to join in play with my young friends I was forced to learn the bitter lesson that our personal appearance often makes a difference in the treatment we receive from our companions." Life Sketches, 18.

So what happened when she went back to school? Well, people did not treat her the same. Why? Because her face was disfigured. There are still people, preachers have to deal with them, physicians deal with them, teachers deal with them, people whose lives in this world apparently are ruined because something happened at some time in their life. Their physical appearance was damaged so their friends do not want anything to do with them.

The Bible talks about it. The Lord told Samuel, "Man looks on the outward appearance. God looks on the heart." Maybe there is somebody listening and they are saying, Pastor Grosboll, it is not fair. I am one of those people like Ellen Harmon. I did not inherit a beautiful face. Or I did not inherit a beautiful body, so I am in trouble in this world and I do not have the friends that I ought to have.

Did you know that there is no bitterness that the human family experiences that Jesus did not experience? Jesus came to this world to take your place. He experienced all the bitterness that people experience in this world who do not have friends because their face is disfigured or their body is disfigured or maybe they do not have enough money to buy nice clothes. It has affected their entire social life and their existence.

Notice what the Bible says about Jesus in this regard. This has directly to do with what we are studying. It has to do with the tyranny of the majority. I want to tell you, friend, that the world is in dire need of people who have been set free from the tyranny of the majority. Who see the value of a human being and a human soul, even if the outward appearance is not just what it ought to be.

Notice what it says here about Jesus. This is the way that Jesus was treated. It says, "For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness (physical beauty); And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him." Isaiah 53:2, 3.

People were not attracted to Jesus because He did not have the physical beauty that the rich people had. He was dressed in poor mans clothes. When there is no outward beauty what is the result! Do you know that there were many people that when they saw Jesus they believed what He said, but they would not follow Him because nobody else was. That is the tyranny of the majority.

Jesus only had a few fishermen, one tax collector (the lowest level of society!), one zealot (a person who was against the Roman government, a patriot). People looked at that bunch and they said, It will never happen. That could not possibly be the Messiah. That could not possibly be the Son of God because if Jesus were the Son of God, He would not have such a motley group around Him and more people would believe. That is the tyranny of the majority.

Notice what Jesus said to them. "But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears Gods words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God." John 8:45-47. Now these people had just been saying, Look, this Man cannot be the Messiah. He cannot be! Look what they said in John 7:52. "They answered and said to him, 'Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee." John 7:52.

They said, No prophet has ever come from Galilee, Jesus Christ could not possibly even be a prophet. Look what Jesus said to them in John 7:24. "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." The tyranny of the majority. Most people in the world are afraid to do something that a lot of other people are not doing. Have you noticed that?

Let us go back in the Bible and look how this got to going in the world clear back in the beginning. We could go beyond this point, but Noah is far enough. You turn back to Genesis 6 and 7 and you find the story of Noah and the flood. God came to Noah and He said, (You can read it in Genesis 6.) The end of all flesh has come before Me, the thoughts of mans hearts are only evil continually for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. I want you to build a boat and everybody that will get on the boat will be saved and the people that do not get on the boat are going to be lost. I am going to destroy this world with a flood.

Noah began to preach. He preached for one hundred twenty years. It is the longest evangelistic campaign that I have read about in the Bible. One hundred twenty years. While he was preaching, he was building this huge boat. It was as big as an ocean liner today. People began to listen. The message went all over the world that Noah was building a boat and he was building this boat in a place like Wichita, Kansas. There was not any ocean anywhere near to float the boat.

People said, He is crazy! Once he gets the boat built on the dry land, what is he going to do with it? And they called it Noahs folly. There is no machinery big enough to haul it. We do not even try to do that today with all the technology we have. We do not build ocean liners in Wichita, Kansas. We build airplanes, but not ocean liners. You never will see an ocean going ship building plant in Wichita. They build those kinds of things in Seattle, Tacoma, Virginia or someplace on the ocean.

So people began to talk about Noahs folly. And they scoffed so much--remember, there were children and young people listening to their parents and teachers and preachers and all the people in their social group making all these jokes about Noahs folly. Do you know what the young people thought in their mind? They decided they could not get on the boat, because they would be laughed at. Nobody else was doing it.

So when the time came, the one hundred twenty years had gone by and it was time for the flood to come, God said it was going to happen. Noah had been faithful in preaching. He had been faithful in building the boat. The world said, No, you are crazy. When the time came to get on the boat, the only people that were willing to get on were the members of Noahs family: his wife, their three sons and their wives. There were eight people who go on the boat, and that was all there was!

Why did not anybody else get on the boat? Were there other people that really thought that probably the flood was going to come? There were a number of people who believed Noahs preaching. Why did they not get on the boat? It was the tyranny of the majority. Nobody else was doing it. Now I want to ask you a question. The people that really believed Noah but they did not get on the boat because of the tyranny of the majority, when the flood came since they believed it, God saved them anyway? No.

That leads me directly to the conclusion: Can you lose your soul because of the tyranny of the majority? You certainly can. Because other people around you, maybe it is the people in your family, with some people it is the people in their family. I do not know how many people I have talked to in my life; I have lost track so many years ago that I do not know, people have said, I believe the commandments. I believe the Bible. I believe the prophecies.

If you believe it, why do you not act on your belief? You see, in Noahs day if you were going to be saved, you had to act on your belief and get on the boat. If you believe the three angels messages, if you study the prophecies and know they are true, why do you not act on your belief? You see, it is not enough to believe the truth. If you had believed that the flood was coming, that would not do you one bit of good if you did not get on the boat.

Look what Peter says about that. Some people say that Peter was the first pope. If all the people that look up to Peter as their spiritual leader would just do what he said, the world would be a pretty good place. People say that he is their leader but they do not listen to what he says. Notice what Peter says, "Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart." 1 Peter 1:22. How do you purify your soul? How do you become purified so that you are ready to go to heaven? It is because you know the truth? No. What does he say? It is by obeying the truth. I have been to many, many homes here in the Wichita area, talking to people about the Bible, about prophecy. Do you know which day is the Sabbath? Oh, yes, they say. I know which day is the Sabbath. The seventh day is the Sabbath and I can prove it to you from the Bible. I have studied the prophecies and I know that is the truth!

Well, then, if you believe it, why do you not obey it? Why do you not keep it? Well, one of the biggest reasons is because of the tyranny of the majority. Somebody in their home, a wife or a husband, parents or employer does not like it. Or the people in the club that I know, they do not do it. The tyranny of the majority. People are afraid to do what they know and believe is the truth because there are other people in their social group (we are all of different social groups) who are not doing it and so they are afraid to do it.

You know what Jesus said about this? Look at Matthew 10. Jesus knew that people were going to be tyrannized by other people in their social groups and that they were going to have to make a decision whether they were going to go along with the majority or whether they were going to obey their conscience. "For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother; and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a mans enemies will be those of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me." Matthew 10:35-38.

Jesus said, You are going to have to make up your mind whether to go along with the majority in your social group or whether to be faithful to what I have told you. I have had people say to me, I want to wait. I do not want to obey what I know is true right now. I want to wait until this person or that person in my family or somebody accepts it, too, and then we will all accept the truth together.

Listen. Your chances of winning somebody else in your family while you are disobeying the truth yourself are almost nil. It almost never happens. If you want to win somebody else in your family, the thing for you to do is to obey the truth that you know. As they see you obeying it and they see that it is changing your life and it is making you a Christ-like person, then they will be attracted to what you have.

But why should anybody be attracted to somebody who is a hypocrite, who believes something but does not do it? Why should anybody be attracted to that? They are not. So people go on. The husband is waiting for the wife. The wife is waiting for her mother. Who knows whom she is waiting for? Everybody is waiting. Just like it was in the days of Noah. The boat is ready and people are looking around. Well, nobody else is getting on, I guess I will not either. And so they all drown! That is the tyranny of the majority.

It was that way in Elijah’s time. It was that way in Christ’s day. The majority rejected Christ and they despised Him because of His humble appearance. I have often thought of the fact that if Christ were to appear in the world today the same way He appeared nineteen hundred years ago, He would be rejected as quickly--or maybe more quickly--than He was then.

They rejected Him because of His humble appearance. They did not want any part of His self-denial or His humility. They wanted kingly power, pomp and power. It has been that was ever since Christ’s day. As we go down from one generation to the next, we find out that the people Christ has sent have been rejected by the majority. A large part of them say, Well, I had better not accept it because all the people in my social group are not accepting it.

In Martin Luther’s day, do you realize that Martin Luther stood up all by himself against the whole world at one time? Do you realize that? One man standing against all the political power and the religious power in the world. They said to him, one of the main arguments (See The Great Controversy) that they used on him over and over again, It is impossible that you could be right and the whole world could be wrong!

There were millions of people that were convinced by that argument. What is that? Does that prove anything? That is the tyranny of the majority. It does not prove anything. So at the protest of the Princes, here is what they said. You will find this in The Great Controversy, 201. They said, In matters of conscience, the majority has no power. And that, my friends, is the principle that was adopted in the United States and that is the principle that resulted in this country becoming the greatest country in the world.

In this country if you do not go to the largest church in town, you do not need to worry about the police coming and taking you to jail. If you do not go to the same church as your governor, senator, president, that does not matter. In matters of conscience, the majority has no power. But today, we have the tyranny of the majority as much as any former time in history.

You go back to Martin Luther’s day. If you go back to Christ’s day. If you go back to Jeremiah’s time or Elijah’s time or Noah’s time, you find in each case there were multitudes of human beings that lost eternal salvation even though they knew the truth because of the tyranny of the majority. They looked around and some significant other people were not doing it and so they did not do it either because they wanted to hold on to those relationships.

Oh, friends, do you realize that if you do not follow Christ, if you do not obey him, if you do not do what you understand is right with the Bible, every relationship you have is temporary anyway. It is going to be dissolved very soon. Do you realize that? Please do not misunderstand. I believe in the relationship that God has set up. I believe that Christians should be faithful to their wives or husbands as the case may be--no matter what, they should be faithful because they have taken a vow. If that person is a non-believer or if they are doing something wrong, we should be faithful anyway.

Many people have come to me over the years and they have asked me (as thought I could give it to them!) for permission to get a divorce. I said, I cannot give you permission to get a divorce. The Lord has already pronounced on that. It says in Matthew 19 that what God has joined together let not man put asunder. I cannot give you any permission or say anything about it. God has already spoken.

Now, if you think that your life is in danger, I am willing to try to make arrangements so that you can get to a place where you think that you will not get stabbed or shot or something like that. But do not come to me for permission to get a divorce. God has spoken, so I have no more to say.

Do you realize, friends, we are coming to the end of the world. Unless you accept Jesus Christ as your Saviour every relationship: with your spouse in your marriage, with your children, with your parents, with your friends, is going to be dissolved in the relatively near future. Because what is a relationship after a person dies? The relationship is snot there any more.

Unless you accept Jesus as your Saviour and the truths of the Bible that you know, you will lose your soul and you are going to lose everything. That is why Jesus said in Matthew 10:39 "He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it." What is He talking about there? That text has a lot of meaning, but if you look at the context in which Jesus is talking, He is talking about the people who are going to risk losing their husband, wife, children or somebody significant in their life if they follow Him.

So, it looks like they are going to lose everything. But Jesus said, Whatever you lose for My sake you are going to find it. But what is going to happen to the person that is tyrannized by the majority? So they decide they cannot follow Christ, they cannot do what they know is right because they have to hang on to these human relationships no matter what happens. What is going to happen to them? What did Jesus say? He who finds his life is going to lose it.

They have saved all their human relationships. They have been tyrannized by the majority. They have hung onto everything. What does it mean that you are going to lose it? You have it, but you are going to lose it. It is very interesting to study in the inspired writings about the majority. In the few minutes we have left, I would like to read you several interesting statements about the majority. Not just the majority of people in the world, but the majority of people who claim to be Christians.

First of all, we have been told by prophecy, right in the book of Revelation that the vast majority will refuse to accept the three angels messages. That is very clear. You read Revelation 12,13,16, 17 andl8 it is very clear that the vast majority will reject the three angels messages.

Here are some quick questions for you. If the vast majority reject it, does that make it true or untrue? That does not affect the truth of anything. Remember what we studied before. There was a time when the vast majority of the people of this world believed that the world was flat. Did that make it so? No, that did not make it so. What the majority thinks does not make anything so.

What is the truth, is the truth whether anybody believes it or not. When the vast majority of the people in this world reject the three angels messages, and it is predicted over and over again in the book of Revelation, will that keep it from happening? No, it will not keep it from happening. It will happen anyway. It will be fulfilled just the way it is described in Revelation 14:6-12. All that means is that the people that disregard that will lose their life.

When you reject the message to get on Noah’s ark, did you lose you life? Even if you said, Well, I am a Christian, I believe. Did you know, friends, that most of those people that did not get on Noah’s ark were not atheists? Most of them claimed that they believed in the God of heaven. In fact, do you know what one of their major arguments was? They said, God made the world. God make all this. God loves us. God would not destroy everything that He has made! That was one of the major arguments in those days.

Just like there are people today who say, Oh, God is so loving and so merciful. He would not destroy people in fire. Well, just be careful. The Bible happens to teach that.

When the Bible say something is going to happen, it is going to happen no matter what you think that God will or will not do. The third angels message is a warning about hell fire. It is not a plaything. It is the most fearful warning in the entire Bible and it you and I do not listen to it, we are going to reap the consequences. You might say, Everyone else.. . It does not matter if everybody else in your social group rejects the truth, then they are all going to burn up. That is what is going to happen. And you do not want to be tyrannized by the majority.

What about the people who accept the truth? There are some people who accept the truth and come to church. I want to read to you about the majority of the people who come to church. "The majority of men and women who profess to know the truth prefer smooth messages. They do not desire their sins and defects to be brought before them. They want accommodating ministers who will not arouse conviction by speaking the truth. They choose a minister who will flatter them and they will flatter him and revile the faithful servant of God." This Day With God, 55.

What do the majority of church going people that profess to believe the truth, what do they want? Oh, they want a preacher that will tickle their ears, the Bible says. They want a preacher that will preach smooth things. They do not want a preacher that will bring up the straight, pointed truths of the word of God because that might bother them. They might have to change their way of living and they do not want that. So they revile the minister that does that.

That is the majority. And do you know what? I am sorry to tell you, friends, that the majority of Gods people today tyrannize the majority of preachers. They preach what they know the people want to hear, because they know that if they do not, they will be forsaken. They say, I will be out of a job. So they preach what the people want to hear. That is the tyranny of the majority. Do not think that preachers are not subject to it. They are probably more subject to it than the average person.

Do you know what is going to happen if we follow the majority? What happened to those that followed the majority in Noah’s day? They got drowned. What happened to those that followed the majority in Christ’s day? They crucified Christ. What happened to the majority in Martin Luther’s day? Well, they tried to kill off all the Protestants and they did kill some hundreds of thousands of them, a few million actually.

If we follow the judgment of the majority, we will not see heaven. We will lose out because the majority of people, even the majority of Christians, do not want the cross in their religion. Now one of the central themes of the New Testament is the cross. Notice what the Apostle Paul said about it. "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20

"But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Galatians 6:14. The majority of Christians today, friends, want a religion without the cross in it. Now they may want to put a cross around their neck and one on top of their church and put one around the rearview mirror in their car, but they do not want the real thing.

Do you know what the cross is about? Let us be sure we know what we are talking about. Look at Romans 6. The Apostle Paul shows exactly what he is talking about, the cross in Christian experience. "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin." Romans 6:6. If your old man is crucified with Him so that you are not a slave of sin anymore, that involves the cross. People do not want that. They want to go on enjoying what the Bible calls the pleasures of unrighteousness.

The second things that brings the cross is when there are people around you in your social group that are doing something different and it is the tyranny of the majority. You have to decide if you are going to be tyrannized with the majority or are you going to take the cross of Christ and follow it and do what the Lord says to do?

Now this evening at our preaching and revival service, we are going to look at the tyranny of the majority in the future at the end of the world, because inspired writings have a lot to say about it. This will be one of the main factors that will influence people as we approach the end of the world. The tyranny of the majority. People will look around to see what are other people doing?

Before we close I want to read you something very encouraging. Did you know that if you stand with the Lord that you are actually in the majority yourself Did you know that Noah was in the majority? Because God is a majority all by Himself. But it does not look that way. We have been looking this morning at the way it looks to human beings. People are tyrannized by people around them because they see other people doing or not doing something and so they think they have to eat or dress or work or practice religion of something else the way the other people in their social group do. They are tyrannized by the majority.

Did you know that if you surrender yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ that God is always the majority? God is a majority, always. We read about it in prayer meeting the other night about that very fact, how that (2 Kings 6) the Syrian King sent soldiers to capture Elisha. They surrounded the whole city and when they got up in the morning, Elisha’s servant saw all these soldiers out there. He said, Alas, what are we going to do?

Elisha decided that he needed to learn a lesson about who was in the majority. So Elisha prayed, they were all alone, just the two of them. Here there is a whole army around the city. Elisha prayed and said, Lord, please open his eyes. The Lord opened that servants eyes and he looked out at the mountains around there and he saw they were filled with fiery chariots. He realized that he did not have anything to be afraid of.

Elisha walked out to talk to that army all by himself. He was a majority. He did not have anything to worry about because the Lord had given him instructions and He had struck them all blind first. When he walked out there, there was nothing to be afraid of. You do not have to be afraid of the majority in your family, where you work, you do not have to be afraid if you have decided to stand on Gods side of the question because God is a majority. You do not need to be afraid.

A few years ago my wife and I were traveling in Australia. In all countries of the world today we are inundated by a crime wave. Do not think that just because are poor that there is no crime. Sometimes the crime is worse. Crime is terrible in China today. So we were visiting with a Christian man and this man we were visiting was a short man. Because he was short, he felt the need of protection. He lived in a suburb of a very large city.

He told me the following story. I was very interested in it. I suppose it was because he was afraid and he began to pray to the Lord, tie asked the Lord, Please Lord, show me that You are protecting me. After he prayed one day, the Lord decided to show him. He looked out the window and he saw an encampment of angels standing guard all around his house. He told me that they were huge. He realized when he saw them that he did not have anything to be afraid of anymore, because he was in the majority.

Now, I want to tell you, friend, if you decide to give your heart to Christ, if you decide to follow Him, you are in the majority right now. You cannot see it. From the worlds point of view, you may be all alone. But if you are on Gods side of the question, if you have decided to obey and follow Him, you are in the majority--even if you are all alone.

In closing I want to read from The Acts of the Apostles, 590. It says this, "In comparison with the millions of the world, Gods people will be as they have ever been, a little flock. (Remember that Jesus called His followers a little flock and He said that it was Gods pleasure to give to the little flock the kingdom.) But if they stand for the truth as revealed in His Word, God will be their refuge. They stand under the broad shield of Omnipotence (all powerful). God is always a majority. When the sound of the last trump shall penetrate the prison house of the dead and the righteous shall come forth with triumph exclaiming, Oh, death, where is they sting? Oh, grave, where is thy victory? Standing then with God with Christ, with the angels and with the loyal and true of all ages, the children of God will be far in the majority."

Did you know that when Jesus comes back again, Gods people will be far in the majority? Because the righteous of all ages are going to be raised. It may look like you are all alone right now, but remember, if you are on Gods side of the question, you are in the majority. You do not need to be afraid.

Noah was in the majority though it did not look like it. Jesus was in the majority but it did not look like it. Martin Luther was in the majority but it did not look like it. If you decide to stand with God, it may look like everybody in your family, your friends have forsaken you because you have decided to do what you know is right. Actually, if you are on Gods side of the question, you are in the majority. Because God is always the majority.

Why does God allow it to appear like we are all alone? Because God has to know what your decision is and God is not interested in people who do the right just because the majority are doing it. Did you know that God is not interested in followers like that? God wants to know, Have you decided to follow Me and obey Me and do My will because you have decided? Not because of what somebody else is going, but because you have decided? Have you decided?

Oh, friend, your eternal destiny is determined by whether or not you will decide to be with God, even if it means standing alone in this world. Or whether you will allow yourself to be tyrannized by the majority. I want you to have an opportunity in your own mind to choose to join yourself with Him. Then you will be in the majority right now. But you need to make a decision which way you are going to go, what you are going to do with your life.

The decision is not between you and me. The decision is between you and the God of heaven. That is Who is going to register the decision that you make in His book. I want you to have an opportunity to make this decision. The way you make a decision is to tell the Lord what you plan and what you want to do. If the Lord through the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart, will you not answer Him?

The Lord hears what people say in their minds. Your thoughts are all written down. You make a decision to follow Him and do His will, it is written down in His book and angels will be sent to your side to help you do what you know is right. The Lord cannot do for you what He wants to do if you do not make a decision. God has made every one of us a tree moral agent. Your spouse cannot get you saved. The preacher cannot get you saved. No human being can get you saved, but you can make a decision. If you do, the Lord will save you.