This is the last three messages preached by
Brother Ralph Barnard and this one was taken
from the 19th chapter of Revelation and it
was preached on Sunday night of January the
19th, 1969.
I've been told by your beloved Thunder Shepherd,
he and Brother Holder are seeking to work
together and Brother Holder's congregation, I'm going to
tell it right now, they'll be here during
the weeknight.
He's hopeful that you'll follow over the next
week over there, is that right?
And I told your pastor, I do not
like to try to talk anybody into making
the profession a phase until I've preached to
them for three weeks and so I want
you to be patient and wouldn't it be
wonderful if you would number, if the Lord
would give you a beautiful building I'd love
to see a lot of people in there,
wouldn't you?
Not just so we could fill the pews,
but in the day in which we live,
there's no climate for the gospel.
You go into a home, you have a
hard time ever getting to the subject of
the Lord, don't you?
You meet a man down on the street
and talk about everything, but it's awfully hard
to say a word about God Almighty and
his claims and his provisions for men.
There's no climate, nobody is anxious to find
out whether there's any remedy for them.
They think they're all right.
Now that's a condition we face and I
think we ought to face it and we
ought to just get this great big old
plow I used to do in West Texas
on the farm and go to plowing deeper
than we ever have plowed before.
If we don't do some plowing we haven't
been doing, we're going to get thinner and
thinner and thinner.
I lost my reputation many, many years ago
and I just got a bad name.
They said Mary, somebody said.
And so I don't have to worry about
whether we have any results or not.
I'm just concerned as whether we do what
God would have us do at a particular
time.
And I think we pay more attention to
that.
God will take care of his end of
it, don't you?
And I'd like to hear somebody in these
two weeks together.
Year one, I'd like to hear two.
I'd like to hear somebody very much concerned,
crying out, is there any hope for me?
Now that'd be what's called a Bible, isn't
it?
You walk down the street, whether you got
town on you somewhere, I know, and that
way you work and somebody will walk up
to you and say, you got a minute?
Yeah.
I wonder if you could tell me, do
you think that God would show mercy to
me?
Boy, wouldn't that be something.
Man, I tell you what's the nearest spell
that ever gets to heaven is when somebody
does that and you get the privilege of
telling the old, old story.
He never heard it before.
He'd been preaching a thousand times, but he'd
never heard that story.
There was no good news to him, but
it is now.
And don't let tell it to him but
once.
And then you hear the cry of a
newborn baby.
Oh, that's the little hell and all that.
Now, would you few people who are seeking
to be a testimony here, would you get
excited about the possibility of that?
Would you recommit yourself?
Now, let's just try to see one thing
here.
Let's see if God would confront somebody with
himself in Christ Jesus.
That's the only way anybody ever gets saved.
People are not saved when they make a
distinction.
What you decide, you can undecide.
People are saved when they're confronted by the
living Lord and the ghost.
Is that right?
God help us.
We've had so much of man's decisions and
so little of God's presence.
I won't say the latter.
You're going to pray for us, pray one
before another.
At the invitation, I'm going to ask you
to do a definite thing.
I don't know whether you can or not.
I don't know whether you will or not.
I'm just going to ask you as a
brother in Christ.
I want to read from the night, and
I don't know what to speak on in
the morning.
I just don't have the least way of
knowing what kind of congregation I'll have, whether
it'll be God's people, whether you'll be able
to bring people in.
And the Lord will give me something for
the first service in the morning, I trust.
I want to speak to you tonight on
a very solemn thought.
The day is coming when God's people are
going to be called upon to shout a
great hallelujah as they watch God send their
loved ones to eternal hell.
Every Christian facing me tonight is going to
be at this meeting.
When you join the chorus of people saying
hallelujah, take inside with God, rejoicing that God
is going to win this war we're in.
That every enemy of almighty God is going
to be brought in subjection to Jesus Christ.
I rejoice in bad times when it looks
like the devil has got our whole nation,
and our homes, and our churches, and our
schools, and our society, and our business worlds,
looks like the devil has got the whole
business locked up.
And one wonders how much longer the long
suffering of God shall be at our disposal.
And when you kind of look around and
see hell popping loose, everywhere, churches going out
of business, preachers quitting the ministry by the
multiplied hundreds, everything just tearing all to pieces.
I like to take the Bible once again
and soak my soul in its promises that
we're one day nearer the time when righteousness
is going to cover this earth as the
waters cover the sea.
And when God's going to put down all
rebellion, and when all mankind are going to
bow their knees and with their lips confess
the lordship of Jesus Christ.
When I was a kid, my boy, I
lived on Horatio Alger books.
I don't know whether you ever read them
or not.
Any of you ever read Horatio Alger's books?
Lift your hand.
You won't be happy until you get to
heaven if you didn't do that.
When I was six, seven, eight years old,
I just devoured those books.
Every one of them just alike.
I expect I read a hundred of them.
It is all about the poor little orphan
boy that he'd come into New York City
and he'd have a dime in his pocket
and holes in his shoes and he'd finally
get him a job for about a dollar
a week.
He'd have the awfulest trouble you ever saw
in your life.
And if it wasn't he'd get him a
job as a boot blacker, a clerk or
something.
He was a good little boy.
But the old mean boys, they'd give him
a lot of trouble.
And after I read a few of them,
I learned the secret.
Every time I'd get a new book, I'd
read the last chapter first.
Anybody's got incense.
Want to enjoy a book, read the last
chapter first.
And I got where I got biggest fun
reading those books you ever saw.
Because I wouldn't read about all the trouble
that boy had and everybody's mean to him
and he'd get accused of dishonesty and look
like he's just going to be ruined and
he'd get knee deep in trouble and the
devil would pack it down.
I never would read that first.
I'd read the last chapter.
Bless the Lord.
In the last chapter the boy came clear
and he had vindicated and he married the
president of the bank's daughter, you know, and
he got elected vice president and built him
a big house up on a hill and
just lived happily ever after.
And after I'd read that chapter, then I'd
go back and start at the beginning.
And when my hero would get in trouble,
it didn't bother me much.
I'd say, I know a child's going to
come out there.
Bless the Lord.
They ain't going to get him.
It looked like he was a goner, but
he ain't.
Praise the Lord.
Amen.
That's got good sense to it.
I love to read how it's going to
come out.
How it's going to come out.
And my Lord Jesus Christ is going to
be on top.
He's going to be the victor.
Amen.
The devil's not going to get in the
last leg.
The world is going to be brought under
this objection where there is happiness and peace.
No man can live in God's world and
have any peace and happiness unless he's latched
on to the will of God as a
central thing in his life.
I like to read that promise in the
scripture.
Nevertheless, we look, do you, according to his
promise.
He gave it for new heavens and a
new earth wherein shall dwell righteousness.
It's coming.
And I'll tell you the biggest thing between
the eternities is to have some assurance that
when the wind of time comes, you'll be
in the crowd rejoicing that God won instead
of being in the crowd.
And that Jesus Christ puts his foot on
people's neck and makes them surrender to his
rule.
And I won't talk about that crowd tonight
a little while.
We're going to be, thank God, on safety
side.
On hallelujah side.
On rejoicing side.
On taking sides with God's side when God
brings his awful judgment on this world.
Let's read here in the 19th chapter of
the Revelation, verse 1.
And after these things, some things have taken
place.
There's got the last rebellion broken forth and
been crushed.
The last battle's been fought.
Now there's a counting time.
The crop's in now.
And the judgment is set.
And after these things, I heard a great
voice of much people.
And they're in heaven.
Our fathers thought heaven was a place to
begin.
They really did.
They thought it would be wonderful to go
from this life to a place called heaven.
And sure enough, after the thing, history's run
its course.
The prophet here is allowed to be present
in vision.
It's a wind-up, he says, a whole
lot of people in heaven.
And he said they got a great voice.
And they're opening their mouths and saying, Hallelujah!
Hallelujah!
They're in heaven and they're glad they're there.
And there's a whole lot of them.
Bless the Lord.
And they're saying Hallelujah.
And they're happy because salvation is of the
Lord.
And they're happy because glory belongs to God
and He'll give His glory to no man.
And they're happy because all honor is of
God and power.
Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and honor and power unto
the Lord our God.
And they're just shouting these wonderful scriptures to
God over one thing.
There's this thing that enables them to shout.
And the scribe, all praise and honor and
adoration and worship and glory.
Salvation to almighty God.
Something's taking place.
These people have witnessed it.
And they sit there still to it.
They said God's right.
God's doing right.
Whatever God does is right.
What He's doing here is judging.
And they're shouting Hallelujah because now they're able
to say truth and righteousness are His
judgments.
That's a little hard to say in this
life.
But yonder God's people are going to be
able to shout and say Hallelujah as the
judgment of God falls on the biggest monster
that's ever been let loose between the eternities.
That's perverted religion.
The judgment of God comes.
And they shout Hallelujah for true and righteousness
is judgment for they're just singing as He
has judged the great whore.
This is religion which did corrupt the earth
with her fornication and hath avenged the blood
of His servants at her hand.
And they shout again Hallelujah as they see
the smoke of the one thing that's damning
more people than even as I am saying.
That's religion.
Everybody in this community is very religious.
If you don't think so, you go look
in the mirror yourself and see what a
good opinion of yourself you have.
And now you're knee deep in hell, one
foot in the grave and the other dangling
over hell but you've made a little profession
of faith and everything's all right.
You're going to sleep on, chances are, till
the judgment catches up with you.
Or you knock on this doorbell and say
I'm all right, I go to church, I
believe this, I believe that.
And they've got a religion that doesn't make
them holy and doesn't set them hot after
the pursuit of perfection and that leaves them
perfectly satisfied to call themselves Christians when they
can be satisfied with anything less than the
likeness of Christ.
And they say I'm all right.
And you say we're having meetings down in
our little church building and they don't say
it out loud but what they say in
their hearts so what.
Let them hear the gospel, don't need it.
Don't need it.
Oh, thank God one day this monster that
bears the name of Christianity which is really
anti-Christ is going to come under the
smoke of God Almighty's judgment and the smoke
of the torment of this crowd is going
to rise up forever and God's people are
going to shout hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
The war is over.
The victory is won.
God's still on the throne.
The Lord's got omnipotent reign.
Think you could do that right now?
Could we shout hallelujah as we seek God,
bring judgment?
The day will come when we will.
You know that's something to be phased.
You a Christian?
Let me challenge you afresh as I would
my own heart.
Let's take down your sign or get out
of the rut that passes for being Christian
today.
Ladies and gentlemen, I see more Christianity among
drunkards than I do amongst this generation of
church people.
Something's happened to us, folks.
I never met a drunkard yet.
Wouldn't give you the shirt off his back
if he was drunk.
Gamblers stick together.
If one of them gets in trouble, they
help each other out.
But what passes for Christians today is a
bunch of folks that watch each other hoping
they'll fall so we can stick a knife
in them.
There's not enough love manifest amongst professing Christians
now to fly a kite.
God knows there's not enough real
sure enough concern for our brother men and
women, boys and girls still outside of Christ.
Mr. Wet Eyes quit attending our services a
long time ago.
This is a lovely little church building, but
I don't like this rug.
It's so clingy.
Looks to me like you people haven't wet
it with your tears.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if Mr. Wet Eyes
had come back to church?
And Mr. Amen, amen to the book.
I used to go home meetings, and after
the first service, disturbed people would come to
me, treat me like I was a gentleman.
Brother Barnum helped me pray for my loved
ones.
My boy is going to hell.
Won't listen to me.
My husband's going to hell.
Can't reach him.
My daughter, my neighbor.
Can't even talk to them till I work
for her.
Full of alibis.
One would be reminded of Hezekiah.
God was pleased to say to Hezekiah two
things.
Hezekiah, I've seen your tears.
I've seen your tears.
You haven't seen many amongst profession, preachers, and
church people lately, folks.
As in, and I've heard you pray.
Is there any hope for us?
Let me challenge you.
How do you think you'd act?
How do you reckon I'd act?
If I took seriously the fact that if
we don't witness down here, it's going to
be a little embarrassing.
And we'll have to witness it to judgment.
And be on God's side.
And as we see God send eternally to
the place of torment, men and women, boys
and girls, we'll have to say hallelujah, God.
You're doing right.
I believe we'd face that.
And we'd get into war.
I've heard several expressions since I've been here.
Don't misunderstand me.
Just bring my little wisdom against yours.
Who's the smartest?
None of us smart enough to know much
about it.
I've heard, oh, I wish we could have
revival.
I don't believe we can have it.
I don't believe God's going to touch us
side, top, and the bottom until we do
a lot of rearranging.
I don't think revival will help us much.
I think we're going to have a revolution.
This work of soul work, top, side, and
bottom.
I believe it's too desperate for us to
have a little movement and call it the
spirit of God.
I think it's time for every preacher and
every professing Christian for we are told not
to take the name of the Lord our
God in vain.
That means plainly what we're not.
I think it's time for us to do
some soul searching.
I don't think this is any time for
complacency.
I think we ought to find out what
it means to afflict ourselves and plow our
own heart and learn how to mourn.
One more time.
I see you've got mourners' beaches here.
There ain't worth a dying unless there's mourning
in the heart and in the spirit.
Isn't that right?
Hear me!
How much longer are we going to claim
to be tramps of the grace of God
in Jesus Christ when we are not totally
sold out to the proposition that men desperately
need a Savior from the just wrath of
Almighty God.
There ain't but one issue but that.
You know there ain't we have to call.
You know there ain't the pastor of most
of our churches.
I hope this isn't true here.
You know what he has to do when
the service is over?
He's got to ask somebody to benedict while
he runs to the back door while all
the unsaved church members get out as soon
as they can.
I used to preach to churches where a
church member was brokenhearted if he showed up
at a service like this and wasn't able
to sit beside some old sinner he brought
there and prayed for her.
Now we come and sit and sleep through
the service put a little money in the
pot and get out as fast as we
can and join the crowd and all go
to hell together and call it Christianity.
I'm going to ask you two questions tonight.
Do you believe God ought to punish sin?
He's going to.
He's coming when you're going to have to
shout You're doing right God.
God's going to deal with rebellion against his
sovereign rule.
That's what sin is.
Any man who denies the lordship of Christ
in any aspect of your personality or your
life that's his iron sin.
Man belongs to him in the world.
What we call sin just sprouts from it.
And that's everybody being God himself and denying
God the central place in his life.
Everything sprouts from that.
Do you believe that's the rebellion that started
in the garden of Eden and is going
on right now over just one issue whose
boss under whose authority am I to act?
Mine or God's?
Do you believe God ought to put that
rebellion down?
He's going to.
All rebellion is going to be put down.
God's going to wear it.
Of course it don't mean everybody's going to
be saved.
It just means God's going to save some
by grace.
If he can't save you by grace he'll
bring you in subjection by power.
For every knee he's going to bow.
Nobody's going to escape.
Do you believe God ought to punish sin?
Do you believe God will punish sin?
Do you?
Hear me.
Let's be honest a little while.
All this fool talk about who wants to
see revival, do you?
Well what happens to your conviction left to
one reason?
Men are in desperate need of a mediator,
Jesus Christ is because God must and God
will punish sin.
Why isn't there any client in this community,
anywhere else in America for the gospel of
Jesus Christ?
I'll tell you why.
Because this generation while we've been praying in
church and trying to wish Jesus off on
unproud hearts this generation has lost all consciousness
of God Almighty doesn't anymore believe that sin
will be punished than a monkey and nobody
ever yet has got desperate about who Jesus
Christ is whether he did anything on a
glory cross that would help anybody or not
except as they face the fact that whatever
else happened whether anybody's ever saved or not
one thing's dead certain God Almighty's gonna see
to it that not one sin ever goes
unpunished.
God hates sin.
Sin is worse than death.
Sin is worse than hell.
God's gonna punish sin.
If a man believed that he'd be afraid
to die and meet a God that hates
sin and is sworn to punish it.
I don't know whether I'm getting over to
you or not but I'd love to see
in this community in the one to follow
are you agreeing with me?
Is this what you want?
I'd love to see a blow struck by
God's people now get your water chewing tobacco
in your mouth and begin to spit amber
juice in the spirit of the sage and
with tears of compassion and of boldness of
the Holy Ghost quick, hard to get this
generation to take Jesus quick, hard to waste
some unwarranted Jesus on sinful men and hold
men and women up under the scorching searchlight
of the first message of gospel preaching and
that is that God Almighty requires of men
what they cannot perform in themselves and unless
they have what God requires of you done
for you by Jesus Christ there's no way
on earth men can escape the coming wrath
of God no way on earth you believe
God ought to punish sin?
do you?
sure enough do you believe God will punish
sin?
I've been spending my life fighting what we
call evangelism I'm called the greatest enemy of
evangelism in America I hate what we call
stolen I hate all the methods and tricks
and the whittling down of the claims of
God in Christ that have made America at
once the most church nation on top side
of God's earth and the most godless at
the same time I've given my life and
I'm not fixing to stop I've got it
in for all of this business of ignoring
the fact that both in the Old Testament
and the New you cannot ignore the laws
of God's harvest a farmer that goes out
here and plants his seed on unplowed ground
is a fool and we've been wishing the
gospel on a generation whose hearts have not
been plowed by the whole requirements of God
ever since I've been the heir to a
duck and we've got everybody to take Jesus
and go on to hell that's right I'm
saying it's time to call a halt and
remember that you've sold the blessed, sweetest story
that ever was told the glorious good news
of a crucified, exalted Lord you can sow
it on unplowed hearts and they'll never make
a dent brother pastor we just well roll
up our sleeves spit on our hands let
somebody else brag about how many men they've
won to Christ they can't find them no
how and just start doing some plowing now
would you love to see it?
in the old testament and the new we're
forbidden in the old testament to sow among
thorns in the new testament we're forbidden to
cast our pearls before swine and to give
holy things to those what does that mean?
well that means you attend the average church
now you almost have to have a deputy
sheriff it's a sort of unseen especially in
a business meeting and the Lord warns you
ignore the laws of the harvest and the
folks will turn reindeer to pieces they fire
the preacher if he preaches anything now huh?
that's right what have we got?
we spawned the monster how'd we do it?
we did it by ignoring the plain teaching
of the word of God that until people
are stabbed in their hearts with the awfulness
of their sin and the wonder of God's
exultation of Christ the supreme Lord until they're
stabbed there now you try to get them
to take Jesus huh?
they'll go through the motions but there'll be
no change would you love to see somebody
in this community actually anxious to hear the
old, old story of the gospel you can't
do it unless this church gives its whole
ministry to the Bible way that we've ignored
in most places so very long you believe
God ought to punish sin?
why did Jesus die?
if God won't punish sin you believe God
ought to punish sin?
you believe God must punish sin?
you believe God wouldn't be God any longer
if you let a single sin go unpunished?
if you don't then you'll agree with the
preacher that the God of the Bible's a
monster if he hung his son on a
cross like he did when he's going to
overlook sin anyhow he's a monster oh my
friend we want what we call revival?
well let's just come back to what your
mum and daddy believed and what we take
for granted and have almost lost God help
us dear ones listen to brother Barnard everything
that's wrong in America is linked at the
door of our churches if morality had almost
gone in America us professing Christians look in
the mirror we caused it that's right no
use to blame the politicians they didn't do
it, we did that's right that's right God
intends for his people to control things God
bless your heart I'm under conviction I'd love
to get you under let me come back
to my question you believe God ought to
punish sin?
he's going to is the God you worship
does he have to punish sin?
can he be God and overlook sin?
if he does he'll go out of business
the Bible says there are two sovereigns two
absolute monarchs Paul says that Si and Sin
he personalizes and it said Sin reigned and
the other sovereign grace now reigneth through the
righteousness of Jesus Christ one of them is
going to learn which side you are on
this is the issue of the hour don't
tell me about your creeds or about your
doctrine it may not be much better than
mine I'm not particularly interested in your profession
or mine I'm not particularly interested in your
testimony or mine he's saying that he is
hostile he is reclaiming to be followers of
Jesus Christ and we've lost the one conviction
that makes the whole thing make sense and
that is that men are in such desperate
condition in the sight of God that the
crucifixion of the Son of God was an
absolute necessity for everybody sent to hell that
men desperately need a savior Mr. Wilson when
he was President of the United States took
a little stroll down Pennsylvania Avenue and he
looked to his right and saw smoke belching
out of a little humble dwelling and he
ran over and rang the doorbell and knocked
as loudly as he could and the nice
little dainty housewife came oh Mr. President how
nice of you to call come in and
let's have a cup of tea and Mr.
Wilson said I didn't come to drink tea
I came to tell you your house is
on fire the average state member now is
full of convictions he's got this pocket full
of them and that one he's full of
opinions and we're trying to wish our opinions
off on people and try to wish our
convictions ain't worth a dime what men need
not to bleed like you do what men
need not to have your opinions what men
need not to bleed like you do this
is right and that's wrong what men need
is a savior from the penalty of S
-I-N-C that's what men need that's
what men need I see a church member
coming out and talking to me I won't
run I know he's going to try to
tell me about one of his convictions or
one of his opinions and I'm not interested
oh opinions and no opinions convictions and no
convictions this is the nub of it either
God must punish S-I-N or he
mustn't if God is set to punish S
-I-N if all hell can't keep him
from punishing S-I-N it's high time
we quit inviting people to tea it's high
time with tears in our hearts we begin
telling people the house is on fire well
everybody hears us or not ain't going to
come under the head of our business but
God knows if I I'd light a fire
under myself and I'd light a fire under
every professing Christian I could reach and I'd
light a fire under every congregation that calls
itself a church oh that the fire would
burn us out of taking it's ease as
men are going to hell rejecting God's claims
on their lives oh if we could get
excited I think somebody else might get excited
if we were a little bit excited maybe
we could get somebody interested I tell you
right now I'm tired of living in a
refrigerator and calling it church and it's in
Christianity I'd like to have a little fire
wouldn't you I believe that's reading the scriptures
says you get your plow and plow your
own heart honey people say oh Lord give
me a burden say say fresh you want
to get a burden go to doing what
the Lord said and you'll have one huh
huh that's right that's right I heard things
that dear little church people I know you
wouldn't do Lord if you see anything in
my life that's displeasing to you wish you'd
take it out you're a big old liar
you know good and well something that you
don't like and he ain't going to take
it out he says you do it you
put it there you reach in there and
take it out that's right whoo I wish
we could get on fire yeah the story
of the dear old woman in the Civil
War she lived in Kentucky some of the
Kentuckians were for the Yankees and some for
the John Rebs she happened to be a
rebel synthesizer and her husband's four sons was
off to war and she was left alone
and the Yankees had come through in a
little skirmish and they'd taken every pig and
chicken and cow and everything that was loose
at one end and left her there and
the only thing she had that was loose
at both ends was a poker she stoked
up the fire with and one morning she
looked over and spectacled out the window and
saw a few Rebs and Yankees out there
shooting at each other in the cornfield and
she put her glasses back up and got
her bonnet on put her long flowing dress
up with her left hand and a poker
in her right and she skedaddled out the
house out the little yard opened the wicked
gate and was running down the road toward
the war and she passed one of her
neighbors said hey how are you doing said
you blame fool I'm going to the war
don't you see them fighting out there and
the fellow said well you can't put on
a war with a poker she said by
the grace of God I can show them
which side I'm on that's what I'm calling
us to do which side we're on which
side we're on which side we're on I
think we need to camp here till we
decide get on one side dear we'll God
punish sin if you will men desperately need
the Lord Jesus Christ if you will hallelujah
for Jesus if you will if you must
go back my professing Christian brother or sister
and bang your bangs and the bell and
tell your spirit to revive and there's some
excitement and Holy Ghost enthusiasm and pathos and
warning in our ministries with touch men and
women oh God deliver us from the niceness
of the hour that's a breather of atheism
and infidelity and threatening to do away with
what we call our churches I
was in Kentucky years ago and holding one
of these what you call simultaneous campaigns all
the Baptist churches of that association the whole
meetings together so happened that the church where
I was preaching had a daily radio broadcast
and so happened it was the largest church
in that association and they also had I
believe a ten o'clock day service none
of the other churches had a radio broadcast
nor did they have day service and pleased
God to send the fire on the radio
ministry and pretty soon people were having fist
fights down on the street about the message
I'd love to see some of that wouldn't
you?
I'm getting tired of everybody agreeing with me
on everything that means don't believe nothing you
know I wish we could have some fights
around here I don't want to fight nobody
bigger than I am but some of you
folks little fellas that's their song leader I'll
fight you I'd love for somebody to believe
something around here we could at least have
a good lively scrap wouldn't you?
aren't you so tired of everything being so
peaceful like it's in the cemetery?
I am I tell you what's that and
they're cussing me if they don't cuss the
preacher they can't separate the messenger from the
message you know they just had reading king
down on the street and pretty soon people
got coming up to the church house and
preachers brought their evangelists from the other churches
in each city and on our day services
and listened to the broadcast and got blessed
a little bit and after the things about
to wind up the pastor where I was
preaching called me on the phone about the
last day of the meeting said brother Barnard
there's a committee here from our association and
they want to come down and talk with
you if you've got time I said sure
he said I'll come along with them and
so three men from that Baptist association they
came down to the hotel and I know
you ain't going to believe this but it's
the God's truth they said brother Barnard we
want you to come back here next year
sometime soon as we can get things arranged
and you can and said all 48 of
our churches will go together and we'll rent
the city auditorium if we can't get the
auditorium at that time we'll put up a
great big tent and said we'll buy you
an hour's time on the radio and we'll
have you preach on the radio every day
for an hour and then under the tent
in the auditorium for a solid month and
that sounded good to me and I got
straight with them but they said before we
say any more there are two conditions I
said oh that won't work and I'm going
to tell you the two conditions they said
first of all we want you to pray
about it and see if you could get
the mind of the Lord if you thought
you could you tell us and we'll set
the thing up would you come to our
city see there's about 50,000 people a
lot of churches inside and all around you
know all of them will come together and
do the best they could and said if
you could if you could make up your
mind that this would be the will of
God you come and every day on the
radio for a solid hour and every night
under the tent of the auditorium if you
could find it in your heart just to
preach on one subject and I said what's
that?
they said if you could find it in
your heart to preach on will God punish
sin said nobody here believes that nobody believes
it said we're breeding a bunch of infidels
and atheists in our Sunday school classes we're
telling them to put a little picture store
but they don't know nothing about sin or
God either said our church members my soul
they come to church on Sunday morning and
raise hell the rest of the time and
said you can't find anybody here that's interested
in the gospel whether Jesus is God and
whether he died on a cross and if
he did what good did it do?
he said the reason that they don't believe
God fully and that God makes demands of
men and women and that God's set to
punish sin they said ain't no use trying
to keep on going trying to get men
to accept Jesus long as they think they
don't need him the boy was right down
my alley and I fixed a trade with
him I said what's the second condition?
this is what you Baptist ain't gonna believe
and they said we want you to preach
a month an hour a day on the
radio and every night long as you want
to in the tent on one subject not
give any kind of a public invitation for
a solid month well that sounded awful good
to me I'm so sick and tired of
begging empty seats to take Jesus I never
saw an empty seat converted in my life
I never saw anybody real converted before they
felt the terrible need for a save I
don't believe you'll ever get a human being
to be interested one quiff in the Lord
Jesus Christ my
boy I said that's right down my alley
I wish the churches of America would quit
this begging people trying to wish Jesus off
of them he's to be sought not to
be auctioned off he's the price of gold
the Savior of the men the Lord of
all and you know we traded about a
year later they couldn't get the old poor
man I went back and I had a
tremendous tent I had the hour on the
radio and I didn't get quite carried out
the bargain I preached three weeks and about
half way through my sermon on Thursday night
on the big tent for the last fourth
week and while I was preaching boy I
preached on will God punish sin on the
radio and every night I became almost besotted
I preached everything I could find in the
Bible about it and there's plenty of it
and then I used my imagination and after
I'd get through preaching every night I'd say
good night go on to hell that's where
you seem to want to go that was
my benediction let's put her up in well
that's little difference you know that's little difference
you said oh wouldn't you put please take
Jesus off our hands we're tired I don't
want you taking him you don't want him
Jesus isn't found that way but Thursday night
of the last week what was to be
the last week I did preaching up away
and the man way back there he got
up and came running down the Salter's trail
came up on the platform pushed me aside
and said for God's sake preacher I got
to say something he broke up my good
sermon that's bad next year that was 1951
next year he's going to get out of
the penitentiary been in the penitentiary ever since
he's president of the bank of that city
biggest bank in town he's teacher of Sunday
school the deacon in the church and he
has two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in
the bank he's stolen that much nobody knew
it well he got to listen to me
on the radio and he got to worry
about that then he got to come and
hear me on the pen all I say
God won't punish sin I prove it he
always has he's doing it now he's going
to do it some men sins catch up
with them in this life and some follow
them afterward to the judgment but one way
or the other God's going to deal with
us I am saying and he got in
a terrible shape his little Sunday school teaching
wouldn't help him you know that won't save
a man the fact he's a deacon that
won't save him the fact he's president of
the bank he couldn't take care of it
and he got to come here and he'd
preach and he'd go home at night and
I don't know why he'd lock the door
and he'd get his bible and he'd get
down on his knees and you talk about
praying up a storm he just begged God
to have mercy on him and save him
that's what there ain't no way over if
you can do business with God and he
just couldn't get God to trade with him
a pound and he got so miserable that
the day before he came and interrupted my
sermon he wrote a letter put it in
the mail and admitted that he'd stolen a
quarter of a million dollars from the bank
got in touch with the chief of police
and the powers that ran the bank and
there was some policeman there in the congregation
waiting to arrest him that night and he
knew it and he crawled up there on
that platform and confessed to his thoughtful sin
and then he just fell down like a
sack of sugar and sobbed like his heart
would break and then he looked up through
his tears after a while and said isn't
there anybody that could pray for the saints
Oh Mary!
God to have mercy on that old sinner
who tried to pull the wool over God's
eyes come queen before God they arrested him,
tried him and sent him to the penitentiary
I get a letter once a month from
him have for all of these years that's
the happiest fellow you ever saw been all
these years in prison but bless God there
ain't no prison like S.I.N. Sin
that bound him ladies and gentlemen went on
several more weeks and I hadn't given him
kind of invitation to start with he wouldn't
let me and I never did get to
give a public invitation we had to hire
seven people to answer phones we had to
keep six people at a time different ones
in that tent 24 hours a day to
pray for and deal with men and women
coming to the tent asking somebody to help
them see if there's any way on earth
they could get to God ladies and gentlemen
we talk about we want the blessing of
God I don't know if it will ever
happen again in this country but it ain't
going to happen until we get back just
camping on one thing people need the Savior
they don't believe it when they don't believe
it they don't believe God's holy they don't
believe God don't punish sin unless God punishes
sin this word Savior is silly isn't it
but if God does punish sin hallelujah for
Jesus thank God God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son thank
God that he poured out his life blood
in my stead