May the Lord bless you.
Will you turn to the 24th chapter of
the book of Matthew.
There are just two congregations in America that
I joke with about the offering and about
doctrine.
One of them is this one, the other
is the church of which Brother Mayan is
pastor.
It's in the M13 campaign.
Most of the folks didn't hear the cam,
felt the pain, but we went through them.
And we love each other so that we
joke.
Brother Tyner gave me a book tonight, and
he thinks it's going to get me straightened
out in my doctrine, and I'm going to
read it tomorrow on the plane.
But I can remember the big three of
America almost years ago.
Dr. J.
Frank Norris, Dr. T.T. Shields, and Dr.
W.B. Riley.
Dr. T.T. Shields was a radical, fighting,
spitting, clawing, armillenarian.
Dr. Riley and Dr. Norris were fighting, spitting,
clawing, armillenarians.
I've been in their presence when they're really
going after each other, trying to straighten one
another out.
But when the enemy would come in, they'd
close their ranks.
And just like you're trying to interfere with
a man when he's seeing his wife having
a little scrap, you'd better stay out of
that, or they'll both turn on you.
And that's the way it was.
I kind of like Mr. Wesley and Mr.
Whitfield.
Brother, they didn't tear each other up over
the doctrine, but when one of them died,
the other preached his hymn.
I like that.
We know in part.
Now in the book of Matthew, chapter 24,
I want to bring this closing message.
And it will have to be addressed largely
to God's least professing people, or unless the
Lord shall intervene in your day and mine
in terrible judgment, we've said good-bye to
this generation except a few on Sunday morning.
We can get blues about their faces, but
that's not an alibi that introduces my subject.
Do we have a gospel for the days
of Noah?
What shall be the thrust of the gospel
message?
Preach from a pulpit stand, sun-screwed glass
over the radio street corner, as you get
interest in the homes, as you work side
-by-side at the factory and seek to
witness a good confession.
If it's as rough in our day and
the promises tomorrow get worse as it was
in the days of Noah, and that's what
you people who are pre-millenarian, nearly all
of you, and I honor you for it,
and I wouldn't change you in a million
dollars for a million dollars, my own judgment
is you've got to hold some truth.
But I don't think you believe it yourself.
The fault I find with the pre-millenarian
interpretation of the scripture is the kind of
churches it's built, and taken by and large
to the most carnal world of self-satisfied
people this side of hell.
I think it's because they haven't got it
right.
They haven't got it right.
I've been hearing them say, Oh, but I'm
looking for the coming of the Lord, and
that'll promote holiness, and I'd like to see
some of it.
Wouldn't you?
Yeah.
But I'm this much of a pre-millenarian,
and I've been preaching two weeks here that
all hell's going to pop, and it's going
to pop in your day and mine.
I am not a good pre-millenarian, because
I believe God's people are going to have
to be right here in the middle of
the storm.
And you don't.
But now having settled that, and if you
differ with me, after the service you come
around and apologize, and I'll forgive you.
But that's our difference.
I believe all this talk about, God, people
are going to be saved from this, this
produce, this jellyfish stuff we call Christianity today.
I believe it's just, well, get ready, folks.
I believe like old Noah and the little
crucifix, eight souls in that ark.
I don't think they escaped the flood, but
bless God they rode through it.
And I think whether my theology is wrong
or not, we need to come under some
sort of discipline like we've never known.
For we're going to have some floods that
are going to overcome us unless our relationship
is real, so we can overcome.
Now with that explanation, let's read this bound
to be one of your favorite passages of
scripture, and I'm not being facetious now.
Now learn a parable of the fig tree.
And of course what's happening in Israel now
is tremendously significant.
At a conference a couple of years ago,
some of you, Brother Jackson was present.
I got up and announced that if that
little one-eyed Jew didn't watch out, he's
going to make a pre-millionaire out of
Brother Johnson, who was with you here last
August.
And the brethren got a kick out of
it.
But you haven't got a bit of sense
on earth if you do not watch this
fig tree and even if you miss it,
you ought to watch the developments.
When his branch is yet tender and put
at forth leaves, ye know that summer is
not.
So likewise ye, when ye shall see all
these things, know that it is near, even
at the door.
There lies saying to you, This generation shall
not pass till all these things be fulfilled.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my
word shall not pass away.
But that day and hour knoweth no man,
nor not the angels of heaven.
No one knows that is my fault.
But we've got a little light.
And he says, Here it is.
As the days of Noah were, so shall
also the coming of the Son of Man
be.
For as in the days that were before
the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying
and giving in marriage, until the day that
Noah entered into the ark, and knew not
until the flood came and took them all
away, so shall also the coming of the
Son of Man be.
There are three characteristics of this day that
make one wonder.
Is this our day?
Is this the kind of world we are
in now?
Is this a description of our generation?
Whatever the answer is, when we turn to
the book of Genesis, we know that there
were three things taken together that caused Almighty
God to send three billion folks to hell.
Everybody except a precious soul.
That's a terrible God, isn't it?
The cup of iniquity was filled.
The patience of God was exhausted.
Peter tells us the long suffering of God
waited.
The Bible identifies and says he waited 120
years after the beginning of his warning to
Noah.
And things got so that the only thing
God could do and still be God was
to wipe humanity with the exception of eight
people.
Off the face of the earth.
Noah's day must have been pretty rough, brother.
And when we compare our day with it,
we tread softly, of course.
But we notice the three things that taken
together caused the wrath of God to fall
upon a civilization.
The scientists tell us today, I guess rightly,
that there were at least as many people
on the earth then as now.
And that all of them, I don't know,
but you ought to do some of the
reading of good men today on what they're
finding out about the flood.
Brother Charlie, you're aware of the fact that
much effort has been made to do away
with this Bible story, but the scientists, whether
they're Christians or not, just won't let us
do away with it.
There was a flood.
The whole outfit was destroyed.
God made a new beginning.
He dead sure did it.
Don't need a Bible to tell you that.
And I think that it's true that in
the scientific world today, more attention is being
paid by scientists to the structure of the
earth today that cannot be explained except for
catastrophe worldwide.
Like the flood is the only explanation for
the cheap of things today.
So we're dealing here with a fact.
Now, the God who did this may be
a monster, but if that kind of God
we got, we'd just well roll up our
sleeves and face it.
God brought judgment!
Irreversible judgment on this world!
And he says he's going to do it
again!
Not by flood, but by fire.
And everything's going to be destroyed again except
that which is lashed to the altar of
righteousness.
Now, my shouting ground, of course, one scripture
is, nevertheless, we look according to his promise
for new heavens and a new earth, wherein
is a duke's mixture.
No, sir.
Wherein the mist of iniquity keeps on poisoning.
No, no.
Wherein dwelleth righteousness.
And the only thing that withstood and rolled
out of the flood were men and women
who had been made righteous in the eyes
of Almighty God.
When you look at the terrible things that
characterize the iniquity of Noah's day, and then
look at our day, one wonders, Genesis 6,
verse 5, what was the occupation of mankind
in Noah's day?
The thoughts and imaginations of their hearts were
evil continually.
Second characteristic of the people in the time
when Noah lived, characterized by violence.
I don't know how much violence we've had
in other days, but in this day of
the radio and television, when it isn't but
two inches from one part of the world
to another, and when the scene that just
accidentally the television cameras happened to be present
worldwide, where somebody's raising camels, fire stalks the
land.
It sure did in Noah's day.
And then the word of God tells us
that all flesh had corrupted itself.
The earth was corrupt, and in Genesis, what
is it, verse 12, I think, chapter 6,
all flesh had corrupted itself.
In the sixth chapter of Genesis, there's that
cryptic expression, Noah found grace in the sight
of the Lord.
I believe I called it to your attention,
I'm sure you knew it before, but I'll
do it again.
What that verse is saying is, that out
of the three billion people, there's just one
man that was upright in his sexual life.
That's what he did.
He found grace.
He was straight in that most sacred relationship.
If you've not read The Sixth Man, that's
the title of the book, The Sixth Man,
written by a reporter who doesn't confess to
be a Christian.
He spent three years gathering evidence.
I don't know whether he knows what he's
talking about.
I believe the FBI report is there's 20
million sodomites in America.
But this man says that one out of
every six adults, male or female, in America
is a sodomite.
I don't know.
I wouldn't be surprised if the government report
didn't, that's bad enough, 20 million.
But if you divide six into, we're over
200 million people now, and cut that by
half, it's still bad.
One has to read what happened in the
days of Noah when the one sin was
lusting after female flesh.
That's exactly what it was.
And if you take a walk down your
streets now or call on you good Christian
women at home, you'll sure be able to
knock on the door of the embedded.
Oh, the bottom is completely falling out.
Can't advertise a home or a car or
nothing now without a parade of female flesh.
And the only man that rode that storm
out of three billion people was a fellow
by the name of Noah.
All that baffles us, there is just one
thing that this generation is concerned about, and
that's sex.
God saw that the wickedness of the earth
is so tough that he repented that he'd
made man.
Said, I'll just start all over again.
And the only man who was pure in
that relationship, that area that he could preserve,
was a fellow by the name of Noah.
Well, whatever else we can say, our Lord
said it's going to be that way, the
coming of the Lord.
That's the way it's going to be.
Is there any good news for such an
hour?
Was there any in Noah's day?
Is there any today?
Yes, thank God, there was good news today.
Yes, thank God, there is good news today.
Nobody was interested then, but it is still
good news.
It is the good news that God looks
on.
Thank God for the gospel.
Thank God for some people back years ago,
I'm 64, that held the line.
And I heard the gospel.
The only story that's got power to
bring in man to where he can ride
out the storm and escape the awful justice.
Thank God for those old gray-haired people
who stood by the good.
Thank God that they didn't take the torch
and blow it out, but they kept it
burning.
Thank God for the privilege.
I don't care how it gets.
I don't care who's right about all these
details of the coming of Christ.
I don't persuade anybody.
You fools, you do me.
But whatever it takes to please.
Thank God for the privilege of hearing and
believing and passing it on and sharing the
gospel when all hell's popping.
The temptation to preach good things to be
occupied with good things.
God help us not to yield and to
give ourselves with total abandon in the atmosphere
of violence and corruptness.
Today, give ourselves to the one thing that
will count in eternity.
That's poking our end of the blanket to
keep this gospel from being wiped off the
face of the earth so somebody else can
hear it.
I'm counting, Michael A.
I think I can illustrate what I want
to say.
My first pastor that I told you was
in the north town of this state.
The only preacher in that city, first 16
months of my ministry there.
I talked to hundreds and hundreds of men.
I preached in every house of ill pain
many times.
I preached in their gambling resorts.
I preached in their saloons.
I preached in their theaters.
I preached on the streets.
I preached in their hospitals.
I preached to them that they were dying.
And they'd laugh at me and make fun
of me and all of that.
But when they got in trouble, they sent
for the preacher.
I don't want to be a Pharisee.
I don't want to set myself up and
say, look how nice I am, how mean
you are.
Oh no, I hate that.
I'm rotten, I'm a sinner.
Jesus, don't say sinners, I'm a dead sinner.
Oh, but I do.
I don't want to join the spirit of
this age.
Under God for 40 years, 36 of them
as evangelists, I've lived, I ain't got a
dime, I never will have.
What I preach, you don't get rich.
I'm not complaining, thank God.
But I'll die before I'll join the spirit
of this godless age.
Cut out the heart of the gospel-made
salvation.
Joe!
I'm looking for the time when trouble's going
to come as we've never known it.
And when folks get in trouble, they ain't
going to these hell-raised church members and
preachers.
They're going to go to somebody they've been
watching and say, that old fella, he's too
strict, I ain't going to let him do
it to him.
But when they get in trouble, they're going
to call for help.
I'm going to be around, I hope, when
that time comes.
That's the reason I'm so anxious for some
kind of judgment to come.
I want the post to start ringing, Brother
Jackson.
Come over here, we're in trouble.
Come over here.
And it's coming!
The storm's on the way.
If you just listen a minute, you can
hear it rumbling now.
The flood of God's judgment's coming on this
generation.
We've got to go through that thing.
I don't know how the civil rights battle's
going to come out.
You can take sides on that.
But I'm not going to give my life
to that.
I don't know whether Mr. Nixon's going to
be able to do anything or not.
You can get interested in that if you
want to.
I don't know.
I don't know about a lot of good
things, but I know that in this hour
there's but one thing worth living for, one
thing worth dying for, and that is the
privilege of pointing men to Jesus Christ, the
art, the only escape from the flood of
God's judgment in time and in eternity.
And that's what God did then.
He had a fellow named Noah, and he
came and said, Noah, I'm going to judge
this house hence.
And Noah looked around and said he didn't
see any sign, but the old boy didn't
have no chance than to believe what God
said and scared the living daylights out of
him.
And he got him a hammer and some
nails, and all Noah did from then on
was nail on that old ark.
And the Bible says that in doing that,
in doing that he accomplished two things.
He saved his house and condemned the world
and became an heir of the righteousness of
faith.
And he just had one message.
Every time he pecked on that old ark,
he said, righteousness, righteousness, the only thing that's
going to ride the storm is people named
righteous, righteous, righteous.
He's a preacher of righteousness.
You weren't going around trying to get somebody
interested in being satisfied with Jesus.
He's saying the thing that's going to count
is to be accounted righteous by Almighty God.
Not how you feel, but what he does
about it.
The only thing that's going to escape is
righteousness.
You can take the first book of Corinthians
and you can teach it.
I'm a pretty smart man, I'm going to
teach you something now.
And you can read about all that mess
in the church at Corinth, and you can't
find but one note of condemnation from the
lips of the Apostle Paul.
Why, they've got everything on God's wrist could
be wrong with the congregation, and he didn't
find Paul to condemn but one thing!
And the one thing he condemned was unrighteousness!
That's right.
You can get along with the perversion of
the tongues and all that going to court
and sent down a zing for these to
get them in the right place.
But the one thing, read it, that God
Almighty is against is unrighteousness.
And the one thing that salvation really means
is that God declares and sets out to
make me unrighteous with a righteousness that'll count
when the storms come.
He just kept preaching righteousness.
He just kept saying there's just one way
of escaping.
I want you to notice right quickly five
things about that ark.
First, it just had one window in it.
And it was at the top.
No hope.
If you look anywhere else.
No hope.
They got in that ark, no one in
his craft.
God shut the door.
The rest of them were drowned.
And they roared the storm.
Out in the air the waves rushing against
that old ark.
And they run over here but they can't
see out.
And they run over there but they can't
see out.
And they run over there but they can't
see out.
They got to look up for any sight.
Oh, bless God, that's the plan.
Oh, God, the only hope for time and
eternity is up, is up, is up.
Talk about being narrow-minded.
Not being intolerant.
For all that stuff.
Our gospel shall not temporize.
It shall just shut men up.
The only hope is for the one up
there, if you'll please stand in his sight.
The second thing about that ark, it just
had one door.
You talk about being narrow-minded.
That's what's killing us now, is to be
broad-minded with the sin we're about to
run out.
I'd now be broad-minded about anything in
the Bible with you.
And I'd love you if you loved me,
because I don't know much about it.
But there's one thing we must not be
broad-minded about.
There is a door.
There's just one door.
Jesus is an utter necessity.
There's no other reason to come into a
vital relationship with God Almighty's love and gift.
This is the gospel.
And then there's another thing about that ark,
the 18, when God shut the door.
You read it back there in Genesis, God
shut the door.
God shut the door.
Don't get mad at me, but I believe
when Jesus comes, that's it, brother.
That's it.
I believe under God he's coming to judge
this outfit and turn the kingdom he's run
over to God Almighty.
Oh, my soul.
Hear me!
This generation, where it will hear or where
it will not, must be faithfully warned that
the day is coming on the authority of
the book that the devil hasn't been able
to get away with yet.
On the authority of this book.
The day is coming when God will no
longer extend mercy.
He won't shut the door.
There's a fourth thing about this ark, this
gospel of Noah's day.
It must be our gospel.
Everybody and people, the least of the animals
that got in that ark had to be
changed in their nature.
Boy, you talk about a fight.
If he hadn't changed the nature of those
animals that got in that ark, they'd have
caught each other to pieces in five minutes.
Can you imagine a man in this household
in an ark for 40 days and nights?
No way to look except up.
Why, they'd have murdered one another if they
hadn't had their natures changed before they died.
This is the issue of this house.
A million people in America went to what's
called a church house that day.
We beg, we praise God for all who
were brought into confrontation with a holy God
and his demands and his provisions.
But our heart bleeds within us as we
think, and we think, we think like that.
That there's not much Christianity left in this
country.
God kept us.
And that this generation is being given a
dose of what they call salvation that doesn't
change.
Oh, to claim to be converted and not
to have become a changed man of God.
Not made perfect, but fit so you'll never
be satisfied till you are perfect.
That's New Testament conversion.
New Testament.
Nature's changed.
The old iron and the tang subdued.
A fellow asked me the other day.
I'm going to say it anyhow.
I was taught that the believer had two
natures, and I don't believe a word of
it.
And a fellow got awful concerned the other
day he heard me preach.
I don't believe you folks out there have
got but one nature, and it's as rotten
as hell.
And I believe what you've been calling that
other nature, you better face the fact that
you ain't that kind of person, honey.
What I'm talking about, the change I'm talking
about, is not how to fix you so
you're half good and half bad.
But I'm talking about a change where somebody
comes to live in you.
Brother, he's got a holy nature.
And if there's anything God Almighty knows good
that ever comes out of this old man,
it's not Ralph Barnes, I'll tell you that.
It's Christ in men and women.
I actually believe that conversion is when Christ
comes to live in you.
Brother, I think he changes everything he touches.
A young man wrote me a letter not
long ago and said, Brother Barnes, why don't
you come over to me?
I said, we've just had people saved all
over this community but no change.
Well, nobody gets saved if they're not changed.
Oh, I can imagine Onoa preaching away this
hard message.
Why, nobody's going to come to terms with
such terrible demands.
No, sir.
Not as long as you depend on yourself
to do it.
Let's refine you how I've preached and preached
and preached and preached until somebody believed me.
You need to become a candidate for the
mercy of God.
You need to become a seeker, oh God.
Help me to turn on myself.
Help me to sit in judgment on myself.
Help me to absorb myself.
Help me to plead guilty.
Help me to quit telling lies and alibis
and excuses.
Help me to come clean.
Help me, oh God, do for me and
end me what I cannot do for myself.
Change me.
There's one last thing about this ever-burning
heart passed through the waters.
The Apostle Peter says that's a type of
baptism.
What does baptism mean?
It's a joke now.
It wasn't meant in the New Testament.
It meant complete submission to this heart of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
And ladies and gentlemen, I'm coming now in
a moment to speak my last words.
I don't know if I'll ever see you
again, not tomorrow as in God's hands.
Thank you for listening to me through these
years.
Thank you for being kind to me.
Thank you for being sweet and lovable and
generous.
Thank you, God, my pastor.
And I want the last things I say
to you for Noah's day and for days.
The only thing that's going to ride the
storm is men and women completely under the
rule of Jesus Christ.
Oh, this putting your toes in the water
to see if it's cold ain't going to
do now.
It's all or nothing.
You're sitting here under the blood of Jesus.
Safe in his sheltering fold.
Rather than no other place of safety.
And a king's responsibility is to save and
take care of and preserve his people.
That's reason my king's mighty to save.
That's reason I own him as Lord.
Listen.
Baptism's an answer to a good cause.
Eight souls were saved by water.
What does that mean?
It means that baptism is not just a
motion to go through.
Baptism is a public declaration.
The fact that I have utterly with a
band, lock, stock and barrel committed myself
to the Lord Jesus.
The folks that stood around admired the architecture
of the art ground.
It's just folks that got in that were
saved.
Just the folks that got in.
A commitment to the authority of King Jesus
that you have to do it every day
of your life.
Every day.
A commitment that binds you as his slave.
Where the only freedom you want is freedom
to do his will.
Brother, when the storm comes, that's the only
kind of folks that are going to be
able to rise.
I would call you to such commitment as
God knows my heart.
I was preaching for a young pastor in
Virginia some years ago.
Many years ago he went to school for
me.
One night after the service I think we
were having a glass of milk or something
before I went to bed.
That bright, brilliant young preacher said, Brother Barnett,
is Jesus your Lord?
Is Jesus your Lord?
And I asked you tonight, my dear friend,
is Jesus your Lord?
That's the most solemn thing you'll ever say.
And I had to answer, yes, he's my
Lord.
As my Lord, he's going to save me
or damn me.
He earned the right to do either one
of them.
And I can't put any confidence in but
one thing.
I can't count for a minute on any
response I've ever made.
I'm just counting on one thing.
I'm a candidate for mercy.
And I need him tonight to deal with
me in mercy, much as I ever did.
Thank God.
The scriptures say he's rich in mercy toward
all who call on him.
And I think this business of being saved
is a lifelong calling on the name of
our Father.
We pray that you'll deal in mercy with
all of us tonight one more time.
Holy Spirit of God, deal with us right
now.
I wish I could hold up my hands
and be able to say, your blood's not
on them.
I don't know whether I could or not,
just a little preacher, think about the best
that you have.
You're not half as troubled about the fact
that God's power is not on us as
I think maybe I am.
It breaks my heart to have to go
back most of the time.
I tell you, when I've seen God split
men's hearts, make them scream for mercy, I
don't see as much of it now as
I used to.
I'm not happy about that.
I wish I could say after as many
times as I've been a guest to this
pastor and you, dear people, that I have
warned you with tears I'm pure from the
blood of all men.
If I knew you were out there, outside
of the ark of Christ, I don't expect
I could continue myself.
I'd come back then, I'd do my dead
love best to pull you into it.
But I can't do that.
You've got to go in yourself.
Now I come to this for me.
I leave this pulpit with perfect happiness because
it's so well occupied.
It couldn't be better.
In fact, I'm going to Monroe, Louisiana.
It don't mean that God's going to leave
this place.
But as for me, here I am now
trembling, afraid I haven't been true to you
as I wanted to be.
Afraid that when the judgment comes I'll have
to watch some of you sent to hell.
Oh, God, how serious this is.
Now I've got to come turn the service
over to you.
Your move now.
And I beg you to hit this trail,
private God, for mercy.
I can hear my...
Would you stand and sing it and many
of you ought to come and seek the
Lord.
I can hear...
I beg you if you don't know the
Lord, if you're not under his sheltering fold,
run to him tonight.
Run to him tonight.
I beg you tonight.