From that time, Jesus began to preach, and
here's where he preached, repent, and here is
the platform from which he stood and made
his demand, repent, for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand.
The heart of evangelism, a mission, for they
are the same thing, is illustrated by our
soldier boys, the old demon from those islands
when we were arresting them back from the
hands of the Japs in World War II.
They'd pull up in those, whatever you call
them, outfits that passed through the water a
little ways and then would practice, and the
first thing they did when their feet would
touch the ground, at the expense of how
many lives, it didn't take into consideration, they
went and hung up Old Glory, raised it
high, and occupied that particular island in the
name of its rightful owner, the Lord Jesus
Christ.
That's really the task given to God's people.
No matter how difficult it may be the
day in which we are God's people, that's
up to God.
Maybe we need to recover from our begging,
apologetic attitude, and face the fact that we
believe in our heads that this world belongs
to Jesus Christ, for two reasons.
First, he created it, and second, he redeemed
it.
He's got a stranglehold on everything that thrives
and wriggles in every human being, because he's
the creator and the redeemer of all men.
Plant the flag of Jesus Christ.
Tell men everywhere to bow down to the
one who owns them.
I'm two months nearly in my 43rd year
of claiming to be a Christian.
I've been a public preacher ever since, of
course.
I've been a professing Christian.
It's fallen to my lot, this has been
the providence of God, to have lived all
the days of my life on a day
when men are running from God instead of
seeking him.
I believe with all of my heart that
we need to do one of two things.
We need to just quit, or we need
to become utterly possessed to the extent that
we've got to wholly abandon and learn what
Paul meant by experience.
Learn by experience something of what Paul meant,
when without apology he was constantly begging the
people to pray for him, that he might
be given utterance so that he could boldly
preach the mystery of the gospel.
We're going to have to have a boldness
we've never dreamed of.
This is not the time for caution.
This is not the time to do like
we kids did when I was a boy,
go down to the favorite waterhole, and we
didn't go down there and pull off our
shoes and wiggle our toes in the water
and debate.
We started undressing a half a mile before
we got to the waterhole, last one in
the rotten egg, and we just plunged in
head over heels.
This is the time for a wholly abandonment.
I believe that the spirit of Antichrist is
producing the most militant opposition to the governorship
of God on this earth that the world
has ever experienced since it laid its wicked
hands on Jesus Christ and did him to
death.
And I believe that we haven't a Chinaman
chance unless in the mercy of God those
of us in this generation shall come to
a holy boldness and a total abandonment such
as I know I've never had, but that
I wish with all my heart I could
have nothing
but an all-out committal to the Chinaman
chance in this day when the world is
sold out to the forces of Antichrist.
I need constantly to hear again and again
from God's great demander, Jesus Christ.
There are two things that I want under
God shall not be true of me.
I don't want to live another day trying
to preach the supernatural message without the supernatural
anointing of the Holy Ghost.
I was talking to one of you a
while ago, and I still remember when I
believe the Lord captured him, telling me how
he deals with the folks out at Nasser
and their higher-ups, and they got every
alibi.
How on earth a man could be a
witness for Christ in such an atmosphere as
that, and to bear into Jesus that way
everywhere.
God only knows how I wish I knew
how.
For myself and for people who are kind
enough to listen to me preach, God only
knows how I wish I knew how.
We can't work it up, can't work it
down, can't force ourselves in it.
How we could have authority so saturated
with God in the Holy Ghost that we
could make a dent in this icicle age.
God only knows how much the public preacher,
trying not to be a professional, has to
cry to God, Oh God, how long, how
long must we wait for you to open
the windows of heaven one more time and
do things that would turn in today's attention
so that they'd listen to God speak through
our lips.
I don't want to murmur, and they do
it.
I think I've been in the battle long
enough to not be a novice, but this
awful icicle indifference, and everybody's a Christian, nobody's
got any needs, and the alibis I hear,
and the alibis people who knock on doorbells
have to listen to.
They affect me.
And just clean us girls, oh Rock Barnard,
if you had his way about it, I'd
go thirty miles from the nearest dirt road,
bill me a little check, and tell this
world, go on to hell, it looks like
you want to survive.
God knows I'd want to be faithful, not
demand success, but I'm so weak I'm about
to faint for the lack of tokens of
the heavenly breath upon me.
And I feel that every child of God
today is about the same shape, and as
mean as I am, I'm trying to cry
to God, giving no rest.
I'm so tired of reading about the blessing
of God.
Forty-three years, long time be a preacher,
when the icicles are everywhere, and not the
hot breath of God Almighty.
Forty-three years, long time be a perfect
preacher, never be able to tell about revival
in my time.
Oh God, I get so sorry sometimes
that I've had a little part in America
trying to recover the sovereignty of God and
salvation.
For that message cannot be preached unless it's
preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from
heaven.
I sometimes wonder
if we do not butcher people, if we
ring doorbells and try to get in homes,
and hold revival campaigns that don't revive, and
have public preaching, trying to preach a message
that nobody can believe, unless the Holy Spirit
interprets it to their heart.
The reason I've been a cry in my
heart these years is I've been associated a
little bit with what to call the movement
of the grace of God.
If there's any people on earth that are
going to have to learn how to cry
and weep, it's us.
If there's any people on earth that are
going to have to learn how to intercede
at the throne of grace, it's us.
There's a second thing I want to be
delivered from, an empty profession, to tell the
story of a coroner who once exonerated a
man who said he swung his ramp at
the level crossing as the driver sped toward
the oncoming express train.
He said, I swung my lantern, but the
driver came on and was killed.
He testified at the coroner's trial, or whatever
you call it, his damnation, that he stood
there and waved his lantern at the driver
who was headed right into the express.
But later, after the trial was over, he
confided to a friend of his that while
he waved his lantern, he had no light
in it.
In the gross darkness, the utter paganism of
this hour, I don't want to swing a
lamp of an empty profession.
Would you listen to God's great demander?
My Lord announced his ministry by making an
announcement, God in Christ has invaded this earth.
The kingdom of heaven is here.
The reign of almighty God in Christ has
been reinstituted here on this earth.
The defeat of the enemies of God is
now underway.
God has come to this earth.
His reign is started.
It will be final one day, but it
manifests now, said my Lord.
The day will come when in great power
and glory it will be manifest.
Now it's small, and it's secret, but my
Lord said the future has invaded the present,
and it's working now.
What an announcement after 400 years when this
earth had not heard a single message from
God.
From the time of Malachi till John the
Baptist came on the scene, no message audible
from heaven came to this earth.
After 400 years of gross darkness, after his
introduction by John the Baptist, there comes Jesus,
and he began to preach.
He just said one thing, I'm here.
I'm down here to take charge.
I've invaded Satan's territory.
I've come down here to reestablish the sovereign
rule of almighty God here on this earth.
I've come down here to plant the flag
of almighty God.
Repeat, God dear, repeat, men now may be
born of the Spirit from above.
Men now can know God by experience.
Men now, while hell rages, can have the
life of the Spirit, not in its fullest,
but in its fullest.
Men now may enter the sphere of the
rain and the realm of God's blessings.
Men may taste the power of the age
to come.
Such was his announcement.
When he made his announcement, he made his
demand.
He said, this isn't an invitation, this is
a command.
This is a demand.
Oh God, will we ever, by total
commitment to the proposition that nothing is worth
anything except the truth of the kingdom of
God, and to be in it.
And if we lose out on that, we've
lost out on everything.
And if we gain that, we've won everything.
And quit being football-minded and get down
to this brass-tack proposition.
In the rule of Christ there's blessing, and
of it there's eternal damnation.
And have such a circumscribed message, with such
sharp teeth in it, in the utterance and
power and authority of Almighty God.
As to fulfill our commission, packed on to
us by God's great demander, so that the
church standing in Christ's shoes shall have this
one message, God's will, repent.
Repent.
I've always thanked God since 2000.
I was in Infidel for six years before
God saved me.
But when God did save me and went
away, I didn't have but one message, and
I hope God's never given me two.
One's enough, and one's about the one's needin'
this day.
I just told them, if they didn't repent,
they were goin' right straight to hell.
And after all that's said, my Lord didn't
come down here and say, now if it's
convenient, since you'll repent, it's God's great demander.
Somebody said that knowledge of the gospel, and
the gospel is the good news of the
kingdom of God, knowledge of the gospel is
privilege facing a demand, and the
demand is repentance.
The question is, how does one receive the
life, and obtain the righteousness, and find the
life of the Spirit, which imparts the life
of the age to come?
What does Romans 10 and 9 mean?
That thou shalt confess with thine mouth Jesus
is Lord, and believe in thine heart that
God hath raised him from the dead.
What does it mean in answer to the
scream of a man, what must I do
to be saved?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou
shalt be saved.
What does it mean, these things are written,
that you might believe that Jesus is the
Christ, and believe he hath life in his
name.
Does that mean to take his name on
our lips?
Does that mean to have an opinion about
him?
Does that mean to have a knife clean?
Does that mean to say that Jesus is
Lord?
No, no, every one of them demand surrender.
Repent now, now or judgment.
The judge of all the earth is here,
he confronts men with his demand.
Repent now.
Never one time in the church has anybody
advised to repent tomorrow.
Every reference to the demand that comes from
God's great demand of Jesus Christ, through the
feeblest voice that may pass it on, is
in the imperative word, repent now.
Repent right now.
Repent now.
The demand that God's great demand of is
the response to me.
My will, my mind, my spirit, my emotions
of me.
And I must yield to this voice.
Now or at the judgment.
I must bow to this demand.
Now or at the judgment.
I bless God that Jesus didn't come down
here and make the demand of Ralph Barnard,
provide a righteousness himself that God would accept.
No, he didn't demand that I produce a
righteousness.
He came and brought it as a gift.
I'm glad that the great demander didn't demand
that I create my spiritual graveyard life.
He came to give life.
I'm glad he didn't demand that I live
up to a certain standard and then life
would come.
He didn't do that.
But he did demand, repent, turn, surrender, gladly
receive, that means submit to the rule of
Christ.
Gladly submit, receive life, blessings from heaven.
Ladies and gentlemen, could this church and school,
all of us together, having lived all of
our days in an atmosphere of ease and
comfort, of the tampering of our bodies and
the suicide of our souls, could we first
of all ourselves be in line with the
impact of what it do for us, having
bowed to the great demanders demand ourselves, could
we once again in this godless age, without
apology, have a ring and a note in
our voices, demanding men and women everywhere, they
say this is all the gospel of Barnabas
knows and it's enough, Jesus is God's Lord,
bow down right now, sinner, I didn't come
here to invite you to anything, or to
reason with you about anything, I just came
here to announce the greatest news between the
eternities and in the name of Jesus Christ
and upon the authority of God Almighty I
demand that right now you drop your weapons
of rebellion and bow down to King Jesus.
Lord, help us to so well we allow
little ducks on how to make friends and
influence people and become holy terrorers until mayhap
we could have some new testament experience ourselves
and people would say we go to the
pill and begin to stone us They had
to kill Jesus or repent, they had to
kill John the Baptist or repent, they had
to stone the prophets or repent, they had
to be the New Testament church and the
blood of martyrs or repent God knows how
bad this hell it is, if one and
deep in the blood of men who believe
something with such a sharp divisiveness that they
were freed alive in that day, oh God
is there any hope for us nice people
I pray God that this
demand of the great demander be taken lightly
at the cost of eternal damnation, for my
Lord Jesus Christ, God's demander demands a resolute
surrender, not a trial marriage, not
a you do so and so I'll do
so and so Not if you bless me
I'll serve you, but I surrender if you
send me to hell, a resolute surrender It
came to pass that as they went in
the wee, a certain man said unto God,
great demander, Lord I'll follow thee with us
whoever thou goest, and Jesus said unto him,
the foxes have hooves, the birds have nests,
but the Son of Man hath not wherewith
to lay his head And he said to
another, follow me, but he said, Lord, suffer
me first to go and bring my father,
and Jesus said unto him, let the physical
dead bury the spiritual dead, but go thou
and proclaim the kingdom of God And another
also said, Lord, I'll follow thee, but let
me first go bid them farewell, which are
at home at my house, and Jesus said
unto him, no man hath his hand to
the plow, and looking back is put to
the kingdom of God Churches are being closed
all over America, preachers have lost their moral
balance, there are more preachers going morally, sexually
wrong, in your day and mine and in
the days, since the days of Noah It
startled you to turn over to the book
of Genesis and find out the scripture that
says Noah found grace in the sight of
God, and I remember the first time I
read that in the Hebrew, and I found
out that what that actually means is that
the only living man on this earth And
the Bible says, and the scientists tell us
now, there were perhaps 3 billion people on
earth at that time, and that out of
the 3 billion people on the earth, in
the days of the first, there was just
one man who was sexually straight, that's what
it meant when he found grace in the
sight of God If there is one sin
tonight that is damning church members and everybody
else, it's the sin of sexual immorality, it's
eating up America, it was the one sin
that got so bad that God almighty said
I'm going to wipe this outfit off the
face of the earth And he could find
only one man in his day that was
straight in his sex life, now that's not
the cause you 3 millionaires around here, listen
to me, you make much of the fact
that as it was in the days of
Noah, well bless God I agree with you
old man, I wonder if we could find
a human being on earth today That God
could look down and find grace in his
sex life, that's something terrible brother, something terrible,
listen to me, what's happened, what's happened, why
are preachers going wrong, why are churches, what
beds of immorality now I'll tell you why,
this generation has depended on getting rid of
the 1 to 7 demons in your life
and calling it salvation, all you got is
a big experience when something was exercised in
your life But Jesus Christ wasn't in trouble,
ladies and gentlemen listen to Ralph Barnett, I
say it trembling, I could be the one
who fell tomorrow, the only men and women
in this awful day who are never going
to surrender to the enemies of the Lord
Are the ones who are surrendered to him,
lock, stock and barrel, this is the time
for all or nothing, we're going to have
the nothing if it's not the all Nice
little wiggling your toes in this water, ain't
going to get the job done now brothers,
jumping head over heels, oh God for a
deeper commitment to the Lordship, the rule, the
reign of Jesus Christ A resolute surrender, this
old man keeping his hand from putting his
hand to the plow and turning back, a
resolute surrender, no one else surrendered to Christ,
it's the only way the old man can
become a new creation and receive a new
master The true line of freedom is positive
obedience and the condition of true freedom is
a positive authority and the only way a
man can answer the revelation of God in
Christ hanging on a tree is by a
choice, a resolve, a committal, the committal not
fail in total surrender to Jesus Christ God
helps us to be a way with and
done with this stuff called salvation, that doesn't
call us to fresh surrender every day, that
doesn't call us to a deeper committal every
day, that will deliver us from trying to
walk the day and yesterday straight We've been
whipped on every side, this demand of God's
great demander calls for a radical surrender, now
from the days of John the Baptist until
now, the kingdom of God's separate vials and
the vials are taken by force The law
and the prophets were until John, since that
time the kingdom of God proclaimed and every
man presses into it, and denies to enter
in at the straight gate, for many I
say unto you will seek to enter in
and shall not be able If your eyes,
and that's what's getting this generation deep in
the morass of sexual immorality, if your mouth
is an optional under God's necessity, if your
foot causes you to stumble, cut it off
with your hand Is this optional under God,
not under the kind of commitment Jesus Christ
demanded, if necessary, think not that I'm come
to send peace on earth, I'm come not
to send peace for the soul I'm challenged
every time, I read the writings of young
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was hanged in a concentration
camp by Hitler, the man who came to
see the emptiness that passed for Christianity in
Germany The man who talked so much about
cheap graves, the man who said that Germany
that led us into two bathrooms of blood
called the World War II, in the name
of Christianity, the man who said that Germany
was made Christian, and the only thing it
cost was Christianity itself When I see that
happening in America, never mind if I get
preached again, never mind if this is my
last meeting, never mind if you never get
another door open to you, if you get
one more under God with a holy abandon
We've got nothing to lose but our heads,
and we're going to lose everything if we
don't, we've got to in the spirit of
Jesus Christ demand from them a radical surrender
That will touch them from the top of
their heads to the bottom of their feet
and ransack their souls one end to the
other, a radical commitment to Jesus Christ True
grace is not cheap, it's costly, it's the
treasure hid in the field, it's the pearl
of great price, it's the rule of Christ
for whose sake a man will poke out
his eye if it causes him to stumble,
it's the call of Christ at which the
disciple leaves his nest and follows him This
surrender that the great demander calls for is
a costless surrender, to some it costs their
possessions, the rich young ruler, you know what
the rich young ruler would have had to
do to be saved?
Give everything you had away, a salvation by
works to tell them enough, that's all, cost
some of your loved ones, think not I'm
come to send peace, I'm come to set
a man at variance with his father, the
daughter against the mother, isn't this terrible language?
And the daughter-in-law against the mother
-in-law, and a man's soul shall be
there of his father, his own household, and
he that loveth father or mother more than
me is not worthy of me And he
that loveth son or daughter more than me
is not worthy of me, that's the language
of this demander It may cost our lives,
physically, there's no other way on earth to
be saved apart from being a martyr, for
unless the Lord Jesus' sheepness occurs, and our
Bible teaches assure us that he was, but
I don't believe him Oh, it'll cost to
meet the demand that Jesus Christ is yourself,
is yourself, if any man will come after
me, and the Lord hadn't listened to the
Bible teachers of today and found out that
you could be a Christian without being a
disciple He taught them that same thing, and
he said if any man will come after
me, let him deny himself, oh, it'll cost,
when I read scriptures like this, oh, it'll
cost Rothbard to the naked is to deny
himself Well, now, I'll give you a million
dollars if I got it, and I'll preach
for you, Lord, but I just can't, I
can't advocate, I can't disown self, I'll
do anything you ask me to do, but
I'm not going to deny self For denying
yourself means to take up your cross, and
that don't mean to be tested with something,
that means to die, and if that's the
way of salvation, oh, my soul, I wonder
if any of us know what it's all
about And the only hope I've got is
that the only kind of repentance the Bible
talks about is not something that happened 20
years ago, but something that happened today in
my life And the only kind of faith
the Bible talks about's worth a dime is
not that faith I sent ahead yesterday, but
that relies upon a total recommitment of life
to him today How can you dare to
go a day without having the job done
all over again?
This costless surrender, and then God help us,
it's an eternal surrender, our future destiny is
decided by bowing daily now, or at the
judgment One day this one who hung naked
on a tree will appear as the son
of man in glory, to bring final full
salvation to the sons of the kingdom of
God, and to bring full final judgment and
condemnation to the sons of darkness And the
day he preaches peace and pardon, and commands
men to throw down their arms and come
under his rule, and enter his banquet room
in O.W. Now, and in the light
of eternity, the words of my Lord burn
within me Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of
me, and of my words in this adulterous
generation, of him also shall the son of
man be ashamed, when he cometh in the
glory of his Father with his holy name
For I read one more scripture, my soul
how piercing it is, whosoever shall confess me
before men, confession is always true, testimony isn't,
whosoever shall confess me before men Him
shall the son of man confess before the
angels of God, but he that denies me
before men shall be denied before
the angels of God It hadn't fallen to
my lot to live in a time when
I had to show whether I was ashamed
of Jesus by God, thus have God's people
have had to put seal upon their profession,
and sign the seal with their life's blood
It's fallen to my time to live in
the day of religious icicles, where we're the
fattest, most satisfied, easy going bunch of
preachers and people God ever had to put
up with I look in the face and
tell you now, God's my judge, that ain't
gonna be worth a dime, when the chips
are down, and the Lord is denying those
of us who denied him My
God's great demand of us, said the kingdom
of heaven is here, repent, for you bow
your head, oh God,
come and show mercy to us, put your
finger on our shoulders, get out of here
tonight Bring us to a
commitment to the truth of the kingdom of
God, and the demand of the Lord of
glory, such as we've never known Lord, do
something for us tonight, deal with the stern,
cut us into our very hearts quick, with
this uncompromising demand, from the lips of the
Lord of glory Oh God, don't let anybody
get away from here with a nice little
brand of Christianity, bring us to an all
out commitment, that will make us have to
do it all over again tomorrow And then
the next day, bring us to the commanding
chief of the orders of the day, day
by day, and the strength from above to
witness a good confession in this awful hour
Walk this hour right now, oh Holy Spirit,
beckon men and women to this repentance, bring
all of you here tonight, that are really
your children, they are known to you, but
not to us, to a deeper commitment than
we've ever known Discover to men and women
here right now, how it is with them,
God, don't let anybody go away from here
waving the lamp of an empty confession, this
generation, God have mercy I'm
going to ask the organist to come, I'm
going to ask you to sit with your
head bowed, while she softly plays something, without
any singing, I want you to hit the
trail of repentance tonight, I want every child
of God here tonight, that needs a commitment
deeper than you've ever known Not to go
away from here until that commitment is real
in your life, you need to have mercy
God, as revealed the emptiness of your profession,
don't you go away from here until Christ
is real, and you met His demand I
will make it hard as I know how,
you need to come here to pray, come
here for requests, come here for witness, come
here for testimony, come here crying I'm lost,
pleading God's blessing, come here for open confession,
let me be, just get up out of
your seat and come, do it right now,
do it right now, all
it will cost you is yourself