I have first to say a great big
thank you for the delightful way you've treated
me.
You've seen that everything that could provide for
my comfort was provided.
I just got a little old Ford car
and I've been riding around with an old
mobile.
That's going to be a comedown for me
when I get home.
And it's been delightful.
I have some dear friends in Winston-Salem
where I, the widow Barnard, lives.
And that's one of the two centers of
the Moravian people in this country.
Another one up there in Pennsylvania somewhere.
And I have some delightful fellowship with some
of their pastors.
I've been privileged to preach for them many
times.
I had a proposition some time ago.
I was kind of getting mad the way
the Baptist was kicking me around.
And I offered to join them if they'd
make me bishop to start with.
I'm tired of being a little old peanut
preacher.
I was riding out on the fur end
of the totem pole, you know.
But they wouldn't do it.
I don't know.
What's the head man in the Presbyterians?
I believe I'll join you if you'll start
me at the top.
I've been at the bottom all my life
working up.
Never have I ever been able to work
up any.
I'll just start at the top and work
down a while the rest of my life.
You've been gracious.
Thank you.
Thank this dear pastor for his kindness.
Please do not seek to walk in light
that I say I have.
You can't walk in my light.
You've got to walk in yours.
Is that right?
Be like the Bereans.
If a man comes along like me and
says you're all wrong, search the scriptures.
See whether what he says is what the
Bible says, not something he's thought up.
Is that right?
For my Lord said my word shall judge
you, not what somebody else said.
Isn't that right?
I think you'll do that.
A man cannot walk in light he does
not have.
He dare not walk in light.
He dare not do less than walk in
the light he has.
Is that right?
But the tragedy of it is that I'm
responsible for the light that would direct me
in God's will and way that I could
have had if I hadn't been so lazy.
And I think the scriptures teach that I'm
going to have to be judged not only
by the light that I had, but the
light that I could have had if I
had availed myself of the opportunities thrown in
my path.
That's rather solemn, isn't it?
I try in my daily life to best
think something good to say about you, Presbyterian,
and said a good word about you since
I was here.
But all I know to do is that
my judgment is you ain't as bad all
the time as you are some of the
time.
So, God bless you.
Thank you so very much.
I surrendered the best I knew how.
I thought the Commanding Chief was ordering me
to go to China.
And so early in my Christian experience, I
volunteered to the Foreign Mission Board of our
denomination and asked them to send me to
China.
That same year, 237 young people like myself
were turned down because Southern Baptists were like
Bible Presbyterians.
They were making a joke out of what
it means to be a child of God.
They turned 237 of us down one year
because they didn't have any money to send
us.
They had money for chewing gum and tobacco
and 10,000 other things, but not money
enough to mind the Lord.
I never have gotten to preach in China.
I've had the privilege of preaching in every
state in this Union, all over old Mexico,
many places in Canada, and some of the
islands and other places.
And I've never had the privilege in the
last December of ministering in what's called the
Philadelphia area.
I was over at Lansdale in the Presbyterian
Church last December for three nights.
And those Reformed Presbyterians were mighty nice.
They let me use the building.
They didn't come around.
They came everywhere.
And I never did see any of the
people that members there.
They were Sunday morning Presbyterians.
And then I preached over here in the
tent, but we didn't have a single church
make it their meeting.
And I'm a great believer that the commission
to evangelize is given to the church.
I don't think you can get first base
unless the churches in a given community are
walking in the will of God, minding him.
So we didn't do much.
I've had the privilege of ministering to you.
Thank you for listening to me.
Please listen.
Don't try to walk in the light I've
given you.
If I've had any, unless you can make
it yours, you can't make it.
And if you'll pardon me, we've been generations
getting in the mess we're in, and chances
are it'll take you at least a couple
of days to get out.
Be patient.
If you have a willing heart, that's the
battle's half won, isn't it?
God bless you.
I've never seen a more likely mission field
than this section of the world.
Of course, I believe that the church now
is in a missionary situation.
I could scarce believe that this young man
who's here this morning, tonight, I may not
get his name right, so I'll not tackle
it.
I thought I understood you to say you
were supporting him or helping him or something.
Is that right?
I can scarce believe that he, where he's
ministering, in Singapore or somewhere, would find that
they're any more religious and lost over there
than the people of Westchester and Philadelphia are
religious but lost.
And so this is a tremendous mission field.
And God's will, God's way, and God's purpose,
the only remedy he's got in any mission
situation is the building of strong, not simply
in numbers, but in spiritual power, local assemblies.
That's God's way.
And so I lay my burden down a
few minutes, take up another tomorrow night, and
will never forget you and hope when I
meet you at the judgment find the week
has been profitable, I hope in encouraging you
that strong churches can be built.
All we've got to do is what this
book tells us.
And now because I believe that Westchester, with
its churches on every corner and one in
between and all the outlying areas, is a
mission field, because I believe this is a
pagan town.
The philosophy of people is pagan.
The actions of people are heathen and pagan.
Getting worse all the time.
I have insisted from time to time in
this pulpit this brief week that we must
pass by all of our traditions and confessions
and thus and that.
Go back to the New Testament, the legacy
of the sovereign God to his people to
enable them to get the right directions as
they prosecute the great commission that he left
to us.
I'm saying that we must come back to
the Bible and see to it that no
longer we encourage anybody to believe that he's
a Christian unless he is giving his life
to the proclamation of the gospel to the
world around.
I believe that with all of us.
It would seem to me the biggest heartache
a parent would have to have their children
go through the motions as sincere as they
may be and make profession of faith and
never be committed and involved in the great
mission of King Jesus.
For they couldn't be saved unless they're totally
involved in this mission.
And I believe it would break my heart
if I had ever had the gift to
be a pastor.
And I knew that deep down in my
heart the majority of the people who sit
under my ministry are utterly uninvolved in the
redemptive program of Jesus Christ.
They can't be Christians.
Mr. Finney was dead right.
Unless you live to save others you are
not saved yourself.
And thus tonight I wish to speak on
this gospel for the day of Antichrist.
And I hope by God's grace to challenge
and encourage you that this is your task.
This is your task.
This is the task of God's people.
Some years since some of the Bible teachers
began to teach that there were several different
gospels.
The gospel of grace.
The gospel of the kingdom.
They insisted there's some difference in the gospel
to the Jews and the gospel to the
Gentiles.
And then the everlasting gospel.
I take issue with that.
I do not believe a word of it.
There's just one gospel.
But the gospel has a different thrust.
A different emphasis.
It's the same truth but it has a
different thrust and emphasis in given times.
And because I believe that the only way
our churches can keep on going is to
quit defending ourselves and go to carry the
battle to the enemy.
Many years ago I ministered a great deal
up in the state of New York.
And I used a man from Collingwood, New
Jersey.
He happened to be a Methodist.
His name was Burkett.
He was my psalm leader in lots of
meetings.
In his earlier days he'd been a sparring
partner with Jack Dempsey, the famous old heavyweight
boxer.
And he called my attention to Jack Dempsey
who whipped everybody in sight until he got
a little old.
Never learned how to defend himself.
He was too busy hitting the other fellow.
The best defense would be a good offense.
That's our challenge tonight.
Nobody's interested in our doctrine, whether it's true
or not.
Nobody's interested in our confessions of faith, however
they may be wonderful.
Nobody's interested in whether we've got the right
form of government or the wrong.
The issue of this hour is Christ or
Antichrist.
That's the issue of this hour.
Under the power of Jesus Christ or under
the power of Antichrist.
I believe that.
I believe with all my heart.
This doesn't make it so.
But I believe it and I share it
with you and do what you please with
it.
It seems good in your sight that the
spirit of Antichrist explains all of the lawlessness
in homes and churches and nations.
I believe that Antichrist, though if he's here
in person, he's not yet made himself known,
is breathing fire upon us.
And of course, my theology doesn't allow me,
you forgive me, to believe that the Church
is going to escape this awful hour.
I believe you and I may be living
when Antichrist makes himself manifest.
He's already here.
Bishop Cheen, the most evangelistic voice of Roman
Catholicism, said that the biggest masterful achievement of
Antichrist in your day and mine is to
convince us he's not here.
But he is.
He is.
You cannot explain this world.
You cannot explain the lawlessness in our congregations,
in our homes, in our government, in our
world.
But you're saying people are meaner than they
used to be.
No, human nature doesn't change.
But there's a power abroad in this world
now that as far as he's subjected to
make him every human being in this world,
worshipers of Satan.
And thou is not far distant when thou
just speak to classes of people on this
earth, worshipers of God in Jesus Christ or
worshipers of Satan in Antichrist.
What kind of gospel message God's people call
to take into the highways and hedges and
the homes and the marketplace everywhere in such
an hour as this.
In the book of Revelation, chapter 14, I
wish to begin reading at verse 6.
In the 13th chapter of the book of
Revelation, we have the revelation of Antichrist when
he makes himself known and when he is
said to have power over everybody, representing all
kindreds and tongues and nations.
In Revelation 13, verse 8 says that all
that dwell upon the earth shall worship him
except those whose names are written in the
book of the life of the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world.
And verse 16 says he causes all, both
small and great, rich and poor, free and
bond, to receive a mark in their right
hand or in their foreheads.
He'll mark them so that no man might
buy or sell save he that had the
mark or the name of the beast or
the number of his name.
In such an atmosphere as that, remembering that
there are no divisions in the chapters in
the actual Bible, these divisions are for our
convenience, it's interesting to read chapter 14, verse
1.
I looked in this sort of an atmosphere
when Antichrist has come out of his hiding
place and it's been made safe for him
to make himself manifest.
God help us, I hope I'm wrong here.
I believe what passes as Christianity today will
be that which makes it safe for Antichrist
to show up.
I think what passes as Christianity, I think
the vast majority of people who call themselves
Christians today will welcome him with open arms.
I hope I'm wrong.
God knows these are desperate days.
If another shout, I am coming in my
Father's name.
John 5, verse 43, my Lord speaking.
You receive me not.
What passes for Christianity in Westchester, Pennsylvania is
the rejection of Jesus Christ.
We will not have this man to reign
over us.
But the Lord said, if another shall come
in his own name, he's referring to Antichrist,
him you will receive.
It's interesting then to look.
I looked and lo, a lamb stood on
the mount Zion and with him 144,000
having his Father's name written in their foreheads.
I heard a voice from heaven as the
voice of many waters and the voice of
great thunder.
I heard the voice of harpers harping with
their harps and the song as it were
a new song before the throne and before
the four beasts and the elders.
No man could learn that song but the
144,000 which were redeemed from the earth.
These are they which were not defiled were
women for their virgins.
These are they which follow the lamb whithersoever
he goeth.
These were redeemed from among men being the
first fruits unto God and to the lamb.
And in their mouth was found no guile
for they were without fault before the throne
of God.
And I saw another angel fly in the
midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to
preach unto them that dwell on the earth
and to every nation and kindred and tongue
and people.
Well, that takes in just about everybody, don't
it?
He's got an everlasting gospel that's to be
preached on the earth to every nation and
kindred and tongue and people.
And this is to take place when antichrist
is in it.
And what is his gospel?
Here is the gospel, the everlasting gospel that
must be preached by the Bible Presbyterian congregation
around the world, beginning here.
Sing with a loud voice, verse 7, Fear
God and give glory to him.
That's the gospel for that hour.
That's the gospel for this hour.
I said time after time here, but didn't
I should have the first time?
You ever hear the gospel?
As gospel you'll be saved.
The gospel for the day of antichrist, would
this be good news to you?
Fear God.
Wouldn't be very good news in this generation,
would it?
And give him glory.
With all the days of our lives, what
has passed as the gospel has dethroned God
and enthroned man.
Until now, we've got a generation of professing
Christians.
They cannot wait for God's glory.
All they're interested in is to use God
to do something for them.
Your popular books of a man like Norman
Benson Peale and your popular evangelists and your
popular churches have turned God into a milk
cow.
Got no use for him except to give
us milk.
And this is a generation that there is
no fear of God before their eyes.
And the gospel comes in such an atmosphere.
It says, Fear God.
Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and
rise up in wrath against you.
Fear God and give him glory for the
hour of his death has come and worship
him.
The gospel has three points.
Fear God.
Give him glory.
Worship him that made heaven and earth and
the sea and the fountains of water.
I wonder, I don't know if Jean Dixon,
the seer or whatever she is in Washington,
says that in a vision she has seen
the Antichrist.
That he's already alive, that he's a little
baby living in one of the Arabic nations.
I don't know.
I do know that we're warned in the
scripture that Antichrist is to come.
I know our Lord will warn us, for
instance, in Matthew 24, verse 5, For many
shall come in my name, saying, I am
Christ, and shall deceive many.
Again in that chapter, For there shall arise
false Christs and false prophets, and shall show
great signs and wonders, insomuch that if it
were possible they shall deceive the very elect.
I know that the Apostle John in 1
John chapter 2 says, Little children, it is
the last time, and as ye have heard,
that Antichrist shall come.
Even now there are many Antichrists whereby we
know that it is the last time.
I know that every day we live, we
get one day in error, the public manifestation
of the Antichrist who shall set himself up
as God in the temple in Jerusalem.
I know that he'll do many signs and
wonders, insomuch that this generation of befuddled and
bewildered people who've lost their way will look
at him as a great Savior and Deliverer,
and they'll crown him King of kings and
Lord of lords.
Everybody will, except God's people, those whom the
Lord calls elect.
John calls them by this description, those whose
names are written in the Lamb Book of
Life.
My old mother used to go about the
house unconsciously singing some old hymns as she
cooked dinner, made the beds or something.
I used to hear her sing, Lord, I
care not for riches, neither silver nor gold.
I'd make sure of heaven.
I'd enter the fold.
In the book of thy kingdom, on its
pages so fair, tell me, Jesus, my Savior,
is my name written there?
I think that's a good question.
I'd love to be found in the company
of people whose names have been written in
the Lamb's Book of Life, because they're the
only people who are going to escape the
worship of Satan in this awful hour.
Look at the atmosphere.
Verse 7 of chapter 13, there was given
unto him power.
That word in the Greek is exosia, authority
over all kindreds and tongues and nations.
Verse 8 again, everybody on earth is going
to worship him except those whose names are
written in the Book of Life of the
Lamb slain from the foundation world.
Verse 16, he's going to put his mark
on everybody except, of course, God's people.
And we'll know in a moment how much
it will cost you not to take his
mark.
I'm coming to you tonight to say that
we must preach a gospel that says three
things to men.
That my Lord Jesus Christ will not be
satisfied with a worship, a homage, a service,
a relationship that is smaller than that which
men will give to Antichrist.
I'm thus saying to you that the gospel,
the everlasting gospel, the thrust of it, must
demand that men and women come under the
authority of Jesus Christ.
That's all I preach for a week.
You mean to tell me that Satan's man
is going to claim folks, put his stamp
on them, be their father, be their Christ,
be the one they worship who have not
been brought under his authority?
Do you mean to tell me that God
is going to own as his own a
human being who has not been brought under
the authority of Jesus Christ?
I say no.
That gospel that's filled with a sister full
of people who with their lips call Jesus
Savior and with their lives deny him as
the absolute dictator of their lives, that gospel
is not the gospel of the Son of
God.
And there never has been a time when
there was but one gospel and it makes
a grand announcement and it has a demand
repentance and it has a call to badly
bow, willingly bow, sweetly bow, everlastingly bow,
day by day bow to the blessed rule
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The gospel for the days you and I
are living in must say a second thing,
that it's silly to call yourself a Christian
unless you love him and worship him where
he is now, a man in glory at
the right hand of God and the God
of Spirit as the great head of his
church.
And that I said while I'm here, I
tried to say beginning with where you are,
as much as you're under Christ's sweet discipline,
move until you're clear under the blanket.
It's the only safe place.
It's the only place of salvation.
You can't be a Christian not under the
headship, the Lordship, the authority, the rule of
Christ in the church.
The Roman Catholics suggest as right as they
can be, there is no salvation outside of
Christ's church.
And only that's Christ's church.
But when they say there is no salvation
apart from being a member of the body
of Christ, they're telling the God's truth.
The scriptures describe our salvation different ways.
One way describes it as Christ in the
Spirit baptizing us into the body.
Hear me?
Do you worship Christ, the man in glory,
with the print of the nail still in
his hand at the right hand of God
and the great head of the church?
Are you glad he's exalted, a man in
glory?
Are you glad he speaks the final word
in the church and you cannot possibly claim
to be a Christian unless you hear him
and mind him?
Are we going to keep all lies of
this generation because it's salvation and a little
decision is something that doesn't bring a person
to gladly bow before the throne and adore
and worship him?
You see, everybody whose name is not written
in the Lamb's book of life is going
to be brought to worship Satan and his
man.
Everybody who isn't already worshiping God in Christ
on his throne.
You tell me you're a Christian if you
do not render to Jesus Christ that which
men, at least equal to that which men,
will render to Satan.
No, no.
And then we must say to men and
women these days, say it with a sobbing
hour voice, say it not in the public
gathering place, simply, but say it where people
are.
Say it and say it.
Say it with tears.
Say it saturated in the oil of prayer.
Say it in the atmosphere of agonizing intercession
that to be a Christian means to have
the mark of Jesus Christ.
You've got to be a marked man.
And what is the one mark?
The New Testament says is the mark of
being a follower of the Lamb.
Well, let's turn to Titus chapter 2 at
verse 14.
Now, take the time.
I want you to be sure to see.
This is the mark that distinguishes the child
of God by faith in Jesus Christ from
the child of Satan of the child of
wrath.
Let me begin reading, will you, in verse
11.
Chapter 2 of Titus.
For the grace of God's salvation bringing hath
appeared to all men, teaching us that denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly,
righteously, and godly in this present age.
Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious
appearing of the great God and Savior Jesus
Christ, mark it, who gave himself for us,
that he might redeem us from all iniquity
and purify unto himself a peculiar people.
What will make them peculiar?
Just one thing.
They are zealous of good works.
They are hot on that pursuit of good
works.
That's the distinguishing mark.
If you read your scripture carefully, that's the
distinguishing mark.
He loved us and gave himself for us,
that he might redeem us by us back
to himself, in order that he might purify
unto himself what kind of a people.
Not peculiar because of the way they dress
or walk or talk or something like that,
but the one thing that's so conspicuous by
his absence today, zealous for good works.
That marks a product of the grace of
God.
Zealous for good works.
That'll make you peculiar.
That'll make you peculiar in your own church.
They'll say, he's a nut.
Your nice little lost church member will say,
he's radical.
It'll make you stand out.
I saw it as a chaplain in the
army.
All the boys were either Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian,
Catholic or something.
But the Christians just stood out.
Not like a bunch of Pharisees, I'm better
than you.
But they just stood out.
They're the people whom my Lord is going
to be proud to call my brethren.
They're the people whose names will be found
that are written in the book of life.
They're the people who will not bow down
and worship Satan.
They're the people who will not willingly submit
to his rule as this generation of people
are.
They're the people who will not receive his
mark in their foreheads.
Of course, it'll cost them something, let me
close, by seeing the alternatives there too.
Satan comes along and says, I'm going to
put my stamp on you.
I'll fix it so you can't buy a
cell, can't get a job.
Almost getting that way now.
You want to advance in that, you've got
to learn how to hold your liquor and
chase the women and tell dirty jokes.
I was in Ithaca, New York, years ago.
Learned to my surprise that if you work
for the Bell Telephone Company, you're not allowed
to any kind of Christian witness while you're
employed by them on that time.
Brother, this ain't getting pretty hot now.
You young people, if you want to get
somewhere in this godless age, you're going to
have to throw Jesus Christ out of the
window, or you're going to have to learn
that we come to the kingdom by way
of much tribulation.
All this sassafras that made me sick to
my stomach over in the tent, treating young
people like they were some sort of monkeys
that you had to give a hot dog
to entertain them.
No, no.
Let's look at the alternative, the gospel in
verse 7.
You've got the gospel.
Fear God, worship Him, and give Him glory.
Look at verse 9.
There's another fellow doing some preaching.
Brother, he's doing it right smart now from
pulpits and radio and television and seminar professorship
and everywhere.
Here's some other gospel.
The third angel followed them saying with a
loud voice, If any man worship the beast
in his image and receive his mark in
his forehead or in his hand, the same
shall drink of the wine of the wrath
of God.
There's always been a choice that a man
has to make between the Caesar of that
hour and the Lord Jesus Christ.
It'll be a choice when the big Caesar
Antichrist says, I'll mark you.
I'll own you.
I'll control you.
Or I'll fix it so you'll starve to
death you can't buy or sell.
You know what it says?
But the gospel of God says, If you
worship that beast, and that's what passes for
Christian today is doing for his image, let
him put his mark on you.
He sure got it on folks today.
We'd sell our soul for a dollar bill.
Forty-odd years ago, the American federal government
sold us down the river and we've been
selling us down the river ever since.
We made gains and luxury in the dollar,
our God.
Now we're reaping forty years of leadership from
the top when our politicians would sell their
soul for a vote.
And it's got down to home now.
It's never been any other way.
It's going to be tighter when Antichrist puts
the screws on it.
You bow down to me.
I'll mark you.
I'll identify you.
I'll control you.
You'll worship me.
You'll not be able to buy or sell
or do anything.
Then along comes the gospel from heaven.
If any man worshiped the Beast or received
in his forehead his mark or in his
hand, what will happen to him?
The saint shall drink of the wine of
the wrath of God.
So there you are.
Fall down, worship the Beast.
Let him mark you.
Join the spirit of this lawless Antichristian day.
You'll drink of the wine of the wrath
of God, which is poured out without mixture
into the cup of his indignation.
Such people shall be tormented with fire and
brimstone in the presence of the holy angels
and in the presence of the Lamb.
And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up
forever and ever, and they have no rest
day nor night.
What kind of people have that awful torture?
Well, the people who worship the Beast and
his image and whosoever receives the mark of
his name.
That's the alternative.
Worship the Beast, the judgment of God.
Worship Antichrist, and
join the martyrs of the tribulation period who
witness a good confession with their blood.
That's right.
That's the gospel for this hour.
You're going to die one way or the
other.
You're going to be under his authority or
Satan's.
Not going to be easy either way, brother.
Never has been.
Some years since I was in the state
of Nebraska and closed a meeting.
I'd been away from home a long time,
but I telephoned my wife.
We lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma at that time.
I mean, no, we lived in Winston-Salem.
We lived there 20 years.
But I lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma for 14
years up until 20 years ago.
And I phoned my wife in Winston-Salem
and said, I'm going to be a day
late.
I'm homesick.
I want to get home.
But I'm going to go to Tulsa.
I need a little lift in my spiritual
experience.
And so I wasted a day, a little
out of my way, and I went to
Tulsa, Oklahoma.
I just wanted to look at and listen
to a young woman for an hour or
two.
I knew she could comfort men, exhort men,
rebuke men, encourage men.
We need that so often.
She's a missionary employed by a church.
She goes from house to house and seeks
to witness.
She's a Jewish lady.
She's been doing this sort of work 17
years now.
She's the happiest person I've ever seen in
my life.
Just to be in her presence, just wonderful.
I remember the night I was in meetings
there in Tulsa, and it came a downpour
of rain just about 15 minutes before time
for the service, and it just rained and
rained and rained.
I bundled up in my raincoat and so
forth and made my way in the car
to the church house, and I thought, well,
nobody will be here much tonight.
But I got in.
The house was packed and running over.
The showers of blessing were falling.
And as I was getting my wet raincoat
and hat and so forth off, two women
were standing there waiting for me.
And when I disengaged myself from the outer
clothing and turned, oh, they said, Brother Barnard,
she's here tonight.
She's here tonight.
And one of them said, This is the
night.
This is the night.
I don't know how they did it, but
they'd been bringing to that meeting the wife
of one of the wealthiest Jewish men in
that city, a young married woman with two
precious children.
How on earth they ever were able to
get acquainted with her.
That's an exception today, you know.
You hear of a Jew getting to Christ.
Boy, that's an exception, isn't it?
But they had.
And they had been praying for her and
witnessing to her and loving her.
And when those meetings came along, they were
able to get her for the first time
in her life to sit under the proclamation
of the gospel.
And the reason that the women felt that
tonight was the crisis was because the little
Jewish woman had come to the service after
having experienced in that day her father and
mother came to see her and said, If
you embrace, this was our language, the religion
of Jesus, you'll no longer be our father,
our child.
That same day her husband, a devoted husband
but a devout Jew, had told her, that's
the only language they use, If you embrace
the religion of Jesus, you'll no longer be
my wife and you'll never see these children
again.
Now, in a Jewish home, the pastor will
tell you that he can do that.
And she came to hear me preach that
night, knowing that if she surrendered to the
claims of God in Jesus Christ, and he
makes those claims on Jew and Gentile and
everybody else, he makes those claims in every
generation, in good times and bad, no more
and no less, she knew what it cost
her.
It cost her a mother and father.
It cost her a home.
It cost her two children.
It cost her her husband.
And I stood up that night and preached,
and after a while we stood as we're
accustomed down our way to stand and sing
a song.
People began to come down the aisle for
this, that and the other reason, and I
looked at this woman and she pulled her
glasses off, wiped the tears out of her
eyes.
Then she put her glasses back on, directly
she pulled them back off and wiped her
eyes.
Then she put the glasses back on and
one great sob, she came running down and
put her arms around me and said, I
surrender.
When the service was over, we like to
shake hands with people who claim to surrender
to Christ and welcome them.
And before the line started coming to shake
hands, I put my hand on her shoulder
and said to the congregation, look at this
woman's nose, Isaiah 3.9, she's a child
of Abraham in the flesh, and she'll be
at the judgment, and she'll witness against you
Gentiles.
She's come to Christ Jesus tonight, saying goodbye
to her husband, her two children, her home,
her father and mother.
And the only thing on God's earth keeping
you folks from coming is that there's a
rotten spot in your life that you're not
willing for Jesus Christ to rule in.
It's the only reason on earth that a
single one of you people could be on
your road to hell tonight that there's a
rotten place in your life that you will
not surrender to Jesus Christ.
Two days later, they had a big Jewish
funeral in that town.
They brought an empty casket into the biggest
synagogue in that big city of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
And they preached the funeral of that girl,
that woman.
They took that empty casket out to their
cemetery and put it six feet underground.
And from that hour to this, that dear
girl's never seen her children, or her husband,
or her father and mother.
She's the happiest person I've ever seen.
She came to Jesus and found him.
He's the lily of the valley.
He's the bright and morning star.
He's the fairest of ten thousand.
He's the Lord of glory.
He's the savior of sinners.
He's a friend of the friendless.
Hallelujah!
For the privilege of vowing to him, whatever
the cost.
Will you stand to your feet?
I think I'll sing a little chorus and
this will be my goodbye to you.
They're dealing with folks in the room and
still here at the front.
Thank you for listening to me.
Let me sing an old-time spiritual kind
of way.
We'll sing down south.
And may the Lord richly bless you.
It goes something like this, if I can
get the key.
Say, sinner, will you meet me?
Say, sinner, will you
meet me?
Say, sinner, will you meet
me?
On Canaan's happy shore.
And the people answered, By the grace of
God, I'll meet you.
By the grace of God, I'll meet
you.
By the grace of God, I'll meet
you.
On Canaan's happy shore.
I'll tell you what we're going to do
when we get there.
There we'll shout and give him glory.
There we'll shout and give him
glory.
For glory is
his name.
Thank you so much.
God bless you.
Good night.