Nobody has got a right to dare to believe salvation by grace, unless he knows what it is to water that message with the hot tears of intercessory prayer. We are to pray for the lost and warn them with tears. I can tell you the name of the man who wouldn't let me go to hell. He knew that truth never won anybody – you can preach truth until you are blue in the face, but truth isn't the only answer. That man was an intercessor. God laid me on his heart, and he was a man that was asking God for a broken heart. He wouldn't let me go to hell.
The only hope for sinners is for God to cross their path and He does that somehow or another in connection with intercessory prayer. We are to seek tears; break up the fallow ground in your own heart, afflict yourself. You do it – break that old heart, and the next day you have to do it all over again. God give us men and women a little like the Lord Who actually loved the unloveable. These were the words of the Apostle Paul in Acts 20:3/: "Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears."
Poor old Paul was just a very religious fanatic; he was just as full of zeal as he could be. If he could he would have killed every Christian in the world and thought he was serving God by doing so. But when he was saved, he went just as hard in the other direction, and that was a good evidence that he was saved. I do not believe that anybody is saved who doesn't spend his life trying to wash the stripes of people he wounded and led astray before he met the Lord. This little glib stuff where we say "It's all under the blood now"; it is just not so. This generation of church people that got "saved" and all the past is taken care of now – they know nothing about a life that's spent running scared because of all the hell you wrought while you were living in rebellion against God.
Romans 14:7 says: "For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself." Therefore I sometimes dread when I come to the judgment and have to see a lot of people sent to hell that I influenced mightily when I was on the road to hell too. I carry it in my own soul and it is a thorn that will be with me till the day I die, and I don't know how it will be dealt with when I come to the judgment. I have led a lot of people to hell. You don't live to yourself and the memory of some people lingers. Sometimes at night I can see the people that were under my influence, because I was in a position that I was a leader of evil and a lot of people followed me. It is so much easier to lead people down the broad road than it is to lead them to Christ. I have wondered how it will be when I face those people. I will have to be a witness at the judgment. I'll be there and I will have to watch people be cast into hell, and a lot of them I influenced to go to hell. How can a man sleep or eat unless he is at least trying to say, "Thank You, Lord," and undo as much of the past as he can? He can't do it all. We can pull a lot of nails out, but the scars will still be there. What we can undo, we must.
Psalm 14:1: "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." The translators made a mistake here. Everybody knows there is a God, they just say, "No God for me!" For four years I preached to others that there is no God, but I knew it wasn't so. I knew I was a liar. Even a fool has got sense enough to know there is a God. I know everyone of you know there is a God, and you have God to thank for that because you are His creation. The reading of this verse is, "The fool hath said in his heart, No God for me." America is not full of people denying the existence of God – there are no atheists in America today. There are not many people claiming to be atheists today. Most every-body has joined the church and gotten powerfully religious, and the one they call "the Man upstairs" is awfully popular now. It is not a question of men and women who do not have beliefs today; it is a question of men and women whose beliefs are centered on the wrong person and not on the Lord Jesus Christ.
America is full of infidels now, in the practical sense of the word, the kind of infidelity I know about. For years I just joined the ranks of most people who are alive in America today, and I was very pious in my orthodoxy and very pious in my phraseology. I just lived a life that said God can't tell me how to live; God is not going to run my life, "no God for me!" I mouthed that I didn't believe there was a God, but you won't believe it, while I claimed by daytime to be an infidel, there never was a night I didn't beg God to save me before I went to bed. By night all of my infidelity was gone.
I know what it is to seek God, to pray to God, to beg God, to fuss at God, bargain with God and proposition God. You will never get saved that way. I prayed every night for four years before I went to bed. I was scared to go to sleep without praying. There is something else involved in getting saved besides asking God to save you. The preacher that says you walk down the aisle and pray the sinner's prayer, "God be merciful to me a sinner," and He will save you – that preacher is a liar; he does not know what he is talking about! That preacher who says he is an expert on salvation; "You come down to the front and I'll tell you how to be saved" – he doesn't know what he is talking about! That preacher who isolates the Scriptures and says, "If you call on the Lord He will save you," using Romans 10:13: "For whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved"; that's true in its context. It is true of men and women who have been brought to faith in Christ, for the first evidence of faith is calling. 1 Corinthians 12:3: "Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost."
They say that I am hardboiled, but salvation means something to me because I went through hell before it happened. "No God for me"; I was born a rebel. The Bible says Satan was subtle and he deceived Eve by his subtlety. But Eve just propositioned her husband, and knowing the penalty, for love of his wife, Adam disobeyed God. He deliberately did what God told him not to do. And the Bible says that I was in Adam, but I can't explain that. The Bible also says in Romans 3:23: "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." I was preaching in a place and I asked the people to rub out that word "have," because nobody will deny that. They say, "I know I'm not perfect." Everybody will admit that they have sinned, but that is not what the Bible says. It says that when Adam did what he did, I did it too.
People say to me, "Do you mean to tell me that men don't have free will?" No, sir. I don't mean to tell you any such thing. The only time Rolfe Barnard was free, perfectly free, I reached up and pulled something off a tree. That's where I lost everything. You aren't going to hell because you curse, you are going to hell because in the garden of Eden you rebelled against God, and that old deceitful, rebellious heart of yours still leads you to rebellion. And unless God breaks your rebellion by giving you a new heart, you are going to hell. Jeremiah 17:9-10: "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings." You are a hell deserving sinner the moment you are born, because you were born a rebel against God. You were born guilty of the high crime of refusing to live in God's world under God's rule.
I have fought a battle over America, and time after time preachers have said in their pulpits, "Rolfe Barnard is a liar," when I preached it – but I am not a liar when I say, "Any salvation that doesn't bring you to a glad, happy submission to the rule of God in your life is not what Jesus bought on the cross." This little stuff they call salvation now, that allows men and women to claim Jesus as Saviour without their wills being broken to His will, and without gaining glad submission to where men and women rejoice in the rule of Christ Jesus – that is no salvation at all!
I must tell you that you were born a rebel like I was, and I must tell you that rebellion is going to be crushed – the purchase price of it was the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God Almighty is going to break your rebellion now and save you, or then and damn you. But whether He saves you or whether He damns you, He is going to break your rebellion!
Yonder at the right hand of God the Father sits a Man in glory. In His hands are the prints of the nails that wicked men put there. On His brow are the prints of the thorns that wicked men put there. His side is still open where it was riven by the spear. Thank God, there is a Man in glory and He is sitting there, and He is reigning, and He is going to reign until all authority, all power and everything is brought under subjection unto Him. Hallelujah! Thine the glory. What a Saviour! You can't win!
Everything is going to be brought back to the Garden of Eden setting, where the rebellion started. Jesus is going to do what heaven didn't do. He is going to subdue this universe. He told Adam to subdue things; He gave him the power to be the ruler. Adam lost it by his rebellion; Jesus is going to redeem it. Nobody will ever breathe God's air without finally being brought under the sovereign rule of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah! He works now by persuasion, He will work then by power. Whether by persuasion or power, He will bring you under His rule. That's right. If you ever see that deep down in your heart, you will know what salvation by grace is.
It seems like all over America now people think that salvation by grace is like this: God used to be holy, but now He has found an easier way. But salvation by grace means that the same Living God Who doesn't have to do one thing, just leave you alone for a while and finally make you bow to His rule – salvation by grace is that ahead of that time by persuasion (never by actual force) He woes rebellious men and women and brings them to Himself, and makes them His children. How does God save people? He brings them under His rule – that's what it means to be saved. How do people get lost? By rebelling against God's rule. How do people get saved? By being recovered to God's rule in the Lord Jesus Christ, for the Father has turned everything over to Him. How are men saved? They are saved when God in grace brings them back to a glad submission to the blessed rule of the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is in the hands of the Lord. He is the only One that can give eternal life to people, and the only way you can get eternal life is as He gives it to you. You will find the Saviour is the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you want to be saved you must surrender to Jesus Christ as Lord, and under His gracious rule you will find that He has fixed up in virtue of His blood to dispose of this world and to save a people for Himself.
Salvation is in the hands of the Lord. Psalm 3:8: "Salvation belongeth unto the Lord." Psalm 37:39: "But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord." Psalm 68:19-20: "Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah. He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death, Jonah 2:9: "Salvation is of the Lord." Isaiah 25:9: "And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him and He will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation." Isaiah 45:17: "But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation."
Salvation is in the hands of the Living Son of God to give as He pleases. Oh, how does God save men now? One day He will bring them back into His rule, but too late for salvation; it will be by force. But now He brings them under His rule by persuasion. Now if you are just determined that Jesus Christ shall not be the Supreme Dictator of your life, the chances are that God will let you win the battle – but HE is going to win the war.
God saves men and women by crossing their wills at the point of their rebellion. Your will is going to be broken now unto salvation or it will be broken then unto damnation. God is going to break your will. That's how you got in trouble. You are like the devil who said in Isaiah 14:13-14:'7 will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.' I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High." And every unsaved man has the same Satanic spirit. That's what got into Adam and he put his will up against God Almighty's plain command.
If you are not saved, it is not because you don't know enough; it is because there is a spot in your life that you are not willing for Jesus Christ to be Lord of. We know this is true because Jesus said in John 3:36: "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. "John 3:19-20: "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the lest his deeds should be reproved." The reason you are on the road to hell – you are not willing for the Son to be your Lord. It is not because you haven't heard enough, it is because you don't want the light to really shine because you love your own way. And the reason you love darkness rather than light, Jesus said, is because your deeds are evil. I wish you would listen to me, my friend, you are in a mess. You are going to hell because you are rebelling against the Lord Jesus Christ, the only One Who has got a right to rule. This Bible is true, there is only one Person that has been given the right to rule your life absolutely, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. And He tells me why you are not saved: you don't like the light.
In the Scriptures Jesus Christ demands total submission and surrender to Him. It is strange but it is true, man's rebellion always heads up at one place. I think that is what it means in James 2:10: "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." The average unsaved man is willing to be saved of everything except one thing. He is willing to come under the rule of Jesus Christ everywhere except one place. Your rebellion heads up at one place.
They will tell you that they are not ready to be saved. They don't want to be saved, because they understand that there is a changed life involved in salvation. They have told me, "I'm afraid I can't hold out" – they have something in their life that they are not willing to be delivered from. And if we do not deal honestly with him there, the sinner will just make a profession and go on to hell in his rebellion. Our rebellion always heads up in just one place, but God is going to break you of that. I hope He will break you unto salvation, but He is going to break you if He has to damn you. This is God's world, and He meant business when He hung His Son on a cross. He meant that in that blessed life laid down on the cross, the rebellion was going to be put down. God is not going to put up with rebellion forever on this earth; He is going to put it down.
Where is your point of rebellion? It may be a big point or it may be a little one, but I want to rid your mind of this idea that salvation is one thing and submission to Jesus Christ is another. I want to warn again about this damnable stuff about being "saved" and then sometime at your convenience submitting to the Lord Jesus Christ. It just can't be that way. I'm not talking about a deeper life, I am talking about salvation. The doorway to the kingdom of God is the Lordship of Christ. No one will ever find the Saviour except in the realm of the blessed rule of Him Who won the right to rule in your life by dying on a cross for your sins. What is your point of rebellion? What is it that keeps you from bowing at the cross and receiving Jesus Christ as Lord? Whatever that point of rebellion is, that is the battle you are fighting.
We need to be very careful lest we not be true to men's souls. I tell you the truth, it is an awful sin to talk about the shed blood of Jesus Christ and then not demand that men and women give absolute submission to Him Who shed His blood! "The government shall be upon His shoulder." You were made to be ruled, and ruled you are either by s-i-n personified, or by the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 6:16: "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, His servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" There is somebody running your life. There is not a day in your life that choices are not made between the Lordship of Christ and the lordship of sin. Every day it takes place. That is the reason that every time in the New Testament that God is said to give everlasting life to men and women, He promises to raise them up at the last day. John 6:40: "And this is the will of Him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life,' and I will raise Him up at the last day." Verse 44: "No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him; and I will raise him up at the last day." Verse 54: "Whoso eateth My flesh and drinketh MY blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day." It is in the context of a faith that you have right now, that is working now, not what happened ten years ago!
I was in a meeting and one woman there was a product of the ungodly preaching in many sections of these states, where they make grace lasciviousness and an excuse to live like hell, bragging on the fact that they are one of God's elect. This woman came up to me in all seriousness and said, "Dear Brother Barnard, I want you to join me in prayer for my husband; he hasn't drawn a sober breath in 30 years. He has ruined our home and we are losing everything; he is just a drunk." Then in all sincerity, having believed the ungodly way of preaching grace so it becomes a disgrace, she said, "I get down on my knees every night and thank God that He saved him before he became a drunkard." They have got a little stuff that they call salvation now that does not change the way men live, but it is not the salvation the Bible talks about. 2 Corinthians 5:17: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." 2 Corinthians 6:17-18: "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing,' and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."
Where is your point of rebellion? Where is the rotten spot in your life that keeps you from total submission? There are lots of Baptists in hell that can tell you when they were "converted," but they have never met the Lord Jesus Christ. Where is your point of rebellion? For God's sake, drop the controversy, quit telling God you don't want to go to hell and you would like to be saved BUT... drop the BUT; it has got to be dropped. You can't tell God what you i won't do; that is rebellion. And He is not going to plant the flag of peace in your soul while you are in rebellion against His Son!
With me, my point of rebellion – I knew there was a t God and I knew that being saved was being brought to where I would seek to do His will. Any salvation that won't change you to where you will do His will is no good. The worst sinner can be saved if he wants to know what the Bible says is so. Jesus said in John 7:17: "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself." There is no excuse for anybody to go to hell. If you wanted to do the will of God, you would find out this is so. The trouble with you, you want to join the ranks of the church members of this day that prate about salvation and know nothing about the will of God in their lives. I knew that being saved for me meant I would have to be a public preacher. And I did two things to try to handle that situation: I became an infidel by day and a prayer by night. By day I got so bitter, I got so miserable that I had to find a refuge, I had to crawl into the dust just to get a little peace. So I found out there wasn't any God, I said. I organized an infidel club in my college; I had 300 young Baptist college students to join. By night I would pray to God to save me. I was an orator in those days, college debater, college Shakespearean actor. I was a big shot in those days. I was the most prominent man on the campus when I organized my infidel club. I led a lot of people to hell. I had to have something to get a little peace out of. But I didn't know all that was taking place.
When I was 11 years old, I walked down the aisle of a church one time. A missionary was there and he said, "Are there any here that will make a vow tonight to God?" He quoted that song, "I'll go where You want me to go, I'll be what You want me to be, I'll say what You want me to say." I thought I was saved, but I wasn't. Before I knew it, I was down that aisle and I said, "I will." You may not believe this, but if you give God anything, He never trades back, He keeps it. I had made a vow. I didn't know that back of my actions that night, my mother and father never told me (they both are in glory now), but before I was born they gave me to God to be a public preacher. They never did tell me. God knew about it. I'm telling you, if you give one of your children to God, He will take it! Our papas and mamas knew about this in other days. They just said, "Lord, he is Yours." That is a serious business. A boy can't win against odds like that; it just can't be done. He has got Mama and Papa and God against him! You had better quit before you start! Ten million times better than leaving your kids a bunch of money to go to hell on would be to give them to God before they were born, then remind God about it every day, "Lord, he is Yours." I was up against it!
I have you to understand that I had a scholarship in the best law school in the world. I have you to understand that I had the offer already of a junior partnership in the biggest law firm in Texas when I was out of school. You wouldn't catch me preaching, being a little old hitchhike preacher living on cornbread and water and everybody cursing me and talking about me! Now there never was a day in my life that I didn't want to keep out of hell, but I wasn't going to preach. I was cursing God by day and begging God to save me by night, but "I ain't going to preach!" You can't get anywhere doing that – "I want to be saved, God, but" NO BUTS ABOUT IT! "I don't want to go to hell, but this is not going and I am hanging on to that." No matter if it is only a dime sin, you make it a point of controversy with God and He will break you of it in this life or send you to hell in the next!
You say, "Brother Barnard, I know how to get saved; I'll just ask God to save me!" I did that for four long years. He didn't do business with me. Hope you have better luck than I did! Of course, I was always saying, "Lord, have mercy on me," but you get nowhere like that.
Anybody that has ever been saved – there was something done about it before you were born. 2 Thessaionians 2:13-14: "But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: whereunto He called you by our Gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." Ephesians 1:3-4: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. "And if you are saved so the will of God becomes supreme in your life, there was something done about that before you were born. So of course if a fellow is going to be a preacher, he has to be called to preach before he was born. If you don't get the call before you are born, you will never get it afterwards. I didn't know all of that, but I began to go through hell on earth.
This may be strange doctrine, but I knew for five long years that salvation for me meant I had to be a public preacher. And I believe it meant for you to do whatever the will of God is for you. For me it was this: I knew that surrender to King Jesus meant I would have to be a preacher – and that was the one thing I was not going to do! So I did what it seems that most professing Christians have been able to do (I couldn't get the job done though!). I tried to get God to save me without throwing down my rebellion, but that just won't work. You just can't do it and call yourself a Christian. If you do, you're certain to go to hell. Until your rebellion is crushed, and you surrender to do His will, there is no salvation.
For five years I tried to get God to save me and every time I said, "I will not preach!" I don't care how little it is, if that is where your rebellion heads up, it must be crushed; if not, there is no salvation. I know what it is to pray and cry, seek and everything else. This easy-believe stuff to get somebody to cry a little bit and make some kind of profession and call it salvation is deception. You must be willing to surrender your all to the Lord Jesus Christ and do His will. Christ must be revealed to you; that is salvation. John 17:3: "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent. "Luke 10:22: "All things are delivered to Me of My Father; and no man knoweth Who the Son is, but the Father; and Who the Father is, but the Son, and He to Whom the Son will reveal Him."
Men have got to have some peace, but the only thing that will give you real peace and ease your nerves is a good dose of the Holy Ghost. Man has got to have something to relax him and calm his nerves and there is nothing like the Holy Ghost. If you don't have the peace of God and the joy of the Holy Ghost, you have got to have something. I had to have something so I called myself an infidel. Now an infidel is spelled "in-for-hell." I knew there was a God, but He wasn't going to tell me what to do! I knew better, but I decided to claim there wasn't any God. And by day, I would preach there was no God, and so help me God, by night I would beg Him to save me! That is the truth – for five years I never went to bed at night without getting down on my knees and talking to the One I had been cursing during the day. I would say, "Oh, Lord, if You won't kill me tonight, I'll surrender to You tomorrow." But when the sun came up in the morning, I said, "Phooey on that," and went my same way. A man has got to have something, a refuge, so I got one, and I went so far that I organized an infidel club in a Christian college. God help me. Every Friday night we would meet and if we didn't have a special speaker, I or one of the others would speak, and we were bold. But everytime I would go home from that meeting, I would get down on my knees and vow to God if He wouldn't take me that night, I'd surrender.
I sure am glad that God does invade people's will. I'm glad God Almighty kept after me. I'm glad He didn't cut me off. I'm glad He didn't say, "OK, big boy, you can go your own way." Blessed be God, that's where my salvation is, in a covenant-making, covenant-keeping God! That is the only reason I am saved and the only reason anybody else ever gets saved. 2 Peter 3:15: "And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you." 1 Timothy 1:16: "Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting."
I graduated from that school and I went out to the Panhandle of Texas to teach school. I was going to work a year before I went on to law school and pay a few of my debts. I got out there and, of course, I was a good Baptist all that time – I passed for a good church member, so they didn't turn me out. Anybody that wants to can be a church member now; it is the easiest thing on earth to get in, and just about impossible to get out. That's the church now. Well, I was a church member and also president of an infidel club in that school. But I went out to teach school and in those days you had to be a church member if you got a job teaching in the public schools. So the first Sunday, I marched down the aisle and joined the church there by letter. Of course I didn't go back that Sunday night – no use being a fool about this religion business! And I didn't go Wednesday night, when they had a business meeting and elected me to be a teacher of the men's Bible class. That's right! And there I was. I supposed they didn't know anything about me and I could put on a good show you know, and I knew more Bible when I was a kid than those men did, and so we just had a storm! If I didn't go through hell, I'll choose up and take sides. I taught that Bible class – and then the preacher resigned and we went two or three Sundays with no preaching. Then one Sunday I went to my boardinghouse from Sunday School, and I never did know why, but I went in a room and locked it. I could have gotten out, but I didn't want anybody to come in and bother me. I threw my Bible down on the floor and I buried my face in it and said, "Lord, whether You save me or damn me, I will preach from now on!"
If ever I got saved, that's all the salvation I've got – when I was able to surrender to the claims of God in Christ for me. I don't know whether I got saved or not; I hope so, I think so; brother, I am not as cocky about it as some people. Our old-time people had a hope. Colossians 1:27: "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles,' which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Colossians 1:5: "For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the Word of the truth of the Gospel." Where is your hope?
"Blessed Father, we ask in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that You will take this message and testimony and use it to speak to those who have never surrendered to the Lord, and reveal to them their sinful lost condition. May the Holy Ghost bring them to complete surrender to the Lordship of Christ, and under His gracious rule they will find salvation. May Christ be glorified. Amen."