Going to Hell in Droves - One of Barnard's Earliest Recordings! — Rolfe Barnard

God's Preachers as Instruments of Judgment and Blessing

Now tonight I'm going to read some scripture and talk on the subject going to hell in those people who live that way. Sainted old T .T. Martin, God's greatest gift to the single church evangelism up till now.

He's in heaven now, the old white man. Man, sometimes he'd go to a place and three weeks, another half a convoy, have to have guards to guard him as he went to catch a train, people in town threatening his life, and all of that.

Next place he'd go, he'd have as many as a thousand people for baptism in a single church. And the evangelists of today are not like that. They get a lot of people to make confession everywhere they go.

And any preacher who does that is not God's preacher. There are some times when the heavens are full and God's preacher must pronounce judgment. And there are other times when it's harvest time. And the man who stays with the Word and stays with the fitness upon the Holy Ghost will find that he's the savior of life unto life, sometimes, and death unto death, sometimes.

In other words, the preacher sometimes is sent to a place to seal the doom, people, not to open the door of salvation. We do not seem to realize these days that God Almighty is going to get glory out of the damnation of sinners, as well as the salvation of sinners.

O. G. G. Martin states of the book, sometimes God uses it in the brain of judgment, and sometimes the brain of blessing. None of us like to be the instrument of God's judgment. But one of the purposes of the proclamation of the gospel is to damn people.

The Peril of Hearing and Rejecting the Gospel

Think how much worse hell will be if a man goes to hell having heard the gospel than if he never had heard. It's a dangerous thing to preach the gospel, isn't it? And yet they're commanded to do it. And God will assume all responsibility for the added damnation that comes on people who hear the story of the Lord Jesus hanging on the cross and reject it and go on in their sinful ways.

O. G. G. Martin, that bravely used man of God, sometimes used for judgment, sometimes used for blessing, sometimes a savior of life and death, sometimes a savior of death and the dead like Paul. And the reason that is, Paul said, I won't wiggle down the gospel.

This is the generation when we've got Jesus for Savior. And if we can't get a quarter part, we'll take 15 cents. And if we can't get 15 cents, we'll sell it for a dime. And if our gospel will be too stiff, we will like it a little bit.

And if our invitation demands first unconditional surrender, and men cannot quite meet those terms, we will try to ease it off a little bit. For God's preacher is not one who will ever seek to wiggle down the terms of the gospel or to preach Jesus in any way except as absolute Lord.

For unless he is Lord, he cannot and will not be Savior. G. G. Martin used to preach that in our churches everywhere. And I've heard him say many times something that stuck with me. Millions waiting for millions in a falsehood, who trust in a falsehood, who warn against a profession that does not lead to a possession, warning against a repentance that does not hate, bring men to hate, warning against the resignation that allows a man to quit some of his sins and to sin the rest of them, and go to hell, saying he doesn't think it's any more hard to do this than he does the other, warning men and women that a man must turn from all of his sins.

Regeneration Rather Than Mere Reformation

You will not believe it, but turn from any. That a man must be regenerated, not simply reformed. That a man must be changed, not simply turn over a new leaf. That what a man loves must be changed. And people who do not experience that and go on to judgment with a falsehood.

My Lord Jesus had so much to say about that. In the 7th chapter of the book of Matthew, he'll say, beginning with verse 13, in language that makes you have to stand up on your head if you're prepared, just to sit at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and let him tell us the truth about things in time and eternity.

The Broad Road of Religious Deception

My Lord says,. And our Lord in the rest of the chapter will faithfully remind us that every single person he's talking about who has entered this broad, wide gate and is walking this broad way that leads to destruction, every last one of them has made a confession, every last one of them has passed one of them around a religious road, and every last one of them will wind up in destruction.

Somebody says there's just two roads. One's a broad road that leads to hell, and the other is a straight road that leads to glory. But that's just what somebody says. Here on this broad road, there are no bootleggers on this road, there are no whoremongers on this road, there are no drunkards on this road.

The only people on the broad road that wind up in destruction are highly, intensely, delightfully religious people. They enter a wide gate and walk in a broad road and they live a life of faith and love, and they think they're all right.

And the Lord said, Don't you look that way. You enter in the S-T-R-A-I-T, straight gate. That's the way to be saved. That's the way to be saved. Now, suppose you are the little Lord who will save you.

Salvation, Holiness, and the Narrow Way

He will save you. Well, it's true that God has to do the saving. But the Lord Jesus will save you. If you hope to be saved, The Scriptures teach that most people who want to be saved will not. Not the doctrinality, the Bible, or something.

And if he preaches the truth, there'll be a lofty ground. Yes, walking in paths of holiness. If he's written down the terms of the gospel, you'll talk about the same. Go with God to be saved. Write with God.

And let the love state to be in their heart. And revival is beginning to fall. When people go to get saved, where they are, They need to come back to an experience. Their foundation will look mighty good.

A Resistant Hearer Brought to Repentance

He said, Brother Barney, you may tell me. Most of the Jews, they sit there because of the clothes that I had on. And that beast sitting there naked before that group of people. He came out of that poor pit and laid today in the daylight, sir.

And he said, I went back that afternoon. He took another pit where he started in on, where he left off that morning. And he said, I sit there and hold my seat with my people. Challenge them to fight back.

But he said, I endured. Finally, sir, so when I went home, I said, I'll never go back to hear that song. He said, I did. That's what he said. He didn't go. But I went to the meeting. I swore I would. But I didn't.

I said, you know what that fellow did? He took a different pit that time. And he started in on where he left off that afternoon. He said, that night he began to rush. I saw him open. He said, I sat there and I thought I'd die.

I hated him with all of my heart. And then I began to rush. And quit soon. Something began to take place. He said, the next thing I knew, I got out of my seat and down to the front. And I said, for God's sake, preachers, shut up.

And he did. And he said, that's the damn fool around the Lord that saved me. And then he said, I went up to the preachers and said, preachers, let me hope. He said, I love you better than anybody in the world.

I said, I'm so mad about it.

Salvation Depends on Divine Revelation

He said, if God had a people, only people who love righteousness. Of course, they loved. He was right out of fear. And nothing fulfilled the law. He had vowed in surrender. He was a preacher, man. Do not trust somebody you don't know.

But we missed it on this day. We made salvation depend upon the decision. Salvation depends upon the revelation. Must reveal and set for the sin.