What Can a Sinner Do to Be Saved — Rolfe Barnard

The Sinner’s Need for Salvation

What can a sinner do in order to be saved? I'm going to ask you all to just listen to me as if you were the people at rest. If you, rebellious, ill-deserving sinner, and if you are a human being, since you're not a tin can, since you're not just a machine, you've got a mind to think with, a heart to feel with, there's many things for you to do.

Many Called, Few Chosen

And I seize the text, the last phrase, possible of Matthew for the 16th verse to suggest our subject tonight. Our Lord Jesus says, Many be called, but few chosen. Many be called, but few chosen. Now it's always interesting if you're going to try hard enough to listen, and they're eternity-bound people, and they've got an eternal soul, and they're going to live somewhere there for just a little while.

Where you'll live forever, the state of your conscious being forever, it's terribly important that the preacher, if he assumes to take any verse of Scripture in the Word of God, that he not make it mean what it don't mean, but he try his deadest level best to tell people the truth.

A dear lady came up to me one time, I didn't believe what you preached tonight. And I said, I didn't ask you to. Now, as far as one is for the other, we're not selling something. A man who engages to preach to other people remembers that he only hopes he himself is a sinner saved by grace.

He don't know enough to talk down to anybody. And he is, if he knows his heart, willing and anxious to be of help to any inquiring soul. But he doesn't want anybody to think that we got a bill of goods and we're trying to sell it, and if the price is a little too high, we'll be willing to mark it down for your acceptance.

That's not what we're trying to do. We're trying to be true to the souls of men. Now, I've seen so many preachers and so many deacons and so many good people. As we know good people and honest people and zealous people and earnest people, I've seen them torn up by the Holy Ghost and experience the depravity of their own sinful souls in their experience as well as in their theology.

And I've seen them, all of them, I've seen them in the valley of repentance and I've seen them brought to the joy of my speech, not to let them be guilty of assuming that the people I preach to know the Lord.

One thing we must not miss is having in the Lord of our lives and Savior of our souls. And this text here, I mean the scriptures out of which I picked it. I just read one altogether in one word. That is, God here is teaching that he is absolute God and that he's advancing his claim or his rise.

He sees fit, I see fit. And you've got a whole parable or story here in the first part of this chapter. A man's got a vineyard and he hires some men to work in it and he tells them how much he'll pay them.

The Vineyard Workers and God’s Sovereign Right

Some other fellows come along and he gives them a job and some of them work 12 hours and then a few of them just work one hour. And when the day is over, the 12-hour stuff, and it's time to lay off, the owner of this field paid the folks who worked just one hour exactly the same that he paid the folks who worked 12 hours.

And some of the folks who worked all day long, 12 hours, they came and remonstrated with the owner and said they didn't think he was doing right to pay the people who'd come in at the last hour and he'd given them a job and he paid them exactly the same as he did the folks who were on the field, answered, acted.

He said, now you folks, I agree to pay you. And they said, so much. He said, did I pay you that much? And they said, yes. He said, then have I done you any harm? Did I keep my agreement with you? And they had to admit that he did.

And he said, now if I pay these other folks or anything I please to, did I do you any harm? And they had to admit that he did them no harm, that he had a right to pay the folks who worked one hour the same as he paid the folks who used to do it.

He had a perfect right to do it. And in so doing it, he didn't do any disservice or any harm. He killed the people who worked 12 hours. And then from that story, the Lord Jesus said, the first shall be last, and the last shall be first, and chosen.

And he bases it all on the proposition, simply this, that he has found obligation, any obligation, that God makes to anybody, saint or a sinner, he says, I'll take care of it. I'm dead sure going to see it taken care of.

And who is his servant or his saint, and if he wants to do more for somebody else, he claims the right to do that. He claims the right. We just have to say, well, God, you just have to go your way, and I'll bring it.

Oh, God. Oh, we just have to allow by those ways. As he pleases that he claims the right to deal with men as he does, he stretches. But the Lord stretches this to two different kinds of people. He found himself to do that.

He's revealed in this story now what to do to help. But this word many can mean. It means this. What he could give if he'd advantage himself. You see, I'll just not go where the gospel is preached, and thus I won't be responsible.

If they have an opportunity to do so, they're responsible for what they do of the truth, if they hadn't failed to take advantage of it. Not know, lives and dies and never gets anywhere near anything like the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Never hears it. No missionaries ever there. His father never heard a missionary. His grandfather never heard a missionary. Born in heathenism, he lives and dies all the days of his life, and never so much at one time is a note of the gospel.

God can't save them. Well, I don't know what God can't do. I wouldn't say that. I just don't know about that. But I don't see it. Scriptures do not tell us how he does it. At least the scriptures do not reveal it.

The Gospel Must Do More Than Inform the Sinner

A sinner needs to know more than to hear the gospel. A sinner needs to know more than a little truth. A sinner needs to be operated on in a way that he can do what God requires of him. You see, it is just true to say why everybody here in this country has been saved.

Look, I remember talking to a preacher down in North Carolina two, three months ago, and he was taking a little cleaning about my preaching. He said, you are wrong. And he said, the only thing on earth you've got to do to get a man to the Lord Jesus Christ is just sit down and talk with him and help him solve his difficulties.

And he said, you just remove the difficulties. Why, he's just anxious to be saved. And I said, well, there's 60 ,000 Marines right out there, and you can hear the spit on them, and it looks to me like what you're telling me is the truth.

They've done all of them saved. But now, you could just spend one day a week out there and sit down with those soldiers, and they're all just dying to be saved. And the reason they're not saved, they've just got a few little difficulties.

They don't know how to work out. But they've heard within it was a power of God. There's a chance to hear. He'll let the heathen for the time being alone tonight and try to look into the text. What does God mean here?

Effectual Calling and the Sinner’s Response

Many be called, said that many be called men that are witnessed publicly or privately as sinners are slain by the law. Select people. He can't go to any book and find his name written there. He can't go to any doctrine.

And the only way anybody can find out that he is one of God's children now, been brought into the fold, and that God did it on purpose, God always meant to do it, is that God has effectually, has really called him in such a way and to give him a disposition to holiness and an ability to lay hold of his this.

That one time you ever use as providence a person or anything on earth, that you are some things that you can do as salvation. I believe the Scriptures are very plain. Remember this. The saying had truth.

God did his part, and now the sinner does his part. Now that's not a good term. That's to mean that God does part of saving, and then the sinner does the rest of saving. That's wrong. But if you understand us to mean there is nothing for the sinner to do in order to save, you're still wrong.

When we say that God does all of the saving, we're telling the truth. But when we say the sinner does all of the saving, we're also telling the truth. When we say that God has to do all of the saving, we're telling the truth.

But when we say, when somebody comes, that you receive that, and so sometimes in trying to state truth, we say too much, and sometimes we don't say enough. Since if you've ever heard the gospel for one time, or since if you've ever had an opportunity to hear it one time, God did call you in that gospel that he did.

And since you're responsible for that, but since you cannot deceive unless God calls you sufficiently loudly, you can't deceive. I come and say to you that he uses, whatever, let's go another way. I answer this question.

Repentance and Faith in Jesus Christ

What? In order to save. Now I call for repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now watch it. Savingly act and lay hold on Jesus Christ and his work and his person as your Lord and your Savior.

And yet, now wait just a minute. God Almighty, wait just a minute. Don't get into it just a minute. Wait just a minute. Now, since you haven't been brought to repentance, that's what repentance is. That's what repentance is.

And faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every sinner's got to repent. Every sinner's got to savingly lay hold on Jesus Christ. Why? Because, watch it now. Watch it. When we fail in righteousness and we deserve evil, the only hope of salvation for a sinner is to be so ready.

And himself supremely moves to love his God supremely until he quits to himself and depends upon Jesus Christ. Now having said that, I want to get to my subject. I've been talking about what a sinner must do.

You must repent. And you must repent. Now I come to say, what can a sinner do? And I turn right around and tell you that you can't repent. Buster, you're going to hell. But you can't. You can't unto the Holy Spirit of God.

Now, let's get it. You just can't do it. Now, if a sinner is ready to say, You're in a mess. You're in salvation. I forget exactly what it was. And he wrote in the answer to this question, When man would attempt to make himself holy, not to as an act of his body, but to trust in himself.

And yet he can't. For Jesus said two things to Nicodemus. First, he said to the born again, You cannot what? You cannot see. You cannot see. You want to know what on God's earth? I'm going to tell you.

The Natural Man’s Inability and the New Birth

The Apostle Paul says, The natural man receiveth not the things of God. Neither can he their foolishness to him, for they are spiritually deserved. Is that right? Now, let's see. Let's see. Is Ephesians 2, 1, You had to what?

Quicken. Who were dead in your trespasses. And said, Now, what does that mean? What does that mean? It simply means this. That every unsaved man and woman, boy and girl, is totally lacking in all holiness toward God.

It doesn't mean that he's as bad as he could be. It doesn't mean that he's terribly bad. It just means he doesn't have any holiness in the sight of God. That's what it means. That because he has no holiness, he's got no power in himself to do any good thing that would please God.

It simply means that until a leopard can change his spots, a man cannot change himself. Now, bless your dear heart. When we fell in our own sin, two terrible things took place. Disposition and gained an unholy disposition.

And thus we lost our ability. Now, God created Adam and gave him the ability to continue sinless or gave him the opportunity, didn't keep him from it, didn't force him, but didn't keep him from it, and allowed him the opportunity of sinning.

And you and I were in that. That's where we got in all the trouble we're in. That's the reason we're born in sin like we are. That's the reason we're born with sinful natures. Now, a poor, lost, hell-bound sinner has a will.

And it's free, but it's free to do what it can do. And since the man's will is, first of all, his disposition. Now, somebody says, well, preacher, you tell me a sinner can't do anything? Sure, he can do lots of things.

I'm going to tell you about them in a minute. But he can't love something unless he loves it. And he can't force himself to love something. You just can't do it. And he can't force himself to love God.

Did you know that? Anybody who loves God with all his heart is a child of God. And you can't force yourself to do that. You can't force. And so, the sinner is up against... Now, listen to me, boy and girl.

Listen to me, man and woman. You're just as helpless as you can be. In the first place, you can't force God to change you. In the second place, you can't force God to give you life. And a dead sinner can't love God with all his heart.

He can't love God with all of his heart because he loves himself with all of his heart. The reason he can't love God is because he loves himself. The reason I say he can't repent... Repentance is turning to God as a supreme good.

And loving Him... The reason he can't is because he don't want to. And the reason he don't want to is because he wants to do something else. He does it to save his life. And so, the sinner... The Scriptures say he cannot come to the Lord except he's drawn to the Spirit.

The Scriptures say that. No. He just can't come. He can't come to the Lord. And so, we say to you that you've got to repent. God's got a right to demand that. It wouldn't be salvation apart from that.

But you can't do it yourself. And until you find out that you can't repent, you'll never be given repentance. And until you find out you can't believe, you'll never be given faith. And until you are brought so low that you lose all confidence that you can strike a bargain with God, you'll never be saved.

An operation from God Almighty through the Holy Spirit has got to happen to you. Now, the second thing the Lord said to Nicodemus, he said, first, you can't see, you can't understand. Something's got to happen to illumine your mind, do something to your will and your heart, your heart, before you can understand what I'm talking about.

And the second thing he said, he said, except you're born of the water and Spirit, you cannot walk. You cannot enter. That activity is. Man stands still and looks and there's nothing to keep him from looking.

Man stands still and understands. He can't understand anything. He says, something's got to happen before he can understand. Something's got to happen before he knows what he's talking about. He's got to be born of the Spirit and then something's got to happen before he can go in somewhere and go in to the Kingdom of God.

It's through the door of repentance and faith. And so what the Lord's saying, you've got to be born from above so that you can do what God requires, what God requires, what God requires. Now, let's get this other thought right quickly.

God’s Sovereign Mercy

Listen to me. There's nothing on earth, there's nothing on earth you can do to force God to work this miracle in you. There's nothing on earth you can do that makes you deserve an honor. And yes, we come onto the ground of our subject.

God exercises his right to do as he will. And while God pledges to do right with everybody, he says that he'll show mercy to whom he will, to whom he will. Now, listen carefully. I want to give you six things that the sinner can do, none of which I guarantee will turn out to your salvation.

Six things the sinner can do that he ought to do and that he can do. You see? And I tell you that the probabilities are it usually happens this way, that if the sinner will wisely do what he can, he'll not deserve God's work in a miracle in him, but the probabilities are that God Almighty in grace will effectually work a work of grace in him.

And here are these six things. And we ought never to be afraid to press these on every sinner we have an opportunity. But just one thing I caution you. For God's sake, dear one, as your witness, don't proposition a sinner and say, sinner, I guarantee he'll do so-and-so, God will do so-and-so.

Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't invade the fact that mercy must be optional. You see, if you don't, you're not telling that sinner the truth because he liable to get the impression that he makes a bargain, swaps something for salvation.

But he liable to get the impression that he's got a right to demand salvation from God. And we all know that salvation's an act of mercy. God's showing mercy to a sinner. But here are six things. That if you're without God, I don't guarantee if you do them you'll be saved, but I guarantee that you can do them and that the probabilities are that God, as you faithfully use the means of common grace that he gives to sinners, the probabilities are that you'll be overcome and God will show you by calling you that you're one of his own.

Reading and Hearing God’s Word

And I mention them very quickly first. Every sinner can and ought to read God's word. Every sinner can and ought to read and hear God's word taught and preached. Well, we need to talk like that a whole lot today.

I tell you, a sinner needs to read by him a Bible and start searching the scriptures. That's right. Now, we got generation church members now that don't search the scriptures. I'm telling you right now, everybody better get him a Bible and start reading.

Now, a sinner can do that, can't he? Huh? Somebody says, you preach to the sinner, he can't do anything. Well, he can definitely do this, can't he? He can't save him, can he? He can't change him, can he?

But he'd read the Bible, can't he? And you know the Bible says, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. You see it? I don't guarantee if you buy your Bible and start reading it prayerfully, seeking God to open up the truth to you, I don't guarantee you'll be saved.

You can't guarantee this business. Mercy is optional. He must do right. He may show mercy. You believe that? That's the way of it. No. You'll never be saved, sinner. You may never know how to spell the word sovereignty.

You'll never be saved until you experience it in your heart. You've got to come down off your high horse and say, Lord, if you do anything wrong, and you dead sure can if you will, but it'll just be up to you.

I can't force you to do it, and I've got no claim on you. That's reading like putting a knife in my heart when I listen to the public preaching, and they say, sinner, if you do so-and-so, so-and-so, I guarantee what God will do.

I can't. Because mercy is optional. He said, I'll show mercy to whom I will. But I don't know whether he'll show mercy to you or not. And I won't tell you. I will say, this is the day of mercy. I will tell you about so-and-so, show mercy to them.

I will testify, show mercy to me. And I'll say, that's encouraging, isn't it? Isn't it? If I hear of a judge that's showing mercy to guilty criminals, I'd kind of like if I got caught to be in his court.

I'd say, well, maybe show mercy to me. I think that's honest. I think that's a good place for a sinner to quit demanding so much of God. And I'll say, Lord, if you will, if you will, thou can make me clean.

Then read his Bible. The Lord Jesus said to the Jews of his day, search the Scriptures. Because you've been reading them wrong. He said, you have an outward belief, a carnal belief in the Scriptures, that you call yourself Christian.

And he said, these are, they said, in them you think you have eternal life. That's because you read the Bible, trust it, and believe it in your head. But he said, you've read your Bible wrong. The Scriptures testify of me.

And said, because all of your Bible study has been wrong and you missed the one it was talking about, here's the one your Scriptures talked about and it's left you with a disposition that you will not come to me.

But you might have life. Don't you see it? Don't you see it? In the second place, every unsaved sinner can and must, must, you must hold his feet to the fire. He could seriously think full existence. Now God's done something for every human being.

Facing Sin, Conscience, and Judgment

He's given you a conscience. He's given you a consciousness of God. He's given you a knowledge of right and wrong. He's given you a knowledge that you're not here forever. He's given you a fear of dying in your sins.

And a man could think about that. This jolly generation is on the run because it can't and it's running right into hell. Now every sinner could face facts. Couldn't he? Every sinner could think about what he knows.

I don't guarantee that if you do that, God will save you. You just can't fix it. So you've got so-so. Now I've got it all fixed up. Now you do your mercy's optional work. But you can do this. You can do this.

And I tell you right now, if I give you $5 and you tear it up and throw it away, the chances are I'm not going to come around tomorrow and give you $10. And the chances are God Almighty is not going to give you the effectual call and bring you to salvation when He observes every day that every time He does anything in your direction, you'll die of a sin against Him.

You see what I mean? In the third place, every sinner can read this Bible and face facts. And he's got this much ability. He's got a head and he's got a brain. He's got enough that he could accept the testimony of God in the book about himself.

There ain't a better sense in the world. And folks running around here swearing on a stack of Bibles, they're not lost and undone and guilty of hell with an open Bible. When it says all is sin and the whole world is guilty and so forth.

You know, that generation of my Lord's days, they rejected the counsel of God against themselves. Luke 7, verse 30. The Pharisees rejected the counsel of God against themselves. See, they're not baptized to John.

And men and women today, are you doing it? Trying in the face of what this Word says about yourself. The counsel of God. You know, a fellow's almost in the way of salvation when he comes down off his high horse and pleads guilty as God charges him in the Word.

That's right. And sinners do that. There isn't a sinner in this town that doesn't have enough capacity and ability to read this book. Say, that's all about me. While the missionaries go to their tribes in the darkest jungles of Africa and begin to preach the Word and the people say, how do you know about us?

It's written. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, the holy law of God is written in the hearts of every human being. You don't have to have a Bible to know there's sinners. To know what God thinks about them.

Don't sin. The fourth thing that every sinner can do and that every sinner ought to do, you ought to try to repent. If you think I'm wrong in that you can repent of your sins toward God, you just try.

The Command to Repent

Now, yes, the Bible commands all men everywhere to repent if you don't you're going to hell. But you just try. You just try. I'll tell you what you can do. If you've got a bad attitude and quit it, the doctor will scare you.

Drunkards that have quit, the doctor finally scared them, said, you're going to be dead in six months, and they quit. You can do that, can't you? You've changed a lot of your ways, can't you? You just try.

You're just trying to be somebody different to God. You can't do that. You just can't do that. That's what repentance is. In its essence, it's selfishness. Self-love. Repent of sin. That's to be changed from loving self to loving God.

Do some things that God tells you to do because you're scared of it, and you can refuse to do some things God tells you not to do out of fear. But you can't fix it so you love to do what God tells you and hate to do what God tells you not to do.

If you're hurting something about yourself, next time you go hear the preachers today, the preaching, you do this. It's all up to you now. All these preachers going over there, they're just telling you the truth out here in these little school buildings about you can't repent and all that.

Why, you're not in there in bad shape, they say. You just try. You get a five-block month. You work all day and see if your heart has been changed one bit. See if you can change whom you love and what you love.

You can't do that. And the fifth thing you said ought to do and can do, you ought to try to believe. You ought to go and say, Lord, help me to believe. Help me to believe. Help me to believe. Try to get out of yourself and lay hold, actually lay hold, on the Lord Jesus Christ as your very own.

Trying to Believe and Trusting Christ

You just try. Now you can make a confession. You can cry. You can shout. You can weep. You can put this business laying on Christ, not a physical act, it's a spiritual act. And listen to everyone. You set out trying to save yourself.

Be honest about it. The sooner you'll have a run right smack on this proposition, you can't do it. And the sooner that takes place, you'll quit fighting the fact that God shows mercy as He pleases. And you'll say, well, oh, I understand.

I've heard that God will soon. Maybe He will be. And the last thing a sinner can do, he can ask. I don't know anything on earth. I know God. I know nobody else can keep a sinner except in God's testimony about Him.

Asking God for Mercy

And to begin, I'm not guaranteeing it. I'm just saying this is a day of mercy. And if we say God delighteth in mercy, it might be. It show mercy to you. It might be. Paul said, I'll tell you mercy. That's what he said.

That's what he said. That's what he said. The moment you're able to turn from self-love and self-service to God as a supreme object of your love and service, and the moment you're able to say Christ loved me and gave Himself to me, have that assurance that He's mine.

You may be sure that God has worked a miracle in your life and enabled you to do what you must do. Of course, all I said is no good at all if I'd spoken to somebody tonight of your sinfulness and of your need of God, literally changing you, literally changing you.

You think you'd make it all right? You're not in His good mercy, are you? There isn't anything on earth that's on my heart, beloved, who God ever let live, for this even religious world is being led to hell by blind leaders.

Calling Sinners to Depend on God’s Supernatural Work

It seems to me that nearly all of their attention is directed toward men instead of toward Him. Their preaching is directed to telling sinners what they ought to do for themselves instead of trying to shut them up to their need of God doing the talking.

I wish I knew how to get a hold of God so I can awake and keep Him Now I'd love to see Him. Wouldn't you love to see King? He's on the paved streets and in the beer joints and everywhere on his knees crying out to God for mercy.

I long to turn men away from all hope in themselves, all trying to bargain with God. See, sinners, admitting their guilt, that can make me think. You know that, too. I remember you. You prayed for me.

I'm trying to go from place to place. Many of the small groups now trying to get a hold of this truth, not to prove some doctrine, not to argue with men, but to shut men up to their need of supernatural work in their lives.

That's what we want.