When the Saints Shout Hallelujah — Rolfe Barnard

Christ’s Lordship Is Not Optional

You do not have the privilege, ladies and gentlemen, of accepting or rejecting Christ. You'd better think that through. I've heard the sermon, what shall I do with this man who's called Christ? And the preacher says, you can't be neutral, you've got to accept him or reject him.

But that's not so. No man has the option as to what he'll do with Jesus. All men, under necessity, have to accept him. Did you get that? Since, in thirty-four degrees below zero weather in Ithaca, New York, I was a little younger and not under pain.

The pastor and I, he was pastor of the church adjacent to Cornell University, hotbed of hell. And he and I and everybody in the church that we'd get were doing like you people are, going out ringing doorbells and talking to people.

It was cold. I remember just a few minutes before preaching time at night, we got in from our rounds and I was tired and he was too, and we didn't have time for evening meal, and I needed to shave, and we should have had a bath, and we didn't have time for that, and we were kind of down.

And he said to me, he said, well, praise God, we got turned down a lot today. People saw us today. But he said, let's rejoice afresh in the set determination of almighty God that all things shall one day be summed up in Jesus Christ, and that this world shall be brought back under the sovereign purpose and rule of God through Christ.

And that before the wind-up time comes, everybody from Adam down to the last man, and every knee shall bow, come hell or high water, men are going to bow to my Lord. And every tongue shall confess what's been true all the time, that Jesus is Lord.

Not to their salvation, but thank God for the glory of the Father. Let us quit pampering the wicked, of giving them the privilege of sitting in judgment on the Lord of the universe. Christ is not in your hands, you're in Christ's hands.

And it's up to him. And that's solemn. The soldier found the truth, that meeting Jesus Christ, under whom all judgment and authority executed has been given of the Father, he found that meeting that risen regnant was to be his destiny, and that he'd have to bow to it.

And this is what that soldier says, I've got to follow that I've seen, till this old carcass dies, for I dare not face in the land of grace, the sorrow of those eyes. There ain't no throne, and there ain't no books, it's him you've got to see, that is the judge.

You and me and boys, I'd sooner frizzle up in the flames of a burning hell, than stand and look into his face, and hear his voice. Tonight, about the time, God's people are going to shout hallelujah, watch God send them to hell.

And every sinner is going to confess that he's getting exactly what's his due, and say amen to the righteous judgments of God. God's people who have not come saved yet, but will be then, and we'll be able to look at sin like God looks at it, and we'll shout hallelujah, as God executes judgment on men, who dare to live in God's world, and not sweetly bow to God's rule.

The Righteousness of God’s Judgment

The 18th chapter of the 19th chapter of the last book of the Bible, I think maybe this is my favorite passage of scripture, I want to read the first six verses in your hearing if you care to follow, and I want us to think together, a little while tonight, about the righteousness of God's judgment.

That's perhaps the issue of this hour, that I hope to develop in the message. Here in this 19th chapter, of the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, I almost forget I'm a Baptist, and shout a little every time I read this, and after these things, and after these things, people, guess where they were?

In heaven, they made it. Meet your friend, he's known as the walking Bible, B .B. Caldwell of Greenville, South Carolina. One time said, Brother Caldwell, I believe you're saved. Believe you're a Christian.

Said, I believe you'll get to heaven. But that's all. Brother Caldwell said, well, I'll be glad to stop there, if I can just make it to heaven. I had a great voice, a mixture of Pentecostalism, and Hartshellism, and Methodism, and Baptism, and I don't know what else, because I'm an optimist.

There's going to be a great big choir, plenty of folks in heaven, to sing the song of Moses and the Lamb, and glory. I had a great voice, committed to that great voice, of much people in heaven. You know what they were doing?

They were saying hallelujah, thanks to God. Hallelujah. I think one of the fellows in that choir, the old Jonah, he had to go to the seminary of the fish, you know, to find out God saved sinners. In the belly of the fish, God revealed himself to him, and he cried out, salvation is of the Lord.

I want to be in that crowd, if I can, and sing, salvation belongs to the Lord. Salvation. That's a precious word, isn't it? You know how to spell the word salvation? J-E-S-U-S. Jesus is salvation.

Salvation is Christ. Salvation. You've heard the story, haven't you? I'll tell it to you now. The Methodist pastor, the Negro pastor, came down for the annual conference, and the sliding elder was to be there.

There are superintendents now, but then they had presiding elders. And the pastor liked his charge, and he wanted to be returned next year. And he got the sisters to sweep out the church building and bring some fresh flowers, and they went around, collected all the dues they could, and got everything up so that the books would be just in tip-top shape, and the sliding elder would say the pastor had been doing a good job, and he'd send them back the next year.

And it worked all day Saturday for the presiding elder to be there on the Lord's Day and the Sunday morning service and look everything over and make his choice. And they did everything they could possibly think of to do to fix it all up.

Of course, the presiding elder was a city preacher, and they wanted everything thick and sand. And the old colored pastor, as the shank of evening came on, he pulled off his shoes, as any real sure-enough old-fashioned Alabama colored man will do every time he gets a chance.

You know, I was raised amongst them. And relaxed. And then something struck him. One little matter he'd overlooked. He had a deacon that was pretty bad to shout. He was just liable to shout on you if you didn't watch him.

And he's afraid that Sunday morning when the presiding elder was a preacher, he'd find that this old deacon was just running everything but shouting. And he didn't know whether the presiding elder would like that or not.

So he put on his shoes again and twaddled over to see the old deacon. The sun was almost down. The deacon was plowing a Georgia stock. One mule in a Georgia stock. And he came up to the end of the road.

I said, Pastor, how are you? And they lived a little while. And the pastor said, Deacon, I want to make a request to you. He said, I want to know first of all that you love me and the Lord. He said, yes sir, I shall do.

I want to know, does you want me to be your pastor come another year? He said, yes sir, I sure does. You preach if I adjust to suit me. Well, he said, I want to ask you a special favor. And I don't want you to get mad at me.

But I want you to make me a solemn promise that whatever happens while the presiding elder's preaching in the morning, you ain't going to shout a lyric. The old deacon said, I don't know whether I could make a promise like that or not.

I said, Pastor, suppose the spirit come on me and I couldn't help it. Well, he said, if you do, just learn everything. And then he looked down at the old deacon's shoes and they were a mixture of strings and bailing wire to keep them on.

He said, tell what I'm going to do. He said, in case you don't shout a lick tomorrow while the presiding elder's here, I'm going to buy you a brand new pair of boots. And that is too much for the old deacon.

He said, Pastor, in case you're going to buy me, a pair of brand new boots, can I, does it, I ain't going to shout while the presiding elder's here. Well, it came to be pointed out when they introduced the presiding elder and he's an old time preacher and he got up and he said, Brothers and sisters, this morning I propose to preach to you on the word salvation.

Well, now that's a bad word to talk about around somebody that's kind of given to shouting, you know. And of course, there was plenty of time in those days and the old presiding elder, he started in Genesis and just come in wading through.

Every time anything smelled like salvation he talked about it. And a couple of hours later he'd waded through until he got to Isaiah 53 and pretty soon he'd come clear on over to the announcement of the birth of Emmanuel and pretty soon he'd waded through many of the promises and the things about salvation that's in Christ.

And the old deacon was having him a time. He'd look down at his old shoes and think of those new boots and he'd clamp his fist and grit his teeth and he's holding on for dear life. And finally he got all the way over there and just went climbing through the epistles and got over there in the book of the Revelation that dangerous ground and the poor old deacon was holding on for dear life.

And finally he got to the 19th chapter of the last book of the Bible and he said, After these things I hear the great voice of much people in heaven saying hallelujah. And the old deacon couldn't take it any longer and he jumped up about a mile and a half and came down and shouted and said, Amen!

Salvation Belongs to the Lord

Salvation's of the Lord! And glory, and glory is the one thing a sovereign God will not share with men and women. And my glory I will not give to another. So about Bob the great hawk about a shouting time ten million mistakes erected butchered the truth trying to get it the grace of God.

God bless you all and I'm going to shout all over God's green pasture of heaven Amen! And I see the smoke of this old religious horror that hates the thought of the blood and the grace of God and that it captured every denomination this side of hell are hidden.

And when God almighty rolls up his sleeves and sits on his hands and brings that religious thing to a climax under his true and righteous judgment I'm going to be saying, Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

For he has judged the great whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication and has appeased the blood of his servants at her hands. And again they said, Hallelujah! Hallelujah! And her smoke rose up forever and ever and the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God.

Guess where he was? That sat on the throne. He's been there all time, honey. He's going to be there after you're through spitting at him and talking about this little God helpless. He's cast his vote and the devil's cast his vote and now they're waiting on great big youth to decide the issue.

They fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne. That kind of God will do the latch on to as you can, brother. Hell can't dislodge him. He is God. And there's the gladness on the throne saying, Hallelujah!

And a voice came out of the throne saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants and ye that fear him, both small and great. And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude and it's the voice of many waters and it's the voice of mighty thundering saying, Hallelujah!

For the Lord God omnipotent reigns. Whoo, that's my shouting ground. I've been a hitchhiker evangelist over 30 years. That's a long time to hitch from one place to another. I'd have quit a long time ago if this wasn't my shouting ground.

The Lord God almighty is going to bring this controversy to an issue and God's going to win it! I'm going to ask you some questions tonight. Do you believe that God punishes sin? I'm going to ask you something else.

Do you believe God ought to punish sin? I'm going to ask you something else. Do you believe God sends people to hell? Do you believe God ought to send people to hell? Which sovereign do you want to win?

God’s Sovereignty and Human Rebellion

Back in the Garden of Eden the controversy developed over the word authority. Who's going to speak with authority? That's the only issue throughout all the ages. God has vested all authority in Jesus Christ.

That's the one issue of the hour. Now listen to me. Which side do you own? The scriptures speak of two sovereigns. I was in a Baptist church some years ago in South Carolina and in passing I mentioned the fact that God was a sovereign.

And I didn't just pass and asked the service of a brother pastor from a neighboring town visiting and he said how about having lunch tomorrow? I've got a crow to pick with you. And I said alright and turned out his crow to pick one.

He said you mentioned the word sovereign. And said you just passed on. Didn't tell the folks what it meant. I said wouldn't need them to do that in a Baptist church. He said I bet you the one, the soul the pastor included knew what it meant.

And by that time God had been pleased to give the hearts to the pastor and the people so they were listening to him. The preachers would understand that. No bragging there. But that has to happen or you don't get anywhere.

And the next night I told him what that preacher said and I asked him how many people knew what sovereign meant? Nobody. They've never heard it in a Baptist church. It just means that God is God. That he's not a priest after his own counsel and doesn't take advice from anybody.

And if you don't know that kind of a God you don't know the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says there are two sovereigns. One is sin. Personified. Sin reigns. Carrying in its claims.

The Bible speaks of a sovereign redeemer. That says the Apostle Peter. Sing Jesus to you! If you can accept Jesus or reject him, silly. It's not a question of whether you're going to bow to Christ. It's a question of when.

By the grace of God. If you can bow now you don't have to. Nobody's going to force you to. They tell the story of the sovereign ruler. The king. The rebellion came to pass under his rule and sent out his armies and crushed the rebellion.

But some of the rebels went out in the mountain pastures and the swamps and kept their weapons and stayed in rebellion. And the king put a great candle up in a window in his castle and lit it and sent messengers to cry out and herald all through the mountain pastures that as long as the candle burned any rebel who still had his shotgun who'd come in and lay it down at the feet of the sovereign and come under his rule would be pardoned.

That's what grace is, folks. As long as the candle of God's wonderful patience and long-suffering burned any old rat hiding out was raised from the dead. The war. There's no doubt about the outcome. But men and women are out yonder in that hiding place.

Most of them join the church. That's a safe place to get away from God. Some of them become preachers and I as a Sunday school teacher before God could save me. And they still got their shotgun! Holy God!

And yet they claim to be saved. I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen you're going to lay down that shotgun either under salvation or damnation but lay it down, you're going to do it. You're coming under the sweet rule of Jesus Christ!

Either under grace, under salvation or under judgment, under damnation you're coming! That's the most solemn thing I ever faced. I can't understand how a man named Noah could preach 120 years and never ever convert.

But he understood, brother, he had failed. One question of getting men to bow now or failure. Every knee shall bow. And I'm glad. Under the sweet rule where Kentucky was divided some people were the Johnny Rebs and other Yankee doodles and one dear old woman her husband and four sons had gone off to war and the Yankees had come through and taken everything off the farm and loose at one end.

Didn't have a pig or chicken nothing left. The only left one she had was a poker she stoked up this wood fire with. She looked out the window one morning and saw a bunch of rebels and Yankees shooting at each other.

She pulled her, wanted to tie it down pulled her glasses down oprah fired on her eyes. Pulled up her, they go along dressed in one hand got that poker in the other. She let her out the front door and out the front gate walking along, running along the road.

Met her neighbor and said Annie where are you going? I said you're playing fool don't you see they're fighting up there. Said what you going to do? Said I'm going to go up there and get in the war. He said why you gay stop a war with a poker.

She said brother I ain't so proud I can tell them which side I'm on. Which side's you on, honey? Living in a day when the grace of God is being turned into lascivious. When the mercy of God is turned into a case of presumption.

When the goodness of God that itself alone leads men to repentance is taken for granted. Just and more sinful than in an hour in human history. Which side are you on? Go on and say it. No ladies and gentlemen I haven't got sense enough to but if I could I'd do some preaching.

The Carnal Mind Is Enmity Against God

I've wanted to for 37 years. I wish we'd quit picking at little temples. There's no reason in God's world don't get mad at me for anybody to feel much need of God's power now. Because most of the preachers present company accept it are trying to improve unregenerated men.

And we preach on chewing tobacco and preach on going to picture shows and preach on I don't know what. And we never do see anybody under conviction because he says well I don't think there's more harm to do this than do that.

And chances are he's right. But there's one verse of scripture and if ever I get to where I can preach on it I wish you'd let me come and preach on it. I'm at least going to read it tonight. The carnal mind is enmity.

It doesn't say it's at enmity it says it is enmity. The carnal carnal mind is enmity. Hostility is the grief. It's a nest of rattlesnake of hostility a rattlesnake of hostility and hatred and opposition and indignation at the Holy God.

That's what you are brother. God maybe can be reconciled and in him he's going to be. The only way God can save you is to kill you. He kills and then he makes you alive. The only way he can save you is to bring you to death.

The only way he can save you is if you stand defeated before your will. You better start asking and begging God to crush you. He can do it. Enmity. It's because God is a moral governor of the universe.

It's the law of God. Feats of hostility who do not submit to God's kingly authority. These fundamental Bible teachers that have done away with the law have been till hell with that church member. The first message of the cross is the law of almighty God.

That's why Christ hung on the cross because God's a moral governor and lawgiver. If you don't love my Jesus as absolute Lord, you don't love him. If you do not know him as absolute Lord, you don't know him.

Supreme dominion. Supreme dominion is essential to God's character. To be truly loyal to God if you hate his rules, his government. Now the controversy is who shall reign, God or you? Who's going to win this battle, God or sin, personified in you?

If we could get God to drop the reins of government and descend from his throne and lay aside his scepter and give up his law, men would like it. Men. They're against God. They see that their trouble is not that they choose a backer, but their trouble is that they are against the holiness of God.

I remember in Tulsa, Oklahoma, we were in a tent meeting and a dear young couple had been working on their neighbor and finally one night they got him to come here and they preached. And old fool Ralph Barnwilder was preaching and he said to somebody here tonight that if it wasn't for the common grace of God and the mercy of God restraining you in the influence of the gospel, you'd spit in the face of God and curse him, try to push him off the throne.

And this young couple they brought there, they got up, spoke loud, just mad as a devil. And the young couple that brought them came around just sobbing like the heart breaks, said, you pray, pray, and they said, God, we hear you preach now.

You made us mad, they laughed. I said, glory, hallelujah, I'm sick and tired of people coming under what they hear. God, we're preaching night after night. They never even get conscious enough of God to either love him or hate him.

And bless God, before midnight that couple is safe. They went home, they said, mad at me, they're mad at God so they couldn't get God to take it out on me. What a long day of prayer. What a long day to call the couple, come here.

What a long day to call the pastor, the pastor came over and got me. Got over there and they just are sobbing and are blowing and are blowing their noses and their nose. Really, God, having to just tickle that fool out of me, I just sit there and laugh.

I don't see much to laugh. When I see God, I've got a fellow in that cape, I just have a good time watching them suffer. Bob Jones University started preaching in a revival campaign in the city and got on the radio and revival broke out in the university and those young preachers and missionaries got to get to see.

Most of them have been raised in Christian homes and they've never had their hearts discovered to them. They never had killed anybody's mouth or anything so they're nice little folks and they made a confession and joined the church.

And the Lord put his power upon the Word and the Word began to open up that old seed of hostility. See? My God, brother, you don't need a little improvement. You need a new heart. You see? And, oh, it's pitiful.

And I couldn't preach a sermon. Those young fellows, the Lord just turned their hearts up and they're getting up screaming, I'm lost! I don't see much to that. And I was having a whale of a time and the Baptist preachers all coming in taking all of them to work in the inquiry room and the school got mad because they said I wasn't preaching the truth that all those dead kids out there were saved.

I don't know whether they were or not but they were just screaming in the morning and one Saturday night at one o 'clock Sunday morning I preached five times that day and I was tired and the phone rang crazy.

The kids outside the college woke me up and I had to preach five times the next day and I was tired and they said, Oh, Brother Martin, there's a girl out here in hell. You got to let her bring her up so you can talk to her.

I said, I ain't talking to nobody. I'm tired. I said, I got preached tomorrow. And he said, Oh, I said, she's tough and she's in hell. I said, let her stay there. It'll do her good. By God, the way to heaven is through hell anyhow.

If you never tasted the gall of bitterness you'll never know the sweetness of praise. I'm talking about this war. It's not a mob which is teachers and teachers and deacons and witnesses and men and women.

A double portion of the spirit of God to enable us to take the soul to the spirit and get inside those seats of hospitality and open up those snakes that are in there until men and women shall say with Peter, depart from me.

Revival, Conviction, and the Need for Surrender

I'm a sinful man. I'm a man of unclean lips and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips when confronted by the Sovereign Redeemer. Years ago, I believe, I almost was in a revival. I've never seen anything that you could call a revival.

I've seen a little fire break out, just a little once in a while. But the greatest 13 weeks I ever spent came about like this. The way I go, I say, Lord, do it one more time before I die. To one of these cities where they were having a simultaneous revival campaign, you know what I'm talking about, all the Baptist churches.

And I happened to be in the largest church in the city, and they had a day service at 10 o 'clock and a radio broadcast from 830 to 9, and the Spirit of God began to move. It turned out that we had a breath of revival, I guess you'd call it, over the radio and in that particular church.

And the Spirit blows where he wills and it didn't blow anywhere else much. I don't know how to explain that, but that's the way it was. So the other preachers began to bring their evangelists into our day services, and they began to listen over the radio.

And close to the simultaneous campaigns, I received the most blessed invitation I've ever received in my life. I won't tell you about it, it's on the subject. The Senate committee from the association asked me if I would return for all of the Baptist churches of that association.

They said, we'll get it in the city of Torm, if it's gettable, if it can't at the particular time, we'll get a large tent, we'll fill it every night, we'll buy you an hour's time on the radio, and we'll work hard and want you to come and lead us.

Well, that sounded good to me, I'm subject to pastor, and wait on them to call me. Then they said there are two conditions, and I didn't know what was going to happen now. Now, you Baptist preachers are not going to believe this, but so.

They said there are two conditions. We'd want you to pray about them, and we wouldn't want you to think we're trying to tell you how to run your business, but to come out of the deep conviction of our hearts.

And before you tell us whether you'll come or not, we'd like you to think over these two conditions. And they named them. First, they said, we want you to just preach on one subject over the radio, and at night, for a solid month.

Will God punish sin? Now, after all, brethren, that's the issue in Houston. Nobody thinks he will. And you can talk to them about your little bleak knees that sit in the door and say, they don't give a hoot right.

They don't believe God will punish sin. Well, preaching to nice people is a difficult thing. Preaching to nice people is preaching to God-haters. They don't realize it, because the preaching of this hour don't get in here.

It just kicks off the scab. This hostility hasn't been revealed for a generation, my brethren. It hasn't. Men's hearts haven't been plowed open. In the book of Romans, look at them. My God, their lips are full.

And oh, the snakes are running out, and the sea is swift to shed blood. And they're a bunch of liars and hypocrites from their mother's womb. That's a description of your heart. And nobody is interested, either in the Saviorhood or the Lordship of my Christ.

They don't think they need anybody to keep them out of hell. There ain't no hell, because God is too good to punish sin. And they ain't fixing to bow to nobody. God is a devil. Well, they're right down my alley.

And the second condition was this. Will you come and speak for an hour on the radio and an hour at night, and speak for a solid month, and never give any kind of an invitation? My God, did you fellas bat this?

They said, we're tired of casting pearls before swine, giving holy things to dogs. My soul, if there's one thing the Bible teaches is that God gives his blessings to prepare a party. We haven't been able to get songs started in the free services before somebody's come and taken the Lord.

Now, God does that. All these fool tricks we've got about the invitation, that's because they don't have God. They're a pretty good substitute, but that's all they are. I give an invitation and then try to get out of the way.

But unless God beat me to it, it don't do any good. They said, we're so tired of telling folks about the Lord that it just throws them one in out the other. And they said, we've decided we're not going at it the right way.

For the only time anybody in the Old Testament or the New Testament have told anybody how to get saved is when somebody's begging themselves. Nobody went around saying, now all you've got to do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved.

No, that old boy's trembling. He's scared to death. He's afraid he's going to be in hell before the day is over. And he's pleading. And they told him what to do, because he wanted to know. The need of this hour is men and women who've got conviction enough to see we're in a war.

We've got to default without apology. And we've got to demand unconditional surrender to Christ. Nothing short of it. Well, bless God, I took him up. But the old fit kind of interfered. I preached three weeks and both Thursday night and the fourth on one subject.

I'll be on more of it maybe tomorrow night. My God, I don't want to have to deal with God's holy law by myself. You've either got to deal with Christ or the law alone. And I ain't big enough to tackle the law.

It'll tear me to pieces and send me smashing to hell so fast I'll kick up dust in the devil's face. I can't deal with it. On Thursday night I preached about 20 minutes and the president of the biggest bank in that city broke up to meet me, came running down, pushed me aside and said, for God's sake, preacher, I've got to confess before this crowd.

He'd been listening to me preaching, going home at night, get down on his knees, this pious little business, getting Jesus to save me and leave the shotgun in my hand. My cousin, Queen, was a sovereign God, thinking I'd put something over on him.

He'd been going and praying and begging God to save him. All the time he was stealing money from the bank. Before he came to that service he had confessed he had two and a half, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars into the bank and as soon as he got his confession made and the folks got to shaking hands with him and the police and took him to jail.

He says 13 years in the penitentiary and wrote me once a month he's the happiest jail maid I ever saw in my life. But you know what that bird's been trying to do? He's been trying to get paid and hold on to the shotgun.

Wait a minute honey, the day you sign a treaty of peace with any pen you are headed for hell. In the you come to where you can have peace with any kind of pen you are headed for hell. If you think that God Almighty is going to put up the flag of his peace in your soul while you are still in any kind of rebellion against him you're dead wrong.

You are dead wrong. That shotgun got to be dropped at the feet of my Lord now or you'll drop it at the judgment and be sent to hell. It's taken your choice, it's got to be dropped. Revival nearly broke out.

That went on through 13 weeks. I never got to give an invitation. We had to have six people at a time under the big tent 24 hours a day for nine more weeks dealing with seeking sinners. We had to have six telephone people answering the telephone.

People pleading would you come and help me? I'm in hell. Which way to get in this battle between the sovereign redeemer and that awful sovereign sin? God help you know when. I'm glad. You do not have the privilege of accepting or rejecting Christ, but you do have the option of when.

I can't explain this theologically. You're not a tin can. You're a responsible human being. You're going to have to have that will of yours broken so you'll be willing to bow to my blessed Lord. Wouldn't it be wonderful if that took place and you wouldn't have to bow at the throne at the judgment and be sent to hell.

But it's one or the other. That's the reason I love Amazing Grace. In the providence of God.