God's Rejection - Reprobation — Rolfe Barnard

Reprobation and the So-Called Unpardonable Sin

We're speaking tonight on the subject that preachers entitle it the unpardonable sin. I believe that to be an unscriptural term. I believe what we have reference to is that act of God by which he reprobates, rejects a human being.

I'm not criticizing the preachers for using the term, I used it myself, but I think it's while I know it doesn't occur in the Bible, I know it's a man-made term, and I want to ask you to think with me tonight on the Bible teaching of God's redemption, reprobation, and I wish to bring three marks that stigmatize a person who is under God's rejection.

David Wilkerson, a young Assembly of God preacher from Ohio, went to the sidewalks of New York and has been used that God works with the dope heads and the sexual perverts and just everything that's there.

It's a startling statement. He's been dealing with this class of people long enough now to know a little something about what he's talking about. When we remember that one out of every seven people in New York City is a sexual pervert, a sodomite, over 70 ,000 male prostitutes walk in the streets of New York City.

When we read the newspapers of the scandal like that happening in our government, and when we face the fact of the multitude of public preachers who have been discovered as being sodomites in the last few years, David Wilkerson makes this amazing, startling statement.

I'm not smart enough to pass judgment on it. I'll just pass it on to you. He then says that the folks in New York City that seem to be utterly out of reach of any or are the people who are reared in so-called Christian homes, made Christian possessions and apostatized at some stage.

It's an astounding conviction, and this doesn't make it so, but my conviction is, and I just share it with you, that so-called Christian America has been placed, at least for a season, under god-awful reprobation.

Apostasy, as I understand it in the Bible, repudiation of profession, and that this generation of church people have repudiated all effort to prove that they are God's people by being God's instruments of redemption, and by reproducing the character of the God who called them unto holiness.

This generation of people in America haven't quit the churches. They still give a little money, still do good, and still try not to do bad. In the services, at least when convenient, but long since they have been sealed in their refusal to bring forth the fruits that prove that they're the call of God, who's concerned about his own salvation only, as Miss Craig.

Salvation as a Means to Christ's Redemptive Mission

You get it? That individual who's just rejoicing that he's a child of God knows nothing about salvation. Salvation's not an end in itself. It's a means to an end. God sees, not that we may go our way rejoicing, but that we may enter into his redemptive task.

As I face the fact, I think it is a fact, that the silliest thing that a preacher could ask anybody now is, don't you want to be saved? I am completely guilty to the fact that all the days I've been a preacher, and that word has become a joke.

I was startled to read the other day about a professor in Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville stating that the evidence seems now to be clear, that youngsters have proved now that they weren't old enough to have the slightest idea of what it means to be a Christian.

That seems to be so because there isn't a church, to my knowledge, anywhere now that has young people there elsewhere. Most mothers and fathers aren't great women over that awful indication that we've sought to make people good, maybe, but haven't been making people Christians in our churches.

Now, all of that's to say that long since American Christianity, so-called, has been held to have done exactly the same thing that the elect covenant nation of Israel did. Instead of accepting the responsibility of the call of God, they just rejoiced in themselves and passed by the world, and thus were rejected as a nation and saved.

A man makes a statement like I'm going to make now, this is crazy, but so-called Christianity today is not making people Christian. And for that reason I have some trembling in my soul when I dare to make a statement as I've already made and I repeat it.

I believe with all of my soul that America is now a reprobate nation. I believe the word Ichabod has been written on the portals of the church buildings for the most part. And I believe with all of my soul that the average institution we call a church stands under the judgment of a holy God for not preaching a whole gospel, demanding the commitment of a whole person, so that every time we have somebody added to us as you pass the praise, we've got somebody added to our group that has accepted Christ's commission as my father has sent me, even so send I you.

Apostasy, Retribution, and Self-Examination

To go back on the clear, I pick God and to refuse to get in the battle in the apostasy of the New Testament. The book of Hebrews talks about men and women. After this wise take heed, my brethren, lest there be in you an evil heart of unbelief.

We've expressed an evidence through the motions of what we call Christianity, but by departing from a living God. That's the apostasy of Israel. And God's answer to apostasy is reprobation and retribution.

And for that reason I read from 2 Corinthians 13 and 5, a verse that whether anybody else is interested in facing the tremendous implications of it, I would like to believe I'd like to think examine yourself.

Examine yourself, whether ye be in faith. You're all set. Select yourself a committee of one. Leave the other fellow alone now. And examine yourself and prove yourself, whether ye be in the faith. And do that work of examination and that work of proving in the light of this day.

Your own selves. How that Jesus Christ should accept and be reprobate. That's a scary verse, isn't it? Know that I got sense enough to dissect and put it dead certain it means 10 ,000 times more than I got sense enough to tell it mentally to enter air.

But at least as dumb as we are on the face of it, there is some mighty. Examine yourself, whether ye are in the faith or not. Now whether you're going through all the motions and trying to be good and all of that.

Whether you be in the faith. Prove yourself. Prove yourself. And to do it with the knowledge that accepts to be in you. In Christ. Be reprobate. In the book of Jeremiah, chapter 6, the last verse. Therefore men shall call them reprobate selves.

And the reason men shall call others reprobate selves. A rejected, unusable self. Is because God's done something. The last half of the verse reads. Because has rejected things. Mark chapter 3. There's a sentence that is tremendous.

Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit and Eternal Sin

In the context of the Lord's discussion. About the attitude of the leaders of Israel. They'd accused him of being in league with the devil. And casting out devils by the power of the prince. And he talks to them about how it's silly to talk about Satan working against himself.

And then he says in verse 28 of Mark, chapter 3. Verily I say unto you. All sin shall be forgiven unto the sons of men. And blaspheme as well with so ever. They shall blaspheme. But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost.

Hath never forgiveness. But if you have committed terrible harm. If you have a pencil and don't mind marking up your Bible. If you want to get the awful implication of what this scripture says. Read it like this.

After the word hath never forgiveness. Read, hath committed an eternal sin. Hath committed an eternal sin. Hath committed an eternal sin. What does that mean? The Holy Ghost is. Preachers used to use the term the unpardonable sin.

It does mean one thing. That a man who is guilty of it. Begins to reap of that sin right then. Means that a man. Who goes to hell right then. And lives in hell until he dies. And then in hell for ever more.

It is death. Confined to the next life. I've had men tell me. I believe we'll have all the hell we'll ever have on this earth. Any brother. And that one scripture that's been true all the time. And so don't seem to believe it.

The way of the transgressor. He that seemeth right unto man. Death. That's heaven. That's heaven on the road to heaven. Thanks God. But the implication of that verse is. That man and woman. Can come to the.

That they begin. H-E-double-L-Hail. Separation from God. For when God rejects a man. That means. Exactly what it means. It means. God. That old proverb. While this life. There's hope. Maybe good preaching.

But it's just not so. No. There's hope. For an individual. Spiritualist. Decree. As long. As he's. Of a Christ. Holy. But to be rejected of God. Is to be condemned to hell. From God. To the earth. The man who.

Sins. God. Me. With this utter affirmation. It is. The awful pains. Of separation from God. The scriptures speak of three classes of men. That people call. The children of God. By faith in Christ Jesus.

There are people called. The children of wrath. And there are people called. The sons of hell. There are three classes of people in the world. It is not true to say. That all men have as their father Satan.

Oh no. All men. Have as their father to start with. Not Satan. Men are children of God's wrath. But sin never is static. It always. Develops. And grows. And the. In the entire book of John. The first.

Several chapters. Is just a running story. Of the conflict between the son of the living God. And the sons of hell. When my Lord will look them in the face. John's gospel chapter eight. Say ye of your father the devil.

He's talking about people. Like David Wilkerson's talking about New York City. Against much light. They have repudiated. They have rejected. And they've been met. By the judgment of a holy God. And that character.

Has been crystallized and set. Why. Children. Of their father the devil. For them there's no hope. It is interesting especially for people. Who seek to preach the sovereign grace of God. To understand the difference.

In the way the Lord will treat people. In the gospel of John. To some people. He opens the door as wide. As between the eternities. But to these sons of hell. He has nothing. But condemnation. No open door.

The door's been closed. He'll look them in the face. And say you need to get snooty with me. He's talking to this class of people. When he says. No man can come to me. Except the father draw me. They're gone.

Children of God, Children of Wrath, and Sons of Hell

They're gone. They're gone. The old time theologians used to say. By way. Of a parallel to the three classes of people. Those people who call children of God. Have been made the subjects. And the recipients of the redeeming grace of God.

They say by God grace. And they said those people who call in the scripture. Children of wrath. Are the subjects of God. And the unjust. And causes the sun to shine. And the good and the bad. Shows mercy the Bible says.

To all of his works. In that sense. So said the old time Bible preachers. And rightly so. Have not yet been saved. But they've not yet been rejected. Humanly speaking. They are favorable. It is possible.

They may come to know Christ. And then the old time preachers said. With reference to these. And the Lord calls children of their father devil. Character wise. Or expressed as sons of hell. Or sons of Satan.

Crystallized in their character. They are under no grace. They are under God's awful reprobation. I wonder how it is with you tonight. One of the most solemn things. That public preacher at least. Faces and makes him feel a little keenly.

Is that when everything has been said. Not undoing too much now. Having time to go into it too much. There is a limit. Of what a human can do. For another. I can pray for a lost man. And preach to him.

Maybe by God's grace I can weep over him. Maybe I can witness to him. But there comes a time. When one human has to stop. He has gone as far as he can go. And this matter. Becomes a very lonely proposition.

Just between a person. And almighty God. And there is a union formed there. That is two people present. Almighty God. And the sinner. Isn't that right? And that carries with it a deeper implication. When everything has been said and done.

There is only one person in this congregation tonight. That I know anything at all really about. In connection with whether or not. You are a child of God. Or a child of wrath. Or a son of hell. I don't know.

Moral Living Is Not the Same as Christianity

Ladies and gentlemen an unsaved man. Has got any sense. Can live his moral life. As a Christian. Do you believe that? Many of them do. An unsaved man can do what we call good. There is so much difference between being moral and being Christian.

There is so much difference between being good and being Christian. To be a Christian means to be committed to Christ's purpose of redemption. God bless you. He lives a good life. The best life that was lived on the street Miss Barnes and I lived in for years in Winston-Salem.

The highest moral life on that street was by a confirmed Orthodox Jew. Who wouldn't even let you talk to him about Christ. I'm trying to say this. This is a lonely proposition. Brothers, just between us girls.

If you are not deeply concerned about your relationship or lack of relationship to Christ. You are in bad shape. Because I can't get just so far to you. I have to stop. I can't get inside of. I don't know.

I can't tell you you are saved. I'm not God. Whether anybody else is saved or not. I'm not God. That's so. You had nothing to do with being born physically. With exceptions that proved the rule. You will not decide the hour of your death.

And between that time and between the eternities. You can be dead certain about yourself. Oh I'd say well he lives a better life than somebody else. But that don't mean anything. Christianity is not being good.

Isn't it? The mission of the gospel is not to make men good. This alone has been committed. To you has been committed. The business of examining yourself. I can't examine you for you. God didn't give me that job.

I ain't smart enough. You have to do that. I am a child of God. Not your own. And you don't belong to yourself. Christianity. Good and going through the motions. But not actually committed. To the Lord Jesus Christ.

Be committed to him. And not be committed to what he came to do. And what he's doing now. The mission of Christ. And the mission of the church. Must never be separated. Are you committed? Or are you just going through the motions?

I don't know. Or are you a son of hell? A character long since so crystallized. That you've been rejected? I don't know. There are three marks. Of one whom God has reprobated and rejected. Let me briefly give them to you.

The First Mark: Common Grace No Longer Resists Sin

I want to mention just two of them quickly. Very briefly on one. A man rejected. A woman has been reprobated. Turned over to hell. In this life. When the means by which God resists. Your own evil nature.

Do not any longer work. When the means by which. Your holy God. Yes, if you please. Put it down. You're under God's rejection. That's a scary sign of this age. I'm old enough to remember. When there used to be things that were wrong.

But I reckon there's nothing wrong now. I've lived long enough to see America turn. From an immoral nation. All moral nation. Just don't have any moral good or bad. That's out to win. The Bible tells us there are five great things.

The beast within them. And to resist that awful nature. They're what the old theologians call. God's common graces. And they are to mention them first. Heavenly given wisdom. Chapter one of Romans. They're to mention in the second place.

Heavenly given knowledge of God. The book of Romans treats it. The book of Romans chapter one. God speaks of the third gift of the God of all grace. Not only does he give men wisdom. Not only does he give men knowledge.

But he gives them natural affections. You got a good job. If that doesn't lead you to Christ. You can put it down bud. You're in a state of reprobation. Has God prospered you. Given you a happy home. Given you a lovely family.

If that isn't used of God to restrain you. And resist the beast in you. Make you favorably inclined toward the claims of God in Christ. You betcha. And yet America. The more prosperous we get. The more prosperous we get.

The more God has blessed us. The more goodbye to holiness. And goodbye to commitment. And hello to formality. And going through the motions. Whittling God down. To where we can be comfortable without God.

And be laws unto ourselves. A man's in a bad shape if God's given him a good wife. And lovely children. A good job. And a nice place to live. If that hadn't been used of God to lead him to Christ. Do you know that?

Conscience, Repentance, and the Hardening of Sin

And then the Bible speaks in the book of Romans chapter two. Of the gift of God. Called a conscience. It isn't native to men. It's a gift of God. And all men have this gift. As do all of these common races.

And they use their blessed gifts of God. They're His gracious gifts. All men. Restrain them. For it is still true. That by the goodness of God. He leads men to repentance. And if the goodness of God doesn't lead men to repentance.

If He brings His judgment. It isn't to get you to repent. It's to punish. But the scriptures talk about how men deal with conscience. And I'll not take the time. But it starts out with a defiled conscience.

But the conscience doesn't stay defiled. And just go on a little while. Sinning against it. And it'll get what the Bible calls evil. It's malicious. And then after a while. As it comes here. Code it over.

And after a while. It'll arrive at the place. According to Romans chapter two. In verse 15. I think it is. Where your conscience. God's gift. The gift given of God. To accuse you. Instead of accusing you now.

That gift of God. You've so defiled it. And smeared it. And sinned against it. That it excuses you. There's hope for a man when he's wrong. And he'll admit it. Amen. But there's no hope for a man when he's wrong.

And he defends it. It's terrible enough to sin. But ten times more terrible. To refuse to admit it. Did you know it? To seek to hide it and cover it up. When a man's conscience. That gift that God gives him.

Isaiah says. It's a little voice that speaks behind your left ear. You're going down. You've got to make the decision. The road forks. You've got to go one way or the other. And a man's conscience says don't go that way.

Go that way. You know what I've done about it? And when a man's conscience accuses him. Instead of accuses him. He's a dead duck. He's a dead duck. The second mark of reprobation. I've already preached on it.

There without conscience. Accusing. No. Excusing. The fifth gift of God's common grace. Is the terror of human government. Romans 13. We do well to remember now. That human government was ordained of God.

Human Government as God's Restraining Ordinance

The mayor of the city. Will have to answer to God. Not only for his acts as a human being. But for his acts as a servant of almighty God. The policeman. Going to have to give an account to God. Not only for how he acted as a human being.

But he's a servant of God. The officers of the law. They're gifts of God. And they are meant to produce terror. To the lawbreaker. So that you can walk home from service tonight. Without getting killed maybe.

That's a gift of God. All of these precious gifts of God. Have been trampled under the feet today. Wisdom is being used to try to banish God from his world. Knowledge is being used of God now. To produce and frankly says.

We have no need of God. Get along without him. Natural affection. Now another occasion for turning the grace of God into lascivious living. Instead of accuses. Nobody's afraid of the law. These are gifts of God.

They're used of God. Out of his goodness. From above. The marks of a reprobate. Graces and gifts. For the good of man. No longer. Accomplish that. Where unto they ascend. That means God's rejected. When the conscience.

Comes to the place that excuses. Instead of accuses. Man's under God's rejection. And the third mark of God's rejection. Is the most solemn thing this preacher's ever faced. I made an opening remarks.

The Silence of God as the Third Mark of Rejection

I said I believe American so-called Christianity. Has been placed under God's reprobation. Why? Ladies and gentlemen. Better listen to me a little while now. I cannot invade your spiritual privacy. I cannot sit in judgment on any man.

Because I don't know. I just pose this solemn fact. The most terrible mark of this age. Nationwide. Churchwide. Individualized. Is the silence of God. To be put. Under God's silence. To be put. Under God's silence.

It looks like. That God has gone fishing. And said let America alone. I do not care. Even as much as this little preacher used to care. And I can't find anybody that has lately. For the truth of his word.

Even as I used to. And I can't find any preachers. That don't have to tell the same tale. I'm not trying to find an alibi. I think of Mordecai Ham. The greatest prophet the South ever knew. The last 25 years of his life.

He couldn't get a corporate guard to hear him. And the power of God had gone elsewhere. Came I remember one time now down this country. To the city of Huntington where your heir sits. God had used him to turn that city upside down.

He came back and they'd forgotten him. Weren't interested and he couldn't get a corporate guard. I can think of. Your pastor warned me to repeat the messages we had in the park. Things happened in the park.

I didn't do anything God did. Things are awful quiet now brother man. God's help us. We're bugging God's religion. Told God goodbye. And it looked like God said okay. I'm not fixing to quit. I'm racking my brain.

What does a God damn Christian would do. For saying unto God to confess. We've been doing everything except making Christians out of people. Evidently. And ask God for his mercy. And cry to him for his wisdom.

And tell him we're alive. Tell everybody we can. And unto God we must. And so stand. In this nation church wise and never otherwise. God has marked us for the most terrible mark. God can place on any nation or church or individual anything else.

Divine Silence, Conviction, and the Need for Mercy

Let's just quit talking to us. You ever have a fuss with your wife? Bad enough fuss that ain't half as bad. You get so mad you won't talk. You ever do that? That's awful. The silence of God. Looks like he's not speaking.

That voice from him. Looks like he's letting us work it out. I've seen men have to be carried out of my meetings and stretches. So deeply convicted of sin as God called them. And so deep in their refusal to be stricken.

Couldn't walk. I've seen them couldn't get up out of their seats. I've seen a little evidence in past days that there was a living God. And that he was disturbing men. And crossing their path. And wailing.

Seem mighty still now, brother. Did you read the story? The name's written of that French, that Jewish man. Dreyfus, Alfred Dreyfus. I think it's just revealed that he was trapped and was innocent. But he was sentenced to imprisonment on Devil's Island.

And for seven months he never heard the sound of a human voice. A fellow would bring him something to eat. He wouldn't speak to him. No guard, no visitors. Nobody was allowed to speak to him. For seven years in a little old cell.

Nothing to read, nothing to do. He heard the sound of a human voice not one time. Until he would beg and plead for the guard to bring him a glass of water. To speak to him. Silence. When God rejects a man.

Quits talking with him. We're not Roman Catholics. We don't believe there aren't any priests around here that got any magic power. We believe that God speaks to an individual. In the New Testament, 167 times the word C-A-L-L calls me.