Saving Mercy — Rolfe Barnard

I want you to turn tonight to the book of 1 Timothy, at the first chapter of 1 Timothy. I want to read a passage of scripture, and then I want to say a word to God's people in this congregation about something that looks like the Lord is getting ready to do.

Saving Mercy in the Gospel of the Glory of God

Then the message to the congregation. I want to speak tonight on saving mercy, God's sovereign saving mercy. First chapter of 1 Timothy, beginning at verse 11, down through verse 15, through 16. The Apostle Paul never wrote anything out as hard doctrine.

He'd just write a letter to a church, put down on a piece of paper what he'd experienced. He talked about the grace of God. He knew what he was talking about because he'd experienced the grace of God.

Now he's talking about mercy. He'd received mercy. This is a tremendous passage of scripture, and I covet your prayerful listen as we read it. He says, according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God.

I changed the reading there from the King James just a little bit to give you the exact meaning of it. According to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God. There isn't any other gospel. If it doesn't give all the glory to God, take everything away from man, it isn't God's gospel.

According to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God. That that brings glory to Him. He's committed to my trust. Paul's there a minute every time I read it and say, slide over a little bit, Paul. I want to get in on that too.

I want it to be just as real to me as it was to him. That Almighty God has committed a very precious thing to me. He's committed to my trust. How solemn the gospel of the blessed God. I tell you, that soul that makes life worth living.

Can't live little lives with that soul. Without Him I wouldn't have trusted such wonderful good news to a fellow like you, Tommy. But He did. He said, I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has enabled me.

For that He counted me faithful. Putting me into the ministry. Before a blasphemer and a persecutor. And injurious. Wonder, wonder. Miracle. Grace upon grace. Piled on glory. Obtained. That made all. That fixed me where God would commit into my trust.

It did something for me. The mercy of God. He said, I counted you faithful now. I put you in the ministry. And I committed into your hands. Proclamation of the good news. Of the glory. The blessed God.

The thing that made the difference. I was a blasphemer. I was a persecutor. I was an injurious person. And I mended my ways. No, He didn't say that. Turned over a new leaf. Didn't say that. Said I obtained mercy.

The Preacher's Longing for Bible Revival

I obtained mercy. Three times since I've lived in Winston-Salem. One time over at Urban Street Baptist Church. Way back in the year 1948. Another time over in North Winston Baptist Church. One time in Salem Baptist Church.

I saw a little revival break out. Saw crowds turned away. I saw in those, the only big church among them, Salem and North Winston. For a little while, conversation on the streets in Winston-Salem. With what was going on.

And I live for the day. Pray some. A lot about it at night time. I want to see a revival of Bible preaching. We have so little of it. Churches seem determined that there's one book that cannot be preached in them.

And that's God's Word. We have man's interpretation. We whittle down God to suit ourselves. And we're paying the awful price for it. Winston-Salem is a sick bed of iniquity and sin. In the church and out.

No reverence for God. We desperately need radio, pulpits, street corners. One by one. That would set men to believing that they stand in need. Being pleased. Nobody believes that they need the mercy of God now much.

This generation never will seek God's mercy until the preaching is changed. I like to read about the time of the old Puritans when the sinner didn't have any place to hide. When all of the churches were shutting men up to faith in Christ.

But now if you attend one service and they preach a gospel that brings glory to God, this generation of church members will swear it's not so. And next Sunday they'll go hear a preacher who refuses to preach the gospel.

I'm serious about this, my friends. I've seen men crying to God to have mercy on them. I've been around where the telephone would ring and people couldn't sleep and people had quit work and people go to insane asylum so worried about the troubles.

I've seen that in this city. I long to see it come again. When this generation will not take for granted the mercy of God, but will realize instead of it being true that every man's entitled to an offer of God's mercy, that no man is entitled to it.

And that if anybody ever is shown mercy by a sovereign God, he'll be out of the goodness of his own heart. And that a man can't buy God's mercy. And a man doesn't deserve God's mercy. And a man can't bribe God's mercy.

And a man can't force God's mercy. I long to see it come again. Maybe it will. When the Holy Spirit will raise up again in our Baptist churches the gospel of the glory of God that strips men and glorifies men to the only safe place a man can possibly have.

At the foot of the cross of Christ said Lord. A few days ago in the month of February, I went to Kentucky for a conference with some people in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi. And it looked like God was in it.

I'm incorporated as an evangelistic association. In the month of April I'm going to Pennsylvania to work out more details on it. And in June we hope to set up for the first time in America, we think we'll have 50 churches to start with, many individuals, an organization devoted to the invading of our cities.

Churches or no churches. For the gospel of the sovereign mercy. Of the Lord Jesus Christ. We must do it. You're very small in membership here. As a church I see no reason for your existence. Spit on other churches, large membership right close by.

But I love your pastor. He doesn't. He's not as old as I am. He hasn't studied as much as I have. He's probably not as deep into the gospel as I am in that time. But he's preaching the gospel of the glory of God.

And I'm for him 100%. I want to see God begin to bring in men and women. Till they're brought to tremble. God must do right. God's plans are underway. I don't know whether they're going to work out or not.

We're praying much about it to invade Louisville, Kentucky. Already have three pastors interested. Getting some businessmen. A place where most of the Christians have to make a living making whiskey and beer.

A stronghold of booze and sin. Where nobody's seeking the Lord. Because of the so-called gospel of our pulpits today. That lets men and women think that God's under obligation to them. And that any time on God's earth they decide to, they can make a decision.

And God will save them. Don't you long, you know, don't you long, say six months. Wouldn't it be wonderful to live on this earth six months' time. When lost men and women are seeking the Lord. Seeking the Lord.

Come and pull your coattail, Brother Tommy, as you're out trying to sell some monuments. And they say, Brother Tommy, you've got just a minute. Yes, sir. Brother Tommy, you reckon God would show mercy to me.

Can you folks take that, see what to call the gospel now. God's under obligation to give everybody a chance. And I don't like it. And people tell me, my God wouldn't do so and so. And the God I worship, he's got to give everybody a fair chance.

But the God of the Bible doesn't have to give anybody a chance. And if he does show mercy, it'll be of grace and not of debt. God bless your heart. If you can claim, then it is mercy for you to come with your little drink.

That's one thing. It's in the hand. Pleases on earth and in the heavens. And it's a white horse of a different color. And it's something that you'll have to be humble about and become a seeker. Not a demander.

Not a take for granted. We'd see men come into our services, seeking to be joined. How much is that going on now, brother? Boy, we get them converted Sunday morning. And if we don't get them baptized for Sunday night, we'll never see them again now.

God's Mercy in Three Directions

Would you listen to Brother Barnes just a little while? The mercy of God is described in the word of God as extending in three directions. Let me give you just one scripture for each direction. Don't turn to it in Psalms 145.

I think the verse is 6, one of many scriptures. God is in the direction, in tender mercy over all the works of his hand. In the book of Matthew chapter 5, I think the verse is verse 46, I'm not certain.

He makes the sun to shine on the evil and the good and causes the rain to come on the just and the unjust. There is a sense in which God shows tender mercy to all the works of his hand. There is a sense, the old theologians call it special mercy, in that he deals in mercy with all mankind.

But hear me now, saving mercy is in the hands of a sovereign God who has taught us line upon line. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And that's where it is, my friends. It's in his hands. And he don't have to show it to you.

And you can't make him show it to you. And it's not your right. It's God's grace. You reckon God would have mercy on me. I'm up on the pulpit where I am on a mob mat. They say that's terrible. That's the message of this hour.

Under the other kind of preaching, nobody's seeking the Lord. They don't think they got to seek him. All they think they got to do is decide to accept him. Salvation isn't in an acceptance of a fact. Salvation comes to a man from the hand of a living God.

God's showing mercy to lost men. Preaching will make unsaved church members spit and mad. But it will cause somebody to become a seeker. Lord, this passage of Scripture comes from the pen of a man who said the one thing that made all the difference in my life was that I obtained.

Going down the road to kill some Christian. And God showed mercy to me and showed me Christ. He changed me. I obtained mercy. I never could get over it. He told me it was wonderful. I obtained mercy. I obtained mercy.

Paul's Conversion and the Gift of Repentance

I needed it. And so I stand up and begin to tell men the truth. Jesus found me. Out in the darkness, no light could I see. He put his great arm under a wonder. He saved me. My soul, I love to hear ringing from the testimonies of church members today.

God saved me. I can't find nobody God saved. Now I ask a few Christians to come in and tell me what they did. I like to hear what God did. Paul said God laid hold on me in mercy. Talking about the profession of faith he made, about Brother Flynn converting him, he said God showed mercy to me.

In the church world without end. Jesus made me under mercy. I need God to show saving. He needs me to repent. And yet if I don't God will send me to hell. God in mercy. To give me the power to do what he tells me I should do.

God commands me to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no ability in me to believe in him. I need to cry. He'll show mercy. To enable me, the one I've never seen, who's in the spirit, to live in Christ.

He said I've attained mercy. If there's one line of this book that's true, it's this. Only God can stand desperately in need. God's showing, saving, mercy. He said a man, that thought that his hope was in Christ and not himself.

That blind Bartimaeus was in such a fix, he didn't think he could get out of it himself. I will! Thou canst make me whole, said a man clothed in leprosy, who couldn't cleanse himself. He said I'll have mercy.

Show mercy to me. I'm not going to burn this Bible up, because I don't like that. I'm going to humble myself and say Lord, according to the Bible, mercy's in your hands. That's right Rob. According to the Bible, you show it to whom you please.

That's right Rob. Show mercy to me. I need God's saving. Can't buy it. Read line upon line, precept upon precept in this book. He got plenty to spend. You were subject, you were under the bondage of old Satan, and you were children of wrath, even as others, but they're in Christ.

Lifted this up to higher places, in the praise this day. I can't give life to myself. God gives it as he pleases. And I'm willing to humble myself and say Lord, you don't have to. I can't make you. But if you will, mercy.

You'd rather go to hell than to humble yourself and call on him for mercy, wouldn't you? You say I'm not going to be an obligation to anybody. You'll have to be if you ever get saved, because mercy is not something God owes you.

Rich Mercy for Those Who Call Upon the Lord

It's something he gives as pleases him. I'm so glad the Bible says he's rich in mercy. There's plenty to spare. Not likely to run out for the time. Especially in this day when nobody wants it. I guess if we ever have revival, there'll be plenty to spare.

Old hell bound, hell deserving, sinner that drinks iniquity like water, writhing and wriggling long enough to stop and cast himself on God's grace and cry out to God to have mercy on him. We'll find mercy to spare.

He's rich in mercy. Isn't it wonderful to read on further? In the book of Romans, for instance, that wonderful text that says he is rich unto all upon thee. Is that wide enough for you? Instead of a fellow just humbling himself a little bit and quit telling God what he thinks he ought to do and start believing a little bit about what God says he does do and just say, okay, I'm going to come down off my high horse.

I stand in need of mercy. The scriptures say you give it to whoever you will. The scriptures say you're rich in it. But the scriptures say something else, that you're rich unto all who call on you. And bless God I'm calling on you.

And I'm going to spend my life calling on you. And I ain't going to take no for an answer. And if you send me to hell, the last thing I say before I drop into hell, I'm going to be saying, Lord, have mercy on me.

I need mercy. I need mercy. I doubt whether you'll go to hell that way. Ah, the scriptures say he's rich in mercy. I remember I was down in South Carolina years ago and the preacher was in the church that is built on jazzy singing and hoop-to-hoop preaching.

And they usually build fast and then tear up fast. And the preacher made a mistake and he got me down there. And the message is he's tearing them all to pieces. But they weren't fighting me. And I'd done the best I could.

And they'd come in to hear me. Finally the dear pastor, the young fellow came to see me. He got saved before the meeting was over. And he's as honest as he could be. He's never had heard a gospel that gives the glory to God.

All he'd ever heard was something he could brag about, you know, take credit for. And he said, Brother Barnes, the people just torn all to pieces. But he said, they love you. He said, they're trying to listen to you.

He said, would you meet with us Sunday afternoon? He said, I believe my whole church would be there. They want to ask you some questions. See if they can get to where they understand what you're preaching a little bit.

And I don't usually have that happen. Usually I say something somebody don't like and he gets mad. And he goes off and I never see him again. And he cusses me. Little Gabriel blows his horn. But these folks wanted to know.

And they started in on me. The little old church building just packed on Sunday afternoon. And the pastor said, Brother Barnes consented to answer your questions. He wants to help. And I did. My God, I wouldn't live on peanuts and corn bread.

I'd have to go up and down this country just for the joy of making folks mad and acting a fool. I believe what I preach. I'm trying to help folks. And the first question they asked, we never got that.

Of course, it settled everything. The pastor said, Brother Barnes, I'm going to start the questions off. He said, Isn't God under obligation to give every man a chance to be saved? And I answered in this way, Salvation is not by chance.

And God is not under obligation to do anything on God's earth to men and women except punish them for their sin. And that settled the whole argument. Turned into prayer meeting. All their little questions of theology were gone.

If you'll ever see that, you'll quit telling God how to run His business. You'll find out salvation isn't by giving people a chance. Salvation is by God showing mercy to many. And He's rich in prayer.

Hallelujah. He's rich unto all who call upon Him. If you don't feel your need of God having mercy on you, you'll never call on Him. And if you think that salvation is in your hand for something you do, you'll never seek Him.

You'll just do something yourself. Everything about salvation comes from God. The very faith by which you lay hold on Christ, God has to give it. The very repentance He demands is a gift of God. The very blood that flowed from Christ's veins is a gift of God.

Everything about it comes from God and none from men. It's God's grace. It's got no way on God's earth we can command the Holy Spirit to do His work. We can only pray and hope and watch and rejoice. He blows where He will, says the Scripture.

A Dying Sinner Saved by Sovereign Mercy

We can't tell from whence He comes nor whether He goes rich. Never forget an experience I had in the northern city. In the city of Detroit, Michigan, I was holding meetings. I remember on a Sunday night after the evening service, a great big old red-haired, freckled face, a fellow by the name of Childers, C-H-I-L-D-E-R-S.

He'd moved up from Tennessee to Detroit to work in the automobile factories. And he came and tarried by my side until most of the people had left. And he had a moment. He said, He said, He said,. And he said, He said,.

And they sent him back to Detroit. He'd drunk so much booze that even up the lining of his stomach and cancer had set in. He's living on doping and terrible pain. And this old red-headed, freckled face fellow said, I've been trying to witness to him, brother preacher.

He said, He said, He said, He said, I said, He said, It is cold. It is bad. We finally got out of the car and got up on the porch and snapped at the snow off our feet and rang the doorbell and directly the sister came and let us in the hall.

And this children said, I brought the preacher before your brother dies. He's cussed us so I want the preacher to talk to him to see if he'll listen to him. And the young lady said, I'm so sorry. She said, The doctor's just left.

He said, My brother's in such terrible pain he gave him a double dose of dope. She said, He's sound asleep and chances are he won't wake up for several hours now. He's in such pain they gave him a double dose of dope.

I remember old red-headed, freckled face, uneducated, went to school to the sixth grade children. Working as a mechanic there. Not much education. Butchered the keys even. Couldn't know the difference between doxology and theology.

But he knew the Lord. He went into that room where that sick man lay on the dope. Like a little old child, he got down on his knees and I can quote his prayer to this day. He said, Lord, this man died.

I brought the preacher through this snow and ice. I want him to preach this man before he dies. Lord, wake him up. And so help me he is. He's dead. He's dead. And he was sane. And he seemed to have his wits about him.

And the sister went and stood at the head of the bed. And old freckled face stood at the foot. And I dragged up the chair and started to try to preach to that man. And he started cursing me. And the louder he cursed, the louder I preached.

And I began to quote every verse of the Bible on hell and wrath and damnation and judgment I could think of. And I guess some I couldn't think of. And I just preached hell and damnation to that man, cussing and all.

For 15 or 20 minutes I never let up. And finally I noticed something and he quit cussing. And while I kept quoting Scripture to him and warned him of the wrath of a holy God that's out. And I stopped and that old boy is crying.

Like his heart. And he said, preach. And I cussed so loud. I'm scared. He said, I'm dying. And I'm going to hell. We could get everybody in Winston-Salem with a cancer as big as my head in their stomach.

If it scare them. Oh, they wouldn't be so anxious to meet a ho. Better to die of a cancer and go to glory. About which the men sang. Than to have a healthy stomach and wind up in hell. I'll never forget what that fellow said.

I said to him, I'm going to be saved. I said that on the authority of a God who shows mercy to whom he will. He might show mercy to a man one second before he dies. That's in God's name. I'll never forget what the man said.

No. God wouldn't save me. He said, you don't know how I've lived, preacher. He said, I've been an awful sinner. He said, there's not a bit of hope on earth for me. Brother. The fellow's getting in pretty good shape.

And he starts talking that way. It's these folks that say I'm all right. And I'm as good as the church members. And I don't this. And I do that. And I have much hope for them. But for the fellow that got to the place he decides he's such a big sinner, God wouldn't have any mercy on him.

I'd see a lot of hope for him. And I quit talking about hell. And while that man lay down on the bed and quietly saw him, I preached unto him, listen to me, the good news of the glory. Even old hell-bound, stinking repentant, God does all the same.

He said, my glory I'll give to no other. He lay the Savior all together and not Savior at all. And I didn't have any qualms about the temple of the glory of the blessed God. Because God gets glory every time He saves anybody.

And I knew there wouldn't be plenty for that man. And I'll never forget I just kept preaching. And I didn't have to give him the invitation. Directly he said, preach it. I said, done what? He saved me.

He doesn't do things like we think he ought to just lie up and do something like that. Wasn't any chance for anybody to do any bragging around there. If anybody gets saved in that kind of a mess, God will have to do it.

No chance there, no deserving there. Bloody, it's just mercy. Just a God who's rich in mercy. Showing mercy. Somebody don't deserve it. He said, preacher, he said, you know, when I was a kid, my mother said, need sunscrew?

And he said, there's an old song that we used to sing. He said, I can't quite get it on my tongue, but it said, it is something about grace. And he said, I wish I could remember it. I said, I wonder if it wasn't amazing.

He said, that's it, preacher. He said, could we sing it?