I believe that the essence of saving faith is hearing the Word of God. I cannot see how it would be possible for many people who are members of our churches today to really know the Lord. You didn't take time to seek Him. You made a decision, you never received a revelation. You are trusting something you did instead of Him and what He does. I just don't believe this generation of Baptists has ever been conquered by the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't believe it, do you? Have you been conquered? Have you ever died to self at the cross? Has Christ Jesus been enthroned as the absolute Dictator and Lord of your every waking moment? Has He? Of course I am describing people who say they are saved now. I don't see how anybody has gotten saved the last thirty or forty years, because nobody will listen to Him.
This is true to the Scriptures. You don't have saving faith in Christ; you can't work it up; you can't decide to have it. You can make all the decisions you want to; but unless that decision is followed by Christ being revealed to you, it won't do any good. And yet God requires faith and He will not save you apart from you, as your own act exercising faith utterly in Him. I didn't say you didn't have any faith, everyone of you all believe a lot about Christ; the Jews believe He is a good man, the Modernist belief He is a fine Teacher, the Mohammedan believes He is a nice Prophet. But I am talking about saving faith. You've got faith in Christ and believe in Christ, but do you savingly believe in Him? Only God knows that.
How does a man receive faith by which he is literally married to a living Christ? The Bible says God has to give it to you.
Romans 10:17 says: "So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God."
Ephesians 2:8 says: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God."
I wish somebody would listen to Him. How are you going to get saved if you don't become a hearer of the Word of God? Not a church attender, but a hearer. For only as you listen to Him will He give you the faith to surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen! So I want you to hear me.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if somebody would hear like the people did at Thessalonica? 1 Thessalonians 2:13 says: "For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the Word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe."
They didn't receive it as Paul's words, but as it is in truth "The Word of God." Oh! if a man ever does arrive at the point when he believes that he has heard from God. If you could truthfully say, "that is not what the preacher said, that's God talking to me." If you ever hear from God, that will get the job done, because the Word of God effectually worketh in you that believe. He will make you a new creature in Christ Jesus.
I am just an old sinner, I hope saved by grace and I don't know much. But you are a plain fool if you call yourself a Christian on the testimony of anybody on earth, except Almighty God. You had better seek Him until He says, "My peace I give you."
I am so heartbroken over this generation of Baptists who tell how they got converted when some personal worker stuck a verse of Scripture in front of them and said, "You believe that?" They said, "Yes." "Well, what does that say?" "It says so and so." "Well, God wouldn't tell a story." "Oh, no, well what does that say? .... Do you believe it? .... Yes." "Well, you are saved, aren't you?" "Well, I don't know."
"Well, God wouldn't lie about it, would He?" "Oh! no." "Well, you are saved, aren't you? .... I guess so." I want more evidence than that, don't you? I want God to talk to me. I am not going to put faith in your testimony. I am going to stretch out my soul on the testimony of Almighty God. Romans 8:16 says: "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God."
Don't go to hell, living like hell, doing as you please, depending on somebody else's word. Seek the Lord. How shall I seek Him? Listen to Him.
My theology was changed thirty-one years ago when I was a student in the Seminary in Fort Worth. I disagreed with the professors. As soon as the Lord saved me, I went to preaching the next Sunday, but I didn't know a bit of theology; but I knew I had met the Lord. I thought the professors were awful dumb. I knew so much more than they did. So I would argue with them, but they were so hard-headed, I couldn't teach them much. But those old white haired professors, I don't think they got any kin folks left. But when I went to school, those Baptist professors knew the Lord, and they tried to teach us young preachers the truth of the grace of God. And I didn't believe in salvation by grace. But of course most everybody talks about grace now, but they don't know anything about it. This took all my pride away, so I couldn't believe that they were teaching me the truth about God's Word.
I was browsing around in a second-hand bookstore and I picked up a book and paid a dime for it. I wouldn't take a million dollars for that book if it was the only one left now. I went home and read some sermons by Dr. B.H. Carroll, the founder of the Seminary, where I had the honor of going to school. He was preaching from the fifth chapter of John's Gospel where it says: "Verily, Verily I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live. "And Mr. Carroll, that great man of God that God was pleased to use, said, "My friends, if tonight my poor voice is the only voice you hear, you will go away from here nothing better. But if in the sovereign providence of God, through my voice, you hear His voice, you'll go away with life having been raised from the dead." Have you ever heard from God? Have you? Has that voice that's got authority ever spoken to you? Have you ever heard Him? When some man was preaching, have you ever heard God speak to you? Just like He said, "Lazarus come forth," did He speak to you? That's salvation. I wish Baptists believed that. We used to. We need to shut men up to listening to God. No power anywhere on this earth to bring dead people who are dead in trespasses and sin out of their graves and give them life; except His voice. Listen to Him. Many times somebody has heard from God as this poor preacher has brought God's Word. And they said, "That is not what Rolfe Barnard said, that's God talking to me." Praise the Lord, that's God talking to me.
I invite your attention to I Corinthians 1:18, which says: "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God."
I wish that we give evidence that we are the children of God, for the Gospel is the children's bread, and they love it. Everything is determined by your attitude toward the Gospel; if you love it you are saved. If you love the Gospel, you never get tired of hearing. It just thrills you everytime you hear it. I have thought about that a lot. We are under orders not to tell but one story; we've just got one message, "The message of the cross." Of course it is foolishness to people on the road to hell, but to anybody who has ever heard God speaking, it is the power of God, and it is the children's bread.
The message of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. I wish we could believe what the Bible says about the cross. I hope I never get so smart and so seared that it will be taken for granted on my part such statements as this, "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself." Oh! that should make us praise the Lord. I Timothy 3:16 says: "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh ...."
I don't understand but we must believe it. People could touch Him, God was manifest in the flesh. God invaded His own creation. He invaded the territory we call the earth and tabernacled among us. And He was flesh. And men took Him and with wicked hands they nailed Him to a tree; and God raised Him and put Him on a throne. And God turned you over to Him, and He's got you on His hands, and He's got to save you, or He's got to damn you. He's got to deal with you. We are never to change that message, and we are never to try to improve on it. We must never take anything away from it. There will never be but one message which is believed that's powerful to bring men to salvation, except this old, old story: "The message of the cross."
There are many things in the Bible that I can't understand. I don't understand this: that a little baby was born in a manger in a tiny little place called Bethlehem, and He lived only thirty-three years. And while He lived, the majority said, "We will not have this man to reign over us," and they falsely accused Him of many things. Nobody but tax collectors, prostitutes, fishermen, and people like that would have anything to do with Him. They finally took Him and hung Him up between two thieves. They took Him outside the holy city where they were going to church, observing the Passover week and nailed Him up there like a common criminal on a cross. He didn't have any money so they had to buy some fine linen clothes to wrap His body in. And Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus brought spices, and they took the body and wound it in linen clothes with the spices and laid it in Joseph's own new tomb. And I don't understand this, but Almighty God says that One is His Son, and that He has turned this world over to Him. And your destiny will be decided by Him, and not by you. And that He is the only person who has crown rights to your life. And you do not have a right to do what you want to do, you've just got a right to do His will. If you can understand that, you are smarter than I am.
Oh, wouldn't it be wonderful if like a little child, you could get converted, and just believe it, and be saved. Jesus Christ hanging on that cross, Who is now sitting on a throne. The Gospel of Christ, which is the message of Him, is foolishness to perishing men, but it is the power of God unto salvation to them that believe. I wish you could believe that, wouldn't that be wonderful, if you could believe it, not argue about it and not try to understand it, just believe it. But you will never believe it, unless God Almighty speaks to you. The testimony of men will not do. Nobody but a Christian ever believed that Jesus is God manifest in the flesh.
Because I believe that a man cannot be saved apart from Almighty God working a miracle, and making him a new creature in Christ, which will cause him to actually believe God enough to act upon what God says. I shut men up to God. My only hope is that once more before we die, we will see God work, and the slain of the Lord shall be many. All His truth by which He saves men and condemns men is summed up in these words: "The message of the cross."
What is this message of the cross? When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, I see the sinfulness of men. This generation of sick church people, they've got enough religion to make them miserable, and not enough to take you to glory. This generation skipped the question of sin, and this generation skipped the question of the holiness of God. The first message of the cross of Jesus Christ is simply this: that God's holy law nailed Jesus Christ to that cross, and unless by saving faith, you become absolutely joined to Him by the Holy Ghost baptizing you into the body of Christ, you will spend eternity in hell. For in hell there will be lots of Baptists who say they believe Jesus died for them, but that won't save them. And in hell there will be lots of Baptists trusting in the death of Jesus, but that won't save you. There is no salvation for any human being apart from being absolutely united to the Lord Jesus Who died. He must be the vine, and you must be the branch, drawing all your strength from Him.
You must be in Christ, and that is a miracle that only God Almighty can perform. Jesus Christ was in the clutches of God's holy law on that cross, and the law in all of its severity exacted the penalty, and that's eternal death. And unless you can by faith become so united to Christ that what He did is for you, and what He is is for you, why, then you've got to deal with God's holy law by yourself, and there is no hope for any human being if he has to deal with God's law by himself.
Hell is nothing except a place where men and women pay the awful penalty of the holy law of God. And I don't want to have to go to hell to pay the penalty that the law demands. I need somebody to be my mediator and stand and face the claims of God's holy law in my stead. If I don't have that, I am sure to go to hell.
The first message of the cross of Christ. Why did Christ hang on that cross? Because of the sins of men and the holy character of God. There is no need to try to get people to take Jesus now, they don't feel any need of Him. In this generation there is no conviction
There are at least three things that constitute the message of the cross that this generation refuses to face. The cross talks about the sinfulness of men. There is still such a thing as s-i-n sin. From Genesis to Revelation the Bible says that man is a sinner. The best proof that man is a sinner is that man nailed the Son of God to a Roman cross, and they were your kin folks. They did exactly what you would have done in their stead. Don't talk to me about how nice people are, when heaven invaded this old world, wicked men with hatred in their hearts. Peter said in Acts 2:23: "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain."
If you don't ever face that, you are bound to go to hell. If you don't ever come to mourn over your sins there; there is no hope for you. You are a member of the human race that took the eternal Son of God and nailed Him to a cross. That's how sinful you are and that's how sinful I am. The sinfulness of man is seen better in the cross of Christ than anywhere else. When our guilt was upon the Lord Jesus Christ and I believe it was. I have absolutely no hope unless all of my guilt was laid on the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't keep out of hell unless yonder forever in the heart of God is His Son as a lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And actually in time 1900 years ago on a hill called Golgotha, they took a man by the name of Jesus of Nazareth and nailed Him to a tree and hung Him up like a common criminal.
That is not all that took place. God was pleased to bruise Him. Isaiah 53:5 says: "But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed."
God laid on Him the iniquities of His children, "That's my hope." When my guilt and iniquities was laid on Him, it cost Him His death. That's how sinful sin is. Oh! how guilty men must be. The sinfulness of men is best shown in the cross, not only by the fact that our guilt was on Him, it occasioned His awful death of agony. But in the plan and purpose of Almighty God there could be no way whereby so great a sinner as I am could be forgiven, except in the agonies of the shed blood of the Son of the living God. That is the only way. This world nailed the Prince of Glory to a Roman cross. How wicked sinful man is.
What is the message of the cross of Christ? It tells us first of the sinfulness of men. This world is going to hell comparing their sins. You are going to hell for two reasons. When you were in the loins of Adam, you tried to pull God off the Throne and be god yourself; and when Jesus was here in the flesh, it was your voice that cried away with Him; it was your voice that cried crucify Him. When God was manifest in the flesh you nailed Him to a tree. You are a big sinner. You need a big salvation; you need great forgiveness. The cross tells about the sinfulness of men. The Scriptures don't say that you are going to die and go to hell, because Adam sinned. It says you are going to die and go to hell because you sinned. God is not going to send you to hell because some people back yonder nailed Jesus to a cross; He is going to send you to hell because you did. Because in the heart of God, Jesus has always been on the cross and men have always rejected Him.
What is the message of the cross of Christ? It is a message of the holiness of God. At Sinai when the law was given upon the tables of stone, we see the glory and majesty of the Lord of glory. But the majesty of Sinai faded away before the glory of Calvary, like the flickering candle before the noon day sun. Do you believe that the law of God shall stand in its awful majesty? Do you believe that every disobedience and every transgression will receive a just recompense of reward? Do you believe that? Of course you don't. We do just as we please now, and say we are saved. Do you believe that God's law cannot be done away with? It is established in the heavens forever. God Almighty will never violate one jot or tittle of His holy law. If you do not believe that God is a law-giving and a law-honoring God, then take a look at Calvary. What's the Lord doing there on that tree if God doesn't honor His holy law? When my Lord Jesus Christ as a man hung there on that cross, and out of the agonies of His suffering, He cried: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" The answer comes back: "Thou art holy."
And when Christ took my place, the sentence had to be executed, because God is holy. I wish we believed this, but most people don't. The man upstairs that so many people talk about today is not the Almighty God of the Bible. If God was not a merciful God, He would wipe America off the face of the earth, because of the way they treat this holy day, which is the Lord's day. Most people have told God to mind His own business, we are going to do as we please. The law says it is holy, but we don't believe it. We won't even take one day out of the week to keep holy unto the Lord. We don't have time for a holy God.
The message of the cross is that God is holy. We must have a holy Saviour, and you must experience a holy salvation, if you expect to spend eternity in a holy place.
We have invented some Bible teachers who are fundamentalist. We found out God has done away with His law. No, God hasn't, just we have. And every human being is going to be judged by God's holy law. God knows I don't want to come to the judgment without an advocate to plead my case, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The cross not only talks about the sinfulness of man and the holiness of God; but thank God it points to God's provision for a man to be right with Him in the blood of His justification. The cross tells us there is provision for every penitent sinner who can come into a living oneness with Him, Who died on that tree. It is very important that we get the proper order. I wonder if you know the Lord so that you are in love with Him; and you are mighty glad that He is sitting on a throne. Oh! that God's children would stay with the truth, and cry to God that the church in God's mercy will have one more opportunity to tell this generation the truth as it is in Christ. Most all preachers today are perverting the Gospel of Christ and deceiving the multitudes by telling them they can accept Jesus as their Saviour and they wilt be saved, which is a lie of hell. Man is totally depraved, dead in trespasses and sins; and unless God is pleased to perform a miracle and reveal Christ to you, why, you are doomed for hell.
No man will be interested in the shed blood of Jesus Christ until he faces his own sinfulness and God's holiness. If you would face your own sins and God's holiness, you would be interested in whether or not God in Christ did hang on the cross to provide redemption for penitent sinners, who by faith can be joined to His blessed Son.
One of the most solemn things I have ever faced is that David Brainard, who prayed himself to death, left his bloodstains in the snows of New York state, and died when twenty-nine years old. He came to his death in the home of Jonathan Edwards, who said that as long as he lived, he would thank God that in His merciful providence, He allowed David Brainard to die in his home. Mr. Edwards said he was with him most of the time the last 48 hours of his life. I suppose David Brainard was the most saintly person that ever lived in America. Mr. Edwards said that most of the last 48 hours of David Brainard, that saint of God, he spent them looking at himself and examining himself to see if he could discover any evidence that he had a saving interest in the blood of Jesus Christ. It would be good to spend a week examining ourselves to see if we had a saving interest in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 13:5 says: "Examine yourselves, your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?"
2 Peter 1:10 says: "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall."
While I am preaching to you, I don't want to go to hell myself; I don't. I don't want to miss Christ myself; I don't.
If David Brainard spent his dying hours trying to find out if he had an interest in Christ, I recommend it to you. For yonder outside the city of Jerusalem, Jesus Christ did something for somebody. He hung there in somebody's stead. Amen! Somebody's sin and guilt was laid upon Him. I am vitally interested in whether that includes me or not. Are you? Are you? I dead sure am. I dead sure am.
"Our Father, in the Name of Him Who suffered, bled and died on the cross to provide redemption for penitent sinners, Who by holy faith can be joined to His blessed Son. We thank Thee for "The Message of the Cross, "for You made it good news to us by revealing Christ to us. Praise the Lord. Please use this message to speak to sinners. Glorify Christ even now. Amen!"