The body of Christ needs to meet together to hear the Gospel preached in its purity and its proper order; then go out and witness a good confession, whatever the circumstances are.
God's people have been conquered by the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are not our own, and we do not live for ourselves; we have lost our own life that we may gain it. If this is not true of us, we are not God's children. But you and I as God's children must face this signal truth that we are attempting to preach the Gospel today in a generation that has been utterly sinned against in that we have forgotten that the Gospel must be preached in its purity and in its proper order. And there isn't a person here that is old enough to remember when the pulpits as such paid any attention to the fact that a man cannot even hear the Gospel until he has been utterly slain by the law and left desperate with no hope within himself. Not until that time will he care whether Jesus is the Son of God or not; and whether He died for sinners or not; because he is not interested. Our task as God's people is to about face and turn around, and begin to be true to this generation; and take the only weapon that God the Holy Ghost has or ever has had to prepare men to listen and receive the Gospel; and that is God's holy law, God's holy requirements. Unless a man is desperate he cannot even hear, much less receive the Gospel of God concerning His Son. A man has to be desperate before he will cry for help or beg for mercy.
We have a "Jesus" cult today in America. Everybody thinks mighty well of Jesus; but "to hell with God." Is that too tough for you? But they do not know Jesus as their Lord, and God the Father as the lawgiver. Our Gospel has been wrong. Would you be interested in listening to the Truth long enough that the Gospel would be good news to you? If you ever hear the Gospel as Gospel, you will be saved right then. The Gospel means good news, and if you ever hear it as good news, you will be saved. The big need of every community now is churches with a man of God filled with the Holy Ghost preaching the Word of Truth like it should be preached; so that some would definitely reject and some would be conquered by the Christ of the Gospel.
We want to speak on the subject "Running Scared." How can Rolfe Barnard as a brother member of the body of Christ that is sent in this generation to represent Almighty God to be God's voice, as God's witness, as God's testimony? How can I join with my brothers and sisters joined to Jesus Christ; conduct myself in the best possible manner, having been commissioned as I have to represent Jesus Christ? I think the only way that we can do it, we'll have to run scared.
I take my Scripture from Luke 12:1-5: "In the meantime, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trod one upon another, He began to say unto His disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light,' and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. And I say unto you, My friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you Whom ye shall fear; Fear Him, which after He hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear Him."
God knows if that isn't a word for this silly, giddy stuff that passes for salvation today. This familiarity with God.
When the Welch's revival was in progress, somebody asked, did they look forward to the assembling in little houses of worship, and these dear men of God who had learned something of what it meant when God was in the midst and His Presence was felt, they said, "No, they dreaded the time when they assembled together, they wanted to go off somewhere and hide," for when God makes Himself manifest in the midst of His people, His Presence is thrice holy, and about all the people can do is groan and sit around and sob in the Presence of God.
Oh, fear God! His friends are to fear God. Verse 8: "Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God."
You don't do that by what you say, you do that by what you are, and I tell you, we've about done out now. And the only thing that is going to ride the storm that is ahead of us is not some people that are busy as bumblebees, but some people who are children of God. Your testimony is not worth a dime, your confession is what counts, and we are called upon to confess Christ before men; that has to do with character, and what we are; and not our activity. "Whosoever shall confess Me before men."
Verse 9: "But he that denieth Me before Men shall be denied before the angels of God."
How can you make a good confession? We have a brand of Christianity now that isn't worth a dime. Every one of you mothers now have been brought up on a perverted Gospel, where parents refused to do what God Almighty gave you to do. You were too lazy and so busy bragging about what a wonderful Christian you are and you turned over the education of your children to the State, instead of keeping your hand on it. Understand that all education must be Christian, not pagan. So we've said, "Jesus is Lord!" but we'll turn our children over to the devil to educate them.
How can you get your children to Christ now? Because by the time they go to public school six hours a day, then look at TV most of the rest of the time, they do not have any capacity to listen to the Gospel. You and I are facing the fact that we are going to have to let our children go to hell for one more generation in the public schools where you can't even have a prayer now, much less teach the Bible. You talk about having some churches; this nation is going to be pagan to the core and it is hurrying up. The only hope for anybody to come out of it outside the grip of Antichrist is to once more recover a Gospel that demands that everything – your finances, the way you make a living, your home life, your body, your mind, your social life, your church life – every phase of your life must be under the Lordship of Christ. For, brothers and sisters, if we do not bring everything unto Him now, we are going to be on the other side and we will all go to hell.
This is the time to realize the fact that it is all under Christ or it is all under Satan. How are we going to make a good confession? We are going to have to claim everything for Christ Jesus. He is the LORD of education, He is the LORD of society, He is the LORD of government, He is the LORD of money, He owns it all. He's the LORD of conduct, He's the LORD of our thought life. He is LORD, He's the LORD of all. Romans 14:9: "For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living."
Confess Christ in this awful hour, confess Him in your business life, confess Him in your church life, confess Him in your home life. It is that or nothing, for if the Scriptures teach that on that bloody cross Jesus Christ bought the right to be the absolute Dictator and Ruler and Master and LORD of everything and every person, it is no small thing then, dear ones, to face this question: "How can I confess Christ so He won't deny me?" If we keep on with what we've called salvation and Christianity tonight and His Lordship in our finances. We are denying Him now, every one of us fathers and mothers who have turned over our children to a godless state to educate; we are saying God is dead, and He doesn't have the right to control the education of our children.
This nation is in an awful condition. Wonder why? Because we haven't preached Christ as LORD. Christ demands all. My Lord said, "You had better not be afraid of the folks who can kill you; you had better fear Him which after He hath killed, hath power to cast into hell." Fear Him. How can I confess Christ? It is not by saying, "I love the Lord." It has got to be by being what we are.
There was a man named Noah that lived in a day pretty much like these days; that you are called upon to witness a good confession for Christ. In Hebrews 11:7: "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith."
The Bible says in Genesis 6:8: "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." And what it means, verse 9b: "Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God." The rest of mankind was going to be sent to hell except Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives. God was through with that generation and was going to destroy them with a flood and start all over again. Because of the same sin that is behind the moral degradation and spiritual corruption of America today; that's sex perversion. Now Noah lived in a day like that.
Young man, this is something solemn. God came to Noah and said, "Noah, judgment is coming. I am going to destroy these wicked people with a flood." All on earth Noah had to go by was God's Word. And the most solemn thing I face and the most crushing burden any human being can ever bear is the burden of living in a generation that doesn't believe a word of the Bible. And here I claim to believe it. God knows what a burden it is to live every day of your life among your neighbors and your relatives and your church members and the folks you work for, and you believe that every step men take is one step nearer the awful consuming judgment of God; and you try to talk to them and they don't believe a word of it.
How in the Name of God can I confess Christ in a generation that doesn't give a care whether He died or not; in a generation that doesn't believe in God; in a generation that if you talk to them about the judgment of God, they don't know what on God's earth you are talking about? And you believe it, and the fire burns within you. There's old Bill. He's headed straight for the judgment. There's my son; he's headed for the judgment, but he doesn't believe it, and I do. Now, brother, that's a burden.
And here's old Noah. He lived in exactly that generation. He believed what God said; he believed it enough that he moved with fear. "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house." He went and bought some lumber, a hammer and some nails and he started tacking away, building an ark; to provide safety for everybody inside, and condemn everybody outside. That's the Gospel; that's Christ; in Him deliverance from the wrath to come. Outside of Him, no hope, no hope.
And old Noah believed that judgment is coming. He believed that people needed to escape it. He believed that there ought to be a way of escape. So he spent his life doing two things: preaching righteousness and preparing an ark. That is how you can witness a good confession in any day. Running scared.
Is life worth living? I know it is foolish to claim to be a Christian unless you devote your life to just two things: (1) the proclamation of the holy character of God, and His righteous demands and commands. (2) Then pointing men and women who will listen to the only place of escape, which is in Christ. That is what Noah did: he ran scared, he believed something, he believed that God was going to bring judgment on men and women. He couldn't see it, but he believed it.
Leonard Ravenhill said some of these days some little humble believer was going to pick up the Bible and read it and believe it. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could believe it? Not argue about it, just believe it. And he said that little simple believer is going to make the rest of us folks ashamed of ourselves. I am familiar with these people who say: "Oh, I'm a fundamentalist. I believe the Bible from cover to cover." But they haven't ever looked inside to see what it says. And I am also familiar with the fact that this man believes only what he obeys; that's right, I just believe what I put into practice.
"Old Noah," God said, "judgment's coming," and he believed it. Poor old fellow didn't have a convert, but I tell you what he did. He prepared a place of safety and he warned men of judgment to come. That's about as far as you can go, bud. All this foolish business about how many people we have won to Christ. I know that has some meaning and we are to weep and warn and pray, and everything else. But not a one of us can win anybody to Christ. Ali we can do is witness to them and pray for them and preach to them, but we cannot act for them.
And old Noah for 120 years, as he hammered away on that ark, while the longsuffering of God waited, he preached righteousness and nobody believed him. And anybody that is preaching righteousness today in a church that is standing for it and saying that "Judgment is coming and God must punish sin!" and the only hope is to be in Christ: if you are doing this, there is nobody much listening to you either. But it is not our business whether folks listen or not, you just got one business, and that is confess Christ in your day. Amen! That's right. If that means they are going to burn you at the stake, you've just got one job and that is to confess Christ. If you don't, He will deny you if you deny Him. God knows this is serious. All that Noah was called upon to do in his day was the same thing that we are called upon to do: Confess Christ.
"Noah, what are you building the ark for?"
"It's the only hope! Judgment's coming! Judgment's coming! The only place of safety will be in here!" That's confessing. He said, "All my hope and faith is here, this will be the only place of safety. Everywhere there will be judgment." That is confessing Christ. That is not saying that this is one way, but that is saying that Christ is the only way; and it is Christ or the judgment. Confessing Christ, he moved with fear, and he ran scared, tacking away. "This is the place! Judgment everywhere else!"
My soul! Our deepest need it seems to me. I know it is true for me and this is a battle. This isn't easy, to have a conviction of the coming of the judgment of God, and actually believe that it is in Christ or the awful wrath of the judgment of God for the best man that ever lived! And be so overwhelmed with that conviction that we move out to obey God, whatever it costs to warn men. That's the need of this hour, unto God, folks, it's time to quit trying to get somebody to take Jesus. They don't want Him, they don't have any need of Him. Unto God, it is time to proclaim Him in all of the glory of His Person and the perfection of His works, and warn this generation with tears.
It's Christ or the judgment. And there's only one mediator between God and man. 1 Timothy 2:5: "For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." Unless you are in Christ, you have no mediator, and it takes a miracle that only GOD ALMIGHTY can perform to put you in Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:17: "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." Everyone needs a mediator to stand between them and the stroke and lash and wrath of God's holy law.
If I had just one sermon to preach, and I was the only preacher to preach and I could get out in some public place as the people of the world passed by and this was the only sermon the people would ever hear, I tell you what I would do; I would hold up my hands, and I'd lift up my voice and I would cry, "Stop, people! You are headed for a meeting with the holy law of God!" There is one thing that no human being will escape. Every human being has got to deal with God's holy law. Oh, my God! Won't it be awful to come and have to face God Whose will, and His way, His demands, His commands and His requirements are expressed in His law? No man is going to be judged about what he did about Jesus. He's going to be judged by what he has done about God's holy law. According to the Bible, everybody is going to come to the judgment. Some men's sins are judged before and others wait till the time of judgment.
1 Timothy 5:24: "Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment, and some men they follow after." But there is one thing dead certain: we must all – either in this life or at the judgment – have to deal with God's holy law. It will be awful to have to deal with God's holy law by yourself. Oh, I beg men and women, don't go on, don't keep on taking another step, you are headed right into the holy law of God! And anybody that tries to deal with it in your own strength it will tear you to pieces! It will tear you to pieces.
Please don't spend your life in the pleasures of sin and never look at yourself in God's mirror. God has been good. He has fixed it so any human being can get a look at yourself, and see yourself as God sees you and see what God requires of you, and see that God will not ignore His holy law. The law is going to be satisfied. It is going to be vindicated in you. I don't care what you do. If you take a look in that mirror, you will do one of two things: you will say, "We will not have this man to reign over us," and go on to hell. Or you will fall and say, "Oh, my God! Is there any hope for me?" And when somebody tells you about the One Mediator, that will be good news to you.
Yes, there are ways that the law of God can be dealt with in Christ Jesus. All of His wrath falls on Jesus. I need Him as my Mediator, I need Him as my substitute. If I do not have Him to deal with the law in my stead, I am going to have to deal with it in my strength, and that will be eternal hell for every human being that is not in Christ.
You need a mediator, the man Christ Jesus. That is the Gospel. My only hope, my only plea, Christ Jesus died and He died for me. That is my faith. That is my faith.
Galatians 3:23-24: "But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith."
The bitterness of death is sin unpardoned.
"Oh Father, may the Spirit of the Almighty God be pleased to convict men of their sinful lost condition; and their need of the only Mediator, the man Christ Jesus. We pray in His Blessed Name, Amen!"