In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes that God created the world with the purpose of mankind seeking Him. He highlights that life is meaningless unless we fulfill God's purpose for us, which is to seek Him. The preacher references Acts 17:22 and explains that being religious or superstitious is not enough, but rather our hearts and hands must be made clean and pure in God's sight. He concludes by urging the audience to seek God with sincerity and surrender, until they experience His peace.

This morning it'll thrill my heart again. It's a message that the men who came out to the men's fellowship once, we prayed it in the basement of the church for all our men. Well, I never met this preacher until September. My wife and I were coming through Winston-Salem, and on the way home from looking at some cows, and I said, you know, I wonder if that old preacher might be around here, and I could find his name in the phone book. I didn't know he was so young. I thought he was an old fellow. He sounded like it on the tape. So I called up, and sure enough, he was there, and we had dinner with him. So you almost know him as well as I do. But tonight, I mean, this morning, it gives me a real pleasure to bring to this pulpit a Southern evangelist, Mr. Rolf Barnard. He's a graduate of Hardin-Simmons University in Texas, and also the largest Baptist seminary in the world, Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. And he's been an evangelist for over 30 years. He calls himself a hitchhiker evangelist, but we're glad to have him with us this morning and bring to us the morning Wednesday. Brother Barnard, the Lord bless you. And we're going to ask you to close the service, all right? May I say again, I think I've got some duplicates. I held a meeting once years ago and started on Monday night and had 200 decisions. First service, 200 people decided I had to hear them. They wanted me not to come back. But I think we've got some people here that were in the Sun School. It's such a joy to have this delightful visit up in Pennsylvania where there are singers. We've come to love them, and we've been talking about the things of the Lord. I do not know your pastor. It's a joy to feel his hues to be in this pulpit this morning and trust the Lord will lead us sometime. Our paths will cross, and I'll have the acquaintance of your shepherd. I make no apology, but it's difficult for a man like me to know what to preach about. I'm used to evangelistic campaigns, and I preach one message so I can preach another, so like baseball, one fella gets on first, and the other fella sacrifices in the second, and they hope somebody will knock him in. But I seem to be led this morning, God willing. I hope it's of the Lord to speak to you from a text. That is, the opening text is in the 24th Psalm. The 24th Psalm. One thing bothers me. I'm just going to have to satisfy myself. Where did my crowd go? Is that the junior service? Youngsters, they have service somewhere. That's the gang I want to preach to. You old knothead couldn't do much with you. Just let them alone. I'm just interested in them. The Holy Spirit, through the psalmist here, in verse 3 of Psalm 24, asks a very important question. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? To bring it down into language that all of us perhaps would be a little better acquainted with, what the Spirit is asking here is, who's going to get to heaven by and by? Down south they say, everybody's talking about any blind man, and that's right. But who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? You interested in that? Would you like to? Or who shall stand in his holy place? In his holy place. You know, it's a solemn thought that you didn't have a thing on God's earth to do with getting here. You were born of the will of a father and mother. You didn't choose to be born. And you'll not decide when you die. Only God is perfectly free. And people brag about how free they are, and I always say, when do you plan to die? If we're as free as we've been told for the last 50 years in America from our pulpits, and we're going to decide about everything, I just puncture that by just looking a man in the face, bragging about how free he is, and how he's going to run everything, and he's the top dog, and I say, when do you fix it up to die? See, we didn't have anything to do with coming here, and we're not going to have a choice about where we live. And in between time, nobody under God's shining sun can act for you. But you're going to spend eternity somewhere, and you can get mad at God and fuss about it if you want to, and say you don't think it's right that you had nothing to do about getting here, you're not, you've been born yourself, and you don't think it's right that you ought to be able to decide when you'll die, but those things are so. I got results in that matter. There they are. Over there in them bags. Well, thank you. That's my gang. I don't care about you. Oh, that's nice. That's wonderful. Isn't that rather solemn? You can argue with God a little bit about that whatsoever, and if you didn't bring yourself here, you're not the arbiter, the decider of when you'll leave, and you're here for a while, not of your choice, and you're going to leave not by your plan. Would you be interested in ascending into his holy hill, it's his, in the next life? Would you be interested in standing in his holy place in the life to come? It's his hill. It's his holy place. The chances are that he'll control the gateway for those who ascend into his holy hill and stand in his holy place. And with that before you, having not been born of yourself, not deciding when you'll die, man that's born of woman down here for a little while, and then he goes out into whatever's out yonder, would you be interested in climbing up into his holy hill, if there's any way to do it, and standing in his holy place? The next verse answers the question, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in his holy place? Well, his answer, he that has clean hands and a pure heart. He that has clean hands and a pure heart. That's the fellow that will ascend into God's holy place in the next life. That's the type of fellow that will stand in his holy place. We sang in the opening of your Bible school this morning, Be of sin, a double cure, save from wrath, and make me pure. A man's either got to clean his own hands or have them cleaned, that refers to our outward acts, and a man's either got to purify his own heart or have somebody else make it pure. We must be clean on the outside and pure on the inside if we go up into God's holy hill. If we stand in God's holy place, we must have clean hands and pure heart. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord who found a way to make my hands clean and to grant unto me a pure heart. But make no mistake about it, he who does not have clean hands and a pure heart is not going to ascend into God's holy hill and he's not going to stand in God's holy place. That the fastest-growing movement in America and the world today is the doctrine that God is so good and man so infinitely worthy that no one will finally be lost. I have been humbled and amazed at the rapidity with which that has invaded even our churches who would claim to believe the Bible. God is so good that he will not condemn anybody to that awful word, place hell. And man is of such infinite worth that God, we are told now, will not stop until the last of his creatures is brought into the fold. But the language of our text says, no, no, that's not it. That is the creature of the wishes of sinful men but not the testimony of the scripture. For make no mistake about it, one's life must be cleaned up and one's heart must be purified if he stands in God's holy hill and God's holy place. Now verse 6 is my text. Verse 6 tells us a signal thing about people who have their hands made clean in the sight of God and their hearts made pure in the sight of God and that one thing about them, they may be black or they may be white, they may be rich or they may be poor, they may be ignorant or they may be learned, but that one thing about every human being that ever shall stand in God's holy place and ascend into his holy hill, that is they are seekers after the Lord. The people whose hearts are purified and whose hands are made clean without exception are described in the language of the text. This is the generation of them that seek hills, that seek thy peace. If the Bible is God's word by which we will be judged in time and in eternity, make no mistake about it, if you do not have time to prayerfully and diligently seek a vital union with the living God, you'll never ascend into God's holy hill or stand in his holy place. No man has ever been touched by the power of a holy living God who was not a persistent seeker after God. It is certainly true that almighty God has ordained to save men and women by working a miracle and changing resistors in the seekers of the Lord. And God's miracle, than which there is no greater, is to cross the path of an individual who's resisting God, who's seeking everything else except God, and calls that person to begin an all-out search for that will not stop until that person finds a union of peace in a living God. You know, it's a solemn thought if you'd like to turn to the 17th of Acts, that the one thing God almighty got you around here for is the thing I was talking about this morning. Some years ago, I had an experience that you've had many of, I trust. I'm reading the passage of Scripture and it's dawned on me for the first time. You know what I'm going to do? And I read there in the 17th chapter of Acts, I'm going to take the time if you allow me, I'm going to do it anyhow, here beginning in verse 22, to show you something that's been there all the time, maybe you've understood it all the time, but the force of it, just overwhelming, the force of it is simply this. I want to read you of all the trouble the holy almighty God has gone to with one set purpose in mind. That you would seek him. Verse 22 of Acts 17, Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, You men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you're too religious, too superstitious, you're too religious. For as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, to the unknown God. These people, they had many gods, and yet there was something because they were God's creation and God's creature, and that individual who's a member of the human race will never find rest, as Augustine said, till he rests in thee. And God got the advantage of it, you'll never be happy, you'll never know peace, you'll never know rest, if you're a human being, until you find God. You never will. You can whistle by the graveyard till you're blue in the face, but if you're a human being, you'll never have peace, you'll never have rest, till you rest in the Lord. Isn't that right? And these folks, they had all the gods they knew about, and they worshipped them, doing everything they knew, but they, being human beings, God creatures, there was something missing here. And so, they put up a statue to the God they knew existed, but they didn't know Him. They said, I see you've got an altar here with a scripture on it to the unknown God. They said, I want to talk to you about this unknown God. They said, what's this God, the only sure enough God? Not but one, is it? Not but one. He said, I want to talk to you and show you what trouble, to what trouble, this God, that you do not know Him. I want to talk to you about what He did for a certain purpose, He said, this unknown God, who's that one? He ignorantly worshipped Him. I make manifest, I announce, I declare unto you, this God is the one that made the world and all the things therein, seeing that He is Lord of Heaven and Earth and this God, that you don't know but you recognize exists, He doesn't dwell in temples made with hands and this God, that you do not know but you recognize exists, is not a God who worshipped with men's hands as though He needed anything, see, and this God, whom you recognize exists but do not know, He giveth to all life and breath and all things and this God, that you say you do not know but He's the only real God, He's the one who hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth and He's also determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation and this unknown God, He's unknown to this world or this good hour, this creator God, this God who not worship temples made with hands, this God who gives life to all and breath and all things, this God who's made of one blood all the peoples of the world, this God who's determined the times before appointed and set the bounds of their habitation and He did it! He did all of that! It's a solemn thing, He created the world and He had in mind one thing in the creation of the world, He set the bounds of men's habitation, He was born in America, somebody up in Africa, He made few Anglo-Saxons, He made somebody up, God did all that, He went to all of that trouble for what purpose? That they should seek the Lord? Ladies and gentlemen, if you stand at the judgment of this God who went to all that trouble for the purpose of getting you to seek Him, God pity you if you haven't had time to spend your life down here on this earth seeking the Lord. That's what makes life taste. Just taste it and you'll want another taste. Just a drink and you'll want another drink. Just to experience it and you'll want another experience. Life is a crossword puzzle, it's no good unless the purpose God has for us is fulfilled in us. Between the time when we came into this world not of our choice and the time when we leave it not of our choice. We shall spend that time early in the morning I will seek Thee says the Son. My soul thirsts to pass through Thee the Living God says the Son. How solemn that men seek everything and that this is the day of presumption even in religious circles instead of faith. Have you sought the Lord until you got acquainted with Him? Until He's not just a name or a doctrine? Have you? Have you? In this day of presumption when people presume that it's all right with their souls I come since I might not see you tonight and since I do not control tomorrow and since through the graciousness of brother Riesinger I'm your guest and his guest here and as a brother man I'll see you at the judgment maybe the next time I see you but I'll dead sure see you then and I've come to press upon you this simple question in a day that's characterized by seeking everything on God's earth except God. Have you sought it? Until virtue dynamite transformation power change has come into your life the power of God transforms you and changes you and abides with you from day to day. That element of faith that faith that does not have in it the element of hard searching and seeking to actually know by experience the God of all grace is not saving faith. And I go up and down the land and I get in some trouble have to do a lot of praying because I trust the present covenant accepting this generation of church people have saved themselves and they have trusted in their own decisions instead of a revealed Christ. Mr. Spurgeon used to say decision is necessary a man must come in saving response and commit himself to Christ but decision must be surrender to a revealed Christ. This generation of church members have accepted the proposition and believe the fact and miss the person. I want to ask you has it become of enough importance to you to come into a vital touch with and an experience of the living God? Have you had time to seek him? Until he speaks to you until he speaks to you if I believe that he didn't speak peace to people now I never preach anymore. When he was here in the days of his flesh he'd say peace be unto you, wouldn't he? He's alive today isn't he? If he's alive today for the seeking soul he can still say and thank God he will still say go thy way in peace. Mr. Finney used to say in the after meetings many went away stating that they had been comforted by Christ. I look to you in the face and tell you I'm not willing to trust by Christ. I look to you in the face and tell you I'm not willing to trust my eternal welfare into the keeping of Jesus Christ except on the say so of God almighty. You better listen to me. I'm not willing for mama to decide I'm a Christian. I want to meet the living Christ myself. I want him to give me assurance. I want him to give me the consciousness my sins are forgiven. And I want him to give me peace that the world cannot give. And I cry to you this morning you are thrice a fool if you spend the days that you sojourn on earth with a second hand religion in God's name. Seek the Lord until he deals with you. Seek the Lord until he speaks to you. Seek the Lord until he comforts you. Seek the Lord until he grants you the consciousness your sins are done with. Seek the Lord until there's a marriage there's a union of peace between you and him. And I come to ask this simple question by way of conclusion. Where shall an eternity bound human being seek the Lord? Where? Seek him you must or you're going to hell. Where shall I seek him? The old patriarch said Where? Where is the Lord? That I might find him. He's not near the flesh. You can't put your hands on him. If you get up out of your seat and walk this aisle down here to where I am you'd be no nearer the Lord than you are there. He's not in a place. Where shall I find him? They talk about Christianity. It's got one thing that no religion has. It's got a living founder. But the founder of Christianity is not dead. He's alive. In the name of God if that's so there's one individual looking at you that'll never stop seeking till he finds out for himself that Jesus Christ is alive. If that's so that's the greatest thing on earth. If Jesus is alive, brother I'm not going to take my word for that. I can't. Where will I find him? Where is he that I may find him? Says the old time man. May I suggest where shall we seek the Lord? And I say seek him first at the place of supreme desire. I do not believe this doesn't make it so apart from a little I believe but all we can do is do the best we can with what we think God's showed us. I do not believe anybody ever found Christ until he became the object of your supremest choice. I do not believe that he'll share himself with a divided heart. I do not believe that this generation is going to gain heaven and miss hell unless it changes its thinking and finds time for a diligent search for a meeting with a living Christ who bears within his living body the power of the cross of God. The word of God will say in the day thou shalt seek me with all thy heart I shall surely be found with thee. We are told by our youthful Christ leaders and our devout missionaries of what's happening in Japan today. The professing Christians of Japan for the large most part they profess to accept Jesus but they continue their Shinto worship and as I'm sure you understand the blow wasn't a death blow to emperor worship and now emperor worship is experiencing tremendous revival in Japan. And the professing Christians of Japan will look you in the face now we're told by Pierce and men of that ilk and they'll say Jesus is our savior and the emperor is our lord. That won't work. I've been told by men who ministered in China and Japan that the Japs are the most polite people on earth and if you go over there and ask them to accept your Jesus they wouldn't think of turning you down. And they'll accept him and put him up on the shelf with the rest of their gods. But Jesus is the God who said I am the Lord there's none other. And a man can't have two gods at the same time. I look you in the face you're living in the day of greatest all out search for the blessings of things and the security of things where there's the greatest revival of religion the world's ever known about but not a revival of men seeking a real meeting with an experience of the living Christ. I'm telling you folks if you want to really know him and the only way to have eternal life is to know him for that's what eternal life is I advise you to dig in throw your little experience away your little decision away and your little church membership away and your nice little New Year's resolutions away and seek a vital union with the object of supreme desire the Lord Jesus Christ. Where shall I seek him? At the place of supreme desire. He's just not going to put up with you making him a fifth rate god he'll be Lord of all or he won't do business with you. A convenient religion is not kin to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Where shall men seek the Lord? Seek him prostrate at his feet and this is solemn ground and I pass over it because it's a solemn and too deep for me but ladies and gentlemen not to call any word but unless our pulpits and Sunday school teachers and churches unless something can happen in our churches to preach the truth about the fact that God is really God that's what the word sovereign means we'll never know what it means to see people seeking to come to a place where they can actually worship God until God's faith is back on the throne for there is no worship in any other atmosphere and there is no seeking unless God does it as he pleases there's no reason to seek him unless we're in his hands there's no reason to seek him unless he controls our destiny there's no reason to seek him we'd work it out ourselves but if we are the dust then he is the pauper it's important what we do with Christ but ten million times more important what he does with us the only safe place to seek the Lord that I know anything about is as a pauper utterly bankrupt utterly prostrate before his throne saying Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me whole I don't think you'll do that for sixty years all we've heard in America is something to put a coat of veneer on the ugliness of the rebellion in our hearts and we've been taught that we are somebody come and I don't expect you've got time or inclination to take the place of a humble pauper beggar prostrate before the throne of God just saying Lord I'm on your hands if you will you can but if you don't do it you're going to go to hell as should my name Rothbard you're going to come down off your high horse and prostrate yourself before his throne and quit bargaining with God and cast yourself on the mercy of the court of heaven and be thankful for the crumbs that fall from the children's table if you wish to be saved where shall we seek the Lord seek him in the appointed way seek him in and out at his throne by way of his cross listen to Rothbard just a minute remember that he will not come into your heart and life except on the merits of the blood of Christ but in God's name don't go to hell trusting a fact in God's name don't call yourself saved just because you say believe Jesus died for you if you want to get him to live in contact with the living Christ I'll tell you where he is he's sitting on the throne sitting on the throne he's sitting on that throne in virtue of his shed blood if you want to have any vital union with Jesus Christ you'll not do like this generation ignore the lordship of Christ he's sitting on the throne you're not willing for him to have the throne rights of your life you can't know him you can't experience him and I say to you where shall we seek the Lord seek him by way of his blood but seek him through the merits of the shed blood of Christ until you find him until you touch him Abraham came to an altar but he didn't trust the altar he trusted God by way of the altar come to the altar of prayer and surrender the blood of Jesus Christ but don't quit until there is a conscious you know about it union of peace established in your soul by the Holy Ghost that's salvation that's salvation you people who are fundamental better watch out you'll go to hell arguing a doctrine or a fact if you don't watch out thank God salvation isn't in a doctrine salvation isn't in a fact salvation is in a living Christ oh where shall I find him seek him pleading nothing but the merits of his blood seek him at his throne prostrate at his feet seek him say Lord I surrender seek him until he speaks peace amen until he speaks peace I remember old brother Mary I haven't got time for this but I'm going to take you there some years ago I was a school evangelist part time teacher down in North Carolina and I'd drive at night to whole meetings and they arranged for some of the students usually to drive me to save my body and one night a boy by the name of Roger Merritt drove me to my appointment that night and we bought separate cars and he got into mine and drove it and went and had the service and then drove back 50, 60 miles and as we got out of the car he slid out from under the seat with the wheels and turned my car back to me and getting his and he slipped me a little bill of money and he said brother Bart wife and I have been saving for some time we want to make you a gift I had some project, I forget what it was he knew about it and I just dug him a pocket he was a boy that was going to school on the GI bill had a wife and four children selling shoes at night and Saturday and living on the GI bill to go to school so I'd become a preacher and he didn't have much money so I thought I bet you he'd been saving about six cents a month might be five dollars and I didn't even look at it and I went on home and I was dressing for the night and I happened to start to pull my coat off and I somewhere or another ran my hand down my pocket and there was that bill and I figured out looked at it and it was a hundred dollar bill scared me and I said my soul that boy where did he get it he must have robbed the bank and he made a mistake and I went to the phone called him I said Roger you know what you did he said what did I say you know how much that bill was you gave me he said yes I said you know it was a hundred dollar bill he said sure I said we've been saving for months I said Roger you've made a mistake you haven't got that kind of money I'm going to bring it back to you he said you were an insulter he said we've got so much joy out of saving it so we want you to have it he said we love you we love you you'd understand it you ever had a little part in bringing somebody to Christ you had they love you oh that's wonderful isn't it yeah we love you his wife when he decided to be a preacher she rebelled she said I didn't marry a preacher I'm not going to take it I'm not going to go through all this going to school business she wouldn't let him read the bible wouldn't let him have family all or nothing oh it was pretty bad in the home I went to his community and held a meeting she came here one night she got mad at him she said I don't go back there that fool anymore but she did and God saved her he said we've got family all around we've got to read the bible we've got heaven in our home he said we love you and he said you know my mother he said you know what happened to her he said you can't get on with all this don't make me mad he said we love you his mother in her 70's she'd been a charter member of that church where I'd preached in 40 odd years and one night I preached and I said to somebody you're troubled you need help you want prayer lift your hand mother Mary among others lifted her hand we sang an impassioned song mother Mary she walked down got right down there and knelt at that pew at 12 or 13 it was over somebody walked up to her but he said no nobody can help me second night she did the same thing I'll have you understand she was the Christian of that congregation everybody looked up to her blessed woman and for the third night my soul no small controversy ever where he said that fool preached he got Miss Mary he said there's a Christian around yes she's here she said he can't be preaching the truth that she wouldn't be disturbed and and but she just kept coming now the last night he lifted her hand I'm in trouble and then there she'd come see down that pew you understand you're not saved by praying but you're not saved apart from praying it's the heart's cry of a sinner to the Lord and oh my she got me a crowd this coming you know that fool preacher that got Mother Mary disturbed you know I I couldn't disturb anybody but God was God was and one night I I thought maybe I could help and I knelt down by her and I said Mother Mary can any of us be of any service and she said no preacher this is something I've got to wrestle through she said but I've been trying to serve the Lord for over 50 years and I've never known a minute of the peace of God so just leave me alone leave me alone and you preached that he speaks peace and he's never spoken it to me and you preached that there is peace my peace I give unto you and I've never had it said I'm going to get in touch with him if he speaks peace I'm going to seek him till he speaks peace to me and I remember the thing went on Sunday morning came they asked me to speak in Sunday school and I went out and a little earlier I got out of my car and down the steps in the front of the building came Mother Mary she was German she had silver white hair beautiful pink red noble red cheeks beautiful she came walking to me like a 16 year old with a 70 year old body came up to me and stood like a told you to take in a crisp German accent she said Brother Bernard this morning at exactly 8 o'clock whilst I was washing the breakfast dishes the living Lord did speak peace to my soul and he's still in that business bless God he's alive he's the God of all peace and I look eternally down boys and girls and men and women in the eye and in the face from time to time the moon from one place to another if I could ask him any one thing I'd enjoin them I'd scold them I'd beg them I'd plead with them seek the Lord till he is yours and you're his do you bow your heads? and now dear Lord it's been our gracious privilege to minister to these dear people we thank you for this delightful visit for the kindness of the friend for the joy of the Lord and for this opportunity and now we beg that the Holy Ghost shall be honoured and obeyed right now right now before we stand for the benediction I do not know what your custom is it doesn't make any difference we be brethren do you know what I've been preaching about this morning? how many could lift their hand and say praise the Lord I know the peace of God through Jesus Christ would you just like to do it? I wonder if you could lift your hand and then just say praise the Lord I praise the Lord praise the Lord is there a troubled soul here while heads are bowed? and you'd like a prayer to be made for you there as you sit there could this be the service where you'll begin an all out search to become acquainted with and experience the power of the Christ who died thank God he's alive now and has the power of an endless life I'd like to give you an opportunity to indicate to me the Lord already knows cause he can see your heart that somebody here says I need the Lord I need to seek him until he's real to me until he does for me what only God can do for sinners and I want prayer made for me with Terry just a moment to give any such an opportunity to make that expression make that indication would you quietly lift your hand if there be such like that and then put it down and then we'll be going away is it clear? I'd want you to have an opportunity of making some sort of move some sort of response that the Holy Ghost has been blessed and gracious enough to cause you to feel your need of knowing the living God in Christ giving you the slightest desire he has to give it you know to be in living contact with the living God the God who was in Christ reconciling this whole world himself is that a hand lifted? may God bless you will you stand for the benediction? I do not know your custom here but I'd be so happy to meet you I'll stand at the front if you wish I don't know maybe supposed to go back to back but the Vista doesn't like it's been a joy to be here I'm glad the Lord saved me Amen? I fall in the name of the Lord Jesus send the people away under the power of the Holy Ghost to deal with people as they need and to seem as good in your sight we ask in Christ's name Amen