In this sermon, the preacher discusses the concept of a reprobate nation, using the example of America. He believes that America is already in hell because of the moral decay and violence that is prevalent in society. The preacher emphasizes the importance of being steeped in the Bible to understand the current generation's spiritual state. He also talks about the three directions in which God's grace is extended: redeeming grace for the saved, common grace for those who have not yet been saved, and sufficient grace and mercy for all mankind. The sermon warns of the impending judgment and the need for God's redeeming grace to save individuals.

And to that end, I don't know whether I found the will of God or not, but I've been speaking beginning last night on reprobation. And I ask you to turn to our text again tonight, the second book of Corinth, ends at chapter 13, verse 5. This week, we are, we laid just the foundation of somewhat didactic teaching message last night, because I believe that we are, as a nation, going through a season of reprobation. I believe people are reprobate all about us. I believe multitudes are on the eve of being rejected by God. And so we're just holding before a congregation with all the boldness we have, and know, and yet trying to be used of God, this text. Examine yourself, verse 5, 13th chapter, 2nd Corinthians, examine yourself, whether ye be in the faith. There isn't a shadow of a doubt of what you and I are living in a generation where the faith of people is certainly being tested and exposed. Brother Spurgeon used to have a way of saying that your faith may be real, or your faith may be spurious. But whether it be real or spurious, it'll dead sure be tested. And surely that is a characteristic of this hour. And while I'm aware of the fact that we must not spend all of our time looking in our own experience and at evidences of our own life, I'm also aware of the fact that this generation's not in any danger of doing that, because this generation's going to split hell wide open depending on something they happen, say, happened years ago. This generation knows nothing, ladies and gentlemen, about vital union with the living Lord. This generation of people, they say they made a profession of faith, they say they accepted Christ. But this generation knows nothing as a generation of the glory of Christ and what it means to be joined in the holy bonds of matrimony as a branch to the living vine, to walk in daily fellowship under the lordship of him who is the lover of their soul. This generation's a stranger to that. And this is the time for us to examine ourselves, whether we be in the faith or not. And then the scripture says, prove your own self. Elect yourself a committee of one to prove yourself. Look for Bible evidences. The Bible evidence of saving faith is good works. We know that. Be about the business. And then he says, don't you know your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you, except you be reprobates. Jesus Christ is in you. You see, I wish we could get back to Bible language. The people say, now, Brother Barney, I know I'm a Christian because I did so and so, but the last record from the United Press was that salvation wasn't what somebody like us did, but it's the work of God from start to finish. The apostle Paul wouldn't understand the language of us people today. We say, well, Brother Barney, I accepted Christ. Paul would say, I obtained mercy. I obtained mercy. He gave the glory up there. So would we, if we ever got saved. But trouble most of us, we saved ourselves. We know we did because of what we did. What we did. But we need to face the fact that if we touched it, we ruined it. Unless it is all the work of God. Unless he saved it. Unless he did it. Not we. Then it's no good. Don't you know that Jesus Christ is in you? Is it? Is it? Somebody says it sure is hard to live a Christian life. The Bible knows nothing about language like that. The Bible says it's impossible to live a Christian life. But the Bible says there's somebody in you that makes the difference. Christ liveth in me, said Paul. Isn't that what he said? Oh, is Christ in you? Miracle of miracle, grace upon grace, glory upon glory, even as I speak to you now, is Christ being born in you, the hope of glory. That's scripture, isn't it? That's Christianity. Examine yourself. Tonight I wish to speak on the three marks of a person who's been reprobated, rejected by God, because he himself has committed unpardonable sin. In the sixth chapter of the book of Jeremiah, there's a good text to start with. Verse 30 says, Reprobate silver shall men call them. Why? Because God hath rejected them. I used to hear when I was a kid of a boy that while there was life, there was hope. And in some circumstances, of course, that's a good old fable of truism. But it does not hold good in the matter of a man's relation to Almighty God. For multitudes are walking the streets of our cities today who have long since been given up by Almighty God. They've been rejected. They've been cast away. They are reprobates, good for nothing but to be put in a fire and burned. And the reason men will so speak of them as reprobates is because of the action of a judge in God. They are reprobates because God hath rejected them. Let me review just a minute. Last night we brought to your attention that the grace of God is extended in three different directions. It's the same grace, but God acts in redeeming grace in those whom he saves. He blesses with what Bible teachers call common grace in men who've not yet been reprobated or who've not yet saved. And then he gives all men sufficient grace and mercy as to leave them without excuse. But the grace that leaves a man without excuse does not save him. Nor the blessing of God on all mankind and mercy and grace does not save him. It takes God's redeeming grace, the strong hand of his power saving men and women. Last night we called to your attention that as there are three expressions or directions in which the grace of God is extended, there are three classes of people we have reason to believe that are walking our streets. First, there are those who are children of God. And we mention for your perusal, if you're interested, as the scriptures say, now, Ralph Barnett, examine yourself. The scriptures say in another place, give all diligence to make your calling and election sure. And he's talking to professing Christians. You better work at it, honey. You better work at it. You better be more diligent about making your call from God and your being chosen him. That better be a big thing with you. Ladies and gentlemen, only the individual who perseveres in holiness shall be saved. That's so, isn't it? Not the fellow who says, I got saved. No, no. Not the fellow who said, well, I accepted Christ. No. But the fellow in whom the word takes root and brings forth fruit to perfection, that preacher who does not constantly enjoin God's professing people to give all diligence, ladies and gentlemen, you better work at this or you are not going to make it to heaven. Perseverance in holiness is the evidence that a work of grace has been begun. If it don't continue, it wasn't saving grace to start with. Amen? I don't know whether you believe that or not. Baptists used to believe it, and I still do. And whether Baptists used to believe it or not, and whether you believe it or not, and whether I believe it or not, the Bible teaches it, and that settles it. Oh, yes. There's need to be alive, dear friends, at the men and women on the bench. Is anybody here in church who are presenting that they're saved? Who are hoping they're saved? We need men and women who diligently do what they say. Always be ready, says the Bible, to give an answer for the hope that's within you. Beside all this giving all diligence, I'm quoting scripture, make your calling. Unless God calls you, you'll never be saved. And he calls those he chose. Make your calling and election sure. Make your calling and election sure. Now, there are three classes of people, those who have been called. They're God's children, and they've been able to respond, and they've been joined in vital, victorious, well-overcoming faith. They are literally ministering to the living Lord. That's what salvation is. Then there are those who are still under common grace. They've not yet been saved. I say in the will, but the Lord hasn't turned thumbs down on them yet. And then there are people whom God's rejected. He's turned thumbs down on them. They're not under redeeming grace or common grace. God's removed all grace from them. I think we called their attention to last night, they're already in the anteroom of hell. There's hell in their hearts, there's hell in their homes. They're living in hell. They've committed sin, and God's brought his judgment on them, beginning in O.W. Now. If you want, just as an illustration, if you doubt what I'm preaching, don't contradict me unless you've been there. I worked in the movie industry when I was a young man, in Hollywood. Listen to me. If you want to see people who are already in hell, just go and associate with the people of the entertainment world. They're already in hell. They have tasted everything this world got to offer, and none of it tastes good anymore. They're in hell. They've had all the thrills. If you want to see people in hell, go to New York City, that city where one out of every ten people is a male or a female homosexual. And go, as I've done, to some of the dives where even the use of male and female is of no more enjoyment. Have you ever been in a dive, and you've seen them beat each other with terrible whips until they bleed all over? And they'll fight for it to be their time. Next day, they got to beat the other one, but they don't get any kick. The other fellow, they get a kick out of being failed to within an inch of their lives, and that's the only thing in this side of eternity, David Beecher, that gives them a thrill. I've seen it. And it pains multitudes of people today. You see, when a man is rejected by Almighty God and given up at first, but given up. See, Friday night we hope to preach on a reprobate nation, according to Paul's description. Listen, when a man is given up, when he's rejected, when God removes his grace, he's already in hell. He's already in hell. I believe America, for the most part, is already in hell, because it's popping loose on our streets, in our homes, in our churches everywhere. My soul, something's happened to this generation. Nobody on God's earth understands, except men and women, who are steeped in this book. Every morning, these 930 hours, I've been seeing, these are different days. They call for us to leave our lazy traditions and go to advancing ourselves. To this day, this day, is finding out that the way of the transgressor's heart, there's hell on our streets, there's hell in our homes, there's hell everywhere. Men are in hell. Men are in hell. There are three marks that God, in judgment, places on a man whom he's rejected and reprobated. People ask me, Brother Barnard, do men commit this awful sin, pass beyond the old-time preachers who say the deadline, commit in preacher parlance, not scriptural, but preaching? I think it's all right, the unpardonable sin. Do men pass into a state of reprobation? My answer is yes. Tomorrow night, God willing, I want to bring the scriptural teaching on how men come to this state. Tonight, three marks. Of a reprobate sinner. I'm bringing these marks, not in the hope that anybody who's here, who's already reprobated, who wears these marks, will be saved. They'll never be saved. I bring them to scare anybody who may not yet be reprobated. I wish I could warn you. I don't know how close you are to that awful time. I don't know whether there's still opportunity for you to flee to Christ, how much longer you have. I bring you these three marks. First, when God rejects a sinner, reprobates him, gives him up, turns him over to hell. Three things. First, God ceases to resist man's evil nature, and the means that God thus far has used to restrain men in their evil nature no longer do the job. No longer do the job. Second, I want to preach largely on that tomorrow night. It's the most alarming thing that I've seen as a little poor preacher about the day in which we live. It makes me want to face men with the seriousness of this hour. I don't like these empty seats, but I'm not fussing at you. You're here. I wish your church were on fire, but maybe it is, but it hasn't been since I've been here. I'm not fussing about that. I'm saying right now, this generation is perilously close to terrible, terrible judgment. How you know, Brother Barnett, those things that God showers on men, to bring them and lead them, to honor him and love him and trust him and be his son, those things aren't working anymore now. God seems to have just taken his hand off and ceased to resist evil men and women. Let me give you just one little illustration. If you've recently been to New York City, and I don't say that the wrong way, people travel so much now, but the last time I was on 2nd Avenue or the Bowery Mission, it was not safe for a woman to walk either of those streets by daytime, and it wasn't safe for a man to walk the streets by night. It wasn't safe. Men kill you, rob you, they mug you. Oh, have you ever been in the slums of a great big city and seen the hell that's there, and the animals in human form that'd kill your foot? Way back yonder sometime, those same people were greatly influenced for decency and morality by the grace of God as he blessed them. For instance, if a man's got a good job, you know why you've got it? The grace of God. Amen? It ain't because you're smart, honey, it's because of the grace of God. God's the one that gives you power to get wealth. If a man has a good job, it ought to lead him to worship and honor and obey God and his fellow men. Amen? Not now. Not now. But I must pass over that. A man who's in a state of reprobation is a man that God has taken the bridle off, and he no longer uses his good gifts to lead him to Christ. It is still true that the goodness of God is the only thing that leads men to repentance. If the goodness of God don't lead you to Christ, you'll never be brought there. And yet today we're living in a generation when the goodness of God has led this generation, even of the vast majority of Church people, to commit what I believe is the most terrible, what I believe is the most damaging sin that men can commit against their nation and their homes and their lives and everything else. And I believe history will back it up. The pleasure-mad throngs who turn the Lord's day into a time to enjoy themselves in the flesh. If you read your history and read the Bible, brother, America is bound to be close to the most terrible judgments we've ever experienced. Over that one thing alone. Forget the Lord's day is the most sure way to turn one's back on God. And I call you to witness that America used to be a nice, great place. Our churches used to be fast. Our prayer meetings were fast. Our homes were open. Our young people are not here tonight, and I haven't seen them since I've been here. And that's to be true everywhere that I go. Something terrible will happen this blessed day that is about the best measure of your relationship to God I know anything about. It's now not a holy day. Our churches are empty on Sunday night in far more places than they're full. And the beaches are full, and the racetracks are full, and the ballgames are full, and the television folks are full, and everything's full, except that day for the Lord. And the Lord seems to just say, okay, in the church and out, go ahead. He seems not to be restraining. That's a terrible sign. But I must pass from that to the second mark of a person in a state of reprobation is something terrible has happened to his conscience. And God Almighty has brought judgment on one's conscience to the extent that that thing that God put in a man, it is not native to men. It is the gift of God. And men are born with it. God gives it. And people are born with the knowledge of right and wrong. And people are born and as they grow up, when they do wrong, for a while it causes them pain. And when they do right, it causes them joy. But something happens to a man's conscience. And the book of Romans tells us in the second chapter what happens. The book of Timothy tells us about a defiled, a seared conscience. The book of Titus tells us about a defiled, evil conscience. And the book of Romans tells us about a man in whom his conscience, instead of accusing him, now excuses him. And if that isn't a picture of the day we live in now. Ladies and gentlemen, I call you to witness you are living in a generation now when men and women have suddenly become gods. And everybody does that which is right in his own sight. And the Bible is a nice little book, but we don't pay any attention to it. And there may be a God, but nobody can prove it. And now, ladies and gentlemen, anything on God's earth I want to do is all right. There ain't nothing wrong with nothing now. That's right. Conscience. And somebody says, well, I tell you now, preacher, my conscience don't bother me. No, sir, something's happened to it. Way back yonder it did. But now I don't. Way back yonder it accused you. Now it accuses us. I can remember. I'm 61 years old. I can remember your death, I tell you, when it was wrong to commit adultery. Any of you folks old enough to remember that? You know why it's wrong to commit adultery? Because God said, God said, not now, not now. When a man says that God did it, we'll excuse him for his sin. You can put it down. God's given him up. There's no way to reach a man whose conscience excuses his sin as long as it accuses him. He says, I tell you right now, that's wrong. I tell you right now, that's terrible. I tell you and lose a little sleep about it. And he'll blush. You ever seen about blush? I can remember when I saw a lady blush one time. Haven't seen it in the last 30, 40 years. Nothing to blush about now. Nothing to blush about now. But there used to be some modesty. And modesty. And modesty. And shame. Do you remember when sometime on your bed at night, that evil your daddy bothered you and couldn't sleep so good? But thank the Lord, we've thrown him out the window. And now the gate wide open. And everybody does what's right in his own sight. But when a man's conscience, that gift of God, no longer accuses him. No, but instead excuses him. He's in a state of reprobation. His conscience has been as a red-hot iron. And it's been defiled and made evil. They'll call evil good and good evil. And a man's gone. That's enough to alarm every Christian in Lancaster. That's enough to set out churches on fire. This generation is in a terrible state. God helping it, Christian. Professing Christian. It's not on the ball to warn men and women with tears these days. But I pass to the third mark of one who's been placed in a state of reprobation. And this, of course, is the most terrible thing that I've been able to find in the word of God. When God gives up on a person, bad enough to quit restraining and just let him go. God gives up on a person bad enough just to watch him as he defiles his conscience till it gets to where it no longer accuses. But the most terrible mark, the most hair-raising thing I've ever read in the word of God, which I believe to be true in so many people today, when God puts a man in a state of reprobation, he puts him under his silence. His silence. That's the most terrible thing that God could do to any human being. He just won't talk to you anymore. He won't say another word to you. He'll never trouble you anymore. He'll never finger around your heart anymore. And that isn't all. He won't listen to you. When you try to get in touch with him, the heavens will be brass. The silence of God. I won't say three brief things about this awful judgment of God. I wish I could say it as if everybody in the world were hearing me. I wish they could. I mean this, not because I could do it, but oh, the terribleness of this hour. The worst thing about the day in which we live tonight is the silence of God. Has God gone off fishing somewhere? Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know what your answer would be, but how long has it been since God's paid any attention to us much when we did pray? That's something that's a little bit depressing. Has almighty God closed his ears and closed his lips? The thing that's killing this preacher faster than anything, this sight of glory, is what's happened in the last few years. I do not see, nor I see anybody else, has much evidence of a living God intervening and dealing individually. To me that's solemn, and I'm scared about it. Let me say three things about that awful thing first. The silence of God is a terrible thing to even talk about, much less experience. When we remember first that men are saved only as a living God deals with them individually. I don't know whether you Baptists believe that now or not, but you used to. We're not Catholics. We don't believe we're saved through ordinances, amen? And we don't believe we've got to come get Brother Beecher to stand between us and God. We believe that God speaks to the individual spirit, and the Baptist teaches that the only way on earth a man can get saved is for God to call him and him to be able to answer. Then he also calls no in between, just between a living, dying, demanding calling for a human being's spirit. That's the way men are saved. Men are not saved by making decisions. Nobody's ever saved because he decided to do something. Men are saved by God's call. You can make your decisions without God, but it takes the call of God and your answer, your response, and he gives that too, to save a man. We can go ahead and build our churches and go through the motions and count on having a hand in some school. They ain't there at prayer meeting. They're not out there on a witnessing. They're not out there on living holy lives and all of that. But we can go through all that tomfoolery without God dealing with people. But ain't nobody going to get saved except as God Almighty calls them. Amen? That's right. And if God puts a man under his silence, it means he'll no longer call him. Let me just read three verses of scripture, Acts 18 and 8. Many hearing believed. 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 4, Knowing therefore, brethren, beloved, your election of God for our gospel came not to you in word only, but in power, and in spirit, and in much assurance. That's how men get saved. Romans 10, verse 17, So then faith by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Oh, to be under the silence of God means that God never speaks again. This book, the Holy Spirit, don't take it and make it alive to you. Don't you see it? See, the devil believes this book. Amen? He believes every word of it. If it takes more than that, it takes the Holy Spirit to make him quicken in that to you. Don't you know that? Oh, the second thing, to be put under God's silence is to be doomed then and there. I see this as I go from place to place. I've seen it when multitudes are claiming Christ and one none are. I've seen it in big crowds and little crowds. You preach the word, you come off your feet in hours of prayer and agony, and I spend it every day of my life. I'm not going to join these fool preachers running their legs off making little visits because their membership is not right with God. God calls the preacher to stay on his feet and expound this book, brother. That's his job. Yours ain't got time because you're not working, and you know it. Listen, listen, listen. And I speak, and I always give the same invitation. If God's talking to you, do what he's telling you to do. That's the only kind I know to give. And most folks never make a move, and I don't know whether they don't need to make a move, or God's quit them. I can't tell, I'm not God. But I know one thing, if God shuts his lip and no longer calls you, and shuts his ears and won't hear you in the scriptures, tell about people like that. You're doomed, you're doomed. And I'm preaching with fewer results than every other preacher on the top side of God's earth is right now, be honest. We're getting fewer people saved in proportion than a day we've ever known. And I'm scared. I can't save men. I can't penetrate the spirits of men. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. I can't uncover your heart. I don't know whether you're right with God or not. I can't get inside. But dear, I'm still not God, and I wouldn't know what to do if I got there. The Holy Spirit can get inside you. The Holy Spirit can reveal the truth to you. The Holy Spirit can show you the condition you're in. I can't. I can't. He takes truth, but only he can make that truth burn in a man's soul. And if he don't do it, it won't be done. And God help us. He's not doing it much. Now, our Sunday morning crowds come, and the preacher preaches, and the choir sings, and they go through the motions, and they go out the door, and they never heard a word that is said. All during the service. Oh, it's a pretty thing in the nice sermon. So they go away. May I give you one example? If you turn to the 19th chapter, the 18th chapter of the Gospel of John, I want to give you just one example of one person who was put under the silence of God. And these who were put under the silences of God on Thursday night, I believe it is, I hope to just go through the Bible and give you Bible example after Bible example of people whom God has reprobated. They're put in there to warn us. We might not join them. I call your attention to a man by the name of Pontius Pilate, who was put under the silence of God. Time will not permit it, but the Lord Jesus Christ in the days of his flesh was brought into the presence of the Roman governor, a man by the name of Pontius Pilate. He examines him carefully by the Roman law and finds him not guilty. He wants to turn him loose, but the leaders, the sons of hell of the Jewish generation, the reprobates of the Jewish nation, they were called sons of hell and sons of Satan because their characters had crystallized until they had the characteristics of Satan, and they wouldn't let the common people. And they incited them, and they demanded the release of Barabbas and the crucifixion of the Son of God and the poor, helpless people in their willful ignorance. They just followed their leaders and had their part in the crucifixion of Christ. And while my Lord was being tried, he was being shuttled back and forth for a little while between Pilate and Herod and Herod and Pilate. But finally Pilate can't get anywhere, he's got to make a decision. And the scriptures tell us in chapter 19, verse 6, "...when the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him! Pilate saith unto them, Will you take him and crucify him? I don't find any fault in him. But the Jews said, You ain't going to get out that easy. We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God. When Pilate therefore heard that saying," What saying? The Jews said, We've got a law, you've got to kill him. Why? The Jews said, He made himself the Son of God. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid. And went again into the judgment hall where Jesus was, and said unto Jesus, Whence art thou? He was dead and earnest. But I remind you that this is the sixth question that Pilate asks of the Lord Jesus Christ when he is before him on trial. And the 18th chapter gives the record of the first five questions. I'll not go into it. Pilate asked the Lord a question. The Lord answered him. Then Pilate went ahead and ignored what he said. Pilate asked him another question. The Lord answered him. He went ahead and sinned against the answer. Pilate asked him a third question. The Lord answered him. He sinned against the answer. Pilate asked him a fourth question. The Lord answered him. He sinned against the answer. Pilate asked him a fifth question. The Lord answered him. He sinned against that answer. Now he's asking the sixth question. Where did you come from? People say, You made yourself the Son of God. He'd been warned of his wife, you know, I tell you, you'd better watch out. He's scared. And the verse of scripture says, When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he is more afraid. He is more afraid. He's scared. And this scared him to death. He is trembling. He is dead and earnest! And he went back in. He's facing the multitude. He went back in the jailhouse or the courtroom where he left the prison. And he stood before Jesus, and he didn't know who he was. He didn't know he was the Son of God. But he asked him the most important question a human being could ask him of God. Whence art thou? Who sent you? Who are you? These you say you claim to be the Son of God. Who are you? Whence art thou? Whence art thou? Whence art thou? Read the rest of the verse. And he gave him no answer. And he gave him no answer. And he gave him no answer. He gave him no answer! Oh, yes, Pilate! The limitless questions Pilate asked him. Five times the Lord answered him. Five times Pilate trampled the answer under his feet. The sixth time! Whence art thou? Where did you come from? And he gave him no answer. That's the last of Pilate. He died in an insane asylum. He washed his hands. He's in hell tonight trying to get the blood of the Son of God off his hands, but he can't. My Lord put him under his silence and would not. Come sundering from the word of God advice heaven sent to eternity bound men and women, bound men and women. Seek ye the Lord, he may be found. Call ye upon him. For he puts men under his silence and gives them no answer. Will you stand?