In this sermon transcript, the speaker recounts a time when he and a pastor were going door-to-door in freezing weather to spread the word of God. Despite their exhaustion and lack of time for basic needs like eating and bathing, the pastor encourages them to rejoice in God's plan to bring all things under the rule of Jesus Christ. The speaker then shares a story of a banker who was convicted by the preaching and confessed to embezzling money. Despite being sentenced to jail, the banker finds joy in his newfound faith. The speaker also mentions the impact of his preaching on young people, with some expressing their desperation and others questioning the truth of his message.

You do not have the privilege, ladies and gentlemen, of accepting or rejecting Christ. You better think that through. You've heard the sermon, what shall I do with this man who's called Christ? And the preacher says you can't be neutral, you've got to accept him or reject him. But that's not so. No man has the option as to what he'll do with Jesus. All men, under necessity, are bound to accept him. Did you get that? Some years since, in thirty-four degrees below zero weather in Ithaca, New York, when I was a little younger and not under pain, the pastor and I, he was pastor of the church adjacent to Cornell University, hotbed of hell. And he and I and everybody in the church that we'd get were doing like you people are, going out and ringing doorbells and talking to people. It was cold. And I remember just a few minutes before preaching time at night, we got in from our rounds and I was tired and he was too, and we didn't have time for evening meal and I needed to shave and should have had a bath. And he said to me, he said, well, praise God, we got turned down a lot today. But he said, let's rejoice afresh in the set determination of almighty God that all things shall one day be summed up in Jesus Christ and that this world shall be brought back under the sovereign purpose and rule of God through Christ and that before the wind of time comes everybody from Adam down to the last man, every knee shall bow, come hell or high water, men are going to bow to my Lord. And every tongue shall confess what's been true all the time, that Jesus is Lord. Not that I, let us quit pampering the wicked, hostile minds of hostile men with giving them the privilege of sitting in judgment on the Lord of the universe. No, Christ is not in your hands, you're in Christ's hands. And it's up to him, and that's solemn. The soldier found the truth that meeting the Lord Jesus Christ under whom all judgment and authority executed has been given of the Father, he found that meeting that risen, regnant Lord was to be his destiny and that he'd have to bow to it. And this is what that soldier says, I've got to follow that I've seen till this old carcass dies for I dared face in the land of grace the sorrow of those eyes. There ain't no throne and there ain't no books, it's him you've got to see. It's him, just him that is the judge of blokes like you and me. And boys, I'd sooner drizzle up in the flames of a burning hell than stand and look into his face and hear his voice say, well, I want to talk tonight about the time when God's people are going to shout hallelujah as they watch God's sin men behave. When every sinner is going to confess that he's getting exactly what's his due and say amen to the righteous judgments of God. And when God's people, who have not come saved yet but will be then, and will be able to look at sin like God looks at it then we'll shout hallelujah as God executes judgment on men who dare to live in God's world and not sweetly bow to God's rules. The 18th chapter of the 19th chapter of the last book of the Bible, I think maybe this is my favorite passage of scripture. And I want to read the first six verses in your hearing if you care to follow. And I want us to think together a little while tonight about the righteousness of God's judgment. That's perhaps the issue of this hour that I hope to develop in the message. Here in this 19th chapter of the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, I almost forget I'm a Baptist and shout a little every time I read this. And after these things, and after these things, I heard a great voice of much people, guess where they were? In heaven, they made it. I have a dear old preacher friend, he's known as the walking Bible, B.B. Caldwell of Greenville, South Carolina. Dear brother approached him one time and said, Brother Caldwell, I believe you're saved. I believe you're a Christian. I believe you'll get to heaven. But that's all. Brother Caldwell said, well, I'll be glad to stop there if I can just make it to heaven. I'm glad I'm a mixture of Pentecostalism and hardshellism and Methodism and Baptist and I don't know what else because I'm an optimist. There's going to be a great big choir, plenty of folks in heaven to sing the song of Moses and the Lamb in glory. I had a great voice. No committed to that. Great voice of much people in heaven. You know what they were doing? They were saying Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Salvation belongs to God. Hallelujah. I think one of the fellows in that choir, B.O. Jonah, he had to go to the seminary of the fish, you know, to find out God saved Santa. In the belly of the fish, God revealed himself to him and he cried out, Salvation. And I want to be in that crowd if I can and sing, Salvation belongs to the Lord. Salvation. That's a precious word, isn't it? You know how to spell the word Salvation? J-E-S-U-S. Jesus is Salvation. Salvation is Christ. Salvation. You've heard the story, haven't you? I'll tell it to you now. The Methodist pastor, the Negro pastor, came time for the annual conference. And the Slaven Elder was to be there. There are superintendents now, but then they had presiding elders. And the pastor liked his charge and he wanted to be returned next year. And he got the sisters to sweep out the church building and bring some fresh flowers. And they went around and collected all the dues they could and got everything up so the books would be just in tip-top shape. And the Slaven Elder would say the pastor had been doing a good job and he'd send them back the next year. And it worked all day Saturday for the presiding elders to be there on Lord's Day in the Sunday morning service and look everything over and make his choice. And they did everything they could possibly think of to do to fix it all up. Of course, the presiding elder was a city preacher. And the old colored pastor, as the shank of the evening came on, he pulled off his shoes as any real sure enough old-fashioned Alabama colored man will do every time he gets a chance. You know, I was raised amongst them. And relaxed. And then something struck him. One little matter he'd overlooked. He had a deacon that is pretty bad to shout. He's just liable to shout on you if you didn't watch it. And he's afraid that Sunday morning when the presiding elder was a preacher he'd find that this old deacon was just running everything but shouting. And he didn't know whether the presiding elder would like that or not so he put on his shoes again and twaddled over to see the old deacon. The sun was almost down. The deacon was fine. He came up to the end of the road. Howdy pastor, how's you? And they lived a little while and the pastor said, Deacon, I want to make a request to you. He said, I want to know first of all that you love me and the Lord. He said, yes sir, I shall do. I want to know that you want me to be your pastor come another year. He said, yes sir, I shall do. You preach if I adjust to suit me. Well he said, I want to ask you a special favor and I don't want you to get mad at me but I want you to make me a solemn promise that whatever happens while the presiding elder is preaching in the morning you ain't going to shout a lick. Well the old deacon said, I don't know whether I can make a promise like that or not but I suppose the spirit come on me and I couldn't help it. Well he said, if you do just run everything. And he looked down at the old deacon's shoes and they were a mixture of strings and baling wire to keep them on. He said, tell what I'm going to do. He said, in case you don't shout a lick tomorrow while the presiding elder is here I'm going to buy you a brand new pair of boots. And that is too much for the old deacon. He said, pastor, in case you're going to buy me a pair of brand new boots can I, does it, I ain't going to shout while the presiding elder is here. Well it came to a pointed hour and they introduced the presiding elder and he's an old time preacher and he got up and he said, brothers and sisters this morning I propose to preach to you on the word salvation. Well now that's a bad word to talk about around somebody that's kind of given to shouting you know. And of course they had plenty of time in those days and just come in wading through every time anything smelled like salvation he talked about it. So the announcement of the birth of Emmanuel and pretty soon he'd waded through many of the promises and the things. He'd look down at his old shoes and think of those new boots and he'd clamp his fists and finally got all the way over there and finally got to the 19th chapter of the last book of the Bible and he said, after these things and glory is the one thing to another glory and honor and power unto the Lord our God. What you shout so about far true and righteous are his judgments. Whatever God does is right. For he hath judged the great whore. Woo, you talk about a shoutin' time. Old Ralph Barnes, crazy. Made ten million mistakes a wretch. Butchered the truth. Trying to get it to grace. God bless you Lord I'm going to shout all over God's green pasture of heaven. And I see the smoke of this old religious whore that hates the salt of the blood and the grace of God and that has captured every denomination this side of hell or heaven and when God almighty rolls up his sleeves and sits on his hands and brings that religious thing to a climax under his true and righteous judgment I'm going to be sayin' hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah. For he hath judged the great whore of his servants at her hands. And again they said hallelujah. And her smoke rose up forever and ever. And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God. Guess where he was? That sat on the throne. Been there all time, honey. Gonna be there after you're through spittin' at him talkin' about this little God. Helpless. He's cast his vote and the devil's cast his vote. And now they're waitin' on great big news to decide the issue. Now, they fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne. Boy, that kind of God will do the latch on to as you can, brother. All hell can't dislodge him. Praise God. And there's the gladdies on the throne sayin' hallelujah. And a voice came out of the throne sayin' Praise our God, all ye his servants. And ye that fear him, both small and great. And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude. And it was the voice of many waters. And it was the voice of mighty thundering. Sayin' hallelujah for the Lord God's omnipotent reign. Woo, that's my shoutin' ground. I've been a hitchhiker evangelist over thirty years. That's a long time to hitch from one place to another. I had to quit a long time ago. The Lord God Almighty's gonna bring this controversy to an issue. And God's gonna win. I'm gonna ask you some questions tonight. Do you believe that God punishes sin? I'm gonna ask you something else. Do you believe God ought to punish sin? I'm gonna ask you something else. Do you believe God sends people to hell? Do you believe God ought to send people to hell? Which sovereign do you want to win? Back in the Garden of Eden, the controversy developed over the word authority. Who's gonna speak with authority? That's the only issue throughout all the ages. God has vested all authority in Jesus Christ. That's the one issue of the hour. Now listen to me. Which side do you own? The scriptures speak of two sovereigns. I was in a Baptist church some years ago in South Carolina. And in passing I mentioned the fact that God was a sovereign. And I didn't just pass and asked the service of a brother pastor from a neighboring town visiting. And he said, how about having lunch tomorrow? I got a crow to pick with you. And I said, all right. And it turned out his crow to pick with me. He said, you mentioned the word sovereign. And he said, you just passed on. Didn't tell the folks what it meant. I said, wouldn't need them to do that in a Baptist church. And by that time God had been pleased to give the hearts to the pastor and the people so they were listening to him. The preachers would understand that. No bragging there. But that has to happen. You don't get anywhere. And the next night I told him what that preacher said. And I asked him, haven't they never heard it in a Baptist church? It just means that God is God. That he's not a pretender. That he's God and you're there. That he does things after his own counsel. And if you don't know that kind of a God, you don't know the God and father of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says there are two sovereigns. One is sin. Personified. Sin reigns. It grips. It's totalitarian in its claims. It devours. It masters. It's a tyrant. It's sovereign. And then the Bible speaks of a sovereign redeemer. Just know as a matter of fact, says the apostle Peter, that God hath made this same Jesus whom you crucified. Both Lord and Messiah. The idea that you can accept Jesus or reject him is silly. For it's not a question of whether you're going to bow to Christ. It's a question of when. By the grace of God. If you can bow now, that's salvation. You don't have to. Nobody's going to force you to. They tell the story of the sovereign ruler, the king. The rebellion came to pass under his rule. He sent out his armies and crushed the rebellion. But some of the rebels went out in the mountain pastures and the swamps and kept their weapons and stayed in rebellion. And the king put a great candle up in a window in his castle and lit it and sent messengers to cry out. And here are all through the mountain passages that as long as the candle burned, any rebel who still had his shotgun, who'd come in and lay it down at the feet of the sovereign and come under his rule would be pardoned. That's what grace is, folks. As long as the candle of God's wonderful patience and long-suffering burned. Any older, hidey now. But when Jesus died on a cross and raised, was raised from the dead, the war was won. There's no doubt about the outcome. But men and women are out yonder in that hiding place. Most of them joined the church. I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, you're going to lay down that shotgun. Either under salvation or damnation, but lay it down, you're going to do it. You're coming under the sweet rule of Jesus Christ. Either under grace, under salvation or under judgment, under damnation, you're coming. That's the most solemn thing I ever faced. I can understand how a man named Noah could preach 120 years and never have a convert. But he understood, brother, he had faith. And he knew that one question of getting in the bow now or failure. God knows every knee shall bow. I'm glad. Every tongue shall confess, you can't win, my rebellious friend. By the grace of the sweet wing of Calvary, the Spirit moves men. But he'll crush you. He'll put his feet on your neck. His enemies are going to be made his footstool. God's going to win. I'm glad. Whose side are you on? During the Civil War, Kentucky was divided. Some people were the Johnny Rebs and other Yankee doodles. And one dear old woman, her husband, four sons had gone off to war. The Yankees had come through and taken everything off the farm that was loose at one end. Didn't have a pig or chicken, nothing left. The only weapon she had was a poker she stoked up this wood fire with. She looked out the window one morning and saw a bunch of rebels and Yankees shooting at each other. She pulled her, wanted to tie it down, pulled her glasses down, opened her eyes. Pulled up her big old long dress in one hand, got that poker in the other. She yelled out the front door. The neighbors said, hey, where are you going? Which side are you on, honey? Living in a day when the grace of God is being turned into lascivious. Oh, when the mercy of God is turned into a case of presumption. When the goodness of God that itself alone leads men to repentance is taken for granted. Oh, my soul, when the world is more religious and more sinful than it is now in human history. Which side are you on? My soul, God's gonna judge sin. You know, ladies and gentlemen, I haven't got sense enough to, but if I could, I'd do some preaching. I've wanted to for 37 years. I wish we'd quit picking at little temples. There's no reason in God's world, don't get mad at me for anybody, to feel much need of God's power now. Because most of the preachers present company excepted are trying to improve unregenerated men. And we preach on chewing tobacco and preach on going to picture shows and preach on I don't know what. And we never do see anybody under conviction because he says, well, I don't think there's more harm to do this than that. And chances are he's right. But there's one verse of scripture, and if ever I get to where I can preach on it, I wish you'd let me come and preach on it. I'm at least gonna read it tonight. The carnal mind is enmity. It doesn't say it's at enmity, it says it is enmity. The carnal mind is enmity. Hostility is the grief. It's a nest, a rattlesnake of hostility, a rattlesnake of hostility and hatred and opposition and indignation at the holy God. That's what you are, brother. Now a man that's mad at God maybe can be reconciled. An enemy may be reconciled. It's gonna be. The only way God can save you is to kill you. He kills and then he makes you alive. The only way he can save you is to bring you to judgment. The only way he can save you is to utterly crush you. To break your stubborn will away with this heresy that God almighty stands defeated before your will. You better start asking and begging God to crush you and break you. He can do it. Enmity. Why are men hostile? It's because God is a moral governor of the universe. It's the law of God. All are enemies in feats of hostility who do not submit to God's kingly authority as the sovereign lawgiver. These fundamental Bible teachers that have done away with the law have been till hell of Baptist church members. The first message of the cross is the law of almighty God. That's why Christ hung on the cross because God's a moral governor and lawgiver. If you don't love my Jesus as absolute Lord, you don't love him. If you do not know him as absolute Lord, you don't know him. Supreme dominion. See it? Supreme dominion is essential to God's character. To be truly loved, Christ must be loved as ruler, king, and Lord. You cannot be a friend of God if you hate his rule, his government. Now the controversy is who shall reign, God or you? Who's going to win this battle, God or sin personified in you? If we could get God to drop the reins of government and descend from his throne and lay aside his scepter and give up his law, men would like him. All of this talk about men loving God, loving Jesus is rank heresy. They are hostile to men that fear against God. And we need a revival of teaching and preaching that will plow down and get inside of men until they see that their trouble is not that they choose a backer, but their trouble is that they are hostile. Their hearts are full of the poison of ass and that furious hatred against the holiness of God. I remember in Tulsa, Oklahoma, we were in a tent meeting. And a dear young couple had been working on their neighbor. And finally one night they got him to come here and they preached. And old fool Ralph Barnwilder was preaching and he said to somebody here tonight, if it wasn't for the common grace of God and the mercy of God, restraining him in the influence of the gospel, he'd spit in the face of God and curse him and try to push him off the throne. And this young couple they brought there, they got up and spoke to him. And the young couple that brought him came around just sobbing like the heart breaks. And bless God, before midnight that couple was saved. They went home, they were so mad at me, they were mad at God. It wasn't long until they prayed. It wasn't long until they called the couple to come here. It wasn't long until they called the taxi. Taxi came and got me. They sat over there and they were just sobbing and a-blowing and a-blowing. And Bob Jones University started preaching in the university. And those young preachers and missionaries got to get saved. Most of them had been raided in Christian homes and they'd never had their hearts discovered to them. They never had killed anybody's mouth or anything. And the Lord put his power upon the world and began to open up that old seed of faith. My God, brother, you don't need a little improvement. You need a new heart. You see? And oh, it's beautiful. And I couldn't preach a sermon. Those young fellows, the Lord just turned their hearts up and they're getting up screaming, I'm lost! And the Baptist preachers all coming in, taking all of them to work in the inquire room. And the school got mad because they said I wasn't preaching the truth, that all those dead kids out there were saved. I don't know whether they were or not, but they were just screaming in the morning. One o'clock Sunday morning, I preached five times that day and I was tired. And the phone rang crazy. Kids outside the college woke me up and I had to preach five. I said, I got preached tomorrow. And he said, oh, I said, she's suffering, she's in hell. My God, the way to heaven is through hell anyhow. If you never tasted the gall of bitterness, you'll never know the sweetness of praise. I'm talking about this war that's going on. Brother, it's a war. It's not a mock battle. God give us preachers and teachers and deacons and witnesses and men and get inside those seats of hostility and open up those snakes that are in there until men and women shall say, I'm a man of unclean lips and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Years ago, I believe, I almost was in a revival. I've never seen anything to call revival. I've seen a little fire break out, just a little once in a while. But the greatest 13 weeks I ever spent came about like this. And everywhere I go, I say, Lord, do it one more time before I die. I went to one of these cities where they were having a simultaneous revival campaign. You know, all the Baptist churches. And I happened to be in the largest church in the city. And they had a day service at 10 o'clock and a radio broadcast from 830 to 9. And the Spirit of God began to move. And it turned out that we had a breath of revival, I guess you'd call it, over the radio and in that particular church. And the Spirit blows where it wills and it didn't blow anywhere else much. I don't know how to explain that, but that's the way it was. So the other preachers began to bring their evangelists into our day services and they began to listen over the radio and close to the simultaneous campaigns, I received the most blessed invitation I've ever received in my life. I won't tell you about it. It's on the subject. The Senate committee from the association asked me if I would return for all of the Baptist churches of that association. They said we'll get it in the city autumn if it's gettable, if it can't take the time, we'll get a large tent. We'll fill it every night. We'll buy you an hour's time on the radio. And we'll work hard and want you to come and lead us. Well, that sounded good to me. I'm subject to pastor and wait on them to call me. Then they said there are two conditions. And I didn't know what was going to happen now. Now, you Baptist preachers are not going to believe this, but so. They said there are two conditions. We'd want you to pray about them. We wouldn't want you to think we're trying to tell you how to run your business, but to come out of the deep conviction of our hearts. And before you tell us whether you'll come or not, we'd like you to think over these two conditions. And they named them. First, they said we want you to just preach on one subject over the radio and at night for a solid month. Will God punish sin? Now, after all, brethren, that's the issue in Houston. Nobody thinks he will. And you talk to them about your little bleak Jesus. And I was preaching to nice people. Men's hearts had me. In the Book of Romans, look at them. My God, their lips are full. And, oh, the snakes are running out. And the sea is swift. And there's a bunch of liars and hypocrites. And nobody's interested either in the Saviorhood or the Lordship of my Christ. They don't think they need anybody to keep them out of hell. There ain't no hell because God's too good to punish sin. And they ain't fixing to bow to nobody. God is a devil. Well, they're right down my alley. And the second condition was this. Will you come and speak for an hour on the radio and an hour at night and speak for a solid month and never give any kind of an invitation? My God, I said, you fellas Baptist? They said we're tired of casting pearls before swine, giving holy things to dogs. My soul, if there's one thing the Bible teaches is that God gives his blessings to prepare his heart. We haven't been able to get songs started in the free services before somebody's come and speaking the Lord. Now, God does that. All these school tricks we've got about the invitation, that's because they don't have God. They're a pretty good substitute, but that's all they are. I give an invitation and then try to get out of the way. But unless God's beating it to it, it don't do any good. They said we're so tired of telling folks about the Lord that it just goes in one ear and out the other. And they said we've decided we're not going at it the right way. For the only time anybody in the Old Testament or the New Testament have told anybody how to get saved is when somebody's begging them to tell them. Nobody ever went around saying, now all you've got to do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. No, that old boy is trembling. He's scared to death. He's afraid he's going to be in hell before the day is over. And he pleaded and they told him what to do because he wanted to know. Oh, my soul, the need of this hour is men and women who've got conviction enough to see we're in a war and this battle's got to be fought. Well, bless God, I took them up. But the Old Testament kind of interfered. I preached three weeks and both Thursday night and the fourth on one subject. I'll be on more of it maybe tomorrow night. My God, I don't want to have to deal with God's holy law by myself. You've either got to deal with Christ or the law on. And I ain't big enough to tackle the law. It'll tear me to pieces and send me smashing to hell so fast I'll kick up dust in the devil's face. I can't deal with it. On Thursday night, I preached about 20 minutes and the president of the biggest bank in that city woke up to meet me, came running down, pushed me aside and said, for God's sake, preacher, I've got to confess before this crowd. He'd been listening to me preaching, going home at night, getting down on his knees and saying, or you'll drop it at the judgment and be sent to hell. Just take your choice. It's got to be. Revival nearly broke out. That went on through 13 weeks. I never got to give an invitation. We had to have six people at a time under the big tent 24 hours a day for nine more weeks dealing with seeking sinners. We had to have six telephone people answering the telephone, people pleading, would you come and help me? I'm in hell. Oh, I wish we had time to get in this battle between a sovereign redeemer and that awful sovereign saint. God help you. God's going to win. And I'm glad. You do not have the privilege of accepting or rejecting Christ, but you do have the option of win. I can't explain this theologically. You're not a tin can. You're a responsible human being. You're going to have to have that will of yours broken so you'll be willing to bow to my blessed Lord. Wouldn't it be wonderful if that took place and you wouldn't have to bow at the throne at the judgment and be sent to hell? But it's one or the other. That's the reason I love Amazing Grace. In the providence of God.