In this sermon, the preacher passionately addresses the state of the world and the church's role in it. He emphasizes the need for confession, prayer, and witnessing in order to bring healing to a sinful world. The preacher highlights that God works through believers to testify to lost men and women, and that their testimony is crucial in reaching others. He warns against hypocrisy and the loss of testimony within the church, urging believers to live a life that reflects their encounter with God. The preacher shares personal experiences of his own sinful past and the transformation he underwent through God's grace. He concludes by emphasizing the importance of a genuine and powerful testimony that can impact others and lead them to salvation.

Chapter 16. We wish to read together the last part of the story our Lord Jesus told about the destiny of two men. One whose name was Lazarus, the other, the spirit did not see fit to name. One of them felled sumptuously here on earth and he died, was buried. The other was a beggar, he died and was buried. And the Lord Jesus lifts the curtain between eternity and time, lets us see that their situations were reversed. And the one who was buried so well in this life is suffering in torments in the life to come. And the one who was a beggar in this life, feasting on the riches of God's goodness for his people. One of the men, the rich man, does not cry to get out of hell, but he cries that his suffering may be relieved. And the answer is that when a man dies, all of the mercy that God has for men and women is this side of the grave. And the other answer is that there is a great gulf and it's fixed. It cannot be moved and there cannot be any travel between the land of bliss and the land of torment. In other words, this rich man is assured here in this passage of scripture that his destiny is sealed, that there shall be no surcease from his awful, awful torment. Then beginning with verse 27, this rich man is made to turn his attention back to this old earth. Having found out there's no hope for him, he turns and he speaks in this while. Then he said, I pray thee, thou forefather, that thou would send him to my father's house. He asked that the father send Lazarus back from heaven to hell and touch his finger in water, come and bring that finger that had touched water and bring it and put it on his father's tongue until that couldn't happen. So he said, oh well, I pray thee, thou forefather, that thou would send him to my father's house, back down on the earth. I ask our brothers that he may testify unto them, lest also they come into this place of torment. Abraham said unto them, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. He said, no father Abraham, but they won't listen to them, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. He said unto him, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. There is a sentence in that expression that we cannot get around. That is, that the only escape from the torments of the life to come is the exercise of real and genuine and lasting and heartfelt repentance in this life. This man said, if you send somebody from the dead and let him testify to them, they'll repent. He's saying that they're in hell, I'm in hell because I didn't repent. He's saying they're headed for hell, and the only way of escape is Bible repentance. We're living in a generation that's going to wind up in hell. Your neighbors are going to wind up in hell, your children. Many of them read in Sunday school, but more interested in the things of the world than in things of God. It amazes you to see youngsters now when we tell that they're saved because they've made a profession of faith, and we do not see them in time except on Sunday morning, and they're at home tonight glued to a television or radio, or they're doing something, or they're getting their lessons, or they're down at the movies, or they're gone to see Grandma, and yet we call them Christians, and we find out we do not recognize that this is the day when men make professions but do not repent, when men claim Jesus but do not turn from their sins, when men claim to be saved but hold on to their darling blood, when we say we believe the gospel but we're very apart from us heart forsaking of turning from our sins. No one is saved who has not turned from all of his sins in such a way as to never go back to them. There's no going back in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. No one is saved who can be happy in any kind of sin. Is that right? That's so. And we're living in a generation now where people are going to hell. They're going to hell from our churches. They're going to hell from our homes. They're going to hell all about us because they've missed repentance. They've missed repentance, and the only way on earth, listen to me, the only way on earth they're going to be kept out of hell is by the churches of the living God, either becoming full of sane people or full of people who are obedient. I look at your faces tonight, and I'm aware the last one of you are in the same shape I'm in. You either need to be saved, you miss Christ, or you need to be obedient and walk in paths of holiness and come to areas of consecration you never heard about and learn to love the word holiness instead of make fun of it. That's what we need, isn't it? My friends, the only hope is for the churches to get on fire. Somebody said that the test of whether the gospel will work on the outside world will be determined by how it works inside. And our churches today do not have a testimony now. Nobody's afraid of us. Nobody much is under conviction because of the holy garments that the people in our churches wear today. Sinners are not screaming for mercy but watching us live. We talk with them, we walk with them, we have intercourse with them, we invite them to our services, and they know that it's not much reality and this generation's going to hell as sure as I'm standing here unless a fire can be started in the house of God. There's never been a revival since time began that is advertised. Revivals are when the fire starts. People come to see a fire. Most places I go, the whole meeting, church day, the membership are nights. They let us have the building to hold the meeting in, and most of them don't show up Sunday morning. Some of them fewer show up Sunday night, Monday night, not so many. And if we get crowds, we have to get them from vistas. You go to Burlington, you can't get a corporate guard where these folks come from unless they have a few of the members and vistas come from other churches. And we call it revival. The world is going to hell because it's missed repentance, and we cannot expect our houses of worship to be filled or overflowing with men and women, hungry and thirsty, and asked to go until the churches once more either get full of saved people or the ones of us who are saved get filled with the Spirit and the Lordship of Jesus Christ shall be regnant and marked on our hearts. And people say, there's somebody who's been bent to the rule of Jesus Christ, and brother, this world, when it sees the gospel works inside our churches, it'll come to watch the fire burn. Now we're down to just that. We've tried everything else. Some evangelists I know will not think of trying to hold a gospel service without having a movie. Most of them have a movie. Every night they say, we can't get people to come to hear the word of God, and we can't unless the fire is built. We can't unless God's got some people that are saved and hungry and thirsty and ready to confess every known sin and ready to be done with everything that there's any any doubt about. We're such broad-minded people now, and the only difference on earth between us and the outside world is we claim to be Christians and they don't. Neither one of us know much about it. And like all that fire, the world is going to hell. I want us to think pretty seriously tonight about this very simple statement. This world's going to hell because it's missing the Bible way of repentance, and the only thing between this generation and hell is the testimony of people who know what repentance is by experience, who know what it is to hate sin and run from it and live godly, holy lives, and whose lives by the holiness of them will strike conviction in the hearts of people. Is that what you want? I think that we cannot go on too much longer now, turning wheels within wheels, having our Sunday school and preaching, our training union, preaching, our prayer meeting, our so-called revival meetings, and we'll come in and go out like we came. We do not need God, and we do not know what holiness is now. This is a generation where people are afraid of holiness and not afraid of sin, and we'll never see the Shekinah glory of God in our churches, and the world will never come to see what's going on until we walk again in paths of holiness. The only thing between this generation and hell, the only hope winning this generation, is that the fire of the Holy Ghost shall be started in the meeting houses that were called churches of the Lord Jesus Christ. I wonder if I'm speaking to anybody here tonight who claims to be a Christian, and there's the least thing in your life established as any question at all. Brother, you better get out on your knees. You better not leave this house tonight. If you do, and you ask me to come here to lead you in revival, and you're a member of this church, and you're one of these church members going around here and saying, I don't think there's anything wrong with this, and I don't think there's any more harm in this and that, and I don't think God will send me to hell for this, and I don't believe this is as bad as something else. Why, it's a judgment. It'll be terrible when God charges you with the blood of sinners on your hands. Oh my God, think of it. This world, hell and all, missed repentance, and the only hope is for people who know repentance. They hate all sin. They hate every kind of sin. They run from every kind of sin. You can't get them to entertain the idea of sin. They've met God. They know what a hard forsaking of sin is. They're not willing to be guilty of anything about which the least possible question can be raised by God or man. Oh my, so that's Christianity. That's the evidence of salvation. These men and women run up down this country. They smoke the same brand that the world does, drink the same brand the world does, go to the same shows the world goes, listen to the same things the world listens, talk the same language the world listens. They advertise the mockery of religion. They do not advertise blood-stained Jesus, and they're helping, not only going to hell themselves, but they're dragging everybody they know along with them. And the only hope of rescuing the perishing and careful of dying and seeing a breath of revival and seeing men swept into the kingdom of God in your day and mine is for people who know God in repentance and faith and hate sin with all their souls, every kind of sin, and walk from it and love God and bear the mark and rule of his reign in their lives, filled with the spirit, shall lift up their voices in testimony to this generation. I listen to a man talk about things of eternity if he, if I know him, and I know the gospel's work with him. I listen to a man if I know that he's been brought to the place he hates sin. I listen to a man if I can see in his life the marks of his devotion to and love for the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's all kinds of people this world will listen to. Ladies and gentlemen of Calvary Baptist Church, you need not expect God to visit in revival power if there's a person here who's willing to engage in anything about which there's any question. There are two statements in one verse of scripture in the Bible that mark a child of God. Let me quote, nevertheless the foundation standeth sure the Lord knoweth then that it is and let everyone that nameth the name of the Lord depart from all iniquity. This is a generation, listen to me, this is a generation of so-called Christians who want to do everything they possibly can and still not go to hell. People come to me and say, Brother Barnwell, will God send me to hell for doing so-and-so? And I say, yeah, he'll send you, not for doing so-and-so because you show you've never repented. If you'd repented, you wouldn't be finding out how much sin you could do and still get to heaven. You won't be finding out how far you can run from sin. God looks at the heart. God looks at the heart. Oh, hear me, hear me. This is serious with me. This is serious with me. God bless your heart. I burn about this. My heart bleeds about it. Listen to me, this generation going to hell and the churches of the living God, weeding in broiliness, making fun of holiness, sneering at godliness. Well, my, it's a fraud. We've not had enough cheese to spread on the crackers and we've lost our testimony and nobody pays much attention to us and that's heartbreaking when I remember that the prayer of this rich man here, he said, on the human side, I know there's nothing that can reach my 5 billion except testimony by somebody that knows what he's talking about. It's heartbreaking when you face the fact that the only thing on the human side, as far as you and I have got any part of entering into, the king made a rule about us from spending eternity in hell. The only thing is our testimony, our testimony. God kept us. If it gives a bold mind, it's bound. If it gives an uncertain sound, if it gives a weak sound, if that of it is not lies that live, I will prove that this gospel is the message of a supernatural death by supernatural God and the work of the spirit, a miracle of supernatural grace created only in many women so that there is not commonplace lies but supernaturalized lies that cannot be lived except by men who've met God and who know God in their experience. Listen to me. Listen to me. That's what we need tonight. That's what we've got to have. If that's what you want to play by, if that's what you want to confess to, if that's what you're after, then it's not a mockery. But if we think that we can pull the wool over God's eyes and get men born into the kingdom of God over our unconfessed sins, over our fault-minded living, over our non-fellowship one with another, over our naked form of forgiveness, over our accusing things with anointed lips to witness to the supernatural work of grace that's been working in our lives, that transformed us, and we know it will work in us and work in somebody else, if we're not willing to do that. It's mockery to have church services. It's mockery to say we're going to entertain the hope of a revival meeting. Amen? That's right. That's right. Now, there are two things tonight. First of all, if anybody's going to testify to this generation, it'll have to be us. If anybody's going to pray for men today, it'll have to be us. Dead people are not going to come back to do our praying for us. Dead people are not going to come back to testify to our loved ones for us. This man said, send Lazarus back and let him testify to my brothers. And Abraham said, no, no, that's not the way God works. That's not the way God works. Well, Lazarus has done his due, and now he's in good work. He's done all the work that he'll ever do, and God's not going to raise people from the dead to do the praying for this generation. God's not going to raise people from the dead to do the preaching to this generation. God's not going to raise godly, holy men of old who saw revival and paid the price and felt the breath of God and walked under the rule of Christ and saw it move mountains and fill up valleys and swiped hordes of people into the kingdom of God. It's not enough for us to read about them and pray that God will send them back. If anybody's going to warn this generation, if anybody's going to testify to this generation, if anybody's going to weep over this generation, if anybody's going to pray for this generation, if anybody's going to keep men out of hell with their bodies transformed and nailed down to God, it's the men and women who know God in this day, in this day. If anybody's going to witness in this community, it'll have to be the same people in the churches around here. If anybody's going to pray for them around here, you can't import somebody to do it for you. I was in Utica, New York some years since, and they took me down to a woolen mill a hundred years before. Charles Finney, God's greatest gift to evangelism, had been in Utica. It's not a very big place at that time, a city of 150,000 people when I was in it, and he held a meeting, so did I. Nobody found out much I was in town. We had all the churches in the city believe in anything. They came to get me. I had a big oath to them, spent a lot of money on advertising, got me on the radio, passed out handbills, did all the things not many folks ever found out we were having a meeting. Just went right on, just went right on, and I went down, got a card. I had to get a card, and one of the pastors took me through a woolen mill a hundred years before that. Charles Finney's in the city, and he'd been in that same woolen mill, and the Spirit of God was so working all over that city of Utica that when Mr. Finney stepped in the building, all of the workers becoming acquainted with his presence, quit working on the spinning wheels or looms or whatever they were, and just got out on the fields and sobbed and prayed under conviction. People everywhere, and the owner of the spinning, of the woolen mill came to Mr. Finney and begged him to talk with the people and help them know how to receive. He said to do nothing but cry and bawl and pray, and he said he can't keep my factory running, and said, I'm interested in thy souls, and said they're seeking the Lord, and Mr. Finney, when he went in there, they begged him to show them how to receive. I had to get me a card, and they forbade me to give out any tracts and told me not to speak to anybody and disturb them. You see the difference in Finney and me. Finney had the power of God, and I don't have much of it. Finney turned the city upside down, and nobody much found out I was there. Finney goes inside a woolen mill, and the people begin to scream and pray, and beg him to pray God to have mercy upon them. And I stood there, and saw the contrast, and I closed my eyes as my hot tears came on my face, but I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, and I prayed, pavement with their knees, praying for the souls of men. Oh, he said, businessmen going about their business, they'd meet together, next thing you know they'd be down on their knees right on the sidewalks and pavements, absolutely oblivious to everything. He said so much of it went on in that six-month revival campaign where over 100,000 souls came to God. He said they were so oblivious of business and everything else that the rest of the soul, not knowing it, that they literally wandered the pavements out with their knees. He said women going to market and going about the town, they'd congregate in little groups and next thing you know they'd be on their knees and said to women, we're out the sidewalks and pavements with their knees, crying to God for souls. And I stood there, so help me God, and it sounded like my heart would break, and in my heart went up a prayer, oh God, raise those praying men and women up and send them back to America to pray for this generation. Nobody's got time left to pray now. We've lost anyone. And the answer came back. I'm not going to raise those people up. In fact, they served their generation. If anyone is to pray for this generation today, we'll have to find them in the circle of our churches. My God, it's solemn to me. There have been days when men loved the souls of men. May God send those days back. There have been days when men prayed real prayers, agonizing prayers for the souls of men. Send those days back. And the answer comes, if anybody prays for sinners now, it'll have to come out of this generation of blood-bought, twice-born men and women. Dead men are not going to come back and promote revival. Dead men are not going to come back and call people to repentance. Dead men are not going to come back and wear out pavements with their knees, praying for men and women. But brother, we've got no right to say God can't give revival until we are willing to do what has to be done by God's people in every generation to see an outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God. I tell you, my friends, an atmosphere of Holy Spirit power in a church of God is the only thing, is the only thing between this generation and hell. I went some years ago to Anderson, Indiana. It was my first experience preaching in a United Brethren church. I got a letter from the pastor. It happened to be the second-largest United Brethren church in America. He told me so, in his letter. Great, big church. And he wrote and asked me if I could come to him for a series of meetings, which he hoped the Lord would bless. I said, I wrote him a letter, and I said, I never preached in a United Brethren church. And I'm a Baptist, and I'm a strict Calvinist, as they call it. And I just do not know enough about what you people believe. And I thought maybe you did not know enough about me. And I would be a gentleman if I came, but I would not want to embarrass anybody. I would never like to go to anybody's church and preach so as to embarrass God's people. I recognize I don't know everything. I recognize you could differ with me and still be right. I recognize you could differ with me and we could still be saved. I recognize that wisdom didn't come to an end with me, but I wouldn't want to come and my message be directly something you do not believe. And I thought that would be the last of that. And he wrote me back. He said, now, I knew what you believed. I read lots of your sermons, and I've been led of the Lord that your message would be a blessing to our church. And he said, we differ some doctrinally, but that we love the same Lord. And he said, if you'll come do the preaching, we'll do the preaching. And we'll do the works. And sure enough, I went. And it started on Sunday morning. I'll never forget it. They had a Methodist song leader from Indianapolis, a Baptist preacher, in a United Brethren church. They had two great big choirs that cemented the scene. And I followed one of them to Black Legion, and the other to Klu Klux Klan. Come on, one choir was in white robes, and the other was in black robes. And they didn't get mad at me. And I never will forget. Didn't have the doxology or anything. The pastor got up for the set of things, for the dead thing, and said, whoo! He had a voice you could hear the country mile. And he said, we've got to preach, and we'll do it. And he was for this meeting that never preached in a United Brethren church, and he's kind of scared. And I want everybody that wants him to know you'll pray for him, just get out on your knees and let's pray now. And there were about 1,200 people there that looked at me like every one of them got out on their knees. The Klu Klux Klan got on their knees. They fixed the roads, and Black Legion got on theirs. And everybody, and of course, we Baptists wouldn't do that. We are too dead. Everybody prayed together. The first time I'd ever been in a service like that, I never heard anything like it in my life. What meant foolishness? Just pray. They thought the Lord could hear them, you know. And about 1,200 people poured out their hearts to God. I'll never forget it as long as I live. God saved a lot of people that first service. And that night, I was led to preach on the Blackest Sin Out of Hell. And a lot of those dead people claimed to live above sin. That's a worthy claim. And I'll tell you right now, if you're not trying to live above sin, you're going to hell. I'll tell you that. You tell me you're saved and you're not striving with all your might to be perfect. You're just as lost as you can be. You haven't made it yet, though. But brother, if you ain't trying, you've never been saved. You've missed Christ. Christ don't save people and leave them satisfied in sin. Amen. There ain't no people that no Lord satisfies in sin. No. But there's some of them, they claim to be above sin. And that night, I preached on the sin, claiming to know Christ and not bringing others to Him. And I had been preaching about 20 minutes, and there was a white-headed woman. I found out she is the old mother of Israel in the church. She began to fall. And directly, she broke up my sermon. She came running down to the front, and she said, Oh, my God, I never saw it before. So I tried to walk right before God. I tried to keep my Bible holy in the sight of God. That's worthy. I bless God for that. I'd rather be a fellow that hates sin so much that he thinks he's got the victory over it than one of these Baptists that brags about how he lives and claims once he's always saved. I was. And so, she said, I see it tonight. And she just stood there and sought and sought and sought. And she said, I've been guilty of the blackest sin out of hell, and didn't know it. She said, well, I've been occupied and trying to live a concern about bringing others to Christ. And she said, if God will forgive me. And I've been trying, and He will forgive me, so have I been. My big concern is to live a holy life and invest it in fishing for the souls of men. That's right. I try to keep the average church member from talking to anybody. There ain't bad enough sheep already. But if I can find somebody who knows God, I say, speak up entirely. The only thing between this generation and hell is the testimony that somebody knows God. Somebody knows Him. Not everybody but knows Him. That dear old woman, you know what she did? She said, I'm going to call a prayer meeting. If anybody wants to meet me, meet me tomorrow night. It's 6.30. And the next night, a thousand people were there. And I attended that prayer meeting. And every night for three solid weeks, from 1,000 to 1,300, 1,400 sometimes, nearly 2,000 people, met there in that vast old program for one solid hour before the service began. And everybody prayed together. And I'm telling you the truth. I almost became a whore over me. They brought people from Indianapolis. They brought them from everywhere, not the healing services. I didn't know a thing about it. Don't know much now. But they brought them to that meeting. And brothers and sisters, a sinner could not get in the atmosphere of that meeting without being saved. That's the God's truth. I ain't never seen it in a Baptist church. I've never been in a Baptist church where you could get anybody hardly to pray. I hope I've met my first one. I've never been in a Baptist church where the people responded to the call to pray. I hope you will hear. So help me, God. As a Baptist, I say it with shame. I've never held a meeting 23 years as an evangelist going up and down the country. Baptist church, the groups of Baptist church. I got my first Baptist church yet to ever pretend to believe in what? I hope I've come to my place. I'm honest with you. Baptists don't pray. We don't pray. You call a prayer meeting to be a half a dozen. Most of you got to read the paper at the same time. Smoke your pipe at the same time of night. Listen to the same program on the radio. Call the old lady out or something. You haven't got time to pray. And brother, God's hand's not on us. And his power's not upon us. And we're dying on our feet. Brother, there's a lot of people from a hundred miles around in that northern state of Israel, Canada. And bless the Lord, all you had to do was to get a sinner in the air. And he died for you. That's revival, folks. That's revival. That's what our hearts are hungry for. But brother, he's not going to wish it on you. I don't know the relationship between God's sovereignty and God and the prayer of God's people. I know if you say, well, let God do it, he ain't going to do it. I know he went through his people to pay the price in agonizing prayer and confession of sin. And he'd stack the hearts of men and women and call sinners to scream out, what must I do to be saved? What must I do to be saved? Listen. Listen. The only testimony, the only testimony between sinners and hell is the kind of getting out. And it ain't working so good. God help us. We must face our sins. We must face it. My God, I'd rather you turn feathery and run me out of town than refuse to face the challenge of the message tonight. This world going to hell. This world going to hell, loving its sins, weeding in its sins, rollicking in its sins. My God can accomplish if there's something responding. Oh, for times of confession and heart searching and agonizing prayer and spiritual witnessing, God-given testimony. That's the need of this hour. God chooses to work on the outside through the people on the inside. That's right. There are three ways that a child of God can testify to lost men and women. So far as I know, they're all the same thing. But I say it the same thing from three different directions. Will you listen to me? Are you interested or not? Are you? You listening to me? Do you want to be a faithful witness for Christ? Do you long that when we stand at the judgment, sinners won't point their fingers in our faces? God help us. God help us. The first way we can witness to this lost and dying new generation that's missing repentance is by the power of a holy light. There's no substitute for it. As long as Baptists are content to be broad-minded and sinful, God will have to look to somebody else if he ever blesses this generation. Oh, I'm sick and tired of people calling me a Holy Roman because I preach on Bible holiness. Why? They say, well, that fellow's not a Baptist. Well, brother, you ain't a Baptist if you don't live a holy life. You're a disgrace. You've got no right to rather name Baptists if you do not walk in holy bonds of obedience. Brother, I came from a long line of Baptists that sealed their testimony with their blood, and they believed and practiced holy living. Holy living. How holy are we to be? God says, be ye holy even as I'm holy. That's how holy we are to be. Somebody says, I don't believe in that. I know. That's our trouble now. That's the reason you talk to somebody. They don't pay any attention to you. Who's under conviction, beloved, because of your holy life? That's a serious question. Who's under conviction because they've watched the sparklessness and the purity of your life? I do not speak of Pharisees or having somebody going around looking down on people, but I'll speak of people who've fallen out with sin and head over heels in love with Jesus. That's the kind of holiness I'm talking about. There's no substitute for it. Brother, there's no substitute for it. Oh, my God. A holy life, planted in the community, a holy life planted in the church, the beauty of holiness is what this generation's dying for lack of seeing. Holy. I had a book practiced in the MP squadron in the Air Corps in the Army when I was a chaplain. They tied my hands. The Catholics and the modernists hated me and followed me and tried to keep me from winning in the body of the Lord, preaching the gospel, the good thing is those chaplains with their worldly living, their booze, and their dirty jokes, their everything. They'd preach in the morning and wallow around some filthy movie house the rest of the afternoon, have their cocktails at night. That was your chaplain in the average in the Army. And they tied my hands so I couldn't do much. And I was an awful kind. And so I was limited to gathering about mostly in the Army a few of God's boys. You could tell a Christian in the Army, brother, boy, he stuck out. You couldn't tell a Baptist most of them was chasing women, shooting crap and getting drunk. But you could tell a Christian. That's right. I know what I'm talking about. You could tell a Christian. They stuck out. And they still stick out. They still stick out. And I gathered them about me. And I put them to witness. And in 30 days' time, I had one bug fighter in the MP squadron bring 86 soldiers to me and said, Preacher, I want you to help me land them for Christ. 86 boys in one month's time. You know how he did it? He did it by a godly lie. The commanding officer of that MP squadron that's the toughest in the Army the policeman was a Jew. And he said, when I have a boy in my squadron I can't do anything with I turn him over to private soldiers. And he said, I don't believe in your Jesus but I believe in what that boy's got. You can't tell me, young man. All you need is to get saved and go to walking and obedience. And you can win young men for Christ too. If a bug fighter in the MP squadron in the Army can bring 86 boys in one month to Jesus brother, you can bring some too if God ever masters you. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm telling you the truth. That's right. The power of the Holy Light. The power. There's no substitute for it. You can't invent something to take it, please. I believe in the doctrine of election. But I go a lot of places and find people, they're all so strong on election but they ain't that strong on holiness. And I remind them that nobody's elected except people who walk in holiness. Election is under holiness. He chose us that we should be made holy and without blame before him in love. That's right, brother. I don't want to have God's elect. I want to see your garments, brother. They'll be pure if you want a God. That's right. That's right. The power of the Holy Light. I remember old Mother Greene. She was enraged in the church I had, the last church I had many years ago out in the state of New Mexico. And one day in a Sunday morning service I don't know if the Lord loved me or not but anyhow I did. I said during the invitation I said let's break up this thing a little bit and I want every man who's here this morning who owes his salvation on the human side to a certain individual if that individual's here I want you to go and stand for that person. And you know there were 70 some odd men out of that congregation that went over and shook old Mother Greene She was left up with her when she was 26 with three children. And brother, I'm telling you I don't want no such character. She'd walk in a beer joint in my city and everybody in that beer joint would quit. Stand there and respect her. And she'd give her testimony and nobody made fun of her. I used to take her with me when I'd go off to hold meetings. And she'd go see the mayor she'd go see the businessman she'd go see the postmaster she'd walk the streets and she'd buy old jeans and nobody made fun of her. Everybody in that section of New Mexico knew that old Mother Greene knew God knew that she went off to prison nobody made fun of her they made fun of us all they made fun of her the power of a holy life so upon a man's lips comes upon a man's heart we had holy life we had holy life how can we testify to men and women on the road to hell we can do it by hearts that care hearts that may I ask you something do you care somebody cared for this old sinner when I um steamrolled into the kingdom of God they didn't get me saved by turning a crank or pushing a button they didn't do it that way when I was a sinner somebody cared for me somebody loved my soul somebody wouldn't let me go to hell somebody wouldn't take no for an answer they tell me doctors do you listen to this they tell me that your whole juvenile delinquency problem that the restlessness on the part of the youngsters today is due to one thing they say listen to me now doctors tell us that mother love is born in the agony of prevail and now the pain so much of it has been taken away from the birth of the baby and mothers who do not suffer great pain in bringing the child into the world never know what mother love is and doctors tell us that that's the most serious thing we face and brother and sister listen to me if this world is dying one reason is that the church doesn't know anything about the pain of prevail for souls that's where love for sinners is born it's born out child in a pearl in the morning on your knees and crying to God so that's where love for sinners that's where it's born that's the reason we sleep well and eat well and work well and worship well go to church well perfectly content to let sinners die and go to hell all about us and lay it all on the latter days mother love and love for sinners is born in prevail that's where it's born that's where it's born listen somebody cared for me somebody got me thank God somebody got me on this earth old professor park head of the english department of the christian college i was a baptist but i wasn't saved i was president of an infidel's club in a christian college god pity them all i go around bragging about there wasn't any god and every friday night i'd preach my damnable doctrine to hundreds of young students i was born and raised in a christian home nurtured in some school educated in christian college given to God as a preacher before i was born joined the church upon professional faith when i was 10 years old i'm saved till i'm 21 i was a senior in college an infidel tried to be made out like there wasn't any god had to have something so i could sleep at night wasn't willing to repent for sake of my sins revival meeting came along and old professor park he wouldn't give me up the last year i was in school that man tormented me and haunted me and left me and wept over me and put his arms about me he wouldn't give me up he'd waylay me he'd wait busy as he was he found out my schedule and i'd run into him on the campus he'd stand there with a hand on my shoulder and said ross i'm not gonna let you go to heaven he'd waylay me as i came out of the classroom put his hand on my shoulder tears would run down his cheeks ross i love you i wanna see you belong to my lord couldn't get away from him couldn't get away from him brother i played poker with baptists i played poker with some of the faculty i put a pint flask of whiskey in my hip pocket as the days of the flask got drunk on the dance floor christian girl but brother i'd sneer at them i'd laugh at them but brother i'd tremble at professor bond he loved me he loved me we can testify to men and women but carefully by a heart that cares for the souls of men i wanna ask you something brother i wanna ask you something am i out of this world or am i on solid ground when i see men if you see somebody somebody loves you somebody wants to you that's right my god we expect them to be saved in refrigerators by the end of the week i think somebody loves us somebody would take me for an answer somebody would ask me to heal somebody took between us and healed if christ is a weapon somebody can somebody can you know any substitute for that come on tell me have your big preaching and your big singing and your big meeting but there ain't nobody gonna get saved there ain't somebody out there that loves people loves people how can we testify to men and women bless god we can testify with lips that have been touched by the fire that comes from god's eyes those people of amazing transforming grace what will it mean to us to us to us in the new testament they threatened people with deals they didn't shut up but they couldn't shut them up now they beg people to open up but they won't oh god don't let this generation go to hell until it heard from the lips of people the transforming story of what god's done for them i was in the state of pennsylvania many years ago and i went out one day 8 miles out of the country one of the pastors there's a man out there that everybody was witness to nobody's ever been able to help him but every preacher that we've ever had here has gone and talked to him and said i want you to i said well we'll go so we journeyed out through the snow pennsylvania winter the man was out in his daily garment he's very courteous he said take me about 5 minutes i'll be through with the children he'll blow up the house the wife will make it comfortable and i'll be there in 5-10 minutes we did got out of his wet clothes and into his other clothes came in the parlor his wife and a little 11 year old boy and the preacher and i i witnessed to the man preached to him that's a while i asked him if we might pray and he said he had no objection he believed everything i preached and agreed with everything i said and while we were down on our knees the pastor was leading the prayer and i heard him stop i listened i let him know i peaked a little bit and the little 11 year old boy nobody said anything to him but he'd been listening and there i was over there just sobbing away and i got up and while the prayer was going on i sat by him i said what trouble is your son in oh he said preacher i'm lost i'm lost he'd listened his eyes had been opened my witness to his day is no good he won't even look at us he won't even look at us in his head little 11 year old boy his heart was touched and i believe i led him to the Lord three christmases four christmases ago i believe it was three or four i got a christmas card from a dear lady in that city on the inside you know how sometimes blank on the inside was the letter and she told me this story we were on the Guadalcanal during the last war a stretcher bearer and a chaplain came on a young fellow out of no man's land by the side of his back dead he looked in his left hand was a yellow piece of paper closed like that and in his right hand was a little pencil the chaplain reached down took the pencil out gave this hand dropped a piece of paper folded it out and it was a handbill nine years old the boy lying there dead was that little 11 year old boy he'd gone over to Guadalcanal 19, 18, uh 20 years old he'd gone out that morning and stopped a jet bullet evidently that killed him at once he'd got this pocketbook i suppose and for reasons i don't know till i get to glory he had a circular of that meeting nine years before in his pocketbook but as i was my picture in the middle and i would send the meetings in that little city and the boy reaching for the piece of paper i suppose just got that one maybe he looked for it in a hat he had it in his pocketbook and while he died in a blank space just right under the picture in my name a little blank space there he gave his testimony i got that piece of paper at home i got that little pencil the chaplain sent it to his mother and dad and while he was dying that boy who'd met the Lord nine years before that farm home here's what he did while he died he wrote out dear mom i died for a son of a wife mom in the revival meeting that was conducted in our city i gave my heart to Jesus and now he's with me now boom and i guess he must have died he didn't sign with me that chaplain sent that pencil and piece of paper in that little package to get one with his watch and the personal belongings you know what i thought about the old man got it out the post office that old man wouldn't listen to me and he took it out and his wife undid it they looked at those things and then dad arrived got that piece of paper and a letter from the chaplain explaining as i explained it to you and she read it and she handed it to pop said yes dad here's the last message from our boy that old hard hearted sinner read dear mom i'm dying but it's all alright mom in the revival meeting by the chaplain conducted in our city i gave my heart to Jesus and mom he's with me now