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Ho, Everyone That Thirsteth
Rolfe Barnard

Rolfe P. Barnard (1904 - 1969). American Southern Baptist evangelist and Calvinist preacher born in Guntersville, Alabama. Raised in a Christian home, he rebelled, embracing atheism at 15 while at the University of Texas, leading an atheists’ club mocking the Bible. Converted in 1928 after teaching in Borger, Texas, where a church pressured him to preach, he surrendered to ministry. From the 1930s to 1960s, he traveled across the U.S. and Canada, preaching sovereign grace and repentance, often sparking revivals or controversy. Barnard delivered thousands of sermons, many at Thirteenth Street Baptist Church in Ashland, Kentucky, emphasizing God’s holiness and human depravity. He authored no major books but recorded hundreds of messages, preserved by Chapel Library. Married with at least one daughter, he lived modestly, focusing on itinerant evangelism. His bold style, rejecting “easy-believism,” influenced figures like Bruce Gerencser and shaped 20th-century Reformed Baptist thought.
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In this sermon, the preacher uses various illustrations to convey the message of salvation and the invitation to come to Christ. He emphasizes the idea that everyone is spiritually bankrupt and in need of God's grace. The preacher compares this spiritual bankruptcy to a man who realizes he is in debt and cannot pay it off. He then explains that God offers the solution to this spiritual bankruptcy by inviting all who are thirsty and have no money to come to Him and receive salvation. The preacher concludes by assuring the listeners that anyone can come to the Lord and be saved, emphasizing the importance of accepting this invitation.
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The subject tonight will be found in Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55. Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come, buy and eat. Yea, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfies none? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight with death and famine. Incline your ear, and come unto me. Here and your soul shall live. And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercy of David. I want to speak on this subject. Ho, everyone, I think the setting of our text is simply that the Orientals were accustomed in the streets of the city, because it was a scarcity, and that a man should come and eat. Yea, come, buy and eat. It's a no fun. Namely, it's a box full of amazing things. Said his divine faithful in this world, and sent his son to sin. And if you ever get old, that this is the greatest wonder that ever. Ho, he saved the Amorites, and he's on the hill with Jesus Christ. God put on, in whom the, keep you away from the God, you're one of his children. Everyone, not everyone. See, beloved, that's what you can't get around. How you bring around. We don't know if you have it, you don't have it. It's not a single solitary. It is, he's going to need it. You'll never hear that sound. It's the verity of God. You want to see it. You are different. You are. Condemning power. We talk about any man, anyone that is speaking, is the day you lose. You lose your trust. It's kind of like this. It's the dance. He has the excellency of the power. Faith, infinite will. And then, it is the freemason, or the provision offer. And he that hath no money, tells you. If you went down.
Ho, Everyone That Thirsteth
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Rolfe P. Barnard (1904 - 1969). American Southern Baptist evangelist and Calvinist preacher born in Guntersville, Alabama. Raised in a Christian home, he rebelled, embracing atheism at 15 while at the University of Texas, leading an atheists’ club mocking the Bible. Converted in 1928 after teaching in Borger, Texas, where a church pressured him to preach, he surrendered to ministry. From the 1930s to 1960s, he traveled across the U.S. and Canada, preaching sovereign grace and repentance, often sparking revivals or controversy. Barnard delivered thousands of sermons, many at Thirteenth Street Baptist Church in Ashland, Kentucky, emphasizing God’s holiness and human depravity. He authored no major books but recorded hundreds of messages, preserved by Chapel Library. Married with at least one daughter, he lived modestly, focusing on itinerant evangelism. His bold style, rejecting “easy-believism,” influenced figures like Bruce Gerencser and shaped 20th-century Reformed Baptist thought.