In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of recognizing one's lostness and the need for salvation. He asserts that God's grace is sufficient to save anyone who acknowledges their need for salvation. The preacher highlights four Bible truths that God uses to bring people to salvation, emphasizing that God loves people and is willing to save them. He also explains the significance of the word "for" in scripture, indicating that certain events or actions occur because of something else. The sermon concludes with the message that God's grace is available to all who recognize their desperate need for salvation and cry out to Him for help.

I was once far away from the Savior And as vile as a sinner could be And I wondered if Christ, the Redeemer Would save a poor sinner like me I wandered on in the darkness Not a ray of light could I see And a thought filled my heart with sadness There's no hope for a sinner like me And then, in that dark, lonely hour A voice sweetly whispered to me Say, Christ, the Redeemer has power To save a poor sinner like me Fully trusted indeed And, oh, what a joy came to me My heart was filled with His praises For saving a sinner like me And when life's journey is over And I, I'll praise Him forever For saving a sinner like me Sing it with me I want to speak tonight on how God gets men lost How does God get men lost? Our job is to be used as God to get men lost It is interesting to know that every lost person will be saved Because God's in the business of saving lost people I am not interested in the testimony much of a man Who can put his finger on the time he was saved Personally, I do not believe any human being can do that I believe that I am pretty well aware of the fact when I received assurance That the Lord had done His work But it had to be done before I could have any assurance about it But I do believe that it would be mighty good if a person Could come about a hundred miles of being aware of the time when he got lost That would be a vivid experience When for the first time in his life He actually was aware of his guilty distance And how big a distance that was From the Lord Jesus Christ In the 10th verse of the 19th chapter of Luke We have a verse of scripture that starts with the little word F.O.R. My wife asked me a question and I can't answer it She said, what did you go to school for? You didn't learn anything And I've forgotten whether the word F.O.R. is a preposition or a conjunction Which is? There's something in there, I'm honest, I don't know what it is I did know that night of the 4th, 5th, 6th day But I'd done past that and forgot it But anyway, any verse of scripture, especially in the New Testament That starts with the little word F.O.R. That means that something that the verses above have referred to Happened or took place because something else was so And I want to read this first verse, verse 10 And look at it and then we'll have to look at the scriptures above it for a moment To find out what it's referring to The verse says, far, F.O.R. far, because of This took place because the Son of Man is come To make an effort to seek And to do at that level best to save Everybody in the world Did I make a mistake? I did Better look at it again I was reading it like the popular gospel of the day is No, it doesn't read that way It says, far, the Son of Man is come On a definite mission To accomplish a definite thing This aspect has two aspects Comes out of two different records Came down here to seek And to save that which was lost He didn't come down here to try to seek But he came down here to seek He didn't come down here to try to save He came down here to save That which was lost Now it sometimes seems startling For a preacher to say that most people are not lost Most people are exactly where they ought to be They're exactly where they want to be They're happy there, they're getting along fine, thank you If you do not think so, you just tackle them And they'll soon acquaint you with the fact That they're all right That it's none of your business They do not wish to be bothered They sleep well at night They have their beliefs and they believe them And they have their doubts and they doubt them But the verse just above, verse 9 Of course explains verse 10 What kind of folks are these folks That the Lord came to seek And to save Not to make an effort to, but to do it Well the 9th verse of course explains A lost person Is one who is the same kind of person That this fellow Zacchaeus was And when this man Zacchaeus Being short of stature Heard that the Lord Jesus was passing by He sought to see him, who he was That's a commendable endeavor To find out who the Lord is Alma said he's so and so The preacher said he's so and so I want to find out for myself Sought to see him, who he was And there's such a crowd following the Lord On the journey that Zacchaeus being short of stature Of course couldn't see him And he was determined to see him And he ran ahead of the procession Climbed up the sycamore tree And when the Lord came to the place He looked up and he spoke And said Zacchaeus Come down, I must abide in thy house this night And Zacchaeus did And the Lord Jesus went home with him And he ventured to say that As things took place Well the religious people Who finally wound up the murderers Of the Son of God They took umbrage in it Because they said the Lord went to the guest With a man who was a sinner But the Lord Jesus in verse 9 Answered the murmuring and the accusation And the hostility a little bit Of these religious people Who didn't like it because He had dealt with Zacchaeus And in verse 9 the Lord said That this day His salvation comes to this house Why? For so much as he also Is a son of Abraham Back yonder God made a covenant with a man By the name of Abraham The night he took Abraham out The record of course is in Genesis 15 It said Abraham look up And give me the number of the stars And Abraham said I can't count them They're too many And the Lord said that's the way it will be with your seed And the first time the gospel was preached The covenant, God preached it to Abraham And when we turn over to the book of Galatians Chapter 3 We find out that the Lord Was made a curse for us That's the blessing Of Abraham Had come upon the people And the blessing of Abraham Is Jesus Christ In short Whether we like it or not God made a covenant With a man by the name of Abraham And promised to give him a seed So numberless it could not count them Even as the stars And it turned out That this man Zacchaeus Was also A son of Abraham That God gave Abraham In that covenant From God's standpoint The Lord answered these people And said I'll tell you why I went to visit In the house of this man Zacchaeus And why salvation For salvation is Christ And Christ went stay all night with him And sent Christ to salvation The Lord could say since I'm there Salvation's there And he said I did it the reason is That he also Is a son of Abraham This is the way That I preach the doctrine of election Where there ain't that word so There ain't nothing on earth But election that we've been talking about now And I can remind them of Abraham's covenant They dare not say that's not in the Bible And I got them you see And I haven't said amen And if I mentioned the word election They'd get a ton of break and fall on me with it And I just do it I hope nobody get offended Now Brother Barnes do you understand that? No, no No, no I just rejoice in it That back of the salvation of any human being Is the eternal purpose of almighty God And if you don't have that to stand on You haven't got anything Cause your frame of mind will change a dozen times a day But if you can rest on this It's a good resting place A dear woman came up to me in great umbrage And confusion one evening And she said I had mentioned the word But somebody told her that I believed in the Doctrine of God's saving election And she came up and said Brother Barnes that election business I just can't understand it I said move over sister Neither can I But she said But Brother Barnes said I wish you'd try to explain it a little bit I said it's unexplainable But I said are you mad about it? She said no I know it's in the book But I just can't understand it And I said maybe I can help you just a little bit If you want a bit of help Cause if you want to fight God There ain't much hope for a fellow like that He don't want help He wants encouragement to fight a little more And I don't want to do that I asked her this question I said sister you see She said I have reason to believe I am I said you're pretty sure you are She said I think so I believe I am My hope is I am And I said well who saved you? And she said well the Lord God saved me And I said well Did he do it on purpose Or was it an accident? And she said that's it isn't it? That's it isn't it? That's it isn't it? Now blessedly true it is That lost people Somebody is looking for you Lost people Somebody is going to save you Well you see brother Barnard Aren't all men lost? No all men are enemies of God All men are children of Adam All men are dead in trespasses and sin But the only lost people between the eternities Are the people whom God gave Abraham And he hadn't found them yet And he hadn't saved them If God Almighty in wondrous grace Will be pleased to bring you To a recognition of your loss You'll be saved just like that Our job is to bring the truth of God's book Crowded upon people And some of them Will have all the ways of escape closed to them And they'll just have to face Their guilty distance from God And then it's so easy To ponder the Lord I want tonight to bring you four Bible truths That God uses to bring some And I just wouldn't be surprised If he don't love people nearly as much as we do You need never to witness anybody With the slightest reservation That God is not willing to save him That's so! That's so! I think God loves men nearly as much as we do He loves men Sometimes in great plenty But he would do all men not But God, while he sincerely desires The salvation of all men God is determined To have a heavenly choir To sing praises To the blessed Redeemer And in order to save a man God has to go to all the trouble And he uses human means to accomplish it To bring those whom he's able Face to face with the utterly, utterly hopelessly Lostness! That guilty distance from God If you're ever brought there you'll be saved I talk to people and say Brother Barney, I know I'm lost You're telling me a story, honey If I'm speaking to anybody That night you really believed you was lost You wouldn't let me preach You'd start screaming right now Oh, God have mercy on me You'd better quit kidding yourself If it ever dawns on you Just exactly the shape you were in You'll start screaming You'll start screaming I want to use tonight The experience of a man by the name of David Brainerd The father of modern mission He died when he was 29 years of age And he lived in a day when some people wanted to say That they weren't willing to take somebody else's word That they were saved That they weren't willing to go through some motions And call it salvation This man really wanted to get to the place When he lay down on his bed at night That he could have some hope That he had a saving interest In the merits of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ Reading his biography that was written by Jonathan Edwards The 40 great leaders of modern missionary movement Every last one of them Got their spiritual encouragement From the prayer life And the ministry of this man Who prayed himself to death at the time he was 29 And left a trail of his blood On the white snows of the state of New York Wrestling with God for the souls of those heathen Indians David Brainerd was a man who sought to be right with God David Brainerd wasn't He'd be a peculiar person now Now people tell me they want to be saved But they're not Bible searchers They don't search for truth They seem to think that sometimes I'm going to whiz a little bit And they'll have some sort of peculiar experience And they probably will And go to hell trusting that experience But here was a man who wanted to be right with God And so he began to search To find out how he could be right with God Jonathan Edwards His would-be father-in-law David never married He was in love with Jonathan Edwards' daughter But he thought that he couldn't be married And serve the Lord among the Indians And so he gave up his love He spent his life Menacing to the wicked, hard-drinking Witch-ridden Indian people In upper New York State Jonathan Edwards said That he'd always thanked God That he had the privilege of having David Brainerd die In his home And had the privilege of being by his bedside Most of the waking and sleeping hours For the several days it took the man As he hemorrhaged his lifeblood to die He said it was the greatest experience he'd ever been through Being in the presence of that Saint of God As he went from this life to the life to come It was also Jonathan Edwards who said of David Brainerd That any interpretation of the gospel of the glory of God That would make the contribution of giving To a generation of David Brainerd Was God's blessed gift to his church Especially in that hour In David Brainerd's search To have some assurance that he did have He personally A saving interest In the shed blood of Christ Hear me now David Brainerd faced first of all In his search for some assurance That he Could rightfully claim An interest That what Christ did on Calvary's cross He did for him He faced the awful strictness of God's holy law He didn't pass it over now He didn't evade it like this generation But he took this book And he did what the deadest vile sinner out of hell Has got ability to do He looked at himself Through God's mirror God's holy law That's the only way you'll ever see yourself as you are That's the only mirror that'll show you up I'm going tomorrow to have my picture taken for some purposes And the photographer he'll do his best To make me look better than I do He's got some things He'll touch up all the blemishes and things If he wants to sell pictures And everybody else will make you out Better than you I never have met a mother That'll tell the truth about her boy I've never met a father That'll tell the truth about his daughter I've got my first mother to meet That had a bad boy I've got my first father to meet That had a bad boy That's just human nature I guess I guess it is And you'll never get a real honest look At yourself Except as you look at yourself in God's mirror And the scriptures say By the law Look at yourself In the mirror of God's holy law By the law is the knowledge of sin And the scriptures say I had not known sin I'd have died and gone to hell Thinking I was a pretty nice fella said Paul Had not the law come Had not the law come Now there's several things a lost sinner can do But there's one thing I know he can do Can you read? If you can't get somebody to read it, tell ya! Just read it, read it, read it, read it, read it, read it! You'll come to the place after a while You'll get your club and get rid of God If that's possible Or you'll throw up your hands As you face the utter strangeness of God's holy law And cry out Oh God is there mercy for me The law demands Protection In outward conduct I'll just have to go to hell The law demands Protection In inward motive No hope for me Absolute pervection Summon the mutest jaunt And tinkle thou shalt Blast the Lord thy God With a double With all thy heart And all thy might And all thy strength And thy neighbor as thyself That's how strict it is The whole shootin' match of ya Goes right straight to hell But that's the last of the story Oh, David Bain had looked at himself In the mirror of God's severe law And he found out That God said best do And thou shalt live And if that's all there is to it Then a man's got to be perfect Absolutely perfect Outside and inside David looked at it Until he got mad at God He didn't just switch his gun one jaw till He looked at himself In the mirror of God's impossible demand The man never lived Who was able to do what Christ said sums up the law Love God with all your heart With all your might And with all your strength If you could do that Love your neighbor as yourself Not all one of you can make it The preacher and the clergy The reason this generation doesn't feel any need of a Savior Is bypass the holy law of God There's no way on God's earth anybody will ever Have the slightest conception of his need of a Savior Unless he faces the fact I lost as a sinner For he's this lost That he cannot meet God's commands He cannot do it He cannot do it But to make a bad story feel worse Mr. Brainerd kept searching And to add insult to injury Searching the word of God Dead in earnest He came right smack up against the truth That God Almighty demands faith And that man cannot produce it And Mr. Brainerd got downright angry with God He never read his diary He argued with God He said it is not right For God to demand perfection When I cannot produce it Maybe it's not right But God demands perfection And then Mr. Brainerd said it's not fair You see he is interested but I like see sinners get interested enough in their soul To argue with God a little bit Anything except this take everything for granted And he argued with God It's not fair To shut man up That the only way a sinner on earth Can get savingly to Christ Is by exercising faith When the sinner hasn't got any faith to exercise Demand that I produce what I haven't got And what I cannot produce That's exactly what God does A man can get in a club and try to kill God He can look that in the face And it'll wipe the smile off your girl's face right quick If you face this truth The only way on earth You can get vitally united to Jesus Christ And thus have a right to claim an interest In what he did on the cross Is by an exercise of faith And you haven't got any faith to exercise And when we remember that God Will not exercise faith for you That it is your act And if you don't do it You're going to be sent to hell And you can't That's how lost you are Did you get it? Now if a man's in a pretty bad shape But he's got the ability himself To get out of it He may be in a bad shape But he won't come around Of course this generation Doesn't feel its need of Christ For the pulpits of America Have sworn that what I'm preaching tonight Shall not be preached And we've got a generation of so-called Christians Who actually believe that they save themselves I know you can become a bunch of Pharisees And all of that And God will spew you out of his mouth But I cherish for you hope That you'll get baptized with the fire from heaven And not argue with anything But get concerned about the truth That the reason that generation of people Inside the church and out Are not seeking the Lord Why should they? They're not lost They don't feel The desperateness of that condition If I'm shut up by God's law But I can be saved by faith And I can produce that faith And exercise it I'm still not in too bad shape Because I'm pretty well bent up But I can get out of it But David Brainard found out That God demands faith And he could not produce it And he got mad at God There you are, you sit there The next breath may send you Splitting hell wide open If you do not exercise faith in Christ You're bound to go Yet you've got no saving faith to exercise You've got nothing That ain't fair, please But that's how lost you are You're not only lost Because you God demands perfection And you can't make it But you're lost Because he demands faith And you haven't got it Faith coming It has to come to you God has to work it in you It'll be your faith It'll be your exercise But you can't exercise What God doesn't enable you to do And the reason this generation Of nice church members Show no evidence of a seeking heart They don't think they need To cry to God to Give them Give them Adam and Grace The ability to hang on And latch on to blood-stained jeans They'll do it themselves It's in time to take a note Faith coming By hearing The only only God ever enabled the sinner to believe in him He says that sinner hears Listen, listen, listen, listen, listen Faith coming by hearing And hearing by the word of God Not by memorizing Scripture the devil believes every word of it And so tragic came that demons Who were here on the earth And the Lord dealt with them They give a more blessed profession of faith Than most of us professional Christians They at least They died and went on Back to the kingdom of darkness and hell But they did say We know who thou art Thou holy one of Israel They went that far And still died and went to hell I doubt if anybody here The preacher including Give that crystal clear profession tonight They didn't get saved You better listen to me It's not to memorize in the Scripture Believe in a verse It's hearing God speak to you through the Scripture And you say that's God And when God speaks Whatever he commands He enables you to perform That's how people are able to exercise Saving faith in Christ Oh Not many of you seeking him You're alright You did something But the lostness of your condition Is found in the fact that God requires faith And you can't produce it But Mr. David Blainey didn't quit He kept on searching He wrestled with this Until he had to submit This is true You can go to hell if you want to Fighting with the facts But this is true Mr. David Blainey says it's so And then to add insult to injury David Blainey kept searching the Scripture And he found out That not only does God require perfection He couldn't produce it Not only does God require faith And he didn't have it But he found out And this is terrible Trying to show you how lost people are If this ever dawns on you Start screaming for mercy He found out that God has a right To give or withhold faith And that he not only has a right But he exercises that right This is awful But the reason this generation Nice little Sunday morning church members They've never heard what I'm talking to you about If you go to hell after this sermon You dead sure ought to You better listen to me God Almighty's got the right And exercises the right To give you faith Or to refuse I hope you'll face this Till you get frightened, spit and mad And do exactly what Mr. Blainey did And say God it's not fair I can't be saved apart from faith I haven't got any faith I've got to receive it from you And you exercise the right To give it to me or not But that's the God's truth I tell you I'm talking about how lost, lost people are There's a loss they haven't got Saving faith can't produce it And there's no way on earth They can make God come across He exercises the right To give or withhold faith Johnson Edwards preached 17 years In the same community Couldn't get a religious grunt Before revival came Spread all over England and America He just kept pounding away He never preached a sermon He wouldn't say something like this The probabilities are That in the way of seeking the Lord With all of your heart You may find him You say Brother Blain If I got on my knees and asked God to save me Wouldn't he do it? Well why should he? Is he under obligation to? No Has he promised to? No, no In John chapter 5 The Lord Jesus says As the Father raises the dead Quickness whom he will Even so The Son gives life To whom he will Isn't that awful? You are in a mess sinner You haven't got faith Yet you don't exercise faith You're going to hell Only way you can be able to do it Beg God to grant you the ability And he don't have to do it He don't have to do it He's under no obligation to listen to you He plainly says I give life to whom I will I wish you'd get mad about that I wish the salinity of that Would get you spitting mad Anything except this letting go in one ear and out the other It's so People are lost They're lost You can get out and beg and plead and cry all you want to But God's under no obligation to hear you He don't have to hear you And to make it worse than that He plainly states That he gives life To whom he will I've had people say Well Brother Barnes that's so I'll just go on to hell I said well I guess I can't stop you But I ain't anxious to go to hell as you seem to be I never did see a great deal of Virtue in cutting off your nose to spite your face And a fax of fat And it'd be a lot better Instead of trying to put God out of business Telling him so and so and so and so and so And you're just going to go on to hell I don't see that you'll gain much for that It might be your face You're lost And if you do go to hell Go to hell screaming and begging God For mercy How lost People are so lost God requires perfection They can't produce it How lost the people It's a loss that God requires faith And they haven't got it How lost the sinners It's a loss that God's under no obligation To give you faith even when you ask him for it He must do right He may show mercy But he don't have to Amen Suppose you spit hell wide open tonight Well, you ought to God wouldn't be unjust if he sent you to hell tonight He'd be merciful if he saved you And Mr. Boehner found out one last thing Not only that God demanded perfection And he couldn't produce it That's all there was to it You're in pretty bad shape But then to add to it that he requires faith And you can't produce it You're in pretty loss But then to add to that that God Exercises the right to give or withhold faith You're in pretty loss But then to cap the climax Mr. Boehner found out that God could save him or damn him And still be God That God could save him or damn him And still have glory Did you know God don't get glory out of you Even if he has to send you to hell God don't have to save you to be glorified in you You know I wish your brother Barnard had the power To get people to face these truths just a little bit And I'm facing you the best I can tonight with them I don't know a thing about your spiritual condition But I know that the reason people think If they quit chewing tobacco and join the church that they're saved That that's all that's the matter with them Or if they mend their ways a little bit And cry a little bit that'll fix it Oh no He's not under obligation to save a single soul He's just determined to get glory Out of saving you or sending you to hell That's how lost people are That's how lost people are You have mercy on whom he will And whom he will he hired me That's the kind of God we have to deal with Hear me It's a fellow going along the road And the thieves attack him and robbed him And crippled him and left him to die And the religious people of that hour Came by and looked at him And gave him some nice advice And went on their way One fellow came to him and said Boy there's a hospital two miles down the road Just follow this road you can't miss it You get up and go down at that hospital And they'll fix you up But the poor fellow's legs were broken and he's blind He couldn't get up and go to the hospital That's the gospel of America today Let me tell you how lost you are You're so lost you need somebody to come there where you are Utterly helpless to make a move And save you where you are That's the reason the Bible shuts men up And says there's life in the look What can a fellow in that shape do Except cry for somebody to come where he is And fix him up in the shape he ran Why don't men cry out for God's saving mercy and grace now They don't think they're in such a bad shape They still think that they're going to do something about it themselves And thus they're not lost And thus they do not cast themselves on my Lord And stay there just where he saves your damned you I'm hanging on Lord I'm not going to quit I'm going to keep on calling I'm going to keep on trusting You've got a right to pass me by But I'm on your hands I can't get up and do it myself Here I am In the ditch of corruption Blind as a bat and dead Can't move Oh Thou son of David Come where I am And do for me where I am What I cannot do for myself In the gospel of the grace of God Every time he finds a fellow Got both legs broken His ribs caved in His eyes dialed out And he can't walk And he can't see And he can't get up and do it himself But bless God there he is And he said oh thou son of David Have mercy on me That's the gospel of grace The Lord who came to seek and to save That which was lost And once while he finds one And he goes down there in the ditch where they are Bless God And puts his everlasting arms underneath them And carries them safely home That's the gospel That's the gospel That's the gospel of God's grace God saves lost people People that cannot produce themselves People that cannot keep his holy law People who cannot work faith within themselves People whom God owes nothing to But after a while They come to realize their distance The shape they're in And there's just one hope Look, look and live That's it The son of man Glory hallelujah Has come to seek And save that which is lost I hope that you've never found out your lostness God will whittle you down till you do I'll have the privilege if somebody will Of hearing you crying out for mercy Just following the Lord around Say Lord if thou wilt Thou canst make me whole And the grace of God steps in In the next verse the Lord said I will, isn't that wonderful I will, didn't have to but I will Be thou made whole That's it