In this sermon, the pastor discusses the concept of judgment in the Bible. He emphasizes that all people will face a final judgment and meet God face to face. However, the focus of the sermon is on the present judgment of God, which is seen in the dealings of God with His covenant people throughout the Old and New Testaments. The pastor highlights that God judicially blinds those who deliberately refuse to walk in the light and hardens their hearts. He references passages from the book of Romans to support his points and emphasizes the importance of reaching people with the word of God.

I'm speaking tonight from the Gospel according to Luke, at the eleventh chapter, and I begin reading at verse twenty-nine. There are two extremes that any human being who has an interest in his soul's welfare and wishes to be right with God and to know something of the comfort of his bliss in eternity, there are two extremes that men must avoid. One is making a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in too big a hurry. Increasingly these days, the vesting preacher suffers because of the complexity of life today, to make a living is a mad scramble, and all of us live like kings. We all of us eat about three times too much, we do, and we all drive cars, and we all got all the gadgets, and we maintain a standard of living that is sending us to early graves, so I hope we enjoy for the short time we've got. But nobody much has got time to listen to the word of God. And as I go up and down the land holding meetings, I'm aware of the fact that there's a lot of difference than even ten years ago, getting men to hear God's word sufficiently long that God's Spirit may awaken faith in them, they'll be able to close with Jesus Christ. But there's another extreme, and that is the extreme of substituting anything on earth for simple faith in Jesus Christ. Hell's going to be pretty well crowded with people who've made Holy Spirit conviction a term of a man or men, they've substituted that for Christ. And hell's getting crowded today with men and women who are trying to earn their way into the good graces of God by what they call sitting at the feet of Christ, mourning over their sins. There is deadly danger in hearing the gospel and not closing with its terms. There is deadly danger there. So a man's caught between a hard place and a rock in the road. If he gets in too big a hurry, he's likely to make a false profession. If he takes too much time, he's likely to run into the wrath of God who demands immediate repentance. I want to talk some tonight, if God's Spirit will help me, about this last danger. I'm speaking on when the lights go out on the road to hell, and they are going out for men and women all about us. I couldn't prove it, and I do not ask anybody to believe it. But I believe that America is made up largely of men and women who cannot be saved. I believe they have played and trifled with truth too long. And there's one thing that God Almighty gets angry about. It's for people to treat lightly any move that God makes to bring light on our pathway. Now, that's dead sure serious if it's so. There comes a time when God Almighty will reprobate a man, will reject a man. He rejected Pharaoh. He rejected the nation of Israel. And it appears to me by the blank expression of people today that many, many people in America have been rejected because God has had them under his long sufferance to the point where he cannot beat God and deal with them anymore. And so he just rejects them. And they begin to live in hell here on this earth and hell in times to come. My text tonight is the 35th verse of the 11th chapter of Luke, but I ask you to follow me as I begin reading at verse 29. And the Lord Jesus Christ is doing the talking. And when the people were gathered thick together, he, that is the Lord, began to say, This is an evil generation. They seek a sign, and there shall no sign be given it but the sign of Jonah the prophet. Now, that's pretty straight talk, isn't it? An evil generation is men and women who won't believe what God tells them they want him to put on a show. That's an evil generation. A man is in a bad shape if he won't take God's word for it. Because you do me dishonor if, when we're not joking, I solemnly affirm to you something and you say, I don't believe a word of it, that means you don't believe me. And if a man won't believe God's word, it means he won't believe God. He doesn't believe me. And an evil generation wants God to give them something more than his naked word. An evil generation, God says, is white. But an evil generation says, Well, that's what you say about it, show me. That's an evil heart, an evil generation. And the answer is no. I've given one sign to this generation. I'll give no more. And that's the sign of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the sign of Jonah the prophet. For as Jonah was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of Man be to this generation. The last word is the Son of God. Bypass him and there is no hope. And then he begins to talk in language divine. I've been talking to you a little bit after this was. The Queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, to whom the word of God is not enough. The Queen of the South shall rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation, who want God to give them some other evidence beside the giving of his Son. And the people of this generation who demand more from God than God is willing to show us, they'll be at the judgment. And the Queen of the South, who lived long time ago, when there wasn't as much life from God on the road to hell as there is now, the Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them. They're asking for more than God has been pleased to give. And the Queen of the South is going to condemn them, for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of a man by the name of Solomon. She's looking for all the help she could find. She heard about a wise man by the name of Solomon, and she journeyed many days across the continent to listen to him. And behold, a greater than Solomon is here. Just picture it. At the judgment will be a woman who went to extreme lengths to sit at the feet of a man by the name of Solomon to get something from God. And she'll sit in judgment on the men and women of the generation to which Christ was speaking, who listened to him. But that wasn't enough. They wanted God to give them something else. They wouldn't believe what the Lord said. And then he used another illustration. The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, the men of Nineveh. They'll be at the judgment, and the men of this generation, the one to whom Christ was speaking, and they'll be there together. And the men of Nineveh shall condemn the men of my generation, Christ said. For the men of Nineveh repented on the say-so of a man. Noah, Jonah, Caleb. Jonah came over there, and he said, Get busy, boys. And it won't be long until this outfit's going to be wiped off the face of the earth. And the whole outfit repented. And just at the preaching of a man. And the Lord is speaking here. Behold, a greater than Jonah is here. And you heard him, and you haven't repented. You had more light than the men of Nineveh. And they repented. They had enough light to bring them to repentance. You've had a whole lot more light from God than the men of Nineveh. You haven't repented. You haven't repented. And then the Lord says, No man, when he hath lighted a candle, put it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but he puts it up on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light. The light of the body is the eye. Therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light. But when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. Take heed, take heed, take heed. Therefore, that the light which is in thee become not darkness. Take heed, eternity-bound men and women, that the light that lights the road to eternity is put out. And where there was light, there'll be nothing but darkness. If somebody could go to the switch now, if you have a master switch, and just pull it, whatever you do to it, and these lights would be cut off for just a brief interval of time, there would be utter darkness. No one could see a thing. Utter darkness. Thank God that ever once in a while, on a man's pathway toward eternity, the thunder rolls and the lightning flashes to show men where they are, where they're headed. Thank God. I bless God for that. Blinded sinners, bound in the cords of their own sin, do not go to hell without being warned of God, without light crossing their pathway. Here's a man walking in utter pitch darkness, and he's walking right toward a precipice, where if he steps over it, it'll be death. Thank God before he gets there, God will have a flash of lightning to show him. And repentance means when the light shines, brother, and shows. Act on it, and turn around, and start in another direction. Start in another direction. Take heed that the light be in you. God doesn't make it become darkness. There is terrible danger, terrible danger, in refusing to walk in the light that you have from Almighty God. And the Scripture's dead sure plain that no man walks without God bringing light on his pathway. I couldn't perhaps do justice to this message, but I'm going to tackle it briefly, hurriedly. There is the teaching of the Word of God that all of us are headed for final judgment. All of us in some way or another are going to meet face-to-face Him, sitting on a throne to whom all judgment's been committed. But my text tonight isn't talking about the judgment in eternity. My text is talking about a judgment, the tracks of which and the trail of which are found in the dealings of God with the covenant people in the Old Testament, and all through the New Testament. That's the present judgment of God. When God Almighty blinds people, when God Almighty hardens people, when God Almighty turns the light off and pitches men out in pitch darkness, oh, how terrible to walk in utter darkness. This is a solemn thing tonight. I do thank God that God deals with men now. I thank God that God deals with men now. I come back to preface my whole message with something I've said over and over again on this visit, and that is that a man is going to be held responsible for his response to every truth that God brings across his pathway. It is impossible, ladies and gentlemen, to ignore truth. Old Dr. Gamble, the old Baptist leader, said, young men, when you meet a fact in the road, you've just well camped there. You can't get around the fact. You can try to dodge it, but it's still there. And truth is truth. And God brings truth as a lamp on a man's pathway. And a man makes decision and choice in response to every bit of the truth that God brings to him. The Bible is crystal clear that there isn't a man, there has not been a man or a woman who has ever lived on God's earth that had the slightest excuse for heading on toward the judgment of Almighty God. The Bible is crystal clear that all men have life from God on their road to eternity. And the Bible is crystal clear that that life, God gives it to light the pathway and to warn and threaten and shout, and that man is responsible for his reaction to that life. It was not going to be full of people to be pitied. It was going to be full of people who would not react in the right ways to the mercy of God enlightening their pathway. We don't much believe that, do we? But so, either God the Master or men are in the same mess they're in because of the act of their own will against Almighty God. God didn't get men in the mess they're in, men got in the mess they're in by sitting willfully against the rule of God. And the God of all grace is the God who warns and threatens and lightens the pathway of all creatures sufficiently to cause them to stop and be brought to repentance. We worry a good deal about the heathens, but the scriptures are clear that any man under God's shining sun that starts walking in the light he's got, God Almighty will get more to him. That's so. That's so. The Bible says that there has never lived a man that didn't have the light of a God-given conscience. And the conscience either excuses you or excuses every human being. The best description of the God-given conscience, it's not native to you, it's a gift of God. It's a light that God gives every human being on his road to eternity. And in Isaiah chapter 30, verse 21, I read these words, And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left. Your conscience, you've heard it speak to you lots of times, haven't you? Haven't you? It says, Go that way. Don't go that way. Go that way. We call it a premonition. We say it's something that tells us it's God's gift of a conscience. It speaks behind your ear. Every man has received from God the gift of conscience. It's wonderful if a man will listen to it, if a man will listen to it. But if a man sins against what his conscience tells him, after a while, instead of accusing us, he'll excuse us. And we can be at peace with a conscience God gave us, because we now have a seared and an evil conscience. The Bible is crystal clear, that if a man go outside and look up, if there were sun, moon, and stars were out tonight, and look at the stars, and that would leave him without any excuse. Absolutely without excuse. God has so manifested himself in his purpose, in his will, in his way, in his character, in creation, as to, in the language of scripture, leave all men without excuse. And then the Bible talks about the law written in men's hearts. The law of God, imprinted, impaled, written on the hearts of men, so that the Gentiles, who were never given the safe law, had the law written in their hearts. And isn't it wonderful that God has never sent a man to hell who didn't know right from wrong? Because that's a gift of God to all his preachers. And that's life, isn't it? And then some of us have had the glorious privilege of hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed. And if a man hears it once, every time he hears it again without action, the gospel becomes a condemnation instead of a joy. What a privilege to have lived in the place that God appointed us, where somebody proclaimed the gospel of the glory of God. Isn't that wonderful? How precious. That's a light on the road to hell. And then some of us have heard that gospel preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. And it came not unto us in word only, but in great power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in assurance. Praise God. That's life on the road to hell. And some of us have known what it is for the Holy Spirit to strive with us. Not every man the Holy Spirit strives with gets saved, but the Holy Spirit strives with every man. I tell you what's fact. Sure have been lots of lightning flashes on the road to hell of everybody I'm speaking to tonight. God sure has been good to the people in America. You don't live in Bohemia where there's not a Christian in that land. It killed them all off. No, you live in America where there's been enough gospel preached to save the world. If added to it was faith. For the Bible warns us of the old time the gospel was preached with belief, and it didn't have any effect. You know, my friends, God didn't fill in hell with innocent victims. Hell's being filled with rebellious refusers to walk in the light they've got. Men and women are responsible, and God's going to hold their feet to the fire. Men and women are responsible to walk in the light they have and could have from Almighty God. We went away from Birsting and Brother and Sister Christ's home last night. A little time of fellowship. Things came up in this meeting that sort of depressed me. Talked to Brother Mahan about it. I want to preach today more than I ever did in my life. Nine months out of the hospital last year and thought I'd never preach again. Life's not worth living unless I could. God knows I want to reach people. We're shut up and we can't. The drive of my heart is to reach people. To reach people. Oh, my soul. Wherever I go, preaching to a handful of people in most places. Can't get crowds like I used to. I can't. We've got something else to do. The lines have been drawn so tightly everywhere. Oh, every day for two weeks, over the open door of the radio, we've invited people to come to these services and sit under the word. 999 out of every thousand I'm about that heard it paid no attention. But at the judgment I'll face, every human being in Ashland who received an invitation and treated it lightly. I'm not saying they all should have been here, but nobody should treat an invitation to hear the word of God lightly. That's a great privilege. And God's going to hold people responsible that I never saw in my life. He's going to hold them responsible for what little truth I preached while I was in the city. That's a solemn thought. A man cannot do more than to stand up on his hind feet and put into action. Walk in all of the truth and life that God gives him. And a man does not do less. I'm not at all certain that what Sam Jones, the great Methodist evangelist, had it right. I don't want to put him in jail for this, but I'm not so certain he was wrong. Sam looked men and women in the face and said, If you want to be a Christian, start acting like you see the Christian or acting down the path of walking in the light you've got. God will give you some more. I don't know whether he's wrong or not. Now look him in the face. Can you believe this? The tithe is holy unto the Lord. Could you believe that? That sound reasonable? If this is God's world, would you reckon he wants a little rent? You say, yes, I can believe that God would tell the truth when he says the tithe belongs to me. Well, why don't you walk in that light? You say, well, I'm not a Christian. But you are one of God's creatures. And the Bible doesn't teach that the tithe of saved people belongs to the Lord. It says the tithe. The tithe. Ten dollars out of every one hundred. And the first ten dollars, I don't want it. I don't want you to give it to me. I'm not trying to get you to give it to me. I'm calling your attention to the fact that that is something God just wants to have. Well, why don't you? You say, well, I'm not a Christian. Well, it didn't say anything about that. You could at least be honest, couldn't you? Eh? Couldn't you? Why don't you start walking in that kind of light? God always takes you through the school of law, I reckon, or to get you where you'd appreciate grace. And I said, well, I'm not a Christian. God don't expect anything of me. All he expects of you is to love him with all your heart and your mind and your soul and your strength. That ain't much, but he expects it of you. That's what he demands, isn't it? And thy neighbors, I say, yes, sir. Well, they say, no you don't, you won't even walk in what you do is so. And don't you remember the light and truth of the same that God brings across your path? He doesn't bring it for you to argue about. He brings it to light your pathway so you'd walk straight. A man cannot walk in light he doesn't have. A man dare not do less. A man dare not do less. There can be no unbelief and no faith apart from revelation. But there's revelation in the star. And a man comes to belief or unbelief every time he looks at a star. There can be no unbelief and no faith apart from revelation. But every time your conscience speaks to you, that's God's gift. And every time it speaks to you, you make a response. You quench it, you ignore it, or you obey it. There can be no unbelief and no faith apart from revelation. But every time the gospel is proclaimed and you're hearing down the street over radios about knocks on your door, walking, wherever it is, something takes place in you. You make some sort of response to the demand in Christ who's presented in every line of the gospel. Unbelief, I repeat, is not ignorance. Unbelief is rejection of truth. Men and women reject truth every day. There never was a drunkard who went down to a drunkard's grave who didn't walk in rejection of truth and refusal to be influenced by evidence. He knows he's ruined and everything. You tell him. He says, I know it. And the next time he can get a bottle of liquor, here he goes. He refuses to be influenced by evidence. He sees old Bill lost his home, and they kicked him out of his job at the bank, and his wife finally had to go back to mother, and the children about to starve to death. And he's got the way, and he feels bad all the time, and he's a bum, and he sees old Bill lost his bank, and yet he walks in the same direction, absolutely refusing to be influenced by the evidence all about him. Every time it comes to those of us who die with that great force, I'm going to die, but refuse to pay any attention to those tombstones out there, but one of them speaking to us. We are dying people. A man cannot walk in light if there isn't any light, but a man dare not walk, refuse to walk in the light if there is light. Thank God there is light. Now the awful sequence of what I'm talking about is this. God Almighty judicially blinds those who refuse constantly, deliberately, in overpaid time, the length of which is determined by God. God deliberately, judicially blinds those men, and where there was light, the light becomes darkness. Three times in the Book of Romans, men were given up by God, first to uncleanness, second to vile affections, third to a reprobate mind. God gave them up. In that classic passage of scripture, the eleventh chapter of the Book of Romans, if you care to quickly turn to it, it is a tremendous passage of scripture. God doesn't always put up with men's refusal to walk in truth and light. God will not always put up with men's refusal to be influenced by the evidence all about them. Beginning at verse 1 of the eleventh chapter of Romans, the apostle is arguing about what's going to take place about God's people, the Israelites, as he casts his people away. No, no, he's not plumbed through with them. He's not cast away his people which he foreknew. And then he tells the story about old Isaiah making intercession to God against Israel, and telling about their awful sinning, how they killed the prophets, verse 3, and digged down God's altars, and then poor old Elijah got a pretty good case of the blues. And he said, I'm the only one left now, and they're trying to kill me. And God came to him with the answer, and said, No, Elijah, you're not the only one left. I've got 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. And then he proceeds to argue, even so, Paul says, then at this present time, I'm talking about Elijah now, that used him as an illustration. He thought he was the only one left, and God said, No, I've got 7,000. And Paul said, Right now, at the present time, there's a remnant, according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it's no more of works. Otherwise grace is no more grace, but if it be of works. Then it's no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. What about all this, Paul? Well, here's the situation. Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded. They're blinded according to the character of God. The next verse explains it. According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber. God hath given them eyes that they should not see. God hath given them ears that they should not hear. And David spoke along this line, and he said, Let their table be made a snare, and a trunk, and a stone block, and a wrecked pit unto them, that they may not see, and bow down their back. Oh, isn't that terrible language? Back of the reject, and the blind, and the stomach, and the snare, and the giving of eyes, so they can't see and hear, so they can't hear. If they will, we expect them, the people, to walk in the light that God hath given them. God hath never rejected a man apart from that man's willful rejection of truth, and willful refusal to walk in that light. But ladies and gentlemen, I know I can't preach it like it ought to be preached, but I wish to goodness I could scare any of you here sitting on the seat of waiting for God Almighty, and laying the blame for your damnation on Him, who brought His Son on a cross, and sent His Spirit to finger your heart, and enabled you to live in a land where the gospel is preached. Listen to me. We're dealing with a God who at times that He sees fit. Instead of giving you eyes that you've had to look at truth, and then refuse to walk in it, He'll give you eyes so you can't see. He'll give you ears so you can't hear. And you set a snare and a stumbling block. Oh my soul, this is the time when the lights go out on your road to hell, and you stumble on the rest of the way. God leaves you alone. I could give you many other scriptures, that's enough. This is solemn. There are two scriptures I'd like to quote before I close. Hosea 6 and 3 says, Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord. Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord. Jeremiah 29 and 13, In the day thou shalt seek me with all thine heart, I shall surely be found of thee. May I give you two brief experiences to illustrate, I hope, what I've been trying to solemnly lay upon you, fresh from God's word. I'm thinking now about a man by the name of Dutch. He owned the biggest saloon in a suburb of Houston, Texas. And I was there in an evangelistic campaign in the Baptist church. Two or three days after, maybe two days after I started the meeting, a fine, godly young pastor came to me and said, Brother Barnard, I want to talk to you about something. I want your advice. He said there's a man in this town, he's a church member, happened to be a Catholic, and he owns the biggest saloon in town, and he's got the young people of all this section under his grip. He said he's a likable sort of a fellow, and he's delights to do things for young people. He said I don't question his motive, but he's got them under his grip. The whole small suburban community, got the whole group of young people, just nearly without exception, out of all the churches and everywhere else, they just follow him almost blindly. He's a suave sort of a gentleman, courteous and everything. He said he's blocking the work of God in this town, and said he's on the heart of my congregation and myself. And said we've been thinking and talking and praying about it, and we've come to make a covenant with ourselves, and I want to ask you what you thought about it. He said we have made a covenant that there will be two people in the little church building all of the time, two different people spending an hour at a time. And during this meeting, until God does something about Dutch, we're going to have somebody representing this congregation on their knees in the church building praying for them. And we've also made a covenant arranged that two people will enter his saloon every hour on the hour, and go in and witness to him about his soul. He said what do you think about that, Brother Barnum? I said don't ask me, boy. I said has God put that on your heart? He said yes, we believe he has. I said well, I'm not going to, I can't touch that thing. If God's told you to, and you say you believe he has, you might be right, and I better not interfere with God, you know. But I said I'll tell you one thing, boy, we're going to have some fun around here if you do that. And we did. And they did. And they went in every hour. At 9 o'clock, two people would enter his saloon and talk to him. They'd leave at 10 o'clock, two more. That news spread just like wildfire. And in two days' time, the town was red hot. And 90% of the church people in town were as mad as fire. And they were cussing and cussing the pastor and the people of the Baptist church. And they called them some uncomplimentary names. And they were red hot about how they were taking advantage of Dutch, the saloon people. Well, bless God, they were about half right, because they were sure making it hot for him. And I don't know whether God's in tonight. They said he was. Now, I couldn't touch that. But it got hot. He'd arranged with the mayor of the little suburb, we had street services every day, and they'd let us have a loudspeaker. And the people listened. And they threw rocks and they threw eggs and they threw everything at me. And I was scared. It was pretty tough to go downtown. And the crowds began to come. And I didn't know what was going to happen. But they continued that throughout that meeting. And the thing got more intense and more intense and more intense. And they really were putting that poor old saloon keeper on the spot. Well, somebody said, oh, not to do that. Well, the old Catholic folks, you know, the better the man was, the more perfect Christians they killed. Because they thought they were heretics and they were going to kill them before they went so bad they went to hell. They actually were serious. And this preacher and his congregation got so burdened about dust and those young people he'd lead to hell with, that they were literally putting him on the spot. You're the big saloon keeper down here in Ashland. I don't guess you've got any saloons there. I don't know. It's a little nicer now. And somebody, a couple of people walk into your saloon, you know, every hour on the hour, all the waking hours of the day for nearly two weeks. It'd get hot too. I remember the last day of the meeting came, the pastor came to see me and said, Dutch is awful mad. He said, he's terrible. He said, he's worse now than he was when we started. He said, my heart's breaking, Brother Barney. I reckon we made a mistake. I said, I don't know, son. He said, Brother Barney, come to ask you, would you go and preach to him? I said, you want me to? He said, yes. I said, I'll go. He said, all right, I'll be around. We'll hit him this morning at ten o'clock. And at ten o'clock, the pastor and I walked in for the committee meeting of somebody to go talk to Dutch. And it was on a Saturday. And the meeting with it was to close. It was on Sunday. I get right at the meeting to close that night. And he had his saloon open all the time. We skipped some of the school, and he did. We went to ten o'clock appointment. And the saloon was crowded, because people got crowded in the saloon to hear the people talk to Dutch and see what Dutch would have to say to be there. And the pastor walked up to Dutch and said, Dutch, I know you're mad at us. I know we put you on the spot. But Dutch, I want you saved. And he said, Dutch, this is the preacher. And I'll ask him to come and talk to you before he has to leave. And Dutch said, preacher, and then he cursed a little bit, I'm so-and-so who's got all I can take of this. And I want you and this preacher to walk out of my place. And I don't want you nor nobody else to ever mention Jesus Christ to me again. He said, I've had all of him I want to hear. Well, that's pretty solid and deadly. And that preacher began to cry. And he said, you mean it, Dutch? Dutch, so-and-so, so-and-so, so-and-so, yes, I mean it. And the young pastor said, all right, Dutch, I'm licked. You've won. We'll walk out of here and we'll never mention the name of Jesus Christ to you again. And I closed that meeting that night, and they took me into Houston, put me on a plane. And I got to Winston-Salem the next morning. And I hadn't been home but just a little while, till a telephone rang and they read a telegram to me at 8 o'clock the next morning, Monday morning. The telephone of the pastors rang, and on the other end of the line was a nurse at the hospital. She said, Pastor, Dutch is dying, and he wants you to come and talk to him before he dies. Dutch had been seized at about 4 o'clock in the morning, rushed to the hospital just before he had the phone call. The doctor told him he couldn't live but a few minutes longer. And not until then, then Dutch, who'd been witness to every hour on the hour for two solid weeks, who'd had men and women, tender women, went in his saloon and talked to him by the soul. And finally he delivered the ultimatum for us to get out and not come back and not mention the name of Jesus Christ anymore. And it had been accepted. A few hours after that his wife failed and they rushed him to the hospital. 8 o'clock the next morning the pastor's phone rang, got the message, hopped in his car, hurried as fast as he could go, got out of his car into the hospital, up the elevator to the room to the door. And exactly two minutes before he got there, Dutch went out into whatever's out yonder, the other side of this line. There's a man that deliberately refused to walk in light. There's a man who, as an act of his will, deliberately committed soul suicide. For no human being has the promise of tomorrow. The other story will take just a minute. About two years ago, I was in Kingsport in a meeting, and a nice looking woman walked up to me one night after the service and said, Brother Barker, do you know me? I looked at her and I said, I'm sorry, I know I should, but I do not recall you. And then she made herself acquainted with me. About seven or eight years ago, maybe nine, I was in a community this woman lived in, in meetings. She and her husband came to hear me preach and he got terribly offended at something I did or said. And he quit the meeting and wouldn't come back and he forbade her to come back to hear me preach. He wouldn't let her. And that went on for about eight or nine days. And she didn't get to come back. The news of it spread around and the news of it came to me. And people began to pray. The last night of the meeting came, it was in the early fall of the year, as I remember, and the house was crowded and they opened the front doors for people out in the yard. Some sat in the car and some stood for the service. And lo and behold, this husband had relented somewhat and he'd driven his wife down in the car and made her sit in the car with him. And she heard most of the service, but he wouldn't let her come inside of the building. And the service was over, the people went away, and finally I was outside the building standing on the steps and I walked down the steps to the walk. And this woman quickly opened the door, disobeyed her husband a little bit, ran over to me and said, Brother Barnard, my husband has refused to let me hear you preach the gospel. But Brother Barnard, my husband can keep me from attending church services, but he can't keep me from seeking the Lord. And said, I may never see you again in this life, but I'm going to seek the Lord till I find him or till he sends me to hell. And so eight years later she looked me in the face and said, Thank God, I found him. All hells were popping, the spirit of antichrist blows in our very nostrils, unbelief walks the land. God only knows what a day will bring forth. They may put you in jail, and no telling what will happen, I don't know. But there's one thing all hell couldn't keep you from doing. All hell hadn't got power to keep you from seeking the Lord with all of your heart. If you do, you'll find him. Praise the Lord. That's walking in the light. Let us stand. I rejoice with joy and speak of the last night and wonder in whom we've been greatly interested to approach the pastor and ask if he could baptize us on the night, confessing his surrender to and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. More and more I'm persuaded that's God's way, that's God's way. More and more I'm persuaded that's your initial confession, letting this world know he's found you and bless God you've found him. That a seeking Savior and a seeking sinner got together and it turned out to the salvation of souls. The only kind of invitation I'm going to give tonight is that, bless God, all hell can't keep you from acting in the lightship of God and seeking to be joined to the Lord Jesus Christ. All hell can't stop you. So I invite you to do it in Jesus' name. Our Father in heaven, bless his name. We commit these people into thy good hands. We are so glad you've made it plain and we praise God that you have shed abundant light on our pathway and we rejoice in it. In Jesus' name we cry. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available, free and for sale, in audio, video, and printed formats. Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail-order catalog containing thousands of classic and contemporary Puritan and Reformed books, tapes, and videos at great discounts is on the web at www.swrb.org. We can also be reached by email at swrb at swrb.com, by phone at 780-450-3730, by fax at 780-468-1096, or by mail at 4710-37A, Edmonton, EDMTN. You may also request a free printed catalog. And remember that John Calvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions, since he condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying His word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The Prophet's words then are very important, when he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind. As though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.