In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of watching for the signs of the times and being prepared for the coming of Jesus. He compares the present generation to the days of Noah, where people were living in sin and unaware of the impending judgment. The speaker highlights the need for a change in nature, just as the animals in Noah's ark had to have their natures changed to coexist peacefully. He also emphasizes the need for personal transformation and surrender to God, acknowledging one's guilt and seeking His mercy. The sermon concludes with a reminder that there is only one door to salvation, and being broad-minded about the teachings of the Bible is not acceptable.

May the Lord bless you. Will you turn to the 24th chapter of the book of Matthew. There are just two congregations in America that I joke with about the offering and about doctrine. One of them is this one, the other is the church of which Brother Mayan is pastor. It's in the M13 campaign. Most of the folks didn't hear the cam, felt the pain, but we went through them. And we love each other so that we joke. Brother Tyner gave me a book tonight, and he thinks it's going to get me straightened out in my doctrine, and I'm going to read it tomorrow on the plane. But I can remember the big three of America almost years ago. Dr. J. Frank Norris, Dr. T.T. Shields, and Dr. W.B. Riley. Dr. T.T. Shields was a radical, fighting, spitting, clawing, armillenarian. Dr. Riley and Dr. Norris were fighting, spitting, clawing, armillenarians. I've been in their presence when they're really going after each other, trying to straighten one another out. But when the enemy would come in, they'd close their ranks. And just like you're trying to interfere with a man when he's seeing his wife having a little scrap, you'd better stay out of that, or they'll both turn on you. And that's the way it was. I kind of like Mr. Wesley and Mr. Whitfield. Brother, they didn't tear each other up over the doctrine, but when one of them died, the other preached his hymn. I like that. We know in part. Now in the book of Matthew, chapter 24, I want to bring this closing message. And it will have to be addressed largely to God's least professing people, or unless the Lord shall intervene in your day and mine in terrible judgment, we've said good-bye to this generation except a few on Sunday morning. We can get blues about their faces, but that's not an alibi that introduces my subject. Do we have a gospel for the days of Noah? What shall be the thrust of the gospel message? Preach from a pulpit stand, sun-screwed glass over the radio street corner, as you get interest in the homes, as you work side-by-side at the factory and seek to witness a good confession. If it's as rough in our day and the promises tomorrow get worse as it was in the days of Noah, and that's what you people who are pre-millenarian, nearly all of you, and I honor you for it, and I wouldn't change you in a million dollars for a million dollars, my own judgment is you've got to hold some truth. But I don't think you believe it yourself. The fault I find with the pre-millenarian interpretation of the scripture is the kind of churches it's built, and taken by and large to the most carnal world of self-satisfied people this side of hell. I think it's because they haven't got it right. They haven't got it right. I've been hearing them say, Oh, but I'm looking for the coming of the Lord, and that'll promote holiness, and I'd like to see some of it. Wouldn't you? Yeah. But I'm this much of a pre-millenarian, and I've been preaching two weeks here that all hell's going to pop, and it's going to pop in your day and mine. I am not a good pre-millenarian, because I believe God's people are going to have to be right here in the middle of the storm. And you don't. But now having settled that, and if you differ with me, after the service you come around and apologize, and I'll forgive you. But that's our difference. I believe all this talk about, God, people are going to be saved from this, this produce, this jellyfish stuff we call Christianity today. I believe it's just, well, get ready, folks. I believe like old Noah and the little crucifix, eight souls in that ark. I don't think they escaped the flood, but bless God they rode through it. And I think whether my theology is wrong or not, we need to come under some sort of discipline like we've never known. For we're going to have some floods that are going to overcome us unless our relationship is real, so we can overcome. Now with that explanation, let's read this bound to be one of your favorite passages of scripture, and I'm not being facetious now. Now learn a parable of the fig tree. And of course what's happening in Israel now is tremendously significant. At a conference a couple of years ago, some of you, Brother Jackson was present. I got up and announced that if that little one-eyed Jew didn't watch out, he's going to make a pre-millionaire out of Brother Johnson, who was with you here last August. And the brethren got a kick out of it. But you haven't got a bit of sense on earth if you do not watch this fig tree and even if you miss it, you ought to watch the developments. When his branch is yet tender and put at forth leaves, ye know that summer is not. So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the door. There lies saying to you, This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. But that day and hour knoweth no man, nor not the angels of heaven. No one knows that is my fault. But we've got a little light. And he says, Here it is. As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. There are three characteristics of this day that make one wonder. Is this our day? Is this the kind of world we are in now? Is this a description of our generation? Whatever the answer is, when we turn to the book of Genesis, we know that there were three things taken together that caused Almighty God to send three billion folks to hell. Everybody except a precious soul. That's a terrible God, isn't it? The cup of iniquity was filled. The patience of God was exhausted. Peter tells us the long suffering of God waited. The Bible identifies and says he waited 120 years after the beginning of his warning to Noah. And things got so that the only thing God could do and still be God was to wipe humanity with the exception of eight people. Off the face of the earth. Noah's day must have been pretty rough, brother. And when we compare our day with it, we tread softly, of course. But we notice the three things that taken together caused the wrath of God to fall upon a civilization. The scientists tell us today, I guess rightly, that there were at least as many people on the earth then as now. And that all of them, I don't know, but you ought to do some of the reading of good men today on what they're finding out about the flood. Brother Charlie, you're aware of the fact that much effort has been made to do away with this Bible story, but the scientists, whether they're Christians or not, just won't let us do away with it. There was a flood. The whole outfit was destroyed. God made a new beginning. He dead sure did it. Don't need a Bible to tell you that. And I think that it's true that in the scientific world today, more attention is being paid by scientists to the structure of the earth today that cannot be explained except for catastrophe worldwide. Like the flood is the only explanation for the cheap of things today. So we're dealing here with a fact. Now, the God who did this may be a monster, but if that kind of God we got, we'd just well roll up our sleeves and face it. God brought judgment! God brought judgment! Irreversible judgment on this world! And he says he's going to do it again! Not by flood, but by fire. And everything's going to be destroyed again except that which is lashed to the altar of righteousness. Now, my shouting ground, of course, one scripture is, nevertheless, we look according to his promise for new heavens and a new earth, wherein is a duke's mixture. No, sir. Wherein the mist of iniquity keeps on poisoning. No, no. Wherein dwelleth righteousness. And the only thing that withstood and rolled out of the flood were men and women who had been made righteous in the eyes of Almighty God. When you look at the terrible things that characterize the iniquity of Noah's day, and then look at our day, one wonders, Genesis 6, verse 5, what was the occupation of mankind in Noah's day? The thoughts and imaginations of their hearts were evil continually. Second characteristic of the people in the time when Noah lived, characterized by violence. I don't know how much violence we've had in other days, but in this day of the radio and television, when it isn't but two inches from one part of the world to another, and when the scene that just accidentally the television cameras happened to be present worldwide, where somebody's raising camels, fire stalks the land. It sure did in Noah's day. And then the word of God tells us that all flesh had corrupted itself. The earth was corrupt, and in Genesis, what is it, verse 12, I think, chapter 6, all flesh had corrupted itself. In the sixth chapter of Genesis, there's that cryptic expression, Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord. I believe I called it to your attention, I'm sure you knew it before, but I'll do it again. What that verse is saying is, that out of the three billion people, there's just one man that was upright in his sexual life. That's what he did. He found grace. He was straight in that most sacred relationship. If you've not read The Sixth Man, that's the title of the book, The Sixth Man, written by a reporter who doesn't confess to be a Christian. He spent three years gathering evidence. I don't know whether he knows what he's talking about. I believe the FBI report is there's 20 million sodomites in America. But this man says that one out of every six adults, male or female, in America is a sodomite. I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised if the government report didn't, that's bad enough, 20 million. But if you divide six into, we're over 200 million people now, and cut that by half, it's still bad. One has to read what happened in the days of Noah when the one sin was lusting after female flesh. That's exactly what it was. And if you take a walk down your streets now or call on you good Christian women at home, you'll sure be able to knock on the door of the embedded. Oh, the bottom is completely falling out. Can't advertise a home or a car or nothing now without a parade of female flesh. And the only man that rode that storm out of three billion people was a fellow by the name of Noah. All that baffles us, there is just one thing that this generation is concerned about, and that's sex. God saw that the wickedness of the earth is so tough that he repented that he'd made man. Said, I'll just start all over again. And the only man who was pure in that relationship, that area that he could preserve, was a fellow by the name of Noah. Well, whatever else we can say, our Lord said it's going to be that way, the coming of the Lord. That's the way it's going to be. Is there any good news for such an hour? Was there any in Noah's day? Is there any today? Yes, thank God, there was good news today. Yes, thank God, there is good news today. Nobody was interested then, but it is still good news. It is the good news that God looks on. Thank God for the gospel. Thank God for some people back years ago, I'm 64, that held the line. And I heard the gospel. The only story that's got power to bring in man to where he can ride out the storm and escape the awful justice. Thank God for those old gray-haired people who stood by the good. Thank God that they didn't take the torch and blow it out, but they kept it burning. Thank God for the privilege. I don't care how it gets. I don't care who's right about all these details of the coming of Christ. I don't persuade anybody. You fools, you do me. But whatever it takes to please. Thank God for the privilege of hearing and believing and passing it on and sharing the gospel when all hell's popping. The temptation to preach good things to be occupied with good things. God help us not to yield and to give ourselves with total abandon in the atmosphere of violence and corruptness. Today, give ourselves to the one thing that will count in eternity. That's poking our end of the blanket to keep this gospel from being wiped off the face of the earth so somebody else can hear it. I'm counting, Michael A. I think I can illustrate what I want to say. My first pastor that I told you was in the north town of this state. The only preacher in that city, first 16 months of my ministry there. I talked to hundreds and hundreds of men. I preached in every house of ill pain many times. I preached in their gambling resorts. I preached in their saloons. I preached in their theaters. I preached on the streets. I preached in their hospitals. I preached to them that they were dying. And they'd laugh at me and make fun of me and all of that. But when they got in trouble, they sent for the preacher. I don't want to be a Pharisee. I don't want to set myself up and say, look how nice I am, how mean you are. Oh no, I hate that. I'm rotten, I'm a sinner. Jesus, don't say sinners, I'm a dead sinner. Oh, but I do. I don't want to join the spirit of this age. Under God for 40 years, 36 of them as evangelists, I've lived, I ain't got a dime, I never will have. What I preach, you don't get rich. I'm not complaining, thank God. But I'll die before I'll join the spirit of this godless age. Cut out the heart of the gospel-made salvation. Joe! I'm looking for the time when trouble's going to come as we've never known it. And when folks get in trouble, they ain't going to these hell-raised church members and preachers. They're going to go to somebody they've been watching and say, that old fella, he's too strict, I ain't going to let him do it to him. But when they get in trouble, they're going to call for help. I'm going to be around, I hope, when that time comes. That's the reason I'm so anxious for some kind of judgment to come. I want the post to start ringing, Brother Jackson. Come over here, we're in trouble. Come over here. And it's coming! The storm's on the way. The storm's on the way. If you just listen a minute, you can hear it rumbling now. The flood of God's judgment's coming on this generation. We've got to go through that thing. I don't know how the civil rights battle's going to come out. You can take sides on that. But I'm not going to give my life to that. I don't know whether Mr. Nixon's going to be able to do anything or not. You can get interested in that if you want to. I don't know. I don't know about a lot of good things, but I know that in this hour there's but one thing worth living for, one thing worth dying for, and that is the privilege of pointing men to Jesus Christ, the art, the only escape from the flood of God's judgment in time and in eternity. And that's what God did then. He had a fellow named Noah, and he came and said, Noah, I'm going to judge this house hence. And Noah looked around and said he didn't see any sign, but the old boy didn't have no chance than to believe what God said and scared the living daylights out of him. And he got him a hammer and some nails, and all Noah did from then on was nail on that old ark. And the Bible says that in doing that, in doing that he accomplished two things. He saved his house and condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness of faith. And he just had one message. Every time he pecked on that old ark, he said, righteousness, righteousness, the only thing that's going to ride the storm is people named righteous, righteous, righteous. He's a preacher of righteousness. You weren't going around trying to get somebody interested in being satisfied with Jesus. He's saying the thing that's going to count is to be accounted righteous by Almighty God. Not how you feel, but what he does about it. The only thing that's going to escape is righteousness. You can take the first book of Corinthians and you can teach it. I'm a pretty smart man, I'm going to teach you something now. And you can read about all that mess in the church at Corinth, and you can't find but one note of condemnation from the lips of the Apostle Paul. Why, they've got everything on God's wrist could be wrong with the congregation, and he didn't find Paul to condemn but one thing! And the one thing he condemned was unrighteousness! That's right. You can get along with the perversion of the tongues and all that going to court and sent down a zing for these to get them in the right place. But the one thing, read it, that God Almighty is against is unrighteousness. And the one thing that salvation really means is that God declares and sets out to make me unrighteous with a righteousness that'll count when the storms come. He just kept preaching righteousness. He just kept saying there's just one way of escaping. I want you to notice right quickly five things about that ark. First, it just had one window in it. And it was at the top. No hope. If you look anywhere else. No hope. No hope. They got in that ark, no one in his craft. God shut the door. The rest of them were drowned. And they roared the storm. Out in the air the waves rushing against that old ark. And they run over here but they can't see out. And they run over there but they can't see out. And they run over there but they can't see out. They got to look up for any sight. Oh, bless God, that's the plan. Oh, God, the only hope for time and eternity is up, is up, is up. Talk about being narrow-minded. Not being intolerant. For all that stuff. Our gospel shall not temporize. It shall just shut men up. The only hope is for the one up there, if you'll please stand in his sight. The second thing about that ark, it just had one door. You talk about being narrow-minded. That's what's killing us now, is to be broad-minded with the sin we're about to run out. I'd now be broad-minded about anything in the Bible with you. And I'd love you if you loved me, because I don't know much about it. But there's one thing we must not be broad-minded about. There is a door. There's just one door. Jesus is an utter necessity. There's no other reason to come into a vital relationship with God Almighty's love and gift. This is the gospel. This is the gospel. And then there's another thing about that ark, the 18, when God shut the door. You read it back there in Genesis, God shut the door. God shut the door. Don't get mad at me, but I believe when Jesus comes, that's it, brother. That's it. I believe under God he's coming to judge this outfit and turn the kingdom he's run over to God Almighty. Oh, my soul. Hear me! This generation, where it will hear or where it will not, must be faithfully warned that the day is coming on the authority of the book that the devil hasn't been able to get away with yet. On the authority of this book. The day is coming when God will no longer extend mercy. He won't shut the door. There's a fourth thing about this ark, this gospel of Noah's day. It must be our gospel. Everybody and people, the least of the animals that got in that ark had to be changed in their nature. Boy, you talk about a fight. If he hadn't changed the nature of those animals that got in that ark, they'd have caught each other to pieces in five minutes. Can you imagine a man in this household in an ark for 40 days and nights? No way to look except up. Why, they'd have murdered one another if they hadn't had their natures changed before they died. This is the issue of this house. A million people in America went to what's called a church house that day. We beg, we praise God for all who were brought into confrontation with a holy God and his demands and his provisions. But our heart bleeds within us as we think, and we think, we think like that. That there's not much Christianity left in this country. God kept us. And that this generation is being given a dose of what they call salvation that doesn't change. Oh, to claim to be converted and not to have become a changed man of God. Not made perfect, but fit so you'll never be satisfied till you are perfect. That's New Testament conversion. New Testament. Nature's changed. The old iron and the tang subdued. A fellow asked me the other day. I'm going to say it anyhow. I was taught that the believer had two natures, and I don't believe a word of it. And a fellow got awful concerned the other day he heard me preach. I don't believe you folks out there have got but one nature, and it's as rotten as hell. And I believe what you've been calling that other nature, you better face the fact that you ain't that kind of person, honey. What I'm talking about, the change I'm talking about, is not how to fix you so you're half good and half bad. But I'm talking about a change where somebody comes to live in you. Brother, he's got a holy nature. And if there's anything God Almighty knows good that ever comes out of this old man, it's not Ralph Barnes, I'll tell you that. It's Christ in men and women. I actually believe that conversion is when Christ comes to live in you. Brother, I think he changes everything he touches. A young man wrote me a letter not long ago and said, Brother Barnes, why don't you come over to me? I said, we've just had people saved all over this community but no change. Well, nobody gets saved if they're not changed. Oh, I can imagine Onoa preaching away this hard message. Why, nobody's going to come to terms with such terrible demands. No, sir. Not as long as you depend on yourself to do it. Let's refine you how I've preached and preached and preached and preached until somebody believed me. You need to become a candidate for the mercy of God. You need to become a seeker, oh God. Help me to turn on myself. Help me to sit in judgment on myself. Help me to absorb myself. Help me to plead guilty. Help me to quit telling lies and alibis and excuses. Help me to come clean. Help me, oh God, do for me and end me what I cannot do for myself. Change me. Change me. There's one last thing about this ever-burning heart passed through the waters. The Apostle Peter says that's a type of baptism. What does baptism mean? It's a joke now. It wasn't meant in the New Testament. It meant complete submission to this heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. And ladies and gentlemen, I'm coming now in a moment to speak my last words. I don't know if I'll ever see you again, not tomorrow as in God's hands. Thank you for listening to me through these years. Thank you for being kind to me. Thank you for being sweet and lovable and generous. Thank you, God, my pastor. And I want the last things I say to you for Noah's day and for days. The only thing that's going to ride the storm is men and women completely under the rule of Jesus Christ. Oh, this putting your toes in the water to see if it's cold ain't going to do now. It's all or nothing. It's all or nothing. You're sitting here under the blood of Jesus. Safe in his sheltering fold. Rather than no other place of safety. And a king's responsibility is to save and take care of and preserve his people. That's reason my king's mighty to save. That's reason I own him as Lord. Listen. Baptism's an answer to a good cause. Eight souls were saved by water. What does that mean? It means that baptism is not just a motion to go through. Baptism is a public declaration. The fact that I have utterly with a band, lock, stock and barrel committed myself to the Lord Jesus. The folks that stood around admired the architecture of the art ground. It's just folks that got in that were saved. Just the folks that got in. A commitment to the authority of King Jesus that you have to do it every day of your life. Every day. A commitment that binds you as his slave. Where the only freedom you want is freedom to do his will. Brother, when the storm comes, that's the only kind of folks that are going to be able to rise. I would call you to such commitment as God knows my heart. I was preaching for a young pastor in Virginia some years ago. Many years ago he went to school for me. One night after the service I think we were having a glass of milk or something before I went to bed. That bright, brilliant young preacher said, Brother Barnett, is Jesus your Lord? Is Jesus your Lord? And I asked you tonight, my dear friend, is Jesus your Lord? That's the most solemn thing you'll ever say. And I had to answer, yes, he's my Lord. As my Lord, he's going to save me or damn me. He earned the right to do either one of them. And I can't put any confidence in but one thing. I can't count for a minute on any response I've ever made. I'm just counting on one thing. I'm a candidate for mercy. And I need him tonight to deal with me in mercy, much as I ever did. Thank God. The scriptures say he's rich in mercy toward all who call on him. And I think this business of being saved is a lifelong calling on the name of our Father. We pray that you'll deal in mercy with all of us tonight one more time. Holy Spirit of God, deal with us right now. I wish I could hold up my hands and be able to say, your blood's not on them. I don't know whether I could or not, just a little preacher, think about the best that you have. You're not half as troubled about the fact that God's power is not on us as I think maybe I am. It breaks my heart to have to go back most of the time. I tell you, when I've seen God split men's hearts, make them scream for mercy, I don't see as much of it now as I used to. I'm not happy about that. I wish I could say after as many times as I've been a guest to this pastor and you, dear people, that I have warned you with tears I'm pure from the blood of all men. If I knew you were out there, outside of the ark of Christ, I don't expect I could continue myself. I'd come back then, I'd do my dead love best to pull you into it. But I can't do that. You've got to go in yourself. Now I come to this for me. I leave this pulpit with perfect happiness because it's so well occupied. It couldn't be better. In fact, I'm going to Monroe, Louisiana. It don't mean that God's going to leave this place. But as for me, here I am now trembling, afraid I haven't been true to you as I wanted to be. Afraid that when the judgment comes I'll have to watch some of you sent to hell. Oh, God, how serious this is. Now I've got to come turn the service over to you. Your move now. And I beg you to hit this trail, private God, for mercy. I can hear my... Would you stand and sing it and many of you ought to come and seek the Lord. I can hear... I beg you if you don't know the Lord, if you're not under his sheltering fold, run to him tonight. Run to him tonight. I beg you tonight.