In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of preaching the word of God and the need for repentance. He uses examples from World War II to illustrate the heart of evangelism and the battle against spiritual darkness. The preacher also warns against having an empty profession of faith, using a story of a man who waved a lantern but had no light in it. He highlights the announcement of Jesus' ministry and the invasion of God's kingdom on earth, calling for total commitment to the truth of the kingdom of God. The sermon concludes with a plea for repentance and a desire to fulfill the commission given by God to proclaim His message.

From that time, Jesus began to preach, and here's where he preached, repent, and here is the platform from which he stood and made his demand, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The heart of evangelism, a mission, for they are the same thing, is illustrated by our soldier boys, the old demon from those islands when we were arresting them back from the hands of the Japs in World War II. They'd pull up in those, whatever you call them, outfits that passed through the water a little ways and then would practice, and the first thing they did when their feet would touch the ground, at the expense of how many lives, it didn't take into consideration, they went and hung up Old Glory, raised it high, and occupied that particular island in the name of its rightful owner, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's really the task given to God's people. No matter how difficult it may be the day in which we are God's people, that's up to God. Maybe we need to recover from our begging, apologetic attitude, and face the fact that we believe in our heads that this world belongs to Jesus Christ, for two reasons. First, he created it, and second, he redeemed it. He's got a stranglehold on everything that thrives and wriggles in every human being, because he's the creator and the redeemer of all men. Plant the flag of Jesus Christ. Tell men everywhere to bow down to the one who owns them. I'm two months nearly in my 43rd year of claiming to be a Christian. I've been a public preacher ever since, of course. I've been a professing Christian. It's fallen to my lot, this has been the providence of God, to have lived all the days of my life on a day when men are running from God instead of seeking him. I believe with all of my heart that we need to do one of two things. We need to just quit, or we need to become utterly possessed to the extent that we've got to wholly abandon and learn what Paul meant by experience. Learn by experience something of what Paul meant, when without apology he was constantly begging the people to pray for him, that he might be given utterance so that he could boldly preach the mystery of the gospel. We're going to have to have a boldness we've never dreamed of. This is not the time for caution. This is not the time to do like we kids did when I was a boy, go down to the favorite waterhole, and we didn't go down there and pull off our shoes and wiggle our toes in the water and debate. We started undressing a half a mile before we got to the waterhole, last one in the rotten egg, and we just plunged in head over heels. This is the time for a wholly abandonment. I believe that the spirit of Antichrist is producing the most militant opposition to the governorship of God on this earth that the world has ever experienced since it laid its wicked hands on Jesus Christ and did him to death. And I believe that we haven't a Chinaman chance unless in the mercy of God those of us in this generation shall come to a holy boldness and a total abandonment such as I know I've never had, but that I wish with all my heart I could have nothing but an all-out committal to the Chinaman chance in this day when the world is sold out to the forces of Antichrist. I need constantly to hear again and again from God's great demander, Jesus Christ. There are two things that I want under God shall not be true of me. I don't want to live another day trying to preach the supernatural message without the supernatural anointing of the Holy Ghost. I was talking to one of you a while ago, and I still remember when I believe the Lord captured him, telling me how he deals with the folks out at Nasser and their higher-ups, and they got every alibi. How on earth a man could be a witness for Christ in such an atmosphere as that, and to bear into Jesus that way everywhere. God only knows how I wish I knew how. For myself and for people who are kind enough to listen to me preach, God only knows how I wish I knew how. We can't work it up, can't work it down, can't force ourselves in it. How we could have authority so saturated with God in the Holy Ghost that we could make a dent in this icicle age. God only knows how much the public preacher, trying not to be a professional, has to cry to God, Oh God, how long, how long must we wait for you to open the windows of heaven one more time and do things that would turn in today's attention so that they'd listen to God speak through our lips. I don't want to murmur, and they do it. I think I've been in the battle long enough to not be a novice, but this awful icicle indifference, and everybody's a Christian, nobody's got any needs, and the alibis I hear, and the alibis people who knock on doorbells have to listen to. They affect me. And just clean us girls, oh Rock Barnard, if you had his way about it, I'd go thirty miles from the nearest dirt road, bill me a little check, and tell this world, go on to hell, it looks like you want to survive. God knows I'd want to be faithful, not demand success, but I'm so weak I'm about to faint for the lack of tokens of the heavenly breath upon me. And I feel that every child of God today is about the same shape, and as mean as I am, I'm trying to cry to God, giving no rest. I'm so tired of reading about the blessing of God. Forty-three years, long time be a preacher, when the icicles are everywhere, and not the hot breath of God Almighty. Forty-three years, long time be a perfect preacher, never be able to tell about revival in my time. Oh God, I get so sorry sometimes that I've had a little part in America trying to recover the sovereignty of God and salvation. For that message cannot be preached unless it's preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. I sometimes wonder if we do not butcher people, if we ring doorbells and try to get in homes, and hold revival campaigns that don't revive, and have public preaching, trying to preach a message that nobody can believe, unless the Holy Spirit interprets it to their heart. The reason I've been a cry in my heart these years is I've been associated a little bit with what to call the movement of the grace of God. If there's any people on earth that are going to have to learn how to cry and weep, it's us. If there's any people on earth that are going to have to learn how to intercede at the throne of grace, it's us. There's a second thing I want to be delivered from, an empty profession, to tell the story of a coroner who once exonerated a man who said he swung his ramp at the level crossing as the driver sped toward the oncoming express train. He said, I swung my lantern, but the driver came on and was killed. He testified at the coroner's trial, or whatever you call it, his damnation, that he stood there and waved his lantern at the driver who was headed right into the express. But later, after the trial was over, he confided to a friend of his that while he waved his lantern, he had no light in it. In the gross darkness, the utter paganism of this hour, I don't want to swing a lamp of an empty profession. Would you listen to God's great demander? My Lord announced his ministry by making an announcement, God in Christ has invaded this earth. The kingdom of heaven is here. The reign of almighty God in Christ has been reinstituted here on this earth. The defeat of the enemies of God is now underway. God has come to this earth. His reign is started. It will be final one day, but it manifests now, said my Lord. The day will come when in great power and glory it will be manifest. Now it's small, and it's secret, but my Lord said the future has invaded the present, and it's working now. What an announcement after 400 years when this earth had not heard a single message from God. From the time of Malachi till John the Baptist came on the scene, no message audible from heaven came to this earth. After 400 years of gross darkness, after his introduction by John the Baptist, there comes Jesus, and he began to preach. He just said one thing, I'm here. I'm down here to take charge. I've invaded Satan's territory. I've come down here to reestablish the sovereign rule of almighty God here on this earth. I've come down here to plant the flag of almighty God. Repeat, God dear, repeat, men now may be born of the Spirit from above. Men now can know God by experience. Men now, while hell rages, can have the life of the Spirit, not in its fullest, but in its fullest. Men now may enter the sphere of the rain and the realm of God's blessings. Men may taste the power of the age to come. Such was his announcement. When he made his announcement, he made his demand. He said, this isn't an invitation, this is a command. This is a demand. Oh God, will we ever, by total commitment to the proposition that nothing is worth anything except the truth of the kingdom of God, and to be in it. And if we lose out on that, we've lost out on everything. And if we gain that, we've won everything. And quit being football-minded and get down to this brass-tack proposition. In the rule of Christ there's blessing, and of it there's eternal damnation. And have such a circumscribed message, with such sharp teeth in it, in the utterance and power and authority of Almighty God. As to fulfill our commission, packed on to us by God's great demander, so that the church standing in Christ's shoes shall have this one message, God's will, repent. Repent. Repent. Repent. I've always thanked God since 2000. I was in Infidel for six years before God saved me. But when God did save me and went away, I didn't have but one message, and I hope God's never given me two. One's enough, and one's about the one's needin' this day. I just told them, if they didn't repent, they were goin' right straight to hell. And after all that's said, my Lord didn't come down here and say, now if it's convenient, since you'll repent, it's God's great demander. Somebody said that knowledge of the gospel, and the gospel is the good news of the kingdom of God, knowledge of the gospel is privilege facing a demand, and the demand is repentance. The question is, how does one receive the life, and obtain the righteousness, and find the life of the Spirit, which imparts the life of the age to come? What does Romans 10 and 9 mean? That thou shalt confess with thine mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead. What does it mean in answer to the scream of a man, what must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. What does it mean, these things are written, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and believe he hath life in his name. Does that mean to take his name on our lips? Does that mean to have an opinion about him? Does that mean to have a knife clean? Does that mean to say that Jesus is Lord? No, no, every one of them demand surrender. Repent now, now or judgment. The judge of all the earth is here, he confronts men with his demand. Repent now. Never one time in the church has anybody advised to repent tomorrow. Every reference to the demand that comes from God's great demand of Jesus Christ, through the feeblest voice that may pass it on, is in the imperative word, repent now. Repent right now. Repent now. The demand that God's great demand of is the response to me. My will, my mind, my spirit, my emotions of me. And I must yield to this voice. Now or at the judgment. I must bow to this demand. Now or at the judgment. I bless God that Jesus didn't come down here and make the demand of Ralph Barnard, provide a righteousness himself that God would accept. No, he didn't demand that I produce a righteousness. He came and brought it as a gift. I'm glad that the great demander didn't demand that I create my spiritual graveyard life. He came to give life. I'm glad he didn't demand that I live up to a certain standard and then life would come. He didn't do that. But he did demand, repent, turn, surrender, gladly receive, that means submit to the rule of Christ. Gladly submit, receive life, blessings from heaven. Ladies and gentlemen, could this church and school, all of us together, having lived all of our days in an atmosphere of ease and comfort, of the tampering of our bodies and the suicide of our souls, could we first of all ourselves be in line with the impact of what it do for us, having bowed to the great demanders demand ourselves, could we once again in this godless age, without apology, have a ring and a note in our voices, demanding men and women everywhere, they say this is all the gospel of Barnabas knows and it's enough, Jesus is God's Lord, bow down right now, sinner, I didn't come here to invite you to anything, or to reason with you about anything, I just came here to announce the greatest news between the eternities and in the name of Jesus Christ and upon the authority of God Almighty I demand that right now you drop your weapons of rebellion and bow down to King Jesus. Lord, help us to so well we allow little ducks on how to make friends and influence people and become holy terrorers until mayhap we could have some new testament experience ourselves and people would say we go to the pill and begin to stone us They had to kill Jesus or repent, they had to kill John the Baptist or repent, they had to stone the prophets or repent, they had to be the New Testament church and the blood of martyrs or repent God knows how bad this hell it is, if one and deep in the blood of men who believe something with such a sharp divisiveness that they were freed alive in that day, oh God is there any hope for us nice people I pray God that this demand of the great demander be taken lightly at the cost of eternal damnation, for my Lord Jesus Christ, God's demander demands a resolute surrender, not a trial marriage, not a you do so and so I'll do so and so Not if you bless me I'll serve you, but I surrender if you send me to hell, a resolute surrender It came to pass that as they went in the wee, a certain man said unto God, great demander, Lord I'll follow thee with us whoever thou goest, and Jesus said unto him, the foxes have hooves, the birds have nests, but the Son of Man hath not wherewith to lay his head And he said to another, follow me, but he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bring my father, and Jesus said unto him, let the physical dead bury the spiritual dead, but go thou and proclaim the kingdom of God And another also said, Lord, I'll follow thee, but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house, and Jesus said unto him, no man hath his hand to the plow, and looking back is put to the kingdom of God Churches are being closed all over America, preachers have lost their moral balance, there are more preachers going morally, sexually wrong, in your day and mine and in the days, since the days of Noah It startled you to turn over to the book of Genesis and find out the scripture that says Noah found grace in the sight of God, and I remember the first time I read that in the Hebrew, and I found out that what that actually means is that the only living man on this earth And the Bible says, and the scientists tell us now, there were perhaps 3 billion people on earth at that time, and that out of the 3 billion people on the earth, in the days of the first, there was just one man who was sexually straight, that's what it meant when he found grace in the sight of God If there is one sin tonight that is damning church members and everybody else, it's the sin of sexual immorality, it's eating up America, it was the one sin that got so bad that God almighty said I'm going to wipe this outfit off the face of the earth And he could find only one man in his day that was straight in his sex life, now that's not the cause you 3 millionaires around here, listen to me, you make much of the fact that as it was in the days of Noah, well bless God I agree with you old man, I wonder if we could find a human being on earth today That God could look down and find grace in his sex life, that's something terrible brother, something terrible, listen to me, what's happened, what's happened, why are preachers going wrong, why are churches, what beds of immorality now I'll tell you why, this generation has depended on getting rid of the 1 to 7 demons in your life and calling it salvation, all you got is a big experience when something was exercised in your life But Jesus Christ wasn't in trouble, ladies and gentlemen listen to Ralph Barnett, I say it trembling, I could be the one who fell tomorrow, the only men and women in this awful day who are never going to surrender to the enemies of the Lord Are the ones who are surrendered to him, lock, stock and barrel, this is the time for all or nothing, we're going to have the nothing if it's not the all Nice little wiggling your toes in this water, ain't going to get the job done now brothers, jumping head over heels, oh God for a deeper commitment to the Lordship, the rule, the reign of Jesus Christ A resolute surrender, this old man keeping his hand from putting his hand to the plow and turning back, a resolute surrender, no one else surrendered to Christ, it's the only way the old man can become a new creation and receive a new master The true line of freedom is positive obedience and the condition of true freedom is a positive authority and the only way a man can answer the revelation of God in Christ hanging on a tree is by a choice, a resolve, a committal, the committal not fail in total surrender to Jesus Christ God helps us to be a way with and done with this stuff called salvation, that doesn't call us to fresh surrender every day, that doesn't call us to a deeper committal every day, that will deliver us from trying to walk the day and yesterday straight We've been whipped on every side, this demand of God's great demander calls for a radical surrender, now from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of God's separate vials and the vials are taken by force The law and the prophets were until John, since that time the kingdom of God proclaimed and every man presses into it, and denies to enter in at the straight gate, for many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able If your eyes, and that's what's getting this generation deep in the morass of sexual immorality, if your mouth is an optional under God's necessity, if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off with your hand Is this optional under God, not under the kind of commitment Jesus Christ demanded, if necessary, think not that I'm come to send peace on earth, I'm come not to send peace for the soul I'm challenged every time, I read the writings of young Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was hanged in a concentration camp by Hitler, the man who came to see the emptiness that passed for Christianity in Germany The man who talked so much about cheap graves, the man who said that Germany that led us into two bathrooms of blood called the World War II, in the name of Christianity, the man who said that Germany was made Christian, and the only thing it cost was Christianity itself When I see that happening in America, never mind if I get preached again, never mind if this is my last meeting, never mind if you never get another door open to you, if you get one more under God with a holy abandon We've got nothing to lose but our heads, and we're going to lose everything if we don't, we've got to in the spirit of Jesus Christ demand from them a radical surrender That will touch them from the top of their heads to the bottom of their feet and ransack their souls one end to the other, a radical commitment to Jesus Christ True grace is not cheap, it's costly, it's the treasure hid in the field, it's the pearl of great price, it's the rule of Christ for whose sake a man will poke out his eye if it causes him to stumble, it's the call of Christ at which the disciple leaves his nest and follows him This surrender that the great demander calls for is a costless surrender, to some it costs their possessions, the rich young ruler, you know what the rich young ruler would have had to do to be saved? Give everything you had away, a salvation by works to tell them enough, that's all, cost some of your loved ones, think not I'm come to send peace, I'm come to set a man at variance with his father, the daughter against the mother, isn't this terrible language? And the daughter-in-law against the mother-in-law, and a man's soul shall be there of his father, his own household, and he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me And he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, that's the language of this demander It may cost our lives, physically, there's no other way on earth to be saved apart from being a martyr, for unless the Lord Jesus' sheepness occurs, and our Bible teaches assure us that he was, but I don't believe him Oh, it'll cost to meet the demand that Jesus Christ is yourself, is yourself, if any man will come after me, and the Lord hadn't listened to the Bible teachers of today and found out that you could be a Christian without being a disciple He taught them that same thing, and he said if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, oh, it'll cost, when I read scriptures like this, oh, it'll cost Rothbard to the naked is to deny himself Well, now, I'll give you a million dollars if I got it, and I'll preach for you, Lord, but I just can't, I can't advocate, I can't disown self, I'll do anything you ask me to do, but I'm not going to deny self For denying yourself means to take up your cross, and that don't mean to be tested with something, that means to die, and if that's the way of salvation, oh, my soul, I wonder if any of us know what it's all about And the only hope I've got is that the only kind of repentance the Bible talks about is not something that happened 20 years ago, but something that happened today in my life And the only kind of faith the Bible talks about's worth a dime is not that faith I sent ahead yesterday, but that relies upon a total recommitment of life to him today How can you dare to go a day without having the job done all over again? This costless surrender, and then God help us, it's an eternal surrender, our future destiny is decided by bowing daily now, or at the judgment One day this one who hung naked on a tree will appear as the son of man in glory, to bring final full salvation to the sons of the kingdom of God, and to bring full final judgment and condemnation to the sons of darkness And the day he preaches peace and pardon, and commands men to throw down their arms and come under his rule, and enter his banquet room in O.W. Now, and in the light of eternity, the words of my Lord burn within me Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me, and of my words in this adulterous generation, of him also shall the son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with his holy name For I read one more scripture, my soul how piercing it is, whosoever shall confess me before men, confession is always true, testimony isn't, whosoever shall confess me before men Him shall the son of man confess before the angels of God, but he that denies me before men shall be denied before the angels of God It hadn't fallen to my lot to live in a time when I had to show whether I was ashamed of Jesus by God, thus have God's people have had to put seal upon their profession, and sign the seal with their life's blood It's fallen to my time to live in the day of religious icicles, where we're the fattest, most satisfied, easy going bunch of preachers and people God ever had to put up with I look in the face and tell you now, God's my judge, that ain't gonna be worth a dime, when the chips are down, and the Lord is denying those of us who denied him My God's great demand of us, said the kingdom of heaven is here, repent, for you bow your head, oh God, come and show mercy to us, put your finger on our shoulders, get out of here tonight Bring us to a commitment to the truth of the kingdom of God, and the demand of the Lord of glory, such as we've never known Lord, do something for us tonight, deal with the stern, cut us into our very hearts quick, with this uncompromising demand, from the lips of the Lord of glory Oh God, don't let anybody get away from here with a nice little brand of Christianity, bring us to an all out commitment, that will make us have to do it all over again tomorrow And then the next day, bring us to the commanding chief of the orders of the day, day by day, and the strength from above to witness a good confession in this awful hour Walk this hour right now, oh Holy Spirit, beckon men and women to this repentance, bring all of you here tonight, that are really your children, they are known to you, but not to us, to a deeper commitment than we've ever known Discover to men and women here right now, how it is with them, God, don't let anybody go away from here waving the lamp of an empty confession, this generation, God have mercy I'm going to ask the organist to come, I'm going to ask you to sit with your head bowed, while she softly plays something, without any singing, I want you to hit the trail of repentance tonight, I want every child of God here tonight, that needs a commitment deeper than you've ever known Not to go away from here until that commitment is real in your life, you need to have mercy God, as revealed the emptiness of your profession, don't you go away from here until Christ is real, and you met His demand I will make it hard as I know how, you need to come here to pray, come here for requests, come here for witness, come here for testimony, come here crying I'm lost, pleading God's blessing, come here for open confession, let me be, just get up out of your seat and come, do it right now, do it right now, all it will cost you is yourself