On Wednesday we had our midweek meeting on zoom once again. We looked for the last time at Romans 8:28 with Thomas Watson. This was followed by a good time of prayer. One person prayed who'd not prayed before which is always encouraging. Below a reproduce the two bits I topped and tailed the message with.
I like the story of the American evangelist Rolfe Barnard from an Easter morning back in 1950 when he was taking special services in a church in Ashland, Kentucky.
To give the background, Barnard was a rather gruff man who started out as a fundamentalist Arminian but in the late 1940s happened to purchase 'for a dime' a second-hand book of sermons, by Southern Baptist B H Carroll. Barnard testified that 'Just one sentence from a sermon on John 5:25 unlocked everything and "ruined" my ministry'! He began to restudy what his teacher at South Western, a Calvinist called D W Conner, had taught him as a student and began to read the Puritans and Reformers and came to the settled conviction that sovereign grace is the message of the Bible. He began to preach this.
A defining moment came at a Fundamentalist 'Sword of the Lord' Conference at Tocoa Falls, Georgia, in 1949. The conference was dedicated to soul-winning techniques. The speakers were fundamentalists Dr John Rice, Lee Robertson, Bill Rice and E J Daniels and Rolfe Barnard himself.
Barnard was to speak first. He began by asking the young preachers to open their Bibles to Romans 9 and all the old preachers to keep theirs shut as they wouldn't believe anything he was going to say! Everyone opened their Bibles! He preached for an hour on sovereign grace and by the next morning the conference was in turmoil. Before it was over Dr Rice had asked Barnard to leave!
In 1950 Don Wells, pastor of Pollard Baptist Church in Ashland, Kentucky, secured Barnard's services as an evangelist for two weeks. And so it was that on that Easter Sunday morning Barnard came to the Ashland church. Nearly a thousand people were there. Barnard stood up to preach and said in a low voice, 'I don 't know why I am here, but I'm sure it has something to do with the foreordaining purposes of God.' Then he asked, 'Can anyone here quote Romans 8:28 for us?' The young assistant pastor, a man called Henry Mahan, stood and quoted the verse like this And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God. Now we have been looking at this verse for a while now so you may immediately see what was wrong with that.
Barnard asked Mahan if that was all he knew of the verse. Mahan said, 'yes'. Then Barnard responded, 'Let me quote the verse for you.' He began quoting the verse slowly, And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to those called according to his .... Then, when he came to the word purpose, he bellowed it at the top of his voice. Fixing his eyes on Mahan he said, 'Young man, when you understand the meaning of that word purpose you will have the key that unlocks the Book of Romans and the whole Bible.' He then preached on sovereign grace. Many in the congregation were deeply disturbed; others were hungry for more. From that time on Rolfe Barnard was ostracised in Fundamentalist circles as a 'hypercalvinist' but during the 1950s and 1960s God greatly blessed his labours.
Well that is a good introduction I hope to the last part of Romans 8:28, which is what I want us to consider this evening, once again using this little book by Thomas Watson that we've been using to guide us.
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One of those present when Rolfe Barnard preached in Ashland, Kentucky, was a man called John Thornbury. He once wrote
"I was a teenage boy and attended ... with my mother ... sister and brother. ... In those days evangelistic services were conducted annually, sometimes more often. They were known as "revival meetings". Some of the most prominent evangelists ... came to our church. Evangelistic services were extravaganzas. They featured musicians, former boxers, convicts and entertainers as speakers, and all kinds of gimmicks and goodies for the youth. Aeroplane rides were offered for those who brought enough people ... and there were rewards for those who induced others to "walk down the church aisles" after the sermons. After all the excitement died down, people usually went about their sinful ways of living just as before. Like all the guest-evangelists who came, the picture of Barnard was placed on posters ... all over town. Beneath his picture was an interesting slogan ... "The evangelist who is different."
Exactly what was different ... the posters did not say. The man looked to be in his late forties. The only thing noticeably different about his appearance was that he came across as somewhat sombre - there was a slightly menacing look ... Normally, evangelists had broad smiles and shining faces ... After a few sermons ... folk knew just how different ... Barnard was ... There was none of the flashy demeanour, but a grave and dignified bearing, like one who had been sent on a mission. One soon got the impression ... he was not there to whip up religious excitement, but to deliver a message from God.
The message was as startling as it was different. It centred on the character of God. The deity most people believed in was a nice ... fellow who did his best to save people but was often frustrated ... Many times I heard preachers say, "God has done all he can for you, now it is up to you." Barnard, on the other hand, preached a God who was sovereign and omnipotent ... who dispensed his mercy according to his own discretion. He preached that sinners were not to come to God with the idea of helping him out of his dilemma, but ... as guilty sinners, suing for mercy. He exalted the holiness of God and the strictness of his Law. This, you can be sure, was different!
Rumours began to spread ... that a Calvinist had come to Ashland. Some reacted with amazement, some with confusion, others with downright anger. But a small group rejoiced and said, "We have been wanting to hear this for years" ... The pastor, Don Wells, after much heart-searching and Bible study, came to believe in the doctrines of grace as a result of this meeting, and invited Barnard back in August 1951 to hold a tent meeting ... I had been baptised at the age of 12, but was utterly without any vital relationship with God ... Still, I did not even want to consider that I was not a Christian ... We were all fascinated with his style, though he seemed awfully stern and rough. Plain truths of the Word of God were set forth, even the harshest, in their naked reality. One of his favourite texts was God will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy (Romans 9:15). Shortly after the meetings started, there began to be a "breaking up". Many, mostly adults, began to go forward after the messages and state publicly that they were lost and wanted prayer. These, and others who sat trembling in the audience, were under conviction of sin.
The amazing thing is that most ... were church members. I remember one night the piano stopped ... and the pianist went to the front ... and sat down sobbing. We all knew she meant that she wanted to be saved. Prominent church leaders ... deacons, Sunday School teachers ... youth workers began to acknowledge that they had been false professors or deceived about their state before God. Our male quartet was singing each night ... it turned out ... not one of us was converted at that time. One night Don, one ... of the quartet, went to the front ... and asked for prayer. It was announced that he was lost and needed Christ. It was at this point that I became involved ...
I went to the front ... where Barnard and the pastor were talking to Don. Butting in like the immature, upstart youth I was, I said ... "Don, you do not need to worry. You are seeking God. The lost man does not seek God ... you have the life of God in you ..." or words to that effect.
Never, till the day I die, will I forget what ... Barnard said ... Looking straight at me with his piercing eyes, he said, "Young man, a believer is not seeking Christ, he has found Christ!" ... With this statement, through the work of the Holy Spirit in my heart, he stripped aside the shroud of pseudo-religion in which I had been hiding, and left me standing exposed to my true condition. I did not know Christ ... The next morning, somewhat humbled, I told the pastor and the evangelist ... I was lost. I recall ... the pastor's words ... "John, this is not surprising, since most of our best young people are coming to realise that they have never had a real experience of grace." There were no words of counsel given me except ... "God saves sinners" ... But before the day was over, God used the words of the song, "Jesus paid it all" to bring peace to my heart ... The tent was packed every night for three weeks. Barnard preached on ... God's Electing Grace, Particular Redemption and How God Saves Sinners. Many were converted, especially ... members. Others were disturbed and rebelled against the message. There was a division over the message in the church.
