The Iron Wagon

by Al Lacy

  “Makes sense, since it is the opposite of hell here, and Jesus quoted the man in hell as saying he was tormented in flame.”

  Paul smiled. “I’m glad you see that. Now, let me show you some more verses on hell.” He flipped back to the Old Testament and stopped at Psalm 9. “Now read verse 17 to me.”

  David set his eyes on the verse. “‘The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.’”

  “The ‘wicked,’ David, is anyone who dies in their sins who has never been forgiven.”

  David nodded solemnly.

  Paul flipped to the book of Revelation and turned to chapter 20. “I could show you plenty more on hell in this Bible, but after I show you one more passage, I want to move on. Here in Revelation we have the horrible scene at the Great White Throne of Judgment, where all the people are brought out of hell to stand before God and have all their sins totally exposed. The saved people will be there to observe it. Read me what it says in verses 14 and 15 about when the judgment is over.”

  David focused on the verses. “‘And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.’”

  “So, hell in its final state is called the lake of what?”

  David grimaced. “Fire.”

  “Right, and since the saved people—whose names are written in the book of life—are there to look on, it says that those whose names are not in the book of life will be cast into hell in its final state … the lake of fire. They will burn there forever. No hope of it ever ending.”

  David palmed perspiration from his brow. “I—don’t want to go there, Paul.”

  “Good! Now let me show you how to go to heaven instead.” While flipping pages in his Bible, he said, “God’s only begotten Son died on the cross of Calvary to provide a way for all sinners to be saved, forgiven of their sins, and go to heaven when they die. You are a sinner, aren’t you?”

  David’s face flushed. “Yes. I’ve done plenty of wrong in my life.”

  “I’m glad you’re willing to admit it. Lots of people I’ve talked to about being saved won’t admit any wrongdoing.” Paul came to the page he wanted, then placed the Bible in front of David. “This is Romans chapter 3. Read me verse 23, will you?”

  “‘For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.’”

  “Notice it says all, David. So all humans—except babies and little children—are guilty sinners before a holy, righteous God.”

  He nodded. “Yes.”

  “That includes me, and that includes you.”

  David nodded again. “I see that.”

  “But there is a difference between you and me,” Paul said. “I am a sinner who has had all of his sins washed away in the blood of Jesus Christ and forgiven. Therefore, when I die, I will go to heaven. If you died this very instant, where would you go?”

  David’s features crimsoned. “I—I would go to hell.”

  “Right. And you already told me that you don’t want to go there.”

  “That’s right!”

  Paul turned a couple of pages. “Now read me this verse.” He was pointing to Romans 6:23.

  David took a deep breath. “‘For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’”

  “Now, think about it, David. If you get what you earn by sinning against God, it’s death, isn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s more than physical death. Even saved people die physically. So if you die without being saved, the wages you receive for a lifetime of sin is to burn forever in the lake of fire.”

  David nodded. “I understand.”

  “Now look at Romans 6:23 again. There is not only death mentioned, but eternal life. That has to mean forever with God in heaven, doesn’t it?”

  “It has to.”

  “All right, now notice the word gift. Eternal life can’t be earned by good works and religious deeds. It is a gift. If you earn something, it is a wage, right?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “But if you receive it as a gift, is it earned?”

  “Absolutely not.”

  “Correct. It is by grace. In Ephesians 2:8–9, God says, ‘For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.’ Salvation, forgiveness of your sins, and a place in heaven forever do not come from human works but by God’s grace, which is a gift. Understand?”

  “Like never before in my life.”

  “Good,” said Paul. “Now, let me ask you, do you believe that Jesus is the virgin-born Son of God?”

  “Yes, I do,” David responded without hesitation. “I have never doubted it, since it is such a strong part of the Christmas story I have heard all of my life.”

  “I’m glad. Now look at Romans 6:23 again. ‘But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ See that? Salvation—eternal life—does not come through anything we can accomplish, like being baptized, taking communion, or saying prayers. When a person does get saved, he or she is commanded in the Word of God to get Scripturally baptized after getting saved, but baptism does not save anyone. Salvation only comes through the Lord Jesus Christ. He came into the world by the miraculous virgin birth, lived a perfectly sinless life, and purposely died on the cross of Calvary, shedding His sinless blood for our sins. Do you understand that?”

  “Yes. It’s making sense to me, Paul.”

  Paul smiled. “Now let me ask you, did Jesus stay dead after He was crucified and buried?”

  “Oh no. He came back to life.”

  “Right. Now that’s the gospel, David. Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. In Mark 1:15, Jesus said, ‘Repent ye, and believe the gospel.’ Repentance is acknowledging to Him that we are guilty sinners and results in a change of direction. When we repent of our sins, we turn from them unto the living Christ and call on Him to forgive us and to come into our heart and save us because we believe the gospel.”

  David nodded. “I see.”

  “Now, let’s go back to Romans chapter 3,” Paul said, flipping pages. “Look what it says in verse 24. ‘Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.’ To be justified, David, is to stand before God just as if you had never sinned. Redemption is the same thing as salvation. Please notice that the saved person is justified freely. We cannot earn it. It is by grace.”

  “Yes. I now understand.”

  “And our redemption—our salvation—is where, David?”

  “In Christ Jesus.”

  “Right. Not in our good works. Not in baptismal water, not in communion elements, nor some mortal religious leader. Just in Jesus Christ. Understand?”

  “I sure do.”

  “Good.” Paul flipped some pages. “Now, I want to show you something else.” Laying the Bible before David again, he said, “Read me John 1:12. It speaks of receiving Jesus.”

  David nodded. “‘But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.’”

  “To believe on His name means to believe that Jesus is who the Bible says He is—the Saviour. The name Jesus means ‘Saviour.’ Do you believe on His name? That He is the one and only Saviour?”

  David smiled. “Yes.”

  “All right, then God’s Word says right here that if you will receive Jesus, you will become a son of God. Right now you are not a child of God, and only God’s children go to heaven when they die. Ephesians 3:17 says, ‘That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.’ You must repent of your sins and receive Jesus into your heart to be saved, David. When the Bible speaks of your heart in this context, it’s not talking about that muscle that pumps the blood through your body. It’s talking about the center of your soul—the very heart of your soul.”

  “That makes sense,” said David. “I understand.”

&n
bsp; Paul looked him in the eye. “Do you want to be saved?”

  “I sure do!”

  “Okay. Let me show you how.” Paul flipped pages again, stopped at Romans chapter 10, and said, “Here. Read me verses 10 and 13.”

  David set his eyes on verse 10. “‘For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.’” Then he looked at verse 13. “‘For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’”

  Paul looked at David and saw that his eyes were misty. “When do you want to be saved, David?”

  Tears began to spill. “Right now, Paul!”

  Paul closed the Bible and put his arm around David’s shoulders. “Let’s bow our heads, and you call on Jesus. Tell Him you are repenting of your sins, that you want to be forgiven of them, and that you want to be saved, and ask Him to come into your heart and be your Saviour.”

  When David had finished calling on the Lord for salvation, tears flowing, Paul prayed, thanking the Lord Jesus for saving David, and asked Him to help David to be a good, strong Christian and to use him for His glory.

  The following Sunday, David Barrett went to Denver’s First Baptist Church and sat in the morning service with Paul Brockman and his family. David walked the aisle at the invitation, testified to the pastor how Paul had led him to the Lord, and was baptized.

  The Brockmans invited David for Sunday dinner at their home that afternoon, and while he was there, the rest of the family noticed that David seemed quite attracted to Ginny and that Ginny seemed quite attracted to him also.

  EIGHTEEN

  John Brockman continued to be invited to churches in many parts of the West to preach. On Monday, April 1, 1895, the chief U.S. marshal received a telegram from Pastor Alex Duffy of the First Baptist Church in Phoenix, Arizona, where he had preached many times over the years. Pastor Duffy asked if Chief Brockman would come and preach for him in the Sunday morning and evening services on the fourteenth of that month.

  After going to Denver’s Union Station and purchasing train tickets to and from Phoenix, John went to the telegraph office and sent a message to Pastor Duffy, saying he would be glad to come and preach for him and that he would arrive by train on Saturday afternoon so he could spend the evening with Marshal Danford Pierce.

  On April 14, John arrived in Phoenix at three o’clock and found both Pastor Duffy and Marshal Pierce there to meet him. After chatting with both men for a while, Pastor Duffy excused himself, saying he would see Chief Brockman at church in the morning.

  Marshal Pierce took the chief to his buggy in the railroad station parking lot. As they headed across town in the direction of the Pierce home, Danford asked about John’s family.

  John told him about Breanna’s accident in the hospital and that she was seriously injured but how the Lord had answered prayer and healed her. John then told Pierce the story of how he and Breanna had adopted Meggie and what a blessing she had been to the family ever since.

  The marshal turned the buggy onto his property and said, “She sounds like a real sweet girl.”

  As the buggy pulled to a halt next to a small barn, John replied, “That she is, my friend. That she is.”

  Danford Pierce stepped out of the buggy, and as John was doing the same, Pierce said, “I want to hear about Ginny and Paul.”

  John smiled. “I’ll tell you about them inside.”

  Later that evening, after the marshal had prepared supper and the two men had eaten together while talking about work, they went into the parlor. As they sat on overstuffed chairs facing each other, Marshal Pierce said, “All right, Chief, tell me about Ginny and Paul now.”

  John told him that Ginny was now twenty years old and would graduate from the Denver School of Nursing next month. He added that Ginny would then go to work at Denver’s Mile High Hospital.

  Pierce smiled. “That’s great! Is there a young man in Ginny’s life?”

  “Ah … yes. Ginny recently fell in love with a fine Christian young man who is twenty-two and a member of our church. His name is David Barrett. He’s a teller at Denver’s First National Bank. He came to Denver from Cheyenne, Wyoming, just over a year ago to take the job in the bank.”

  Pierce smiled again. “I’m glad to know that Ginny has a fine Christian young man in her life.”

  John nodded happily. “There’s no question that Ginny and David’s relationship is getting serious. Breanna and I love David, and so do Paul and Meggie.”

  “Sounds good.”

  “It will be a blessing if the Lord has chosen Ginny and David for each other. He and Paul are especially close.”

  John then told him about Paul being one of his deputy U.S. marshals, of Paul’s protecting David’s life during a bank robbery in February, how Paul had led David to the Lord later that very day, and that David had been baptized at First Baptist Church the following Sunday.

  “I can see why Paul and David are close.”

  “They’re real buddies, for sure,” John said.

  “I want to know about Paul becoming one of your deputies. This is great!”

  John gave him the details about Paul having worked in his office from the time he turned nineteen and that he had made Paul one of his deputies when he turned twenty-one.

  Marshal Pierce grinned. “I have a feeling that Paul is already a topnotch deputy U.S. marshal.”

  “You’re right about that, my friend. Paul has already put a lot of outlaws behind bars. He has also been forced by some gunslingers to draw against them. Paul is really fast and accurate with his gun. And I’ll say this. With Paul’s office experience and the kind of lawman he is now, he could be heading up a U.S. marshal’s office just like you do.”

  “Wow!” said Pierce. “As young as he is and the relatively brief experience he has under his belt—but because he is your son, I have no doubt that he could handle the job.”

  John smiled. “Thanks for the compliment, but even if he wasn’t my son, believe me, he could still do it.”

  “It’s good that you have such confidence in your son. I’m sure he deserves it.”

  “He sure does.” John paused and rubbed the back of his neck. “From what I can pick up in the newspapers, the Apaches are giving a lot of trouble to the people of Arizona and to travelers who pass through here on horseback and in wagons.”

  “They sure are.”

  John and Danford discussed the fact that the U.S. Army had a great number of soldiers out of Fort Huachuca in Arizona, located a bit south of Tucson, who were setting up in camps along the main east-west road in southern Arizona Territory. They were there to do what they could to protect settlers and travelers from the Apaches.

  John and Danford both expressed gladness that at least some of the Apaches who had been placed on reservations by the United States government were no longer going after white people. They would be glad when all of the Apaches went off the warpath.

  The next day, when John Brockman preached a powerful sermon on salvation in the morning service at Phoenix’s First Baptist Church, Pastor Alex Duffy and the church members were thrilled to see a good number of visiting adults and young people walk the aisle at the invitation to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour. Pastor Duffy was also thrilled to baptize them.

  As the pastor dismissed the service, when he was standing in the baptistry, he told the crowd that, as usual, Chief Brockman would be in the vestibule to shake hands with them.

  As the crowd filed out the front door, passing through the vestibule to do so, they paused to greet the tall, handsome lawman. Among them were the new converts, who expressed their appreciation for his preaching and let him know they were very glad to be saved.

  One family among the new converts especially touched John’s heart. They were the last to approach him. Edgar and Celia Martin, who were in their late forties, introduced themselves, then introduced their lovely blond-haired, blue-eyed daughter, Lisa, who was nineteen.

  When John shook Lisa’s
hand, tears welled up in her eyes. “Chief Brockman, thank you so much for making salvation so clear in your sermon. I have never heard it that way before. All I’ve ever heard about how to get to heaven was that I had to do all kinds of religious things plus lots of good works, and then maybe, if I did enough of them, I would make it to heaven. You made it so clear that salvation is totally in Jesus and is by grace through faith in Him, and Him alone.”

  Edgar explained to Chief Brockman that today was the first time they had visited this church. They had come this morning because they had heard that the man called the Stranger, who was now chief U.S. marshal of the Western District, was preaching at First Baptist Church that morning.

  John’s eyebrows arched. “Oh, so you know about me as the Stranger, eh?”

  “Yes sir,” said Edgar. “I heard much about the Stranger when I was living in Texas many years ago, and when I heard that he was preaching here, I wanted to meet him. And Celia and Lisa wanted to come with me.”

  All three of the Martins rejoiced that they were now on the way to heaven and that they were planning to become members of Phoenix’s First Baptist Church.

  Smiling broadly, John said, “I am very glad for you. I wish my family could meet you.” He told them about Breanna, Paul, Ginny, and Meggie. Then he bragged a bit, saying that his twenty-two-year-old son, Paul, was the same height as he was—six-feet-five inches—weighed almost the same as him, and that his facial features looked very much like his. He then told the Martins that Paul was one of his deputy U.S. marshals and a tremendous law officer.

  Edgar Martin said, “Chief, believe me, Celia, Lisa, and I would like to meet your family.”

  “I would like that too. But if it doesn’t happen here on earth, all three of you will get to meet my family in heaven.”

  Tears moistened the eyes of Edgar, Celia, and Lisa as they spoke their agreement that they would look forward to that.

  Edgar asked, “When are you heading back to Denver, Chief?”

  “I’m scheduled to head back tomorrow morning on the nine o’clock train from Phoenix.”