John the Baptist and the Fire of God # 7
Come on parent, are you living so your children will want something that is in your life, something that is beautiful? Something that they can't see in school, that they can't see in a magazine? And they can't see in church, maybe?
My mother was a role model for me, my daddy was a role model. The best thing he ever did, he took me to a prayer meeting when I was fourteen years of age. And I remember that night, it comes to me often, often.
See, we've got the idea that the only reason you have to be filled with the Holy Spirit is you are going to be a missionary. The greatest break down in America is not in brothels tonight, and it is not in abortion, the greatest breakdown in America is in the home!
It's not what YOU have to bring to God, it's what GOD can give you! We don't have men like we used to have. When Whitefield came from England the population of Boston was 12 thousand and he drew 14 thousand a night without black-topped roads, without restaurants. One man says, "I put my wife on the back of the old mare and I got up, the snow was so deep we struggled up hills and valleys, and finally I got off and just led the horse. And I was soaking wet. There were no pews, no shelter. I stood there in the snow and I heard a man who was blazing with God! I never realized till I moved that my trousers were almost stiff with frost, they were wet through and then they were stiff in the frost. We went home. The poor old mare was tired out the next day when we got home, but we turned round and we went back again." Why did they go all that way? Preachers don't have to do that now. You just get enough money and you get a TV program and poor swell-headed guys think they are turning the world upside-down. And we are as far lost down the pit as we were before we started.
God isn't looking for organizing. He is looking for agonizing. And he talks about praying in the Holy Spirit. And I want to learn more of that. It's praying in tongues. And I am not knocking tongues.
What we've had in the last 25 years with all the Pentecostal churches we haven't moved this nation to God. How is it that 120 turned the world upside-down? They'd no money, they hadn't the screen, they couldn't throw what they were saying into a million homes.
I'm sure in my own heart, what God is looking for is to take total possession of some men in their spirit, their soul, their mind, their will.
I went to a little college, Cliff College. It only had one revival. I wasn't there. A friend of mine, he was up in years in 1932, and 33. Had been in World War One. He was a drunkard, a blasphemer, and everything else. A very precious, gorgeous lady lead him to Christ and he fell in love with her, and they fixed a day for their wedding. One day they went to an old Holiness meeting and they were singing a hymn, but when he came to the stanza: "Here I give my all to Thee, Friends and time and earthly store, Soul and body, Thine to be, Only Thine for forevermore." And he sang it. "Here am I to give my friends," he thought. She is the only friend I have in the world; we are going to be married in three months, I've a house stored with new furniture." And the Lord Jesus said, "You want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, it will cost you everything. Postpone your wedding for three years. Give me all your time. Your earthly store is all the furniture you have for the future, sell it and use it to pay to go to Cliff College.
He went to Cliff College. There were about thirty-five students there, as there were when I went there, thirty-five men. He woke up one morning about two o'clock with a craving for God. Dan Philips, was his name. He came down in his pajamas into the lecture hall, between one and two o'clock in the morning and started crying to God. And he just roared: "Lord, I'm a preacher. Lord I win souls, but my heart is not full of Holiness, it's not full of love, it's not full of the power of the Spirit, it's not full of humility, it's not full of gentleness, it's not even full of peace. Send the fire down to this heart of mine." And he cried for about half an hour, and every man in the college left his bed and they were all there in that room in their pajamas crying to God. And the Spirit of the living God came on them. And the Holy Spirit swept through the College for weeks.
He didn't think when he yielded his life, and his future wife, and all he had in Manchester, the result would be that a whole college revived. We had some of the most brilliant preachers, Samuel Chadwick was there. Joe Brice was there. Some of the outstanding preachers of England were there, but it wasn't through their preaching. It was when a man obeyed God, and tossed the bedclothes on one side and went down in the room that was cold and said, "God I need just the fire of the Holy Spirit, not for tonight, but for all my life. I want to refill my life continually with the Spirit."
It is not enough to be filled with His Holy Spirit ten years ago. I don't care where you were baptized. The question isn't were you filled ten years ago but are you filled tonight? Are you filled with God tonight? Are you filled with love tonight? Are you filled with power tonight? Are you filled with passion for the lost?
Come on, in God's name. God is going to bypass us. You may scream if you've gifts, you don't scream for the fruit. It's not easy. God will wreck your career. Hell wreck you life style. But if He does if you let Him, He can use you to poor out His revival through you. One day the pillar of fire is going to come, and you know what? We won't need to advertise! There will be such a meekness, such a sweetness, such a holiness, such a gentleness, such a loving kindness the fruit of the Spirit.
We are going to sing Mr. Hatch's hymn (a brilliant English preacher), he had a packed church, he had stacks of money, he was the favorite preacher in town. "But one night," he said, "I went into my office, and said, "Lord I am not satisfied with popularity. I am not satisfied with the favor of men. I am not satisfied with my eloquence. "Breath on me breath of God." And he snatched a piece of paper and he wrote this hymn we are going to sing now.
Maybe you want to meet God in some new way. If you do, why don't you keel at your chair while we sing and let others sing it. Kneel somewhere and say, "Lord, I want something tonight that I've never had in my life. I want the destruction of my self-life, my self-interest, my temper, my pride, my fear of man, my fear of the future, my fear of what the relatives will think of me, destroy it!
All hell is looking into this meeting at this moment. All angels are looking in. And Jesus is waiting to see the fruit of the travail of His soul.
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(The End)
Copyright/Reproduction Limitations: This file is the sole property of Leonard Ravenhill. It may not be altered or edited in any way. It may be reproduced in its entirety as "Freeware" without charge. (c) 1995 by Leonard Ravenhill, Lindale, Texas.
Saturday, January 26, 2019
The Perfect Faith # 1
The Perfect Faith # 1
"Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" (Job 13:16).
These words have always seemed to be the expression of the profoundest faith. When David sings, "I will sing unto the Lord because He hath dealt bountifully with me," it seems to be something which all men can understand. It is a gratitude and trust won by visible mercy. But when a soul is able to declare that even under the smiting, ay, even under the slaying, of God it is able still to trust in Him, everyone feels that that soul has reached a very true and deep, sometimes it must seem a rare, faith in Him.
And yet it is a degree of faith which we know that men have attained before they can be in any complete or worthy way believers to God. Merely to trust Him when He is manifestly kind to them, is surely not enough. A man's own soul cannot be satisfied with that. A man questions himself whether that is faith at all; whether it is not merely sight. Everywhere and always any lofty conception of trust has been compelled not to stop short of this: such an entrance into the nature and character of the trusted person that even when he seemed to be unreasonable and disappointing and unkind the faithful soul could trust Him still.
Always the man who really wanted to completely trust another man has been obligated to feel that his trust was not complete if it stopped short of that.
They are words that might be said almost in desperation. The soul compelled to realize that there was no other hope for it, that if this hope failed it every hope was gone, and feeling that it could not live without some hope, might say, "I must and will keep faith in God. No matter how He fails me I will cling to Him still; for I must cling to something still, and there is nothing else to cling to, and so, though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." This is the spirit of a familiar hymn which always seemed to me doubtful as the expression of a healthy or even of a possible experience.
"I can but perish if I go.
I am resolved to try;
For if I stay away,
I know I shall forever die."
It is a question whether a faith as desperate as that is faith at all, but certainly it is not the faith expressed by these words out of our English version of the Book of Job. "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." There is something far more cordial about these words. They are not desperate; they anticipate possible disappointment and pain; but they discern a hope beyond them. Their hope lies in the character of God. Whatever His special treatment of the soul may be, the soul knows Him in His character. And for the explanation of His treatment, for the cordial acceptance of His treatment even when it cannot be explained, the soul falls back upon its certainty concerning His character.
There is no desperation here. There is no more clinging to God because the soul, looking all about, can find nothing else to cling to. All is positive. God is just what the soul needs, and to its certainty of what God is the soul turns to every distress and perplexity about what God does. Behind its perception of God's conduct, as an illumination and as a retreat, always lies its knowledge of God's character.
The relations of character and conduct to each other are always interesting. Let us look at them in general for a few minutes. The first and simplest idea of their relation is that conduct is the mouth-piece of character. What a man is declares itself through what he does. I see a man steal, and I know he has a thievish heart. I see a soldier fling himself upon the spears of the enemy, and I know that he is brave and patriotic. We know how closely this relation between character and conduct is dumb and paralyzed. Its life is there but it is shut out from action, and all man's history bears witness that it is shut out from growth. Mere qualities which do not become conscious of themselves, and do not make themselves effective by contact with the world of things, lie stagnant, and can hardly be called live qualities at all. And on the other hand, conduct without character is thin and most unsatisfying. The pleasant deed which does not mean a kindly heart behind it, the dashing enterprise which is mere physical excitement, the steadiness in work which is merely weary and unsatisfactory all of these become. No; conduct is the trumpet at the lips of character. Character without conduct is like the lips without the trumpet, whose whispers die upon themselves and do not stir the world. The world has a right to disallow all claims of character which do not utter themselves in conduct. "It may be real, - it may be good," the world has a right to say, "but I cannot know it or test it; and I am sure that however good and real it is, it is deprived of the condition of the best life and growth which is activity."
~Phillips Brooks~
(continued with # 2)
"Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" (Job 13:16).
These words have always seemed to be the expression of the profoundest faith. When David sings, "I will sing unto the Lord because He hath dealt bountifully with me," it seems to be something which all men can understand. It is a gratitude and trust won by visible mercy. But when a soul is able to declare that even under the smiting, ay, even under the slaying, of God it is able still to trust in Him, everyone feels that that soul has reached a very true and deep, sometimes it must seem a rare, faith in Him.
And yet it is a degree of faith which we know that men have attained before they can be in any complete or worthy way believers to God. Merely to trust Him when He is manifestly kind to them, is surely not enough. A man's own soul cannot be satisfied with that. A man questions himself whether that is faith at all; whether it is not merely sight. Everywhere and always any lofty conception of trust has been compelled not to stop short of this: such an entrance into the nature and character of the trusted person that even when he seemed to be unreasonable and disappointing and unkind the faithful soul could trust Him still.
Always the man who really wanted to completely trust another man has been obligated to feel that his trust was not complete if it stopped short of that.
They are words that might be said almost in desperation. The soul compelled to realize that there was no other hope for it, that if this hope failed it every hope was gone, and feeling that it could not live without some hope, might say, "I must and will keep faith in God. No matter how He fails me I will cling to Him still; for I must cling to something still, and there is nothing else to cling to, and so, though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." This is the spirit of a familiar hymn which always seemed to me doubtful as the expression of a healthy or even of a possible experience.
"I can but perish if I go.
I am resolved to try;
For if I stay away,
I know I shall forever die."
It is a question whether a faith as desperate as that is faith at all, but certainly it is not the faith expressed by these words out of our English version of the Book of Job. "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." There is something far more cordial about these words. They are not desperate; they anticipate possible disappointment and pain; but they discern a hope beyond them. Their hope lies in the character of God. Whatever His special treatment of the soul may be, the soul knows Him in His character. And for the explanation of His treatment, for the cordial acceptance of His treatment even when it cannot be explained, the soul falls back upon its certainty concerning His character.
There is no desperation here. There is no more clinging to God because the soul, looking all about, can find nothing else to cling to. All is positive. God is just what the soul needs, and to its certainty of what God is the soul turns to every distress and perplexity about what God does. Behind its perception of God's conduct, as an illumination and as a retreat, always lies its knowledge of God's character.
The relations of character and conduct to each other are always interesting. Let us look at them in general for a few minutes. The first and simplest idea of their relation is that conduct is the mouth-piece of character. What a man is declares itself through what he does. I see a man steal, and I know he has a thievish heart. I see a soldier fling himself upon the spears of the enemy, and I know that he is brave and patriotic. We know how closely this relation between character and conduct is dumb and paralyzed. Its life is there but it is shut out from action, and all man's history bears witness that it is shut out from growth. Mere qualities which do not become conscious of themselves, and do not make themselves effective by contact with the world of things, lie stagnant, and can hardly be called live qualities at all. And on the other hand, conduct without character is thin and most unsatisfying. The pleasant deed which does not mean a kindly heart behind it, the dashing enterprise which is mere physical excitement, the steadiness in work which is merely weary and unsatisfactory all of these become. No; conduct is the trumpet at the lips of character. Character without conduct is like the lips without the trumpet, whose whispers die upon themselves and do not stir the world. The world has a right to disallow all claims of character which do not utter themselves in conduct. "It may be real, - it may be good," the world has a right to say, "but I cannot know it or test it; and I am sure that however good and real it is, it is deprived of the condition of the best life and growth which is activity."
~Phillips Brooks~
(continued with # 2)
John the Baptist and the Fire of God # 6
John the Baptist and the Fire of God # 6
Again, "make our weak hearts strong and brave." The only way you can get dross out of gold is put it in a crucible. Today they put it in an induction crucible. You press the button, the heat comes up, the gold sinks to the bottom of the crucible, and a man sits there with a sieve and he takes the scum off the top and throws it out. He is there half an hour, then he quits. "Are you tired?" "No." Why do you quit? "It's pure." "How do you know?" "Because I can see my reflection in it."
Doesn't Malachi say, "When He comes, He is a purifier of Silver?" Who shall abide the day of His coming? Dear God! We talk about one year revival. If we have Holy Spirit revival, maybe you won't sleep for the first ten days of it. God will do such a refining, such a purifying, maybe not on your husband or your wife, on you. Fifty years ago the most popular chorus was,
"Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me,
All His wonderful passion and purity,
Oh, Thou Spirit Divine, all my nature refine;
Till the beauty of Jesus is seen in me,"
The refiner sits there. He has me in the furnace and He heats it, and he Heats it, and He heats it - and it feels like hell sometimes. He throws out what He doesn't like: my pride, my ambition, my secret lust; my temper, my unforgiving spirit, my stubbornness (we don't think much of that, but stubbornness is as the sin of witchcraft in the Word of God.) He purifies until He looks in me and sees His reflection. He won't be satisfied with less. He doesn't come to make me a great preacher, or a great writer, or a great singer, or a great organizer. He comes because He wants to reflect His beauty in my life. Gentleness and meekness and holiness. The self-life goes out. Self-interest goes out. Self-righteousness goes out. Do you think it's easy? We have lived with it so long that we like ourselves. And God long ago stopped liking us. And the Scripture talks about the Word of God being a mirror. You know, when revival comes He holds the mirror up and you see yourself.
Remember the old story of Cromwell? An artist begged could he paint him, and Cromwell had a great big wart on his chin. And the artist painted him minus the wart. When he went in he said, "What do you think?" Cromwell answered, "Paint the wart and all! It's part of me." "Lord paint me, but don't show me my wart. Don't show me I am basically selfish, full of self-interest and full of self-seeking.
I am full of pride, I am full of anger, I am full of bitterness, I have an unforgiving....don't show me that. I am as ugly as the devil!" The smart boys today tell you that your trouble is that your self-image is so poor, you have such a poor image of yourself. No, your trouble is that you've too good an image of yourself! "Paint me wart and all!"
He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit. William Booth put up his slogan, "Blood and fire." Studebaker, the auto-maker, stood in New Castle, Pennsylvania one day, in the late 1890's. He was saying goodbye to a young man who was the most brilliant university orator in America. His name was Brengle. Studebaker shook hands with him and said, "Brengle, I wish I was as sure of becoming the president of the United States as I am that you'll become the Archbishop of Canterbury." Studebaker and this fellow had been buddies in college. Studebaker, poor soul, all he did was become a millionaire. This young man with his oratory, went and laid it at the feet of Jesus.
He got to London and to the Salvation Army head quarters tired out; it took four weeks to get there by boat. "Well, who are you?" William Booth asked. "I am Doctor Brengle." "Doctor Brengle?" They didn't need doctors; their theology wasn't sick. "What have you come for?" "I heard the Holy Spirit is here. I've crossed the Atlantic, I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I don't depend on my theology, my learning. I have a lot of scholarship, but I need Fire, I need Fire, I need Fire!" William Booth said, "You'll get it. Tomorrow morning at five o'clock, you'll polish the shoes of fifty students." And none of them had one leg. A hundred big high-top boots! And not spray polish. But Dr. Brengle later said, "It is there God taught me a lesson of patience."
They did not open the door and say, "We were waiting for a talented man like you to teach on the book of the Revelation. We'd like you to lead the prayer meeting tomorrow morning." They said, "Stick your nose down there." Brengle did. And he waited on God and God filled him with the Holy Spirit.
Later, a deaf person was asked after one of Brengle's meetings why she had come to the altar if she didn't hear the message. She answered, "Because I could see what I never have seen in a preacher in all my life." "What was it?" "I saw the beauty of Jesus in him while he was preaching. I don't know what he was saying, but I knew there was something in him I did not have!"
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(continued with # 7)
Copyright/Reproduction Limitations: this file is the sole property of Leonard Ravenhill. It may not be altered or edited in any way. It may be reproduced only in its entirety as "Freeware", without charge. (c) 1995 by Leonard Ravenhill, Lindale, Texas.
Again, "make our weak hearts strong and brave." The only way you can get dross out of gold is put it in a crucible. Today they put it in an induction crucible. You press the button, the heat comes up, the gold sinks to the bottom of the crucible, and a man sits there with a sieve and he takes the scum off the top and throws it out. He is there half an hour, then he quits. "Are you tired?" "No." Why do you quit? "It's pure." "How do you know?" "Because I can see my reflection in it."
Doesn't Malachi say, "When He comes, He is a purifier of Silver?" Who shall abide the day of His coming? Dear God! We talk about one year revival. If we have Holy Spirit revival, maybe you won't sleep for the first ten days of it. God will do such a refining, such a purifying, maybe not on your husband or your wife, on you. Fifty years ago the most popular chorus was,
"Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me,
All His wonderful passion and purity,
Oh, Thou Spirit Divine, all my nature refine;
Till the beauty of Jesus is seen in me,"
The refiner sits there. He has me in the furnace and He heats it, and he Heats it, and He heats it - and it feels like hell sometimes. He throws out what He doesn't like: my pride, my ambition, my secret lust; my temper, my unforgiving spirit, my stubbornness (we don't think much of that, but stubbornness is as the sin of witchcraft in the Word of God.) He purifies until He looks in me and sees His reflection. He won't be satisfied with less. He doesn't come to make me a great preacher, or a great writer, or a great singer, or a great organizer. He comes because He wants to reflect His beauty in my life. Gentleness and meekness and holiness. The self-life goes out. Self-interest goes out. Self-righteousness goes out. Do you think it's easy? We have lived with it so long that we like ourselves. And God long ago stopped liking us. And the Scripture talks about the Word of God being a mirror. You know, when revival comes He holds the mirror up and you see yourself.
Remember the old story of Cromwell? An artist begged could he paint him, and Cromwell had a great big wart on his chin. And the artist painted him minus the wart. When he went in he said, "What do you think?" Cromwell answered, "Paint the wart and all! It's part of me." "Lord paint me, but don't show me my wart. Don't show me I am basically selfish, full of self-interest and full of self-seeking.
I am full of pride, I am full of anger, I am full of bitterness, I have an unforgiving....don't show me that. I am as ugly as the devil!" The smart boys today tell you that your trouble is that your self-image is so poor, you have such a poor image of yourself. No, your trouble is that you've too good an image of yourself! "Paint me wart and all!"
He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit. William Booth put up his slogan, "Blood and fire." Studebaker, the auto-maker, stood in New Castle, Pennsylvania one day, in the late 1890's. He was saying goodbye to a young man who was the most brilliant university orator in America. His name was Brengle. Studebaker shook hands with him and said, "Brengle, I wish I was as sure of becoming the president of the United States as I am that you'll become the Archbishop of Canterbury." Studebaker and this fellow had been buddies in college. Studebaker, poor soul, all he did was become a millionaire. This young man with his oratory, went and laid it at the feet of Jesus.
He got to London and to the Salvation Army head quarters tired out; it took four weeks to get there by boat. "Well, who are you?" William Booth asked. "I am Doctor Brengle." "Doctor Brengle?" They didn't need doctors; their theology wasn't sick. "What have you come for?" "I heard the Holy Spirit is here. I've crossed the Atlantic, I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I don't depend on my theology, my learning. I have a lot of scholarship, but I need Fire, I need Fire, I need Fire!" William Booth said, "You'll get it. Tomorrow morning at five o'clock, you'll polish the shoes of fifty students." And none of them had one leg. A hundred big high-top boots! And not spray polish. But Dr. Brengle later said, "It is there God taught me a lesson of patience."
They did not open the door and say, "We were waiting for a talented man like you to teach on the book of the Revelation. We'd like you to lead the prayer meeting tomorrow morning." They said, "Stick your nose down there." Brengle did. And he waited on God and God filled him with the Holy Spirit.
Later, a deaf person was asked after one of Brengle's meetings why she had come to the altar if she didn't hear the message. She answered, "Because I could see what I never have seen in a preacher in all my life." "What was it?" "I saw the beauty of Jesus in him while he was preaching. I don't know what he was saying, but I knew there was something in him I did not have!"
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(continued with # 7)
Copyright/Reproduction Limitations: this file is the sole property of Leonard Ravenhill. It may not be altered or edited in any way. It may be reproduced only in its entirety as "Freeware", without charge. (c) 1995 by Leonard Ravenhill, Lindale, Texas.
Saturday, January 19, 2019
John the Baptist and the Fire of God # 5
John the Baptist and the Fire of God # 5
So John moved the people. They say, "What shall we do?" The publicans cry out. They are a bunch aren't they? Stony-hearted rascals. And yet with the conviction of the Spirit they cry out, "What shall we do?" And John gives the answer in verse 16, he says, "I indeed baptize you with water, but One cometh after me, I am not even worthy to carry His shoes. He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with Fire." Or with Holy Spirit Fire.
We talk about the baptism of the Spirit - its really the baptism of Jesus. There's nothing you can get this side of eternity that didn't come through Jesus Christ. My dear old principal used to call this coming of the Holy Spirit upon us, "The coronation gift of Jesus."
"His fan is in His hand. He will thoroughly purge His floor. But He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. And many other things did he". I wonder what they were. I wish He had left a list, don't you?
Here is a man with no financial backing. He has no program. He has the favor of nobody. He has the Roman army against him. He has the religious army of the Jews against him. He has the Pharisees against him. He has the Sudducees against him. He has no money (he doesn't need it) and he doesn't have a miracle ministry - it says very clearly: "John did no miracle" - Nobody ran after him pleasing: "Have mercy on my son he is a lunatic." Nobody cried, "Unclean, unclean, unclean" or "open my eyes," or "I'm deaf," or something. Nobody said that. He never unstopped deaf ears. He never opened blind eyes. He never cursed a withered leg or withered arm. He didn't raise a dead man.
He raised a dead nation, SINGLE HANDEDLY.
God has had this man in the school of silence. He's been talking to God and walking with God and weeping before God. He's lived with Jeremiah. He's lived with the prophets. He knew what Isaiah said that one day a man should come in the wilderness crying, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God." Isaiah 35 says that highway shall be called the way of holiness, and that a wayfaring man, though fool, need not err therein.
"He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." God always works with the minority. You've got a wonderful list in 1 Corinthians 15 of people who saw Jesus in His resurrection power. And then it ties the knot at the end of the cotton and it says He was seen of 500 brethren at once. And I am convinced in my spirit it was those 500 to whom He says, "Tarry til ye be endued with power." How many went? 120! 380 of them never bothered. It's always like that. God uses a minority.
There's only a few people that want to go outside the camp. There's only a few people that want to die with Him. The only freedom that lepers had was to walk outside the camp. It was a place where all the sewage of the city went. It was a place where they threw dead bodies and dead animals. It was s stink hole. And the Holiest man that ever lived went outside the camp that you may go inside of it! And yet you have to whip some people to church almost. If I went to the church they go to I would want a whipping too. Isn't it tragedy, almost blasphemy to go to a meeting and you say, "Oh, boy that meeting was cold"? "The meeting was so dead." How can you have a living Christ in a dead meeting? Or put it the other way, How can you have a dead meeting if the living Christ is there?! How can you go out? After all, our business is to know about eternity, is to talk about a time when there is no bonds and no other stuff materialistic, it's all vanished. We are going to a Kingdom that knows nothing of these material things, and yet, we are so slack and so careless about the eternal things.
William Booth, the founder of the Salvation army, just about got kicked out of the Methodist church. That day he walked outside and put his arm around his wife's shoulder, and said, "Darling we are going to raise up an army." "From where?" "We'll take all the cast off, or drop outs from the churches, we'll go to the gutter." And he wrote a wonderful hymn:
"Thou Christ of burning cleansing flame, send the fire. (We ought to learn that.) Thy blood bought gift today we claim, send the fire. Look down and see this waiting host, give us the promised Holy Ghost. We want another Pentecost, (I am not sure if we do, but we need it.) To make our weak hearts strong and brave, send the fire. To live in a dying world, send the fire. Oh, see us on Thine alter lay our lives, our all this very day to crown the offering, now we pray, send the fire."
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(continued with # 6)
Copyright/Reproduction Limitations: this file is the sole property of Leonard Ravenhill. It may not be altered or edited in any way. It may be reproduced only in its entirety as "freeware", without charge. (c) 1995 by Leonard Ravenhill, Lindale, Texas.
So John moved the people. They say, "What shall we do?" The publicans cry out. They are a bunch aren't they? Stony-hearted rascals. And yet with the conviction of the Spirit they cry out, "What shall we do?" And John gives the answer in verse 16, he says, "I indeed baptize you with water, but One cometh after me, I am not even worthy to carry His shoes. He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with Fire." Or with Holy Spirit Fire.
We talk about the baptism of the Spirit - its really the baptism of Jesus. There's nothing you can get this side of eternity that didn't come through Jesus Christ. My dear old principal used to call this coming of the Holy Spirit upon us, "The coronation gift of Jesus."
"His fan is in His hand. He will thoroughly purge His floor. But He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. And many other things did he". I wonder what they were. I wish He had left a list, don't you?
Here is a man with no financial backing. He has no program. He has the favor of nobody. He has the Roman army against him. He has the religious army of the Jews against him. He has the Pharisees against him. He has the Sudducees against him. He has no money (he doesn't need it) and he doesn't have a miracle ministry - it says very clearly: "John did no miracle" - Nobody ran after him pleasing: "Have mercy on my son he is a lunatic." Nobody cried, "Unclean, unclean, unclean" or "open my eyes," or "I'm deaf," or something. Nobody said that. He never unstopped deaf ears. He never opened blind eyes. He never cursed a withered leg or withered arm. He didn't raise a dead man.
He raised a dead nation, SINGLE HANDEDLY.
God has had this man in the school of silence. He's been talking to God and walking with God and weeping before God. He's lived with Jeremiah. He's lived with the prophets. He knew what Isaiah said that one day a man should come in the wilderness crying, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God." Isaiah 35 says that highway shall be called the way of holiness, and that a wayfaring man, though fool, need not err therein.
"He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." God always works with the minority. You've got a wonderful list in 1 Corinthians 15 of people who saw Jesus in His resurrection power. And then it ties the knot at the end of the cotton and it says He was seen of 500 brethren at once. And I am convinced in my spirit it was those 500 to whom He says, "Tarry til ye be endued with power." How many went? 120! 380 of them never bothered. It's always like that. God uses a minority.
There's only a few people that want to go outside the camp. There's only a few people that want to die with Him. The only freedom that lepers had was to walk outside the camp. It was a place where all the sewage of the city went. It was a place where they threw dead bodies and dead animals. It was s stink hole. And the Holiest man that ever lived went outside the camp that you may go inside of it! And yet you have to whip some people to church almost. If I went to the church they go to I would want a whipping too. Isn't it tragedy, almost blasphemy to go to a meeting and you say, "Oh, boy that meeting was cold"? "The meeting was so dead." How can you have a living Christ in a dead meeting? Or put it the other way, How can you have a dead meeting if the living Christ is there?! How can you go out? After all, our business is to know about eternity, is to talk about a time when there is no bonds and no other stuff materialistic, it's all vanished. We are going to a Kingdom that knows nothing of these material things, and yet, we are so slack and so careless about the eternal things.
William Booth, the founder of the Salvation army, just about got kicked out of the Methodist church. That day he walked outside and put his arm around his wife's shoulder, and said, "Darling we are going to raise up an army." "From where?" "We'll take all the cast off, or drop outs from the churches, we'll go to the gutter." And he wrote a wonderful hymn:
"Thou Christ of burning cleansing flame, send the fire. (We ought to learn that.) Thy blood bought gift today we claim, send the fire. Look down and see this waiting host, give us the promised Holy Ghost. We want another Pentecost, (I am not sure if we do, but we need it.) To make our weak hearts strong and brave, send the fire. To live in a dying world, send the fire. Oh, see us on Thine alter lay our lives, our all this very day to crown the offering, now we pray, send the fire."
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(continued with # 6)
Copyright/Reproduction Limitations: this file is the sole property of Leonard Ravenhill. It may not be altered or edited in any way. It may be reproduced only in its entirety as "freeware", without charge. (c) 1995 by Leonard Ravenhill, Lindale, Texas.
John The Baptist And The Fire Of God # 4
John The Baptist And The Fire Of God # 4
When Nathan the prophet went to David, he didn't say, "You know, some of you are guilty." Did he? He said, "Thou art the man!"
Oh, people say, "I'd love to go to a Holy Spirit church." Would you? Will you love to hear somebody say, "Hey, fellows, listen, last night you committed adultery. You embezzled some money this week. You've got a spirit of hatred which God says is as bad as committing murder!" Again, Jesus came not to save us just from sins, but from sinning. When they heard these men, they were pricked in their hearts.
I go back into the third chapter, verse 7, he says, "Oh, generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth fruit meat for repentance." And quit saying "We have Abraham to our father." Isn't this nice. He called them vipers and now he says, "God can do as much through stones as through Abraham. Don't boast of Abraham; if God wants hell turn those stones into children to worship him." That's pretty much exhausting their theology, isn't it? In verse 9 he says, "The ax is laid unto the root of the trees, every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. And the people asked Him," He didn't ask them! They were so conscious of guilt, they felt as though they had some serpent or scorpion stinging them. They didn't dare look back because of their sins. They didn't dare look forward because of judgment. They didn't dare look round about them, somebody might come pouncing on them. And so they cried out. This is revival!
It's not singing some sentimental chorus, then giving the invitation; "Would you like to come? Jesus is waiting, wringing His hands in heaven, He would be so upset if you don't come." Jesus doesn't care a hill of beans whether you come or not. He's done everything He can do for you. You have to do the rest! He is not going to whip you into submission. He is not going to demand, though you sing, "Love so amazing, so divine demands my soul, my life, my all." It's on your side to do it. But notice who they were. Verse 10 The people asked him, "What shall we do?" Verse 12, "Then came also the publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, "Master, what shall we do?" Verse 14 the soldiers, they were Romans, they lived in a pagan society, they'd never seen a man on fire for God. They'd never seen a priest who didn't care a bit about his trimmings.
Remember how this man was born. His father went into the temple and as he got there to the altar, there was an angel on the right side. And he says to him, "Fear not your wife is going to bear a son." And God does a miracle to raise that child up. Zacharias did this once in his life only. There is a line behind him of at least two thousand priests, all waiting for the one time in their life when they'll go in long white garment and enter into the Holy Place. Which is awesome. When he get in there, there's a marvelous person by the name of Gabriel: "Fear not. I have a message from God for you."
If you haven't had it, if you walk with God, one day you will go to a meeting and you'll think God Almighty is talking to nobody in that congregation but you. Why is He singling me out? Because you have the ears to hear which you didn't have before. Because you have a hunger for God you never had before!
You've heard me say this and I say it again, I am scared that when I get to the judgment seat and there are a billion people looking on me that God will say to me, "Son I had many things to tell you, but you couldn't bear them. You weren't grown up enough."
A man leaves his son millions of dollars. He puts a caution in the will, he says, "You can't spend a dime of this until you are twenty years of age. This money is all tied up until you have enough sense to use it." - I believe Almighty God is saying that to the Church today. We've toiled, rather we've trifled with gifts of the Spirit. We are far more interested in the gifts of the Spirit than with the Holy Spirit Himself. And God has treasures beyond our comprehension.
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(continued with # 5)
When Nathan the prophet went to David, he didn't say, "You know, some of you are guilty." Did he? He said, "Thou art the man!"
Oh, people say, "I'd love to go to a Holy Spirit church." Would you? Will you love to hear somebody say, "Hey, fellows, listen, last night you committed adultery. You embezzled some money this week. You've got a spirit of hatred which God says is as bad as committing murder!" Again, Jesus came not to save us just from sins, but from sinning. When they heard these men, they were pricked in their hearts.
I go back into the third chapter, verse 7, he says, "Oh, generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth fruit meat for repentance." And quit saying "We have Abraham to our father." Isn't this nice. He called them vipers and now he says, "God can do as much through stones as through Abraham. Don't boast of Abraham; if God wants hell turn those stones into children to worship him." That's pretty much exhausting their theology, isn't it? In verse 9 he says, "The ax is laid unto the root of the trees, every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. And the people asked Him," He didn't ask them! They were so conscious of guilt, they felt as though they had some serpent or scorpion stinging them. They didn't dare look back because of their sins. They didn't dare look forward because of judgment. They didn't dare look round about them, somebody might come pouncing on them. And so they cried out. This is revival!
It's not singing some sentimental chorus, then giving the invitation; "Would you like to come? Jesus is waiting, wringing His hands in heaven, He would be so upset if you don't come." Jesus doesn't care a hill of beans whether you come or not. He's done everything He can do for you. You have to do the rest! He is not going to whip you into submission. He is not going to demand, though you sing, "Love so amazing, so divine demands my soul, my life, my all." It's on your side to do it. But notice who they were. Verse 10 The people asked him, "What shall we do?" Verse 12, "Then came also the publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, "Master, what shall we do?" Verse 14 the soldiers, they were Romans, they lived in a pagan society, they'd never seen a man on fire for God. They'd never seen a priest who didn't care a bit about his trimmings.
Remember how this man was born. His father went into the temple and as he got there to the altar, there was an angel on the right side. And he says to him, "Fear not your wife is going to bear a son." And God does a miracle to raise that child up. Zacharias did this once in his life only. There is a line behind him of at least two thousand priests, all waiting for the one time in their life when they'll go in long white garment and enter into the Holy Place. Which is awesome. When he get in there, there's a marvelous person by the name of Gabriel: "Fear not. I have a message from God for you."
If you haven't had it, if you walk with God, one day you will go to a meeting and you'll think God Almighty is talking to nobody in that congregation but you. Why is He singling me out? Because you have the ears to hear which you didn't have before. Because you have a hunger for God you never had before!
You've heard me say this and I say it again, I am scared that when I get to the judgment seat and there are a billion people looking on me that God will say to me, "Son I had many things to tell you, but you couldn't bear them. You weren't grown up enough."
A man leaves his son millions of dollars. He puts a caution in the will, he says, "You can't spend a dime of this until you are twenty years of age. This money is all tied up until you have enough sense to use it." - I believe Almighty God is saying that to the Church today. We've toiled, rather we've trifled with gifts of the Spirit. We are far more interested in the gifts of the Spirit than with the Holy Spirit Himself. And God has treasures beyond our comprehension.
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(continued with # 5)
Saturday, January 12, 2019
John The Baptist and The Fire of God # 3
John The Baptist and The Fire of God # 3
I say again, this man John the Baptist has no pattern before him. I believe this man walked up and down amongst the wild beasts, and there he is, he doesn't eat much. Some big flies, you know, a bit bigger than these horrible things that eat my garden up, grasshoppers. Big, big things, he caught them, put them on a rock and roasted them. Three times a day he had locust burgers. Nothing else to eat except locusts and wild honey. And yet the people come near to hear him. I'll say it again, for my comfort if not yours: You never have to advertise a fire. Whether its spiritual or a physical fire. The most self-advertising thing in this world is a fire.
I remember getting home between one and two o'clock one morning. I said to my wife, "Sweetheart, one of the big mills in town is on fire, lets go! It's nearly two o'clock, there'll be nobody there." Everyone in the city woke up with the same idea, so they all went. We couldn't get within three blocks of the place. I said, "Sweetheart, we'll go round..." We went around in our little car, you know, those tiny little things. Well, we got half way down the street and it was so fierce we could not even stand there, the fire was so terrible in its majesty. This huge mill burning.
I wonder how many of us have really seen a man who is on fire for God?
When the Holy Spirit came in the upper room, how did He come? Did He come as a dove? When Jesus received His baptism the Spirit came as a dove upon Him. There was nothing in Him to purify! He comes to us in fire because we need purification.
I remember a night in Gillingham, east of London. We rented a church. I'll tell you who came. If you've read "Gods Smuggler", he talks in there about a man called Uncle Hoppy. Well, Uncle Hoppy "hopped in the meeting that day. He came in the most broken down automobile I've ever seen. He was nuts, pardon the phrase, but he was sanctified nuts! He came in clothes that were almost worn out. He bought all his clothes at the Salvation Army. This old car came wheezing up the street, rheumatism in all the wheels and asthma in the motor. It was sobbing and groaning as it came up the hill...but he was giving thousands of dollars away to missions!! He stayed with us for a half night of prayer.
I'll never forget that night of prayer. There were surgings of blessings. There were times when God so came in power, I was afraid to open my eyes. We started praying at nine o'clock. Between one and two in the morning we were going out. There was an old lady at the back, sitting in a wheelchair; a white haired lady. "Oh brother," she said, (she didn't know any of our names.) "Wasn't it wonderful!" I said,k "It was." "One of the best I've been in many prayer meetings, this was one of the greatest, most powerful. Wasn't it wonderful!" I said, "Sure, I said that. Did you feel anything different about one o'clock?" I said, "Yes, I felt a hand or something came I felt a quickening in my spirit." "It was just then." "Just then what?" "You didn't see it?" No, no, I was with my head down praying." She said, "A tongue of fire came down on the head of the first, went to the next, went to the next, went to the next, right to the end. It was awesome." No wonder everyone of us felt a wonderful insurge of the life of God...Or the power of God, define it as you will.
You see, there is a great deal of difference between revival and evangelism. I am so sick to death, I hardly read any reports of meetings that come to me. Everybody is getting half of America saved. If you add all the lists of people saved, everybody in America, the whole population has been saved and filled with the Holy Spirit about six times in the last ten years. And yet we are as dumb and as dead and as damned as we were when we started off!
You want to know what preaching is? Study this third chapter in the Gospel of Luke, and when you've read that read the twenty-sixth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles where Paul is standing before a heathen king in a pagan court and says, "God called me to preach." And he summarizes what preaching is: its to open the eyes of the blind, to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified.
People come to the altar, yes, but meet them at the door and ask what happened. "Oh, ah, ah, ah, ah. I confessed my sins." There is not one evangelist in fifty in America today preaching salvation. They are preaching forgiveness. "Just come and get forgiven." That is not salvation. Jesus came to do more than forgive us our sins. He came for something more. He came to rescue us from sin and sinning. Not just our past sin, but to stop this damnable business that makes God so sad. "He that is born of God does not - N-O-T" commit sin." You say its impossible not to sin. It is possible for us not to sin.
What happened when Peter preached on the day of Pentecost? What does it say? They were pricked in their hearts. After that Stephen preached. And when he preached the same thing happened. Peter on the day of Pentecost says to the men he had ran away from: "You crucified the Lord of glory. You killed Him." Stephen says, "You murdered the Son of God."
That is preaching!
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(continued with # 4)
[Copyright/Reproduction Limitations: this file is the sole property of Leonard Ravenhill. It may not be altered or edited in any way. It may be reproduced only in its entirety as "freeware", without charge. (c) 1995 Leonard Ravenhill, Lindale, Texas.
I say again, this man John the Baptist has no pattern before him. I believe this man walked up and down amongst the wild beasts, and there he is, he doesn't eat much. Some big flies, you know, a bit bigger than these horrible things that eat my garden up, grasshoppers. Big, big things, he caught them, put them on a rock and roasted them. Three times a day he had locust burgers. Nothing else to eat except locusts and wild honey. And yet the people come near to hear him. I'll say it again, for my comfort if not yours: You never have to advertise a fire. Whether its spiritual or a physical fire. The most self-advertising thing in this world is a fire.
I remember getting home between one and two o'clock one morning. I said to my wife, "Sweetheart, one of the big mills in town is on fire, lets go! It's nearly two o'clock, there'll be nobody there." Everyone in the city woke up with the same idea, so they all went. We couldn't get within three blocks of the place. I said, "Sweetheart, we'll go round..." We went around in our little car, you know, those tiny little things. Well, we got half way down the street and it was so fierce we could not even stand there, the fire was so terrible in its majesty. This huge mill burning.
I wonder how many of us have really seen a man who is on fire for God?
When the Holy Spirit came in the upper room, how did He come? Did He come as a dove? When Jesus received His baptism the Spirit came as a dove upon Him. There was nothing in Him to purify! He comes to us in fire because we need purification.
I remember a night in Gillingham, east of London. We rented a church. I'll tell you who came. If you've read "Gods Smuggler", he talks in there about a man called Uncle Hoppy. Well, Uncle Hoppy "hopped in the meeting that day. He came in the most broken down automobile I've ever seen. He was nuts, pardon the phrase, but he was sanctified nuts! He came in clothes that were almost worn out. He bought all his clothes at the Salvation Army. This old car came wheezing up the street, rheumatism in all the wheels and asthma in the motor. It was sobbing and groaning as it came up the hill...but he was giving thousands of dollars away to missions!! He stayed with us for a half night of prayer.
I'll never forget that night of prayer. There were surgings of blessings. There were times when God so came in power, I was afraid to open my eyes. We started praying at nine o'clock. Between one and two in the morning we were going out. There was an old lady at the back, sitting in a wheelchair; a white haired lady. "Oh brother," she said, (she didn't know any of our names.) "Wasn't it wonderful!" I said,k "It was." "One of the best I've been in many prayer meetings, this was one of the greatest, most powerful. Wasn't it wonderful!" I said, "Sure, I said that. Did you feel anything different about one o'clock?" I said, "Yes, I felt a hand or something came I felt a quickening in my spirit." "It was just then." "Just then what?" "You didn't see it?" No, no, I was with my head down praying." She said, "A tongue of fire came down on the head of the first, went to the next, went to the next, went to the next, right to the end. It was awesome." No wonder everyone of us felt a wonderful insurge of the life of God...Or the power of God, define it as you will.
You see, there is a great deal of difference between revival and evangelism. I am so sick to death, I hardly read any reports of meetings that come to me. Everybody is getting half of America saved. If you add all the lists of people saved, everybody in America, the whole population has been saved and filled with the Holy Spirit about six times in the last ten years. And yet we are as dumb and as dead and as damned as we were when we started off!
You want to know what preaching is? Study this third chapter in the Gospel of Luke, and when you've read that read the twenty-sixth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles where Paul is standing before a heathen king in a pagan court and says, "God called me to preach." And he summarizes what preaching is: its to open the eyes of the blind, to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified.
People come to the altar, yes, but meet them at the door and ask what happened. "Oh, ah, ah, ah, ah. I confessed my sins." There is not one evangelist in fifty in America today preaching salvation. They are preaching forgiveness. "Just come and get forgiven." That is not salvation. Jesus came to do more than forgive us our sins. He came for something more. He came to rescue us from sin and sinning. Not just our past sin, but to stop this damnable business that makes God so sad. "He that is born of God does not - N-O-T" commit sin." You say its impossible not to sin. It is possible for us not to sin.
What happened when Peter preached on the day of Pentecost? What does it say? They were pricked in their hearts. After that Stephen preached. And when he preached the same thing happened. Peter on the day of Pentecost says to the men he had ran away from: "You crucified the Lord of glory. You killed Him." Stephen says, "You murdered the Son of God."
That is preaching!
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(continued with # 4)
[Copyright/Reproduction Limitations: this file is the sole property of Leonard Ravenhill. It may not be altered or edited in any way. It may be reproduced only in its entirety as "freeware", without charge. (c) 1995 Leonard Ravenhill, Lindale, Texas.
Realizing God's Plan In Life # 2
Realizing God's Plan In Life # 2
Paul changes his figure, but goes on with the same idea, "among whom ye are seen as lights in the world." These are the very people, the twisted and blinded by the darkness of sin, who need the light. Jesus is the real light of the world, but the followers of Christ also pass on the torch and so bear light to others. Here the Philippians are pictured as "luminaries" rather than as lights in the world of darkness. As the moon and the stars appear in the night, so the Christians come out to give light in the darkness. The gospel has the principle of life in it. John's gospel unites light and life as descriptive of the life that Christ offers to men "the light of life" (John 8:12). Thank God for the men and women who do take the light into the dark corners of our cities. What would our modern cities be like without our churches? The answer is the cities of Japan, of China, of India today. The word of life quickens to life and brings light to the darkened soul.
Paul's Pride (verse 16)
"For a ground of glorying in the day of Christ." This clause is related to all of verse 15 and the preceding part of 16. The day of accounts comes to figure more largely in Paul's mind as he grows older. The writer of Hebrews speaks of the sleepless watch of the shepherds of souls "as they that shall give account; that they may do this with joy, and not with grief; for this were unprofitable for you." (Heb. 13:17). Paul longs to have "whereof to glory" in the day of Christ. The success of the Philippians will give Paul something tangible to present to Christ. They will be stars in his crown. He means by "day of Christ" the judgment day, commonly termed the day of the Lord outside of this Epistle. Paul does not wish to be saved "so as by fire" with all his works gone (1 Cor. 3:15). When that day comes and Paul looks back upon his work in Philippi, he does wish to feel "that I did not run in vain neither labor in vain." He has the metaphor of the stadium before him as in Galatians 2:2 when he expresses the same dread about the Galatians. He does not wish it all to come to nothingness. The word for labor here means the weariness of labor. Toil and sweat and weariness were all for naught. It is a pitiful case when the preacher has to see the people go back to the flesh-pots of Egypt and leave his work null and void. The Philippians will be Paul's jewels in the presence of Christ.
Paul's Sacrifice (verse 17)
"Yea, though I am offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith," Paul adds. He will not shrink from death in order to be of service to them and to help them in their efforts to press on in the Christian life. He hopes to live, but he stands in the constant presence of death, and he is not afraid. He had faced death at Philippi and often since. It will come some day. He is ready now. It is not his apostolic office, but his very life that he offers. The picture here is of their faith in the sense of their Christian life as a sacrifice and priestly service. The Philippians as priests lay down upon the altar their Christian lives (faith and fidelity). Upon this Paul is ready to pour out his own life as an additional sacrifice in their service. It is not necessary to press the point whether Paul has in mind the Jewish custom of pouring the drink offering around the altar. Paul is willing to spend and be spent in the service of the Philippians. One thinks of David Livingstone who gave his life for the healing of the open sore of the world of Africa.
Mutual Joy (verses 17-18)
"I joy and rejoice" with you all," says Paul. He is glad by himself to make the offering of his life, if this supreme sacrifice is demanded. He will not shrink back, but will meet it gladly, and all the more readily since he can share his joy with them. Fellowship is a blessed reality. Paul is glad on his own account that he has been the instrument in their salvation. He is still more joyful at the experience of grace which they have in Christ. Joy is not selfish, but wishes company. "And in the same manner do ye also joy, and rejoice with me." Play up to your part of the joy. Phutarch tells of the messenger from Marathon who expired on the first threshold in Athens with these words on his lips: "Rejoice and rejoice." Nowhere in the Epistle is Paul so insistent about joy as here. The Christian is rich in his joy in Christ. What joy it will be in heaven to tell the story of the triumph of Christ over sin in your life and in mine.
~Archibald T. Robertson~
(The End)
Paul changes his figure, but goes on with the same idea, "among whom ye are seen as lights in the world." These are the very people, the twisted and blinded by the darkness of sin, who need the light. Jesus is the real light of the world, but the followers of Christ also pass on the torch and so bear light to others. Here the Philippians are pictured as "luminaries" rather than as lights in the world of darkness. As the moon and the stars appear in the night, so the Christians come out to give light in the darkness. The gospel has the principle of life in it. John's gospel unites light and life as descriptive of the life that Christ offers to men "the light of life" (John 8:12). Thank God for the men and women who do take the light into the dark corners of our cities. What would our modern cities be like without our churches? The answer is the cities of Japan, of China, of India today. The word of life quickens to life and brings light to the darkened soul.
Paul's Pride (verse 16)
"For a ground of glorying in the day of Christ." This clause is related to all of verse 15 and the preceding part of 16. The day of accounts comes to figure more largely in Paul's mind as he grows older. The writer of Hebrews speaks of the sleepless watch of the shepherds of souls "as they that shall give account; that they may do this with joy, and not with grief; for this were unprofitable for you." (Heb. 13:17). Paul longs to have "whereof to glory" in the day of Christ. The success of the Philippians will give Paul something tangible to present to Christ. They will be stars in his crown. He means by "day of Christ" the judgment day, commonly termed the day of the Lord outside of this Epistle. Paul does not wish to be saved "so as by fire" with all his works gone (1 Cor. 3:15). When that day comes and Paul looks back upon his work in Philippi, he does wish to feel "that I did not run in vain neither labor in vain." He has the metaphor of the stadium before him as in Galatians 2:2 when he expresses the same dread about the Galatians. He does not wish it all to come to nothingness. The word for labor here means the weariness of labor. Toil and sweat and weariness were all for naught. It is a pitiful case when the preacher has to see the people go back to the flesh-pots of Egypt and leave his work null and void. The Philippians will be Paul's jewels in the presence of Christ.
Paul's Sacrifice (verse 17)
"Yea, though I am offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith," Paul adds. He will not shrink from death in order to be of service to them and to help them in their efforts to press on in the Christian life. He hopes to live, but he stands in the constant presence of death, and he is not afraid. He had faced death at Philippi and often since. It will come some day. He is ready now. It is not his apostolic office, but his very life that he offers. The picture here is of their faith in the sense of their Christian life as a sacrifice and priestly service. The Philippians as priests lay down upon the altar their Christian lives (faith and fidelity). Upon this Paul is ready to pour out his own life as an additional sacrifice in their service. It is not necessary to press the point whether Paul has in mind the Jewish custom of pouring the drink offering around the altar. Paul is willing to spend and be spent in the service of the Philippians. One thinks of David Livingstone who gave his life for the healing of the open sore of the world of Africa.
Mutual Joy (verses 17-18)
"I joy and rejoice" with you all," says Paul. He is glad by himself to make the offering of his life, if this supreme sacrifice is demanded. He will not shrink back, but will meet it gladly, and all the more readily since he can share his joy with them. Fellowship is a blessed reality. Paul is glad on his own account that he has been the instrument in their salvation. He is still more joyful at the experience of grace which they have in Christ. Joy is not selfish, but wishes company. "And in the same manner do ye also joy, and rejoice with me." Play up to your part of the joy. Phutarch tells of the messenger from Marathon who expired on the first threshold in Athens with these words on his lips: "Rejoice and rejoice." Nowhere in the Epistle is Paul so insistent about joy as here. The Christian is rich in his joy in Christ. What joy it will be in heaven to tell the story of the triumph of Christ over sin in your life and in mine.
~Archibald T. Robertson~
(The End)
Realizing God's Plan In Life # 2
Realizing God's Plan In Life # 2
A child can grasp this, and rest upon it. A boy of four said joyfully to his mother, "When we do anything, it's really God doing it." So then in one sense God does it all. God is the one who energizes in you both the impulse and the energy to carry out the impulse. No one knows what energy is. It is the scientific name for God. It is ceaseless as the sea, restless as the rapids of Niagara. One of the theories of matter is that all matter is in a vortex of inconceivable velocity, whirling round and round these bombarding electrons. What makes them whirl so? The particles of radium can be seen darting violently into space. We were dead in trespasses and sins till God's Spirit touched us and we leaped to life in Christ. This is the mystery of grace. They that are in the flesh cannot please God (Rom. 8:7). God plants in our souls the germ of spiritual life and He does not let it die. His Spirit broods over us and energizes us to grow and work out what God has worked in us.
This is the ground of hope and joy that makes Romans 8 so different from Romans 7. We are in league with God. God's grace is not an excuse for doing nothing. It is rather the reason for doing all. In religion as in nature we are co-workers with God. We plant the seed and plan the plant and hoe it and harvest it. But God gave us the seed and the soil and sends the rain and the sunshine and supplies that wondrous thing that we call life and makes it grow to perfection. "God has more life than anybody," said a child. It is idle to split hairs over our part and God's part. We must respond to the touch of God's Spirit else we remain dead in sin. Jesus is the author and the finisher of faith (Heb. 12:2), but we must believe all the same and keep on looking to Him, the goal of faith and endeavor. There is no higher standard of rectitude than God's good pleasure - by faith He regulates our lives. Happy is the man who finds God's plan for his life and falls in with it.
Cheerfulness Under Orders (verse 14)
Having committed our lives to the control of God's will we are under orders. It is unmilitary and peevish to fret at God's commands. "Do all things without murmurings." The allusion may be to the conduct of Israel in the wilderness (Ex. 16:7; Numbers 16:5-10). The Israelites murmured bitterly against Moses and against God repeatedly and with dire results. "Neither murmur ye, as some of them murmured and perished by the destroyer" (1 Cor. 10:10). These inward murmurings against God's will would easily turn to grumblings towards each other. People do not usually stop with resentment against God, but wish to blame somebody. Disunion had already manifested itself in the church at Philippi. If God is supreme and does all things why did He allow this thing to happen? It is easier to ask than to answer that question.
The next step is to become sour towards one another. "Without disputings." This word is used for questionings, then doubtings, then disputings. This is the usual course of our intellectual revolt against God. Probably the moral revolt (murmurings) comes first. The skeptical spirit follows resentment against some crossing of our will by God's will. The final result is "intellectual rebellion." Thoughts of hesitation or doubt turn to distrust. Distrust ripens into open disputes when a public stand is taken with others against God. Doubt leads to dispute even over trifles. So then, as good soldiers, Christians are to carry out the orders of the Captain of their salvation. Explanations, if they come at all, come after disobedience, not before. Into the valley of death rode the six hundred.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die."
Soldiers go to the charge with a smile on their faces.
Perfection in the Midst of Imperfection (verses 15-16).
Paul here expresses his purpose about the Philippians. It is a double purpose, their own highest development and the greatest service to others. The first is a prerequisite to the other, though they cannot be wholly separated. They are to become "blameless and harmless." They are not so in the state of nature and do not easily become so in a state of grace. Certainly none are absolutely free from blame in the eye of God and men can usually find some fault with most of us. But, at any rate, we can give men as little ground as possible to pick flaws in our character. Whimsical critics cannot be satisfied, but we do have to regard the sober judgment of God's people in ethical matters.
In Romans 16-19 Paul says; "I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple unto that which is evil," a noble motto for young and old. It is a great mistake to feel that one must know evil by experience in order to appreciate good. An unsullied character a man wants in his wife and the wife equally so in her husband. It is this sheer simplicity of character that is so delightful in children and, par excellence in the children of God in the full spiritual import of this term. The children of Israel, when they murmured, were not acting like children of God. Paul here quotes Deuteronomy 32:5 and applies it to the Philippians. The children of Israel were full of blemish, while the Philippians are to be without blemish like the freewill offering (Lev. 22:21). The Israelites had themselves become a crooked and perverse generation. But the Philippians must not fall to that low level, as they will if they give way to inward discontent. They must exhibit marks of perfection in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. It is an indocile or froward and so crooked generation. The word was used of crooked paths (Luke 3:5) and so of crooked steps and crooked ways. The word "perverse" means twisted or distorted and is a bolder word like the Scotch "thrawn" with a twist in the inner nature. Surely our own generation is not without its moral twist and means many straight men when so many are crooked.
~Archibald T. Robertson~
(continued with # 3)
A child can grasp this, and rest upon it. A boy of four said joyfully to his mother, "When we do anything, it's really God doing it." So then in one sense God does it all. God is the one who energizes in you both the impulse and the energy to carry out the impulse. No one knows what energy is. It is the scientific name for God. It is ceaseless as the sea, restless as the rapids of Niagara. One of the theories of matter is that all matter is in a vortex of inconceivable velocity, whirling round and round these bombarding electrons. What makes them whirl so? The particles of radium can be seen darting violently into space. We were dead in trespasses and sins till God's Spirit touched us and we leaped to life in Christ. This is the mystery of grace. They that are in the flesh cannot please God (Rom. 8:7). God plants in our souls the germ of spiritual life and He does not let it die. His Spirit broods over us and energizes us to grow and work out what God has worked in us.
This is the ground of hope and joy that makes Romans 8 so different from Romans 7. We are in league with God. God's grace is not an excuse for doing nothing. It is rather the reason for doing all. In religion as in nature we are co-workers with God. We plant the seed and plan the plant and hoe it and harvest it. But God gave us the seed and the soil and sends the rain and the sunshine and supplies that wondrous thing that we call life and makes it grow to perfection. "God has more life than anybody," said a child. It is idle to split hairs over our part and God's part. We must respond to the touch of God's Spirit else we remain dead in sin. Jesus is the author and the finisher of faith (Heb. 12:2), but we must believe all the same and keep on looking to Him, the goal of faith and endeavor. There is no higher standard of rectitude than God's good pleasure - by faith He regulates our lives. Happy is the man who finds God's plan for his life and falls in with it.
Cheerfulness Under Orders (verse 14)
Having committed our lives to the control of God's will we are under orders. It is unmilitary and peevish to fret at God's commands. "Do all things without murmurings." The allusion may be to the conduct of Israel in the wilderness (Ex. 16:7; Numbers 16:5-10). The Israelites murmured bitterly against Moses and against God repeatedly and with dire results. "Neither murmur ye, as some of them murmured and perished by the destroyer" (1 Cor. 10:10). These inward murmurings against God's will would easily turn to grumblings towards each other. People do not usually stop with resentment against God, but wish to blame somebody. Disunion had already manifested itself in the church at Philippi. If God is supreme and does all things why did He allow this thing to happen? It is easier to ask than to answer that question.
The next step is to become sour towards one another. "Without disputings." This word is used for questionings, then doubtings, then disputings. This is the usual course of our intellectual revolt against God. Probably the moral revolt (murmurings) comes first. The skeptical spirit follows resentment against some crossing of our will by God's will. The final result is "intellectual rebellion." Thoughts of hesitation or doubt turn to distrust. Distrust ripens into open disputes when a public stand is taken with others against God. Doubt leads to dispute even over trifles. So then, as good soldiers, Christians are to carry out the orders of the Captain of their salvation. Explanations, if they come at all, come after disobedience, not before. Into the valley of death rode the six hundred.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die."
Soldiers go to the charge with a smile on their faces.
Perfection in the Midst of Imperfection (verses 15-16).
Paul here expresses his purpose about the Philippians. It is a double purpose, their own highest development and the greatest service to others. The first is a prerequisite to the other, though they cannot be wholly separated. They are to become "blameless and harmless." They are not so in the state of nature and do not easily become so in a state of grace. Certainly none are absolutely free from blame in the eye of God and men can usually find some fault with most of us. But, at any rate, we can give men as little ground as possible to pick flaws in our character. Whimsical critics cannot be satisfied, but we do have to regard the sober judgment of God's people in ethical matters.
In Romans 16-19 Paul says; "I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple unto that which is evil," a noble motto for young and old. It is a great mistake to feel that one must know evil by experience in order to appreciate good. An unsullied character a man wants in his wife and the wife equally so in her husband. It is this sheer simplicity of character that is so delightful in children and, par excellence in the children of God in the full spiritual import of this term. The children of Israel, when they murmured, were not acting like children of God. Paul here quotes Deuteronomy 32:5 and applies it to the Philippians. The children of Israel were full of blemish, while the Philippians are to be without blemish like the freewill offering (Lev. 22:21). The Israelites had themselves become a crooked and perverse generation. But the Philippians must not fall to that low level, as they will if they give way to inward discontent. They must exhibit marks of perfection in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. It is an indocile or froward and so crooked generation. The word was used of crooked paths (Luke 3:5) and so of crooked steps and crooked ways. The word "perverse" means twisted or distorted and is a bolder word like the Scotch "thrawn" with a twist in the inner nature. Surely our own generation is not without its moral twist and means many straight men when so many are crooked.
~Archibald T. Robertson~
(continued with # 3)
Saturday, January 5, 2019
Realizing God's Plan In Life # 1
Realizing God's Plan in Life # 1
Philippians 2:12-18
Paul is eminently practical as well as really profound. He is equally at home in the discussion of the great problems of theology and in the details of the Christian life. He is a practical mystic who does not leave his mysticism in the clouds, but applies it to the problem at hand. There is in Paul no divorce between learning and life. Speculative theology as philosophy he knows and uses as a servant to convey his highest ideas, but he never forgets the ethics of the man in the street or at the desk. He has just written a marvelous passage on the humiliation and exaltation of Christ Jesus, scaling the heights of Christ's equality with God and sounding the depths of the human experience of Jesus, from the throne of God to the death on the Cross and back again. But Paul has no idea of leaving this great doctrinal passage thus. "So then, my beloved," he goes on with an exhortation based on the experience of Christ. He returns to the whole lump. There are men and women in our churches who remain true when pastors come and go and when others fall away.
Working In and Working Out (verses 12-13)
In Paul's absence he desires that the Philippians shall press right on with the work of their own salvation in so far as the development is committed to their hands. The eye should rest upon the final goal and so Paul uses a verb that puts the emphasis on the final result. Salvation is used either of the entrance into the service of God, the whole process, or the consummation at the end. The Philippians are to carry into effect and carry on to the end of the work of grace already begun. 2 Peter 1:10 likewise exhorted his readers to make their calling and election sure. They must not look to Paul to do their part in the work of their salvation. His absence cuts no figure in the matter of their personal responsibility. It is "your own" salvation. It is the aim of all to win this goal at last. If so, each must look to his own task and do his own work. The social aspect of religion is true beyond a doubt. We do owe a debt of love and service to one another that we can never fully discharge (Romans 13:8). But it is also true that each of us is his own keeper and stands or falls to God. Kipling has it thus: "For the race is run by one and one and never by two and two."
Work it out "with fear and trembling," Paul urges; "with a nervous and trembling anxiety to do right". People today do not tremble much in the presence of God and most have little sense of fear. Jonathan Edwards great sermons on "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" finds little echo today. We live in a light-hearted and complacent age. The Puritans went too far to one extreme, but we are going too much to the other. We all need afresh a sense of solemn responsibility to Almighty God. Paul did not feel blindly complacent about himself. Religion is both life and creed. The creed without the life amounts to little. We touch a hard problem here, to be sure, but Paul feels no incompatibility between the most genuine trust and the most energetic work. The two supplement or rather complement each other, though we cannot divide them. Divine sovereignty is the fundamental fact in religion with Paul. He starts with that. But human free agency is the inevitable corollary, as Paul sees it. The two are not inconsistent in his theology. Hence Paul is not a fatalist like the Essenes and the modern Hyper-Calvinists nor is he a mere Socinian like the Sadducees.
The Pharisees held to both divine sovereignty and human free agency as most modern Christians to in varying degrees, to be sure. Paul seems to see no contradiction between them as Jesus did not (Matt.2:27). All our modern efforts to explain the harmony between these two necessary doctrines fail, but we must hold them both true nevertheless. God must be supreme to be God at all. Man must be free to be man at all. The difficulty probably lies in our imperfect processes of reasoning for two such far-reaching truths. But Paul gives the divine sovereignty as the reason or ground for the human free agency. He exhorts the Philippians to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling precisely because God works in them both the willing and the doing and for His good pleasure. We can at least feel that the working of God's will has provided the whole plan of salvation in which we are included and at which we are at work. We toil in the sphere of God's will. But far more is true than that, though we are conscious also that our own free wills have free play in this sphere. God presses His will upon ours. We feel the impact of the divine energy upon our wills which are quickened into activity thereby.
~Archibald T. Robertson~
(continued with # 2)
Philippians 2:12-18
Paul is eminently practical as well as really profound. He is equally at home in the discussion of the great problems of theology and in the details of the Christian life. He is a practical mystic who does not leave his mysticism in the clouds, but applies it to the problem at hand. There is in Paul no divorce between learning and life. Speculative theology as philosophy he knows and uses as a servant to convey his highest ideas, but he never forgets the ethics of the man in the street or at the desk. He has just written a marvelous passage on the humiliation and exaltation of Christ Jesus, scaling the heights of Christ's equality with God and sounding the depths of the human experience of Jesus, from the throne of God to the death on the Cross and back again. But Paul has no idea of leaving this great doctrinal passage thus. "So then, my beloved," he goes on with an exhortation based on the experience of Christ. He returns to the whole lump. There are men and women in our churches who remain true when pastors come and go and when others fall away.
Working In and Working Out (verses 12-13)
In Paul's absence he desires that the Philippians shall press right on with the work of their own salvation in so far as the development is committed to their hands. The eye should rest upon the final goal and so Paul uses a verb that puts the emphasis on the final result. Salvation is used either of the entrance into the service of God, the whole process, or the consummation at the end. The Philippians are to carry into effect and carry on to the end of the work of grace already begun. 2 Peter 1:10 likewise exhorted his readers to make their calling and election sure. They must not look to Paul to do their part in the work of their salvation. His absence cuts no figure in the matter of their personal responsibility. It is "your own" salvation. It is the aim of all to win this goal at last. If so, each must look to his own task and do his own work. The social aspect of religion is true beyond a doubt. We do owe a debt of love and service to one another that we can never fully discharge (Romans 13:8). But it is also true that each of us is his own keeper and stands or falls to God. Kipling has it thus: "For the race is run by one and one and never by two and two."
Work it out "with fear and trembling," Paul urges; "with a nervous and trembling anxiety to do right". People today do not tremble much in the presence of God and most have little sense of fear. Jonathan Edwards great sermons on "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" finds little echo today. We live in a light-hearted and complacent age. The Puritans went too far to one extreme, but we are going too much to the other. We all need afresh a sense of solemn responsibility to Almighty God. Paul did not feel blindly complacent about himself. Religion is both life and creed. The creed without the life amounts to little. We touch a hard problem here, to be sure, but Paul feels no incompatibility between the most genuine trust and the most energetic work. The two supplement or rather complement each other, though we cannot divide them. Divine sovereignty is the fundamental fact in religion with Paul. He starts with that. But human free agency is the inevitable corollary, as Paul sees it. The two are not inconsistent in his theology. Hence Paul is not a fatalist like the Essenes and the modern Hyper-Calvinists nor is he a mere Socinian like the Sadducees.
The Pharisees held to both divine sovereignty and human free agency as most modern Christians to in varying degrees, to be sure. Paul seems to see no contradiction between them as Jesus did not (Matt.2:27). All our modern efforts to explain the harmony between these two necessary doctrines fail, but we must hold them both true nevertheless. God must be supreme to be God at all. Man must be free to be man at all. The difficulty probably lies in our imperfect processes of reasoning for two such far-reaching truths. But Paul gives the divine sovereignty as the reason or ground for the human free agency. He exhorts the Philippians to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling precisely because God works in them both the willing and the doing and for His good pleasure. We can at least feel that the working of God's will has provided the whole plan of salvation in which we are included and at which we are at work. We toil in the sphere of God's will. But far more is true than that, though we are conscious also that our own free wills have free play in this sphere. God presses His will upon ours. We feel the impact of the divine energy upon our wills which are quickened into activity thereby.
~Archibald T. Robertson~
(continued with # 2)
John the Baptist and the Fire of God # 2
John the Baptist and the Fire of God # 2
Repentance is more than saying, "I'm sorry." Repentance is mental. It's something in my mind. I'm going this way and I turn that way. When I'm going this way I'm saying, "God is in the wrong and I am in the right." When I turn around and say, "God is in the right, if He send me to hell He is in the right.
That is repentance. It's not just repenting for the sin I've done, it's repenting about the motive that made me do the sin. It's going past the fruit of the root because if the root of corruption is there, there is going to be fruit coming out that is wrong. Romans 6 talks about having your fruit unto holiness and its' talking there to regenerate people, not people that claim to be filled by the Holy Spirit.
John goes out, stands and ministers there. And they come to him. He is a success any way you count it. Geographically - they come from the North and South and East and West. He is a success socially. They came from all levels of society. He said to the multitude that came to be baptized, "you generation of vipers." Isn't that pleasant? Do you know anybody who would dare stand up in the First Baptist or the Last Baptist Church tomorrow morning and say, "You generation of vipers!. I'm sick of talking to you." Uh? They would sure take a love offering for him, wouldn't they? To get him out of town! "Oh generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" He was not only condemning their sin, he was saying, "there is a gate, and when you get through it, it is eternal wrath from God."
We have forgotten about the wrath of God. A friend saw a bumper sticker and you know what it said on it? "Jesus is coming and He is as mad as hell." Sacrilege? No. 2 Thessalonians 1 says, He is coming in flaming fire in judgment on this world. In other words, He's as mad as hell. May be it is a bad way of putting it, but it's the truth. You see, we are all looking for "gentle Jesus meek and mild." The attitude of the average Christian today is relax and be raptured. But He is coming with flaming vengeance on this world. There is a time when His Spirit's forbearance runs out. There is going to be day of the vengeance of God. And when God get angry you've no idea what it is. Like a thousand volcanoes exploding. He has appointed a day in which He is going to judge the world and the poor blind world doesn't know much about it, and the poor blind church doesn't think much about it now.
Let me look at this in Exodus 32. "Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp. And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle the cloudy pillar descended." It was a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day.
If you were in London going past where the queen lives and somebody says, "The queen is at home," you would wonder how does he know. Well, because when she is at home the flag is flying, when she is not at home its not there. I believe the sign of God's presence in a sanctuary is the pillar of fire. It's the living vibration o an Eternal God who stands in the midst and does something you can't explain. God is beyond definition. I cannot explain Him. I can experience Him. I know when He touches me as I am alone in the night, two or three o'clock in the morning. I know when His Living Presence comes into my office in a special wave of anointing. But notice He did not come until they went outside the camp!!
There are very, very, few occasions when God Almighty has revived dead denominations. The men who stirred generations had to go outside the camp. Doesn't it say in Hebrews 13:12 that "He went outside the camp?!" That's fine, but when it comes to verse 13 you go outside the camp and bear His reproach. Maybe before long God will bring a cleavage somewhere to this city, I hope He does. And you will have to get outside of the camp. You will have to leave your group, and you will have to go join a people who have the anointing of God. They may be poor, and have no stained glass window, and beautiful choir...
I am impressed with this, you may not be, but I am. Verse 9: "It came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle...And all the people saw the cloudy pillar." Wouldn't it be wonderful...? Imagine if you could answer you child as one of those Israeli mothers would. Her little boy wakes up at night and says, "Mommy, sometimes I think of those days we were in Egypt, I think about that terrible journey we made and I wonder what's going to happen." She puts her arms around him and says, "Darling, you see that? That pillar of fire over there? That's the holy place. Our Holy God brands it with his presence of fire."
Doesn't it say in Hebrews that God makes His angels ministering Spirits, and His ministers flames of fire? We've got snowmen in the pulpits with icicles hanging all around. If ever the fire comes there'll be some melting!
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(continued with # 3)
Copyright/Reproduction Limitations: This file is the sole property of Leonard Ravenhill. It may not be altered or edited in any way. It may be reproduced only in its entirety as "Freeware" without charge. (c) 1995 Leonard Ravenhill, Lindale, Texas.
Repentance is more than saying, "I'm sorry." Repentance is mental. It's something in my mind. I'm going this way and I turn that way. When I'm going this way I'm saying, "God is in the wrong and I am in the right." When I turn around and say, "God is in the right, if He send me to hell He is in the right.
That is repentance. It's not just repenting for the sin I've done, it's repenting about the motive that made me do the sin. It's going past the fruit of the root because if the root of corruption is there, there is going to be fruit coming out that is wrong. Romans 6 talks about having your fruit unto holiness and its' talking there to regenerate people, not people that claim to be filled by the Holy Spirit.
John goes out, stands and ministers there. And they come to him. He is a success any way you count it. Geographically - they come from the North and South and East and West. He is a success socially. They came from all levels of society. He said to the multitude that came to be baptized, "you generation of vipers." Isn't that pleasant? Do you know anybody who would dare stand up in the First Baptist or the Last Baptist Church tomorrow morning and say, "You generation of vipers!. I'm sick of talking to you." Uh? They would sure take a love offering for him, wouldn't they? To get him out of town! "Oh generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" He was not only condemning their sin, he was saying, "there is a gate, and when you get through it, it is eternal wrath from God."
We have forgotten about the wrath of God. A friend saw a bumper sticker and you know what it said on it? "Jesus is coming and He is as mad as hell." Sacrilege? No. 2 Thessalonians 1 says, He is coming in flaming fire in judgment on this world. In other words, He's as mad as hell. May be it is a bad way of putting it, but it's the truth. You see, we are all looking for "gentle Jesus meek and mild." The attitude of the average Christian today is relax and be raptured. But He is coming with flaming vengeance on this world. There is a time when His Spirit's forbearance runs out. There is going to be day of the vengeance of God. And when God get angry you've no idea what it is. Like a thousand volcanoes exploding. He has appointed a day in which He is going to judge the world and the poor blind world doesn't know much about it, and the poor blind church doesn't think much about it now.
Let me look at this in Exodus 32. "Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp. And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle the cloudy pillar descended." It was a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day.
If you were in London going past where the queen lives and somebody says, "The queen is at home," you would wonder how does he know. Well, because when she is at home the flag is flying, when she is not at home its not there. I believe the sign of God's presence in a sanctuary is the pillar of fire. It's the living vibration o an Eternal God who stands in the midst and does something you can't explain. God is beyond definition. I cannot explain Him. I can experience Him. I know when He touches me as I am alone in the night, two or three o'clock in the morning. I know when His Living Presence comes into my office in a special wave of anointing. But notice He did not come until they went outside the camp!!
There are very, very, few occasions when God Almighty has revived dead denominations. The men who stirred generations had to go outside the camp. Doesn't it say in Hebrews 13:12 that "He went outside the camp?!" That's fine, but when it comes to verse 13 you go outside the camp and bear His reproach. Maybe before long God will bring a cleavage somewhere to this city, I hope He does. And you will have to get outside of the camp. You will have to leave your group, and you will have to go join a people who have the anointing of God. They may be poor, and have no stained glass window, and beautiful choir...
I am impressed with this, you may not be, but I am. Verse 9: "It came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle...And all the people saw the cloudy pillar." Wouldn't it be wonderful...? Imagine if you could answer you child as one of those Israeli mothers would. Her little boy wakes up at night and says, "Mommy, sometimes I think of those days we were in Egypt, I think about that terrible journey we made and I wonder what's going to happen." She puts her arms around him and says, "Darling, you see that? That pillar of fire over there? That's the holy place. Our Holy God brands it with his presence of fire."
Doesn't it say in Hebrews that God makes His angels ministering Spirits, and His ministers flames of fire? We've got snowmen in the pulpits with icicles hanging all around. If ever the fire comes there'll be some melting!
~Leonard Ravenhill~
(continued with # 3)
Copyright/Reproduction Limitations: This file is the sole property of Leonard Ravenhill. It may not be altered or edited in any way. It may be reproduced only in its entirety as "Freeware" without charge. (c) 1995 Leonard Ravenhill, Lindale, Texas.
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