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)

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