Leonard Ravenhill delivers a powerful sermon on 'Dying to Self,' emphasizing the necessity of crucifying our carnal desires to fully embrace the life of Christ. He reflects on the struggles of spiritual immaturity within the church, urging believers to seek a deeper relationship with God through surrender and sacrifice. Ravenhill draws parallels between the Apostle Paul's transformation and the need for Christians today to abandon worldly attachments and live a life wholly devoted to Christ. He challenges the congregation to confront their own pride and selfishness, encouraging them to seek a genuine encounter with God that leads to true spiritual growth.

The following message was delivered by Reverend Leonard Ravenhill during a regular session at the Christ for the Nations Institute. His message is based on 1 Corinthians 3, verse 1. It is entitled, Crucifixion, and speaks of dying to self. The Bible says that in the mouth of two witnesses every word shall be established. And I don't know how other preachers get on, but there are times when I kind of oscillate, wonder if this is the word or should I preach something else. And so this good German lady tonight, the Spirit of God through her confirmed I did have the right word, because I think every chorus or hymn that we've sung at set once either had the blood or the cross in it. And I want to talk about the cross tonight. Then the other thing as I was meditating tonight, the Lord I'm sure spoke to me just almost the thing that she has said. So this confirms it again to me at least that what does matter about this school is the foundation. I had a very lovely mother, a Methodist, and I really loved my mother. She was very kind, Christ-like, and I really liked her, except when she beat me up. And sometimes I wasn't sure whether I wanted to stay another day in the house. I sometimes felt like quitting and running. I thought well she loves me and she says well that's why I beat you because I love you. Awfully difficult to understand. And I'm not just concerned about visitors as blessed as we are with you and thank you for coming, but I'm thinking about folk who are going to be foundations in this school that if you're not right, in example and word and everything else, well you lead other people wrong too. And so it's essential that we do find out what God says. The other thing, in the times when the Germans were beating us up, and we were beating the Germans up, we used to have some balloons in England, great big things look like airships, and they were there to defend us. And they were soaring high in the air. But you know occasionally the cable broke or somebody cut the thing and they went away, away, away, away, away. Now again I don't care how high we go up as long as we've got good anchorage we're alright. But if we lose our anchorage we're all wrong. And so it is essential and then again I believe that God is preparing a people. He's preparing a people, or can I put it this way, as a friend of mine who is I think one of the greatest authorities on revival in the world today, said to me two or three years ago, he said, Len I believe that God is going to give us a reviving before the revival. In other words God, why have we lost? I talked with Brother Lindsay on a couple occasions about this. Why have we lost so much in what we call at least revivals? For the simple reason that we didn't have people spiritually educated enough to help the people who had come into a new experience of God. And so many of them just dried up and died up and off they went. And again I'm smart enough to know if I preach smooth things I'll be a lot more popular. I get better love offerings and people would like me and ask for my autograph and my photograph. But really I never got a word from the Lord on that. The Lord told me to preach. Now I, if I preach what every other preacher preaches, who preaches, what's the good of me coming, I wouldn't even stir out of the house. You see there are different ministries. Now you like, as I said the other day, people will pay you to tell them what they want to know. They won't tell us to tell them, pay us to tell them what God wants them to know. And God has a word for the hour in which we're living. A crisis hour I'm sure in human history and a crisis hour in the church. Well thank you for your patience and if you want to come to the torture chamber we start at half past ten in the morning. Reading from 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 1. First letter to the Corinthians. The third chapter verse 1. And I brethren could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it. Neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal. For whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men? For while one saith I am of Paul and another I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul? And who is Apollos? But ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave unto every man. I have planted Apollos watered. Let's keep that in mind will you that whoever comes here he's either planting or watering. But it's God that gives the increase. So the preachers are nothing. Better throw your halo away. That's what it says doesn't it? I have planted Apollos watered but God gave the increase so neither is he that planteth anything neither he that watereth but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. Now I don't know if the Lord will let me do it while I'm here and I won't be here much above another ten days actually. I didn't write a contract I agreed to come for two weeks and if the Lord gave me a burden to stay I'd stay two years. He hasn't given me the burden. If you want to pray it on me that's up to you. And if you want me to pray out of town in two days I'll be most grateful. So that doesn't matter. But if the Lord gives me permission I would like to preach one night on the judgment seat of Christ. Now I wanted to do that in a big gathering a couple of weeks ago hundreds and hundreds of people came every night and the Lord wouldn't give me permission to do it. Because quite frankly and there's no conceit there are not many congregations that are big enough to take it. It's no good you sending your boy to a nursery and then a fellow comes from the university and starts teaching him in algebra he wouldn't know a thing about it. And sometimes the truths we teach are algebra unless you're in the spirit. You just don't understand. It goes over your head. But let's keep this in mind that every man is going to receive his own reward according to his own labour. One of the great preachers of America who in my judgment is about the least quoted was a man by the name of Henry Varley. He was a great evangelist. And like evangelists particularly evangelists often do he as you say in a rather vulgarism shut his mouth off or in other words he said something just on the spur of the moment. Sometimes you wish you could just bring it back you know oh boy I shouldn't have said that at least not just now without a long explanation. And while he was preaching he said this the world has yet to see what God can do through one man who is totally committed to Jesus Christ. Now he said that roughly a hundred years ago a little more. And sitting in the audience not a very large audience was a young man that nobody knew. He had a very important job he just sold shoes. But under his breath he said if the world has yet to see one man who is totally committed to Jesus Christ by the grace of God I'll be that man. Well eventually he did become D.L. Moody. But you know that statement wasn't true. Oh it's become a cliche everybody quotes it you know you know the world has yet to see what God can do through one man totally. Are you suggesting that for two thousand years Jesus has been trying to see of the travail of his soul in one man and not found him? I think there's one man right at the dawn of the Christian church who answers the who fits that picture perfectly. No sooner was Jesus Christ born than Herod decided to liquidate him. No sooner was the church born than Saul of Tarsus desired and designed to liquidate it. And he was going down the Damascus road wearing his toga and inside of that toga he carried what he thought was the death sentence of the church. I had authority from those in high authority if I found anybody in this way to put them to death. Now that's where it all began. Sometimes when I see the sweep of this man's life I sit back breathless and say he did more than an army of men. He was born in the ancient capital of the world, Tarsus. He ended up in the military capital of the world, Rome. In between he went to the religious capital of the world, Jerusalem. And he went to the intellectual capital of the world in Acts 17, Athens. And from there he went to the immoral capital of the world, Corinth. And it all began because on that Damascus road breeding out threatenings. Hey, isn't it wonderful what the grace of God can do. A man with fire coming out of his nostrils and hell in his heart going to liquidate the church. And he wrote the greatest thing on love ever written. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels. Boy, that's a transformation, eh? He didn't get that reading positive thinking. Breeding out threatenings. He reckoned on everybody going down that Damascus road but you know afterwards he testifies and I love to read testimonies particularly in the Bible. And three times I think he testifies in Acts, doesn't he? And in one chapter somewhere, don't check it now, somewhere about 24 where he's giving his testimony. He says, I was going down that Damascus road and I was going to liquidate the church. But suddenly there shined round about me and them that journeyed with me a light from heaven. But I only heard a voice. Did it ever strike you that God would bring a meeting together like this with 100, 200, 300 or 10,000 people in and He only wanted to get to one person in the meeting? Oh, you all may get new light and say, you know I never saw that text like that. Brother Ravenhill said this or Brother Solon said that or Brother somebody said something else. Ah, you got light. There shone round about me and them that journeyed with me a light from heaven but I heard a voice. I'm awfully glad on that Damascus road he met Jesus. If he'd met a preacher and heard a sermon that might have been the end of him. And the reason you haven't got very far is so far maybe you've only met preachers and heard sermons but if you ever hear the voice of Jesus it will transform your life. Didn't that old Scottish hymn writer say I heard the voice of Jesus say I heard the voice of Jesus say come unto me and rest Oh, that lovely, lovely hymn that he wrote. I heard a voice. Hey, and speaking in his own language the Hebrew tongue. My, X marks the spot on that Damascus road we'd have built a shrine there or we'd have all kissed it or gathered lumps out of it for souvenirs. But you see God's a jealous God we don't know just where it happened. But that was one of the greatest turnings in history wasn't it? He's maybe the greatest convert that the church of God ever had. And he summarizes the whole experience again he didn't just have some kind of warm heart and emotion good as those may be. He says on that Damascus road I met Jesus Christ and he not only met Jesus but he exchanged his life. Because afterwards he says in Galatians 2 20 it's not I but it's Christ that liveth in me. So he exchanged his life for the life of the Lord Jesus. It was not only an exchange life it was an expensive life. All things were gained to me of the tribe of Benjamin of the seed of Abraham a Pharisee of the Pharisees a member of the Sanhedrin oh boy he got everything that everybody else was clambering after. And he says my richest gain I can't but loss and poor contempt on all my pride. Now our trouble isn't when we pour contempt on our pride it's when somebody else pours contempt on our pride we've got trouble with it. An expensive life it cost him everything he had to get everything that Christ had. It was an exchange life it was an expensive life it was an exciting life because he says I wrestled with wild beasts at Ephesus. It was not only an exciting life it was an explicit life this one thing I do. You haven't got ten irons in the fire I try to do this that and the other this one thing I do forgetting those things behind oh they weren't all bad things some of them very beautiful and glorious things I see everybody else was snatching at them but he says these things I sacrificed for the Lord Jesus Christ. It was an extensive life because Paul preaches today through these very epistles that he wrote. Now I don't doubt a lot of people here tonight a lot of us and we'd certainly like Paul's power wouldn't we? That boy really had some power he raised the dead and I don't know what else he didn't do all kinds of marvellous things. We'd like his power and we'd like his peace because he said you know I glory in tribulation most of us just get through. Boy I'm sanctified I'll have to get through this you know I don't feel like it but I'll make it somehow. Oh he didn't do that he says I glory in tribulation in necessities in reproaches. How many of us do that? No don't raise your hand I might tempt you to tell lies. Glory in tribulation in reproaches in necessities. Do with a few Christians like this around wouldn't we? Oh I'd like his power he could raise the dead. I'd like his peace none of these things move me. Did you hear what he said? He didn't say none of these things hurt me he wasn't a stone he was a human being of course they hurt him they carved him up they crushed him but he didn't say none of these things hurt me he said none of these things move me. That's poise. Again I say his purpose this one thing I do his passion. How did he summarize it? For me to live is Christ. Hmm? He not only had peace and power and poise and passion what else did he have? Prisons and poverty. You like those thrown in? Oh no no I'm not interested in those but I'd like power to do some miracles and raise the dead I'd like you know a little more fervor than I have and I'd like a little more poise I do blow my top occasionally and I'd like one or two other things but you can leave the prisons out and the persecution thank you oh no come on you buy the deal or you get none at all. Paul has almost a holy swagger you know I'm trying to lay emphasis and boy do I get into trouble for it that you can't live in this dirty wicked world you can live in it but you can't be of it. You can't be a Christian movie star in my judgment you can't be a Christian football player breaking the Sabbath and saying your prayers before you go on the team and saying Lord help me to knock the brains out of Jimmy Jones when he jumps on me. Brother some way you've got to break with the world and you know Paul didn't do it reluctantly with his tongue and his cheek and say you know you don't realize what I have to give up. Ever heard people say that? You know I would have been a great movie star by now but I gave it all up you know one of the great things that enriched heaven my sacrifice. You know I've done so much. Oh brother if you're there go on an island and take your Bible and pray for a week you need help. Herodotus has been called the father of historians and he tells us about a very one interesting thing. There was a temple called the temple of Heracles and will you remember that in the days of Jesus Christ there were at least six million slaves in the Roman Empire and the Bible doesn't say anything about them. But in the temple of Heracles they kept the altar fires burning 24 hours a day. Day and night the altars were there and priests were there. And if a man could get away from his master he'd run into the temple breathlessly and make the after wake up the preacher that you usually have and wake up the preacher and say burn me, burn me. Hurry, hurry, hurry. Yeah, yeah. Oh I see you've escaped from your master. Yes, brand me. Which brand? Which branding iron? You brand cattle in Texas. Choose your branding iron. Which God do you want to serve? And you choose the branding iron of your God. And he put it in the fire and got it nice and sizzling hot. And then the man would put out his hand this way and they would stamp him with the branding iron blazing hot in his flesh. He'd pull it back and then he'd slip his toga down and they would brand him in the base of his neck. And now snorting he would lift up his foot and they'd brand him in his instep. And he'd sit down and suffer because they didn't have medication like we have it. Don't you think somebody might have got a clue and Paul finishes writing as he does to the Galatians in the last chapter when he says henceforth let no man trouble me. I bear in my body the brands of the Lord Jesus Christ. We used to sing a song in England let my hands perform his bidding let my feet run in his way let my eyes see Jesus only. All for Jesus. Paul isn't saying this with his tongue in his cheek. He says you know I found the greatest thing. You remember the man that was selling pearls? He wasn't selling junk. The Bible says they were goodly pearls. Every one of them worth a ransom. That one day his life savings in that little goat skin he carried and one day he went in a bazaar he said I never thought like that in my life. Listen I'll give you six of my pearls for it. No sir. I'll give you ten of them. They've taken me thirty years to gather. I'll give you ten of them. No not for ten of them. I'll give you thirty. No I'll not take thirty. Show me your pearls. This is my collection. I've carried them all over the East. I've traded in every month. I'm the best known Shylock there is around. These are my pearls. But I want that pearl. Well I'll tell you what I'll do. Surrender every pearl you've got. They were goodly pearls. But one day he surrendered the pearls of comparative worth for the one pearl of superlative worth. And here is a man loaded. He's got acres of culture. In my judgment he was the greatest brain that ever lived outside of Jesus Christ. But one day when he saw the pearl of greatest prize he says I'll bring all these pearls of comparative worth. I'm of the tribe of Benjamin. I'm of the seed of Abraham. People think I'm going to be greater than Gamaliel and all the rest. But I'll trade all I have for that one pearl. Because what I have only belongs to temporal kingdom. But what I gain in him is an everlasting kingdom. Or he says just before that God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to it. By which? By which what? By whom the world is crucified unto me. And I'm crucified to the world. Take those three crosses. Instead of Jesus in the middle and a thief there and a thief. See here is a central cross with Jesus. And there is a cross on which the world is crucified. And here is a cross on which Paul is crucified. Well we've never seen a crucifixion. You may have seen films and what but that's not the thing. Nobody could ever reproduce it. Sure it was a Roman holiday. And when it comes to the last analysis the cross is not Christian the cross is pagan. The sign of the New Testament church is not a cross it's a tongue of fire. The cross is a curse. Cursed is he that hangeth upon a tree. We put them on our churches pity we don't know any better. We put them over our gravestones what a pity we don't know better. The cross is a Roman symbol it's a symbol of a curse. The sign of the early church is a tongue of fire. The world is crucified. Oh here they are going to crucify a man like Barabbas. Everybody comes and says you hear the news they've got Barabbas is going to crucify him tomorrow night. I'll see you on the way out to the place of crucifixion. What are you going to take? Well I'm thinking of taking a basket of rotten eggs. Fine I'll take a basket of rotten tomatoes. What are you going to take? I'm going to find about twenty nice stones with jagged edges like daggers. And what are you going to take? I'm going to get some thorns and they did tie them in balls. And you know once that man was on that cross there's one thing about a man carrying a cross brother he's not coming back. And once you take up your cross you either desert it and forsake him or else you go on. And there's only one way that the Christian life leads and that's to the cross. Your cross. Your crucifixion. And so they go out. And the man is snarling and mad and they nail him to a tree. They put big copper spikes not through his hands because in the Jewish concept the hand finishes there. If you crucified any man through the palms of his hands do you know what would happen? His body would sag and pull him off. The hand isn't so constructed to hold it. They put it right through the tenderest. There's a nerve there. Ask any doctor. And they drove that copper spike through there that was hell before the poor man who was dying could get there. But once he's nailed to that cross alright come on boys. Say you try and knock his left eye out. I'll try and knock his right. You throw those rotten eggs at him. Throw that filth. That excrement. Let's curse him. Remember how he once cursed us. We'll make it hell before he gets there. Everybody. Are you ready? And they bombarded him and it was the Romans who privileged them to do it. It was a Roman carnival. Do as you like. The man has no rights once he's on the cross. What made you think you had any rights if you were really crucified with Christ? Brother the world can kick you around. The devil can't. But circumstances can beat you and other people can fail you and other things can test you. Sure they can. You've no rights once you're born really filled with the Holy Spirit. You lose all your rights. You've no right to say when you'll go to bed when you'll get up. You've no right to say what you'll buy or sell. You lost your rights. The trouble is you see we want to maintain our rights and follow him. Oh no sir. Right you've beat him up and he's lacerated and torn and one eye is hanging out and his cheeks are torn and his ribs are out and almost entirely in every crucifixion a man was naked he wasn't covered. They humiliated him to the nth degree. When they'd had their sport and the sun was setting they hurried back to get in the city before the gates were locked. Six o'clock at night there's a bleeding victim on the cross writhing in agony. Six o'clock in the morning nobody went to see him. Why not? Because the body you left torn on the cross there the first thing that happened I remember seeing these awful vultures in India that stood about this height. And the first thing they did they came and they they settled on the arm of the cross for breakfast. And ate his eyes out and tore his body and pulled his entrails out. And before he'd been hanging there long the blood was dripping out and the dogs came out of Jerusalem and they lapped up the blood. And nobody went to see a man crucified in the morning or wants to see a horrible spectacle. It would send you off your head nearly. See his body open see his bowels gushing out. Now transfer that to what Paul says. Do you know what the world is like? It's like that crucified man to me. It's a dirty, filthy, repulsive thing that I totally repudiate. I'll die for it. I'll serve my God in it. But for any association or compromise no, no, no, no. What does the world say? If a man loved the world the love of the Father isn't in him. Now I didn't write that. There's a line of demarcation. You can't find it anymore hardly. Christians wobble over this side, over that. You don't know where you'd find them in the prayer house tonight, the movie house tomorrow, some of your Christian entertainers in a nightclub act with a girl almost nude and then tomorrow night giving his testimony how they're filled with the Holy Ghost. What kind of rubbish have we got? Is the world like that to you? Even its success, even its money, even its academic honors, they're still of the world. The world is crucified. Ah, but listen. I'm crucified to the world. They say Paul's the biggest idiot alive. When you see Paul you see all the wreckage. You know, he would have been the greatest Rabbi that ever lived. But that's all wrecked. This man would have been the most outstanding character in history. That's all given up. Just as I see the world as a wreck, so the world sees me as a wreck. It says you'll never get anywhere with Paul. That fellow's just, just, just really sold out to his God. That's why he finishes the chapter saying, Henceforth let no man trouble me. He doesn't say, you know, don't trouble me anymore, don't hurt me please. You know, please don't trouble me, will you? I mean, do let me go to heaven in one piece, won't you? Do you think the man was saying that with his tongue in his cheek who afterwards says, I was in weariness, in painfulness, in fastings, in peril of the deep, in perils of mine on countrymen, in perils of robbers? Thirty-six hours hanging onto a piece of wood into the Mediterranean tossed this way and that, lashed to a post and whipped five times, received I forty stripes, save one, five forties is what, two hundred minus five, a hundred and ninety-five lashings. And three times I was shipwrecked. And once I was stoned and dragged out of the city and they said, kick his old carcass out. I'm crucified to the... They said he'll never get up and do anything. Boy, we could do with some of that Christianity around today, don't you think? Hmm? This is God's standard. Anything less isn't Christianity. Oh, Paul had such an experience of God. But you know, he was really smart. He was because, do you know what he did? Well, you preachers know this language anyhow. Paul had his sabbatical before he started preaching. Now you go to a church and if you happen to survive there seven years, which would be a miracle, but if you make it for seven years, they usually give you that year off and give you a couple of thousand bucks to go to Palestine or somewhere, have a trip. You know what Paul did? Before ever he started preaching, he got in the backside of the desert, in the wilderness for about three and a half years. Now I don't know what happened in those three and a half years. I wish I did, I'd tell you. A man told me one day, he said, do you ever meet my wife? I said, I don't know. Oh, she's an outstanding personality. Well, that's very nice. What's unique? Oh, she died and went to heaven for seven days. She did? Well, that's great. Yeah, yeah. And when she came back to earth, man it was wonderful. Now I'm not saying she didn't, but I don't understand how you can have a corpse in a house for seven days either legally. I don't know how a body couldn't be, if it was really dead wouldn't it stink? Now I'm not saying this couldn't happen and I know that one of the great commissioners healed the sick, cleansed the leper, raised the dead. And there are all kinds of stories about people dying. You know, once I get my toes inside of that pearly gate, Gabriel won't get me out. Brother, once I see the king in his glory, I ain't coming back for anybody. No sir, no sir, I'm going to stay there. I've sweated and toiled and prayed and all I could for Jesus. Do you think I'm coming back to this old manure heap? No sir, once I get inside of those gates, brother, I'm going to sing better than Gali Gertrude, that was a woman, better than Caruso. I'm going to sing his praise. I don't want to come back. You know, the only authentic case that I've been case is admittedly of people raised from the dead. Usually a few hours after they died, not seven days or eight days after. But forgetting that, this man really did go to heaven. My, wouldn't that be great when I get back to earth. I'll write a book on my paradise experience. The Lord said, you keep your lips closed or I'll kill you. Huh? You shut up. You're going to say enough preaching to shock the world without telling. This is something between you and me. I'm shutting you in with myself and this is totally private and you'll never share it with anybody as long as you live. Now what happened in the wilderness? Oh, I don't know what happened there. Sometimes I think God showed him a plan of the ages for the incarnation from the incarnation to the consummation. Hmm? Maybe he showed him maybe this is what nerved him. And they lashed him. There was something in him you couldn't lash it out of him. You couldn't threaten it out of him. You couldn't burn it out of him. You couldn't starve it out of him. In weariness, in painfulness, in fastings. In hunger, in weariness. Well some people say he was never sick though he had a thorn in the flesh. I'll tell you what he does say. He says, I was with you in much weakness and it wasn't intellectual weakness. It was the greatest brain ever and it wasn't spiritual weakness. It was the greatest spiritual jam ever. It must have been physical weakness not necessary illness but weakness because he says so. But it was weakness. Do you know what I think God took him into that desert weary place for? And he might take you and me if you'd go. Do you know what he took him for? And I use the word reverently. He took him into that wilderness experience to get him spiritually pregnant. In that three and a half years in my judgment the revelations that were given to him and the God, the Spirit of God and he came out and he had conceived all these churches to which he is going because he warns men. He says, you have many fathers but I travailed in birth. I think he not only traveled in birth and spiritually was spiritually pregnant to bring these churches to birth in Asia Minor but intellectually too the Spirit of God on him so that all these epistles I think were already conceived in him when he came out of that wonderful experience there in the wilderness. And from there on there is no record anywhere at any time but for five single seconds of his life he ever backslid or lost the vision or lost his fire or lost his passion or lost his tears. So I say, you don't have to wait until a man says the world has yet to see what God can. The world has seen it already in the Apostle Paul. He completely sold out. He lost his rights. He was crucified. And he rose in the power of his... Isn't it rather amazing that after about thirty years of ministry when he has repeated just about every miracle that Jesus Christ the Son of God ever did and you and I will be so bloated we'd hardly get through the door and do you know what he says after he's done every miracle? That I may know him and the power of his resurrection. That's a love for God, isn't it? Oh yes, he went to the intellectual capital of the world right before he went to these people at Corinth in the seventeenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. And as he walked up and down the street and he saw the streets on either side were lined with temples to strange gods. It says in this sleepy Elizabethan English that his spirit was stirred within him. It says in the Amplified he was angry. You ever get angry about it? Or do you say well of course we live in a country and everybody has the right to do everything. Sure they have if you're an American but they haven't if you're a Christian. They can do their thing that way. Right, but wait a minute. There's only one God. There's only one Saviour. Neither is there salvation in any other. When you see a Roman church or you see a Jehovah witness or some other does your spirit get angry? Oh it doesn't mean with condemnation. It means with pity and compassion. Do you see the money invested? Do you see how they've been tricked and fooled by the devil? How they followed the cult and Satan leads them to hell believing that they're going to heaven. He was angry in his spirit and then he went to the intellectual camp. He went to Mars Hill. And boy did he show them his stuff. They were Stoics, Epicureans, poets, philosophers, all the brilliant people were assembled there. It was a university. And he met them on their own level. And when they came up with history, he knew their history. Poetry, he knew their poetry. Philosophy, he knew their philosophy. He answered them. He met them on every level. But then there came a point in his preaching where he he said I want to tell you about this person Jesus who not only died but he rose again from the dead. He what? He rose! He rose? Paul, there's the gate. Off you go. You think that we brilliant people are going to believe that a man died? And then as you say he said he'd power to lay his life down and take it up but that man rose again. Oh come on Paul, we're not so dumb. Thank you, you can go. And he went from the intellectual capital of the world, Athens to the immoral capital. He went from where they worshipped the brain to where they worshipped the body. He went from where they were totally engaged in philosophy to where they were totally committed to foolishness. Oh, that was a step down. Psychologists would say it was bad. He'd already had a defeat. Now he's going to Corinth. Corinth! You know when Paul lived you didn't have to say a man is given up to lust and drugs and this and that and the other. You just put one label on him and that put him at the bottom of the pile. You just said he's a Corinthian. And immediately you said he's a Corinthian you meant he's one of the vilest men. He has no sense of decency or laws or anything. He's totally given up to iniquity. And Paul is told by the Spirit of God to go down here. And what do you think he did? Go to a book shop and trying to find a latest book on how to influence Jews and win Greeks? Hmm? Oh no! Do you know I made the wrong approach in Athens? Do you know what I should do down here? I'll go rent the amphitheater another healing crusade. Now I'm not saying they're wrong. But I'm saying it's wrong to make a habit of them. Why didn't this the greatest man after Jesus Christ why didn't he go and rent the amphitheater? There was one in the city seating about a hundred and fifty thousand people. Why didn't he say come and see me raise the dead? I've done it and I'll do it again. Come and see me give eyes to the blind. Hmm? That would have been a shortcut. By the same token when Philip met the man an intellectual you remember how God upset a revival and took the main preacher out of it and dropped him on the country road? Well if you did that with a modern revival there'd be nobody there the second night if you took the preacher out of it. And when he met an intellectual man you'd look on the map and see how far he went, will you? From Ethiopia way, way, way there up to Egypt crossed the Nile went through what we call the Gaza Strip and up into Palestine and he was a Negro he was the Chancellor of the Exchequer and he was an Ethiopian so he spoke a foreign language he bought a Bible which was in Hebrew there was no other translation then so he must have been pretty smart and it cost a king's ransom to get one. And he came back in a buggy just as he went up all that way and when he's down the road there he meets a man who's just turned the city upside down the whole city shouting and praising God they'd had signs and wonders and miracles in the Holy Ghost and Philip should have said you know God times everything perfectly. All you have to do is turn your horses round and just drive back to the city and you can see every miracle that my Lord is able to do and I'll do them for you because I've been doing them for the past few months. What did he do? Preached unto him Jesus. Oh you'll get crowds if you get miracles or even imitation ones but you've just preached Jesus particularly a message like this because I'm not concerned to get you to the cross I'm concerned to get you on the cross. But this doesn't draw crowds. Oh no no. But do you think I'm smarter than Jesus? When Jesus fed people and did miracles the crowds were When he laid down the principles of the kingdom he went one morning and he says well the Bible school's empty. Except you what 11 of them 12 of them. Will you also go away? Give them loaves and fishes and do them miraculous and give them circuses. They'll come alright. But lay down the principles of really getting through to God and being cleansed from sin and getting your old appetites crucified and making on the throne of your personality. Boy you're singing another song. You're singing another song. We'll go to a church where they preach it easier. We'll go to a place where they're much kinder than you are. You're a rough old English preacher. No he doesn't rent the amphitheater. He doesn't put on a show. He could have done. You know one of the wonders. Oh it's so sweet to trust in Jesus we see. I'll tell you it's very sweet to just rest in the Holy Ghost and do what he tells you to do. If he tells you to blast people till they're off the seats. If he tells you to skin them alive. That's alright. You see this isn't payday. Payday is up there. Supposing God convened this meeting tonight only for one person to hear his voice. Supposing there's a news poll here. How do you know there isn't? So he steps down from the cultured refined beautiful people who talk you know as we would say in Oxford English very nice and stylish lovely people to the rubble and the sky. There's an old German coming to M E Y E R Neher. And Neher says in his book that I don't understand too well all of it because a lot of it's in Greek. But he says blessed and sublime miracle of God that Paul could establish a church in Corinth. You know this is rough but it's almost like saying you put a wedding cake on a dung hill. Corinth! Unrestricted iniquity, impiety, impurity, idolatry, infidelity. No Paul doesn't say I'm going to try and win the Jews and have a little bit of be a bit more moderate with the Greeks and I'm going to swing round and I'm going to get a few. Oh I remember now somebody told me that old chariot racer had been converted. I'll get him to come one night and give his testimony. And then of course it's so and so by she once sang before Caesar. I'll get her to come and the crowds will come that night when she comes. I've just got a few star personalities on the platform and we'll draw a crowd that way you know. I sometimes wonder why we need a holy ghost. We can do it so well ourselves with our money and our organizing and our scheming and a few famous people to come along. He says alright Satan you've put the most serious hurdle in my life in my way. Right. So I'm glad for all the hymns tonight about the blood. Why? Well I happen to have a little bit of his diary here. He left it for me knowing I'm a simple preacher. And he says in the first chapter of this same wonderful book of 1 Corinthians he says the people who preach the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But to us who are saved it is the power of God. We preach Christ crucified. Then listen to this. I'm determined to know nothing amongst you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. To the Jews a stumbling block. To the Greeks foolishness. That to those of us who know him who have tasted of his grace who can really sing in our spirits happy day. Not when I did a psychological somersault and decided I better give up some lousy habits or I was going to die a drunk addict or die a drunk addict. Happy day when Jesus washed my sins away. He taught me how to watch and pray and live rejoicing every day. And he went to that hell hole and established a church for Jesus. There's a book on the book store these days. You can get it for about a dollar and seventy cents. It used to cost ten dollars but now of course these shops print these things and it's called Varieties of Religious Experience by Professor James. He was a professor at Harvard. One of the few men I think he earned all his four doctorates in philosophy, psychology, medicine and I don't know what the other was. And in the pride of his manhood he was about forty something I think. Suddenly a disease got hold of him and he began to droop. Droop droop and shuffle shuffle with his feet one before the other. People would pity him. Look at him almost with contempt. Some would say that's the professor he used to be so athletic, marvelous. You know people always ask you the obvious thing don't you? I was lying in hospital with plaster from my chin to my toes after jumping out of a burning building, breaking my back, my legs and almost everything I could break. And I'd be lying there like an Egyptian mummy or an Egyptian daddy if you like and I'd be lying there all wrapped up in clay and somebody would come in and say hello brother Raven, are you sick? That's what they usually say isn't it? You know you're soaking wet and somebody says it's raining. Thanks. You can't see, you're wiping your glasses. The snow's coming down. Somebody says boy it's snowing. Oh thanks, I thought it was a bit of frozen sunshine coming down or something. You always state the obvious. Somebody said Professor, do you want to be healed? And he said I certainly do. Well if you go to Europe, go up into an area there, Vienna, and see Dr. Somebody, he's got the answer. And he made it on a long slow boat. The ships were very slow. And he got to France and he went up through Germany, went over to Vienna, saw the professor. The professor said I'm sorry sir, you okay? Just go a little further back, go to Berlin, you'll find the answer with Dr. So and so. He went there. And the professor said sir, you're in the wrong country, go a little further back, go to Paris and see Dr. So and so. And when he got there, the doctor said you're just on the wrong side of the English channel, you just hop over and go to England and see so and so in Harley Street. And when he got there, the professor said well you're in the right area kind of thing, but you're just 400 miles south. The doctor that you want is in Edinburgh and he's got the answer to your problem. And he went to Edinburgh and the doctor said I don't have it. And what's more, there isn't a living doctor knows the answer to your problem. And he came home distressed, walked up and down the deck some nights, felt like making a hole in the seat, but he made it back home. Going down the street one day, met a friend and he said oh doctor, I see you're still very sick. He said yes. Again he asked him, do you want to get better? And he said I surely do. He said well sir, go into the next block and knock on the door of number so and so and just a little man will come, very unpretentious, doesn't know much, but you just say I sent you and see what he does. He knocked at the door, little labouring man came in his rough coveralls and he looked and he said well, I've seen your picture in the paper, you're a professor from you know, he said that's right, can I come in? He said well sir, yes, what do you want? And then he saw him shuffling, moving along and he said look, I've been halfway around the world to get healed and I'll give any money I can for it but he said I got a problem and somebody told me they thought you knew the answer and he said well, I think I know the answer but it sounds so foolish. What is it? He said just kneel down by that chair. What will the chair do? Nothing. What will you do? Nothing. Kneel and the chair doesn't, kneel and the chair you do? Well, why did the man send me to you? Well, he said there isn't a man on earth can help you is there? Well, how do you expect me? I'm a labourer, look at my fingers, they're all cut. I'm not a physician, I'm not a psychologist, I'm not smart but he said maybe my friend sent you because you know I've got somebody that really, well he's never been beaten with a case yet and all I have to do is just talk to him and he'll do it. I don't understand. Well, he said I just want to pray for you. Pray for me? He said my medical knowledge was saying nonsense. My psychology was saying ridiculous. My pride was saying get up and go out before anybody sees you. But he said my disease was saying why don't you give him a chance. He said afterwards I can't explain it. I can't explain it medically, psychology, any other way I can't explain it. But he said that little man put his hands with trembling on my head and he prayed. And he said all I can just remember were about two or three words he said. Somewhere in his prayer he said Jesus heal him. And he said it was just as though somebody touched me with about 10,000 volts of electricity. And he said I just leapt to my feet. It's done. It's done. I'm a new man. I don't understand it. A little labourer said I don't understand it either. But he's done it. Don't you think this is really our problem? You know this man went to Vienna, went to Germany, went to France, went to London, went to Scotland and came home beaten. And he found the answer just a block and a half down the street. And we've been trying this and trying the other. The American government has spent, I'll make a guess, 10, 15, 20 million dollars on that big research hospital in Lexington in Kentucky, the most advanced research area in the world for drugs. It's been open about 10 years and about 3 months ago they closed it. Do you know why? After spending millions they can't show one single case of total deliverance from drugs. So they said what's the good of going on anymore? We've been 10 years at it and spent millions. But I happened to work two years with Dave Wilkerson and I've in other areas seen God marvelously deliver people in a moment of time. And we've tried the United Nations and the United States and the and the and the United States and the and the United States and the and the United States and the United States and the United States and the his feet a chapter 5 and verse 17 he runs his flag right to the top of the flag pole and what does he say? If any man comes to Jesus Christ, repentant and hating his sin and loathing it and willing to turn his back on it, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. He's not patched up, he's made new. God isn't a tinkerer, he's a creator. And so he says, here you are you Corinthians, all over the place we've got examples of you. The marvellous grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, able to cleanse you from all sin. His blood can make the vilest clean, his blood avails for me. My, that must have been wonderful to have a revival crusade like that in a lousy dirty city. Hell's headquarters on earth and one man almost single-handedly could pierce it and establish the foundations of a church. Now I got to my text. I'm going to be late home, Martha. Martha keeps telling me, you mustn't preach so long and don't, last night she said, dearie I think you preach maybe a bit too hard. You see I've got a heart condition and the doctor keeps telling me it's, it's in bad shape. And I keep, I'll have to write that down and put it down here. But I get so excited about it, you know, because really this is the greatest thing in the world. Isn't it? The blood, the devil hates the blood. I hope every night I preach, dear old Thomas, a radio preacher 40 years ago in this country said I discovered a secret. I never, after I discovered this, I never had a meeting anywhere in England, and he was in England, I heard him preach, or in America or any country, I never had one meeting without having one hen that had the blood in it. That's a pretty good smart idea. To honour it, to get the protection of it, to know that the blood is there, available. But you see, they'd been born again, but he says now, he's writing to them and he says, I can't speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto baby, spiritual, but you can't look. Now there's the trouble. They were babes and then he diagnoses, now there's nothing lovelier than a baby, is there? Particularly if it's a baby boy, and a lovely little baby there, a couple of spans long, a wonderful little thing, you don't know the potential, might become a millionaire, might become a president, might become a famous doctor, better still a good preacher, wonderful. But I was preaching in that great Methodist church in the centre of Dublin's Fair City, where the girls are so pretty, the poet said, and I got one, a dear, little thoroughbred Irish lady there, and I was preaching in that great big Methodist church there, and the other preacher was a man by the name of Leonard Evans, and he gave this simple illustration that really shook me. He said, thirty-five years ago, I think the town was called Llanelli, they've strange names in Wales. My mother was crossing the market square and another woman came across, oh, hello Jenny, hi Gwyneth, or in Welsh they would say, hi Gwyneth, how are you Gwyneth, how are you Jenny? You're going to have a baby. Well, when you get to hospital, when the baby comes, write a little note and send it to me, tell me if you get a boy or a girl, how long it is, how heavy it is, who it looks like. Now how they can tell that, that's a guess, if ever there's a gamble. A little wrinkled thing, all red and it's fists up. Nearly all born with the fists up, you have to be in a world like this, you know, that's it. I mean, it's about the only way you can get through with your fists up. And usually little things, you see them with the fists up and all, all red, don't you? As I said this morning, no hair, no teeth, and you say, isn't he like daddy? You could at least say, isn't he like his granddaddy? He said, I was born and my mother wrote a note and said, I've got a little boy and he's so and so and so and so. Four days after, my mother got a note saying, I've got a little boy and he's so and so, so and so, so and so. Now Leonard Evans said, here I am, preaching to you in this lovely stately Methodist church right opposite the Abbey Theatre where the Messiah was first played and sang. I'm 35 years of age, he said. I'm an athlete. As you see, he wasn't an All-American, but he played for his state. And he had a lot of trophies. And I'd been to college. Not the smartest man around and not the dumbest. Not the best athlete, not the worst. I'm just about average in everything. But the little fellow that was born four days after me, he's about seven inches, eight inches taller than I am. The only thing is, he's still lying on the bed that his mother took him to 35 years ago. He's never even spoken her name. She changes his diapers every day. She feeds him with a bottle. If he has pre-digested food, she takes it and chews it and sees that there's nothing in it, that the little. And then she has to hold him. Oh, we might choke. And for 35 years, she's been tied up. She doesn't take him round. She's no pictures on the wall of her baby. She didn't take him round in a little buggy. So people would say, what a lovely. Oh, no, she walked out at night in the park when other people had gone. So he would get some fresh. And people pass the house and say, don't look now, but it's in that window on the right there. He's there. He's 35 years of age. And if you want to make him happy, do you know what you do? Buy him a balloon. He's 35, but you buy him a balloon and ha, ha, ha. And if you want to make him really happy, you just get a tin can and put some little bits of something in and shake it. And he'll laugh and he'll laugh and he'll laugh. Well, they say, Mr. Ravenhill, that's a fortunate thing. There are not many people as handicapped as that. You're right. But I've got news for you. We've got a lot of people in church that have been lying like that for 35 years. What does he do? He diagnoses the trouble. He says, the reason you're not growing is because you're carnal. And then he diagnoses the diagnosis. Because he says, your trouble is carnality. And then he says, whereas there is among you envying and strife and division. Envying, internal. Strife, external. Division, infernal. You see, what he was really wanting was to find some men who could put on the whole armour of God. But instead of infantrymen, he found infants. Instead of warriors, he found weaklings. Instead of those who should be fighting battles, they wanted bottles. Don't you think this is what's really strangling the church of Jesus Christ today? Your babes. The church is a nursery. Oh yes, even some that claim to be spiritual. You say, Johnny Jones and his party are coming Friday night. You know, there are four girls and five boys and they have six guitars and they play this and that. And you can pack even Pentecostal churches today with that kind of stuff. But you put a night of prayer on for revival, you count them on one hand. In holiness churches too. And Baptist and Methodist churches. Oh, you've got to entertain them. You know, food and fun and fellowship. Come on Friday night, we're going to have a potluck supper. Hmm? Doesn't it sound silly to say, they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and went to a potluck supper. Could you believe that? Hmm? That isn't in the Amplified even. Oh, Paul writes to this church later. He says, you know why many of your people have died? They were weak and sickly. Not discerning the Lord's body. That doesn't mean breaking of bread. It means they didn't take care of the rest of the members in the body. It means that they lived independent of how, what they did hurt other people in the body. Because you see, when you gossip about Mrs. Smith, before ever you touch Mrs. Smith, you touch Jesus Christ first. Because he's the head of the body, she's only a member. And you never gossip yet about what you wound in Jesus Christ, before ever you touch Mrs. Smith. Or before ever you touch Mr. Brown, the elder in your church. Oh, children love to be entertained. Ah, but what really is the problem with a child? You know what the problem with a child is? Selfishness. Isn't it? I was in a house. They had a darling little girl. She was a doll. And she must have had three, I'm sure, or four, or a hundred or more dollars worth of beautiful, big, velvet toys. Tigers and lions, and you know, the first three days I was in that house, she never touched one of them. She had an old rag doll that you wouldn't have got two cents for in a sale. If you sent it to the goodwill, they'd put it in the garbage. But you know what kiddies are? She'd had it since she was a little girl, and she couldn't sleep without it. The other beautiful things, twenty dollars, thirty dollars, she didn't care a hill of beans about them. They were all resting in the corner there. And she didn't touch them. And I thought, one of these days she will. But she didn't. But one day, a pastor came to see me. He knocked at the door. Brother Ravenhill, hey, could, please could I see him a few? Yes, come in. And he brought a little girl, about the age of the other little girl. And as soon as she stepped through the door, the little girl ran over and she said, They're all mine, they're all mine. You're not having one of them. Nobody asked her for one. Nobody said a word about it. But the apostle says in his diagnosis of carnality, that it's enmity against God. And it's not subject to the law of God. God hasn't got one single law whereby he can control that carnality in your life. He doesn't say he can control it. He can kill it. But he doesn't control it. Don't do it now, as the saying is. But when you go home, will you read through Romans chapter 7? And just do this. Take a pencil or a piece of paper. And every time you come to that magic little word, you know, that we all know so well. I, I, I. Will you make a list of them? And you'll get 6 rows of 5's plus 2. Because 32 times in Romans chapter 7, the apostle says, I, I, I don't want to do this and I do it. I want to do that and I can't. Oh, wretched man that I am. Now read it through carefully. I may be wrong. Maybe it's 33 times. But I think 32 times I, I, I in Romans chapter 7. Now, when you've marked all the I's, get a different colored pencil and go through the chapter again. And write how many times the Holy Spirit is mentioned in Romans chapter 7. And I'll save you the trouble. He isn't mentioned once. Why? Because Romans chapter 7 is a self-centered chapter. But go over the bridge. Romans chapter 7 is a funeral march. Romans chapter 8 is a wedding march. Now go through Romans 8 and count how many times the Holy Spirit is mentioned. Just twice in verses 18 and 38. In verse 18, I reckon. In verse 38, I'm persuaded. Because he can't do anything else. He is forced to use the first person singular there. So just 32 times in chapter 7 he says I. And no Holy Spirit. And then in chapter 8, twice he mentions I. And 19 times he mentions the Holy Spirit. You see, one is a self-controlled or sin-controlled life. And the other is a Christ-controlled life. You know, somebody sold us a bucket of bilge water. And told us we've got to live as long as ever we're in this mortal flesh. With the old man somehow in us. I don't know whether he's got whiskers or not. But he's an old man that lives inside of you. But the old man is identified in the Word of God. The old man is the carnal old man. And if you're going to be honest, that old man should really die when we're born again. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God. To be carnally minded is death. Well, how in the world can you be dead and alive in Christ at the same time? Doesn't make sense. There's no logic in the world that will reason it out. Now there are degrees of power, we know that. But there are no degrees of purity. You go buy a pound of butter tomorrow and you say to the man at the counter, Excuse me, is this butter pure? And he says, well, 95%. The other 5% is not much, it's only stricken him. So just use the butter. I mean, forget all about the other 5%, but you say not on your life. Oh, but you say God's going to use me. I'm impure, I'm a failure, I've carnality, I've temper, I've pride, I've this, I've lust, I've something else you have. Why do you wonder that you're a cripple? Read it, not now of course again, but you could read when you go home in Deuteronomy 22. Would you read it? And will you discover what it says in Deuteronomy 22? It says there that you're not to plough with an ox and an ass. Why? Why, you say an ox is up here and an ass is down here and they couldn't keep step. Well, that's one argument. It would chafe their necks I guess, but that's not the reason. Why don't you plough with an ox and an ass? For the simple reason one is a pure animal and the other's impure under the law. One has a cloven hoof and the other hasn't. One's pure, one's impure. Right. What does it say next? It says you're not to sow a field with two kinds of seed. Because one seed will grow up and strangle the other seed. And then it says the priest, the minister of God, is to wear a garment of linen. No. The tabernacle was lit with oil, lamps with oil, olive oil. No, pure olive oil. The desk was overlaid with gold. No, pure gold. The priest is to wear a garment of linen. No, pure linen. He must not have any wool in it. It's strictly laid down, no wool in his garment. Why? Why do you wear wool? To get warm. And if you get too warm, what do you do? Yeah, that's true enough. Sweat, thank you. Not despising your word, but I mean you go in the morning to Sears Roebuck and the ladies kind of help you say, Yes, I want three perspiration shirts for my husband. Three, three what? Perspiration shirts. You mean sweat. Oh, but we're college people. We don't talk like that, I mean. No, good old sweat. You know, Adam never sweat till the curse came on him. Sweat is a sign of the curse. The priest must never have sweat on him when he ministers holy things. His garment must be all linen, absolutely pure. Well, what kind of makes you think God will put up with our mixture? Hmm? I know you won't. We will. That's why the church is crippled and messed up as she is now. We put up with any old thing almost for church membership. The preacher has to excuse your carnality because he's loaded with it himself maybe. Hmm? As Ruskin says, you don't really have too much problem to get people to the cross. It's getting them on the cross. Marcus Aurelius, one of the great men in history. Marcus Aurelius said, I read 160 books in Hebrew and Greek trying to find an answer for envy. I burn with envy. The Bible says envy is as rottenness of the bones. After the famous Olympic games about 200 years before Christ, a young man who had just won the championship as a supreme wrestler of the known world was leaving the amphitheater when an old man on a stick said to him, Sir, I want to congratulate you. You're a great wrestler. I once won that prize. I was the greatest wrestler in the world. But you know, I once saw the world's greatest wrestler. You know his monument in the marketplace? You wouldn't have had a chance with him. He'd have taken you up like that and tied you up. Pulled you apart. Never, he said, I'm the greatest man that ever. No, he said, I would have wrestled with you. But that man in the marketplace, he said, the greatest man that Greece ever produced in wrestling. You know that thing rankled in that man's heart? Envy, envy, that he got up in the middle of the night and he went down to the middle of the city where the statue was and he looked at it in the moonlight and said, I wish you were alive. I wish you were alive. I'd take you up. I'd die rather than let you beat me. I could beat you if you were alive. And he got so envious that he climbed up the plinth of the statue and the statue was like this and he got one arm round the statue and the other arm round and he wrestled with it and snapped it off its ankles and fell to the ground. It fell on him and killed him. That's what envy does. Whether you envy another singer, envy another preacher, oh you can put up with a show but brother inwardly you die. Alright, let me finish. How does Paul finish Romans 7? Well he finishes it you say on a bad note. He says, oh wretched man that I am, who shall... Yes he does, doesn't he? How many forms of crosses were there, do you know? Well at least a hundred and twenty. The traditional cross on which Jesus died, another cross that was just about square like that, another one that was a letter V, where a man would be crucified upside down, his legs put up the V of the cross. Another one which was most likely the true traditional cross of Jesus, just an old rugged cross, a trunk of a tree with a spike through like that, a great big copper spike and the man's body was shoved on it like that and he was turned round and left hanging in any conceivable position. Just where they were, upside down maybe while the birds ate him or the dogs jumped up to eat him. The Romans were vicious. Oh there was a cross like a letter T where the man's head hung just back and he languished. Crucifixion was a wretched death as I tried to tell you or described maybe a little earlier but... You know the Romans had another way of torching a man, maybe the most painful of all. At least it was the slowest death. Do you know what they'd do? Well I kill this man here and the law says you killed him and we know, there was a witness and I say well I did because I've been so angry. Alright, alright. They say now bring that man. Now what are they going to do? Well they just lay me on the ground and they lay his corpse on top of me and they tie his ankles to my ankles and they tie his hands to my hands and they tie his neck to my neck and they tie my waist to his waist and then they stand me up and they set me off walking staggering. With what? With a body of this death. My first wretched night I try and get down somewhere by a hedge but this corpse is stiffening and it's hard and I flop down and I rest and I wake up oh those terrible eyes and the stink of this corpse after a day or two and I see a man there and I say hey Jim you know me well enough please cut this body off and he says alright, alright, alright come on and he's just going to cut the last thing off and a centurion comes, what are you doing? Well I'm releasing my friend Leonard Ravenel I know he murdered this man but I didn't think I'd get caught up with this now do you mind if I release him and let him go? Can I do it? The centurion says yes, thank you, just a minute, just a minute There's only one way that the law will let you cut that man's body from you and that is that the law will tie that dead body to you Do you want to take it? No I've always liked him, I mean he's never done anything wrong to him but no I don't want to go home to my wife with a carcass to me I don't want to slowly die week after week and hug a filthy body, a stinking wretched body and look, wake up with those glasses No sir! Alright, bind him up Now Paul says I've got a wretched disposition I've got something inside of me, explain it as you will Somebody said to a friend of mine, who is Romans 7 about? A saved man who isn't sanctified or an unsaved man and he said it's for the man who's living there That's the best answer I've ever heard Are you carrying around with you tonight a body of death? Hmm? What's your handicap? I want to do this now, what's your handicap? All wretched, wretched what? Pride? Oh that usually gets to the ladies mostly We were going to the cafeteria for lunch today I saw something I'd never seen before A lady got out of an automobile She had a stack of hair way up here A massive gorgeous curl And before she got out of the car She got a can of spray and sprayed it round and round and round And you know what I thought as I saw it You know she isn't going to dinner She's just taking that wig for a ride That's all Hmm? You see there's nothing wrong with a hairdo Not unless it takes you longer than a prayer do Takes you half an hour to put your wig on and you didn't spend five minutes coming to this meeting You need help Nothing wrong in looking pretty No there's no capital on ugliness But watch it One day an old homeless preacher Daniel Steele said The very last thing to leave the human heart is pride And it's the first thing to come back And I keep saying when you came through that door The Lord doesn't care whether your wig's genuine or it isn't Or your clothes or diamonds are real or not He looked right through you And he didn't see that hundred and fifty dollar dress Or that two thousand dollar mink coat Or that three thousand dollar ring All he looked was right through your nature into your heart And he says that poor woman's dressed in costly jewels And a lovely dress but inside she's dressed in rags We don't fool anybody Oh wretched man that I am Why don't you want to get rid of your pride Why don't you want to get rid of your bad temper Hmm? Why don't you want to get rid of that secret Unless it hasn't done you any good Hasn't done your testimony any good Somebody told you had to carry it all your life Well tell Paul that will you Oh wretched man that I am Who shall deliver me from the body of this death I'm sorry Paul You see Jesus did a lot on the cross But he only died to get rid of your dirty sins He can't alter the machinery in your heart that made you sin I'm sorry I wish I had a better message for you But I'm sorry I just don't have that Oh wretched man that I am Who shall deliver me from the body of this death Get over the bridge into Romans chapter 8 Well you say it says in Romans 8 That those that are in the flesh cannot please God Right! Exactly You say so while I'm in the flesh I cannot please God It doesn't say that It says while you're in the flesh While you have a fleshly disposition Because right after that He says we are not in the flesh Isn't that something Huh? Hey Paul how did you get your victory I'll tell you One day I not merely went to the cross I got on the cross I said alright Alright Lord I'm prepared to die Put me to death You know that old song you must do You know you sing a song years ago I will praise him I will praise him Praise the Lamb for sinners slain Huh? You remember the verse that says When God's fire upon the altar Of my heart was set ablaze My ambitions, plans and wishes At my feet in ashes lay You know I wish I had more of the beauty of the Lord Well that's where you get it He gives beauty for Oh you thought you'd get it in a box You thought you'd get it reading a book You thought you'd get it By praying an extra half hour a day Oh no he gives beauty for ashes The oil of joy for Did you ever do any mourning And he gives the garment of praise for Spirit of heaviness We were in a church my dear Wife and I the other week And the preacher was really upset It's a big, big Baptist church And we had four or five hundred coming every night And some nights we had thirty or forty preachers It was a wonderful time But the preacher was really sweating it out Because nobody was walking to the front And joining the church So one night I said to all the preachers there Look let's start with you boys first And you elders They were all sitting in a row down here The deacons About four rows of marvelous fellows they were And I said I want to invite you to somewhere tonight I want to invite you to your own funeral Do you want to come? Hmm? Do you want to die? Hmm? Hmm? And then rise in resurrection life Do you want to do it? And I invited them to come And I think I don't know thirty would come Martha Were there thirty or more Thirty or forty people came Nearly all men Stood at the front there And brother did they cry and seek God The next night I spoke on what I As I see the Lord's mind I'll speak on a week on Sunday afternoon Problems in the Christian life And you know those ministers lined up that church Right down that church One after the other They said I'm a new man this week I've learned more about God this week Than four years in seminary Do you know why? Not because I taught them Because they obeyed God And that released blessing in their lives That's why Oh I came the other night And this brother said You and the Holy Ghost pull me apart He said it was mainly the Holy Ghost I said well usually they say it the other way So I said it's nice to hear that And he said you know I went home I couldn't sleep My wife and I talked Till the early hours of the morning And he said God took me apart Just took me apart And then he said he'd put me together again And fill me with the Holy Spirit Another preacher said You know God's blessed me in this church Do you know what I'm going to do? I'll have to get three months off like Paul He said I'm going to find a hut I'm going to find a place in the wilderness And just go with my Bible Take my wife and the little boy But no other stuff Just my Bible And I'm going to get right through with God Give me two minutes to say this I went to Dr. Tozer's office one day And Tozer was stroking a piece of paper Dog-eared paper A friend coming out of the office Said to him A letter I suppose Yes it's a letter I suppose one of the ladies Is always admiring your editorials No, no it's not that He said I get those He said I got one the other day from a lady She said I take twelve religious magazines But I like yours best Because it just fits the bottom of the birdcage Without cutting But he said do you know who this piece of paper is from? It's from a little coloured man in South Africa Cyclist And he's a Baptist And he went in a meeting one night As a real burdened sinner And the preacher said you know There isn't a sin in your life The Lord can't forgive And there isn't a sin He can break the power of cancelled sin And set the prisoner free And if you want God to do it Come And you know that negro Got up in that church With nearly all white people And came and knelt at the altar And when he got up He was really born again He was like John Bunyan's pilgrim You know he said I came to a cross A place that was somewhat ascending And I saw the cross When I beheld the cross He said I gave three leaps for joy I think one for the Father One for the Son One for the Holy Ghost And he said I gave three leaps for joy And the burden loosed from off my shoulders And fell from off my back And it rolled into an empty sepulcher And I beheld it no more forever And I gave three leaps for joy There was something for a Baptist you know I didn't know That little coloured man got up And he said to the preacher Oh this is wonderful isn't it He said yeah Yes it is He said I mean inside Like you know I feel as though I had a big stone there And it's gone I had something binding me And it's broken I'm free I mean I can I feel kind of all new And the preacher said Yeah you do The first few weeks You know like You know Then afterwards You know You're thrilled You say Boy I'm one of God's chosen people And six months after You're one of his frozen people Don't be worried The excitement may die down Well it does sometimes Otherwise we'd live on it Instead of on the cross He said Well brother We're so glad to see you Could I do anything for you And he said Yes Yes you could He said Well I don't say What do you want He said Give me a church What did he say I said give me a church I'd like to tell everybody about this It's marvellous I mean I've heard about religion And talk about Jesus But didn't know it worked like this Give me a church Give you a church I don't give churches away Do you have any formal education No not really Have you been to bible school No That was an advantage But he didn't know And he said Well you see I mean Like you just couldn't do it You couldn't make You just come back And growing grace and He went away That's the way to get rid of a fellow Tell him you can't give him a church The Lord hasn't called him to preach You're ignorant Nothing I mean you've no potential You know I wish we could knock it out of some people's dumb minds It's not what you have to bring to him It's what he can give to you If you're coming to him A month after a little more Preachers conducting the singers Oh yes Yeah Yes that's right Let's sing this stanza again It must be him I think it is And going out he says Hello how are you And he said fine I think I've seen you before Yes sir I was here a month ago You know I'm the man that asked you for a church He said oh yes Anything I can do for you He said yes sir Give me a church Give you a church I mean you've only been in a church twice You asked for a church Where have you been He said look sir Remember when you told me the other night That I Well really wasn't worthy And God couldn't use me He said I didn't go home This man is living His name is Duma D-U-D D for Doris D-U-M-A Duma I've got an invitation to Africa now As a matter of fact A dozen countries But I don't have time to go But when I go I'd rather see him Than the president of South Africa Tulsa said I'd rather have this letter Brother Raven from Duma Than a letter from the president of America Do you know why Because little Duma said to the preacher He said I went up the road And I walked to a place Where I saw a forest And I found a path in the forest And I found a stream And I walked by the stream Till I saw a cave And I put a mark on the door of the cave Got another rock And rubbed a mark on the door And I went in And I spent 21 days and 21 nights I never saw the face of man I never heard the voice of man I saw the face of God I heard the voice of God I didn't eat a meal I just drank from the water That went past the cave And I stayed there 21 days and nights And said Lord I'm not interested in what a preacher says If you call me to preach I'll never turn back And if you say no I'll never ask again But I'm staying here Until you tell me what I'm doing And he said the Lord said Son I've called you to preach You'll be a Baptist preacher And son something else I'm going to give you a gift And when you lay hands on the sick They'll be healed I don't think he's ever run a crusade Merely as a healing crusade But he's well known in Africa now I asked a very famous man about him Not long ago He said well everybody knows Duma 21 days and nights I waited on God He saved me Gave me his Holy Spirit Gave me a gift of healing Are you going to give me a church? We'll bring it up before the elders Come back on Sunday It's no good I mean he's a negro Who's going to live Oh one of them said You'll never get rid of him Look we can still kill his ambition You know in Shantytown there We have an old lean to church Made of corrugated iron Nothing about it There's only five people going And you know they'll get so fed up of him In a few weeks They'll all leave And come back to the mother church Then we can close it down It's an excuse to get rid of him Why was Tozer hugging the piece of paper? Because that man Has a bigger church than the mother church Because in Africa Where there is a colour bar Even white men go listen to the black man And I believe some government officials Who fill the front rows Are elders in his church And the mother church that didn't want him Is still a little thing like this And I think he's got about 1,200 members Oh but wait a minute I think, I'm not sure But I think it was about the 17th of November Happy day When he went into that hole in the wall And didn't see a living soul And kept his ears open to God And didn't sleep too much And said Lord it's between us We're going to have it out You say yes I'll never turn back You say no I'll never ask again Do you know what he's done every year since that? When it comes to the 17th of November He says goodbye darling to his wife And kisses the children And says goodbye to the deacons And goodbye to the church And he goes back in that hole And waits on God 21 days and 21 nights And has done that every year Since God first met him You see some of us want to be like an automobile Get filled up with the spirit And run around the block Till we get empty And just go refill again Or some of us even just want to get filled And say well there's nothing after this I've just got everything God has And that's where we make the mistake We can be filled and refilled Or if you stay in the place of abiding There's a constant infilling As I said the other day And a constant outflowing And really the price is cheap All you have to do is die All you have to do is go home As I said last night And some people told me they did it And take a piece of paper Put your name at the top And say I John Smith I'm guilty of pride Lust Greed Envy Laziness Tearlessness Passionless Prayerlessness Lovelessness Love of self Love of praise Love of money Write a list And when you've exhausted it Put a line at the bottom And then say Lord I don't know if there's anything else But search my heart The lady told me God did this for her last night And then she wrote down The Lord said this And this And this And she wrote it down And she said Lord I'm guilty of all Will you cleanse me now With your precious blood And fill me with your Holy Spirit It may be less dramatic Than coming to an altar And a show But I'll tell you what Usually it lasts longer If you don't want to do it In five minutes You say Lord I'm going to my knees And if it takes me Till two o'clock in the morning It may do Oh brother When he starts digging And excavating And revealing You may have the shock Of your life When he shows you What you could have done Two years ago If pride hadn't choked you up When he shows you What you could have done A while ago If it wasn't for You're all tied up With selfishness And self-interest And self-pity And self-seeking And self-glory Do you want to take That I tonight Hmm And get that I Crucified So that I Paul says I Don't live Yes I do live And yet it's not I I never have any choices I've never any complaint Against his will I never back off From any task I never want to reason it out I say yes Lord Why Because he says I'm a bond slave Of Jesus Christ I went to a place Where he branded my feet So I only walk Where he wants me to walk He branded my hand So I only walk If the hands of Jesus Would play cards Or light cigarettes Go ahead and do it I don't think they would And my mind He was branded here Because it denoted That the All the areas up here Were denoted Devoted to his God God is looking for Some new Pauls There are new worlds To conquer It's amazing What people will do For their gods Can I steal another Half minute Sure you've been Long enough I may be I met a missionary Not long ago I preached At the great Karizawa convention In Japan To hundreds and hundreds Of missionaries And their wives And he was there And I said Hi He said You were in Karizawa I said yes In a hundred and three years Of penetration The gospel of Jesus Christ Now after a hundred And three years Has only reached Half of one percent Of the people in Japan And that includes Catholics And when I spoke To the people Of the missionaries The next night I said Ladies and gentlemen It's easy for me To say this I'm a bird of passage I'll be in a plane And back in America In two or three days But the way You're going at it It's going to take Another hundred and three years To get the other half Of that one percent Now this missionary Came back He said I was in Japan Two days ago Before I left I had a haircut A little Japanese Very polite Said oh I see you Yankee Well I'm an American Huh A Yankee businessman No No No I'm not a businessman Oh Yankee What Missionary Ah Good good good he said Me missionary too Oh I'm a full time missionary I'm a full time missionary Oh I Sorry I thought you were A barber Yeah me do Cut hair Me cut hair Morning Eight o'clock To five Home Bath Meal Seven o'clock Take my books My phonograph There's a religion Composed of religion And politics there What they call it Yogasaki I think That they say Will kick Christianity Out of the east In less than another ten years He said I'm a member Of Yogasaki I go out At seven o'clock Every night With my books And my phonograph I knock on the door I go in home I play my record I explain Every night I go out At seven o'clock Until Two o'clock in the morning I must be back home At two o'clock Two o'clock In my prayer chapel Pull round my curtain Pray to my image Two o'clock to four Every morning Four o'clock I go to bed And get up at half past seven And prepare for work Seven o'clock till two Two o'clock till four You pray How long have you done this? Oh I have done this now For seven years Without a break Every night This Is going to save Japan This will save the world I give myself Not me just give my money Me give myself Me teach Me pray Oh the heathen put us to shame Don't they? Can you imagine If we just could get Just shall we say Out of all the millions Who profess Christ in America If we could just get I'd Say a hundred thousand people In America Who take it on themselves To starve themselves of this And turn that radio on And go to the pub And pray at eleven o'clock Every night Say till three in the morning Just for the next one year Not the next six Hey why not start that In your church When you go back Say brethren We're not going to have Any more crusades We'll have all kinds of evangelists They'll make a lot of show There's not much left When they've gone Do you know what we're going to This church has gone on a prayer diet For the next year We're going to have At least one night a week When we meet here At ten o'clock Friday night's pretty convenient They don't have to work Saturday I did this with elders In my church They laid down conditions Raven you want to do this This this Pay so much salary I said thank you so much Now wait a minute I'm going to be the pastor Of the church But I'm not the donkey If I'm going to be Pastor in the church First thing we do is Abolish all offerings Offerings How are we going to live Put a box at the door Let people give if they want And if they don't they can go Do you know what happened The first week we did it We doubled the income And that satisfied the deacons And then I said You deacons are going to be In the church Twenty minutes before Every service To meet for prayer In my office Otherwise Either you don't get me As a pastor You lose your job And thirdly Every Friday night We meet at nine o'clock And pray till midnight Otherwise I'm not being Your pastor We did it Do you know what happened The church had had two pastors Before I went And gone down to zero The church put on a prayer diet Threw out the childishness Put on the armor of God And within a year Doubled Just about doubled That church And doubled its income Not because I did it Because they went about it God's way See you'll never improve On this book Never improve on this book The royal route To victory Is the way that Jesus Went to victory Die Noise resurrection Power And walk in all the light That God gives you Shall we pray Lord we would say Of ourselves To ourselves And to each other tonight Facing a world In such Chronic chaos A world that has Lost its anchor Like a ship That has lost its anchor And lost its rudder Is beaten And tossed around And heading for the rocks Like the ship In Acts 27 Remember now Paul never prayed For the ship to be rescued He didn't even pray For the cargo They lost the cargo And they lost the ship But he saved Everybody on board Maybe Lord We're going to crash As a nation We're going to hit the rocks And lose a lot That we have But Lord if we have Revival it will be worth it Give us grace To obey thee tonight I'm going to ask What I asked last night Then close in prayer I'm going to ask Will you go home Will you make a list As God reveals it to you And what you know Is wrong about yourself You know you're lazy You know you're prayerless You know you're selfish You know you're extravagant You know you're proud Will you make a list Of those things Then draw a line And then say Holy Spirit show me What I don't know about myself And then when you've done that Draw another line And put your name underneath And say Lord I acknowledge all this Cleanse me now With thy precious blood If it takes you five hours So what Takes you till two or three In the morning Cost you a boyfriend That may mean ten thousand May mean ten thousand souls On the mission Cost me my career What does it matter If God gives you anointing And makes you a great soul winner I want to pray for you So with all our heads bowed And eyes closed If you say Brother Avonlea I'll go home and do that Some of you did it last night You don't need to do it again If you obeyed God If you say pray for me I'm going home I'm in business with God I'll do that tonight If you will raise your hand Put it down I see it there brother Lord you have made the roll call Of this meeting We haven't This is your flock Not mine every desire, and we thank you that the blood can reach to the darkest spot, and the Spirit of Jesus Christ is able to release us from every bondage. May some people mark this night off and remember it was a night when they really died, to all their own ambitions and self-seeking and self-interest, and let thee be supreme Lord and Master in the situation. From tonight they'll grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord as they've never done before. Bless every church represented here, every pastor. Keep us in thy will, give us journeying mercies home, bring us in the morning in your will to hear your holy word again. Dismiss us with thy blessing we ask, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen.