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Hebrews 11 - Part 4
Leonard Ravenhill

Leonard Ravenhill (1907 - 1994). British-American evangelist, author, and revivalist born in Leeds, England. Converted at 14 in a Methodist revival, he trained at Cliff College, a Methodist Bible school, and was mentored by Samuel Chadwick. Ordained in the 1930s, he preached across England with the Faith Mission and held tent crusades, influenced by the Welsh Revival’s fervor. In 1950, he moved to the United States, later settling in Texas, where he ministered independently, focusing on prayer and repentance. Ravenhill authored books like Why Revival Tarries (1959) and Sodom Had No Bible, urging the church toward holiness. He spoke at major conferences, including with Youth for Christ, and mentored figures like David Wilkerson and Keith Green. Married to Martha Beaton in 1939, they had three sons, all in ministry. Known for his fiery sermons and late-night prayer meetings, he corresponded with A.W. Tozer and admired Charles Spurgeon. His writings and recordings, widely available online, emphasize spiritual awakening over institutional religion. Ravenhill’s call for revival continues to inspire evangelical movements globally.
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Sermon Summary
In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the need to prove the preaching of the word of God through action. He encourages believers to open the door and boldly proclaim the truth to a world that is scared and threatened. The preacher references the powerful impact of the Azusa Street revival, where people were convicted and filled with fear upon approaching the church. He also highlights the lack of God's presence in many churches today and calls for a return to a genuine manifestation of God's glory. The sermon concludes with a reminder of the greatness of salvation and the importance of sharing the message of Jesus Christ.
Sermon Transcription
Father, we would say tonight, with your servant of old, when all thy mercies, O my God, my rising soul surveys, transported with the view I'm lost in wonder, love and praise. We think of John Newton, lifted out of a horrible pit, and he said that, Oh, eternity is too short to utter all thy praise. If we had a thousand tongues, they wouldn't be enough. If we had a thousand vocabularies, if we could be crucified ourselves a thousand times over, it would not be a payment of love for all you've done for us. Lord, for the glory which we've tasted already, it's worthy, worth the rough travel of the road sometimes. But Lord, when clothed with his brightness, when we're there in eternity, where there's no sorrow, no sighing, no doubt, no unbelief, nothing that pollutes, nothing that perverts, all pure and holy, majestic, then in the noblest sweetest song we'll sing thy power to save. When these poor lisping, stammering tongues shout victory o'er the grave. Lord, we bless you for the hill of Zion, it yields a thousand sacred streets before we reach the heavenly fields or walk the golden streets. But Lord, I want us to collectively pause for a moment here and remember the suffering saints. Lord, I'm sure there have been martyrs for Jesus today in Russia and China. I think of the 7,000 people, Christians in captivity in Ethiopia for doing nothing else but serve Jesus Christ. Think of those whose churches, more than 2,000 churches burned, we read in the last few years. The press says nothing about it, it's not exciting. They're so busy talking about war in this place and the other and they haven't the slightest idea of a war that's going on in the heavenlies. Principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world. Lord, teach us how to halt those systems. Teach us, Lord, how to get their armor off, as it were, by prayer, by faith. Lord God, our desire is that we may grow more and more. We think of Jesus as Savior. We think that Jesus is going to reign where'er the sun doth its successive journeys run. And if his kingdom stretch from shore to shore, till moon shall wax and rain no more. But we remember, too, he's called the captain of our salvation. And Lord, we want to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ. As Paul exhorted Timothy, we think of that battle-scarred man who has suffered and been persecuted and prosecuted, and his body had been beaten many times and he'd been in prison many times. And then he could say, I fought a good fight. Not I'm a good fighter, I fought a good fight. Lord, we hate war, natural war, but Lord, this warfare is going to go on for a long while yet. Because the dragon makes war on the remnant. And the remnant's getting less and less. But Lord, we bless you, the power can get more and more. And the revelation can get more and more. We want to go from revelation to revelation, from victory to victory, from faith to faith. Lord, we want to get back to that maturity the apostolic saints had, when they had to wander around in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute and afflicted. Lord, we think of when they were taken, we're told, and dipped in kerosene, and then stood on the wall of Caesar's stadium and set fire. People set fire to them to make them living sacrifices. Lord, I think about easily people run away, they can't go to church if it rains, they can't go for this or that or the other. Lord, give us that burning love, the burning love. As old Faber said, and dear Tozer used to say to me often that verse he loved, burn, burn within me, loving God, burn fiercely night and day, till all the dross of earthly love is burned and burned away. How beautiful, how beautiful the sight of thee must be, thine endless wisdom, boundless power and awful purity. No wonder he added, O Jesus, Jesus, dearest Lord, forgive me if I say for very love thy sacred name a thousand times a day. Lord, if you were to stop a thousand times a day, it would not be enough. There's more in our hearts than we can give expression to in vocabulary. But as he finishes that awesome hymn, Lord, I think of it when he says, how dread are thine eternal years, O everlasting Lord, by prostrate spirits day and night incessantly adored. Lord, teach us how to pray without ceasing, teach us how to worship without ceasing, teach us how to adore without ceasing. Lord, I pray, pray with all my heart that nobody in this room, even that precious babe, our dear sister has, if Jesus, Lord, not one of us will die immature. Lord, don't let us step out of line with the will of God, because he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. You didn't say he who has the best theology, you didn't say he who has the biggest ministry, you said he that doeth the will of God. Lord, we think of these heroes in Hebrews 11, they were, they did the will of God in their day. We want to do the will of God in our day. Lord, don't withhold your power. Dear God, don't say to one of us at the judgment before a billion, billion people, don't point the finger while all the saints of all the ages look on, where Isaiah and Jeremiah, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John, and the Apostle Paul. While they're gazing at it, don't point the finger, God, I beg you. Don't have to point the finger at me and say, Raynell, I wanted to tell you many things in Texas, but you couldn't bear them. You weren't big enough to share my secrets. You weren't big enough to share my grief. You weren't big enough to share my revelation. God put a striding in us beyond anything we've ever known. To come to the full stature of men in Jesus Christ. We give you praise in his name. Thank you. In the last few weeks we've been looking at the 11th chapter of, I still think it's the epistle of Paul. We won't take a vote on that, but we'll say it's the epistle of Paul to the Hebrews chapter 11, which we usually call the faith chapter. Remember, in this chapter, faith, the key word in the chapter, the key word in the chapter is faith. The key verse in the chapter is verse 11. He that cometh to God must believe that he is. He is what? That he is able to save Thediotimos. That he is able to keep you from falling. That he is able to present us faultless before his Father's throne. God is. If you don't believe that God is all he says in this word, it won't make a hill of beans difference how much theology you have. And God is waiting for us to believe that he is. That he is everything he says he is in this word. Don't we sing sometimes a hymn? Like a river glorious, Stead upon Jehovah, Hearts are fully blessed, Finding as he promised, Perfect peace and rest. Another stanza says, They who trust him wholly, That's W-H-O-L-L-Y, They who trust him wholly, Find him holy too. The degree of my faith in God is the degree of his revelation to me. I've got to move up in that area. This is a fabulous book. Remember again, will you, that the epistle is addressed to the people in the third chapter, verse 1. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling. Can you think of anything more glorious? I talked with a young man the other day, he'd been called to the bar. I don't mean in the tavern, I mean he'd been called to the bar in law. And boy, was he excited. We had a friend in the Bahamas who was called to Buckingham Palace. He had to get knee breaches and all that stuff, you know, and be presented to the Queen. His name was Leonard, by the way. And he knelt before the Queen, she put a sword at one shoulder, over his head and said, Rise Sir Leonard. I've rehearsed that for when I go, but anyhow. Boy, was he excited. The newspapers took it up, this man Leonard, I've forgotten his other name. No, thank you. I knew it wasn't Leonard, where is he? He's going to the court, the Queen's going to, I almost said anoint him, she's going to appoint him to a high calling. We're partakers of the divine nature, we're called to a heavenly calling. And later in the epistle he says, Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. He doesn't say without ministry, he doesn't say without miracles, he says without holiness. It's a case of character. Something he's done in us that we can't do for ourselves. But look for a minute there at the second chapter. Remember the we here, the we, we, we, we. The we is who? Those in the heavenly calling. The we is right through, this epistle does not have a single word to the unsaved. Oh, you say, well, I heard the preacher preach to the weak, and he preached on how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? That's written to believers. How shall we escape? The answer is we shan't escape. This whole revelation puts me on the spot. I said to somebody today, some of the churches, you should call a sign outside. Take it down. Ade Pentecostal, prove it. There's one way to prove it, open the door and say to the world outside that's scared and scarred, the bottom's dropped out of financial world, we're scared bombs are going to drop on us, everything's threatening us. Open the door and shout to the people in the street, this is that which was spoken by the prophet. Tell me where there's a pillar of fire over a church, I'll go and it's a hundred miles away. I was reading this week, that amazing book, and brother Jack has some, buy one going out, they buy outside, but get it. Azusa Street, when people came within three blocks of the church, conviction sees them, terror sees them, fear sees them. Do you wonder they went in and sat still and sometimes there was no speaking at all, and they didn't go home. You go to an evangelistic meeting, they say good night, God bless you, everybody scatters. In revival, people didn't leave the sanctuary, they're afraid the holy presence of God will go. I believe we're going to see meetings like that. Focused, sick to death, of being begged for money for this, that and the other. Tired of being asked to do this, that and the other. Where's God's presence? We go to the house of God, we read the word of God, we sing the songs of God, but where is God? That's pretty tough, isn't it? Oh, it's easy for me to say, because they only have you four people Friday nights. Well, if you buy us a place in town, we'll get some others. We'll embrace and a few others get together, if the Lord wants it. I hope he doesn't, but I mean if he does, it will be great. You know, there's no manifestation of God, let's be honest about it. People don't tiptoe out of the sanctuary, awed with God's majesty and God's glory. How shall we escape so great salvation? How big is that salvation? Let me tell you. He said in verse 3, So great salvation, which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him. This is Christianity in its original state. God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his will. Not holding people's arms up and say, Come on, you've got to speak in tongues, you'll go to hell. Forget it. According to his will. He disposes the gifts according to his will. I went to a certain place a few years ago. It was a small town, something about this, oh, they might be insulted, about the size of a window. And it had a great, what do you call it now, town hall in the middle, the old-fashioned type with about 20 steps up. And they had a banner right across the street. Come and hear Leonard Raimond, the English prophet. Oh, mercy. I want to get the next bus out of town. But as I went up the steps, there were some very well-dressed, stuffy boys there. I knew where they were from, the local theological seminary. Oh, boy, they, hey, are you a prophet? Are you a prophet? Are you a prophet? I never said, well, it says there across the village street, the town street, you're a prophet. I said, well, I didn't put the sign up. What's wrong with being a prophet? Well, I don't believe you're a prophet. I said, OK, that's OK. What's your daddy? He's very well-dressed. Are you a banker? My daddy's an evangelist. No, my daddy's a preacher. What's your daddy? Oh, my daddy's a deacon. Oh, my daddy, I believe my daddy's an apostle. I said, wash them all away. Throw them all away. He said, why? I said, you say there are no prophets today. Oh, oh, the other said, my daddy's a popular evangelist. I said, there are no evangelists. What do you mean no evangelists? I said, if you get rid of the prophets, I'll get rid of the evangelists. They're all bunched up together. Signs and wonders and miracles. Every man standing in his right place, not committing somebody else's ministry. Let a man abide in his calling. The trouble is, you want to cross the street and do everything everybody else is doing. Well, let's go back now. Hebrews, where were we? Hebrews 11. And at first, here you have the sign. The first character, verse 4, is Abel. Everybody in this chapter, remember, had a degree of faith. And is it Romans 14 or Romans 12 that say a man is not to exercise beyond his gift of faith, the measure of faith that he has. There's natural faith. You sat on that chair, some youngster might have taken the leg off, but you sat on it. But that's natural faith in natural things. Faith is the gift of God upon our repentance and our subjection to Him. And He gives as He wishes to give. But we develop our faith. And I used to tell young people, my muscles are hard to find because I never swung hammers, chopped trees down and then all that. So the muscles are there, at least they were years ago when I saw them. And it's the same with faith. Some people's faith is stagnant. Why? Because as soon as we get into trouble and trial, we call the pastor, ask him to play us out, get us out of the mess God put us in. People say to me, will you pray for me? I don't know. I say, you may be asking me to pray to get you out of a situation God has put you in so you can prove He's God. I'm not everybody's donkey. I'm not going to do it. And they can't believe you do that, you know. They think it's just for hire, not in your life. But what a precious thing for everybody in this chapter has faith. Faith, Abel is here, why? Because he had no predecessors, he wasn't following a pattern of somebody else. And what did he do? By faith, Abel offered a what? A more excellent sacrifice. And what does the scripture call it? Righteous Abel. As I said last week, if you want to prune your church, preach righteousness, you'll get rid of three quarters of your church. Zechariah was killed between the door and the altar. Why? Because he was a preacher of righteousness. If I asked you, if I say Noah, what does that mean? You say built him out. That's not what the scripture says. It says that, but he's remembered not for that. It says in that little abridgement of the Old Testament, in Jude, Noah, a preacher of righteousness. You can preach on the second blessing, the second coming, the second Adam, if you like, though there never was one, there's a last Adam. But you never hear a sermon on the second death. I'd like some preachers. I'd like some headquarters of, you know, one of these big denominations. I'd like them to send a notice around and say, no preaching this week. Go in your pulpit, clear your voice, and read the first chapter of the second epistle to the Thessalonians. We love that little hymn. I sang at my mother's knee until I was ten years of age. Every night we sang Gentle Jesus, Meek and Mild. Charles Wesley wrote it. It's a wonderful hymn. The trouble is, most people want to stay with Charles Wesley's Gentle Jesus, Meek and Mild, rather than Low Heat Thumbs with Clouds Descending, Drove in Dreadful Majesty. Most of our churches are nurseries. They're supposed to be armories to put on the whole armor of God. You don't put armories on children. And God won't trust us till we come to a certain maturity. I'm concerned, convinced about that. There's a place where we're totally like children, totally, these little guys won't go to bed tonight wondering if they'll have supper or clothing tomorrow. They have perfect confidence in their parents. We have to have that same confidence in God daily, not just a mile up the road. So the first man there is Abel. Why is he there? Because he worshipped. Who's the second man there? Enoch. Why? Because he walked. The third man there is who? Noah. Because he worked. Let's look at this fellow. Verse 5. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death. Everybody in there, you read at the beginning of Genesis and it's monotonous, monotonous, and he died, he died, he died, he died. But suddenly here's a fellow, Enoch. Look in the little epistle to Jude, an epistle we ought to read every day. Look in the last chapter. No, sorry, sorry, look in the first chapter. Jude chapter 14. What does it say? I mean, verse 14. Enoch also, the seventh, from who? Why does it say the seventh from Adam? Because, as one old saint said, an old Puritan said in the 1600s, God is very precise. And in case you start blaming one Enoch for another Enoch, because if you go back there and look in the fourth chapter of Genesis chapter 17, it says that Cain, Cain slew what? Abel, his brother. Cain had a son by the name of Enoch. But he's not this Enoch. Let me put this a minute. Let me go back into Genesis a minute here. So these fellows, they really lived it up, didn't they? Boy, if I'm to live in 600 years on social security, that would be pretty hard, wouldn't it? 700 years. Man, they really lived. Genesis chapter 5. Okay. Verse 20 says, All the days of Jered were 960 and 2 years. And Enoch lived 60 and 5 years and became Methuselah. You know, every name in the Bible means something. The name Methuselah, I remember I learned this nearly 70 years ago, a teacher told us. The name Methuselah means, when he is dead, it shall be sent. What happened? Methuselah died. What happened? The flood came and destroyed them. But they had that warning, and every time they saw him, they could say, you know, when that fellow dies, something awesome is going to happen. And Enoch lived 60 and 5 years and became Methuselah. And Enoch walked with God. So what's wonderful about that? Noah walked with God. Abraham walked with God. What, come on, let me check you a bit. What is Amos 3.3? Remember that? Yeah. What does the real Bible say? The King James Version says, Can two walk together, except they be agreed? Well, there has been agreement or they wouldn't walk together. The word together, actually if you take it back to the Hebrew meaning, two, they must be united. How long did they walk together? If you walk, you talk. If he was wise, and I think he was, I'm sure that Enoch didn't do most of the talking. But it says, God walked with him. It says in what? The third chapter of Genesis, I think it is. Now we'll come to Bishop Bracey and ask him to explain this to us. Genesis chapter 3, it's talking about Adam and Eve and verse 7. The eyes of them both were opened and they knew they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons and they heard the voice of the Lord walking. What's the difference between God walking and the voice of the Lord? I don't know. I don't think it makes any difference. It was the presence of God. Did they go back into the Garden of Eden? You say no because there's a cherubim there. Cherubim. With a flaming sword. So they couldn't go back into the Garden. But that was for Adam and Eve. I'm not sure if anybody else could go back. But we leave that there. Okay. What did they talk about? Wouldn't you like to walk behind them with a microphone and heard the Lord saying this and Enoch saying that? I skipped something here as usual. As I keep telling you I'm not losing my memory. I'm not losing my mind. I'm losing my memory. I miss it sometimes. Which chapter was it we were in? Chapter 5. This is significant. Notice it. Verse 5. No pardon me. Chapter 5. Verse 22. And Enoch walked with God after he began Methuselah for 300 years. How did it start? He suddenly realized, my dear Indian brother, he suddenly realized he's a father. I've got a son. He's my offspring. And immediately he doubled his prayer life. Immediately he doubled his intensity of living. I have responsibility not for myself but for my wife, for my children. And he walked with God for 300 years. What did they talk about? Do you think God said to him, you'll never know till eternity? The heartbreak I had when I planned for this universe. I put a perfect man with perfect brain, perfect emotions, perfect everything in a perfect environment and he wrecked the whole thing. Do you know what? I don't believe God has gotten over that tonight. And I don't believe he'll get over it till finally this world becomes the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ. It gets more and more corrupt. Did you hear the news tonight? It showed a man there and he is a married man with three daughters and they've been living an incestuous life. Those three girls have raised 11 children to their father in the past few years. The world gets better and better. That's a lie from hell. It gets worse every moment. Every moment, every day I wake up, I thank God for his mercy. If he still were as angry, I think he is angry. Don't put a bumper sticker up God loves you unless at the other end of the car you have one God is angry with the wicked every day. God never changes. He is not subject to change. Stock markets, war and peace and all these other things that affect us so. He is not... All he is concerned is to glorify his Son. He is going to get out of this rotten mess. He is going to get a bride for Christ. That's all he wants. That's all he wants. He didn't die to save us from hell. He decided to make us pure and holy on this earth before ever we get there. To be enlightened, to be spirit indwelled. Well you say, you think that he talked... I don't think he talked. Maybe he did tell about the Garden of Eden. Maybe he did say, I sat there on my throne watching the devil seduce that wonderful man and that gorgeous woman. And they fell. I never thought they would but there you are. Maybe he said that. I'll tell you what he said for the rest of the time. I happen to pick up his sermon notes. Enoch also, the seventh of Adam, prophesied. Can you see him going down the mountain? Do you think Sodom and Gomorrah would have been built then? Did he go through Sodom and Gomorrah with his hands raised? I think I told you last week of George Fox going to a city saying, My feet are burning. Took his shoes off, pushed them under the hedge and walked through the crowded city with his hands crying, Warn to Litchfield thou bloody city. Warn to Litchfield. Got to the end of the road or through the market. God said, Go back and do it again. Then he went and picked up his shoes and a year after he was in the home of a Quaker, took a volume off the shelf and opened it because he said to God, My feet are burning. I can't bear this. Take your shoes off. When he came back, the Lord said, This is holy ground. A year after, in that dining room of that mansion, he took that big, I went into the library of a Quaker. I almost coveted his library. He had volumes this size, some in sheepskin. Some of the early Quaker writings. Other marvelous histories of the world. He's a millionaire guy. But George Fox said, The Lord said, You know, It's all thee and thou and I. Put on thy shoes. And he said, Why did my feet burn? And when he read in that book, that on that very spot where he had gone through town, where he stood first and raised his hands and cried, Go on to Litchfield, thou bloody city. The Spirit of God told him to do that. A man would be an idiot to walk through Lindale or a shopping mart tonight crying with his hands up. Go on to Tyler, thou bloody city. They'd arrest him and throw him in jail. What happened? He read in that book that 200 years before, on that very spot of ground where he stood, 200 Christians were burned to death. Some were hacked to death. Chopped up and then burned. And their brothers, Jesus said, The Lord said, Your brother's blood is crying through the ground. I've been reading in a brief age of history. I'll have to try and get some more about martyrs, the martyr theology. Did you get one of those, brother? You didn't? I've got one at home for you, one for Sonny. The history of the martyrs. Do you know tonight, as I prayed earlier, there are 7,000 Christians in prison in Ethiopia and we've been sending them stacks of food and everything else and 2,000 churches have been destroyed. You know, we're in a mess we're in because the politicians fooled us away. It's in Bobby, it's in Bobby tonight. It was a political ploy. And the Lord's, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church, but it's crying for revenge to God. Today they showed a picture of men marching on Washington, I think. They'd walked from where? Tyler, from Texas. Because of what? Is it 2,000 MIA, what do you call it? MIAs missing in action, 2,000. Women still weeping, children can't remember having seen a daddy. The judge of all the earth is going to do right. There was an innocent, pure-hearted Teddy Kennedy on the TV tonight. What a saint. I suppose the Pope will give him an ordination as a saint before long. But he's going to meet that little girl he let drown. She didn't drown because there was no water in her lungs. It's coming up at the judgment. The judge of all the earth is going to do right. Nobody's going to escape. God knows where Jimmy Hoffa is. God knows who killed the Kennedys. God knows who killed Marilyn Monroe. There's nothing hidden from him. You know, I think at least twice a year we ought to meditate on the majesty and justice and holiness of God. We don't. We go to church, we sing, we're happy, the choir was nice. I'll tell you the most popular church, the most popular church is where your conscience doesn't get stirred. Where the fear of God is absent. That's why crowds go. God's going to raise something different in this area. I'm believing God for that. I'm praying for it. I weep for it. Our young people have never seen Christianity. It's a burlesque. It's a show. It's a way of making a living. But God's going to get some men with prophetic urgency. It will be hard to listen to them. We'll go home with blisters on our souls. We'll go home feeling we've been totally naked in His presence and we are naked before Him. Anyhow, this precious man and remember, this man has no prophet to copy. He has no, what would you call him, example? He's an original number. They had nothing, they had no scriptures to check. I ask you, how in God's name did he walk down Main Street crying at the top of his voice? What did he cry? I'll tell you what he cried. Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand... They knew nothing about the Lord. All they knew was the God, the God of, that had dealt with the people before him, the God that had been with Adam, Adam and Eve. And yet, here's a man so assured, by faith, Abel, by faith, Enoch. Wouldn't it be hard to do that? Dear Lord, if God told me to stand on Main Street, even with the revelation and I know what's coming up and you do, it doesn't move us. We know before the world's burned up by a hellish atomic war. All right, our judgment's going to come. It doesn't disturb us. Church is gone as usual. I learned this week of girls who got pregnant at Bible, at Bible camps. Of girls who got acquainted with drugs at Bible camps. Dear God, where is purity? Of girls getting pregnant at Christian schools. Sin is a damning, devilish thing. We're not going to stop it. If a thousand Pat Robinsons get on the throne up there in Washington, it won't make that much difference. The issue in America or England tonight is not a dollar issue. It's not a political issue. It's not just a moral issue. It's a spiritual issue. And God's going to have to raise some men up and we'll go home and say, hey, you know, I think that preacher's crazy. He came with a new revelation of God. I believe God has secrets He wants to share with us. And I want God to dig my ears so I can hear. I want to know Him more and more and more. And He prophesied. The Lord, behold, stop, listen, look. He's coming majestically through the skies. Last time He came, He came through the womb of the woman. The last time He came, He handled men. No, the last time He came, men handled Him. The next time He comes, He's going to handle men. Kings shall bow down before Him. And golden, what is it? An incense spring? All nations shall adore Him. His praise, all peoples sing. And He shall have dominion from river, sea and shore, far as the eagle's pinion or dove's white wing can soar. That hymn isn't in this hymn book. You see, it's Baptist. He should be Methodist. The hymn is, Hail to the Lord's anointed, great David's greatest son. Hail in the time appointed, His reign on earth begun. He comes to break oppression, to set the captives free. To take away transgression and rule in equity. Kings shall bow down before Him and golden incense bring. All nations shall adore Him. His praise, all peoples sing. And He shall have dominion over river, sea and shore, far as the eagle's pinion or dove's white wing can soar. Oh, let me put it up now. That guy that lived just before Wesley. That guy, I mean that wonderful man. Isaac Watts. Jesus shall reign wherever sundered and forth its successive journeys run. His kingdom stretch from shore to shore till moon shall wax and rain no more. Blessings abound wherever He reigns. Let me show a little difference and tie this up. Why is this the land of the free and the home of the brave? Well, some men came here, people say, to find God. They didn't, they came because they found God. They'd already been persecuted and been driven out of England and Scotland, been hiding lots of them in Holland. You see, all love has blood on it. Love has sacrifice in it. People come, you go in a strange church, somebody hugs you, gives you a bear hug. I haven't had a bath for weeks, they're stinking. Give you a bear hug, you go, boy, this is a bear, a real bear. And they say, oh, I love you. Love me? They don't even know me. They love me emotionally, sentimentally, but love has sacrifice. And there's going to be some sacrifice, there's going to be some bloodshed before we get a real move of the Spirit of God here in America. All right, these men came across the Atlantic. Do you know what they brought? Well, you know, they brought their wives. Do you know what else they brought? About half of them brought their own caskets because they thought there wouldn't be anybody to make them here. So, in the kitchen at the back, they had the pots and pans here and daddy's casket there and mummy's there. Oh, boy. Wouldn't that be nice to take your friends in? Come in the parlor. Look at the caskets. What did they do? They brought their wives. They brought their caskets. They brought the Bible in English. What happened in South America? Priests went over by the thousand into South America and they brought the same book tied up in the Latin tongue. It's been the darkest continent ever until fairly recently. And now they put on the charismatic stunt which is deceptive. It's a false entry. But God's going to send... He's coming for a bride. How can I stress that? Not coming for an old lady crippled and dragging her legs. He's coming for a bride. Pure. Holy. Separate from the rest. He's coming for her. He's not coming to take the Calvinists and leave the Arminians. He's not coming to separate deeper doctrinally. He's not coming to separate the blacks from the whites. He's not coming to separate the rich from the poor. He's coming to separate the holy from the unholy. And we won't get by with anything else. I don't care if a man has his dog collar backwards wearing one in each leg. It won't help him. He's coming for people who have already sold out to him who love him and adore him. Who make love to him every day of their lives. Who'd rather miss a banquet or miss anything than miss a prayer time. They'd rather weep in his presence than laugh in the presence of other people. We've been out a billion years to be happy in eternity. You see, why not put up with a bit of rough weather right now and hostility. And you'll get that if you really walk with God in the church. You'll be like a sore thumb. People say, Oh, he's eccentric. Well, dear Lord, who wants to be normal in a world like this? I think it's an honor when people think we're drunk. After all, only drunk people are reckless and generous and want to talk to everybody. It's significant, isn't it, when Paul says, Be not filled with wine but be filled with the Spirit. What's the corresponding thing? Recklessness. Generosity. Not volatile but vocal. God's looking for God-intoxicated people. You can say what you like to a drunk man. He'll laugh with you. Say the same thing tomorrow morning, he'll punch your nose. But when another spirit possesses him, he's ready for anything. And by the same token, when people are God-intoxicated, they're ready for everything. Anything. They'll sacrifice without being asked. They want to know the real perfect will of God. My time is gone. I've got to go. All right. He's coming to execute judgment and convince all that are ungodly. I've told you before and this hurts. The least emphasized aspect of the Holy Ghost ministry today is conviction. As I've told you, when Azusa Street was blazing, within three blocks, men were convicted of sin. They went in the meeting and stayed for hours. They didn't say, it's nine o'clock, let's go home. They stayed until two or three in the morning. You didn't have to put special programs on for youth. They suddenly realized that they were without God and without hope. You see, we've made a big mistake. We preach to a lot of polite, nice people who are morally good and kind and gracious and sweet and you kind of try to persuade them but they're rotten. That's a silly thing to do. You know, lots of them in the pews are more moral than the preachers in the pulpit. My business, Jesus did not, M-O-T, come into the world to make bad men good. He came into the world to make dead men live. And I don't want to go in churches. I look across a row of people, every row I see now is death row because they're dead in trespasses and in sin. I'm not going to be fooled with a man coming to the front and saying a little thing. Well, I'm sorry. Of course he's sorry he's caught. He's sorry he hasn't been nice to his wife. Is he sorry he's been grieving the heart of God? Is he denying God the right to own his personality, to own his mind, to own his thoughts, to own his emotions? He's robbed God. And if we're not careful we'll do the same. And we're nearly at this place. Do you know that thing was written how many years ago? I'm not going right back to when when Enoch said it it's at what, six thousand? The Jewish folk have just celebrated their new year. It's on the verge of six thousand. And here's a man looking through time and he says the Lord is coming with ten thousand. You can't get fundamental believers to believe that today. Oh, my granddad remembers when there was a break when the banks went out. So what? Listen, the clouds in the sky tell me Jesus is coming. When you see Jerusalem surrounded with armies oh, that was in A.D. 70. No, it's 1987. She's surrounded now. She doesn't know which way to go. But God will work miracles for her. And God's going to work miracles for his church. He's not coming for this crippled system that we call Christianity. I want a spiritual revolution in my life. I want to see not just see visions for the fun of it. I want to see visions that are not visions in the accepted sense of the word. I want... Do you remember we used to sing? We'll have to sing it next Friday maybe. Break down the bread of life dear Lord to me. And in that wonderful hymn it says, Beyond the sacred page I seek thee Lord. We can make an idol of the Bible. We can make an idol of our theology. It's hymn, it's hymn, it's hymn. And there are three verses, three words and I'll finish with this. In Hebrews chapter 12 and the verse verse 2 Looking unto Jesus. If you want to read a good book on it it goes to $27.50. I don't know how much. What do you sell that for Jack? 30% off so do your homework. 30% off $27.50 but it's 700 pages on three words Looking unto Jesus. That's the whole secret of the Christian life. Looking unto Jesus. In him we live and move and have our being. And he's wanting to bring us to maturity. He's wanting to lift the veil. If a man could see it there, dear Lord, here we are 6,000 years nearer as it were. We've seen so much scripture fulfilled. He hadn't even seen the Christ of God. He hadn't seen Jesus in the flesh. We know he's been the incarnation when God bumped into history and presented his son. Who died and rose again for our sins. And ascended and is at the right hand of the Father. I want to keep that in mind. I try to keep it in mind every day of my life. That through faith by, through faith this man dares to stand against the whole world. There was no other prophet. There's nobody around that I knew of except Adam and Eve. And then he bowed his head and said the Lord cometh with I guess that was gossip all over Israel by the end of a week or two. Have you heard that raving man that crazy man and all he says the Lord is coming with 10,000 of his saints. I didn't know he knew God to that degree. I didn't know he knew the 10,000 saints. You know we're in for a lot of surprises. Boy I tell you the first 1,000 years in heaven it all, we'll all have shell shock when we get there and see the saints of all ages. As I've told you if I could push that door open and let you see into eternity like it says in the 4th chapter of Revelation if you could see yourself sitting down with Abraham and Isaac and all the saints of the ages do you think you'd stumble over that match stock should you fall over? Do you think you'd be troubled because somebody didn't kiss you when you went to church or somebody didn't shake hands or somebody do something? You know some of our habits that look positively ridiculous at the judgment scene. How in God's name people filled with the Holy Ghost are going to start a school of drama and what do you call the other thing? Mimes. Can you imagine the apostles coming out of the upper room with white faces doing this? Boy those Jews would have beaten them up and if I'd been there I'd have helped them. I don't believe God finished with, if I dare you to work Superman when John Wesley went off the scene or Charles Wesley or George Whitefield. This situation we're in is the toughest situation the church has ever been in. The church is in darker state now than it was when Luther came out. All he had to fight was Rome. God, what are we to fight? Humanism? That's the football. And medically it's not in this men's best because of the strength of humanism it's in this men's best because of the weakness of evangelism and that's true for England. And God will never empower us to take His church tonight except those dear people that were martyred today in Ethiopia and Africa I mean and Russia and China. Well thank God here we are. We've got the whole counsel of God. Let's get into this word more and more. We're going to sing a verse and if you want to leave you may leave. I hope you won't go. Let's sing a verse to God be the glory. Where's my new music lady?
Hebrews 11 - Part 4
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Leonard Ravenhill (1907 - 1994). British-American evangelist, author, and revivalist born in Leeds, England. Converted at 14 in a Methodist revival, he trained at Cliff College, a Methodist Bible school, and was mentored by Samuel Chadwick. Ordained in the 1930s, he preached across England with the Faith Mission and held tent crusades, influenced by the Welsh Revival’s fervor. In 1950, he moved to the United States, later settling in Texas, where he ministered independently, focusing on prayer and repentance. Ravenhill authored books like Why Revival Tarries (1959) and Sodom Had No Bible, urging the church toward holiness. He spoke at major conferences, including with Youth for Christ, and mentored figures like David Wilkerson and Keith Green. Married to Martha Beaton in 1939, they had three sons, all in ministry. Known for his fiery sermons and late-night prayer meetings, he corresponded with A.W. Tozer and admired Charles Spurgeon. His writings and recordings, widely available online, emphasize spiritual awakening over institutional religion. Ravenhill’s call for revival continues to inspire evangelical movements globally.