Leonard Ravenhill emphasizes the profound teachings of John 15, focusing on the necessity of abiding in Christ to bear fruit. He critiques modern evangelism for offering mere forgiveness instead of presenting Jesus as Lord and Savior, urging believers to understand that true faith involves a transformative relationship with Christ. Ravenhill highlights the importance of humility and the process of spiritual growth, illustrating that suffering and pruning are essential for producing genuine fruit in the Christian life. He warns against superficial faith and stresses that the Holy Spirit's work is to reproduce the character of Christ in believers. Ultimately, he calls for a deeper commitment to living out one's faith authentically and fruitfully.

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 the 15th chapter of John. We're going to stay in this 15th chapter of John and hopefully get to the Hebrews tomorrow. So if you know any Hebrews you could bring them in. Repetition is one of the laws of learning and so let's recap for a minute or two and think again of the essence of this book that it's all capsuled in the first verse of the first chapter In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. Dividing that verse this way that in the beginning was the Word, in the beginning eternity the Word was with God, equality and the Word was God, deity. Now yesterday I said that 92% of this book is John's he hasn't borrowed from anybody else at all. And there are many unique aspects of this very very profound book that somebody has said is the purest thing that has ever been written. It's been called the supreme literary masterpiece of the world. And whether you know or not roughly in your Bible this whole if you want to call it life of Christ is comprehended in about 30 pages. Now one of the great Hebrew scholars a convert to Christianity Dr. Reidesheim he wrote the Life and Times of Jesus Christ which you should all get. It's one of the most amazing things ever written. It really just covers much of the same thing with of course a lot more trimmings in but he takes 1500 pages to do that and here John only takes 30 pages to give us what another man takes 1530 pages to do. John explains why he has written this book in the next to the last verse in the next to the last chapter in the book. He says many other things truly did Jesus which are not written in this book but these are written that you might believe. Now if he stopped there we'd have a lot of problems but he doesn't stop there. He says that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ. We often ask people if they'll take Jesus as their Saviour and you know that's not really legitimate in the Bible. You shouldn't ask people if they'll take Christ as their Saviour. No preacher should because it has no Bible backing. What we should do is ask people if they'll take Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. There's a little word in the New Testament KURIOS K U R I O S KURIOS and it occurs about 325 times in the New Testament and every time it's mentioned it has to do, let me give you, I've got a note on that somewhere no sorry, it occurs 745 times in the New Testament that word KURIOS and 719 times out of the 745 it means Lord 14 times it means Master, 13 times it means Sir You see lots of people want to take Jesus or shall I put it this way, that we have presented Jesus as though he is a person who came to do something for us and that isn't correct, he didn't come to do something for us he came to do something in us until the turn of the century the preachers used to as you would find, turn over the pages, page after page in the fabulous diaries of John Wesley and you'll discover that he's saying all the time I preached at so and so, so and so and so and so and then when he said that, which he says I think hundreds and hundreds of times but he doesn't merely say I preached he says I offered men Christ now modern evangelism doesn't offer men Christ it offers them forgiveness it offers them peace with God, it offers them heaven the evangelist says do you want to go to heaven a man's an idiot if he wants to go to hell isn't he who wants to go there, this is the drift you see, so we get people who come up wanting to get rid of their sins, now what do you think Jesus wants your sins for no good to him, no good to you he doesn't want your sins, he wants you now he could get your sins without getting you but if he gets you, he's going to get the whole bunch he's going to get everything and so Jesus Christ is our Lord and Master and these things in this book are written says John that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ as Jesus went about doing good preachers often say particularly with a healing slant well you know four fifths of the life of Jesus he went around healing, well sure he did, what did he have to do he hadn't died yet, couldn't preach the gospel yet could he as Jesus he went around healing as the Christ the anointed one he died for our sins and rose again for our justification you see there's always a danger of getting unbalanced now you could go around on one leg you'd look a bit odd, I mean the Lord gave you two you better use them and by the same token we have to keep balance in truth because there's always a danger of becoming well extreme and then of course eccentric a smart American preacher said a few years ago when he was asked well can you really prove the Bible is true he said I sure can, why? he said because it survived so much bad preaching well I think that's one good proof of it that it survives all the bad preaching we hack it to pieces we make it we get an idea and we find text to shore up this idea so again you've got the Mormons running around with a Bible and in case you don't know one of the main tenets of their faith is that you have to speak with tongues and they do have a lot of marvellous points of doctrine but it's heresy we'll mention tomorrow Hebrews 1.1 now I made a comment on that the other week and I said listen to what it says he hath in these last days spoken to us by his son not Watchman Nee as good as Watchman Nee is, the next day my wife and I were coming through the campus and a lady said could I say something oh she said praise the Lord this was in a Salvation Army Salvation Army conference, dear old Hallelujah Salvation she said well praise the Lord you cleared a great problem up for me yesterday I said oh she said yeah now I made no comment except that God didn't speak through Watchman Nee as his last voice the last voice to this world was God's Son that was 2000 years ago and she said you know that cleared up a problem for me it settled once and forever the problem of the Mormons now I didn't think of that but you see she'd had a Mormon telling her that there had been a new revelation an angel called Mormon came along and there were some golden plates shoved under a rock and this was God's and she said right like that the whole thing exploded I saw what a fallacy Mormonism is now you see that's how the Spirit works I didn't say that the Spirit said it you see he is the author of this word and he is the sole interpreter we mess it up quite a bit and he has mercy on us because we're so fallible but John is writing that ye might believe that Jesus Christ Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God that's what he's concerned about that's why he differs and gives us 92% different information from the other three evangelists now have you noticed this without looking at your Bible right now have you ever noticed that John never mentions the virgin birth you'd think he would oh this is a problem in modern theology anything that you can't subject now to a slide rule or a test tube or x-ray or something it's it's out but I was preparing a message for Christmas two or three years ago and just like that while I was praying the Lord flashed a thing into my mind I had to smile sometimes I weep when I'm praying but sometimes I smile too and I smile because you know it was just as though the Lord said this to me you know son this problem about the virgin birth how do you compress deity into humanity how does the ancient of days become the infant of time how is a God who cannot the heaven of heavens cannot contain him how do you press him into the matrix of a woman into the matrix of the virgin and how is this done without without an actual father and the Lord just said this you know son I made the first Adam without a mother why couldn't I make the last Adam without a father it's as easy as that isn't it Adam had no mother why should Jesus have a father now Jesus wasn't the nice Jesus you see in picture postcards and Solomon's lovely picture it made him a millionaire but that doesn't make it right I think Jesus was the most perfect example of manhood that the world ever saw I think he'd be about six foot six in height he wasn't effeminate like you see pictures of him he was a muscle man must have been he didn't buy his timber pre-cut round the corner he had to cut trees down he had to dig holes to make houses he had to labor hard he had to labor in the open air he would be bronze, tan, muscly perfect man Adam was a supreme example the most perfect being that ever was I'm sure you ladies don't like that but you've got to accept it the most perfect physical being or intellectual or moral or any other way being the world has ever had was the Lord Jesus Christ now pardon me it was Adam and then after him the last Adam do you think that Jesus came with flaws and imperfection he was the most perfect creature physically and with other endowments he wasn't defiled by sin there was no nothing of that kind about him at all I think he was a perfect, upright, marvelous, attractive man in that sense but this isn't what John's getting over he's showing us the wonder, the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ now I've heard people sing and you have you've stood maybe in an audience and people have sung that lovely hymn Oh to be like the Blessed Redeemer you know that hymn? some of you must know it, thought you weren't all ignorant it's a wonderful hymn but you know when the song leader says let's sing this hymn Oh to be like the Blessed Redeemer I feel very often I'd like to say well now let's have a testimony let's start right here lady what do you want to be like Jesus for? I mean you want to be like him I mean what area do you want to be like him in? do you want to go in the desert and fast for 40 days alone like he did? do you want to be homeless like he was? there's a parallel I call it parallel teaching you know like what Jesus had you can have like he was born of the Spirit you can be born of the Spirit he was anointed of the Spirit you can be anointed of the Spirit he walked in the Spirit you can walk in the Spirit and so forth and so on but there are some things we omit in that parallel teaching amongst them one thing that nobody ever mentions they'll say you can be saved you can be filled with the Spirit you can be do miracles anybody ever tell you you could have a Gethsemane? oh no no no we bypass that that's too rough we may not get converted anybody ever tell you that if you're going to follow him there's only one thing everything in the Christian life you see the Christian life this is what it's made up of a process a crisis and a process you can't get away from it maybe you should write this deep in your mind reading your Bible will never make you a saint any more than reading a bank book will make you rich reading a Bible will not make you a saint not until it gets in your bloodstream so it's process, crisis, process except it's not on the level see it's all uphill and the next crisis is bigger than this one and when you walk with God a bit the next one is stiffer than that one you see if you're going to follow the Lord there's only two places that's going to lead you it must get you there before you get anywhere else one is to your own Gethsemane and the other is to your own crucifixion now you can go to Gethsemane but you can't crucify yourself you can shoot yourself, hope you won't but you could cut your throat but no man ever crucified himself if he nailed his feet and nailed his hands who's going to nail this one you see it's something that I have to do in total and if you're going to cry oh that I may know him and the power of his resurrection the only way to know the power of his resurrection is to die you can't have resurrection without death and I hear people say sometimes Lord I want to help you to carry your cross forget it he did a perfect job carry your own he doesn't want you to help him carry his cross he did a job he perfected everything you have to carry your own cross you see now not only does this amazing gospel omit the virgin birth but it omits many other cardinal situations in the life of Jesus for instance John doesn't say anything about the 40 days of temptation does he he doesn't say anything about Gethsemane he doesn't say anything about the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ these things you would think would be totally essential I was preaching a few years back in the lovely city of Grand Rapids Michigan now you never know who's in the audience at all you've got to guess when you're a stranger around I don't know who's here this morning toward the end of the week I got a letter from a pretty well known broadcaster and the essence of the letter it was pretty tough he said I don't like your preaching well I don't like it I mean it didn't need to get rough all he did shake hands said I don't like your preaching and I'd say I don't so he hasn't scored a point I don't like it which it was a lot better but his main objection was this he said you see I heard you three times now you were speaking about John chapter 3 and you insisted and insisted and insisted on repentance now John never once mentions repentance in his book and John wrote the last gospel if you want to put it that way really there are not four gospels there's only one gospel told by four different men but the fourth version of the gospel is by John right and John never once mentions repentance the word had already become old fashioned and out of use by the time John was writing his gospel and therefore you shouldn't use it now because it isn't there it's absent from the writing this is what the lawyers would call the argument of silence now if that man was as smart as he thought he was he should have known again as I mentioned yesterday that John not merely wrote this gospel he wrote three epistles and then he wrote the book of the revelation which baffles all the wise men and you'll hear people say sometimes you know the last message of Jesus was go ye into all the world and preach the gospel it wasn't the last message of Jesus was to his church and you know what it was repent, repent, repent, repent to the seven churches that's the last message of Jesus now he should have known that if he knew that the gospel of John doesn't mention repentance but John hasn't finished yet he's going to come up later with this other marvellous message in the book of the revelation now if you take that same argument and you don't use this because of course it's not mentioned in this gospel you're going to have an awful lot of problems now I mentioned that this writer doesn't mention the virgin birth he doesn't mention the Gethsemane he doesn't mention the transfiguration does he either and he doesn't mention the ascension and you would think that because of what angle he's giving us he would have mentioned the sermon on the mount he doesn't even touch it and again he has nothing to say about demoniacs the other evangelists each give us a list of the twelve he doesn't even mention the twelve there's an awful string of absence here he doesn't mention scribes he doesn't mention pharisees he doesn't mention hell he doesn't mention faith well these are main things in many of our thinking he doesn't mention any of them you see he again is revealing something more he's revealing something if you like of the depths that there are in the spiritual life the things that were in Christ indeed can become yours and become mine as I said yesterday there's no duplication of John 15 there's no duplication of John 17 these are some of the most profound things that we have in the whole of the word of God now in this 15th chapter of John we mentioned yesterday that just as we close three things that there are three promises made verse 2 a promise of fruit and verse 8 plenty of fruit and twice 8 16 the best way to remember it permanence in fruit bearing we said again that the secret of abounding is abiding if you abide in me and my words abide in you again remembering that this is more than a mental attitude toward them this is knowing them in our spirits this is like the psalmist saying thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee it's become part of my life it's my heart beat well then my father is the husbandman and every branch that bare a fruit he purges it another word to use there would be that he corrects it I didn't spend much time in college I spent just six months and one day the president of the college sent me down to the gardener a man called Slim we had a very large glass house and when I went in he was up on the ladder there and he was very busy hacking away at that lovely vine and I had to walk through leaves up to my ankles to get to the ladder where this good man was working I just looked up and he smiled and I said Mr. Slim you've really torn this thing my you've really it looks like a man that's had a haircut on one side and not at the other you know this side of the vine is all cut right back and he said well look at the other side he said you know the worst enemy this vine has I said no I thought maybe a weasel or some bugs or something the worst enemy this vine has is itself do you know what it's doing it's producing so many leaves that it's shutting the sunshine out now this this tree now remember sometimes we divide this as though Jesus says I am the vine and you're the branches you can't have that he's not only the vine he is the branches we can't live separate my arm doesn't go off on its own it's part of me it responds to me well by the same token you can't sever the branches from the vine he is the vine and he is the branches and the result of the indwelling of that branch in the vine is that it should bring forth this is the norm now you can classify that as you like you can say it means fruits of the spirit or you can say soul winning there was a great revival in in Korea about 1903-04 and onward and you could not become a member of the Presbyterian church which is the state church there you could not become a member of the church there unless you personally had won a soul to Jesus not coming and praying with somebody at an altar when they were in trouble you personally had to go and win a person directly to the Lord Jesus Christ and say this is the trophy that I've won now if you didn't win one you couldn't be a church member when I was in Australia I asked them one day in a meeting I said well you've a lot of sheep yeah we've got 50 million sheep well I said tell me this does the shepherd bring the lambs to birth they said what are you talking about I said I'm not talking I'm asking you a question does a shepherd give birth to a lamb well they said no you're stupid sheep give birth to lambs well then I said why don't you after all you're the sheep of his pasture you expect the pastor to be a wizard you say you know I think we need a new pastor we're not getting many people to the Lord do you know it isn't the pastor's job to win people to the Lord it's your job to produce them and his job to feed them if you're spiritually healthy what's the law of Genesis the law of Genesis is the law of reproduction everything brought forth its kind if you're spiritually healthy now not disinterested whether you stand on your head or swing on the chandeliers because you've got gifts that won't impress folk too much what they will be concerned about is to see the character of Jesus Christ reproduced in you and see him reproduce himself through you see I used to be stupid and ask people if they were saved or if they were born again or if they were converted now I don't ask people those things anymore if a man starts talking religion I just say does Christ live in you well I made a decision in a minute I didn't ask you that well I've been baptized I didn't ask you that I teach a Sunday I didn't ask you that does Christ live in you if he doesn't you're not saved you may know your Bible inside out you may know more than Schofield he didn't know much anyhow but maybe the two biggest accidents that ever came to Christianity number one when Constantine made it popular number two the Schofield Bible it's the biggest accident we ever had preachers don't think they borrow Schofield and repeat him that's all there is to it and he was haywire on a lot of points but you see God Jesus died what to reproduce himself in you God what did Paul say Christ in you the hope of glory you see I've known people you come to the front and say oh you want to join the church yes do you believe that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary yes oh you believe in the virgin birth very good do you believe he lived a sinless life very good do you believe he died yes do you believe in his physical resurrection do you believe he ascended yes do you believe he's coming again yes do you believe he's going to oh well you're a Christian the devil believes every one of those things and he isn't a Christian he has to believe them because he saw them all he's got no doubts about the virgin birth or the physical resurrection or anything but that doesn't make him a Christian he acts like one sometimes but that doesn't make him one I'm a Christian only when Christ has been born in me that the same Holy Spirit of God my this takes my breath almost you see the Holy Spirit now talking in capitals is totally incapable of doing anything that's small we're just discovering some things about this world in which we live after all it's had atomic energy and everything else in it since the day of creation but we're just waking up you know just over a hundred years ago the patents office in America voted came within one vote of closing down the patents office because they said there's nothing else to invent now we've got the train and the telephone what could we have well we've invented a lot of things since then maybe millions but you know when you think of the world in which we live it was once a black lump of mud shut up in the womb of the universe and the Holy Spirit came and breathed on it and out of chaos he brought cosmos or out of disorder he brought order out of death he brought life this was the work of this world is the work of the Holy Spirit this is why it's so fabulous and this book holy men of God spake as they were moved this book could say like tennis and stream men may come and men may go but I go on forever this book has an awful habit of standing at the graveside of its persecutors and you know many times in history men have been going to bury Christianity they've dug the hole and got the obituary ready and they've got all the priests and big shots ready to bury it but they couldn't get the body it still lives and this bible is going to live forever and ever heaven and earth will pass away but the word of God will not pass away this is permanent why? it's the work of the Holy Spirit whether it's a herdsman of Tikor or a genius like the apostle Paul it doesn't matter these are all great marvellous men every man fitted supposing the president was home and tomorrow morning he announced over radio I want every one of the president of every one of the what do you call them now governors of the states every state every state must have its governor tomorrow bring a rock doesn't matter what colour it is what size it is just bring a piece of rock to the White House and he assembled them all on the lawn of the White House and all the press photographers were there and all the TV cameras and everything else and the president says you from Arkansas put your rock here you from Mississippi here you from New York State and they put them all together and when they put them all together all those pieces of rock made a perfect pyramid would you believe it if the president told you that not one of those stones was ever shaped and nobody ever designed them but just accidentally they made a perfect pyramid oh you'd say no you're not getting me to believe that somebody whispered that dimension in that man's ear and somebody told him how could you get 50 states together how could you get 50 rocks together all perfect symmetrical and beautiful like a pyramid you couldn't get them without design you couldn't get them without somebody created it well how do you get a bible that covers what thousands of years and has dozens and dozens of authors and none of them contradict they all fit together symmetrically because it's the work of the spirit of God why do you have this world of order because God is a God of order oh science says well you see we got this world it's a fragment like there were two worlds up there collided together and the bits fell off and this is why we have another that's like saying two automobiles collided together and when we pull them apart there were 50 little baby automobiles underneath I mean you won't believe that you say that's ridiculous it's not less ridiculous than to say two pieces of something collided in space and produced the world in which we live you see the book is a book of order God is a God of order the Holy Spirit is a spirit of order He created the world I have a document in my briefcase somewhere that was recently produced by one of the most progressive scientific groups in America in collaboration with the United States government because you see they're planning to not only put a man on the moon which to me is crazy anyhow but they're going to put a man on a planet and they're even thinking about maybe getting a man on a star now the last time I was in Houston I had dinner my dear wife and I had dinner with a scientist who had just come pardon me last time we were in Dallas we had dinner with a scientist who the day before before the previous flight to the moon he had taken lunch with the astronauts he's a very brilliant scientist that lives in this city and I said to him well do you have any problem getting a man on the moon he said no he's going to get there that's no problem will you have any problem getting him off no what about getting a man to a planet well I think we can do that what about getting a man to a star well a bit more difficult you see if you keep that machine that took those men to the moon if you keep that machine going at the same pace for about twelve hundred years you can get him to the nearest star not the farthest the nearest and I suppose he'd need to stay a couple of days to rest and then come back another twelve hundred and you know most likely he'd run out of tang or his sandwiches would get dry you couldn't have a man live so long to get so far there's no problem in the problem of propulsion that's not the problem now I said to him what about getting a man to a planet well we're thinking of this right the scientists say well we're going to try and get a man there but you know there's a lot of things to work out you know there are stars here and planets there and everything else and we're going to get a man to so and so now we've got to just find out where all these positions are going to be fifty years from now right so what did they do they got a computer working on it I have a record here where some men were arguing about creation and they stuffed all the information into a computer and said alright see what the computer comes up with and they stuffed yards and yards of material in the computer and it just comes back with one simple answer see Genesis 1.1 well why do you spend a million dollars you could have I'd have told them that for half a million but they needed a million dollar machine to find that out I could have told them very easily you see you see a man is stubborn and he wants to think he's just a bit bigger than he is you know when men tell you say well you know I'll tell you one thing you know I'm not going to obey God or obey God's laws I mean I'm going to run my own life don't take any notice pray for them or get them to a psychiatrist or somewhere they need help do you know how to prove it tell a man you're going to put him in a room and you won't let him sleep for six days go on you strong men try it you atheists there'll be none here I guess but get in a room and keep awake for six days and if you're so strong go without food for three months and try a few other things let me see you let me see you I won't ask you to jump on the moon I'll just ask you to jump take one jump from here onto the roof of this building I mean if you're going to defy God's laws defy them defy gravity defy sleep defy hunger you can't defy them they'll break you to pieces you can't break God's moral laws and natural laws never mind divine laws or laws in other areas right this book is the work of the Holy Spirit the world is the work of the Holy Spirit going on to that other thing for a minute when they got those machines wheeling do you know what they found out they said well we're in trouble why? well we've discovered first time we ever discovered it do you know there's a day missing in the calendar of the world and one of the scientists said rather sheepishly you know when I was a kid I went to church and they used to tell me a story in the bible about a man called what was his name now oh yes Joshua didn't have time to finish a job and he said the sun stands still on Gibeon and thou moon in the valley of Adullon and where is it do you remember where it is and they searched and the sun stood still for about a day and do you know what they did they turned their computers back they turned their testing machinery back right into that period and found it was right that there was almost 24 hours missing and then they said well that leaves us still in trouble because we've got 40 minutes we can't reckon and the fellow said well I remember another story in Sunday school about a fellow that was sick and the preacher said to him well I'll tell you what I can do and he said no no no no there's something else you've got to do it's easy for the sun to run forward what about going backward oh it's easy to go backward why not go forward and they dilly-dallied with it and they set the machine and they said why we can't we found the other you know we never thought the Bible had anything scientific in it well the Bible isn't a book of science but it's scientifically correct doesn't Job say what does he talk about the sweet influences of Pleiades I noticed on the news this morning they got the first frost in the night why because that constellation called Pleiades is in a certain position you want to come to New York on a boat well now of course any boat in the world can get in New York Harbour the two that couldn't do it maybe the Forrestal couldn't but then it never it was a commercial boat the Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth couldn't get in but if I wanted to come and I said in England I'd like to go to New York say for argument the boats were still floating they are but museums supposing I wanted to come in New York say the 3rd of June 1975 and the fellow who would turn up a register and say well oh yes yes just a minute yeah yeah we don't have the list yet from Cunard but they'll be able to get in that morning the ship always docks between 5 to 9 and 5 past and we'll be able to get in because well how do you know oh well it happens to be a Wednesday morning and that Wednesday morning the tide in New York Harbour will be 49 feet and 3 quads of an inch now they got it worked out it's not guess work they got it worked out even before computers why? well because they happen to know there's a thing up there called the moon and the moon does with water what steel what a magnet does with steel it pulls the oceans of the world it pulls them to certain positions and they know where the tides will be they know where the Pleiades will be and that Pleiades upsets other systems and takes control and the heat goes out and the cold comes in because if you like Pleiades is a cold water tap that comes in and gives us these things that we need so much the frost the Bible isn't behind scientifically it doesn't claim to be a scientific book and it isn't a scientific book in the sense of being a textbook but it certainly isn't it doesn't have any flaws scientifically now this book is a perfect book grammatically, historically, prophetically whichever way you handle it it's the work of the Holy Spirit the world is perfect in its own right it's the work of the Holy Spirit the Bible is perfect it's the work of the Holy Spirit the Lord Jesus was perfect He was the work of the Holy Spirit now there's one thing that I think very often we bypass in talking about the majesty of the Holy Spirit after all Jesus was dead stone dead as dead as any man that ever lived and then died what happened? well the Holy Ghost came upon Him and that's what happened the Holy Ghost came on a dead world He began to live the Holy Ghost comes on a dead sinner He begins to live the Holy Ghost comes on a dead on a dead Christ thank you very much I thought it was tea but it's water thank you and Romans 8 talks about Jesus the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead the Holy Ghost raised up Jesus now the Holy Ghost conceived Jesus in the matrix of the Virgin Mary the Holy Ghost conceived a bunch of men in the upper room not quite dead but terribly nervous and fearful so everything the Holy Ghost does is superlative it's wonderful that's why I get a little nervous at times when some people kind of dance around in the wrong way and display what they think may be supernatural I don't think so because you can see which doctors do it sometimes but it's a very serious thing to say that I'm filled with the Holy Spirit what is the proof of being filled with the Holy Spirit? is there a proof? yes there is you may not you'd say another one maybe on the spirit of the moment you see it says when Saul the king of Israel had an evil spirit what did he do? he did evil things right Jesus says here's a man with an unclean spirit what does he do? he does unclean things well if a man filled with an evil spirit does evil things and a man filled with an unclean spirit does unclean things the evil spirit causes evil things to be done the unclean spirit unclean things to be done what's the man with the Holy Spirit going to produce? right the one work of the Holy Spirit isn't to give me ecstasy isn't to make me a competent preacher isn't to make me a miracle worker that's all fringe benefits the work of the Holy Spirit is to make you holy that's his business I'm going to mention that tonight I guess everything else is contributory to that one thing if your children only remember you because some days you're shouting your head off in tongues or some other time you're going off in ecstasy or you leave them and say well we've got to go to a meeting do your homework now you aren't even a good mother or father if you do that you better watch it don't expect the church to make sense of your kids in an hour Sunday morning when you've neglected them the rest of the week get down to business one of the things that amazed me when I worked for two years in Teen Challenge with Dave Wilkerson down in the that ghetto that they call the what do you call it Greenwich Village we had a coffee shop there I used to talk over the table with kids and you know the thing that amazed me there was how many kids in Greenwich Village either prostituting or thieves or drug addicts do you know what they would say oh forget I was talking one day to a boy I began to quote a scripture do you know before I'd said about three lines he finished the text in Greek I talked with another boy and he said listen let me tell you something I said go ahead I sat back drank a cup of coffee with him and he said there's a man named Nicodemus the ruler of the Jews the same came to Jesus by night good master what must I do to inherit eternal life and he recited the whole thing he said my dad's a preacher he's not only a preacher he's a missionary to use his literal words he says my daddy went to Africa chasing the niggers and let his family go to hell and I'm one of them always exciting to go do something over there isn't it and what about over here no good teaching a Sunday school class if you can't teach your own kids if you can't train them why should you train somebody else's you wouldn't train mine I'll tell you that if you've got some rebellious kids in your house and they run about church and did other things you see we don't have much respect for the house of God even the Mohammedans have far more respect I came in here Monday morning I thought I'd slipped in the A.M.P. store so noisy do you think we can talk and cackle and shout and carry on and then suddenly say out you go come Holy Ghost now the building in itself isn't sanctified in my judgment no building is God dwelleth not in temples made with hands but in us but by the same token God said he would be as dew D-E-W dew unto Israel but the dew never falls when there's a rain the dew never falls when there's a wind the dew only falls when there's stillness if you get a wind the dew doesn't fall you want to come to a meeting agitated oh hallelujah praise the Lord I've had a marvellous day I've given out 50 tracks and so and so I've talked to Mrs. so and so and I think she's going to get saved and so on and wasn't that marvellous last night and so on and then the banquet great and he's running for it oh are we going to sing hymn number 22 and I'll see you after the meeting you know you get a phonograph disc and you can get some bits of sand and drop them on that phonograph disc they'll stay there but you clean them off and get that phonograph disc going press the button and get it going now drop your sand on what happens nothing sticks it whizzes off in every direction now I believe we should be oh I know I've been in meetings and come on we're going to have a great time make a joyful noise unto the Lord and you know serve the Lord with cymbals and trumpets and hey boy I live in such a noisy world I'd like to find a quiet hall and if God's house isn't quiet for every scripture you bring up about noise I could bring the opposite be still and know that I'm God oh there's a whole stack of them you see we've got this fiery evangelism boy if you don't shout your head off and roar and gesticulate and do this and do the other you just haven't got it you're not with it now maybe you'd find the boy that had all that zip spent half the day playing golf not praying oh he may teach you something but most of it he learned 20 years ago it's funny it's like a phonograph in his mind be still the holy ghost came on in the upper room and what were they doing? they were all what? sitting yeah oh sitting isn't that something because the Jews always sit when they pray anyhow oh but we don't we like rush we like turmoil we like noise you see I've just come out of a dead church and he got in another dead one only this one happened to be galvanized you can make a corpse jump you know if you electrify it some people think noise is a sign of power nothing of the kind activity means God's there nothing of the kind doesn't have to be that way you see God made all these people as we will start tomorrow morning on Hebrews 11 and everybody in Hebrews 11 they're one of a kind we all want to be the same oh you did you oh that way I see you fasted 20 days well I'll have to fast 20 days the Lord didn't ask you to do that he hasn't laid down a formula we make a fetish even of theology very often and Bible texts now the holy ghost is concerned to reproduce Jesus Christ in us now remember this even the Lord Jesus Christ he what? he learned obedience by what? right how do you think you're going to learn easier than that? with a textbook? he learned obedience by the things that he suffered now it's suffering I say when I saw this this thing here this vine that had produced nothing oh I saw some little things hanging on branches like that little white knobs and the vine dresser said you see brother Abniel those white knobs there they're actually going to break out into flowers and then when the flower dies there'll be grapes and you'll come back in a few months and you'll see hanging from this ceiling great big lush and that's exactly what happened now it looks unkind doesn't it I mean this but leave it alone oh you'll get grapes on the tree but there'll be little things about this size and they'll be so bitter you wouldn't want them you want to spit them out they'll be terrible it'll waste all its energy on show not fruit now if you cut that branch off you're driving the energy that would have run on that branch you'll drive it back into the mainstream and the mainstream pushes it back into the fruit and the fruit becomes luscious and beautiful and attractive now why is God doing this you know what you said the other day and then after you prayed it and God answered your prayer you sat down and cried you say how do you know well I know didn't you say just a few days ago or was it two or three weeks ago draw me nearer, nearer, nearer blessed Lord alright look this is your friend Mary and this is your friend Sally and this is you in the middle and here is the Lord and you say draw me nearer, nearer well the only way the Lord can draw you nearer is to leave Sally and Mary behind you know I mean you know I don't know what's happening you don't like to judge too quickly but you know for the last six years every Tuesday night we've played dominoes with the Smiths and this week they haven't asked us they've asked the Browns to go you know I mean I can't understand it what do you think what do you think it is George I mean I don't think I've offended her I mean I don't think I've said anything no the Lord's just answering your prayer you said draw me nearer, nearer and the Lord took you at your word in other words he was snipping a bit of the waste off because you're running to seed there as far as I know you don't need the Testament not even the Amplified to play dominoes or anything else you see but that little waste bit in your life the Lord snipped it off and the first thing you say oh you know I don't know what the Lord's doing to me I mean you know I've lost three or four different things this past week well check check he's only taking you at your word he doesn't dare to take many of us because it would kill us we don't even tell the truth when we pray never mind anywhere else I mean it sounds good it's very impressive particularly if the people listening say oh you know she's so spiritual do you know she prayed I don't think I'd ever dare pray that and maybe if you went back again she cried after the Lord answered her prayer you see my father is the husbandman you're not smart enough even to know what you can do for yourself I'll tell you one way to not growing grace not N.O.T. growing grace that is run to meetings every night that's an easy way to become a wishy-washy weak little Christian you need at least one night a week indeed you need I'm sure a couple to take what you've heard digest it take it before the Lord ask the Lord how much he wants you to know of it some truth was for you some was for you some was for something but my father is the husbandman he's going to produce grapes he's going to produce fruit if I let him do it if I won't squeal if I squeal he'll quit and he'll start later when I get to the place where I what does the word say the word says blessed are they who are hunger and right but most of us are not hungry we've just an appetite we're not thirsty we're just dry now there's a whole deal of difference between hunger and just having you're on the I remember once on the Queen Mary I was crossing by myself at that time and I sat opposite a millionaire he was the most finicky guy I've ever seen in my life I counted 69 things on the menu and there wasn't one that he wanted and the waiter said well what would you well I don't know give me a little time and then he said you know you don't have frog's legs on this thing do you have frog's legs and he said being me I'd have said I don't but they do have them down in the they do have them down in the deep freeze and I'd be glad to get them so he says alright and he said what would you like serving with them and he said well do you have a certain sauce no oh well just a minute let me now you bring this and this and this and bring them here and I'll mix them for myself yes well I'd just about finished my dinner by the time these frog's legs came and I saw the man whisking this and turning that and boy did he enjoy now that man he had an appetite very finicky expensive appetite but he wasn't hungry a hungry man will snatch at a crust of bread and think it's a banquet a thirsty man will take a drink of water and to him it's the very elixir of life another man says oh you don't have the wine I want let me see no no no I don't think you have it thank you you see and when you're hungry and thirst for God when you get desperate like that you don't care what God says you don't care how he serves up the dish you say well I want God however he serves it now if he cuts and cuts here's one thing supposing I came in backwards way at that door and this is a vine growing and I I go back and back and I say what lovely grapes lovely grapes lovely grapes oh oh bananas why I never spoke of it of course this is Texas bananas growing on a vine and now apples and I go back and I say well this is this is an amazing vine I've been in many countries in the world and seen vines growing but I've never seen bananas on a vine and pomegranates and apples and plums and all these on the same vine now you'd know that was a fake you know that if that vine is true to its character at the end of the glass house there it's going to be producing what it's produced at the beginning well if the church is true to its character she's going to do the same she must do let's wind it up some years ago two things some years ago I was out in oh Boise where's that Idaho we'd been to a farm for lunch and as we came home the pastor said I'd like to show you something and I said good we turned down a road and he stopped his car and he said look now I know they grow Idaho potatoes nearly a foot long I've seen them but I didn't know they grew about the biggest apples in the world and he said look at these trees and they were as pink in fact they were more red than this pink here they were the side of the road was red flaming red with the sun on it millions and millions of beautiful red apples I said that's quite a crop he said yes it is but I didn't bring you to see that I said oh let's go a bit further when we got further down the road there was a different type of tree and these trees now look here's a tree my hand is like a tree like an umbrella and you get leaves come on the tree and then you get blossom come on the leaves and then you get fruit now when that tree is carrying say 5,000 apples it can carry 5,000 apples as big as my thumb but when you get 5,000 apples that size you've got problems what happened the tree is standing like this with its blossom and with its apples but gradually the weight of the apples took the branches down like this like this like this until they're going like this so the farmer or the orchard keeper came and he put some pegs under like that and he held all the branches up but then he ran out of branches and when we got further down the path they said well that's wonderful this man knows how to prune a tree and he got this harvest wait a minute we went a little further down the road and instead of tall trees or umbrella trees loaded looking like red mushrooms do you know what had happened the trees had yielded so much fruit this was actually true and we saw this in a tree this year our boy lives out in California and in the back of the house that he's renting there there's a very beautiful what was it Danny now apricot we call apricots not knowing any better that's what you say apricot apricots and the tree was so heavy that like these other trees that when it got to this level and couldn't hold it wasn't going to give its fruit up so this branch actually pulled out of the stem of the tree and this branch pulled out and the trees looked as though somebody had taken an axe and cut them up and divided them and the whole tree was laid on the floor burdened broken with its own production there's the law of life except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone but if it that tree died to reproduce its kind now I turned around and there across the little narrow road there was another orchard that hadn't been pruned and the trees were just covered with a kind of fungus and way at the top of one branch there was an apple waving like this as much as to say look what I've produced look what I've produced look what I've produced you see the life that bears the most fruit is the humblest life now every Christian has one of two choices you've decided to be humble or be humiliated now if you're humble nobody can humiliate you but if you're not humble somebody because God loves the humble and he resists the proud now the final simple thing we pastored a church we actually had a revival a real revival in a city in England in 1934 I'd been around a few years and we landscaped the outside of this lovely church and one night as I was going in the church there was an old man leaning over the fence and he said hi and I said hello he said are you the pastor I said no sir I'm just the assistant pastor oh he said well what are you going to do with this garden I said well put grass there put some rhododendrons there put rose trees rose trees do you know how to grow rose trees I said no dig a hole and stick the thing in water it well he said that might do but you know that's not that's not the way to grow rose trees I said well what do you do well he said you dig a hole about four feet deep and when you've dug the hole you put about eighteen inches to two feet of old fish down there old fish fish bones eyes skins just a lot of rotten old fish could you get some fish I said well you see there that's the back of a fish and chip shop and the lady comes to this church so I can get all the old fish I want so he said well get it put a couple of feet of old fish down there then put some clay and then put some cinders and then put some sand and then put the soil and then dig your hole and put your tree and the roots will go down you know bear root downward before you bear fruit upward and the roots will go down and down and down and they'll eat that dead fish they'll live on that and you'll get the loveliest roses that are and we did and we did we did what he said and we did what we expected we got the most luscious roses people came to photograph them and going in church one night a man said to me wonderful roses were you a gardener before you were a preacher I said no he said is there a secret in growing roses I said there sure is and he said well what's the secret so I told him now that's a lovely way to grow roses but you couldn't grow a vine that way if you're growing a vine a peach you plant your tree and then you could bore a hole maybe four feet away and put maybe prussic acid down that hole now the roots will creep out and they'll take out of that acid what they want they have a wonderful system there must be alchemists or something but the root will take out of that acid what it wants and it will reject the rest now you can't put that acid at the root of a rose tree and you can't put fish at the root of the peach tree or your peaches may taste of fish and you couldn't put fish at the base of a vine fishy grapes are not nice well what do you do if you want to grow a vine well please promise you won't think of this next time you eat them I eat I like grapes they're good for you we eat quite a few particularly travelling and keep you afloat fresh and good energy but you don't put fish there you don't put any oils there you don't put any acid there you just dig your hole a few feet deep and then you get well a carcass of a dog would do nicely a better thing if you can get it would be a sheep a better thing would be a lamb a dead lamb put it down there and just before you fill the hole in take care that you rip the side of the lamb out and stretch it and open it and then when you plant the vine it will go down and down and down and what will it do it will feed on the blood in the feed on the blood in the lamb now I use that and a fella came to me one day he said hey who told you about growing vines and grapes and where do you get that I said well you know bees gather from many flowers I don't know where I gathered it from but he said well the only thing it's true because I tried it but doesn't it fit the analogy perfectly who is the vine Jesus where do we get Jesus walking about is no good he must become the lamb of God right we're the vine we're drawing our life from him we're drawing our life from the lamb he is the lamb of God the life is in the blood isn't it that's what the scripture says right so we're drawing our life by the Holy Spirit through the blood or the perfect atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ and if we do that we can come forth and we can bring forth much fruit love joy peace long suffering gentleness meekness goodness temperance all the other wonderful attributes that God allows you and I to have as a result of the indwelling spirit of God but remember this can I say one word in 30 seconds some tourists were in England loaded with cameras and they took pictures of the wonderful old church and the Celtic cross in the middle of the square and the stocks where people used to be put in prison and they just about photographed everything when one of them saw an old man leaning on a stick and he said hi dad he said morning he says well old timer you've been round here a long while he said over 90 years of age well he said tell me where this little dump of a village you have any famous men born here he said no only babies well that's it isn't it I mean the book you're looking for is how to become a saint in six easy steps and there isn't one the greatest saint that ever lived was once a baby in Christ but he obeyed the Lord and he became mature and maybe he became one of the most outstanding men in the world but he was born a babe so we pray father we thank you this morning for this privilege of fellowship thy word is indeed a lamp to our feet and a light to our path we pray that we may walk in the light and obey all the revelation you give us individually not be afraid to walk alone may we do justly love mercy and walk humbly with our God Amen Thank you