In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes that God is giving one last act of mercy before bringing devastating judgment upon the world. He encourages young people to seek God diligently and be among those who will be anointed in a special way. The preacher also talks about the importance of repentance and bringing forth fruit as evidence of true repentance. He shares personal stories of encounters with authority figures and the impact of confessing and making amends for past wrongs. Overall, the sermon emphasizes the need for repentance, seeking God, and living a life that bears fruit.

I can miss God's best. You see, God doesn't want, the devil doesn't want you to commit adultery, or drink, or do some lying thing. Do you know what he wants to do? He wants you to get so tied up with the good, you'll miss the best. And most Christian people are tied up with the good, and they miss the best. So many preachers, they get in a church where they're successful, and somebody gives them a new car, and one guy gives them new clothes, and somebody gives them money, and it ruins these fellas. God is a jealous God. He wants you. Spirit, soul, body, mind, faculty, will. That's what he wants. That's what he got in John Baptist. This is why he preaches the way he preaches. And he says, bring forth fruit, meat for repentance. And I'll tell you, when I went to that school and told the headmaster, I pulled that school door open like this, and I saw him. He sat in a grand hall, larger than this, at a desk, a high throne. And he was a pretty rough man. You know, my heart was going like this. Fourteen and a half years old. But I walked down that school like this, down the grand hall. He looked at me and said, aren't you Ravenhill? I said, yes, sir. What do you want? I said, remember that school window that was broken? Oh, yes, yes, yes. That fellow Jones broke it. I said, no, sir. He got spanked for doing it. I broke it. Why did you come back now? Because, sir, I've become a Christian. Oh, oh, he said, that's very good. And I said, I've got to put things right. And I brought money to pay for that window, because the word of God says that I'm to bring forth fruit, meat for repentance. He didn't know much about that. But you know, that cleared my heart, and I thought, hallelujah, I'm great. I had a marvellous time for two days. Then the Lord said, hey, you remember that little thing you stole? You pushed it up your jersey one day, when you were six years of age? And I said, well, yes, Lord, but you know, we don't live in that part of the city. He says, no, but the man lives there. He was a big man. He knocked, he used his wife as a punch bag. He was a tough character. But fortunately, he lived on the side of a hill, like that. And I went to his house, and I got my bicycle, and I put it pointing down the hill. You see? So that as soon as he came out with his foot, I'd be on my back, like that. And I knocked at the door. This husky, I was hoping his wife would come, but he came. He says, who are you? I said, Leonard Ravenhill. Oh, you've grown. Yes, sir, yeah, I'm six years older now. No, I'm eight years older. Oh, well, why did you come to see me? I said, sir, I was playing with your boy once, when I was six years of age. And I stole a little piccolo, and I pushed it up my shirt there. And I went home and told my mother I'd found it. And sir, here, look, this is my spending money, and I want to pay for it. Man, that was half my year's spending money. You know, that big man stood there, folded his arms, and the tears rolled down his face. He said, you say you're a Christian? Yeah. Oh, man, he said, that's the greatest thing you can be. I'm a drunk, I'm a bad man, but you know, he said, listen, Ravenhill, you keep that up. Don't ever let go of it. You just keep it up. You know, I got on that bike. I thought I got wings. I just went down. I don't know if there's a speed limit. If there was, I didn't keep it. I never saw anything till I got home. I think I was raptured half of the way, I'm not so sure. But, you know, I just went home so happy, so thrilled. And, oh, man, my heart was at peace. I'd met two big battles. I'd done two things God asked me to do. And, you know, that's the reason a lot of us don't have joy. Because there are some things concealed in there. We won't go and do them. Maybe make a long-distance telephone call and tell your parents you're sorry for something you did. Write a letter, do something else. But bring forth fruit, meat for repentance. It's the only way. All right, now let's get to the other part. What time's lunch? Six? John Baptist baptized these people. It must have been wonderful. I think baptismal services in the Spirit are really glorious. That is if you do it right. It's become just an initiation rite with lots of people. But, you know, if this is the level of water, and you're baptized and you go under that water, immediately you go under it, you're cut off from the world above. You don't breathe its air. You don't see anything in it. You don't talk about anything in it. You're dead. You've gone under. You're in another realm. And when you come out, because that's a sign of burial. It's a sign of death. And if people haven't died to self and sin, they've no right to be baptized. You see, repentance again is not nodding your head and saying, I'm sorry. Repentance is an attitude. It's loathing the things that I've done. It's turning my back on them. It's changing my mind about God. It's having a total commitment and love to Him. John says, I baptize you with water. They said, you must be the Messiah. He said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You know, this man is an embodiment of something that's so beautiful. He's an embodiment of humility. Read all the musts in John 3. He must be born again. If I be lifted up, Jesus must be lifted up. And then when you get down to about verse 33, what does John say? He must increase and I must decrease. And one day they came to John and they said, John, hey, you know that man you baptized the other week? Oh, he's getting a lot bigger crowds than you. The crowds are flocking to him. Notice your crowd diminishing. And they thought it'd say, well, you can't always be number one. You just try harder if you're number two. No, he didn't say that. He said, that's good news. That proves that what I said is true. You see, immediately Jesus came on the scene. John knew this. Look, that just as I may take this pencil and I put that up, what have I done? Well, I've just excluded the pencil. You see, John knew immediately that Jesus came. He was going to be exiled by the Lord Jesus. And so he's eclipsed by Jesus. He's not only eclipsed, he's going to go to jail and be exiled. He's not only going to jail, he's going to be executed. And yet he rejoiced in it all. He said, this is the very reason I came into the world. I've been training thirty years just to preach for six months. And I knew as soon as he came I would be eclipsed. I knew I would be exiled. I knew I would be executed. Hallelujah, I've done the will of God. It isn't how long you live that matters, it's how you live. Some of the greatest missionaries that have lived haven't been on the mission field six months. I could give you a list of names, I won't. But they did what God asked them to do. They went where God told them to go. John says, you get excited about my ministry. Listen, I want to tell you something. There's somebody coming after me, and do you know what, I'm not even worthy to carry his shoes. I have baptized with water. I teased the Baptists. I preached at a lot of Baptist churches, once. And I teased them because I say, the first man that ever preached on the baptism of the Spirit was a Baptist. Then when I go to the Pentecostals, I say, listen, don't you get too proud, because you weren't the first to preach this message, it was a Baptist who preached it. And they don't like that. But anyhow, it's what the book says, isn't it? John says, when he is coming. I think when John saw Jesus and the dove, come on, pardon me, if God underheld him together, he would have exploded. He would have disintegrated. He said, my Lord, my Lord. Isaiah prophesied of this. This is the one that the ages were concerned about. That the whole creation is to glorify him. And I introduce him to the world. Oh, I can go out now, I've seen everything. And he says, when he comes, he shall, two baptizers, John and Jesus. Two elements, fire and water. Two recipients, the body and the inner man of the spirit. One external baptism visible, one internal baptism invisible. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Well, you know, we say, God is love. Oh, you'll hear that said a thousand times. God is love. For every time you hear the word quoted, our God is a consuming fire. There's an awful word, I read it last night in Isaiah. For behold, the Lord will come with fire, with his chariots like a whirlwind to render his anger with fury and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and his sword will the Lord appear with all flesh and the slain of the Lord shall be many. That's in Isaiah 66, 15, if you want to read it after. Quickly, let's go through this. God is a consuming fire. I saw a man the other day, he was as fat as a, I don't know what, beer barrel. He was down in Beverly Hills there in California. We happened to be down there. He had an enormous cross on his chest. Big cigarette in his hand, he was spreading up and down. And I thought, brother, it's easier to wear a cross than bear a cross. The symbol of the church of Jesus Christ is not a cross. The cross was a method of Roman crucifixion for the worst criminals ever. The symbol of the church of Jesus Christ is a tongue of fire. It sat upon each of them. And when that fire descended, it went from head to head. That was the initiation of the church of Jesus Christ. And I say sometimes, I hope you'll understand, and if you don't, I'll still say it. That the Holy Spirit has no gifts to give His own. Because the Word of God says that Jesus Christ was crucified, He died, He ascended, and He led captive to be captive, and He gave gifts unto men. And there is nothing you and I receive this time of eternity that is not purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son. The Holy Ghost is the executor of God's will. We say the Spirit, Jesus, was conceived by the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost was the agency because the Scripture says very clearly that Jesus was the only begotten of the Father. The only begotten of the Father. The Holy Ghost is the agency. But oh, what a difference when the Holy Ghost comes. The last visitation of the Holy Ghost in this country, really, was the Azusa Street. 1900 and what? 5 and 6. A hangover partly from the Welsh Revival. The Welsh Revival spread into the, the hills, what they called the, the Katia Hills of India. A man went from India to China, they had a revival in China. He went from China to Korea, they had a revival in Korea. Fire, they get fire. Go to the third chapter of Genesis, you have fire. An angel with a flaming sword won't let the couple get back into the garden. Genesis chapter 3, Exodus chapter 3. You have fire. A burning bush called Moses to the place where he heard God as he slipped his shoes off his feet. Genesis, Exodus chapter 3. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus chapter 3. A sin offering consumed with fire, leap down. You have a gap of 400 years between the Testaments. The last man at the other side of that chasm of 400 years was a man by the name of Malachi. And he's looking into the piercing long darkness, that tunnel of 400 years. And this is what he says. Who shall abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? He's like a refiner's fire. You come to Matthew 3.11. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire. You come to the third chapter of Luke. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire. You come to the third chapter of 1 Corinthians. The fire. Oh, one of the most exciting things in eternity is we're going to be able to sit there maybe for a million years or ten million and watch God put every song you've ever sung and every sermon I've ever preached put the fire to it. And see how much of self and pride or reach for money or other thing it had. The fire shall fry every man's work. Not what size it is, what sort it is. Not the quantity, the quality. You can't escape fire. And I'm convinced as sure as I know my own name and my own age this afternoon that one reason why the present generation is going to hell fire is that the church has lost Holy Ghost fire, that's right. John says, Luke says he shall baptize you. Well, it's John Baptist says he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire. You know the marching orders of the Salvation Army were written by a man who was half Jew and half Gentile, William Booth. Their battle song. You should learn it because it is just tremendous. And it starts like this, Thou Christ of burning cleansing flames send the fire. Thy blood brought gift today we claim send the fire, look down and see this waiting host. Give us the promised Holy Ghost. We want another Pentecost, I'm not so sure that we do. But we need it. We want another Pentecost, send the fire. To make our weak hearts strong and brave send the fire. To live a dying world to save send the fire. O see us on thine altar lay our lives our all this very day. You see the altar exists only for two things sacrifice and death. It's not to come just to get blessing if you don't want to die, keep away from it. I don't try to get people to the altar. They're so used to running to the altar for every evangelist, I get out of here. You don't come and stay in this altar with a few bubbly tears and self pity. The altar is for two things death and sacrifice. O see us on thine altar lay our lives our all this very day to crown the offering now we pray send the fire. To make our weak hearts strong and brave send the fire. To live a dying world to save. You know the Salvation Army went into 70 countries in 90 years? In your book store there you've got the life of Brangle, read it. I don't think he was more than in his twenties. When the guy that used to make well he made a beautiful automobile later. Used to make carriages but anyhow he heard this young man speak and he said you're the greatest orator I've ever heard. Stay here and I'll build you the greatest church in America I'll give you the greatest salary. The young man said I'm going to London. Why? Because he said there's a fire burning. A fire? Yes a Holy Ghost fire. William Booth has started the Salvation Army and Colonel Brangle with his PhD's and all his other D's went. The Salvation Army got folk out of the gutter it got some of the lords and ladies of our country. Do you know what they did? They scrubbed lousy floors girls that never even put their own hair up. They went to Paris and turned part of the city upside down. They went to Belgium. I stood more than once with the Marichal the eldest daughter of the founder of the Salvation Army. I seen her craggy face and the tears running down as we were singing a beautiful hymn that she wrote. And I knew when she sang it she was thinking of the time she had two prison sentences to serve the same week. One in Belgium the other in Paris. The one in Belgium the other in Switzerland for holding street meetings that blocked the street to hear a woman on fire for God. Charles Wesley takes it up let me rush through this now. Charles Wesley wrote many hymns on fire. See how great a flame aspires kindled by a spark of grace. Jesus' love the nation's fire sets the kingdoms on ablaze to bring fire on earth he came kindled in some hearts it is oh that all might catch the blaze all partake the glorious bliss. He has another one refining fire go through my heart illuminate my soul scatter my life through every part and sanctify the whole. And finally Edwin Hatch. I don't think there's a lovelier hymn at least that I like to hear sung and the Baptists even sing it. Holy Spirit breathe on me until my heart is clean the chorus is magnificent it's majestic breathe on me breathe on me Holy Spirit breathe on me take thou my heart cleanse every part. You see if you got the baptism of the Holy Ghost and didn't get cleansed you didn't get the baptism of the Holy Ghost I don't care how many gifts you got. The least emphasis that's put on the baptism of the Spirit the emphasis is always power never purity. But Peter recording in Acts 15 8 and 9 about the Holy Ghost coming to the Gentiles says referring to the day of Pentecost and God who knoweth the heart bear them in the house of Cornelius witness giving them the Holy Ghost even as he did unto us purifying their hearts by faith. What miracles did they do after Pentecost they didn't do before they raised the dead before Pentecost they healed the sick they cast out demons they came excited and Jesus devil is a subject to us and Jesus says don't get too excited about that I'll tell you something more exciting your name is written in heaven. Do you think everybody that gets filled with the Spirit is going to sell the house and go to the mission feast I wish a lot of them would I'm glad a lot of them don't. When a girl said to me I'm going to the mission feast I said are you going to tell them how much victory you have in your own life are you a cleansed personality do you have victory over sin have you power over grudges have you power over temper have you power over anger is your heart purified well well well well no well what are you going to tell them something they told you in some bible institute this is the outline of Romans chapters 1 to 7 8 to 11 12 to 16 what are you going to do oh come on let's face it what are we doing are we playing games Edwin Hatch was a successful preacher he didn't lack crowd he didn't lack money he didn't lack popularity but one night he knelt in his own little office there and he prayed he said Lord I don't have any needs except one in my meetings the Holy Ghost is not brooding the Holy Ghost is not brooding and he said I snatched a piece of paper and I wrote this hymn out and I don't think he corrected it he wrote this lovely hymn breathe on me breath of God fill me with life anew that I may love what thou dost love and do what thou wouldst do breathe on me breath of God till I am holy thine till all this earthly part of me glows with thy fire divine that's something to pray about isn't it until this earthly part of me my spirit my soul and my body you can't be a Christian and have a grudge I don't care if you sing your head off or preach your head off you can't be a Christian and have a grudge you can be a backslider and have a grudge you can't be a spiritual believer and have covetousness in your heart or hatred or bitterness everything in the temple of old was pure they didn't have electric light they had lights and you say yes and they filled them with oil no they did not they filled them with pure oil the desk was covered with gold no it was covered with pure gold the priest had a linen garment it was pure it could have no wool in it because wool makes you sweat and sweat is a sign of the curse and everything in the temple had to be pure pure oil, pure gold pure man standing there the obstruction to revival in our nation today is impurity in the church of the living God it's not the rottenness in government it's not the rottenness of sex perverts it's not the filth of Hollywood the thing that holds up revival as it says in the seventh chapter of John Jesus says the Holy Ghost or John records the Holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified and you'll hear a hundred sermons or a thousand sermons on weight on the upper roof and Pentecost I've never heard a sermon on my life on the ten days they spent searching their hearts and humbling themselves and breaking some of us old folk Tony's people I guess remember the time he used to have party meetings you went to church every night and there's somebody there to counsel you you didn't come out for five minutes and they don't ask if you're a drunkard or a pervert let's lay hands on you that's from the pit and I'll answer to God for that I've been to banquets and they say anybody want the bathroom come and stand up here we'll lay hands on you do you know people are bypassing Calvary there are people trying to get in the upper room that never bent their knees at Calvary they're trying to get power when they're polluted I'd rather come to this fellowship if you'd only a dozen people here with a dozen people who are pure in heart and want God than if you have ten thousand people here at every conference I never never I just drove all the way out to California and I'm not a young man and it was hot and tiring and we drove to Phoenix and took the plane the rest of the way and I spent all those days preaching to twenty people in a room over a bank and we had a very blessed enjoyable time if anybody could manage twelve thousand people Jesus could he chose twelve and they didn't all turn out good you get a lot of failures here I don't care how good a gap he is you'll have somebody flunks it and somebody lets you down you'll have a Judas that'll sell you and a Thomas that will deny you a Peter that will forsake you that's all Jesus had twelve disciples how many of them went in the Garden of Gethsemane with him Jesus had twelve disciples how many went on the Mount of Transfiguration God always works with a minority but I'll tell you the next time if I can use an awful mechanical phrase the next time God pulls the switch this old world's going to shake from centre to conference Washington, London, Rome, Moscow the last time God gives an act of mercy before he plunges this world into the most devastating judgment that's indescribable to any of us the last time he does it earth will shake and hell will shake and heaven will shake and maybe I'm going to have to sit on the side of the road and watch you young people do what I wish I could have done years ago because he's going to bypass us go boys, we had our day your young men shall see visions your old men shall dream dreams if I were a young man I'd feed God two or three hours every day to be amongst those who are going to be anointed in that way because it's not going to be everybody but he's going to raise up 10,000 Jeremiah's and 10,000 John Baptists and 100,000 Isaiah's yes sir God is going to pull the kingdoms of this world down and exalt his son all right let me sum this up what does fire do well I was in a burning fire in a hotel after preaching for two weeks for Dr. Tozer and I'll tell you what Tozer said he said we got so far into Satan's kingdom that week he said the only thing is let's kill these men so he set the hotel on fire well some of the devil's kids got burned to death but I didn't so the devil lost that round anyhow but but you know what I recognize more and more there's a price for all of us to pay if we're going to keep the anointing you see if I say to you have you had the baptism you say yes 30 years ago look I'm not concerned when you were filled with the spirit that does not interest me that much I want to know right at this moment as you sit there are you filled now now don't get it confused I don't try to drive folk to an altar I met a man a few weeks ago came to my home talked to one he said brother Raymond do you have the anointing of God on you just now I said no I don't need it and now from now I could feel as flat as anybody my nervous energy will be down my physical energy is down I don't have much of it I happen to be on a diet that doesn't help me right now and two hours from now I could feel flat but you know what doesn't matter what I feel flat or not God's just the same he loves me just the same he didn't tell me to sit on cloud 19 with a guitar or without a guitar he just says love me with all your heart and if the devil attacks me between here and getting back to oils and I'll spit in his face and say no I love him as much now as if I were preaching I'm a space filled with the Holy Ghost but there are anointings on top of those fillings as far as I'm concerned Mr. Finney said he had repeated anointings anointings, anointings, anointings a man said to me you know I've heard you preach one sermon three times I said you'd be amazed how many times I've heard it but I'll tell you what it takes me as long to get that message ready when I'm going to preach it as it did the first time because if it doesn't burn in me it won't burn in you see too many of these preachers carry a little the leaf full of sermons when they open it you see the mosque come out but they and you know they preach them I heard a man preach a sermon up in Calvary Baptist Church in New York I preached there a few times a lovely church but I heard a man preach so mechanically I was I was I was nearly asleep in five minutes twenty years ago when he preached that he could turn an audience upside down or God did but you see it become repetitious it become words it become terms theology, philosophy, reason fire is wonderful but you know we have a fireplace in our house and we haven't had one since we lived in England in fact we didn't have a home for seventeen years we have a nice home now people say you have a nice home I say nobody ever said when we were tramps for seventeen years well not tramps I don't like that word I'm not a tramp I'm a child of a king but I noticed this when I put a log on the fire last winter I thought now I can read Martha relax dear I've got a nice log on the fire and I'd read a little and I said the fire is going out I thought that log would last all night it didn't last half an hour oh it's one thing to have the fire it's another thing to keep the fire going you've got to keep taking the dirty cinders out you've got to keep taking the junk out and the ashes out if you don't the air won't get it you know on the day of Pentecost the two most powerful symbols in nature got married