Leonard Ravenhill emphasizes the profound desire of the Apostle Paul to know Christ intimately, particularly the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. Despite being imprisoned, Paul’s aspiration remains focused on a deeper relationship with Christ rather than seeking personal relief or recognition. Ravenhill draws parallels between the resurrection of Jesus and the transformative power it holds for believers, asserting that true salvation and life come from this resurrection power. He challenges the congregation to seek a deeper understanding of this power and to live in the reality of their new identity in Christ. Ultimately, the sermon calls for a commitment to knowing Christ and experiencing the fullness of His resurrection life.

I call to the Philippians, the third chapter, Philippians chapter 3, and verse 10, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death. There are obviously four statements in this verse, that I may know him, the second, and the power of his resurrection, the third, the fellowship of his sufferings, and the fourth, being made conformable unto his death. I'm always stirred when I read the epistle of Paul to the Philippians and Colossians, to remember that these are prison epistles. It's amazing how little Paul speaks about the historic situations of his day. It was said that Augustine one day went right round the rim of that most famous lake, I suppose, in Switzerland, Geneva. But he was dressed like a monk, and he had a cowl over his head, and the weather wasn't so good. And at the end of the long day, when he got off that mule, he said to somebody, hey what about that famous lake, isn't there a famous lake around here? And they said, sir you've been round the edge of that lake for the last 10 hours. I never saw it, he said. Some people have criticized Calvin, because they said he never looked up from his desk to see the majesty of the Alps. The beautiful peaks that were covered with snow. Some people have even criticized the Apostle Paul, because he hasn't told us much about the days in which he lived. He's riding here to the Saints at Philippi. Philippi was named by Alexander the Great, for his father Philip. We're told that the great Roman Empire was born here, because, who was it, Brutus and, not Cassius, the other fellow, Cassius, somebody. Anyhow, they fought there, and we're told that this was really the birthplace of the Roman Empire. But Paul here, is considering something infinitely greater than any perishing empire of men. Again it's wonderful to me anyhow, that here is this aged man, battle-scarred and worn, and not in his prayer, his aspiration never dies, his vision never begot, ever became dim. The fever on his spirit, in any way got dull. He doesn't pray to be released from prison, he might have done that. He doesn't pray even that he may have a ministry here, though I'm sure he aspired to that. He doesn't pray that his body may be healed, though I'm quite sure, that while he wasn't diseased, I'm sure he was terribly weak, by all the suffering that he had endured. But his aspiration here is this, that I may know him. And usually the text gets that weight put on it, that I may know him, and sometimes the other part, the power of his resurrection. Now there's no question, at least in my mind, about this fact. That the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the standard of power in the New Testament. What is there after that? It's a miracle of miracles. I don't think an Easter Sunday goes by, indeed it does not. Be what I think of a, just a little phrase from an old hymn. Today, he rose from the dead, and Satan's empire fell. I hear people say sometimes, destroy the work of the devil. He's already destroyed the work of the devil. I'm going to preach next Sunday on three, the three most amazing words in any vocabulary. But to stay here, this is the proof, this is the standard of God's power in the New Testament. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The standard miracle in the Old Testament, was the deliverance of the children of Israel through the Red Sea, brought finally into the land of promise. So in the Old Testament, the miracle is the raising of a dead nation, because they were in captivity. They were in Egypt, which is a type of the world. They were under the dominion of Pharaoh, which is a type of the devil. And they were brought with what the Word of God says, God called them with a strong hand. He delivered them with a strong hand, and a stretched out arm. And all the way from Moses to Malachi, there's a constant referring to, look what God did when he delivered Israel. Now is anything bigger than that? Have you got a problem bigger than that? Can you imagine anything that demand, made demands on God more than that? So he delivered them. He brought them out of captivity, he snapped their fetters. And he led them by his own hand, and his own arm. In the New Testament, the standard miracle, the standard of God's power, is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And then because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, there is of course, the resurrection of the individual from the dead. Because we're told again and again, Ephesians 2 for instance says, you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses, and in sins. Now he doesn't just say that we were bad, he says that we were dead. And the same miracle power, that raised up Jesus from the dead, is the power that raised us up from the dead. You know I don't think he put any strain on God to make the world. He just created it. He didn't put any strain on God to create light, he just spoke the word and said, let there be light, and there was light. But I'm going to suggest to you, that it in a sense, put a strain on God, to raise Jesus from the dead. In this sense, that it tells us in Ephesians, what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, when he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him as his own right hand in heavenly places. Now there's a lot of, awful lot of energy there, it says the exceeding greatness, you see there are measures of God's power exerted through the word of God. Sometimes a thing doesn't even cost God as much power as others. But it says here, the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead. There's a very tragic thing happened during the past week, a young couple with a very beautiful child, discovered the child was missing. Sounded an alarm, eventually they received a phone call to say the child will be returned unharmed, for just a couple of million dollars. The child happened to be the grandchild of one of the great tycoons in South America, a man who's made multiplied millions of dollars, out of ten. Immediately contact was made for, with him, and of course he got everybody stirred up about this awful tragedy that happened in Europe. A child had been stolen, the demand was two million dollars, and he said well pay it. Now do you think it took any energy for a man to reach over and take his checkbook, and when he'd ten million dollars, just write out two million dollars? That demands no energy to write a check. But I'm going to suggest his heart wasn't torn up, there weren't a thousand fears. He wasn't wondering will they really pay? Will the child be dead? His hopes, his fears, everything was tormenting him. There was nothing in writing the letter, pardon me, nothing in writing the check. There were awful anxieties and problems in his spirit, in his mind, when he thought about all the possibilities that there were, in getting that child back. I mean to interpret that this way, that I don't think God said let there be light, there was light. But he didn't say let there be Calvary, and there was Calvary. You're dealing here with modern spiritual principles. You're dealing with powers of darkness. Now Jesus Christ was a lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And I think again, that we forget so much of the agony of the Father, from the time Jesus left the ivory palaces to come into a world of woe. The loneliness was on the behalf of the Father, because the Father had no one in heaven way to do it. As a hymn writer says, thou didst not spare thine only son, but gavest him for a world undone. But you see, Calvary is the expression of the love of God. Calvary expresses the love of God. The resurrection explains the power of God. How many hymns do we sing about the blood of Jesus? How many do we sing about the resurrection? It's equally as important, there is no difference in them. If you have no resurrection, Calvary is no good. We sing tearfully woe the whole realm of nature man. That's all right, I don't mind about that. But remember the Apostle says, we're not just saved by his death, we're saved by his life. You think of all the colossal epistles that this man has written, why this man, why does he need to worry he's in prison? He's got the most amazing track record of any man that ever lived outside of Jesus. He's raised the dead, he's opened the eyes of the blind, he's cast out demons, he's written more epistles than all the other men put together. And yet he says I want to know him. It isn't that he doesn't know him, he says there's a fuller revelation of him. I've been thinking about this text for a few days, and I moved some letters off my desk. And I didn't know they'd been there so long, but I read this letter over again, and discovered it was written in 1975. Now sure enough I'd answered it. I'd some in 1973, I hadn't answered, so I answered them. But this one's from my old 96 year old friend, he's 96 years old now. And it just fit in where I was thinking. He said Ravenhill, I've been thinking about that word, where Paul says that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection. Now look he said, for 60 years I've been trying to fathom that, but I do not understand the mystery of it. There's something there I can't unearth. It reminded me of when we were in Ireland, there was a little godly man by the name of Busby, in a town called Dungannon. He was a strange character for sure, that's why he liked me, because we're both strange. And he had some strange customs, he used the old folklore for healing people. And I used to shudder sometimes at the things that he did. But you know what, he had a mighty power in prayer too, and sometimes he wouldn't touch those things, and people would laugh at him. And he'd go to prayer by himself, and he'd stay there until victory came, deliverance came. He had a marvelous ministry of prayer and healing. He went to his little house, wasn't much more than a shack one day. And he said, well I got it, I got it. He got what? Well do you remember I told you there's no water around here? He has a hog farm. And so he sent up to the university, Queen's University, and a man came with a string of degrees, and a geologist, and he examined the soil, and he examined the rocks, and he went all around his little farm, and he said, no water here, not a drop, forget it. You can't expand your farm, you can't get more hogs, you've no water. Well he said, I'm sure there's water. No, no, no listen, you don't question me, I've got so many degrees, and I've got this, and I've got the other. I tell you that geologically, there's nothing around here. But he said, right over the fence there, you see that spot there, I've been over there while you were awake, there's water there, can you get that? And he said, no sir, that belongs my neighbor. So he paid the fee, which he thought was exorbitant to the man, and the fellow went off. Now don't ask me how this works, I don't know. But he took a switch out of the hedge, from a hazel tree, like a letter Y. And he got all of the two ends here, the other Y's pointed at the other ends there, you know, down. And he walked, and he got to a spot where the thing started going like this, and he said, there's water there. Do you know you could reach out of his bedroom window to it? And he said, it's there. And I'll tell you it's not more than about 15 feet down, if it's there. Well the man that lived with him, the bachelor friend said, I always thought you were a nut, but now I'm sure. You've cleared it all up for me, you are an idiot. What are you going to do? Dig a well. Now digging a well there, you don't just make a little shaft, you dig the well however wide you want it. So he starts digging the well four feet in diameter. It was a heartbreaking job, but he's a muscular man. He'd been a weightlifter, though he's only about that height. He's a tremendous physique. And he went down and down for about, I don't know, 14 feet. And then he came, a slab of rock, as hard as any rock you ever saw in your life. And his friend said, well Smarty, there you are, what are you going to do now? He said, shift the rock. For what? He said, right, and do you know what that rock is? He said, yes it's a rock. He said, it's a plug. And when I pull that plug, he said, that water's going to come, like that. Oh man, he said, are you crazy? So he fixed a tripod up, and he put a windlass there, and he got a chain underneath, and he started hot. Do you know, he just turned that rock over on one side, and that thing went up like that. He could hardly get out of that well fast enough. And he took me around to see it. He said, look, the water's coming out so quick, I've got a four inch pipe, and I'm letting it come out. It's kind of an artesian well, and I'm flooding it into an area, and keeping that water there. You just think that I've been round here, I've had to carry water for years, and here it is in front of my doorstep. Come round here, and he showed me, he said, look, you could lean out of my window, and drop a bucket in that well, and get that beautiful spring water. And I've been without those resources all the time. You know, when I thought of what my old friend said, I thought, that's right, there's something in this word resurrection, that as yet we have not fathomed. There's a plug here, if you like, we've got to lift it, and discover what there is lying underneath it. Because Paul says, despite his wonderful history, man I would be intoxicated with joy, if I'd had a ministry like his. I get people sometimes who say, you wrote me a letter, it turned my life round. Well I thank God, I can be his servant in that. But he's written letters that turn millions of lives round. Starving people have gone to his epistles and found strength. Thirsty people have gone and found something to drink. The weak have gone and found energy in them. The hopeless have gone and found hope. People who were just at the end of their tether, suddenly struck life. Because this man had an inspiration, and yet he says, despite that, you won't spoil me, I may have written epistles, I may have raised the dead, and he had, and I've done this. But he said, I want to tell you something. I want to aspire, and I want to know him, and I want to reach out in life. I want to know that resurrection life. You see, no other religion in the world has a resurrection. This is the crowning miracle of God. As I said, Paul builds his pyramid like this, all his epistles, 14 if you put Hebrews at the top. He turns them all over and balances them on a fine point like that. And he says, but look, with all I've given you, about the mercy of God, the majesty of God, predestination, all the future, it all is balanced on one thing, the resurrection. And if there is no resurrection, you're through, you're yet in your sins. Well what is unique about it? Didn't Jesus raise people from the dead? Yes he did, yes he did. Because he said, I am the resurrection. The resurrection isn't part of my theology, the resurrection is a person. Paul made it clear in the 24th of Acts. He says, because Jesus rose, everybody will rise. You know sometimes again, I don't know if you ever feel you're dumb, maybe you're too smart to feel you're dumb, but often I feel I'm dumb, I'll tell you that. I think that somehow, one day a man lifted the latch as it were. You know like sometimes you, you've opened the door and everything in the cupboard was falling out, you try to get it back and somehow it wouldn't. You thought, oh well let it go, out it comes. You've all done it. One day a man lifted the latch and he let iniquity come into the world, and by one man's sin, he polluted the whole human race. What a hell, hell will be for that man surely, unless God in mercy met him somewhere. To pollute one life is bad, to pollute millions and billions of people since creation. Then Newman says in his hymn, which isn't quite right, all loving wisdom of our God, when all was sin and shame, a second Adam. No not a second, if there's a second there might be a third. He was the last Adam. Loving wisdom of our God, when all was sin and shame, a second, the last Adam to the fight and to the rescue came. All wisest love, but flesh and blood which did in Adam fail. I can't prove this, but I'm sure that one day Jesus said in eternity to his father, who was heartbroken over the sin of the universe. Father will you let me go to earth and show men you can live in flesh and blood and be a perfect example of your holiness? I can live there and obey you, even if the gates of hell come upon me. And it's awesome to think that what he did, the Word of God says as he was, so we in this world. God expects me to have the world afresh and the devil under my feet. I'll get bruised, my emotions will rise and fall, my days will be dark or light. It has to be that way, it is the way the Master went. I was reading today where Paul said sorrow came upon me. I read it of Jesus going into the garden and it says as he went into the garden he was in great heaviness of spirit. Don't let the devil trick you on your emotions, that doesn't change your standing with God because your feelings change. I get up one morning I could conquer the world with two fingers. I get up the next morning I feel if somebody blew on me nearly I'd fall over. I know I wouldn't, but emotions are so uncertain, they're so unpredictable, you can't chart a course for them. Sure Jesus says I am the resurrection and the life. Oh I love, I love, I love to think of old Parker, maybe not the greatest preacher but sure a great preacher in England. Visualizing that resurrection morning when the stone was put over the grave. And those precious women, they get criticized, sure they do, everybody does. But remember this, they were the last at the cross, they were the first at the sepulcher. And that precious woman, can you imagine a precious woman, she was going to carry the body of Jesus. You know what, if he'd been dead she'd have done it too. Because there are times when with your zeal and human love you can do things you could never do. She would have taken that body if she could, but no. She got there and the stone was there, just before she got there anyway. And then over the stone the wax, and over the wax the seals, and then the soldiers. And then finally, I can see Satan saying I'm not sure if I can manage this. And some demon says your majesty, let's roll the sin of the world against the stone. Now we've got him, the stone, the wax, the seal, the soldiers, the sin of the world. Well I'm not sure that we'll keep him captive. And the demon says your majesty, supposing every demon puts his shoulder against that stone, we've got him now. And when I hear about a Cape Canaveral, a countdown, I always think friend you're two thousand years too late, because the countdown was the resurrection morning. Old Lucifer says we've got him, now hold him, we've got the stone, the wax, the seal, the soldiers, the sin of the world, every demon. Hold it, hold it, hold it. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five. It got to two and he was just going to say one. And the Holy Ghost slipped in and raised up Jesus from the dead. How do I know? Because Romans 8 says that. The spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead. It's wonderful that he raised me from the dead. God perpetuated that miracle in me. You hattie crick and you were dead. Not merely bad, we were dead. Some of us would even admit more than that, we stunk as well. We smelled, we made other people feel the rottenness of our lives. And Jesus says I am the resurrection, I like that. I laugh when I see the Pope. I don't know why they call him Holy Father when they dress him like Mother. But anyhow, he's got his skirt on and he's got some keys at the side. And he says he has the keys of the kingdom below me. I happen to know at the end of the revelation Jesus says, listen I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive forevermore. And I have the keys of death and of hell. And friend you won't die one minute before God wants you to if you're in his will. I don't care whether you're rotting a concentration camp or what. He has the time of your death, he has the time of my death. He has the keys, nobody will destroy us. He has the keys. All power is given unto me he says. Well I say there were resurrections. Yes but they were all different. You know Jesus was quite comfortable in the presence of death, it didn't trouble him. I've heard people say you know I've been to see some dead people. Did you ever touch one? Oh no I'd never. Oh I'd die if I touched somebody dead. Well that didn't worry Jesus anyhow. Who did he raise from the dead? He raised Jairus his daughter. He raised the widow of the, the son of the widow of Nain. And he raised Lazarus. Three people he raised from the dead. What's the difference between their resurrection and his? Oh a lot. Because theirs had no vicarious power to it for one thing. The second thing they were all called forth from the tomb. He wasn't. The third thing when they all came from the tomb they were all bound with hands, with clothes, headbands and their feet. And you know Jesus walked out of it. Samuel and Chadwick used to say, do you know why they knew it was Jesus? Because it says that his clothes were over there and the nabkin was lying by itself somewhere over here. Now what happened with the people raised from the dead? They had clothes on them, they were bound. Jesus didn't have to be unbound. He slipped out of those clothes like a, like a caterpillar slips out of a cocoon. And he got up from the couch and he'd come over here and he took the turban off his head and he put it down there. And do you know why they knew? Because they knew the way Jesus folded his napkin. I'm sure they did. If you put 10 people around our table at home, we always, we always had linen napkins, not these terrible paper ones. So we always had linen napkins. Do you know we were in a hotel a while ago, they served linen napkins. I nearly wanted to take it as a souvenir. I couldn't believe anybody ever served them, they get stolen so often. But you know when the disciples saw the way he folded his napkins, they said that's it, that's it, that's it, he's risen. He's risen from the dead. So he didn't need anybody to call him forth. You remember one man tried to intimidate him and he says, listen you better watch your step mister, because I'll put you to death. And Jesus says, you know sir, there's nobody living can take my life from me. I like that. That was more insulting than if it spit on him. Do you know who I am? I'm the power of the Roman Empire. I don't care if you're the power of all hell behind you. There's nobody on earth can take my life from me. He said, I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up. Brother that's power. Sometimes you need power not to use power. Sometimes you need power to be dumb, instead of tell somebody off. It takes power. So everybody else that was raised from the dead, number one somebody else called them, nobody called him. Number two, they were bound with with cloths and he wasn't bound with cloths. Number three, they all went back and died again. Didn't they? At least I haven't seen them around, so I kind of figure they must be dead. But what does the scripture say about the Lord Jesus? Well let me read it to you, I swear. Let me see Romans. Oh man, this puts the clincher on the whole thing. Now he says in verse six, eight. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, doth no more, death hath no more dominion over him. Man that's worth a thousand hallelujahs. If you say one I'll forgive you. Death hath no more dominion over him. Yes sir. The others died twice. It is appointed unto man once to die. Some of them poor souls had to die twice. That's pretty rough isn't it? You say well Enoch and Elijah didn't die did they? Hey you wait, get to the end of Revelation what happens? Who lies in the streets of Jerusalem? So God's going to fulfill. You see we live under a moral law. God has said whatsoever a man saw that shall he reap. And if God says in Adam all die, they're gonna die. But he says Jesus came. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, he dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him. Let's step back a minute. I say the spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead is the spirit that quickens us. Because a man is dead in trespasses and in sin. That's why sometimes you can't drive home to people how bad they are. Sometimes we say they sit and reject the gospel. They never heard it. They never heard it. With these ears yes. I think I quoted to Herb the other day. Where when Moody came to England, he upset a lot of the preachers. Because they were so you know, nice English stuffy Englishmen with their academic degrees and everything. Moody was a murderer. Well I mean he murdered the English language anyhow. Man he, he couldn't say Jerusalem in three syllables. He said Jerusalem. He called Daniel, Daniel. It took the English about a week to figure out what he was talking about. He murdered the king's English. And Alexander McCarran, the king of the pulpit in the north of England, was on the platform and he listened with amazement. He wasn't even a good looking man. He'd never have got away with it in our day. Hadn't a toothpaste smile and a nice personality. But brother I'll tell you, God was on that little shoe, shoe salesman from Chicago. There's no man swept England since. Graham didn't touch anything like, like dear old Moody. Did. And one day in a big auditorium, a man came down the aisle weeping and he collapsed at the altar. And Alexander McCarran just, he was watching and praying you know. And he saw his main deacon come to the altar. The main deacon of the first Baptist church in Manchester, that colossal city at the altar, listening to an illiterate American. He said I went down to him and put my arm around his shoulder and said to him brother Smith or whatever he was. What are you doing here? You're a deacon. He said yes sir I'm, I'm a deacon in your church. But I don't understand. He said as a matter of fact brother look uh, you know I'm considered a great preacher. I preached on this text about three weeks ago and you'll listen to every word. And he sent right straight back to him but I never heard a thing you said. He heard it. But the inward ear was not open, he was dead, he was unresponsive in that sense. No man comes under the father except the father draw him. You are the quicken now listen if he quickens. I don't believe that necessarily somebody gets saved in the first meeting that they hear the gospel in. I didn't for sure. I think there are times when just like a worm eating in somebody's heart, that spirit of conviction comes until people get sleepless and troubled and worried and anxious. And then finally you don't have to coax or beg or threat, threaten. The spirit of God has done his work but we don't like it in these days. I'm making no excuses I'm just saying this that the old-fashioned way when you know people didn't used to get saved like they get saved anymore. You know even the Pentecostals that I know of don't have any tarrying meetings anymore. They used to when we were kids. He used to say to a deacon going out you know I believe that I know there's something wrong in my life and I'd like to come to a tarrying meeting. I want to tarry. And they used to have tarrying meetings. They had a select company of deacons who stayed in that meeting and talked to people, met God. They wanted to be endued with power from on high. I don't care which way it's done that, that's not the point. But I'm saying that there no longer seems to be that in-wrought deep conviction of the Spirit of God where men and women say foul I to that fountain fly, wash me Savior or I die. Again we offer people heaven. We offer them peace of mind. We offer them forgiveness. I've never heard Graham clearer than about a month ago when he said one night look I've come to this conclusion that salvation means this. Is your heart occupied by God? I don't know why he said the other day I expect to meet Elvis Presley in heaven that puzzles me. That knocks the skin off my nose. I don't I don't understand it but that's his business. But isn't that what it really is? Christ in you the hope of glory. You see again Paul runs his flag to the Corinthians. Of all people if there's a stress pull on earth it was Corinth. And Paul runs his flag up there in the second epistle what is it chapter 5 and verse 17 where he says if any man, I love that, I never say to myself or pray for what I get goose pimples. If any man be in Christ, any man anywhere at any time, if he be in Christ he is a new creation. God isn't in the patching up business. He doesn't plug you where you're leaking. He makes a man a new creation. Don't we sing it in that lovely hymn of Wesley's love divine all love excelling finish then thy new creation pure and spotless let us be. Wesley was right when he said justification is sanctification begun. Sanctification is instantaneous and progressive. The Christian life is process, crisis, process, crisis except it's uphill. If it were level it wouldn't be so bad but brother it's uphill. Now when a man is born again of the Spirit of God. What does it say in Romans 6? If it really happened therefore we are buried with him in baptism and like we are buried with him by baptism unto death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we are being planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. And writing there you remember to the Colossians he says if ye be risen with Christ if there is not a question it really is it's a bad translation in one sense because you're risen in Christ seek those things which are above. Now when Jesus was raised from the dead he just shuffled off that coat he was wearing that cloak and he left behind. Now if a man is a new creature in Christ all those habits are going to break away. Do you know why? Because habits are the clothing of the soul and if you have filthy habits when you're born again of the Spirit of God and become a new creation those dirty filthy rotten habits will drop off just like that. I remember preaching the first day of World War II. I was to start an eight-day crusade in the head church of the Nazarene in Glasgow, Scotland. It's in Parkhead outside town a suburb. And sure enough what we had feared most came upon us that night before the meeting they announced World War II had begun. Well that shattered our meetings I'll tell you. It was a big church I don't think we got more than 50 people that we started to have a meeting in the side room and I preached my heart out every night. One night I just said look if you have business to do if you do not know you're born again of the Spirit of God if you're still bound and fettered and burdened and your conscience lashes you and the fear of death and the fear of judgment torments you. Come and receive Christ confess your sin ask for cleansing ask for the Holy Spirit. And I said we'll wait we won't sing you just walk out into this side room. If I remember right three people walked out. We prayed we talked with them then I looked back and there was a fine rosy-cheeked Scotch boy there and he beckoned me and I went to him. I said hello and he said my name is I think it was Donald I know his second name was Wilson it used to be Martha's name that and so uh he says in his Scottish way Mr Ravenhill I'm not a Christian I believe I'm a very good boy but oh I need Christ. So I said well that's great if you know that it's a wonderful thing I said do you come from a Christian family and he said ah no he says my father my father he says my father is a communist and he's a very very vicious communist. What about your mother? Ah he says she was a Christian but she's backslidden. I said well how do you know? Ah he says I know she goes to movies. You see when you're born again over in Europe movies go right out you never enter a movie house you're feeding the devil's children with God's money you're spending time there I'm just telling you what he said. But then he asked me about salvation I told him what it meant that he he not only got rid of his sins he gave his life to Jesus and Jesus became not only his Savior but his Lord and also if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus I said you know what it means let me lay the cards on the table. It means if you repent of your sin and you take Christ as your Savior you go home and when you get in you shut the door and you put your arms up like this and you say to your daddy will your daddy be home? Ah he'll be smoking his pipe in his his chair and reading a Glasgow Herald and ah he'll be there drinking his beer maybe and my mother will be there so I said all right now you've got a good chance shut the door put your back behind it fold your arms so you can't get out and just say father I've become a Christian tonight I've taken Jesus as my Lord and my Savior. Oh he says does it mean all that? I said well he says if you're ashamed to confess him he'll be ashamed to confess you before his father in heaven. Well I tell you the meetings didn't swell too much everybody was terrified there were threats that we were going to be wiped out by bombing every night yet a couple of dozen people came. The second night there's a man sitting there a scarred man he's a kind of a red thing around his neck and I just made a short appeal I said maybe there's someone here needs Christ tonight if you do you just get up and walk into that room I'll come and pray with you this man got hurt and he walked into the room I talked with him asked him did he know that no no no ah not at all he says not at all I'm a communist oh oh and he raised it away about communism about the evils of this but he says listen that's not the problem he says I've got a wee laddie he's not 15 and I thought I'd courage he says you know what he did two nights ago he came home and shut the door and put his arms up like this and says daddy mummy you've got a new son I've been saved and Jesus is my Lord and he's my Savior and and he said he knocked me for a loop I didn't want to smoke I didn't want to drink my beer I thought what my laddie my God he said I should have shown him the way my laddie's got saved he said laddie where did it happen oh he says there's a I think they're called English Sassanach a Sassanach preaching down there in the in the head church of the Nazarene and I went oh he said those Nazarenes are good folk they're the only people have a street meeting down at the cross there now laddie he said you'll be in good company if you stay with those Nazarenes that was a good testimony for a communist and he said you know if my laddie's got saved if he needed saving sure I need it you know that big rough man that looked as though he could have turned around and knocked me right through the building he just bawled like a child he said I'm a sinner I need a Savior I'll do anything you tell me that's the only one thing to do break your heart at the cross and don't make any excuses say I'm the sinner am I who on Jesus rely and come for a pardon God cannot deny and he'll take you in well I didn't go back to that town for a few years and I preached again in that stately church the war was over and the deacons usually stood at the back and as you came in they escort you to your seat you know and then they do the other things take the offering all the other things that deacons the elders or somebody are trained to do and as we now as we sat there the the pastor James Baxter McLagan said to me brother Raven will you see that well-dressed man over on the left there the one with the white starch collar on and I said yes he said that's Wilson didn't ring a bell Wilson oh he says come on he said you remember the communist that got saved because his laddie stood up and testified but yeah he said that's him do you know he's about the strongest Christian in this church man you can rely on that man he's as sure as the dawn prayer and as a matter of fact he wants you to go to their home for a meal I went to the house and they were the whole family had got saved teenage daughters mother had come back to God father was there and I looked at the house it was beautifully painted and it was beautifully done and he said you know Mr Raven I was the kind of guy wanted to get the world right and I wasn't right myself and he said I'll tell you how much change it makes Jesus Christ not only changed my life he's changed the whole home I could I wasn't content even to live in the slum I was in I said no this is not where we should be and he said I discovered the gospel did this it met me personally it met me domestically it met me socially because I've been able to go back in the factory and tell men there of the miracle power of the gospel that he took out they have it and what I was cursing other people for I had in myself I had money but I spent it on liquor smoking all the other things and since Christ came he's completely changed and revolutionized my life that's the gospel which is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth this is a classical case in my mind again of you Hathi quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sin let me look before I finish here Colossians 3 Paul says in verse 3 verse 1 if ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God set your affection on things which are above not things which are beneath now the distinction is this that the life is a life above the discipline is this set your affection on them it's one thing for God to make a proper possible a thing it's another thing for us to appropriate that thing step back a minute into the chapter and he says again in verse 12 what was said in Romans verse 12 of chapter chapter 2 we're buried with him in baptism wherein also ye are risen with him through faith in the operation of God who has raised him from the dead and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened together with him having forgiven you all trespasses now verse 20 wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world where pardon me whereof if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances touch not taste not handle not which perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men now chapter 3 verse 1 if ye then being risen with Christ seek those things which are above wherein Christ also sitteth at the right hand of the father now i'm going to finish it with this look Paul to me the most mature Christian that ever lived the most successful ministry the man who had revelations that God said keep your mouth closed about it I sometimes wonder if he had a preview of what John finally saw in the book of the revelation that God says you can't say a word about it somebody else is going to do it here is a man who's reached the peak as it were of spirituality and he says yet that I may know him and the power of his resurrection do you know I had forgive me I'm so dumb I had never thought of this in the same way that after Jesus rose from the dead he was seen of his brethren 40 days 40 is a number of probation Moses was on the mount 40 days Israel was in the wilderness 40 days Jesus was tempted 40 days it is a period of probation right so Jesus has risen from the dead what did it mean I never thought of it before it meant he did nothing after the most amazing minister in the world he never preached he never did a miracle he never taught his disciples he finished finished oh that takes my breath because you see that God gives nations up I've told you before but I think the most exciting thing in the world would be when Jesus rose from the dead that before ever Mary went to him or anyone else he'd gone and slapped Pontius Pilate on the jaw while he was sleeping one o'clock in the morning and when Pilate woke up he just said well now what are you going to do you kill me here I am I'm alive I'm alive forevermore what are you going to do why didn't he do it why didn't he go to the high priest hey I'll tell you what I think those disciples must have walked very close with God after the resurrection do you know why because he might have jumped on them just when they were doing something they shouldn't have done they never knew where he was you kill me here I am I'm alive I'm alive forevermore what are you going to do why didn't he do it why didn't he go to the high priest Hey, I'll tell you what. I think those disciples must have walked very close with God after the resurrection. Do you know why? Because he might have jumped on them, just when they were doing something they shouldn't have done. They never knew where he was. What if they'd gone in the wrong place and Jesus appeared? He appears to Mary. Isn't that wonderful? Dear Mary. You know somebody who can say your name like nobody else on earth? Martha says my name like nobody else on earth. Can you imagine? She's there in the dark. You know that little word supposing only comes twice in the whole of the New Testament. I don't have any problems with these so-called problem texts in the Old Testament. My problem is this. How did Mary and Joseph lose Jesus? The most amazing babe that ever lived. And do you know where they lost him? When they've been to a church service. They were returning from the great feast. The most exciting feast of the year. And Mary comes up at the end of the day and says Joseph. Oh these sanctified people. I couldn't even get a drink of water at the well. I got my trowel tied on. And I didn't get. Did you get one? He said no darling. I didn't even try. Everybody's grabbing, grabbing. They were singing high praises to God yesterday. But boy they were shoving around. I couldn't get a drink. How are you? Tired out. How are you? Worn to a, worn to a frazzle. Well Mary how's Jesus getting on? What? That's a simple question. How's Jesus getting on? Oh come on don't tease me this out of the day. I've told you I'm worn out. Well tell me how did he get on? Well I don't know. Well he's been with you all day. He's been with me. I've never seen him all day. How did they lose Jesus? They traveled all day. Have you ever noticed that you've traveled some whole days without his presence maybe. And then suddenly jerked up and said my Lord, my Lord. That's why that old monk said you could offer me every minister in the world. But I would turn them down to practice the presence of God. If I don't practice his presence I don't want all the other things. Francis Henry Light wrote the hymn Abide With Me. And remember he says in it, I need thy presence every passing hour, naught but thy grace. They lost Jesus. He was 12 years of age because he'd been up to the temple at 12 years. He couldn't have sat there unless he was 12 years of age. 12 going into 13. What do you think they did? Well we go to sleep. We won't worry. We'll find him tomorrow. I guess they turned right back and their noses were pressed against the gate. When the man opened the gate of the city the next morning they were breathless wanting to get in. And they searched and didn't find him. And they searched a third day before they found him. Why did they go on? It says they, supposing he was in the company and he wasn't there. And she drew near to the sepulcher and she supposed it was the gardener. And it wasn't. So she supposed he wasn't there when he was there. And they supposed he was he was there when he wasn't there. Hey it doesn't pay to suppose does it? You could be miles out. Supposing. I had never thought of that till praying yesterday. What's the last report on Jesus? Oh he was by the Sea of Galilee. Somebody came down and told us. No no no they didn't do that. Jesus could go as quickly. What's the quickest way to travel? Jet? No no no. Telephone? No no no. What's a quick thought? You mentioned Tasmania to me. I can see Tasmania. I can see the first time I flew into it. You went to a city. You remember? Somebody says the name of a city. Houston. Well who wanted to go to Houston? But anyhow. Houston. And you say oh I remember. Man asked Betty. They drove a van through there. A mobile home. And boy is it rough driving. Man you'll be better driving over the lake than driving through Houston. But immediately you mention the name. Thought takes you there. They didn't know where Jesus was. Somebody might have said do this. And somebody says hey watch your step. You know he might just come up the road when you don't expect it. He might walk up behind you. Two of our friends were walking the other day and they were just going so heavy and distressed. And some fellow came up behind and they said well don't you know haven't you been in Jerusalem? And all they did was see a shadow. They didn't bother about the shadow is it? Just some guy going down the road that's all. But do you think they kicked themselves after? On the road to Emmaus. That was the best Bible school that was ever opened. And nobody said. He unfolded from Moses. Man that must be marvelous to listen to Jesus. But they didn't know it was him. You know it used to be in England. I remember when I was a boy in England that when you got an envelope with announcing a death. It had about a black margin. About quarter of an inch of black. And as soon as the mail came you saw that oh somebody's dead. You don't want to open it. You don't know who it is. I think it's Jowett says in one of his letters. You know some of God's blessings come to us in black edged envelopes. Or as George Matheson says I trace the rainbow through the rain. And feel the promise is not vain. That dawn shall tearless be. So this is what it did. The resurrection of Jesus Christ ended all his ministry. It made a final complete separation. And he had perfect peace when he'd lost the crowds. When he'd lost his miracle ministry. When he wasn't teaching the basic laws of his kingdom. The kingdom of love. Teaching the Sermon on the Mount. And he was contented just to walk, walk, walk in his resurrection life. Are you and I as contented as that? This man says look I'm in prison. I'm sure he was. Because at the end of the epistle he says listen there are saints in Caesar's household. And I think maybe he was in a basement chained up there. And again he didn't ask for deliverance. He says you know that resurrection power that quickened him. I want that resurrection. It's true if you read this. If you you Greek fellows read this. It says here what it says nowhere else in the New Testament. I want to attain the out resurrection from the dead. He's speaking of an ultimate resurrection. Because you remember in the in the 20th chapter of Revelation. It talks about a company that are raised. And the rest of the dead live not again for a thousand years. He wants to be in that first glorious resurrection. I don't know it was recently. Somebody said to me well I hope I'm alive when Jesus comes. Well I said one of the greatest saints I ever knew. Always said I hope I'm dead when Jesus comes. Why did he say that? Because it says the dead in Christ shall rise first. And I want to get a start he said. Well that's very nice. Except remember this. It says the dead in Christ shall rise first. But wait a minute. Do you know why they have to rise first? Because they're dead. They need a bit of a start. They've a long way to come up. You and I will be on the ground level. So he's going to call them up. And we which are alive shall be caught up together with them in the air to meet the Lord. But he says I don't want to stay and miss that thousand years millennial reign. He's talking I believe about the out resurrection from the dead. But he's also talking about that resurrection power. Why? Because he says if you're risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. Not things earthly, sensual, devilish. Have as little to do as you can with it. Seek the lofty things, the holy things, the life of prayer, the life of inspiration, the life of joy in the Spirit. Remind yourself not when you shuffle off this mortal coil. Tell yourself every morning even now I'm a child of God. Sure the world will rough me up. It roughed him up. Is this vile world a friend to grace to help us on to God? No sir it's not. As Tozer said remember keep this in your mind. He used to say Len keep this in your mind. Remember this. That while ever you and I are on earth we're passing through enemy territory. It's hostile country. The old enemy is going to shoot darts at us. Oppositions are going to come. We're speckled birds. The world doesn't like what we do. Doesn't like what we say. Doesn't like the way we act. It's a corrupt, evil, sinful, wicked world. It follows its God. It's ruled by the Prince of the power of the air. There's an eternal antagonism between the two. But he says you keep your head up. Remember that you can draw day by day by day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment on the resurrection life of Jesus. Because the resurrection life of Jesus is the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead. As I've said to you the older I get the more I realize every work of the Holy Spirit is majestic. He gave us this word and only today I thought of it. Thank God it doesn't go moldy like the, like the bread the children of Israel got. They kept it too long. It went moldy. Well this has been around 2,000 years. It's sweeter than honey in the honeycomb. Gets more precious. The Holy Ghost made it. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. The church which is his body was a creation of the Holy Ghost. The child in the womb of the Virgin Mary conceived by the Holy Ghost. The Christ dead then he's going to rise. And in that rising, every sin that man has ever committed from here back to eternity. If a man will come, doesn't matter what kind of sin is. You can rate it as you like. The Romanists put it in different categories. Makes no difference. The Word of God says that Jesus was raised from the dead, and death dieth no more, and he dieth no more. And because he lives we shall live also. And the death I say of the Lord Jesus, the cross proves the love of God. The resurrection proves the power of God. And if he were risen from the dead, God intended we should have under our feet what he had. The world, the flesh, the devil. Jesus is risen. He's cut off from the world. He lives in it but he's not of it. Again this, this, I can't explain what this does to me. But when I think that for 40 days and nights he didn't say a word to the world. When I think that for 2,000 years he's never bothered with the Jews. Makes me wonder if God turns his back on America before long. We're in for an awful, awful lot of trouble. Worse than we've ever dreamed on. Maybe if Gabriel could shout a word to America right now, or England, or Australia, so-called civilized countries. He'd say what Jesus said, O Jerusalem, O Chorazin, O Bethsaida, if Bethesda, if Bethsaida, if thou knewest the day of thy visitation. We don't know how blessed we are. We have food, we've clothing. Do you think it might take judgment, prison, to get some people really together? To break down bad spirits, and unforgiving spirits, and hardness of heart? Will it have to be done in tears because it hasn't been done on the cross, through the love of the Lord Jesus. Let's aspire by the grace of God day by day. Let's say with Paul that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship. I'm not asking to step out of the fellowship. The Church of Jesus Christ is suffering, and I want to suffer with them in that sense, as best I can in spirit. And maybe we'll do it physically. That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection. The fellowship is suffering, being made conformable to his death. Because if I really died, if that baptism I went into, was a symbol only of something that had happened at the moment Jesus died, I died with him. And the moment he rose, I rose with him. And I'm not dragging a withered limb. He did a complete job. Sure there are corrections, there are improvements, there are growths in grace. But he died that we might be cleansed. He died that we might be pure. He died that we might live a victorious life. The resurrection life of Jesus, quickening our mortal bodies. One day that resurrection will actually take place, in a triumphant shattering of all the graves. They're going to come from earth's wide bounds, and oceans farthest coast. Through gates of pearl will stream in a countless host. Singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Hallelujah. Be wonderful to sit down with Paul, and ask him what he really meant about this resurrection power. But let's keep reading, and let's keep believing, and let's keep obeying. Father we thank you again, for the privilege of fellowship. We're so glad again, we've not followed a cunningly devised fable. We thank you for the revelation of truth, which is eternal. And we know again, in whom we have believed, and we're persuaded, that you're able to keep that which we have committed unto thee. We pray for an expansion of vision, an expansion of revelation, a deeper willingness to go further with thee, than we have gone before. That we may so walk circumspectly, that if you appeared at our side, we wouldn't embarrass you, and you wouldn't embarrass us. Because we're walking in the place of obedience. That your blessing be upon each of us. Give these dear ones journeying mercies as they travel. And glorify yourself in our life, we ask in Jesus name. Amen.