Leonard Ravenhill emphasizes the significance of Pentecost, portraying it as the birth of the Christian church and the moment when Jesus offered the living water of the Holy Spirit to all who thirst. He reflects on Jesus' bold declaration during the feast, highlighting the daring, dangerous, and defiant nature of His actions in the temple amidst hostility. Ravenhill stresses that the Holy Spirit's coming is intrinsically linked to Jesus' glorification and that true spiritual life flows from a deep relationship with Christ. He challenges the church to seek a genuine outpouring of the Holy Spirit, urging believers to examine their lives for any barriers to this divine flow. Ultimately, he calls for a revival that glorifies Jesus and transforms lives through the rivers of living water that the Spirit provides.

Let me read just the text from verse 37 of the 7th chapter. In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly, good old English word there, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. To this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive. For the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. This is one day in the calendar of the church, the world hasn't been able to capitalize on. I'm sure if they thought about it, just as we sell those stupid Christmas trees, that pagan as they are, and Easter eggs and bunnies, evil as they are, in their original presentation to heathen gods. I wonder somebody hasn't started selling doves. Now don't mention it, because some of those boys on TV, will start and send you a holy dove or something, if you mention it. But this is one day. You see they know a lot about Christmas, I think they do, and they know a lot about Easter. But this is essentially the day of the church. Some people call it even the birthday of the church. Which is not quite true, because there was a church in the wilderness you remember. It is indeed the birthday of the Christian church as we know it. It's Pentecost Sunday. When I read this story in the seventh chapter of Luke, I feel indeed I want to fall at the feet of Jesus and say, you're the altogether lovely and the fairest of ten thousand to my soul. That's what I want to say. What I want to sing, and I did in my spirit today, was this, my wonderful Lord, my wonderful Lord. Jesus walking into the temple this day, the last great day of the feast, is like me walking into the Vatican, when the Pope is going to celebrate with all the cardinals, and the great dignitaries of the church, some great event, maybe some super mass. For Jesus to step into the temple, not a synagogue remember, but into the temple, meant to me at least three things. It was a very daring act, it was a very dangerous act, and it was a very defiant act. Sure I like Charles Wesley's hymn, Gentle Jesus, Meek and Mild, but I think very often it's been perverted. If you should go to Europe, you'll see those stained glass windows, which are priceless and beautiful. But Jesus is always a pathetic figure. He's usually sinking under his cross, or he has a little lamb in his arms, and he looks very effeminate. I have never seen a picture of Jesus, coming from that terrible last battle of Armageddon, with his skirts covered with blood. Having trodden down his enemies, and his wrath, and the wrath of God. We present Jesus as simple, Jesus as a healer, Jesus as gentle and kind. I say for Jesus to go into the feast, on the last great day of the feast, was a thing that excites my imagination totally. He's stepping into the midst of people, who are fuming with rage about him. Surely in the seventh chapter, they were all in a good holiday spirit. If you can't be happy on your holidays, where in the world can you be happy on vacation? And it was a vacation type. It was the last of the great feasts. It was the last day of the last feast. And for the previous days, they brought water from the pool of Siloam, in a golden vessel on the shoulder of a priest. And then they poured it into a silver vessel on the altar. And as they did that, they marched round, clapping their hands and singing, as we sang earlier, we're marching to Zion, only they were in Zion. They prayed on their harps. They cried in the language of Isaiah 12, With joy shall he draw water from the wells of salvation. Maybe part of that very scripture, our brother read this afternoon. You see they were celebrating a thing, that was so fascinating to them. It was the mighty sovereign power of God, that one day split a rock. And the New Testament says, that rock was Christ. And out of that stubborn unyielding rock, that wouldn't have yielded anything to anybody, except the man that smote it in obedience, there came forth a stream of water. And then you find in the prophecy of Joel, he says in the last chapter, which is the third chapter, and verse 18, It shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk. And all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth, of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valleys of Shittim. You see, Jesus says, a little later in this, when he makes this tremendous utterance, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. As it is, as the scripture has said, you search the whole Bible, you can't find a reference, for the simple reason it isn't written. But the scripture has said it by type. The scripture has said it in essence. It is not written in so many words. Jesus very seldom quoted scripture, he spoke in types. The essence of the thing is there in the word of God. And so there, the thing is described as a river. But in Ezekiel chapter 47, it says that the waters came down from under the right side of the house, on the south side of the altar. So that river proceeds from where? It proceeds from the place of death. And then the very last chapter in the book of the Revelation says, that from the throne, that proceeds from under the throne of the Lamb. Do you remember on the day of Pentecost, when Peter was asked what this was about? He says, Ye crucified the Lord of glory, and don't get that out of your mind. He died and he rose again, and because of that, this is possible. You cannot divorce, the coming of the Holy Spirit of God. From the work of the Lord Jesus. For the same thing is said again in, Zechariah chapter 13, In that day there shall be a fountain open in the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness. And this is the work of the Holy Spirit, to make real that which Jesus Christ has done. Alright, Jesus comes. It's the last day, the great day of the feast. The last time he was in the temple, as far as I can see, is in the second chapter. Yes, Jesus was meek and lowly, but remember the book of Revelation, talks about the wrath of the Lamb. And one day when God's patience runs out, with the church or with the world, we're going to see the greatest display of anger, the world has ever known. He was angry, they turned his father's house into a house, of money changers. And he kicked those tables over, and he drove those merchants out. And now he goes and stands in the midst of all that bunch of people, who are howling for his blood, and they hated him with every single power that they had. Don't you see his moral excellence? He has no sword, he's defenseless. Ah, but remember this, that Jesus is not telling us to seek and wait for the Holy Spirit, because he himself, you remember, did not begin to minister until the Spirit of the Lord was upon him. It is true that he'd read the scripture earlier, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, from Isaiah 60, because he hath anointed me to preach, but Jesus never opened his mouth, until the Holy Ghost came upon him. And again I delight in the fact, that this is beyond money and beyond price. Glad no man can pull his checkbook out, it may be Paul Getty, it may be the Rocky fellows, he can't write a check if he could. We'd have men all over the nation, strutting this afternoon and say, do you know I gave three million for the Holy Ghost? Somebody'd say, three? I gave fifty. But in this area God still says, your money perish with you. He lifts the beggar from the dunghill and makes him a prince unto God. Just yesterday they were talking about a negro, I've not met him, I'd like to. A coloured man, who can recite every word of the Bible, from the first word in Genesis to the last chapter. There's concentration. Somebody said he has no education, he's got the best education in the world. He can say, thy word have I hid in my heart. All the times we've read reading newspapers and fishing magazines and hunting magazines and junk, and we could have read the Word. So that if we go to jail, they can't get any photographs of what's inside of there, and you can call out, and the Spirit can bring to our remembrance. And somebody said, if you start reading from Zechariah, if you start in the middle of a chapter, you say, oh that's Zechariah chapter 12, verse 17, I remember, let me recite the rest to you. And he goes on, there is no place you can catch him out. I'll tell you what, God's going to give that man a special reward in that day. He's won in about a hundred million, or maybe he's won in a billion people, that have dared to take the Word and read it and believe it. Because again, there is a word of wisdom, which is from above, and it transcends all the philosophical interpretations of life, and all the powers of oratory that you may get, because you see, God loves His Word, and He says He'll honour His Word. Without the Word, the Word of God itself says, that the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. And you may have gunpowder there, you've got to ignite it, and when you ignite it, then you have the explosion. One of the great wonders of the Holy Spirit, Samuel Chadwick said, I remember distinctly, he said, when I received the Holy Ghost, he'd been a successful preacher. But you see, he built sermons of homiletical perfection and exegetical exactitude, and he erased words and put others in, and he presented the Gospels in faultlessly, grammatically, as well as theologically. One night in a little room, I think it was in a town called Stackstead, which is about a quarter of the size of this town, maybe an eighth of the size of it. And he said, one night I began to wonder, I began to wonder about my ministry, why I had no life and joy and power. And the Lord says, why don't you burn your idol? And he said, what's your idol? He said, your idol is your ability, your idol is your theology, your idol is your perfect sermon construction. And I can remember him telling us this, he said, gentlemen, I took my sermons, I wrapped them in a bundle and I put them in a little fireplace in my bedroom. The fireplace, you can span across it in an English bedroom, just takes the chill off the room. He said, I put my sermons and I struck a match and I lit my sermons. Oh, he said, they burned, they were so dry. And he said that with a twinkle in his eye, but he said, I'll tell you what, when the fire went up the chimney, the fire came down upon my spirit. And the outstanding thing to me, he said, when I received the Holy Ghost was the Word of God began to live and vibrate with a new power that it had never had before. It leapt at me. It seemed to leap off the page at times and seize me by my throat or my mind and say, this is what I'm saying to you. Jesus said, the Spirit of the Lord was upon him and if he needed the Holy Spirit then he surely did. Then you and I need the Holy Spirit too. I say it was daring for Jesus read the first verse of the seventh chapter if you like after these things Jesus walked in Galilee for he would not walk in Jewry because the Jews sought to kill him. They were seeking to kill him. Isn't that daring? Doesn't that show his moral excellence as well as his spiritual power? You know, I hear men talk about having the anointing but you know, I'm quite sure of this that there's something more than just laying hands on people or preaching cleverly or preaching with unction. There's a moral fortitude that comes. I had a disagreement with somebody years ago and I could have picked up the phone or wrote a letter and you know, it would have been easy I might have trembled a bit but you know, to go to that person though I was 100% in the right I still got butterflies but I knew it was the only way for me to be strengthened morally. You should never write a letter if you can meet a person face to face. You should never telephone if you can meet them face to face. Talk to them. It will test you to your toes. But Jesus had moral courage as well as spiritual and intellectual. Can you imagine the sensation when this man he kicked over the money changers table? Can't you see the money going over and the greedy people there grabbing it up little thieves running away with it and everybody and those men tearing their hair and saying who is this man? But he said my father's house is supposed to be a house of prayer and you have made it a den of thieves. So I say that's my number one reason for believing that Jesus here was well very daring to stand in the midst of a people that hated him intensely. It was very dangerous because they were seeking his life. He was very defiant. The second reason for this is verse 19 Did not Moses give you the law? And yet not one of you keepeth the law. Why go ye about to kill me? Now he throws it right in their teeth. Two things when they boasted of were of Moses they say that. We circumcise we do the things because Moses told us and he said there's not one of you keeps the law perfectly. Isn't that defiance? And then in verse 34 he says ye shall seek me. Oh pardon me a little earlier than that he says verse 27 How be it we know this man whence he is but when Christ cometh no man knoweth whence he is. Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught saying ye both know me and ye know whence I am and I am not come of myself but he that sent me is true whom ye know not. In other words he says you're liars you say you don't know who I am you know who I am you know by what authority I speak but because it's absolutely in opposition to what you believe and say therefore you say you don't know me but you know who I am you know whence I come. Now notice down in verse thirty thirty four ye shall seek me and shall not find me and where I am thither ye cometh come. Now that's shutting the whole bunch of them out of heaven. He says with all that you have where I go you cannot come. Again this is defiance and then in the forty fourth verse of the next chapter he says to these men who think they're the very elite of the earth he says you're of your father the devil and the works of your father ye do. Now it's into that atmosphere that Jesus comes. On the last day the great day of the feast the seven previous days they had poured water out again from the pool of Ceylon. They did it with dignity they did it with delight they did it with with a sense of the fact that we are the elite on the earth nobody else does this but us. And Jesus walks where these eyes are blazing with fire and hearts are burning with anger and he stands there and says solemnly on the very place where they poured out that water they did not pour it out the last day he stood in that place and said this you say that prophecy is not yet fulfilled. There's going to be a fountain opening in the house of David for sin and uncleanness. There's going to be a stream coming from under the altar which again is the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's saying in essence I am the fulfillment of all those prophetic utterances that you have heard. Now he stands it says on the last day he cried with a loud voice. He says a little earlier in the chapter that he had cried then cried Jesus in the temple. Man nobody dare walk into a holy place. Only the priests there stand in that place. This man isn't sanctified. He bewilders them he confuses them on every level. You see the priests were there the Sadducees were there the people were there the temple priests were there and they were sent to arrest him. And the crowd begin to mock and say well well you say he isn't the son of God. Well tell me this when Messiah comes will he do greater miracles than this man? If he isn't Messiah don't bother with him he's insane. If he is Messiah why don't you arrest him? The temple guards return to their officers for their payment maybe and they said you come empty handed. Why didn't you bring him? Oh oh oh they said. Oh we we couldn't lay hands on him. Never man paid like this man. Oh oh oh oh oh They'd heard the priest stand there and recite prophecies blah blah blah they recited Isaiah they recited all the promises lifeless without any but Jesus spoke in life. He's arrogant in their judgement he says I am the way without me there is no going I am the truth without me there is no knowing I am the life without me there is no growing I am the way that's external I am the life that's internal I am the truth that's internal I am the life that's eternal I tell you to me if you're to use our language Jesus here stands ten feet tall in moral excellence and courage he's defying the whole system of the Jews and he stands in that holy place and says listen let me tell you something on the last day the great day of the feast Jesus stood and cried but Isaiah says my servant shall not cry in the street he's not crying in the street he's crying in the centre of the holy place you could put this room on the stage of that temple when Alexander Janus was the great high priest they brought water up from the holy place and as he carried it he stumbled and spilled the water and they thought that was a sign of judgement and there was a sudden outbreak of rioting six thousand people died in the temple history says apart from those that escaped six thousand people can you imagine the size of the temple so Jesus lifts his voice up he has no amplification otherwise nobody is going to miss his voice he cries aloud if any man oh oh that's the most defiant thing of all what do you mean by any man there are Roman soldiers there are barbarians there are others what do you mean the way to God is exclusively a Jewish way we alone have Moses and Aaron and the priests and Jesus tears it all down in a word no wonder Paul says later there is neither Jew nor Greek born nor free male nor female we're all one in Christ Jesus you talk about civil rights and coloured people fighting for their rights and somebody for theirs we wouldn't need that if there was revival so Jesus says if any man thirsts well is there any man that doesn't thirst isn't he saying in a subtle way that every man secretly longs for God he has a yearning for God otherwise why do you you never find a country as far as I know I've not been in many but I've been in some they make gods sometimes they can carry them on their shoulders sometimes they're as tall as this building sometimes they have them in their homes sometimes they dare to keep them in their homes because they're mysterious gods with supernatural power and they keep them I think being up in New Guinea and seeing those men that wear a bone through their noses and three feet of feathers and their breasts painted and Papua and they have grey big beautiful buildings made of straw and they have gods maybe 15 feet high and when they run past they shade their eyes and they run in fear and dread the wise guy isn't very good he says they take a piece of stone and they cut wood and they cut it in three places and with one piece of that tree they chop it up so they can make a fire and make a roast with another they make a place to warm themselves and with the other piece they make a god this is terrible to think of he says that they that make them alike unto them I've watched those people go before a shrine I remember a businessman with jewel fingers with a big cigar bowing down to a god the length of this building longer it was 120 feet in the temple of the great Buddha there in Thailand and he wouldn't take his cigarette out but he bowed till his head touched the ground he lit some little thing and he made his offering and he threw his temple money and he muttered his prayer and I thought of the word that says they're very like the very god that they talk to their god has no eyes to see no ears to hear you see whatever he says about the children of Israel they did have a fear of God they lied and they did tricks but they feared God the Lord says in the 24th of Exodus come up on the mount they went up on the mount and then he says come a little higher and they went a little higher and finally Moses went on top of the hill there not even Joshua allowed with him and God wrapped him in a cloud and if you read the end of the chapter it seems as though God kept him waiting for six days it says on the seventh day the Lord spoke to him God's never in a hurry sober down listen get quiet get the world out of your mind and as soon as he had gone up they made a God of their own a God that had eyes that's the God they wanted a God with eyes that couldn't see a God with ears but he couldn't hear a God with a mouth he couldn't that's the God they wanted what an awesome thing it is when God speaks to men or speaks to women I think that one of the most outrageous things if I can use that phrase is when we get to the judgment seat and I see all these Pharisees and the temple guards and Caiaphas the high priest and Alexander the high priest and all the other bunch that were there and suddenly they're confronted with his majesty the Lord Jesus his eyes now like a flame of fire his feet burnished brass because brass is a sign of judgment they went to the brazen altar which is a sign of judgment and his feet are like brass and they're going to say is that the man I talked to there in Galilee is that the man that I brushed shoulders with is that the man that I said crucify him is that the man whose message I heard but I stuck my fingers in my ears oh yes replay of history I love to read history I can't read it as well as I used to as retain it but I think it's fascinating to read history I like to read of the Genghis Khans and the Philips of Macedon and the men that conquered the world and the fellows that built the pyramid or cut the Suez Panama Canal and what have you got that every one of them is going to stand one day at the judgment seat of Christ and not only will these have to acknowledge that they heard his voice and didn't obey many of us will have to say he spoke to me and I didn't obey I knew to live better than I live but somehow I traded on his mercy there'll be no mercy then it's a day of judgment that's coming all the mercy is here he's on the throne of mercy this afternoon you could be the vilest sinner in the country but there is a fountain filled with blood and you may be as vile as hell could make you but this afternoon you could be cleansed but mercy, mercy, mercy is not around that white throne remember there's no rainbow over it earlier in the book of the revelation there's a rainbow over it a sign of mercy in the twentieth chapter there is no rainbow mercy is gone he's not a god of mercy now he's a god of judgment oh what an awesome day I say again when these men stand before the living Christ of God and I'll tell you what if we've never trembled in his presence before methinks we're going to tremble that day man, man, man even a heathen king you know a man wrote to me this week and he said one problem with modern preaching it doesn't get down where people live it's easy believism one thing he says it's not intellectual enough he'd been reading Jonathan Edwards and some of the profound thick theology they used to preach in that day the meeting has to be excitement now enjoy and clap your hands and when you've left five minutes after you don't know what in the world you heard or anything because we need to reason you know I went back and I read what about the 22nd chapter in Acts he stirred me to read it where little Paul stands before a king on his throne before Felix Paul doesn't care a hill of beans who's there he says Paul reasoned with that heathen king of what of righteousness he reasoned with him of what righteousness and of judgment to come and when Felix a pagan king heard that he trembled he trembled I don't know the word of God where the prophet says to this man look will I look to him that trembles at my word and it seemed to come to me like this we no longer seem to have power in the pulpit to make the hell bound spell bound do you think Felix ever forgot that a little man stood in front of him a little Jew with his face all lacerated his eyes were not straight he walked with a limp because he'd been cast out of the city dead he was a bag of bones and they said he's dead he'll never stand up but he said I'll tell you something I know a God who quickens the mortal body and if I drag a withered leg all my life like Jacob did so what what has anointing got to do with my physical personality I like I wish I could find the sermon notes of that sermon he reasoned with him of righteousness and of judgement to come and Felix trembled it's something when you can lift a man out of his paganism and make that man tremble and say you know I'm almost persuaded to be a Christian I can remember those street meetings in England I went from being about twelve years of age every Sunday night when I was fourteen years of age I used to go down to the city where a man had a brass band outside of a temple pardon me outside of a tavern the name of the tavern was the black swan they nicknamed it the mucky duck but the name of it was the black swan and we used to stand out on a Saturday night and the prostitutes and the jail birds and drunks came and they used to play man oh how and at the end they used to sing almost persuaded now to believe almost persuaded Christ to receive seems now some soul to say go spirit go thy way some more convenient day on thee I'll call almost persuaded harvest is past almost persuaded doom comes at last almost shall not avail almost is but to fail sad sad that bitter wail almost but lost you know there's nothing really exciting about preaching I'd rather do it than have my dinner but by the same token there's something sad about preaching because every meeting is a savour of life to somebody and a savour of death to others it becomes the dividing line somebody crosses not necessary in salvation in some light that God gives because in the economy of God God doesn't organise a meeting like this I don't care if there were three people here I'd still preach my heart out or whether there's three thousand people in the economy of God there's a reason why you're here this afternoon there's a reason why I'm here this afternoon it's not happenstance well there should be a lot more here no no no there's everybody here God wants this afternoon as far as I'm concerned if it pleases God we have to put a gallery round amen that's alright if it pleases God to take half of the way amen that's alright hallelujah I wouldn't care about that either God always tears down before he builds up but you see these disciples they're standing yet at the other side of this magnificent magnificent thing that God is going to do we've reduced this to something mechanical you don't hear people ask if you're filled with the Holy Ghost now they just say have you had the baptism and all they mean by that is have you tongues this instant business I used to go to a prayer meeting on a Sunday a Monday morning pardon me a bunch of preachers came maybe twenty seven thirty of them David Dupless they used to come and you know for a season it got to be a real part oh I felt the throbbings of God those men would pour out their prayers and man they prayed and then it gradually got to how many of you have had the baptism and you know before we were through they used to drag men out and the poor guy would say no I don't think I ever had the baptism if you mean to oh come here and they'd lift their arms up and say now you just say this blah blah blah it'll come it'll come what do you mean it'll come he's a person he's not a blessing he's not a gift he's a person read the fourteenth I had never realised it quite the same as I read it this morning reading the fourteenth chapter of the gospel recorded by John where Jesus says listen disciples I will come to you my Father will come to you and the Spirit will come to you I ask you in God's name is there anything this size and eternity greater than that we found the same thing didn't we in the reading there in Ephesians in the fifth chapter where he says the Spirit of God will be upon you God will be in you I will be in you oh no no no the Holy Spirit is not just a gift as precious as gifts may be there's not a living man can prove that every disciple was in the upper room they were told to go to the upper room but do we always obey when God tells us Jesus was seen of five hundred brethren at once a hundred and twenty turned in the upper room what did the other three hundred and eighty do hasn't God always worked with a minority the Holy Ghost didn't come on five thousand after he fed them the Holy Ghost came upon who well Acts 5 says he gives the Holy Ghost to them that obey him and those are the only ones that get the Holy Spirit of God no I don't like this rush order business I've been to conventions and I quit going because at the end they'd say how many want the baptism come forward never asked if you were a sinner never asked if you'd repented never asked if you'd renounce your old ways stand here in life and it was a machine operation it was a wholesale operation I saw men in our prayer meeting at that time come and other men would lay hands listen you should be careful who lays hands on you oh I lay hands if I have but at least I'll put oil on the heads of people but I'm very careful about laying hands on people it's a pretty difficult dangerous thing to do you see we make it a it's become to us now a ritual I don't think it happened more than once in the Old Testament in that way God may impart the spirit that way but he doesn't have to do it every time God isn't tied up to a method for sure but the promise was that they should receive power now I've never heard a sermon on the ten days the disciples were in the upper room have you wouldn't it be interesting do you think Peter was saying hey Thomas why don't you quit doubting you're holding the blessing up or do you think Thomas was saying you know what Peter I think in your heart you're still a coward I don't believe you want all God has for ten days ten days now we want to do it in ten minutes at an altar oh no no no no these men had three years of precious teachings and the most amazing teacher the world ever saw and then after that they tarried in the upper room they were obedient they may have had other duties and obligations but they tarried in that upper room and then suddenly one day overwhelmingly the Holy Ghost came upon them do you wonder they were intoxicated do you wonder the world says these men have been drinking liquor you never see men dance and leap and shout they're totally uninhibited well isn't that part of the work of the spirit of God you know the theologians call salvation regeneration well regeneration is something God does for us can I put it that way simply something Jesus did for us justification alters my standing before God but sanctification is the work of the spirit of God in me it is not divorced from regeneration there can be no sanctification without regeneration and Wesley says that sanctification is regeneration begun you see there's a crisis and there's a process there's only one way you can live in this world you say there are many ways no no there are not there's one way only one way you can live how's that breathe you want to stop and try it you go outside of that door and you see the vast heavens aren't they beautiful these days a bit too hot maybe do you know what you have a right to breathe all the air you can out of that the only way you can live is when you're in that air and that air is in you you need that element a fish needs to be in water it can't live outside of that element the natural element of the church of Jesus Christ and the true believer is the Holy Spirit of God I must live in him and he must live in me and Jesus calls him by names one is that beautiful name when he the spirit of truth has come he shall guide you into all truth now Jesus says here in the last day the great day of the feast Jesus stood and cried with a loud voice it says I say I'd like to have seen him I think I'd have thought I was on the mount of transfiguration I'm sure they radiated from a holiness why didn't they arrest him they'd all got spears and swords why didn't they touch him because there was a moral and spiritual grandeur about him that emanated waves of power and authority and they didn't go near him I'm convinced of that and that's happened more than once in church history when men have been going to destroy somebody they felt the presence of God so real they backed off Thomas Cook that wrote a book New Testament Holiness I hope we sell it if we don't we'll get some Thomas Cook one day was going to South Africa on a boat in those days there were no aircraft he never wore a clerical collar like Mr. Chadwick he wore a white collar and a white tie he said symbolic of purity and he felt purity should be in the pulpit and so there he was he was a dignified man I sat right under his picture at Cliff College and he used to look down at my writing I often wonder what he thought about the answers I gave but there was purity in his picture there he was a very dignified looking man and one night he walked through the saloon after supper and all the men were smoking and playing cards and drinking and as he walked through that door one of the stewards said afterwards I saw the strangest sight I've ever seen in my life when that man walked through that door every man stuffed his pipe in his pocket and he put his liquor under the table and they just sat like children the whole saloon changed by a man walking through it I've heard preachers more than once pray Lord put such power on me that if I walk in a shopping centre people stop buying things and fall down as in the days of Mr Finney that only happened once in Finney's life as far as I know but it happened he went there where those old cotton gins were spinning away and making their noise and he began to talk to a woman about her soul and she cried out and the next one cried and before long they shut the factory down and the whole factory became a place of repentance God doesn't have to do it that way he does it as he wills, he does it when he wants maybe in the last great outpouring of the spirit of God I believe we'll see things that will just almost terrify us with the majesty of God that just like a hurricane comes through and you say there's a tornado coming it cuts a swath it cuts a path I believe the Holy Ghost will descend on communities and men will lift their liquor and never get in any further than their hands like as they did in the Welsh Revival. They'll start with their profanity and stop the fear of God will come on then in the last great visitation the great sweeping victory of the Holy Spirit because you see one great desire the Holy Spirit has, do you know his one supreme office is not even to make us successful give us gifts or give us fruits of the Spirit. The one chief ministry of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus. Jesus says when he has come he will glorify me and I think the father must have looked down and seen his son standing in that theatre of hatred and bitterness and antagonism and he stands there again I say in his moral and spiritual excellence and he says if any man thirsts that was devastating that opened the door for the Greeks and the barbarians and anybody else if they would come the way that he was offering the way of the cross. But that's what it means for the river of life proceeds from under the altar the place of death. The river of life proceeds from under the throne of God in the last chapter in the book of the revelation. And then he says that that man shall not thirst any more not only shall he not thirst any more he says I'll do something better than that but I'll put in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. I wonder if Wesley got his inspiration for his hymn from that spring thou up within my heart and rise to all eternity. But he says this spake he of the spirit. Well we say then when the spirit of God comes in me out of me there flow rivers of living water. Sidnall Baxter argues with that and so do other scholars by saying this it doesn't say out of me we will flow rivers of living water. It says out of him when he indwells me. And if I grieve him and he goes out I dry up I dry up. It's out of his his inmost being. He has come to indwell my inmost being. And because he is indwelling and he has authority. You see again I say that Jesus is speaking there on a throne in the last chapter in the revelation right on the throne of your heart at this moment one of two people sits either self sits or Christ sits. Because the continuance of the verse is this he says that the spirit will come and indwell you and out of your inmost being will flow rivers of living water but this spake he of the spirit who was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. Could you make a guess or could you make an intelligent reasoning as to why the Holy Spirit isn't moving in the day in which we live except in a very simple way. Why isn't he glorified? If he's not indwelling my life why isn't he indwelling my life? If he isn't flowing out of my life in rivers of living water well the Holy Ghost hasn't dried up has he? The eternal God is ever the same where, where, where is the bottleneck in the church? Oh come on, come on. It took a hundred and twenty men to go out and turn a city upside down. You can find a hundred and twenty churches claiming charismatic or Pentecostal powers these days and nobody knows we're there except with a sign outside the church. I don't say that critically I say it honestly. Where is the bottleneck? Where is the holder? If I said to you this has God spoken to you this week directly? Has he spoken to you? Out of our inmost being but out of our The Holy Ghost is not given because Jesus is not yet glorified. What isn't he glorified in? Well he's not glorified if I disobey him. You see again, this has come to me very forcibly lately. I know there are two schools of thought in this. One school of thought says this, that every church should have every gift. The other school says that in a community like this, every gift should be manifested in the true body. There might be somebody in the First Baptist Church who has a gift that we don't have in our assembly. There might be somebody in the church next door, Hillcrest there, that has a gift we don't have. There might be a gift. And when we need that person, we should import that person and say look we want you to exercise that gift in our fellowship. We have a need. We have a great need. Exercise that gift here. We would like you to come for a week. We will come every night. Exercise that gift. Now don't for a minute think that because a man has gifts he has a holy life. The supreme work of the Holy Ghost is to produce a holy life in each one of us. That's why we don't know where many went from the upper room. Just say everybody becomes a miracle worker and supernatural. Nothing of the kind. There's nothing in history supports it. You can't find more than four or five men in history that were in that upper room. The other people went out to be Holy Mothers and Holy Fathers. Men and women filled with the Holy Spirit and because the Holy Spirit produces holiness. Spirit of purity and grace. Our weakness. There's a hymn in our hymn book we need to learn. A beautiful old hymn. Our blessed Redeemer. Ere he breathed his tender last farewell. For after all this was not only the teaching of the Holy Spirit right through from John 14 to the end. It's very parting words as he ascended. He says listen. Tari. The Holy Ghost will come upon you. Tari. Tari. Tari. He was concerned you see. The coronation gift of Jesus. He has to ascend before the Spirit can descend. He has to go before the Father and he says this is the crowning gift I can give to you. And when he ascended the Spirit descended. But not until they had ten days of house cleaning. Getting to see if they doubted God. If they disobeyed his word. If they disagreed with his word. Where their prayer lives had become wrecked. Where other areas of their life were broken up. I say this with reverence and holy fear. God is not a call boy. God is not there for my emergency moments. He wants me. My spirit, my soul, my body. I was out in California years ago and I got a call from a man who said hello brother Abel. I said hello. He said you don't know me. I said no. He said my name is Gordon Lindsay. I'm head of the Pentecostal college here in Dallas. I said oh yeah I've read some of your books. He said oh I've read some of your stuff too. He said listen I want you. Oh there's my wife on the phone and his wife said hey brother Ravenhill please come and teach. Come and join our staff. They offered me a fabulous salary. And I said hey wait a minute wait a minute. All he said brother Ravenhill come. We need we need this balance. You have a balance. We need it in our ministry. I said brother Lindsay I don't stress gifts as you stress them. And he said that's exactly why I want you to come. Everybody that come here talks gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts, gifts. Brother Ravenhill. He said I'm realizing that in the work of Pentecost we lack an awful lot of character. And he he went down the list. He said remember so and so. That man could almost raise the dead. But he had a call girl went to his motel every night. This man he gets drunk. That man something else. And he said these are the outstanding men in Pentecost in the last few years have ended in tragedy. Because they were imbalanced. As most of us are anyhow. The Pentecostals have something the holiness people need. The holiness people have something the Pentecostal need. And if we do that we would all be hopping on one leg. But we're afraid of each other you see. The gifts and callings of God without repentance. I'm going to skip. Well something I was going to say just say this. I know it's pretty hot this afternoon. I think I'm as hot as anyone. But you know what the scripture says. Out of his inmost being shall flow rivers of living water. As we flew from Phoenix to Los Angeles just a couple of weeks ago. I said to Martha look dear. See this great big river bed from the mountain. There wasn't a spoonful of water. Maybe when we get over the hump there wasn't a spoonful of water. Look at the reservoirs dried up. The charging phenomenal prices for a drink of water. We can get a man on the moon but we can't make water unless we get some desalting plant. Which you don't happen to have handy. God loves rivers. There's a four-headed river came out of the Garden of Eden. And God loves gardens. Because he put Adam in a garden. And Luke says the place where they crucified him was a garden. And the book of the Revelation says there is a garden. And it has in the tree of life like the first Garden of Eden did. And as in the Garden of Eden you have a river that splits off into four heads and they all have a name and they all have different meanings which I'll not bother with you right here. But then you get to the book of the Revelation. There's still a river of water of life as clear as crystal. My that's going to be beautiful to drink. Ice cool water. Oh you'll never get sun stroke don't worry about that. But you see the river. I read to you what Ezekiel says in 47 that the river proceeds from under the altar. Listen to what it says. This is so exciting. It shall come to pass that everything liveth which moveth with us wherever the river shall come. Wherever the river goes there's life. This is why the man that has a river of water in him is like the man in Psalm 1. That a friend of mine always says is the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. You know maybe one thing about us. I wonder if God is grieved with us when we're comfortable in the presence of ungodly wicked men. When we don't need to be there. That river that tree that man is planted by a river of living water. And he brings forth his fruit in his season. That fountain filled with blood and wherever it goes it brings life. Oh you could expand this thinking if you like. Wherever the river goes the river of God's gospel wherever it goes. It breaks the shackles of men and women. It delivers the captive. Go to South America they've had the scripture hundreds and hundreds of years. It was tied up in a foreign language. The priests monopolized it. And it's one of the most depraved backward countries until about 50 years ago and Pentecostalism split it open. But it's as backward as those dark areas of India or other countries. Because the word of God had no anointing of the spirit of God. But when that spirit of God is there slavery was ended and all those evils were abolished through godly men. These are the benefits. These are the things Paul speaks of as far as I'm concerned that accompanies salvation. And these folk that fight for women's lib and all the junk that's out these days don't realize that if the gospel hadn't come they'd be the biggest slaves in the world. You see the spirit came. It says that there shall be a river. The river shall come. Everything shall live where the river goes. And there shall be a great multitude of fish because these waters come thither. And they shall be healed and everything shall live whithersoever the river cometh. And verse 12 says by the river upon the bank thereof on this side and on that shall grow all the trees for meat whose leaves shall not fade. Neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed. It shall come forth with new fruit according to his month because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary and the fruit shall be for meat and the leaf for medicine. Isn't that beautiful? Food in the meat. Meat out of fruit. Healing out of the leaves. Typical of Christ who is our meat except ye eat of my flesh and drink of my blood. The healing virtue of the Christ of God. Alright let's stay with this a minute. I was reading there in that wonderful book. It's all wonderful I guess to all of us anyhow. In the epistle to the Galatians and you remember you've got two contrasts there. Let me say this. The thing that impressed me there are many areas we could stay in. But I'm impressed this afternoon about this river because wherever the river goes there's fertility. Fertility means there's fruit. Where there's fruit there's health. That's all it says. We have in Galatians 5 to just read a part of it verse 19. The works of the flesh are manifest which are these adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, drunkenness, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revilings and such like. That sounds like a factory. Their works, their works, their works, their works. Now you come into another area verse 22. But the fruit of the spirit, the works belong the kingdoms of this world, the kingdoms of darkness. The fruits belong the kingdoms of the Lord Jesus Christ. Chapter 5 verses 22 and 23. What do you have? The fruit of the spirit is love, joy and peace. Well I could say, I think you could say those three things are our relationship to God. That when we, when the spirit of God comes, we have the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, our relationship to God. Longsuffering, gentleness and goodness, our relationship to our fellow man. And then faith, gentleness, goodness, gentleness, longsuffering, gentleness and goodness to our fellow man. Faith, meekness, faith there isn't faith in myself, actually the word is faithfulness and meekness and temperance in relationship to myself. Now the fruit of the spirit. You see fruits are permanent. That's why I say again, you can't say a man is a holy life or living straight with God just because he does miracles or exercise gifts. The gifts and callings of God without repentance. This was one of the sorrows again of, of Gordon Lindsay as I talked with him. He said Brother Rayfield, these men exercise gifts. I, I know those men are immoral. They're immoral men. But gifts and callings are without repentance. There was a young man preaching Billy Graham's head off at the time Billy Graham came. He drew far bigger crowds. He had far more success. He had far better results. Daddy was a famous preacher. And everybody believed this man is going to rise up and shake the nation. And then secretly began to drink. Secretly began to do other things. Oh, he preached. But he had a woman following him around. And he seemed, he seemed to have the same results and success, but the thing got to eventually he collapsed under it. Now the gifts and callings are without repentance, but the fruits of the Spirit are not. You can operate gifts. Do you know how gifts work? By knowledge. You have knowledge of those gifts, you can work them. Gifts work by knowledge. Fruit is the result of life. Life. You can still operate gifts if you've no real vital relationship with God. You cannot operate. The fruits of the Spirit don't grow the same. If I grieve the Holy Spirit, I know, and you know, when you've grieved him, you begin to dry up inside. That something happens, and you feel a coldness, and you feel that God's are far off. And again, it's not his fault, it's our fault. The fruits are permanent. Pardon me, the gifts are permanent. But except we stay by the river of life and draw constantly, the fruit isn't going to be there of love, and joy, and peace, and long suffering, and gentleness, and meekness. Jesus never mentions the Holy Spirit in John 15, does he? He talks about the branch that bears the fruit. And in that second verse he says, but my father is the husbandman, and the husbandman comes with the scissors, and he does the cutting. And Chadwick said, you know, that's the surgery of love. When God sees something there, which is not essential, he just takes the scissors there, and he cuts. That's the surgery of love. But chastening is the proof of love. Now I don't know, I don't know, I guess sometimes if you're honest, and I'm sure you are, there are times when you question just what phase of spiritual life you're passing through. Sometimes you say to yourself, I don't have this, I don't have, I don't have enough joy. Well, God has strange logic, hasn't he? I mean do you really want it? Do I really want joy? Well, I'll tell you one answer to the problem. This is what he says, which isn't the way I would think of it. He says, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations. Oh, oh, I thought it would be all joy when he sweeps them out of the way. I thought it would all be all joy when it's easy going. No, no, no. He says count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations. Why? Because you're going to discover something there. You know what he does? He gives beauty for ashes. He gives the oil of joy for mourning. The oil of joy. Some grief comes, and I discover either I'm further from God or I'm nearer to God. My father is the husbandman, and he does the, he does the pruning. The fruit of the Spirit is love and, and joy. You know, you, you can't prune gifts. They're static. I don't know of any gift that improves. Maybe there's some that do. I don't know, revelation and wisdom. But I'll tell you what, these fruits of the, this, it isn't fruit actually there in the scripture again, is it? It's the fruit of the Spirit that is love and joy and peace and long suffering and gentleness and meekness and goodness and temperance and faith. You see, it's, it's a single thing there. It's not a bunch of separate things. It's, it's like one bunch of grapes, and that cluster of grapes is all there. And sometimes they, they, they, they, they seem at least to thrive more in one area than in another. Jesus himself was a man of joy. He said that, and yet nobody knew grief like the Son of God. He says just before he enters Gethsemane, he says that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. Yes, the husbandman, the holy, eternal, infallible God. He doesn't play tricks. He only seeks in another phase of language my dross to consume and my gold to refine. And Jesus says my Father is the husbandman and, and every area in me. You see, the promise in that chapter is this, fruit, much fruit, more fruit, permanent fruit. Jesus had a permanent joy. Again, it doesn't depend on happenings. It is the fruit of the spirit, not the product of environment. If it were merely environment, success, financial comfort, social liberty, what would people be doing in captivity this afternoon? I never, never, never want to live a day without remembering those souls in captivity. We put that cup there. I remove the other because I don't think we need to expose that every meeting. But that cup is there to remind us of those who suffer that will never partake of the cup. It's a pretty beaten up cup. I'm glad it is, a little buzzed here and there. And I think maybe before we pray each, each week, we ought to turn to that cup and remember everybody in captivity as though we were in captivity. But you see, we live in a false world and a false market. We're happy when things go our way. We're happy, but happiness and joy are not the same things. Happiness depends on happenings. It stems from a word called hap, which in your dictionary may, may say chance. Things chance to go right. Things chance to go my way. And I'm exalted and thrilled and God's working for me. I want to tell you God's working for you if it's as black as hell this afternoon. If somebody came in loaded with jewels and you said, you know that lady's necklace is worth a million dollars, she won't be a fraction more important to God than if you came in a pair of borrowed shoes. Thank God he doesn't look on the outward appearance, he looks upon the heart. And the husbandman must be the first partaker of the fruit. You see, my joy, I said the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy and peace and their God would first before then inward. My love and my adoration and when I love him and adore him, I'm joy, unspeakable and full of glory. That's what Peter spoke about. The man who talks too much about trial and temptation, fiery trials and difficulties. And yet he says you and I can have a joy which is unspeakable. You can't in any way explain it grammatically. You can't explain it from experience. It's some inward working of the Spirit of God. The fruit of the Spirit is love. And the fruit of the Spirit is joy and long suffering. If I keep in his presence, if I keep still by that river of life that the psalmist speaks of in Psalm 1, if I'm planted there, I can draw all the resources that there are. As I say, if you stand outside of that door, you have every right to breathe every bit of air that is outside. The whole sky is yours. The sufficiency for everybody. But I've got to breathe that air. I've got to live in it. It's got to be in me. And I've got to live in the Spirit. And the Spirit has to live in me. He has to be the Lord. He has to be the Master. Again I say I can't give you any inside information. I have none about those disciples in that upper room. But I tell you what, I guess those ten days were pretty scorching and searching. I guess they were going over their failure. They were going over their betrayal. At least three of them, if they were there, were groaning that they had the two greatest privileges in history. And they flunked both of them. One was to be with him in the Garden of Gethsemane. And they fell asleep. The other was to be with him on the Mount of Transfiguration. And they fell asleep. I think they must have had the bitterest grief. But you know I'm not going to throw any rocks at them because I think many times maybe when I should have been awake I'd been asleep. I was walking around but I was walking around only in my senses, only in my mind. My spirit had got dull. I'd just stepped out somewhere unconsciously and God was trying to get through and he couldn't. No, no, no, this is no child's play. I'm convinced as I've said before that God is looking for men in this critical hour in which we live. It's the most difficult hour in history. These preachers and men yesterday agreed on the same thing though we were celebrating Pentecost. They said I don't believe there's ever been an hour in history. You can say what you like about John Wesley and others but they weren't bucking a thousand false prophets like we have in the nation with two thousand gurus in the nation. I say again maybe we'll discover that Watergate was a spiritual calamity. Eighteen preachers went to Mr. Nixon and preached. Not one of them got through to him other than nobody anointed. Gerald Ford refused to see Mr. Zoltan Hitson. Couldn't see him. But he saw a dirty film producer who produces some of the most dirty films and Mr. Ford says I believe in the sanctity of the home and he sat at dinner and embraced and talked with a man who decries the modern home and its security. Maybe God put him out of office because he betrayed his Lord as a professing man. You see it's an awesome thing to say that you and I Christ's in these days. We need to check on our spirit. You check on yours. See if you grieve the spirit of God as the flow of joy stops. Love is more than a sentiment. Love is sacrifice. Love is passionate devotion to the one you love particularly in this area of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's looking for men. That's all they were in the upper room. A bunch of helpless cowards who retreated and were afraid of the Jews it says. If the spirit has stopped. If you don't have what you used to have. After all there is a command be filled with the spirit and it's to a church that already had received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Really remember that. One baptism many an endowments many fillings. People say well I remember I got filled five years ago. That's not the point. The point is I have filled this afternoon. If not why not? Where's the obstruction? What has ceased to operate? What has caused the glory to diminish? Why isn't this word living and thrilling and you eat it like a love letter? Why isn't prayer so fascinating? Is this what's holding up God? There's no outpouring of sacrifice. It took something to stay ten days in the upper room. They had their wives questioning. They had other people questioning. They were criticised. They were going to be ridiculed. They were said they were a bunch of cowards hiding away. But God commanded and they did it. And Mary hit the nail on the head didn't she when she said whatsoever he saith unto you do it. I'm glad it's the dispensation of the Holy Ghost today. I believe he's going to manifest the greatest power that we've ever seen. I don't think it's very far off. And I trust that you and I may be those who receive, not just receive the waves that come but be right in the centre, the anointed ones, the one with the nuanction and the spirit of prophecy and the spirit of revelation. Maybe we'll go through agony of birth pangs before that. Maybe they had to go through birth pangs in that upper room. They drank the bitter cup of repentance and sorrow. They didn't hate each other, they hated themselves. They didn't loathe the world, they loathed themselves. But there came a moment when they knew consciously they'd done what God said they would cleanse, they obeyed and he gives the spirit to those who obey. He gave the spirit without measure to his son and I pray that you and I may know a new measure of this anointing. The result of this very day when we try at least to think in a limited way of the coming of the Holy Spirit of God. I pray that out of you and out of me and out of this fellowship there flow rivers of living water, rivers of mercy, rivers of love, rivers of prayer, rivers of power. Solely that Jesus may be glorified. Then sings my soul, my savior God, to thee. How great thou art, how great