'Forget Miricales Preach Holiness' — Leonard Ravenhill

Manufactured Emotion and the Reality of God's Presence

You go to one charismatic meeting, you've been to them all, you stand and sing for 30 -40 minutes, we're trying to work something up and God has to send something down. I can remember, dear brother, when you went to a holiness meeting in England or a Pentecostal, there were more people at the altar before the service than after.

Prayer for God's Presence

I used to fear going when I was 14. I used to go, my daddy used to take me to a Pentecostal meeting, and the whole row of the people, and they'd be praying with energy and crying to God. One old man particularly would say, come Lord and walk in our midst.

Dying to Sin and Taking Up the Cross

And I used to think, I hope he doesn't, because I'm scared to death he would. But God used to come in the meeting. And then at the end, he didn't have to beg and sing emotional songs, there's room at the cross, forget it, there's room on the cross.

Forget there's room at the cross, get on the cross. And as Tozer said, a man going down the road with a cross, you know one thing about him, he wasn't coming back. Our people don't want to die. There's only two kinds of people in the world, those who are dead to sin and those who are dead in sin.

Victory and Purity of Heart

And we're in one of the two. In fact, you talked about victory, they'd laugh at you. Oh, you can't live in victory? Well then, why don't you be a Buddhist or somebody? What do you do with somebody that says, look, I don't just want to get sick, I want to be pure in heart.

The Word of God Over Human Opinion

You can't be pure in heart. Who says so? One of the latest books off the press says you can't. Who cares a hell of a thing? What does the Word of God say? What did Jesus say to the bad woman that came to him?

Go and sin less? He says that to a woman who's been spending in immorality before the cross. What does Paul say? Let him that stole steal less? No study, it's cut off. What we need in America, dear brothers, is more than ever, we need people to go forth with a new birth message, forget all about tongues, forget all about miracles and signs in case they're not happening anyhow.

Genuine Conversion and Transformation

Let's get back to real genuine conversion, right?