The Burdens of Ravenhill - Part 5 (Compilation) — Leonard Ravenhill

The Church Must Make History, Not Merely Study It

Abnormal days demand abnormal men with abnormal methods. One of the requirements in studying for the ministry is that we study church history, but I think we've too many preachers studying church history and too few preachers making history.

Studying church history is an indoctrination which very often becomes, I think, brainwashing. And the idea is to get you kind of mesmerized by your particular denomination and what it did in the last 100 or 200 years.

And quite frankly, I'm not a bit interested in what your church has done in the last 100 years, but I want to tell you something. I am interested in what it does in the next five years. And each time we come in and come by West Palm Beach, I see that million and a quarter dollar church.

Of course it's a Baptist church, nobody else could afford a church like that. And there's that great big Baptist church on the front, and I think of Jess Moody, and I think of a young man that goes there often, he is the vice president of the Scripps Hard Corporation, and he said not very long ago, as he wrote the introduction to Jess Moody's book, I am not sure, he said, he says, I'm not really a born-again Christian, but I am not sure that the church of today is the church for which Jesus died.

Well, if he isn't sure I am. He didn't die for this freak of a thing, this powerless thing, this pale, pathetic, powerless, putrid Protestantism that dares to label itself with his name. The church, when she was anointed to the Spirit of God in the Acts of the Apostles, could invade the Roman Empire with its millions of money and men, she can invade the Grecian Empire with all its staggering intellectualism, and she could go there into the monolith of the Hebrew religion that had dominated the world for 2 ,000 years, and all God did was send some men and not change the style of their hair or change their faces, he just worked a miracle of grace in their personalities, and they were emptied and they were filled with the Holy Ghost, and record says that they turned the world upside down.

God Raises Spirit-Anointed Leaders

He needs some men to make history, not study it. He didn't raise up Methodism, he raised up Wesley. Out of Wesley came Methodism, if you like, but he didn't raise up Methodism, he raised up Wesley. He didn't raise up the Salvation Army, he raised up William Booth.

He didn't send a brigade of men, he sent a simple but very God-anointed Baptist minister to India, and he re-enrolled history, and I have the privilege of preaching in his great church, though of course he's been dead a century, but they're in the heart of Calcutta.

We said at the beginning of the meeting, it's good to be in a meeting like that, it sure is, and it's bad too. You know why? Because the Holy Ghost may not come back to you for the next six months or six years or the rest of your life, he doesn't have to.

He faces up with you with your bankruptcy tonight, that some of you preachers are preaching a theology and you're sheltering behind the denomination, you're scared stiff to preach the revelation God has given because again it would mean you hit the high road.

But you know what I find? I find some of the holiest, saintliest, anointed men in America today are men that have been kicked out of their denomination. It's the kind of day we're living in and we better face it.

Backsliding Begins in the Prayer Life

God's gonna do a new thing in this generation, it sure is. Let me go back just a minute, I want to tell you this. I believe if you're born again it's a very difficult thing to sin. Number one, because the Word of God is hidden in your heart, and then the spirit quickens it and it becomes sharp as a dredged sword.

So number one, you have to fight your knowledge of the Word of God. Then the Holy Spirit is there, and number one, he's gonna try and fight to keep you from sin, he wants to keep you from falling, and you resist him, you strive against him, and he puts up with it for a while, and then you grieve him, and then he won't stay.

When you finish that, he leaves you. You can't get back to God when you want, but he got slack. He backslid, you know where? Where everybody starts. Yes, a deacon's run away with a woman, he's backslidden.

No, that's the fruit of his backsliding. He backslid months ago in his prayer life, in his devotional life, every backslide that starts there. So if you're chilling off in your experience of prayer, if Jesus isn't as real and as wonderful, if the Word isn't sweeter than the honey in the honeycomb, get on your belly and go on.

Keep yourself in the love of God. There are so many commandments. Read the Hebrews, let us, let us, let us. You know, we sing Jesus paid it all, that's not true. In blood redemption, yes, but there are things I have to, I have to put off the old man, I have to put on the new man.

I have to renounce this world, all of its pleasures, its pomp and its pride. Give me but Jesus my Lord crucified. We're living in bankruptcy as the Church of Jesus Christ compared with where we ought to live, I'm convinced of that.

Spiritual Warfare and the Armor of God

I'm embarrassed to be part of a church that's an embarrassment to Jesus. He wrote that we might have principalities and powers in subjection to us. The rulers of the darkness of this world, Mr. President, Queen of England, they have no idea that they're tools of the darkness of this world.

And there's nobody has eyes to see except the true believer whose eyes have been anointed. You notice this, that Paul says you're to put on the whole armor of God, it's not something automatic, you've got to put it on.

It's not getting better and the only way to stem the tide is the Church of Jesus Christ, a militant church, isn't this what it's saying? Doesn't say put on the armor of God, it says put on the whole armor of God and it repeats it, put on the whole armor of God, that you may stand and withstand when you don't understand.

Withstand the fiery darts of the devil. We have a shield of faith with the helmet of salvation. Our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Come on, isn't it wonderful that God can take that twisted, warped life of yours?

Mercy, Cleansing, and Restoration

God can take that hideous record of sin which is going to read at the judgment before millions of people if you don't get rid of it. Tonight in one act of mercy, he can take your record and cast it behind his back forever.

You've been a backslider, you could have been teaching in Sunday school, you got too busy. Some of you preachers could have been somewhere else, you've wasted your time and yet he comes in mercy and says listen, tonight I'm prepared to restore you, I'm prepared to restore the joy in your heart, the peace in your heart, the wonder of prayer, the awesomeness of worshiping God.

It can be done. What's his final prayer? Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. You know science says in every snowflake that comes down there's one tiny spot of dust, but when he washes me I'm whiter than snow.

The hymn writer says long my sinful heart was striving to obtain this promised rest, but when all my struggles ended simply trusting I was blessed. Again go back to Toplady, an intellectual, brilliant man, he says foul lie to that fountain fly, wash me say you or I die.

You think it's a nice job to preach, it's the most difficult job in the world. Every meeting I'm in this, the Holy Ghost is there, somebody's born and somebody dies. You may live ten years after tonight, God Almighty never speak to you again, why does he have to?

You've long withstood his grace, long provoked him to his face, would not hearken to his call and grieved him by a thousand folds. You made Jesus Christ weep in heaven you backsliders. He was being weeping today and he'll be weeping till you come back.

You said no to his blood, you said no to his word, you said no to fellowship. No wonder you're dry and miserable, no wonder buying a new dress doesn't make you happy, no wonder buying a new car doesn't make you happy.

Christ alone can make you happy, Christ alone can give you peace. You know that your heart isn't pure, your thinking isn't pure, you don't have to commit adultery. What did Jesus say? Look on a woman to lust, and you've done the same secretly.

You don't have to steal, he just covets, and you're guilty. There's nothing more beautiful this side of eternity in the eyes of God than somebody who's pure, washed in the blood of the Lamb, and has Jesus Christ ruling in their lives.

Sin no longer has dominion over them, they're not in bondage to some wretched rotten secret habit, they're pure. Every fetter has been broken, is there anything greater? To be free, here to eternity. Lord, get people you can dwell in, people you can operate, people you can direct, people you can invest your strength and wisdom in.

Lord, here's some spoil for your kingdom. Jesus, you died on the cross for this crowd. Lord, I'm glad that fountain is still open tonight. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn for Emmanuel's sins, and it's flowing tonight.

Obedience, Repentance, and Eternal Life

It's not based on years, it's based on obedience. There's no substitute for obedience. To obey is better than sacrifice. Remember what Saul said, I did, I did what you told me to do. I gave the best of the cattle, I did this, but I just kept a few lame ones.

No, no, I gave you a whole lot, he said. Then some little sheep at the back didn't know any better, and they bleated. So the prophet says, what meaneth the bleating of the sheep, and the lowing of the oxen in my near?

It doesn't matter what facade we put up, somewhere if there's a sheep still alive, it's going to bleat. We're going to be found out. It's total obedience. Again, I do not believe that confession is a down payment for eternal life.

There's much more than that. Confession, there's forgiveness, there's repentance, there's restitution, and there's forgiveness. Eternal life, I take, is a colopsy of life which is God-given. Well, if I have eternal life, if I die a minute from now, which will shock you, I'm sure, but if I'm living now with eternal life, why should I need a change before I get into heaven?

Eternal life, to use Scrooge's word, is life of God in the soul of man. Is the life of God in me now? That's what John says. He that hath the Son hath life. I'm not a Christian because I confess my sin, because I've quit a lot of drinking and swearing and filthiness.

I'm a Christian only when Christ comes to indwell in me and take sovereign, supreme control of my life. If ever God's done anything in the last three or four years, every day I live I go to the judgment seat of Christ.

I see my little self standing there and he unwraps everything off me, my ideas of myself, the public opinion about myself. He takes everything else away, till he gets down to what? To see if I won the most souls?

No! That's the very last thing he'll reward us for, maybe. He's looking for holy character. He's looking for himself in me, Christ in you. Have I been living in you, moulding your character? You're no more covetous than Christ himself.

Tomorrow morning I want to give a simple Bible talk on helps to holiness. But listen, there's a lot of peril in this meeting tonight. You may go home to sleep, I guarantee I won't. Next stop I meet you may be the judgment seat of Christ.

I'm telling you honestly, it's a terrible thing to be in the presence of God. Take your hands off, he may make you another George Fox, I don't know. I know this, he'll transform your life, he'll transform your vision, he'll transform your aspirations and your hopes, till sometimes you won't know whether in the body or out of the body.

Sure I spend hours weeping, but I'll tell you what, there are nights when I feel everything in my body will burst, I'm so full of joy, and having such a communion with God. I don't mind having the grief, what does it say?

Mourning for Sin and Longing for Revival

It gives beauty for what? Well ashes means something else will be burned up, burns up your self will, burn up your career, burn up your pride. It gives beauty for ashes. You're looking for joy, it gives the oil of joy for what?

Mourning. If you're not mourning for your sin, have you been mourning for a lost world? Have you been mourning for a church that's lost its power? That people go past the thing and say, oh that's a kind of a religious cloud.

Listen, I'm grieving that God the Holy Ghost doesn't get his way in our lives. I'm grieving that the devil and drugs have dominion over the youth of our nation, and not only of America, over England and every nation in the world.

Saul, Spiritual Departure, and the Danger of Forsaking God

It says in Samuel 28, first Samuel 28, verse five, when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid and his heart greatly trembled. When Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets.

Then Saul said unto his servant, seek me a woman with a familiar spirit, that I may consider and inquire her. His servant said, there is a woman in Endor. Saul disguised himself. Notice that? He didn't go in to see her.

Do you ever disguise yourself to go somewhere? Are you ever embarrassed to enter a certain place which is questionable? Saul disguised himself and put on an arraignment, and he went with the two men, and they came to the woman at night.

What a lot's done at night. Men love darkness rather than light. Why? Because their deeds are evil. Why did he disguise himself? Obviously he didn't want to be identified. Why did he go in the night time?

He didn't want to be identified. He came at night and said, I pray thee, divine unto me by a familiar spirit, and bring him up, whom I shall name unto thee. Oh, so she brought up who? Samuel. When the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice.

I believe this is the only case in history where a genuine spirit was brought up from the other world. Every other is a fake. But notice, she put the spotlight on him. Why hast thou deceived me, for thou art Saul.

That must have been quite a shock. The king said unto her, be not afraid for what thou sawest thou. And the woman said unto Saul, I saw God descending out of the earth. And he said unto her, what form is he of?

And she said, an old man cometh up, and he is covered with a mantle, the prophet's mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stood with his face to the ground and bowed himself. And Samuel said to Saul, thou hast disquieted me, to bring me up.

And Saul answered, I am so distressed. The Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me. Samuel said, whereof thou dost ask of me, for the Lord is departed from me. Isn't that something?

Departed from whom? From a man who had the anointing of the Holy Ghost and was filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied, but he died a suicide. I heard a man say this week again in that same show, don't you worry, God will never forsake you.

Doesn't matter, you may leave him, he won't leave you. That is entirely against the scripture. If the spirit troubles you this morning, thank God he's troubling you, before you go to hell. The spirit will leave you, well this is what you can do with the Holy Spirit, accept him, resist him, grieve him, quench him.

Now that's biblical, that's in my theology, isn't that right Brother Parrish? The most miserable man in the world is not the man who's lost a million dollars or lost his memory or lost some other thing.

The most miserable man in the world is the man that God has forsaken. Again I remind you that this king prophesied. He therefore that ministereth to you in the spirit and worketh miracles among you. So there you are, they'd been embraced in truth, they'd been surrounded with the miraculous and yet they'd backslidden.

Restoration and the Judgment Seat of Christ

Because in the 7th verse of chapter 5, he's speaking obviously in the past tense, he did run well. He ran well, who did hinder you? In the 4th chapter there, verse 19 again, my little children of whom I travel in birth again.

The word again fascinated me, I pondered that today. The Greek word there is palin, it means to restore to its original quality. He says that they may be born again. Martin Luther, Martin Luther rediscovered justification by faith.

Wesley rediscovered sanctification by faith. Now there's something else that has to be rediscovered. One of the tragic things of the last few days is this, that one of the great preachers there said, you know the trouble in the world is we've lost sight of the rapture, that's not true.

Well we may have, but these very guys that have been preaching the rapture most have crashed and shocked the world in the last year. It's not that we've lost sight of the rapture, we've lost sight of the judgment seat.

Do you think they'd go into that sin if they had an eye on the judgment seat? You and I have to live with eternity's values in view, not live like other Christians and other people. I've told you so often I'm sick, I'm sick, I'm tired of mediocrity.

We don't. How many of you have lived as though you've gone into the judgment seat before long? We've lost sight of the judgment seat. If we really lived in the light of the judgment seat, it would alter our speaking, it would alter our living, it would alter our criticism, it would alter our fear of men.

Boy I'm living every day, now every morning I say, Lord I want to live in the blazing light of the judgment. So he's coming for a holy bride. Supposing he comes five minutes from now, are you in purity?

If not, you'll be left behind. The scripture distinctly says that he that hath this hope, if every morning you get in your car, you say Lord I hope there's a rapture today, I'm ready to go up in a moment, are you?

Have you a grudge against anybody? Have you any bitterness against anybody? Are you really close with God in prayer? Is this blessed word electrifying to you? Are you faking the whole thing? Experimented at Cornell University some years ago by putting a frog in a dish pan of boiling water and he jumped out, and then they put a frog in a dish pan of cold water and they turned the jet at the bottom and then they turned it up one degree, two degrees, and you know what that frog did?

He stayed in there till they cooked him to death. When they put him in the boiling water, he got out because he said I can't live here. But when they, by degrees, they changed the thing and he adjusted and he adjusted and he adjusted and they still killed him anyhow.

And you know we've got some things in our churches if not in our lives that a few years ago we never would have had, and old Satan didn't pour the boiling water on, he put this little thing and then that little thing and that little thing and before very long the churches become so carnal.

The glory of the Lord doesn't fill the temple. When did you last tiptoe out of your particular tabernacle saying surely God is in this place? I say again with all the power of my being, I do not believe that modern Christians go to church to meet God.

They go to church to hear a sermon about God. They don't expect deity to invade the place. They don't expect to tiptoe out of the holy place saying God is here and about to bless us. The spirit moved over my heart.

A boy said to me a sweet thing this morning, he's only a young fellow, 17 rating I guess, and he said Brother Ray, it's been so good to be here this week. You know during the preaching and a number of priests besides me, but he said during the preach the Lord has been pushing back my horizons.

Well God bless him, I'm glad for fellows that have got bigger horizons. You know David prayed enlarge my heart. Some of us are praying enlarge my head. Well brother if you only get as much in it in the next five years as you got in the last you better keep a small head.

But David didn't pray enlarge my head, he says enlarge my heart. And if he enlarges my heart he'll enlarge my vision, he'll enlarge my compassion, he'll enlarge my concern. I walked the length of England, I walked the breadth of England.

I took five colleagues men with me. We slept in the fields at night or we slept in old disused churches with broken windows and birds flying through and rats on the floor. For five years not one of us had a penny wage.

I never heard those men grumble. We slept in a tent, we went to a town and stayed eight weeks. Those churches are still standing sixty years after because we lived as poor as the people, because we slept in the tents, because we had no amenities of life.

And if I were younger I'd tell you what I'd still do it again. There's no thrill like going to bed knowing you've just seen two drunkards or harlots or somebody saved at nearly midnight whenever his preacher in town is asleep.

The church is asleep today. Didn't Paul say in his day awake now the sleepers and arise from the dead and God shall give thee life. You just think I'm wonderful because you haven't ever seen a prophet in your life.

I believe one of the signs of God's judgement on us as a nation right now is we have no prophets. If you know one tell me. Preachers yes. Preachers yes. Theologians yes. Organizers yes. Prophets no. And when God is angry with a nation he gives a nation no prophets.

Judgment on the Church and the Loss of Prophetic Witness

You see some people think that God's judgements are not around unless buildings start falling down and we have a massive earthquake or something. Or we have a plague such as this mysterious illness which could have developed in the country that's come pitiful enough and sorrowful enough there in Philadelphia.

You see God's judgements are not always as obvious as that. If you tell some people that God almighty may send communism to America to purge it of its uncleanness and its sin and its lethargy and its unbelief and the selfishness amongst believers they are what you ordered shipped out of the country.

But I want to tell you God loved Israel but he let her go into bondage for 400 years. And then when she came out he let her go into bondage another 400 years and now they're in bondage not to the Philistines.

And after all dear friend when you read the Old Testament almighty God's problem in the Old Testament was not the Amalekites or the Hittites or the Perizzites or the Jebusites. God only had one problem in the Old Testament and that was Israel.

And I believe almighty God only has one problem in the world tonight and it's not communism or Romanism it's the church of the living God. And he is concerned about her with his own blood he bought her and for her life he died.

And if Jesus weeps tonight because of the paralysis of the church the glory has departed. We go through the mechanics. You see some of you are hearing God's call tonight for the very last time he doesn't owe you anything.

He called you, you refused. Do you remember what the people did they said we get rid of Jesus. And he said you're too late I'm getting rid of you your house is left desolate. And from that day to this there's been a football for all the nations in the world.

You say America needs God no she doesn't the church needs God. If the church gets God America will soon feel it. She'll be staggering. Corruption in the churches. Read the seven churches and all the deficiencies they had.

Leaving First Love and the Laodicean Church

And yet some of them were as sound in doctrine as possible but they were going through a ritual. And the complaint that Jesus has not that they were wrong in their theology he said but you've left. Not you've lost we usually say we've lost our first doesn't say that it says you left.

Deliberately you came to a fork in the road where you had to make a supreme sacrifice for Jesus or go the other way and so you sacrificed Jesus. Not we left our first love we not we lost our first love we left it we deliberately made a choice which was a second class choice.

That's why the church is today she's rich she's increased in good she's in need of nothing. Which church was it Jesus spewed out of his mouth? I would I was either hot or cold. So then because I was neither hot or cold I was it didn't spew the cold one out of his mouth it never been in.

It was his church that he spewed out of his mouth. It wasn't a heathen religion it was his church they were neither hot or cold. They were kind of midstream. And because they were neither one thing nor the other he vomited them out.

He didn't vomit the cold church out he didn't bother with it. God will not stand for mediocrity. You know there's one promise God hasn't kept I think he's about to do it he said he'll spew it out of his mouth.

The Overcoming Bride and Readiness for Christ's Return

If by any means I may attain what do you mean he's already said there's a resurrection of the dead there's a resurrection of the just. By any means at any cost I want to be in the out resurrection it's the only time it's mentioned in scripture it isn't the same Greek word it's the out the scriptural what's the scriptural word for resurrection?

Anastasis and this is ex-anastasis the out of the out of. There's a remnant. Who's the bride of Christ? The out resurrection people. All right where is Jesus going to sit? He's going to sit on the throne.

Who's going to sit on the throne at the side of him? The Queen. Who's the Queen? Him that overcometh. It's not Baptist it's him that has overcome us. Those of us who are living in victory by the power of the blood.

Walking in the light. Walking in the spirit. It's easy for you dear friend to say I believe Jesus may come at any moment. Well then you sign your death warrant. Do you know what that means? It means that at this moment you have bitterness in your heart against a single person in the world.

That you don't have defeat in your life. You're living in union with the will of God. It's cost you something. People hate you and despise you but you have a peace that passes all understanding. A joy unspeakable.

A faith unshakable. Overcome us. You don't want Jesus to come right as you are now. You've bitterness in your heart. You've pride in your heart. You've no tears in your eyes. You've no love for the lost world.

Let it go to hell. What do you care? God's going to get a people and he's going to get them now. He's not waiting for revival to come. You can be made as pure as God can make a human being by acknowledging I've got sin in my life.

I've bitterness in my life. I've pride in my life. I've anger in my life. I've jealousy. Purge it all out and fill me with the spirit of the living God. Make me like Jesus. He wept over Jerusalem. Preacher, God gave you a ministry to do one thing.

To prepare people to be part of the bride. Now come on preacher. Could you five minutes from now take your church as it were and say Lord Jesus here is my church. It's part of your body. My church is pure.

We don't love the world. We don't do worldly things. We don't talk worldly ways. We don't watch worldly TV. We've no worldly habits. I've a hundred people or two hundred or five hundred people in my church and I've been preparing them for ten years to be part of the bride of Christ.

Not to just speak in tongues and do miracles but to be part. He's coming for a bride but listen friend he's not coming for a widow. He's not coming for a broken down woman. Jesus says the bride he comes for.

No, Jesus says in the book of Revelation the church of today the Laodicean church is poor, wretched, naked, blind. Your church has no vision because you've no vision. The church has no passion because you have no passion.

The veil is typical of modesty. Nakedness is typical of what? The very opposite. Impurity and it's Jesus. It isn't the devil saying this. It isn't some high geared evangelist. Jesus says the church in the last days.

I don't care whether a guy is believing the pre-trib, the post-trib. What's the other trib? Mid-trib or no-trib. What most of them agree on? We're living in the Laodicean period. This is the day of the Laodicean church.

What is she? She's wretched and naked and blind. A blind man can't sense danger. He can't see a house on fire. He can't see a child in need. Blind. The church is blind tonight. Dear God if we believed in hell this place would be packed out tonight.

We're blind to eternity. We're blind to the fact that we have an obligation to 5 billion people in the world that we'll never reach the way we're going. The church is wretched and blind. What do you think Jesus feels looking at his bride tonight?

He's not coming for a limping, lame, ragged woman. He's coming for a pure church. A holy bride. We sang it tonight. With his own blood he bought her and for her life he died. The church is a playground.

Oh yes, we have a lot of young people coming to our church. Why? Because you're telling them you want them all at the mission field? No, because you excite them at the sports field. That's right. It's not that we've got a passion for Jesus.

That's a life from hell. And the hindrance to his coming tonight is the church is impure. He's not coming for an impure church. He's not coming for a blind old woman that's creeping around asking for help.

That has no sense of danger. No sense of an obligation. And if she has what can a blind person do? And wretched in the sight of God. Listen, I don't care what people say about I believe Jesus may come today.

They're liars. They don't. They need a half day's announcement from God to get unlatched from uncleanness, unlatched from bitterness, unlatched from bad spirits. Unlatched from a thousand things. They're not ready.

It's a fallacy. And the thing that's keeping Jesus from coming tonight is not communism and otherisms. It's the church is not ready. The bride had to be a pure bride. Do you think Jesus died for this dirty rotten system we call Christianity?

Not on your life. Not on your life. What is the church that Jesus saw? I told you before, I don't take any notice how much people criticize the church. Jesus criticized it. People say the church is dead.

It isn't dead. It's worse than dead. If a man is dead, the law has no claim on him. He can't be made to pay his debts. You can't command him to serve or do anything. He's dead. He's out of focus with everything around that's alive.

The church is worse than dead. Jesus said it. I didn't say it. He said she's poor and wretched and naked. As I said on Sunday night, this is the darkest period in history. Why? Because we've turned out the lamp of witness in the streets.

Street Preaching, Evangelism, and the Need for Revival

The darkness of this day is the church's gift to the world when she needs light. The brother mentioned yesterday that the foster they have street meetings. I gave 50 years of my life to street preaching in England.

Preaching at midday, preaching at midnight. They'd sell them at a meeting that people didn't kneel in the street. We waited for people to come out of movie houses. And there they stood in hundreds at night.

And we stood in the rain sometimes. We took off our coats and said, if you want to confess Christ, come and kneel with us. And we didn't say, just say, I'm sorry. We stayed a half an hour or an hour with them until they were really born again of the Spirit of God.

The people outside don't know that there's deliverance from sin. After all, most of you go back to your old ways. Doesn't Paul write in, was it, to Colossians says, we are his workmanship, are we? Did people see a change in your life when you're back?

I mean, it's all right singing blessed assurance here, but do we have assurance we can go into the world and stand against the world and the flesh and the devil? Let me stick this in your mind again, like it or not.

There's one reason we don't have revival. Do you know what it is? We're content to live without it. When it becomes number one priority, we'll do something about it. He destroyed the power of the devil.

Do you think the church will ever enter into that? I hear people saying, Lord, rebuke the devil. He rebuked him 2 ,000 years ago. Come on. Why don't we enter into what he did? There's only one reason that the world is going to hell tonight, and that is the unbelief of the church.

The Church Must Believe the Full Gospel

Now here's your light. We do not believe God. It's not the sinners that don't believe him. We don't believe him. We have a partial belief, not a full belief. You know, one thing that will just about destroy your life, I think, is going to church every night.

Well, you say, well, they did that in the early church. So would I if I'd been in the early church, dear Lord. I'd have been there morning, noon, and night. Do you know, I was reading about a revival a couple of days ago where they had to preach three times a day because the sanctuary was packed.