Prayer Demands Sanctification - Part 1 — Leonard Ravenhill

A party of tourists in England who were visiting one of the oldest and loveliest of the villages that we have. They're very beautiful, they have thatched roofs and everything about them is really photogenic in the tourist sense of the word.

And so these people had photographed everything they could from the big old Norman church that was built 900 years ago and the stocks in the centre of town where they used to put the bad people, you know.

And the village, well, everything is just as picturesque and it happens to be a lovely day. And when they'd just about exhausted everything, they saw an old man sitting by a fence and one of the rather patronising men went up to him and said, Well, Dad, how are you?

He said, Fine. Well, he said, Were there any great men born in this village? And without looking up he said, No, only babies. Well, the greatest people, the greatest men were once babies. The greatest saints were once toddlers in the things of the spirit.

And as I've said often, I don't know about this baby that's coming along, you can't blame it for not wanting to come into a world like this. Who would? But anyhow. You don't expect to put a baby to bed at night and then go into the bedroom in the morning and see your daughter, the baby that was 18 months old last night.

Somebody would stand up and say, Well, Mummy, I'm 21 today. You'd be rather shocked. We know that that kind of maturity is not possible and the same thing is true. I think we have to, there are lots of things we need to realise there's great differences in.

For instance, it's one thing to accumulate knowledge, but you can't accumulate wisdom. Wisdom is the ability to work out knowledge in the best way. And you can acquire knowledge in many ways. You can acquire it, of course, by reading, but you can acquire it best by experience.

Sanctification of the Whole Person

I want to talk this morning about a subject that it seems is not too often discussed. In Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians in the fifth chapter, verse 23, which I think you should memorise. The very God of peace sanctify you wholly.

Notice the word there is W-H-O-L-L-Y. Any Germans here? Anybody read the German Bible? Well, I guess in the German the spelling of it is D-U-R-C-H. Derk, derk und derk. The very God of peace sanctify you wholly.

Sanctify you through and through. Now, if the very God of peace sanctifies you wholly, W-H-O-L-L-Y, he explains what that wholly is, your whole spirit and soul and body. Well, if he sanctifies the spirit, soul and body, there's nothing else left anyhow because that's all we are.

As the theologians say, we're a tripartite being, a three-part being, spirit and soul and body. With our spirits, we're God conscious. With our souls, we're self conscious. And with our bodies, we're world conscious.

The only thing the world can do to me is injure my body. It cannot injure my soul. It cannot injure my spirit. My contact with the world is through my flesh, physical flesh, my body. My actions from my soul and my mind work out through my body.

I am, you are a tripartite being. Now, an interesting thing about this is that Paul here, as elsewhere Paul, like everybody else, no man, I've said so often, is greater than his prayer life. No man is greater than his praying.

Paul’s Prayer Life and the Church’s Need

You know, if you were candidating for a church, they would ask you how many you had in Sunday school at the last place and how many buses you were running and all kinds of things, how many degrees you may have or something.

But I don't think they ever ask a man about his spiritual life. They don't ask, for instance, do you have a healthy prayer life? How much time do you pray? Now, there's no question about it in my mind that Paul had the greatest intellect of any man that ever lived, apart from Jesus himself.

You get his writings in the epistle to the Romans, for instance. I think he wrote Hebrews as well. And yet, great as he is, great theologian that he is, he's never greater than when he prays. Now notice again, he's praying for a people.

I stress this, I still stress it over and over again. After you've read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, then you start at Acts. The whole balance of New Testament revelation from Acts to Revelation is to the church and not to the world.

There is no epistle to the world. Every epistle is to the church. In the Old Testament, God's problem was not the Amalekites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Canaanites and all the otherites. God's problem in the Old Testament was Israel.

God's problem in the world today is not Communism, or Romanism or some other ism. God's problem in the world today is the church. I like that lovely hymn. The church's one foundation is Jesus Christ our Lord.

Remember what the hymn goes on to say, she is his new creation. From heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought her and for her life he died. God so loved the world that he gave himself.

Christ loved the church and gave himself for the church. Remember that, we'll work on that later. God so loved the world, Christ loved the church and gave himself for the church. People say, well, there never will be a church without spot or rings or any such thing.

Well, there should be. Remember an old friend of mine, somebody asked him, did you go to church? He said, no, why not? You're a very godly man. He said, how can I go to church when I am the church? It meant you got a building.

You could get rid of every steeple house as George Fox used to call the churches, the steeple house. Some called them refrigerators. But anyhow, you could get rid of every one of them and still have the church.

The church can survive as we are told underground. It does not need all the machinery, all the machinations and the organization. As I said yesterday, some people think the only way to restore the sick church is by intravenous feeding of dollars.

Everybody's begging for money. What would we do if we had no money? Well, I happen to remember 25 years ago when some of the famous broadcasters hadn't much money. And now they've got millions and they have banking accounts with reserves of millions, but I don't see any more power on them.

Thank God, God still says your money perish with you in the area of trying to buy power or buy some favor with God. It just cannot be done. So here Paul is praying, the very God of peace sanctify you wholly.

Now look back in chapter 3 and he says there in verse 10 that night and day he is praying exceedingly that we might see your face and might perfect that which is lacking in your face. Now notice again he's praying night and day not for a lost world.

He's praying for the church. He's praying for the believers because if the believers get right the world will soon feel the effects of sanctified, Spirit-anointed, fire-baptized individuals. And therefore his burden is, he says I'm praying, I'm not just praying, I'm praying night and day.

I'm not praying you'll be blessed. I'm not praying necessarily you'll have prosperity or your burdens get lighter or your enemies fall down before you. He says I'm praying night and day that I may see your face and may supply that which is lacking in your face.

Now he doesn't say they have no face, but he says they have a face which is deficient. Now did God answer his prayer? He sure did because in the second epistle in the first chapter and verse 3 he says we are bound to thank God always for you brethren as it is me, because your faith groweth exceedingly.

Isn't that lovely? Now between the time he started making intercessions, praying fervently, praying night and day for them that their faith may be completed, their faith may come to maturity. And now he says I rejoice, I'm happy because he says your faith grows exceedingly.

Alright, so here he is, he's praying for these believers, the very God of peace, thank you for your holiness. I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord.

The Awe and Holiness of Sanctification

Now this is a very lovely word, this word sanctify. A number of times I was privileged to sit at the feet of someone who's been called the greatest Bible teacher ever, Dr. G. Campbell Morgan. Interestingly enough he never went to Bible school or seminary.

He was up in the hills of Wales and all he had was his Bible. He didn't have enough money which was about, he needed about four cents a day to go down on the train to the main city. But he didn't have four cents to get there and get back.

So he decided to dig into the word of God. And I remember listening to him one day when he said you know gentlemen I don't know much about the word of God, I wish I did. He'd written fifty books on it by that time.

You know the man who knows most about the Bible is the guy that graduated last May, last June out of seminary and is still trying to find a church worthy of him. The man who knows the most knows the least.

He's very aware of that. You could stay in the book of the revelation all your life, the revelation of Jesus Christ, not the revelation of St. John as people say. They may say that on the title above the book of revelation but it is the revelation of Jesus Christ.

You could stay in that book all your life and still not exhaust it. Or you could stay in the epistles of the Hebrews all your life or Romans. You know it's very interesting almost wherever you go to a Bible conference Dr. Jones is going to give his wonderful teaching on Romans and Dr. Brown is going to teach on Ephesians.

I've never gone to a Bible conference where anybody teaches on Ezekiel. That's a tricky one for you. The only thing they can do out of Ezekiel is get flying saucers. But I don't find anybody dealing with Ezekiel.

I don't find anybody saying well this week we're going to take Jeremiah. We stick with the two things which we feel are the kind of main vertebrae in the New Testament and they're certainly very profound books.

But again the fact is that the books are so deep they're so profound. There are people who stay all their lives with the Apostle Paul or somebody else who spends all his life with John. And it's profitable if you can do it that way.

But here the word sanctify. I remember one day that this wonderful teacher D. Campbell Morgan said you know the word sanctify is an awful word. Now if I said to you that I was talking to Brother Tony there and I passed him and oh he said an awful word.

Immediately you think something associated with something nasty or bad or something of that association. That's how I did about awful. But notice what he said the word sanctify is an awful word. He did not say the word sanctify is a dreadful word.

Now what's the difference between dreadful and well dreadful means something that terrifies you to shrink back. What does awful mean? It means in one sense something of the same. Awful means feared but with reverence.

What does awful mean? Well I'll tell you the best way to find out. Turn the word around. Full of awe. That's all it means. Dreadful full of dread. If a thing is awful it causes you to stand back with admiration and a sense of fear at something majestic.

Something awesome. I've said before say again that I think we're the most incident children God ever had to raise. Because we shut God up. The Holy Spirit if you don't know he only comes between 11 and 12 Sunday morning.

And 7 to 8 Sunday night and Wednesday night 7 to 8. Otherwise you can go. If you overstep the mark. Often preaching people say you preach too long. Okay. You know a lady just recently said to me you preach too long.

I don't like a service that lasts an hour and a half. Well I need an hour and a half to preach. But anyhow. She said I don't like a service that lasts too long. My question is this. How long if you do go to movies if you're still a baby?

Well if you still go to movies do you expect to get out in 20 minutes? People will sit for movies for 2 or 3 hours. Do you think people would buy an opera ticket if the opera only lasted 20 minutes? I remember in New York sometimes we'd go down in the city when we were teen challenged.

And the opera would be leaving at 1 o 'clock in the morning. And the gentlemen in the tall hats and silk scarves and the ladies dripping with diamonds. And they'd just stand out there you know smoking and talking.

They didn't rush home. The Rolls Royces and Benzes were there and Ferraris and all the classy cars. And the chauffeurs would stand to attention and relax as much as say well I'm used to this. It's going to take a while.

They'd left home after supper or they'd had supper in town. And they went to the opera about 7 o 'clock or 8 o 'clock. Operas don't often start till that time. And 4 hours in an opera isn't too much. 4 hours in church will kill you.

4 minutes kills me in some of them. But the fact is that it ought to be that the presence of God is so real and wonderful that you're still saying more, more, more. Let's stay. When did you last? Let's take it this way.

Let's be practical. Forget all the backstreet folk outside and just think. When did you last tiptoe out of the sanctuary? Or not tiptoe out of the sanctuary. Saying like Jacob, God is in this place. You know instead of moving the table around.

That's all right. You have to do it. But you say I can't eat. I want to get under a tree and meditate on the things which I've heard. I get the best illustration for meditation out of an old cow. Got it many years ago.

You know a cow will eat so long and then suddenly she flops down. What does she do? Well she poos so much you know and she regurgitates what she has already got and then she starts this. Now if you took a cow that as soon as it sits down, if you run it to a barn and milked it, the milk will be very poor.

The longer that cow chews over that cub that she has, the richer the milk becomes. Now that's true about spiritual things you see. So often we hear precious things and the next minute is we're saying, Hey son, are you going to so and so?

Yeah, I'm going with the next team. Are you going to so and so? Hey, Penny's running a sale tomorrow. Do you know this? It's amazing all the junk we talk about ten minutes after we come out of the sanctuary very often.

I remember Alan Redpath was preaching in Northern Ireland in a great meeting and he said I thought well somebody comes up and says that was a great message, this and that and the other. But he said I decided to test it one night.

So he had somebody else pronounce the benediction and he ran to the front of this auditorium. It had about ten steps going down to the street and he mingled with the folk going down and they were talking and you know not one of them ever mentioned the meeting.

It's a farming community. They were talking about the price of cattle. They were talking politics. They haven't seen you for a while. Did you get that repair to your car? Did you do this? Did you do that?

And not one of them and he said oh well. You spend hours and hours and hours preparing a message and nobody's taken any notice hardly. Now this word sanctify is an awful word. It is a word full of awesomeness.

Christ’s Prayer for His People in John 17

Now who is Paul praying for? He's praying for the church. And you know just as in John 17. John 17 goes up like that and down like that if you like. And this epistle does the same thing. In John 17 let me show you how I've marked this in my own Bible here.

Okay let's say this. John 17 is what? Well John 17 is the Lord's Prayer. And don't let somebody fool you. Even Billy Graham gave out a book not long ago. He said this is the greatest book on the Lord's Prayer that there is.

And it isn't the Lord's Prayer. It's the disciples' prayer. Our Father which art in heaven is not the Lord's Prayer. He taught his disciples to pray. Jesus couldn't pray the Lord's Prayer. The disciples couldn't pray John 17.

But this Lord's Prayer here in John 17. Well let me give you without writing it. You can write it yourself. In verse 11 of John 17. Let me go back a minute. Go to the first verse. Verse 1. 17. John 17. 1.

Just put 17. 1. Glorification because he prayed glorify thy son that thy son may glorify thee. So in 17. 1 you have glorification. In verse 6 you have manifestation. I have manifested thy name unto the world.

In verse 11 you have preservation. I am no more in the world. These are in the world. And now I come to thee Holy Father. Keep through thine own name those that thou hast given me. So he's praying for their preservation.

And the end of the 11th verse is that they may be one. So he's praying for their unification. At the end of verse 13 he says. That they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. So he's praying for their jubilation.

In verse 16 he's praying for their separation. They are not of the world even as I am not of the world. Therefore it's separation. And in verse 17 the climax of the revelation. I think you should put that there.

The climax of revelation is 17. John 17 verse 17. Sanctification because he says. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. So ok let's put it this way. You have all these things here coming up a ladder like this.

You have what their glorification and their unification. And their jubilation and their separation and so forth. But the climax is verse 17. Sanctify them. This is the peak of the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Thessalonians’ Spiritual Qualities and Need for Sanctification

Now you have the same thing here in this wonderful prayer. That Paul is praying for the Thessalonians. You want an outline on them? Look at them. Turn back to the first chapter. First Thessalonians first chapter.

Now you get here all the. Call them what you like. If you like the attributes of these people. Or if you like the characteristics of their spiritual life. And they're all very beautiful. And I'm going to emphasize them for this reason.

That with all the beauty of their spiritual lives. He is still praying that they may be sanctified. Now look at all the qualities that they have. In verse 3. This is first Thessalonians first chapter verse 3.

Remembering without ceasing your work of faith. Why don't you just put a 1 at the side of the verse 3. The second thing. Knowing brethren and beloved your election of God. Now they were doing a work of faith.

They had. They were elect of God. And yet he's praying for their sanctification. In the middle of verse 5. He says. Well let's read verse 5. I'll read it. For our gospel came not unto you in word only.

But also in power. And in the Holy Ghost. And in much assurance. They're very steadfast. They have assurance. They have a work of faith. They're the elect of God. And yet he's praying for their sanctification.

Verse 6. He says. They're followers of us and of the Lord. That's another thing that they have a benefit in. They're followers of the Lord. But he's praying for their sanctification. In the same verse.

He says. They received the word of God with much affliction. So. They were persecuted for their faith. But he prays for their sanctification. In the same verse. He says. That they had joy in the Holy Ghost.

So they're a pretty jubilant bunch anyhow. But he still prays for their sanctification. Now look at the precious thing he says in verse 7. They're in sample. To all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.

So whenever he went preaching. He says. Well listen. I'll tell you what the grace of God can do. Take a trip to the Thessalonians. And have a look at them. And see what God. They're samples. You know.

The salesman comes round. He shows you a sample. He says. Well this is our product. You want to buy something like this? May not work out like that always. But in this case it does. He says. Can I hold you up as samples of the grace of God?

You have assurance. You have faith. You have an outworking of your faith. You're followers of the Lord in the verse. But he still prays for their sanctification. Verse 8. They were like the Agape force.

They went out preaching. Because it says. From you sounded out. The word of the Lord. Now in verse 9. They had a radical transformation. Because it says in the middle of verse 9. He turned from idols.

To serve the living and the true God. They had been idolaters. And yet they've had a complete turnaround. And they're worshipping. And they're serving the living and true God. And in verse 10. That they were waiting for his son from heaven.

Whom he raised from the dead. So day by day. They were anticipating the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now wouldn't it be wonderful. If every bunch of believers in the country. Were even as far up as that.

All those qualifications. Missionary hearted. Suffering for the gospel sake. Full of joy. Real ensembles of the redeeming work of Jesus Christ. Sounding out the word of God. Having much assurance. Quite aware that they were the elect of God.

And yet in fact. With all these things. He's still praying for their sanctification. Now notice what he says in chapter 4. In verse 3. This is the will of God. Even your sanctification. That he should abstain from fornication.

Sanctification as the Will of God

All right. This is the will of God. Even your sanctification. Now. You'll discover. If you haven't already discovered. That one of the main problems. In the Christian life. Is to find the will of God.

There's only one thing more difficult. Than finding the will of God. That's doing it. It's an awful thing. Very often to find the will of God. And then sometimes. You almost wish you hadn't found it. I hear people say.

You know if I knew God's will. I'd do it. I'd say. Well hold it a minute. Hold it a minute. Here's two things he will. One. He will if not the death of one sin. Or the second thing. He will just sanctification.

Now start there. Before you start looking for. Some place in world history. Or something. The will of God. Is that we should be redeemed. The will of God. Is that we should be sanctified. Because he said in verse 7.

Of that same fourth chapter. For God hath not called us. Unto uncleanness. But unto holiness. Now that's what sanctification really is. It's a synonym. You can bring the changes there. The very God of peace.

Make you holy. And that holy is H-O-L-Y. Which you tie on to W-H-O-L-L-Y. He makes you holy. Holy. That's good. He makes you H-O-L-Y. W-H-O-L-L-Y. In other words. Your spirit. Your soul and body.

Are all sanctified areas. The spirit of God controls your appetite. None of them are wrong. They've been perverted. Even down to sex. It's a holy thing actually. It's been perverted and fooled with. But it's a God given thing.

And it has to be under God's control. Like every other thing. You see. God is. People say sometimes. Oh God. My great problem. I'm a Christian. My great problem is my temper. Take my temper away. No, no.

You don't need your temper taken away. You need it purifying. Jesus got angry. One of our problems is. We don't get angry. We get angry over silly things. Somebody hurt your feelings. Or some other stupid thing.

And we get so upset and angry. That's pure nonsense. Those things should never disturb us. The things that don't disturb us. Should disturb us. The things that do disturb us. Shouldn't disturb us. Acts 16.

Paul went down the main street of Athens. Which was the intellectual capital of the world. At that time. On either side of the road. He saw temples to strange gods. And in the sleepy Elizabethan English.

It says. That his spirit was stirred. I'm not fond of translations. Or versions. Or perversions. Or. There's so many perversions. And some may sterilize the Bible just about. I'm not even fond of the.

Amplified. Except where it agrees with me. Then I like it. And. In the 16th of Acts. Paul says. The amplified says. That when Paul went down the main street. He was angry. His spirit wasn't just stirred.

He was angry. Why? Well I'll tell you why. Because people do much more for heathen gods. Than we do for the living God. That's why. I've said often about a friend. I preached at the great missionary conference.

In Karisau in Japan. And after I preached. A brother came to me. He said. Brother Ravenhill. Do you know how long it's taken. How much the gospel has penetrated Japan. In a hundred and what was it then.

Fourteen years. This is about twelve years ago. I said. No. He said. The only impression that Christianity has made. In. On Japanese culture and religion. Is half of one percent. In a hundred and fourteen years.

Think of that. And I said. Brother the rate you're going. It'll take another hundred and forty years. Hundred and fourteen years. To get the other half of one percent. I don't know whether. Or if Japan ever really did have a real revival.

Of. Holy Ghost. I'm not sure of that. And I'm not in any way trying to belittle the missionary efforts. And the sacrifice that has been done. But I'm saying this is the only way that it's penetrated. It's gone as though its feet were made of lead.

As though it had no wings. It's like an automobile that can go downhill. But it can't go up the other. Because it has no motor in it. Well. The president of that group was in. Rockford where we were living.

At the time. He was there on a visit. And so I said to Martha. The president of the Karizawa Missionary Conference. I'd like to go see him. We went to the meeting and afterwards I said to him. How are things?

He said all right. I said. How are things in Japan? He said well I think pretty bad. I said why? When did you leave? He said yesterday. He was on the plane. And. He had come over. In a plane. He said I was in Japan yesterday.

In Tokyo. I had a very bad experience. Oh somebody steal your purse? No no. What happened? Well everything in Japan is a little cheaper. At least it was then. So I had a haircut. And he said I sat down in the chair.

And this little Japanese fellow was quiet for a while. Well I'm not really a Yankee. I'm an American. They don't know the difference anyhow. But he said I'm not really a Yankee. I'm an American. Oh. Kept quiet.

Businessman? No. Not a quiet spell. Oh tourist? No. Not a quiet spell. Well then what are you? And he said I'm a missionary. And I thought you were a barber. Ah. You know they growl those folks at night.

Ah. Barber. Me barber. Nine till five. Missionary. At night. What do you do? Fill my pockets with pranks. Have a phonograph. I belong to this new group Zagagaki. You know combination of religion and politics.

We're going to drive Christianity out of Japan and everywhere else. Go home. You go out every night at seven. Yeah I go out every night at seven. Go home two o 'clock. Come again. What did you say? I go out at seven.

Knock on the door. Give them a lecture. Lecture number one. Leave them some literature. Go back next Tuesday. Same house. I stay in that house half an hour. I move to another house. You go out at seven o 'clock and you don't get to bed till two o 'clock.

I didn't say that. Yes you did. No, no, no, no, no. I go bed four o 'clock. Well you go out at seven. I go out seven o 'clock. I work till two in the morning. Then I go home. I get home for two o 'clock.

Two o 'clock in the morning I pull a curtain on one side and I bow before my God. For two hours. You know you'd think he'd almost read Isaiah 40. He says I wait on God to renew strength. Sounds a bit familiar doesn't it?

They that wait upon the Lord to renew their strength. Well he said I began to shrink. I thought he'd missed my hair at the top cutting it. I was going down in that chair like this. I felt so humiliated that a man for a heathen God would work from seven till two in the morning and then pray till four.

And finally he thought oh yeah I know it's a special effort. He says well how long have you done this? My seventh year. Seven years? Yeah this is the only thing that put my country right. Well Brother Ray said I've been thinking about that all the long flight from Japan up into Alaska.

Thinking about a man who has nothing to sell. Nothing redemptive to say. Nothing eternal to pass on. And yet he labors from seven at night. Doesn't get home till two and prays from two till four. I think my Christian life needs overhauling a bit.

Sanctification Must Be Practiced, Not Merely Studied

You know it's a serious thing but I'm going to say reading the Bible will not make you a saint. It will give you all the information how to become a saint but it won't make you a saint. It has to get down in your bloodstream.

It has to be worked out as the word of God says with fear and with trembling. Let's look at this word the first time it's mentioned in the scriptures. It's in the second chapter of Genesis and the second verse.

I'll read from verse one. Genesis two verse one. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made. And he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. Because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. Now what did he do? He did this. He made six days here. Let's do it this way.

One, two, three, four, five, six. All right there they are. And then he has one here. And he says these are yours. This is mine. It says three things about the day when he made this day and sanctified it.

What did he do? In verse two it says he rested on the seventh day. In verse three it says he blessed the seventh day. And in the same verse he sanctified the same day. Now notice there's no relationship to man here.

It's just telling us what God did. A bit later we're going to get the same thing mentioned in the Ten Commandments. In Exodus 20 and Exodus 31. Now let me emphasize that again because we're so used to hearing about the Ten Commandments maybe.

Well let me put a line in your mind under the word commandments. They are ten commandments. They're not ten suggestions. They're commands. They're not optional. What did God do on the seventh day? He rested.