Will Ye Also Go Away (John 6) — Leonard Ravenhill

The Gospel of John and the Call to Believe

I want to read some verses now from the Gospel as John left it for us, recorded by John. In the 6th chapter, this you may or may not know is the longest chapter in this Gospel. And you know, I find it difficult to find which is the key word in John's Gospel.

He mentions in this one chapter, the 6th chapter, he mentions the disciples 12 times. And I think in the book he mentions disciples about 48 times. But then there's another word that is very emphatically laid in this Gospel, and that is the word believe.

In the next to the last chapter, which is what, the 19th chapter if I remember right, the 20th chapter, and verse 30 he says, many of the signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.

There is no complete record of the life of Jesus anywhere. Verse 31, these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Now that word believe is mentioned about 51 times, and believed is mentioned 27 times.

And so you see again that he is very emphatic. The other emphatic word that he gives us in this Gospel is that, it's the Gospel of life. Life is mentioned 43 times in this wonderful version of John's alone, not in the New Testament, but 41 times he's stressing life.

And altogether about a hundred times nearly believe, believe, believe, because that is essential to true life in the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, the verses I want to read are verse 66, down into 69.

Jesus’ Hard Saying and the Cost of Discipleship

From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. Then Jesus said unto the twelve, will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered, as you would expect, Lord, to whom shall we go?

Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe and are sure. I like that, we believe and are sure. The suggestion is that he's established on a rock, there's nothing going to move him. We believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

All right, to whom shall we go? For thou hast the words of eternal life. You know sermons have strange origins. I talked with a young man in Phoenix, as we went out a couple of weeks ago. And I found him one of the most interesting young men.

He's only in his thirties, but he had a depth of spirituality that was just beautiful. He has been in a church, he's in a church which is very lively. And he's gone through the charismatic cycle, and there's been a lot of excitement.

But now he's getting down to earth. And he's finding that people are kicking against many things that he said. But I mentioned something to him about Hebrews. And as we came back through that city, a lady said to me, you know the pastor came in the pulpit last Sunday.

And she said his prayer was just unbelievably beautiful. And then he stood there and he read through the epistle to the Hebrews, from the first word to the last, and then pronounced the benediction. I'm sure a lot of people discovered things in that book that they had never heard emphasized before.

The book had suddenly become alive, and he wanted to share. I understand I've never been to a meeting in the Christian Science Group, but I understand that they only read each Sunday a selection of the writings of Mrs. Baker Eddy.

They think she's the source of wisdom, and there's no comment made. They do have lecturers in other areas, true enough, but normally they read a sermon by Mrs. Baker Eddy. And sometime it might do us good just to read the word of God through like that.

But the origin, I don't know whether it is because I talked to him about Hebrews or what. But preachers often find their inspiration in strange ways. You know, I believe as long as we live, God will present us with challenges.

He has to provoke us to good works. And I discovered on this trip that there were children who provoke me. Now children can provoke you in the wrong way, I know. But I mean a child that provokes you in the spiritual area.

Family Devotions and the Spiritual Influence of Children

One of them was a boy in the home. He's the brother of the boy I mentioned who is the artist. He's a big upright fellow, handsome young man with a beard, in a university. And recently he kind of dropped a bombshell in the house.

He said, Dad, you know, I just love devotions in the house. Dad, you just make us have devotions. Even if at times we seem to rebel, but please keep up those devotions. Because I've learned more in family devotions, I think, than I have going to church.

And I want you to know what that means, and that's why I say as children. It will be infinitely more difficult if you raise your children from the time they can understand until they're teenagers. It will be infinitely more difficult for them to wander away from God than if they had no family altar.

In fact, the church in the house is what the New Testament talked about. And I think we might even go back to that. So I was challenged by that boy saying that the devotions in the home had meant more to him even than preaching.

A Child’s Faith in God’s Power

The second challenge came through a nine-year-old boy who was in the house where we stayed. He's not nine, he's now thirteen. He's a big healthy fellow, and well, he's an average teenager. He's thirteen years of age.

And one day as we were going to the meeting, his mother said, We didn't tell you about him, did we? And I said, About what? I said, He's a big healthy boy. She said, Yes, but you know when he was nine, he was uncoordinated.

The school he goes to, they play kickball, but when he lifted one foot, he fell over. His teacher was very disturbed. He's mentally retarded. He's on the verge of being mentally retarded. And this was a trouble to us.

At that time, their only son, and here he's in this mess. Good-looking, black-haired boy, but he can't keep his balance. He can't keep up with studies at school. There were two outstanding things about that boy.

One was, he came to his daddy one day and said, Daddy, you keep saying that with God all things are possible. Now the doctors and others don't help me. Now listen, Daddy, I'm going to talk to God. And he said, Well, that's great.

Nine years, remember, I'm going to talk to God. So he said, I went and talked to him. You say, He's my Heavenly Father. And I said to him, Lord, I need healing. My body isn't right. I fall over if I get on one leg.

And the other thing is, I'm slow mentally. Within a few weeks, he was coordinated. The school teacher came to see the parents and said, Look, school teacher said, I go to a certain church. They have a TV show.

But she said, I don't understand what's happened to your boy. He says something about praying. Yes, well, that's it. We told him that since he believed God could do anything, he should go to God. So he went, and the Lord touched his body, and the Lord has touched.

She said, He keeps up with the rest of the class. He's doing great. Is that the answer to it? Oh, I go to a famous church where they flash out every Sunday in a building, a 17 million dollar job, and another one in Florida.

But I never heard anything like that in my life. You know, the thing that led to my mind was this, a little child shall lead them. But that teacher with all the knowledge did not understand. The other thing the boy said, when he wanted anything, he came to his daddy.

Now daddy said, you know, daddy spoiled boys very often. And so, I suggest in future, instead of asking me for something, you ask the Lord. I could give you it, and you don't need it. But he won't. So the little fellow prayed for something, and it came mysteriously.

Now daddy wasn't listening behind the door. He prayed on his own. There's no communication. And he prayed again, and God supplied his need. And after a few months, he came to his daddy, and he said, you know daddy, I find it easy to get things from God, and get them from you.

Well, I said, I think that's great. Man, if that boy keeps developing faith like that for his healing, physically, mentally, and then, believing God will supply his need. I'm not saying everybody has to go away.

I'm telling you these children challenge me. The third was a story that's remarkable, a challenge that's remarkable. As soon as I heard it, I went in room, and fell on my knees, and gave God some praise.

A Child’s Faith in the Midst of Captivity

Maybe you read about a little girl that was kidnapped in Canada, 12 years of age. A man had dug a hole through the basement, pardon me, from his garage. It looked like a bomb-proof shelter, they said.

And one night, he kidnapped the little girl only three blocks away from home, and he put that 12-year-old child in the basement. Hardly any food, no light, no communication, total darkness, and kept her there for over six months.

And it seemed by accident she was discovered. He raped the child, he abused the child in every way. For six months, no daylight, no daddy, no mummy, no toys, no friends. That would drive most people up the wall.

She's the emotions of a child, she hasn't the understanding, either mentally or emotionally. 12 years of age, she had a birthday in that hell hole. She came out at 13 years of age, by accident. The man who usually pulled the trapdoor over, hadn't put it over, and his wife discovered where he'd been going, she didn't know where he went at night.

And when she shone the light down, she just saw a pair of feet, and she called the cops and said, my husband seems to have committed suicide, jumping down the hall. The police lowered the rope, and they pulled him out.

They were going to close up the hall, and one of them said, I thought I heard a moan. And he looked down, he said there was a light, and there he said, I saw the little thing. She had lost nearly 15 pounds.

She was as pale as the paper. She'd been abused, no one knows how many times. She'd been in the darkness, with very little food. Again no friends, no toys, nothing to divert her attention. Living misery, and wonder what in the world the brute was going to do.

And as the man came up, with a little child, he saw a piece of paper, and he picked it up, and she'd written this on the paper, God is with me, God is with me, he'll bring me through. He moves in mysterious ways, but I'm sure he'll bring me through.

I knelt down and thanked God for parents who'd instilled into that child's minds that God moves in mysterious ways. That child's got some faith, and I knelt down and thanked God, either for the parents or the teachers.

And as I knelt like that, I tried to imagine my own reaction in a prison like that for six months, without daylight, without sufficient food, without friends, without communication, as some terrible monster coming at me when he wanted.

And as I knelt there, this thought came to me, and I grabbed a piece of paper and put it down, that in every prison-like circumstance, trials, testings, tribulations, we do one of two things, we go to panic, or we go to praise.

And the child was really praising God. He moves in mysterious ways. She wasn't griping and complaining. And that drove me to this text. One hymn writer says, O all-embracing mercy, thou ever-open door, how should I do without thee when heart and eye run o 'er?

When all things seem against us to drive us to despair, we know one ear is open, one ear will hear our prayer. And this drove me to the text that I've quoted to you right now, where this man of God is facing the Lord Jesus, and Jesus says to him, or he says, Jesus says to him, To whom shall we go?

For thou hast the words of eternal life. This chapter is full of miracles from beginning to end. It's full of sensation. It's full of drama. It's full of everything that the people like. Jesus in this chapter feeds the five thousand.

He walks on the water. Miracle follows miracle. And they're excited about it. And then suddenly again, he turns again to his teaching. He says, Except ye eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, ye have no life in you.

When Disciples Turn Back from Hard Teaching

And listen to what they said. You see, when Jesus went on smoothly, and he healed their sick, and he gave them food and everything, they were very thrilled. But Jesus laid down conditions of discipleship.

And he said them in the synagogue of all places. You talk about courage to preach a thing like that in the synagogue, not in the open air now? These things he taught in the synagogue, verse 59 says. These things said he in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum.

Many therefore of his disciples when they heard this said, This is a hard saying. Verse 66. From that time, many of disciples went back and walked with him no more. You see, they didn't just turn away, they turned back.

He laid down the conditions of discipleship. That they were to eat of his flesh, which to me suggests his humanity, and drink of his blood, the divine miracle of redemption. In other words, it wasn't lip service any more.

It was entering into a unity with him. It was entering into a life with him. And when they heard that, they were not too concerned about following him. You see, there is no way at all, as I said repeatedly, there is no way for us to escape trials, and tests, and tribulations.

I saw some comments somewhere about this monstrous man in Russia who can lift what nobody dreamed any man would ever lift. I think it was 500 pounds, clean lifting like that, down and up. Well, how many times do you think he's practiced that?

Why, many a man ties 120 or something and he keels over, he gets to 200, he thinks it's wonderful. And here this monstrous man gets hold of this huge barbell and lifts it up. There he is. And every time he's done it from his infancy upward, he's been strengthening those muscles until eventually he can carry that load.

Well, how can I prove myself to God except in testings, and trials, and tribulations? There is no other way. Now, either I go sour in them and say God has forgotten to be gracious, or on the other hand, I sing in the storm.

Paul’s Example of Endurance in Suffering

I thought of the little girl down there deprived of so many things. Do you remember what Paul says a little bit later to the Corinthians? We're troubled on every side. I don't believe God lets many people be troubled on every side.

We crack under it. We get troubled on one side, it's bad enough. I thought of my own experience. You see, people think you just preach, it's a kind of a philosophy. No, no, no, no. I remember being a crumpled heap of broken flesh at three o 'clock in the morning in sub-zero weather in Chicago, when I couldn't move anything but my fingers.

And I immediately said, my ministry is wrecked for two or three years. My wife and children are four thousand miles away. They're going to be colossal bills. Everything floods your mind at once. Now, I'll tell you what I've made up my mind to do by the grace of God.

I'm not going to hurt God. I sure don't want to hurt anybody else, but I'm not going to hurt God. And this got down, down, down in my spirit this week. You see, this man, the Lord Jesus had a great following in this chapter.

In the 28th verse, it says, they said unto him, what shall we do that we might do the works of God? Oh boy, don't we love to do. God isn't concerned what I do. He's concerned what I be, what I am. You remember the rich young ruler said, well, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

And God, Jesus hit him right where he was sore, because he'd made an idol of his success. And Jesus says, you sell everything you have. There's a certain man broadcasting out of Dallas and apparently recently said on the TV, you know, people ask me why I drive a big Cadillac.

He said, well, Jesus rode a Cadillac in his day. It was a donkey. There's only evidence once he did that. And he did it in line of prophecy. And some of the youngsters picked him up and said, oh, so he identifies with Jesus because he rides a donkey.

Does he identify with Jesus by saying, I've nowhere to lay my head? Does he identify with Jesus to say, I have a Gethsemane? Kids are not fools. Then said unto him, what shall we do that we might do the works of God?

Oh, if we could walk on the water. If we could do these miracles and feed the multitude. If we could cast out devils. Well, that would suit us fine, wouldn't it? But supposing deep down in my heart I doubt him.

And I'm convinced more and more as I've said almost facetiously that speaking generally of Christians today we're the biggest bunch of unbelieving believers God's ever had to deal with. Most of us never had our backs to the wall in the truest sense of the word.

I say, Paul says I'm troubled not on one side, on every side. I'll tell you, I felt it when I was picked up in a mess and put in a hospital bed. And the only thing that kept me from, I never before God, I never grumbled once, I never questioned once what he was doing.

And when Dr. Tozer came to the end of my bed at four o 'clock in the morning with his scarf around his neck as pale as a ghost and he said, Len. And I said, Doctor, don't worry. I got two promises. One is I shot through the air from that upper story of that burning building to the ground.

God gave me a promise. I shall not die but live. And as I lay here in bed, he gave me the other promise. As for God, his ways are perfect. And I said, those are my crutches I'm going to get through. I'll need crutches but these are the best crutches that there are.

Believing God Rather Than Merely Doing Religious Works

You see, in this other verse, the next verse, 29, Jesus answered and said unto him, This is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. Now, I believe the greatest thing I can do to God is swear my allegiance to him come hell or high water.

Jesus said in the 14th of John, Believe me, and if it mystifies you, believe me for the very work's sake. You see, there's not a believer here or anywhere else who isn't living in a fishbowl. Everybody's got eyes for us.

They know our moods, they know when we're up, they know when we're down, they know when we're excited, we reveal it. They know when we're crushed. Now, I'm not saying there are not times of sorrow, sure there are.

But we sang that lovely hymn of Isaac Watsy's. Man, when I get to heaven, I want to talk with him for a long while. He wrote, When I surveyed a wondrous cross. He wrote that lovely hymn, Am I a soldier of the cross?

He wrote that lovely hymn, Come ye that love the Lord and let your joys be known. The man knows the depths of sorrow and agony and he knows the ecstasy. After all, this has come to me, it may not fit anybody, I don't care.

I'm telling you what God spoke to my heart. But God says in his presence there is fullness of joy. And if I live in his presence, I can live in fullness of joy. My spirits may be down, circumstances may be against me.

I think of the Psalmist David, he had it as rough as anybody. Sure he plays his harp and has a great time in the 23rd Psalm. But there are times when his world broke up. He had a rebel son that tried to pull the throne from under him.

He tried to steal the crown off his head. He was in peril of his own son. And yet he says on one occasion, My heart is fixed. I like that. I don't know anything else in the world that is fixed apart from that.

Our emotions are not fixed. Our circumstances are not fixed. Our future is not fixed. There's a thousand things, but he says, My heart is fixed. I'm not sure if it wasn't what. It sounds like him who wrote a hymn.

My heart is fixed, eternal God, fixed on thee. And my immortal choice is made Christ for me. You can fault the apostle if you like, like everybody else on certain scores. But I'll tell you one thing, you can never find a murmur in him.

He says, We're troubled on every side, but we're not distressed. We're persecuted, but we're not forsaken. We're cast down, but we're not destroyed. I like Phillips' version there. He says, We're knocked down, but not out.

I noticed a comment there on the radio, was it yesterday, where somebody had been fighting and he said they knocked him down in the fourth round. And he got up and won the fight after about six more. He was knocked down, he wasn't knocked out.

Greater Is He Who Is in the Believer

Sure we're going to get abused. From the moment Adam transgressed against God, you and I and everybody else, we're living in enemy territory. We're living where Satan is going to do everything he can to expose us to everything he can.

But you know what? The good book says, doesn't it, that greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. You see, again the spirit of God bears witness. I remember being in a certain meeting where a brother laid down the law and it was just something morning after morning.

And just before I got up to speak after him about the third morning, I thought to myself, well how in the world will people remember all these do's and don'ts and do's and don'ts that this man's laid down.

I couldn't have faulted them, they were fine. And then suddenly I got this thought, again, the Holy Spirit who is in us, he is the one that constrains us or restrains us. He is the one that says yes or no.

The word of God says, he will guide you into all truth. I say I don't want to hurt anybody but I can grieve the Holy Spirit. You know, I listen to some of that radio stuff and that TV show out there. It was sickening and putrid.

The Danger of Materialism in the Church

You see a man in a snow white suit and his coat is all covered with sequins and he moves and dazzles like Liberace or somebody in the light and he's proclaiming the whole council and he can tell you what you have in your pocket and he can read your mind.

And somebody else dancing, jumping two feet in the air because they got a bit more money than somebody else. It seems to me God is a business man. They talk money, money, money, money, building, building, building.

Well, it's a sign of the end of the day, one of the signs. The word of God says, before Jesus comes, as they did in the days of Noah, they bought, they sold, they planted and they built it. And everybody's building, even in the church of God.

They're building bigger businesses, they're building bigger buildings. I don't find much to substantiate it here in the word of God. God isn't in big business. God is a spirit. He's a spirit. I'm a spirit.

And as a hymn writer says, spirit to spirit thou dost speak. And remember that in Ephesians, it says that we're to grieve not. Ephesians 4 .30, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. You know, I remember talking to a world famous person.

And he said this, he said, well, I did wrong, but the Lord hasn't punished me for it. In the Old Testament, he used to punish people. You know, the more I say, I walk with God and the spirit guides me, I better watch every step, because I'm in for more trouble than anybody else.

Holiness, Obedience, and the Fear of God

Just this morning, I was reading about the two of the sons of Aaron. Do you remember, they went in the tabernacle in the wilderness? They picked up the right censers, they put the right oil in, it was the right time, and they waved them and said their prayer, and God smote the pair of them dead.

Why? It was the right time to go in. It was the right censer, it was the right oil. And God smote them dead. And so angry was he, that he said to their father, look, you don't mourn over them, cast their bodies away.

It was a detail. They took the wrong coals from the altar, that's all they did. They took the wrong coals from the wrong place to make that incense burn. And because of that, you see, God had told them again and again, you shall not defile it by this.

It's a very simple thing. As I've said more and more, that God was very patient with Moses. He never rebuked him for being a murderer. But when he lost his temper for 30 seconds and smote the rock, instead of speaking to him, it cost him 40 years, because he was penalized.

Oh, that's the old dispensation. Well then, don't ever quote to me that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, or thou God, change us not. You see, if I'm his, if I've sworn my allegiance to him, he demands every bit of obedience.

And I believe two things that hurt God. One is my disobedience, and the other is my unbelief. I think again, it was Isaac Watts that wrote, for him begun unbelief, my savior is near, and for my relief will surely appear.

By faith let me wrestle, and he will perform. With Christ in the vessel, I smile at the storm. There is no place, anywhere, anytime, that God has promised us immunity from testing and trial. I say one of two things, we go down under it.

We get bitter or better through that circumstance. And yet we know this, God never pulls any tricks. Either I say, Lord I'm getting more than I can bear, or I look to him and say, Thank you Lord, you've trusted me.

Do you know why? Because he said, I won't put anything on you that you're not able to bear. And if I do do that, and I break under it, I'll tell you something, you don't get back to the place that you left, by just saying a prayer.

Repentance Is More Than Saying “I’m Sorry”

Just this past week, I've meditated on this fact, that people so seldom are asked to repent anymore. And when they do, they just say, I'm sorry. But that is not it. Sorrow is not repentance, repentance is loathing the thing I've done, hating it.

Actually it means a change of mind. For the sinner it means this, that when he's thought good of himself, and that God was ugly that he'd send him to hell. The sinner says, God is right and I'm wrong, he's right if he sends me to hell.

And I was walking this way in darkness, I step out of darkness into light, out of the kingdom of Satan, into the kingdom of his dear son. I loathe that thing. And I believe there's, what John Wesley preached on more than anything else, maybe to believers, I don't know which was the most.

One, he preached on the witness of the spirit. The second thing he preached on was repentance to believers. A godless sorrow. Again I say, when we preach about sin, we say, well, sin will hurt you, and sin will hurt the person you commit sin with or against.

But first of all, sin hurts God. It's a transgression against the law of God. And God is hurt. The crowd have left him from that time forward. Many of his disciples, verse 66, went back and they walked no more with him.

The Richness of Obedience Over Outward Success

Isn't that terrible? Do you think they realize that he was the holy son of God? I don't know how this affects you, I don't have to, I can only tell you what God told me, I'd rather have preached something else than nearly did.

Can you imagine those people standing before the holiest man that ever lived, God incarnate? Sure, they said, in the 60th verse, many of his disciples, when they heard this said, this is a hard saying, ah, God's all right when he does things good for me.

When everything's easy and it's smooth, ah, I love the Lord, now he looks after me. This is all these boys blow up on TV and radio. You know, I gave God a hundred dollars, give me a thousand back. You know, I did this, I did that, oh, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

Somebody talked like that the other day, I said, would you go home and read the fourth chapter of the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians, and then go home and read the fourth chapter in the second letter to the Corinthians, where Paul says, unto this present hour we suffer need.

You know, the church in the Revelation that swaggered because she, she'd everything. I think of it when I see that old peacock that comes round our house, if you, any of you would like to take it, please come and get the thing, his wife with him.

But you know, they stood up and down outside the house. It's a beautiful bird, it can't sing a note. And there's some little black bird or something flies up there in a tree in the morning and I listen, man, man, man, oh, it trills, it goes up and down, reminds me of the English thrush or the nightingale.

Yeah, the peacock does all the strutting, he doesn't even lay the eggs, he can't sing, but he shows off a lot. The church in the Revelation did exactly that. She was rich and increased in goods and she, she displayed all she had.

Another church is very shy and says, you know, we're not like that number one church, we don't have the quality, qualifications and the quality they have and we feel awfully inferior. Then the master comes up who runs the business and he says, because you're rich and increased in goods and you need of nothing and thou knowest not, you're naked, wretched, poor, blind, miserable.

And he goes to the little church and says, I know thy poverty but thou art rich. What a personality coat we have today. I was looking at 44th verse of the 5th chapter where it says, How can ye believe which receive honour one of another and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?

Now this may not mean much to you but to me it does because, you know, you go to a meeting and somebody stands up and says, here's a brother who's written so many books and he's known this and he's that and the other.

I don't let anybody introduce me anymore. I say, you just say Leonard Ramey will speak. Keep all your adulation and all your honours for the next man. He loves it. I hate it. I'm just your brother. I happen to write a book or two.

All right. God gave me privileges. All right. But I'm not strutting about it. Oh, we're so choked up honouring people. It takes 15 minutes to get through the honours list. As Dr. Tozer said in one great conference, I'm tired of going to conferences to watch men strut.

Treasures Found Through Trials

I know that thou art rich. Thou art poor. I know thy poverty. Thou art rich. Oh, the jewels that are for the soul if we only find them. The precious things as the book says of the lasting hills. It calls them something else that we don't always like.

It talks about the treasures of darkness. Oh, there are tunnels everybody has to go through. It depends how you get through them. That's the issue. But you know when you've gone through them and you've proved God on every count and you come out and you feel you've got a lot of treasures you couldn't have gotten in any other single way.

Jesus said a few hard words. Oh, they didn't say a thing when he fed the 5 ,000. They were, they enjoyed it. In fact, they got so excited in that chapter they were going to make him king. This is the man we want.

He answers our problems. This is socialized food. Socialize. Everything is easy with this man around. And talk about the supernatural. You know, he walked on the water yesterday. We were all breathless.

Amazed. Now, if it said some of the people left him, it would be one thing. But it says many of his disciples when they heard these sayings they said this is a hard saying. Well, are we just after the sweet and not the bitter?