Christ Magnified - Part 2 — Leonard Ravenhill

Vision Fixed on Jesus

And doings all my days and all my hours.". She goes on to say, "...let my hands perform his bidding, let my feet run in his ways, let my eyes see Jesus only, let my lips speak forth his praise, all for Jesus, all for Jesus.".

Then she says so beautifully, "...since my eyes caught sight of Jesus I've lost sight of all beside, so I'm chained my spirit's vision gazing on the crucified.". Vision is so vital in the Christian life.

On that Damascus road, I don't believe the Apostle Paul ever recovered from that experience of being blinded. Physically he did, his eyes were open, sure enough, but I believe that he was blinded to all the treasures of the world, as this girl says, "...since my eyes caught sight of Jesus I've lost sight of all beside, so I'm chained my spirit's vision gazing on the crucified.".

Losing Sight of Earthly Treasures

Or, if you want, in the words of Isaac Watts, "...after you've seen him my richest gain I count but loss.". But as I've said so often, we use that phrase, you know, one day when we, the things of earth, after you've seen Jesus, the things of earth will grow strangely dim.

You know, I like to turn that around and say, when we get to heaven and look back, the things of earth will look strangely grim. We spend our time gathering sawdust. Everything that we spend our lives to get is perishable outside of the spiritual.

Presenting the Body as a Living Sacrifice

Paul says we're to present our bodies a living sacrifice. So the body can be a living sacrifice. In the same verse he said it can be holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Now, in its normal condition it cannot be that.

The human body is corruptible, the flesh in us is corruptible, but once he takes us in his infinite mercy, and Romans 5 is fulfilled, and we receive the grace of God, and we receive the peace of God, and we begin to walk with God, then we can present that body, which he will sanctify, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is only our reasonable service.

Carnal Mindedness, Spiritual Life, and Peace

You know, this is a fantastic chapter, Romans 8. Verse 1 says, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and of death.

Now come down. Verse 7, or verse 6, to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Now, how can you harmonize death and life? A man called me yesterday, talked, I'm sure, forty, fifty minutes from California.

Everybody's bewildered out there, that's why so many of them come here, you see, but anyhow. Oh, he was in despair about the carnality mastering his life. Oh, I'm a Christian. I'm sanctified. I said, you are?

Yeah, but something carnal dominates me. Well, that's ridiculous. How can you be carnally dominated if you're spiritual? This scripture is very clear, to be carnally minded is death. I don't know why, I think preachers are the devil's advocates very often.

They defend sin better than an atheist. Tell you you can't get rid of sin this side of eternity. You have to have it, it has to have dominion over you. When the scripture says it doesn't. Oh, this man had just one sin of the flesh that mastered him, he could not in any shape or form get the victory over it.

Freedom from Sin Through Union with Christ

I said, well, get it nailed to the cross, that's the answer. Again, Romans 6, if we're buried with him in baptism, as I use the illustration so often, if a man is standing here in the water, and I bury him under the water, he's cut off from the world above.

He can't see the world above, he can't breathe the air above, he can't talk to the world above, he's cut off. We saw some people baptized last week, and I thought of them as they went through the water.

Symbolically, they're saying, look, this is my grave, I'm being buried to the world above. It's idle pomp and fading joys, as one hymn writer says. Somehow preachers love to fall back on Romans 7, don't they?

From Romans 7 Despair to Romans 8 Victory

Here is the greatest man that ever lived. I heard G. Campbell Morgan many times. He's the most amazing Bible teacher I ever heard. He gave a great message on holiness to about, I guess, 400 preachers.

And I kept squeaking out a little hallelujah, because it was in a Methodist church, and you know, that's almost like shouting hallelujah in a morgue at times. So I squeaked out a little, oh, people turned around and frowned on me, you know.

So I thought, well, if you don't like that, wait till he says it again. So when he said it again, I said, hallelujah. Which was all right. But when he'd taken us into the heavenlies, he said, now don't think I'm preaching a second work of grace, or you can be really holy in this life, because even the apostle finished up, he did not finish up in Romans 7, there happens to be a Romans 8.

It happens to be in the Greek that there's no difference, there's no division, that's an artificial division. And Paul says there's no answer in the law. Oh, wretched man that I, sure he said that. Who shall deliver me from this death?

Well, if he stopped there, we'd be in trouble. He says, I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord. That's why he starts Romans 8. There is therefore now no condemnation to those of us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.

For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free. I guess you know that I do not. That's all right, thank you. Take courage. Well, that man's walked with God many years, a dear friend of mine.

The Law of the Spirit Overcoming the Law of Gravity

You know, every time I get in a plane, I hate planes, as I say, facetiously, flying is for the birds. But every time that monster takes off, and I try and estimate how many tons there are, and tons of gasoline, and tons of flesh, and tons of baggage, and it goes up like that.

If I had a feather here and said go up, it wouldn't, it'd just come down. Well, how does that monster keep going? The law of gravity, immediately it leaves the ground, the law of gravity pulls on it. That's why it's harder to land a plane than take off, isn't it?

You see, taking off, you can put the thrust and blast of all the engines and up you go. Coming down, gravity's pulling this way, and he's fighting that way. So he has to control the two powers, gravity and the power of the plane.

And it gets off because the power, the thrust of those tremendous jets, I suppose you know they were invented in England anyhow, but anyhow. Isn't it amazing when you see that thing going down, and you look at 300 passengers in that plane, all the baggage, all the luggage, all the gasoline?

Off it goes with a roar. Soon you're seeing the land, it's either dropping away or going up anyhow, but there it is. The thrust that's in there is greater than the law of gravity. Well then, what about the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus?

Resurrection Power in Christ

Oh, I love it, you know, I love resurrection hymns. Up from the grave he arose. I like that.