Are You Willing - Part 4 — Leonard Ravenhill

The Cup of Betrayal and Temptation

What could you not watch when you were now? Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. What was the cup? Well, I'll tell you what one ingredient was. It had betrayal in it. The men who had sworn allegiance to him, when it came to the crisis, they quit.

Christ's Internal Suffering in Gethsemane

Can you drink of the cup? What's in the cup? I believe in that cup that was internal suffering, mental suffering and spiritual suffering. Do you want to drink the cup? I'm straightened. He says, I cannot do anything now.

I cannot do anything. There's a baptism I have to go through. The Holy Ghost can't come down until I go up. I can't go up until I've done the will of the Father. And he goes through the agony of Gethsemane.

He goes through the lonesomeness. He drank of that cup. I say it was internal. Why? Because in Isaiah 53 verse 11 he says, he travailed. Isn't that internal? Deserted by others and in the darkest hour.

Not only deserted by men, deserted by God. Can you drink of that cup? Do you want to travel? You see, what people are seeking for today is a painless Pentecost. There isn't such a thing. The day of Pentecost was fully come.

Pentecost, Persecution, and the False Promise of Prosperity

What happened immediately after Pentecost? They prospered. Yes, they did. They went to jail. It wasn't prosperity. It was prison, pain, privation, persecution. The men are dishonest that preach on TV today.

They're liars. It's in the case of blessing and God locked the windows of heaven on you. Jesus goes on to say when that man in the other chapter that we didn't read of, when he says, settle this dispute between my brother and myself about the family estate.

Jesus says, lay not up for yourself treasure on earth where moth and rust corrupt and thieves break through and steal. You know, there's a lot of wealthy Christians who get to heaven bankrupt. And there's a lot of Christians almost bankrupt, living in poverty.

They'll be super millionaires when they get into eternity. But this is the way. But if you read in the other version, if you're going to follow the Lord, it's division in the family. Your father or mother will hate you.

The Cost of Following Jesus Without Compromise

Jesus got to the place where his brother said he's insane. You know, people say, I want to be like Jesus. I doubt it. Do you want to get kicked out of your family because you love God? Do you want to be so true to God that the Thomas comes and doubts you?

That a Judas sells you? You really want to be like Jesus? Well, why don't you practice it? Why don't you have 40 days and 40 nights of fasting? Forget all the paperwork. We make such rash vows. When the temperature's running high in a meeting, we make vows, vows, vows.

The Physical Pain and Humiliation of the Cross

I say the pain was internal. He shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. I'm sure it was not only internal, I'm sure it was mental pain. I'm sure it was bodily pain. Because it says in the, what, the 50th chapter of Isaiah, I gave my back to the smiters.

We don't do that, we fight back. We don't like somebody to carve us up, scorn us, ridicule us, humiliate us, misrepresent us. And he got the whole works. And yet he never muttered once. What did he say?

He said that when it came to the agony of the cross, that men shot out the lip. I don't understand those disciples, I never will. Why after he came from the judgment hall and was going to the cross, why didn't they line up on either side of the road and applaud him and say, this is the way our king comes into his kingdom.

Instead of that, men shot out the lip and scorned and said, if God's your father, let him deliver you. I say again, the perennial challenge to a Christian is, come down from the cross and save yourself.

Renewing Old Vows and Embracing Total Commitment

You made a decision in a missionary meeting, I'm going to give more money to missions. And then something came, and you backed off. I'm going to spend more time with God. Forget it. You didn't do it. You know, when Elijah, before he called down the fire, he went back and he built the old altar.

We don't want to go back to old altars, to old vows, to old commitments. We're always trying to make new things. God knows they'll be broken down anyhow in a few weeks. Christianity has not been weighed in the balances and found one thing.

It's been tried, found difficult and rejected. It's too tough. There's no part-time service. Leave all and follow me. Drink of the cup, in the darkness and agony of Gethsemane. I've told this story, I'll tell it again briefly.

A Pastor Tested by an Unpleasant Cup of Tea

I was going down the street in Oldham, which is nine miles outside of Manchester. I was in my early twenties, and I pastored the largest church in town. In fact, the largest wholeness church in England.

Going down the street one day, I passed this house, a lady opened the door. Hi. I said, hi. She said, you're the pastor at the tabernacle. I said, yes. I often come to your church. I sit on the back seat.

I'm very poor. Fine. I don't like to come. I don't want to come and give anything in the offering. But she said, I want to do something. What? She said, would you come in my house and drink a cup of tea?

Well, usually, of course, I want tea. I said, yes. The only thing is that I went in, you know, you went in like this. Boy, that house did it smell. I got in there and, you know, the books. She bought books from a junk shop nearby.

I'd seen her in the shop many times. She had them like a wall. When you went in the door, you could just keep your hands on top of them, go right through to the back room, the dining room, which was dining room and everything else.

Oh, you will have a cup of tea. I said, sure, I'll have a cup of tea. She had lovely fingernails. They got passive patoot around them. You know what? Well, in common language, your fingernails were all in mourning.

Clogged up with dirt. The kitchen sink had this is this height from here about this height. There was a plate there with some old bacon on it. It had got, what do you call that stuff? Mold. Penicillin.

Penicillin. You've heard her say it before. She didn't know she could have sold it. Penicillin. Yes, sirree. She got that fuzzy, horrid looking stuff. Well, you take tea. Yes. She reached in the kitchen sink with a stack of cups.

And, you know, the tea had run on the outside. And she picked it up. Mercy on us. Looked as though it had about a hundred bugs at the bottom. Dried, dirty, rotten old tea leaves. In fact, some were mouldy.

Well, now she said, I'm going to give you a cup of tea. I said, all right. She poured the tea into the cup. It was as black as my shoes. And I don't like black tea. Do you take cream? Yes. I have none.

Good. Do you take sugar? Yes. I have none. And with that dirty hand shaking, I saw that black stuff that was supposed to be tea. Cold as ice. And I hesitated. I felt like tipping it up. But I knew I was on trial.

And she held the cup up.