Audio Sermon: The Cross — Leonard Ravenhill

The Judgment Seat of Christ

I would like to read just 3 or 4 verses from the 1st epistle of Paul to the Quintet, the 3rd chapter reading from verse 1 into verse 7. Now I don't know if you like to hear what the preacher is going to preach about.

I think sometimes it's rather like giving a menu to people in a restaurant, and I have some messages I like to preach and I have some messages I certainly don't like to preach. But I have one message that I would like to bring if I can get the all clear from the Lord on it.

And it isn't a nice message at all. So far we've had very nice ones, but this one is a very rough one. And it's on the judgment seat of Christ. It deals with the judgment of the sinner and then it deals with the judgment of the believer.

And you know that a lot of evangelists, as a very famous doctor friend of mine says, there are evangelists who preach to the sinners and all the church members come. Because you sit over their heads. But there are evangelists who preach to the believers and not many church members come.

Because they kind of think it's for other folk. But there is a section of theology called eschatology that is dealing with things that still have to come. And I think the most neglected thing in preaching in the church of God today is preaching on the judgment seat of Christ.

Particularly for the believer. And so if you'll pray, and tomorrow night you'll get me up at quarter to eight instead of eight. And I might get through in an hour or an hour and a half. I've preached on this text for two and a half hours.

I don't promise to do that tomorrow night. But anyhow you're not going anywhere except to bed. And you may as well go broken hearted anyhow. So maybe tomorrow night if the Lord gives us the all clear again we'll share our particular concept of judgment for the sinner and judgment for the believer.

Let me just say this. I don't think many believers, in the world today or in the past or in the future, I don't think many believers will stand very tall at the judgment seat of Christ. Now, reading from 1st Corinthians chapter 3 verse 1.

Carnality, Division, and Spiritual Immaturity

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto beds in Christ. I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it. Neither yet now are ye able.

For whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men? One says I am of Paul, and another I am of Apollos. Are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul? And who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man.

I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.

One of the most forgotten and the most unquoted preachers in America, was a man by the name of Henry Varley. He was a man who, almost without exception when he preached, could say, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he hath anointed me.

And I want to say to you again, particularly to evangelists and preachers, that I believe the most elusive thing in the world today, is the anointing of the Spirit of God. We mistake eloquence for anointing.

We mistake very often the personality of the preacher. That there is a mysterious, indefinable something, which as a colored brother said, I don't know what it is, but I know what it isn't there. That we call the anointing of the Spirit.

Total Commitment to Jesus Christ

And Henry Varley preached this way. And he was preaching as only he could, when one night he shot, as evangelists often do, he shot a ball to venture. And he gave birth to a phrase which has become a classic in the jargon of preachers, because he said this, The world has yet to see what God can do through one man, who is totally committed to Jesus Christ.

Sitting somewhere over here was a young man, he wasn't very important, he wasn't an executive, all he did was put shoes on people's feet in Chicago. But that young man said under his breath, well if the world hasn't yet seen a man totally committed, then by the grace of God I'll be that man.

And eventually you remember that he became D .L. Moody. Now until he died, D .L. Moody was not a preacher of good English, he murdered his English. But he saw revival. And you're better to murder your English, if you must, than have revival on the eloquent and a Demosthenes or an Apollos.

And not get revival. You know, it wasn't true when Henry Varley said that a hundred years ago, and a hundred years still hasn't made it true, and another thousand years will not make it true. It is not true that the world has yet to see what God can do through one man totally committed to Jesus Christ.

I think that the greatest brain the world has ever known outside of Jesus Christ was the apostle Paul. This man had acres of culture. This man had every prize that everybody else was grasping after. Socially, intellectually.

He says, I'm of the tribe of Benjamin. Well, that was something. I'm of the seed of Abraham. He was a member of the Sanhedrin. He had everything going his way. And then there came a day, you remember, he was going down that Damascus road with fire coming out of his nostrils, bleeding out threatening.

And I always get a thrill when I think of that man going down with a volcano in his heart for just as soon as Jesus was born, they were going to liquidate him. And as soon as the infant Christ was born, Herod wanted to kill him.

And as soon as the infant church was born, Saul wanted to kill him. And yet the man that was breathing fire out of his nostrils and going to liquidate everybody that he found in this way. That man wrote the greatest poem on the world that the world has ever known, 1 Corinthians 13.

What a transformation. When Paul went down that Damascus road, he thought that he had under his toga there the death sentence of the early church. And he'd reckon on everybody except God. And then on that Damascus road he met Jesus Christ.

I'm glad he didn't need to preach or hear a sermon. That might have been the end of him. But he didn't need to preach and he didn't hear a sermon. He met the Christ of God. And the old preachers used to talk about people having a personal encounter with the Son of God.

Conversion as Surrender, Not Mere Decision

We don't do this too much these days. We've got a mass psychology. Somebody wrote a stupid book, and you can buy it if you're silly enough, on 64 different ways to make an altar call. Isn't that putrid?

There isn't an altar call in the New Testament. The altar call is a modern invention. When the Holy Ghost departed, men stepped in and made altar calls. Now I do it sometimes. Sometimes I don't. Because the psychology of people is they expect the gate to be open and you invite them to come in.

But then on that Damascus road the apostle met Jesus Christ. And you know, again, it wasn't a case of raising his hand, signing a decision card. He didn't come to the altar and make a down payment to the few hot peers and expect a mansion over the hilltop with music piped in from a thousand million angels, world without end, and immunity from eternal judgment.

And escape from hellfire. There was no down payment to the few kids. This was a case where if this is the very Son of God, then he says, what this Christ offers me must be everything or nothing. And he summarizes his life.

I kind of smile. I do smile occasionally. I smile sometimes when I hear preachers say, you know, I fashion my life after the apostle. Well, I admire your humility. Apart from that, we like the apostle Paul.

Sure we like him. We like his power. He could raise the dead. We like his peace. He gloated in tribulation. We like his poise. He says, none of these things move me. We like his purpose. He says, this one thing I do.

We like his passion. He says, for me to live is Christ. But there are two things we wouldn't like. We wouldn't like his poverty and we wouldn't like his prison. I say he had a confrontation with Jesus Christ.

And he gives you the whole story himself. Because you see, this is what Christianity really is. Christianity is not getting rid of a lot of lousy sins of an altar. That's part of it. But a decimal fraction of it.

I can say again that we're living in a day of the cheapest evangelism that we've ever had in history. I read an article very recently from one of the leading evangelists in America. And he was appealing for sons, like people do.

And he said, now I want him to support me because I've moved into another area. But he said, do you know in the last few years I have led personally through my ministry I have led 9 million people to Jesus Christ.

Now if you take all the big evangelists in the last 20 years. And all the local efforts in our churches. And all the people who have been to the altar. Everybody in America has been converted and warmed up.

And rehashed and served with the leftovers. Everybody in the country has been dealt with somehow. I'm very sinful as you know. But you know I don't understand how you can have 9 million converts. When it only took 120 to turn Jerusalem upside down.

The Church That No Longer Disturbs the World

I was in a city not long ago where a man said to me. You know in this city we only had one church 50 years ago. We were very despised. Now he said we have some of the finest churches in this city. As a matter of fact.

We have 120 churches of our denomination. Of our particular brand of theology. We have 120 of those churches in greater. Hmm, it was Houston. Greater Houston. And he said we have 120 of those churches in this area.

Wonderful churches. Members from 100, 200, 300, 500. Well come on what are you thinking? I said well I'm wondering how it was. 120 men could turn Jerusalem upside down. And now you can have 120 churches in the city.

And nobody knows you're here. How do you figure that one out? One of the great reproaches of the church of God today. Is that the world doesn't know we're around. They can get on with us. They couldn't get on with the early church.

Because the world was going that way. And the church was going that way. They were always having collisions. After all Paul did one of two things wherever he went. He either had a revival or a riot. But we have neither.

We just have a relapse. On the master's road. He says later do not happen to me. And I don't care how you phrase your theology. Any second work of grace if you like. Call it a baptism with the Holy Ghost.

Call it sanctification if you're a Nazarene. Call it something else if you're a salvationist. But I tell you this, this is my conviction. That the greatest thing that can fall from human lips. Fell from the lips of the apostle Paul.

When he said this Christ lived within me. On the master's road he didn't give Christ his sins. He gave Christ his total personality. And he says this in his own language. He says I have an exchange life.

It is not I, but it is Christ that liveth in me. It was not only an exchange life. It was an exciting life. Because he said he wrestled with wild beasts at Ephesus. It was not only an exciting life. It was an expensive life.

Oh sometimes I feel like putting my hand up And saying stop. And I hear people singing. Were the whole realm of nature mine. You wouldn't even give them a hundred dollars for the preacher tonight. So why do you sing a lie.

Most of us would like to give God what we don't have. A young man going back to a city in the States. He had been raised in this small town actually. And he became a millionaire, became very wealthy. And when he had a homecoming They put a banquet on in the local city hall.

That wasn't too big. And they said now tell us about your success. And he said well really. It all began in a missionary meeting one night. They were asking for money. And he said I had in one pocket a dime.

And I had in the other pocket a dollar. And I thought well I can't afford to give the dollar. I can only give the dime. And then as they put pressure on I said alright I'll give the dollar. And then as I was giving the dollar I thought well after all the dime doesn't matter much.

So I gave the dime and the dollar. And he said the reason I'm a millionaire tonight Is on that occasion I gave God everything that I have. And look how he's blessed me and made me a millionaire. You know sometimes little old ladies can be very awkward.

And a little old lady up at the front On the front pew said in a stage voice But I dare you to do it again. My richest gain I count at last. Paul takes all his accumulated advantages. And he says this I count on but doubt that I may win Christ And be found in him.

So it was not only an exchange life. It was an exciting life. It was an expensive life. It cost him everything that he had. An explicit life. This one thing I do. And it was an extensive life. Because his life still has an influence.

Right down to the day in which we live He must have marked X on that Damascus road. And he must have remembered it many times. Because you see The Lord revealed himself to him on that Damascus road. But when the Lord had got him so far He took him in the back side of the desert Where every preacher should go.

And the God who revealed himself to him on the Damascus road Revealed himself in him when he got there. Herodotus has been called the father of historians. And he tells us that in the ancient days In the temple of Heracles The altar fire was kept burning 24 hours a day.

Those were the days of slavery. Remember in the day of the New Testament There were 60 million slaves in the Roman Empire. And the Bible doesn't say anything about it. But if a man could escape from his master He would rush down into the temple.

Maybe the priest would be asleep and he would nudge him. And the priest would say what you want. He would say brand me, brand me. Well they had branding irons like they have in Texas. And the man could choose the branding iron.

And they would put it there in the furnace and heat it. And then the slave who escaped would put out his hand. And they would brand that hand With the brand of the God that he had chosen to serve. He would lift up his foot and they would brand it instead.

He would slip the rags he was riding down. And they would brand the back of his neck. And after a few days he would go out into the bazaar. His master might see him and say to another slave Get hold of him, bring him back.

See who's there? Aristarchus, bring him back. And Aristarchus would go back to his master. And the master would start pouring imprecations on him And tell him how he would nearly frog him to death. And what have you got.

And then suddenly the young man would open his hand And raise his foot And show the back of his neck. And then the previous owner would get very angry. And he would say, so you got branded with the mark of your God.

I have no further claim on you. But I excuse as long as you bear branded in your body. The owner's mark of a God. It's due to the world. It isn't always mourning like some of these, you know I might have been a great television star.

But the Lord called me. You might have been black in boots On State Street too. I'm tired of these bankrupt, half-worn out Hollywood stars That go strutting around as though they've done a God almighty something.

Because they have a guitar. And they sing one or two songs for him. God pity us. And then he said adieu to the world. Here he is, the greatest intellect of the day. He might have out. Galileo, Galileo Capitulated to Jesus Christ.

And you know what he did? He says as he says goodbye to the Galatians. Henceforth let no man trouble me. I bear in my body the owner's marks of Jesus. Or as Weymouth translates it I bear the brands of the Christ of God.

If hands were branded he would do nothing but what would please God. If feet were branded he would only walk where it would please God. The base of his neck. Because his intellect was branded for God.

He says at the end of that same epistle God forbid that I should gloriously be on the cross. By which the world is crucified to me. And I am crucified to the world. You see we're living in a day when people go to the cross.

But they won't get on the cross. They want the benefits of his death. But they don't want to die. They're too ambitious Ambitious and carnal very often even on ministry. See we folk maybe fortunately have never seen a crucifixion.

When a man was crucified and he carried his cross outside of the city You could be sure about one thing he wasn't coming back. And brother if you take up your cross tonight. And you only carry a cross to the place where you're willing to die on it.

You don't need to carry it an inch further. But if you carry a cross it's a one way ticket. And the man carrying his cross wasn't coming back. If you doubt yourselves tonight. If you doubt your own ambition tonight.

If you doubt your pride tonight. If you doubt your lust. Whatever it may be the lust of the flesh Or the lust of fame Or the lust of your distinguished personality. If you doubt your selfishness or some other thing.

You can take the cross and you can die on that thing. And you can stay dead by the grace of God if you want to. But that thing can come back too. I know that. But you see the man that brought a cross.

Once he got on that cross he had no rights. You could take a bucket of garbage if you like and throw it on him. This man could say I'll take a rock. Let me try and knock out his right eye. And you try and knock out his left eye.

You take a bigger rock and crush his ribs. You take something that will lacerate his body. Once he's on that cross he has no rights. The son of God had no rights. Had he? No had no rights. When particularly if you were going to crucify a man like Barabbas.

Oh come on let's take a rock. Let's take silk. Let's make this man put him in hell before he gets there. And they would ridicule and taunt And cast everything they had in the teeth of the man on the cross.

But as soon as the sun went down They began to rush back to the gates of the city. Nobody wanted to be out of the city When the sun went down. And if they went to see a crucifixion at six o 'clock at night They never went to see a crucifixion at six o 'clock in the morning.

There's a cross. As soon as the sun begins to rise while the skies are still dark The vultures would come and rest on the arm of the cross. And they begin to pick at that body. Pick out the eyes that hadn't been destroyed.

Pick on the body. Tear at it until the entrails were out. And blood was running down. It was this despicable, horrible, revolting, sickening sight. The son to see the man dying. It was agony to see him in the morning When he was all torn apart.

For no sooner had the birds left him than the dogs would come out And leap up and tear his feet. Or begin to lap up the blood. And they would be barking and snarling. Now that's no pretty picture. But that is the picture that the Apostle Paul gives us here.

When he says the world is crucified to me. To many of us the world isn't as ugly and rotten and sinful And wicked and dirty as that. It still has some fascination. As in the church not too long ago Where the pastor said to me You like my new church?

I said it's very admirable. Notice all my elders standing at the back of the church Sunday morning. Very handsome men. I give them all a nice white flower. And they escort people there to their pews. And we have a wonderful system here.

And I said you're very favoured. He said the only thing is this. On a Wednesday night when it's the prayer meeting night I can't find my elders at all. Do you know where they are? They're in the bowling alley.

So I said oh I see they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. And went to a bowling alley. Well he said I wouldn't say that. But you say that the members of your church have to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

They can't be members. And yet there they are in a bowling alley. I think it's pretty stupid to paint the front porch when the house is on fire. I think it's equally stupid to be playing balls. When after all you'll get no reward for balls.

When after all you could be in a place of intercession. Because today the wall is on fire. And the reason that millions of people are going to hell fire tonight Is because the church of God has lost Holy Ghost fire.

Paul says the world is crucified. It has no fascination for me. And what's more he says I am crucified to the world. They don't find anything attractive in me anymore. They think I'm strange and I'm perverted And twisted in my ideas.

Surely what? You think of the scope of the life of this amazing man. He began his life in Tarsus The historical capital of the world. He ended his life in Rome The military capital of the world. In between he went to Jerusalem The religious capital of the world.

In Acts 17 he went to Athens The intellectual capital of the world. In Corinthians here chapter 3 He goes to Corinth The immoral capital of the world. I pray for my heart that somehow in these few days we're here.

That God might get one or two men at least. With a baptism of passion like this man the apostle Paul had Because he was restless. He's a God intoxicated man. He has no joy except people are coming to Christ.

You can't give this man any honours. He has all the honour in the world. He's established as a prophet of the most high God. The spirit of the Lord is upon him. He can pray and call the holy ghost to bear witness.

And he can pray with tears and passion. We don't pray like this anymore. Maybe in your church well if you do thank God for it. But I said sometimes almost facetiously That over the door of the prayer meeting.

Over the door of the prayer room in the church. We should put a sign just three words. We wrestle not In its original setting you remember It is we wrestle not against principalities Against powers but against the rulers of the darkness of this world.

And prayer is the hardest work in the world. My good friend who has just retired from Westminster there Dr Martin Lloyd-Jones says I find anything easier in my life than prayer. For Satan will drive you from your knees.

Everything goes wrong if you decide to have a day of prayer and fasting. Everything comes up that day. There's nothing in this world Satan says He doesn't fear our preaching. I noticed one witty American said not long ago.

He found a new proof to the inspiration of the Bible. Because it had survived so much bad preaching. Well that's a rather dismal view of the thing anyhow. But the thing is you see that we're living in a day When Satan knows he doesn't need to be nervous.

Too much about our preaching. But all Satan really fears then. And really don't know how to pray. And Paul could pray and pray in the Holy Ghost. He says in the 8th of Romans there He talks about the groaning of the world.

And he talks about the groaning of the spirit. And he talks about us groaning within ourselves. Because the highest form of prayer has no language at all. Hannah prayed she never said a word. But she got a baby in answer to prayer.

Moses prayed but he stammered he wasn't eloquent. But he saved the nation. The civil man I mentioned last night or the night before Weighed about 110 pounds and died at the ripe old age of 28. And left us one of the most fabulous records of praying David Braylon.

You know America has produced some of the greatest praying men in the history. David Payson the praying Payson of Portland. Dr. Ian Bowers. As a young man rose at 4 o 'clock every morning. And when he got older and was nearly 80 he rose at 3.

His daughter wrote to me after I compiled a book of his prayers. And you should buy it because it's wonderful. I didn't write it. I merely compiled it. It's 7 of his books put together in a book we call the treasury of prayer.

And his daughter wrote to me and said I'm glad you've done this work on my daddy's books. And she said you know as he got older the older he got the earlier he got up to pray. He knew how to pray in the Holy Ghost.

Oh I wish somehow we could. We could get some little groups of folk in our church and teach young men and women to pray. We teach them to pray baseball. Man alive you'd hardly believe. I was in a big college just a few months ago.

And it had a very high saluting title. And I said if your forefathers or your fathers 50 years ago knew that. In this college where you have an emphasis on the fullness of the spirit. You're engaged in competitive football and competitive baseball.

And you said never perish the whole thing. But they spend more time praying now than praying. One way to lose your vision is go to bible school. You'll lose it alright. Unless you're very careful. Because the program is so tight and there's so much accent on this and that and the other.

There isn't too much concern about having the anointing of the spirit. Paul sets off with his seven lead boots if you like. Very wonderful man. He had nobody to finance him. He had no committee. He had no circular letters.

But he was in constant communication with the Most High God. And God directed his steps. And in the course of the way that he went you remember again. He came in Acts 17 to the intellectual capital of the world.

And they discovered that this little undersized Jew. That wasn't too attractive according to tradition which is uncertain I know. But when he got with the intellectuals and they began to reason. They found that he knew as much philosophy as they knew.

He knew as much history as they knew. He knew as much of their poets as they knew. And they were amazed at his brilliance. But he didn't establish a church at Athens. There is no epistle of Paul to the Athenians.

I say this man on the Damascus road when God met him God revealed himself to him. And there in the wilderness God revealed himself in him. I'm going to ask him one day what happened. He went to God's Bible stool and you can go there.

It doesn't cost you a thing except obedience. It's a rough stool. He took Moses there for 40 years. He took John Baptist there for 20. He took Paul the reddish bread in the wall there for about three and a half.

It's called the university of silence. And God revealed himself in him. Now I don't know what happened all together. But this I do know. He came out of that experience filled with the Holy Ghost. And for all his amazing life afterwards.

You cannot find five moments of his life that he backslid. Indeed as he gets nearer to the goal. You find he quickens his pace and his passion. Everything that Jesus did Paul did. Jesus lays the dead.

Paul lays the dead. Jesus healed the sick. Paul healed the sick Jesus in violent opposition to the status quo. Or as the kids would say today the establishment and so was the apostle Paul. And yet after this most amazing ministry of his.

After 30 years of supernatural. And like the good pastor he didn't have a penny to his name. Creature comforts Palaces. After this most amazing anointing of the spirit of God. Miracle and establishing churches against tremendous odds.

And pulling down the strongholds of Satan. And yet as he gets nearer and nearer he says I'm still longing that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. You'd rather think he didn't know him and he'd done all those miracles.

You'd rather think that he'd established churches in Asia Minor. Against all the vast monoliths of the day. Against the superstition and the false religion. That he would be claiming his service and say well of course I'm very glad to come your way.

I can't stay many days. I'm booked solid for the next 5 years. How evangelists get booked solid for the next 5 years I wouldn't know. Boy I don't know God's will for tomorrow. Never mind the next 5 years.

Also we should have, my dear wife and I should have gone away. Switzerland, England, Ireland Australia, New Zealand Africa, India. Even Brazil, Argentina. And you know we've cancelled every invitation we had this year except this one.

Now why we came here I wouldn't know. I am going to talk on faith the next 3 mornings. And maybe the Lord brought me to teach Brother Jimmy. I don't know. But why we should come to this conference I just wouldn't know.

But the Lord must have something in it anyhow. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection. Do not I believe, disagree if you like. I believe it's possible for a group of people in your church 3, 4, 5 or 6.

I believe it's possible for God to get a nucleus that I would call a body. And the Holy Ghost to make that body spiritually pregnant. When Paul came out of Asia Minor he was spiritually pregnant. All these epistles have been conceived in him.

The epistle to the Romans, the epistle to the Philippians. The epistle to the Colossians and what have you got 14 if you count Hebrews. They were all conceived in him by the Holy Ghost. Because he got time to be alone with God.

And listen the dew never falls when there is any wind about. Now I don't disagree with the evangelist. God bless you. He may disagree with me too. But you know I never like people to break up a meeting and shake hands.

Heavens it's taken about 6 months to get them all settled down. Then you break them up and ask the Lord to shake hands. And they start looking and saying I'll see you after the meeting. And their minds are disengaged.

I think these are the difficulties you have in preaching. First of all you have to get people here physically. Secondly you have to get them here mentally. And thirdly you have got to get them in the spirit.

And Paul had conceived in the Holy Ghost. He was pregnant spiritually. Not only pregnant because of these epistles. He was going to give birth to these churches there. And some of them were in the very womb of the devil.

When he got the mind of God on them. And then you remember what else happened as a bonus. God took him to heaven. I was in a conference a while ago and a fellow came to me and he said I've read some of your books.

I said well that's nice. And he said did you ever read my wife's book. I said no what is it on cooking. Oh no no no my wife's the woman that died and was in heaven for 7 days. I said where is she now.

He said she's at home. I said she must be the most stupid woman in the world. What do you mean. My wife was in heaven for 7 days. I said look. Once I get inside those Pelligates Gabriel won't send me back to this dump.

I wish I'd gone to that place where they're going to sit down with Abraham and Isaac And all the saints to inform their labors rest. And I can see Finley and Moody and all the others. Brother you're not getting me back here.

No sirree. Not if you give me Cliff Barrows to lead my meetings. And Billy Graham to write my notes. I'm not coming back to this dump. I'm just going to stay right up there in the glory. And you know this all went to heaven.

I wrote a book about it. The apostle Paul actually went to heaven. And the Lord said keep your mouth shut. That's a thing you'll never talk about. You're not to share it with anybody. Did God roll out a plan of the ages.

I think he might have done. He might have shown the apostle the time when Jesus came at the incarnation. And shown him the consummation. And maybe the apostle saw when all the tribes have rolled away.

And as we sing when the trumpet of the Lord shall sound. And he showed him Jesus Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And all the nations bowing down to him and everything under his feet. And Christ going to reign forever and ever.