Are You Preventing Christ's Return — Leonard Ravenhill

Well, this has been quite a week, hasn't it? For better or for worse? For worse, I think. I noticed nobody mentioned the name of God until last night. And then we called him Spurgeon. Mr. Reagan mentioned a number of times about God.

God wasn't mentioned one in all the discussions all the week. But the last slap, did you notice what Gorbachev said when he signed the book? In the name of eternal man. That was subtle. But it shows where they stand.

A smile didn't change the degradation and misery of Afghanistan. It didn't help the people in the prisons in Russia. I think the situation worldwide is infinitely worse tonight. The devil has scored a triumph.

And yet God's still on the throne. A hundred years ago, I wasn't there, but a hundred years ago, William Booth said that to talk about peace while you're building armaments is like talking to a drunkard about sobriety when you're making whiskey.

And this stupid world gets no better, you know that. There's only one answer, that's the Prince of Peace. And we don't want him. But Russia is still anti-Christ, anti-American, anti-everything that's pure and holy and good.

And we're going to have to fight for all we're worth to present the truths of Jesus Christ in the days ahead. Okay, the epistle of Paul to the Colossians. Just making some comments on this chapter as we go down.

Paul's Prayer for Spiritual Understanding

Colossians chapter 1, again, I'm reading from the Living Bible, King James Version, the best, the purest. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus, our brother. To the saints and faithful brethren.

Those are not two different groups, there's not saints here and faithful brethren there, it's a double title for them. Which are at Colossae. Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father. We give thanks unto God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you.

Now if you jump over into verse 9. For this cause we also since the day we heard do not cease to pray for you. Now I would imagine that immediately they got a letter that said the apostle Paul, I think the greatest intellect the world ever had and the most superior Christian in the world apart from Jesus himself.

I would imagine if they got a personal letter, and this is what it is. And they said to each other, you know the apostle Paul, that amazing man that stands before kings, the man that's been to heaven and came back, the man that's been brutalized, he's been lashed 199 times, in weariness, in fastings, in painfulness, in perils of the deep, in perils of his own country.

That awesome man is praying for us. Wouldn't you think that was good? If he was around now, would you call him on the phone and say pray for me? I've got a flat tire. Or some other tragic thing. Sure it would be great to have the apostle Paul pray for us.

But what about the fact that Jesus lives to make intercession for us day by day. However imperfect our prayers are, we don't convince God by eloquence or oratory in prayer. He reads the heart. Our words don't mean that much to him.

It's out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth really speaks. And so he knows our hearts. Again and again the word of God says that. Or in Colossians chapter 1, verse 9,. For this cause we also since the day we heard do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will.

How many people look for that? They want to be filled with the Holy Ghost to just have more energy in prayer, to get so-called anointed. But almost everybody that comes to my office and too many come.

But what they do? Most of them are trying to find out the will of God. The most difficult thing in the world I think is to find the will of God individually except for one thing. There's one thing more difficult and that is when you know it the difficulty is doing it.

The will of God for Noah was to build an ark. He took 120 years to do it. The will of God for Abraham that he should be a modern spiritual man. What happened? The Lord got into his life. He was 75 years of age and God was still operating on him, working on him at 175.

And boy you think that 10 days, 10 weeks in Bible schools is tribulation. Wait till you get out of it you'll find it really is. But this is what it's all about. He's praying that they may be filled with the knowledge of his will.

That's number one. In all wisdom, number two. And spiritual understanding, number three. Number four. You might walk worthy of the Lord unto pleasing and be fruitful. A walk in God that's pleasing and a walk in God that's fruitful.

And remember the word of Jesus. You know people snatch at that verse in the 15th chapter of John where it says, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name. Who's it addressed to? The people he's been pruning.

And we back off from the pruning and we want to go out but God starts to prune only to one end that we may bring forth more fruit. And so he's praying that they may know the will of God filled with the knowledge of his will filled with all wisdom and spiritual understanding that they might walk worthy of the Lord in all pleasing, being fruitful unto every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

Strengthened with all might. How do you get strengthened? By walking. That's what people do today. I saw an announcement on TV. It's better to walk than almost any other exercise. Jogging isn't good because it sends a repercussion up your spine.

And walking is the best. And constantly in the word of God we are urged to walk. But where to walk? He's not concerned that they walk. He's concerned that they walk worthy. How do we walk worthy? We walk in obedience.

God may be telling you to do one thing and telling me to do another. And I can only walk worthy as I walk in obedience. And as I walk in obedience there's a progressive revelation of the will of God. All revelation is progressive.

Boy, if you'd met me, you know, if you'd met me 50 years ago, I knew almost everything. I could answer any question anywhere about anything in the Bible. Then I got old and smart and found out I still know nothing.

But I'm trying to catch up. Strengthened with all might according to the glorious, what? Power. And all patience. That's a snag, isn't it? As a man said, Lord, I need patience and I need it now. But it's the patience we need.

The patience to do the will of God. The patience to be lonely. Whether the walk is uphill or downhill. Seen or unseen. Difficult or easy. We're going to do the thing that God asks us to do. Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of an inheritance of the saints in light.

Freedom From Darkness Through Christ

Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. This is incredible. You see, when people say, Oh, I don't really know whether I'm saved or not.

Well, they aren't, for sure. If you walked in darkness down that corridor and suddenly I turn you around bringing this room in the light, would you know it? Sure you would. If you're carrying a hundred pound sack and I snatched it off your back, would you know it had gone?

Well, sin is a burden. And immediately a man passes from death to life. How can he not know? One of the most common messages John Wesley preached and he preached, what, 40 ,000? And one text he loved the most was from Romans chapter 8 verse 16 where he talks about having the witness of the Spirit.

The Spirit answers to the blood and tells me I'm born of God. And we know, we know. Read the epistles of John. We know that we've passed from death unto life. There's that accent the whole way through.

We have redemption through his blood, even forgiveness of sins. From whom? One who is the invisible God. The invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. Let me just read this verse and then I'll come back to that.

Listen. For by him, remember now, he's talking here to people who have been in trouble, who are still in trouble with Gnosticism, which was a mixture of atheism, Judaism and mysticism from the East. And what he's doing, he's making very, very sure that they know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

And all this forgiveness is possible through one person only, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he says, by him are, look, all things that are created that are in heaven, in the earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him.

By who? By the one in the previous verse. The firstborn of every creature. The one mentioned in the middle of the 18th verse. The firstborn from the dead. He is the first and the last. He is the sentence and circumference of the Christian life.

Things are only possible because of him. We've got to contend for this in the day in which we live. You see, in the day of Jesus, you remember he had constant trouble with the Sadducees and the Pharisees.

You know the old quip about the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. That's why they were Sadducees. Okay. But the Pharisees were arrogant and self-righteous. And the man here, Paul is actually getting firmly into their minds that Jesus Christ is the beginning and the end.

All things consist because of him. He was before the beginning and he'll be there after the end. And it's not possible for me to pass it up without thinking of a... Look at the alls a minute. In verse 16, all.

Further down in verse 16. All things again were created by him and for him. For he is before all things and by him all things consist. We gloss over Christmas time and it's so commercialized. It's so ridiculous.

You go in town, you'll see a... What they call it? A crib scene or a manger scene. And you'll see a manger there and you'll see the kings there with their crowns and they never were within a hundred miles of it.

They never were there anyhow. The shepherds were there, but not the kings. The second chapter of Matthew tells you the kings came. For a babe, no, for the young child who were destroyed. Children from two years of age.

That tremendous massacre that they had. Well, you sang a phrase tonight that always stirs me. Hark the herald angels sing. Charles Wesley wrote 200 years ago. Mild he laid his glory by. You mean that that little thing there in that crib is the creator of all things?

Because of him all things exist? All principalities, all powers, everything centers around that little child. Again, we swooled right over the thing. This is the very essence of Christianity. This is the most outstanding miracle in a book full of miracles.

Without the incarnation the resurrection is impossible. Without the resurrection the incarnation is incomplete. This little babe. Wesley put it in the head. Our God, the heaven of heavens can't contain him.

But God is contracted to a span. How do you put that holy being in eternity and cram him, if I may use that phrase, into the womb of a woman? There's nothing like this in all history. And it's contested.

The Virgin Birth and Christ's Humiliation

And lots of people during this Christmas time will be fighting against the virgin birth. I was astounded today to notice that even Campbell Morgan, that's pretty sound, says it doesn't really, it's not too vital a thing.

It is a vital thing. He was born of a virgin Mary. Not of a young lady, he's born of a virgin. What do you think happened? You see, we go over it. Oh, he's born of a virgin. As I've told you before. You think of this pretty little Jewish lady.

Maybe a teenage, I don't know, maybe 19 or 20. And this little tramp, they say, she's pregnant. We've asked the boyfriend, Joseph, he does no thing about it. What do you think she felt like? What do you think he felt like?

Don't you remember there were times in the life of Jesus when those skeptics and critics came and said, show us the father. You talk about your father, show us the father. It's a fight, this is. What are they inferring?

You have an earthly father, bring him round. What did they say on another occasion? We're not illegitimate. We were not born of fornication. You were, they imply. How would you like that? If every time you went down the street, somebody said, look, there's that little bastard coming up.

And that's what it means. She had to bear the reproach for months. The Lord said, you can't share a thing. What did he think? As he's getting more and more near to the time, the day or so of pregnancy, when she was to be delivered.

And he does no thing and she does no thing. He must have been a wonderful man. A very understanding man. A very glorious partner. Well, that's how God puts folk together, I guess. But he says, show us the father.

And it's a fight of that. I usually tell the children a story, so I'll tell them one now. We had a queen in England, we have one now. All the bosses are women these days, all over the world. Even the queen, that's terrible.

The time we got her out of office and put a prince there. But previously we had a queen. We had a queen by the name of Victoria. Queen Victoria was... She ruled for over 50 years. She was very godly. She read a scripture every morning at breakfast and spent her time in prayer.

And when she had castles, she lived in Buckingham Palace. She had another castle called Windsor Castle. She had a castle in the Isle of Wight. Her favourite castle was in Scotland. What was it called?

I've forgotten the name of the castle. No, no. I've forgotten, it doesn't matter anyhow. But when she went to Scotland, she invited one of the great preachers to come and preach to the staff. And when the preaching was over, she went into a vestry, as we would say, or an office, and she had a framed picture of herself, or a picture of herself.

And she would take the name of the man and right underneath she put Victoria Rex, Victoria Reigns. So George Matheson, we usually sing his hymn Oh Love That Will Not Let Me Go. The blind preacher went.

He wrote another hymn that isn't in our little shabby hymn book. It's in a good Methodist hymn book. Thank you. The other hymn is Make Me A Captive Lord And Then I Shall Be Free. Force Me To Render Up My Sword And I Shall Conquer A Beat.

I Sink In Life's Alarms When By Myself I Stand. Imprison Me Within Thine Arms And Strong Shall Be My Heart. My Heart Is Weak And Poor Until It Must Define. It Has No Spring Of Action Sure It Trembles With The Wind.

I Only Stand Unbent Amid The Clashing Strife When On Thy Bosom I Have Lent And Found In Thee My Life. Make Me A Captive Lord And Then I Shall Be Free. You See, we're only alive when we're dead. We're only free when we're slaves.

There is no freedom outside of Jesus Christ. We go to pits, all of us. But when it came to George Matheson, what's the good of giving him a picture of herself? He's blind. So people said, oh, the service has been so wonderful, the Queen can't give a picture now.

What did she do? Oh boy, she jumped ahead of that. She had a bust of herself. And she said, Dr. Matheson, come this way. She reached for him and and she took it, give me your finger. She took his finger and she ran his finger over her profile and said, can you imagine what I'm like now?

Yes, yes, I can. Even in my blindness, I know what you're like. That's exactly what God did to a blind world. He gave us his Son. He that has seen me hath seen the Father. Well, look, let me put that narrower still.

When people have seen you, are they seeing Christ? Or are you just a Methodist or a Baptist or something? Do they see Christ in me? That's what it's all about. You can preach your head off, but if you're cancelling everything I say or somebody else says in your home, if you're not living the Christ life before your children, you're missing it totally.

The biggest thing in the world is not standing here and preaching, it's living it. Mrs. Wesley stuffed into the minds of those 17 children, imagine that brood. And she said, there are two things to do with the Gospel, believe it and behave it.

The Incarnation, Angels, and the Glory of Christ

Well, what do you think happened? Angels came to Jesus in the sky. It doesn't say they sang, but they shouted, glory to God in the highest. Angels ministered to him after his days battling the 40 days he battled in the wilderness.

Angels ministered to him at Gethsemane. Angels were on the stone when the stone was rolled away from the door. Constantly he has the attention of angels. What about the other witnesses? Can you imagine somebody saying, hey, did you hear the news?

You know that little tramp that's been around here so long? She's been missing a few days. Oh, I heard she had a baby in a stable. Yeah, just what she should do. That's just on her level. A reprobate like her.

She shouldn't be born in a house. She shouldn't be delivered. And Jesus, the Son of God, the holiest being that ever lived? I only know of one man in history who was born in a stable apart from Jesus.

Do you know who it was? Martin Luther. Martin Luther was born in a stable. But you can't read this, surely. He's the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. How can you read that without thinking of his preexistence, which, of course, will be denied today by the liberals and Jehovah's Witnesses and others.

But John 17, 5, in that tremendous prayer, remember what Jesus said? That they may have with thee the glory which I had with thee before the world was. There's not a person in history ever been able to fathom that glory.

We do know that Cherubim and Seraphim bowed down before him. I have no respect for the Mohammedan religion. The only thing I like about it is they take their shoes off at the door. They won't bring the dirt of the world into the sanctuary.

But dear God, we've got people, they can't go to church on Sunday if the car hasn't been washed. They'll go with a dirty heart. They'll go with dirty desires. But you must keep up appearances, all the sham, all the emptiness of it.

What do you think, what do you think the angels felt? They went back to heaven, empty-handed. They'd seen him in his glory, in his majesty. How do you know there hadn't been parades in eternity with all the angels and the Cherubim and the Seraphim?

How do you know Isaiah and all the other saints hadn't met him and adored him before he came to earth? And he comes down to hostility, impurity, everything that's antagonist to his spirit. I'm sure, again, I'm sure the people said, yes, oh, I heard that little girl, that little girl that had nowhere to live had a baby in a stable.

That's fine. What do you think the Jews thought? All hell is afraid that Jesus will be born. All heaven is excited he'll be born. What about the Romans there? Oh, they heard that somebody had been born as a great excitement amongst just a few old people.

An old woman, a hundred years of age, old Hannah, had gone to the temple year after year after year after year and never given up. She had a faith that would not shrink, though pressed by many a foe, that would not tremble on the brink of poverty or woe.

She knew that God's word was true. God had said it and he's going to do it. Isaiah said, a virgin shall be with child. His name to be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Priests.

But if you took all the names that have ever been in history, they wouldn't be descriptive, sufficiently descriptive. There's an old hymn here, I can't recite it to you, I wish I could. It's a good hymn, it's English.

But apart from that, it's written by the man who wrote, When I surveyed the wondrous cross. That's when he's in that mood. In this mood, he wrote, Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Do you know, I suppose, don't have extreme joy because we don't have extreme sorrow.

We don't delight in God, we go up and down. Oh, we'll be happy Christmas Day, dear Lord, will we? We'll hardly contain ourselves once you get the wrappers off. Boy, some things I get, the wrappers are worth more than what's inside.

Do you ever get them like that? Isn't it a trick? Dear, dear, dear. How many, come on, God help us. How many of us really live, move and have our being in God? You don't get excited over trivial, material, perishing things.

You appreciate them, but dear God, you don't rise on a crest in a wave. But Christians do. We're so like the world outside. Those Romans heard, oh, the exact, so what? A dozen babies have been born in Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

And so this little Jewess has had a baby in a stinking stable, wall to wall dung, heated with what? The sweat of the animals. It had curtains, cobwebs. It had stench. It was the very opposite of the holy place from which he'd come, where there was nothing but defiled.

And here he is in the midst of all antagonism and impurity. I think it's typical of the human heart to which he comes, which is full of dung and darkness and blindness and rottenness. I don't care if you're a first number one Baptist or number one Methodist.

If you haven't been born again, you're without God or without hope. And Jesus comes to bridge the gulf. Our God contracted to a span, incomprehensibly laid man. Listen to what, what's his name? Isaac Watts says, think about the names we call Jesus.

He says, join all the glorious names of wisdom, love and power that mortals ever bore, that mortals ever knew and angels are ever bore. All are too mean to speak his worth, too mean to set our Savior forth.

Great prophet of my God, my lips shall bless thy name. By thee the joyful news, by thee the joyful news of our salvation came. The joyful news of sins forgiven, of hell subdued and peace with heaven. Let me read just about one more verse here.

Jesus, my great high priest, that little baby, he put everything in the world, every tree, every flower, every seed, he put it all there. And yet he has to cling to the breast of his mother otherwise he'll die in his humanity.

And yet, great prophet of my God, he's gonna supersede every priest that ever lived. He's gonna supersede every prophet that ever lived. He's gonna do what no one could do. Samson with all his strength couldn't lift it.

Solomon with all his wisdom couldn't solve it. That little babe there, there's a poem that says they were looking for a king to bring salvation nigh. He came a little infant thing that made a woman cry.

Don't you think hell shook from top to bottom? I do. Hell said that's a babe. That's why they tried to destroy him so many times. That little babe is the son of God. The Romans, I guess they joked about it.

The rabbis were afraid of it. Because they read it over and over again in Isaiah 35 when he is come, what's he gonna do? The eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped. The lame man leaps to the heart, the tongue of the dumb shall sink.

I believe there's a shadow over the life of Jesus from the very moment he left the womb of his mother. All hell was against him. They tried to destroy him. And yet we don't think of that. We don't think of the hostility.

We don't think of heaven rejoicing when he's born. It echoes around every corridor of eternity. The angel will sing unto us a child is born. They came and escorted him to earth. His name shall be called Wonderful.

He is Emmanuel, God with us. What's he going to do? Let me skip over here now and point a bit further in Colossians. Did he go through all the grief of a man who's dying in his sin? It wasn't his sin.

Christ's Suffering and the Pursuit of Knowing Him

But he suffered the pain to the dam. My God, why hast thou forsaken me? He cries, Eloi, Eloi, Lamas, say back to me, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? I don't like people that drop me, I'll be honest about it.

I've lost more friends the last few years than ever in my life. I'm quite happy to make a hell of bins difference. I feel it. But remember Paul said none of these things move me. He didn't say none of these things hurt me.

If they don't hurt you you must be a stone. Of course they hurt. But they don't move us. And yet Jesus asked hostility all the way. I was thinking of that word today where Paul the apostle is reaching, he's straining.

Dear God, with his record all the churches he's built, all the epistles he's written and he's still crying. And you and I think we've got up the road, we're saved, we're through with the spirit, we have a little ministry, we do a nice few things.

God forgive us. How much do you know of God? I remember a precious couple in England. They were pretty well off and well they got married and they went on their honeymoon, they'd already furnished the house.

But everything you could imagine, it was exquisite. Everything that that girl wanted, one room had to be pink and one room to be blue and they got this, they got that. They spent a fortune on it. And while they were away the house caught fire and burned to cinders.

Somebody met them at the train station and took them so they wouldn't see the house coming up. And they said, now look, prepare for a shock. They got out of the car so they said to the young man, well you hold that young lady tight.

Why? I want to see my house. Opened their eyes, they hadn't got a thing. All his years of saving, all his planning, all his culture, all burned up. What did he do? They hugged each other and said, we're just as rich, we have each other.

There are people in Russia, I will not live a day without praying for Russia. My opposite number in Russia, who've been in prison 20 or 30 years and God, because you don't get a prayer answer at the end of the week, we think God's gone out of business or the Holy Ghost has filed for bankruptcy.

Come on. Patience. I tell every preacher who comes in my office, God Almighty doesn't care that much about your ministry. Told that to a fellow recently, he nearly fell down, I'm glad he didn't. Couldn't have picked him up, but he trembled.

What do you mean God doesn't care about my ministry? I said, God is concerned about making you. You'll be existing when your ministry's been forgotten in the dust. He's making character, He's making us like Christ, He wants to do anyhow.

And yet Paul says that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection. What do you mean the resurrection? He's written volumes on the resurrection. He's told us about the coming in different orders, different styles of flesh.

First this order, then that order, then the other order of resurrection. And he says that if by any means, what else does he have to do? Good Lord, he's been stoned, he's been beaten, he's been shipwrecked, he's been kicked out of the synagogue, he's been driven out to cities.

What does he have to do to attain this prize? He doesn't ask for the prize of the high calling. He's not asking for the high calling, that is the holy resurrection, the outright. The prize of the high calling is asking for the out of the out bunch.

But to get there, I have to have, I don't have to be the world's greatest preacher. You don't have to be more tied than anybody else. You don't have to do something that everybody clamors for in these days.

I have to know the fellowship of His suffering to be made conformable to His death, that not only then, but even now, I shall know resurrection life. Verse 13, let's go slowly now through this. Verse 13, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, speaking to the Jewish circumcision there, he hath quickened together, having forgiven all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting against us.

Now verse 20 says, wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why as though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances? Now again, he's talking to these Gnostics. He's talking to these people who had a hangover.

They were people who had initiation rites. There were certain things you had to conform to, otherwise you couldn't enter. But he says, now look, forget all about that. The rudiments of this world. Why do you follow the world?

Why do you dress like the world? Why do you talk like the world? Why are you interested with the world? You're not. Touch not, taste not, handle not. Then verse 23 he says, which things indeed, a show of wisdom in will-worship and humility.

You see, they'd come into angelology. They believed in worshipping angels. They degraded themselves and persuaded themselves that they weren't worthy. And therefore they'd taken over to worshipping angels.

And he's concerned, of course, that they really worshipped the Lord Jesus Christ. Chapter 3, verse 1, If ye then be risen with Christ, seek the things which are above. Set your affection on things above, not things of the earth.

You know, that's the problem with most of us. What does he say elsewhere? He hasn't... What's the other scripture where he uses affection? Set your affections not on earthly things, but on things... Obey the Christ who crucified the flesh with the affections.

Lots of people have got mastery over the flesh. It's the affections that gives us the trouble. It's that friend of yours. They don't help you. And you don't like to say don't come round so much to take my time and spoil my worship.

But you're so concerned about a little affection that you forfeit some of the love. And God is a jealous God. If ye be risen with Christ, seek the things which are above. Now, verse 3 says ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

These are people, again, who've been delivered from this present evil world. You're dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life. Is that right? Is Christ your life tonight?

Or is Christ a part of your theology? Is Christ a character who came at Christmas, so we think? Is Christ somebody who's coming in a future day? Or is Christ your life? If he is, you won't seek the things that are below.

You'll shun them. You'll turn from them. They're contaminated. There's sin in them. We're to search for the invisible thing. The things which are above, not the things which are beneath. You're dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear in glory. Therefore modify your manners, which are on the earth. Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concubines, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

You notice that? Boy, it's popular these days to preach covetousness, although we preach it under prosperity. Covetousness. What's it called in here? That's all it does. It makes people pee. I had a man, would you not believe this, a man came to my door yesterday, big, handsome, attractive man.

I almost fell, I wanted to put my arms and hug him. Just a guy, twenty, what was it? No, thirty-three or four. He drove all the way from California, driven over thirty hours, and I told him for two hours, and he got in the car and drove back again.

He was so hungry. He'd been passing a church that talks about faith and possessions and positions and everything else, and the whole thing had collapsed and he was so disappointed. He said, Mr. Raymond, I've gone back to the virgin birth of physical resurrection.

I believe that believers should not only go to the cross, but get on the cross, and I believe that that's exactly what God wants. You see, we're afraid to die. We want to live. We don't want to die. We want resurrection life, but we don't want to be put behind with the eccentric.

People say to me, people tell me you're the most radical person. I say, boy, that's a compliment. I'm thrilled to be a radical. Good Lord, I don't see anybody else around I want to be like. I want to be radical.

Radical Discipleship and Total Surrender

Jesus was radical. Here's a man making out an income tax. A shadow falls over the income tax. Here he is, writing out a bill for somebody. Shadow, and he looks up, and he sees the most amazing face in the world.

The man behind the face says to this man, that as far as I know, he's never seen him before. Or maybe it's done on the edge of the crowd. Maybe it's seen this amazing man raise the dead. Maybe it's seen them cast out demons.

Maybe it's seen the people shouting Hosanna. But when he looks up, he sees, and the man behind the face says, leave all and follow me, and he did. Has anybody, I've, in 66 years of hearing preachers, I've never heard anybody take Matthew as an example of faith.

He didn't say, Lord, give me a week to resign. Let me see, give me, what do you get when you leave? They give you some money for what? What do you call it? Have you had it? You get some severance pay.

He says, Lord, could you wait, just wait a week. I want to get my severance pay to tide me over. Things are expensive. The motels up in Nazareth are expensive, and food's expensive. He doesn't say that.