The Church That Is, Is Not the Church That Was — Leonard Ravenhill

Let's sing the last stanza again. His name shall be counsellor, the mighty prince of peace, of all earth's kingdoms, conqueror. And that's what it's going to end up. As people say sometimes, we've read the last chapter.

The world doesn't know what it's all about, but we do. We know how it's going to end, we know that we're on the winning side. We know that he has already destroyed principalities and powers. We've just to get into our inheritance.

So let's sing this with real joy. I'm sorry it isn't broadcast to Moscow. I wish it was. It made me get some idea of what it's all about. His name shall be the counsellor. Some verses from the third chapter.

Peter and John and the Healing at the Beautiful Gate

Excuse me. Third chapter in the Acts of the Apostles. Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain man lain from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid dearly at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple.

Who seeing Peter and John about to enter into the temple, asked them alms. And Peter fastening his eyes upon him with John said, look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.

Then Peter said, silver and gold, I have none. But such as I have, give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up. And immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.

And he leaping up stood and walked and entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the beautiful gate of the temple.

And they were all filled with wonder and amazement. At that which had happened unto him. And as the lame man with his heel held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch. That is called Solomon's Greatly Wondering.

And when Peter saw it, he answered the people, ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? Or, why look ye so earnestly on us? As though by our own power or holiness, we had made this man to walk. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son, whom he delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.

The Apostolic Church Compared with the Modern Church

For a number of weeks I've been meditating on the disparity, or if you like the difference, between the apostolic church and the church of today. I described it once in a book I hope to write. The church that is, is not the church that was.

We're just about as far removed from apostolic Christianity as we can be. And personally I'm embarrassed to be part of a church, that I think is an embarrassment to God. There is no way to compare the church today with the church that was.

We can't compare it, we can only contrast it. For instance if I come to my own vocation and say the preaching of the day, I think it's just about like candy floss compared to a ribeye steak. To compare the preaching of today with apostolic preaching.

These men had come out of that dynamic experience, when the Holy Ghost fell upon them in the upper room. And it seems today that there are many people who are advocating a painless Pentecost. It doesn't cost you anything.

The only thing it does, it changes you from poverty to plenty. You get rich within two years. Never have any troubles, any problem. That is not biblical Pentecostal standard. Pentecost meant for those people in the upper room eventually, it meant persecution and pain.

And it says in the fifth chapter, they rejoiced. Why? Have they been to a banquet? Sitting with a bunch of broken film stars or football players? Have they been sitting with rich men and distinguished people?

No, no, no. They had been threatened that they would go to prison. And it says they rejoiced and they rejoiced greatly that they were counted worthy to suffer, for his namesake. Okay here it says Peter and John went up to the temple at the hour of prayer being the ninth hour.

Now why in the world they went to the temple I just wouldn't know. I'm sure if either of those guys, those preachers really got the anointing of God, if they began to pray in the Holy Ghost, which is something that I don't hear too often.

People say, well can you tell me something which, which I can really put my finger on and say, listen that is the assurance that I'm filled with the Holy Ghost. Is it true? I don't believe it is. I believe there's a genuine gift, I don't believe everybody has to have it, or it's the initial sign.

Is it a somehow I'll do miracles? No, that's not the sign. I'll tell you one sign. Nobody mentions it, but the Word of God mentions it clearly. In the epistle of Jude, which is an epitome of the whole of the Bible, it speaks there about praying in the Holy Ghost.

And remember it, it was as they were praying the Holy Ghost came upon them. They were seated, they were relaxed. They've gone through ten tortuous days, that we don't know too much about. Do you think that Peter was saying to Thomas, you know if you'd only quit doubting, the Holy Ghost would have been here three days ago.

Or Thomas saying to Peter, you know there's still something in you, you old rebel. And if you'd really get straightened, we could have gone home. I don't think they were picking faults. They were all there, slain as it were.

Not just with fear, though they were afraid of the people, and afraid of the hierarchy. But they were there with one common need. They had been told that there was one who should come upon them. You remember when Jesus gave them the news, he was going to leave them.

And as Mr. Chadwick used to say, love in tears is petulant. They said, we don't want you to go away. Well, you know when I go away, another is coming. Now some people think because the Spirit came after rushing mighty wind, that he was a wind, and he was just a noise, not so he is a person, Jesus said.

Not again, the junior partner of the Godhead. Equal with the Father, equal with the Son. Not Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but Father, Son, equal in majesty, equal in glory. And Jesus says, this third amazing person is going to come, and not only be with you, but be in you.

You know what they said? No, no, no. Now look here, we're quite satisfied. Don't you send anybody else, substitutes are never any good anyhow. I once went to preach for a very famous man, he couldn't make it, he called me, and I took a train trip, and I got in a meeting late, and people, you know, as soon as the door moved, they looked, and somebody said, oh, it's only Ravenhill.

Makes you feel great. We don't want someone else. Jesus says, but when he comes, he's coming with power to endure you, with power, power, power. Oh, how we've used that promise in Acts 1, 8, you shall receive power, after the Holy Ghost comes upon you.

Again, it wasn't power just to be miraculous, it was power to be a miracle, not make one, to be one. But he was going to take their defeated lives, and make them more than conquerors, because the Holy Ghost was going to enthrone them.

He won't just be with you, he will be in you. You shall receive power. They needed that power. They needed it physically, because they were going to be beaten in prison. They needed it intellectually, because they were going to write epistles.

They needed it spiritually, because they were in on a collision course, with the powers of darkness, through the most horrible machine on the world, which is religion. They came out of that upper room.

Spirit-Filled Living and Freedom from Bondage

How? Well, you know, the world said, as the words of God, it would say, eight of us. Did you hear the story? What story? Those men that disappeared for a few days, they're going around town like a bunch of crazy idiots.

And people said, well, what do you expect? They've been drinking. They're drunk. You know, the person never does anything when it's sober. Doesn't, doesn't Paul say there in Ephesians, be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.

Why does he compare being sober with the Spirit, with being drunk with wine? Because when a man is filled even with that kind of Spirit, he isn't himself. He's released. I remember going down the street in Glasgow, the first day of World War II.

A preacher friend I was with, he said, I've got to go in this, in this room here, and, and I have to get a gas mask. And I told him he went because they were free, being a Scotsman. And he said, you stand by this lamppost.

I'll come out of that room, and the light will blind me, and I'll, I'll step forward, and when you see me come, we'll, we'll go on our journey. He was in there quite a while, and a streetcar came up, stopped right in front of where I was, and a man got off drunk.

Typical man, he got rubber legs, you know, they wouldn't keep up one way or the other, and he staggered. And finally he stepped forward, and he put his arms around the lamppost, and me as well. His breath was terrible.

He stepped back, and he said, who are you? And I told him, are you a Scotsman? No. Can you sing? No. Can you fight? He said, no. He said quite a number of things, and he said, listen, I can sing. And he sang Maxwell, Tom Braise, or Bonnie, Red Early Falls, or Jew.

He meant Jew, but it was near enough for a drunk man anyhow. And he said, who's your father? And what nationality? And he went around a whole string of questions, and then finally he put his hand in his pocket, and he had a lot of silver there.

He pulled this great handful of silver out, and he offered it to me. And you know if a Scotsman offers you a handful of silver, he's surely drunk. And you know, immediately I thought about that man. Everything was characteristic of the man who's really filled with the Spirit.

He's a liberated soul, the son of the soul set free. You see, the church is still in Romans chapter 7. We're still living in that dirge. Romans 7 is a funeral march. Romans 8 is a wedding march. Romans 7 is bondage.

Romans 8 is liberty. The Lord, the Spirit, and life in Christ Jesus had made me free from the law of sin. These men had gone through that amazing upper room experience. Sure, Pentecost was going to mean persecution, and pain, and privation, and prisons, but also it meant purity.

And love that is pure is passionate. Here are two God intoxicated men, they come out, and here is a man at the temple gate. The next chapter says that he was 40 years of age. And if I know anything about professional beggars, I could go to some countries now, and find a man at the same place he was at when I was in that country 10 years ago.

They get a place, and there's honor amongst them. They won't steal each other's place to beg. I suggest to you that this man had been at that beautiful gate of the temple 30 years. What was wrong with him?

He was crippled. Why was he crippled? Because the church was crippled, that's why. Why, how in the world did he sit there year after year? I said yesterday I think, it amazed me when I considered this recently.

Jesus must have passed this man a hundred times when he went into the temple. He'd been there for years. Peter and John must have passed him many times. The high priest had passed him, and taken his money out, and ostentatiously thrown him a silver or gold piece.

It said he was carried daily. So they brought him from home to the temple. Temple, home, twice a day, 365 days in a year. That's what, 730 times he was carried. If they carried him 10 years, he was carried, what did I say now, 730 times.

10 years would be 7 ,300. 30 years would be somewhere around 22 ,000 times he was carried, but never cured. He was helped, but he was never healed. And when he saw Peter and John coming, of course he was quite sure that since they'd had a revival a day or two before, that they were loaded with money, they got some big love offering, and he wanted a share of the pie.

And he tried again, silver and gold, he wanted them, to give him gifts. Peter said, silver and gold, I have none. Do you need any other proof that he wasn't the Pope? Do you need any other proof that the Pope today is not the Pope?

Why don't people take them to the Pope instead of going to Lourdes? If God has put all his, invested all his power in a man like that, he ought to be moving around as a peacemaker and doing the miraculous every day.

He does nothing. Here is a crippled, twisted, tormented man, day after day, living as he lived yesterday, anticipating tomorrow, in the same chronic condition. And there's a great monstrous system of religion that let him stay there.

And as far as I'm concerned, the man at the gate, beautiful is the world, and the Church hasn't the power to heal him. And tonight the Church hasn't the power to do it either. There's a gulf between apostolic Christianity and the Christianity today.

Far greater than the gulf of the Great Grand Canyon. God never designed his Church to backslide. God never intended the Church to stand at the side of the road, while Communism and others parade in the middle of the road.

The hymn writer says the Church's one foundation is Jesus Christ our Lord. She is his new creation. By water and the blood from heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride. And these men are intoxicated because they have witnessed the most amazing thing the earth has ever seen.

You remember when they had trouble in the first chapter there? Peter always got something to say, and he says it again a little later in the same book. He says, you crucified the Lord of Glory, but him hath God raised up, whereof we are witnesses.

And in case you want to isolate that and say, that does belong to the days, you know, it's all ended at the end of the Bible, which is a nice alibi. I want to tell you tonight, Almighty God doesn't need any alibis.

I want to tell you tonight, God is not looking for sponsors. The guy you listen to on TV maybe, but Almighty God isn't. He is a crippled, tormented, distorted body. How did he get deliverance? He got deliverance through two simple, consecrated, cleansed, committed, concerned disciples.

That's how he got it. They were totally yielded to Jesus Christ. They obeyed the commandment, ye shall receive power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you. Peter no longer runs away when a girl points her finger.

He points the finger at the whole nation and says, you crucified the Lord of Glory. We don't do that so much in the days in which we live, do we? Everybody comes up with the same idea. If you say anything that's a little disturbing, well, they say, well, of course, you know, we're not to criticize.

Or if you want it scripturally, we're not to judge. But I read here in John 7, it says we're to judge righteous judgment. You know, I read the scripture, I almost feel an orphan. I'm not disagreeing with my brother talking about liberty and joy, praise the Lord for it.

But when he comes down to the nitty gritty, how much of it gets under the door into the world? How can we touch a world that's lost and never, never nearer to judgment and never, never nearer to another bloody war than the moment in which we live?

But what does the church do? The finest summary that I've ever read of this amazing church was given by J .B. Phillips. An English preacher, not just because he's English, who one day, a little weary, turned round on his swivel chair and grabbed for a book.

It happened to be the New Testament in Greek. He happens to be a brilliant Greek scholar. He read Acts chapter 1, Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 3, and about to chapter 5, and the book exploded like a bomb in his hand.

J.B. Phillips and the Church Before Institutional Decline

He made this amazing summary, this is the church of Jesus Christ, before he became fat and short of breath by prosperity. Now think a minute, is the church, are the organized branches of the church, Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, are they fat and short of breath by prosperity?

This is the church, he says, before he became fat and short of breath by prosperity. This is the church of Jesus Christ, he says, before he became muscle-bound by all that organization. We talk about liberty of nothing, yet liberty in any denomination these days.

You used to talk a lot, you'd get a letter from headquarters. Somebody spoke in tongues in your church, they'd think it was the end of the world, but the devil had invaded the place. One of these days we're going to be smart enough to let God do the teaching instead of us do it.

The church before he became muscle-bound by over-organization. This is the church, he says, before, another before, not only before it was muscle-bound, muscle-bound by over-organization. This is the church, he says, where they did not sign articles of faith.

You know you go to a church usually and they give you a sheet of paper and say, well if you can say yes, yes, tick it all off, sign at the bottom, we'll take you in. Well that doesn't demand any moral power or spiritual power, does it?

Philip says this is the church where they did not sign articles of faith, they acted in faith. This is the church where they did not gather together a group of intellectuals to study psychosomatic medicine, they just healed the sick.

This is the church, he said, where they did not say prayers, but they prayed in the Holy Ghost. And I've heard the greatest preachers in the world in the last 50 years, and yet the outstanding experiences of my life are not inheriting these amazing men who can do a juggling act and almost blind you with their theological science.

The greatest memories I have are of praying with men who were anointed by the Spirit of God and we prayed until 2 or 3 or later hours in the morning. Do you think you can find a church on earth that fits into that pattern?

Huh? Does your church rule in that liberty? Not in bondage to headquarters, not studying psychosomatic medicine, but having power. He looked on Peter and John and said, will you help us? He was asking for alms, A-L-M-S, phonetically it sounds like this, alms.

And the Sunday school teacher was teaching a class of girls, and they read this scripture that this man asked for alms. And one little girl said, why did he ask for alms when he needed legs? I wonder sometimes if the Lord doesn't wonder the same thing about us.

We ask about something secondary instead of asking about the real thing. But in the end of days if we are going to have another Pentecost it's going to mean persecution, it's going to mean hardship, it's going to mean sacrifice, it's going to mean that we're rejected and considered maybe fanatical even by the nearest and dearest.

And I think when the scripture says that a man's friendship is over his own household it means spiritually as well as physically. For time and time again God has come on people and what happened? There was a split in the church.

For what reason? Because some of the old rascals wanted to stay there and they did it grandfather's way. But listen we're living in a new age. There has to be something come on the age in which we live or we're doomed.

And every political society and every other society is leaving no mark on this generation except a mark for evil. Peter and John went up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. The man stacked his eyes on Peter and Peter said something very wonderful I think.

He said I know silver and gold. Look on us, look on us. Can your church say that in the region you live in? Not being arrogant about it but friend you won't get your problem solved, you won't get an answer to your situation anywhere else but you come to us, look on us.

And he not only saw the man's need but he reached down, he touched him and immediately touched him. I'm sure that man felt as though he had, he touched an electric current. The resurrection life of Jesus, the power of the spirit went into that twisted deformed body and immediately his ankle bones received strength.

Well then they got a crowd round. This was at the beautiful gate of the temple. Again I say the high priest had passed a thousand times past the man. Jesus must have passed him many times. But you see there's a timing in the affairs of men.

Even Shakespeare said there is a tide in the affairs of men which is taken up the flood lead unto higher things. And there was a timing here. It was for the glory of God that this man's body was going to be miraculously delivered.

Every bone that was locked would be unlocked. He's going to stand and leap and praise God and do what the apostles dared to do apparently, go running through the sanctuary. Now I reminded you last night that temple held more than six thousand people.

You see Christianity is something you can't really bottle it up, you can't get it into shape, you can't squeeze it into a theology. We said last night that Jesus on the last day of the great day of the feast, he stood in that temple, he had no right to be there.

For six days the priest had stood there in his gorgeous garments of beauty. And they had remembered the time when the rock was split. And Jesus stood in that very place and said listen I want to tell you something.

If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink. And they were celebrating the feast of tabernacles. I think this is one of the most courageous things Jesus ever did. He's got six thousand enemies, he's got high priests and others around him.

He's got six thousand pairs of eyes upon him and he stands there sublime and majestic in holiness and authority. And the eyes of a multitude are upon him and then he stands and delivers that word. If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink.

They'd hardly got out of that situation when they saw a bunch of Christians come along and start upsetting things. You know people pray for a revival. They say well of course we don't really want to be disturbed.

Well why don't you order an earthquake from Sears Roebuck and see if, well they wouldn't have one, but could you have an earthquake without being disturbed? You can't have a revival without being disturbed.

You can't have a revival without some people being cut down. Peter and John stretched forth their hands, or Peter did, and touched the man and his ankle bones received strength. And the multitude came around with a oh and wonder and Peter said look not on us.

He said to the man with his need look on us. In other words we've got the answer to your problem. But when they wanted to glamorize those two men and give them praise and adoration he stepped out of the way and said no no no.

Don't put any halos on our heads. Don't attribute any greatness to us as though by our power our own holiness we have made this man to walk. Listen you may be the greatest saint on earth but there's no power of holiness through you to someone else.

He must be the spirit of God. He's jealous. The Holy Spirit of God has the power. He has the authority. I'd like to have been in that situation and seen that man. Sure one thing he's not going to be just a pew dweller.

He's not going to sit down and just be very rigid and careful. No sirree he's received a wonder working power of God. It's evident to everybody else round about. As Wesley says my chain fell off my heart was free I rose went forth and followed thee.

From that day forward he became a fanatic I'm sure. That's the way my world wouldn't be. When he sat there for 40 years he heard somewhere the temple he could hear the old priest chanting away when he has come the eyes of the blind shall be open and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

Maybe many times he said to people wherever you're going oh the miracle worker Jesus is up there and he unplugs the ears of the deaf and he puts sight in blinded eyes and he straightens with the limbs and the poor fellow must have thought for years and years.

The three years in the life of Jesus why did he do it to me? Why did he leave me here in my bondage sorrow and night? Why didn't I come out of sickness into his health and out of my poverty into his wealth?

Because there was a timing in the situation that's why. This was going to bring more glory to God than if he'd been healed with a multitude who were healed one day. Yes it's going to get these men into trouble all right.

After all it's very rough to shatter the religion of your father or your grandfather isn't it? What did they do with Peter and John? Well they just got them together and said we've had enough of this we're going to have a high court tomorrow so in the next church you'll find that they gather together the intellectuals and the hierarchy of the church and Peter and John are brought up to give an account of what they've done.

And these poor fellows were trying to get out of it one way and the other and they couldn't get out of it. And so they whispered to each other and then they said well ladies and gentlemen and this distinguished company there's no way we can get round this.

This is the man that sat at the beautiful gate we all know him. And not only that we know he's been liberated we don't know how it's been done. It's got us pretty shot and it's burst our theology open at all ends and we can't sleep at night for thinking that he's been at our doorstep all these years and we could never do anything but give him bits of money.

The thing he didn't need we could not supply his needs. And then came along these two men. But we wanted to know this. Number one they're not ordained preachers. Not one of them, neither of them has a preacher's certificate.

And they're not well trained. And they're not good theologians. And we're kind of figuring that this thing might die off pretty quickly. We do hope your trouble doesn't come back to you old fellow. But this man, we wanted to know this.

But both these men by our standards, you know, we've got certificates, first class certificates in paralysis. We can't do anything, we can't say anything with any life. And this fellow's come on like a stick of lightning.

You see these men were filled with the Holy Ghost. Oh they're not only filled with the Holy Ghost. He says they filled Jerusalem with their doctrine. He says that they were filled with joy. We just want to say this before we dismiss.

These men, Peter and John, they come from the working class. Really they're good fishermen but bad theologians. And all we have to say to you, watch it. Watch it. Because they're both unlearned and ignorant men.

Well they missed it by about a million miles, didn't they? Dr. Coffman says the Gospel of John, or rather says John was the Plato of the New Testament. He's the most profound thinker. 92 of the Gospel of John has not been mentioned by Matthew, Mark or Luke.

He introduces us to new characters. He had an intimacy with Jesus Christ that no one ever had. He was there on the Mount of Transfiguration. He was there on each occasion when Jesus raised the dead. But keep this in mind, that Jesus fellow's gone anyhow.

And these fellows are trying to live in the afterglow and they're trying to work something up. But listen we want to warn you, they're unlearned and ignorant. And John gave us what? Well Peter gave us two epistles.

Man I get so much out of the first epistle of Peter, the first chapter. I think it's a fantastic, it's worth a whole Bible in itself. Millions of people have been blessed through Peter's writing. He wrote one epistle, he wrote two epistles.

He didn't gather any royalties for them yet. He's going to get those when he gets up there. And this fellow John, he wrote the Gospel of John, the first epistle of John, the second epistle of John, the third epistle of John.

And then to really prove that he was ignorant, he wrote the book of the Revelation. Well all you like to be, well you ought to be the high priest that sat there in splendor and lived like a king just for a few years.

And then you don't even know his name. Or a man like Peter and John, endued with power from on high. But having authority over the power of sin and the power of death. And liberating a man who'd been a captive all these years.

What do you want to settle for? The church has never had more intellectualism than it has today and I'm not knocking it. Scholarship on fire, as in the case of Wesleyan and some other men, is a marvellous thing.

That scholarship by itself, when it sits there just splitting theological hairs and deciding to call a few cronies together and have a conference which of course the poor and needy are not invited to.

Well brother keep it. Peter looked on this man, he not only looked on him, he touched him. He put his hand down and immediately it seemed as though life was transmitted into the body. And a man jumps up and he leaps and he praises and he magnifies God.

And the whole of Jerusalem heard about it. And again I say they passed it almost as it were a sentence of death. Give me some money. It seems safe to say that when the church is rich, financially she's always poor spiritually.

And usually when she's poor financially she's rich. The greatest revivals in the last ten years have not been in cultured civilized countries as we think of it. They've been in Indonesia and other places where the New Testament has been relived again in every manifestation of the power of the risen Son of God.

We've been in our comfortable pews and we're so satisfied with our portion. Silver and gold I have none but such as I have give I unto thee. What a difference between the apostolic church and the church today.

If you read it as I read it, the whole book is full of the supernatural. It's branded right through there. There's no explanation except that God works through men. They heard his voice, they moved in the power of the Spirit of God.

Christianity in a World of Slavery and Totalitarianism

The end of the hedonism. Again let's get out of our minds the idea that we're the most, you know we deserve more pity because we live in such a terrible age as communism, Mormonism, Moonism, all the other devilish things.

This monstrous monolith of a thing called communism. I remind you tonight that Christianity was not served up to the world on a silver plate. Christianity was born in a sophisticated totalitarian age.

There were 60 million slaves in the Roman Empire. Jesus never spoke about slavery. The apostle Paul never spoke about slavery. And yet these men unlearned and ignorant. Reminding you again as my wife and I and a friend stood on the southern rim of the Grand Canyon.

I read the legend there. Maybe you've read it. That yellow ribbon across there 7 miles away is the Colorado River. It gives you the statistics. I think it's 450 feet wide and about 45 feet deep. It's 7 miles away.

It doesn't look so far. The floor of the canyon is a mile deep so that if you're down there you'll have rocks to climb a mile high on any side. And you can't get out that way because there's a river and then there's a great tremendous cliff.

As I looked at that I thought to myself, or the Lord reminded me of it. Say, how would a baby get out of that canyon? A one-year-old child, a two-year-old child could never get out of it. Sure couldn't swim the river it goes so fast.

It couldn't climb the crags they're far too steep and difficult. And just as I thought of that I thought of the early church. It was walled in on this side by the greatest military machine in the world up to that day.

It was walled in on this side with the intellectual greatness of the Greeks. It was obstructed away there by the Jews who believed they alone had the monopoly of God. They were shedding bloody sacrifice every day.

There was a gift now when the priest went in his royal robes there into the temple and they believed he alone could speak with God and he alone spoke with God once a year to one people. You know what?