The Indestructible Man (Kansas City) - Part 1 — Leonard Ravenhill

Lord, we bless you for your holy word. We bless you for martyrs who died at the stake to give us this word. We thank you for the Holy Spirit's enabling. We thank you that he who wrote this book is here to interpret it beyond our understanding this morning.

So Lord, we pray give us here ears to hear what the Spirit is saying. Lord, make this a birth chamber today. Make it a graveyard. May people remember that this day they got tired out of their bondage, sorrow, and night.

Out of sickness into thy health. Out of poverty into thy wealth. Out of sin and into thyself. Lord, do some revolutions. Lord, I think again and again it echoed in my mind during the night what Brother Mike suggested.

The Living Christ Versus Idolatry

There are five billion people in the world. Some of them are up before daylight this morning, bowing down to idols of wood and stone. Tears were running down their eyes and yet the gods they spoke had no tears.

They cried out of broken hearts, but their gods had no ears to hear. They cried for help. Their stone images could not help. But Lord, we pray you'll make us realize again you are the living Christ. Lord, we bless you that with all the testimonies of men you stand at the end of the chapter and say I am he that Livertham was dead and behold I'm alive forevermore.

Lord, you bless you said I have the keys of death and of hell. The Pope doesn't have them. Organizations don't have them. You are jealous. Lord, I'm waiting to hear about the jealousy of God tonight and tomorrow as Brother Paul comes.

Prepare him. Give him a new anointing. Lord, take us this day from strength to strength, from revelation to revelation, from anointing to anointing, from understanding to understanding. Lord, let everybody who's spiritually bankrupt here leave this place as multimillionaires in the spiritual life.

I pray for those who are crippled. Crippled by the fear of man. Crippled by the fear of death. Crippled by the fear of an unknown tomorrow. Crippled by the prophecies that are going around that this is going to be a tragic year and the years ahead of us are full of tragedy.

So what? Lord, you've told us in your holy word I am the Lord. I change not. Lord, I bless you. You're not concerned about the weather. You don't change with governments. You don't change with the rise and fall of the Wall Street.

You don't even change by the shabby opinions of theologians. Lord, I bless you for your holy word as I anchor my thoughts for a moment here in that wonderful word in Hebrews 11 .6. God is. I thank you that giving does not impoverish you and withholding doesn't enrich you.

Lord, if you give us a double portion or a hundredfold today, there are oceans of supplies in God. Revelations we've never dreamed of, authority we've never speculated upon. God, open our eyes that we may behold wondrous things out of thy law.

Lord, make this blessed book live today. The fire our brother spoke about, Lord, increase it. Turn up the furnace as it were seven times hotter, that its dying world may know this meeting took place. Lord, write it in your book of remembrance that there are people here who crave the presence of God more than anything in this perishing world.

We want to bear the brands of Jesus Christ as Paul said, I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Lord, I think again as we bask as it were in the very sunshine of your presence. I think of the dear precious Christians who are prisoners in Russia or in China or in Afghanistan or Albania.

Those areas where they've been prisoners for years. Grant some miracle may happen. Give them a foretaste. Maybe Lord, maybe they're ten miles further up the road we are. We've got drug winners with creature comforts.

We've got mesmerized by materialism. We're trapped in trivia. Lord, what our brother spoke of, make it real. Before this meeting soon start a bonfire. Let every failure be consumed. Let every fear be consumed.

Let every doubt be consumed. Prepare the way of the Lord in our hearts. We're responsible for this generation of lost people. And Lord, we haven't the equipment unless you come in the power of the Spirit of God.

So have your way, guide our thoughts, give us understanding in Jesus' name. Thank you. Be seated. I was getting into bed this morning and Martha said, Well dear, what time is it? Ten minutes to three.

The Sermon on Fire and Spiritual Momentum

I thought there was somebody outside. I think there was and I think it was David, the guy that just spoke. He stole my sermon notes. Well he only gave you one barrel so I'll give you a second barrel because my subject is fire.

Fire. I've got a great preacher friend here, Bishop Bracey. Bracey Green. I ask him each week, How do you get on on Sunday? He said, I had a very slow start but I got going. So I used to have a slow start and sometimes I'd get going.

There's a piece of railroad track near our home in England. It's only about 50 feet long but it's a tourist attraction because it's the railroad that the first train, little locomotive, was made by George Stevenson and it ran on that track and there was a great celebration.

The great people of the earth came to see a carriage that would run without a horse. Everybody ridiculed that. So he came and they had this wonderful old automobile train. It had a great big chimney belching smoke out.

He had a tall hat, a tailcoat, you know. And he said, We're going to start at two o 'clock. Two o 'clock came, he pulled a switch here and a switch there and the thing didn't move. So he got out and messed around with it, readjusted it and got up again and pulled the switch, it wouldn't move.

He did this three or four times and each time he got his hands dirty, you know, he kind of wiped his forehead, he looked like anything but a gentleman. And he tried about six times and the chorus started, It'll never start, it'll never start, it'll never start.

Well then he pulled it once and it shot down the track, rode away at eight miles an hour and on it went, on it went. And the crowd that shouted, shouted, It'll never start, shouted, It'll never stop, it'll never stop, it'll never stop.

So people do that when I start preaching and say, It'll never start, it'll never start. Then they say, It'll never stop. Well I got that from the Apostle Paul, he said that, didn't he? He says, Finally my brethren, he preaches two more chapters.

So we're in good company. I very, very much enjoyed that message of David's a few minutes ago anyhow. He said some very awesome things. I hope you'll get the tape and listen to it again and again. I'm always fascinated between the gap between Malachi and Matthew.

John the Baptist and the Prophetic Return After Four Hundred Years

It's a period of 400 years of darkness without any prophetic light, 400 years of stillness without any prophetic voice. We need to remember this, Christianity was not born in a vacuum. The man that began to speak after that 400 years of stillness, according to Jesus Christ, the greatest character reader that ever lived, he said of John Baptist, he was a burning and a shining light, but also he said he was the greatest person ever born of woman.

In fact he said, What did you go into wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? A man that changes without political move? An opportunist? He said he's not a reed. He's the very opposite of being a reed.

He's not a reed shaken by the wind. A prophet? He's more than a prophet. The prophet spoke about invisible things, but this man is speaking about someone who's visible. In many ways he was the most extraordinary man.

I went to a church last Sunday to preach. It was a lovely building. The pastor met me at the door and he said, You know, this used to be a funeral home. That's different from the churches I usually go in.

It usually is a funeral home. And my job is to raise the dead. The most unique men in the history of the world are not men who walked on the moon. They're not men who walked on the bottom of the sea when they were looking for the pieces that fell out of that rocket.

They show pictures of men on our TV walking on the sands under hundreds of feet of water off the coast of Florida. If you had told your grandfather you'd sit in an armchair and watch a man walking on the moon and not only that hear him talking he'd have said you need to get your brain examined.

But the very extraordinary things have become so ordinary to us. But the most amazing men in the world in the past or now or the future are not men who walk in the scientific realm but men who walk with God.

They're in a little bracket called the prophets. There was a very brilliant Jewish scholar in America some years ago. I have one book of his on Isaiah. His name was Dr. Bux Basin. He was a distinguished scholar in Hebrew.

And he knew the Hebrew language and he knew all the Hebrew history. And he classifies a prophet in this way. He says the prophet by the very nature of his calling is a tragic figure. He has a fierce loyalty to God and he has a broken heart over the sin of the people and he's pulled by both.

The prophet suffers for the people, he suffers with the people, he suffers by the people. There's no such thing as a popular prophet. Prophets are fierce men. Prophets are faithful men. Prophets are fruitful men.

The evangelist looks for people. He likes company, popularity. The prophet likes privacy. The school of the prophets is a very difficult school. So let me just jump in here and say here is a man. There was a man sent from God.

He had a divine commission. I like to write a little aphorism every day. I wrote one a little while ago in this fashion. The man who is intimate with God will never be intimidated by men. There's nothing on earth or hell will scare him.

He has a divine commission. John comes in after this gap of 400 years. There wasn't one man on earth that had ever seen a prophet. He hadn't seen a prophet. The prophets are lonely men. The prophets are radical men.

In the eyes of the world are foolish men. I have a book that God has used called Sodom Had No Bible. I'd like to write another one. Sodom Had Its Witnesses. The first man we read of was Enoch. He walked with God.

There's a book on Enoch. The old English writer Samuel Coleridge said get the book of Enoch if you have to sell your bed in order to buy it. Don't bite it. If somebody gives you it, throw it away. It has 108 chapters.

But if you read two verses in the Old Testament and two verses in the New Testament you'll find out more about Enoch than the 108 chapters of imagination. Enoch, and to some degree this man is very much John Baptist is very much like Enoch.

He comes onto the stage. Do you know what prophets are? The God's emergency men for crisis hours. This is the gravest hour in American history. And if holy fire doesn't fall I'll be a very disappointed and disgusted man.

John the Baptist's Divine Commission and Wilderness Preparation

Let me give you a little history of this man, John Baptist. Look in the gospel recorded by Luke. The story is told by each of the evangelists of God. In St. Luke chapter 1 and verse 10 it says the whole multitude of people were praying at the time of incense.

Doesn't that warm your heart, Mike? A multitude of people waiting in the temple. There appeared an angel of the Lord standing on the right side. Why does he stand on the right side? Because he has a message for an individual otherwise he'd stand on the left side.

Last Sunday as I preached in this morgue there was a young fellow there. His face was radiant. I imagined, I don't know what he was maybe Mexican or something. And afterwards I talked with him. I said, what are you doing?

He said, well I've just retired. He only looked about 25. He was a clear military man in the American army. And somebody said, touch him before you leave the place. I said, hey, tell me about yourself.

He said, well I've been in the Philippines and I've come back to America. I can't tell you how distressed I am. I can't walk the streets without grieving. I go in meetings, there's no anointing. There's no power of God.

There's no revelation. There's nothing that moves me. I said, what about the Philippines? He said, well I've been in the Philippines. Do you know what? You go to a meeting, if a man gets an anointing they never think of going home.

You're there at one o 'clock, two o 'clock, three o 'clock in the morning in the power of the Spirit. And he said twice in the last year about two o 'clock on both occasions while the people were in travail two angels actually stood in the congregation.

And he said the people were awed. Here is an angel, he comes to, and notice who he is. The angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias, thy prayer is heard. Thy wife Elizabeth, who was this angel? Gabriel.

John Baptist was born of a barren woman. You see, we're barren and we're too embarrassed to own it. I was thinking a hundred things while David was preaching. You know, Hannah had a gift. She prayed for what?

A child. She didn't. She prayed for a man-child. She got a man-child. She didn't. What did she get? She got a prophet. And you know what? It broke her heart every year. Can you imagine her taking that baby to the temple every year, taking him in a new suit and hoping God would say, Take him home with you.

And she sees him growing year by year. God! You see, once you put a thing on the altar you can't take it back. That's your trouble. That's why you lost the fire. That's why you lost the vision. You didn't lose it.

Even Dave Wilson sent in some pretty powerful what do you call them? Letters. He sent one out last year about those who have lost their first love. There's no word in the Bible that says that. It doesn't say you lost your first love.

It says you left it. You love something else more than Christ. You love something else more than this word. It doesn't burn as it used to. You love something more than prayer. You love something more than testimony.

You love something more than tears. You love something more than brokenness. And God, as dear Mike said, is on the outside trying to come in. Isn't it awesome that before this what we call the canon of the New Testament was closed, Christ was outside of his church.

I sometimes wonder if he ever got in. The only time he gets in the church is when there's a Holy Ghost revival. When all the dross is burned. So John comes to an old woman. He says in verse 18, Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this?

I am old, and my wife's a stricken woman. I suppose part of the speaking of Brother Paul, I hope he'll tell him about the time he was born. His mother was 45 years of age. Both her breasts were withered.

She had three, what do you call them? Three tumors in her body. Three terminal illnesses. But an angel stood by her and said, The child in your body is a male child. Call him Paul. And he's going to see the salvation of God.

Did she say she'd see it before she died? Well he told me that. He said, My mother isn't going to die until the glory of God is revealed. Dear Lord. I said, How old is your mother? He said, 103. She's 104 now.

So as my dear Martha says nearly every day, Lenny, can't be far off. She's not going to live another 10 years. The first time I saw Rick Joyner, he came to me in a meeting. He said, You're Simeon. And then we saw Paul.

And he said the same thing. Then somebody else. In other words, all the years you've prayed. Now I've prayed nearly 60 years for revival. Well, over 60 years for revival. And I believe I'm going to live to see the heavens rent.

Holiness, Pentecost, and the Promise of Revival

I'm going to see a Pentecost that will out. Pentecost, Pentecost. Jesus had 12 disciples. Yet 10 times that number in the upper room. We'll have 1 ,000 times that when the next move of the Spirit comes.

It's not going to be a Pentecostal revival. It's going to be an apostolic revival. It's going to be God's revival. There'll be no flesh in it. It's going to be Spirit total. A stricken woman. Was the Church of God ever more stricken than now?

People laugh in the streets. They talk about Swaggart and PGL. I'm no Christian, but I never go with harlots. I'm no Christian, but I don't beg and rape the bride every week for money. We're the most mixed up crowd in history.

But listen, there's something pure coming. Terrifyingly pure. We were listening to a tape just recently of a woman from England. So it must be good. Even if it is a woman, but anyhow. Do you know what she says?

She's been shut away with God. And she says, the Holy Ghost is going to come with such power that when you open the door without anybody preaching or singing, the presence of God is going to be resident in the sanctuary that if you come through the door and you're living a double life, you'll drop dead.

I don't know if you're shouting amen for your husband. I'll tell you if there's a return to Pentecost, there'll be a return to Pentecost. Pentecost in the Bible is marriage to prisons, persecution, privations, poverty, and pain.

Pentecost today is fun. Pentecost today is prosperity. And that's absurdity in the light of the word of God. John the Baptist comes. What does it say of him? Look a minute with me here. Well his mother was stricken in years.

His father was very old. And so he's totally cast on God. Now there's something very painful here. It came to me while David was speaking. When did John Baptist leave his parents? Jesus at 12 years of age in the temple knew it was about his father's business.

Well, John Baptist was his cousin. I imagine at that very day, they hugged each other and said goodbye. John Baptist went into the wilderness. This is what it says at the end of chapter one. Look at verse 80.

The child grew and waxed strong in spirit. It doesn't say a thing about his body. He waxed strong in spirit and was in the desert. He's in the wildest places that there are. He's alone. Do you know the thing that most of us can't stand is to be alone?

Or you say, boy, I'd like a quiet hour. You get the children off to school and you turn the TV on, the crazy thing. Listen to somebody babbling about the Bible and prophecy. Instead of getting alone with God, God takes all his men and they're alone.

Moses was a brilliant man. What does the word of God say? The seventh chapter of Acts says of him that he was a statesman. He was mighty in word and in deed. He was a statesman. He wasn't an orator because he stammered.

But he had to go to school 40 years on the back side of the desert. Jesus was 40 days in the wilderness. John the Baptist was maybe 20 years in the wilderness. The greatest brain the world ever had, I believe, the apostle Paul.

And he has to go back into Arabia for a number of years to be quiet. But we're afraid of that. Look at verse 15 here. This is what it says of John. He should be great in the sight of the Lord. Do you know what?

That's the only greatness there is. Every other greatness is a fallacy. Every other greatness will vanish. We're going to see John Baptist to the throne of God receive rewards of incredible glory because he was faithful in every inch of the way.

He was able to ride through the loneliness. But look at verse 15. He should be great in the sight of the Lord. He should drink neither wine nor strong drink. Now listen to this breathless thing. He should be filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb.

Now, that's John Baptist. Filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. Look at verse 28. Wait a minute, please. Verse 20. There's one verse here. I haven't marked it properly. Is it verse? Well, it says his father was filled with the Holy Ghost.

Anyhow, his mother was filled with the Holy Ghost. And then you come to the next chapter. Verse 67 of the same chapter says his father was filled with the Holy Ghost. And then it says his priest was filled with the Holy Ghost.

His father was filled with the Holy Ghost. Verse 67. And he prophesied. And then, yes. Oh, thank you. Verse 41. He came to pass. Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary. The babe leapt in a womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost.

When? When she came into the presence of Jesus. Jesus was there and the virgin was carrying him. And immediately she came into the presence of Jesus. She was filled with the Holy Ghost. And you can't be filled with the Holy Ghost without meeting Jesus.

There's no way it can be done. In fact, the Bible makes it clear. The Holy Spirit has no gifts. The gifts are all purchased by Jesus. What did He do? The Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead.

He gave gifts unto men. They're purchased by the blood. They're given in honor of the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me take a minute here. Because there's so much in this, it could take us all day and tomorrow.

Baptism With the Holy Ghost and Fire

Thank you. Where's the verse that says you should baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire? Matthew 3. Oh, that's right. Thank you. Yeah, Luke 3 .16. It should be known as well as John 3 .16. I can't remember it myself.

John answered saying unto him, I indeed baptize you with water. But he that cometh as mighty than I am not, I can't even loose his shoes. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Well, you had a tremendous exhortation just a little while ago about fire, didn't you?

From Brother David. Why did Jesus come into the world? You say to save sinners. Well, listen to what he said. In Luke chapter 12 and verse 49. I preached all over the world. Conferences England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, India, New Zealand, Australia, elsewhere.

I've never heard this text preached on. The 49th verse of chapter 12. I am come to send fire on earth. If it be already kindled. What will I, what if it be already kindled? I have a baptism to be baptized with.

Now I say that book, this is never, never mentioned. One of the best selling books that Billy Graham ever, ever wrote. Was, what was it? World of Flame. Yet he never mentions this text. He mentions texts about fire.

He never mentions this. One of the most stirring books in my generation, I believe, was that book of Bonhoeffer's. When he wrote about the cost of discipleship. He quotes hundreds of scriptures. He never quotes this text.

There was a great preacher when I first came to America. Shoemaker, Sam Shoemaker. Was he a, either a Presbyterian or a, was he a Presbyterian? Or Church of England. Well he wrote a very fine book. Called the Incendiary Fellowship.

But he never mentions it. You've heard a hundred sermons on the baptism of John in the water. You've heard a thousand sermons on he should baptize with the Holy Ghost. Did you ever hear one on this? Verse 49.

I am come to send fire on earth. What will I, if there are any, kingdom? What about this? I have a baptism to be baptized with. Did you ever hear of someone on that? Jesus has to be baptized into death.

He has to tread under foot principalities and powers. The whole hell has to shake. The whole of heaven has to rejoice. You know I think the most disgusting, disappointing day in the life of Jesus. Was with those stupid disciples.

He told them over and over again what would happen. He said I shall die and rise in the third day. What did he do? I've told you before there's a stone over the body of Jesus. There's wax over the stone.

There's seals over the wax. And then there are soldiers and wax in the seal. And then the demons put all the sin of the world against that stone. And then every demon in hell puts his shoulder against that stone.

And it looks as though hell is going to triumph. And the devil counts down. He gets from 30, he gets down to 8, to 7, 6, 5, 4, 3. He's going to say 1. And then the whole world is forever a slave to sin.

And Jesus rose from the dead. You see one thing that grieves me. I can't preach on it here at the moment. One thing is how lightly we esteem the power of the Holy Ghost. Let me say it this way to you.

The Holy Spirit is N-O-T-E. He's not the junior partner in the Godhead. He's equal with the Father. He's equal with the Son. This world was a ball of mud shut up in the womb of the universe. And he took hold of it and brooded over it.

And it changed from chaos to cosmos to order. From death to life. He came on some men in the Old Testament and breathed on them. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. He came to a little woman.

Do you ever think of the agony that she had? She's the holiest little girl. She never misses coming to a conference. She comes to the Feast of Tabernacles. She comes to the Feast of Pentecost. She's always so sweet and kind.

I've just seen her now. This holy girl. Pregnant. I asked Joseph about it. I don't know a thing about it. What do you mean you don't know? She's your girlfriend. You've been with her long enough. She's carrying your child.

She isn't. Well, whose child is it? What about the reproach? We don't like reproach. Some of you don't like being called a Pentecostal. I can understand that after the lousy things the Pentecostals have done in the past few years.

But listen, I'm going to tell you this. God never abrogated this message. The only message to turn this world upside down is the real baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire. You talk about the baptism and you leave the fire off.

That's why you have none. I can give you some problems you can't solve maybe. Alas, David and the geniuses around here. There's a very wonderful book called Azusa Street. Have you read it? How many of you have read the new book on Azusa?

Do you know it's on the first page? And I think Brother Bracey was in my office when... Who's the theologian you brought? Fjordback. Is that how you say it? Fjordback came. So I said to him, Dr. Fjordback, I've been reading again.

I don't know how many times I've read that. History burns me. I'm going to be... You think I'm arrogant or innocent or foolish. I don't know one Pentecostal church in America today. Do you know a church where all the deacons are full of the Holy Ghost?

Where the past can step out of the pulpit and it is away for two months. The church is still rolling in power and revelation. So here's this little woman. Bearing the reproach. Obviously getting more obvious of pregnancy.

And the Lord won't let us say anything about it. You see, when the Lord whispers a secret to us, we tell everybody. That's the trouble. He won't come back again. But anyhow, she brings to birth. But let me skip over this a moment.

Christ's Death, Resurrection, and the Fire of Pentecost

Jesus says, I have a baptism to be baptized with. Go back again a minute. None of the disciples were waiting for him. When he rose from the dead. I thought they would have been lined up. I thought Peter would have said, I'm going to be the first.

But he wasn't there. Thomas wasn't there. The others weren't there. Then the ladies come in and say, well, the women went. Do you know what they went? To see him risen? No, to embalm him. That's all most preachers do every week.

They embalm him. They don't want him alive. He's dangerous. Of course he's dangerous. He invades all our privacy. He destroys all our ideas. I have a baptism to be baptized with. I said to Dr. Fordbeck, I'm puzzled by that book.

There's another book called Seven Pentecostal Pioneers. Get it. It will set you on fire. It will drive you to the dust. It makes me weep. It makes me cry. Where is the God of Elijah? Where is the God of Smith Wigglesworth?

Everybody talks about Smith Wigglesworth. Do you know he wasn't a Pentecostal? Do you know every Sunday morning he went to the Salvation Army prayer meeting at 7 o 'clock to pray because nobody in town would pray with him?

And then he went to the Episcopalians at 8 o 'clock to have communion because there's a godly man there? There was no fellowship. I met that man. But traveling back a minute, I'm going round and round here, I know.

But I said to Dr. Fordbeck, I've been reading this book, and it says on the first page, there are 70 million Pentecostals in the world today. Do you remember that? Then I said to him, sir, does that mean the classical Pentecostals, it says?

Does it mean they're filled with the Holy Ghost and they speak in tongues? He said, yes, but there aren't 70 million. I said, I'm sorry, the book says there are, but that's five years old. He said, Mr. Randall, there are 120 million people in the world have their baptism with the Holy Ghost.

So rudely I reached over and nearly pushed my finger in his eye. And I said, listen, Dr. Fordbeck, were there 120 million in the upper room? He said, no. Well, how many were there? 120. What's the difference between their baptism and ours?

Spiritual Revival Amid Cultural and Political Crisis

God is the same, I change not. Sin is the same. We live in a crippled society. We've got the two most peaceful looking men in the world smiling on us now. Gorbachev, what a quiet, lovely grandfather he is.

He hates God, he hates the devil, he hates Christ, he hates America, and we're trying to make a friend of him. The other quiet looking guy is the Pope and he hates Christianity. That'll get me into trouble, so what?

You see, we're in for trouble in America as never in history. If we don't have a Holy Ghost revival, we won't survive ten more years. If you can get it, get last week's United States, was it? News? No.

U .S. News and World Report of last week. Do you know what it says? It says we not only have Lebanons, what's the city? Beirut. We have Beirut in cities. The police will not go into certain areas. They refuse to go in.

Why? I didn't hear everything on intercession. I love these fellows because they pray, not once a week. These churches have three prayer meetings a day, and have had for five years, two hours in the morning, two in the afternoon, two at night.

Do you know what? They're all stored up in heaven. What are these under the altar? The prayers of the saints. The dam is going to burst one day. The Holy Ghost who inspired those prayers is going to bring them to life.

And people are going to start walking who are dead. People are going to see who are blind. People are going to give utterance whether it's in tongues or not. They're going to speak with holy authority.

People say the church is on trial. Maybe it is, but God isn't. He's not running for office. He's just looking for servants. That's all he's looking for. He's looking for some people who want to be cleaned out of everything.

We want to be filled without being empty. We want to be somebody who's not being nobody's. And God says no. It doesn't say John the Baptist was a theologian. God bypassed all the theologians. But let's see John the Baptist for a minute.

John the Baptist in a Hostile Age

I'll give you the background, the historic background here. If you'll turn back for a minute, I'll try and get through it in a hurry. Not through the message, just this part. Okay, I've got my teacher here today.

Do you want to come and preach? Now look at the background here. Again, Christianity was not born in a vacuum. Christianity was born in a period of hostility. The people, the intellectuals were still talking about Plato and Socrates, these guys that David studied.

They were arrogant with Abraham to our father. There were false Christs. There was a hundred false religions. And John the Baptist comes. Listen to what it says. In Luke chapter 3 and verse 1. In the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar.

There was Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar, Tiberius Caesar. He was the most abominable, wicked, perverted man of all the Caesars. He cultivated iniquity. He encouraged immorality. He scorned at everything that was righteous and holy and pure.

Somebody said he was the most infamous human that ever lived. But then go on in the same verse. It says Pontius Pilate being the governor of Judea. And Herod being the Tetrarch of Galilee. His brother Philip was the Tetrarch of Aeturia in the region of Aeturia.