See Christ Standing — Leonard Ravenhill

Christ’s Love and the Indwelling Spirit

In the Bible. You know it in Hebrew, you know it in Greek. What's the greatest thing? He said, the greatest thing in the Bible is Jesus loves me this I know. You know, you could go to a seminary in Dallas and not find that out.

Jesus loves me. Nobody else loves you. I remember, I went to a little Bible college. The first day, the principal looked at us all, he said, are you sure God called you to study for the ministry? We all said, yes, sir.

He said, it's a good thing he did. I'd never have called any of you. Jesus loves me. He loves you. I can understand that, but loving me? What about you Brother Kemp? Didn't it take a lot more grace for him to love you than love him?

I think it did. Jesus loves me this I know. We thank you tonight that you so loved the world. You gave your only begotten son for it. Then we thank you, your word says that Christ loved the church and gave himself for the church.

Lord, we've sung it so often, we say to fresh tonight, O love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee. I give thee back the life I owe. Lord, why don't you use angels and cherubim and seraphim, Michael, those splendid holy beings in eternity.

And yet you give us the privilege of being the habitation of God by the Spirit. Lord, to me that's maybe the most astounding word in your word, that we who were once vessels of the devil, unclean, impure, without God, without hope, just about as valuable as a handful of mud.

But Lord, we bless you that you looked upon us in mercy. Not because of what we were, but because what we can be by the grace of God. Lord, we think of how we build lofty temples and glass churches these days.

We think of the great cathedrals in Europe costing in our money today billions of dollars. And yet you've written them all off in your word. You said God dwelleth not in temples made with hands. He dwells in human personality.

He makes slaves the partners of his throne, decked with an ever-fading crown. Lord, we thank you again tonight. The head that once was crowned with thorns is crowned with glory now. A royal diadem adorns the mighty victor's brow.

Lord, I thought of that word today. It says there in the book of Revelation, upon his head were many crowns. Lord, we read in your word about people who will be crowned, but we don't read a word about when, at what moment you were crowned.

Maybe after your resurrection you were immediately crowned in heaven, but on your head are many crowns. As we sing, crown him with many crowns, the lamb upon his throne. But Lord, we think of the day when the men who crushed that cruel crown of thorns on your head will see you with a crown of glory beyond any human crown.

Lord, we think of Felix, how he trembled before a little broken-bodied man called Paul. And yet when he saw that man so filled with love and power, that mighty ruler of the mightiest empire in the world of that day, he trembled in front of Paul.

Lord God, I wonder what will he do when he stands before you on that great judgment day, when he can't show anything for his life except a wasted life, a ruined life, a sinful life, a life that gave vent to every passion that he had, a life that was not only evil, it made others evil.

He was polluted and he polluted others. He was deceived and he deceived others. Lord God, when that great day comes, Lord, we pray that we may be, as the word says, in that first resurrection. For blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection.

We thank you, Lord Jesus. You said, I have the keys of death and of hell. We rejoice in your faithfulness tonight. Thank you for another week of mercy. As the old hymn says, we'll praise him for all that is past and trust him for all that's to come.

Give you thanks for these dear ones. Thank you for a safe trip, for this dear brother all the way from Alaska, and others who come distances. We bless you. We thank you, Lord. We're all one in Jesus Christ.

There's neither Jew nor Greek, born nor free. We're free in Jesus Christ. We give you thanks for that. Lord, open our eyes as we open your word, and open our understanding, and open our mouths to tell what great things the Lord has done.

And we give you praise in Jesus' name. Thank you. Be seated. Fist of all to the Hebrews. I've got to tell the new, I've got to tell the Bible students this, it's in the New Testament. The epistle to the Hebrews, chapter one.

Next, next Friday night, our poor, our son David will be here from New Zealand, and so he'll be preaching, I don't know how many Friday nights. He's home for 20 days. I let him preach every night, if he will.

So you won't have to listen to this old guy next week, young men. And where does Mrs. Mrs. Mrs. Farrar live? Where? Frankston, is it? Does anybody come through Frankston? She needs a ride every Friday night.

She still wants to play for us, but she'll have to have a pick, someone pick her up each Friday. Pardon? No, she wants one to pick her up that's coming to church. Anybody come that way? Well, we'll have to try and pick this up during the week.

Christ’s Supremacy in Hebrews

Hebrews, chapter one. You know, there's a lot of controversy, rage for years about this wonderful book of Hebrews. It's not written to any particular group, like the epistle to the Romans, or the epistle to the Thessalonians, or the epistle to the Ephesians.

And they say it has no heading. Well, let me tell you for once, being smarter than the other guys, it has an introduction. It does tell us who it's written to. Look at chapter three and verse one. This is who it's written to.

Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Jesus Christ. After David will be here, maybe one, two weeks. Then after that, I think we're going to go through that 11th chapter again.

I need it so much. Take a series of studies of heroes in Hebrews. It's a fantastic study. Not because I'm teaching it, but it's a fantastic book. But look at the titles Jesus has here in this first chapter.

God, who at sundry times and in divers manner spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophet, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the world.

Now look at his title here. He's the brightness of his glory, the express image of his person, upholding all things by the word of his power. When he had by himself. I love that fact. He had by himself.

That rules out angels and archangels. It rules out the Virgin Mary. He didn't need, he didn't need a Virgin Mary to help him to bear the sin of the world. He had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of who?

The majesty on high. Now come on, what did Stephen say when they were stoning him? Who did he see? I see Jesus standing. Can you imagine all those people that put Jesus to death? The high priest, Caiaphas, all the others were there, and this little guy here that's bleeding and broken, every bone broken in his body nearly, and he suddenly points his finger.

He says, I see Jesus. They didn't believe in the resurrection. Jesus could have come down the first day he rose from the dead. Before ever he came after the tomb, he could have walked up and down in resurrection power and startled everybody in Jerusalem.

He didn't do that. He didn't go to the Sanhedrin at its weekly meeting on Tuesday afternoon. He didn't go to Caesar in Rome on Wednesday and meet with the faculty of the Roman Empire. He didn't prove himself in any way, and when everything, everybody thought it's all over, he's done with, that Christ has gone, we'll get this little fellow and shut his mouth up.

They threw rocks at him, maybe knocked an eye out, broke his ribs, he's bleeding, under the weight of the rocks, and he points there. He doesn't say Caiaphas, look there, Caiaphas could have seen him.

When are the heavens open for this man? When he was bleeding and suffering. Not when he was elected by unanimous vote in the upper room as being the first of the disciples, first of the apostles. He got that unanimous vote.

I don't know where anybody else did, but there the heavens didn't open. You say, why aren't the heavens opening to me? They will do, in a crisis moment, in a situation that you'll wish to God you could get out of.

But he wants to put you in there. You know, every place, every person God takes out of your life, he will move in in power. Everything he takes out of your life. I remember years ago, a city we were in in England, everybody goes to church Wednesday night.

Baptists can go there blindfolded, but anyhow, they all go Wednesday night. So we decided we'd have a meeting on Tuesday night, and we call it a holiness meeting. That's a terrifying thing. Well, the Baptists had nowhere to go, the Methodists had nowhere to go, the Salvation Army had nowhere to go, so they all came together.

We got a tremendous crowd Tuesday night. And one night I took a glass of water, and I said, you see this glass? It's filled with water. I poured water. It's filled, isn't it? Yes. Then I did that. I said, it isn't.

There's a rock at the bottom displacing water. If I take that rock out, the water will go down. I can put more water in. You know, very often there's somebody we don't want to go out of our lives, or something we don't want to go out of our lives, and God says, until they do, I can't fill you.

You can scream your head off. That thing is an obstruction. That thing's an impediment. Wesley, of course, good old Wesley, has a hymn in which he says, the dearest idol I have known, what heir that idol be, help me to tear it from the throne, and only live for thee.

But you see, there are things that we have in our lives, we think they're necessary to my spiritual welfare. If you take this away, I'll fall down. God says, well, I'll show you. And he takes that prop you're leaning on.

You don't ask him to take it. You haven't enough sense. Neither have I. I need this. The Lord says, you don't need it. You get that out of the way, and I'll fill you with riches and treasures beyond anything you could ever, ever understand.

Well, now, I'm going to start preaching, I think. Where do we get to? Well, verse three. Being the brightness of his glory, the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the words of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.

One old guy a hundred years ago said, well, Stephen said, I see Jesus that, but this says that Jesus was sitting on the throne of his father. So this old preacher, rightly or wrongly, says when, when Jesus saw that young man would go to the same death, he was so excited he jumped off the throne and greeted him.

I think that's beautiful. And what's more, I think it's right, because I thought that too. He said, I see Jesus standing. What do you think the angels were thinking? Again, what do you think the Pharisees and Sadducees were thinking?

What do you think Cephas was thinking? Those went, what do you think the others were thinking? I see Jesus. And again, that's the time when he's taken some treasure out of our life, he comes in that area, in his fullness, in a way that we've never known before.

Verse four says, he's made much better than the angel, and he hath by an inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels saith he at any time, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee?

Verse six, again, he bringeth forth his first begotten into the world, and let, let all the angels of God worship him. And the angels, he saith, who maketh his angels spirit, and his ministers a flame of fire.

Spiritual Fire and the Need for Stillness

Isn't that something? That's the symbol of God. We've been praying for weeks, I have for months. And I don't care, I trust it will be community. Somewhere, God is going to come like a pillar of fire on one of the area, one of the churches in this area.

Moses saw burning bush. Why did people go into the wilderness to see John Baptist? He had no clerical attire, he had no chairs, he had no choir, he had no favor of the sand he's in. But how in God's name can you mistake a man who's blazing?

He was incandescent with God. Our God is a consuming fire. And here you have a man, totally, that's been in the wilderness with God. That always precedes usefulness. There's a period when God banishes you into stillness.

I think, brother, I think our people, we're afraid of stillness. We're afraid of quietness. You know, one thing that will just about destroy your life, I think, is going to church every night. Well, you say, well, they did that in the early church.

So would I, if I'd been in the early church, dear Lord. I'd have been there morning, noon and night. Do you know, I was reading about a revival, a couple of days ago, where they had to preach three times a day because the sanctuary was packed.

One day God's going to come in this area, and the place, the lights won't go out for weeks and weeks and weeks. 24 hours a day, the glory of God will be there. Your children will see something you've never seen.

They'll hear what you've never heard. I'd like to be young, some reasons. Some I wouldn't, because young people are stupid, usually. But apart from that, I'd like to be young for this reason. God is going to pour his Spirit out on who?

Grandfathers? Is that what it says? Not in your Bible, which, what you've got, perverse version. What's it say? Your sons and what? Your daughters shall prophesy. I pray for these little fellows every day, and these are Bob's, and that little guy, I'm going to put him on my prayer list.

Remember in the revival, when the Spirit of God on the, came on the 23rd of August, 1737, at Hernholtz, the Moravians, they launched the greatest missionary crusade after the upper room. And boys and girls were in that sanctuary.

Do you know how long the prayer meeting lasted? One hundred years. A hundred years, it never closed down. If you went at midnight, they were praying. You went at midday, they were praying. If you went at ten in the morning, at ten at night, they were praying.

And little boys and girls were praying. A brother told me today, he'd been praying with groanings, that he couldn't even utter except he knew his grandmother was dying, and he prayed, and he howled, and God heard his prayer.

That's going to come. We're to get out of the rut we're in pastor, you know that as well as I do. There isn't a denomination, or if you like, as the old lady said, what abomination do you belong to? She meant denomination, but she got it right, though she had it wrong.

Everybody's in the same boat now. There's darkness, there's death, there's sterility. But God is a God of life. He created everything living. Let me go to my text now here. Look at verse 8 of Hebrews 1.

The Anointing, Holiness, and Revival

Unto the son he saith, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. I asked you earlier, today you didn't think about the throne. You didn't think about Alexander the Great. You didn't think about the throne in the Medo-Persian empire, or the Roman empire.

You didn't think of Julius Caesar today, or Napoleon, or men that conquered the world. And so it's underlined here. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. What do we sing in the hymn? His kingdom cannot fail.

He rules all earth and hell. His kingdom cannot fail. You know, millions of people have said, millions of people in hundreds of churches have said thousands of times what we call the Lord's Prayer. Thy kingdom come.

They haven't that much idea what it's all about. Thy kingdom come. Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. And it doesn't mean that much to them. Yet to us it does. Let's finish this verse, or verse 9.

Thou hast loved righteousness. This is his son he's talking about. This is the one that's made beyond the power of the angels. This is the one that's sharing the throne with the Father. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity.

Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with oil of gladness above thy fellows. You see, that's the secret to everything, the oil, the anointing oil. You know, in the old economy, just to hasten this, in the Old Testament when a man was discovered to be a leper, the priest had to get blood and dip something on every spot he saw on that person that was leprous, he put blood there.

And then he poured it with oil. Do you remember the Psalm 133? It says, let brethren dwell together in unity. You see, that's one of the keys. You can pray your head off if there's bitterness in you. I told a preacher over the phone the other day, I said, listen, if you've got the guts, pardon the word, and the grace to do it, say to people, do you want revival?

Yes. Well, look across the church. Is there somebody in the church you're bitter against? You're angry against? You have a grudge against? Well, for goodness sake, quit praying. Walk over in the, I did that once in a church with 2 ,000 people, it was pandemonium nearly, they were falling over each other, apologizing, deacons to other people.

You see, we want it so easy, but God says not so. But here is what he says, thy God hath anointed thee with oil above thy fellows. So Psalm 133 says what? Where brethren dwell together in unity, there the Lord commandeth the blessing.

And it's like what? Let me go back a second. I say, the man that's a leper, you have to touch every spot with blood, a type of the blood of Christ. Then you have to touch him with oil, a type of the Holy Spirit.

But you see, after he'd been touched with blood, and after he'd been touched with oil, the remainder of the oil had to be poured over his head. Well, Psalm 133 says, talks about the oil that was poured where?

Upon his head. Then where did it go? On his beard. Then where did it go? On his garments. What did it miss? It missed his flesh. You can't sanctify the flesh, it's corrupt. You can't sanctify a person who has fleshly nature, fleshly desires.

What does he say here? Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity. I want to tie that in with, let me look here, Wes. Look at Titus, somebody give us Titus, chapter 2. I have a marker in it, but it's gone.

Why did Jesus die for you? To save you from hell? No sir, that's a fringe benefit. Why did he die for me? Here it is in Titus, chapter 2. If you're aspiring after purity, after holiness, here it is. Chapter 2, you start at verse 11.

For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present evil world.

Looking for that hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, here's why he came into the world. To give himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity. Did you get that?

The constant cry of Wesley in his hymns, well one of them he says, purge me from every sinful blot, my idols all be cast aside. Cleanse me from every sinful thought, from all the filth of self and pride.

In another hymn he says, refining fire go through my heart, illuminate my soul, scatter thy life through every part, and sanctify the whole. All that in me, he says, the sacred fire might now begin to glow.

You see, God's redemptive work is not to get you to heaven, it's to bring heaven into you now. Not that you go live in the kingdom of heaven, but the kingdom of heaven comes now. You've heard me say it so often, I want to live.

Other people can have your ideas, I want to live so that Jesus Christ is comfortable living in me. And that's what it is. Jesus did not, N .O .T., Jesus did not come into the world to make bad men good, he came into the world to make dead men live.

And it's the only religion in the world where a man's God comes and lives inside of him. Again, read it when you're chanced, when you go home, read Romans 8. It says, the Spirit of God dwelleth in you, the Spirit of Christ dwelleth in you, the Holy Spirit dwelleth in you.

If you can't live in victory with those, you may as well die and get out of the way. But you see, we accommodate sin. Somebody told me, I don't, I don't know, Jack, did you tell me, somebody told me this week, or earlier this week, they saw a sign outside a church, Christians are not sinless, they just sin less.

Isn't that nice? That's a lie from hell. Jesus said to the woman that came, a bad woman, well, he said, go and sin less, didn't he? What did he say? Sin no more. And that was before the cross, that was before the Holy Spirit.

You say, are you arguing that a Christian shouldn't sin? No, he shouldn't. It's not impossible for me to sin, it's possible for me not to sin. If I sin, I do what the other man doesn't do. I'm immediately heartbroken, I've hurt God.

I'm not just hurt somebody I've sinned with, I've hurt God. I've crucified him afresh, I want to get on my face and grovel and mourn and sigh. I've failed him. Dear God, everybody's against God in this world.

As I said last week, you never hear anybody say, for Buddha's sake, or Confucius, it's always for Christ's sake. The devil hates Christ, and he hates the church, and the world is never going to treat us well.

Why should you get a better treatment from this rotten world than he got? Why do you expect to be accepted? In fact, the more holy you become, the more corrupt the others are. God wants to anoint us with the oil.

Let me skip over here quickly and read a verse. In John chapter 16, and this is all about chapter 16 of the gospel recorded by John, verse 7 says, nevertheless I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you to go away.

Do you think they believed him? Do you think that that man who had worked miracles staggered everybody, defied demons, defied death, defied blindness, defied, defied every devilish thing? Do you think they believed when he said, it's a good thing for me that you go away?

You know, love can get very petulant. Why did you do this? Why did you do that? And I believe the disciples were petulant there. It's expedient for you that I should go away. Oh no, that's no good. But I'm sending somebody in my place.

Oh well, substitutes are never any good, are they? I once went to a place at about an hour's notice. I drove over the mountains in England. I went into the auditorium that was pretty well filled and they'd already announced that Norman Grubb, the great biographer, he was to speak, he couldn't speak, so he called me and asked me to fill in for him.

So I went in feeling, boy, I'm going to fill up, instead of Norman Grubb, I'm going. Suddenly he turned around and said, it's only Ravenhill. Boys, my balloon went down. Only Ravenhill, that's all. Substitutes, what good are they?

Jesus said, it's expedient for you that I go. I don't believe they believed him for a moment. But he says, in essence, he says, look, I'm in one place, but when he has come, he can be in every place. And I can be in every place.

You know, it gets to me very much when I hear people, preachers, saying, they talk about the baptism, have you had it? I've never seen an it, have you? What shape is it? What color is it? How wide is it?

How tall is it? How thin is it? How brilliant is it? I've never seen an it. You ever seen an it? I haven't. The Holy Spirit is not it. The Holy Spirit is a person. Now listen to what Jesus says right after this.

Verse 7, nevertheless I tell you it's the truth, it's expedient for you I go away. If I go, if I go not away, the comforter. Come on, what do you mean by a comforter? Well mercy, you won't need one tonight, but boy, six months from tonight, you'll pull the comforter over the bed, most likely.

Snuggle up and say, oh I like a nice comforter. What do you mean the comforter? My dear principal used to say this, remember gentlemen, the comforter is not a nursing mother for spiritually sick people.

That word comforter there is a Latin word, com-k-u-m-dash fortis, comfortis with strength. When he is come. I hear, you see that sick thing on back of a car? Christians aren't perfect, only what do they say?

Only forgiven, but that's a lie from hell. How can a Christian be normal with an indwelling spirit of God? How can he be normal if the spiritual wisdom is in him? We're not, I'm not normal, of course you know that, everybody thinks I'm crazy anyhow.

I don't have to wear a sign on my back, I'm nutty, everybody knows that. But you know if other people are saying, I don't know, they like them anyhow. When he, this comforter, will come unto you, I will send it, I will spend him, send him unto you.

Look what he says verse 8, when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin. That's the least, as I've told you before, that's the least emphasized ministry of the Holy Spirit today. Conviction of sin.

My dear Martha and I, we used to stay in a home, and the young man there is one of the leading open heart surgeons in America. His wife's also a surgeon. And I would look across the meal table sometimes, his little tiny thin fingers, I used to think, good night, he's carving somebody up this morning, sometimes I can eat my meat for thinking about it.

I love those little fingers. Do you know he was so steady, and his wife? But you know I believe with all my heart brother Crum, I believe this, I believe that true conviction of sin is open heart surgery.

Boy when he comes in, he talks about circumcising the heart, he doesn't leave anything there. When he does his surgery, boy he does everything, he's pronouncing it good. This very book, Hebrews 7 .25, he is able to save to the uttermost.

That was the slogan of William Booth in the Salvation Army, that's why they went after the worst. His slogan was what? They built the Salvation Army out of the streets in England. When the Church of England shut doors against them, when they had no money, when they were ridiculed, William Booth stepped out of a Methodist meeting into the sidewalk, and his wife took him by the hand, she had a curvature of the spine remember, and put her hand in his and said, well William what shall we do now?

He said, darling we'll go to the gutters. Go for souls and go for the worst, he said. Go to people who have no hope. Go to people who don't want hope. They love their sin. I've heard people say, I'm going to Africa, I'm going to India.

People there are waiting for, forget it, they're not waiting for the Gospel. They hate the Gospel as much as you and I do. They love their sin, they love their wickedness, and they're going to love it until they get light, until God opens and shows them there's something else.

But you see, we we send people to the mission field very often who are defeated inwardly in their own lives. They haven't victory over sin. So how in the world can they send a message of deliverance? When he comes he'll convict the world of sin.

Let me just, I'd better stop here and take too much time. I spent many mornings praying with Duncan Campbell, the man who had revival in the Hebrides. You know there's some marvelous manifestations of God by the in those meetings.

Nobody ever spoke in tongues. Nobody was ever healed physically. One night five young women came on the front row. And they, they, they had to drag one of them in almost. She was the champion. You know they dance on swords and sing, do the highland fling.

And she was the champion in Scotland. And she said, oh I'm not going there. And she cracked a joke. She said, you know what? Ah, she says, the wee man, as they always call the preacher, I don't know why, the wee man, the small man.

Ah, he'll say, I, it's very, very funny, but tonight I can't preach on the text that I had. The Lord has directed me to preach on something else. And these five young ladies had just come in and they'd sung wonderful psalms.

Only the, only the, only the people in Scotland can sing psalms. And the good man stood up with his Bible and he said, friends, it's very funny, but tonight I can't preach the message. So they nudged and nudged and nudged.

These five charming young Scotch ladies. He said, it's very funny, I cannot preach the word I've had all day. The Lord has just told me to preach on the five foolish virgins. Boy, that put them on the spot.

Well, four of them got saved, but the champion didn't. And she wouldn't go near the place. He said, go in there. I'm not going there again. I'd rather die there. One night she went. And somebody said, well, oh, he won't change the text tonight, there's five, there's five of us here.

No, she sat there and the others were sitting over here. And he said, I was just going to deliver my message and the Lord told me not that message tonight. So everybody's got their ears. What's he going to say this time?

He can't say five foolish. He pointed with his finger and he didn't know the girl. He said, Mary, the Lord has come and call her for thee. That's pretty pointed preaching, you know. We'd say it like that, Mary, you know, in case you know.

So nobody would say we're pointing fingers. You know, it's not my mother or my sister, it's me or God standing in the need of prayer. No, we turn that round. What happened? That girl that night got saved.

But no, I'm saying the arrows of God go in. And when God gets, boy, I'll tell you, he'll take you to hell if he has to. You know, for five solid months that girl came to meeting and he wouldn't speak to her once.

I don't know much about farming. I can tell what animals they are. But I understand if a hen is hatching on a number of eggs, say she's on 10 eggs, and nine of them hatch and the other doesn't, all you do is take a pin and stick it on the egg that hasn't hatched and it will hatch and that chicken will be lame all its life.

Well, that's what we do when people come to the altar. We try to push them through, they're not ready. They're not ready to be born again of the Spirit of God. I read yesterday that the, those powerful, what do you call them, men in Scotland, 1860, no 16, 1665, just before the great fire of London, you had the, what do you call those great preachers?