Cost Of Discipleship - Part 3 — Leonard Ravenhill

God's Personal Love and Saving Grace

10 ,000 years, he changed it to 10 million. It wasn't bad, 10 trillion would have been better, but he got there, and you know, there wasn't a dry eye, and those girls had been prostitutes, some of them had carried guns, everyone had been changed.

The tears were flowing, they used to make other people weep, now they're weeping, why? Amazing grace! Sure, Paul loved the world, God so loved the world, and he gave his only son, and then afterwards he writes to Ephesians, he not only loved the world and gave his son, he says, he loved me, but he says, Christ paid himself for the church, but greater than loving the world and loving the church, he says, did you know what he did?

He loved me! Do you ever fall at his feet and say, thank you, Lord, for saving my soul, not our souls? Thank you for blotting out the horrible record of my sin. Some of you didn't have much, and it's true that those who have been saved from much, love much.

Repentance in the Inward Parts

You remember that brilliant king? He was mentioned this morning in Psalm 51, and in another time he says what? He lifted me up out of a horrible pit. This hand was running with crime, and this with adultery, and my history was rotten.

And he isn't asking, Lord, just kindly forgive my sins, and I'll go about my business. He isn't asking for some superficial knowledge, that somehow the relationship is kind of restored and all is well.

He goes further than that. He says, search me in Psalm 139, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me. He says in that 51st Psalm, I want truth in the inward parts.

Oh, that's cutting close, isn't it? Not just out of my mind and my conscience, but in the inward part, the central register of my being, that truth may be there. Paul finishes his letter to the Galatians.

Paul's Marks as a Slave of Jesus Christ

Oh, it's so beautiful. He doesn't have his tongue in his cheek and say, you know, I wonder if I've done the right thing. I could have had a good influence for God if I'd stayed in the old place, and had a worldwide reputation.

No, no, no, no, no. I like what he says at the end of the chapter there. I'm reading from the Living Bible, King James, and the 17th verse of the last chapter says this. I like it. Listen to his defiance.

From henceforth, let no man trouble me. I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. I think Moffat translates that. Henceforth, let no man trouble me. I bear in my body the brands of Jesus Christ. Oh, they knew what he meant in the temple of Heracles in the days of slavery.

A man would run away from his taskmaster, brutal taskmaster, and he would rush to the temple. They had priests there. They were on guard day and night, often asleep, but anyhow, that's what preachers are.

And you might have to wake the preacher up, and you say, oh, he says, have you escaped? Yes, I've escaped. Brand me, brand me. Well, choose the weapons, you know, like we brand cattle here. Which guard do you want to be branded with?

He chooses the stigmata. He chooses the mark, the brand of a certain guard, and he's branded on his hands. Can you imagine him putting his hand out, clenching his teeth, and that flesh sizzles when that hot iron goes on it?

He slips down his toga if he was wearing one, and he's branded on the back of his neck. He lifts up his foot and he's branded on his instep. Paul says, don't trouble me. I'm branded. I bear the marks of a slave.

I'm a bond slave of Jesus Christ. I've no will of my own. I've no rights of my own. There's an old hymn established on that very theme. Let my hands perform his bidding. Let my feet run in his ways. Let my eyes see Jesus only.

Let my lips speak forth his praise. All for Jesus. All my being's ransom powers. All my thoughts and words and doings. All my days and all my hours. This man is no professional preacher. Preaching is not a profession.

Ministry as Passion Rather Than Profession

It's a passion. A man can't preach with passion. He shouldn't preach at all. Not a profession. A passion. There's no breath of professionalism anywhere in the ministry of Paul and thank God there's no breath of commercialism either.

Peter said in his day there are some who make merchandise of you. That couldn't be more true than the day in which we're living. I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. I bear here at the back of my neck a brand which tells you that this part of my being, my thinking, my philosophy is that of Jesus Christ, my teaching.

My feet. Isn't it staggering how far this amazing man went? Look at his missionary journeys without airplanes, without trains. God put something in him. The stupid world tried to get it out of him. That God put something in him and they lashed him 195 times and they couldn't whip it out of him.

And he hung on a piece of wood in the Mediterranean for 36 hours and they couldn't wash it out of him. And they tried to threaten it out of him. But almighty God put something in there, you see. They were not trying to kill the Apostle Paul, the idiots.

They were trying to kill Jesus Christ. Because Christ lived in him. And he says, I don't know whether to desire and depart or be here because it's not much better off up there in one sense. I've still got Christ inside.

He says his life is head with Christ in God. So you see this man moving, establishing churches. One amazing thing and I often say this to young preachers who ask me about preaching and I don't know much about it.

I've been trying to do it for about 60 or just over 60 years now. It's still a mystery I think as dear pastor said this morning. You see some people have got everything out in 1, 2, 3, 4. If they have I throw the book away.

The Mystery of Godliness and the Character of Revival

The older I get the more I realize great is the mystery of Godliness. Why isn't God brooding over our stained glass windows in America this morning? Why isn't he brooding on our super multi-million dollar TV and radio programs with all the flash and show they have?

The greatest areas where God is breathing this morning is amongst people that are in poverty and in need. The Africa in the gar pardon me, the revival in Nagaland which is northeast India. I read a report a brother sent recently he went expecting a finid like revival.

We think we're going to make a carbon copy and say Lord double it that way. Now, you know, don't rock the boat. In the 11th of July in the Wall Street Journal which I'm sure many of you take because of your interest investments.

But in the Wall Street Journal for the 11th of July it says I was going to bring the document and I forgot it. But it says there an evangelical revival is moving over America just now but it's having little effect.

That's like saying there was an earthquake from California to New York last night. 8 .6 on the Richter scale.

But nobody felt it. You talk about the fullness of.

Paul's Damascus Road Calling

God. What Paul did, you know, right after he was born again after that miracle happened on the Damascus Road. I'm glad one man stayed to listen what God had to say that morning. He didn't just pray. He listened and God said Ananias get up and go to the street.