Repentance - Part 3 — Leonard Ravenhill

Repentance and the New Birth

One old definition said repentance is to leave the sin I've done before and show that I in earnest grieve by doing it no more. If a man is genuinely born again, all things pass away, all old things pass away and all things become new.

The Feast of Tabernacles and the Water Ceremony

So here we have Jesus right in the center of the crowd. You see for six days what happened, they had a wonderful performance. What were they thinking of? Jesus stood there where the priest had stood every day for seven days and then the temple orchestra came with their instruments and the temple choir came and they went down the shoulder of the hill to the pool of Siloam and they dipped that golden vessel into the pool and the priest carried it on his shoulder with pomp and circumstance and he went and poured it out.

The Rock in the Wilderness as a Picture of Christ

To what? To remind them of what? That when they cried there in the wilderness, they had no water and God told Moses to smite the rock and he smote it. Told him to speak to it the second time, he still smote it, he got into habits.

But they were commemorating that tremendous event when that river followed them, that river of life followed them wherever they went and the rock that was smitten, that was Christ the Word of God says.

So for seven days they'd seen this performance. Everybody stood on one side and bowed when they came back. Oh, you think what God did? God that put the stars up there. God that one day parted like you part your hair, he parted the rivers, the water.

And over a million people passed through. This is our God. They're commemorating the miracle. On the last day, the great day of the feast, they did not go through that performance. And Jesus went and stood there.

Christ’s Moral Majesty in the Temple

If I were an artist, I'd want to paint this. I think around the world art galleries I've been, I've seen all kinds of pictures about the Lord. I've never seen a picture of Jesus standing here in all his moral majesty.

Why in God's name don't they go punch him? Why doesn't somebody do what? They've already put an assassin's threat on him, we'll kill him. But people say, well why don't you kill him? He's standing there, he's no bodyguards, there's no angels around him.

Well actually I think he had a bodyguard of angels. I think he stood there in his moral majesty and they could feel what we call vibes going out of him of the glory of God that they didn't go near him.

I say and I say, I think this is one of the most gorgeous pictures of Jesus. In the whole of the New Testament. But the last day, the great day of the feast, it says Jesus stood and cried. Isaiah says, my servant shall not cry in the streets.

Well he's not crying in the street. He's not crying in the street at all, he's crying in the temple. He's crying to a particular crowd of people. But he adds insult to injury. I remind you again, he'd already called them a den of thieves.

Jesus’ Authority and the Invitation to Every Person

He'd already tossed the money changers out. He'd stunned them with the miracles that he'd done. And yet, this is what he says to them. These people have a monopoly of God. Didn't they have ancestry like Jeremiah and Isaiah and these huge, enormous characters?

But this man comes, this unlettered man, this usurper, this man with no backing, stands in the middle of the holy of holies as far as they're concerned. It's like me rushing into the Vatican and shouting hallelujah and starting to praise the Lord.

Wouldn't go down too well, I'd like the chance though. And there he is in the middle of the feast. And listen to what he says. Any man. Hey, hold it a minute. You can't say that. Jehovah is the God of the Jews.

The Ten Commandments are given to the Jews. All those giants you talk about spiritually, who subdued kingdoms and wrought righteousness and stopped them out of land, they're all Jews. Why do you dare to say to this cosmopolitan crowd here, if any man can?

Regeneration and the Reality of Conversion

I think one of those beautiful things that even Paul said, my great favorite preacher, the Apostle Paul. Remember what he says in 2, what is it, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, is it 517? Don't look now. Look after and find out I'm wrong, but anyhow.

Do you remember what he said? If any man. Did he say that? What did he say? Pardon? I'm glad you're not all sleeping, that's great. If any man, anywhere, at any time, being Christ, he may be the most twisted, perverted, carnal, cruel, stinking man in the whole world.

But if the miracle of regeneration comes in and he gets a new heart, a new mind, a new spirit, a new in look, a new outlook, new everything. We've forgotten about the majesty of the new birth. People just nod their head and say the sinner's prayer and go straight to hell down the aisle after they've leaned their head on the shoulder of the pastor.

Do you know, I doubt if 5 of professing Christians in America are born again. It's true of England. I asked that giant for the man, Buck Singh, the man from India. Do you ever meet him out there, brothers?

You've got to see him this time, he's getting old. He's about 86. He is a man. He's a man that's going over the world and he goes to the railway station without a penny and orders his ticket. I believe in faith, but not fanaticism.

I mean, you know. I mean, what if you embarrass God, but you don't embarrass God. But I asked him one day, of all the professing Christians in India, how many have saved? He said, about 2 .5%. What about the Christians in America, brother Singh?

He said, 2 .5%. I'm astounded, bewildered, confused, baffled when people tell me in America we've 75 million people filled with the Holy Ghost and with the rottenest nation on earth. Come on. It says here that Jesus stood and cried.

The Urgency of Jesus’ Cry

One version says with a loud voice. It was not a shriek. It was not a scream. The Greek word implies that he did it with authority. He did it loudly. He did it emphatically. He did it with emotion. Why?

Well, I'll tell you what I discovered last week in this. Now, preached on this 40 or 50 years, never found it. Here he is in the temple, two or three, four, five thousand people around him and he stands there and he cries with a loud voice.

Why? Time is running out for these people and they're dumb and blind. They don't know it. They'd had the law. They'd had the prophets. They'd had one of the most amazing men in history previous to Jesus coming.

And what did they do? They got rid of him too. Chopped his head off. Jesus stood and cried with a loud voice in my judgment for this reason that he knew that time was running out, that God's Spirit does not always strive with men.

There's a cut-off point. I'm trying to think of a verse here. I can't remember.