Is the Lord Among Us, or Not — Leonard Ravenhill

We're glad to be here tonight my wife and I. I think I could give you half a dozen reasons why we shouldn't be here. And I can give you more than one reason why we are here. First because we believe it's God's will that we should be here.

And secondly because we've learned to love this conference. I feel that it's spiritual and it's sober and it's sound. It doesn't take a very wise man to say that we're living in the most momentous days in history and no conference has ever convened under a more difficult and complex system of world affairs than this conference this week.

But I've been pondering for a number of days a statement made by an old friend of mine Dr. Kuhn. Some of you may know him he is one of the most brilliant philosophers in America and I've known him I think for 30 years.

He's in the seminary at Asbury College. And Dr. Kuhn said this a while ago and it stuck in my mind. That we need to remember that Christianity was launched in a sophisticated and a totalitarian world.

Christianity Born in Adversity

It was launched in the heyday of the Roman Empire and it was wedged in between the monolith of Greek wisdom and the monopoly of religion by the Jews. Christianity only survives in adversity and because we're living in a day of prosperity we don't have much Christianity.

I find new sermons very much like new shoes. They're a bit difficult to get on with. I don't have any new shoes tonight but I have a new sermon. At least I've got part of it. I'll maybe get through really knowing what it's about.

In about five years it takes about 20 times to preach a sermon before it gets hold of me. The text is in the 17th chapter of the book of Exodus and verse 7. The latter part of verse 7. Exodus chapter 17.

I can't say this text as it was originally given by the people who uttered it. And I would say about this text right at the outset that this text is a pointed text and it's a painful text and it's a penetrating text.

As I sat there tonight I was thinking of the word of Paul when he said that he had to to some believers stir up their pure minds by way of remembrance. And I'm going to suggest that during this week there might be a number of things which are provoking and intentionally provocative.

Because there is no advancing in our individual lives or in the church of Jesus Christ unless we're provoked. And we have scripture for this where to provoke one another to good works. Now here's the text at the end of the seventh verse in the 17th chapter of Exodus.

Is the Lord among us or not? Is the Lord among us or not? The journey of the children of Israel is to some degree a picture of the pilgrimage of a true believer. They came out of Egypt a type of the world.

They came from under the dominion of Pharaoh a type of the devil. They were to come into the promised land, the land of wrath. But they did like so many people they got out of Egypt and they got to Kadesh Barnea and they settled down.

Kadesh Barnea was to be a stepping stone but it became a stumbling block. It was to be a gateway through which they passed but it became a goal. It was to be a thoroughfare but it became a terminus. They gave up.

After all they didn't have to get up every morning now and make bricks. They weren't bearing their backs to the smiters. They were free men. But more than once God said through his prophets remember that thou wast a bondsman in Egypt.

And I'm amazed at the discipline that many people will go through intellectually or even physically for what the apostle Paul calls a crown that fades away. And yet our little discipline we really have for a crown which is eternal.

Technology, Distress, and the Signs of the Times

I don't know what this age is going to be called, the age in which we live. Some people say it will be named as the atomic age but it certainly is listed as a scientific age. And the things that I used to read about as a little boy in England, those amazing adventures of Jules Verne are no longer science fiction but they're everyday facts.

Your little Johnny doesn't even get disturbed about sitting in front of tv and watching a man walk on the moon. After all he can't remember when men didn't walk on the moon maybe. Now amongst the inventive things, the amazing things that science has given is the tv camera.

And not very long ago one of them hitched a ride up to the moon, merely about 280 ,000 miles away. And it was possible for the first time in history to sit down in a room and maybe your old grandpa couldn't walk around too far but he sat there drinking his coke or something else.

And watched a man struggle timidly coming down the ladder and putting the first foot of any human being on the moon. Then after the camera had hitched the ride up there it stowed away in a mini submarine that the Frenchmen used between here and the Bahamas where we're living right now.

And they went up the bottom of the Gulf Stream. They told us they saw things that have never been pictured before. They saw fishes about 40 feet long. I caught a fish the other week about 52 inches long and thought it was an amazing thing but these men saw some fishes 40 feet long.

And so here we have the tv camera which is a kind of peeping tom. We're not only living in a day when it seems that nothing is sacred but we seem to be living in a day where nothing is secret. You can sit down in the home I say and watch men walk on the moon.

You can lounge in an easy chair and watch men going on the bottom of the ocean like the Jules Verne told us many years ago. And not only that the tv camera brings the races and the riots, the pampered pets of modern society that some people call students and some have other names for them which couldn't be mentioned from a pulpit.

But let's call them the pampered pets of modern education. You see them with their fists clenched. You see them in fights and in riots. And one of the signs at the end of the age the word of God says is that there should be distress of nations.

There is a nation under the sun tonight that is in a state of distress. Whether you take this great wealthy affluent arrogant nation or you take little Jordan over there just about ready to spit in two.

You discover again we live in a moral universe that was just a few days ago. They had one of the worst earthquakes in history in Peru. And only today the news bulletin said that maybe 75 ,000 people perish.

And something like 200 ,000 people are homeless. And yet two days before the earthquake that government froze everybody's money. It had already driven out the Americans, already taken possession of oil fields and other possessions involved in multiplied millions of dollars.

And two days before the earthquake they said all money is to be frozen and tomorrow everybody must go to the bank and open their deposit accounts, deposit banks with a government official at the side of them and declare everything.

The government's going to take everything we have. And two days after the country was blasted ripped in two by an earthquake. The middle nation of Israel is fighting two or three wars at once right now.

It's been in existence 20 years and hasn't known one day of peace. And the word of God says that just before the end time we're going to be in a time of again what the bible calls the time of Jacob's trouble.

And the Jews haven't got out of trouble they haven't even got in it yet. And so all around us it seems the word of God is fulfilled before our eyes that everything that can be shaken is being shaken. And this country that came up more rapidly than any other country in history.

As I reminded you I think just a few months ago when we were here in February. That compared with other nations the great tottering old empires of China or even the British empire. Compared with them America is a little babe in a crib playing with its toes.

America was only born yesterday. But she's dying today and she'll be dead tomorrow unless we have revival. Again I remind you that Christianity was born in a world of totalitarian power. A sophisticated world.

There's nothing new under the sun. But God that gave revival in the acts of the apostles is still the same God. As our brother reminded us if 120 people could be empowered in the upper room and God and shake the world.

Then the possibilities are unlimited in this week in which we gather together. Now I say we've seen the students rioting. We've seen the crowd brought into our living room. We've seen the cops fighting.

We've seen the kids being shot. We've seen all the other distressing things. But again there's nothing new under the sun. And this text was born in an environment exactly the same. I say I can't, I couldn't give you the information.

I couldn't give you the anguish with which the people uttered this text. It isn't the cry of a man. It isn't the cry of a prophet. It isn't the cry of a priest. It's a cry of more than a million people.

But in anger and anguish and they're crying, is the Lord among us or not? I think that's the most pertinent question we could ask America tonight. I think it's the most pertinent question we could ask the church tonight.

I think it's the most pertinent question you could ask in your, your particular assembly where you worship. Is the Lord among us or not? The children of Israel were on their way. A journey that God himself had designed for them from the land of Egypt.

And of course the goal was Sinai. On their journey they came to a place called Meribah. There wasn't much water there and they had difficulty with it. And then they came to another place called Elam where there was water, 12 wells of water, lovely date palms, everything they needed.

One day there wasn't sufficient. The next day there was more than, or next time there was more than they needed. And now they come to another place, Rephidim, and there's no water at all. And the children of Israel cried by reason of their anguish.

The scripture makes it very clear because it says here in the first verse, pardon me, in verse 2. No again verse 1, there was no water for the people to drink. And so they were in a state of misery. There was no water given to them and so they moved from misery to madness.

Israel’s Unbelief at Rephidim

And they cried their grief is the Lord among us or not? But they don't cry to the Lord and ask the question. They're crying to Moses. Moses had told them in the previous chapter when they had been complaining against him, he said you're not complaining against Aaron and you're not complaining against me.

Because he said in verse 8 of the previous chapter, and what are we? Your murmurings are not against us but against the Lord. He had told them that the Lord would appear to them. In verse 7, and in the morning then shall ye see the glory of the Lord.

And in verse 10 he says, and they beheld the glory of the Lord appearing in a cloud. Everything becomes familiar. We eat what we wear. The fact that we can run to church, come away when we like. After all most of us are our own boss aren't we?

You know that's a thing we say quite regularly, well I'm my own boss. That's the trouble. If the Lord was the boss we'd be in a different situation. But right now we're our own boss. They were no longer, no longer fascinated by the fact that they had a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire.

They'd forgotten that God in his mercy had opened the windows of heaven and supplied their needs. They'd forgotten the long long procession of miracle that God had done for them. And immediately now they're rebelling against him.

And asking the question, is the Lord among us? Or not? Do you think the Lord has ever been among us? Would you dare to say in the fellowship where you worship the Lord is among us? I get a little tired of, well I get very tired of preachers to be honest.

Particularly preachers who are tigers in the pulpit and kittens outside of it. I get tired of hearing preachers say maybe over the radio or someone else with vigor you know. Because they've got one eye on the unbeliever down the street and the other on the modernist up there.

And they say well thank God in this church. We're, we're not as other than us. We do believe the bible from cover to cover. And then they spend the next 20 minutes telling you why you can't have revival and why the gifts of the spirit aren't for today.

Do you wonder the kids don't believe you? They're a bit smarter than you think. They know you don't have what it takes to meet this generation. They know that if you stood up next Sunday morning I'd challenge you to do it and say to your congregation, is the Lord amongst us or not?

Somebody might shoot right back and say sure he's not been around here for a long while. My brother was singing that song I first heard it with Miss Coleman. He touched me, oh he touched me. I remember being in a big meeting with her with thousands of people and she said you know the the easiest thing for your preacher to say on a Sunday is thank God we're not a great crowd.

But you know the Lord is where two or three are gathered together and he's the same yesterday today and forever. Now she said if he is, if he's in the midst if he doesn't change and he doesn't, why isn't he doing the things in the midst now that he did when he stood in the midst in the days of his flesh?

Come on you can't have it both ways. We used to sing a song in England, what if by form we cannot see we know and feel that thou art here. You know the reason we sent reports out about crusades and everything else is nobody'd know what had happened if we didn't.

And you've got to exaggerate it and inflate it and say a lot about it and wear all your adjectives out. But you know when God works you never have to advertise. There isn't a revival in history that ever cost a red cent.

Crusades, yes. A star-studded platform of broken down board players and ex-movie stars and what have you got. Oh they're an awful expense. But revival never cost a dime. Evangelism is the work of men.

Revival is the work of the spirit. Evangelism is the work of the church in the world. Revival is the work of the spirit in the church. And if you narrowed this down you wouldn't even be looking outside tonight.

Revival as the Work of the Spirit

We have to look to the temple of our personality and say is the Lord indwelling me or not. You know the Lord has always looked for men. And he finds them in very strange places. And he doesn't repeat what he's done before necessarily.

And when these people come in their anger and their anguish and they say because after all you've got to try and picture the nature of these people. There are possibly more than a million of them. There are possibly scores of thousands of crying babies.

There are possibly hundreds of thousands of cattle that have nothing to drink. And what with the crying of the babies and the roaring of the cattle and the displeasure of the people. Poor Moses here he is.

He's pressed on every side with his angry people. Is the Lord among us or not? Now if you read the first verse of the chapter it says all the congregation of Israel journeyed from the to their journeys according to the commandment of the Lord.

Moses wasn't leading them God was leading them. And he put a blockage in the way. He put a great big rock, a lifeless rock. It had no moss on it. It had nothing growing on it. It was the biggest obstruction that they had and they wondered just what.

Well after all the God who led them there knew it was there didn't he. And before you throw your hymn book at them let me suggest that the God who brought you into a tight corner just recently. Well he knew you were going to get there before you got there anyhow didn't he.

Did we have to make all the mountains away before we get there? Oh they've forgotten the lyrical of yesterday. They didn't say come on let's get together and give God an offering of praise and let's thank him for all that he's passed and trust him for all that's to come.

Let's remember how he delivered us from the hands of Pharaoh and how he opened the Red Sea and how he opened the heavens and lift all his mercies. When all thy mercies oh my God my rising souls today.

But how easy to get depressed. The first time the sun goes behind the cloud. The first time the enemy comes. The first time your prayer isn't answered within about an hour. And down we go and we say what and what and immediately we get swallowed up with unbelief.

And the Lord says to Moses, Moses you get one or two of the elders and and go and stand on that rock and smite the rock. I think that's very significant because apparently all the children of Israel didn't see the miracle because of that unbelief.

Because they were not murmuring against Moses they were murmuring against God. And so the Lord says to Moses go and stand on a rock and I will be with thee. I once read somewhere that somebody had counted how many times the fear nots were in the Bible and they said there were 365, one for every day.

You see God is always with the minority. God is always with the individual. The storm may roll without me. My heart may low be laid but God is round about me. I'll be with thee there on the rock. So he doesn't ask any questions.

He doesn't set up a committee. He goes and stands on that rock and does exactly what God told him to do. Now you think they'd learn a lesson and they'd never need to be cured again. But they certainly did before very long.

God added another miracle to the great list of miracles. But they were like the rest of us. They kept murmuring, complaining. In Psalm 106 the psalmist says that God led them through deep waters. In Psalm 107 he said but he led them by the right way.

You know you better be up to your neck in water. In fact you better be over your head in water with the Lord leading you than on dry land without him anyhow. My good friend Comrade Murrell sitting here.

We did five or six weeks together earlier this year. I learned a lot from him and esteem him highly in the Lord. And one thing he riveted in my mind was this. That if you're really going to have faith, faith can only be exercised when there's a real need.

So he'd like to use faith like some magic thing. As I have the gift of faith you have some other gifts. But here's my faith and I turn the the key in the lock and hey presto I get things because you see I have faith.

Or I'd like to use faith so that I don't get into a tight situation where I'm going to be embarrassed in this situation because God isn't delivering me at the right moment. You see what God wanted to do.

He never intended that they should stay in Rephidim. His goal was Mount Sinai. He couldn't bring Sinai to Rephidim. He could only take them from Rephidim to Sinai. And then he did every one of those experiences on the way.

It was a riveted way. It was never without difficulty. It was never without hostility. It was never without enemies. It was never without somebody in the rank and file who was murmuring and distressed and oh if only they kept their eyes on the Lord.

But again the same could be said of you and of me. How many times we've got allies. On the circumstance, on the situation, on the rock that isn't yielding anything at all. You get the same kind of thing just a little further on in their history.

Moses, the Rock, and the Danger of Disobedience

The 20th chapter of the book of Numbers. I believe God intended this river of lives should follow them with us wherever they went. But disobedience and unbelief came and the river seems to have dried up.

And again Moses has to go and stand on the rock. But this time the Lord says to him speak to the rock. On this occasion Moses took his rod. In the 17th chapter of Exodus, the rod that he threw down and it became a serpent.

The rod that he weighed and it divided the sea. Oh but we're slaves aren't we. We only need something to work for us. Immediately we put pass rights on it and say boy we better keep that in our minds you know.

Next time we're going to get in a tax fund. We'll use that very thing and God says no you won't. You're trusting in the rod. We get a method. Something brings in some money or we did this or we did that.

And immediately we begin to say now you know this is just because we're right. Well I've heard preachers and you have. You've heard preachers say now look you'll never get anywhere if you're disobedient.

You'll never have. Look I can tell you individual people who are disobedient and have blessings. I can tell you a group of people who've moved through the whole world with revival and they have and they do and they will continue to to defy the basic laws of God.

You say they never have genuine. They have had genuine revival. All right give you the name. All right the Salvation Army. You say well what in the world's wrong with the Salvation Army? Well in case you don't know there are two things the Salvation Army have never done from 1865 when they became a group of people until this very day.

And I don't know that they're ever going to put things straight. You know what they haven't done? Well one of the commandments of the Lord which you Baptists really exercise. Was going to all the world and preach the gospel baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The Salvation Army doesn't baptize anybody. Neither by sprinkling nor by pouring nor by immersion. And it's a basic commandment isn't it? They don't do it. They never have done it. They never will do it as far as I know.

The second thing is the Lord says when we break bread together do this until I come. We're looking forward to his coming. We're looking back to his crucifixion. We're looking forward to his coronation.

But never in their history have the people of the Salvation Army ever had the Lord suffer. It's not a part of their fellowship. Now that's a basic commandment. Do this until I come. They've never done it.

Baptizing them they don't baptize them. And yet they've had some of the greatest revivals in history. The Salvation Army went into 70 countries in 90 years. You may say today they're more of a social setup.

That's all right. But tell me what denomination hasn't backslidden apart from the Baptists. Basic commandments are there but they don't do them and they're blessed and blessed and blessed. Some of the greatest books on the Holy Spirit were written by some of the Salvation Army teachers.

Now I'm not suggesting for a minute that that gives you a license to disobey the commandments of God. Not for a moment. But I'm saying in spite of that God blesses. If God was looking for a way to condemn us maybe there'd be nobody here tonight.

Or we quote John 3 16. But quote John 3 15 really before that. That Jesus came into the world not to condemn the world. We are condemned. We're condemned by conscience. We're condemned by memory. We're condemned by our neighbors.

We're condemned by our failure. He didn't come into the world to condemn us. We're lashed with condemnation. He came into the world to redeem us. The Lord said to Moses this first time go and strike the rock and he smote the rock twice.

He says to him on the second occasion go and speak to the rock. On the first occasion he took the rod of Moses. On the second occasion he took the rod of God. The difference being what? I think the difference being this.

That he took the rod which had been used by Aaron. The rod that budded. He had to throw aside the rod on which he had depended. Oh it's hard to do that isn't it? Isn't it hard for you to give up some of your preaching habits or some of your forms of worship?

Supposing you abandon Sunday morning and saying we'll just wait on the Lord till somebody rises up to praise him or or to pray. Instead of this routine stand up sit down stand up sit down. You know the Holy Ghost couldn't come to your church till 20 to 12 on a Sunday morning could he?

I mean how could he come before you lift an offering? How how in the world could he come before the choir sings? You'd have a riot on your hands. The choir master would resign. The organist would say not to think I gave up Thursday night when I wanted to make a new dress.

And I gave up Thursday night to rehearse the choir. And here you you you just gave a meeting over to the spirit at quarter past 11. And we the choir didn't even get to sing and I didn't get to you know play that nice piece I like to show off with when the offering's been taken.

200 years ago Charles Wesley wrote to him stay thou insulted spirit stay. And two searing centuries of crash through time since he wrote that. But if he wrote it this morning he wouldn't need to change a word in it.

Stand thou insulted spirit. The second time Moses wasn't obedient he didn't do as he was told. He was to take the rod but not smite the rock. And I don't quite know why he did it. Maybe in his anger but for some reason he smote the rock and yet despite the fact he disobeyed God water just out of that rock.

And life came to the people. The question of the people is the Lord among us or not? They knew when he was amongst them because his presence was salvation. When God is on they now met his presence is salvation.

The Presence of God Brings Life and Light

When God is in the midst there is life illumination. The world isn't something you settle down to and say oh boy he's going to oh preach it. You know you see people look at the watches before you start preaching and they kind of sigh as much as they preach it.

Could you get it over you know as soon as you can. Don't lengthen the agony. It's awfully good of us even to come. Most of our neighbors don't even come to church. If you could cut it down to 20 minutes or even 15 and 10 would do it.

Really we wouldn't argue if it was five. But could you cut it down. It's a little hard to bear. Not when God is in the midst. We had a letter the other day from our boy who is a missionary in South America.

And they're having a touch of revival down there. Well I think it's revival when you get more than a thousand people praying till after midnight. Don't you think you'd be having revival in your church if you had that?

And his wife said in a letter. Their little girl that we haven't seen yet. She's two years of age. She fits through the services which are about three hours or maybe longer than that. And she's only two.

And if she misbehaves she knows what it means. That would kill us nearly wouldn't it? A three hour service without popcorn and cokes. Good night. How uncivilized can you get? If ever we get meetings as long as ballgames we'll have to stand up at the seventh inning and have a stretch.

No not when there's revival. When the spirit of God is there. Somebody says you know we've been in this meeting for three hours. And you say now don't be ridiculous. Why sure that's right. Why I didn't think the meeting had lasted more than an hour, more than half an hour.

You see when God is in the midst. When he's breathing with his life. What happens? Well there's light. And the path of the justice is a shining light that shines more and more and more into that perfect day.

The way doesn't become broader. It becomes more illuminated. The situation is not easier. It's more difficult. The burdens are not lighter, they're heavier. But the compensation is that he is in the midst.

Nobody asks the question. It's superfluous. Nobody ever asks the question when the Holy Ghost is the master of ceremonies. Nobody faces the Lord in the midst. We're too conscious that he is in the midst.

And when he's in the midst. I say there's a progressive revelation. Because of the light. There's not only progressive revelation because of light. But if God is in the midst. God is life. Jesus says I am the way the truth and the life.

And when he's in the midst. There's not only progressive revelation. But I believe that there's a perpetual reproduction. You know I think one day the Lord's going to make us realize that we're so bankrupt.

That we'll start going back to the New Testament to see what Christianity is all about. And we'll discover that it's not really legitimate just to have one preacher in the assembly. That really it's a body.

That's not denying the right of the preacher. Because there'll be preachers as long as time endures. The Word of God makes this very plain. But the preacher there's another monopoly of wisdom. And we'll discover that there are conditions laid down in the Word of God.

After all life will only work one way. And that's God's way. The church will only work one way. And that's God's way. I'm not talking about gathering a bunch of people together. I'm not talking about getting drunk with statistics.

I'm not worried how many stations you've broadcast over. That doesn't interest me at all. I don't think it's got anything to do with your spirituality. And I could prove that because all that has to happen is your income drop and you've dropped.

The Church as a Spirit-Governed Body

But oh when the Spirit of God. When he is Lord. And when he is master. And when he's in control. And when he's in the center. When he really is the head of the body. And the body is functioning as God wants that body to function.

After all a preacher only has two things to do according to the New Testament. And number one is give himself continually to prayer and the other to the study of the Word of God. That's all he has to do.

Doesn't have to visit the sick. That's the job of the elders in the church. Doesn't really have to bury the dead. Let the dead bury the dead. But I mean somebody in the church could bury them. You see when in one state what God has given us as a formula in the New Testament the church of God will function.

But it won't function any other way. It may appear to function. This is true about evangelistic crusade. As far as I'm concerned I think most of our evangelistic crusades you've got a bunch of guys chasing lions with flyswatters.

We can't kill the lions that are devouring the nation. You don't shoot them down. You don't kill them. You don't destroy them by verbal power. By if you like theological eloquence. If we could have preached revival down I think we'd have preached it down by now.

I know that God uses messages and messengers. But by the same token we're totally dependent on the Holy Ghost. Not only is God in the midst in life and God in the midst in life. But God is in the midst in love.

The Salvation Army used to sing a song years ago. Except I am moved with compassion. How dwelleth thy spirit in me. In thought word and deed burning love is my need. And I know I shall find it in thee.

A Call to Repentance and World Evangelization

Is the Lord among us? Well it's a bit early to ask the question right at this first meeting. But I think as the meeting proceeds we'll be able to answer one way or the other. He will be here overwhelmingly breaking our hearts.

Causing us to seek him in repentance. If you stand in the middle of America tonight even in your thinking and ask the question I think you'd have to say no God isn't here anymore. Yes while you do have a week off and a little quiet you might read carefully slowly prayerfully the 58th and 59th chapters in the book of Isaiah.

The church only functions for one thing and that is to bring glory to God. And she does that as she evangelizes the world and there is nothing in the world. There is nothing in the world n-o-t-h-i-n-g in capital letters there is nothing in the world more important to God than world evangelization.

That doesn't mean every man and woman in the world is going to be saved it does mean this. But in a day when there are more lost people in the world tonight than ever in human history. And the church was never more feeble.