Are You Willing - Part 5 — Leonard Ravenhill

Gethsemane and the Cup of Iniquity

Well, I hesitated. Drink it. And as he handed me that cup of dirty tea, my mind went 2 ,000 miles away from the town I was in to a place called Gethsemane. 2 ,000 miles away, 2 ,000 years back. And the father gave a cup of all the dregs of impurity and wickedness in it.

And he didn't give it to Gabriel. He didn't give it to Michael the Archangel. He gave it to his son. This is what he's come to do. He's come to consume iniquity. And he's going to do it in the garden of Gethsemane by himself when everybody's betrayed him and his nerves are down and he can hear the enemy coming.

Unbelief Despite the Works of Christ

And he's thinking of all the years. He's demonstrated his power as the son of God. He's walked on the water. He's raised the dead. He's cleansed the leper. He's put insane people. And they didn't believe on him.

So what's the difference today? Do we believe on him? Remember, there wasn't one of the twelve disciples that ever had a Bible. Not even the apostle Paul had one. You know, don't boast too much about your Bible knowledge.

It's going to face us at the judgment seat. I wonder sometimes, I don't have a big library, I have a few nice books. I was handling one yesterday and I thought, will these books rise up in judgment against me?

The Cost of the Cross and True Discipleship

You see, we're looking, I say again with all my heart, we're looking for a painless Pentecost. We want to invest a dime and get a million dollars back. Can you drink of the cup? So they drank and they were crucified.

Today it's considered sadistic if you say people have to take up their cross even. Don't tell young people about the cross, they'll be discouraged. Well, are you suggesting Jesus wasn't smart? If you're going to be my disciple, kiss the world goodbye.

You see, when people are born again these days, they don't get separated from the world. Most likely their pastor is the most worldly guy that is around. But if you're going to get what he wants to give, if you're going to get the real true baptism of the Spirit, you have to drink of that cup.

They said we're able. And he said you shall drink indeed of my cup and be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized with. But to sit on my right and on my left, it's not mine to give. The Father's going to do that.

Travail, Loneliness, and David Livingstone's Sacrifice

But verse 24 says when the ten, the other ten disciples were around listening, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren. Now he rubs their noses in the dust. You're looking to sit on my right hand and my left in my kingdom?

He could have said aren't you prepared to go, are you prepared to go through hell to get there? You can't show me a revival in history that hasn't been born of travail and pain and loneliness and dark weary nights.

As I read this I thought again today of seeing, there's a model up in Scotland, nine miles out of Glasgow, there's a great big, big, big house. It's a national memorial to David, I was going to say David Brennan, no.

What was his name? David Livingstone. And it shows the room where he died, where for years and years he prayed. It's like some of those houses in India that just got bamboo and then leaves woven in. And there he is kneeling over a bed if you can call it that, two bamboo rods and with some leaves on, and a candle flickering, there's an automatic electric candle flickering there.

And they said every night he would kneel at that bed and you would hear him crying with his hands raised. God, when will the wound of this world's sin be healed? He fought the Portuguese slave traders.

He did many, many marvellous things. Why? Because he had a Gethsemane of his own. His precious wife died, he buried her in the jungle. Then the baby that she born died, he buried the child at the side of its mother.

Another child he had died, he buried that. And the record I have said that he said this, as he laid them to rest, and he buried them of course the Christian way, said they'd die and come back in the resurrection.

You see, the reason he brought his wife, he married the daughter of Moffat, the great missionary. Mary Moffat. She kept writing and saying, David, why don't you let me come over there? People say that you don't care, you don't love me.

People say you got tired of me. People say this, say that. So finally she came. At least she brought one child, another one was born afterwards. What did he get? He told her not to come because they didn't have the drugs that we have today, the quinine and all kinds of stuff.

She got malaria. And as he pointed the finger down, he said, Mary, darling, Mary, people will say you were killed with malaria. No, no, no such thing he said. You were killed by the cruel tongues of people in Scotland that drove you out of your native home and sent you here.

But that grief didn't change his zeal for God. It added fuel to the fire. The devil is trying to rob me, the devil is trying to hinder me. And he worked with greater zeal. He prayed more than ever he prayed.

Revival Requires Travail and Spiritual Burden

And they said night after night his voice would echo through the forest. So God, when will the wound of this world of sin be healed? Dear God, all our past are concerned about is having one or two members.

Getting another bus to bring the people in. There can be no revival again, I say, without travail. I want my son to sit on the right hand. Well, listen, here is his answer. Verse 24. When the ten heard it they were moved with indignation against the two brethren.

Greatness Through Servanthood in God's Kingdom

Jesus called unto them and said, Know ye not that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them and a great exercise authority upon them? But it shall not be so among you. Whosoever will be the greatest among you, let him be your minister.

And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. That's the switch, isn't it? They want him to sit on the right hand. He says, well, the way into my kingdom, if you want to go up, you go down.

Exalt yourself, I'll abase you. Be abased and I'll exalt you. Save your life, you'll lose it. Lose your life, you'll save it. It's reverse logic. Verse 27. Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.

Christ's Ministry, Baptism, and the Cross

Even as a son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give his life. Not to give his theology. Not to declare, I have a mandate from the Father to instruct you. He gave them all he had.

He gave them the Sermon on the Mount. He gave them evidence that they had dominion over sin and death and disease and devils and everything. And yet they were unbelieving. I say the one thing is reverting to the other thing again.

I'm straightened. I'm tied up. I can't do anything yet. That's what he said in Luke 12 there. I have no release. I've a baptism to be baptized with. Before that word of John that startled you when he said when he comes he'll baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire.

But he didn't do that. Not immediately. He says I've got to go through the Father's will and the Father's will is Gethsemane. The Father's will is the cross. The Father's will is I go down into the depths and I leave captivity.