Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Agony
by Leonard Ravenhill.
We have never seen the agonizing death of a man on the cross. Immediately when the man is nailed to the cross, his lost all of his rights. And if you get nailed to the cross, you’ll loose all of yours too. Paul says don’t trouble me! I’m grounded, I bear the marks of a slave, and I’m a bondslave of Jesus Christ. I have no will of my own; I have no right of my own. There’s an old hymn established on the 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 ransomed powers, all my thoughts and words and doings. All my days and all my hours…
This man is no professional creature, preaching is not a profession, it’s a passion! If a man can’t preach with passion, he shouldn’t preach at all! There’s no breath of professionalism anywhere in the ministry of Paul and thank God there’s no breath of commercialism either. Paul has no fear, you know what he did? I wish to God some of you fellows would do it. You know what he once did? He said, “I bow my knees to the Father.” And because he bowed the knees to the Father, he never bowed the knees to anybody else, neither demons, politicians are kings. He stood there, regal. “I bear in my body the marks of Jesus.”
In America right now, I dare to say this before God, I believe we have hundreds of millions of gospel cassettes, and million of gospel books, and hundreds of Bible schools, and we have hundreds of seminars, we have people memorizing scriptures, and we have 5,000 radio stations who everyday give some part of the scripture, and yet with all these stuff to feed on, Dear God! Where are we, we’ve got all these stuff to feed on, 95% of us are spiritual cripples, spiritual infants, spiritual babes, children.
Full of self-pity, self-interest, self-seeking, self-concern, me first, and some people love God because He gives. They’ve gotten into this wretched prosperity stuff. Paul’s very clear, doesn’t he say, writing to Timothy that, there will come a day when people will think that “gain is godliness”? Some of God’s choicest saints don’t even have a shirt to change. Peter said in his day, that some will make merchandise of you. That can be true more in the day that we are living. Somebody said to a friend of mine recently who might be doing some buildings for God, he said, listen, can I give you a word of advice, “Don’t build anything that will embarrass you in a few years. That’s a very good point.
I see God’s money going to stately buildings, swimming pools, and tennis courts and I want to vomit! With the world starving, with the mission field needing money, Paul never glamorized the Gospel, it’s a very gory Gospel, it’s a bloody gospel, it’s a sacrificial gospel! I believe the essence of Christianity is sacrifice, not success, Sacrifice! The most precious thing we ever handle is the human soul. There is only one way to heaven, there are a million ways to hell! What do you do to go to hell? Nothing! Just do nothing, that’s all! You don’t have to blaspheme the Name of Jesus, you don’t have to be an adulterer, just close your arms. For the greatest sin in the world is not adultery, the greatest sin in the world is: “I can manage my life with God.” That’s the greatest sin.
There is only one way to heaven, there are a million ways to hell! Just close your arms. For the greatest sin in the world is not adultery, the greatest sin in the world is: “I can manage my life without God.” That’s the greatest sin.
You say sometimes I wonder why God doesn’t burden me! You know why, because He can’t trust you, that’s why? You are not strong enough to carry the burden. A lot of you here this morning, you don’t need more light, this will only make it worse for you at the judgment. What you need is more obedience, so of them known for years what you should, and you hold back.
You remember some of those awesome words Jesus said to the disciples, “I have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them!” I say reverently to Almighty God, don’t say that to me at the Judgment seat! Don’t let me stand before John Wesley and Finney and all the saints of the ages and say, I have many things to tell you, but you are so preoccupied with this or with that, I couldn’t get through to you. And if I could, you weren’t mature enough to handle it? Five minutes inside of eternity I mean every one of us would of wish that we sacrificed more, prayed more, loved more, sweated more, grieved more, wept more…
95% of Christians in our nation are weak, God can’t trust them with vision, God can’t trust you with burden. You can’t trust children with jewels. You can’t tust them with something that needs bravery, they’re too timid. You can’t trust them with a burden, you’ll break them. (They can’t handle it!)
Five minutes inside of eternity I mean every one of us would of wish that we sacrificed more, prayed more, loved more, sweated more, grieved more, wept more…
