Now don't measure your life necessarily.
If God gives you something, he gives you
it as a stewardship, whatever it is.
So you measure your life by loss and
not by gain, not by the wine drunk.
If you had a hundred guests and you
had a costly French wine, I guess you
don't drink wine, I don't, maybe you do,
I don't know, but if you drank wine
and you poured out a hundred cups of
wine and some only sipped, some they coughed
a whole lot, and one thing which you
should never do, I understand.
But if all the other people leave their
wine half drunk, you don't measure the wine
by the wine drunk, you measure it by
the wine poured forth.
You wanted them to have all that.
If they don't take it, that's their responsibility,
not yours.
By the same token, if you have a
ministry and they reject it, that's their responsibility,
not yours.
Gilmore went to Mongolia, he worked seven years
and never saw a convert.
Judson went to Burma and had about the
same reaction.
But you measure your life by loss and
not by gain, not by the wine drunk,
but by the wine poured forth.
For love's strength standeth in love's sacrifice.
I learn things very slowly, I admit that.
But I've realized, really, the crux of the
Christian life, the crux of Christian ministry, is
not brilliance, is not knowledge, is not success
as we know it, the crux of the
whole thing is sacrifice.
That's the center of God's love, sacrifice.
He loved and he gave.
God so loved the world, he gave.
Christ loved the church and he gave himself
for the church.
We love the world, we'll give ourselves for
the world.
You can't do it theoretically, it has to
be worked out.
And you know what?
When you make a sacrifice, you're the only
one that feels the pain.
Somebody else will pat you on the back
and say, well done Joe, oh that was
good Mary, I'm glad to go this.
And maybe you go with a broken heart.
God takes the very treasure out of your
hands.
And they say amen and you do all
the suffering, that's all right.
If you tell, look here, here are three
people, this is Mary and this is Jill
and this is Peggy, all right.
And so, Mary, Jill and Peggy.
Jill is in a meeting and they're singing
a hymn.
You know, draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed
Lord.
And she starts weeping and she, yes Lord
I mean that, if ever I meant it,
I mean it, draw me nearer, nearer, nearer.
And she discovers a couple of weeks after
that Peggy that she's drunk coffee with every
Tuesday morning for the last five years suddenly
says, hey don't come today, it's not convenient
and she drops her.
And then a friend at the other side
a few weeks after drops her off and
she's just by herself.
And then she wants to know why.
Dr. Tozer said to me once, Len, Christians
don't tell lies, they just go to church
and sing them.
And often we do.
I mean, can God take, I mean, am
I just standing up with a bunch, is
there a herd instinct when we come to
worship?
You know, you sing a hymn like Charles
Wesley, Jesus, lover of my soul.
There's a phrase in there that always gets
to me, thou, O Christ, art all I
want.
Is that right?
Have I got my priorities as straight as
that?
Thou, O Christ, art all I want.
Or a hymn that I think is maybe
richer than that, Beneath the Cross of Jesus,
I love that hymn, I fain would take
my stand.
And in the middle of it it says,
I ask, nor the sunshine and the sunshine
of thy face.
You mean that?
Do you mean you can stand up when
everybody else frowns at you because he's smiling
on you?
And you'd rather have his smile and everybody's
frown, and everybody's smile and his frown?
I mean, am I really singing this?
Am I really, in my heart, am I,
or am I borrowing somebody's language to give
me an emotional stir or make me feel
good?
Am I swearing my allegiance afresh to him?
I ask, nor the sunshine, than the sunshine
of thy face.
Because that's just one level of a sanctified
life.
I bring nothing of the garbage of the
world into this.
I have so long been contaminated, my body,
my mind, my spirit.
I've so long been an agent of sin,
that he says, now you make free from
sin and you have your fruit unto holiness.
Now I hear a lot about gifts of
the Spirit.
I don't hear too much about the fruit
of the Spirit.
I hear less about Romans 6, fruits unto
holiness.
I hear less of the great language of
John the Baptist when he said, bring forth
fruit, meat for repentance.
You see, we don't stress that.
We say to people, you just come up
here and weep and tell the Lord you're
sorry and say, Lord, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
I was in a meeting a while ago
where a woman came to the altar, big,
blonde, lovely lady, and she just fell down
like a sack of potatoes.
And somebody dealt with her for an hour
and could get nowhere.
And they said, Brother Ravenhill, can you help
this lady?
And as soon as I turned around, she
said, I want to tell you something, Mr.
Ravenhill.
This is the fourteenth time I've come to
an altar.
And I've never been born again the way
you talked about it this morning.
I went to a famous Bible school, and
in that Bible school, every year they had
at least two revivals, and every revival I
went to the altar, but I never got
anywhere.
Somebody just put their arm around my neck
and said, Jesus loves you.
Just say this, Lord be merciful to me.
I said, everything's alright, He loves you.
She said there was never any inward transformation.
I'm convinced that modern evangelism does not preach
being born again.
It preaches forgiveness.
It preaches heaven.
It preaches peace of mind.
If you read John Wesley's journal, and you
should, you'll discover that he says over and
over again, I went to so-and-so,
and I offered men what?
Forgiveness?
No.
Heaven?
No.
Peace of mind?
No.
Joy in the Lord?
No.
What did he offer them?
He says, I went to so-and-so,
and I offered men Christ.
His brother Charles says in one of his
hymns, my heart is full of Christ.
I've quit asking people if they're saved.
Everybody's saved these days.
From Mr. Carter to Johnny Jenkins down serving
liquor.
Graham at his crusade the other week, and
they said that many of the people who
serve at the crab tables, and gambling, they're
born again Christians.
They see it as a way of life.
Oh well, then people in massage parlors see
it as a way of life.
What's the difference?
Sin's sin?
You see, one thing about the sanctified life,
it surely demands separation from the world, the
flesh, and the devil in every way.
Look what it's going to cost.
What are you suggesting?
It costs Jesus nothing to come from heaven?
I've never heard anybody preach on the loneliness
of God.
Have you?
Or have you even thought of it?
God gave his son for 30 years.
God was lonely.
Had to pay a long while.
Many times I've crossed the Atlantic and the
boat hadn't left the dock before I was
wishing I was back.
In one sense, wishing I was back with
my wife and children, though I knew I
was going on a divine mission.
It didn't alter the fact of my loneliness,
my separation.
And God has separated from his son for
30 years.
Pretty long time.
And God asks for separation.
Don't take them out of the world, keep
them from the evil one.
John says, if a man loved the world,
the love of a father is in him.
Now you've got saved movie stars, you've got
saved this, saved the others.
Well, where in God's name is the separation?
Come out and touch not the unclean thing.
Well, then somebody says, you're trying to be
a goody-goody.
Well, I'd rather be a goody-goody than
a rotty-rotty, wouldn't you?
I mean, after all, if we're going in
for the spiritual life, let's aim for the
highest.
Who wants to be?
I never wanted to be the lowest in
class at school, did you?
Maybe you were there, you didn't want to
be there, you struggled and strove and had
some mental sweat and effort.
God only had one standard.
He says, the very God of peace sanctify
you.
Supposing I change the accent and say, sanctify
you.
See, we've got strange ideas of saints.
You know, some people say, you know, I've
been filled with the Spirit so long and
walking with God.
And one day they wake up and say,
oh, oh, what's this on my pillow?
Oh, my halo, it's come at last.
I thought it would be here one morning
when I woke up.
You try and put your dress on, it
won't fit.
Say, oh, my wings are sprouting.
My, I'm going to be an angel or
a saint before long.
I have ideas of saints that are so
strange.
Some of the greatest saints I know are
the poorest.
Some of the greatest saints I know are
the richest.
Some of the greatest saints I know are
ignorant.
Some of the greatest saints I know are
just geniuses.
I don't rate people according to all these
little satellite things that we have, you know.
As though you had a, where's my, my
rubber, my eraser.
Here's a man and let's say he is
a saint, he's a saint and I know
some saints.
Now, this area here, all these satellites here
are what usually we, we, we fix people
in our mind.
This people, man's extremely wealthy.
This man's a genius.
This man is a famous author.
This man is something else.
You know, that's, that's all pure nonsense.
I want to know about the man's character.
You see, that's all God is after in
your life.
That's why I said you can be sanctified,
holy.
It's your character is after.
Now, now, charisma is all right, but charisma
without character equals zero, nothing.
You wouldn't get me go five yards to
hear some of the modern charismatic men.
Not when they're living with another man's wife.
Or at least they've dumped the wife and
living with another woman.
I can give you a list of a
whole bunch of them if you like.
I'm not interested.
I don't want to go hear a religious
philosopher who spins a lot of yarns and
gets me excited.
And then you say, no, that's not his
wife.
I mean, no adultery, but they're incompatible.
Well, isn't that what the sanctified life is
all about?
Look, you say, Miss Redding, can you tell
me what really, give me a definition of
really being filled with the spirit.
What is the spiritual life?
Well, number one, you're easy to live with.
No amens, but it's still true.
Maybe that guy heard me walking down the
field there, but anyhow.
Isn't that the proof of it?
Now ask my sweetheart if I'm easy to
live with.
If I'm not, she'll tell you.
And if my children were not walking with
God, I would not want to rescue other
people's children from hell.
If mine were not right.
The whole rottenness in the nation is due
to this fact that the daddy and mummy
in the home are not sanctified, and the
home is not sanctified, and therefore corruption is
spread.
God is wanting sanctified fathers and mothers.
You see, the idea to many people is
this.
Look, here we are, we're all together.
Let's say this here, this is the, these
are the steps.
Going where?
Well, let's put it this way.
This is the upper room.
All right?
Here are the men.
There are about 120 in the upper room.
Now, with all the knowledge you have, tell
me where six of them went.
And when you've told me about six of
them, where did the other 114 go?
One, one, four.
Did they all become apostles?
Did they all become evangelists?
Did they all become teachers?
Did they even all speak in tongues?
Did they all do miracles?
But you'll hear from Tom Dicker Harry telling
you in some meeting, praise God, you can
be, I went to a banquet in New
York, and the preacher says, Brother Abel's here,
we're going to have a great meeting.
I'm sure he'll preach on this or the
other.
And he said, I want you to know
this.
Listen, brother, you can go out of here
another Wesley.
You can go out of here another Finney.
You can go out of here another somebody.
Boy, he was handing, you know, five deck
of crowns out before we ever started preaching.
I said it was no good preaching now.
They've all got a crown.
Send them home.
But this is what you can be.
In 30 minutes or 50 minutes of preaching,
you can be this, that and the other.
That's pure nonsense.
Everybody in the upper room did not become
a superman spiritually.
Well, if you disagree, prove it.
Tell me where they went.
You can tell me about Peter and John
and one or two others, and after that
you're finished.
You can't even tell me where the 12
went.
Never mind the rest of the bunch.
You say, well, can you give me an
answer?
Yeah, I just found it about two weeks
ago.
I found it about two weeks ago.
Aren't I dumb?
You found this years ago maybe.
Because there was a fellow, a very wonderful
young man, only young.
And his name was T-I-N-O
-T-H-Y.
A remarkable young man.
Do you know what Bible school he went
to?
Do you remember what Paul says about him?
He says, I remember the unfeigned faith, in
other words, the pure faith which is in
thee, which dwelt first in what?
Thy grandmother who?
Lois.
All right, G.
I don't mean the thousand dollars.
That G is, thy grandmother Lois, and thy
M, I'll just spell Eunice.
E-U-N-I-C-E.
It means you're nice.
Eunice.
So he says, the reason you're the young
man you are is the godliness that was
in your mother which has become spilled over.
You see, so often we say, listen, remember
this, whatsoever you sow you reap.
But we always give it a rotten connotation.
Don't we?
Ooh, if you do that bad thing, it'll
come back worse than ever.
Well, that is what Jesus said.
Whatsoever a man soweth, if you sow good,
good will come back.
Used to sing a hymn in Sunday school
in England, sow truth if thou the truth
would reap.
You don't put carrot seeds in the ground
and expect cabbages to come.
You put one little seed in the ground
and before long it's a stalk and then
you get a long, long ear of corn.
You didn't put one seed expecting one seed
to come back.
That would be nonsense.
You expect at least, the very minimum production
in your life and mine is what?
Thirtyfold.
And sixty, and eighty, or a hundred.
No twenties, no tens.
You get right up there with what the
Lord expects.
The very minimum is thirty percent anyhow.
But you see, this young man had so
listened to his mother Eunice and maybe he'd
slip round the corner like I used to
to my granny who sat in a corner
by the chimney and she rocked and swayed
and she was a real rock and roller
and she used to sing, take time to
be holy, speak off with thy Lord.
All trust and obey.
She was like a phonograph, you know.
The old phonographs only had two hymns, one
on each side and granny turned it over
every day and I'd sneak in the back
of the house and I'd sit and listen
to her.
She built a tabernacle.
She had one of those enormous skirts, you
know, aprons, you remember those great big coloured
aprons and she'd take it and I don't
know, she threw it over her head and
then she used to get her arms in
like this and she shut everything up and
dear old Annie, her name was Annie, and
my dear old granny Annie, she would sit
in a chair and rock and for hours
she'd sing, take time to be holy or
some of those other great hymns.
The influence of my grandmother came on my
mother.
The influence of my mother came on me.
My daddy was a hellfire preacher.
He wasn't an ordained preacher but he was
a hellfire preacher and I thank God for
my daddy but my mother's life influenced me
more than my father's life.
The mother has more time in the home.
The husband goes in and out.
My wife had a profound influence on our
three boys.
I'd be away six months at a time,
sometimes ten months, sometimes, well, at least as
long as ten months but her influence was
so great on the family.
So again, God isn't going to make you
a superstar because you're filled with the spirit.
Maybe he's going to drive you off here
somewhere.
You might become the wife of a farmer
or some other thing.
It doesn't alter the fact you need a
holy life.
It doesn't mean your life will be ineffective.
We're to be sanctified and meet for the
Master's use if that's the word of God
said.
But let's remember this, that this sanctified life,
we get confused about it because you see
people when you talk about holiness of life,
they think, they say, well, watch, you know,
you can't be faultless.
Well, maybe you can't but on the other
hand you can cure a lot of faults
you have.
I went to a church.
I inherited a church.
There was a woman who claimed to be
the most spiritual woman in the church.
She came in before I was there, before
the previous pastor was there and when I
was there, she came in at 20 minutes
past 11 on the Lord's Day morning, Sabbath
morning, just as I was getting up to
preach.
She's a big fat lump of a woman
and she'd come down the aisle and we
had chairs there, movable chairs, and she never
sat on the thing.
She pushed it over somehow and she disrupted
every meeting.
Somebody says they've talked to her and she
won't answer it.
I said, next Sunday morning, lock the doors.
As soon as we stand up and sing
the hymn before I preach, lock the doors.
They did.
When we went down to sanctification, it flipped
a bit.
She was quite angry.
She said, the doors were locked.
I said, sure, I ordered them locked.
You ordered them locked, why?
I said, it's the only way to teach
you a lesson.
You've been asked to come at the right
time.
You live by yourself.
You only live up the hill.
You don't have to take a bus.
It's a convenience.
You're lazy.
And do you know what?
It's going to be locked next Sunday when
you come, and the Sunday after if you
don't put things straight.
It was merely a habit.
Now, there are some habits that we can
correct.
There are some that we can't.
Let's say about the sanctified life.
Look, it is spiritual maturity.
That's what it is.
And spiritual maturity is, number one, it is
a crisis and it is a process.
Now, I outlined for you from the word
of God to substantiate my argument.
I outlined the beginning of this epistle to
the Thessalonians.
All these qualifications they had, elective of God
and much assurance and missionary hearted and having
joy in the Holy Ghost and suffering affliction.
And yet, despite all those amazing qualifications which
would make them saints in our eyes, the
Apostle says, I'm still praying the very God
of peace sanctify you wholly.
And to show it's not possible, impossible, in
the next verse he says, faithful is he
that calleth you who also will do it.
Now, so sanctification is a crisis after a
born again experience.
You see, the weakness of modern interpretation of
Pentecost is this, that their accent is power.
With the holiness people, it is purity.
They all need to come together for sure.
But when Peter goes to the house of,
pardon me, when Peter goes to Jerusalem, he's
reporting about the working of God, the Spirit
of God came on the Jews on the
day of Pentecost, it came on the Gentiles
in the house of Cornelius.
And Peter goes to Jerusalem to report to
the big shots there who were in authority,
and he says, let me tell you what
happened about the house of Cornelius.
Acts 15, 8 and 9 is the text,
verses 8 and 9.
Acts 15, verses 8 and 9.
And he said, and God who knoweth the
heart, and he knows yours and mine the
same, God who knoweth the heart, bear them,
that he means in the house of Cornelius,
bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost,
even as he did unto us.
And everybody says, well then they spoke in
tongues.
That's not what he's arguing about.
He put no difference, he says, God who
knoweth the heart, bear them witness there, in
their room, just what he did in the
upper room.
God who knoweth the heart, bear them witness,
giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he
did to us in the upper room, and
put no difference between us and them.
Purifying their hearts by faith.
You don't find Peter backsliding after Pentecost.
His heart was pure.
Now people say, let me condense it this
way, I have five minutes to go, and
I need another fifteen, but anyhow.
I was in a certain meeting not long
ago, and a man came in a beautiful,
beautiful Cadillac, he was leaving the meeting, and
a fellow said to me, you see that
man leaving just now?
I said yes.
Do you know a few years ago, he
ran round the town with women, he was
a drunkard, he beat his wife, he gambled,
he smoked, he drank, he did everything, and
then God marvelously saved him.
Somebody said to his wife, it must be
very different living in your house now with
your husband.
He isn't out till two in the morning,
he isn't chasing women, drinking, using his money
on gambling, smoking, doing this, doing that, doing
the other.
Isn't it wonderful?
The woman paused for a moment and said,
let me put it this way, his habits
have changed, but his disposition hasn't.
Now, sanctification changes the disposition.
Justification is legal, it changes my standing with
God.
Adoption changes my relationship, I'm brought into his
family.
Regeneration works on my heart.
Sanctification again, you see, we've separated them unfortunately,
they're two sides of the same coin.
The argument of the holiness people is that
the children of Israel were in Egypt, when
they were in Egypt.
Look, this is a fantastic thing.
Listen, I only discovered this about two weeks
ago.
It hit me just, as we say, like
a two by four.
When the children of Israel were in Egypt,
poor, lonely, despised, forgotten people.
Here they were in Egypt.
For argument, let's make it this way.
Here's Egypt.
Here's a promised land God wants them to
have.
They were in Egypt for 400 years, and
yet God never gave them a tabernacle.
He never gave them a priest.
He never gave them a revelation.
God wasn't going to set up his tabernacle
in lousy, filthy, dirty, immoral Egypt.
Come out and be separate.
And yet somehow we think that we can
just ask God to baptize us with the
Spirit, make me a missionary, when I'm plagued
inside with uncleanness, with vile temper, with secret
lust, with ambition, with pride, with anger.
God doesn't use polluted things.
See, so many people can't fight the good
fight of faith.
We don't wrestle against principalities because we're wrestling
with problems inside all the time, that we
should have got rid of years ago.
They had to come out of Egypt, and
when they got out of Egypt, God said,
now look, I'll tell you what, I'll give
you a tabernacle, I'll give you a priesthood,
I'll give you the message of redemption, but
it didn't give them a thing for 400
years.
That must have been a heartbreak.
Now look, everybody here, whether I teach or
somebody else, if you all sat under the
same teaching for the next four years, you
won't be all as mature in four years,
because some of you don't have any ears,
so you can't hear.
Some of you have a ear, but you've
got a stubbornness.