The Ark Of God by Leonard Ravenhill

- Samuel six we read from verse one again David gathered together all the chosen men of Israel thirty thousand and David arose and went with all the people that were with him from Bailey of Judah to bring up from thence the Ark of God whose name is called by the name of the Lord of Hosts that dwelleth between the cherubims and they set the Ark of God upon a new cart and brought it out of the house of abinadab that was in Gibeah and also under and a high Oh Ohio that's not a state that's the name of a man the center of Bernard AB drave the new cart and they brought it out of the house of abinadab which was at Gibeah accompanying the Ark of God and Ohio went before the Ark and David in all the house of Israel played before the Lord Lord on all instruments manner of instruments made a third wood even on half's and sulfurous on timbrels on comets and cymbals and when they came to make on threshing floor those are put forth his hand to the Ark of God and took hold of it for the oxen shook it and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Rosa and God smote him therefore his error and there he died by the Ark of garden let's look a minute here in the 25th chapter of Exodus actually this chapter 25 remember the beginning of this chapter is where the Lord is selecting he's going to do what I think must have been very strange to Israel they had never had any covering in the sense of a tabernacle they'd been nomads they'd had no priests they doubt the heavens for the sealing of their church if you like and now suddenly instead of X been enlarged they're contracted to a small space that that's called as been called again the Tabernacle in the wilderness and God gives specific instructions to this amazing man Moses about the about the building it's it's very interesting that he had no choice in this he obeyed every commandment God gave to him the abnormal choice in the colors of the thing anymore than Nora had a choice of what kind of a rainbow he wanted they ever wondered what kind of a rainbow he might have chosen if the Lord said you choose the colors it would have been a mess if it asked me I wouldn't know the colors but he just did as he was commanded and it says in verse 8 of the twenty-fifth chapter of Exodus let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them according to all that I show thee after the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern and the pattern of all the instruments thereof even so shall he make it okay come down to verse 17 that shall make a mercy see two pure gold two cubits and a half shalt be the length thereof and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof and thou shalt make two cherubims of gold of beaten work shalt thou make them in the two ends of the mercy seat and make one cherub on one end and the other cherub on the other even of the nurse's each other you make the cherubims on the two ends thereof and the cherubim shalt stretch forth their wings on high covering the mercy seat with their wings and their faces shall look one to another towards the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherub cherubims be and now shall put the mercy seat above upon the ark and in the ark thou shall put the testimony that I shall give the and there will I meet with thee now that's the first piece of furniture mentioned as regards the tabernacle it was roughly fifty four inches long they saw Ark it was a three feet high I'm three feet wide and it was a visible presence of an invisible power it was a kind of an earthly resting place where God put his power between those awesome gentlemen remember how often the separately the psalmist cries all thou that dwellest between the cherubim shine forth Psalm 80 particularly before ephraim and manasseh stir up thy strength and come and save us if you talk about the ark usually people think you mean they aren't well you know the children play with and harm they've little animals and they are they going to Noah's Ark well that was an ark all right how do you remember another knock beside that well it was a little thing a woman made to put a baby and she made an ark of bulrushes and further you have this Ark now they Ark actually the word really means if you get right to the bottom it it means a place to preserve something intact he has complete coverage you know I've said so often that faith does three things it reckons it risks and it rests I think the mother of Moses must have been that well she sure was a wonderful woman and she put that baby in that little Ark and push it out onto the waters of the Nile I think it's a horrible risk how did you know crocodile would indeed it before she had hardly turned her back or the lid could have blown off and the Sun might have Scotch the baby crisp or it could have been carried away on the flood or somebody could have stole it they see when you get a word from God you're not gonna be shaken by the Philistines or anybody else outside God had told her what to do and she obeyed and again that that's the key that's the Anchorage of spiritual success spiritual maturity is obedience to obey is better than sacrifice remember King Saul filled the whole of that that valley with Beast and yet he retained a few of the price stock and when Samuel came up to him and spoke to him he said well I've done as you said and the little sheep gave the story away not wonderful what little animals have taken the important parts in the Bible isn't it and Samuel said if you've done what you said you've done what meaneth this bleating of the sheep and the lowing of the oxen which I here to obey is better than sacrifice there is no substitute for obedience no not there not now not ever again trust and obey there's no other way there's no other outlet you either do as God says all right there be even to shrink you begin to wither now here is the Ark and the measurements are given to us verse 22 says there will I meet with thee and that was a supreme desire of God this is supreme desire of God today that when we come together we meet with him as I usually ask people when somewhere in a meeting did you come here or what did you come here tonight to meet God or did you come to hear a sermon about him I thought with somebody the day of internationally-known figure who said you know I'm realizing how little I know of God and I had offered somebody a sermon that there's the most profound thing I've ever heard and this person said I know I feel as I don't want to preach anymore I said well that's how I felt when I when I have the the debts that this man has talking about Jesus laying his glory by and being wrapped in our clay Oh God pity us we're so commercialized we're so regulated by circumstances we get up with the clock the clock runs our lives that we lose sight of eternity we lose sight of the wonder of God's salvation and the chief concern is about the whole of the building of this marvelous if you weren't kind of kind of a private area that was to be rocked often and again when you think of all the linen that was put round and every thread billions of them were put in there by hand rather staggering isn't it and then there's to be a a place a holy place and then not only a holy place but the Holy of Holies and this Ark was poop not in the holy place it's but in the Holy of Holies and it has the chief place in the Holy of Holies and inside of it you'll have Li the rod that budded and you you have a sample of the manor that fell from heaven and it didn't get worms in it either and and there you have the tables of stone these this testimony of God has to be preserved and the Ark is is an abiding place for God on earth that is he manifests himself there let's let's skip over a minute here I am reading the first book of Samuel and chapter 5 sorry we can't go through the whole thing this is a fantastic study I'm gonna do it myself but I couldn't do it tonight because it will take up too much time but if you want to find a my let's give me a man use account of this Ark and God's desire and the way it moved around you'd have to go to the first book go to the first book of Chronicles and chapters 12 to 16 and you'll find a very marvelous account of the moving of that wonderful arc and then of course you'd have to read Psalm 68 and Psalm 101 which which also deal with him and saw this southern Psalm 24 you see this is some little bit of furniture that's tucked away in a corner that has no meeting meaning it's the abiding place if you like it's the seat it's a dwelling place you have the Ark and then on the on the top of the arcuate you'll have a mercy seat the salvation army never used to talk about coming to the altar they used to sing I remember that years ago 6070 years ago in the army used to sing come to the mercy seat fervently kneel here bring your wounded heart here tell your anguish earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal there's a mercy seat a blood sprinkled mercy see somebody afterwards remove that lid and looked inside and because they did they they got into serious trouble now if you read those songs again 68 and 101 and Psalm 24 you'll find this thing grows immensely immensely interesting okay we're now in the first book of Samuel chapter 5 the Philistines took the Ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod when the Philistines took the Ark of God they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon now when they have asked God rose early in the morning the whole day cannot fall upon his face on the earth before the Ark of God and they took Dagon and sent him on his place again and there rose early in the morning and he was falling on his face and his head in his hands and bow enough now you see here the Peru of toying or playing with holy things there's a verse I didn't look at but that it talks about the iniquity of holy things now that's that's something to really turn over isn't it how in the world can you have the iniquity of holy things these people have captured the Ark of God they thought it would do them good instead it did evil they put it on the side of their God this monstrous God Dagan with with the upper part of his body was a man and the lower part of fish something like a mermaid we would say today and there he stood in a temple where people worshipped him and as soon as they put the Ark of God there without anybody doing a thing big old Dagan fell down on his face so they stood him up again and they went in next morning he was worse off he not only fell down his hands had broken off his feet was broken off just because of God's presence they've being there now now see what happened further in the chapter when they rose early in the morning behold Aegon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the Ark of the Lord and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold only the stump of Dagon was left there for night of the priests of Dagon or any that came into the dragon's house dead trade on the threshold of Dagon to this day you see just that one visitation that one movement of God terrified them so in a sense digging out to go out of business verse six the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them have asked God and he destroyed them and smote them with em ROVs and Ashdod and the Colts coasts thereof and when a man NEBOSH God saw that it was so they said the Ark of God that Israel shall not abide with us for his hand is sore upon us and upon daga now God going to the end of the eighth verse and they carried the Ark of God the God of Israel that they carried the ark of the God of Israel of liver and it was so after they're covered it out that the hand of the Lord is against the city now here you are again you see the the pedal what I want to emphasize two things I want to emphasize the pebble of having these holy things and misusing them and yet the pebble is obviously the opposite to the to the power remember the tune of Israel one of the marvelous escapades they walk around the city seven times what did they do they carried the Ark of God so then that was the very presence of God can you imagine people on the walls looking down and say well for these lunatics I mean what are they doing they were not allowed to speak that must have been tough on some of them they weren't allowed to speak they walk around in silence they carried the ark what have they got there is that a coffin what is it what's a casket you see they were not gonna loud to mount it when Moses was shearing out some of the property of Israel he gave various things to various people but the sons oh I've forgotten his name I thought I think it was his sons were not allowed to have any cattle or any of the possessions they were separated to carrying the Ark of God no the pedal is this I think I think it to me it comes home with great force well let me go to the other scripture where did we read a bit earlier I forgotten that chapter ii samuel and thus upon me chapter 6 okay sing samuel 6 and verse 6 when they came to make homes threshing-floor use are put forth his hand to the arc of God and took hold of it and the oxen shook it and the anger of the Lord was kindled against it why now they'd made a new cat for it God said it never had to be on a car God said it out tough for gold rings one on each corner and put a staff through it and that may not to carry this thing but they've made a new Cup you know the Jews then I don't know about today they love new things remember what Samson said if you fastened me with seven new ropes then I shall be like other men no then I should be weak like other men rather insulting to us isn't it remember it later when Jesus died they put him in a new tomb when Jesus rolled an ass he rolled one that nobody had broken in it was entirely new they loved new things and these people thought they were doing God a favor by you know modernizing this thing I mean why carry the thing on your shoulders anyhow when oxen couldn't do it now I don't know what happened to these ups and you know it says that when they came to the threshing floor of user maybe they thought it was lunchtime you know they could smell massive stuff we eat and hmm right now they're threshing some new weeds hmm we should stay and have something and maybe it's a very action of the those those creatures that strayed the ark now it isn't it isn't it really awesome they didn't decide to painted another color they didn't decide to put a second deck on it they didn't disfigure it in any way the men didn't go in front of it and start blaspheming the man somehow thought he knew got it all look they are keys going to topple over oh I'll hold it somebody once asked mr. Spurgeon if he would join a society for the defense of the Bible and he said you don't usually walk before a lion with a sword why do you need to defend the Bible all this man did was put his hand up to stay the ark and immediately he was smitten what do you think we're doing with the gospel today dressing it up painting it up somebody told me this week of a Christian group a rock band the Christian Christian rock man if anything how whatever they are they go around and now they've got sequins on their coats well why not Johnny Cash has them and all the other guys have them I mean if the world can have them cut wig glitter I mean if we've no other glittery measure I'll stick it on the outside if you're not on the inside anyhow and we tried to study the Ark of God we're trying to put some improvement on the ark you've got we try to do that I think that I think with the translations we make of the Word of God we try and make sure those words just a little bit more easy as I said to some preachers I preached with this week that then if we go back and maybe mentioned in here before if we go back to a Bible language and and call sin what it really is instead of saying somebody you say that girls are you say no no she's a call girl now you say about a dirty filthy sodomite I'm a nice not a sodomite he's just gay there's nobody wicked that just weak there's no iniquity it's just infirmity no backsliders anymore that's a dirty hood a lot of people have a fellowship but hmm backsliders you don't use that word oh how smoothly I remember reading a story of mr. Whitfield where he was particularly angry one day I'd like to have heard Whitfield I think it had been right up my alley he got 90 furious about the possessions the devil had he was always running the church to pull down strongholds it was always seeing the enemy doing his either work getting people to submit to him and one day he said I'm going to shoot the arrows of God into your hearts and he said he mentioned an arrow and he pulled the outer back like this and the congregation ducks you know and it was uh that's the way to preach if you can get them to do that yeah at least you've got them halfway down to the ground and maybe when they get them halfway down it and push them the other half but the anger of the Lord was kindled against this man and not only snorting but killed him come on in God's name what are we doing with the gospel today hmm isn't it getting more emasculated isn't it getting more hollywood-style don't you miss the absence and the glory of God why they got the they got the they got the very presence of God inside and that's all we need there's an old hymn that says God's presence and his very self an essence all defined I'll ask you again have asked me before when did you last go out of the sanctuary tiptoe because God had revealed his holiness in His Majesty we got very much as the same way we came in go out and say hey I like it dresser someone like that in Sears myself we've kind of got it well I like some other trivial thing that's got nothing to do with eternity and nothing to do with God oh my not as in verse five now go back a minute here David and all the house of Israel played before the Lord and all instruments made of fur would even halves and psalteries and timbrels and Coronets and other symbols now that there's his ecstasy now come down to verse nine this same David it was afraid of the Lord that day and he said house of the Ark of the Lord come to me that's a big switch he's excited they have a band music everything that I've been a wave of the time and then suddenly God intervenes and suddenly his own emotional life does a somersault he realizes what an awful God he serves what a God of Majesty what a God of glory one minute everybody's excited the next me will not be something it'd be like going into the that experience you know when Ananias and Sapphira went to church that must have been a great morning I would have enjoyed that I think I said the Lord why do why did you stop with two hypocrites I'm sure half the corrugation you could have wiped them out at the same time it would have been more spectacular but God doesn't do it that way but what I'm trying to say ruffer's and tumbled as it may be because I've had such a hectic day today but the anger of God was kindled for a very simple thing he did not take a hammer and break the ark he didn't say this old piece of furniture we can do without do you know the ark is the only thing that was taken out of the original tabernacle and went into the temple of the Most High God you know afterwards in the book of the revelation it says they've preserved the testimony of God in an ark our scholars will tell you that the ark was destroyed in the second invasion and the burning of Babylon and what have you got that maybe it was and yet God's presence and that's what it matters if even the cage we're having a wooden box here what it's telling us is that God makes their place his habitation now as I said to somebody today this is this is awesome this is breathtaking when you say well I'd like to go and I wish we had a box and you can say God's presence is there he's there in this wholeness is that in His Majesty is there it is brought to be careful how you handle this thing well we don't need a box we don't need a presence right because it says you're the habitation of God there's only so much of God's holiness in this meeting as you and I feel with a spirit of the Holy Spirit of God the pure Spirit of God Edom dwell in temples mayor you could make him a thousand Crystal Palace's like they've done on the west coast there so what you can't sanctify a building and in a New Testament sense they didn't do that why even Solomon said and I guess he built the most expensive building ever made money life he used gold to walk on it use gold on the walls he he was a most extravagant building ever made he was gold more easily than we used cement and he built the altar and he had all the priests in total correct display there and yet when you made this intercession to God he says look mmm I put up this building I've done everything according to your commandment we've even done an altar we even got a sacrifice on the altar now what's missing nothing except the fire of God what good is a house that I build it if God's presence isn't there what's the good of making a showpiece and say we've got the best crime we've got the most brilliant preacher we've got this one so what in God's name does it matter don't you think we're putting our hands on so many things these days you've got to start this way and finish that way and do something it we're getting so mechanical since then when did the gospel need trimming up I would have to go to a meeting this week there's a five-piece band there it was Bambi and if I do not sought to do it that it would be the be a and n IDI band had to band the whole thing oh how they swerve and Jasmine won't know they didn't do that too long after I really got going the preacher said Amen for ten minutes then he lost this all his pump was to say his energy and the somehow he lost his noise who's touching the arc David was afraid of the Lord he haven't been afraid before and isn't it isn't incredible that this people that knew God in such an intimate way this people had gone round a city without a gun the most despised people of all and they went round one day round another day round another round another on the last day they went round seven times so thirteen times they went round that's pretty unlucky isn't it and they kept dumb and they stood all the criticism of the people that were watching and all they had to do on the last day was shout with a great shout why because God was there and I don't see any funny and shouting and carrying on in a meeting oh you didn't clap your hands that's okay but mercy if that's all you have to do if you have to whip people up you know I thought my dear friend there down there and his father belong a a tribe called the Quakers and I thought of that when God says I want a tabernacle and they're at the nurse's seat will I me with thee God wants me to meet with him it's modernly preaching for him it's more than me being a missionary friend he wants to meet with me he wants to reveal himself to me he wants to talk to me wants to to come in and work in this being of mine and then he called me from the border of Mexico today and he said she was weeping and she said that God has called us here we're Hispanic tree God has really blessed us but all we do want to be such great soul she went on I saved my dear look the first commandment is not that should be a soul winner the first commandment is thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart soul mind and strength there are lots of missionaries that don't love God then a lots of missionary should have returned to the from the field six months after they got there they're doing a thing mechanically and it's hard to enjoy that kind of burden when you're doing it mechanically but when they do it under the anointing of God when they do it with a love of God can you imagine this procession stopping hmm they'd halves and psalteries and timbrels and cornets and they're having a great time and suddenly death game you whether that David was angry or afraid and he said how shall the Ark of the Lord come unto me verse 12 it was told King David saying the Lord blessed the house of obed-edom and all that pertain earth unto him because of the Ark of God so David went and broke up that brought up the Ark of God from the house of obed-edom into the City of David with gladness and it was saw that when they that bear the Ark of the Lord had gone six places he sacrificed oxen and fat wings and David danced before the Lord with all his might and he was girded with a linen ephod now notice what he danced with he danced with all his might doesn't say dance with a girl he says he danced with all his might he danced in the presence of God there's nothing sensuous about it isn't linked up with some woman in his arms he's dancing in God's presence God has turned his sorrow into joy he started off in joy there comes very evening they come sorrow they disobeyed God they've heard God they've transgressed against God do you ever wonder if you're getting insensitive to what God's trying to say to you hmm do you ever wonder when when a certain thing has happened it's somewhere in your nervousness you put your hand up to steady the ark and somehow the sensitivity went and the the compassion you had went on and the concern you had went again this man didn't take an axial split up the ark he didn't say we carry this thing wrong enough we need no no no no all he did was trying to steady the ark of God Oh mercy I were trying to steady the ark of God these days we want to do some new things we wouldn't we wouldn't we won't just tell you it we paint it we paint it we put a musical box inside of it we put the priests in some new garments means I make it more acceptable you know there's nothing nothing this generation needs more than our baptism they're all fashioned Hellfire preaching I'm sure of that the power and the presence of God were resting on that tabernacle and while they were obedient they had success doesn't matter if you have to get a city down again the most ridiculous thing and they stood all the criticism and scorning and they'd on that final day when because they debate God the whole place came tumbling down well let's not be too critical about them because you know you and I again have more we've more to answer for than they had we've seen the mighty workings of God I don't know anybody that's pulling Jericho's down to you can you think about obligation that we have as a nation with all our Bibles all our broadcasts well I was studying the Ark of God in the way but presenting the gospel these days the gospel is still the power of God unto salvation to all who believe and when I hear people I heard somebody say well you know there's a different approach today is that is that really you go tell a woman who has just lost a child well these are modern days you don't have to weep over it and groan of it I mean they did that in the Bible days but the geckos women were women then but nowadays doesn't matter all they've done is lost the chat if any difference between the grief of somebody who was heartbroken today than there was in the grief of somebody only 3,000 years ago we say human nature's change in nature has not changed human nature is filled of sinful nature human nature still needs God and I think that at times when God tries to stop the business you know when I think of it again they all they did was put his hand up to the ark he didn't curse God he didn't take smash it they didn't say now you're all lunatics for going this way this is too old-fashioned well do you think that God maybe has been speaking I didn't notice how many tragedies we've had this winter one whole town swept away with a mudslide just like that people went into eternity Mississippi is covered more area than ever we came down past that just the other day acres hundreds of acres just just little bits of roofs standing up out of the water and all we could see it look like you could see for 50 miles just stretchable water and some farms just the standing on a little island they'll never get any crops in there this year the slugs will be left behind they can't do with cattle it seems as though God is trying to check us but we won't take the checking we won't take the warning and again I say to the most distressing area I believe is the area of the church itself the time to study the art we don't want God Almighty to govern the whole thing we want a little bit of flesh in it want a little bit of humanism in it one little organization in it one somewhere else killing it and God holes off I want to do it in the flesh by the Word of God said some trust in chariots and some trust in horses but we will trust in the name of God alone oh I'm making on the inside to see somebody that we really really really have no confidence in the flesh mom tried to organize it's horrible when we turned subsidized God's cause with a few dollars in a collection there and something else now either God is God or he isn't as I've said before this book is either absolute or it's obsolete there's no middle cause it either has all the answers or it has no answers I've got to get to the place when I say Lord you can strip everything else away from me and I'm Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand I'm not gonna steady the ark I'm convinced God's gonna do a new work I've talked last two or three days with a brother I love very dearly and these are the crossroads in his life and I know others who are men that you think of at the top of the tree do you think they should be satisfied with what they got and they're not they suddenly realising there's a new dimension that God wants to bring to our generation a new revelation a new unfolding of the Word of God if you like men that don't try to state of the out by organization and saying you must do it this when you must do it that way must do it there say no listen say we're gonna follow if it takes us we have to follow those long oxen they look pretty scruffy things but before long you remember that David he went and slew the oxen and and he took the fatlings and he made a sacrifice to govern that he danced before God why because he got rid of many of his obstructions the Lord is very merciful DNow mercifully is he so merciful in a strip us right down to the place where the thing to stand on we am the thing to lean on we're casting nakedness and we say in this spell you know the church that was rich and increased in good that's where the churches today she's rich she's increased in good she's need of nothing which church rock Jesus spewed out of his mouth I would our die the hotter cold so then because thou art neither hot or cold I'll spit it didn't spew the colon out of his mouth had never been in it was his church that he spewed out of his mouth he wasn't the heathen religion it was his church they were neither hot or cold they were kind of midstream and because they were neither one thing nor the other be vomited them out didn't vomit the cold church out in didn't bother with it God will not stand for mediocrity I think I need to sit down in fact I've said to somebody today I'm going to do less preaching in the next few months as little as I can and I'm gonna meditate on certain things I'm not young anymore I am getting older and older but that doesn't mean you can I mean Moses was 80 when he started navigator yet so maybe when I'm 80 I wake up and start doing something but there's a hunger there's a the class we talked of the last Saturday morning there some finding men maybe about 30 of them thirty two or three and half of those ever say we're sitting on the edge of their seats at all prospect most of them they were seminarian fellows eager keen even asking afterwards well mr. Rainey what what's the secret really the biding what's the secret of a bounding in the Christian life what's the secret of not being a failure what's the secret of not letting your branch get withered up I had so many callings a day for prayer again every day they call I'm sorry for the situation some of them but it's the only way they'll grow in grace any havin in the knowledge of God they've been leaning too much on what they have and now God's gonna dry up their sauce so that they only have God on whom they can lean they've had so much flesh they've had so much ability that had so much organization they've had so much security God says well let me pull it all away doesn't the word say trust in the Lord forever for in the in the Lord is everlasting strength I think one of the shocks in eternity will be to discover how little we've ever used of the available power of God not far on means silly self but there's a world out that's dying there and does God have resources to meet this generation come on I learned to my horror just while I was in Brooklyn that a man who is a professional in this realm of very fine Christian man last year the churches in America spent close on two dollars on radio and TV preaching to billion do now many people who reached less than four percent of the other of the national family less than four percent of americans and listen to the gospel when we spent nearly - can you imagine how many how many mission stations that would have built how many churches that would have built in some other country I think we're putting our hands on the out we're rather afraid that we might go a bit overboard you know doctrinally somebody comes up says he went steady a minute and he hardly knows he's putting his hand on the ark anyhow we're just afraid it seemed with some new revelation some new some new demand that God will make upon us not just individual well is it is individual if God and collectively now I guess I didn't give this over - as it came to me but I'll tell you when I read it the other day I was shocked to realize that again this man did not smash up the ark he didn't tell all the people to rebellion didn't tell the priests to do it all he did was study the art thinking he was doing God a favor when all he did was disobey it at all and that's all item did in the Garden Allah did it was disobey didn't curse God and it seems the hardest thing that we have in the in our lives to learn is how to obey in the very very very simple things that God challenges us with I still say you know if I were a kind of Protestant thought I closed every church down for a month where preached to death we we we hens why don't we keep going to come from see you can't handle the light you've got that why do you want some more huh turn it on when you go home tonight the next conference you go with this this weekend the next week of the you'll have more light therefore you'll have more to answer the judgment-seat and you've got enough to answer for other areas in your life where you're still are not obeyed even though God said do this you put your hand on because it was coming toppling over on you it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God the Word of God said Robert Louis Stevenson said I only know one thing and that's when you fall out of the hands of the Living God and that happens it comes a time when God says to a nation all right you've been putting your hand on my truth you've been withholding my truth a job says I have not eaten my morsel alone you say well we've given money to missions so we have you know this came to me I mention it last night before do a lot of number of preachers in that place and I said this I didn't know we had a National Day of Prayer last week no we didn't have a National Day of Prayer we had a national suggestion if we had a National Day of Prayer the president would have said every factories closed down every school is closed down every shopping mall is closed down everything they were stopped it's time you listen to God it's time we humbled ourselves before God that when God wants it that way which he does we put our hand on the Ark and say will wheel steady it and make it a little bit convenient did God there was a time when they were so concerned about revival they didn't but remember they put what sackcloth on the animals if you will sackcloth they a crackpot if you don't think so get a second an old potato sack and cut a hole in the top put it over your head and get your wife to cut some holes so you can put your arms in and got the church like that and say this is an outward sign of an inward sorrow I have I don't care about the style of my clothes I don't care what you think anybody else thinks we've got to have a revival that's how the love of God and we haven't had it by all our financial efforts and all our geniuses of evangelism all the other things we get so father we put our hands on the Ark there's going to be a conference shortly and I am not in any way a trouble that I wasn't invited but I'm also the godless men in the world and they're not invited to that conference in Amsterdam down 2500 the itinerant evangelist I guess that's why they'll get this they will learn on itinerant evangelist they're going to meet in the gun going through a rigmarole again workshops workshops workshops there's a workshop for this and as a workshop for that the hardest work in the whole world is prayer they have workshops on track I know the Ark is tonic we're gonna study it we've got a new idea every magazine I pick up now Christian magazine it is how to make your church grow I'm looking for one that says how to take your church deeper somebody's head to a preacher you've the biggest church in how big is your church is that 3 miles wide and an inch deep I think that's true of Aladdin three miles wide and an inch deep and while it's humorous it's tragic are we going to change the style are you gonna keep studying the arc are we gonna say no no no we're not doing any further like this this all can't you've got it down with new cut we're taking it over do it God's Way and it looks silly to carry it on your shoulders it looks silly to walk around when you can mechanize the thing I'll organize the thing I'll paint it up or make it more attractive what in the how can you make those presence more attractive that's about the height of insanity isn't God himself in His Holiness attractive for some reason I don't know why I thought about Westminster love it they recently redecorated it oh they climbed up there and they put pure gold leaf it's worth millions of dollars now I don't think God ever enters the place to tell you the truth you know that less of the glory of God we have the more showmanship we need inside a fancy good-looking cry with marvelous robes on lovely church building everything and the more we get of that it seems as though God says I don't dwell in temples made with hands I'm not comfortable here anyhow you know I need to do we need to do what David did we need to take all the implements we need to take the cart and break it up and we need to get all of the bullets and chop them up and have one big Holy Ghost bonfire and say Lord God I'm gonna live on the stretch for you from now until I die whether I died tomorrow or 10 years from now I'm gonna meet with you as I've never met with you before I'm going on the stretch for God as I've never been on the stretch before

Channel: SermonIndex.net

Views: 14,103

Rating: 4.9391637 out of 5

Keywords: Leonard, Ravenhill, Revival, Repent, God, Sermons, Jesus, SermonIndex

Id: BaU23SH8Iw4

Length: 47min 16sec (2836 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 21 2010