God's Provision — Leonard Ravenhill

The Mystery of Christ’s Substitutionary Death

Lord, we remember the song that says, I stand all amazed in the presence of Jesus in Nazarene, and wonder how he could love me, a sinner condemned, unclean. This is the mystery of mysteries to us, that you loved us not when we were lovable, but when we were unlovely.

That you gave the spotless Son of God for us, who are by nature the children of wrath, and we were condemned, and he took our sins, and he took our condemnation, and he took our shame. We thank you for his death, we thank you for his glorious resurrection.

The Word of God as Light, Freedom, and Life

As we come again to your word, we thank you for it. We would read your testimonies today. Your servant the psalmist said more than once that he delighted in your testimonies, he delighted in your word.

We thank you for this lamp, for our feet, and this light for our path. We thank you again for the preservation of this word down the centuries, down the millenniums even. It has escaped fire, it has escaped the threat of those who would assassinate those who are translating it.

It has escaped the ships on which very often it was transported from one country to another, and sometimes in one case it was a sole survivor in a total shipwreck. We thank you for it, it has come to us so easily, forbid that we should read it easily, forbid that we should read it without illumination, forbid that we should read it without any reaction in our spirits of quickenings of joy, or of condemnation, or of vision, or whatever else your spirit would use, to take this blessed indestructible word of God, this word which is fathomless, as fathomless as God himself, as eternal as God himself, as indestructible as God himself.

Because you have told us in your word that thy word, O God, is forever and ever, and thy throne is forever and ever, and a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. We think of all this work the word has done, it has been a, your word says that the word is like a hammer that breaketh the rock, but not only has it broken the rock, it has broken the fetters from the arms of slaves.

It has broken the fetters from the minds of men and women, because wherever this word has gone, liberty has come, and education has come, and light has come, and knowledge has come. We do remember as we think and boast almost of our standing in thee, we think of those millions who are still in darkness and in the shadow of death, your word says.

We think of those in misery in concentration camps in Russia and China, deprived of freedom, perhaps with malignancies in their bodies and filth. As we sang the song today, the longer I serve him, the sweeter he grows, is not really true in the visible sense.

Every day gets brighter, to many of them every day gets darker, materially, physically, visibly, and yet we're sure to many of them again, your word says that the just, the path of the just is as a shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day, and since they've so much time to wallow in what seems misery to others, maybe they're discovering riches of grace we haven't yet discovered, we haven't had time to discover, that we're eaten up with so many other things, the things of earth have not really become strangely dim.

We pray for them in their captivity, for many of them are captives but they're free, and millions in this beloved country are free but they're captives, captives to lust, and captives to drugs, and drink, and devilry.

Revival, Deliverance, and the Power of Christ’s Blood

Lord, we see again the great need of a mighty sweeping worldwide revival, one great last breathing of your spirit through your church. We would say as your word says, will thou not revive thy people again in the midst of the years.

God come and steal, we pray thee, the spoil of the devil, come we ask thee and liberate captives by the million in all nations of the earth right now. We thank you that there is power in that precious blood of which we've been singing today, we thank you for the blood that shall never lose its power till all the ransomed Church of God be saved to sin no more, and then in a nobler sweeter song we'll sing thy power to save, when these poor lisping stammering tongues shout victory o 'er the grave.

We thank you again for this word, we ask your Holy Spirit you wrote it, you inspired men, may it inspire us as we read it, may it quicken our hearts and minds today, enrich us. Some of us have come in tired, not only in body or in mind, but maybe in spirit, oppressed, not only in mind, but Satan has been desperately near perhaps this week, and temptations have been fierce, and problems have arisen that are not yet solved.

We would discard them all and concentrate our thoughts on thee. We will pick up spiritual treasure today, we would leave this house renewed in mind and in spirit, for your word says that they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

Renew and quicken we pray, that Lord Jesus may be exalted and glorified, and we shall go out with a firmer step, and a stronger courage to meet our tomorrows. We'll give you praise in Jesus name. Let's read the twelfth chapter in the prophecy of Isaiah.

Usually I like to get a word from the Lord about Wednesday, I'm not smart, I need three or four days to put a text on the back burner and let it simmer and get hold of me and wake me up in the night and disturb me.

And this week I've had at least three texts, not going to preach them or you won't get home till lunch tomorrow, but I nearly switched when Herb got us singing that first hymn, that song service was beautiful today.

I nearly switched, but I'm staying with that that the Lord gave me, and if it's only for one person, well that will be all right. So here it is, the twelfth chapter in the prophecy of Isaiah. And in that day thou shalt say, O Lord I will praise thee, though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comforted me.

Behold God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid, for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song, he also has become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation, and in that day ye shall say, praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted, sing unto the Lord, for he hath done excellent things, for this is known in all the earth.

Cry out and shout thou inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee. Now, what do you see in this chapter? At first it seemed to me like a tree that's full of blossom, just gorgeous and attractive.

Then I said, that's not good enough. I see it now as a tree, and the branches of it are filled with fruit. The psalmist, pardon me, it is really a psalm, it's a hymn of thanksgiving. It seems to me that it explodes with something more than happiness, it's full of ecstasy.

Skipping the first verse here, and coming into the second verse, it speaks of my song. Verse three talks about my joy, or with joy shall ye draw waters from the wells of salvation. Verse four says praise the Lord, verse five says sing unto the Lord, and verse six says cry out and shout.

There's a crescendo there, there's a gradual climbing of praise and of adoration and of thanksgiving to the Lord. We're to sing, we're to cry out and shout, and we're to praise him, and we're to magnify him.

I say it's like a tree to me full of fruit that's delicious and delectable and desirable. The psalm begins within that day. Now, of course, you run into problems. There's hardly a scripture anywhere that isn't capable of two or three interpretations.

And this is capable of, it will stand the stress of three interpretations at least, that it's dealing with something historic in the life of the children of Israel, or it's dealing with something prophetic, either the great millennial day or eternity.

Or, if it deals with both of them, I don't care, it also fits right down in the experience that we have today. Now, the key verse to me in this is, therefore with joy shall ye draw water from the wells of salvation.

Actually, the Hebrew word there doesn't talk about a well in the sense that we think of a well, it talks about the gusher coming up. So it says, therefore you come to a place which is always gushing up.

There's limitless life. My mind jumps over to the word of the Lord Jesus when he says to the woman, look, I can give you water. You know, we used to sing a song, didn't we? Jesus gave her water that wasn't in the well.

She went away singing and came back bringing others for the water that wasn't in the well. And she's puzzled when he says, I can put a well of water within you that will spring up constantly. Charles Wesley has a beautiful hymn, Jiju, lover of my soul.

There's a phrase in that hymn that says this, I always thrill, I get a kind of a chill when I say it. He says, spring thou up within my heart, rise to all eternity. Now the psalmist here is talking about one person really, the God of his salvation.

“In That Day”: Deliverance in Israel and in the Believer’s Life

Go back again to this first verse, in that day, in what day? Well, scholars don't agree about this. You see, this is a time of deliverance. There's been oppression, there's been trial, there's been persecution, there's been a long, long night of darkness.

Did you ever have one that you thought would never end? I don't mean night, you know, like we have it coming tonight all being well. I don't mean that. I mean a period of oppression when it looks as though the skies are made of lead.

If God hears, he's not hearing me, he may be hearing others. Here I am, I'm oppressed, I'm forsaken, I'm neglected. Now some say this is the time of Nebuchadnezzar when the Assyrians were going to come out and just about slaughter, destroy, liquidate the people of Judah.

And God intercepted and brought them deliverance. Therefore, in that day, the day of deliverance. But again, I say, let's pinpoint this. Supposing you just take it to one day in your life. We've all had amazing days in our lives.

One of the hymns that they used to sing in the old Methodist Church when I was a kid was, Oh happy day that fixed my choice. And we had a policeman in Leeds, in the city where I lived, and they had no flashes in those days.

You know, I'm so old, I can remember when there were no aeroplanes, and no telephones, and no TVs, well odd telephones. But he used to stand there, big man, fine man, about six foot three, with a helmet on.

I thought he was Goliath that had come back to life when I was a little boy. I used to go back and look at him like this, you know, and say, I need a marvelous complexion. And he was always singing. And everybody knew he was a Christian, and his name was Day.

And so, in the police force, they called him Happy Day. That's a nice thing, isn't it? Everybody said, Oh Happy Day isn't onto it. Do you mean Happy Day? There were other days, you know, all kinds of days, and some days, D-A-Z-E.

But Mr. Day was a happy, happy creature. We used to sing that, Oh happy day that fix my choice on thee, my Savior and my God. The end of the verse says, High heaven that heard that solemn vow, that vow renewed, shall daily hear.

As I prayed earlier, when I came in, you know, Jesus told a story about the lepers who were cleansed. God knows how they did it, I don't, but isn't it amazing that ten lepers were cleansed, and only one returned to give thanks?

Man, you'd have thought everywhere Jesus went, he would have been there. Jesus said, Oh you're here again. Yes, I'm coming tomorrow, and I'll be there the day after. Man, you delivered me, you healed me.

There was no hope for me. Leprosy in the Old Testament is a hideous thing. It meant everybody was an outcast who got it. Well, we had spiritual leprosy. And Jesus came, in that day. Yeah, you had great days, maybe a wedding day, or some other day, great days.

But a day that exceeds every day. And not only that, the Word of God doesn't always speak of a day as 24 hours. There is coming a day of the Lord, and that day will be without any termination. It's an eternal day.

It's a paradox, but there it is. It's an eternal day because the sun never rises, and the sun never sets. There's no need of sun. He is the light. Won't that be wonderful? Hallelujah forever. Huh? There's no need of light in heaven.

Again, in the Holy of Holies, there was no light. I love to think of that. In the outer court, daylight. In the first court, there was seven-branch candlestick. In the Holy of Holies, no light except the glory of God.

Oh, how wonderful when His glory comes. I still can't get over it, because I'm as dumb as anybody, but I can't get over the fact that those men on the Mount of Transfiguration fell asleep. You talk about the whale swallowing Jonah, that's no, I'm like the old lady, she said, if it said that Jonah swallowed the whale, I'd believe it.

Well, I would too, if God said so. But He doesn't say foolish things. But I do not understand how those men, in one of the crisis hours of Jesus, fell asleep with a glory of another world upon Him. No, no, it wasn't the spotlight from heaven, it was the inward holiness, His inward beauty, His inward majesty that shone out on Him.

And listen, I've got news for you. When you see Him, you'll what? You'll be like Him. My, that'll make your feet itch, and your scalp itch, and your back itch, and everything else. When we see Him, when this corruption is put on incorruption, we're going to have a body with no blood.

Why? He left all His blood at the cross. He has resurrection life. He has a life we know nothing about. And when we see Him, we're going to be like Him, and we're going to share that eternal day. But I'm anticipating a little here.

You see, He says now, look. Oh Lord, I will praise thee, He says again in the first verse. Praise in the first verse there, praise in the fourth verse, song in the second verse, sing in the fifth verse, cry out and shout.

You know, the more excited you get about it, you want to lift your voice up and say, well hallelujah. This is no fairy story. This is reality. Now He says, do you see what deliverance is what? Well isn't it merely simple gratitude for you to lift up your voice, tune your harp.

I remember reading years ago where Spurgeon was in one of his Sunday morning services, and he got so excited. He was talking about praise and adoration. He says, Oh God for a well-tuned harp. You know, he wanted to join the orchestra in heaven right away.

He felt all tuned up. Oh Lord for a well-tuned harp. Was it Wesley? I forget. Or was it Watts who said, Oh for a harp to praise my God, a harp from sin set free. A harp that always feels the blood so freely shed for me.

A harp in every thought renewed and full of love divine, perfect and right and pure and good. A harp where it's not possible to have discord, either toward God or anybody else. Where it's not possible to be impure in any attitude either to God or man or anyone else.

A harp like that. Now he says to these people, Well all you have to do, you know, is to open up your hearts and and celebrate. With joy shall ye draw water from the wells of salvation. Now really, you know, this is no new experience.

The Song of Moses and Deliverance Through the Red Sea

Some people have referred this back again. They say, Well do you know what this is? This is the experience of the children of Israel when they came through the Red Sea. Well surely they had a rehearsal there.

You say, I sometimes wonder what we'll sing in heaven. Oh I'll tell you, I got a note. A man left me a note 2 ,000 years ago. A fellow called John on the Isle of Patmos left me a note about that down here.

He says we're going to sing the song of Moses and the Lamb. So we better do a bit of rehearsing. Won't that be wonderful? Why? Because that was one of the greatest hymns of praise that was ever sung. You know the children of Israel had come out of bondage.

Not only come out of bondage, but if you'll pardon the word, they'd stolen a lot of wonderful things out of Egypt. Silverware, gold, precious things. And they got away with it. So they thought, till somebody looked around and said, Oh they're coming, they're coming and they're coming with chariots.

They're going to liquidate us. You know what the children of Israel said? Oh man, can't we be ungrateful? Do you know what they said when they saw the enemy coming? They said, Why didn't you leave us in Egypt?

We told you to leave us alone. We get into trouble. Do you know what Moses says? Oh my, this is, this is, this is tough isn't it? Come on, the enemy's breathing down your neck. They're coming in their chariots.

They've got their swords. They've got their bows and arrows. They're going to wipe us out. And do you know what the silly man says? Stand still and see the salvation. He should have said, run like mad.

He should have said, pick your kids up. Let's get away as quick as we can. He says, listen, stand still and see the salvation. Stand still. Oh, that's like saying, paint the front porch when the house is on fire.

Huh? It's like saying, fill your diary. The boat's going down, but do make a last note in your diary, just where you sank in the Atlantic. Stand still and see the salvation of the... Well that's what he's talking about isn't it?

In this psalm, what does he say? Behold God is my salvation. Now we tie that up to one thing only. Something which is spiritual. He's not talking about spiritual salvation. He's talking like, you rescue a man who's drowning.

You're his savior. That's salvation to him. And he's talking about that salvation. That's what I'm trying to get to you today. The deliverance is that God will work. It may not be my way, my mother used to sing.

It may not be thy way, but yet in his own way, God will provide. The little fellow says, well Lord, daddy, I don't mind helping you to build an altar, and we've got a bucket of fire, but where is the lamb?

And he says, son, God will provide a lamb. Doesn't look like it, does it? He's built the altar, he's tied the boy up, he's got the knife up, he's bringing it down, and the lamb hasn't come, and suddenly the voice says, stay thy hand.

I say again, most Christians would say, that's the voice of the devil. I know the God told me to kill my son, but my sheep hear my voice. What happened when the children of Israel have been pursued? You know, there are lots of things God does, and I think he's doing it for me.

And do you know, poor fool I am, he isn't doing it for me at all. He's doing it for his own glory. He says in the 46th chapter, 36 pardon me, chapter of Ezekiel, look, I'm going to cleanse you, I'm going to do a thing, but listen, don't get proud.

I'm not doing it for your sake, I'm doing it for my holy name's sake. My name is being trodden down, but wait, I'm going to avenge myself. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. And then the Lord says to Moses, why are you crying to me?

Now, you're told to stand still, speak to the children of Israel as they go forward. Lift up thy rod and stretch out thy hand. Now, verse 17, this is of the 14th chapter of Exodus, he says, I will get honour upon, unfair honour upon all the host.

And then he says a little further down, in verse 17 it says that, and it's repeated again in verse 18. Now, how did the children of Israel get guidance? Oh, that must have been wonderful. You know, if the children started to cry and said, well, do you think that the enemy's going to come?

It's dark and I'm frightened. I heard somebody, mummy says, just a minute. She lifts up the tent and says, you see that? A pillar of fire by day, and a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night.

And this pillar of cloud led the children of Israel right to the edge of the sea, Red Sea. And when they needed it most, it disappeared. It wasn't there. Where was it? Lord, are you playing tricks? No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You've walked by sight, now you're going to walk by faith. Where's the cloud? Behind us. What are we going to do? Walk backwards away? No, no, no. But the cloud has led us all this time. Why isn't it going before us?

Oh, you have no problems with it going before you. Look, just watch this. And it says, Moses stretched forth his hand. I'm sure Herb and I would have exploded if we'd been there. Dear Lord, you see a man there with a stick that before had done nothing but whip a sheep's behind when it got stuck in a fence and prod it.

And now he takes that rod. The rod of Moses becomes the rod of God. He says, stretch forth thy hand. You talk about miracle. People say there are a bit of miracles in the New Testament. They all know they're not.

They're all miracles. They're all supernatural. They're all beyond rationalization. How do you get a pillar of fire that nobody has to fuel? Oh, if you know the answer to that, do you mind just phoning the White House this afternoon and tell him you've solved the energy crisis forever and ever?

That we know how to get a pillar of fire that does not need refueling? Why? Because God is a consuming fire. He was in the fire. He was in the fire. The pillar of fire suddenly changed to a cloudy. Let the fiery cloudy pillar lead me all my journey through, the hymn writer said.

And they come right down to the edge of the water and Moses lifts his hand just like you'll part your hair. I often think of it when I part the little bit I've got left. And I think of him parting. Man, that must have been breathless.

Do you think it was? Oh yes. Do you think there was some nervous? I do. Now come on, come on. He divides the water. And you know what it says? The pillar of cloud went from before their face and stood behind them.

It was a... Listen to this. You talk about God cracking jokes. Who was it one day, one of the old mystics said, God loves to be funny in some situations. Why? Well, did you ever hear a proverb, every cloud has a silver lining?

That's an old proverb. Do you know when that pillar of fire went this way, on the back it was as black as that to the fault behind, and in front it was whiter than that? It was light to the children of Israel and darkness to Egypt.

Well isn't that triumph? Look, that world outside tonight is as black as hell, but men are afraid to admit it. Again, there are three classes of people in the world only. Those who are afraid, those who don't know enough to be afraid, and those who know their Bibles.

That's the only classification. Not blacks and whites, rich and poor, intellectuals and ignoramuses. Three classes of people. Those who are afraid, they know what's coming. I believe if you can get Mr Carter by himself, he's terrified to his roots downward.

He smiles and puts a mask on. He's a terrified man. He has to be. Unless some miracle happens, we're going to have tremendous trouble about that canal that he signed. Almost like a dictator, he signed it and then asked everybody to agree with it.

That's what dictators do, not what presidents do. The report yesterday said that in China they say that Mr Vance's trip there has put the clock back, not forward. Mr Carter's upset because of establishing these homes on the western banks by the Jews.

I listened about four or five days ago on TV to that very smart sheik that's the head of the OPEC nations and his eyes glistened and he said, look, we're going to have peace in the Middle East or America will know and you'll never forget it.

In other words, they'd withdraw every spot of oil they give us and strangle our machinery. Oh, we're living in ominous days, make no mistake about it. It's a pillar of darkness. When these men were coming on, they could see nothing but blackness.

They couldn't even see God's people. I want to tell you, if he hides you in the cleft of the rock, there isn't a demon in hell can find you. You may have to sing, not always up there in the sky with the angels, you may have to sing down here with Spafford when his heart broken and bereaved, losing his four daughters, when sorrows like sea billows roll.

But is God only the God of daylight or is he the God of darkness? Is he the God of Sunday and not of Monday? Is he the God who gives me ecstasy and doesn't allow me to go down into the valley of the shadow of death?

It was a pillar of cloud, it was a cloud and darkness to Israel, but it gave light, hallelujah, to the children of Israel. And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. Now, the children of Israel went down into the midst of the sea on dry ground.

But wait a minute, look, this wall is what? I don't know, what is it, eight feet high about that? Seven? And maybe it was thirty feet. Would you like to step down into thirty feet? And all you had on this side was, why didn't they need a pillar of cloud?

Why did they have a pillar of cloud? Because, so they wouldn't turn to the left or turn to the right. You don't have much option about turning to the right or left if you've only thirty feet of water on the left and right, do you?

Unless you decide to swim it through with a fish, isn't it of a problem? What an amazing thing. But one man, all this, this hurts me, I'll admit that. It gets to me, I'll admit that. It doesn't say even Joshua is standing with him or someone else.

One man stands there. Why? Because he has the mind of God. Because he says this, plus God, one man with God is a majority. I'm going to say to this water, get out of here, and you're going to go through and you're not going to have to polish your boots when you get through anyhow.

Because there'll be no mud on them. You're going across dry shod. Well, bless the Lord forever. What do you think they did? Chapter 15 of Exodus says, then sang Moses and the children of Israel a song.

I should think they did too. If they hadn't sung a song of jubilation, they'd be singing a funeral service. That's all there was to it. The whole nation, you know, I think that Moses must have felt a bit mad about this.

I mean, not mad, puzzled about it. You know, he was going to wipe the whole nation out one at a time. He'd have been at it till today and birth rate would have got on top of him anyhow. It's what he did, didn't he?

He decided to go kill the Egyptian that was oppressing. And the Lord says, oh son, you may as well try and blow the sun out. Now you just leave it to me. One day I'll pull the plug and drown the whole bunch of them.

Don't start worrying in the flesh. I'll do it in the spirit. I'll do it in my wisdom. So the children of Israel sang a song of Moses and the children of Israel sung this song. What did they sing? Verse 2 of the 15th of Exodus.

The Lord is my strength. Oh, I like that. They gave God every bit of the credit. It's not the strength of my faith. It's not my courage. It's not my zeal. It's not my confidence. It's God who is my strength.

And do you know what he says? You say, well, I'm not very strong. Well, then you're a candidate for it. You know why? Because he says, my strength is made perfect in weakness. The man who's strong leans on his strength.

The man who's wise leans on his wisdom. The man who has no wisdom leans on the wisdom of God. He leans on the strength of God. The Lord is my song, my strength and my song. He is my salvation. He is my God.

Verse 3, the Lord of hosts in his name. Come down to verse 11 or verse 9. This is going back on the story a minute. The enemy said, the Egyptians said, I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide the spoils.

My lust shall be satisfied upon them. I will draw my sword. My hand shall destroy them. And then he says, thou didst blow with thy wind. Isn't that amazing? Huh? You don't think so? God didn't even lift his arm.

He just, that's all he did, and blew them out. The Spanish Armada sent, what, 400 ships to England. They were going to destroy Britain with its Protestant witness. What happened? Well, God just blew with his wind.

That's what they put on the coins afterwards. He blew with his wind. That's all. That's all. See, God doesn't know anything about exertion. You and I exert God doesn't exert. He just commands. He has authority.

He has power. His word is law and power. And he just blew. And I guess he enjoyed it too. He just blew with every, and upset the king, the nation, the whole bunch of them. Look, there's a, digressing here, there's a tour of the treasures of King Tutankhamen.

Tutankhamen. Amenhotep II. He was the, he was supposed to be the king that followed the king that was drowned here. Now, if you can, if they come to San Antonio, you must go see them. They're in Houston, I think.

One of the most amazing collections that the world has ever known of gold. I don't know whether they exhibit, but one thing they found was a tree just about a span height. It's a tree with branches, and you know what there is caught in the branches?

Well, nothing very much, except it got, got a man saved, actually. A ram caught in the thicket, all in pure gold. I wonder why God put it there? Do you think it was a rebuke? Huh? Somebody says, well, what's, what's that goat got its horns in the tree?

Says, that's not a goat, it's a ram. Somebody says, well, was that a god they worshipped? Well, there is a story in the Bible about that. Leonard Woolley, one of the greatest of modern archaeologists, went to Ur of the Chaldees.

Began digging in the dust as an atheist, and by the time he got through, he was a confirmed believer in the flood, because he found such relics. He found deposits there that convinced him that the Bible is true.

Now, nobody, nothing makes the Bible true. The Bible makes other things true. Nobody exalts God. God exalts. God isn't looking down, as I say so often. He's not, he's not looking for sponsors, even whatever the radio fellow says.

He's not looking for sponsors. He is God. He is right, he has authority, he has power. But then, he says that the enemy said, we're going to spoil them, we're going to avenge our lust on them, we're going to be satisfied upon them, and we're going to draw, but he, God said, I will draw my sword with my hand and destroy them.

And then verse 10 says that, it's blow with thy wind, the sea covered them, they sank as lead in the mighty waters. Now, can you hear that? A whole congregation, some people say there were five million.

Well, I don't care if there were only five thousand, I think there were more. Maybe a million people. Can you hear them all singing? Man, I wonder what the tune was. Verse 11, Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods?

Who is like unto thee? Glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. Thou didst stretch out thy right hand, because immediately Moses stretched out his hand. The hand of God was covering the hand of Moses.

It was an omnipotent hand. Thou and thy mercy has led forth thy people, and so forth and so on. Now, is this what's been spoken of here in this 12th chapter? I don't know, I don't really care. But I'm saying this, that there is one thing here that we need to rediscover.

Joy as the Fruit of Salvation and God’s Presence

Now, if you can find the formula for this, let me tell you this. Last night, in America alone, apart from other countries, I guess over the nation, a billion dollars were spent trying to find this elusive thing.

Millions of dollars are spent every day trying to find it. You can't find it. If you can get the formula and put it in a bottle and sell it, you'll be a millionaire in the first day. It's one of the most elusive things in the world.

What is it? Joy. That's what the world looks for. And the substitute is happiness. Now, happiness needs external props. Joy needs no external props. With joy shall ye draw water from the wells of salvation.

The Lord is my strength and my joy. Hitler had a caption, hadn't he? Strength through joy. It was a scripture turned round. The joy of the Lord is my strength. Now, I say that we need this. Now, this isn't the only spoke in the wheel.

I've often looked at a wheel. Here's a wheel here. These are the spokes. Now, which is the, which spoke is most essential? I don't know. If you take this out, you weaken the others anyhow. Every spoke is essential.

Now, I need the joy of the Lord. You need the joy of the Lord. But I need more than the joy itself. That would destroy me. I need the salvation of the Lord. I need the peace of the Lord. I need the strength of the Lord.