Mounting With Wings — Leonard Ravenhill

Waiting on the Lord Renews Strength

The text this morning is in the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah chapter 40 reading from verse 29. He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might he increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall.

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint. When God wanted to remind Israel of his power he said in the 19th chapter of Exodus there in verse 4.

You've seen what I did unto the Egyptians and how I bear you on eagles wings and brought you unto myself. So there God likens himself to an eagle when he wanted to pay tribute to the skill and the ability of King Saul and his son Jonathan.

He says in the second book of Samuel. And the second book of Samuel chapter 1 and verse 23 Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives and in their death they were not divided. They were swifter than eagles and they were stronger than lions.

A wonderful compliment. And God says of us his people that they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Now you remember in history we've been taught that there was the ice age and the stone age.

And then there's this ridiculous age in which we live. And you know today men whether they're scientists or cynics they're trying to write a kind of epitaph for this age in which we live. Cynics are doing it.

Scientists are doing it scholars are doing it. One person has said we live in the most cruel age that man has ever known. With increasing wisdom there comes increasing devilry because not until this age was it possible for men to invent something that can burn a whole city up in a matter of 60 seconds.

But we can do that in the day in which we live. That's called progress. But if I were to put a tab on the age in which we live I would say it's an impatient age. Everything now has to be instant. You know instant coffee instant tea.

You send an order in to a Sears and say could you have it delivered an hour ago. And we want everything doing yesterday. It's a mark of the age in which we live. It is a restless age. And yet God says here that they that wait upon the Lord.

Well that's almost a lost art. I almost said a lost science. It's almost a lost art in the day in which we live because again we're impatient. The psalmist says I think in the in the 37th psalm I waited patiently for the Lord.

We have an idea that God's on call immediately. Like that we can rush about and say Lord you just intervene right now and get this thing done and let me get on my way because I'm in a desperate hurry.

Not only does the psalmist say that the prophet here say they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Not only does the psalmist say I waited patiently for the Lord but also he says that they that the patient people that wait upon the Lord they shall inherit the earth.

Now I think this is a stupendous thing that God says here they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. Well bless you. Most of us live like sparrows.

Living in Heavenly Places Like the Eagle

The eagle lives in heavenly places. The eagle is the king of the sky. The ox is the king of the domestic animals. The lion is the king of wild animals. The eagle has more peculiarities and unusual features about it than any other bird at all.

And God says of us that this is what we're designed to do. We're not made to live on this dirty old mud ball would suit none of us. If he said they that wait upon the Lord shall live like owls. Most of you folks stay up half the night anyhow it would suit you.

Okay. Owls live in rotten old trees and they're quite happy to live there. Sparrows flutter about. There are millions of them dirty messy little things they are. And now the starlings have come back. I wish they'd go somewhere else.

Starlings are not my darlings anyhow but they come round our house in flocks. A man said to me the other day there's a million starlings in your yard. He was an evangelist exaggerated as usual. But there it was.

We had flocks and flocks of starlings. And immediately I thought that God hasn't called me a starling. We're not roosters in a farmyard. We're not birds that scratch on the ground and dig up for worms and all the junk that even before we get to the text.

In studying this I remember the fact that a few years ago I watched an artist doing a picture and every day that picture grew and I opened my mouth and I saw the beauty in the scale and I saw what the artist was trying to get to.

And then on the final day a frame a gold frame was put round that beautiful beautiful piece of art. And suddenly the picture took life. It seemed as though there was as much almost in that artistic gold frame as there was in the picture.

The one complimented the other. Now let's look at the framework here for a minute or two here in this fortieth chapter of Isaiah. Isaiah is the one who exalts God. He shows us his majesty at least 21 times.

17 times in the first half of the book. No 12 times in the first half of the book chapters 1 to 39 he speaks of the holiness of God. And then in chapters 39 to the end of the book he speaks again over and over and over about 17 times about the holiness of God.

I say very often to people now let me ask you this morning here. Did you really come here to meet God this morning or to hear a sermon about him. Did you expect to leave this audience kind of drunk with the concept of the majesty of God in a world of turmoil a world of restlessness where there seems to be no security.

There's nothing you can forecast about tomorrow. The world's on the edge. We're told of an explosion. We feel as though we're balancing on the edge of a razor. And if ever there was a day when we need to lift up our eyes to the hills when we need to see the majesty of God the one who created the heaven and the earth that God is my God.

He's not merely the God of Elijah. He's not merely the God of the Old Testament prophets. He's not merely the God the father of the Lord Jesus. He's my God. He's my father. And as a father pitches his children so the Lord pitches them that fear him.

Comfort From the God of Majesty

Now this fortieth chapter begins. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people saith your God. This is just the property of God's people. The rest of the world's made up of sparrows and unclean birds. But we're to mount up with wings as eagles.

And if there's any comfort needed and any comfort given it is given through God. It is given through the word of God. In the 14th of John 26 verse 26 Jesus says the comforter who is the Holy Ghost will come.

Well again he's not a nursing mother for spiritually sick children but indeed he is a comforter. He talks in the Old Testament in Isaiah again about a man doing something and he comforted it with nails.

Well nails aren't too comfortable. No the word actually means he made it secure. And there's comfort in security. And there is no bird more secure than the eagle. He puts his nest there in an inaccessible place and almost inevitably in the cleft of a rock that cannot be swayed it cannot be moved.

But again the comfort here is to God's people. This is the framework. I say what kind of a God is he. Did you this morning with all your compassion have you given a passing thought that there are millions of people groveling in the dust this morning and they take broken hearts to God who have no hearts that they're crying and their voices can't be heard by their gods.

Millions of them. And those who don't have gods of wood and stone have got gods of materialism. A lady called me yesterday from Houston. She's one of the great characters in America today. She's been living in a hellhole there.

She's a very distinguished gifted young Jewish lady who was converted and used to run a booking residence on the strip in California and God saved her. And now as a CT stud would say she runs a rescue shop within a yard of hell.

And she said to me yesterday you know I'm so indignant about the situation. Our nation's humiliated by a man who seemingly is intoxicated. He's mad religiously mad there in Iran. But she said brother Ravenhill people get so disturbed when they see the flag being burned.

And yet Americans burn it every day with their immorality. The publication of filthy literature we send round the world. Dirty films we send round the world. There are countries in the world that won't accept any American films anymore.

They question every bit of literature that we send. And while we talk about old glory we cover it with shame every day. With our divorces and our immorality and our sin. We're burning the flag. Never mind the rest of the world.

Everything it stood for is being dishonored. And yet when you think again the same is true of the cross of Jesus Christ. It seems to have lost its luster and lost its wonder. The word of God clearly says there is no God like unto our God.

What does it say here. I need to rush on. I have a lot to tell you this morning. As usual Isaiah 40 verse 13 says. Who hath directed the spirit of the Lord or being his counselor. Who hath taught him with whom took he counsel.

And who instructed him and taught him in the path of judgment and taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding. This God I serve is the essence of all wisdom all power all authority all majesty all glory.

I was reading about those black holes up in the sky. It's getting worse. I thought all the black holes were on earth. But they've got them up in the sky now. And we think maybe they've burned out stars.

And they have a power of suction. They can draw things into them. Well somebody has said up through there somewhere in infinity man is beginning to tap the powers of creation. Or whether he is or not I want to tell you I know the person who put it all there now.

I've got no nerves about it. I know he's a God of majesty. I know he's a God of glory. I know he never went to school. I know nobody gave him any instruction. That what it says. Clearly very here here very clearly.

Verse 17. All nations before him are as nothing and they are counted to him less than nothing. Verse 18. To whom then will ye liken God. Or what likeness will ye compare unto him. Well let's leap over and find out what it's like in verse 22.

It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers. That stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain and that spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in. He bringeth the princes to nothing.

He maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. Yea they shall not be planted. Yea they shall not be sown. Yea their stock shall not take root in the earth. And he shall also blow upon them and they shall wither and the wind shall shall take them away as stubble.

Verse 25. To whom then will ye liken me or shall I be equal. Saith the Lord. Now lift up your eyes. Well isn't that where the eagle lives. He doesn't scratch about on the earth. He doesn't buddy buddy with the rooks and and crows and sparrows.

He ignores them. He lives in an entirely different world. But he says here you lift up your eyes on high and behold who hath created these things. He bringeth out the stars their host which means against the stars.

I like a hymn that was written by who wrote it now. Oh the man that wrote when I surveyed the wondrous cross. Isaac Watts always reminds me of this hymn. He says he made the stars those heavenly flames.

He counts their numbers calls their names. His wisdom's vast and knows no bound a deep where all our thoughts are drowned. What is the creature's skill or force. The sprightly man the warlike horse the piercing wit the active limb.

All are to mean delights for him. But saints are lovely in his sight. He views his children with delight. He seeks their sees their hopes and he knows their fears. And he looks and he loves his image there.

But again it says the stars look on high. Behold he hath created who hath created these things. And he bringeth out their host by number. He calleth them all by their names. I remember one night I'd been to do one of those things they do in England at night time after supper time is about nine o 'clock and there was a fish and chip shop at the top of our street.

And they always opened at night with the leftovers from the night before they threw them in the old boiling oil you know of fat and we went and you got a fish for a penny half a one for half a penny. And my mother when she was you know felt good.

She'd give me a half penny for half a fish. Sometimes she got generous gave me a whole penny and and I'd go to the fish and chip shop. And I was coming down the street one day and I saw the stars. It was a frosty night and I remember there was a kind of a streak in the sky and I said mother the sky's very different tonight there's a kind of a a streak like the teacher makes with chalk through the sky.

Now I don't know how she knew but she said that's called the Milky Way. Well all I knew about milk was what came out of a cow. But she said that's the Milky Way up there. And then afterwards I read about it.

It was estimated there were maybe a million stars. And it is the only unique path in the sky like that the Milky Way. Well of course since then since I was a boy a generation or two ago the world has changed.

They have a telescope on Mount Palomar now with a 63 inch lens. I'd love to look through it. It must have been made in Ireland because you have to sit inside of it to look through it. And once you get inside of it and then you begin to see all we get.

Do you know what science is telling us? We live in an expanding world, a shrinking world and an expanding universe. Every new plane we make shrinks the world they get. It took Wesley I was reading this week it took him three months to cross the Atlantic.

You can cross it in three hours. Now if it's a British plane that three hours instead of three months. Every new invention we we shrink the world but we expand the universe. If you were to take a match and strike it what the flame of that match is to the sun up there that sun is to suns away in infinity.

It is not true. There's only one Milky Way. There are hundreds of Milky Ways. It is not true. There are millions of stars. There are billions and trillions and quadrillions. And you know what. He knows their names.

Well if almighty God is interested in stars they can't sing his praises. He didn't redeem them. Are you trying to fool me and tell me he doesn't know my name. He doesn't know my address? Didn't God say one day when somebody had to go down to Ananias rather go down to a street called straight and knock on the door of a certain man.

And there's Peter. Well if he knew the name and address of Peter he knows my name and address too. Well thank you there's two of us. But he knows our names. What a God with such majesty and glory that he knows the very names of the stars.

When Themistocles was the mayor of Athens there were over 20 ,000 people lived in the city and he could recite the name of every person who lived in the city. He was so concerned about them. And yet it says here that this God he made the stars.

He calls them by names by the greatness of his might that he is strong in power. Verse 28 says hast thou not known. Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God the creator of the ends of the earth he fainteth not.

Neither is weary neither is any searching of his understanding. Don't you think we need a new concept of the majesty of God as well as of the holiness of God. He hangs the world on nothing. Took the American government I don't know 50 billion dollars to find that out.

They sent some men to the moon. And everybody looks at the moon and wonders why. It has no props. If we'd made it we'd have stuck props and all kinds of gadgets round it. God hangs it on nothing. But one of the astronauts says the thing that astonished me was as I looked at the moon and then looked back.

The earth was hanging on. Nothing takes a bit of strength to hold the world up. But God does it by the very breath of his nostrils as it were. Now this is God the God of infinite power the God of infinite glory the God of infinite mercy.

The God who knows your name and he knows your circumstances. And he knows everything through which you go. The psalmist says there's not a thought in my mind that what thou knowest it all together. You say it's impossible.

Four billion people on the earth. And at this given moment God knows the name and he knows the emotion of every heart. Well I was reading the other day that they've invented a new computer. They're old.

You know about three weeks after they invent them. But anyhow they've invented a new one. The new super computer is called grey one. The new one is called grey two. Do you know what it can do? It can register 80 million things a day.

No a second. Now do a bit of homework this afternoon instead of watching the cowboys. 80 million a second. How many is that in a minute? In a minute. You don't ask for the rod before you leave he'll tell you.

But anyhow 80 million a second. And that's a machine made out of a mind like mine. Maybe a bit bigger but it's made by human mind. And yet it can register 80 million different things in a second. Are you suggesting the creator isn't greater than the created?

Waiting on God Through Trial and Renewal

And this is the God. I said that as introduction because this is the God you're invited to wait upon that. They that wait upon this Lord who hangs the world upon nothing. Who has never been never been baffled by a situation who has never been beaten.

The God who cannot die. The God who cannot lie. He says if I wait upon that God I shall renew my strength. You see the contrast is here. Even the youth shall faint and be weary. But they that wait upon me.

Verse 29 he giveth power to the faint. And even the youth shall faint. But there is a text that says. And God he cannot faint. Now again we're to be likened again to the eagle. It's a beautiful bird. It's a unique bird.

Look at the 39th chapter in the book of Job Job 39. And verse 27 says. Doth the eagle mount up at thy command and make her nest on high. She dwelleth and abideth on the rock upon the crag of the rock.

And the strong place from thence she seeth afar off seeketh afar off and her eyes behold afar off. Her young ones also suck up blood. And where the slain are there is she. She makes her nest. Where? On the rock.

Verse 27 says she maketh her nest on high. And she dwelleth and abideth on the rock and on the crag of the rock. Say where have you made this nest. Your nest this morning. Have you made it on the rock.

Christ Jesus the rock that cannot be moved. She always builds a nest in a place of security. If there are no mountains she'll take the highest of the trees that is possible to find. I was reading recently a certain book there that it says that when Lewis and Carol you know those Lewis and Clark those famous explorers were going to America when they came to Missouri Falls they reported that they saw the nest of an eagle and they pinpointed it and said it was extremely large.

Do you know that 50 years after that that eagles nest was still there. There's a place called Vermillion in Ohio and years ago in a high tree I think a cottonwood tree. The eagles built their nest and every year they don't destroy the old nest.

Every year they add to the nest. Finally after many years a storm blew the the nest down. Do you know how big it was. It was seven feet across. It was six feet deep and it weighed two tons. That's quite a nest.

The eagle builds a nest in a place of security. And there's a lovely old hymn that says he hideth my soul in the in the cleft of the rock. I'm not left to an exposed danger. There's a scripture that says your life your life.

Here it is. This is your life. It's hidden with Christ in God. That's pretty secure. Isn't it. Could you get it any better anywhere else. She buildeth her dwelleth and abideth on the rock on the on the crag of the rock and a strong place.

The study says a young ones also suck up blood. A unique feature about this. It will never steal the lettuce out of your garden. An eagle won't come this end to that. It won't steal your corn. Those coons do it.

I went out for a piece of wood for the fire last night there was a a big fat possum eating the cat's meat outside. Don't think an eagle would come this end even to steal that thing. It's the ugliest thing I've seen.

I think. No no no. The eagle won't come round your garden pecking around. He doesn't do like those birds on the road. You know when somebody runs over a rabbit or something and you see those great big vultures.

No he scorns death. He wants everything alive. He's a great poacher. Last year they took some men over in near the Rockies who were going up in planes and they were shooting eagles because what. They were stealing the lambs.

Well the only thing is you shot the eagle. You couldn't pick it up. It dropped on the ground and the the forest rangers were picking them up and they watched these men and they I believe actually sent them to jail that the bird likes something live.

It will not eat garbage. Don't. You wish a lot of Christians wouldn't. What. A lot of garbage we eat. What magazines. Some women can't get through the month without the red book or something like that.

But the eagle doesn't go after garbage like that. He won't steal something dead on the road. Not unless he's totally starving. But he goes down and he gets a young lamb or he gets something else and he carries it squealing up there into the sky.

And then he has awesome claws. Oh he has lovely claws. You know these books. I could tell you a lot more time than I will take this morning. But this bird is so unique. Well of course he has to have a girlfriend.

And after he has a girlfriend he has a certain call he makes which I wouldn't imitate. But he makes a certain call and she may be miles away and she hears it and she goes and joins him in the air and they go up.

They float up in the sky and when he gets up there he grabs her not by the throat. That comes later. He flies up there and suddenly makes a call and they come together and he gets her claws in his claws and they spin over and he rolls her around and takes her for a roller coaster trip and says well sweet how do you like that strength.

And she delights in it. Well if that bird can take its female friend and give it ecstasy like that God says I'll put underneath you are the everlasting arms. Or as it's used there the everlasting wings.

He bears us on eagles wings. And then of course again returning to the fact that he won't eat anything that's dead he doesn't eat garbage. He'll go and find a beautiful young lamb. And he'll carry it up there.

And then he'll put his great big talons. He's got three big hooks at the front and one at the back to give him some balance. And he'll take his beak and rip that little thing open. And what happens. Those little things are not content unless they can live on warm blood and live on flesh.

It says here that her young ones suck up the blood where the slain are. And the scriptures never wrong. It doesn't feed on garbage. It doesn't take bits of cabbage out of the garden. It doesn't go to somebody's garbage can and take junk.

It finds something that's living. It must have living flesh and living blood. And isn't that what John says in John 6 .53. Except ye eat of my flesh and drink of my blood ye've no life in you. And so it compares again.

We think sometimes beyond the sacred page I seek thee Lord. But some of us find a lot more garbage though we call it food on the sports page. Don't we. But how much do we feed on him. How much do we feed on his mercy.

How much do we feed. Until we're almost intoxicated with his majesty and his beauty and his faithfulness his holy character. Then look again a little further over at the uh at a psalm. What was the psalm.

A hundred and um psalm a hundred and three. Bless the Lord. Oh my soul. We sang it this morning and bless his holy name. Bless the Lord. Oh my soul. Forget not all his benefits. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities.

Who healeth all thy diseases. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction. Who satisfieth thy right sorry. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction. Who crowneth thee with loving kindness and with tender mercies.

God’s Care for His Children

Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle. Yeah the eagle's unusual. Do you know. The body of an eagle is no larger than a than a barnyard hen. Its disproportion is enormous because it has one of the greatest wingspans of any bird even as far as seven feet carrying a light body on a very large large wingspan.

But he satisfied thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle. And that bird goes up in the sky and he has a whale of a time. And he finds his partner and he builds his nest and he raises his young.

And then one day he says oh I don't have the energy to get up there. I'm feeling pretty tired. Old age is coming up. And before long he gets a little full of sympathy you know and self-interest. And he sits away in the cleft of a rock there and he says yes.

Look at those youngsters up there. Look at my neighbor. He's up there too and I don't have what it takes to get up there anymore. And instead of looking up he looks down. And when he looks down all he sees are his feathers that are coming up.

And then he gets distressed and he says my main feathers are dropping too. I guess my days are over you know that comes in everybody's life. Remember Elijah had a whale of a time and and right after that he sent his notice in to his surprise the Lord took it.

He thought the Lord would say Elijah I can't do without you. And he says alright I'll take your notice. I've got a young fellow called Elijah coming up one of your students and he'll pick it up. This poor old eagle says oh my eyes seem to be getting a bit dimmed to and my strength is going.

I don't think I'll bother to eat. I won't go hunting. I'll just sit here in the cleft of the rock and keep away from the storm and I guess I'll get through. Then one day he sees a bird go shooting past.

He says listen I'm too young to die. I'm not going to give in right now. I need to wake up. And he shakes his head and he beats his beak on the rock and the beak falls off and underneath there's a new beak.

And once he realizes he has a new beak enough strength to go find his food. He flies a little and before long the food renews him and before long his youth is renewed and he lives another 50 or 60 years.

He was going to give up. His feathers are dropping down. He's getting weak. And he says no sir I'm going to get this thing in hand. I don't care what it costs. And you know getting a little agitated even knocks his beak off.

And then he finds he has a new beak I can eat and enjoy it. And his strength comes and out he goes well. Isn't that the proof. There's a second blessing it must be. But anyhow. Oh my what what what things God has for us.

Where's the scripture. Deuteronomy 32 11. Look at this a minute. Look at verse 9 for the Lord's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. So often you hear people say you know I've been in churches and they have a little envelope in the in the pew.

And it says on the envelope the Lord's portion. That's not the Lord's portion. The scripture is clear here. It says in verse 9 the Lord's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in the desert and in a waste howling wilderness.

He led him about. He instructed him. He kept him as the apple of his eye. Now as an eagle stirreth up her nest fluttereth over her young spreadeth abroad her wings taketh them and bear them on her wings.

So the Lord did lead him. Verse 13. He made him to ride on the high places of the earth again. The eagle will never build his nest in your barn. He'll never build his nest on the side of the wall like the swallows do.

He won't build a nest where you can reach him. He builds his nest in a place which is inaccessible away there in the heights. But you see the eagle usually doesn't have more than than two youngsters. And you know what.

The male is always hatched before the female. If there are two eggs inevitably the the male egg is hatched before the female. You know that's how the Lord made them at the beginning. He made Adam before Eve.

You know why. Well it because he didn't want any advice. So he the the male came before the female. And in the generation of eagles the the male egg is always hatched before the female egg. And the birds stay in that nest again.

I say it may be as much as six or seven feet wide. It could be less. Now the nest isn't comfortable like most nests. But an eagle will actually go down onto the back of a sheep and with his big claws he'll tear the wool out in order that he may put it in the nest.

But he doesn't make it too comfortable because you see that the two birds settle down and say boy isn't it great living around here huh. Isn't it comfortable. You know mother is so loving. Remember the storm the other day when it when it seemed all the skies were breaking up and she just sat over us and put her wings over us.

And you know not a drop of rain goes through. She shouters them from the storm and not only does she shouter them from the storm but some days the heat is too much and so she puts her wings over them and she lifts them so the wind blows through and they get plenty of air conditioning in but they don't get sunstroke.

Her wings prepare them prepare preserve them from the storm. And the wings prepare preserve them rather even from the heat of the day. But then the youngsters don't want to move. You know like some of you don't want to leave this nice place you're living in.

You're hoping you'll get on the staff but anyhow they get settled down and comfortable. And then mother and father say you know what. These kids have been around here too long got to get them out of here.

And they make some noises. And the youngsters say now listen you get your claws down and you don't get out of here because the old folk are trying to get rid of us now and we're gonna stay around. And the mother and father say are you gonna get out.

No I'm gonna stay here. I enjoy the fresh meat you brought yesterday. My that was delicious. Could you bring some from the same place again. Medium. Well and I'm really enjoying it. But when an eagle makes a nest she always leaves protruding branches.

Very seldom are the branches any thinner than my wrists. It's an ugly looking nest so inside it's comfortable. And they settle down. And so dad says all right sweetie when you see me coming in you just hop off the nest because never that never left undefended neither of you.

And I left undefended because if God isn't very near he gives his angels charge concerning us anyhow. And so we're defended one way or another. And so the big old boy comes down and he says well I'm gonna have my fun now.