I Am Thy Strength and Shield - Part 1 — Leonard Ravenhill

The First Adam’s Fall and the Last Adam’s Triumph

Lord, we think we hardly have language to express our hearts, but when we think of the way you've handled the greatest calamity in history, an ideal man in an ideal circumstance, an ideal environment, and yet he managed to destroy the whole thing.

We see the devastating power of one corrupt life. By one man's disobedience, sin entered into the world, and death because of sin. We thank you that just as the first Adam failed, the last Adam triumphed.

O loving wisdom of our God, when all was sin and shame, another Adam to the fight, the last Adam to the fight and to the rescue came. O wisest love, that flesh and blood which did in Adam fail, should strive afresh against the foe, should strive and should prevail.

Christ’s Once-for-All Sacrifice

We sang, Lord, earlier of your faithfulness, that day by day you're there when we need you. Lord, I say reverently it would be horrid if you were only there on the first day and the third day of the week and the fifth and the seventh.

If something happened and you were off duty, as though the eternal offices were closed, as though the angels were not watching, what a calamitous situation it would be. But we thank you for the one sacrifice that was made once in the end of the age to put away sin.

Nobody can add to it. Nobody can take anything from it. We had a perfect Savior who was a perfect Lamb, the spotless Lamb of God. As the hymn says, lifted up was he to die, it is finished was his cry.

Now in heaven, exalted high, hallelujah, what a Savior. Lord, I thank you for the praise that was offered tonight, not just from our lips. As Bonner said, not for the lip of praise alone, nor in a praising heart, I ask, but for a life made up of praise in every part.

Praise in the common things of life, its goings out and in. Praise in each duty and each deed, however small and mean. So shall no part of day or night from sacredness be free, that my whole life in every step be fellowship with thee.

There is on earth no greater prize than this. To really sing with truth, he walks with me and he talks with me. As the hymn writer says, oh blessed communion, fellowship divine. We feebly struggle, they in glory shine.

Yet all are one in thee, for all are thine. Hallelujah, what a Savior. We thank you, Lord, that while men may wall us in, they cannot roof us in. They can cut us off from fellowship in their churches if they like.

They can cut us off from social standing. But there's nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, except sin that we create ourselves. How we bless you for this. Lord, the glory that we have now is amazing, but Lord, it's a down payment.

The Saints Who Endured for Christ

Again, if we could see the door in heaven open, as John saw it in Revelation 4, if we could peep into eternity, if we could just take one split second vision of the marriage supper of the Lamb, with all the redeeming of all the ages.

Saints, apostles, prophets, martyrs. Men who were burned at the stake. Men who for Christ's sake were put to horrible deaths. They were torn apart. Even Hebrews, the writer there reminds them that their lot wasn't too bad.

He takes them back to a group that we don't know a thing about. We don't know their names or who they were. But they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute and afflicted and tormented.

The world kicked them out because they weren't fit to sit at the banquets of the big people. They weren't fit for social appreciation. But you wrote the last word on that, Lord Jesus, when you said of whom the world was not worthy.

It's not that the world couldn't find those blessed people worthy. It's that the world wasn't worthy to hold them, so you took them home. Some torn to pieces with the jagged teeth of lions. Women with babies at their breasts, we're told.

And the leaping monster grabbed the babe and ran off with the screaming babe and the screaming mother. Lord, we're so soft. A little trial upsets us. Somebody forgets to phone us, we almost die. Some trivial thing comes up.

Lord, what a horrid state we're in. The psalmist said, quicken me according to thy word. The apostle wrote, the word of God is quick and powerful. It is. The world has yet to see what will happen, Lord, when the church recaptures the dynamite of Calvary and the blast of the upper room.

Only then can we pull down principalities and powers and strongholds. We write little theological outlines. We learn paraphrases of the word and of truth. But so seldom does it burn with a holy, intense fire in our hearts.

But make that real to us as it was with Jeremiah. He said, your word was like a fire shut up in his bones. And this is what we need. This is what our generation needs. We need holy men, full of faith of the Holy Ghost, with that holy, unquenchable fire.

With that zeal that all the waters of doubt and all the waters of criticism and all the waters of opposition cannot quench the fire that you put in the hearts of men and women if it's really the fire of God.

Because you tell us that you live in us and our God is a consuming fire. And you make your angels ministering spirits and your ministers a flame of fire. God, I say reverently, get us out of the ice house.

Most of our churches seem to be ice houses and a snowman in the pulpit. Oh, for the holy fire to come. That would descend to send people out dumb with the majesty of God. Awed by their revelation of eternity.

Learning to Pray and Becoming Holy

Tonight we come with our old request, teach us to pray. I mean, I think of the disciples, they didn't say teach us to sing or teach us to heal or teach us to preach. They said, Lord, teach us to pray.

What an awesome thing to see our Lord with his hands raised to heaven and his eyes to heaven praying that amazing prayer in John 17. And the most awesome prayer ever in the history of the world that was never recorded.

Just one or two fragments. If it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Oh, borrowing the language of the psalmist as he did, all thy billows have gone over me. Your holy anger on your holy son for an unholy people, really because of his birth pains to create a holy church.

We're not a holy church. We're an unholy mess. We don't wander in sheepskins and goatskins. We're not destitute and afflicted. We're full. We're not hungry. We're full. We're not naked. We're clothed.

We're not naked in our spirits. Many of us are clothed with self-righteousness. Our ego is bloated by our own ministry, our individual ministries. When I think of the word of the Marashal, I've thought so much of it today when she said, O Lamb of God, thou wonderful sin-bearer, hard after thee my soul would follow on, as pants the heart for streams in desert dreary, so pants my soul for thee, O thou life-giving one.

At thy feet I fall, yield thee at my all, to suffer, live, or die, for my Lord crucify. I mourn, I mourn the sin that drove me from thee, and blackest darkness brought into my soul. Now I renounce the accursed thing within me, and come once more to thee to be made fully whole.

Descend to heaven, thou whom my soul adoreth. Exchange thy throne for my prolonging heart. We would make room for you tonight, Lord. If there's some furniture of our souls that needs casting out, Lord, tonight, cast it out.

Burn it up. Again, put a holy fire within us. As far as we can bear it, put even a holy anguish in us. Teach us the language, Lord, teach us the language that has no language. The groanings which cannot be uttered, not mutterings of our inner emotions, but the blessed spirit we read of in Romans 8.

Lord, surely we live in a groaning creation tonight. The whole earth is groaning. It's convulsed in its own wickedness. It's consumed by its own vileness. Our jails are crowded, our homes are broken. Our children are contaminated.

Lust is eating up millions of people. Others are crowding cults. They've forsaken thee, the fountain of living water, and they try to hew out systems that can hold no water. Seems to me, Lord, as far as I'm concerned, we can fold up the organizations and the denominations and roll them up and put them on the shelf.

They've had their years and years and years. It's time for thee to fulfill your word. You said, behold, I will do a new thing. Do it. Do it in some heart tonight. Maybe there's one young man you want to brand.

As Paul said, I bear in my body the marks, the brands of Jesus. As we brand Catholic in this state, so he wanted to bear in his hands, in his feet, on his mind, everywhere, the brand mark of Jesus. That Jesus claimed his feet and claimed his hands and claimed his eyes and claimed his mind.

I pray somebody tonight, Lord. It would be nice if we could say all. I'm sure we won't all. But maybe one or two tonight are going to be married to the will of God, never to be divorced. They're going to sign a love pact quietly, or maybe in their tears, in this crowded room.

We thank you for your presence. What if thy form we cannot see, we know and feel that thou art here. O Saviour Christ, thou too art man. Thou hast been troubled, tempted, tried. Thy kind that searching glands can scan the very wounds that shame would hide.

Touch that wounded heart tonight. Lift up that one who's crushed, oppressed. Speak the word only. They will be delivered. Bless your word to our hearts. In Jesus' name. Seated. Thank you. Let's look at Genesis chapter 13.

Abraham’s Call and His Compromise with Lot

Turn back to, sorry, turn back to chapter 12 for a moment, please. Genesis 12 verse 1. Now the Lord hath said unto Abraham, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house.

That's quite a load, isn't it? Leave your country, leave the kinfolk, leave your own house. Not much left. Thirteenth chapter. Abraham went up out of Egypt, he and his wife with all he had and Lot went with him into the south.

Abraham was very rich in cattle, silver and in gold. I'm going to assume that you know most of this story anyhow. Remember Abraham went where? He went out of his country. I think we've got some homemade halos we put around many of these people.

Abraham, of course, is called the father of the faithful and usually the pattern of faith. And we say, well, remember what he did. You just read what he did. He left his country, left his kindred, left his family.

And what? Went with who? With his father, didn't he? Or his brother? And his brother's son, Lot. But in the 51st chapter of Isaiah, I was reading it today, God said, I called Abraham alone. Did he go alone?

We say he stepped out in faith. He stepped out in disobedience, if not unbelief. But again, God is merciful. Remember that he became very prosperous. Abraham was very rich in silver and in gold. And the young man had his eyes on all his uncle's prosperity.

Verse 4 of 13 says he went to a place, an altar which he had made there at first. And there Abraham called on the name of the Lord. I don't remember that Lot ever built one altar. Abraham built them repeatedly.

Verse 7, there was strife between the herdsmen of Abraham's cattle and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle. And the Canaanite and the Perizzite then dwelt in the land. Abraham said to Lot, let there be no strife, I pray thee, blessed are the peacemakers, between me and thee, between thy herdmen and thy herdsmen, for we are brethren.

Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right. Or if thou wilt depart to the right, then I will go to the left.

And Lot lifted up his eyes. Notice that, verse 10, Lot lifted up his eyes and he beheld all the plains. Verse 14, the Lord said unto Abraham, after Lot had separated from it, lift up now thine eyes. What a different thing.

Lot lifted up his eyes, filled with covetousness. And he saw the mountains there so ragged and poor, the sheep would never get anything. Over on this side there's green pastures and living water, so he chooses the left hand side of the valley.

If he'd been a gentleman, he would have said, well, uncle, you're older than I am, you make the choice. But you see, he had trouble with his eyes. Verse 10, Lot lifted up his eyes. Beheld all the plain of Jordan, it was well watered everywhere, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

And even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest to Zohar. And Lot chose him, you see, he chose him, he chose for himself, for me and mine. He chose him all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east, and they separated themselves one from the other.

Abraham dwelt in the land of Canaan, Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain. Abraham dwelt in the land of Canaan, Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain. And he pitched his tent, listen now, he pitched his tent, you see.

If you'd seen his tent, you'd have seen a tent pole leaning like that towards Sodom. Why? Because he said it was like the land of Egypt. Well, who took him to Egypt? His uncle Abraham. I'm not facetious or funny here.

If you get any old maps or something like Encyclopedia Britannica, and look at the Egyptian dynasties, you notice there, and this may sound rude, but it's true, that the women were all topless. They had their belly dancers.

And this young man feasted his eyes on everything that was there in Egypt. Day after day he went round to peep shows, saw everything he could see. So when he came up to see Sodom and Gomorrah, he says, well I'm not going up in that old tent where my uncle lives.

Every time he goes up, he's praying anyhow. A man asked me today, call long distance to find out how much I prayed every day. I said, that's not your business. That's my business. My prayer life, my devotion to Christ is my business.

And how much do you pray? As much as ever I can. You see, Abraham was a man of prayer. Those twelve, Abraham dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain. And his tent, pitched his tent toward Sodom.

The men of Sodom were wicked sinners before the Lord exceedingly. The Lord said unto Abraham, after Lot was separated. Now, isn't this wonderful? What did Lot do? Lot, in verse 10, lifted up his eyes, and he saw the well-watered plains, where they were before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

He saw everything. Now look what God does. Abraham could have said, you know, my nephew is no manners, is no culture. He's stolen everything. I won't have any crops, maybe my cattle will die. There's not much water around here.

I'm heading for destruction, materially. But here, you see, when the Lord has a thing in hand, it's different. In verse 14, it says, the Lord said unto Abraham, after Lot was separated, lift up now thine eyes.

Now, he's doing this by divine command. His eyes are not bulging with grief. He saw, and everything he saw is dangerous to see. The woman saw the fruit of the tree was good, so she took it. Achan saw a goodly Babylonish garment, so he scraped the floor and hid it in the ground.

More than ever, I think today we need to talk about the lust of the eyes, and the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. You can hardly see an advert for ice cream or anything without some luscious woman on it.

This man was led into temptation. His uncle didn't watch him every moment, so again he was going down the street. He was seeing half-naked women. He was seeing all the sensuality that Egypt was famous for, and it was saturating his brain.

The Dangers of Corrupting Vision

Brother David Wilkerson is writing another book. My dear wife and I have been reading some chapters of it this week. And boy, I'll tell you, it really kicks the TV around. Don't you blame God if your children go to the devil if they can watch TV any time they want.

See all the dirty stuff that comes on. He saw. People say, it must be nice to travel. Well, I don't travel much, by choice. But I've been in some countries, like the upper areas, say, of New Guinea, where we wanted to go over the mountains.

That was 15 years ago, and they said, you can't go over there. The last three white men that went over there didn't come back. There were cannibals there. I saw the conditions in which they lived. I sometimes wake up seeing that little woman that came out of the bush in front of me, stark naked, smelled like a hog, and I'm not funny.

They don't bathe. She was all withered, dried up. Looked more like an animal than a human person. I've never carried a camera. I've been in many countries. I've never yet taken a camera shot. I happen to have two lenses here that are pretty good, and they take some pictures that I would like to erase.

I can't erase them. See, that's why vision is so necessary to us as believers. Where there's no vision, the people say, I'd like to go to one of those countries. Well, if you want to go to a hell hole, go down into Dallas.

You can go to corners where women are nearly naked to the waist. They show them in the newspaper recently. I thought it was terribly disgusting that it showed the cops trying to round up these prostitutes lying out by the wall.

Around another corner, there's a bunch of kids shooting up, drugs, drinking, all the devilry you can imagine. It doesn't move us. The Lord said unto Abraham, verse 14, After Lot was separated, lift up thine eyes, look from the place where thou art, northward, southward, eastward, and westward, and all the land which thou seest.

He only lost it for a few hours. God gave him it back. Poor stupid boy thought, Oh boy, I'm going to make a killing out of this. And didn't know that God had written it off already. And said the title deed belonged to Abraham.

And not only this, but every bit of land of this nation is going to be his one day. Isn't it amazing how much little thing can cheat people of eternal life and spirituality? I say, I'm going to skip over here.

After these things, when there had already been a raid on Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham had had to move out. Verse 12 in chapter 14 says, They took Lot, Abraham's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.

Wouldn't you think he'd have skipped out of the country after that? They already robbed his home and took all the accoutrements that he had. And yet the stupid fellow goes back again. After these things, chapter 15, verse 1,.

After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abraham. What do you think Abraham felt for the next word? What did God say? Read it, tell me. I am. Moses said, Whom shall I say has sent me?

Say, I am. He's in direct line from Moses to get a thought of it. I want to tell you this, God says, I am thy shield. Notice that. He doesn't say, I'll put a shield in front of you. He says, I am the shield in front of you.

God Himself as the Believer’s Shield

You remember when little Goliath, little Goliath, sorry. That's a revised, a reverse version. Little David went out to shoot Goliath. And Goliath was about nine feet high and he had a shield bearer. And David didn't.

I remember how David was speaking about that years ago in Saginatha. And there's a preacher sitting there. David gave a marvelous exposition, as you would expect, but anyhow. He gave a marvelous exposition, and I'm not biased at all.

A very popular Southern Baptist preacher was there. And he said at the end of the meeting, Brother Ramey, I got thirteen sermons out of what your son said today. And the thing he said that impressed me, he said, well, when little David went out, there's Goliath about nine feet high in front of him, a shield bearer, holding the thing up to defend the man.

What did David do? Totally ignored the shield bearer. Shield was no good, it may as well have been made of tissue paper. David took that stone. What a wonderful... I preached on that once out in the West, and at that time I could whistle.

I can't whistle too well since I had that stroke. And I said, here's a stone in the sling, and the boy went like this, and the boy in the congregation went and everybody laughed. I said, well, he got the stone, you know.

I mean, the man was covered everywhere else, like here, and the stone hit him there, you know. And such a thing never entered his head before, but anyhow. In the place where you don't make protection, the devil's going to get in there.

I am thy shield. Do you step out of your office, or out of your home every day and say, the Lord is my shield today. Not Gabriel. Not the promises I love to quote, they're not my shield. In one sense, He is my shield.

Well, if deity is between me and my enemy, or my circumstances, how in God's name can I be cast down? It's not impossible to be cast down, but you remember what the psalmist says, Why art thou cast down, O my soul?

He talked to himself. I talked to myself. You've got to talk to somebody intelligent now and again. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? What reason have you? What excuse have you? To be cast down is, in one sense, inexcusable.

And Jesus going into Gethsemane, you remember, began to be very heavy. But I want us to get hold of this again tonight. I've every right when I get up in the morning, going out into an unknown day, and you have the same thing to say, The Lord is my shield.

Not just the forces of heaven, but God himself. In a mysterious presence is my shield. He's going before me. Verse 17 is, pardon me, chapter 17 is interesting. I've taken most of the first verses. Abraham was 90 years old, and the Lord appeared to him and said, I am the almighty God.

Walk before me and be thou perfect. You can't be perfect in this world. What, well, is God a tyrant? What do you do with the 7th chapter of Matthew? The greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest man or anybody else that ever lived.

Now, what does it say? Doesn't it say, be perfect? Perfect, what, like Gabriel? No, perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect. We can't be perfect. Well, you better put your house in order, Gethsemane.

You have to be. We're not perfect intellectually. We can be perfect morally, I'm sure. We can be perfect. If we can't, cut the hymn book up. How many times have you sung, perfect submission, all is at rest?

Hmm? And right after that, there's another perfect in that, in that same verse, same hymn. I can be perfect in my obedience. I can be perfect up to all the light I have. I was in a meeting the other week, one Saturday night I think it was, and looking at a preacher at the back, he watched me very closely.

And, you know, the scripture says, it's a very beautiful thing. Oh, well, let me ask you this. We've got to sin every day in thought, word and deed, we say. Well, the devil couldn't do better than that, could he?

I mean, he's going to haul hogs of sin every day in thought, word and deed. How many times did Adam sin before he got kicked out of the garden? Once? And yet we can sin with impunity every day. What about the woman that came to Jesus?

And she was a pretty dirty rascal. And what did Jesus say? Go and sin less. No more. You've got the King James Good English book. Go and sin no more. You see, what we've done now, we've Romanized our Protestantism.

I went to the front and confessed your sin. You could have gone to Catholic church and done that. We had a good time last Sunday morning. Some of you were there. That was a good meeting. God was gracious.

And I marked out the fact again that in the six jabs of Isaiah, Isaiah didn't say I need help. I've made my mistakes. He didn't even say I need forgiveness. You see, God doesn't deal thoroughly with us because we don't repent properly.

What did that man say? He was already a prophet. Read the first chapter in Isaiah. And he has a complete analysis of the nation with all its corruption, its total corruption. And yet he falls before God as the prophet to the nation.

What does he say? I'm undone. I'm unclean. No, people come to the other. Lord, help me. I'm not living as well as I should. I'm not reading my Bible. But what do you think? Gabriel's going to read it to you every morning?

Read it. You've got eyes. I didn't have much time today. He had as much time as I had. And anybody else. Some of us surely have a different schedule. A schedule, whatever you want to call it. Abraham was ninety years old and nine.

Ninety-nine years old. The Lord said walk before me. And he's in his hundredth year. Marvelous he could walk at all. But to walk before the Lord is wonderful. Verse two. I will make my covenant between me and thee and will multiply the exceeding.

And Abraham fell backwards. No? What does he say? He fell on his face. Verse seventeen. Abraham fell upon his face. I'll never forget one day talking with Dr. Tozer. He said, let other people do as they like.

You and I will worship God face downward. If you worship God face downward you don't get distracted with other things around about you. Not much charming in a rug. When you've been there a few minutes forget it.

Lot’s Progressive Movement Toward Sodom

Verse again. First verse in chapter eighteen. And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre. And he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. And he lift up his eyes and lo three men stood by him.

Skip over now to the nineteenth chapter. There came two angels to Sodom at Even and Lot sat in the gate. So there those that are for us are more than against us. To Lot there's only two angels. Back in the eighteenth chapter to Abraham sitting in the door of his tent in the heat of the day he lift up his eyes and behold there were three men standing there.

What did we say about the tent? Have you remembered it? We said the slant of his you know he had one of these bell tent things I guess. And the post of the tent was leaning towards Sodom. That's the first move you get of that man.

Towards Sodom. Look in this eighteenth chapter. He lifted up his eyes and looked and there were three men stood there. The Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre. No pardon me. It's the other chapter I want.

Chapter nineteen. There were two angels of Sodom and Lot sat in the gate. Now he's moved from his tent. He's sitting in the gate. You know I used to wonder why the scripture says the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Why in the world? What do the gates do? They get up and push the enemy back? The gate was the government. Lot had moved up in the social register. He was the mayor of the city now. He sat with the wise men at the gate.

They did all the planning. But now he's moved from his tent you see. He's no longer like Abraham. He's respectable. He has a nice building. People salute him and give him all that he wants to take regard to adulation.

Let me go back a minute here. I skipped something. In the thirteenth chapter in verse ten. Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld the well-watered plains of Jordan. That's the first thing he sees. Number one, he saw the well-watered plains.

Number two, he chose in verse eleven. Number three, he journeyed east. Number four, they separated themselves. Number five, Abraham dwelt in the land and Lot dwelt in the cities. And he pitched his tent towards Sodom.

And then we move over to the chapter we just read. Sign two. Here's a man of God that sacrificed every conceivable thing and is still a liar. God has mercy on him. His wife says, why don't you have a child by that girl there?

This is not facetious. God didn't speak to Abraham for nineteen years after he listened to his wife. That's got nothing to do with you and your wife. There's more than one case in the scripture where a man has not listened to the voice of God.

He's taken the counsel from his wife and got into trouble. What happened? Well, it's an impossible situation. Abraham, dear, don't be foolish. You know that normally we cannot have a child. I mean, all hope has gone for it.

I can't have a child. Take that gorgeous girl. You know, she's a beautiful girl, this village and everything. She would produce a wonderful child for you. Let me tell you something, friend. However good it seems, if you try to get God out of a corner, you're in trouble.

It may be as black as hell. It may be you're up against a stone wall a hundred feet high and a hundred feet thick, but God has said it. He has forgotten that God said to him, I am thy shield and thy reward.

He took an Egyptian, a worldly girl. If you don't think we've problems, what are all the Arabs doing around tonight? They're all from Israel. We talk about Adam's sin. We don't talk too much about Abraham's sin.

You know, that boy must have been a lovely boy. He's at least 18 years of age and he lets his dad gag him and bind him. He wouldn't get away with that in America. He'd punch his dad on the nose. What are you doing?

Tying you up? Yes, I see that. For what? Well, you said there was no lamb. You're going to be the lamb. Me? Am I the sacrifice? You're the sacrifice. I forget who it is. Dore, I think, has a picture of Abraham with a dagger in his hand and his hand over the eyes of his son lying there, his big, fine, healthy son.

Boy, boy always lived in the open air. Athletic. And there's a man with a knife. He's bringing down the boy, that's a test. They've got the fire. They've got the altar. Well, you're going to be the sacrifice.

And he gets the knife and he's just bringing the knife down, getting it halfway down and the artist has it there where it's about a few inches just from the man's chest or heart and a voice says stay thy hand.

Do you know what the average Christian would say today? That's the voice of the devil. I can tell you, right, the bend of the river. Look back. You see where the river bends there? Those rocks, those trees?

It was there where God said take, and I'm going to take my son. Why did God give in to him? Abraham says I'll kill him. I don't mind, but I'll tell you this. As soon as I kill him in your name, I'm going to raise him up from the dead.

God says I can't win. Stay thy hand. I preached over this in Australia a dozen years ago. They have 50 million sheep, so I was in trouble. An old man came, he said oh, well, you missed something very vital this morning.

I said, I guess I missed rather one thing. Well, he said, you said as soon as he raised his hand, and a voice said, stay thy hand, there's a rustling in the trees, here is a tree, and he looks and there's a ram caught in the thicket.

I said, well that's what the Bible says. Well, he said, Mr. Ramsey, when they started building that altar, that ram wasn't there. I said, no. When they started binding the boy up, the ram wasn't there.

No. I said, how do you know? I said, that's not in my Bible. But he said, I know sheep. Let me tell you something he said. If a ram goes in the thicket and gets his horns fastened like that, it does one of two things.

He pulls until he approaches the trees, or he pulls until he pulls his horns out. But he won't stay there. You know, sometimes God was going to deliver you at the last second, or the last minute that you needed it, and at that moment you doubted him.

That moment you backed off. He's under no obligation to deliver you because you said, Lord, I mean, I need something here. Forget it. He's developing your character. He's planning something in your life you're going to have for eternity.

God help us. We go to church Sunday morning like parrots, and stand up and sing and sit down, and of course the offering bag has to come, and one or two other trimmings. Poor old choir has to croak away.

How often do we really meet God with any intelligence? How often do you tiptoe out of the sanctuary and say, surely God is in this place. God has to use dumb people like me. But I hope that through my voice somehow you hear an eternal voice.