Episode Transcript
<cite>Lance Lambert:</cite>
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<p>I want just this morning very simply to speak about mountains. Mountains. The Bible says a lot about mountains. Almost from its earliest chapters, it speaks about mountains. And mountains are symbolic, in the Bible, for many things. I want just very simply to take four ways in which I believe we have to face mountains. In every Christian's life, there are mountains. Sometimes they represent difficulty. They always, nearly always, represent impossibility. You see, mountains in the Bible speak, generally, of something which is rock-like, something which is enduring, something which cannot be moved. Immovable. And therefore, sometimes the idea is extended to a problem, or a difficulty an impasse something in our lives, a situation which will not yield, it is immovable. And as far as we're concerned, insoluble. It seems that nothing on earth, no amount of human ingenuity, or knowledge or zeal or devotion can do anything about that mountain. It remains. Unchanging, immovable. What should our attitude be to mountains? Well, this is not really a message so much as just a more conversational, but the first kind of mountain we find in Matthew 17. The first kind of mountain, Matthew 17 and verse 20. "Jesus said unto them, Because of your little faith, for verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you." If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove. Here is a mountain right, in the path of the believer, right in the path of the work of God, right in the path of the info, as you were frustrating hindering the fulfillment of the purpose of God concerning your life, or concerning the life of the churchor the work and what are we to do with it? It is immovable, something that's there day and night, when you go to sleep it's there, when you wake up, it's there, when you're at work, it's there. All through the day and night, 24 hours, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. There it is. A mountain in the way. This is exactly what the prophet Zechariah saw in the prophecy of Zechariah and chapter 4 and verse 7, "Who art thou, oh, great mountain," he said. It's all to do with the fulfilment of the purpose of God. The will of God getting done in his day and generation, and it seemed to, to Zechariah and to Zerubbabel and to some of these others who were such godly people filled with the Spirit, who were joined to the Lord yet somehow or other, it seemed impossible, so complex, so insoluble so invincible. Who are thou, oh, great mountain? Before Zerubabbel, thou shalt become a plain, and the top stone shall be brought forth with shouts of grace grace unto it. Do you ever wonder whether the purpose of God in you, for you, and for your life is going to be fulfilled? Conformed to the image of His Son. When we first set out, of course, we have many marvelous ideas. We're full of everything, but as we go on with the Lord, and we get to know ourselves and we get to know our circumstances, we get to know our temperament, we get to know what's really in us, we get to know our capacity for failure, as we go on so I think more and more we feel, "Can it ever be possible that I shall be conformed to the image of His Son?" Will this work in me ever really be done? A mountain. Oh, there are many other things. Sometimes the mountain is a husband. Sometimes the mountain is a wife. Sometimes the mountain are children. Sometimes the mountains are parents. Sometimes the mountain is an employer. Sometimes the mountains are employees. Sometimes the mountain are the go slow on the railway, for some of you. I mean, that may seem a bit trite, but there are certain ones whose whole livelihood depends upon it. And to lose one week's wages means that they're almost finished. And so it goes on. Mountains! Mountains, all kinds of things that act as a kind of mountain. Well, now, what can we say about this kind of mountain? Jesus, the Lord Jesus said, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place, get out of the way. That's all, get out of the way. And here's the miracle, it shall get out of the way. So evidently, there are some mountains that we can get moved. You know, there are Christians who often accept too much, that are things in their lives, things in our lives, things in our life, we just simply settle down to, we come to accept them, they are part and parcel of the contours of our life, we sort of, they're a landscape of our life, almost. And the Lord doesn't even want them there. He wants them shifted out of the way. Now, in Isaiah 64:1 Isaiah prays, Oh, that thou wouldest, rend the heavens that thou wouldst just come down that the mountains might flow down at thy presence. Just flow down, melt, melt at thy presence. Now, you see, our problem here is generally that we think that we are the people who get rid of the mountain. And because we are so self conscious about this matter, we never see mountain moved. Because all the time we're looking at ourselves to see whether we're strong enough, powerful enough, well equipped enough, spiritual enough, devoted enough, knowledgeable enough, correct enough to move a mountain. But the Lord Jesus never said, if you have devotion, or if you have knowledge, or if you have zeal, but he said, If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed. Now all of you know how small a grain of mustard seed is, it is almost impossible to see, at least from a distance. If I had a grain of mustard seed in my hand, very few of you, even those of you here in the front would just about see it in the palm of my hand. The Lord Jesus said that's the amount of faith you need. So it's obviously not the faith that shifts the mountain. It's the presence of the Lord that shifts the mountain. But it's faith, that little tiny grain of faith, which is the contact between God in his infinite power and supply and the mountain with its immovability. Now, if we can get God with His power to come into collision, speaking rather irreverently, with the mountain, we've done it. We've done it. So that's the secret. It's not that you've got a mountain like Richmond Hill, and therefore you've got to have faith as great as Richmond Hill. Or you may feel that you have a mountain like Jungfrau, or Mont Blanc, and therefore you've got to have faith as great as Jungfrau, or Mont Blanc, or Ben Nevis, if you come from out that way, or Snowdon, if you come from the other way. You've got to have faith at least as great as that mountain. If you have faith as great as that mountain, then you can shift it. If you've got an Everest, you must have faith as great as an Everest. But that's the way most of us think in this light. We think, well, I shall never see anything. Perhaps I could get the brothers to come in on it as well. Perhaps I could get brother so-and-so, or brother so-and-so, or brother so-and-so. Now there is, of course, the gift of faith. And there are those who have the gift of faith in the body of Christ that we can call in upon situations. That is absolutely true. Nevertheless, The fact remains that we have a misconception. We think that if we could only get enough faith collected together, pooled together, we'll get something done. But it's not the amount of faith. It's the exercise of the faith. So we may have only faith as a grain of mustard seed. But if we will only exercise that little faith, we can see some of the mountains moved. Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, oh great mountain, before Zerubabbel? Well, Zerubabbel was quite a weak chap. He was only just the same as you and I, he's not one of the really great men of the Bible, not as we might say, a Moses or a David, but he was a Zerubabbel, just like you are you. And the Lord didn't say, before Moses this mountain shall become a plain, or before Samuel this mountain will become a plain or before David, this mountain shall become a plain. But He said before Zerubabbel, the one who is facing the problem. Zerubabbel was in charge of the work. He was the governor, he was in charge of the work, the governor of Judah, appointed by the Persian emperor. And therefore he was the one who was facing the insoluble difficulties of the whole thing. Before Zerubabbel the mountain shall become a plain. Well, there couldn't be any greater difference between a mountain and a plain. But when the Holy Spirit comes into collision with the mountain, it's turned into a plain. It's leveled, every mountain and hill shall be made low. That's what happened. And it's our little bit of faith, that somehow almost weakling reaches out, brings God into it, like the man who said, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. I never could understand that, till I read it in Philips. And I think that version of his, whilst it's more of a paraphrase than a translation is so wonderfully helpful. I have faith, he puts it, but where my faith falls short, take over. Now that is real faith. That is real faith. I've got faith, like a grain of mustard seed, Lord. I don't feel it's enough for this. Where it comes short of getting this son of mine really healed and delivered, take over, Lord. There was the grain of mustard seed, faith. And the Lord said, right in we come and it was done. And so it is with every mountain. When the mountain's gone, of course, you think, where's it gone? It's always [like that] every one of these things afterwards. We've known it here, haven't we, in the history of this little company? You've known it in your life, when you think about it, things that seem very big to you, suddenly, you took a new step over them with the Lord, and when it had gone you thought, where's it gone? It couldn't have been as easy as that? Why ever did I put up with it for so long? The fact was that the Lord came in and it flowed down at his presence, and then when you looked back, it was a plain. It had completely gone. You took a step in faith. Some people want to have a kind of encyclopaedic knowledge before they take a step of faith. I must understand they say. I must understand everything I feel this, I feel that, I feel the other, I've got this doubt and that doubt and the other doubt, but look here, this question of mustard seed faith is not that you just have an expulsion of every doubt, of every fear, it's not that at all. The Lord didn't say a coconut of faith, He said a mustard seed faith. Something so small, that it's almost insignificant, the devil can sneer at it. He can come to you and say you don't think you're going to get anything done. Your faith, it can hardly be seen. It can hardly be seen. Don't you know the enemy come like that to you, and say to you, you'll never see anything done in your circumstances or your life because you're this, you're that, you're the other, and the other, and the other. You just haven't got good faith, real faith, powerful faith like some of these other people. But you have. Buried underneath all that is a grain of faith, because you couldn't have been saved otherwise. And there it is. Now, if you will only say. You see, most of us only think. You see, we sought to say in our thinking it out, yes I think perhaps the Lord could shed this thing. Really I do. I think He could, I do really. But it never comes onto our lips. The Lord never said, If you should meditate about this mountain, and think about it being removed to yonder place, it shall be done. He never said that. Nor did He say, if you shall silently pray, let this mountain be cast. He said if you shall say, not even pray, if you shall say remove hence to yonder place it shall remove and nothing shall be impossible. Now when God says nothing, He means nothing. People always whittle this down. I'm known to be a person who tends to exaggerate. [Laughter] So consequently, if I say that there were, oh there were thousands and thousands there, some of them think there were hundreds and hundreds. Or if I say it was a riot of colour, they say there was some colour there. Or if I say the sky was black with birds, they say, well, there was a sort of flock of seagulls flying over. You see, and this is how many of us think about the Lord. If He says nothing shall be impossible unto you we think no, no, most things. If He says, no word of His is void of power, we think most words of His or not void of power. That's how we think. We seem to think, now that is just an exaggeration for the means of teaching us to put it over. But God is not a liar, and God never plays with words. And when God says, nothing shall be impossible unto you, He means precisely what He says. Nothing, nothing shall be impossible. So there is a grain of mustard seed faith, that can bring the infinite power of God into collision with the mountains and get them moved, the mountain becomes a plain. Think of that. Are there mountains in your life you've put up with, you think they're part of the landscape, part of your, sort of, geography, and you've just got to find a way around them. Dear child of God, don't just take it on, there may be things you should be standing up and saying something. And what do you say? Say, say out of the way in the name of the Lord. Now, if it happens to be a relative, [laughter] or an employer, or an employee, please do not take my words literally on this matter. Shut yourself in some room, according to the Scripture, shut the door, lock it and say out loud, this mountain out of the way in the name of the Lord. But I mean, the fact is, do say it. It's the declaration of truth. What is the truth about that situation in Zerubabbel's day, the truth is this, God said His house was going to be built and must be built. God said, the work will be finished. That's the truth. There was a mountain in the way, and all the facts and all the feelings said it can never be done. It can never be done. It can never be done. It must be another century, another generation. When finally this word was said, who art thou, oh, great mountain, before Zerubabbel thou shalt become a plain and the top stone shall be brought forth. There was a word of faith, a declaration of the truth, and it happened. We know that it happened. Well I must go on very swiftly because the second thing I just want to say is this. Now there are other mountains which the Lord does not move, Isaiah 49. Here it is, verse 11. And I will make all my mountains a way. Now will you please note very carefully that they are My mountains. That is, His mountains. Now they are all in our lives, and in the work of God and in the life of the church, mountains, which are mountains of God's making. They are mountains which are not removed and never will be. No faith will move those. But God makes them a way. Have you ever heard of such a thing? He makes them a way. He drives a motor way through them. A kind of wave through it, so that they become a means of getting from this point to that point. Now any of you who know anything about mountainous country, who have either been on holiday or have had to travel in mountainous country, you know the impossibility of mountainous ranges, sometimes there are places I go to where, as the crow flies, it's just a few miles, but there is a mountain range right in the way, and therefore I'm told it will take a whole day to get there. Mountainous ranges lie in the way. If it only was a plain, we could get there very, very quickly. But even by car, or boat, or whatever it is, it takes a long time because there are mountainous ranges in the way. Now God says of certain mountains, which are His mountains, I will make them a way. So that the miraculous happens, not in the removing of the mountain, but in making the very mountain, the means by which the purpose of God is fulfilled. What is a way? A way is a means of communication. A way is a means of transport, is a means of getting from point A to point B. God says, I will make all My mountains, all My mountains a way. Isn't that marvelous? All My mountains, we look at them sometimes, and we think, oh my. But it seems to me that whenever God is going to do something really big, He makes sure that there are plenty of mountains about. Just like Jerusalem is surrounded with mountains, it seems to me that whenever God is going to do something He sort of says, Now just to see that the glory comes to Myself, I'm going to make a whole lot of mountains here, which mean that these folk cannot get through except by Me. Now, it's not the removing of the mountains in this instance, it's the mountains themselves becoming the very means by which the word and will of God is performed. Do you know any mountains like that in your life? Mountains over which God can say, I will make My mountains a way. There's so much more that one could say about that. But I think really we have to leave it and pass to the third point which is in Habakkuk. Really comes out of the last one, it's chapter three and verse 19. Jehovah, the Lord is my strength. And He maketh my feet like hinds feet, and will make me to walk upon my high places. Now this isn't even a way. Here are mountains, and Habakkuk calls them, not the Lord's, but mine. Now, this is interesting. He doesn't say these are the Lord's mountains, but they are mine. They are something to do with my own personality, with my own temperament, with my own background, and here again, there is something which God is not moving. But what does he do? He doesn't remove the mountain, he changes the person. So instead of being sort of a person who is unable to live in this habitat, he becomes a person equipped to live in that habitat. Now, an elephant would not be much, well he would not have a good time in these high places, these mountains. But a hind, if you've ever seen a hind, can leap from rock to rock. They don't have to have ways. They don't have to have paths made so that they can walk, of course in some of the zoos we go to they've made some nice little ledges for them to run around. But I mean quite honestly, in the mountains, the hinds have got their own natural made ledges. Have you ever seen them? Frighten one of those gazelles and they're off like a flash leaping from play. You wonder, how on earth are they so sure footed? How do those feet somehow grip the rock? God has given them such agility, and such capacity, such ability. Now really what Habakkuk is saying is this, naturally I'm an elephant. But God will make my feet like hinds feet, and will make me to walk upon my high places. He will change the kind of feet I've got for the kind of feet, which can live in this terrain, this kind of mountainous country. Mountains. I think, in this connection, that there are a number of things in scripture we find here. This Habakkuk, you'll remember, was speaking about, though the fig tree shall not flourish, verse 17, neither shall the fruit be in the vine, the labor of the olives shall fail and the field shall yield no food, the flock shall be cut off from the foal, there'll be no herd in the stalls, that was rough country. Rough country. God wasn't gonna change that. That was the Word of God for that nation. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord, Jehovah, the Lord is my strength, he maketh my feet like hinds feet, and will make me to walk upon my high places, I shall be able to live in this situation, I shall be able to find provision in this situation, I shall be able to find fulfilment in this situation. An impossible situation. This time, God doesn't remove the mountain, and He doesn't even make a great, broad highway there. But He changes the feet. So that the person himself or herself can live in it. And not only bear it, not just bear it, but rejoice in it, so that it becomes their scenery and their very life. If you've ever seen hinds, they're very happy in their mountainous Highlands. I always think in connection of this with the apostle Paul, in II Corinthians and chapter 12. When we that he was given a thorn in the flesh. Concerning, verse eight, concerning this thing, I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me, I have no doubt that the apostle Paul used his grain of faith on this, but it didn't work. And he thought, well now, Lord, what is wrong here? I mean, You've used me to heal others. You've used me to see so many other miracles take place. And here am I, I've asked You, and I'm quite sure he asked earnestly, and Lord and I've exercised faith and not a thing has happened. And then the word of the Lord came to him, My grace is sufficient for thee. Now, three times he did this, I know that we have no ground for saying this, but my own conviction is that it wasn't immediately, it wasn't that he went off and then came back and had another go, and then went off and then came back all within a day or two. I think that it's probable that when the Lord said My grace is sufficient, that lasted him for a year or so. And then it got on top of him again, and he went back and said Lord, You've got to remove this thing. This is the finish of the ministry. This is the finish of everything. You've got to take this thing away. But the Lord said again, My grace is sufficient for thee. And so perhaps again later, three times he came to a crisis on this thing, three times he earnestly took hold of the Lord, in faith, deal with this thing, deliver me from this thing. Three times the Lord said to him, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my power is made perfect, brought to fullness, completion, in your weakness. My power is made perfect in weakness. Then here come the hinds feet. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Wherefore, listen, he's made this terrain, his home. Wherefore, I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then am I become strong. He's got hinds feet. The mountain hasn't been made a great broad way for him just to drive down, or go in a chariot down as in the old days, by horseback. This time, he's got hinds foot, his feet have been changed, so that he can walk over rough ground and live in it and find provision in it, and be joyful in it. I always think, of course, again, in connection with this, in Revelation 21 and verse 21, the 12 gates were pearl, the 12 gates were pearls. I have often said to you, you know how a pearl is formed, by a bit of grit, an ugly piece of grit, being any old bit of grit, any ugly, worthless bit of grit being dropped into the softest, most tender part of the clam. And then all the resources of the life in that clam are sort of drawn out to try and get rid of the grit. And a coat is put round it. One, and then another, and then another, and then another. And lo and behold, the grit becomes a pearl. He will make my feet hinds feet, and out of that, will come something for the City of God. I will give thee the treasures of of dark places, hidden riches, Isaiah 45, I think it is, and verse 3, I will give thee the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places that thou mayest know that it is I, the Lord, who called thee by thy name, even the God of Israel. Well, there you are, mountains. The last mountain, I can only just mention it. It's a quite different one. And you find it in Isaiah chapter two, and verse two, And it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills. Isn't it an interesting thing that when Ezekiel saw this house, and when John saw this house, both of them saw it from the top of a high mountain, in Revelation 21 and verse 10, it says, And he carried me away in the spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. And I like to think not only that that speaks of the rock like nature of God, but I also like to think that it speaks of that which is impossible, finally, coming to pass. The mountain of the Lord built, the house of the Lord built on the mountain of the Lord. That, dear child of God, means that you and I have to climb. And really, that's what we're doing. So here there are four different ways of looking at mountains. I pray that God will help every one of you not to look on mountains that ought to be removed as His mountains which He makes a way, and not, on the other hand, to expect mountains to be removed where he wants to change you and give you the kind of feet that will enable you to live in such terrain. May God help us. There are many mountains that ought not to be here in our lives, and there are other mountains that the Lord wants to make a way. And there are other mountains that the Lord wants to give us feet to get into. And there's a mountain above all, in which He's building His eternal home and dwelling place. Dear Lord, we pray very especially that the Holy Spirit will not allow any one of us to misunderstand or misinterpret this word in such a way, Lord, that where there are mountains that ought to be removed, we start thinking of them, Lord, as Thy mountains. We pray that the Holy Spirit will make perfectly clear to the youngest of us, all of us, Lord, what kind of mountains there are in our lives. Whether they're the mountains that should be removed, got out of the way, made a plain, whether they're the mountains, Lord that are Thy mountains to be made a way, a highway, or whether it's mountains, Lord, in which in Thy sovereignty, Thou wouldst give us hinds feet, that we might live, or Lord above all, that we might all see that mountain, that Mount Zion, dear Lord, in which Thou art building Thy eternal habitation. Dear beloved Lord, we commit this simple word to Thee, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.</p>
