Mountain-Moving Faith

Doug Batchelor: There's a power of faith that God has wired in every human. You know, Jesus never said, "My faith has made you whole." He always said, "Your faith has made you whole."

Doug Batchelor: You know, we're going to be talking about "Mountain-Moving Faith" tonight and that Jesus-- I'll tell you why. Jesus made a statement in Mark 11, verse 22, "Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes those things that he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."

Now that's a big promise. But what is Jesus talking about? Say to a mountain, "Be plucked up and moved into the sea." You can read in Micah 7:19, "He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all of our sins into the depths of the sea." So what is it that we moved-- need moved? We don't need a mountain of dirt, we need to have God remove a mountain of sin. And some of us have bigger mountains than others, but God is in the business of moving mountains. And through faith in Christ, that mountain can be moved and cast into the sea. And I remind you again that the deepest ocean in the world, the Marianas Trench, is 36,000 feet deep and the tallest mountain, Mount Everest, is just under 29,000 feet, meaning you could submerge Mount Everest in the deepest ocean and it would be completely covered.

You can submerge all of our sins in God's mercy and it'll be completely removed from God's sight. He casts our sins into the depths of the sea and he sets up a "no fishing" sign. Faith, mountain-moving faith.

So we're going to be talking about this subject of faith because it is crucial in our salvation, but I want to begin by previewing a story about the Promised Land, talking about these 12 spies. So in your Bibles, the story we're going to use as a springboard is Numbers chapter 13. Before they entered the Promised Land, people had not been there their whole lives. They hadn't been there in generations. They wondered what it looked like. And they persuaded Moses to let them send some spies to sort of preview things, see what the state of things was, and he agreed. And then it tells us the names of these 12 spies.

Most of them have evaporated into history, but we remember two of them: Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh. And he sends them out and it says that now Moses--verse 17. Numbers 13, verse 17, "Then Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and he said to them, 'Go up this way into the South, and go up into the mountains, and see what the land is like: whether the people who dwell there are strong or weak, few or many; whether the land they dwell in is good or bad; whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds; whether the land is rich or poor; whether they are forests or not. Be of good courage.'"

He's saying, "'Be courageous, have faith, and bring some of the fruit of the land.' Now the time was the season of first ripe grapes. So they went and they spied out the land from the Wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, near the entrance of Hamath. And they went up through the South and came to Hebron." These are the mountains of Hebron. "And Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were there. And they came to the valley of Eshcol, and there they cut down a branch with one cluster of grapes; and carried it between two of them on a pole. And they brought some of the pomegranates and the figs." And it says, "They returned," in verse 25, "from spying out the land after forty days." So they departed and they come back.

Now, right away you find out when they return there's a big difference between ten of the spies and two of the spies. Two of the spies get there first, Joshua and Caleb I suspect. I think they're probably the ones carrying this enormous cluster of grapes. And they said, "The land through which you send us is a land that truly flows with milk and honey, and here's the fruit of it." And they began to toss big old grapes to everybody. You got grapes as big. I was in Australia and I really saw grapes that big. And so they're giving all these grapes to everybody and they're tossing them figs, and pomelos, and there's probably fruit flies everywhere because they've been carrying all this sticky fruit for days. And the people are rejoicing, but then the other ten guys who had been dragging along, Joshua and Caleb knew this wasn't going to go well. They brought back a negative report.

You see, as they first began to go through the Promised Land, they looked at the walls of Jericho and they thought, "Wow, those walls are massive. How are we ever going to conquer a city with a fortress like that? Impossible. Look at the size of their armies." They came to the mountains of Hebron, "Look at the size of the Anakim. They're giants. We feel like grasshoppers. How can we conquer a nation like this?" And everywhere they went, they just saw all the problems and they forgot the promises of God. The reason it was called the Promised Land is because God promised to give it to them and they forgot how far God had brought them out of Egypt.

Have you ever made that mistake? You forget all the miracles that God performs for you and you wonder if he can finish what he started in your life. Well, those ten spies show up and they say, "Oh no, we're never going to make it." You can listen. And it tells us, after they say it's a beautiful land in verse 28, then the ten spies begin the majority report. "Oh, the people who dwell in the land are strong; and the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the south; the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains." How can we conquer these mountains? "And the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan." And all the people began to moan, I suspect, because it says, "Caleb quieted the people." Why would it say that except they were starting to moan and complain? "He quieted them before Moses, and said, 'Let us go up at once.'"

Now, he had just come back from wandering through this land for 40 days. He's ready to go take it right now. It says, "'Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.' But the men who had gone up with him said, 'We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.' And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land that they spied out." Alright, friends. Right there I've summed up just if you want to know who's going to make it and who's not going to make it. If you don't think you'll make it, you won't make it. If you believe that God can lead you in, you can make it. All things are possible to those that believe. Caleb said, "We are able." The other group said, "We are not able." And what's really sad is they were all church members.

Now, when we talk about taking the Promised Land and conquering the mountains, having mountain-moving faith, you know, there are people in the church today that says Jesus just came to give you grace to cover your sin. Don't really expect any change in your life or victory over sin, just accept his grace and just enjoy that, and don't worry about striving, or fighting, or wrestling against temptation, or running the race of life. They act like if there's any effort involved in being a Christian, it's a lack of faith. That is categorically not true.

The Bible is very clear that faith means that you might need to fight a good fight of faith. Caleb believed they could take the Promised Land and Caleb was also willing to fight for it. David believed he could conquer Goliath and he said even when he went against Goliath, "You come against me with a sword, and a spear, and a shield. I come against you with the Lord." His faith was in God, but he had a sling, and he had a stone, and he had a staff.

And so the Christian life is using all of the ability that God has given you, trusting God, moving forward, trusting God. But you must surrender all of your human ability to the Lord. You do need to engage your will. You must surrender your heart to him. And there is effort involved. Why does the Bible say, "Resist the devil. Flee from temptation"? And sometimes there's a struggle involved. I think people need to be reminded that part of the conversion is fighting the good fight of faith, but it takes courage to do that.

What happened to these other ten spies? Moses said, "Don't be discouraged. Have courage. Believe." Well, they get discouraged. They looked at the problems instead of the promise. They lost faith because they kept focusing on the negative. And we still have the same issue today. Here we are now, we are on the borders of the Promised Land. The question is, do God's people believe that he is still a God that can move mountains? So I'm going to go through some points that I hope will help illustrate this truth, so let's begin talking about the prerequisite of faith.

Why is faith so important? You cannot be saved without faith. Now, God wouldn't say that unless it was possible for you to have faith. Hebrews 11, verse 6, "Without faith it is impossible to please him, for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and he is the rewarder of those that diligently seek him." Faith is possibly the single most important element in the Christian life.

Anything a person does in attempting to be a Christian means absolutely nothing if he lacks faith. The Bible says, "Whosoever believeth in him," John 3:16. It all boils down to believing in God. The words of Christ, Matthew 6, verse 30, "Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is today, and tomorrow thrown in the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" How often Jesus made a big issue out of a little faith. Matthew 8:26, he said to the disciples, "Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?" And then Luke 18, verse 8, Jesus said, "Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he really find faith on the earth?" What was Jesus looking for? He wanted to see faith.

A weak faith is weakened by predicaments and catastrophes, whereas a great faith is strengthened by them. The reason that Job is mentioned in the Bible is because he was a man who had developed faith before he ever got to his trials. One man came to Jesus with his son and said, "Lord, if you can do anything." And Jesus said, "If you believe, all things are possible to him that believes." That "statement, All things are possible with God," is found about four times in the New Testament. The angel said to Mary, and several times with God, "All things are possible." All things is--really means all things. Mark--I'm sorry, Ephesians 2, verse 8, "For by grace you've been saved through faith." Habakkuk 2, verse 4, "The just will live by his faith." Galatians, "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus." Romans 5:1, "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

So I hope I've made my case, friends, that a prerequisite for anyone to be saved is believing in God. We must believe in God. Well, that leads us to the next important point and I'm going to spend a little time on this, and that's the prevalence of faith. You might be thinking, "The Lord is making it so impossible by asking me to have this supernatural, extraordinary faith, and I just--I'm not a person of faith." I don't believe that.

I believe that everybody has faith. The question is, where is your faith? Now, the Bible tells us this. Romans chapter 12, verse 3, "God has dealt to every man the measure of faith." And keep in mind, salvation doesn't just come by faith, it comes by faith in the Lord. Every time someone was healed by Jesus, you know, Jesus never said, "My faith has made you whole." He always said, "Your faith has made you whole."

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Well, let's get back to the rest of today's presentation and learn some more amazing facts from the Word of God.

Doug Batchelor: You know, the two people that Jesus especially complemented in the Bible were Pagans that demonstrated their faith in him. You remember, there was this woman that she persisted in asking Jesus to heal her daughter. And even though Christ was trying to send her away, he said, you know, "Can't take the children's food and give it to the dogs." He was testing her faith. She said, "Yes, but even the puppies get the crumbs." He said, "Woman, great is your faith. Your daughter is healed." He just did that to illustrate something for the apostles.

Then there's the Roman centurion. He said, "You don't even need to come to my house." And Jesus turned around in amazement and said, "I've not seen this kind of faith in all of Israel." Two blind men come to Jesus and said, "Lord!" He said, "What do you want?" "That our eyes might be opened." He said, "Be it unto you according to your faith." Now, that seems like a pretty tall order.

Jesus is telling us that if we have faith in him, all things are possible to him that believes. I'm not suggesting you go buy a lottery ticket and then have faith you've got the winning number. It's not that kind of faith. The principle thing that Jesus wants to have us learn about the power of faith is that through faith in him, we can have the mountain moved, that we can get victory over our sins, that we can be transformed, that we can become like Christ. The purpose of the plan of salvation, the angel said, "You'll call his name Jesus for he will save his people from," what? "From their sins."

God wants us to have faith that we can be saved, that he can transform us. You know, so often the battles in the Bible, you see when they went into battle trusting the Lord, they won. Old Testament's full of battles. People say, "Pastor Doug, why is the Old Testament full of war?" All of those battles are illustrating our battle with the devil. Doesn't matter if there were 20,000 enemy soldiers and they only had ten, when they went into battle--Samson killed a thousand with a jawbone with the Spirit of the Lord.

When you go into battle with the Lord, someone once said you and God are always a majority. And when Jonathan and his armor bearer went against the Philistine garrison, he said, "There's no restraint for the Lord to deliver by few or many." They went it faith and they got the victory over this whole contingent of soldiers. Two men because they had faith. So there's this prevalence of faith that we see all through the Bible and the Lord wants us to demonstrate that. Then you've got the production of faith.

All right, so there's faith out there and I've got a little bit of faith. How do I grow my faith? Well, the answer's in the Bible. The disciples came to Jesus. They said, "Lord, increase our faith." And Jesus said, "Impossible, you only get so much at birth and that's your quota." That's not what he said. The reason they said, "Increase our faith," and Jesus responded is because it is possible for you to have your faith increased. How does that happen? "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."

As you read the Bible, your faith will grow. Which leads me to another important element in how you can have more production of your faith. Look at the story of David, David and Goliath. So when David says to King Saul, "I believe that I could whip that giant," the king said, "He is a soldier from his youth and you are just a youth. What makes you think you can beat him? He's twice your size." David said, "Well, I've just got blind faith." That's not what he said. David said, "I've got evidence for my confidence. When I was taking care of my father's sheep, a bear showed up and God gave me the strength and the spirit to kill the bear. And then later a lion came to get the sheep and God delivered the lion into my hand. And through God's faith working through me, I killed a bear, I killed a lion. True, they're smaller than the giant, but I've got evidence, and based on the evidence of what God did for me with the lion and the bear, I believe that he can help me kill the giant."

When the Lord brought the children of Israel to the shores, the borders of the Promised Land, hadn't the Lord given them evidence to believe? Look at all those incredible plagues that came on the Egyptians, and how God provided water out of a rock, and bread from heaven, and victory over the Amalekites. He had given them evidence for their faith and that's why they were without excuse when he said to that generation, "You can't go into the Promised Land because you just don't believe."

And friends, that's something-- it's kind of a sobering thought, but I don't want to rush past it. Those that did not believe that God could bring them into the Promised Land and give them victory did not make it into the Promised Land.

You must believe that your Jesus is bigger than your devil. Nobody has a problem having faith in the devil. Everybody glorifies the devil all the time, saying, "Oh yeah, the devil got me to do this and the devil got me to do that." And you know, they just take it for granted that the devil is going to have his way in their life. But when you say, "Well, don't you think that Jesus is bigger than the devil? Doesn't the Bible say, 'Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world'?" And so through Christ, we are able to get the victory and conquer and overcome these mountains. So you can have more faith. Matthew 17, verse 20, "Assuredly, I say to you, if you've got faith as a mustard seed, you'll say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go forth except by prayer and fasting."

So read the Bible, you get faith, look at the evidence of God's leading in your past and it'll grow your faith, and prayer will grow your faith. So when you pray and you get answers to your prayer, your faith gets bigger. Have you ever prayed before for something that was just really extraordinary, and then God answered your prayer and you go, "Wow, why would I doubt God? He's so powerful. He's answered so many prayers before." Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible, and receives the impossible.

All right, well, at this point I want to talk a little bit about the poison of pessimism. You can read here where it says in Matthew chapter 4, verse 3, "When the tempter came to Jesus, he said, 'If you're the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.'" Now, what did he say? "If." For the devil, everything is about an "if." You know, when Christ was hanging on the cross, there was that thief on the left and he said, "If you're the Son of God, save yourself and us." And the high priest, when Christ was being tried, he said, "If you're the Son of God." So the word "if," it obviously denotes some doubt. And so God is not wanting us to have doubt, he's wanting us to have faith.

James chapter 1, verse 6, When someone comes to the Lord and they're wanting deliverance, he said, "But when a person prays, let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose he'll receive anything from the Lord; a double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways." Some of us need to pray and say, "Lord, forgive my unbelief." Start believing that God can.

And you know, I think it's important for us to speak positively to those that are around us. So many Christians are negative to each other. We need to encourage each other that we can do all things through Christ. Abraham Lincoln said, "We complain because roses have thorns, but we ought to rejoice that the thorn bushes have roses." And that's--several variations of that have been quoted. So not only do we have the production of faith to avoid the poison of pessimism, so don't be constantly rehearsing disbelief.

Then there's the perseverance of faith. Faith is not something that just happens in a moment. Faith represents a persistence. They were 40 days exploring the Promised Land even though they saw--they saw that the giants were bigger. They saw the walls of Jericho were bigger. They saw that they had, you know, better weapons, the people in the Promised Land. Caleb and Joshua, they saw that, but they persisted in believing in God. They hung on. Faith persists. You know how you move a mountain? An ant can move a mountain one grain of sand at a time. You've just got to persist. 1 Timothy 6:12, "Fight the good fight of faith." It is a fight. It's a battle. "Lay hold on eternal life." Now, the language that Paul is using there, he's kind of talking about, like, when Jacob got ahold of the angel and he said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."

Take ahold of the promises of God. Lay hold of them, and reach out for the horns of the altar, and just plead for mercy. Sometimes we give up so easy. Pray persistently. 1 John 4, verse 4 and 5, "For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world." What is it? "Our faith. Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" Spurgeon said, "A little faith will bring your soul to heaven. A great faith will bring heaven to your soul." Faith does not--George Mueller, who's a great man of faith, he said, "Faith does not operate in the realm of possibility. There's no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man's power ends."

You might say, "Lord, I'm helpless. I can't do it." That's when you really give God permission to roll up his sleeves. Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try one more time. You've heard the expression, and that, by the way, is Thomas Edison, who wasn't a Christian but he made some good statements. Someone said, "Triumph is the combination of try and oomph." Sometimes Christians forget about the oomph. There is some effort involved in being a Christian. You’ve got to wrestle sometimes in prayer. And this is a great quote by Bernard of Clairvaux, "Only by desertion can we be defeated. With Christ and for Christ, victory is certain. We can lose the victory by flight, but not by death. Happy you are if you die in battle, for after death you'll be crowned. But woe to you if by forsaking the battle you forfeit both at one time the victory and the crown."

So many people give up, and for little temporary relief, they sacrifice to the devil. Friends, and then there is power in faith when you believe all things are possible. You know, I didn't give you the rest of the story. You can look in the book of Joshua, in chapter 14. Caleb is 85 years old and he comes to Joshua. They'd conquered a bunch of other nations. And Caleb says to Joshua, "You know that 40 years ago, when we were spies, I believe that God could lead us in. And I saw these mountains where these beautiful, fertile soil, the southern exposure, and the springs," in what we now call Judea, the area of Hebron, better known as the mountains of the Anakim where the giants lived. Caleb said, "I'm 85 years old now, but I am as strong now for going out to battle, for coming in." And then he makes these famous words. He says, "Give me this mountain." He believed that with faith he could overcome a mountain. Joshua blessed him. Caleb led the children of Judah. They conquered the giants. And the reason the Jews settled in where are we now say Jerusalem is because that old man had faith that he could overcome mountains and giants because all things are possible with God.

Friends, don't underestimate what you can do. Don't give the devil the glory. Jesus said that he can set you free. He can save you from your sins and cast that mountain into the depths of the sea. Do you believe what Jesus promises?

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Announcer: The statistics are grim. Millions have been infected by coronavirus. Thousands have died. Race riots have broken out on streets. Political tensions are at an all-time high. Does the Bible have anything to say about the times in which we are living?

Doug Batchelor: Hi, friends. This is Pastor Doug Batchelor. Many people are wondering if the world's about to implode. Some are fearful that global events point to a coming crisis unlike anything we've ever witnessed.

Did you know the Bible book of Revelation actually speaks about the days in which we're living now? And it contains a message of hope, if we would only listen. That's why I'd like to invite you to "Revelation Now: Decoding the Bible's Greatest Prophecies." In this multi-part series, I'll be sharing relevant truths for our time from the last book in the Bible.

Announcer: Coming October 23. To learn more, visit revelationnow.com.

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