No. 53 - THE MOUNTAIN OF GOD’S HOUSE By: John J. Blanchard Friday, October 01, 2004 Day Two of the Feast of Tabernacles Mountains have always fascinated mankind. There have been many prints, photos and paintings of snowcapped mountains and all of their majesty, beauty and the power that they show just by their very presence. Often times we will see springs of water coming down the sides of the mountains and sometimes forming waterfalls. Mountains can also be sinister. Mount St. Helens, according to the news, is about ready to blow, as they say. It is about ready to blow its top again as it did about twenty years ago. When a volcano blows, out comes ash, dirt and molten lava and often times death and destruction. As a matter of fact, the loudest noise ever heard on the earth, as far as we know, was the blowing up of a volcano called Krakatoa in the late 1800’s. It blotted out much of the sun over much of the earth. Here in the United States in New England, they said it was a year without summer. It was a dark summer and nothing grew. It was because there was so much ash in the atmosphere from that volcano. It is no wonder that people have often ascribed spiritual significance to mountains. Because of the power and the beauty of the sinister destructive force within them, mankind over the centuries has ascribed religious and spiritual significance to mountains. Many cultures to this very day revere mountains. They worship there in some cases, and they honor their gods. We are told in the Bible that we are not to worship creation; we are to worship the Creator of the earth. We do not worship mother earth, as if the mother of the people on the earth is the physical planet itself. No, we worship the God who created us all, and we know that is Jesus Christ, the Logos, the Word. But that does not mean that there isn’t some sort of significance to mountains. We are not to worship them, but the Bible has much to say about mountains. I want to look at a few scriptures about that, but first I want to talk about God and His commandments. I want to see what He says about creation and not worshipping it but worshipping Him. It is tied together with a mountain. We will look at that in Deuteronomy. Turn to Deuteronomy, please, chapter 5, where God gave the Ten Commandments. Read Deuteronomy 5:6-10. So God says do not worship the earth. Make nothing from the earth or from the bottom of the sea to worship. In essence, when we take a mountain and worship that, we have done just that. We take the whole mountain and worship it. THE COVENANT AT MOUNT SINAI Yet I want to back up here and take note of where God was speaking from on this particular occasion. Back up to Deuteronomy 5, verse 1: “And Moses called all Israel, and said to them: ‘Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your hearing today, that you may learn them and be careful to observe them. The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.’” That is the name of a mountain. Verse 3: “‘The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive. The Lord talked with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire.’” Mt. Horeb, another name for Mt. Sinai, is where God delivered the Ten Commandments. If you would, turn back to Exodus 19:1, where this just precedes the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20. “In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the same day, they came to the Wilderness of Sinai. For they had departed from Rephidim, had come to the Wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness. So Israel camped there before the mountain.” This assembled crowd of about 3 to 3.5 million people camped before Mt. Sinai which is another name for Mt. Horeb. Continue in verse 3 and read to verse 11. The people agreed that they were going to do whatever God told them. They heard the words of Moses, and Moses took their words of agreement back to God. Thus they formed a covenant. Then God said sanctify the people for I will come and speak to them directly from the mountain. Continue reading in verse 12 to 25. God then delivered the Ten Commandments. God spoke the words of the commandments from a mountain, Mt. Sinai (Mt. Horeb). The mountain was engulfed in smoke and quaked. The people were very afraid, as you can imagine. Mt. Sinai and Mt. Horeb are the same mountain, and the people could not touch or come near that mountain. If they did, they would die. MOSES WAS CALLED AT MOUNT SINAI I would like to go back to the first mention of Mt. Sinai (or Mt. Horeb) in the Bible. Turn back to Exodus chapter 3. That was not the first time that something special had happened on that mountain. Read Exodus 3:1-6. On the same mountain God first called Moses. He called this holy ground because of His presence there. He did not say worship this ground. He said I am the God of your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Because I am here, where you are standing is holy ground) just like that mountain was when Israel was encamped before it and God came down). Do not touch the mountain lest you die. This was an amazing thing that had happened on this mountain twice now. God made this covenant with the people at that point, too, from that same place on the earth. You cannot tell me that mountains do not have significance to God. He uses them in remarkable ways to His own purposes. He is the Creator of the earth, and that is why He said I own the earth. It is My earth. Do not worship the earth. Worship Me, the Creator. As you can see, today we are going to talk about mountains. In one sermon we really can only just scratch the surface, because mountains are mentioned all the way from the beginning of the Bible to the end. They are mentioned in significant and very, very important ways. I want to start by saying there are essentially two kinds of mountains on the physical earth in a broad definition. You have beautiful solid stable mountains, as you see in paintings and pictures. There are snowcapped mountains or beautiful lush tall hills with trees and plant life growing on them. You also have very unstable mountains like Mount St. Helens with a huge crater in the top, and a dangerous mountain that can blow up. It is unstable. So we have two types of mountains. One you would admire and say it is beautiful. The other you would fear, and that is God’s point here. We are going to see that through the Bible there are different mountains. I have stood on the rim of a volcano and looked down inside. It is sinister. It is one of the most sinister-looking things you would ever want to see. All the land around you is black with lava dust and bitumen. Nothing grows on it. Down in the crater you see the lava swishing and swirling and coming out with plumes of smoke from time to time. The one that I saw was like thousands of lions down in the bottom roaring. It sounded like roaring lions. In essence, that was an opening to the bottomless pit! It goes right down to the molten core of the earth, and it is letting some of that molten iron come to the surface. From time to time, those things blow up and kill people. It really is a sinister mountain. It is not like the Rocky Mountains which you look at and see them as beautiful. SPIRITUAL COUNTERPARTS OF MOUNTAINS The mountains on the earth have spiritual counterparts. That is what we want to talk about today. There are spiritual counterparts to the physical mountains that you see. The spiritual counterparts cannot be seen at this time, but they are there. I want to start developing the theme here by going to Daniel chapter 2. It is an overall snapshot of the history of the kingdoms of the earth. It has much to do with God’s mountain. Daniel 2, read verses 31-35 where Daniel is talking to King Nebuchadnezzar. King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that had portrayed in advance the coming kingdoms of the earth that would go right down to the latter days. At the end time, a stone cut without human hands would destroy that image. Then it would grow into a huge mountain that would cover the whole earth. If you turn back to Isaiah, this mountain is mentioned several times. We will read Isaiah chapter 11:6-9 where it is talking about the Millennium, what we are picturing here at the Feast site. Obviously this is depicting the same thing that Daniel described for King Nebuchadnezzar. It was a mountain that would fill the whole earth and bring peace. It brings good things. It changes the nature of dangerous animals, which means whatever is causing them to be dangerous has had to be eliminated or changed. This is spoken of here in the context of the Millennium, which we are picturing here at the Feast site. That is why we keep the Feast. TO DWELL IN THE MOUNTAIN You will notice that in the Millennium it says people will dwell in the mountain. They will be in the mountain. How can you be “in” the mountain? That is what we want to focus on, because it is a spiritual mountain. For all the people to be able to dwell in there and have peace in there, it obviously has to be something that is not physical. We could not take the people of the earth and put them inside a physical mountain anywhere. It could not be done. If you would, please, turn to Zechariah chapter 8. Once again this mountain is spoken of but in a little bit different way. Read verses 1-3. Here you see that holy mountain called both Zion and Jerusalem. We understand that now we are getting a picture of something that could exist as a spiritual mountain that all people could dwell in. They could all dwell in this Mt. Zion; it is Jerusalem. Let us look at a definition of Zion, in the New Testament and a few places in the Old Testament spelled Sion with an “S”. It comes from the Hebrew word Sion which means a permanent capital in the sense of conspicuousness, a monumental guiding pillar, a sign or a way mark that glitters from afar. We see that this Mt. Zion with a “Z” on it is something that people can use as a way mark or a guide or a sign. It is something that would guide them to God, which is why when they get to this mountain, they can dwell there in peace and safety. They can have a Millennium. You are seeing something develop here that God has throughout His scriptures. It is something that develops which He is going to use to bring peace to the earth. PHYSICAL MOUNTAINS AND SPIRITUAL MOUNTAINS We also notice now that the earth is created in parallel. We have physical mountains and we have spiritual mountains spoken of. It is as if there is a parallel creation here that God is using. One we can see with our eyes: Mt. Sinai, Mt. Horeb and the mountains that we see when we travel. The other is a spiritual set of mountains that you cannot see with your physical eyes, but because you know what a mountain is, you can picture this mountain. You can picture a small stone striking this image, watching the image collapse, and see this stone grow into a huge mountain which covers the earth. You can picture that because you know what a mountain is. We have the beauty and the benefit of looking at physical creation to understand God’s thoughts that are spiritual in nature and what He is trying to do with His plan! You have spiritual and physical, and at the same time we have under (which is physical) and over (which is spiritual). You will see this. We dwell on the firmament of the earth, and we are below the heavens. We are below God’s throne. We are below the spirit realm. In essence, we are the bottom rung right now, but we are down where we can see things physically. We cannot see what is taking place spiritually. We have what we can see and what we cannot see, but we can imagine. We can imagine because of God’s word, His thoughts. With His help we can picture what He is trying to do here with the Feast of Tabernacles, soon-coming Millennium and with His mountains. I want to turn, now to Galatians chapter 4. It gives us a little bit of information that we can actually hang our hat on, so to speak, because God said it. It is not just somebody talking and somebody trying to describe things that you cannot really see, dreaming, in essence. This is real. Turn to Galatians 4, and this is the word of God. We will start in verse 21. Galatians 4, verse 21: “Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic.” We are being told right here that these were symbols. Even though they really did happen to Abraham, they were symbolic of something else. Continuing in verse 24: “For these are the two covenants…” We read about the first one that came from Mount Sinai. “…the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar, for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all.” Continue reading in verse 27-31. Now you see that God was using Mount Sinai, physical promises and a physical covenant with a physical nation to picture something that is above, a Jerusalem. It is part of Mount Zion, a spiritual mountain. He was showing us physically something that He is going to do spiritually, and the physical promises were not going to last. We had to have something physical to look at first in order to understand what God was doing secondly. We have two covenants: one with physical promises and one with spiritual promises. We have two mountains: a spiritual mountain and a physical mountain. Turn, if you would, to Colossians chapter 2. Read Colossians 2, verses 11-13. We are getting into spiritual promises here. Continue reading verses 14-17. It is properly translated, “the body of Christ.” Those things that happened before were the shadow that preceded the real thing, but we had to understand the shadow. In essence, the physical things we see are the shadow. The spiritual is real; the physical is a shadow! So the spiritual that we cannot see casts a physical shadow on the earth. That physical shadow is shown to us by mountains, the rituals and the traditions that God gave Israel to perform (the requirements of the law) and the physical promises. He did it from a physical mountain. He delivered the law and the covenant from a physical mountain. The real thing we have to keep in mind is spiritual, and we cannot see the real thing. When someone is walking toward you, you get their shadow first if the light is from behind. You get their shadow, and then you get the real person. You cannot shake hands with the shadow, but you can shake hands with the person. But God had to give us a shadow of what was to come because we cannot see what is spiritual. We cannot see it, so He had to do it this way in a parallel creation. That is why the image that we read about in Daniel is called an image. It is a shadow of something that is real too. The image of the tall statue Nebuchadnezzar saw is called an image because it is reflecting the shadow of something that is just as real and also spiritual. Therefore, just as in the Millennium people will dwell in a spiritual mountain, people today are dwelling in a spiritual mountain and do not know it! It is actually a chain of mountains with peaks and valleys and they dwell there. You cannot see them. With the physical mountains, we can portray to people how they are living and in what kind of system they dwell. It is very important to realize it is just an image. Let’s go back to Daniel chapter 2. We are going to read a little bit more. We will start in verse 32 and read to verse 45. Without a doubt that image represented physical kingdoms. That word image that you just read here comes from the word tselem which is Hebrew for idolatrous figure. Tselem also means to shade, a phantom or an illusion, a resemblance or a representative figure. THE SHADOW OF SATAN’S GOVERNMENT This image resembled something else. It was a shadow of something else. It is a phantom of Satan and his government (his mountains) reflected on the earth. Nebuchadnezzar was shown that his kingdom was part of this illusion. It was just a mirage, so to speak. Even though it is physical and real in our senses, to God it is just a shadow of something that is far more sinister and far more real, a spiritual kingdom. It is also related to the word tsalmaveth which means the shade of death or the grave. This image is the shadow of the grave, the doom of mankind! It is death and destruction. Even though it looked like a magnificent statue, it was only an image of very sinister things that were far more real in the spiritual realm. The image is a physical shadow cast by a spiritual reality. Turn, if you would, to read about these spiritual realities in Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians 6, verse 10: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Now you can picture spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places who make the earth dark. They block the sun. They cast an image that is reflected by the physical people on the earth, and this image shows up as the kingdoms. These kingdoms are run actually by the spiritual realm above, that we cannot see. It is far more sinister and far more real than the flesh and blood, which is why we are told here we do not fight flesh and blood. When we are called into the body of Christ and given the Holy Spirit, we become spiritual warriors against this enemy that we cannot see. It is very real, but we cannot see. It is not human beings that are really our enemies, but Satan and these evil principalities. We are going to notice in just a moment that the names of these principalities are reflected in certain kingdoms and mountains of the earth. Just like God has that holy mountain that He calls Zion in Jerusalem, these kingdoms have their mountains. They would like to think of these principalities as holy, and they want people to worship them. This is why we should never worship creation, mountains, rocks or any other physical thing. We are falling for one of Satan’s great deceptions when we do that. It has been a problem throughout the earth. Satan has tricked us to worship him through this creation. We cannot do that. We have to worship the creator and not the creation. Turn, if you would, to Jeremiah chapter 51:24. “‘And I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all the evil they have done in Zion in your sight,’ says the Lord.” We could think this is physical Babylon only, but no it is not just physical. Continue reading in verse 25: “‘Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, who destroys all the earth,’ says the Lord. ‘And I will stretch out My hand against you, roll you down from the rocks, and make you a burnt mountain. They shall not take from you a stone for a corner nor a stone for a foundation, but you shall be desolate forever,’ says the Lord.” This Babylon could not have possibly destroyed all of the earth for all time. This is talking about the same Babylon, if you go back to read in Revelation. It is the Babylon that will fall when Christ returns. It is the Babylon that is the enemy of all mankind. Here it is called a mountain that God is going to destroy. He is going to destroy this mountain. That is one of the names of it. Now, if you would, turn to Zechariah chapter 4:7. “‘Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”’” Who is this mountain that God is going to destroy and replace with His mountain? It is that same Babylon that we mentioned, but there are some other names for it. We do not have time, by the way, to look at all the references to it. It is throughout your Bible. We are just going to scratch the surface today. It is a very interesting study to continue on your own. Turn to Ezekiel chapter 35, and we see another name. Read Ezekiel 35:1-5. This hatred that goes between this mountain and God’s mountain is ancient. Continue reading verses 6-15. God says He is going to make Mt. Seir a desolate place because this is Satan’s mountain. If you were to look up the Hebrew Seir, you would find it is a mountain that is characterized as a shaggy he-goat or a devil, and it results in a storm, or shiver of fear, or being hurled as a storm. It is a rough mountain, and that is how it is pictured. That is what the word means. This mountain that is called Seir is pictured as a devil. This is Satan’s mountain. This is why God hates it. He hates Babylon. He hates Mt. Seir, which is the name of one of his mountains, and God says He will destroy it because it has done great damage to God’s mountain. It has done great damage to His people, to Jerusalem. First it damaged the physical representation that God gave us in ancient Israel. Then it attacked God’s Church, His holy mountain, and has done tremendous damage down through the ages to God’s people. Now at the very end it has done huge damage and destroyed the Church. God hates it for this. He said you have hated Me since ancient times. You have hated Me for a long time, but now you have gone one too far. You have destroyed the mountain by which I want to rule the earth, and I will destroy you. This is interesting because He said He would fill His mountains with the slain. We have often thought the whole world is going to get destroyed, everybody on the earth is going to die! But it says the sword of God slays these people. If you were to go back and review your baptism, baptism is the same as dying. You die unto Christ. Your baptism is pictured as dying. When you go down into the water, you are pictured as dying and coming up with the blood of Christ on you. Every time someone is baptized and receives the Holy Spirit, Satan’s power is diminished! He must dwell and exist through the shadow of people that he operates, something like a puppet. Satan has to exist through people in a way that we do not fully understand yet. But as people are converted and turn away from Satan and toward God and receive the Holy Spirit, Satan’s power is diminished. When God converts this earth and destroys Mt. Seir, and his government is gone and wiped out, he has no more power! The people of the earth will be converted and living in God’s mountain. It is a complete change. It is a reversal. If you want to study that a little bit more, we can go to Isaiah chapter 14. If you were to go to Isaiah 14:3, you would see that it seems to be talking about just physical Babylon. Then in verse 12 it changes to Lucifer. Isaiah 14, verse 12: “‘How you have fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.” Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit.’” God is saying to Babylon, I know Babylon represents and is the name of Satan’s kingdom and his mountain chain. That is his capital city, so to speak, on Mt. Seir just as Jerusalem is God’s capital city on Mt. Zion. They are two completely diametrically opposed systems which are based on a spiritual mountain chain that we cannot see but we understand because of the physical mountains we see on the earth. IN THE SHADOW OF SATAN’S MOUNTAINS I want you to do that just for a moment. I want you to picture in your mind, so to speak, walking amidst physical mountains. Put yourself into the Rocky Mountains. If you have ever been to the Rockies or some other tall mountains, you will know what I am talking about. Picture yourself walking between tall mountains and you will know it is very shadowy down there. The mountains can block the sun out. It is very shadowy and often cold down between the mountains. The mountains can actually block the sun. They come, in essence, between us and the sun. Spiritual mountains do the same thing! They block the son’s light from the earth, which is why that definition of that image is a shadowy figure, a phantom that shades and causes death. It is unfortunate, but God is going to fix it. Since Satan co-opted the earth and took things over at the Garden of Eden, the people of the earth, to this very day, have been dwelling in the shadow of Satan’s mountains. Now, if you would, consider within those little mountain valleys, little mirrors that reflect light here and there. That is the Church! The Church is like little lights. The Church are little lights that reflect the Sun’s light and bring hope of a better world tomorrow, which we are picturing here today at the Feast of Tabernacles. We are picturing that Millennium that is coming when everyone will be able to dwell in the light. These mountains that form a shadowy land that people dwell in, will be gone. The light of God’s truth will be all over the earth. It will be a beautiful time. THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH If you would, turn to Psalm 23 because now we are going to see a little bit of different meaning here when we read Psalm 23. It is possibly the most famous Psalm of all. I thought it was interesting that it came up as one of the hymns today. Read Psalm 23:1-6. Now you see these little mirrors that reflect the Sun’s light dwelling down there below the mountains currently. It is not going to stay like this much longer. We walk through the valley of the shadow of death trying to reflect God’s light. It is very difficult. Satan wants to put those lights out. God is there taking care of us, leading us to green pastures, giving us the food and the water that we need, comforting us and strengthening us when we are weak. He has given us a whole system to overcome Satan. He is there as our comforter. He says in the word that He prepares a table for His people before our enemies. Right here you have the Bible open, and we are studying together. We have our table set with spiritual food. All around us are these mountains that are our enemies. There are evil principalities that want to snuff out this knowledge, and they cannot do it! God protects us and is feeding us. We have these tables, we are writing notes and we are reading the Bible. This is the miracle spoken of in Psalm 23! Though we exist in the valley of the shadows of the death like the rest of mankind, we have the bread of life. We have the light of the truth. This is a huge miracle. Sometimes we take it for granted. TEMPTING CHRIST Turn now, if you would, to Matthew chapter 4. Now you are going to see why Satan used his most powerful tool, when he tempted Christ to offer Him the kingdoms of the world without going through the sacrifice to clean us up. That was a huge temptation, because Christ knew He was going to suffer terribly at the hands of Satan and his cronies. He knew He had to do it to get us free eventually of this being and his shadowy government that is up there. Turn to Matthew 4, and we will study the temptation of Christ for a moment. This was after a 40-day fast. Read Matthew 4:1-11. Satan showed Him that image. He said You can have all of this. You do not have to die and you do not have to suffer. You can have all of this right now! Just worship me and then leave me alone! Christ knew that that would leave us without hope. So He went ahead, fulfilled His obligations and died for our sins, thus defeating Satan. But His first major defeat of Satan was right here when He did not fall for this temptation. When He resisted it, Satan had to flee. Satan showed Him the image of all the kingdoms in one point of time. He said I will give them to You because he knew his days were numbered if Christ did not fall for that. Fortunately, it all worked out to our advantage because our Savior, our Redeemer, succeeded. We will read again in Colossians chapter 2 a verse we read a little bit ago, but I want to repeat it. Colossians 2, verse 15: “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.” Jesus Christ made a fool of Satan and his government right there in Matthew 4. Then again when He went on to die, it looks like He was made a fool of, but it was the other way around. Christ was defeating Satan and making him look foolish. Satan threw everything he could at Jesus Christ and was defeated. He gave Christ his best shots and could not defeat Jesus Christ. Christ has disarmed him. He has overcome him. We can beat him now because of the blood of Christ. Like it says, “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them…” That triumph is our hope and our eventual triumph as well. MOVE MOUNTAINS Turn, if you would now, to John 16:32 where Christ is speaking here. “‘Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come…’” (speaking to His disciples) “‘…that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.’” He says I know you are going to get scattered. You are going to leave Me, and I am going to die by Myself, except I will have the Father with Me. But don’t worry; this is the hope for you because I have overcome the world! You are now going to have tribulation, tests and trials; but I have triumphed. I have made a fool of Satan and his governments, and now that is your hope. It is our hope. He was telling that to His disciples. Now it is up to us to keep the faith in our trials and tribulations and not give up. We need to persevere and have the patience of the saints. Turn, if you would, to Matthew 17. We are going to do some remarkable things, brethren, if we hold fast and endure. Matthew 17, verse 14: “And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, ‘Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water.’” He was having problems with a demon. Continue reading verses 16-21. A lot of times we focus on the prayer and fasting part, which obviously is very important. But there is a lot of information here, because if we have unbelief, we have no faith. We have to believe that these spiritual mountains are there. God says I am showing you that the healing of a little boy and casting out a demon is nothing compared to the demon mountains you are going to be able to move someday if you persevere and have the faith. You are going to say to a mountain, “Get out of here! We are replacing you now!” That is what is being taught here. That is the awesome day that is just ahead of us if we persevere, hold on tight and keep the faith. We will be among those who, along with Jesus Christ, kick the current mountains out of their positions and replace them with God’s principalities and His powers. Turn, if you would, to Mark 11. This is a similar incident. Read Mark 11:20-24. I am telling you we need to pray that we can hang on and believe God’s words. We can have the faith that someday we are going to be able to do just that! We are going to say, “Mountain get back into the sea!” We will say, “Get back down to the bottomless pit from where you came.” It will be an awesome day, because the shadows that block the light of Jesus Christ from the population of the earth will be gone. The world will learn God’s ways. The world will learn all about God. I want to back up to verse 15. We will see what preceded in the discussion here about the withered fig tree and holding fast. It is the cleansing of the temple. Read Mark 11:15-19. Then we have the episode we just read. He said have faith and hang on. Today we could say, as God once again cleanses His spiritual temple, it is tough but hang on! Hang on because at the end of the day, those who have faith through all of the cleansing period that include trials, troubles and tribulations we are enduring, we will be able to say to the mountains, “Get out of here! We are replacing you with the mountain of God’s kingdom!” If you would think it is anything different than that, let’s turn to Hebrews 3. BECOMING PART OF GOD’S MOUNTAIN God’s house is the body of Christ. We have proven already in this sermon that it is spiritual Mt. Zion. Hebrews 3, verse 1: “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house. For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.” If we want to be part of God’s house, we have to hold fast through thick and thin. He will dwell here. We can become part of His holy mountain that will someday fill the whole earth with peace. I want to conclude now with Isaiah chapter 2. We will see that the house of God, indeed, forms this mountain. Isaiah 2, verse 1: “The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Now 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; and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”