Let us open our Bibles today
to Matthew chapter 21. Matthew chapter 21, beginning
with verse 18. Now in the morning, as he returned
into the city, he hungered. And when he saw a fig tree in
the way, he came to it and found nothing thereon, but leaves only,
and said unto it, let no fruit grow on thee henceforth forever. And presently, the fig tree withered
away. And when the disciples saw it,
they marveled, saying, how soon is the fig tree withered away? Jesus answered and said unto
them, verily I say unto you, if you have faith and doubt not,
you shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but
also if you shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and
be thou cast into the sea, it shall be done. and all things
whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive. The title of my message is Faith
Removing Mountains. Faith Removing Mountains. This is what the Lord Jesus here
said to his disciples, if ye have faith, then you shall say
unto this mountain, be thou removed. Let's consider the setting in
which the Lord spoke these words. We read about this also in the
Gospel of Mark. And we realize if we compare
the two accounts in the Gospel according to Matthew and the
Gospel according to Mark, that these two men, these two writers,
they didn't copy each other. They were inspired of God the
Holy Spirit and they wrote Matthew what he saw and remembered. And Mark, of course, was writing
under Peter's tutorage, I'm sure, and he wrote what he saw. And I read years ago, if two
eyewitnesses were called into a court of law to give testimony,
and both of them gave the exact same testimony, People wouldn't
put in stock in their testimony because obviously they had rehearsed
their testimony and agreed on what they would say. Two people
saying the same thing will describe it differently. And so that's
what we have if you compare the two accounts. William Hendrickson
in his commentary on the book of Matthew, he wrote this. He said Matthew wrote this in
a topical way. He tells a whole story at once. He tells a whole history at once. Mark, he wrote in a chronological
manner. Now, if we only had Matthew's
account, we would think that as soon as Jesus cursed this
fig tree that the disciples said, how soon is the fig tree withered
away? But when we read Mark's account,
we realize they said these words the next day when they were once
again on their way to Jerusalem. And I want to point something
else out that's different. If you look here in Matthew chapter
21 and verse above the verses we read in verse
14, when the Lord entered into Jerusalem that day, it was Sunday. He entered into Jerusalem on
Sunday triumphantly. And we know the children and
the people were shouting, Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in
the name of the Lord. He entered riding on the foal
of an ass that had been prophesied years before, over 500 years
before by the prophet Zechariah. But we read here in Matthew that
he went into the temple, in verse 14, we read, and the blind and
the lame came to him in the temple. and he healed them. Now in Mark's
account, he says this, he went into the temple, he looked round
about on all things. The Lord Jesus Christ, he went
into the temple that day, the temple which he called my house,
my house shall be called a house of prayer. But he went into the
temple that day according to Mark and he looked around on
all things. Now this incident here of cursing
the fig tree, this happened on Monday morning in the week in
which the Lord Jesus Christ would be crucified. And I want us to
consider three things here. First of all, he was hungry. Notice that in verse 18. They're
on their way from Bethany. Both Matthew and Mark tell us
that our Lord left Jerusalem that evening, left the temple,
left Jerusalem, and went to that small place called Bethany and
spent the night there. But now they're on their way
back, the Lord Jesus and his 12 apostles. And the first thing
we read was, he was hungry. Verse 18, now in the morning
as he returned into the city, he was hungered. When the apostle
Paul Think with me now. When the Apostle Paul declared
in 1 Timothy that there's only one mediator between God and
men. There's not two mediators. An
angel cannot be a mediator. The Virgin Mary is not a mediator. The saints of God who have gone
on to heaven, they are not mediators. Paul said, there's one God, for
there's one God and one mediator between God and man, the man,
Christ Jesus. He seems to me to emphasize the
fact that the mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is a man. He is a God man. His deity and
his humanity make up the person of Jesus Christ, and both are
essential for him to be the one mediator between God and man,
and both are important. If we were to strip the Lord
Jesus Christ from His deity, we know that He would not have
the power to save us, that His blood would not be effectual,
would not have the efficacy to wash away the sins of His people. And if He were not man, He would
have no blood to shed. He must be both God and man,
and both are essential, both are important, and to strip the
Lord Jesus Christ from either His deity or His humanity removes
Him from being the perfect mediator, the one and only surety of God
for the people of God. And we see that here, His humanity,
He hungered. He partook of all the sinless
infirmities of man. It's not a sin to be hungry.
He hungered. It's not a sin to be weary. He
was wearied from his journey. It's not a sin to thirst. He
cried upon the cross, I thirst. All of these indicating and testifying
to the truth that he is man. Yes, he's man. And he had to
be a man. He had to have a heart like you
and I have in the sense of a human heart that he might be touched
with the feelings of our infirmities. That's the one reason I love
that hymn we just sang. I found a friend. Oh, what a
friend. He loved me ere I knew him. And isn't that the truth? He's
loved his people from everlasting, from eternity. There never has
been a time, if you're one of his children today, there never
has been a second, there's never been an infinite time or minute
time in which he's not loved you. He loved me before I knew
him. He's a friend, and oh, what a
friend he is, no matter what our situation is, no matter what
our troubles may be. And yes, we go through troubles
and afflictions and difficulties in this world, but we know that
we have a friend who's at the right hand of the Father and
we may go to him and unburden our hearts and our souls unto
him. Confess unto him. He already
knows everything about us. Confess unto him whatever's troubling
us, whatever our needs are, whatever our sorrows are. And he may be
touched with the feet. If he were not a man, an angel
couldn't identify with us. A perfect holy angel couldn't
identify with man. Oh, but he can. Why? Because he is the God-man. He hungered. The second thing
I point out is in verse 19. He saw a fruitless fig tree,
verse 19. He saw a fruitless tree that
had leaves. Let me read that verse, verse
19. And when he saw a fig tree in
the way, he came to it and found nothing thereon but leaves only,
and said unto it, let no fruit grow on thee henceforth forever. Now, he saw a fruitless tree,
And he came to it. It had leaves. And I've read
several articles over the years about fig trees in Palestine. Some, they say, bear fruit all
the year round and have leaves. Some, they say, bear fruit in
the spring and put forth leaves and they have figs. But it doesn't
really make any difference. This tree had leaves, but no
figs. And that's the reason I pointed
out to us just a few minutes ago that Mark tells us that when
he went into the temple the night before, he looked around on all
things. And what did he see? He saw leaves. He saw Pharisees and Sadducees
in their long robes. He saw a priest in their white
robes officiating there in the temple. He heard the music of
the psalms that were being chanted. He smelled the incense that was
burned there in the temple. He might have saw the smoke that
ascended up into heaven from the sacrifices that were offered
there, morning and evening, every day. What he saw was leaves. He saw ceremony. He saw ritual. But there was no fruit. There
was no broken heart. The sacrifices of God are broken
and a contrite heart. And later in this same week,
our Lord would go into this temple and he would pronounce eight
woes upon the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And one of the things
he would say about them is they were like whited sepulchers.
On the outside, they looked good. but they were full of rottenness. And that's the condition of all
men by nature. But men, religious men, I know
today across this country, there are places called places of worship
and you could go into them today and you might see one man come
in a robe, a priestly robe and they'd be carrying a cross, a
form of a cross before him and he'd come in and another man
would come in holding up a picture of some saint and just ceremony,
ritualism. But our Lord said, what you've
neglected, they tie. They had small plants in their
gardens, in their homes, I'm sure, and like peppermint plants. And he named the different plants. And if the plant had 10 leaves
on it, they'd take one leaf off and they'd bring it to the priest
and offer it as their tie. Yes, they were punctual in all
these small things, these matters, but he said, what you've neglected,
you've neglected judgment or righteousness, mercy and truth. Yes, you have all this farm,
this ceremony, these leaves, but no fruit, no fruit. no real love of God, no honoring
of God, no heart worship. When he said, you've neglected
judgment or righteousness. How many times have I stood in
this pulpit and I pray as long as I stand here, I'll continue
to say the same thing. You, I, we need a righteousness
to stand before God that we don't have and a righteousness we cannot
manufacture. I don't care what we do. I don't
care how long we live. We will never perform or make
a righteousness that God will accept. Why? Because we are sinful. Yes. We don't want to neglect
righteousness, judgment. Oh no. Of all things, we don't
want to neglect this. This is the gospel. This tells
us how it is that God, the Holy Lord God that He is, that he
may be just and justifier of the ungodly. Yes, judgment and
mercy. Our Lord told that parable, you
know, of the two men who went up into the temple to pray. One
was one of these Pharisees. He had the long phylacteries
of the robes and all the signs on his robe of who he was. And
he stood praying with himself. I thank thee, Lord, that I'm
not like other men. I'm not like this publican over
here. I fast. I tithe. Oh, he had a whole laundry
list of things that he did. And here's this poor publican
over here. And he smote upon his breast
and he said, God, be merciful to me. Mercy, mercy, be merciful
to me, the sinner. And our Lord said, one of those
men went home justified that day. You know who it was? It's that publican, wasn't it?
It's that man who confessed his sin and cried for mercy. Yeah. Our Lord said, you've neglected
these things. A lot of leaves, but no fruit. And here's the third thing I'd
point out. His disciples marveled. Notice that in verse 20. And
when his disciples saw it, they marveled. They marveled. Now, this, as I've already said,
is in the last week of our Lord's life in this world. To this point,
these men, they had seen the Lord Jesus Christ take a couple
of loaves of bread and three fish and bless it and divide
it up, feed 5,000 men, not counting women and children. These men
had seen the Lord stand up in that boat that night when the
wind was against them and the waves and say, peace, be still. And there was a great peace.
These men actually, they had been with the Lord Jesus Christ
when he came to Mary and Martha and they were weeping. crying
over the death of their brother Lazarus. His body had already
been in the tomb for four days. And these men saw him. Lazarus, come forth. And there came Lazarus out of
that grave. And yet, after three years, after
saying miracle after miracle, the eyes of the blind opened,
ears of the deaf unstopped, the lame walked. They marveled. And that caught my attention
because I thought to myself, that's the way it is for God's
children. We never stop marveling. We never
stop marveling. I don't care if a person's been
saved five minutes or 50 years. We never stop marveling that
he would love us, that he would die for us, that he would save
us. When you take amazing out of
grace, you've killed grace. God's grace is amazing grace,
and it always will be to those who experience grace. John Newton,
the writer of that hymn, Amazing Grace, he said one time that
he expected three wonders in heaven. He said the first wonder, he
said, I expect to see some people I didn't think would be there. The second wonder, he said, I'm
going to miss some people I expected to be there. But he said the
third wonder, the wonder of wonders, is that I'm there. God's people
never stop wondering. Wondering at the love of God,
the love of Christ, the goodness of God, the grace of God, the
mercy of God, providence of God. My life is just filled with wonder,
isn't it? Amen. All right, let's look at
these mountains. I have four mountains that must
be removed by faith. The first is the mountain of
sin. Sin is a mountain of debt that
is removed by faith. We've all heard the expression
a person is drowning in debt. How true that is. When we think
of sin as a debt, and we know the scriptures speak of it as
a debt, we were all drowning in the debt of sin and had nothing
to pay. Now, when I say that faith removes
a mountain of sin, it is the object of our faith, we know
that. It is the Lord Jesus Christ, his precious blood that takes
away the sin of his people. Many, many years ago, I read
this illustration If there was a stone, a precious stone, let's
say a ruby, that had healing power, and you could, anyone,
no matter what disease, physical disease the person had, if he
could just touch that stone, he'd be healed immediately. And
then a king had that stone, let's say, and he mounted that stone
in a ring so he could wear it on his finger. It wouldn't be
any time before people would start saying, that ring has power
to heal. That ring has power to heal.
No, it's not the ring. It's not the mountain. It's the
stone. And faith, think of faith like
that. Faith grabs, faith lays hold
of Christ, yes. But faith didn't die for us. Faith doesn't wash away our sins. No, he did. It's the stone. It's Christ. He's the Savior. And yes, he did say to that one
woman, This is recorded in Luke chapter 7, who came in where
the Lord was eating. And she came and stood at his
feet and began to wash his feet with her tears and dry them with
her hair. And that was in the house of
that Pharisee. And you remember what he said. He said, why, if that man was
a prophet, he didn't know what manner of woman that is. She
was a sinner. Many people believe she was a
harlot, a prostitute. You know what the Lord said to
her when she left that day? Thy faith has saved thee. Well,
it wasn't technically her faith. It's Christ the Savior, right?
But you must believe. He told us to go into all the
world and preach the gospel to every creature. Whosoever believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. Whosoever believeth not shall
be damned. Yes, believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, Paul told the Philippian jailer. And thou shalt be saved. Believe. This mountain of sin
that we've all accumulated since the time we came into this world,
it can only be removed by faith in Christ, by trusting in him. Here's the second mountain, troubling
doubts. Troubling doubts also are a mountain
to many people. And one of the, there's only,
I guess, two reasons why a believer doubts. I'm talking about doubting
his salvation, doubting the things of God. There are only two reasons.
First of all, because when God saved you, he didn't take away
that old man. He created a new man, yes. and
righteousness and true holiness. But that old man is still with
us and will be until we die, till we leave this world. And
that which is born of the flesh is flesh and always will be flesh
and is always lusting against the spirit, that new man. The
old man at one time, he reigned. He reigned in the person, but
when a person is saved, he doesn't reign any longer, but he remains. And he grieves a person, always
the flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against
the flesh. So the apostle Paul said himself
that what he would do, he didn't do. And what he wouldn't do,
that's what he did. Yes. And secondly, there's another
reason, not only because of the old man, but because we go by
feelings. We go by feelings instead of the word of God, the word of
God. And Satan, we have an enemy who's
real, Satan. You know, the scripture speaks
of him, fiery darts of Satan. Some of you, I know you've thrown
darts. Well, that's a picture we have
of Satan, isn't it? Here you are, a child of God,
and maybe you're alone and you're trying to pray and worship the
Lord and a thought crosses your mind and you abhor that thought. Where did it come from? Well,
Satan has fiery darts that he throws. And that's the reason
we're told to take the shield of faith. We may warn off those
fiery darts of Satan, yes. But these doubts, a mountain
of doubts that some believers are troubled more than others,
I understand that. But all, I think, at different
times in our lives, we have doubts, doubts and fears. We must all know that our faith
is based upon His word, not upon our feelings. Sometimes you feel
spiritual and sometimes you don't feel spiritual. Isn't that right? Sure it is. Sure it is. Come into worship service and
we're here with believers and we sing these hymns and praise
the Lord and hear prayers and read the word of God and that's
the environment that we're in. Promoting a spirituality. But when you're out in the world
on your job and there's a guy over here, he's taking God's
name in vain and someone over here is blaspheming and you have
to experience all of that. You don't feel so saved, maybe. So spiritual now. But we cannot
go by our feelings. Our faith must be based upon
God's word. Didn't he say, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will
and no wise cast out. Didn't he say that? Isn't he
the truth? Absolutely. Someone says, yes, preacher,
I know what you're saying, but my sins, I just see my sins,
there's so many. Yes, yes, but didn't he say I
have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud
thy sins? Didn't he say that? Amen, he
did. But I seem, preacher, I seem
to be everything I ought not to be and nothing that I ought
to be. You know why you see that? Because he's given you light.
Because he's given you light to see what you desire. Why do
you doubt? Has he not promised that he will
never cast you out? Does his word not say, I tell
you sometimes when I'm And I learned this from Martin Luther. He said,
well, Martin Luther lived a long time ago. I know, but from his
writings. He said, when Satan came to tempt
him, he said, I don't argue with him. He tells me, Martin Luther,
you're a great sinner. He said, amen, I sure am. But
Christ died for sinners. I don't argue with him, no. One
of the verses that's been a great blessing to me over the years
is found in Romans chapter 5, where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. Yes, sin abounded here and abounds
here, but grace does much more abound. That's his word. That's his word. Another difficulty, or another
mountain, rather, difficulty in praying. Sometimes we just feel. There we go with our
feelings again. We think, well, I just don't
believe he's hearing me. Remember this scripture. We usually
use it in a different light. God asked this question, can
a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion
on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will
I not forget thee. That's his word. Years ago, my wife told me how
that verse might be explained. She said a mother who's nursing
her child Can she forget that when her body produces the food
and it's time for that baby to eat? Can a mother forget her
sucking child? Oh, no. No. There's pain involved,
right? Yes. And the same thing. I know we use it and understand
it in a different way, but it's the same truth. God will never,
ever forget one of his children. And when you cry, just like when
one of your babies cry, your mother's here this morning, you
hear that baby, baby may be in another room, daddy may be asleep,
he doesn't even wake up, but not mama, she hears that baby
and she's up. Can a mother forget her sucking
child? Oh, no. He hears when you cry. And like the psalmist David,
he said this in faith, in the day of my trouble, I will call
upon the Lord and he will hear me. He will. The last mountain,
a besetting sin. I know the old writers used to
talk about besetting sins. The scripture says, lay aside
every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us. A sin that so easily besets all
of God's people is unbelief. I understand that, but many believe
that every believer, every child of God has one particular, some
of them called a constitutional sin, something that was just
Something that bothered this believer that doesn't bother
another believer. I mean a sin that is just, maybe
it's whatever. Bring that sin by faith. Bring it to the cross and see
that Jesus Christ died for our sins. He shall save his people
from their sins. Not only from the penalty of
sin, but from the power of sin. And look to Christ. Trust him
to give you the grace and power to overcome that sin, whatever
it is. Remove this mountain. Our Lord
said, if you all things thou hath the faith of a grain of
mustard seed and you say to this mountain, now he wasn't speaking
about a Mount of olives actually being picked up and cast over
there into the into the sea. Some believe this was a proverbial
expression of showing how difficult something would be. But our Lord
says it can be done. It can be accomplished. How?
By faith and by prayer. Yes. Is there a mountain, is there
a mountain in your life today whatever it might be. Maybe none
of these that I've mentioned here this morning, but is there
a mountain in your life that must be removed? It will be removed
by faith and prayer. When you ask according to God's
will, He hears and He will accomplish it. May the Lord bless His word
to all of us here today.