Get Thee up on a High Mountain

Isaiah 40, verses 9 through 11, Isaiah 40, 9 through 11. O Zion that bring us good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain. O Jerusalem that bring us good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength.

Lift it up, be not afraid. We need that inside and outside the body. Say unto the cities of Judah, behold your God.

Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand and his arm shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd.

He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young. If we were to walk into any gathering of believers on earth and compare its makeup today with what it was a year ago or five years ago, in every case we would discover that there is a percentage, a healthy percentage, rather sizable percentage, of people who were really into it five years ago who are now gone or who have now sunk into stagnation. They're still around but they're dead.

And we can be certain also that there is a percentage of those who at the moment appear to be active and alive in the body who in the days to come are going to fall away. But the question is, what is it that keeps some saints of God going on and on without ever getting tired, ever wearing out? They're always fresh. Their bodies get older but their inner man is renewed day by day.

Is it because those poor people are so stupid? No, their minds are just so limited that they continue to believe the Bible while the other more sophisticated minds move on into broader truth and leave behind what they once conceived. Is it because these poor, simple souls have been hedged in behind walls raised by the community of believers to protect them from the onslaughts of the world and keep them from being ripped off by this world's temptations? Now granted it's true that there are quite a few people who are, you could say, enslaved by their fellowships in their churches and who go round and round in their little religious circle and never see reality until the day they die. That's true.

But the saints of the Lord, the followers of Jesus who are genuine and who truly endure, are not in that category. They aren't the people who are walled in behind institutional structures and held back by that or have their minds chained by doctrines of one kind or another. Those aren't the ones that are preserved alive.

They may be preserved dead like mummies. See, but the ones that are preserved alive in God are those who have learned to live not behind walls and not behind barriers of doctrine but who have learned to live on the contrary, up on the mountain where they are continuously exposed to God and man. If there's any lesson that we need to learn at this hour it's to come up out of our places of hiding, our caves and our valleys and to forsake our secret chambers and to get up there on the mountain where we are truly out in the open before God and before man.

Every indication would lead us to see that a lot of us are crawling down in the crevices and we're just pussyfooting around. When Moses fled from Egypt for his life he spent 40 years wandering around the wilderness of Midian and Sinai and Moses probably wasn't even aware of the fact that on this particular day he was leading his flock across a high mountain. And on this mountain, on this day, he had his first burning encounter with the God of Israel.

Now God didn't have to get Moses up on the mountain in order to talk to him. God could have talked to Moses anywhere. Nor did God have to bring Moses back up on this mountain sometime later to give him the Ten Commandments.

Nor did Jesus have to take Peter, James, and John up on a high mountain apart in order to be transfigured before them. And yet, the mountain becomes the setting for encounter after encounter which God brings to man. Much of his redemptive activity among us takes place on the mountain one way or another.

And what does this mean? When he saw the multitudes, he went up into a mountain and when he sat down, his disciples came to him and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit. Or after the resurrection, the 11 disciples went to Galilee to a mountain to which he had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted.

See, when Jesus wants to get apart and be with his Father, time after time he goes up on a mountain. Or when he wants to teach his disciples, or even those multitudes, he goes up on a mountain. Or when he wants to show his followers, those who have made a commitment, something special, he goes up on a mountain.

When he goes to lay down his life, he's up on top of the hill Golgotha, where he hangs and dies. And finally, when he departs from this earth, it's from the Mount of Olives. Now, you know, there was no man who ever walked this earth who went down lower than Jesus.

He was right down there in the gutter. He was down there in the alleys. He knew what trouble was.

He touched, and not only touched, but he absorbed into himself every kind of desolation and every kind of pain. He was down where people were. But all the time Jesus was down in those valleys of sorrow, he was at the same time living up on the mountain.

And the same has to be true for us. We have to learn, of course, to get down, down, down, way down below where we are now, and touch people where they are, and really get ourselves, even if we have to get dirty, being down there with the troubles of this world as they come, take hold of those burdens, and take hold of those souls that have been absolutely wrecked and twisted by this world's evil, and really hang on until we begin to feel some of that pain, and get some of that crud even wiped off on us. But while we live down in those valleys, we are also to stay up on the mountain.

Now, if that isn't clear, just follow a little further. In this passage which we read, it begins, and this is an address to Zion, and in this case, to the Church. O Zion, that bring us good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain.

To get up into the high mountain, first of all, means to live a life that is exposed to God. Well, you say, you know, our lives are exposed to God. Can't God see into our hearts and see everything that's going on? And the answer, of course, is yes.

And yet, God lets us go right on with our hypocrisy. He lets us, you know, go on with our little pretend game to the very day of judgment, unless we ask Him, with our will, to come in and search our hearts. Search me and know my heart.

Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. God doesn't do that unless you ask Him to. And the truth of the matter is that most of us are not consciously exposing ourselves to the light of God.

We're not even admitting the truth about ourselves which God has already shown us. For instance, God may well show me that I have an attitude that's destructive, not only to me, but to everybody around me. You know, God has shown me that state.

See, but instead of admitting that and crying out for His forgiveness and for His help, instead of this, what do I do? I dress up that attitude in all kinds of reasons. No, I'm not stubborn. I'm just firm.

Or it may be that God has brought before my mind's eye again and again the face of some person whom I have absolutely refused to forgive with my heart. Maybe I did it with my mouth, but not with my heart. So I'm in prayer, and up comes that face.

I'm walking down the street, there it comes again. Everywhere I go, you know, I come to fellowship, next thing you know, that face comes. You know, you'd think I'd learn from this.

You'd think we'd learn when this happens to us. What do we do? Many, many times, instead of saying, Lord, help me, have mercy on me, give me the strength to do the thing you're telling me to do, instead of this, we just lift up our foot and push it down again, get it down into our unconscious. And after a while, when we do this too much, we begin to actually believe that God can't see.

You know, regardless of what we say with our mouths or how we intellectualize it, we live as if we really thought that God didn't see. You know, God's letting me get away with it. You know, God's busy with other things.

He doesn't have time for my little sins. And this is exactly what Judas got himself into. By the time we get to the end of our Lord's ministry, Judas is convinced that Jesus doesn't know what's going on.

Hey, if he knew what was going on, he would have stopped me long ago, all these other things I was doing. Jesus lets him go right on. And he lets you and me go right on too, if that's what we insist on doing.

If I have seen the light of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and then I go back down into a life of deception, covering things, hiding things, pretending all over the place, smiling when I'm in front of my sisters and brothers, and quite different when I'm home, or when I leave the house, even leave the church, then very soon I become the victim of my own deception. I start to believe my own lies. And pretty soon I don't even know who I am anymore.

So that when the Lord tells us to come up into the high mountain, he's saying, get out of that deceit. Don't talk about somebody else's deceit. Look at your own and come up on the mountain and admit what you are.

Be what you are before me. Live in my light all the time. Now the spirit that God has put in our hearts, which cries, Abba, Father, is the spirit of truth.

And it's not just the spirit of truth about God. He not only shows us the truth about our Father, but he shows us the truth about ourselves. And when we take that and admit the things that he shows us about ourselves, very quickly we know that our only hope is the blood of the Lamb.

Not just when we get saved, but all through the way, all along the way. That's our only hope. We need to get up on that mountain and be out there in the open before God so that he can show us the things about ourselves we need to see.

And hear those things he's trying to tell us. God helps us to come up out of those shadows every morning. You know, up into God's light, up where God's wind blows the cry and the clutter out of our phony religious minds.

Secondly, to get up on the mountain, get up into the high mountain, means that we live out in the open before men. You are the light of the world. A city set upon a hill cannot be hid.

How beautiful upon the mountain are the feet of him who bringeth good tidings. Even his feet are exposed. That means you just have to look at him and you know where he's coming from.

He's not trying to hide anything from you. O Jerusalem that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up, be not afraid.

Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God. In other words, the things about God that we have seen and that are in our hearts now begin to come forth from our mouths without fear. In that sense too, we're out in the open.

When we live down in the valley, it's very easy to live behind a front. And people look at the front and they're very impressed. And that's the way it stays until we have to get up on the mountain.

When you're up on top of the mountain, you can't possibly live behind a front because there are people standing behind you. You know, they can see what you are. You've got to take that front off and be what you are.

See, and now they see a forgiving sinner, not some God's man for the hour bit. And they see that God's grace is resting upon weak flesh. And they know that the message of truth that comes forth from your mouth is coming from somebody that's just as vulnerable as they are.

And this gives them hope. When you're living down in the valley, you can also keep your mouth shut and go about your business and reserve your God talk for when you're among believers. But when you're up on top of the mountain, you have to give a reason for the hope that is in you.

Because people will constantly be saying, What are you doing up there, fool? Who do you think you are standing on that mountain? Do you think you're better than we are? You're going to get that. And you're not going to defend yourself, but rather you're going to lift up your hands and you're going to say, Behold your God. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

It's no fun to be standing on the mountain before the eyes of men where they're all the time seeing where we are, exposed all the time, before their eyes so that they know what's what with us. But this keeps us on our toes. And it also keeps us from stagnating.

You can't stagnate on top of the mountain. And you can predict it every time. The people who are going to fall by the wayside and the people who are going to sink away are the people who are going to get stagnant, sitting there, coming to church for years and years, but they're dead, are the ones that won't stay.

They won't go up on the mountain. They wouldn't dare. They're going to hide in their little valley and go right on in that rut until Jesus comes.

And then they're going to try to hide underneath the rocks. Thirdly, to get up into the high mountain means that we live our lives looking for the coming of the Messiah. Behold, the Lord God is coming with a strong hand.

His arm shall rule for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him and His work before Him. And He shall lead His flock like a shepherd.

And He shall gather the lambs with His arm. And we're up on the mountain looking for His coming. And we're up there, not like the Millerites, expecting the Lord to come to fit our calculations.

We're all dressed up in our white robes. Here He comes. We've got a half an hour to go.

And then we're done when the half an hour goes. Not that. Nor is this an escape from the world.

But rather, we're up on the mountain and being up there and looking for the Messiah, we are preserved. This is the thing that gives hope for our lives that we live down in the valley. And it also keeps us from getting off the track.

Sidetracked by a thousand temptations to think the wrong thing and to get sucked into a lie of Satan. When you're up on the mountain looking for the Messiah to come, you're not going to be taken in by some shortcut to glory. And they're coming a dime a dozen now, shortcuts to glory.

Here's a shortcut to glory. Make your positive confession and get a million dollars. When you're up on that mountain, you're not also going to be taken in by some man-made utopia dream.

When the dream is fulfilled, it turns out to be more like hell than heaven. See, but one revolution after another comes by. And they always begin with a dream of utopia.

And how often we get sucked into this. When we're up on the mountain looking for the return of the Messiah, looking for Jesus, it also means that we're not going to make the mistake that's being made all over the earth right now of trying to make our fellowship a premature substitute heaven. To begin to think that this is heaven.

Just build the walls a little higher and put bars on the door. Keep the world out and we're in heaven now. Praise God.

That won't happen to us and it's happening all over the place. This can't possibly happen if you keep your eyes from the mountain looking for Jesus. Knowing that no matter how good it is, it's nothing compared with what it is going to be.

And you can't think how good it is when you walk through the streets and lanes of the city bringing the poor and the maimed and the haunted and the blind to the banquet hall. How can you say it's good? How can you do anything but weep with your Lord for Jerusalem and for all the cities of earth including Detroit? Then our vision is on His coming and we live for that and if we have to, we die for that. Those items that bring us good tidings get thee up into the high mountain.

If we're falling asleep, if we're losing our direction, if we're starting to get weary, if our minds are getting confused, the cure, and this is the cure for many of us here right now, is to get up on the mountain and, you know, be exposed to the light of God and to be exposed to the sight of men and to live up there all the time, 24 hours a day until Jesus comes. We're asking, Lord God, that you show us how this applies to each of us and help us, Lord God, this day if in any way we're down in a valley or we're hiding in a secret chamber, you know, or if we're in a lethargy, a lethargic state, if we're dead inside, if we're all curved in on ourselves, Lord, you know what we're like, that you'd help us right now to come out and climb up that mountain where the fresh air is blowing and where the light just burns right through and shows us what we are. And take away from us, Lord God, the fear of man and give to us the courage to admit the truth about ourselves and not to try to hide anything.

And keep us this way, Lord God, until your Son comes. We ask it in His name. Amen.