Salvation Assured                        THE MOUNTAIN OF TROUBLE
 
        The way of transgression is hard.  Prov. 13:15.
 
    Another great mountain that God uses to prevent us from sliding downward is a mountain that is not created by Him, but He does make use of it.  He will take us wherever He can find us.  It's the mountain of the sorrows and troubles of life.  Tears, heartache, pain, parting, funeral trains, separation, hospitals, all have a way of somehow driving us to our knees.  God is not responsible for sorrows and troubles; the devil is.  But often in this rea, the devil has met himself coming back.  I believe firmly that if the devil had left me alone a long time ago, he could have had me.  But he was so dumb that he kept needling me and trying to get me into the gutter, and this drove me to my knees.  Have you ever had that happen?  The devil is not happy just having people living apart from God; he wants them in the gutter, too.  And in the process of trying to get some of us into the gutter, he drives us to find life with God.  I don't like the world of sin in which I live.  I don't like tears or pain or heartache.  But sometimes when a person sings, "He washed my eyes with tears, that I might see,' " it makes some sense, doesn't it?
 
    I've met people in great sorrow who did not regret the sorrow in a sense, because through it they had found a meaningful relationship with the Lord Jesus.  I'm not sure who brings the tears, but I am sure about who it is that makes us see.  And I'm thankful for the sight that comes when we wake up to the realization that there is no place else to go.  In John 6, Jesus said to His disciples, Are you going to leave, too?  And they said, We don't know where to go.  There is no place else to go.  Have you ever noticed, imprinted on the very countenance, the struggle and the fight that people who are trying to be lost are going through?  Have you ever seen it?  The furrowed brow, the lines in the face of the person who is trying to be lost.
 
    Proverbs 13:15: "The way of transgression is..."  Easy?  No.  It's hard.  I believe that if I wanted to be lost someday, I'd have to go to a great deal of effort and trouble to do it.  I reject the idea that the road to hell is paved with ice.  God has made it as hard as possible for each one of us to be lost.

Salvation Assured                        THE MOUNTAIN OF YOUR CONSCIENCE
 
        And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.  And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last.  John 8:8, 9.
 
    The first four mountains that we have talked about that block our way downward, causing us to stop, realize, and think, are mountains that would be found primarily in civilized countries.  The Bible, the sermon and songs that we have heard, our better judgment, and the prayers of our friends and loved one who are Christians.  The last four mountains would be perhaps more universal in application.
 
    The first of these would be conscience.  Conscience.  Romans 2:15 talks about it.  The Gentiles who had not the law of God found that their consciences witnessed to something.  You can read about them.  In lands where there has been no gospel preached, no education in spiritual things, no associates who have already accepted Christ, conscience speaks.
 
    We have a hard time trying to define conscience.  It's sort of nebulous.  Sometimes we say it's the Holy Spirit.  Well, no, it's more than that; or less than that--whatever.  It's different from that.  The Holy Spirit works through the conscience.  Most of us know what it's like to be convicted by conscience.  You see a group of men one day, planning to throw stones at a woman.  Suddenly they stop, and with bowed heads and downcast eyes, slip away.  Their consciences had convicted them.  (See John 8.)
 
    Conscience is present in the young, in the child.  It is present in the old, if it hasn't been seared.  And it takes a long time to sear a conscience.  I remember telling a lie to my father when I was 4 years old.  I've looked at my own children since.  Four years old!  How did I even know what a lie was, let alone tell one?  I can still remember that lie.  And for seven years it was on my conscience.  Had anybody told me that I had a conscience?  I didn't know much about a conscience at age 4.  But something was convicting me.  I'll never forget the peace the night I went into my father's bedroom at age 11, after he had gone to bed, and asked him to forgive me for the lie I had told at age 4.  I dare say we all know what a conscience is all about.  And the conscience is another mountain, another hurdle, that one would have to get past if he wanted to be lost.

Salvation Assured                        THE GREAT MOUNTAIN OF PRAYER
 
        For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you.  Col. 1:9.
 
    If at any time in your life you've heard someone say, I'm praying for you, and I'm going to keep on praying for you, that's hard to forget!  I believe in the effectiveness of prayer as a great mountain to keep us from sliding to perdition.  If I wanted to be lost, I'd have to forget those moments as a child when I stumbled into my father's study at any time of the day or night and found him on his knees, and I knew at least one person he was praying for.  Me!  I read about a man named Peter.  Jesus had said to him, "Satan wants to have you, but I have prayed for you that your faith will not fail."  And suddenly, when Peter was cursing and swearing by the fire, those words came back.  "I have prayed for you."
 
    We had a long discussion in a midweek meeting one time, trying to figure out whether prayer was effective and how it worked.  Finally we said, "Why don't we pray?  Why don't we pray for an impossible case?"  It just so happened that on that day I had been to see a returned missionary who had become discouraged.  He and his family were bitter, and everyone knew it.  As I left that day, the man had said, "And don't pray for us, either!"  His name was heavy on my mind at that meeting that night.  I mentioned his name.  A number of people knew him.  We agreed that we couldn't find a more impossible case.  We determined that we would pray every day that month, at home, and every Wednesday night, together, for his family.  The following week his house burned down.  At prayer meeting, I asked, "What have you people been praying for, anyway?"  We prayed again.  The next week he lost some valuable piece of equipment he needed in his business.  The notice came out in the newspaper.  We kept praying.  We didn't understand what was going on.  The devil?  God?  Who?  All we knew was that at the end of the month, the last Sabbath, as the worship service was beginning, into the church walked this man and his family.
 
    We ought to do more praying.  Don't you believe that?  We ought to.  The prayers of loved ones are a giant mountain that makes it hard for us to be lost.

Salvation Assured                        THE MOUNTAIN OF COMMON SENSE
 
        So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.  Ps. 90:12.
 
    The Bible and the preaching of the gospel in word and song are two great mountains that God has built up to prevent us from finding it easy to be lost.  A third great mountain looming up is the mountain of your better judgment.  Common sense.  Jesus said it through the prophet: "Come now, and let us reason together" (Isa. 1:18).  Let us reason together about what?  Your sins!  I have made provisions for them to be white as snow, even though they are red like crimson.  I've made provision for eternal life for you.
 
    Well, now, someone may say, you can't prove that.  If a person were to come to me and say, Prove to me that there is eternal life, I couldn't prove it.  I don't have an instrument or scientific approach to prove eternity.  But neither can the skeptic prove that there isn't any!  Yet when people list the top questions they would ask if they knew they'd get the right answer, one question that always shows up in the top five--"Is there life after death?  Is there something more beyond?"  That's one big unknown, except by faith.
 
    Frankly, if I'm just using me head and logic, just using human reason, I don't like the options offered by the person who does not accept God's way.  It isn't eternal life in heaven versus eternal life in Las Vegas.  It is eternal life in heaven versus dying at the end of threescore years and ten, and being dead for a long time, like forever.  Right?  That's not too impressive to me.  I've heard people who feel self-satisfied and "mature" with the thought that they believe that all they have is this life, and when this life is over, that's it.  They seem satisfied with that.  I wonder what's the matter with their thinking!
 
    I was talking to a man in the hospital who was chain smoking.  He said, "Any coward can quit smoking.  It takes a real man to die of lung cancer!"  There's something wrong with his logic from the first word.  Of course, he was being facetious.  But with every cigarette he lighted, he had to cross the giant mountain of reason and common sense.
 
    Better judgment is a mountain that God has designed to make being lost as hard as possible.

Salvation Assured                        A MOUNTAIN OF GOSPEL SERMONS
 
        For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.  1 Cor. 1:21.
 
    The Bible, God's Word, is a barrier or mountain that would have to be crossed by one who would choose to be lost.  A second great mountain that a person would have to get over would be the mountain of gospel sermons that he has heard.  Paul said it, that it pleased God in His wisdom, by the foolishness of preaching, to save some.  Yes, it seems foolish in a way.  But God has seen some purpose in it for centuries.
 
    I can remember gospel sermons that I heard when I was a boy that have stayed with me ever since.  If I should happen to be so unfortunate as to decide that I wanted to be lost, I'd have to try to forget them.  That's a big assignment.  I remember a sermon one time at camp meeting--Jesus, my Saviour, my Lord, and my Friend.  It was based on the scriptures that told of Him in those categories.  I can still remember the main points of the sermon.  How my heart was moved and touched.  I must have been listening with a great need just then, Jesus, my Saviour, my Lord, my Friend.
 
    I remember a sermon one time about blind Bartimaeus.  The key phrase that ran through the sermon was, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.  Blind Bartimaeus didn't know it at first.  He said. What's the commotion?  They said, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.  That is the last thing in the world Bartimaeus wanted to happen.  He's heard about Jesus.  "Don't let Him pass by.  Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me."  If I wanted to be lost, I'd have to forget that phrase.  And there's a mighty agency of the Godhead that knows how to touch just the right part of my cerebrum to bring back the memory.  Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.  I don't want Him to pass by, do you?
 
    I remember the sermons preached to me in song.  Safe were the ninety and nine in the fold, safe, though the night was stormy and cold.  But, said the Shepherd, when counting them o'er, one sheep is missing, there should be one more.  God is not willing that any should perish.  The message of the gospel, preached and taught and sung, is a mighty deterrent from continuing on the road to perdition.

Salvation Assured                        THE MOUNTAIN OF GOD'S WORD
 
        The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand forever.  Isa. 40:8.
 
    What are some of the mountains that God makes use of to fulfill His purpose, not willing that any should perish?  One of the first is perhaps unique to civilized people, to those who have had a chance to know something of the the things of God.  It is the Bible.
 
    Well, you say, what kind of deterrent is that?  There are millions of people who buy Bibles, but they don't read them.  It's still one of the best sellers, but not the best read!  Yet the very fact of the existence of the Bible, when there have been thousands of skeptics and infidels who've tried to do away with it, says something, doesn't it?  If these people who someday are going to want to see the Bible out of print and out of sight are going to fulfill their mission, they are going to have a monumental task.  There are Bible of all colors, shapes, sizes, and versions.  How are they going to get rid of them all?
 
    People go into a motel, somewhere, for a lost weekend.  I daresay they've first got to get the Bible off the dresser top and into the drawer.
 
    My brother and I went to hold some meetings one time in a town.  The hall that we wanted to rent was half of a double auditorium.  We found that the left half was available on the nights we wanted for our public meetings, where we'd talk about the things of the gospel.  However, the right half had dances going three nights a week.  We pondered that a bit, and thought perhaps it would be a handicap.  But on second thought we figured we might even get some deacons to pass out handbills to people as they went in to dance.  So we said we'd take it.  But the manager said, "No, you can't have it."  We wanted to know why not.  He replied, "If people come to have a good time at the dance, and they see people going into the other hall at the same time with Bibles under their arms, it'll ruin the dance."  So we didn't get the auditorium.
 
    The very existence of the Bible is a barrier that God has erected to make it hard for us to be lost.  That's good news.  First Peter 1:23 says that the Word of God liveth and abideth for how long?  Forever.

Salvation Assured                        SALVATION FOR ALL
 
        For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.  Titus 2:11.
 
    Id like to take the position that God is interested in the salvation of every person that He has created.  "The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men."  "The Spirit of God is freely bestowed to enable every man to lay hold upon the means of salvation.  Thus Christ, 'the true Light', 'lighteth every man that cometh into the world.' John 1:9.  Men fail salvation through their own willful refusal of the gift of life."--The Great Controversy, p. 262.  Angels of heaven are passing through the length and breadth of the earth, seeking to comfort the sorrowing, to protect the imperiled, to win the hearts of men to Christ.  Not one is neglected or passed by.  God is no respecter of persons, and He has an equal care for all the souls He has created.
 
    Away with the idea that because some church member in the Christian community let his canaries sing too loud, and I lost my sleep and got discouraged and bitter, that I am going to be lost.  Away with the idea that a person can be lost because some church member let the Bermuda grass grow into his lawn.  Away with the idea that someone who is sitting across the aisle from me didn't smile sweetly, and so I lost my experience.  God's plan of salvation is far deeper and broader than the inadequacies of the Bermuda or the canaries or the person across the aisle.  There are bigger issues involved.
 
    God is determined that since He, not your parents, is responsible for having brought you into this world, that since He is a God of love and fairness and justice, He is not going to leave any stone unturned in your behalf.
 
    At the time of Christ, the Jewish leaders opposed and rejected Jesus throughout His ministry.  Constantly they sought for some way to trap Him, for some method of counteracting His influence with the people, for some way to stop His miracles and silence His teaching.  "Still the convicting Spirit of God followed them, and they had to build up many barriers in order to withstand its power."--The Desire of Ages, p. 322.  God does not change, and He is still determined to win each one of us today.

Salvation Assured                        HARD TO BE LOST
 
        Enter ye in at the straight gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.  Matt. 7:13.
 
    For a long time there have been people who have had the idea that the road to perdition is downhill all the way, paved with ice, and all you do is slip and slide your way right in.
 
    One day I was visiting a lady in my local church.  she was an older lady, approaching 80 years of age, tall, sophisticated, well educated.  After we had visited for a while, engaging in typical small talk, I asked her whether there was anything I as her pastor could do to be of help or encouragement to her.  She said, "Yes, if you could just get me out of this church and out of this religion, and away from this Bible and this God and this faith."  And I said, "I beg your pardon?"  She said, "I have been trapped.  I grew up in a missionary's family, overseas.  I had this whole business and routine of religion ingrained in me.  I go to prayer meeting every Wednesday night,  I can't help it.  I don't want to.  I go to church every week.  I wish I didn't.  I've tried to get away from the church and from God.  I've tried to forget the whole business but I can't."  And she pleaded with me to help her escape!  I assured her that this was not my responsibility as I saw it.  She was an exaggerated case of one who has discovered that it's not easy to get away from God and salvation.
 
    On the downhill road, there are huge barriers and mountains and hurdles to cross that God Himself has been responsible for.  God is determined that everyone possible will be saved.  He will not violate our power of choice, but He has set up mighty agencies to make it as difficult as possible for anyone to be lost.
 
    It is true that the way to life is described as a narrow way.  "Yet do not therefore conclude that the upward path is the hard and the downward road the easy way.  All along the road that leads to death there are pains and penalties, there are sorrows and disappointments, there are warnings not to go on.  God's love has made it hard for the heedless and headstrong to destroy themselves."--Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 139.  "The Lord is...not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9).

Salvation assured                        DOWN IS THE WAY UP
 
        The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.  Ps. 145:14.
 
    When Jesus was here, His presence was the cause of polarization among all who met Him.  He was "set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel."  The worshipers of tradition, the self-righteous, the liberals, and those who depended on other people to determine truth for them fell hard when Jesus came.  But there is a positive side to the picture also, which brings hope and courage to troubled hearts.  The other part of Simeon's prophecy included the "rising again of many in Israel."
 
    The story is told of someone who had fallen over the edge of a cliff, above the ocean.  He hung on desperately and cried out for help.  A voice above him said, "I will help you, but first thing you must do to receive my help is to let go."  Ouch!  It is a surprise to some people to discover that at the point they let go, instead of crashing into the waters below they are surrounded by the gospel net.  "They must fall who would rise again.  We must fall on the Rock and be broken before we can be uplifted in Christ.  Self must be dethroned, pride must be humbled, if we would know the glory of the spiritual kingdom.  The Jews would not accept the honor that is reached through humiliation.  Therefore they would not receive their Redeemer.  He was a sign that was spoken against."--The Desire of Ages, p. 57.
 
    This is one of the reasons why people turn Jesus down.  They do not want to enter into His kingdom through humiliation.  He hath filled the hungry with good things and the rich He hath sent away empty.  The problem of sin, our inability to meet the requirements of God's law, is what shows us our need and drives us to the Rock to be broken.  For the backslider who wants to come back, for the teen-ager who is bound with guilt and sin, for the hopeless who thinks there's not a chance in the world, for you, come this message: You have to be down before you can go up.  The most dangerous position is not that of the one who is down, and knows it, but that of the one who feels that he is up and doesn't need to go down, the one who is living his spotless life independent of Jesus Christ.  "They must fall who would rise again."
 

Salvation Assured                        JESUS, THE GREAT DIVIDER
 
        Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low.  Isa. 40:4.
 
    One of the first groups that fell at the coming of Jesus (who was "set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel") were the holders of tradition.  Jesus said of those who came to Him accusing His disciples of transgressing the traditions of the elders, "In vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" (Matt. 15:9).  The Christian church has often had problems with tradition.  In all ages there have been customs kept alive, as doctrine, that have no Bible base.  We often speak of the antichrist in this connection, but let's face it, tradition can be a problem for every church.
 
    A second group of people who fell hard, and fell hard, under Jesus' polarizing presence was a group we might call the externalists.  They were preoccupied with how they washed, the borders of their garments, long prayers, tithes on infinitesimal things, and the flies in the soup or the gnats in their water.  Jesus faced them squarely in Matthew 23 when He told them that while they were apparently clean on the outside, inside they were filthy.
 
    A third group who fell in the presence of Jesus were the self-righteous.  How could they have missed the parable of the Pharisee and the publican as recorded in Luke 18?  As we look back on it, it seems that it would have been inevitable that the self-righteous would have seen themselves pictured and admitted their need.  But they held out against Him, and they fell.
 
    A fourth group were the wise.  The people who tried to trick Jesus.  Again and again, the doctors were put to confusion by simple questions that Jesus asked them, questions that even children should have been able to answer.  They realized the truth that "he taketh the wise in their own craftiness" (1 Cor. 3:19).  Liberals also fell in His presence.  Jesus divided the broad church as well as  the high church.  The high church depended on its ritual, the broad church on its esygoing theology.  And from all groups, those who relied on their leaders for their answers fell in the presence of Jesus, the Great Divider.  Jesus' being set for the fall of many in Israel was a reality in His lifetime.  The hills and mountains were laid low.