Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. If you believe a lie long enough, for you it becomes the truth.
You may be among those who believe wrongly about God. This is serious stuff. Nothing is more important than what you believe about Him.
Please stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor, today we begin a series on 10 lies about God and why you may already be deceived. Now, lie number one seems to state that there are many ways to get to God. Dave, I love the phrase that you used in the intro when you said, this is serious stuff. Well, indeed it is serious stuff. As a matter of fact, I think it was Tozer who said that the most important thing about you is what you believe about God.
What we discover in America today is Americans don't mind saying they believe in God just as long as they get the opportunity of defining God according to their own preference. And the burden of this series is for us to get back to the biblical God, the God of the Bible, and of course He's a very complex being, but at the same time to know that we can indeed come to know Him through Jesus Christ. Now, as we begin this series, may I give you a word of encouragement, call your friends, let them know about this series of messages, and invite them to listen no matter where they are at so that they also might be edified and together we might come to a better understanding of the Almighty. So for now, I want you to listen and at the end of this message, I'm going to be giving you some contact info.
But for now, let us listen carefully. Whenever I'm on a plane, I like to strike up a conversation with the people next to me if possible. Usually begins with the weather and then we talk about politics, eventually religion, and finally Jesus. One day my wife and I were riding on a plane together and across the aisle there was a woman with a necklace and on it hung a small cross. In order to stimulate conversation, I said to her, thanks for wearing that cross, we really do have a wonderful Savior, don't we? She looked up and rolled her eyes and said, she said, I don't think I understand the cross like you do.
So she said, look at this, and she scooped up the pendants in her hand. She showed me the cross and behind the cross was the Jewish star and then behind the Jewish star was a little pendant to the God Om, the Hindu God. She said, I'm in social work and I've discovered that people come to God in many different ways. Well, as you know, this is the beginning of a series of 10 messages on the topic seven lies about God and how you already may be deceived. And today we come to lie number one, that God can be approached in many different ways.
There are many paths to the divine. At one of our university campuses, there was a sign that read this, it's OK to think you're right, but it's wrong for you to think someone else may be wrong. It's OK to think you're right, but it's not OK to think that somebody else may be wrong. We have no sins left in America, but there is still one sin, just one, and that is the sin of believing that someone else might just be wrong. Well, I want you to know today that if the Bible is right, there are a lot of people out there who are wrong.
When I was in college, and it was so long ago that I don't think I could go to that young couple's potluck after the service. But when I was in college, God was kind of banished from the skies by secularism. The secularists said we don't need him.
But there's something very unsatisfying about that, because we all have within us a raging thirst to somehow find an answer to the emptiness with which we were born. And so people always, once they abandon the true God, they go to many other strange gods. So we live in an age today of spirituality. Secularism took God from the sky, but spirituality brings God down from the sky and puts him into his creation.
That's why if you read New Age literature, you'll find that yourself is sacred, and the earth is sacred, and animals are sacred, and everything is sacred. It's just like it says in the book of Romans, with such clarity. God says that they once knew the true God, but having abandoned the true God, and they were not grateful, he says, they gave themselves over to other gods. It's here in my Bible, if you just have patience, I don't think anyone ripped the book of Romans out while I was on the platform. They knew God, they neither glorified him as God, nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Isn't this descriptive? Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man, and to birds, and to animals, and reptiles. Thinking themselves to be wise, they foolishly made God out of God's creation, and that's why in the New Age movement, all these things are sacred. What kind of a God, therefore, have people created in their own minds? Because they create a God after their own image, the word God today is a canvas upon which every person is invited to paint his own picture. Well, first of all, he is an inclusive God, a God who is very tolerant of immorality, and what shall we say, very tolerant of immorality, tolerant of all of our religious diversity, tolerant of a thousand different alternate lifestyles. He's a God who serves us. He's not a God who judges us.
He is our servant. Whatever gods or goddesses there might be, they exist for one reason, and that is that we might fulfill our human potential, and therefore, this God can be readily accessed by anyone at any time in any way. As a result, we've reared a generation in which there is no fear of God. Nobody even suggests, hey, you know what? Coming into God's presence might be a bad idea.
It's never crossed their minds that it might not be wise. There is no fear of God, no sense of unworthiness. All of us are inherently worthy, and furthermore, let us be clear, if you have guilt, it is a feeling that should be unlearned because this is a very non-judgmental God. Let me give you a quotation from the Psalms. There is no fear of God before his eyes, for in his own eyes, he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin.
What a commentary on today's world. Well, why should we be concerned about approaching God in the right way? In the Bible, the Lord gives us two important warnings. The first warning is against idolatry. He's saying, don't make up these idols in your mind. It says in Ezekiel chapter 14, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. God is saying, don't construct an idea of me that I have not revealed.
Don't you dare make me into something that is compatible with your way of seeing the world. That's one warning. But there's another warning. And the warning is, don't come to the living and the true God in any way.
Come the right way. One day, there were two brothers. The first two brothers, one was Cain and the other was Abel. They thought, well, you know, Cain, Abel is the first one mentioned, he brings the first slings of his flock to God and God regards his sacrifice. Cain says, well, I don't have to do it that way.
I'm going to bring from my crop. What difference does it make? Well, possibly at that time, God had already revealed that a sacrifice of blood was necessary. But Cain says, I'm going to approach God in my own way.
And what happens? Abel is accepted and Cain is rejected. Are they coming to the true God? Yeah.
One is accepted, the other rejected. One day, there were some seminary students, some young men who were being trained for the ministry. Their father was a priest. His name was Aaron.
And he had a number of sons and one day, Nadab and Abihu. I mean, these are guys who are just playing around like playing around in a laboratory. They find some oil and then they add some incense and they burn this incense and they go into the sanctuary of God. They say, you know, my dad does something like it. He does it a little differently according to what God has prescribed. But, you know, we're I mean, after all, God's going to accept us.
We're sincere. Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu took their sensors, put fire in them and added incense. And they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command. So fire came down from the presence of the Lord and consumed them and they died before the Lord. He said, oh my, that's an overreaction. I mean, they're only young. I mean, they're experimenting.
I mean, give them a reprimand, but don't kill them. Why did God do that? Notice what the Lord said through the lips of Moses. Among those who approach me, I will show myself holy in the sight of all the people I will be honored.
When you come to me, you had better come according to the prescribed way or else you will be rejected and judged. Your self is important, but it isn't holy or sacred. God is. The earth is important, but it isn't holy or sacred. Only God is holy and God is sacred.
The Old Testament, they had what was known as the tabernacle. In the tabernacle, you had to come first of all to the holy place and then behind the holy place, there was what was called the Holy of Holies, that small room in which the glory of God resided. Now, keep in mind that God exists throughout the whole universe. The whole earth is filled with God and his glory, but the Bible always says that there's a place where God's presence is particularly localized. It's the place where he dwells.
It is the unapproachable. It is the place of light, the place where he is willing to reveal who he really is because all revelation in the Bible has to be veiled because we can't see God directly, but it is here. That he is manifest. The high priest on the day of atonement would go into that room a number of times, but only on that day.
And according to the traditions that we have, a rope was tied around him so that if he did something wrong and was struck dead like Nadab and Abihu were, then they could pull him out without having to go into the room themselves and also risk the possibility of being struck dead. We've come a long way, heaven away, from that kind of a God. This God that everybody can access.
You just access him within your own soul and you come to him in many different ways. Martin Luther had an understanding of the holiness of God. When he performed his first mass, and it's been my privilege to stand behind the table where he did that on a number of occasions, and I always have a member of the tour group read his words, he was picking up the cup, and when he got to the ritual that said, we offer unto thee the living and the eternal God, he froze. Beads of perspiration came and formed on his face, and it appeared as if he could not continue. His hand trembled. He feared that he would spill the cup.
Why? Later he said these words. He said, at these words I was utterly stupefied and terror-stricken. I thought to myself, with what tongue shall I address such majesty, seeing that all men ought to tremble in the presence of even an earthly prince? Who am I that I should lift up mine eyes or raise my hands to the divine majesty? The angels surround him, at his nod the earth trembles, and I, a miserable little pygmy, I say, I want this and I ask for that, for I am but dust and ashes full of sin, and I'm speaking to the living, true and eternal God.
No wonder he trembled. Why is it important for us in this day and age to get the idea straight as to how God is to be approached? It's protocol. There are more people who would give consideration as to how a president should be approached or how a queen or king should be approached than they do God. They come traipsing into his presence thinking that he ought to be thrilled with everything that they are doing and thinking that he should be glad that they just come. No, he's glad that they come, but they must come the right way.
Why? First of all, because of the gap that exists between us and God because of his holiness. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. The whole earth is filled with his glory. The most basic, the most essential attribute of God is holiness, and because that is his essential attribute, his love is holy. His grace is holy grace, and his justice is holy justice, and the gap between us and him is infinite and unbridgeable. That's why in the Bible when people saw a glimmer of God, and nobody saw him directly, but they saw manifestations, they fell on their faces like Job and said, woe is me for I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips.
Isaiah said, I have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. Job said, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. Where is that in today's spirituality? Where do you find that kind of an attitude? Who is there on our talk shows who might suggest it's a bad idea to try to get close to God if you do it the wrong way?
Do you see how the shift in culture has occurred? There is the moral gap because of God's holiness. There's the knowledge gap. After all, he knows everything. It's not just that he knows more than we do. He knows everything, and he knows us intimately and continuously, and he sees all the hidden sins that we have so successfully kept from others.
He knows reality, and that should make us shudder. Then there is, may I use the word, an ontological gap. That means that God is the creator, and he has a different form of existence than we do who are the creature. And so we can understand Luther's words, who are we that we should approach the divine majesty? Who are we in our sinfulness that we should come to God? Let me say it with a clarity that I hope you never forget. You will never, never, never approach the manifestation of God's presence on your own because you cannot, you cannot, cannot, cannot, cannot do it directly.
How then do we do it? The text for today is Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10, where we have a discussion about how the priests entered God's presence and how Jesus enables us to do it.
Hebrews chapter 10, I'm picking it up at verse 11. Day after day, every priest stands and performs his religious duties again and again. He offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. Now notice the sharp contrast between those priests and Christ. But when this priest, I love this, but when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down on the right hand of God. Since that time, he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool because by one sacrifice, he has made a perfect forever those who are being made holy. How do you get to God?
Somebody showed up here at the church one time and said, you know, God must have his receiver off the hook. I don't know his number. How do I get in touch with him? Let me tell you how he must be approached. Number one, you must have the right mediator, the right mediator. God cannot be approached directly. All relationship with God is mediated. Medieval times, there were mystics who thought they could just get through to God on their own.
It's got to be mediated. We think, for example, of the contrast, the Old Testament priests. There were many of them because they died and then they were replaced. There was one high priest, but when he died, he had a replacement. And on and on it went because they were symbolic of the coming of Christ, who would be the priest who would for once and for all become our mediator, our intercessor to stand between us and a holy God.
And so you see the contrast here in the text. Notice he says day after day, every priest, many of them performing his religious duties again and again, he's offering the same sacrifices. Furthermore, these priests were sinful and they had to offer sacrifices for themselves first.
And then they had to do it for others. Jesus never had to offer a sacrifice for himself because he was sinless. Some of you know how often I've told you the story of going to the Parliament of World Religions and looking for a sinless savior.
My friend, let me ask you this question. Have you ever heard someone say, and I'm sure that you have heard it, they say something like this. Well, I think that there are many ways to get to God. As a matter of fact, recently, Rebecca and I were speaking to a woman who said that her God was nature. She said that she'd like to sit under a tree or look at a mountain, and that really made her close to God. The point that I made to her is that nature cannot forgive your sins. Nature cannot bring you into the presence of the Almighty. And that's why it is so important for us to understand that the only path is Jesus, the high priest. And this high priest died for us, not for his own sins, but for ours. I've written a book entitled Ten Lies About God and Why You Might Already Be Deceived, and we're making this resource available for you so that you understand God better, so that you can answer objections that might come to you from your friends when you hear them say something like I've already referenced.
And as a result of reading it, I think you will be better informed, and my heart hopes that you will be a better worshiper. For a gift of any amount, we're making it available for you. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com, or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now, because this is so critical, I'm going to give you that contact info one more time.
Go to rtwoffer.com, or call us at 1-888-218-9337. And thank you in advance for helping us. You've heard me say before that running to win is now in 50 different countries in seven different languages, all because of people just like you. And this, my friend, is your ministry.
Thank you so much for joining hands with us as together we run toward the finish line. Many people think they can come to God any way they like. That's what our culture teaches us.
Lay aside your preconceptions. Listen to what God says about how to find Him. Next time on Running to Win, learn why coming to God only happens through the right mediator. Thanks for listening. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
