Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. On earth, the law of gravity is immutable. God's moral law has the same force. The commandments he gave to Moses define his character and his expectations of our behavior. Today, why God's moral law shows us who we really are.
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 Lutzer, as you continue talking about thunder from Sinai, let me ask this. Do we know if the tablets of stone exist to this day? Dave, as far as I know, there's no archaeologist who has said that they have found the tablets of stone, and I, for one, am very grateful.
Because if people thought that those tablets were found, immediately they would be venerated. Do you remember the story in the Old Testament of how God used a brass serpent to keep the people from dying in a plague? Immediately later on we read that this serpent, a brass serpent, symbolic of the plague, became a snare to the Israelites. The desire of people to worship objects, to venerate them. But thank God we have the Ten Commandments.
Their content is very clear in the scriptures. I want to thank the many of you who support this ministry. When I think of the ministry of running to win, I visualize in my mind all of our partners scattered throughout the world who say they've been blessed by this ministry and they in turn want to use their funds to bless others. I want to encourage you to become what we call an endurance partner. The end of this message, I'm going to be giving you some contact info.
For now, I want you to listen.
Okay. Look at this 19th chapter. In an introductory way, God is speaking to Moses in the first few verses. And in verse 8 it says, And all the people answered together and said, All that the Lord has spoken, we will do. Unbelievable.
And to think they meant it. They actually thought that whatever God tells us to do, we can do. How deceived can you get? It was Martin Luther who said that man is not only blind, sick, and dead. without God.
If he were blind, sick, and dead, and that were the end of it, he might see his need and cast himself upon the mercy of God. But he is not only blind, sick, and dead, but it's far worse than that. He perceives himself to be able to see. He perceives himself as healthy and alive. And that's what makes it so difficult for men and women to repent.
They don't see themselves as God sees them. It's a remarkable story in the New Testament. The young ruler comes to Jesus and says, What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? Jesus plays the game with him. What shall you do?
Okay, you want to do it by works? Fine, there is a second way of salvation. Just be perfect and you'll make it. Jesus said. He says, Do the commandments.
Then the young man says, These have I kept. From my youth up. And Jesus said, Oh, really? Tongue in cheek? Our Lord says, Well, you know, one thing you lack Go sell everything that you have and give it to the poor, and then come and follow me.
Jesus knew that he was covetous, so he picked on the last commandment. A remarkable story. Why is it remarkable? The two most perfect human beings in all the world are having a discussion. One is the spotless Lamb of God, and the other is a lamb with only one minor blemish.
Isn't that remarkable? These have I kept. from my youth up. You know what that man needed to do? He needed to get a glimpse of the holiness of God, and if he had seen God, he would have fallen on his face and he'd have repented in dust and ashes.
The gall to say, These have I kept from my youth up. What a shallow view of sin Do you know what happens when people see God? They begin to see themselves and it's not a pretty picture. Back in the early 70s, there was a revival in Canada that swept across hundreds of churches in Western Canada. And there was a friend of mine who said that as he was a pastor, He said that a man called him on the phone and was crying so violently that the pastor thought for sure that his wife had been killed or a child had died or something.
He said, Come on right over.
So the man came over, and when he came over, he just threw himself across the pastor's desk and just kept sobbing and sobbing and sobbing. And you know, there's nothing you can do when that happens except to wait until the guy cries himself out and he can talk because you can't know what's wrong. And the man said, he said, you know, he says, I was sitting in my office, he says, and while I was there, God showed me what was in my heart. And he says, it was so terrible that it was as if I was looking into the pit of hell. Was this man really a wicked man?
Uh not so wicked. What he had done was this: he got somebody to lie for him. It was an insurance settlement, and he found out that by telling a little lie, he could get more from the insurance company. That's no big deal. Compare that with City Hall.
That's no. Nothing. to be too worried about. My uh brother and I were in a holiday inn last weekend in Toronto and uh We ordered some hamburgers to be brought to the room, and the man who left the check so that we could fill it in. It puzzled me.
I couldn't understand why until I realized that there are some people who are on expense accounts. We weren't, but there are some people. Instead of saying that it costs $6, you could say that it costs $12 and you could get some extra money. And so they just do it that way. Is it a big deal?
Of course, not everybody does it. You know, there are waitresses in the city of Chicago who Don't report their income that they receive on tips because nobody does it. One of the waitresses told me, is that a big deal? Of course not. Everybody.
does what they are doing. My friend, it's no big deal until you have seen. God. And once you have seen God and He exposes these things in your heart, it is as if you are looking into the pit of hell. The reason that these things can be in Christians' lives and we justify it and we excuse it is because we have not seen God.
When Isaiah did, he said, Woe is me, for I am undone, for I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. You'll recall in the Old Testament when Job saw God, what did he say? He said, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and I repent in dust and ashes. When you see the holiness of God and you then see yourself, it will be like looking into raw hell. And the purpose of the law.
Was that we might see Ourselves in all of our sinfulness and cast ourselves upon the mercy of God and finally see what we are like in His presence. The first Purpose of the law. To reveal the holiness of God. The second purpose of the law is to reveal the sinfulness. of man.
The third purpose of the law is to reveal the need. For grace, the need for grace. Because you see this great chasm that exists between God and man, how is it to be bridged? Job asked the question, he said, how can a man be justified before God? How are we going to take care of the pollution that is in the human heart when God is totally separate, transcendent, and holy?
That's where grace comes in. Because grace comes along and says that there is a way that God Made by which he can maintain his justice and his holiness and still welcome sinners into his family. That's grace. That's grace. And I want you to see the contrast.
Would you turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 12? Hebrews chapter 12, and I want you to keep your finger in that passage, if you would, please. Because there's a contrast here between Mount Sinai, the Old Covenant, and the New Covenant, and I want you to see it. The contrast is between Mount Sinai and Zion, which is a poetic name for Jerusalem. And here he's using it as a reference to the heavenly Jerusalem.
And this is the contrast. Verse 18. Hebrews 12. For you have not come to a mount that may be touched. He didn't mean that they should touch it, it means that it is a physical mountain that one.
Could. in principle touch. You have not come to a mountain that may be touched, and to a blazing fire, and to a darkness, and to gloom, and a whirlwind. and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words, which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word should be spoken to them. For they could not bear the command, and now it's a reference, you know, to Mount Sinai.
Exodus 19. If even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I am full of fear and trembling.
Now he says that's Sinai. But now notice the contrast. But you have come to Mount Zion. and to the city of the living God. And the heavenly Jerusalem, and to a myriad of angels, and to the general assembly, and to the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect.
I take that to be a reference to the Old Testament saints. And to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkling of blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel. Do you see the contrast? Here's Sinai, terrifying, dark, thunder, lightning, unapproachable, don't touch. Or you're dead.
That's Sinai. Here is Zion. The new covenant brought about through the blood of Jesus Christ. And what is the contrast? Light!
Approachability. A welcome, a reception. A congregation of other saints, and a knowledge that we can come into God's presence without fear, knowing that we have been accepted and received on the basis of grace. That's the contrast that the author of the book of Hebrews wants us to understand.
Now you see, once you understand grace. Then you understand certain things. You know then that our ability to approach God has to be based totally and squarely, not on the law. Not on the law, not on our ability. I find this absolutely unthinkable, but occasionally I still run across people who say, Well, you know, I'm willing to stand before God on my own record.
Wow.
Well, I'm sure glad I don't have to stand before God on my record. The Bible says that whosoever believes that salvation is of the law will be judged by the law. All of its penalties, all of its impossibilities are upon your shoulders. But we must not come and think that we are going to be saved and received on the basis of Sinai with that law, but we come on the basis of the blood of Jesus Christ, the sprinkling of his blood. Because he absorbed the imprint of sin and the penalty of sin for us.
Death and the curse were in our cup, O Christ, was full for thee, but thou hast drained the last dark drop. Tis empty now for me. And God says to us today, welcome. Welcome! Because of the new covenant.
Not because of the old. Do you understand now why salvation is of the Lord? Do you understand why people who think that they contribute in a cooperative way in salvation are going to be damned forever? The reason is because God cannot accept any works that a human being does in his white light of holiness. All of it is polluted and tainted.
And only what Jesus Christ alone has done is acceptable to a holy God. And if we do not flee to him, we will be damned forever.
Okay. You've heard me. Give the illustration, a true one, by the way, of a father and his daughter who was out on a prairie one day when there was a prairie fire that was approaching. And they knew that it would be fatal to them, they'd be burned because it was coming their direction. And they couldn't escape, and the father very wisely said to his daughter, Let's begin a fire right here.
And they began a fire, and they spread the fire, and they made the fire burn a patch of ground. As far as they could possibly burn it. And then when the fire came, they were able to stand on the patch of ground that had already been burned. And because of that, they were spared. The fire.
that came. Here you are as an unsafe person standing on the ground, the dry grass with an approaching fire, saying, I will, I will stand on my own record. You're going to be burned? By the judgment of God, the Bible says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. You ought to be trembling in your seat, those of you who have come to church time again.
Some of you have heard me preach for dozens of times, and you come in here and you do not believe, and you postpone it, and you put it off, and you do not take God seriously. And one of these days, you're going to be gone forever in hell, and you're never going to be able to be excluded from the awesome holiness and fire of God, then you're going to bear it on your soul forever. That's the law. You want to stand on your own record? Keep standing.
I'm not going to, I assure you of that. There's another covenant. It's the covenant of grace. It's standing where the fire of God's judgment has already fallen. It is fleeing to Jesus Christ, who in his own body, his soul, and spirit absorbed all of the penalties against sin, and who says to us today, when you come to me and you receive me, I will be your protector and shield you from the awful wrath of God that I have already absorbed for those that believe.
That's the difference. If your Bible still is open to Hebrews chapter 12, look at what it says in verse 25. See to it that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, He's talking about Sinai. Much less shall we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven.
God says when he spoke on Mount Sinai, he says the accountability of those people is small in comparison to the accountability of people today who have the fresh light of revelation of Jesus Christ, who know more about God and more about his salvation today because Jesus Christ came from heaven to save us. That their accountability, the accountability of this generation, your accountability is much greater. See to it that you refuse not him who speaks. Just because he's speaking in grace does not mean that somehow he is a compromiser and his character has changed and he's starting to get a little bit weak on his judgment on sin. And so I ask you today, who have come here time and time again, and you've heard the gospel.
And you've hardened your heart and you've said, not today. What are you going to do with Christ? What? Will you do with the only one qualified to shield you from the holy justice of God? Will you do with him?
I ask you. The purpose of the law. It's to reveal the holiness of God, the sinfulness of man. And the tremendous need that we have. For grace.
If it were not for Christ, We'd all have to absorb the fire. Forever. Shall we pray? Father, it is to us absolutely terrifying to think that there could be people listening to this message who've heard the gospel a hundred times and said no. Oh, we pray today that they might not refuse him who speaks, knowing that the terror of Sinai is but small, it says, in comparison with the terror.
still to come. Yeah. We pray that men and women throughout this congregation and others who are listening. Will say, Today I receive Christ as Savior. I flee to Him.
for mercy and grace. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. My friend, if you've never come to saving faith in Jesus Christ, I hope that you will flee to Him for refuge. As I like to emphasize and the Bible teaches, we flee to Him. to save us from the wrath to come.
Oftentimes our idea of God is that He is very tolerant. He's a God who overlooks sin. He doesn't. But let us thank Him profusely for His grace, and let us receive it for His glory.
Now let me ask you a question. Are you blessed as a result of this ministry? Have you been edified by running to win? If so, would you consider becoming what we call an endurance partner? That's someone who stands with us regularly with their prayers and their gifts.
Of course, what you could do is to investigate what an endurance partner is. Here's the info. You can go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com and when you're there you'll notice that there is an endurance partner button. Check it out.
rtwoffer.com or you can pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. As I frequently remind people, if you've been blessed because of this ministry, which by the way goes to 50 different countries in seven different languages, if you've been blessed, it's because other people just like you are partnering with us. Thanks in advance for your prayers. Thanks in advance for your gifts as together, we are making a difference. It's time once again for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life.
Dabbling in the occult is a very dangerous thing, something believers are told to avoid. One of our listeners has this question about an Old Testament king of Israel. Pastor Lutzer, do you believe that Saul was a believer even though he went to the witch at Endore? Excellent question, and uh some day when I get to heaven I'm going to try to find Saul to see if he's there. Not absolutely convinced that he'll be there, but I think he might be.
You know, the Bible does say in his early days that the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he prophesied, and it also says that he He was changed into a different man. That sounds like conversion to me. And yet when you read the rest of his life, It was such a mixed bag. Jealousy An evil spirit from the Lord comes and terrifies. terrorizes him so that he tries to kill David.
disobedience, he repents. But his repentance is fake it doesn't last. It is really half-hearted repentance. And then at the end, as you mention in your question, he goes to the witched endor. And what an experience that was He goes into the occult, even though the Bible says that He put away all false prophets and all witches from the land, yet when He's desperate, He goes to a witch.
Saul is one of the most interesting characters in the Bible. I've read his story with fascination. Will he be in heaven? I hope so. But I'm not sure.
Thank you, doctor Lutzer, for those insights. If you'd like to hear your question answered, go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer or call us at 1-888-218-9337. That's 1-888-218-9337. Oh yeah. You can write to us at RunningTowin 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614.
There is one area in which God tolerates no competition. He wants to be supreme in our lives, and He made that clear by writing on a tablet of stone the first of the Ten Commandments. It's commandment number one for a reason. On our next running to win, we'll turn to that first commandment and find out why God tolerates no competition whatsoever when it comes to our allegiance. Running to win is all about helping you understand God's roadmap for your race of life.
Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
