Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. These words from Psalm 19 shed light on the educating power of the scriptures. Wisdom floods our souls as we sit under its instruction. Today, more about how we all can be changed by the word.
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 talk today about how the Word of God teaches us, I guess learning is a lifelong process.
Well, Dave, it certainly is, and my experience has been we have to learn the same things over and over again. You know, even as I read the word every day, oftentimes I have to say that I'm not finding anything brand new, though that does happen also. But my heart is being revived because of the fact that I am relearning what I once knew, but very easily forget. We here at Running to Win are deeply committed to helping people run the race of life successfully. And I want to thank the many of you who support this ministry.
but also we want to share with you that because of people like you, People around the world are able to go to moodymedia.org.
Now you can go to moodymedia.org and when you do you'll discover that there are many resources. many messages, blogs, information for you that we believe will be of help and actually is a part of what we're talking about, namely teaching the Word of God.
So would you write that down? Go to moodymedia.org and share that website with others.
so that they too will be edified and together we continue to learn. The famous atheist Bertrand Russell was asked by a Christian. If after you die you discover that there is God and there is eternity, what would you say to God? He said, I tell him that he didn't give us enough evidence.
Now, the Bible indicates that God has given people plenty of evidence. As a matter of fact, there's enough evidence not only to believe in God, but to go beyond that, and for us to determine what kind of God in which we should believe. Psalm 19 is our text, and I want all of you to turn to it. And we need to look at this together, this remarkable psalm. Because what we have in this psalm is, first of all, God revealing Himself through His works.
And then God revealing himself through his word. And we're going to begin with the works because there is a connection. You'll notice it says in Psalm 19, I'm beginning at verse 1: the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above. proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words whose voice is not heard. Their measuring line goes throughout all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun. Which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and like a strong man, runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens and its circuit to the ends of them.
And there is nothing hidden. from its heat well. What he's saying is here, nature, and of course, we're talking about the heavens, we're speaking about the stellar universe, the stars, they declare the glory. of God. You know, astronomers tell us that there are more stars in the sky than there might be grains of sand on the seashores of the world.
Can you get your mind around it? And yet, the Bible says very casually in the first chapter of the book of Genesis that God created this and He created that. And he made the stars also. He just spoke. And there they were.
Imagine that. And today they declare the glory of God. You think, for example, of the sun. The imagery here is that the sun is Is in a tent, and it's running from one end of the heavens to the other. And of course, then it hands off its responsibilities to the night, and then it.
comes up again the next day to do its work. And what would we do without the sun if we were a little closer? We'd get burned up a little farther away. We would be frozen. And isn't it Jupiter that makes sure that the earth stays in a proper relationship to the sun?
I mean, the heavens declare the glory of God. And you'll notice it says that they pour forth speech. It is a silent speech, to be sure, nobody hears it. It's a good thing that it isn't a spoken language, or it would have to be translated. But there is now in the heavens, God is revealing himself, and he's pouring out this speech.
And he does it. to reveal himself. Silent speech, but powerful speech indeed. And what does nature teach us? It teaches us, first of all, about the total sovereignty of God, the power of God.
and also the knowledge that God has to be able to do what He's done. Paul in the book of Romans says that the invisible attributes of God are seen through his creation. Namely, his eternal power. and his nature. And this revelation comes continually.
It pours forth speech. It's there every single day. It is there when the seasons come and go. And universally, you can go to the farthest tribe in the world, and it also there, you see the stars and you see the sun. And you are reminded of the existence of God.
indeed that he exists. And of course, the Bible makes a very clear distinction between the creation and the creator. You know, there are modern pagans today who want to go back to nature. They want to go back to nature. They need to go further back than that to nature's creator.
And then of course we have atheists. Wasn't it Dawkins who made the statement, does the universe have design? Yes, a designer? No. What sense does that make?
You know, atheists don't understand this, but logically, atheism. Is totally illogical because even when they build their arguments, they are assuming all kinds of assumptions that could only be true if God existed. But they think that their arguments are very powerful. As a matter of fact, if it takes a mind to understand creation, Clearly, a mind must be back of creation. to have made it.
The universe does not have in itself Any evidence that it has the ability to create itself, nor that it has eternally existed as God has. I wish I could spend more time on it, except to say that there's plenty of evidence out there. When I was a boy growing up on the farm, And I had lots of time because I was the last of five children, so I frittered away an awful lot of time. But in the evening sometimes I would run under the sky and then wait till your eyes adjusted to the darkness. And there you would see these beautiful stars.
I mean I could find the big dipper always easily. The little dipper was more difficult to find. But it wouldn't take but five minutes, and I'd be on my knees worshiping God, absolutely overcome. By the immensity of God. Let me tell you something very clearly.
God is not hiding himself from men. Men are hiding themselves from God. The heavens declare the glory of God. And we could say so much more about this atheist sin. against a flood.
of light. By the way, Bertrand Russell, whom I referred to earlier, when he came to the end of his life, someone said, What is the secret of happiness? He said, happiness is the ability to accept the fact that this world is terrible. It's not a very good end, is it? But you know, when we think of creation, it tells us about the power of God, the immensity of God, but what it doesn't do is to Tell us about whether or not this God is interested in us, whether or not we can relate to Him.
Whether or not he's trustworthy. Nature can be very cruel. We'd never guess from nature that God loved the world. Look at the tornadoes, look at the tsunamis, all of these things that happen in our fallen universe. Nature tells us about the immensity of God and something about the nature of God, but it doesn't help us to.
too much when it comes to asking the bigger personal questions of life. And that's why, when you begin in verse 7 here, what David now does is he transitions from the works of God. to the word of God. I think I'm going to just take out a moment and answer some questions.
Some people may say: is it legitimate to look into the Bible to find out what it says about itself? You know, the Bible says it's inspired. How do you know it's inspired? It says it's inspired. If you put it that way, it sounds as if it's circular reasoning.
But in another way, it is perfectly legitimate for the Bible to speak to its own identity. You can do that even in a court of law. You can defend yourself. More than 1,500 times, directly or indirectly, the Bible claims to be the Word of God. One of the things you cannot say.
And people say it all the time and don't understand how illogical it is. One of the things you cannot say is, you know, the Bible is a very good and helpful book, but I don't believe that it's the Word of God. A good and helpful book with at least minimally 1,500 lies. I don't think that's a good book, that's a fraudulent book. What would you say to somebody who writes a biography of Winston Churchill and says, Churchill came to me saying, And then he fills in the blank and then you discover he never met Churchill.
Would you say, well, you know, it's essentially a good book, but All of those references to the prophets, you know, the word of the Lord came to me saying, Now, it is legitimate to allow us to take a moment to find out what the Bible says about itself.
Now, your Bibles are open. I want you to notice that the word God does not occur beginning at verse 7. You see, God is Elohim. He is the Creator. But beginning in verse 7, you have the word Lord, which when capitalized refers to Jehovah.
Now we discover that God is the covenant-keeping God.
Now we discover that God is a God who wants to relate to us.
Now we learn that God the Creator becomes God the Redeemer. And now we begin to understand in David's mind. He gives us about six references or descriptions of the Word of God. Six different ways that you can say it. And then beyond that, what he does is he gives also the benefits of God's word.
And by the way, because it's the word of the Lord, the commandments of the Lord, the precepts. We should not be surprised that he gives to the Word of God some of the same attributes that we would give to God Himself. Of course, we know that men wrote the scriptures, but they were so moved by the Holy Spirit that God preserved them from error and gave us what we needed to know about Him and our relationship with Him. In such a way that in the original manuscripts, of course, What we discover is that there is inspiration and the breath of God. God breathed.
The Bible says, and the result was his word.
Now, David was thinking primarily of the law. He didn't even have the New Testament. We know so much more. Then David knew. And yet, with all that, notice what David says about the word of God.
Now, today I'm speaking to hundreds of you who have decided to take the 40-day challenge. of listening to or reading through the New Testament in forty days. And you say to yourself, you know, I did it for a week. and it's not working very well and we want to ask a good old-fashioned American question. What's in it for me?
What am I going to get out of this? What is the ROI, the return on my investment? I'm spending a half an hour a day doing this, so what am I going to get? out of that.
Well, today we're going to answer that question. as we motivate you to keep going no matter what. All right, let's look at these six descriptions of the Bible, which would also be descriptions, really. of God. First of all, we find perfection.
The law of the Lord is perfect, verse 7, reviving the soul. By perfect, we mean complete.
Now, God could have created more worlds, he could have created more planets, he could have created more stars, but so far as we know, this is, of course, what he intended to do, is what he did. The universe is complete. He could have given us 70 books in the Bible instead of 66. But the law of the Lord is complete enough For us to know our relationship with Him and all of the big questions of life. are found within its pages.
The law of the Lord is perfect and it revives the soul. Anyone here today, you say, I need to be revived. I've had a very hard week. First of all, as we learned last time, the Bible and the Spirit converts us. In that sense, We are given life.
But even after we are given life, what we need is to be revived. We need to be refreshed.
Well, the Word of God, you'll notice it says, it revives the soul. And that, of course, is in verse 7. The law of the Lord is perfect, it revives the soul. And by the way, it also cleanses the soul. Maybe emphasize that in another message.
And then you'll notice. that the testimony of the Lord is sure. It's sure, it's faithful. When the Word of God speaks clearly, God speaks clearly.
So, if you wonder what God thinks about something, you go to the Word of God. It is sure, it is reliable. And you'll notice that it says, it makes wise the simple. Who in the world is simple?
Well, Greek scholars or Hebrew scholars, I should say, tell us that the simple person, the idea behind it, And its root meaning is his mind is open. That is to say, it is open and it doesn't know when to close. You know, you've met people like that. They accept every idea imaginable and they put all ideas on the very same plane, so to speak, believing that all opinions are equal. which is of course logical insanity.
And what they don't have is the ability to discriminate. To be able to say this is wrong, and this is right, and this is wise. Knowledge there can be a plenty, but wisdom is the ability to apply the knowledge. And what does the Word of God do? It takes those who are struggling with their own sense of identity and meaning, and it enables them to become wise, so they begin to discern that this is wrong, this is right, this is the best path.
That's what the Word of God will do for you. Testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. You'll notice the precepts of the Lord are right. And they rejoice the heart. You say, well, I don't get that.
I don't know how David could have said this in the Old Testament with all of those laws and. All of the things that are mentioned in the Old Testament. How could David say that he is refreshed? And rejoices in the heart. By the way, the precepts have to do with the doctrines of the Bible.
Well, even though David didn't know nearly as much as we know, when he really needed to meet God, he knew that he was coming to a God. who is merciful and trustworthy. Do you remember the story, of course, how David committed the twin sins of murder and adultery? And yet, when he confessed his sin, he said, Restore to me the joy of my salvation, and uphold me with thy right spirit. How could How could a man who made such a mess still find joy.
Well, he found it where you and I find it when we mess up. To come to God to be forgiven and to be received, the precepts of the Lord remind us. that there can be joy given by God even in the midst. A failure. Jesus said, these words I have spoken unto you.
that ye may rejoice. The Bible teaches about a kind of rejoicing. that is really not even related. To circumstances. Only the precepts of the Lord can do that because where are you going to go?
to find hope.
Well, we have to continue. You notice that the commandment of the Lord is pure. enlightening the eyes. Today, people think to themselves they are enlightened because they are free.
Someone said, and I don't know who it is, but it's a wonderful quote: he said: the real object of human beings is not freedom. but rather to find out who your master really is. Because nobody is exactly free. You don't accept God as your master. The freedom that you will have is the freedom to live according to your selfish desires.
and eventually you will be overtaken. By sin. And so, what David said is: the commandment of the Lord is pure. That is to say, It is clear. It is not contaminated.
And it enlightens you, it gives you perspective. A moment ago, I told you about simpletons who Who allows everything in, and they don't know where the beauty is. They don't know. where to put it unless they are made wise by the word. Another way to look at it is: a friend of mine said that he lived in France close to Mount Blanc.
which is really uh connected between Switzerland And uh France. And he said that there was this house. that really faced the beautiful mountain. of Mount Blanc. And he said the shutters were always closed.
He could never understand that. But there are times when we forget that when we come to the word of God, God. And we are open to its message. It will keep us from being the simpleton we spoke about a moment ago, and it will give us enlightenment. And we'll say to ourselves, where have I been all these years, stumbling around, trying to make the best of life?
Not understanding reality, not understanding what things are about.
Well, the word of God, the commandment, is pure, it will enlighten. your eyes. You'll notice it says it is clean.
Now we're in verse 9, and it says, The fear of the Lord. Remember this, in context, the word fear. is a synonym for the Bible. It's a synonym for the law of God, the fear of God. Calvin, the great theologian, said we should give the Word of God the same reverence that we give God.
The fear of the Lord. Of course, when I say that, I don't mean that we worship this book, that is to say, with its pages and Mine happens to have a leather cover. That would be a terrible form of idolatry. But when we come to the word of God, we come to it with the same kind of reverence with which we come to God.
Well, my dear friend, this is Pastor Lutzer. The other day I was kind of thinking in my mind, what would it be like if we didn't have the Word of God? and it dawned on me without any guidance from God, Life would be like a person who's drowning in a river grasping for any piece of driftwood that happens to pass by that looks attractive. But in the end. It will fail.
How much we appreciate the Word of God and I trust that I speak on your behalf, I believe that I do. and we here at Running to Win are deeply committed in helping you to take advantage of every opportunity that you have to learn the word of god to study it to read it on your own but also to listen to messages YouTube. Here's what you can do. Go to moodymedia.org. That's moodymedia.org and very easy to remember, by the way.
Moody Media.org, and there you will find these resources that we are making available free for people around the world. And we can do that. because of the support of people just like you. We need to remind you that every investment you make in this ministry is intended to get the gospel to more people in more countries, in more languages, because we believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the great hope for the world.
So, right now, Go to moodymedia.org, moodymedia.org, spend some time there. investigate all the resources that are available and then tell someone else about the site. and you know that they also will be helped. In their spiritual journey.
So, this effort. As we get the gospel to many is really a joint effort, it includes you. Thank you so much from my heart. to yours. You can write to us at Running2Win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614.
Next time I'm running to win. Join us for more on the lessons we can learn. from meditating on and studying the Bible. Thanks for listening to our series on being changed by the word. This is Dave McAllister.
Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
