When God Comes Part 1

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.

The mountain called Sinai is forever linked with the great visitation of God to mankind as represented by Moses. Here, the basic roadmap for living was given in the form of the Ten Commandments. Today, we recount the story of what happens when God comes.

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, are the Ten Commandments still relevant in what we call the Age of Grace? Dave, the Ten Commandments are still very relevant. As a matter of fact, we cannot really understand grace until we understand law and until we understand the fact that we have so badly missed God's high standard that we throw ourselves at the feet of the Lord and say, have mercy on me.

And so, yes, absolutely, the Ten Commandments still have relevance today. But I also have to say that here in Exodus is the first time in the Bible that we have what we could call a natural disaster. When God came to the mountain, it shook. I've read this passage many times. I've preached on it, of course, and it still deeply affects me. What is it like when God comes? Well, the best thing we can do is to just simply take a deep breath and listen carefully as we see the experience of Moses and his people when the Lord shows up on Sinai.

A.W. Tozer said on one occasion that the most important thing about you is what you believe about God. If that is true, may I ask you today, what do you believe about God? Opinion polls here in America suggest that 90% of Americans believe in God, but only 10% say that their belief affects the way in which they live. Well, I'm here to tell you today that if you believe in a God who has not affected the way in which you live, you have believed in the wrong God. The God of America today is a very tolerant God.

He is as tolerant as a talk show host. The God in America today, the cultural God, is a God who is all love and no justice, and he's also a God who is largely irrelevant. Well, if you have your Bibles, I want you to turn to the 19th chapter of the book of Exodus. We are taking some highlights in the life of Moses, and we come to Exodus 19. And by the way, if you're not in the habit of bringing your Bible to church, you ought to, because it gives you the opportunity to see on the text the passage that we are referring to, and it will cement it more specifically in your mind. The 19th chapter of Exodus. It's been three months since Israel left Egypt, and they have come now into the desert, and they are camped near Mount Sinai.

And what an experience this is going to be. In fact, the Lord is speaking to Moses and calls to him, verse 3, from the mountain saying, thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel, God says I've got a message for you, and if you obey me, I'll bless you. And the people say in verse 8, all that you have said to us we will do. Of course, they should never have said that, as we'll see in a moment.

That was a mistake. They didn't understand the depth of their wickedness, but in a moment of optimism, they said, Lord, we'll obey you. And then the Lord said, Moses, I'm going to tell you something else. I am going to come onto Mount Sinai, and I want you to prepare the people, because I am coming to visit the mountain and to visit you. When God comes is the title of my message.

Now let me ask you a question. What happens when God comes? Well, first of all, there is always a revelation, and I want to say always. There is always a revelation of God's unspeakable holiness. That word holy means that God is separate. Another word that you should get used to is the word transcendent, which means that God is above and beyond.

He exceeds the limits. He is above and beyond anything that you can imagine, and he is independent of the world. And his holiness is the only attribute in all the Bible that is oftentimes given in triplicate.

Holy, holy, holy. The most fundamental attribute of God's essence. Now how is the holiness of God seen in this passage?

First of all, it is seen by the instructions that the Lord gives to the people. Notice he says in verse 10, the Lord says to Moses, go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow and let them wash their garments. God is coming to town. And when God comes, you get ready for him.

The Lord says, wash your garments, get ready, get cleaned up. And then the Lord gives another set of instructions. He says in verse 12, and you shall set bounds for the people all around is saying, beware that you do not go up on the mountain or touch the border of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot through. The idea is with an arrow. Whether beast or man, he shall not live.

Wow. The Lord is saying, I want you to come to Mount Sinai, but I want all the people to stand back and you mark the boundary and you tell them how far they can come. Because if so much as one of them touches that mountain, that person has to be killed and he can't be killed directly because you can't even touch the person who touched the mountain. God says you have to stone him to death at a distance or else shoot him with an arrow because the Lord says, I am holy. Now, Moses, there was an exception made for him. God says, Moses, you can come with me to the top of the mountain and Aaron, you too can come so far, but the rest of the people have to stay back because God is coming. Now, not only is the holiness of God is seen in the instructions which the Lord gave to the people, but his holiness is also seen because of the way in which God is described. He is described as coming from above, descending onto the mountain. You see, what the Lord is saying is that I exist far up.

Now, many people misunderstand that because they say the world is round and what is up to us is down to somebody else, but that's not the point. The Lord is saying, I want to descend on the mountain so that you understand that I am higher than you are and I am coming from a position that you do not even comprehend or understand. And just as there is a horizontal distance between you and me, so there is also a vertical distance between you and me because I am God and beside me, there is none other. Now, you need to understand that God exists everywhere. God was at Mount Sinai long before he came to Mount Sinai. God permeates the whole universe. But what the Bible is teaching here is that God in a very special way is going to reveal his presence and that's why all these preparations needed to be made. God is holy. When you read the Old Testament, you say to yourself, you know, God seems far too severe.

Sometimes he does things and it seems as if the punishment does not suit the crime. For example, there's a story in the 10th chapter of Leviticus of two people by the name of Nadab and Abihu. They were the sons of Aaron and they went into the tabernacle which had been constructed under God's direction and after going into the tabernacle, they brought some fire with them on a dish and as they walked in, God smote them like that and both of them died. They were struck down right there. Aaron was displeased.

Isn't that, to use perhaps an inappropriate expression, but isn't that overkill? I mean, is it really like God to smite somebody down? Doesn't God sometimes react in anger and maybe his anger gets the best of him and in a moment of uncontrolled anger, he just smites people down like that?

Let me tell you another story. In 1 Chronicles chapter 13, there's a man by the name of Uzzah. One day, they were taking the ark of God to Jerusalem. Now, the ark was a box that was about three feet long and a foot and a half deep and a foot and a half wide and they were taking this ark to Jerusalem and they put it on a cart and then on that cart, there were also some other items laid, but they let the oxen take the cart to Jerusalem.

That made sense. But you see, this box was on top of the cart and when they got to a threshing floor and the cart almost upset, Uzzah, who was standing nearby, thought that he would do God a favor. He put out his hand and he touched the ark to steady it and instantly, like that, he was killed and he was gone. And David was so angry that it took David years to get over his anger and to take that ark to Jerusalem because he said, in effect, if that's the way God's going to do his business, I don't want to have anything to do with the ark. Is God guilty of uncontrolled anger? Is God overreact? Well, of course, the answer is no because in the case of Nadab and Abihu, it says that they offered strange fire before the Lord.

We don't know exactly what they did wrong, but we do know they did not follow instructions. And in the case of Uzzah, the scripture was very clear that nobody was supposed to touch the ark. After it was built and it was dedicated to God, no human eye was even to see it except the priest when he went into the Holy of Holies. And whenever it was transported, it was to be covered by the veil.

No human eye was to see it, much less touch it. Was Uzzah doing God a favor? I mean, after all, the ark might fall on the ground. God says it is better to let that ark fall on the ground than to touch it if I told you do not touch.

Oh, the severity of God. You know, you read the Old Testament and you find that there are at least a dozen different sins for which people would be stoned and put to death. Adultery, homosexuality, rebellious children, a whole host of things, kidnapping, all of that was the death penalty. We look at it today and say, you know, if we did that today, where would we find all the rock piles? How could we stone everybody who's guilty of these things?

There'd be nobody left around to do the stoning. Was God harsh? David Hume, the great skeptic, said that there is evolution in our understanding of God. You know, in primitive times, people thought of God as harsh. But today, we are more loving. We have evolved to something a little bit better, and we think of God as loving and kind and just, and the Old Testament God is not the God and Father of Jesus Christ. Well, I'm here today to tell you plainly that the God of the Old Testament is the God of the New, and God has not changed his mind about so much as one single sin. It is not true that in the Old Testament he was a meanie and now suddenly he has become kind.

That is heresy. The Bible says, I am the Lord and I change not. God still has the very same opinions.

He has never changed them. You say, well, why the difference in this day and age? Well, there are a number of differences. We are not under a theocracy where God ruled as was Israel.

That's part of it. The other part has to do with the coming of Jesus Christ, and then the other part which is most important is that God will eventually judge everyone. It's just that he has chosen in this age not to judge everyone immediately but to wait until the coming final judgment when all of these things are going to be dragged into the open, and the judgment will be final, complete, and meticulous. God has not changed. He still hates sin.

He still hates all the sins that are listed in the Old Testament, and he has not mellowed with age. God said, Moses, I'm going to come to Mount Sinai. Get the people ready.

Consecrate them. Draw boundaries around the mountain and wait, and if somebody touches the mountain, it will be instant death because I want to teach you how holy I really am. Whenever God comes, there's holiness.

Secondly, whenever God comes, there is power. It says in verse 18, now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the Lord descended on it in fire, and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. Wow. 1968, I had the privilege of studying in Israel, and one weekend we took two buses, and we went to Mount Sinai, going through the desert, getting stuck in the sand, using the water that we were supposed to use for drinking water to put in the motor of this huge vehicle. What an experience. And then we spent the night at St. Catherine's monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai, got up at 3 o'clock in the morning so that we could walk in coolness, and we walked to the top of Mount Sinai. I need to tell you that we are not absolutely totally certain that this is the same Mount Sinai because there are several mountains in the area, but this is the traditional Mount Sinai. What a huge mountain.

Took us many hours to get to the top, and when you're at the top, you see a whole range of other mountains that are connected, and all of them are solid rock. And now God comes, and the mountain shakes violently. Now God can do the same today with an earthquake. He shook San Francisco about five years ago. You do recall that Candlestick Park, I think, during a playoff game was shook. Shook so badly that some people suggested it should be renamed Wiggly Field. You see, you see, God is able to shake the earth, and just as he shook Sinai so he can shake the earth today, after all, he is the creator.

Do you realize that all the scientists in all the world getting together at a great conference, whether it is Berlin or any other city in the world, spending all of their resources, even with our government funds of all things, cannot create so much as one single molecule, not one, never have, never will, because out of nothing, nothing arises. And yet God spoke, by the word of the Lord were the heavens made and the host of them by the breath of his mouth, and all of it was created out of nothing, the awesome power of God. But I want you to notice that the power is not merely physical, not just his ability to shake mountains. It is also moral and spiritual power because God begins now to lay down the law, and that's in the next chapter, chapter 20. Verse 3, you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them because I, the Lord, am your God and am a jealous God. Jealous?

Yes. Jealousy is a sin for us, but it is not a sin for God. The reason that jealousy is a sin for us is because jealousy implies that I have something coming to me that is my inherent right, and all of our rights that we hear so much about today are not inherent. They are rights that are conferred upon us by God. We have value by virtue of our creation because God has conferred value upon us as human beings, but the value is derived. It does not arise from ourselves because we are caused beings, but God is the being that is uncaused, and therefore all the glory of the universe, all the honor, all of the adoration belongs to him, and when it comes to him, there is nowhere else that it must be passed on to, and so God lays down the law and he gives in chapter 20 what is generally known as the Ten Commandments. I told you that when God comes, there is power, physical power and moral power, and what we must recognize is that this means in practical terms that when God speaks, all arguments end.

You see, that's where our society is. The reason that you have so many different views about so many different things given on so many different talk shows is the fact that nobody thinks God has spoken, so everybody gives his or her own opinion because they do not believe that there is a God in the universe who has actually affirmed certain things, and that's why society is where it's at today because nobody believes that God speaks or has spoken. David Hume, whom I referred to earlier, said that it would be absolutely immoral and wrong of God to limit salvation through one person like Jesus Christ.

Well, that's an interesting comment, but it's totally irrelevant. When God decided to set up his universe, he didn't say now before I figure out a way of salvation, I should at least run it past David Hume just to see what he thinks of it. God doesn't run it by anybody. God just does it, and when God speaks, that's the end of the discussion, period. Well, this is Pastor Luther, and we're living at a time when we need to hear that. When God speaks, it's the end of the discussion, period. Today, we have many different voices, many different opinions, but what we have to do is to go back to God's word because in the Bible, God has spoken and he has not stuttered, so it's so important for us to ask simple questions like, what has God said?

And that ends the discussion. I've written a book entitled Getting Closer to God. It's actually based on this series of messages, Lessons from the Life of Moses, and it can be yours for a gift of any amount. Now I need to tell you that this is the last week that we are making this resource available, and we make this book available to help you run all the way to the finish line, so to speak, to help you in your Christian walk. When it's in book form, you can read it again and again, underline it, keep it on your shelf.

It's entitled Getting Closer to God. Go to RTWOffer.com, and as you've heard me say before, RTWOffer is all one word. RTWOffer.com, and there you'll discover that for a gift of any amount, this book can be yours. Or if you prefer, you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now I'm going to be giving you this contact information again, but I need to emphasize one more time that this is the last week that we are making this resource available, Getting Closer to God, Lessons from the Life of Moses.

RTWOffer.com, or call us at 1-888-218-9337. And let me thank you in advance for helping us. We desire to get the gospel of Jesus Christ to thousands upon thousands of people. Running to win is now in Nigeria.

It's in more than 20 different countries of the world in three different languages, all because of people just like you. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. Sinai reminds us of the unapproachable holiness of our unchanging God and the reverence with which we must regard Him. Today, Dr. Erwin Lutzer brought part one of When God Comes, the ninth in a series of 12 messages about the life and times of Moses, a man getting closer to God. Next time, more teaching about our unchanging God. Plan to tune in. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.