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Can We Still Worship The “Smitey-Almighty”? – Part 2 of 2

Running to Win / Erwin Lutzer
The Truth Network Radio
October 16, 2024 1:00 am

Can We Still Worship The “Smitey-Almighty”? – Part 2 of 2

Running to Win / Erwin Lutzer

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October 16, 2024 1:00 am

Many say the Old Testament portrays God in a different light than does the New Testament. Yet a closer look at Scripture reveals God's justice, mercy, and sovereignty. In this message, Pastor Lutzer ponders seven truths about God found in the Old Testament. God’s unchanging character leads us to awe and reverence.

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Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Many say the Old Testament portrays God in a different light than does the New Testament. In our current series, we're learning about three areas of criticism of the God of the Old Testament. So far, we've covered the Genesis flood and the Canaanite destruction. Today, a tough third area.

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 Lutzer, some feel that God changed his message to mankind at the dawn of the New Testament.

Is this concern understandable? Yes, of course. You know, when you pick up the New Testament, you discover that it seems to be filled with grace. As a matter of fact, I remember having lunch with a pastor who said, I can hardly wait until your new book comes out because he says, I have a son who believes really that there are two gods. There's the God of the Old Testament, very harsh, the God of the New Testament who is filled with grace. Well, one of the things that I like to emphasize is that the wrath of God and the love of God are not in conflict.

We have to believe both. But also, the God of the Old Testament is also the God of the New. And I show how they are related, that is to say how all of these events are related to one another, so that there is a sense of unity. Perhaps you as a believer have had some nagging doubts about the relationship of the Old Testament and the New. Well, these are the kinds of questions answered in a new book I've written entitled The Eclipse of God. Very quickly, here's what you do.

Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Of course, I'm going to be giving you that contact info again at the end of this message. Very critical for us to understand the God who actually is. Well, the third aspect has to do with stoning. You know, you're stoned for a number of different offenses. I was reading this morning Leviticus chapter 18, also Leviticus 20, because it is there in chapter 18 where you have five or six different kinds of sexual sins that are listed. And later on in chapter 20, it says, particularly when it comes to same-sex relationships that those people should be stoned, but so should adulterers and those who commit other kinds of sins. And in fact, there's at least a dozen different sins in the Old Testament that deserved stoning. And the question always is, why is it that we zero in on homosexuality oftentimes? Why is it that the evangelical church goes back to the Old Testament for homosexuality, but doesn't go back to the Old Testament for such things as whether or not your cloth has threads that are intermixed because the Jews weren't supposed to do that? Those are the kinds of questions I hope to deal with in the next message when I ask the question, is God more tolerant than he used to be?

And that's in the next sermon. But when it comes to the stoning, we must understand that negotiation was oftentimes taking the place of stoning. As a matter of fact, there are no clear historical instances where the stoning was carried out except for murder.

Why? Because the Bible says in the book of Numbers chapter 35, it says that you may accept a ransom for all these other sins, but for murder there can be no ransom. In other words, there were alternate ways that people were punished for their sin other than stoning. The Bible doesn't have a lot to say about that, but that text in Numbers chapter 35 certainly clarifies that often there was a substitute penalty. But there's more. One of the reasons that you have such few stonings, if any, is because the high bar was put there in order to carry this out.

What am I talking about? In Deuteronomy chapter 17 verse 6, it says explicitly that nobody can be put to death unless there are two witnesses. All right, you have two witnesses.

It's not just somebody saying so-and-so did so-and-so stoned them. There have to be two witnesses. Furthermore, the two witnesses are the first ones who have to throw the first stones.

And we see this when they brought the woman to Jesus, and you know that story. So stoning is very difficult. The judgment was immediate, but believe it or not, there were some advantages to that immediate judgment. Because later on, God prolongs the penalty.

The penalty comes later. And as it says in the book of Ecclesiastes, because the penalty against a sin is not carried out immediately, people feel it is fine to do wrong. So God is showing here that he is holy, that he is demanding justice, that he is demanding punishment instantly.

But it is indeed a difficult thing for us to accept. So what I want to do in the rest of this message is to talk to you directly about God. And I've written down seven different truths about the God that we serve.

And I think if we understand this, it will put a lot of the Old Testament in context. First of all, remember that God didn't choose his attributes. God didn't say, you know, I think I'm going to be omniscient. I think I'm going to be omnipotent.

I think I'm going to be interested in displaying my glory. God never said that because God always was from the beginning and I am the Lord and I change not. The reason that that is so critical is because we have to recognize we are up against the God who is and not the God that we would prefer. We cannot make God into something other than he is. The Church of England has a proposal pushed by some people that God should be made into a trans God, that he is a he in the Bible, but we should also call him she. Well, first of all, I thought that we were supposed to honor people's preferred pronouns.

I was under that impression. So if God reveals himself as a he and as a father, let's keep him as a he and a father. We cannot rewrite our opinion of God and change his character and as I've emphasized, to change him into a God that he isn't. When he said to Moses, I am that I am, what he meant was I am who I am and I'm not who you would prefer me to be. Maybe I'll say more about that when I preach about the doctrine of the wrath of God and how we have to deal with atheists who struggle with the wrath of God and who think that they can defy God. So when we open the Bible, there are things we do not understand. We wonder why God does ABCD when we think he should do something else, but that's not up to us. I think it was William Cooper who wrote the words regarding those who want to judge God.

I'll see if I can do it by memory. He said they take from God's hand the balance and the rod. They rejudge his justice and become the judge of God. If God in the Old Testament prescribed a certain penalty, if God in the Old Testament said that the Canaanites are to be wiped out, that's the God that we are dealing with, whether we would prefer a different deity or not. We cannot shape God into a more manageable deity, which people are doing constantly today. So first of all, God did not choose his attributes.

God is God and we revere him and worship him as such. And it's not up to you and me to change him or to judge him. Secondly, God does not treat everyone alike. I'm so sorry that God is not a socialist. You know, there are people who think that God should treat everyone alike, but he doesn't. I'm going to read a very hard passage to you, but it's in God's word.

But what shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy.

For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I have raised you up that I might show my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. So then he has mercy on whom he wills and he hardens those he wills. Oh, you say, Pastor Luther, that's so hard. I'm objecting.

Okay, get it. Paul knows you're going to, and this is what he says. So you will say then to me, why then does he still find fault? That's what's coming to my mind for who can resist his will?

And now it comes. Who are you, old man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, why have you made me thus? Has not the potter, the power, the right over the clay to make one vessel onto honor, another onto dishonor? Whenever I preach these hard things at Moody Church, I would speak to those who would say, well, how do I know whether or not I'm elect?

And I'd always say, the good news is you can find out. So don't object. What you do is you repent of your sins and you receive Christ as savior. And if you do that, you prove that indeed you are part of the elect because God has softened your heart. God has overcome your darkness. God has shown you your need of Jesus Christ and has granted you the faith to believe.

So it's tough, but remember this. God does not treat everybody alike. He did not treat Hammurabi the way he treated Abraham. Abraham was just as much a pagan, but God comes to Abraham.

God did not come to Hammurabi, even though Hammurabi had quite a bit of light and the Hammurabi code shows that. Third, in the end, everyone receives justice. Everyone receives justice. God has to make sure that his justice is fully satisfied. Much of this justice is meted out in this earth. Much of the justice is taken care of in the future, but God treats everyone justly. And for those who have received Jesus Christ as savior, God treats us justly because Jesus took our penalty and met the high bar of God's justice for us.

If you and I must understand that God cannot bend one centilica of his holiness and his demand for justice. So what we need to do is to understand that even in this life, some people receive mercy, others receive immediate justice and perhaps also future justice, but God demands justice at all times. And when Jesus died on the cross, he got what he didn't deserve, namely our sin. We get what we don't deserve, namely his righteousness and all of God's justice requirements are met.

And Paul says in the book of Romans that he is just and the justifier of all who believe in Jesus. But one way or another, God always demands justice and treats everyone justly, even though he treats people differently. Fourth, God's glory is his aim, not the happiness of the creature.

God of course does many things to make us happy, to make us satisfied with him. The gospel of Jesus Christ is designed in such a way that we shall be with him, that we shall rejoice forever with him, but really ultimately overriding everything that God does is his glory. And that glory is manifested in different ways. The nation Israel existed for his glory.

All things are of God for of him, through him, to him are all things forever and ever. So always remember God's glory is what is ultimate for him. Now, if you object to what God asked Israel to do, namely to kill the Canaanites and you say, well, he asked them to kill innocent people. I have to tell you that there were no innocent people in Canaan.

If you're taking notes, you should write this down. Only once did God judge and punish an innocent person. Only once. And the only innocent person that God punished was Jesus and he punished him for our sins. He who knew no sin was made sin on our behalf that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So as we look at the Old Testament with all of the things that we do not understand, and I struggled with it even as you do, let us always remember that God is just.

He punishes everyone, not equally, but accordance to what they did with what they knew and that only once did he truly punish an innocent person. Something else I think this is number six in my notes, if I'm counting correctly, never did God reject a person who sought him. So no matter what era, no matter what religion, if people genuinely seek God, you shall seek me and you shall find me if you seek me with your whole heart. Now it does say in the book of Proverbs and elsewhere that when they call onto me, I will not answer.

And you say, well, why that? Well, the very next verse says, because they hated my instruction. But throughout the world, God will always respond to people who seek him with their whole heart. And when it comes to the Gentiles, the apostle Paul says in Romans chapter two that they are going to be judged not by the law because they were not given the law of Moses, but rather they're going to be judged by their own consciences and they are going to be judged by nature, but they're going to be judged fairly. And that's my last point that throughout all of eternity, we are going to be singing just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. We'll look back and God will give us the wisdom to know that he did everything justly and he did everything well and we will serve him with gladness and joy knowing that that which was right was done.

I want to end this message by reading some verses from the book of Nahum. And as I read these verses, I want you to notice the complexity of God. You know, as someone who's a little older than I was previously, I spend a lot of time actually contemplating God.

I try to imagine his immensity. I wrote an article on who created God that circles on the internet showing that it is much more logical and reasonable to believe that God existed from all eternity than that the cosmos existed from all of eternity. I've always had an interest in this and what you think of God is the most important thing about you. But God is one whom we have to approach brothers and sisters in worship, even if we do not understand him. We understand a good part of him, but there's much about God that we do not understand.

And maybe Jonathan Edwards is right when he says that the ideas of God will go on throughout all eternity. The book of Nahum, verse two, the Lord is jealous and an avenging God. The Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power.

The Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in the whirlwind and storm and the clouds and the dust are at his feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry.

He dries up all the rivers and so forth. I'm going to skip now to verse six. Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger?

The answer is nobody, of course. His wrath is poured out like fire and the rocks are broken into pieces by him. Takes your breath away, but thank God for the next verse. The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble. He knows those who take refuge in him.

Vengeance, anger, goodness, mercy, all of that is in God. And tonight as I close in prayer, I'm going to have just a moment of silence after I open in prayer because what I want you to do is to just spill out your heart to God and say, I want to worship you. I do not understand all about you, but I accept the God of the Old Testament. I accept who you are because as we're going to see tomorrow, if you don't accept the God of the Old Testament, you certainly cannot accept the God of the New Testament.

I'm going to show you the unity of the Testaments and we'll answer the question as to whether or not he's more tolerant than he used to be. But for now, I'm going to pray. I want you to worship in your heart and then I'll close. Father, I pray that these thoughts, however imperfectly given tonight, might enable us to worship you in a new way, to see your sovereignty, to see your greatness, to see who you really are. And Father, we thank you that we don't have to understand everything about you to bow humbly before you and say that you are God and we are not. And now in this moment, I pray that every heart who has listened to this message might give you praise and worship in their hearts. Our Father, we pray that no one who has listened to this message might reject you because they do not understand you or they react against what you have done historically. We thank you today, Father, that though we are finite, you do seek worshipers, as you mentioned, to the woman at the well. And we ask that we might worship you in spirit and in truth with all that we have and that we might always know that you are our God because you sent Jesus. And as he said in the seventeenth chapter, this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent. We bow humbly in your presence tonight for your glory.

Amen. Well, my friend, this is Pastor Lutzer. I want to emphasize that God is very complex. And even though we cannot know him fully, we can know him truly.

I love that verse in John chapter 17, where Jesus said, this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent. My friend today, you don't have to know all about God in order to worship him. We worship him without explanations. We worship him even though we don't see the interrelationship of all of his attributes. But we know that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament is the same God. And that's going to be emphasized in the next program.

I've written a new book entitled The Eclipse of God, where all of these issues are discussed. And for a gift of any amount, we're making it available for you. And when you contribute to the ministry of Running to Win, just understand that you are helping us get the gospel of Jesus Christ to millions of people. Here's what you do to contact us. You go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com, or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. This is very important. I'm giving you this contact info again, rtwoffer.com, or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Thanks in advance for helping us because your gifts enable us to get the gospel of Jesus Christ to millions around the world.

You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 N. LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL, 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. As culture degrades, the standards for right and wrong degrade with it. Even Christians may wonder if God plans on grading on the curve, letting more sins slide than before. Next time, a provocative question. Is God more tolerant than He used to be? Please join us then. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-10-16 02:34:54 / 2024-10-16 02:43:05 / 8

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