Spiritual LSD

There is a drug which has become a menace and a danger to mankind, especially to young people. It produces delusions of grandeur. It gives a feeling of exaltation. You can take a trip into a make-believe land out in the wild blue yonder, if you please. This is the experience of a young man in Los Angeles: He was a student who turned on with this drug to expand his outlook on life. As often happens, the drug gave him an overpowering sense of omnipotence. He strode directly in front of a fast-approaching car and raised his hands in the obvious belief that he could will the speeding vehicle to an instantaneous halt. He was wrong. He died. This drug is LSD.

May I say to you that there is also a spiritual LSD. It is a drug that is as old as the human race. There is nothing whatever new about it. It is likewise a menace and a danger to the human family. The effect on the personality is the same, however. It gives folk the delusion that a human being is good enough to stand in God’s presence on his own, that he can stand naked there, and God must accept him as he is and take him on his own terms—believing, of course, that man is not actually a sinner.

This spiritual LSD has been given out to the human family since the days of Cain who attempted to impress God by bringing a little offering which represented his own little efforts and his own character. He thought that he would be acceptable to Almighty God. But he was not. Today that same error is being preached—that we are accepted on the basis of our own character and our own little good works. May I say, that is a sugarcoated pill. It is a spiritual delusion. The enemy has been deceiving us. The Word of God is clear: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

McGee, J. V. (2001, c1995). Real characters : How God uses unlikely people to accomplish great things (electronic ed.) (225). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.