Running To Win

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Let us run with endurance, the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Why does God let Satan cause so much destruction? Today, a look at the problem of evil as Satan tries to prevent Christ from reaching adulthood, thus preventing our redemption. 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.

Host: Pastor Lutzer, as you teach about God at War, you're tracing Satan's efforts to thwart God's redemptive plan. I believe you'll be talking today about the devil's most ambitious ploy.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Well, you know, Satan had a number of different schemes that he tried to implement to make sure that Jesus Christ would not die on a cross and be raised again. And one of them was to inspire Herod to kill all of the boys who were two years of age or under in the area of Bethlehem, hoping that he would kill the Christ child.

Well, it didn't work. Of course, Jesus' parents escaped with him to Egypt. But be that as it may, the devil has always had some plan to try to stop God from his eternal purpose, and he's never been able to do it.

That's one of the things I want people to understand in the book I've written, God's Hidden Agenda, uncovering his good plan in an evil world. And for a gift of any amount, we're making this resource available for you because we want you to understand God better. We want you to be able to rely on the sovereignty of God and trust him with the future.

At the end of this broadcast, I'm going to be giving you some contact info. Meanwhile, for now, let us listen.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: What is he supposed to do in the middle of this? If he allows the Jews to accept Christ by not offering any resistance, and they embrace Jesus as Messiah, Jesus would be embraced by the nation, possibly establishing the kingdom, and of course, we knew that he had to die. But he can't stand the nation accepting Christ as Messiah.

So, he, as a last ditch effort, inspires the nation to nail Jesus Christ to the cross. And for a few brief moments, he is gleeful. It is ambivalent madness. Because he thinks to himself, I have put the son of God on the cross. Which, incidentally, is the topic of my sermon next week. He says, I've put Jesus on the cross. And he gets that momentary delight of seeing Christ appear in all weakness, hanging there, dying like a common criminal. Moments of delight, right?

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Ah, listen, did God have anything to do with that? Turn to Acts chapter 4, just a moment. How well did Satan do to thwart the purpose of God? Did he really derail God's program, right? God's in heaven saying, I don't know what to do. The devil's just so strong. He's, he's doing awful things down there. And I don't know how to handle it.

No, chapter 4, verse 27 of Acts, for truly in this city, there were gathered together against thy holy servant Jesus, whom thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel to do whatever thy hand and thy purpose predestined to occur. I love it! It's fantastic.

Here, they're going to do away with Jesus, right? I mean, that's the assignment, nail him to a cross. Herod, Pontius Pilate, they were enemies, but they said, we can agree on this. Let's get this guy out of here. Let's nail him to a cross. The Gentiles, the Jews, they're all gathered together, and they're saying, hey, look, I don't care how many differences we have, this guy's got to go.

And they nail him to a cross and the blood is running, and he's dying there in shame. They're all saying, well, good riddance. Thank God, he's out of the way. The text says that they gathered together to do what God predestined to occur. Wow. Satan's not doing very well because he may have gotten a moment of glee when he saw Jesus hanging on the cross, but then three days later, Jesus who had been buried is, is raised. And then he goes on to heaven to sit at, at the feet of God above all principalities and all powers and every name that is named, both in this world and in the world to come.

I have to tell you a story. My secretary told me this past week. She said that there was a woman in a church in the south, who heard music in her basement, in the church basement that she didn't like. You know, that music sometimes has its preferences, and people say, I don't like this kind or I don't like that kind. And she was hearing some music she didn't like. And she went to her pastor, and she said, Pastor, the young people downstairs are playing such awful music that I'm sure it makes Jesus roll over in his grave.

You didn't get that, didn't you? Jesus was raised from the dead, seated above all principalities and all powers. And what did he say just before he died? Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out, winning an incredible victory against the devil.

There was an artist who painted a picture of Satan and a young man having a game of chess. And evidently, the artist believed that evil was going to triumph over good, so he painted the pieces in such a way that the devil had just moved his queen and announced checkmate in four moves. The young man's face was ashen and pale because the agreement was that if he could not win over the devil, he would have to become the devil's slave.

And I'm told that that picture hung in art galleries and chess players from all over the world came and looked at it and agreed that the devil had won. But there was one man by the name of Paul Morphy of Louisiana, who went and looked at that picture, and he stood there, and he stared, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes. And he began in his mind to make various moves, and suddenly he shouted, Young man, there's a move you can make! There's a move you can make. They overlooked the fact that there was a move he could make. It wasn't checkmate.

You look at Jesus Christ on Good Friday. How weak he seems to be and undistinguished. But you look at him on Easter Sunday, and you realize there was a move he made. No checkmate for Jesus, the devil was checkmated. And how fearful he was.

Now, what I'd like to do, I've given you three examples of how, no matter how awesome Satan's power, all that he could do is to nip Christ's heel. And it was Jesus that gave him the awesome blow to the head. He tried to destroy a race, he tried to destroy a nation, he tried to destroy a man. And he couldn't do it.

Let me give you now three brief conclusions. First, you realize, of course, that there are only two kingdoms in this battle, only two. The Apostle Paul says that it is the Lord who translated us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son. There is the kingdom of Satan with all of his antagonisms and rebellion against God, and then there is the kingdom of light with its righteousness, with its love and worship and praise and adoration of God. And you and I are in one kingdom or another. There is no such thing as neutrality. Please understand that.

Either you are a member of God's kingdom, or you are a member of Satan's kingdom. You say, well, I don't feel though that I'm in a battle. I'm just coasting along in life. Well, you've been anesthetized. A couple of months ago, I needed a biopsy, and I was put to sleep. And the woman who did it, the anesthesiologist, boy, I practice that word. She told me, she said, I'm a Christian. I don't attend Moody Church, but she said, I've often heard you preach on the radio. And she said, when I saw your name on the list, I deliberately signed up today so that I could be the one to put you to sleep.

I told that to the man with whom I play tennis every week, whose identity shall be concealed for obvious reasons. He said, well, he said, it was only fair play. He said, no doubt, she wanted to put you to sleep with a needle because you no doubt had often put her to sleep with a sermon. By the way, I'm glad I got through that illustration. I was telling my wife yesterday, I said, you know, if I tell the congregation this, I'm liable to say that a couple of months ago, rather than saying I needed a biopsy, I might end up saying I needed an autopsy. And, uh, I'm glad that I got that out right. But the biopsy was benign, so that means I probably will not need an autopsy anytime soon.

You know, when I was there asleep, anesthetized, I was still in the battle, even though I may have been unaware of it. My dear friend, the, the more involved you are in the battle, the more conscious you are of the tremendous spiritual dynamics and power that is going on in the world because our atmosphere is populated with evil spirits and with angels. And of course, God is everywhere, and we are involved in the conflict. Please don't say, I'm neutral. You are either advancing the kingdom of God, or you are a hindrance to it because there are some Christians who are members of the kingdom of light, but they step over into the enemy territory and actually are of no value to the kingdom of light whatever, even though their names are listed on that roster.

There are only two kingdoms. The kingdom of the serpent and the kingdom of the Savior. There's a second observation I want to make by way of conclusion, and that is that Satan's victories are always illusory. Now, by that, I don't mean that they do not have far-reaching consequences. I am not for one moment denying the devastation that he has wrought on planet Earth. The marriages that break up, the, the immorality, the impurity, the spiritual bondage, it goes on and on and on. I don't think that there's a single day that passes here at the church when we don't receive phone calls from people who are in the spiritual bondage seeking counsel. Sometimes many calls in a single day.

So, he has awesome power, but in the end, God will judge him, and there is a move that Christ will make. He will be checkmated. And already has, it's just a matter of playing the game to the conclusion. Christ checkmated him at the cross, but there are a couple of moves that he can still make, but the checkmate is absolutely, totally ineffable.

Jesus took him and crushed him with his foot on the cross. And his head was ground into the dirt, and he was humiliated. And someday he's going to have to admit it publicly in shame. There's a final line that I'd like to give you. What is God up to? God is proving in history his superiority. His superiority.

By the way, could I simply say that the devil uses the same two things against the people of God today? Kill and if not corrupt. First three centuries of the church, kill. Awesome persecutions. After that, after the time of Constantine, it wasn't kill anymore. It was totally corrupt. And Constantine, of course, by bridging together church and state and by inviting pagan ideas to float into the church, tremendous corruption has happened throughout church history. So, Satan continues to be at God. But what is God proving? God is proving his unquestioned superiority over Satan.

Even though God sometimes allows it to look as if Satan is winning, appearances are very, very, very deceiving. Very deceiving. You look at today's headlines or yesterday's headlines or tomorrow's headlines and it's, it's depressing. But God always wins. Always wins. Superiority over Satan in his wisdom, superiority over Satan in his power, superiority over Satan in his providence, superiority over Satan in grace and loving kindness, of which Satan has absolutely none. Is the superiority of God.

Now let me ask you a question. Can you think of any reason at all as to why you as an individual today may be taking on God and holding out on him when you know right well what he wants you to do? Can you think of any good reason? If God is the superior one, if God is the one who wins the battle, no matter what the persecution is, the 12th chapter of Revelation, the woman running into the desert, and the manchild being persecuted. If, if God is, is the one who has the final move and has already called checkmate, why should you and I oppose the Almighty?

Why should you as a Christian have a single sin in your life that you hang on to as if to say, this is special to me, and it's more important to me than the will of the Almighty who always wins? Why should you and I ever do that? We do. I do. You do. God always disciplines me whenever I do. I hope he does that to you too. But why should we?

Why not just say, God, look, I'm over. I, I mean, I can't, I can't handle this duplicity anymore. Let you be God, and I am your servant, and what I'm going to do is to unashamedly commit myself to righteousness and to live in the kingdom of light because I know, no matter how dark it gets, no matter who calls checkmate, God makes the final move. It only is sensible.

If you're not a Christian, you're losing because you're on Satan's side. That's as clear as it is. Jesus said, whoever honors me, honors the Father. You dishonor me, you dishonor the Father. Some of you perhaps are in various stages of religious experience and belief, but you have never personally received Christ as your savior. You see, we are born into the kingdom of darkness when we're born physically because we are born as children even under condemnation. That's why children sometimes die. They are tainted with sin.

But the only way that we can get born from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear son is to be born again. That's why Jesus said to Nicodemus, except a man be born again, he shall not see the kingdom of God. There is a transformation that takes place when we admit our helplessness and our sin and place all of our trust in Jesus Christ alone, and we say, oh, God, let your Holy Spirit do the work within me, that God might forgive me, accept me, and translate me.

I want you to know that the difference between Satan's kingdom and God's kingdom is the difference between light and darkness. So what kingdom do you belong to? No neutrality. The Greeks used to have a race in which they would put one foot on one horse and the other foot on the other horse. And then the horses would gallop, and the guy would try to stand on both horses. Evidently, it worked for a while, but when the horses began to separate, he had a decision to make. And nobody can say, well, I'm in the middle. I'll just leave neutral. You leave neutral today, and you leave putting in a vote for darkness.

I urge you to respond to a savior who can translate you from one kingdom to another. Join me as we pray.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Our Father, we just praise you so much that in your goodness, you have allowed us to understand something of what's happening in the world. And we pray today for those who need to make decisions. Some people struggling with, with sin, others with questions. There may be those who do not know Jesus Christ as savior. They'd like to just avoid this whole thing and go home.

Father, this half hour has been totally yours. I've said all that I could say. The ball is in your court to do your will. Before I close this prayer, why don't some of you pray to God right now and say, Lord, I give up. I'm going to surrender the weapons of a rebel. I'm not going to take you on. Hiding all this sin in my life, trying to dodge what I know you want me to do. I just give up, surrender it to you.

Some of you say, I want to believe in Christ as my savior. Jesus save me. Tell him that, whatever you need to tell him, do it. Oh, Father, hear our prayers, for we are very, very needy. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Host: My friend, never stifle the voice of God. If God has talked to you about your sin and your need for a savior, respond to him right now because he's the only one who can translate you from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.

I'm holding in my hands a book I've written entitled God's Hidden Agenda, uncovering his good plan in an evil world. One of the things I wanted to accomplish is to help people to understand that God never loses. There may be times when it appears as if he is losing, but he isn't and never will. So, I trust that this book will be used by God to inspire faith in your heart, to give you understanding of the bigger plan of God.

Here's what you do. Go to offerRTW.com. That's offerRTW.com or call us at 1-888-218-9327. And I want to thank you so much in advance for helping us financially. Your gifts enable us to get the ministry of Running To Win around the world in different languages.

Once again, here's that contact info. Go to RTWoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9327. Always remember this, that we are able to see only a part of God's plan, but the scriptures do give us the bigger plan that we must understand as we have faith all the way to the finish line.

Host: It's time now for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Beth lives in Syracuse, New York, and listens to us on WMHR. Her question is this: Can a Christian be demon possessed?

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Well, Beth, thank you so much for asking that question. It's one that I am frequently asked. And I think that, first of all, what we need to do is to understand that if by demon possession, you mean ownership. We sometimes use that word that way, don't we? We say I possess this, meaning I own it, I control it. In that sense, no Christian can be demon possessed because they are owned by God.

And that is so very, very important because God then takes ownership at conversion, and we belong to him. The Apostle Paul would say that we are slaves of God. We are not slaves of Satan. However, it's been my experience and I believe