Running To Win

Dave McAllister: Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, the founder and proctor of our faith. Satan's first lie was has God said? Planting seeds of doubt. He's still hissing that same old song, trying to get believers to either doubt the Scriptures or ignore them altogether. It's all part of a strategy in the invisible war. 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, it's one thing to believe lies about the world around us.

It seems more dangerous to believe lies about the Bible.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Well, Dave, you're absolutely right. As you mentioned in your intro, the very first time Satan arrives on the pages of Scripture in Genesis chapter 3, he's asking the question, yea hath God said? And as we've already emphasized oftentimes, there are people who say that the Bible is the word of God, but then they ignore it or they reinterpret it in a way that is in accordance with their desires. But we want to emphasize that Jesus said the truth shall set you free. And it's often been said, and it is so true, that the truth often hurts, but lies hurt even more.

We here at Running to Win are so deeply appreciative of the many people who continue to invest in this ministry. I'm going to ask you a question. Would you consider becoming what we call an endurance partner? You say, well, Pastor Lutzer, what's an endurance partner? Thank you so much for asking because here's what you can do. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com. And when you're there, you click on the endurance partner button. Or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. Thank you so much for praying about the possibility of becoming a part of the Running to Win family cuz together we're making a difference.

What he'd like people to think about the Bible is that it is an ordinary human book. That it is a collection of man's wisdom. That it is a book that has benefits, but it is not the word of God. And if it is the word of God, it is an incomplete word of God. We need other books to supplement it. That 's why you find in other religions you always have other books because the assumption is that the Bible isn't sufficient. We need another book. So you have the book on science and health and a key to the Scriptures.

That's another book added to the Bible. You have the Quran. It's a book added to the Bible. Because what Satan wants people to think is that the Bible itself is not reliable in and of itself. You need something additional beyond it so that you can really get to God. And so he wants to distort our idea of God's truth. By the way, how did Jesus regard the Bible? Imagine heaven and earth shall pass away and yet my word shall not pass away. Wow. Forever, oh Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. Those are the kinds of convictions Jesus had and we can't believe less than our Savior believed, can we?

And so we find that Jesus countered Satan with the word. It's a great story that you already know, but the tempter came to him and says, you know, turn these stones into bread. And Jesus says, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. So there you have Jesus Christ affirming the Scriptures. Satan comes along and says, look, if he can get you to disbelieve the Bible, that's the first thing he wants to do. If you believe the Bible and there's nothing that can be done because you have come to the conviction that the Bible is God's word, the next ploy is for you to ignore God's word and to keep it on the shelf and you never read it and you have no reading program whereby you're reading anything.

And occasionally you take it from the shelf and hope that it'll fall open at a place that might be helpful. But there's no systematic attempt to say, what is God saying? And so Satan wants us to do that because he knows that it is through God's word that we have victory over sin. Where with all shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed there to according to thy word. So first of all, truth is established by God. Secondly, it is recorded in the Bible. Third, third, it is revealed in Jesus. It is revealed in Jesus.

Imagine now, all of us like to think that we've taught the truth. Particularly if you teach mathematics, 2 + 2 is equal to 4. That seems to be a universal that everyone will accept. We all like to say that that is truth. But imagine a teacher of mathematics saying, it is not just that I teach the truth, but I am the truth. We'd say, now you've taken this too far. You may teach it, but nobody, especially your wife, is going to believe that you are the truth. Yet Jesus said that. Jesus said that he was the embodiment of truth.

I am the way and the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. And so Satan wants us to think that Jesus is not the truth and that there are other people who are the same as Jesus. I think this is the greatest distortion that Satan wants us to have is our understanding of Jesus. So you have today all these other Jesuses. You remember the Apostle Paul, 2 Corinthians chapter 11 said, be sure be sure that you do not believe in another Jesus. So you have the Mormon Jesus. You have also the Santa Claus Jesus who gives you benefits of health and wealth without any repentance, without any faith in his name.

You have also the cosmic Jesus that supposedly endwells everyone. You have many different Jesuses. And whatever Jesus Paul was speaking about when he spoke about that other Jesus, he thought that that false Jesus was so close to the true one that he feared that the people of Corinth wouldn't be able to tell the difference. And that 's why he said in context, he says, I am afraid that even as the serpent deceived Eve by his subtlety, so you shall be deceived by him also. Why? And then Paul goes on to say, because you're believing in another Jesus.

You see, the Jesus in which we must believe is the Jesus who said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, the divine Jesus. Jesus the God man, Jesus the Savior, Jesus the one whom we worship. That is the Jesus in whom we have put our confidence. All others are other Jesuses. I've been thinking about this. What do you think Satan likes the most? Does he like to lead people into alcoholism and drugs? Certainly because he is the destroyer, the Bible says. The thief comes to destroy and he loves to see destruction. When you see a natural disaster on the news, when you look at the tsunami, when you think of the earthquake, and we have all those images in our mind, those natural disasters remind us of what sin does.

Sin destroys. But actually, people who are alcoholics or drug addicts, they are not a very good advertisement for the devil. As a matter of fact, they may cause other people to look at them and say, I'm going to go in a different direction than that. You know what I think? I think Satan prefers something else. I think he'd like to have an educated man, well dressed, articulate, stand in a pulpit and tell people that God is only love and therefore you do not have to worry about your sin. And to tell people that the Bible is a collection of human wisdom that's good to read, but it's not the word of God.

And then to tell them that Jesus Jesus is a good man who is a picture of us all as Eckhart Tolle does in his book The New Earth when he says that Jesus is the archetype, the picture of us all. And then on page 71 Tolle says that Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And what can be said about Jesus can be said about all of us. You also are the way, the truth, and the life. And then you have a book like that sold in millions upon millions of copies, even Christians reading it.

And Satan is delighted because he has stolen or attempted to stolen the glory from Jesus and has substituted another Jesus. Truth is established by God. Truth is also recorded in the Scriptures and truth is revealed to us in Jesus Christ. The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Now the Apostle Paul says, that's your belt. The bottom line in fighting the devil always is truth. And by the way, you've heard me say this before. If you have a problem with lying, I can assure you that you can overcome that problem in in a short period of time.

All that you have to do is after you have said the line, you realize, you know, I just lied. You confess to the person to whom you just spoke and say, hey, you know what? I just lied to you. So I want to make it right. Every time you lie, you make it right immediately. What you will discover is pretty soon you'll say, you know, this is silly. Why don't I just tell the truth? Liars do the work of the devil. Deceitful people who tell you one thing and intend another do the work of the devil.

And the Bible says in the book of Revelation, and all liars shall have their place in the lake of fire. God hates lies because God is a God of truth. How do we put this on now? How do you put on that belt? Well, I think first of all, what you need to do is to confess the truth. You confess the truth about yourself. You confess the truth about Jesus. And there are some of you listening here who have no personal relationship with Christ. You've never connected with him. You've never received him as Savior. The Bible says, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

If you're here today and you know that you're a sinner, and all honest people do, I was in Berlin this summer and I met some people on the street and a bunch of young guys, maybe six or seven. And I was giving them the gospel. I just used the opportunity to share Christ with them and I said to this one guy who seemed to be the lead speaker of the group, I said, now you know that you're a sinner, don't you? And he staggered a little bit and and and he sort of said yes. And I said, you'd better say yes because if you don't say yes, you've only added to your sins by lying, I said.

And then I said, and these guys, these friends of yours, they're liars too, aren't they? Now if you say it that way, smile at least, all right? And I was smiling. You know what our problem is? We're so dishonest with ourselves. But if you know today that you are a sinner and Jesus is the Savior and you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you recognize that he is Lord and he is the Savior and you believe in your heart in the resurrection and you transfer your trust to him, you shall be saved, the Bible says.

And you can be saved right now where you are. You can be saved, those of you who are watching by way of the Internet. In perhaps 80 different countries of the world you're listening to this message and God has put you where you are so that you could hear that you can be saved, no matter how great your sin. That's one way in which we begin the process of wearing the belt of truth. The other is that we need to do something. That's what we can do with our mouth. We have something that we can do with our feet.

The Apostle Paul says over against the Satan and his wiles that we are going to be discussing in this series, stand stand stand stand stand. And then he goes on to say, he says, yes, there are times when we have to wrestle, but we have to stand. And we stand through reading God's word, through obedience and daily cleansing. You know, it says in the book of James, it says, cleanse your hands, you sinners and purify your hearts, you double-minded. And then it says, and resist. That's James's term. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

But you must resist him. And you resist him through the word. Many years ago I told you this story, true story, when I was at the university. I was working on a PhD and I needed to learn French. And I had no background in French. And the way it was is the professor would take the journal off the shelf and he would give me a journal, a French journal, and say translate on site. I flunked it the first time and as I recall also the second time. The third time I was absolutely terrified. I could hardly eat breakfast.

I think Rebecca remembers this because I was so nervous. When you're really nervous, you can't eat. I began to realize that, you know, this anxiety is so acute that it may be demonic. So on the way I began to quote all the verses of Scripture I know. Peace I leave with you. I I quoted them aloud in the car. You can do that if you're the only person there. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication. I quoted all the verses I knew on peace and quoted them over and over again. And the anxiety continued to drive me until I got to the university. I parked the car and suddenly this deep, overwhelming peace came over me. I walked into the professor's office. He took the journal from the shelf. He handed it to me and asked me to translate and I flunked it cold. I walked out of there as if I were walking on air. I was so full of peace. I'm serious.

When I got to the church that I was then the pastor of Edgewater Baptist, my secretary said, why are you in such a good mood? She says, you know what in the world happened to you? I said, I've just flunked French three times in a row. Students, if you have to flunk, do it victoriously. Would you? There have been many times, and by the way, I did eventually pass French, but there have been many many times when I just had to quote those verses over and over again and say, I stand, I stand, I stand on the word of God.

This is what the word of God says. And and Satan doesn't go away. You remember it says in the fourth chapter of Luke regarding Jesus's temptation, Satan left him for a season looking for a more opportune time. He'll be back. He came back to Jesus three times. But if you continue to stand and you continue to resist, finally the peace will come. We are in a battle. And God says, the first piece of armor is truth. What you need to do is to confess all the deception that exists in your life. That's step number one.

Get rid of the deception that you might put on the belt of truth. There is a story about a painter. He painted a picture of a a young man playing chess with the devil. And the agreement was that whoever lost would become a servant to the winner. And in this picture that was painted, the devil had just called checkmate in three moves. And the look on the boy's face was one of utter terror. Some of you chess players know that there was a very famous chess player by the name of Paul Morphy. I've read about him even on the Internet.

Paul Morphy looked at that picture and stared at it in his mind moving this piece, that piece, that piece, trying to figure it out. And then he shouted, young man, there is a move you can make. Wow. The painter had overlooked a move the young man could make. Today I speak to you, to those of you harassed by Satan, to those of you who find yourself in a battle that you seem to be losing, those of you who have never trusted Christ as Savior as I mentioned earlier and your life is all messed up. I say to you today, there is a move you can make.

Jesus came to this earth and died on the cross and was raised to say to this world in the midst of this darkness and in the midst of this mess, there is a move that can be made. Jesus opens the door. It says, come to me. Father, I ask in the name of Jesus that you may take these few thoughts that you might help us to deal with our deceptions and that we might put on the belt of truth and be people who speak the truth, who love the truth, people who believe the truth that we might experience your blessing and that we might stand against the many schemes of the devil.

Whatever you need to say to God, you say it to him right now. Would you? Father, we pray that you will receive these prayers. And for those who are struggling, help them to know that they can solve that problem right here. Some of them need to get with you and spend an hour giving everything over to you. Cause them to do that in Jesus's name. Amen. You know, there are times in my life and perhaps there have been times in your life as well when you really just need to get away with God. We are so distracted in our lives, aren't we?

Distracted by our phones, distracted by our various messages and responsibilities. There are times when we just need to be silent before the Lord. You know, the Bible also talks about running the race of life with endurance. That's why here at Running to Win we are so deeply appreciative of our endurance partners. You say, well, Pastor Lutzer, what is an endurance partner? Well, here's what you can do. And I sure hope that you have a pen or pencil handy. If you're like me, frequently you want to write something down and you're not quite ready. But here's what you do.

Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com. And when you're there, you click on the endurance partner button. Investigate that. Go to rtwoffer.com. Click on the endurance partner button. Or if you prefer, call us at 1-888-218-9337.

Dave McAllister: It's time now for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Anthony listens to Running to Win and has a question taken from what many feel is the oldest book in the Bible. He asks, do we know the length of time during which Job faced his trials?

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: No, Anthony, I don't think that we have any clues as to how long Job's trial lasted. But if you read the end of the book, you do discover that that ending was put on the book to help us to see that in the end Job prospered again. If I recall correctly, he ended up with double the number of camels and animals and even ended up with 10 more children of all things. He lost 10 and he still has 10 in this life. So that gives us some kind of a time frame, but we don't know how long he sat in the ash heap.

We don't know how long he was there before God began to restore him. All that we have is the story as it stands.

Dave McAllister: Thank you, Anthony, for your question. Thank you, Pastor Lutzer, for your answer. If you'd like to hear your question answered, you can. Just go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on ask Pastor Lutzer or call us at 1-888-218-9337. That's 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running to Win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614. Satan the accuser points to Christians and says, look at you. You sinned again. You have no right to stand before a holy God. There's no hope you'll ever see heaven. Our next piece of armor can stop his foul mouth cold.

Next time on Running to Win, we'll learn all about the breastplate of righteousness. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.