Running To Win

Guest (Male): Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Many women in our day value their rights to control their bodies. Thus, when a pregnancy is inconvenient, they feel it is fine to abort the baby. This lets life go on without the responsibility pregnancy entails. Does being a committed Christian involve being committed to the cause of pro-life? Today, we dive into a controversial subject. 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.

Dave McAllister: Pastor Lutzer, does supporting a pro-life stance take believers into the realm of politics? And if so, is that okay?

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Dave, of course it's okay. What we have to understand is this: there are many issues which are biblical issues which are deemed to be political. Even though I've never supported a political party or endorsed a political party or a candidate, the fact is that we do deal with issues which are considered to be political, and being pro-life is one of them.

I'm holding in my hands a book entitled Dorie: The Girl Nobody Loved. I wrote the book because I got to know Dorie; my wife and I became friends with her and her husband. That's a longer story, but I want to say this, it's very relevant to this topic. The reason she was hated by her mother is that she was conceived out of wedlock, and her mother would tell her, "I would have gotten rid of you from the beginning if I could have."

This is back in the 1930s, and so abortion was not yet available. If abortion had been available, Dorie and the wonderful impact that she and her husband had as missionaries would have never occurred. Let us never back down even as we speak about the importance of being pro-life and to understand this, that every life is a gift of God. Let us always be committed to that which God is committed.

Dave McAllister: Today is Pro-Life Sunday. It’s the Sunday when we affirm our belief that all human beings are unique and valuable and important. It’s also a Sunday in which we remember how the Roe versus Wade decision has impacted America. No one could have believed that it would end in the deaths of about 30 million preborn babies. The Freedom of Choice Act would mean there could be abortion even to the ninth month for no other reason other than it is a girl and the mother or father might want a boy.

Abortion is kind of a mopping-up operation. In the '60s, we had free love, and free love produces sexually transmitted diseases. The answer to that, we’re told, is the right means of birth control. It also produces pregnancies, and the answer to that is, of course, abortion. Unfortunately, what goes unchallenged is the view that sexual immorality is okay, and it’s the way to live. Those massively funded sex education courses and institutions in our schools promote immorality.

When Carol Everett was here, she said that as an abortionist, and she ran two clinics, she said they depended upon them for abortions because whenever they would come to town and move into a high school, immediately the number of pregnancies would increase. In our schools, children are taught how to be immoral.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: As I was thinking about this message today, I have to tell you that I struggled a little bit. I struggled first of all because I am aware that there are many women who are listening to this message who have had an abortion. I'm sure many, perhaps here at the church as well as many listening by radio. You, dear women, form a fraternity of sisters and you know what it is like. Perhaps no one else knows, but you know. I do not want to add to your grief. If you listen carefully to this message near the end, I will give you compassion and I will give you hope.

There’s another reason why I struggle, and that is that I don’t need to stand up here and tell you that a fetus is a baby. The reason that I don’t need to tell you that is that every single adult in America knows that. We know that it is true logically, we know that it is true biologically; it certainly is also true theologically. Everybody knows it. Everybody knows that if Mary had had an abortion, she would have killed the baby Jesus. I don’t need to spend a whole lot of time on that.

I also struggle because I did not want to repreached a message that I preached here many years ago showing that the 64-page document written by Justice Blackmun of the Supreme Court is filled with absurdities and inconsistencies. The Supreme Court actually made up the right out of thin air, and the right of privacy was never intended as the right to kill. What I'm going to do today is just a little different. I'm going to look at our society as a whole, recognizing that abortion is only one root of a very rotten tree.

The tree's roots actually have to do with a change in our nation as to how they view God. Specifically, the change comes about because we no longer believe in the living and the true God as a nation, but we have substituted ourselves as God. Self has taken the place of God, and that is the heart not only of the abortion matter, but all kinds of other social ills that plague this country. When we decide that we are going to be the standard by which everything is judged, then what we seek is personal convenience.

Personal convenience—whatever satisfies me. To quote the words of Woody Allen, who has a sexual relationship with Mia Farrow's adopted daughter, quote, "the heart wants what it wants." Whatever I want, I'm going to get because the heart wants what it wants. Personal convenience and also instant gratification. Instant gratification—not only does the heart want what it wants, but it wants it right now. That's why a jogger can be running in Grant Park and attacked by some youths who tried to stab her and slit her throat so that they could get her money, because the heart wants what it wants, and it wants it right now at anybody else's cost.

What we're going to do this morning is take a little tour. You like tours, don't you? We get to go to different places, but we're going to be touring a couple of chapters from the Old Testament. We're not very used to the Old Testament, are we? I'm going to ask you to turn to Isaiah chapter 5 to take this tour with me, and it won't be long. This is not a two-week tour like going to the Bahamas. It'll be brief. But if you do not have a Bible with you, perhaps the person sitting next to you does, because it is a tour that would be much easier to take if you had an open Bible—the Old Testament book of Isaiah chapter 5.

Isaiah was a prophet who had a long ministry, and he was speaking to the nation of Judah that basically had decided that they would dethrone God and put themselves in charge. A society much like ours. They were also into this—the heart wants what it wants, and it wants it right now. Isaiah did in this chapter give certain woes. That is W-O-E. It’s a word we’re not too familiar with in our vocabulary, but it is not just simply a word; it is a sign of distress.

It is an affirmation that God—that God is going to bring judgment upon the people to whom he is speaking. He lists a number of different woes. I'd like you to take your Bibles and let us go through them together very quickly. I want you to number them. If you’re in the habit of putting any marks in your Bible at all, put one, two, three in the margin because we want to count them. First of all, chapter 5 verse 8: "Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field until there is no room."

You say, well, what in the world is he talking about? He’s saying woe to the greedy. Woe to the greedy. Woe to those who are buying up the poor people’s lands and they are keeping them for themselves, and they’re joining it house to house so that there is no room for the poor because these greedy people want it all. Woe to the greedy. Verse 11, a second woe: "Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink, who stay up late in the evening that the wine may inflame them; and their banquets are accompanied by lyre and harp, and by tambourine and flute, and by wine; but they do not pay attention to the deeds of the Lord nor consider his work."

He’s saying woe to the sensual. Woe to those who are into one party after another, and they act as if they will never have to give account to God. They actually think that this is going to go on a while. All of life is going to be a party—drinking, drugs, enjoying it. Isaiah said woe to you. We have to turn the page, if you have a Bible like mine, and we go to a third woe in verse 18. It says, "Woe to those who drag iniquity with the cords of falsehood and sin as if with cart ropes," and then sarcastically say, "Let him make speed, let God hasten it," and so forth.

That’s a woe to the hard-hearted. What he’s saying is woe to those who just drag iniquity and they are so attached to it they aren’t going to give it up. Oh, no, no, no. Yesterday we were listening to a program. James Dobson was talking about a child molester, a father molesting his daughter. Dobson pointed out that what happens to people like that is they become so insensitive to what they are doing that they actually view their victim as if he isn’t human, because that’s the only way they can handle doing what they are doing.

They harden their heart and they become liars, and they insist that what they are doing is not wrong even if it should be found out. You see those cords go around their hearts and they say, "We aren’t going to change." Isaiah said woe to those who are so insensitive. Woe to those who can mercilessly kill and not even have a twinge of conscience. Verse 20 is woe number four: "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."

This is woe to those who are morally confused. And isn’t this exactly what is happening in society? Those who call evil good and good evil, they think that it is progress when you have young women having abortions, or progress is the imposition of homosexual rights in our schools and in society. That’s progress. Woe to those who call good evil and evil good. I need to tell you about two weeks ago a postcard was sent here to the church responding to a message I preached on the radio.

The man said some very uncomplimentary things about me, but he ended by saying, "You evangelicals operate out of a cesspool of morality." The reason he said that is because I was talking about things that were pro-life, and I was arguing for morality. It was a message preached here a couple of weeks ago that was on the radio. I wasn’t going to write back, but I had a change of heart and decided to. Please give me credit: I did not say to him what immediately came to mind as to what I would like to have said. I just restrained myself.

But woe to those who call good evil and evil good. It’s done every single day on our television sets—the morally confused. Verse 21: "Woe to the prideful. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight." The Donahue-ites. The Donahue-ites. What do you think about a mother and daughter sharing the same lover? Well, I think this, this is my opinion. If you’re giving your own opinion as to whether or not the Cubs are going to win this spring and your opinion is that they won’t win a pennant, that’s legitimate to give on the Donahue show. You may even be right.

But people are giving their opinions about things over which God has spoken. They’re pretending as if they know better than he, and they are wise in their own eyes. There happens to be another woe, and that is to those who are unjust. It says in verse 22, "Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine and valiant men in mixing strong drink, who justify the wicked for a bribe and take away the rights of the ones who are in the right." That sure is a sermon, the last part of verse 23: "those who take away the rights of the ones who are in the right."

It’s exactly what is happening in society today. So there are those who are operating unjustly, and he says woe to them. How many woes do we have so far? We have about six woes. I read it to the end of the chapter and that’s the end of the woes, and I say, "Well, Isaiah, why didn’t you have seven? Don’t you know that’s the perfect number? Should be seven woes." There are seven days in a week, there were seven sayings from the cross, there are seven candles in a menorah. It took me seven years to know how to use a computer. Isaiah, Isaiah, why don’t you have seven woes and make it complete?

I want you to know that as we look into the text of scripture this morning, that he does have seven, but it is buried in the next chapter. Before I tell you where it is buried, let me paint the picture. It says in chapter 6 verse 1: "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord." There’s a change in leadership happening in Judah. Uzziah, a king largely righteous, also doing some foolish things, he dies, and the throne of Judah is empty. Isaiah is in a convulsion of spirit; he’s saying, "Who is going to lead us now that the king is dead?"

He goes into the temple and he sees that on this empty throne he receives a vision on which God is seated. "I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple." The seraphim—these are burning ones, these are angels—they have six wings, with two they cover their face in reverence, with two they cover their feet in humility, and with two they fly as a symbol of their obedience, and they say, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory."

Isaiah said, "I saw God high and I saw God holy. I saw him holy." Holiness of God is the only attribute in all the Bible that is raised to the third power. Nowhere do you read in the Bible, "and God is love, love, love." No, that’s not in the scripture. But when it comes to holiness, it is holy, holy, holy as being God’s most fundamental intrinsic characteristic—holiness of God. Suddenly as Isaiah saw God—and is not that exactly what you and I need to see today? I think that it is generally known that we have today in Washington a crisis in moral leadership.

What is it that we need to see? We need to see God. We need to see God. Isaiah saw God; secondly, Isaiah saw himself. And there is the seventh woe—verse 5. He sees God, and suddenly he says, "Woe is me! Woe is me! I’ve been talking about my country, but now mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts, and now I begin to see what God is really like and I say, oh, I’m a part of the problem. I’m a part of the problem. Woe is them, but also woe is me!"

Then he begins to think about his speech. He says, "I am a man of unclean lips." Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. He said, "I dwell in a city and in a country of unclean lips," because he says, "mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." So he sees himself. What does he see afterwards? He sees his responsibility. Verse 8: "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?'" And he said, "Here am I; send me."

The Lord says, "Go, go, Isaiah, go." When you get home this afternoon, you can read the rest of this chapter, but I’ll tell you, it is not very optimistic. God says, "Go to this people, and I want you to know they’re not going to hear. You’re going to preach to them, but they’re not going to see. And you’re going to urge them to repent, and their wills are going to be hardened. From the standpoint of man, you are going to be a failure. There will be a remnant, but for the most part, they will not hear." They have substituted themselves for God, and remember the heart wants what it wants when it wants it.

Pastor Lutzer, would you take a little time to somehow summarize all that you’re saying today and to bring it together in a funnel so we can hang on to it? Thanks for asking me to do that, because that’s exactly what I’d like to do. Let me give you three concluding observations that hopefully will put all of this in some kind of perspective that will help us. Number one: In the presence of God, there is not much difference between us. There is not much difference between us.

It was one thing for Isaiah to say woe to the greedy and woe to those who are filled with sensuality and woe to the murderers and woe to the alcoholics. Woe, woe, woe, woe! When you see God, you begin to say, "Oh, woe to me. Woe to me. My heart isn’t righteous either. I wish that I were as holy as the sermons I preach. I’d like to be, but I’m not." When we begin to see God, we begin to understand that our responsibility is to speak to the brokenness of the world of which we are a part because we too are fallen creatures.

I have to tell you, my friends, that the sixth chapter of the book of Isaiah is one of my favorites. Uzziah was a king who reigned for many, many years. When Uzziah died, the question was, who is going to rule over Israel? What God said to the prophet is this, the scripture says, "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord." What Isaiah is saying is this: the throne of Israel may be empty, but the throne of God is well-occupied. Let’s take comfort in that.

Let’s take comfort in the fact that God is a redemptive God. I’m holding in my hands a book I wrote some time ago entitled Dorie: The Girl Nobody Loved. I have to tell you that even as I reread it recently, tears came to my eyes throughout. Why? It’s the story of a hated, abandoned girl who nonetheless was saved by God, and she and her husband became missionaries. It’s a story of redemption; it’s a story of hope. I hope that you have something there to write with right now—a pen or a pencil—because I’m going to give you some contact info as to how this resource can be yours.

Here’s what you do: you go to rtwoffer.com. That’s rtwoffer.com or you pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. I want to speak to you from my heart. You may think to yourself that this is not a book for you, but let me tell you this: if it’s not for you, it’s for someone whom you know. Abuse, abandonment is everywhere. Here’s what you do: go to rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. The title of the book, Dorie: The Girl Nobody Loved.

Dave McAllister: 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. In our series on commitment to Christ, we're finding how to apply that commitment to every area of life. The ongoing tragedy of abortion calls believers to support the cause of pro-life. Next time, more ways we can display our commitments to Christ by advocating for the little ones who have no one else to speak for them. Plan to join us. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running To Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.