Running To Win

Dave McAllister: Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith. Can Satan bind a child of God? Can a Christian sell his or her soul to the Devil? Today, some frank talk about the limits God has set on Satan's domain, and why the victory of Christ is complete, as we'll learn from Matthew chapter 12. 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 is showing us portraits of Christ in a series he's calling, Come and See Jesus. Pastor, it seems you're heading into some deep waters as you draw lessons from Matthew chapter 12.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: You know, Dave, on the one hand, there are many people who really think that Satan doesn't exist, or even if he does, he has very limited power. I want to tell you, and we need to emphasize that he has tremendous power. But in order to understand his power, we must recognize that God has much greater power. In other words, as you've already mentioned in the intro, Satan actually is subject to God. So we need to keep those two truths in balance.

What we need to understand is that Satan has power, but he does not have power, certainly he doesn't have unlimited power among those who are redeemed. They belong to Christ as this message is going to emphasize. And we here at Running to Win do not back down from many difficult questions that people often wonder about, and that's why this message is so critical.

I also want to emphasize that during this special month, your gift can be doubled. In other words, $10 can become 20. Of course, you can do the math. A gift of 50 becomes 100 because there are generous friends who have said that they will double any gift that is given during this month. Please take advantage of this. We are dependent upon you, even as we are dependent upon God, and indeed, his people.

Here's what you do. You go to RTWoffer.com or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. At the end of this message, I'm going to be giving you that contact info again. Pray about the possibility of helping us as we continue to expand Running to Win, with its emphasis on Jesus Christ, Redeemer and Lord.

Therefore, I tell you every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the one to come. There is a sin for which there is no forgiveness.

I suppose that everyone who's ever heard of the unpardonable sin at some point in their life thinks that they have committed it. Here I am, I'm a boy of 11 or 12, riding my bicycle at the back of our house, one Easter Sunday afternoon. It's amazing how you remember such things with real clarity.

And I had what I deemed to be some very blasphemous thoughts against Jesus. And I'll never forget the turmoil that I was in for days, wondering whether I had committed the unpardonable sin. I wish that I had kept all of the letters that have been sent me throughout the years of people who believe that they have committed the unpardonable sin. I have some of them.

I was going to read a few of them to you today, but I don't think that we'll take time to do that because you probably know already what those letters say. They say something like this, like one man said, "Saturday evening, three weeks ago, I committed the unpardonable sin. I was angry and I blasphemed God and now I have to deal with the Devil. Do you think that I can be forgiven?"

And then there are those who commit this sin or that sin, and they ask the question of whether or not forgiveness is possible for this sin or that sin. Have they committed the unpardonable sin? Well, let's look at this with a little bit of care. First of all, we are encouraged to learn that all sin, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people.

And Jesus even said if you blaspheme against the Son of Man, you'll be forgiven because when Jesus was here on earth, if you didn't pick up on the fact that he was Messiah and divine, that in a certain sense was forgivable. After you realize the truth, you could be forgiven for that. After all, he did look like a man. He ate and he slept and even the disciples themselves, it took them a while to understand that they were in the presence of divinity.

But if you commit a sin or a sin against the Spirit, it can't be forgiven. What is the sin against the Spirit? Well, in context, the sin against the Spirit is to take the marvelous miracles of Jesus and ascribe them to Beelzebul. To say that the miracles of Jesus are not real, to reject Jesus Christ's Messiahship because you credit all of his wonderful works and his miraculous abilities and you give credit somewhere else other than Jesus and not accept him as the miracle worker, as the Messiah.

Now when you stop to think of it, you realize that for these Pharisees they had crossed a line. Like a boat in the mighty Niagara River gets to a certain point where all turning back now is too late. And for them that was unpardonable. They were set in their hardness against Jesus.

I'm not sure if *the* unpardonable sin can be committed today in the same way as it was in New Testament times, but I'm absolutely convinced that there is *an* unpardonable sin. The unpardonable sin is to reject Jesus until you get to a point in your life where you no longer care about him or responding to him. Because God says, "My Spirit will not always strive with man."

An unpardonable sin is a hard, determined heart to not be affected by Jesus, no matter what. And that is unpardonable because you need faith to accept Jesus to be pardoned. And so there is such a thing as an unpardonable sin. But I do need to tell you this that if you write me a letter and ask whether or not you've committed it, I'm going to write back and tell you that I'm quite sure you haven't.

Because the very fact that you are concerned about having committed the unpardonable sin is a marvelous sign that you haven't. If you commit an unpardonable sin, you will not be writing me a letter and asking and be troubled about it. You will say, "Nothing troubles me. I reject Jesus and am at peace with my rebellion." That is unpardonable.

What are the lessons that we need to learn here as we begin to think about it? Two in number today from this awesome passage of Scripture. The first is a lesson about Christ's power over Beelzebul, over the strong man. That's lesson number one.

About three weeks ago, I spoke on the telephone with a student who called me, who said that he was very troubled by satanic conflict. There was no doubt that there was activity in his life of demonic spirits. So I asked him the question that is obviously one of the most important questions you could ever possibly ask. I said, "Do you have in your mind any recollection of when this began?" And he said, "Yes." He said, "At the age of 11, in a fit of anger, I sold my soul to the Devil."

All right. And then of course, the Devil comes to collect. "You know, you sold your soul, you owe me." And so there he is, hassling, insisting, threatening, demeaning, causing people to have uh uh great self-hatred. That's what the Devil loves is self-hatred, so that you just think, "I'm no good. Nobody will ever love me. God can't love me, you know. Might as well end it all." That that's that's the kind of thing that the Devil specializes in, among other things. So here he is, he's um he's saying that he's hassled.

How do you think I helped him? What did I say in counseling? Lord, help me as I explain this to these people because for many of you this could be a tremendous moment of deliverance. The next five or seven minutes of what I say is incredibly important. I only pray that I shall say it well and clearly.

I said to him, "The first thing that you need to know, since you are a believer in Jesus, the first thing that you need to know is that your agreement with the Devil was totally illegitimate. Because when Christ redeemed you, the Bible says that we were not redeemed with corruptible things, but rather we were purchased by God, and catch this now, the Scripture says you are not your own. Your soul was not yours to give to the Devil. Your soul belongs to Jesus."

What if someone were to come to you as parents, I'm speaking to parents now, and say, "You know what I just did? I just gave your children to the Devil." You'd say, "Wait a moment, you gave my children to the Devil. My children were not yours to give to him, thank you. They are not yours to put a curse on because you do not own them. I regard all of your remarks as illegitimate and DOA."

"I do not accept any such thing." The Bible says that we have been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear Son, into the kingdom of light. When you make that transfer, all allegiances, all agreements, all commitments, all covenants that belong to the kingdom of darkness are broken as you have a new allegiance to the one who is the King of Light.

You no longer owe him anything and all agreements are null and void. One time I met a man who took this a little step further and he said, "I sold my soul to the Devil in a blood covenant." And then he came out with this, he said, "And I'm a man of integrity." So I have to keep my covenant. Could I take my glasses off at this point?

First of all, for openers, you've made an agreement with a being who doesn't even understand the meaning of the word integrity. That's for openers. You've made an agreement with a being who, the Bible says that Jesus said, "There is no truth in him. When he speaks, he speaks a lie." In fact, the only time you can believe the Devil is if he were to say to you, "I'm lying," then believe him.

And then I said something like this to him. "Because the Devil is not a being of integrity, he probably didn't tell you that any agreement that you made with him was illegitimate because he had no right to make any agreements with you. He didn't tell you that, did he? Oh no, no, no, he doesn't tell you that. All that he does is come and collect."

When I teach homiletics, which is really a big word for trying to teach young preachers to get them to be better preachers, I always say to them, "Clarity, clarity, clarity, clarity." Be clear. Don't ever allow people to leave wondering what you believe. So I'm going to take my own advice today and I'm going to be clear, okay?

Thanks to Jesus, the Devil has no rights at all. None. None. Those little children that are being held hostage by a hostage taker may be foolish enough to make an agreement with a hostage taker. When that hostage taker is arrested, and when he's carried off, and the parents come and pick up the children, they begin to understand that all agreements with this evil hostage taker are null and void and they do not count.

It is the fact that they belong to these parents to whom they owe allegiance and you owe no one allegiance unless that person has ownership in your life and when you are bought by Jesus, he is the one who owns you and your allegiance is to him alone.

Jesus has has bound the strong man. He disarmed all principalities and all powers, making a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. You say, "Well yeah, he still hassles me." Of course he hassles you, but his hassles are illegitimately based. They are they are they are not legitimate and you need to know that. Because Jesus is stronger than the Devil, and he's proved it.

Satan has no rights at all. He does have some obligations. Chief among which is to go to hell forever. That is his obligation. Amen, right? Amen corner over here is responding. Christ's power, there's a second lesson. And that is the lesson of no neutrality. No fence sitters.

So I'm going to end today by talking to you fence sitters. There are a number of you out there. And let me give you the fence sitters take that I've heard in my life. Some of you are out there and saying, "I'm not going to believe in Jesus. I'm not going to accept him because I like my life the way it is and I like to be alone and I don't want him to disrupt anything."

It's the "if I accept Jesus, I'm going to have to stop sleeping with my boyfriend" syndrome. And right now that's not where I'm at. So you're a fence sitter. Some of you are fence sitters because of fear, fear of your family. What you're saying is like a man said to me, "I'm going to accept Jesus, but I'm going to wait until my parents die because I don't want to hurt them." Fence sitters.

Some of you, bless you, you're fence sitters because you're saying, "Well I don't have enough time. I haven't investigated Jesus enough." Well, that's fine, you can go ahead and investigate him. But some people use that as an opportunity to constantly hold him at arm's length. As if to say, "You know, it really doesn't matter. I'm not against him. I think he's great. I just am not going to accept him."

Jesus said, "If you aren't for me, you're against me. If I don't own you, you're my enemy." All the nice talk put aside. You remember Pilate when he brought Jesus out, he said, "Who is this man? What do you want me to do with Jesus who is called the Christ?" And today Jesus asks each of us this question, "So what are you going to do with me?"

Some of you are visiting today and you need to face that issue. What are you going to do with him? Some of you have been around a while. What are you going to do with him? Are you going to say, "Yes, I accept him as Messiah, as Lord, as King, as the one who bound the enemy and sets the captives free." Bless God. Let's pray.

Our Father, we ask today for those who've never trusted Christ as Savior. We pray for all the fence sitters here today. Never believed in Jesus. Have heard the Gospel many times. For whatever reason, have have put it off and thought that it's okay. Give them hearts today that are open, Father. Hearts that say, "Yes, I believe. I embrace." In fact, I'm going to stop praying right now and give you a moment of silence because there are some of you who can be saved right where you're seated if you say, "Lord Jesus, I accept you as my deliverer. I accept you as my Savior." Why don't you tell him that right there?

Oh Father, for those who struggle, we ask, overcome the natural reluctance of people to come to Jesus. And may there be those who right now are saying, "I accept him as mine. I choose sides. I receive him as the one who forgives my sins, who translates me from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light." Grant, oh God, that grace. And where grace that grace has not yet been granted, help those people to be troubled all week until they do. We need you, Jesus, and we need your grace and your Spirit upon which we rely totally. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Dave McAllister: You know, my friend, what is really a rebuke to Satan and his work is the holiness of God's people. So what you and I need to do is to recognize the importance of prayer, drawing near to God, dependence upon Him, and as a result of that, we will discover that the power of Christ is indeed able to deliver. This is a message that needs to be given around the world, and thanks to people just like you, this message that you have just heard does go around the world.

Would you consider helping us? Would you consider making an investment in Running to Win and during this month your gift can be doubled. I want to emphasize that every dollar given will be matched by one of our generous friends. Here's what you do, and I hope that you have a pen or pencil handy. Go to RTWoffer.com. That's RTWoffer.com or you can pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337.

I'm holding in my hands a letter from someone who listens in Colombia saying, "Every day I fall more in love with the Lord through your teaching." Well, that's the goal. Thanks in advance for helping us as we continue this ministry. It's time now for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life.

Socorro listens to Running to Win and is facing a crisis in her home. Here is her story. "It's looking like my marriage may soon be over. I've been faithful to my husband, but he says he's not happy, that he made a mistake in marrying me, and now wants a divorce. He's refusing Christian counseling and doesn't want to try to work things out. Would you consider this to be desertion or spousal abandonment? Is what he's doing a biblical ground for me for divorce and remarriage in the future as God may lead?"

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Well, my sister, you've asked a very difficult question and it's one for which I don't have a definitive answer, but just a couple of things. First of all, I'm very sorry that your husband is taking this attitude. And I hope that there's someone in the church who brings him to reality. When he says that he made a mistake in marrying you, that is a very hurtful comment and it really does represent a husband who is walking away from a commitment that he made at the altar before God and before the many witnesses who were present. So this is a very, very serious matter.

Now, you ask the question, if he does leave the marriage, would this be considered as desertion or abandonment? I'm going to answer and say, I don't know. And the reason is because it depends on a whole host of factors which I don't know about. There's so much that go into these disputes. I really do encourage you to consult your pastor who can give you counsel that is based on a whole lot more in terms of knowledge of you, your husband, and the whole situation.

But this is what I would like to suggest. There are people today who divorce in the eyes of men, but I don't believe that they are necessarily divorced in the eyes of God. And uh just because men have said the relationship or the bond is over, the covenant has been broken and no longer is uh valid, that doesn't mean that God does.

So, I think that if your husband were to leave the marriage and to remarry someone else, I think this would free you to marry. But as to whether or not you could remarry if he were to leave and to simply uh live alone uh without marriage, I'd like your pastor to uh weigh in on that decision.

Dave McAllister: Thank you, Dr. Lutzer, and thank you, Socorro, for trusting us with such a personal question. If you'd like to hear your question answered, 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 La Salle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Next time on Running to Win, a visit to a mountaintop where Jesus was seen in his true glory. Don't miss, Come and See His Transfiguration. Thanks for listening. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by The Moody Church.