Running To Win

Guest (Female): Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.

Guest (Male): If the devil tempted us in a red suit with a pitchfork, we'd laugh. But the real devil is clothed as an angel of light. Satan wants you to think he doesn't exist. The Bible says, though, that he walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

Dave McAllister: 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, some may ask why God even permits a devil to exist.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Dave, in order for me to answer that, it would take an awful long time. But I'm going to give a summary answer that might be a surprise to many of our listeners. The reason the devil exists, ultimately, is for the glory of God. God actually uses the devil.

Now, of course, we may wonder why it is that God puts up with evil. Well, in the end, there's going to be judgment, there's going to be justice, and then we will see that everything contributes to God, His victories, His triumphs, and our triumphs as well, even as we fight the world, the flesh, and the devil.

But in order to do that effectively, namely to win, we need to be born again. I'm holding in my hands a little book. Actually, it's a very readable book by a man by the name of Peter Mead from England. And this book explains what the new birth is, how you can be sure that you are born again, and we think it's going to be a great help for you even as you run the race of life.

At the end of this message, I'm going to be giving you some contact info. I want you to listen carefully to the message, but I also want you to understand this, from the lips of Jesus: Unless you are born again, you shall not enter the kingdom of God.

There is a story, perhaps it is apocryphal, about a contractor who walked into the office of the president of a company. The company was looking for contractors to build a multi-million dollar housing complex, and they were looking for contractors to submit bids. All things being equal, what that meant was that the lowest bidder would get the job.

When the contractor walked into the president's office, he noticed that no one was there. He had the bid that he was going to submit in his hand, but he had not yet written the amount. The one thing that was missing. He noticed that open on the president's desk was the bid of his most competent rival and competitor.

All that he needed to do was to look at the number that was on the application and then write in his own number and come in just a little under his competitor, and he'd get the job. The problem was, as he looked at it, he noticed that there was a can of soda pop standing directly on the number on the application.

Well, he didn't want to cheat, so he went out and walked back and forth, but nobody was there. The hallway was empty and the office was empty. So he thought, "I'll lift up the can of soda pop really fast, see the number, and then put it down." And as he did, hundreds of BBs spilled out onto the desk and rolled onto the floor.

That man experienced what could be called the law of unintended consequences. When Lucifer, whose name means light-bearer, decided to roll the dice, when he decided to gamble that independence from God was better than dependence, he set in motion a series of events with consequences that were far beyond his control. What a stupid decision he made.

It was a foolish decision right from the outset because of various reasons. First of all, he was limited in what he could achieve. He was limited in what he could achieve because he didn't have omnipotence like God. He couldn't create out of nothing. He knew that God was stronger than he was, so why does the Bible tell us in Isaiah that Satan said to himself, "I will be like the most high"?

He wanted to be like the most high only in this respect, and that is that he would have independence from God. He didn't realize that when he took on God the way in which he did, he would rebel, not wanting to be God's servant most assuredly, but he still is God's servant, still doing God's bidding, still under God's control even today.

You say, "Well, Pastor Lutzer, how strong is Satan?" You've wondered about it. Today you're going to get a very clear answer. I'm glad you asked the question. He is as strong and powerful as God allows him to be and not one whit more.

He rebelled that he might no longer be God's servant, but he still is, still subject to the will and the purposes of the Almighty. Limited in what he could achieve, limited in what he could foresee. He didn't realize that when he fell, he would take only one-third of the angels with him, and two-thirds would continue to give glory to God because they were preserved from falling by a divine decree. He didn't know that.

He couldn't foresee the existence of hell and his eternal punishment. He was limited in damage control. I can't prove it from scripture, but I believe that after Satan sinned, he regretted it because he began to see the uncleanness that was in his soul, and he began to see the terrible consequences of his sin. But it was too late. He cannot be redeemed.

Even if he were to repent, he won't repent because he's too evil, but even if he did, God cannot allow bygones to be bygones. No sacrifice was made for his sin. The Bible is very clear. So he's a hapless player now on a trajectory headed to final eternal punishment, and there's nothing that he can do about it.

In heaven, so far as we know, he was the anointed cherub who covers. The idea seems to be that he was involved in worship and he had the responsibility of taking the praise of other angels and making sure that it got to God. But he began to take some of it for himself.

And he who might have been the choir master of heaven from now on will never sing again, ever. All that he can do for all of eternity is howl. The song is gone. After he sinned, God had many ways in which he could have responded. God could have simply said, "I'm going to crush you with raw power. I'm going to annihilate you." God could have confined him to a distant planet.

But God decided not to do that. God said, "I'm going to let you become the ruler of this world now that you have man on your side. I'm going to let you become the ruler of the world and I'm going to meet you on a level playing field. And this earth is going to be the place where a drama is going to be enacted between good and evil, between justice and unrighteousness, and it's all going to be played out right here on this planet."

So that's what happened. So now we look at his strategy as he shows up in the Garden of Eden. Genesis chapter 3: "Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made." Notice how he comes in disguise.

A serpent evidently before the fall was a very beautiful being, and Adam and Eve would have no reason to fear it. That's the way the devil works. He always hides himself. If he were to march down the aisle of a church and say, "I am the devil in all of his fury, and I'm here to deceive you so that you will spend eternity with me in hell," the people would be frightened and run to the door. But he doesn't do that. He puts a servant of his behind the pulpit.

And that servant tells people, "You know, there are many different ways to God. As a matter of fact, all that you need to do is to believe in the cosmic Jesus, to go inside of you and you'll find God no matter who you are. And furthermore, evil doesn't really exist and there is no coming judgment, and all of the new age techniques that you read about really work." That's what he'll do.

People say, "Well, that's nothing to fear." He lies about who he is. He lies about who God is. He comes to Adam and Eve and he says, "Yea, hath God said that you shall not eat of any or every tree of the garden?" He puts a question mark where God put a period.

And Eve says, "Well, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'Thou shalt not eat of it, neither shalt thou touch it, lest you die.'" And Satan says, "You shall not surely die. By the way, this God of yours, he's restricting you. Why does he keep you from that tree? Tree of knowledge of good and evil."

"What kind of a God is that? Look at the laws that he has built and he wants to confine you. Why don't you exercise your freedom and really show that you are free and eat? Because I personally would never serve a God who wasn't good, and a God who confines you and limits you can't be."

So he questions God and he gives them the indication that the benefits of rebellion are wonderful. "You know that in the day that you eat thereof, you shall not surely die," he says. "But God knows that in the day that you eat thereof, your eyes will be opened and you'll be like him, and he doesn't want you to be like him, knowing good and evil."

So they eat and that was a promise that was in some sense fulfilled. They now not only have an intellectual knowledge of what is right and what is wrong, but now they have experimented and they have experienced evil and it has defiled their souls. And so now he has the entire human race on his side because from now on all of the children that are born and the future generations will all be born with the taint of his rebellion and the taint of his sin.

And so what does he do today? How does he try to do his work among believers or unbelievers as far as that's concerned? He is so angry at God. He hates the idea that we've been redeemed. So what he wants to do is he wants to get to us so that he can get back at God.

And it's amazing the amount of power and authority God has given him. Now mind you, he's subject moment by moment to God. He can't wiggle unless God approves it. But still, what does he do? He gives us temptation. He has the ability to put ideas in our minds that we think are our own, and so we're not afraid of them.

Here are two believers in Acts chapter 5, Ananias and Sapphira. They're having breakfast and they're enjoying their bagels. And they're having a talk because revival has broken out in the church and people are selling everything that they own and they're giving the money to the church.

And they say, "You know, we have a piece of property. We can sell it. We can sell it perhaps for $1,000, and let's give $500 to the church and pretend we're bringing it all so that we appear to be better Christians than we really are." So they do it.

Later on, Peter comes to Ananias and says, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?" Satan filling his heart? If Satan had showed up for that breakfast and said, "Here I am to put an idea in your mind to make sure that you're going to be a hypocrite," they'd have been terrified. But he doesn't show up, they can't see him.

All that they have in their minds is an idea and there's no fear to ideas that we ourselves have created, they say to themselves. And so they go through with it and in that instance both of them died. God was beginning the church and he wanted us to know that the church is to be holy.

He puts ideas in our minds that we think are our own. Temptation. The next stage is obsession. He wants to control. Obsession means now you're hooked. Now you have an addiction. Now you can't help yourself. That anger is so deep within you that you can't commit yourself to a church.

You can't become involved. Now suddenly you discover that you've got all kinds of options out there that obsess you and you're distracted from God's purpose in your life, and what he wants to do is to have those kinds of distractions that will obsess you. He may even come to you as a spirit guide.

Tonight in the evening service, we're going to hear a testimony of the wife of one of our pastoral staff members who at the age of four invited a spirit guide into her life. She was rejected by her father and the spirit guide in effect says, "I'll be your companion," and she said, "Great," and she invited a demon into her life. There are many strategies out there to deceive us as there are interests among Americans.

Now he has obsession and then in extreme cases there is invasion where people are actually possessed by the devil. And you have a remarkable story about this in Mark chapter 5 where a demonized man meets Jesus. I'll just tell you about it, you've already read it, I'm sure.

But the man is cutting himself. And he's trying to kill himself and he is so strong that no one can subdue him. And he's torn off all of his clothes and he's in the tombs because he loves the idea of death. Satan loves the idea of death and he likes to be in foul places.

And so this man is there. And immediately he sees Jesus and the demon within him says, "We know who you are, you holy one of God." The demon has to admit the truth. So you have temptation, you have obsession, and eventually you have invasion. People are demonized. They have demons.

Sometimes you can tell it by the way in which they look at you. But let me give you some of the characteristics of what Satan wants to produce within our heart. He wants to produce self-hatred. "You're so awful, you should cut yourself. You should commit suicide. You're so terrible."

And furthermore, shame. "Look at what you've done and you call yourself a Christian? You believe that God can accept you after what you have done? You are such a great hypocrite that not even God wants to have a thing to do with you." What he's trying to do is to make a wedge between us and God.

And then to have a victim mentality. And people like this have all kinds of inter-relational problems. Nobody can ever get along with them. If they have friends, they push them away through the most absurd kinds of behavior and their expectations are literally out of this world that no one can meet, and they think that it's always somebody else's fault.

Demons leading us to those kinds of non-productive, empty relationships and nobody can get along with us and we always think it's their fault. Now let's think for a moment, folks, about the doorways, and I'm going to be elaborating on this in the evening service. The doorways that Satan uses to get a foothold in our lives. There's at least a dozen or more. I shall mention two or three in passing.

Let us suppose for a moment that you are standing at the end of a street and Jesus is at the farthest end and that's where the celestial city is. That's heaven. And you're a Christian. And you have to walk from here to get to Jesus. But on both sides of the street there are houses.

So you're walking along and Satan cannot impede you. He cannot stand in your way of walking to Jesus. But what he wants to do is to distract you. He wants to put those ideas in your mind that he wants you to accept. So from one house he's calling and saying, "You don't have to read your Bible. Really, it's true, don't worry, it's boring anyway. Don't read it." People say, "Well, that's a possibility."

Another house calls out to you, "Hey, you know, there's sex over here. Sure, it's not within marriage, but then God knows that you have needs. And what does the Bible have to say about this anyway? Just go ahead and do your own thing."

Go along a little more. "You know, here's some drugs. Why don't you get involved in drugs or alcoholism? It'll help you to escape." And on and on we go and we have these voices calling at us, these ideas in our minds, these distractions that keep us from Jesus and impede our way to the holy city. Now we can reject those.

But he wants us to become so obsessed by all that he has told us. He wants us to become obsessed with the occult. "Sure, you can play with a Ouija board, you can see a witch, you can see a fortune teller. It's all just kind of make-believe."

And so you've got all of these voices that are shouting at you all the time. Television, constantly the voices, "Get hooked on this," "Watch this," and on and on we go to the holy city and we're constantly bombarded by temptations. So that is his method.

Dave McAllister: Well, my friend, you're certainly going to have to listen next time to find out the rest of this message, but I have to say that in a world that is saturated with media, we have temptations that no other generation has ever had.

So we always have to get back to the basics and I'm holding in my hands a book entitled The New Birth, because Jesus made the statement, "Unless you are born again, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven." And being born again is not something that happens because you were baptized as an infant or baptized as an adult.

It means that you have come to saving faith, the Holy Spirit of God dwells in you, and as the scripture says, if anyone be in Christ, he is a new creation. To put it as clearly as I can, thanks to the new birth, something happens within you that was not there previously. Well, all that is explained in the book entitled The New Birth.

Now, here's how it can be yours. You go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. How I thank God that when Jesus made the statement you must be born again, Jesus also explained how to be born again.

And we want you to make sure that you understand that message even as we ourselves are deeply committed to it. Right now, go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

It's time again for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question you may have about the Bible or the Christian life. Today's question comes from Arizona, Dr. Lutzer, and it's coming to us from Edward.

He writes: "The Jacob-Esau birthright deal seems like superstitious nonsense. God is not obligated to honor contracts or deals by liars and schemers. Also, I don't believe there was a mystical birthright Isaac could give to whoever he wanted, like he could give a piece of property. What do you think?"

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Well, Edward, I'm a little surprised by your question because this is not superstition. It's there in the Bible, as you correctly noted, and Isaac had the right to give a birthright, and normally it was given to the oldest son, which in this case would have been Esau instead of Jacob.

But you know the whole story. It is not a superstitious story, nor was this a superstitious ritual. You see, the firstborn was recognized by others as having special privileges. And when Isaac gave the birthright to Jacob, this had significance among the family and among the whole business of inheritance issues.

No, it wasn't like a piece of property, but this was instituted by God. And yes, it's true that Jacob was a schemer and he received the blessing—you called him a liar, not sure if that's exactly right—but at any rate, sometimes God uses crooked sticks to make straight lines.

And if you look at the life of Isaac and Jacob and even Rebecca who is in on the scheme, you see that God is greater than the failures of human beings. He had chosen this family and he continued to use this family for his honor and glory. And by the way, Edward, aren't you glad he is a God of grace?

Dave McAllister: Thank you, Dr. Lutzer. If you'd like to hear your question answered, you can go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer or call 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.

It's clear the devil is having a field day. Evil is running rampant all around the world. But a day is coming when a long-delayed sentence of doom is to be carried out. Satan and his demons have a date with a very hot place for a very long time.

On our next Running to Win, we'll hear about Satan's present activity and then his ultimate end, and it's not pretty. Running to Win is all about helping you understand God's roadmap for your race of life. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.