Rescued From Religious Self-Deception Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. When we adopt an aura of religious respectability, it's amazing what dark secrets lie beneath the surface where no one can see. We deceive ourselves. We say God makes an exception for us, but not for them.

Today, more about identifying our deceptions. 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, Romans chapter 2 does not paint a pretty picture.

No, Dave, it doesn't paint a nice picture, and there's a reason for that. When you look around, you begin to see that there is sin everywhere. One of the things about the Bible is it has such an accurate picture of the human race, of our hearts, and the need to be rescued by God. And every culture has its challenges. I've written a book entitled We Will Not Be Silenced, responding courageously to our culture's assault on Christianity. In this book, I discuss how cultural Marxism underlines many of the things that we are seeing taking place today, and how it impacts culture, and how Marx, yes, does indeed still rule from the grave. I've emphasized before that black lives matter.

Of course black lives matter. But the organization that takes that mantra is Marxist. And so in this book, I discuss social justice, the tearing down of monuments, issues such as free speech, the sexualization of children, how Islam is being co-opted in order to be a battering ram, as it were, against Christianity.

How do we withstand that? We do it with love, of course, but also with truth. This is the last day we are making this resource available for you. Here's what you do. Go to RTWOffer.com. Of course, RTWOffer is all one word.

Go to RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now let us open God's word and again see the human heart and evil, but also God's matchless grace. You'll notice it says in the last part of verse 16, in the day when according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Jesus Christ.

And I want to say, wow, the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. There is about all of us, all of us to some extent, have a false self that we put on in society, in our families, and in our relationships. On the one hand, this false self makes us friendly and kind and thoughtful and generous, and we get along well with others. But then, like the moon that has a dark side, there's another part of us over here, and that's the dark side, that's the secrets, that's the place where we put our garbage. That's the place where we think about such things as deceit and envy and strife. It's the place where we have judgmental thoughts. Somehow we look down on others. That's the place where we have thoughts about racism or thoughts about how we are so much better than the people beneath us, and we become so critical of everybody else around us, and we don't know that the problem is ourselves. That's the place, you see, where we put all of our shame and all the things that all of us have done that we don't want anyone ever, ever, ever to know about, and we guard that place with all that we are worth. In the moment somebody wants to pry into it, we are there with a hundred different arguments as to why we did what we did, and there it is. Now, can you even imagine this?

Even imagine it? Standing, say, at the great white throne judgment, and God now takes all of the secrets, and finally, who you and I really are is revealed. Because you're not what you think you are.

But what you think you are. Unbelievable. A year or two ago, I was at a convention where James Woolsey was speaking. James Woolsey at one time was the director of our Central Intelligence Agency, and he was giving an interesting lecture that I may tell you about sometime.

But he told this story. He said that when he was the head of the CIA, he wanted to attend a football game in California, because I think his son was involved. And so his Secret Service detail told him that he and his wife had to fly on separate planes, et cetera, and then they put him on a plane in Washington, and of course he had two bodyguards. And these bodyguards had to declare their weapons, and evidently the stewardesses knew that there were these two officers on board, and so they sat at the back of the plane.

He sat in the middle with one on one side and the one on the other. He said the one along the aisle was a big African American who sat there with his arms crossed, whom they called Rock. And he said Rock never laughed at anything. But as the plane was nearing California, a flight attendant came and whispered something into his ear and Rock broke out in convulsive laughter. What she said was, after 22 years of flying, I think you've got the best behaved prisoner I've ever seen. Listen, you don't know who in the world is flying next to you, do you? You really don't know. Some of you don't even know who you married. You married one person and then somebody else showed up.

We all look alike. There were many people who wanted to keep some of Hitler's videos with Eva Braun and so forth. They didn't want them public. It's because there you see a very human Hitler. I mean, you know, he's tussling the hair of a child, he's playing with his dog Blondie, and they said we don't want people to see him as a human being. We want to keep him as this super evil person. Well, Solzhenitsyn was right, wasn't he? He said the line between good and evil does not go through the human race. If it did, then we could put all the evil people on one side and all the good people on the other. Solzhenitsyn says the line between good and evil goes right through every human heart. Never underestimate your ability to do very terrible things. And so the Bible says that our secrets will be revealed. Who we are will be exposed in that day.

Chilling, but thankfully there's hope. Stay with me. And then there's another assumption that people make that we can teach others, but we don't have to teach ourselves. I won't go into this in detail, but Paul says, for example, that you put yourself up as a teacher. He says in verse 21, while you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that we must not commit adultery.

Do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? There were those you see who robbed temples and then they took the idols and they sold them. They said, oh, we'd never worship these, but we can steal and then we can do it. Paul says, are you involved in this kind of sin, this kind of deception? Paul says.

And so what happens when we live this way? By the way, speaking of this kind of deception, did you see the headline in the Chicago Trib just a couple of months ago? It says, Massage Parlor Trial Ends When masseuse recognizes attorney as a former client. Thou who say is that one should not attend these massage parlors that give extra benefits.

Do you do it? Oh, the deceit of the human heart. And let's not point fingers, but realize that we're all this way. We are self-absorbed, filled with self-justification, self, self, self. And we just don't see it.

What's the result of this? Well, the apostle Paul says a couple of things. Number one, our witness is lost.

I am now in verse 24. The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. Somebody did a survey on why people leave the church and they discovered that in most instances they left because of some hypocrite in the church, somebody who offended them, somebody who claimed to be a Christian and did ABCD. Well, I have to tell you that many people who use that excuse, it is an illegitimate excuse because it's true that we are still sinners. And it's true that Christians can do awful things.

But if I might humbly confess, the world is certainly no better than we are. There's a lot of deceit and deception and betrayal out there. But still there are times when God is blasphemed. People say, well, you know, they're Christians and look at what they do. Look at the way in which they act.

Look at their attitude. It affects the way in which we witness to the world. And then Paul says something else is your duplicity, your hypocrisy, it cancels the ordinances and their value. You read the next verses and Paul is talking about circumcision because you see some of the Jewish people of that time said, look, you know, we're circumcised and therefore there are exceptions for us. We've got this covenant with God that we're depending upon.

And then they lived that way. And Paul is saying, look, the ordinance itself doesn't mean anything. It's the heart that matters. And so today there are those who say, well, you know, I've been baptized or perhaps they think to themselves I have had communion or the mass or some other ceremony that somehow is going to do it.

No, no, no, no, it won't do it. God looks at the heart. That's what's important. And then, of course, you also have a very wrong focus. And now I'm at the end of the chapter where it says that the Jew is one who is one inwardly. And he says, not by the letter, but his praise is not from man, but from God. How differently we would live.

If we were less concerned about what people thought about us, less concerned about this false self that all of us live with and more concerned about reality. I wish I had brought it with me. I was going to, but I forgot it on my desk. Last week in this service, there was a person who wrote us a note that was very encouraging. He said that he's a grad student.

He may be here today. And he said that he left and he had to come to grad school here to be at Moody Church. And then he said, after being in our Crossroads class, I believe, and among us here, he said, I was blown away by how real Christians could be. I thought that's the best compliment we could ever have here at the Moody Church, to be blown away by how real we really are. None of us is perfect. Don't do it now, but maybe later, look at the person who's sitting next to you and say, you know that you're imperfect.

That's fine to say that if they say back, yes, and you are also very imperfect. How do we understand all this? The book of Romans was written for two purposes, really. Number one, to understand the depth of our sin. And if you think to yourself that today was a difficult day in terms of exposing our sin, wait till we get to chapter three.

That is going to be something like open heart surgery without anesthetic. Paul is just going to rip us apart and say, this is how bad and deceitful you really are. But he's not doing it so that we grovel in the dust. He's doing it so that we understand the gospel and that we understand the wonder and the beauty of God's grace. You see, that's why Luther said that one must first of all descend into hell before one can get to heaven. If you don't understand what God saved you out of and how bad off you were without grace, you will never, never understand grace and appreciate grace and the fact that God rescued us from ourselves and our willing self-deceptions. Now, I can't wait until chapter three to give you the gospel because I can't leave you where I brought you, so I must help you to understand. How is God's rescue program working? What is the bottom line here in terms of saving us so that we don't have to be at the great white throne judgment and have all of our secrets exposed so that we can be free from condemnation, so that our consciences can be cleansed, so that we can look in the mirror and thank God that we're not what we used to be and we aren't what we're going to be, but thank God we're on the way. How does that work?

What is God's redemption program? Well, to illustrate it, I'll tell you a story, possibly it is a legend, that comes to us from Russia. Here's the story. But back in those days when there were nomads who were roaming the land, there was one chief who was a very kind man, a very just man, and a very strong man and known for his lack of partiality when it came to justice. The problem was that among the tribe there were thieves. Apparently, they thought that there was a thief because there were so many things that were missing. First of all, there was petty theft and then there was greater theft. So he issued an edict that whoever was doing it would be beaten with 10 lashes. And interestingly, even after that warning, the thievery continued. And then he said, whoever is doing this will be beaten with 40 lashes, which was another way of saying they will be beaten possibly to death because few people could endure 40 lashes.

And then, to the shock of everyone, it was determined that the culprit was the chief's own mother. So now the tribe said to itself, how is the chief going to handle this one? Is he going to go with love and exonerate her and forget justice and the edict of 40 lashes?

That would have been one possibility. The other possibility, is he really going to sentence his mother to 40 lashes so that she will undoubtedly, this frail woman, be killed? Is that what he's going to do? Well, the wise chief decided, first of all, that he would go with justice and ordered that 40 lashes be given to his mother. And then what he did is, before the lashes and the blows came, he went and he hugged his mother and shielded her and took all 40 lashes in her place. That is the gospel.

It is this. That God had an attribute of love and God had an attribute of justice, neither of which could be compromised. So the question was, in the rescue program, how do we do this? Do we go with love or do we go with justice? And the answer, as the cross showed, God went with both. Justice demanded that we should be lost forever because of our sins, which are much greater than we realize because God is much holier than we realize.

And that's what justice demanded. But love said, I want to redeem. I don't want to have people stand before me and have to give an account and have all of their secrets exposed and then, as a result of that judgment, to be eternally separated from me. So I will take the blows so that I am free to forgive, to redeem, to cleanse. That is the good news of the book of Romans, that God came on a rescue mission to save us from our sins. I warn you today, don't depend upon your religiosity. Don't be judgmental.

Don't think of yourself as superior to anybody. Maybe you haven't committed the same sins that they have thanks to God's grace, but all those seeds are in your heart too. And that's why the goodness of God and the grace of God should lead all of us, even as believers, to repentance because we realize that, at the end of the day, we are really sinners in need of divine intervention and grace. And God comes. And God comes in the person of Jesus to redeem us from our sins.

He envelops us in his love so that the blows of God's justice fell on him, and we are preserved. And that's why I stand here today and tell you there is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. That's good news for sinners.

But it's not automatic. You're not born into it. You must receive Christ as Savior. And as many as those who received him, to those he gives the authority to become God's children, even to those who believe on his name. We have a great Savior for great sinners. And for that, we can rejoice.

Let's bow together in prayer. And before I actually pray, I have to ask you today, do you know for sure that you've trusted Christ as Savior? Have you received him as your substitute, as your sin-bearer, as the one who envelops you and took the blows of God's judgment on your behalf? Do you have that deep sense of assurance?

If not, you've probably not believed on him in a saving way. You're religious, obviously, but you're not saved. Why don't you cry out to the Lord right where you are even as I pray? Say, Lord Jesus, please save me from my sins. And I receive Christ as the one who bore my penalty. Father, as we look into our hearts, all of us stand condemned. We're all on equal ground. Forgive us for being blind to our own faults and seeing the faults of others with such clarity.

Forgive us, Father, for forgetting that your standard is inflexible because your holiness is impartial. And help us to rejoice in the rescue mission of Jesus and to share that good news with others who need to know that there is a Savior who came on a mission to save us from ourselves. We love him. Help us to serve him, we ask, in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, my friend, this is Pastor Lutzer. I hope that you understand how passionately I preach the gospel with such joy to be able to tell sinners that we have a Savior who's able to save us from our sins.

The issue is not the greatness of our sin, but rather the wonder of God's grace. We are called to proclaim this message in this culture which clearly has lost its way. I've written a book entitled We Will Not Be Silenced Responding Courageously to Our Culture's Assault on Christianity.

I need to tell you that this is the last time we are making this resource available for you. I believe that it will be of great help for you to understand our culture. What about socialism versus capitalism?

What about critical race theory? What would Jesus say to the church today? That's actually the last chapter of the book. It's entitled Strengthen What Remains.

Jesus of course spoke this to the church in Sardis, and I believe that he would say some of the same things to us today. For a gift of any amount, this book can be yours, and remember today is the last day this resource is being made available to you. Here is what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com. Now that's all one word, rtwoffer.com, or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now I'm going to be giving you that contact information again, but let me tell you that we so deeply appreciate your prayers, your support, because together we are making a difference. This is your ministry, and we are deeply grateful. Go to rtwoffer.com, or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

Ask for the book. We will not be silenced. 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. Regarding salvation, it's easy to make yourself believe that all is well when it's far from well. Next time, don't miss Rescued from Dangerous Rationalizations. Thanks for listening. For Dr. Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.