Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus. the founder and perfecter of our faith. All who name the name of Christ are in a lifelong battle. That's why we've been given the armor of God. Five pieces for self-defense, and one weapon for offense against Satan.
That weapon is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. 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, we don't have the option of avoiding the invisible war, do we?
No, Dave, if you're a believer, you are in this battle and you don't have to sign up for it. It comes with being born again into God's family. Immediately when that happens, of course, Satan begins to attack us. He's involved in our lives before conversion. But he also has a new challenge for all believers.
and we must know these pieces of armor. and we must be aware of his tactics. The Apostle Paul says, we are not ignorant. of his devices. May that also be true of us.
I'm so glad for the many of you who support the ministry of running to win. If you have benefited from these messages, it's because people just like you have indeed supported this ministry. I've written a book entitled How to Break a Stubborn Habit.
Now, this book was written with the conviction that Jesus Christ won a victory. The victory has in one sense already been won, but you and I must be able to benefit from it. And that, of course, involves discipline. It involves many different challenges.
Some of the chapter titles have to do with the ground rules, putting our past behind us. seeing our temptation with God's eyes, the freedom of living at the cross, satanic activity, and so forth. For a gift of any amount, as I've already mentioned, we're making it available. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com.
That's rtwoffer.com. or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-208. 218. 9337. As we mentioned, You don't have to enlist for this battle.
It's very real. Satan does his best work. In secret. He really doesn't like to be detected, particularly if his detection puts him in unfavorable light. He'd prefer to go incognito.
And that's why you have today secret addictions, secret practices. Secret occultism. Secret immorality. And the list could go on. And on.
I've long ago learned that it is impossible for you to know what the person sitting next to you is really going through. They may be going through unbelievable darkness. And you don't know it even if they happen to live. in your home. It is certainly possible that someone is repressing, denying, living with guilt.
Living with a struggle that no one knows anything about, and the devil is there to make sure that it stays secret because. Secrecy is his great weapon, and shame comes along and confers upon the secrecy that respectability.
Well, this actually is the last in a series of messages on spiritual warfare. Maybe not permanently the last. At some point, I'd like to preach one more message in the series, but I hope that you've had the opportunity to listen, and if you haven't had the opportunity to listen, you know that these messages are available. And I say that because of the desperate need we have to know the enemy and know how we can combat him. Today, our text of scripture again is Ephesians chapter 6, though I recommend that you not turn to that because we're going to use another passage.
But in chapter 6, verse 37 of Ephesians, it says, and take the sword of the Spirit. Which is the Word of God. And this sword of the Spirit is the only offensive weapon. All of the others are defensive.
So that we might be able to stand. But now we're speaking about the sword in which we can actually begin to move forward. And the thing that you don't want to do in your war against the devil is to drop your. Sword or have it dulled by wrong kinds of combat.
Now, there are many passages in the Bible that talk about the sword of the Spirit. For example, one that I shall simply quote to you comes from the fourth chapter of the book of Hebrews. In Hebrews it says, the word of God is quick and powerful, it is active and it is sharper than any two-edged sword. The Romans used to have a sword that was two-edged so that it would cut either way. It is sharp and active more than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and the joints and marrow.
and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. Wow. What the Bible is really saying is that the sword goes through, just like a physical sword goes through the joints and the marrow of the body, spiritually speaking, the Bible is a sword that goes right deeply into our souls and reveals what's there if we allow it to. And then the very next verse is speaking about God. It's amazing how God and the Bible are tied together.
If verse 12 says that, verse 13 says, And there is no person who is not exposed in God's sight, because all things are naked and open unto the eyes of the one to whom we give an account. That ought to give us some pause. Imagine all the musings of your mind that no one knows about. Those parts of your mind that you think are cordoned off. Where neither God nor anyone else is permitted, those are totally bare before God.
The imagery is surgical, it is as if God lays us on the table. As if you're doing an autopsy, God lays us on the table and then He begins to unravel us and to take us apart and He knows the thoughts and the intentions of the heart. That's how thorough God's knowledge is, and what God will do for us is actually begin to show us that so that we know we need a Savior. Dr. Ellen Redpath, who pastored here for nine and a half years from England.
He was a very good and godly man and a great preacher, but he said that he thought that he had conquered most of his sins, and then he had a stroke. And in the midst of that stroke, God began to show him all of the sins that were still in his life. Unbelief, moral impurity, the inability to concentrate and to worship self-centeredness, bitterness, anger. All that, he says, was in my soul. Until he was so desperate, it was as if God said to him, Alan, I want to show you that the only good thing about you is Jesus Christ.
And that really is true. The only good thing about us is Jesus Christ. And the benefit, you see, of knowing who we are in God's presence is that then we are driven to Him and we see our need of Jesus. And the Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, and it shows us who we are if we allow it to.
Now, what I want you to do is to take your Bibles now and turn to the fourth chapter of Matthew, Matthew chapter 4, because I think of all the illustrations of the Bible, Jesus shows us more specifically how to use the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Jesus shows us that more clearly than anyone else. And the fourth chapter is a very familiar passage of scripture, but don't allow its familiarity to cloud you from its life-changing principles and message. Because at the end of this sermon, I'm going to be giving you some life-changing principles that will enable you and equip you in our war. Against Satan.
You say, well, Pastor Luther, are there some people who don't believe in the devil? The answer is yes. All those whom the devil has deceived do not believe in his existence. Matthew chapter 4. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, and we want to say, wait a moment.
Jesus is led up by the Holy Spirit to be tempted and the answer is yes. God does lead us to the place of temptation, no question about it. He does that to bring out the best in us and in that process Satan is there to bring out the worst in us and how we choose is going to determine which wins.
So Jesus is there and he's driven by the Holy Spirit to be tempted of the devil and after fasting 40 days and 40 nights he was hungry. And the tempter came to him and said, If you are the Son of God, command that these stones to become loaves of bread. Wow. Well, what's wrong with that? I'm told I've never fasted for 40 days.
I fasted a few days, but never forty. But I'm told that after you fast for 40 days, during the fast itself, you aren't very hungry, but afterwards, you are just ravenously hungry when the 40 days are over.
So the devil comes when Jesus is very hungry and says, Since you are the Son of God, that's the way we could translate it, since you are the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
Now, what's wrong with that? Nothing. I'm sure that afterwards Jesus did indeed eat bread. As a matter of fact, there's evidence that later on, as you know, Jesus actually took. uh loaves and created bread.
So what was wrong with this?
Well, the answer is simply that this wasn't the time yet for Jesus to eat. And Jesus was saying, in effect, that This was not the time and he could not act independently of his father in heaven who basically day by day communicated to Jesus what he should do and this was not the exact time to do it. And so Jesus reports to the devil and says, the Bible says that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
So, Jesus says, there are some things that are more important than the cravings of the body. There are some things that are more important than bread. There are some things that are more important than money. There are some things that are more important than satisfying our physical desires. And there are some things that are more important than that, aren't there?
You see, we are given bodies with physical desires, the sexual desire, which not only is good biblically, but it is also very holy. But what Satan wants us to do is to misuse it. And so what he wants us to do is to use it independently of God's instruction and God's book. And then there are all kinds of cravings of the body that are artificially created.
Some of you struggling with alcoholism, some of you struggling with drugs, and you know how those cravings want to control you. And Jesus said there are some things more important than fulfilling those desires. And the devil is involved in these things in various ways and on various levels. The best way to describe the devil is to say that he's like a firebug. He's like an arsonist who is sent to his own fires after they've begun.
He comes and he wants to take our natural passions, which we struggle with anyway, and he wants to inflame them, to pour gasoline on them and throw a match on them, so that we think in terms of a certain inevitability that we need this or we need to do this. And then after everything is burned up and everything in our lives are decimated and we begin to cry to God for help, Satan shows up and says, you know, you've really messed up, haven't you? As a matter of fact, God is so mad at you, there's no use even turning to him. And so people go their own way, and they believe the lie at both levels. Lie number one, do it once, it won't matter.
Lie number two, now that you've done it, don't bother standing up. Stay bad. down. When I was growing up in Canada, we used to play a game that some of you may be acquainted with. It's fox and goose, and fox and goose was played out on the snow.
And we'd have a huge ring, a huge circle, and then like wagon spokes. And we had certain areas where you would be safe, and we'd play tag. And we used to stay in the trail whenever we had a new. And knew a circle that we made, and we had lots of room for new circles where I went to school. Went to school with a horse and buggy.
and a sleigh in winter. Can you believe that? I guess I belong to a different era because some of you are not connecting at this point. But one of the things I noticed that was when we made a brand new circle, we were very careful to stay within the lines, but then eventually it had become so messed up, we would just go through and we would kick dirt into it and we'd mess it up good and proper. That's what Satan says.
Here's a craving of your body, he says, and I promise you that if you do it, you'll be able to control the consequences. After you give in to it and you can't control the consequences, he comes back and says, Now that you've messed up so badly, mess it up good and proper. There's no use even turning to God.
So what we have to do is to use the word in fighting against the temptation to fulfill every craving. the body. Jesus said some things are more important than bread. Secondly, the devil takes him to a pinnacle of the temple. We don't know exactly where that was in Jerusalem at the time because all of those buildings have been destroyed.
But it says in verse 5, the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, If you're the Son of God, throw yourself down for it is written.
Now I hope that your Bible's open at this point. Jesus quotes a verse of scripture.
So what does the devil do? He quotes one too. You know, the navigators like to memorize scripture. They have them on the scripture verses on little cards, and they take these cards wherever they go. They put them on the dashboard of their car.
I don't know whether or not Satan carries cards or not, but he knows the scripture well. He's quoting Psalm 91. And he says, you can quote Scripture, Jesus. I'll quote you some also. And he quotes Psalm 91.
If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written He will command His angels concerning you.
Some people criticize the devil because He did leave out a little phrase, and that is to keep you in all your ways, but I don't know if that's germane to the essence of it. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. Jesus, what you could do is to jump down from the pinnacle of the temple. People would see you. They'd recognize that you are the Messiah, and after all, God does say that.
You know, if you fall, he'll pick you up. Prove it. Wow. You know, there are some people on television that are very good, they preach the gospel, and then there are others who say very wild and weird things. And I can just imagine some of them that I've watched say something like this: You know, I just had a special revelation from God, and the special revelation from God is this: that I could just jump off a wall and God would catch me.
Hallelujah, praise the Lord. A scripture verse that's quoted out of context. and wrongly applied can be very dangerous. Yes, that is scripture. But the scripture is referring to those, for one thing, who might trip and fall accidentally.
It's not referring to people who can simply test God and say, Okay, God, I'm going to force your hand, and I'm going to demand that you do this for me, and I'm going to force you. To make sure that you do what I think you should. Here we go, God, I'm going to test you. No. There's only one place in all the Bible where God says, test me, by the way.
And that is in the book of Malachi, where he says, why don't you test me? Why don't you bring the tithes to the storehouse? Why aren't you generous in your giving? And you test me to see whether or not I will bless you as the result of it. That's the only place where God invites a test.
We cleave to His promises, but we are not presumptuous. We don't pretend to know his will and we don't force him into a corner. And so Jesus said that there is a higher principle even than trying to jump down from the pinnacle of the temple. Again, it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. And Jesus is quoting there from the book of Deuteronomy.
And the context is Israel which complained about God's taking care of them in the desert. They were putting God to the test. They were saying, if your promises were real, we'd have bread to eat. If your promises were real, we wouldn't be hungry and thirsty. If your promises were real, we'd be winning more battles than we are winning.
And so what they were doing is they were provoking God and putting him to the test. And Jesus is quoting scripture that says, don't put God to the test. Don't force his hand. by some promise. that you've taken out of context.
And then there's another. temptation. The temptation for the pride of life, and now we get to wealth and power. And this is the bottom line. This is really the heart of the whole thing.
You'll notice it says in verse 8, again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their glory. Do you know that the Gospel of Luke adds this interesting phrase? It says, in a moment of time. We don't know what mountain this is. And there must have been something very supernatural going on, because in a moment of time to see all the kingdoms of the world in their glory, In a moment of time to be there in Israel and to see the pyramids of Egypt.
And to see the splendor of Rome and the Roman Empire in a moment of time, and to see Athens and all of the wealth that they'd have had even back then. In a moment of time, Jesus is shown all these kingdoms, and then the devil says, I'll give you all of them if you fall down and worship me. Theologians have debated: did he have a right to even make this promise? I mean, how much power does Satan have? Yeah, he's the prince of the power of the air, but.
After all, I mean, can he tell the Son of God I can give you these kingdoms? Probably he was bluffing. And most assuredly, he was very deceptive. But what he wanted Jesus to do is to bow down and worship me, which is really the heart of what the devil wants. If there's anything that he wants, it is worship.
And he is being worshipped today in many, many different disguises. He's being worshipped by false religions. He's being worshipped by the new spirituality that I've spoken about, where there is a transformation of consciousness and people are into touching that outer realm, that inner consciousness, which eventually, without a guide, leads to occultism and the whole spirit world. And they think that they are in touch with God and they are actually in touch with the devil. It is his most dazzling deception.
And so Jesus replies with a verse of scripture, but Jesus adds something, and I like what Jesus added. This time he says, begone, Satan. Be gone, Satan, he says. For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. Be gone.
And so the devil leaves. But does he leave permanently? No. The Bible says in the Gospel of Luke, here it says the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. In the Gospel of Luke, it says, and Satan left him waiting for a more opportune time.
time. New converts especially don't get this. You see, they think to themselves, well, I fought the devil and I won a victory. Praise God, I'm on the victory side. And they don't realize that the devil comes back and he comes back and he comes back and he comes back and he isn't nice.
He doesn't play by any rules. He is the quintessential example whose essence is only ever totally evil. totally angry. Totally enraged against God and His people, and He has no conscience whatever. All that He can do.
is do evil.
Well my friend, this is Pastor Lutzer. That certainly is sobering, isn't it? When we think of the fact that we have an enemy who seeks our destruction, and will do all that he possibly can to put ideas in our minds. which we think are our own. I've written a book entitled How to Break a Stubborn Habit.
Now I want to be clear that this is not a self-help book. I don't believe it's possible, as the old saying goes, for us to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. We need the intervention of God in our battle. And this book is predicated on the Word of God. on the victory that Jesus Christ already accomplished, but also asking this question, what are the kinds of things that we must do?
What are the kinds of battles we must fight? in order to be victorious.
Now I hope that you have a pen or pencil handy, because I believe that this resource will be a blessing to you. But you also know people in your life. in your family, in your community. who need this information.
So here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at one eight eight eight. two one eight ninety three thirty seven.
Now because I believe that this resource is critical, I'm going to be giving you that contact info again. But from my heart to yours, I want to thank the many of you who support this ministry. Nothing blesses me more than when I meet people who say we pray regularly for the ministry of running to win. and all those of us who are involved in the ministry. we band together with deep faith and gratitude The running-to-win family.
So, very quickly, Here's what you can do. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Remember, go to RTWOffer. Dot com The title of the book, to break.
A stubborn habit. You can write to us at Running2Win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Running to win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. Believers are told to wield the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. It's not just a book.
It has power. And it's the means God uses to open closed hearts to the gospel.
Next time, a final look at Ephesians chapter 6. We'll hear more on using the scripture the way Jesus did. and by so doing, ward off the devil's attacks. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister.
Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
