Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. It is a high calling. Jesus said, believers are the only lanterns illuminating a dark world. We must not fail him. We must keep our lights bright.
Following Christ is our series, and we're learning that the waters of evil are rising. Only we as Christians can hold them back. 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, the biggest lesson I'm taking from this message is the need for us to get rid of all impurities in our lives. Otherwise, our lights are dim. You know, Dave. Your intro reminds me of a survey that was taken a number of years ago trying to answer this question. Why don't believers witness to their faith?
Did you know that the answer was not lack of knowledge? Though of course the more knowledge we have the better and the greater the opportunities to witness, but that was not primary. What was primary is this. Unconquered sin. In other words, what the respondents were saying is, because there is sin in my life, that is unconquered, I have no right to speak about Christ.
I can't tell others about Jesus. If he hasn't delivered me.
So this goes back to the point that you made a moment ago, namely, that if there are impurities in our life, are light. will be dim. I hold in my hands a book that I think is going to be a great blessing to you. It's entitled Walking with Jesus: A Radical Return to His Priorities. The book emphasizes this point.
Should we follow Jesus in his steps?
Well, the scripture says yes. We should follow him in his steps. And what this book does is to try to help answer the question: how did Jesus live? And now in light of that, how should we live? and this is the last week we're making this resource available for you.
Here's what you can do. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218. ninety three thirty seven Now because this is the last week, we're making it available. I'm going to be giving you that contact info again.
For now, let us listen. Yeah. Jesus is saying to you and to me, we are the only lanterns that the world's got. This is it. You say, well, mine isn't very bright.
Maybe, but this is it. You and you alone. are the light of the world.
Now think of these two figures of speech. Darkness And decay. That's what they represent. Darkness and decay go hand in hand, they always occur together. And as we think about Christ's challenge to us, the salt represents really our character, and the light represents our conduct.
And Jesus said that you have to be both. Because you represent the kingdom of light. in this world.
Now, let's back off for just a moment and look at this passage of Scripture and think of the implications. This is awesome. What Jesus is saying is this. That the only thing that stands between Satan and his total control of the world. Are you believers?
That's all that's stopping him from the total demonization of the world. The only thing that is preventing Satan from having a complete takeover is the fact that there are still some believers who are salt and who are light, and that's it. And we stand in between a wicked, evil spirit who has demonic spirits to carry out his bidding, and we stand between those ugly forces of darkness and society. And if we were removed, bad as things are, they would get worse overnight. Jesus said, You and I keep the world from total decay.
You say, well, Pastor Lutzer, now, can that really be true? Can that really be true? Are you really telling me, can you imagine? If I were on a talk show telling the world this. I'd be laughed out of town.
Believers are looked at as people that we have to get rid of. The New Age movement says that before the New Age of Enlightenment can come. Several groups have to be exterminated, and fundamentalists are listed already in books among those whose. who have to be put out of the way so that progress can be brought about. You're saying, Pastor, is it really true?
That it is we who keep the world from its final state of evil and final judgment of God, and the answer is yes. One day there was a man by the name of Abraham who was praying to God, and Abraham said, Lord, if there are fifty righteous in Sodom, Will you not destroy it, God said? Fine. For fifty I won't. Abraham rethinks it and says, Now, wait a minute, Lord, maybe there aren't 50.
Would you do it for 45? and you know the rest of the story. 45, 30, 20. Abraham comes back and says, God, don't be angry with me. Promise this is the last time, really.
Not again, just this last time. Will you not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if there are ten righteous? God says, You've got a deal. Let's shake. Abraham walks away thinking Sodom and Gomorrah are not going to be destroyed.
He's got it. in the bag. He made a deal with God. It's over. The Bible says that Abraham was looking on the plain and he looked back and he saw all this fire and brimstone come out of heaven and he was puzzled.
Why? He said, I thought I had a deal with God. But Abraham had made an error. There were not ten righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah. There were only seven, and that's why God could legitimately judge the city.
But here's the point: before the judgment of God came on Sodom and Gomorrah, God says, I've got somebody in there, Lot and his wife and his children, and I have to get them out. Carnal as they are, Lot was absorbed by the sinfulness of Sodom and Gomorrah. Nevertheless, Lot had believed on God through the witness of Abraham, his uncle, and God says, I can't blow this city apart in judgment until those who belong to me get out of it. That's why I hope that no matter how bad it gets in the city, a lot of Christians stay in Chicago. We ought to pray, God, give us at least ten.
Don't ever let it get less.
Now I know there are thousands, thousands. But what God is saying is that the presence of even one or a few carnal Christians hold back the judgment of God because it is the believing world that stands in between the plans and the designs of Satan and his total absorption of the world. You and you alone are the salt of the earth. You and you alone are the light of the world. It is you that stand.
and hold off the wickedness. And like a mighty river. I remember seeing the Grand Coulee Dam out west. Like that great big dam that is standing there, the Christians are holding the waters from flooding the entire territory. Water is going over, water is spilling onto the land, but there's still a dam.
But the Christians are removed, and the waters of evil flood and take over everything, and there is no standard, no power, nothing left. Read. 2 Thessalonians. It says that when Jesus Christ comes and finally takes away the church, it says that the man of sin is waiting to be revealed and he's just standing there and he's being restrained, and then suddenly the restraint is taken away and he's revealed and all the world begins to worship the beast. Why?
Because ye and ye alone. Are the light of the world, ye and ye alone are the salt. of the earth. Two very crucial conclusions to make. The first is that we must be, we must be in contact with society.
You know, here in Chicago, we have lots of salt. We pile it up by hundreds of tons of salt and then we use it in the wintertime. What good is all that salt if it's not spread where it can? Do some good. What good is the salt if it isn't next to decayed meat?
What good is a hundred pounds of salt in a bag or in a sack? that is not in contact with where it can do some good. You see, here today, You know what we have as I look out over your beautiful faces? We've got a big salt pile. That's right.
But the salt, we cannot be salt here in the church. We've got so much salt, salt all over. But you know that the minute you leave here, Tomorrow morning when you are in that office and when you go to that factory, And when you are in that bank, Wherever it is that God leads you, the salt goes there, spreading throughout society. In one of the countries. There were some people that came to church in a third world country, and they all brought lanterns.
They'd go along the trails all over from their little huts, and they came to church. When they came to church with all their lanterns, they lit the place. Very, very brightly. And that's the way church is. But when church was over, they all took their lanterns and they all went back.
And that's what's going to happen. in about 10 or 15 minutes here when we dismiss. If we have 1,400 people today, maybe 1,500, we're all going to be going back, everyone to a different strata of society, to a different suburb, to a different apartment building. being salt and being light. Do you know that the minute you move into an apartment building where you are the only Christian?
All of the forces of hell. are agitated and irritated with you. Why? Because you represent salt and light. No matter where you go, Jesus said that you and you alone do it.
Unbelievers cannot do it. Do you know what the purpose of church is? The purpose of church is not that we might come together. And that speaking together and singing together, we might simply get all of our lights together and bring all of the salt together and see how big a pile we can really get. or how bright a light we can make.
The purpose of church is to equip us to be salt and light. You see, Jesus said in verse 13, if the salt is mixed, You know, chemists. They're so puzzled over this. They say Jesus was wrong because salt can never lose its saltiness. I think that what he's talking about is salt that is mixed with dirt.
Sometimes they took salt and they just threw it on the ground. Jesus is saying, if salt is mixed with impurities, it can't do its job. That's why we preach about sin so often. It's because sin are those impurities, it represents those impurities that make us unable to function as a preservative, unable to make Jesus Christ attractive to others and give some flavor to life.
So Jesus said, If your life is mixed, get it cleaned up.
so that you can function like I've called you to function. The purpose of church is to bring our lights. to trim the Part of the light, the wick. To get our Lamps full of oil.
So that after the benediction and by tomorrow morning we are scattered throughout all of Chicagoland being salt and light and then we come back next week and we say, once again I have to make sure that I have my saltiness and I have to make sure that my light is burning brightly so that we can go out there and be all that Jesus said we already are. Let me give you a second observation. We must be in contact with the world, and secondly, we must be in contact with Christ. Because that is ultimately the bottom line. It is true that you and I cannot impact our community the way in which it should be impacted.
It is true that we are sometimes overwhelmed by a force of evil. It is true that we sometimes see ourselves as weak. But I want you to know something. That when you say the church of Jesus Christ is weak. You are siding with the forces of darkness rather than with the forces of light.
The church of Jesus Christ is not weak because Christ is our head, seated in heaven, and we are seated there with him. We are joined to him for the new walk. And because of that, we are much stronger than we perceive ourselves to be because of him. I'll tell you something. If we as a church began to be turned onto Jesus Christ and get all the impurities out of our life and have our wicks burning brightly.
I believe that there would be an emergency council in hell. It would be enough to make Satan absolutely stupefied and shudder. If he saw a pure church being the salt and light that Jesus said we already are. Regardless of what our feelings may be.
So you see, Jesus says to you and to me, I'm not sending you on an impossible assignment. I'm not telling you to jump higher than you have the strength to jump. Because if you understand my power and who I am and my relationship with you, you can be salt and you can be light. In fact, you already are. What if the moon has said to itself, I don't think that I can give some light in darkness?
I have no resources. That's true. The moon doesn't. We've proven the fact that the moon has no light of its own. I've seen moon dust.
You probably have too. A man actually has walked on the moon. Do you believe that, by the way? I remember reading in Time Magazine back in 1968 when that happened, that 17% of all the people in North Carolina believed it was a Hollywood fake.
Now I don't know if you're from North Carolina or not, but I just simply say that that's Time magazine for you. Yeah. My dear friend, the moon has no light of its own, none. And God never expected it to be able to give some light to the night based on its own resources. All that the moon has to do is to be there.
in a position where it can reflect the sun. And that's all you and I really have to do. When you go to the office tomorrow, remember it is not you and the problems. It is not you and your unsaved neighbors. It is Christ.
And your problems. It is Christ and your unsaved neighbors. It is Christ being salt. It is Christ being light. That's what it is.
I was impressed this week as I was studying for my Sunday school lesson with the words of Jesus to the disciples. 5,000 people. He said, feed them, feed them. Big deal. How are we going to feed 5,000 people?
With enough to perhaps feed 20, that's about as much as the disciples came up with. Jesus said, Set them down and start feeding. And the minute the people sat down and the disciples acted in faith, They began to take what they had and they gave it. And Jesus did a creative miracle and kept multiplying and multiplying and multiplying and multiplying, all from his own resources. We have enough resources in this church, not to mention all the other evangelical churches in the city that preach the gospel.
We have enough resources in this church to turn the city of Chicago upside down if we were committed to be what Christ says we are: salt and light. And say, Jesus, in faith we're going to do that. We're going to get the impurities out of our lives, we're going to get our wick. Cleaned off, and we're going to get some oil, and we're going to tell men and women that there is a Savior who can be believed. who can deliver people from their sins.
Remember this, folks. You and I, as believers, and all the other evangelical people in the city of Chicago, we are all that exists between the total takeover. of evil in our society. That's what Jesus taught. This morning, Dory Vanstone, who is spending the weekend with us, quoted a poem just before we came to church.
I said, Write it down. I'm going to use it at the conclusion of my message. Here it is. His love flowing through me. His mind thinking in me.
His life living in me by the Spirit's power. His heart beating in me, his eyes seeing through me, his voice speaking through me. My every waking. our Now, folks, in a few moments we'll be dismissing this service. But after the benediction, We leave here today saying Chicago.
Here we come. Right? It's all in our hands. Jesus said, feed them. Jesus said, represent me.
It's all up to you. With all of my resources at your disposal, mind you. You and I can do it together. Let's pray. Our father We are astounded that Jesus would put so much confidence in us.
As to say that it all rests with us at this moment. That all the forces of wickedness which want to unleash themselves are being held back because there still is salt. in the city. And there is light in the city.
Now, Father, may we not be discouraged because we know that even the smallest candle overcomes the darkest cave. We thank you that your word assures us. that the darkness can never extinguish light. And therefore, we pray in our own ways as we give ourselves to you today for cleansing, for purification, for dedication. Lord May you through us change our community.
We know that you have the resources to do it. And we want you to do it and we believe you to do it. In Jesus' name. Aw man. Uh Oh.
This is Pastor Lutzer. When I think of the Church of Jesus Christ today, what comes to mind is we are oftentimes discouraged by what I like to call psychological weariness. We're tired of the battles. We're tired of everything that we hear on the news. We're tired of the polarization.
And we ask ourselves, where do we go from here, especially when it seems as if darkness is overtaking us.
Well, my beloved friend, let me emphasize this God has called us to this moment in this world. in these circumstances to represent him and to do it with joy. I'm holding in my hands a book entitled Walking with Jesus, A Radical Return to His Priorities. For a gift of any amount we're making it available for you, and I sure hope that you have a pen or pencil handy so that you can write this down. It's so important for us to realize that we have to follow in the steps of Jesus.
Here's what you do. You go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer dot com, or pick up the phone and call us at one eight eight eight two one eight ninety three thirty seven. Let me give that to you one more time. RTWoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-128.
ninety three thirty seven. It's time now for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Dr. Lutzer is a prolific author, and one of his most widely read books is One Minute After You Die. One sceptical listener is asking this Your premise starts with what happens one minute after death.
What if heaven and hell don't even exist, and there is no after life? Could we just simply no longer exist?
Well, I have to ask you a question, my friend. Who shall I take as an authority on this subject? You're suggesting that when we die it ends everything. That's one point of view that is out there. That of course is the position of atheism or naturalism.
But when we read the New Testament we're confronted with Jesus. And Jesus talked much about the life to come. And I believe that he is an authority. In fact, he said, I am he who is alive and was dead, and am alive for evermore. Amen and have the keys of death and of Hades.
I'm going with Jesus on this one. Yes, it's true, in my book One Minute After You Die, I assume that there is life after death. But I base what I teach on the Bible, both Old and the New Testament, to show that this life doesn't end at all. If you're counting... on being extinguished, if you are counting on being annihilated and no longer in existence after death, I think you have taken the wrong course.
Be sure to read the New Testament and find out what Jesus has to say. and you cast your vote. with him.
Some wise counsel from Dr. Erwin Lutzer. Thank you, Pastor Lutzer. 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 Running2Win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. No. The world is not just the beautiful place we see in travelogues. There are many dark corners filled with hopelessness and despair.
Some of us are called to go to these dark corners. Otherwise, how will those who live there hear about a Savior who can give them light and hope?
Next time, don't miss Touching the Untouchable, message number six in our series on following Christ. Plan to join us. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
