Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Real miracles include raising the dead and feeding the 5,000, the kind of miracles Jesus did to prove he came from God. Today, more about the amazing life of Christ, a man whose claims were validated by his miracles. 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, without fanfare, Jesus displayed his power over all realms of existence. And you know, Dave, because of that power which was so visible, He also proved that he could forgive sin, which is invisible. But both are miracles. And both are the kinds of things that only Jesus Christ was qualified to do.
And I love to be able to preach that. to the whole world. And I want to thank the many of you who support this ministry because of you, thankfully, running to win is in 50 different countries in 7 different languages. but we also want to help you to understand our culture. And you know, even as we think about what is happening around us, It is because of those who have lived before us who have influenced where we are at.
And two men who influence us today Are Karl Marx and Dale Moody? They were contemporaries for 46 years. Two very different messages. to very different understandings of reality. One, of course, D.L.
Moody, loving God with all of his heart and preaching the gospel, bringing about permanent transformation, and Karl Marx. who believed in the perfectibility of human nature if you just had the right economic conditions. Two contemporaries, two gospels, yes. and two different gravestones, two legacies. For a gift of any amount, we're making this book available for you.
At the end of this message, I'll be giving you some contact info as to how it can be yours. Uh So Jesus says, I have authority over the physical realm. I have authority over the spiritual realm. He also said, I have authority over the eternal realm. eternal realm.
And for that, let's just turn to John chapter 11 for just a moment. where we see here the wonderful story. of the resurrection of Lazarus. John chapter 11: When Jesus hears that Lazarus is sick, he stays away two extra days to give Lazarus lots of time to die. And when Jesus returns to Bethany, Lazarus has been dead already four days.
The sisters come and say, You know, if you had been here, our brother had not died. Where were you when we really needed you? And then Jesus says to them in verse 25, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me. shall live even if he dies.
Somebody dies, we have a funeral. That individual Has believed on Christ, they are living even though they die. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Not talking about reincarnation. What he's talking about here is the fact that if when we live we spiritually believe on him, we will go on living and having eternal life.
even if we die physically. Uh Let's not miss Christpoint. He's saying, in light of the fact that I can take a man who has been dead for four days and I can raise him from the dead, this is proof that I actually even have authority over the eternal realm and I can give him physical life, but I can also give you spiritual life. And I have that ability. Do you see how Christ's claims and his miracles are interwoven.
And you see, Christ is the only teacher. Who did these kinds of miracles that were linked with these awesome and amazing claims? We know that Satan can cause crosses to appear in windows. We know that he can make statues cry. We know that he can do healing miracles, which he really loves, by the way, because Satan was quite right when he said in the book of Job: everything that a man has, he'll get for his life.
That's the most important thing to us, is our health. But one of the things that Satan cannot do is to raise the dead and then make the claim that because he can raise the dead, he can grant eternal life to those who believe on him. Is there a teacher? Is there a guru? Is there a prophet?
who has ever walked this planet. who has made claims like that. The answer is no. You know, in Europe a number of years ago, there was a man by the name of Bourne Jones who had a very beautiful painting, I understand, entitled Love. among ruins.
And there were some artists who were supposed to touch it up and to fix it. And even though they were warned regarding the watercolors that were used, they used the wrong solvent. Wrong cleaning fluid, and as a result, the paint dissolved. and the picture was ruined. I want you to know today that throughout all of history, there have been those who have been trying to take the portrait of Jesus Christ in the New Testament and dissolve it.
They want to do away with his miracles. They want to do away with his sayings. They want to get back to a Christ that is just as human. as Buddha or Muhammad. They're absolutely determined to take the pages of the New Testament, to scrub them clean, to sponge them, and to find a solvent with which they can wipe Christ.
Away. No one. has been able to do it. Nobody. You know why no one has been able to do it?
Because, first of all, Christ's words and Christ's works. Are so closely intertwined that you cannot take away his works, his miracles. Because when you do that, you are left with all of these astounding claims that you have to do something with. And if you're like Albert Schleitzer, the great humanitarian who wrote his own book on the historical Jesus, he came out flat out and says that Jesus was insane. It's the only way we can explain.
His astounding claims to be God and to have the ability to forgive sins.
So you see, man has said to himself, if I could just find the right thread. The sock. could be unraveled, and we could get back to the historical Jesus. Have you ever heard the statement, and it has been made by some scholars, that we don't really know anything? about who Jesus really was.
You may say, well, you know, when I hear statements like that, it is a great threat to my faith. No, my friend. If you understand what's going on, that is one of the greatest affirmations that anyone could make. About the unity of Jesus Christ's words and works. Because what they're saying is: we have taken the New Testament, we have scrubbed out all the miracles.
We have chipped Jesus Christ down to size so that he is not a miraculous Christ, and yet we're left with all of these astounding claims that we don't know what in the world to do with, and the best thing is to simply say that we know nothing about him. And that's the way unbelief works. They will not accept what is written by eyewitnesses, and so they simply say the easiest way out. It's to say. We don't know anything about them.
No matter what the record says.
So that's one of the reasons why it is that the quest for the historical Jesus has been such a dismal failure. is because the quest always begins with man and it ends with man. Let me give you a second reason. The second reason is that when you look at the New Testament, you can't help but feel. that Jesus is not on trial.
Now, I'm not an artist. I've been to some galleries and I remember seeing a beautiful painting of Rembrandt, that is a painting that Rembrandt painted called Night Watch in a museum in Amsterdam. And we received a lecture on its beauty. And I greatly appreciated the painting after having heard all those things. But actually, what if I were to stand there and say, you know, I don't think that Rembrandt knew very much?
As a matter of fact, I think he should have done it this way. You know, the tour guide would have said, you know, do we have space for this guy somewhere else? If she'd have been very honest, though perhaps not very polite, she'd have turned to me and said, Sir, I think you misunderstand. The painting isn't on trial. You are.
When you look at the pages of the New Testament, Christ is not on trial. In fact, he says he is going to be our individual and personal judge. Find a religious leader in all the world who's ever made an astounding claim like that. It is not Jesus Christ that is on trial, it is we who are on trial. It is not our responsibility to judge Him, it is His responsibility to judge us.
It is not our responsibility to remake Him into a Jesus that is according to our liking. But to submit to his authority and to submit to his claims.
Now I began this message by saying that there are two gods in this world. There is the God called Satan who is the prince of the power of the air, and God has allowed him to continue to rule the world during this period. Because you see, you may be saying, why if Jesus is superior, why doesn't he just stamp out the devil? We'll be answering that in a subsequent message. But for now it's enough for us to realize that there are indeed these two gods.
And, my dear friend, I want you to know that whether you are aware of it or not, you personally. As a man, A woman? A teenager. Even a child. really do belong to one God or the other.
Stephen Neal, in a book about Jesus, said that. He once spent an evening with a man who was very Close friend. of Adolf Hitler. And this man said to Stephen Neal that there was something about Hitler that was magnetic. He had energy.
Just like at the Parliament of World Religions, there were people there, they said, who had energy. And I did not dispute the energy, I just disputed the. Origin of the energy. But there were people who had energy, and Hitler was one who had energy, and this man said. You could take me blindfolded through ten different rooms.
And without a single word being said, without a sound, he said, I could have told you which room Hitler. was in. He said that Hitler's presence was such That he said that when you were in his presence, you either had to run and leave politics and forget him. Or you had to say to yourself, this man needs to be killed. And he says the only other option was to sell your soul to him, body, soul, and spirit.
There's a man. with energy. Close friend of Hitler says that Hitler was only the body. For the spirit that inhabited him. When he spoke, he sometimes spoke with such.
interesting comments That it is said that he himself was listening to what was coming out of his mouth as if he were hearing it for the first time. Thoroughly demonized, just like Antichrist will be. Power.
Now you know in the presence of Jesus. There's also power. You can't ignore them. Can't ignore him. All that you can do is to run from him.
That's a possibility. That's what many people are doing. They say, you know, if I just... Celebrate Christmas, I can keep distance between me and him because I'm not afraid of the baby in the manger. I can just say that it's a lovely story, and I can just get rid of him that way, and I can just run and I can just pretend that all the other religions of the world are equal.
Well, that's one possibility, but what a wrong possibility that is. That means that you cannot stand in his presence. The only other option, of course, is to reinterpret him as those who went on their quest for the historical Jesus has done, and that is to simply take him and to scrub him clean, and to say he is not miraculous, he is one of us. And we're going to disbelieve the account. Then there is another possibility.
And that is to look at the portrait of Jesus Christ in the Bible and to say, King of kings, Lord of lords, God of all gods. The other possibility is to look at him and to say, he is who he claimed to be, and the words that came out of his mouth and the works that he did with his hands are so intricately unified that this is indeed God. Walking upon earth, the only one who can speak to us and say, Be thou clean. And when we hear his words, we hear those words from the judge and the king of the universe. That's the only other alternative.
This past week I was at a revival conference at which I had the privilege of speaking a number of times, and one evening I spoke on Satan, specifically 12 different doorways that he uses in our lives to get a foothold. The Lord was very gracious because of your prayers and the prayers of many others, perhaps 75 or 100 people. Responded to the invitation to go to the prayer room to confess and to submit to God. The Bible says, Dearly beloved, submit yourselves to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. If you don't do number one, don't even expect to be able to do number two.
You can resist the devil, and he will not flee if you first don't submit. Yeah. But after the service, A young man who is a student in the Bible school said, I'm going to tell you something that no one else knows except my wife. He said, here's my story. He said, I've become very interested in another religion, and he told me which religion it was.
And he said, I decided that I am going to study this religion from the inside. He said, somehow I became fascinated with it.
So he said, I went over to Calgary and I found this religion and I submitted myself to them and I took all of their training. And he says, as part of the training, he said, is I had to take vows. He said, and I went through all those vows. He says, in my heart, I knew I was lying. I was saying, Jesus, you know that really I do love you, but actually.
If this is what is necessary for me to get into this religion, I'll take the vows.
So he took the vows. And then he was baptized in this religion, which also believes that one should be baptized for the dead. As far as the leaders are concerned, he is a bona fide member. of this religion. But he says.
I'm in such distress. He said, I don't know what to do. He says, I'm having these terrible, terrible nightmares. And he says, in the nightmares, he says, I see myself being sacrificed. on the altar.
He said, It became very clear to me that in submitting myself to this religion, he says, I was bowing at the feet of Satan. to get in. He says, I have dreams of concentric circles, I have dreams of pyramids. of pentagrams, all the occult He said it's affected. My study, I can't study.
It says it's affected my relationship with my wife. And he said, I don't know what to do. I said, young man, I'll tell you what you need to do. I said, you need to go to the prayer room, you need to get on your knees, and it doesn't matter how long it takes, but you have to go point by point. renouncing every one of those vows.
Renouncing everyone. Confessing that you were sinning, not only because of lying, but because you were in the devil's territory. This was his playground, this is where he works. And then I said, after that, you need the help of a faculty member. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to pray with him because I had another commitment, but I said, you need the help of a faculty member, you need to tell somebody else.
I met him at breakfast. The next day, and we had a talk, and he said, I spent time in the prayer room, but he says, No matter how long I stayed there, the distress of spirit. Was still upon me. But he said, after I left, I met a friend. I told him my whole story, just like I told you the story.
And he said, We prayed together and we believed together. Remember, the Bible says. If two of you agree on earth concerning anything, you say we all want to live the Christian life individually. We don't want anybody's help. We don't want anybody to know what we're struggling with.
We don't want anybody to know what is going on in our souls because we like to give the impression that we are exempt. from the temptations, the struggles, and the heartaches and the difficulties of life. And so he said, We began to pray together. And he said, I feel much better. He says, the nightmares have left.
But there's still one step in the process. And he says, they still think. I'm a member of their group and I have been assigned A teacher. And I have to go tell him. The truth.
And I encouraged him to do that and said, you need to take a faculty member with you because I'm not sure of you having enough strength to do what you need to do. You say, well, is everybody who's in these other religions having these awful dreams? No, not everybody.
Some people, but not everybody. Remember that if you belong to the devil, he will make your religious commitment as sweet, as profitable, as miraculous. as he possibly can. Ha ha ha ha ha. I stand amazed at the naivete of people, thinking that everything from the devil looks terrible.
Listen, everything from the devil that he can make look good will look good. But this man was in distress because he was a Christian. And little wonder God was using that demonic distress to bring him to his senses, to bring him to a place of renunciation. And in the end, I have no doubt that Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords, will prove himself absolutely superior to all the other gods. even in this young man's life.
Folks, I shall speak plainly. And tell you that there are two gods. And if you understood the implications, as we'll be trying to explain them in subsequent messages, there are only really two religions at root. Christ Thy sins be forgiven thee. Before Abraham was, I am.
The Father hath committed all judgment unto the Son. There's Christ. And then there's all the other little gods. Terrible gods. Powerful gods if we submit to them.
willing to draw us away, to tell us all the beauties that lie. on the other side. But in the presence of Christ, if you are listening by radio or here today, In the presence of Christ. You're in the presence of energy. You're in the presence of God.
And you Need. to choose and don't you think you can get by. with letting that decision slip. Let's pray. Her father We thank you today.
That your word says that Jesus Christ is within us, and he that is within us is greater than he that is without. And we thank you that the big showdown, which hasn't come yet, we thank you that the results have already been predicted. And that all the other false gods will be brought to total. Eternal humiliation. Thank you for Christ, for his exaltation, for his miracles, and for the miracle.
that He has wrought in our hearts.
Now, before I close this message, I want you to pray. Why don't you tell Jesus what you need to tell him?
Some of you tampering. with other gods, renounce them in the name of Christ. Find a prayer partner. Come clean. Come clean.
Others of you have never received Christ as Savior. You've acted as if there's a whole bunch of options out there. And as if they are all on equal Yeah. It's time that you believed in Christ. Whatever it is that God has talked to you about, would you talk to Him now?
He's waiting for a response. Father. You've only begun the work and you've not finished it. But finish what you've begun. in the lives of all those who have listened.
In Jesus' name. Amen. Yeah. And you know my friend when D.L. Moody, who founded the Moody Church and the Moody Bible Institute, preached.
He preached to millions. During his lifetime, Without a microphone. Can you imagine that living in the 1800s? But yet as a result of his message, Thousands upon thousands were converted. Very briefly, his message can be summarized in three words, three R's, as he liked to put it.
ruined by the fall, redeemed by the blood, and regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Karl Marx, on the other hand, also had a message of salvation. But it was a humanistic message. It was a cruel message. It was a message that made promises that could never be fulfilled.
Very quickly, we're making available for you a book that I've co-written entitled Marx and Moody. Here's what you do, go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com. By the way, because this is so important, and I believe that this book will enable you to understand our culture better, as well as see the difference between two lives lived, I'm going to be giving you that contact info again. Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337.
Marx and Moody, two contemporaries, two gospels, two tombstones, and one choice. Right now, go to RTWOffer. You can write to us at RunningTowin, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Running to win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. In all of history, no one has ever projected the kind of authority that Jesus had.
People were either drawn to him or they wanted to kill him. For anyone confronting the real Jesus, there is still no middle ground.
Next time on Running to Win, join us to find out why Jesus had an extraordinary authority. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
