Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.
We can't win in life's race without agreeing with God about our basic condition. We need His grace not to supplement our goodness, but to save us from our depravity. For some straight talk about how badly we need the grace of God, stay tuned.
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, why do some perceive their need for God's grace while others do not? Well Dave, thank you so much for asking me a question that has been debated by theologians for about 2000 years. The simple fact is that there are some who see their need with God's help, and then there are those who perhaps God is trying to help, but they refuse to see their need. And so they don't respond to God. And what's exciting about the New Testament is when God converted Saul and he became Paul, Jesus himself came from heaven to do it.
And what a miracle that was. And in a moment, we're going to be emphasizing why it is that only God is able to take bad people and make them good. Meanwhile, I have to tell you that this series of messages titled Why Good People Do Bad Things, this is the last in the series, and we're making it available for you for a gift of any amount. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com.
That's rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Of course, I'll be giving you that contact information again after this message. For now, let us open our hearts and see once again the transforming power of God. Who are you, Lord?
Saul asked. I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, he replied. And the rest of the story is that he begins to understand that indeed Jesus is Messiah, God of very God. Now let me ask you the question, what does God do as a result of this? By the way, the vision was so real, so real that later on the Apostle Paul is going to argue that he has a right to be an apostle because he's seen the risen Christ. Just like the disciples who saw Jesus after he rose from the dead in the very same way Paul says, have I not seen Christ in the flesh? That's how real the revelation was to him.
What happened? Let me explain what happened and then we'll look at the text and find out how God did it. Paul's mind was changed about who Jesus was. He now realized that the very act of persecuting the Church of God meant that he was actually persecuting Christ himself.
Who are you, Lord? He recognizes Christ to be God of very God, so he changed his mind about Jesus. But that's not where the transformation ended. If all that would have happened is that Paul would have changed his mind about Jesus, he'd have simply turned around and begun to persecute all those who don't trust Christ.
He would have just been the same person with a little bit more added information. No, my dear friend, when God converts somebody, he changes the desires. The desires are changed.
The nature is changed. During the days of the first Great Awakening in the 1750s in America, hundreds of people were being converted. Many people were listening to the preaching of Edwards and Whitefield and conversions were taking place all over, but the revivalists were very concerned because whenever you have a movement of the Holy Spirit of God, Satan always impersonates that movement, and furthermore, people want to get caught up on it and they have false assurance. There were people hopping around with supposedly a great deal of joy even, and Edwards would look at them and say, you know, a couple of months down the road, there's no evidence that you have actually believed in Christ in a saving way because I don't see it in your life. So in order to defend the movement, Edwards wrote a book entitled Religious Affections. We could translate it religious desires or proper desires, and what he says is that one of the first evidences of the new birth that one has been saved is a whole new set of loves, one loves differently, whom having not seen ye love, speaking of Christ, and though you see him not, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Imagine, you so love a person whom you have never seen that you are still filled with unspeakable joy. And then Edwards went down the line that God implants within us a love for himself, a love for his word, a love for others, a sense of brokenness and humility, and all those things are a God thing within the human heart if it's a true conversion.
Now I have to ask you a question. As I was preparing this message, it dawned on me that there could be dozens of people listening to this message and eventually thousands listening once it's on the radio who think that they are saved and are not. And the reason they think they are is because they say, I went forward, I believed in Jesus when I was a child or maybe I said the prayer and I said this prayer and I'm basically a good person and so forth, but there is no evidence that the work of God has actually taken place in their hearts and they don't love God and they don't love Christ and they don't rejoice in Jesus ever with joy unspeakable and full of glory. They have never been born again by the Holy Spirit of God. That's so sobering to think that there could be people in the choir who have never savingly believed in Jesus even though they're singing these marvelous, marvelous hymns.
There could be ushers, there could be Sunday school teachers, there could be deacons, there could be members of our executive committee who in one sense give some indication because they're very religious and very quote fine people but their heart has never been transformed by God. You see when it comes to love, you can't just will to love. Oh there's a sense in which we can even will to love our enemies but there's another sense in which love cannot be turned on and off like a faucet. You can't say to yourself well you know I'm just going to choose to love and there's no feeling, there's no affection, I'll just simply choose to love. Nor can you stop loving. Think of all the lovers who have had broken hearts because they wish they could turn it off but somehow the heart is not subject to the head.
It just keeps on going on and that's why you have so much tears and brokenness and sometimes it takes years to get over a relationship. What I'm saying is you can't wake up in the morning and say to yourself today I'm going to love God. Today I'm going to have a hunger for the word of God. Today I'm going to love Jesus.
You can't do that. The only way that can happen is if God does a miracle of implanting that love in you because it is not something that arises from our sinful hearts. So the Apostle Paul had this conversion experience and all throughout his writings he talked about his love for Christ and his love for God. How did God do it? Very quickly notice we're back in the text in 1 Timothy chapter 1. He says I was shown mercy. That's verse 13. Mercy was shown to me. What is mercy? Mercy is God preventing us getting what we deserve because we deserve judgment. Mercy is God withholding that judgment and it's a free gift obviously. Paul says I was shown mercy. It's in the passive tense.
He says all that I can do is receive it just like the vegetation cannot cause the rain but can lay back and enjoy the rain. In the very same way the mercy of God came to the Apostle Paul. Furthermore he says next he said I received grace. This is in verse 14.
The grace of God was poured out on me abundantly. You know in Greek it's super grace. It's the Greek word huper from which we get hyper. You know children who have hyper energy or they're hyper active.
What we mean is they're super active. That's the word that's used here. Paul says you know when God saves some people all that they need is grace but because I was such a super sinner I needed super grace. Special grace because I'm a big sinner. I'm not just one of these little sinners you know brought up in the evangelical church who goes to Sunday school and wins awards and quote verses of scripture. I was somebody who was trying to kill the people of God and defaming the only Savior who can possibly save people from their sins. I was a blasphemer.
This is bad stuff. Oh boy when God saved me he had to have super grace and this meant that the transformation of the heart took place but also that God granted to the Apostle Paul the gift of righteousness so that he would be declared as legally perfect as God himself is which is the only way we can get into heaven. Today I speak to some of you who need super grace. If the truth were known if all the secrets were out of the closets there's some of you listening to this message who've done terrible things maybe even criminal things. Things that if we're really known you might be put behind bars today and you say to yourself if there's anyone who needs to be saved that is I but I just don't need the grace of God I need super grace.
Pulses that's what I received. John Newton who was a slave trader wrote his own epitaph. I think that's important to do.
Someday I'd like to write mine but I don't want to rush it. He said I was an infidel a libertarian a slave trader I was by the mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ preserved restored pardoned and appointed to preach the faith I had at one time determined to destroy. Now that's conversion where you become a lover of the gospel. Now notice Paul says I received the mercy of God I received the grace of God. What else did he receive?
He received the showpiece of God. I'm using that word because it says verse 15 here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst. Paul says just look at my pedigree look at my resume look at what I was doing but for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me the worst of sinners listen up those of you who have think that you've sinned too much for God to forgive you that in me the worst of sinners Jesus Christ might display his unlimited patience and now here's the word I want as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.
Underline the word example. In Greek it means a first draft prototype sketch. Paul says God decided to show mercy upon me so that throughout all generations so that 20 and 30 generations and centuries from now people would be able to say if God can save Paul he can save anybody. I was the worst that God had because it involved a change of mind it involved a change of heart and now nobody who ever hears the gospel can say I'm too bad for the good news.
How do we summarize this today as we conclude this series of messages? How does God make a bad man good? First of all let me say that the issue is not the greatness of your sin the issue is the ability of God. The issue is not the greatness of your sin it is the ability of God. You see when God gives righteousness to the goody people you know the goody two-shoes people.
The man who told me that the worst thing I ever did was in a fit of anger wrap a golf club around a tree. I mean aren't you just impressed with that? Aren't you just saying wow you know what else can you do?
Can you also walk on water? I mean that's marvelous. God saves those people by giving them the righteousness of Christ and how does he save the vilest offender? How does he save the criminals? I'll tell you how he does it by giving them the same gift of righteousness. The issue is not the extent of your sin. The issue is really the willingness of the hard heart.
That's the issue. It is true that the vilest of sinners who truly believes that moment from Jesus a pardon receives. Secondly the issue is not whether you've repented but whether you are repenting. Not whether you've repented but whether you are repenting. See this is what happens in evangelical circles. People say well of course I'm saved.
I prayed a prayer when I was six years old or when I was three years old or when I was two years old. If two years old are able to pray prayers as their mother leads them and and they say well you know of course I accepted Jesus at camp and they're looking back to some experience. What Edwards and some others wanted to say was that you can never have assurance of salvation by looking back to an experience. You can only have assurance by looking today saying has God implanted within me a love for him and for his word and have my desires been transformed not from within but from without the intervention of God. That's really the issue and therefore the fruit of the spirit is a life of brokenness and humility. It's a life in which we recognize our great sin and we never get over the wonder of his salvation and therefore we're putting our arms around people who also need the same salvation.
Not by thinking well you know there's so much worse than I am. No no no no because we have seen our sin and it's ugly and we've received his grace and it's beautiful and we say to others you receive that grace too. Now of course unfortunately to go back to Louis Stevenson's analogy when we are saved that Mr. Hyde within us does not leave and say adios. Mr. Hyde shows up and Mr. Hyde in fact begins to give the new nature that God implants within us all kinds of trouble and so the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and we're in this tug of war that sometimes gets worse after we are saved than it was before we were saved.
Before we were saved we just fulfilled our desires and took them wherever they led. Now suddenly God has implanted new desires within us and the conflict intensifies. Someone said to an Indian he said I have two dogs within me. I have that evil dog and I have a good dog. Which one wins someone asks.
Well the one I feed the most. So what you do is now you begin to feed on God's word, you begin to feed on the blessings of God, the hymns of the church, the body of Jesus Christ and as a result of that new appetite that God has implanted it becomes stronger and stronger and when Mr. Hyde knocks on the door you can more confidently tell him that he has no longer any authority over you. But the conflict is there. But I have to ask those of you who say that you've repented. That's not the issue. Sometimes when people fall in sin they say well you know he fell in sin you know a year or two ago or did he repent?
Well that's a nice question. That's not really the question. Is he repenting? Today does he yield to the authority of Jesus Christ. And then third, the issue is not what you can do alone but what the body of Christ can help you do. The issue is not what you do alone but what the body of Christ can help you do. There's no question but there are sins that people get themselves into and I emphasize this in a preceding message. There are sins that people get themselves into that they cannot get out of those sins alone.
They need help. And that's what the body of Christ is all about. That's why we have prayer groups.
That's why we have small groups. That's why we have these opportunities to stimulate one another to good works and to study the word together and to pray together and to think together and to fellowship together because we know we can't fight this battle on our own but the transformation of heart can take place. God does take bad people and make them good. Not perfect in this life but good people. God does do it. During the 70s, many of you will remember this but New York was terrorized by the son of Sam.
All kinds of murders throughout the city of New York and everyone was alert and all the women were taking cover and making sure that they didn't walk the streets alone. And it turned out I believe that the son of Sam was a man by the name of David Berkowitz. I think I have that right. When my wife and I were in New York just a couple of weeks ago and talking with Jim Cymbala, he was telling us about the marvelous conversion of the son of Sam, David Berkowitz, whom he visits often in jail. And he says that Berkowitz is leading Bible studies. He has deep regret over what he did. He is not looking for parole.
He received several 100-year sentences. And then Pastor Cymbala said that a publisher, he's encouraging a Christian publisher to publish his story. And these publishers said to him, yeah, but do you know for sure he's saved? You get weary about all these people being converted in prison.
Prison's a nice place to get converted, right? I'll never forget Pastor Cymbala's response. He said, I said to this Christian publisher, I said, I know son of Sam. I know that he's saved. But he said, I am worried about you, right? It was said good-naturedly, you understand.
Son of Sam is in jail today in New York, leading people to Christ, holding Bible studies, and giving evidence of the fact that God does take bad people, evil people, and he does make them good. And so I have to push the responsibility on you today. It's not a God problem.
It's a heart problem. It's a willingness for you to receive Christ as Savior, as was mentioned today, where you transfer your trust to him, where you trust the Holy Spirit of God to do his deep work in you, and then say, I need the evidence of God's implanted miracle in my life, because people have prayed prayers, they've gone forward, they've had all kinds of emotional experiences, but they have never savingly accepted Christ as sin-bearer, and as a result of that, they've never been converted, though they are good people, and though they sing, and though they go to church. God has not yet saved them. So are you saved?
It's a good place to begin. Augustine, whom we often quote, sometimes pronounced Augustine, had a mistress, and after he was saved, after reading the 14th chapter of Romans, you've heard the story of his conversion, he met the mistress along the street, and she ran after him, and he ran away, and she shouted to him, it is I! It is I! And he turned back and said, but it is not I! It is not I!
Why? God changed his heart, and gave him a new set of desires. Look at Paul. Though I the worst of sinners, he says, Jesus displayed his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe that nobody would ever say, I'm too far gone. The issue isn't God today, it's you.
Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for this series of messages that has enabled us to look into the human heart, and what we've seen with all of its deceit and all of its deceptions is not pretty. And we thank you that in your grace you have chosen to not reveal to us the depths of our evil, because we could not take it if we could see it as you do. And yet, Father, you have shown us enough to know that unless you save us, we will not be saved, unless you forgive us, we'll not be forgiven, and unless you change us, we will not be changed. And so we invite your blessed Holy Spirit today to do a work in the lives of all who have heard. How many of you say today this morning, Pastor Lutzer, I want God to change me.
I want God to change my desires. I want to be born from above. Would you raise your hands please? Number of people, especially in the middle section, but also the aisles.
What about the balcony? Are there those of you who there? Okay, I see that hand, but there may be others also that I can't see. Father, we ask in the name of Jesus that all who raise their hands today will be saved by you. And we pray, Father, that your blessed Spirit would do what we can't. Come, Father, because we are so needy. Reveal Christ to those who have raised their hands and to those who should have, that they may be saved. We ask in Jesus' name.
Amen. Well, my friend, this is Pastor Lutzer. And once again, it's been my opportunity to share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ with you. This actually ends a series of messages entitled Why Good People Do Bad Things. If you remember in this series of messages, we talk about such things as addictions.
We talk about the difficulty of walking in the light. All kinds of insights that help us to understand biblical humanity and God's solution. I believe that this series is going to be a great blessing to you, and you can listen to it again and again. For a gift of any amount, it can be yours. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com. Or if you prefer, you can call us at 1-888-218-9000. Ask for the series of messages, Why Good People Do Bad Things. Let me give you that reference again, rtwoffer.com. Or call us at 1-888-218-9000. And remember, thanks in advance for helping us as we get the gospel of Jesus Christ to many.
You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Deep in every human heart is a conscience, a sense of right and wrong that we cannot shake off. When our conscience is clear, we have freedom.
When we violate it, we're in bondage. Next time, Dr. Lutzer begins a series on the power of a clear conscience. Don't miss Part 1, What It's Like to be Living in the Shadows. Thanks for listening. For Dr. Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
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