Why Lady Macbeth Didn't Have To Commit Suicide Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Guilt and shame can drive people to kill themselves, as Lady Macbeth did in Shakespeare's famous play. There is a way back from the precipice, and it's found in the Word of God. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Wind with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, your teaching from Hebrews chapter 10 on why the work of Christ is sufficient to rid us of suicidal depression. I really do believe that, Dave. I know that there are many different causes of depression.

Oftentimes it is because of guilt and shame, but it may be because of other causes. It's a very complicated subject, but this much I deeply believe that the grace of Christ and the blood of Christ, as we'll see in this series of messages, the blood of Jesus Christ is able to meet people at the depth of their need. They need a sense of acceptance that comes to us through Christ our Lord. And my many friends today who are listening to this ministry, thank you in advance for helping us get the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world. For a gift of any amount, you can have these messages, by the way. We make this resource available to you. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com.

That's rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. And now we're going to open our Bibles and go to one of my most favorite passages about the completeness of Christ's work. I believe that you'll be blessed.

Stay tuned. And here what the author is thinking of is that just as Jesus Christ's body was ripped on the cross, in the very same way, thanks to his body and his suffering, the veil that separated the common person from the holy of holies has been ripped in two thanks to Jesus. So we can come into the very presence of Almighty God through the blood of Jesus. Let's continue to read. We have a great high priest over the house of God.

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. We don't come wondering and saying, well, now I wonder if I've done enough for God. I wonder if God is going to accept what I've done. Am I good enough? Look at my past.

Look at my background. No, that's all important, but that's not the basis upon which you come to God. You come to God because God says, I so value the blood of Christ that if you come trusting that, come boldly, come to receive, come to have fellowship with me, because that's the basis upon which I receive you. And then it says, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, there's the word, hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience. This will become important in a moment because we're talking about guilt and depression and our bodies washed with pure water. Now, it's not talking about baptism there.

You have to understand that he's using Old Testament terminology. In the Old Testament times, when Moses was going through those rituals, he took blood and he sprinkled it on all of the elements and so forth as a symbol of its cleansing. So he's saying in the very same way, symbolically, the blood of Jesus Christ is applied to our consciences. It's not as if it's literally sprinkled, but it is effective that we might experience the freedom and the deliverance from an evil conscience. And then our bodies washed with pure water. In the Old Testament, the priests used to have to do that too.

So God is saying, body and spirit, you come to be cleansed, forgiven, and received by God. And then he goes on to say that, let us hold fast the confession of our hope. By the way, notice the fact that he uses the word, let us, three times. Let us draw near.

Let us hold fast. Let us consider how to stir one another up for love. Some wag said there are three heads of lettuce here.

Lettuce, lettuce, lettuce, lettuce. Well, you say, Pastor Luther, that was sure a quick tour. So how does that relate to my depression? How does that get me to where I want to go? What does that say about my guilt and the sense that I am constantly held back because of my past or because of the guilt that has been laid upon me?

As you know, a couple of weeks ago, I spoke about false guilt. Well, we draw near into the presence of God. We are welcomed into the presence of God as if, catch this, as if we are Jesus, as if we're Jesus because we're coming on the basis of His blood and His sacrifice. We're sure a long way from Him in terms of our personal experience and our sin, but God says, when I see the blood, when I see the blood, I'll pass over that. I won't bring you into judgment. Come near, but come through the blood of Christ. So here are some transforming truths that I hope will help us.

The blood of Jesus Christ gives us full, unfettered access to God, and it's for you. Today I may be speaking to some young person who struggles with same-sex attraction. You say, well, you know, I'm different. I don't really fit. Listen, you come.

You come. God will deal with that issue, and we can have that discussion some other time. But you come on the basis of the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, and you come to God if you're trusting the blood of Christ to get you there. There's a very famous evangelist. He was an evangelist. He was a scholar. He was a Bible professor. He was well known.

I won't give you his name. I met him only once in my short life, but I read an account of how he died. He was there, and he was in great distress because, you know, there's something about eternity that's a little frightening.

Even people who write books on one minute after you die realize there's a lot of mystery there, and that might make a good title. And so they said to him, well, you know, think of the fact that you were president of this school. You were the pastor of this church.

Think of all the good things that God has done for you and through you. And he continued to wrestle, and there was no peace. And then somebody had the good mind to say, the only basis upon which we receive entry into God's presence is through the blood of Christ, and it is enough.

And he died in peace. Remember the blood is the only basis upon which we come to God. Secondly, we must reject — this is so critical — we must reject any notion of self-atonement.

Any notion of self-atonement. If you ask me, what is the greatest mistake that many people make when it comes to coming before God in prayer, it is this. They look at their lives, and they try to find some reason why God should accept them.

So they're looking. They say, Lord, you ought to really receive me today because I had a warm time in my devotions. Lord, you ought to really receive me because I'm not as bad as other people. You know what so-and-so did, Lord? Now that I can really understand, but I'm better than that. And Lord, you know that I'm trying and I'm giving. You know, there are people who actually flaguate — I think I mispronounced that word, it's not one that I'm too familiar with — but they actually whip themselves. There's a better word. They actually whip themselves, and they do all that because they want to somehow atone for sin. I've seen this on TV, and it's enough to make grown people cry, as if to say God says, oh, I see that you are cutting yourself, and you are whipping yourself. After all that, I think that now I ought to really receive you.

That doesn't work. And what is the characteristic of everything when they are finished? Uncertainty. Have I done enough? Has God accepted me? You know, like one guy on a plane said to me, you know what my big fear is when I stand before God?

I said, what is it? He said, I fear standing behind Mother Teresa in the day of judgment and overhearing the Lord say, now lady, I think you could have done more. In other words, what does God demand?

What must I do to finally receive his complete approval? So many people say, well, you know, I hate myself. I cut my wrists. I do all these things because I am so full of self-hatred, believing that lie, of course. I need to suffer. I just can't receive God's grace because I expect to suffer. I deserve to suffer.

And that's what I expect. The answer is this, my dear friend, suffering happens. I understand it. But what you must do is to realize that all that is nothing. God says, when I see the blood, when I see the blood, I'll accept you. When you trust the blood of Christ, that is the basis of my acceptance. And I don't only accept you, but I elevate you as a child of God, as a daughter of God, and a son of God. And someday you're going to be an heir of God and a joint heir with my blessed son, because if you receive what I did for you, you will be saved. There's a third important lesson, and that is we must distinguish forgiveness from the consequences of sin.

This is very important. We must distinguish forgiveness from the consequences of sin. Here's a young woman who lives in a moral life, and she receives God's forgiveness, and then she discovers that she's pregnant. There's a baby on the way, and when the baby comes, every time she thinks of her sin, look at what I've done.

What she needs to do is this, to recognize that she can be cleansed, forgiven, and rejoice in God and have the freedom to raise this child for the honor and the glory of God, now that he or she has been born, and that the fact of the ongoing consequences does not need to debilitate the fact that she can have joy in God. You say, well, Pastor Lutzer, where are you getting that? You students at Moody Bible Institute, you should always ask that question, so where is he getting that? I again appeal to David, and I was preaching this week elsewhere, and perhaps I told you this already, but if I have, it's because it's clear to me that you need it one more time, okay? David.

I mean, here he is. He has adultery. He takes another man's wife.

He kills Uriah to kind of, quote, cover it up, and the cover doesn't go very, very well at all. Nathan comes to him, and David says, oh, that guy who stole this sheep, he should receive sevenfold. David, catch this. David was more concerned about a rich man who stole a lamb than he was about a powerful man who stole someone else's wife.

That's just human nature. And then Nathan says to him, hatah aish, you are the man. And David finally pours out all of his heart to God, and he goes on to say, you know, against thee and thee only have I sinned and done evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judges. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

You desire truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part. You shall make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. By the way, you take a bucket of snow and you melt it.

There will be a little residue at the bottom. David says, wash me so that I am whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou has broken may rejoice. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation.

Say, David, come on. You wrecked your family. The consequences go on.

You've lost all moral authority over your sons, all of whom are going to go bad. There's no way you can bring back the purity of Bathsheba. You can't have Uriah raised from the dead, and you are going to rejoice in God.

And David would probably answer this way. I left a terrible mess. But God's forgiveness is so great that I can still rejoice in the God of my salvation. The consequences do not say that I can no longer rejoice in God. Distinguished consequences from forgiveness and acceptance. Number four, your conscience, your conscience must be retrained to accept God's word is truth and not your feelings, because feelings tell you lies, lies, lies, lies about yourself. They lie to you. Oh, there's no hope. You're so bad that the world would be better off if you were to end it.

A lie. When this world is going to be better off without you, God will call for you, and he'll take you home. And he knows your name and he knows your address. He knows exactly where you live, and he knows what plug to pull.

Let him make that decision, all right? So what you need to do is to confront these lies, and you have to retrain your conscience. I've been doing some work on Martin Luther, writing some things, and I've been fascinated by his belief in the devil and how he dialogues with the devil, so to speak. He said one time the devil came to him and showed him all of his sins, showed him all of his sins, and Luther says, you're showing me all of my sins. Why is the list so short? Don't you know that you miss this, this, this, this, and there are other things that God knows about that is your knowledge really that limited, devil, that that's the best you can come up with?

I can add to the list. And then he writes across the list the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleanses us from all sin. And he says, devil, how does that make you feel now?

What do you have to say in light of that? He had to retrain his conscience to accept the fact that his guilt was now a lie. His depression, and he suffered from depression, the German word is Anfechtungen, was a lie, and that he was not going to believe that. He was going to believe God's holy word. Now, of course, confession becomes important, I might say, for those who know God, who've accepted the sacrifice of Christ because it maintains fellowship with God, and Luther understood that. So there is a place for confession, but it's not in order to be saved again. The Bible says that the work of Christ was so complete, through one offering, he perfected for all time those whom he is sanctifying, those whom he, those who have believed in Jesus.

Imagine that. I don't have to believe these lies. I don't have to do that because God's Word says that I've come on the basis of blood and God, blood of Christ, and God has accepted me. It's too late for Lady Macbeth, you know.

She went her way in Shakespeare's play. It's too late for those teenagers, you know, who wrote a thing that said, I've messed up too bad. If they had come to God through the blood, that mess could have been cleansed and forgiven.

They could have had fellowship with God. You say, well, I know, but they were using drugs. Yeah, I know, and that's a separate issue. That's why the next message in this series is on addictions.

That is a separate issue. But the fact is the basis upon which we come is always the blood of Christ. This is a lesson that I have learned throughout the years in my discouragement in times when I think, oh, you know, I just really blew it there. I always have to say, God, I'm just so thankful that the basis of my acceptance is your Son's blood, and I accept that blood as my cleansing and my forgiveness. And in a future message, we'll talk about the difference between cleansing and forgiveness. So I conclude today borrowing some words from the great civil rights leader Martin Luther King using them in a different context. If you understand this, you can say, free at last, free at last, free at last.

Thank God I'm free at last. And what about you who have no assurance of salvation? You can't draw near with the assurance, what is the text actually telling us here, through complete assurance of faith because you've been committed to dead works. You can receive Christ as Savior right now. You can call up and say, today I believe that Jesus died and that he finished it and that I bring nothing to the table except my sin.

That's my contribution. All has to do with him and his matchless grace. And you can believe on Christ. And we all have prayer partners up here who are willing to pray with you to help nail that down. And if you receive Christ as Savior, tell a staff member, tell one of us, because we're always delighted to hear what God does through the preaching of his word. Father, we thank you today that when we woke up, some people perhaps felt ill, some felt discouraged, some are plagued with regrets. We thank you today that the record player that has skipped a groove, that continues to play the same song in our minds and hearts, we thank you today that it is stilled when we understand the gospel and we understand the truth of your word. Today, we stand on the basis of our high priest and his shed blood.

Amen. Well, this is Pastor Lutzer. I certainly hope that you heard my heart today, not just my words, but my heart, as I extend myself to you that you might come to Jesus Christ who died for sinners. You know, as I look back over my ministry and ask myself the question, what question have I been asked most often? I've oftentimes received letters asking, have I committed the unpardonable sin? I love to explain to people that if you're concerned about that, you haven't. Any sin that you desire forgiveness for can be cleansed and forgiven. And so it's so important for us to realize that there is a wideness in God's mercy. If you've been blessed as a result of this ministry and if you believe that these sermons would be of help to people so that you can listen to them again and again, share them with your friends. Some of you parents should share them with your children.

Here's what you can do for a gift of any amount. You can go to rtwoffer.com, rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Ask for the sermon series, The Power of a Clear Conscience. My desire is to help you to get rid of all of those nagging thoughts of regret, hidden thoughts that oftentimes deter your relationship with God so that you can get on enjoying his fellowship.

Once again, rtwoffer.com or 1-888-218-9337. And thanks in advance for helping us with this ministry, we have a passion to get the gospel of Jesus Christ to as many people as possible. Because of you, Running to Win is heard in more than 20 different countries and together as you hold our hands, we are making a difference for the glory of God. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. Compulsive behaviors eventually become addictions. People become trapped and cannot find a way out. Next time on Running to Win, how the grace of God provides the way out all of us need. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.