Hi, this is Pastor Lutzer. Let me ask you a question.
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That's moodymedia.org forward slash matching, or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. This is running to win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, it seems our culture has essentially abandoned the cross as having any real meaning. Of course, the culture has abandoned the cross, but I certainly hope that the church has not abandoned the cross. One of the reasons I preached this series of messages and wrote a book entitled, Christians Politics and the Cross, is to help us think through the relationship of church and culture, church and politics.
They are related. And those who say that we should concentrate only on the gospel and have no political involvement, I believe that they need correction. And then there are those who are so absorbed by politics that they forget about the cross. Well, that's why I've written the book, Christians Politics and the Cross, to try to help us balance and to understand more clearly that the cross must always be above the flag. For a gift of any amount, this book can be yours.
Simply go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. In this political year, let us think clearly, as clearly as we can, about the relationship of the cross and politics. And the question that is before us is how shall the city of God live in the midst of the city of man? What is our agenda at this very critical moment of American history? That's the question before us.
What do we do? People are asking. Christians are asking.
What is God's answer? Well, do we withdraw? After the Scopes Trial in America, fundamentalism tended to withdraw from culture. It had its Bible studies. It preached its sermons largely, though, to itself. There was really no bridge to culture because the world was deemed to be evil. And the best way that you separate yourself from the world is to be isolated from it.
Well, that does not seem to be the problem today. There is another extreme that people are falling into, and that is to say, let's do this. Let's capture the city of man. Let's take it over. Let's elect a Congress that is distinctively Christian. Let us elect a president who is distinctively Christian. Let us make sure that our judges of the land become Christian, and then we will be in charge, and you will see the changes that will be made, and America will be great again. Maybe if we can capture the city of man, we can turn it into a paradise. Well, I want you to know today that history does not bear out the possibility of that being successful. Surely the greatest time when the city of man was captured by the city of God was during medieval times, when even the political authorities were subject to the popes of Europe.
And during that period of time, what happened? Sometimes some of the best believers that God had got caught in the crossfire and ended up dying as heretics. And Calvin, whom I greatly admire, but there in Geneva trying to bring about a Christian enclave, and forcing people to go to church, and forcing them to conform to his rules, and he didn't pull it off because those kinds of changes do not change and transform the human heart. Now I'm going to be saying some things today and probably in this series that some of you are going to disagree with, and that's all right. Our intention is to find out what the Bible has to say and then have some good discussions as to what the Scripture has to say, but I'm just going to plow ahead naively believing that all of you are going to agree with me at the end.
All right, and as I frequently said, if you disagree with me, you come up later, and I'll accept your apology. I'm going to share the burden that is on my heart for this wonderful country of America. What do we do? Three lines of argument, three propositions to share with you today about what we do. Number one, we choose the right battle. We choose the right battle.
Let me ask you today, what is the focus of the great battle in America today? Is it family values? Is that really the issue? Or is it something much more fundamental that lies behind what we generally call, quote, family values? Is it political? Is it moral? Is it social?
Is it a class of cultures, or is the matter deeper? I am here to affirm to you today that I believe very deeply that the issue that is at stake is distinctly and uniquely spiritual. That's the issue. You know what the great issue in America today is? Namely, how do sinners get to God? Is Christ the only way, or are there other options? That's the number one issue that lies at the heart of what our debate as believers should be all about.
That's the issue. What good does it do to get people to pray a prayer in school that they don't believe? People are out there trying to get prayers back into the school.
I have a better idea. Let's get prayer back into our churches. Let's get prayer back into our homes. That's what we have to do.
You know when you do that, you just inspire me to keep going. Last Tuesday, I was on the Temple Mound in Jerusalem, showing some people around. And as we were leaving, here was this heated argument.
I mean, people were really going to it. I mean, they were shouting at each other, and fortunately, their debate was in German, which was therefore probably not widely understood. But I was able to pick it up, and you know what the debate was? Whether or not the God of Allah, the God of the Muslims, the God of the Jews, and the God of the Christians was the same God or not. Now that's the kind of discussion I'd like to get into.
If I had known German a little better, I'd have gone over there and offered my services. That's the issue. And I said to those that we were touring with, I said, now there is an issue that's important. They aren't discussing whether or not the Earth's fuel supply is going to run out. They're not talking about who's going to win the next presidential election in America.
All those are superficial and largely irrelevant, faced with the issue of which God is the right God, and how do sinners come into his presence to be received? That's the fundamental issue. And I want you to know today, my dear friends, that I think we're losing it. Could you write this upon your hearts so that it shall never, never leave you? That if there is some good news in America, if there is some good news, it is never going to come out of Washington. Never.
It is never going to come on NBC or ABC or even CNN. If there is some good news in America, it will be proclaimed by the church, and it will be good news that has come to us from the Scriptures that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, and that those who believe in Christ can be reconciled to God. That is our message, and the only ones who are going to proclaim it are those who know it to be true through the Scriptures.
That's our responsibility. The issue today is not political. The issue today, as always, is spiritual.
And I believe that the church has largely lost its confidence in the ability of God to save sinners, even big ones. Number one, choose your right target. Number two, use the right weapons. Use the right weapons.
And now, because you clapped a few moments ago, you gave me the courage to just keep plowing on. We have in America what is called the Christian coalition. The Christian, Christian coalition. The Christian coalition that works with Protestants and Catholics and Jews and Mormons, and anyone else that will join to get across the, quote, Christian agenda. Conservative coalition perhaps would be a better term, but Christian, Christian coalition?
Really? Let me say this to you from the bottom of my heart and from the depths of my spirit to you today. There may be some value in uniting for certain political causes with those who are believers in different gods and different religions. There may be some value, and of course politics is a game of numbers, and that's the purpose for these coalitions because you have to be able to outvote those whom you want to have in office or not to have in office, and that's the name of the game. But it's a high-stakes game with all kinds, with all kinds of problems, and it has backfired significantly.
But listen to this. If there is ever a cause in which we unite with those for different religions, whatever may be said about that cause, it cannot, it absolutely cannot be the main mission of the church. It can't be.
It's got to be something else, something of lesser importance because the mission of the church is go ye into all the world and preach the gospel, and I am the way, said Jesus, the truth and the life, and that no man comes unto the Father but by me. And that is our mandate, and that is our mission, and we must stick with those who agree with us and unite with them, but we cannot even begin to think that we can make common cause with those who believe in different religions and somehow still be fulfilling that mandate. Impossible. Impossible.
Let us simply admit it. PBS is going to do a series or at least one presentation on the religious right in America. I saw it advertised yesterday in the newspaper. A news reporter working on it went to a friend of mine who is a scholar and who would have some input on those things, and my friend tells me that he was speaking to this woman who had interviewed 40 people, 40 people on the religious political right, and he said to her, Did anyone explain the gospel to you? And she said, No, what is the gospel?
What do you mean? And he explained the gospel to her that Jesus Christ died for sinners. We can be reconciled to God because Christ met all of God's requirements, and he's the only qualified savior, and salvation must be a free gift, because if you understand the nature of who we are and who God is, it can be no other way. She had never heard that before. That was news. My dear friend, has it really come to the point in America where a news reporter can interview 40, 40 Christian politicians and not hear the message of the gospel of Christ? Has it come to that? Could it well be that we are missing it, we are missing it, and we have forgotten what our main mission is, and that is to exalt Christ? And could it be that the reason that we cast about for one of these political solutions is because we somehow think in the depths of our hearts that the cross does not work anymore?
Could it be? Of course, there's a place for political involvement. All good citizens should be involved. They should vote. I believe Christians should run for office.
But I'm very wary about an organization that says this is the Christian view, or this is the Christian party. We need to think these things through, don't we? We need to use the right weapons.
And what is the right weapons? It is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Years ago, somebody came up with a document to try to unite those who are a part of Christendom but do not believe in justification by faith alone with those who do. And the reason is because things are so bad, we need one another, and the contention was that that which unites us is greater than that which separates us.
Let me tell you something today. When it comes to justification by faith alone, there is nothing possibly that could possibly unite us if we disagree on that point. And that which divides us on that issue is always much greater than that which could possibly unite us because it is the heart of what we believe to be most precious. There are few things that I would ever die for. I think I'd find it difficult to die for my country.
I've never been asked to do that. I think I'd find it difficult to die for a lot of different things. But there's one thing I'd be willing to go to the stake for by God's grace, and I hope that I would march there triumphantly, and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the distinctive message of today and the only message that is the power of God. We say we want to see God's power, and so people go into all kinds of meetings with ecstatic utterances and what have you. They say we want to see God's power. We want to see people who are touched by God.
Paul says I offer you to do the gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation. It is our most formidable weapon. I agree with Bonhoeffer who said, It is not before us, but it is before the cross that the world trembles. Third, we fight with the right attitude. We fight with the right attitude.
We fight with humility. We don't come to the political process thinking that we have all the right answers, and if we did all the right things, everything would come out nicely. Perhaps you disagree with Luther, but at least some of us maybe have the humility to admit that he was right when he said, I would rather be governed by a wise Turk than a stupid Christian. And we're not so foolish to think that just because a Christian is in power, that somehow that's going to reverse everything that is wrong with America. Of course politics is important, and I'll comment more on that next week, but it is not America's great hope.
It's not America's great hope. So we come and we serve with humility. We come with service. We are at abortion clinics, but what are we there for? To shout, to scream, to rant, to rave? Or are we there to minister to young women, some of whom think they have no other alternative, and with tears in our eyes pleading with them to keep their offspring, and when they choose to do so, are we there with our clinics and with our help and with our support helping them with that alternative?
That's really the issue. I told you before, Bishop Samuel, who died in that burst of gunfire with Anwar Sadat, explaining to Ray Bakke as to why Christianity captured so much of northern Africa. And those were in the days, of course, before such an invention as a baby bottle. And babies, the pagans would just take them and leave them on the step to die.
That was their abortion technique. And they would take nursing mothers and they would put them in the city square and then they would have other people go on baby runs and they would pick up these babies and they'd bring them to the nursing mothers and the nursing mothers would nurse them and care for them and they would rear these kids and the pagans said, where in the world is all this compassion coming from? And they were impressed with the compassion and the caring love of Christians. And that began to turn the hearts of the pagans toward Christianity. Somebody asked the question, well, there are so many people with whom I work who are so hard to the gospel. They are cynical, yes. And the way in which that is broken down scripturally, as we shall see in this series, it is broken down through living lives of humility and service and brokenness and integrity in the presence of the watching world. And that's the way we impact culture.
Is there an answer for us? I want you to know today that when the Apostle Paul wrote the book of Philippians, there was no Christian even represented on the Roman Senate where Nero ruled. There was no possibility of appealing special rights or appealing for your own rights as a Christian in the Roman Empire. No, the Christians got burned at the stake. That's what happened. They had none of that. And yet about them it is said that they turned the world, the world upside down.
Why? Unshakeable confidence that they had a message that could explode in the lives of the most wicked person and transform him into someone who would love God and whose life would be changed from the inside out. I conclude by saying simply this, our problems in America are far too deep to think that they can be changed by a change of administrations in Washington. Certainly we should vote for the person who is best, for the person who represents those values that we hold dear. But at the end of the day, America needs something much more drastic. What we need is a message that can come to men and women as members of the city of God reaching out in the arts, in our businesses, in our relationships, in our families, reaching out to the city of man and showing them the beauty and the love and the service and the compassion and the wonder of Christ.
That's what we need in America. And therefore I want you to know today that the destiny of this great country rests not in Washington but in Chicago, and not just in Chicago but in Peoria and in all the cities where the gospel is preached and where men and women gather together in the name of Christ and are willing to be witnesses wherever God has planted them. And with this I do conclude, I urge those of you who are still members of the city of man, Augustine said whatever men build, men will destroy.
Your retirement programs, your buildings, your prestige, your reputation will be destroyed. But only those who belong to the city of God, who have found refuge in Christ our Lord, who have seen the cross and its beauty as the means and the instrument of death, but also the instrument of reconciliation, it is only those who cleaved him, they will be spared because the city of man will disintegrate. But only those who know God will live forever.
They have a treasure that Alaric the Goth could not touch. And if you will, let us pray. Our Father, we ask today in the name of Jesus that you shall help us even at the beginning of this series of messages to understand that you have entrusted into our hands the most precious possession that we could ever own. And that is a message that changes people from the inside out, who takes hardened abortionists and turns them into loving servants, who takes people who have been disenfranchised and angry and grants them the gift of peace. We ask today Father that you shall help us to understand our role in the world and take your cross and its message to a culture that is decaying. Grant us that privilege, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.
This is Pastor Luther. I'd like to have a personal word with you. In this political season, are you struggling personally with the relationship of the cross and the flag, the role of the church in the midst of our political environment? I think all of us are going through a time of evaluation. But at the same time, let us remember that no matter what happens, it is important for us to realize that politics is important. Speaking to the political issues, the moral issues of the time, is part of our responsibility. But as I emphasized in the message you have just heard, it is not all important, it is not supremely important.
The city of God must always be emphasized in relationship to the city of man. Well, I've written a book entitled, Christians, Politics, and the Cross. Let me read the title of chapter number two, The Cross, the Flag, and the Unraveling of America. For a gift of any amount, this book can be yours. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com. Now, because this is so critical, I'm going to be giving you that contact info again. Hope that you have time to pick up a pen or a pencil. Go to rtwoffer.com, or call us at 1-888-218-9337.
That's rtwoffer.com, or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. With God's help, let us think clearly of the relationship of the cross and the flag, and always remember we belong to a different kingdom. Christians, Politics, and the Cross.
I hope that you get a copy soon. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. When it comes to being citizens of both heaven and earth, believers running the race of life need to keep first things first. Next time on Running to Win, get ready for some flying sparks as Erwin Lutzer takes aim at those who equate old glory with the one place of true glory. Don't miss The Cross and the Flag. Running to Win is all about helping you understand God's roadmap for your race of life. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
