Rescued From Religious Self-Deception Part 2

The ring is before us, looking to Jesus phoned her and prevented her when we adopt an aura of religious respectability.

It's amazing what lie beneath the surface where no one can see, we deceive ourselves, we say God makes an exception for us, not for them. Today more about identifying our deceptions church in Chicago is with Dr. Erwin looks her teaching helps us make it across the finish line after Luther Romans chapter 2 is not a pretty picture know David doesn't paint a nice picture and there's a reason for that.

When you look around you begin to see that there is sin everywhere.

One of the things about the Bible is.

It has such an accurate picture of the human race of our hearts and the need to be rescued by God in every culture has its challenges. I've written a book entitled, we will not be silenced responding courageously to our culture's assault on Christianity in this book, I discuss how cultural Marxism underlines many of the things that we are seeing taking place today and how it impacts culture and how Marx yes does indeed still rule from the grave. I've emphasized before that black lives matter of course, black lives matter, but the organization that takes that mantra is Marxist and so in this book, I discuss social justice, the tearing down of monuments.

Issues such as free speech. The sexualization of children how Islam is being co-opted in order to be a battering ram is at war against Christianity.

How do we withstand that we do it with love, of course, but also with truth. This is the last day, we are making this resource available for you. Here's what you do go to RTW offer.com. Of course RTW offer is all one word go to RTW offer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now let us open God's word and again see the human heart and evil, but also God's matchless grace as it says in the last part of verse 16 in the day when, according to my gospel, God judges the seek writs of man by Jesus Christ, and I want to say while the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. There is about all of us. All of us to some extent have a false self that we put on in society and our families and in our relationships.

On the one hand this false self makes us friendly and kind and thoughtful and generous and that we get along well with others, but then like the moon that has a dark side there's another part of us over here and that's the the dark side. That's the secrets that's the place where we put our garbage.

That's the place where we think about such things as deceit and in the end strife. It's the place where we have judgmental thoughts. Somehow we look down on others.

That's the place where we have thoughts about racism or for thoughts about how we are so much better than the people beneath us and and we become so critical of everybody else around us and we don't know that the problem is ourselves. That's the place you see where we put all of our shame and all the things that all of us have done that. We don't want anyone ever ever ever to know about and we guard that plays with all that we are the moment somebody wants to pry into it. We are there 100 different arguments as to why we did what we and there it is now. Can you even imagine even imagine it standing saith the great white throne judgment and God now takes all of the secrets and finally who you and I really are is revealed because you're not what you think you are what you think you are unbelievable year or two ago I was at a convention where James Wolseley was speaking James Wellesley at one time was the director of our Central intelligence agent. He was giving an interesting lecture that I made tell you about sometime but he told the story said that when he was the head of the CIA. He wanted to attend a football game in California because I think his son was involved, and so his Secret Service detail told him that Tim. He and his wife had to fly on separate planes, etc. and then they put them on a plane in Washington and that of course he had two bodyguards and these bodyguards had to declare their weapons and evidently the stewardesses knew that there were these two officers on board and so they sat at the back of the plane. He sat in the middle with one on one side and the one on the other. He said the one along the aisle with big African American who sat there with his arms crossed to they called rock and he said rock never lasted anything, but as the plane was nearing California a flight attendant came and whispered something into his ear and rock broke out in convulsive laughter what she said was after 22 years of flying, I think you've got the best behaved prisoner I've ever seen it is and you don't know who in the world is lying next to you. Do you really don't know some of you don't even know you married, you married one person and then somebody else showed up. We all look alike. There are many people who wanted to keep some of Hitler's his videos with Eva Braun and so forth. They didn't want them public, it's because there you see a very human Hitler.

I mean, you know he's tussling the hair of a child is playing with his dog. Blondie and they said we don't want people to see him as a human being. We want to keep him as this super evil person while Solzhenitsyn was right was. He said the line between good and evil does not go through the human race if it did then we could put all the evil people on one side and all the good people on the other. Solzhenitsyn says the line between good and evil goes right through every human heart. Never underestimate your ability to do very terrible things and so the Bible says that Tim R secrets will be revealed who we are, will be exposed in that day shelling, but thankfully there's hope. Stay with me and then there's another there's another assumption that people make that we can teach others. But we don't have to teach ourselves. I won't go into this in detail, but Paul says, for example, you put yourself up as a teacher. He says in verse 21 while you preach against stealing. Do you still you who say that we must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery you horror titles you rob temples. There were those you see who rob temples and then they took the idols, and they sold the missile we never worship these, but we can steal and then we can we can do it. The pulses are you involved in this kind of sin. This kind of deception pulses and so what happens when we live this way. By the way, speaking of this kind of deception did you see the headline in the Chicago trip just a couple of months ago.

It says them massage parlor trial ends when masseuse recognizes at turning as a former client say is that one should not attend these massage parlors that give extra benefits.

Do you do it of the deceit of the human heart. And let's not point fingers but realize that where all this way we are self absorbed, filled with self-justification self self self and we just don't see it. What's the result of this well. The apostle Paul says a couple of things number one are witnesses lost.

I am now in verse 24. The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. Somebody did a survey on why people leave the church and they discovered that in most instances, they left because of some hypocrite in the church somebody who offended them somebody who claim to be a Christian and did ABCD well, I have to tell you that many people use that excuse.

It is an illegitimate excuse because it's true that we are still sinners and it's true that Christians can do awful things, but I might humbly confess the world is certainly no better than we are.

There's a lot of deceit in deception and betrayal out there, but still there are times when God is blasphemed. People say when you know their Christians and look at what they do look at the way in which they act.

Look at their attitude. It affects the way in which we witness to the world and then Paul says something else is your duplicity, your hypoxic receipt.

It cancels the ordinances and their value you read the next verses in Paul is talking about circumcision because you see some of the Jewish people of that time said look you were circumcised and therefore there are exceptions for us. We've got this covenant with God that were depending upon and then they lived that way. And Paul is saying, look, the ordinance itself doesn't mean anything.

It's the heart that matters. And so today there are those who say will you know I've been baptized. Or perhaps that they think to themselves. I have had communion or the mass or some other ceremony that somehow was going to do it. No one will know it won't do it.

God looks at the heart that's what's important.

And then of course you also have a very wrong focus and now I'm at the end of the chapter where it says that 10 the Jew is one who is one inwardly, and he says not by the letter, but his praise is not from man but from God. How differently we would live if we were less concerned about what people thought about us less concerned about this false self that all of us live with and more concerned about reality. I wish I had brought it with me.

I was going to but I forgot it on my desk last week in this service. There was a person who wrote us a note that was very encouraging.

He said that he's a grad student, he may be here today and he said that he laughed and he had to come to grad school here to be at Moody church and then he said after being in our crossroads class. I believe in and among us here. He said I was blown away by how real missions could I cut that's that best compliment we could ever have. The Moody church to be blown away by how real we really are. None of us is perfect. Don't do it now but maybe later. Look at the person who is sitting next to you and say you know that your imperfect is fine to say that if they say back yes and you are also very imperfect. How do we understand all this, the book of Romans was written for two purposes really number one. To understand the depth of our sin.

And if you think to yourself that today was a difficult day in terms of exposing our sin, wait till we get to chapter 3 that is going to be something like a open heart surgery without anesthetic. Paul is just gonna rip us apart and say this is how bad and deceitful really are doing it so that we grovel in the dust. He's doing it so that we understand the gospel and that we understand the wonder and the beauty of God's grace is a that's why Luther said that one must first of all descendent I held before one can get to heaven if you don't understand what God saved you, I would have and how bad off you were without grace. You will never never understand grace and appreciate grace and the fact that God rescued us from ourselves and are willing self dissections now. I can't wait until chapter 3. To give you the gospel because I can't leave you where I brought you so I must help you to understand how how is God's rescue program working. What is the bottom line here in terms of saving us so that we don't have to be at the great white throne judgment and have all of our secrets exposed so that we can be free from condemnation, so that our consciences can be clans so that we can look in the mirror and thank God that were not what we used to be, and we are were going to be, but thank God were on the way. How does that work.

What is God's redemption program illustrated I'll tell you a story. Possibly it is a legend that comes to us from Russia. Here's the story, but back in those days when there were nomads who were roaming the land. There was one chief who was a very kind man, a very just a man and a very strong man and known for his lack of partiality when it came to justice. The problem was that among the tribe.

There were thieves. Apparently they thought that there was a thief because there were so many things that were missing. First of all, it was petty theft and then there was greater theft. So he issued an edict that whoever was doing. It would be beaten with 10 lashes and interestingly, even after that morning.

The thievery continued and then he said, whoever's doing this will be beaten with 40 lashes, which was another way of saying they will be beaten possibly to death because few people could endure 40 lashes and then to the shock of everyone. It was determined that the culprit was the Chiefs on mother's and now of the tribe set to itself. How is the chief going to handle this one is he going to go with the love and exonerate her and forget justice and the edict lashes that would've been one possibility. The other possibility is he really going to sentence his mother to 40 lashes so that she will undoubtedly this frail woman be killed.

Is that what he's going to do well. The wise chief decided first of all, that he would go with justice and ordered that 40 lashes be given to his mother and then what he did is before the lashes and the blows came, he went and he hugged his mother and shielded her and took all 40 lashes in her place. That is the gospel. It is this that God had an attribute of love and God had an attribute of justice, neither of which could be compromised.

So the question was in the rescue program. How do we how do we do this, do we go with love or do we go with justice and the answer as the cross showed God went with both justice demanded that we should be lost forever because of our sins which are much greater than we realize because God is much holier than we realize. And that's when justice demanded but love said I want to read Dean I don't want to have people stand before me and have to give an accountant have all of their secrets exposed, and then as a result of that judgment to be eternally separated from me, so I will take the blows so that I'm free to forgive Dean to clans.

That is the good news of the book of Romans that God came on a rescue mission to save us from our sins. I warn you today. Don't depend upon your religiosity. Don't be judgmental. Don't think of yourself as superior to anybody.

Maybe you haven't committed the same sins that they have thanks to God's grace. But all those seeds are in your heart to and that's why the goodness of God and the grace of God should lead all of us, even as believers to repentance because we realize that the end of the day. We are really sinners in need of divine intervention, grace and God, and God comes in the person of Jesus to redeem us from our sin, he envelops us in his love, so that the blows of God's justice fell on him and we are preserved and that's why I stand here today and tell you there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. That's good news for sinners, but it's not automatic born into it.

You must receive Christ as Savior and as many as those who received him, to those he gives the authority to become God's children, even to those who believe on his name.

We have a great Savior for great sinners and for that we can rejoice. Let's bow together in prayer and before I actually pray I have to ask you today.

Do you know for sure that you've trusted Christ as Savior. Have you received him as your substitute is your sin bearer is the one who envelops you, and took the blows of God's judgment on your behalf. Do you have that deep sense of assurance.

If not, you've probably not believed on him in a saving way your religious obviously but you're not saved wanted to cry out to the Lord, right where you are.

Even as I pray, say, Lord Jesus, please save me from my sins and I receive Christ as the one who bore my penalty father has we look into our hearts. All of us stand condemned were all on equal ground forgiveness for being blind to our own faults and seeing the faults of others with such clarity, forgive his father for forgetting that your standard is inflexible because your holiness is impartial and help us to rejoice in the rescue mission of Jesus and to share that good news with others who need to know that there is a Savior who came on a mission to save us from ourselves.

We love him. Help us to serve and we ask in Jesus name, amen. My friend, the system has convinced her hope that you understand how passionately I preach the gospel with such joy to be able to tell sinners that we have a Savior who is able to save us from our sin's.

The issue is not the greatness of our sin, but rather the wonder of God's grace we are called to proclaim this message in this culture, which clearly has lost its way. I've written a book entitled, we will not be silenced responding courageously to our culture's assault on Christianity. I need to tell you that this is the last time we are making this resource available for you. I believe that it will be of great help for you to understand our culture. What about socialism versus capitalism.

What about critical race theory. What would Jesus say to the church today. That's actually the last chapter of the book. It's entitled strengthen what remains Jesus of course spoke this to the church in Sardis and I believe that he would say some of the same things to us today for a gift of any amount.

This book can be yours and remember today is the last day.

This resource is being made available to you. Here's what you do go to RTW offer.com now that's all one word RTW offer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337 I'm going to be giving you that contact information again but let me tell you that we so deeply appreciate your prayers. Your support because together we are making a difference.

This is your ministry and we are deeply grateful.

Go to RTW offer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337 ask for the book, we will not be silenced. You can write to is running to win 1635 N. LaSalle Boulevard Chicago 60614 running to win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life regarding salvation, easy to make yourself believe all is well when it's far from well next time don't miss rescued from dangerous rationalizations.

Thanks for listening for Dr. Erwin Luzerne this is Dave was there running to win is sponsored by the teacher