Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Believers in Jesus were chosen by God in eternity past. This involved forgiving their sins and declaring them to be as righteous as his Son. If life now seems uncertain, know this. Your future is as secure as the God who will make sure you get there.
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. Today, we continue a series from Romans chapter 8 on the blessings we've been given as children of an awesome God. Pastor Lutzer, how does the concept of justification play into our being chosen forever? You know, Dave, there are many people who don't realize that they were chosen from before the foundation of the world.
All that they know is that they've trusted Christ. They may not even be aware of the fact that God has justified them. but none the less they belong to the Almighty they are children of God. And so we delight in that fact and what also delights us is the opportunity to share that good news around the world. It's because of people just like you.
Who have invested in this ministry that running to win Is in 50 different countries in seven different languages, and we are going into an eighth language. Thank you. But at the end of this message, I'm going to be giving you some contact info because I want you to investigate something. For now? Stay tuned and listen.
Um Yeah. Imagine this. Imagine that when you came to Christ, all that God did was forgive you.
So if that's all that happened, the next time you sinned, where would you be? Where do I really stand when When I do sin, do I have a permanent relationship with God, or is it just based on when I'm forgiven and when I'm not forgiven? Oh no, no, it is so much more. It is God declaring you to be as righteous as Christ.
Now, I'm going to say something to shock you. If all that he did was forgive you when you came to Christ, you'd never make it to heaven. Because forgiving you does not make you perfect, and you can't get into heaven unless you're as perfect as God. If you're not as perfect as God, forget it. Wives, look at your husbands and say to them, Husband, forget it, all right?
Because you know he's not perfect. None of us is. None of us is, but God is. God credits us with the righteousness of Christ and says, I count you as perfect as Jesus. That's how we get into heaven, and that's what justification is all about.
Those whom he called, he justified. And then those whom he justified, oh, I love this, he glorified. God said, it's a completed deal. The group that I justify is the group that in my book is glorified. As I say, the verbs are in the past tense.
Be blessed by this, folks. We have some members even here in the staff, the church staff, who are Bear fans. And you know, the bears usually play, I said pray, I don't think they pray a whole lot, but maybe they do, but they play, that's the word that I wanted, they play on Sunday afternoons. And the pastoral staff is here Sunday afternoons. They're doing counseling, they're meeting with people and so forth, so they can't see the game.
So, you know what they do? I shouldn't tell on them, but they have.
Now they even have something I've never seen called TiVo or something. I don't know what in the world that is. Remember, I'm the kind of guy that my VCR flashed 12 noon for about two years before I got it changed.
So, what they do is they videotape the game and then. They don't want to know what the score is even though the game is over. Because they want to go home and they want to watch the game and they want to go through all that excitement. And if they know the score in advance, it just robs them all of all of the anticipation. One day the Bears were playing a playoff game.
And it was after the evening service, and somebody came to me and whispered the score in my ear. This was somebody else who had watched it.
So now I'm leaving the church or preparing to, and one of these staff members walks by me and I says to him, Hey, do you want to know what the score is? Oh, no, no, no, no, don't tell me, don't tell me the score. No, no, no, it'll ruin it. Thought to myself later, you know, If I'd had just told him that the bear's lost, He could have gone home and spent two or three hours with his wife and children rather than watching that, right? I mean, really.
You see, to us there's anticipation when the game is played because we don't know how it's going to come out. You know what God says? It seems to us in life today that we're playing with the devil. And he sometimes seems to be getting one TD after another, and we can't even kick a field goal and get it between the posts. And we wonder, where are you, God?
You know what God says when the final, final playoff game, when everything is at stake, I have already recorded, I've already recorded the score in heaven. And the score is Jesus 100 and all of his enemies, zero. All right? And then God says. And all those who trust in Jesus.
Win along with him.
So because I already know that he is one, As far as I'm concerned, those who belong to him, they've won too. Those whom he has justified, he's glorified. It's a done deal for you, my friend. I'm sorry, but I love this. Anybody else out there being blessed?
The Bible says that God calls those things which are not as if they are. That's why Isaiah 53 was written in the past tense. Hundreds of years later, Jesus was to die. And how does Isaiah write it? He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities. What do you mean, Isaiah, he was? It hasn't happened yet. God says it's happened. It's a done deal.
Those whom he justified. He glorified. Hmm. What do we make of all this? transforming lessons that should leave us Rejoicing in God.
And then for those of you who don't feel that you're a part of the inner circle, hang around. I've got something for you. First of all, number one, God ends with the same number that He began with. Those who are foreknown Are the same ones who are predestined, and clearly in the text, the predestined ones are the justified ones. and the called ones and the glorified ones, the very same that he begins with, he ends with.
Nobody falls between the cracks. when it comes to God's purposes. You know, the Bible says in the 10th chapter of John, Jesus is the good shepherd. What would you think of a shepherd? He's given a hundred sheep.
He's given 100 sheep in the morning, and he's supposed to bring them all back to the fold by evening, and he comes back in the evening, and he's got 92. And the other shepherds say, What is this? You were given 100 in the morning, 92. And what happened to the other eight?
Well, you just don't understand how stubborn they were. And furthermore, they have free will. And you know, I'm not going to intervene with a free will. I mean, you know, here's a sheep that takes a wrong path. You know, you have to respect their free will.
Come on. I don't care how rebellious the sheep are. I don't care what their wills are. If you were given a hundred sheep in the morning, if you are a good shepherd, you have a hundred sheep safely in the fold by evening. All right, God bless you.
Of course. Of course. God ends with the same number he begins with. You read the Gospel of John over and over again, possibly 20, 30 times. The elect are referred to as those whom thou hast given me.
Six times in John's Gospel, I pray for those whom Thou hast given me, for they are thine, those whom thou hast given me that they may see their face. You see, the Father gave the Son these people, these sheep, as a gift. He's going to carry them safely all the way home. This verse will take you all the way to heaven. If you've been foreknown.
And in a few moments, I'm going to tell you how you can find out. It's all good today. Secondly, God gets the purpose he longs for. God gets the purpose he longs for. And that is to bring many sons and daughters into glory.
This was his desire. In the book of Hebrews, it tells us about his desire, and that's why it says that Jesus is not ashamed to call us his brothers. He calls us his brothers and sisters. God says, I want to see all of these people glorified along with him. And that's why Jesus says, to him who overcomes, I shall grant to sit with me on my throne, even as I overcame and sat with my father on his throne.
I want you to participate with me. I want you to belong to me. On the very throne of Jesus, too much for me to grasp. too much for me to grasp. But God gets exactly.
what he wants. Is there any chance that the purpose of God will be thwarted? The answer, of course, is no. And God has a desire for those who belong to Him, and that desire will be fulfilled. If you want to know where you're going to end, you're going to end up in this life being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ in the life to come.
Reigning and ruling with him. And God gets that. By the way, there's no room here for pride. It's not as if we are worthy. This is undeserved, incredible, unbelievable grace.
And if there's anything that should humble us, it should be the fact that we think we chose Christ. At the age of 14, I thought I received Christ, and I did. I did respond to Christ, but it was only later that I began to realize it's because of God's grace poured into my heart, and I was choosing Christ because Christ chose me. Wow. Amen.
Praise God. God gets what he wants. No room for pride. It's all of grace. Finally.
God enables us to know whether we are among the foreknown. See, there's some of you who are saying, oh yeah, but um But you know, I don't know.
Well, if I'm chosen, I'm chosen. If I'm not chosen, then I'm not chosen.
Okay, Sarah, Syrah. That's not where the Apostle Paul went, and that's not where you should go, and that's not where Jesus went. The fact that the Apostle Paul knew this did not stop him from church planting and giving his life for the cause of the gospel, because he knew this: that God had many people in certain cities. In fact, God told him one time: He says, Go preach there because I've got many people. And it says, those who were ordained unto eternal life believed.
So Paul gave his life. Gave his life to the proclamation of the gospel. And you and I have to give our lives to the proclamation of the gospel too. And those of you who feel as if you're on the outside looking in, you say, well, how can I know whether I'm foreknown? I'm going to tell you right now.
I told you I was going to tell you, and I'm going to tell you. The Bible says, As many as received him to them he gives the authority. To become the children of God, even to those who believe on His name. If while I'm talking to you, you have this desire to believe in Christ and you want to believe, that is God's gift to you. And I encourage you to respond to that gift because you would not even have that desire were it not for God working in your heart.
Therefore, I urge you, as I urge you every single Sunday when I preach from this pulpit, I urge you to believe on Jesus. And when you believe on Him and receive Him, you will be accepted. And you will then know. that you belong to God. How does this work?
First of all, it usually works with the sense of conviction of sin. where you have this This conviction that you've sinned. And that you can't manage your sin anymore. You have to give up the idea of managing it. What you really need is forgiveness.
What you need is justification. And then you see the beauty of Jesus. Up until that time, you could have cared less about Jesus. But right now, Jesus is becoming precious to you. Because you're in the process of being drawn by God.
And in the process of being drawn by him, God is granting you the opportunity and the ability. to believe. You say, well, Pastor Lutzer. Do you preach whosoever will? Absolutely, whosoever will.
Absolutely whosoever will. The invitation is to everyone. But even as I preach, I know that there will be some people who are indifferent, and there will be some people who are drawn. You know, Dwight L. Moody, who founded our church, that great evangelist who holds with Billy Graham the distinction of being the most famous evangelists in the world.
And I am just absolutely Overblown by the tens of thousands of people who received Christ under Moody's ministry. What a gifted man. But he struggled with this doctrine of. election as I've preached it. His friend in England, Charles Spurgeon, tried to convince him.
Tried to convince him that this is indeed what the Bible teaches and it's totally consistent. But Moody always thought to himself that somehow. If you believe this as the Bible teaches it, that somehow it will. it will diminish the whosoever of the gospel. But of course it won't.
Not at all. Whosoever will may come. If you will, you may come. And so, in honor of D.L. Moody, I would like to give you a paragraph of a message he preached, which is my feeling exactly.
Because there are some of you who are listening who think to yourself, well, you know, I don't know if God can receive me because I'm too great a sinner. Hey, if you think that, you are one of the great candidates in whose heart God is working. I encourage you to follow that line of thought until you realize that you may be a big sinner, but you know what? We have a great Savior for you. Amen.
So, this is what Moody said at the end of a message. And I plead with you: I wish I were a DL Moody. I'm not, but at least I can read what he said and trust the Holy Spirit to lead it into your heart and grant you the grace to respond to Christ. This is what he said. He said, A young man told me last night that he was too great a sinner to be saved.
Why, they are the very men Christ came after. The Bible says that this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. The only charge that they could bring against Christ down here was that he was receiving bad men. They are the very kind of men he is willing to receive. All that you got to do is to prove that you're a sinner and I will prove that I have a Savior.
And the greater the sinner, don't you love this? The greater the sinner, the greater the need of a Savior. You say your heart is hard.
Well then, of course. Christ wants to soften it. But you can't do it yourself. The harder your heart. the more you have need of Christ.
If your sins rise up before you like a dark mountain, bear in mind that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin. There is no sin big or small or so corrupt. or so vile that the blood of Jesus Christ can cover it.
So I preach the old gospel again. The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. If you today Are listening to this, and you know who you are, don't you? Maybe listening on the internet, maybe by radio. If there is within you The desire to believe, pursue it, come to Christ now.
Receive him. And he'll receive you. and you will know that you too were foreknown. An eternity past. That's it, folks.
Let's pray. Our Father, today we just have to say that we're staggered at the fact that salvation. Was such a great priority that we were loved and foreknown by you. for as long as you existed. And we were in your mind.
And then that you would wait until we're born on planet Earth and hear the gospel so that we could be called. We thank you today, Father, and thank you that we're glorified. Thank you that our names are already, your word says, written in heaven before the foundation of the world. But now I pray for those who've never trusted Christ as Savior. They've listened to this and.
And maybe they're resentful. at your sovereignty. Humble them. And show them that unless they accept the Christ who is presented in Scripture, they cannot be saved. Draw them, Father, to yourself, but it's all in your hands, there's nothing that I can do.
It's your Spirit and the Word that does the work. Before I close this prayer, If you've never received Christ as Savior, Why don't you bow your head right now where you are and say, Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner. I see today the beauty of Jesus. The fact that he justifies sinners. I receive that gift of justification.
By faith. Grant me the assurance that I belong to you. Forever. In Jesus' name, amen. Yeah.
Um My friend, by God's grace, I pray that you have made that decision. that you have transferred your trust to Jesus Christ alone. Give up the idea of self. Salvation. Salvation comes from God, but it must be received.
I trust that that is true of you today. And this is the message we here at Running to Wind desire to spread around the world, but we can't do it without you. I hope that you have a pen or pencil handy because I'm going to be giving you some info. and I want you to investigate the possibility of becoming what we call an endurance partner. I'm holding in my hands a letter from someone who listens from East Africa.
This person says that they are excited about running to win. this teaching helped me to prioritize my days and align my choices with His Word. Praise God. But the reason that we are in East Africa is because of people just like you. Consider becoming an endurance partner.
At least investigate it. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com. Of course RTW offers all one word. rtwoffer.com Or you can pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218.
9337.
Now if you go to rtwoffer.com, once again I want to emphasize you click on the endurance partner button. Consider helping us. It's time again for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. The Christian and the Court System. These days, people almost jump at the chance to seek redress of their grievances before a judge.
Jim listens to Running to Win in Chicago and has this question. Is it ever acceptable to sue for defamation of character and or slander? I know you support Christians not suing Christians, But what if you sue non-Christians? would God ever direct me to sue as His messenger?
Well, that's a very interesting question, and you're absolutely right, Jim. I do not believe that Christians should sue other Christians when it comes to civil matters.
Now, in criminal matters, that might be quite different, because then the state also has a very compelling interest. But it seems to me a couple of things. Number one, yes, indeed, God does not want fellow Christians to take other Christians to court. over personal and civil issues. Number two, is it okay to sue someone who isn't a Christian?
I think the answer to that question is yes, but I would caution you very much. I don't think that it would be proper for you to sue for slander. I think what you need to do is to give your reputation to God. and to simply let him sort it out.
Now that's easy for me to say, more difficult for you to say, because you're the one who's living with the slander and with your ruined reputation. But at any rate I simply opened my heart to you and am reminded of the story of Joseph. who was slandered, when Potiphar's wife accused him of attempted rape. He lived in the dungeon for two years for something that he didn't do. And the Bible says that the Lord was with Joseph.
They're in the prison. and of course in God's good time. God uh cleared up Joseph's reputation. and he of course became a great leader in Egypt. Do you have that kind of faith, Jim?
think about it, pray about it. If you do sue, Do it with a great deal of thought, a great deal of prayer. But above all, trust God.
Some wise counsel from Dr. Erwin Lutzer. Thank you, Dr. Lutzer. If you'd like to hear your questions answered, you can.
Go to our website at rtwoffer.com. and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer or call us at 1-888-218-9337. That's 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at RunningTowin 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. How would you react if a lawyer called saying you'd just inherited a million dollars from your uncle?
Well, if you're a believer, you have a check waiting for you at the Bank of Heaven, and it's for far more than a mere million.
Next time I'm running to win, the heavenly will has been opened. Learn why you, as a Christian, stand to inherit it all. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
