Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. 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. For the details, please stay with us. 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, Romans 8 seems to tell us that the will has been opened. and we're about to inherit it all. Yes, Dave. Certainly at death we're going to inherit it all.
In this life we see only a drop, eventually we will get the ocean, we see only a flower, eventually we will get the entire garden. But thank God for Jesus. Who adopted us, who chose us, and who has made us a member of his family. We here at Running to Win exists to enable you to run successfully to the finish line. And one of the ways in which we can do that is to witness to others, and perhaps you have never witnessed to someone.
Because you don't know how. You wonder what barriers you have to cross.
Well, that's exactly why we are offering the book entitled Sent. because all of us are sent into this world. And through our conversation, through our lives, we're able to be used by God in the lives of other people, people in whom He is already working. For a gift of any amount, we're making this book available. It's entitled Sent, written by a couple who has been involved in evangelism.
It will help you to get beyond your world. At the end of this message, I'm going to be giving you some contact info as to how this book can be yours. For now, let us listen. Yeah. The date was March the 11th, 1898.
When a teenager by the name of Peter Dyneka got on a boat. from Russia to go to Nova Scotia. His parents had saved for months in order that they might be able to buy their son a ticket with the hope that. This young man would begin over again and have a good chance in the new world. They knew that the boat ride would be long, and so, in order to make sure that he had enough food, they baked bread, black garlic bread, and they dried it.
and put it in bags so that it would not mould. There on the ship, Peter Dyneca would look through the window and see everyone else eating. He saw the rich people eating, and then he would. Think to himself how wonderful that would be, and then he retreated back to his room where he ate his bread. and drank his water.
Some of the sailors who were there noticed his predicament and took advantage of him. They said, If you help us with kitchen chores, we'll feed you some of the food from the kitchen.
So he worked very, very hard and was very glad that he got some decent food. Peter Dineke, in his biography, said that it was not until the last day of the voyage he realized. That three meals a day were included in the price of the ticket. By the way, Peter Dineke came here to America and was converted here at the Moody Church. I interviewed him about.
25 years ago before he died and what a great evangelist he became for Russia. and began an organization which today continues to share the word of God in that country. But the bottom line is this: you and I know that if we've received Christ as Savior, we have a free ticket to go all the way. to heaven. What some of us don't know is what is included in the price of the ticket.
Because God is very generous with his people, and we sometimes think that a Christian is simply a person, a sinner, minus his or her sins. What an incredible insult that is to what God has done when He came and redeemed us from our sins. With your Bibles open to Romans chapter 8, you know that we have been learning, that we have been chosen in Christ. from before the foundation of the world. In verse 29, the Apostle Paul goes on to say that those whom he foreknew, he predestined.
And foreknowledge, we learned, means to know ahead of time and to choose, to forelove. If you were not here to hear the last message on this series of messages, I really do encourage you to do just that as we talked about the doctrine of election and the certainty of God's purposes. But as Paul continues the discussion, he says now in verse 31, what shall we say to these things? And the things that he has been talking about is all that God has done to redeem us. He says, What shall we say to these things?
If God be for us, then who? shall be against us. The great humanist Erasmus read these words and says that not even Cicero. Was able to equal the eloquence of the Apostle Paul at this point. If God is for us, then who is there out there who can be against us?
And by the way, in Greek there are different ways to say the word if. The word that is used here, the word if, means since. Since God is for us, it's not as if there is some kind of a doubt in Paul's mind as to whether God is for us. He says, since God is for us, who can be Against us? Who is there out there that might take on God?
The chapter begins with those lovely words: There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
So the question is: who can rid us of our no-condemnation status? if you're a believer. Who can take away God's sovereign choice of you? Who can somehow take you and wrest you from belonging to God's family? Who is out there that might be able to do that?
The obvious answer is nobody, because nobody is stronger. than God. We may think to ourselves that surely our enemies can. False teachers can mislead, they can misdirect us, and all of us know that that happens regularly, that even true Christians sometimes get bogged down in various cults and various wrong doctrines. But even then, their status as a child of God remains unmoved and untouched, because if God is for us, Who then can be against us?
And if you were foreknown and if you were predestinated and called and justified and already glorified, as we learned last time, already it's a done deal, you're glorified, who is going to take you out from under God's protection and his infinite grace? Can an enemy do it?
Somebody who hates you, somebody who stalks you, can they somehow thwart God's purposes in your life? The answer is no, because if God is for us, Paul says in verse 31, then who is he who is going to be against us? Who will take on God?
Well, what about yourself? Can't you just return the gift of salvation? After all, you chose to believe on Christ. Can't you just simply choose to no longer believe on Christ? And you take that gift of salvation back like you might a sweater at Christmastime because you get tired of it or it doesn't fit or you don't like it and you've changed your mind.
Oh, you can't do that because that implies that the choice to believe on Christ was yours. And what the Bible is teaching here is that God chose you first and then worked in your heart so that you would concur with God's choice, so that on your part it definitely was a voluntary decision, but at the same time you were responding to the great sovereign work of God in your heart. And as we learned last time, you were known to God as his child as long as God existed. God is the author of salvation. God is the one who finishes the work of salvation.
And because of that, it isn't ultimately in your hands. You're in God's hands, and Jesus said, no one is able to pluck them out of my hand. I and my Father are one.
So your enemies can't, you can't. What about Satan?
Well, Satan can thwart us. He can harass us. He can debilitate us. He can accuse us, but ultimately Satan can do nothing, nothing with our status as God's children, as His sons and as His daughters. Because you see, we belong to Him forever.
That is to say, we belong to God forever, and therefore we are secure in the will and the purpose of God. And we can overcome Satan, as particularly we will learn in the next message. No, if God is for us, Who is there out there? who is going to be against us, who will take on God. The other day I was listening to a message by Henry Blackaby.
And if you know Henry Blackaby, you know he is a man of great faith. He was a pastor in Saskatchewan, Canada, a place with which I have some familiarity. And his church was planting other churches in other little towns. And they went to this one town, and the witch doctor from the Indian Reservation was there to meet him out on the street. And told him that there will be no church built in this town.
The witch doctor said, I have come to put a curse. on you. And Henry Blackabee just smiled. And he said to him, you have no idea who it is that you are up against. And a church was built in that town and is still there today.
If God is for us, who can put a curse on us? It's like trying to down an aircraft carrier with a slingshot. If God is for you, who can be against you? My fellow believer today, I am here to tell you. That there is no one stronger than God who can topple him.
There is no one as big as God who can thwart His purposes. There is no one so evil and so crafty that He can overcome Him. If God is for us, who shall be against us? Who is out there? That can take on God?
The answer is no one. If God Before us, and he is for his people.
Now You say, well, Pastor Lutzer, that all may be nice. And it's wonderful for you to preach this. But I'm going through a hard time. I'm going through a hard time financially. I'm going through a hard time health-wise.
I have children that are misbehaving. I have somebody who has just cheated me. Where is God in the middle of all this? If God is for us, It certainly doesn't appear as if he's for me. You may be saying.
Maybe today there is somebody out there, and you feel just like Naomi. in the book of Ruth. You remember she left Bethlehem and she left with a husband? and two sons. And she was in the land of Moab, and the sons they married Moabite girls.
And then Her husband died, and then both of her sons died, and then she came back, and one of those daughter-in-laws of hers by the name of Ruth. Followed her, and you know the rest of the story. But when Naomi came back to Bethlehem, they said, Naomi is back. And she said, No, no, no, don't call me Naomi. Call me bitter.
Because the Lord has dealt harshly and bitterly with me. She said, I left full. I had a husband and I had two sons and I've come back empty. Because all three men in my life are dead. And so she says, I feel as if God has been bitter toward me.
Do you feel that way? You say, Pastor Lutzer, if God would be for me, that would be wonderful, but how do I know that God is for me when everything out there seems to be against me when the economy is against me. when friends seem to be against me. When my health is against me, where is God in the midst of all of this? I do not see.
That God is for me.
Well, the Apostle Paul was thinking about you, I'm sure, and he was thinking about me. Look at the text. Always remember. Keep your Bible open with your finger on the text. Verse 31.
If God be for us, who can be against us? Verse 32, he who did not spare his own son. But gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously? Give us All things. Wow.
How do we know God is for us? What is the proof that God indeed is on our side? The answer is simply this, God has given us His most precious gift. Even, the Bible says, his own Son. And it says he delivered him up.
The idea in Greek is that he handed him over. I love that terminology. Because when you hand something over, it's very clear that you are still in charge. You're handing it over. In fact, when Jesus died on the cross, the Bible says that he dismissed his spirit.
He dismissed his spirit because he was in charge, and his spirit could not be dismissed until he dismissed his spirit. Because even on the cross, Jesus was still king. He was still reigning.
Now look at what the text says. Therefore, this was a voluntary choice on God's part.
Now, some people die voluntarily because they may be martyrs for the faith, and that certainly has happened tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of times in the history of the church. But when they give up their life, They would change circumstances if they could. If they had their captors under their control, if they had situations that they could control, they'd probably get out of it. God had all of this under control. And Jesus said that at any moment he could call 10,000 angels and they would come to deliver him.
This was not because Jesus was a victim. in the usual sense of the word victim. Because a victim sometimes is helpless and Jesus was never helpless. The father was never helpless. And yet he voluntarily gave up His son.
He handed him over for us. And that is the greatest proof that God is on our side. He really is on our side. Notice that the argument that Paul gives there is really one from the greater to the lesser. What he's saying is, if God gave up that which was most precious to him, namely his Son.
If God was willing to give up his son, How will he not also with him freely? Give us All things. I mean, if you, young man, are going to give your girlfriend a ring. Aren't you also going to give her the case In which the ring comes? I would think so.
Let us suppose that there was a situation in which I had to die for Rebecca, my wife. I'd like to think that I would gladly die in her place.
Now, if I were to give my life for her, wouldn't she also get whatever my inheritance might be, whatever that turns out to be, or how little it turns out to be? Wouldn't she get that too? Of course. I mean, if you're going to give your life that which is most precious and best, obviously, everything else. is thrown in.
And what the Apostle Paul is saying is this. He says, in light of the fact that God did not spare his own son. He gave us that which is most precious to him, therefore he is willing along with him, obviously. to give you all things. There is no imagination.
in the world. that can possibly begin to describe that can possibly begin to describe. All that God has prepared and is willing to give those. who received his son. as Savior.
There is no Limit. None. And that's why I'm saying it's included in the price of the ticket. It's included in the price of the ticket. You receive Jesus Christ as Savior and you inherit, the Bible says.
All things. In your bulletin today, you'll notice that I have listed 10 blessings that are ours in Jesus Christ. I did this in about 10 minutes. I thought to myself, what do we have in Jesus? This is not a complete list.
In fact, it would be interesting to have a Bible study sometime where everyone did some research to find all that God gives us when we receive Christ as Savior. This is only a small indication of the all things. But for those of you who are watching by internet or listening by radio, I'll take the time to read it, though the folks that are here at Moody Church not only have it listed, but They have verses of scripture to go with it, and I hope that you take the time that is necessary for you to look up. all of these verses. We are given grace from all of eternity.
We've already learned that, but this is a beautiful passage, 2 Timothy 1:9, because it says that you have been graced, the grace given to us in Jesus Christ from all of eternity.
Now, we've learned that already, that we were in God's mind and heart as long as God existed. But notice, you've both been forgiven and justified.
Now, there's a huge difference. If all that you know as a Christian is forgiveness and you don't understand justification, I personally don't know how you can walk with God day after day when things get tough and when your emotions don't fall in line with what you believe. And that's why the message next time in this series is so critical. As I speak on justification, who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, it is God who justifies.
You need to understand that if you intend to seriously walk with God. We are reconciled to God. Imagine this. We were enemies, the Bible says, and God reconciled us in Jesus. We are joined to Jesus for the new walk.
It says we are united to him by his death. And his resurrection. We are united. Number five, we are seated with Jesus in heavenly places. We're already there legally.
It says, He raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Jesus Christ. You are already there. How certain are you? that when you die, you're going to go to heaven. If you're a believer, you're 100% certain because you're already there.
I mean, you've already got property in heaven. You've already been established there. Your advocate is already there representing you. All that is necessary is for you to breathe your last so that you can get there. And uh Don't be in a hurry, but it'll happen.
That one. Back in the days when I was a Canadian citizen, there could be no hassle when I went from the United States to Canada. I've got a passport. Your passport is already in heaven. Just a matter of time.
Yeah. Um You know, my friend, when it comes to the topic of death, All of us think of what we are going to leave behind, but what we ought to do is to remember what we will inherit. And so as we look at the Word of God, we are greatly encouraged. But one of the things that we must also recognize is that God expects us to give the good news to people who. who cross our paths.
For example, yesterday I was on a phone call. It was a business call. and I mentioned to the person that God would take care of us. And they immediately responded to that and we had a conversation about the gospel. Opportunities are everywhere, and here's the exciting thing.
God is actually preparing the people around you for the gospel. Very quickly I hope that you have something to write with because I'm going to be giving you some contact info. we're making available for you a book entitled Sant. It will help you to be able to see the work of God in the ordinary and the ordinary relationships. Here's what you do.
Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888. 218 9337. I'm going to be giving you that contact info again because we're convinced this book is going to be of great help for you to share Christ with others. Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337.
You can write to us at RunningTowin 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Running to win is all about helping you understand God's roadmap for your race of life. When Christians read the Bible, they discover amazing blessings they'll inherit as children of God. Our outlook on life becomes an uplook when we realize what lies ahead.
Next time I'm running to win, a partial listing of what you inherited the moment you received Christ. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
