Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. When in danger, every child craves the security of a father's embrace. What many Christians may not realize is the provision God has made for us as our Heavenly Father, that we can be sure of His care no matter what happens here on earth.
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. Pastor Lutzer, you're teaching us from 1 John chapter 3. Tell us what to expect in today's lesson about the Father's voice.
Dave, this is so critical. It is so important because once we understand the nature of the Father's love toward us, it can be transforming. It is a divine unconditional love.
It is dependent upon the lover, not the ones who are loved because all of us vacillate in our experience and in our love, but God's love is there. Let this bless our souls. You know, we are so grateful for the fact that Running to Win is heard in so many different places, thousands upon thousands of people listen, but I want to emphasize that you, my friend, are a part of what God is doing. We're so thankful for the many who stand with us regularly with their prayers and their gifts. Would you consider becoming an endurance partner? Endurance partners are those kinds of people who regularly connect with us with their gifts and with their prayers. To find out more, here's what you can do. Go to RTWOffer.com.
That's RTWOffer.com or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now let's open our Bibles and let us allow God to bless us from his holy word. You can have accepted Jesus Christ as Savior yesterday and begin to walk in the inheritance that is yours as a son of God because you're going to belong to him forever. He adopts us. My dear friend, it's possible for us to live without recognizing that the blessings of sonship are included in salvation. You are an adopted son.
You're an adopted daughter before God. Third, he loves us. And for this I do ask you to turn to 1 John, 1 John in that marvelous passage in chapter 3. These are now the letters of John, 1 John chapter 3. It says, how great is the love the father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Let me pause there. How great is the love of God toward us? That's a good question to ask. Let's take it into the human realm. When our three daughters were born, my wife and I didn't say to ourselves now we don't know whether or not we're going to love these girls or not until we see how they turn out and how they perform. And if one of them becomes a nurse and another becomes a teacher and another becomes a missionary, well then we'll decide to love them. It's not the way it was with them and it's not the way it was with our grandest sons. We didn't say now if Jack becomes a doctor and if Samuel becomes a preacher, we'll love them.
Now all that they needed to do is to be born. In fact, we loved them before they were born without any performance on their part, without any other reason except that they are our children and our grandchildren. Let me ask you today how much does God love us? God loves us as much as he loves Christ. Jesus said thou hast loved them even as thou hast loved me. He makes no distinction between his love for Jesus Christ and his love for us. That's mind boggling because we know that he is desperately in love with his son Jesus.
But let me ask you another question. How long has God loved you? Did he begin to love you in that special sense? We know that he loves the world but he loves his own people in a special sense. Did he love you in that special way just since you were converted?
No, he loved you that way from all of eternity. Let me quote the rest of Jesus' words. Oh Father, thou hast loved them even as thou hast loved me for thou lovest me from before the foundation of the world.
Paul says in 1 Timothy that God has granted us grace from all eternity. I speak to those of you who are weary of performance. I speak to those of you who are weary trying to please God and never thinking that you have done enough. If you are a member of his family, we want you to know that God has lavished his love upon you, how great the Father's love is, and that love is secure quite apart from your performance. How could I put it most clearly?
Perhaps this will help. Do you realize that it would be heresy for you to say that I think that God would love me more if I were better? That's heresy. He already loves you as much as he loves Christ.
Of course he wants us to be better. Of course it's possible to displease him, but nothing shall cut us off from the love of Christ. Whether it is outside forces, whether it is our own disobedience, we are his sons forever and he loves us because he loves us because he loves us. No wonder David, who was always struggling with his identity, and David having experienced rejection from his family as is evident in 1 Samuel. No wonder David keeps coming before God. No wonder he keeps reaching out to the Almighty and saying, God, I do have within me this bottomless pit of unmet needs, but you come to me and you will meet my need. The security of his Father in heaven. God loves us.
He exalts us. Notice what the text says in verse 2. Dear friends, we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
It's mind-boggling. John is saying that the Spirit of God comes to us, as Paul says in Romans 8, a spirit of adoption by which we cry, Abba, Father, as many as are led by the Spirit of God. These are the sons of God, says the scripture, and if sons, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. We will be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Behold what manner of love the Father has put upon us.
Now, think this through. You realize that God had one son, the Lord Jesus, whom he greatly loved, but he wanted to have many sons. Says that he wants to receive many sons into glory. So Jesus comes and dies so that God will get his many sons, and those sons are going to rule on the throne of the universe. It says in the book of Revelation, those who overcome Jesus said to them, I will have them sit with me on my throne, even as I overcame and sat with my Father on his throne. Now listen, those of you who are into logic and clear thought, does not that mean that we are going to sit on the throne of God?
I think so. He who overcomes will sit with me on my throne as I overcame and sat with my Father on his throne. Is it possible to get anything more beautiful, anything more encouraging, anything higher than that? Doesn't it make the pains of this life seem rather small knowing what awaits us? And that's why Paul says that the suffering of this present age cannot be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us. Does not this somehow bring healing in the midst of our own family struggles and the own failures that perhaps have been pushed upon us? What I'm trying to say to you today is it wasn't necessary. It wasn't necessary for Hemingway to commit suicide just because his father had done so and because his mother included in the birthday cake the gun with which he had done it. There is such a thing as finding a rest in God and his fatherhood that somehow begins to make up for the lack and the pains and the hurts of life.
Well, we could go on. God comforts us. He is the God of all comfort. God forgives us.
Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. Now, in light of the fact that God has done so much, this now becomes the basis upon which we make peace with our earthly father. And I want you to know that you can do that with or without his cooperation. For some of you, your father is dead. I think of a woman who told me I can't even visit his grave because standing there I fear that his hand might come out of the soil and hit me one more time. Now, my dear friend, I want you to know that it is possible for you to make peace with that past.
And how do you do it? First of all, you be truthful. Be truthful. Think about what happened to you. It's okay to go through the grief and the sorrow of your home life like Ernest Hemingway could have done. Secondly, in addition to truth, what is important is to grieve for the past. It's okay to grieve for a childhood, some of you, for a childhood that you didn't have. It's okay to weep. It's okay to have feelings. God created us this way. But then what we must do is to choose to forgive because it says in the book of Malachi, God says, I'm going to turn the hearts of the fathers towards the children and the children towards the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
There's healing in relationship to God, our father, and in relationship to our earthly father as well. In his book, Abba's Child, Brennan Manning tells the story of a Jewish boy named Mordecai who would not go to the synagogue. His parents did all that they possibly could. They threatened him. They cajoled him. They tried to manipulate him. Perhaps they did as my parents did when I was five or six years old. They promised me candy if I would go to church because I was not a willing churchgoer at that age. Changed a little bit.
I have to be here now, you understand. Well, they brought in a psychoanalyst, and he took the boy and psychoanalyzed him until there was nothing left to analyze. And the boy still ran out into the woods, crossed the streams, listened to the birds, but would not go to the synagogue. So they brought in an expert of on behavior modification, and he modified everything that could possibly be modified.
He was supposed to unblock his blockages, and he tried to unblock his blockages and unblock all the blockages. The boy still would run out to the woods, cross the streams, listen to the birds, but he would not go to the synagogue. So one day a rabbi, an old rabbi came to the village, and the parents told him their tale of woe. And he said, leave the child with me. And after the parents left, the rabbi took the boy in his arms and held him and pressed the trembling boy closely to his heart and held him.
Said nothing, just held him. Well, the next day the boy went to the synagogue. And after he went to the synagogue, he went to the woods, and he then listened to the birds and crossed the streams. But in the woods, he began to speak the word of God. And the story goes on to say that he turned out to be a very wise and gentle man. And when people were filled with panic, they would come to him to find peace. And when they were looking for hope, he would give them hope. And when they experienced tragedy, he would give them comfort. You see, when we talk about the heart, we're talking about that effective part of us. We're speaking about the origins of our loves and our hates and all of our desires and wishes. And somehow, when that young boy was held to that old man's heart, he penetrated the consciousness of that rabbi so that now the boy not only knew some things intellectually, which he was rejecting, but he now knew some things effectively or emotionally.
And somehow his head and his heart were unified. You know, if we were to come to the New Testament and interview the man called John, the disciple of Jesus, and we were to say, John, tell us who you are. What is your identity? I don't think John would say, well, I was a disciple of Jesus. I don't think that John would say, I'm the author of one of the largest books of the New Testament, including three epistles. I don't think John would say, I'm the one that was on the island of Patmos when God revealed himself to me and gave me what is known as the book of Revelation. He most assuredly would not say, well, my claim to fame is that I am the brother of James. What would John say? I think John would say, my identity is the fact that I am the disciple whom Jesus loved, and I am the one who leaned on his breast at dinner. And that's really who I am. I am one who is loved by God.
I want to say something to you today, heart to heart, man to man, woman to woman. I don't believe that we are ever healed within as long as our identity is still our vocation, or we think of ourselves as being an attorney, or we think of ourselves as being a missionary, or we think of ourselves as being a carpenter, or a nurse, or a banker. We are healed when we think of ourselves as being one who is loved by God, loved because we are loved, loved because we are his sons and daughters, loved because he begat us, loved because he redeemed us, and we simply rest in that love.
Could I ask you a question today? Are you willing to give God permission to sense and to feel his love, regardless of your past, whether it's good or bad? Are you willing to peel back all of the layers that have developed and all of the rationalization that has developed, and there in the presence of God simply say, God, I'm broken and I'm wounded, and I give you permission to love me, hold me close to your heart.
And if that's true of you, and if it's true of me, not much else about us really matters. Cleland McCaffie wrote, there is a place of quiet rest near to the heart of God, a place where sin cannot molest near to the heart of God. Oh, Jesus blessed redeemer sent from the heart of God. Hold us who wait before thee near to the heart of God. There is a place of comfort sweet near to the heart of God, a place where we, our Savior, meet near to the heart of God. There is a place of full release near to the heart of God, a place where all is joy and peace near to the heart of God.
Ernest Hemingway needed to hear that. Too bad he didn't, but you and I need to hear it too. We are healed when God takes us close to his heart and says, I love you because I love you and because you're mine. Let's pray. And our Father today, we want to thank you for your mercy and your grace. Thank you for your fatherhood. We sang earlier, our Father, who art in heaven. Oh, what a joy it is to be able to say, Father. And thank you that you show us your love. Grant it, O God, in the lives of all who have listened and bring healing where there has to be healing.
And deliver us from a performance mentality. Show us, Father, your love and may we bask in it and delight in it, we pray that we shall be strong in Jesus name. Amen.
Well, my friend, this is Pastor Luther. I have to ask you, are you blessed as a result of the ministry of running to win messages like the one that you have just heard that is intended to bring about the transformation of lives? One of the things that encourages me greatly is the fact that running to win is heard in so many different places in more than 20 different countries. And of course, we are grateful for the thousands upon thousands of people who not only listen, but who support us.
Perhaps you have listened to running to win for years and have never connected with us. Would you consider becoming an endurance partner? Endurance partners are those who stand with us regularly in the ministry with their gifts, giving a monthly gift, praying for us, connecting with us. We're so grateful for the fact that running to win is a ministry that belongs to you.
And we want to thank you in advance. Now, if you want to know more about endurance partners, here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com.
Click on the endurance partner button while you're there. You'll find out all the information that you need. Or if you prefer, you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. Let me give you that phone number again. And thanks in advance for helping us.
1-888-218-9337. Thanks for helping us to run the race and help other people make it all the way to the finish line. It's time again for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question you may have about the Bible or the Christian life. Understanding God's purposes in judgment can be difficult.
It's become very difficult for William, who listens to Running to Win in Nebraska. He wrote with this observation and this question, Most of the doctrines taught by Christians I can and do accept. But I cannot accept the doctrine of eternal hell, which says that God tortures nonbelievers brutally forever in the flames of hell. Is it a sin to practice torture like Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Saddam Hussein have done to people over the years? The Christian community condemns the actions of these and other men, but believes it's okay for God to torture people in hell. How can God say in eternity that there will be no more sorrow, no more crying, and no more pain if there is this torture chamber somewhere where billions of people are screaming, crying, and hollering in pain as they are tortured by Almighty God? Well, William, you certainly have chosen a very, very difficult question to ask.
And it's one I'm sure that has plagued us and that I've thought about many, many times. I've preached about hell. I've written about hell.
So your question in one sense is not new. But I need to say that you need to revise your image of God. God doesn't torture people like Saddam Hussein did or Hitler. Those people did it with wrong motives.
They did it because they wanted to have political expediency or out of vengeance. It seems to me that hell is people bearing the weight of their own guilt forever. And one of the things that distinguishes it from the situations that you described is that while those others were unjust, hell will be just. As a matter of fact, because responsibility is based on knowledge, not everyone in hell is going to suffer the same way or for the same reasons.
It is going to be finely tuned justice. And yes, hell is terrible, but sin is terrible and God is eminently holy. Now let me respond to the second part of your question regarding no tears in heaven and no sorrow. It's not going to be because we know less in heaven than we do on earth.
It's not as if we won't know that there are people suffering in hell, but I believe that we will see everything from God's perspective with such clarity that if God can be happy in quotes throughout all of eternity, we will also be happy and we will be able to say with truthfulness, great and wonderful is the Lord and his judgments are unsearchable and just. That's the best I can do with your very tough question. Thank you, William, for that tough question and Pastor Lutzer for that very clear answer. If you'd like to hear your question answered, go to our website. It's at rtwoffer.com. There you can click on Ask Pastor Lutzer or you can call us with that question at 1-888-218-9337.
That's 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Christians are not immune to addictive behavior. Many are trapped in a web of deceit and bondage. Like those stuck in quicksand, runners in life's race cannot win if they're caught up in addictions of any kind. Next time on Running to Win, we'll trace the roots of addiction and then point the way toward freedom. For Dr. Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
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