Living In Heaven While Walking On Earth Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Some feel Christians are too heavenly minded.

That may not be a bad thing, especially since we're commanded to think that way. The apostle Paul tells believers they're already living in another dimension. Today, we'll see those heavenly realms as being places of power and honor.

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, in today's message, we're living in heaven while on earth. Ephesians paints a glorious picture of what lies ahead for all who believe. You know, Dave, sometimes I'm asked what book of the Bible is my favorite. Well, all of them are my favorites, but I can't help but think of the book of Ephesians. It definitely leads us to the heavenlies and shows us the relevance of living in heaven, so to speak, even while we navigate life here on earth. It is filled with spiritual blessings. And I've written a book entitled The Inheritance of the Redeemed, claiming the spiritual treasures that are yours in Christ. And no book of the New Testament illustrates that more than the book of Ephesians. Here's what you can do.

You can go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Ask for the book The Inheritance of the Redeemed. Let your soul be blessed because, yes, we get the privilege of living on earth with heaven in our hearts. The scripture says in the Old Testament, heaven is my throne, earth is my footstool, and yet he is near onto all those who call upon him. Does that mean that Jesus is not ruling today? He is so far away. He is so distant from us.

He is so detached. No, no, Jesus rules today. You say, well, why so much evil?

Why so much pain? Why doesn't he do something? It does not look as if he's doing a very good job running his world. During this era, during this era, he has delegated the responsibility of running the world to human beings. He's allowing the devil to have a great deal to do.

But there is not one thing happening that the sun in heaven does not allow. He allows it. And he is just as much king when he is waiting, the Bible says, he is waiting for the enemies to become his footstool. He is as much a king when he is waiting as he is when he is winning. He is going to come in triumph. He is going to set things straight. But he is in heaven today, far above every single demonic force, far above every evil power. He is there today triumphant, completely triumphant. Now, you don't know the news that you might have happen this week. I do not know what God may bring into our lives. All that I need to do is to remind you today that Christ is above it and everything is under his feet.

Everything. Remember Savannah Rolla, who died for his faith. You know, some of you know that there was a movie made entitled The Burning of the Vanities or The Bonfire of the Vanities, something like that. I didn't see the movie, but I knew the basis of it was Savannah Rolla who had the burning of the vanities. He asked people to bring all of their occultism and all of their lewd books.

That was back in the 15, 1600s and they burned them there in Florence. But before he died, he said these words, and I always like to point out to people that he had had to come to think of it, say it before he died. Just a little logical progression there in terms of where you're at.

It's one of the requirements, I think. Before he died, he said this, he who believes that Christ rules above need never fear what happens below. Christ rules above. Chaos on earth, Christ rules above. All right, it's a place of power.

Thirdly, it's a place of honor. Of course, we're going to come to this passage again as we expound the text, but here's another instance where that phrase appears. Chapter 2, verse 4.

But God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions, he made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in, here it is now, underline Christ, the heavenly places or the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. You know, if you're a Christian today, I can look into your eyes, and I love to look into the eyes, and thank you, by the way, for sitting so close to the front. We have many people who sit close to the front.

This enables me to see them more clearly. But even those of you in the back row in the balcony there, I need to say something to you. If you're a believer in Christ, you've come a long way, baby. You really have. You've come a long way.

Look at what the text is saying. You were dead. That's where you started from. Then Jesus called your name like he called Lazarus come forth. He had to identify who he wanted to come forth, or the whole cemetery would have arisen.

So what did he say? He says, Lazarus, I'm just talking to you. I'm not talking to the guy who's buried next to you. And so he said, Lazarus, come forth. And then he was raised, and we are raised. That's what the Bible says. And then having been raised, he says, I ascended into heaven, and I have taken you with me, and you are seated there with me in the heavenly realms. Wow.

That's remarkable. You mean to say that we're already there? Yes, you're already there. That's why death is terrifying, isn't it? You know, even those of us who know Christ as Savior, we don't look forward to it. We want to do all that we possibly can to avoid it. We want to eat our Wheaties or whatever it is we say to people. You know, give me what I need. Let me exercise. Why? To just eke out a few more extra months of existence, because I don't want to die and go to heaven.

No way. And so we do all that we possibly can. And you know what God says? You're already there. You're already there. You've heard me say it before in another context when I preached on death. That's why there's no big hassle at the border.

You know, because you've already set up residence there. You're in Christ. You can't be thrown out of heaven unless he's thrown out.

He's not going to be thrown out. He is at the right hand of God the Father. You are at the right hand of God the Father now. And all that death does is change the nature of your relationship. But you're already there.

You're already there. Now, do you see the incredible grace of God connected with this? We can't spend time here except to say this, verse 7, in order that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Jesus Christ. You know, if I'd been writing this, I'd say he did this so that we would be happy. Because after all, isn't that constitutional to be happy? Isn't it unconstitutional to be unhappy? Can't you sue if you're unhappy?

Surely, you should be able to sue. I'm unhappy. I want you to know that the first purpose of God in redemption is not our happiness. It is his glory that in the ages to come he might show the wonder of his grace. You know what we're going to do? We're going to be God's trophies, and we're going to be God's trophies of God's immeasurable grace, and God's going to say throughout all of eternity, look at what I did with these rascals.

Look at what I did with them. Scooped them out of their sin, cleaned them off, reconciled them, elected them to eternal life, raised them, gave them all these privileges, and there they are. That's proof of grace. That's proof of grace. And through the ages to come, that's why we're going to exist. And when you have a trophy, you don't hide it in your closet. You put it where everybody can see it, and God says in the ages to come the principalities, the powers, the good angels, the bad angels, although they won't be wandering around looking at things after a little while. But God says, you're going to be there. You're going to be there. And that's going to be a trophy, a proof of my matchless grace. So does a place of honor. How would you like to sit at the right hand of God the Father, which is a token of high, incredible honor?

Well, guess what? You're there. You're there. Number four, it's a place of drama. It's a place of drama. Let's look at where this phrase occurs again in chapter three, verse eight and following. To me, the very least of all the saints this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ. So what are those riches? Well, I hope that you come for this series of messages because we're going to, as best as we as humans can, and we do it in a very stumbling and inadequate way, but we're going to try to find out what those unfathomable riches are and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery, which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things, in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities. Here it is. You have your pen out, last part of verse 10, in the heavenly places, in the heavenly places.

Place of drama. You know, he talks about a mystery that we're going to have to expound and that is the fact that the Jews and Gentiles are really one. You know, it is indeed, you know, we don't even think of it, but it is a remarkable change of thinking, to think that we can be saved without becoming Jews. You know, in the Old Testament, you had to be baptized and be brought into Judaism to be saved, and the Jews and the Gentiles, the antagonism between them, and the Jews didn't like the Gentiles, did they? But they do now, don't they, pastor? Only in Christ.

This guy lives in the real world, doesn't he? He's not in heaven yet. Paul is going to say this is remarkable that Jews and Gentiles are one in Christ.

And again, he's going to say that the wisdom of God is going to be shown to the rulers and the authorities. Are those just good angels? Might include bad angels, too, until they are all thrown into the lake of fire. And this is what makes Satan so incredibly angry. Say, what does he have against me?

I've never bothered him. The fact that God has taken sinners that deserve hell, and here he thought that they were all going to go in hell with them, and the fact that God has taken sinners like that and has given them the privilege of being at the right hand of God the Father and displaying his grace and his mercy is just more than he can fathom, because there's not a single angel that has ever been saved, and never, ever will be. That's very clear in the scripture. No angel has ever been saved.

No angel ever will be. So the angels, the good angels, they rejoice in our salvation, and God uses them to educate them regarding his grace and his wisdom. And the evil angels look at us with intense jealousy and outrageous, outrageous anger. But it's a place of drama, all taking place in the heavenlies.

Finally, number five, we've noticed it's a place of blessing, a place of power, a place of honor, a place of drama, it's a place of conflict. Notice this, chapter 6, verse 12. Chapter 6, verse 12. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness. Catch this now in the heavenly places, in the heavenly places.

We're going to say, no, it can't be. I thought you were talking about, you know, the heavenlies as that place that is exempt from conflict. No, no, actually the heavenlies has to do with that metaphysical realm in which there is still intense conflict.

And five times Paul uses that word against. In verse 11, put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places.

I mean, don't you know something about the battle? Don't you know that there is an enemy there who wants to take every step that we take spiritually and take it from us? Don't you know that there is a being out there who wants to take all of our past sins and have us fall into the same sins again? Don't you know that there's a being there that does not want us to pray, that does not want us to memorize scripture? And we fight in the heavenlies. We're talking now about some dark, dark beings out there.

And some of you know all about those dark beings. And all of us do, even those of us who think that we have been exempt from direct combat. We have not.

We have not. Now, that means that we're not talking about a lifestyle that involves no conflict. We're talking about a lifestyle that takes heavenly resources and applies them to earth, but on earth the conflict is intense and it is fierce. Let me give a couple of concluding observations that will help us put this in perspective. First of all, I want you to know that you are the object of God's focused attention.

You're the object of God's focused attention. I marvel at this, but let's suppose that I had a sheet of paper up here, which I do, but let's suppose that this sheet of paper had a circle on it the size of, say, a golf ball on the top and a little dot on the farthest end. And the distance between them, let's say, would be about nine inches. The golf ball would represent the sun. The little dot would represent the earth. And between the two, as you know, there are 93 million miles. So every inch on my paper represents 10 million miles. So here you have now the sun, and here you have the earth on the sheet of paper. If you were to extrapolate, if you were to use the same scale, do you know where the next star would have to be? The star that is closest to the earth?

The next star, my friend, would be 40 miles away, 40 miles away. Why do I throw that into this message? I just marvel at the fact that of all of the trillions of stars that God created, of this great universe, God says earth is going to be the place where the issue of good and evil, the devil and God, good angels and bad angels, all of these things are going to be settled, and the focus of my attention is always going to be my people, my people. His eye is on the sparrow, and we can be absolutely sure Jesus said that you are of so much more value than sparrows, and therefore the Father watches us. The way you lived is of intense interest to angels, to demons, and to God.

They're all watching you. Second observation is this, that we must learn to sit in heaven before we can really walk on earth. We must learn to sit in heaven. You know, it says that Christ is seated, we are seated. The first three chapters of Ephesians tells us how to sit in heaven. It outlines all the glories, all the spiritual blessings, and then you pick it up, chapter 4 verse 1, he talks about walking. But you see, in order for us to walk, we have to walk from the standpoint of strength. We need to be able to know who we are in Christ in the heavenlies before we can really make it on this earth successfully.

And that's why we want to study this book that's going to help us to know where we're seated, so we're going to know how we can walk. And finally, as I've already emphasized, this is the place of conflict, the place of conflict. I am not offering you today a life that is free of conflict, I'm offering you a life that has victory connected with it because of the fact that we are in Christ, the fact that we are joined to him, and that we are seated with him. Even there where the church was founded, I want to read a few verses as to what really happened after the gospel was preached in the revival that we talked about where they were burning all of their things and what a house cleaning the church of God would have today if the same thing took place. But you'll notice it says, there was a certain man, Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines for Diana, who was bringing no little business to the craftsman. He gathered together with a workman of similar trades and said, men, you know that our prosperity depends upon this business. And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul is persuaded and turned away a considerable number of people.

This really amuses me. Notice what it says now. Paul has been telling people that gods made with hands are no gods at all. Yeah, I guess he would be telling people that.

And not only is there danger that this trade of ours falls into disrepute, but we're going to lose money, et cetera, et cetera. And then they begin that great crescendo of praise to Diana. Great is the goddess Diana. Great is the goddess Diana.

And they do this for two hours. And I needed to read this because Pastor Worley says that this is one of his favorite verses. It reminds him of some church meetings he used to attend when he was a boy. It says in verse 32, then some were shouting one thing and some another, for the assembly was in confusion and the majority did not know for what cause they had come together. That's verse 32.

Isn't that one of your favorites? While you have all of this confusion and opposition on earth, the people are victorious because they knew who they are in Christ and they were beginning to live in the heavenlies. As we as a church and as we as a nation begin to disintegrate morally and spiritually, the stronger our witness, the more opposition, the more opposition. I received a letter from somebody today, 19-year-old girl in a university classroom defending the faith with a professor who just constantly is putting her down and ridiculing the Bible. God bless her.

God bless her. It's going to be more opposition all the time, but blessed are those who know how to apply the resources of heaven to the nitty-gritty reality of earth. That's what Ephesians is about and that is the purpose of our study. And if you're here today and you've never believed on Jesus, you've never trusted him and this message has been quite spacey, quite frankly, to you, did you know that even where you are you could say, Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner and I need you.

Reconcile me to God so that I can understand the blessings that this book is all about. If God is talking to you, somebody may be here today and you just within your heart you say, right now I want to believe. The Holy Spirit's been working in your heart. You respond to what the Spirit is saying and while I pray, you believe.

Join me as we do that. Father, we thank you for the revival at Ephesus. Thank you for the house cleaning. Thank you for the occultism that was taken care of, the people who threw their books into the fire. Oh Lord, we long for a day when we also shall be similarly cleansed by your Spirit that we might put away from us everything that stands in the way of spiritual development and growth. Father, we pray in this moment that you might help us to know what it is to draw on heaven's resources.

Thank you for all those who stand for you in colleges and in workplaces. Thank you, Father, for our people that are salt and light oftentimes amid great opposition. Oh, grant them the faith to remain true to you. And for those who have never believed on you, at this moment we pray that you, oh Lord, might open their hearts and they might say, yes, I believe. I receive Christ today. Grant that, Father, in Jesus' name.

Amen. You know, my friends, sometimes we are told that we do not have to fight in the Christian life. We just need to rest in the Lord. But you know, the Bible says in the book of Hebrews that we should labor to enter into rest.

We have to fight for our rest. But it's so wonderful that God gives us the grace to claim the spiritual treasures that are ours in Jesus Christ. I've written a book entitled The Inheritance of the Redeemed, and I've just given you the subtitle. It has to do with understanding much better all that we have in Christ, and as a result of that, walking with a sense of confidence, always remembering that we are number one on God's list of things to take care of, and He will bring us home. For a gift of any amount, this book can be yours. I'll be giving you the info in just a moment, but I want to thank the many of you who support this ministry.

Because of people just like you, the ministry of running to win continues to grow. Many of you have heard me emphasize that thanks to you, this ministry is in 20 different countries in four different languages, and because of the internet, we go around the world. Here's what you can do. Go to RTWOffer.com. Ask for the book The Inheritance of the Redeemed. RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. I'm going to be giving you that contact info again because I believe it is very important, and it will be very helpful for you in your walk with God. Go to RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

Right now, RTWOffer.com. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. Erwin Lutzer has concluded Living in Heaven While on Earth, the first message in a series from Ephesians called Between Heaven and Earth. Some people feel that in their spiritual journey, they checked out their options and then chose Christ. Next time, we'll find out that the choice of salvation is not ours to make, and it never was. Don't miss our next broadcast. Thanks for listening. For Dr. Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.