Hi, this is Pastor Lutzer. Let me ask you a question.
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That's moodymedia.org forward slash matching, or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. Our eyes are often drawn to secondary things, such as political advantage. That's why we need to have a clear view of how important the cross really is. Today, we'll learn what God the Father thinks of His Son's cross. 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, we've come to part three in your series on Christians, politics, and the cross.
Help us focus on today's teaching. You know, Dave, I preach this series of messages to help people to understand the importance of the cross. But at the same time, I don't want to give the impression that politics is unimportant. My desire is to keep them balanced, and as I emphasize in these messages, the cross of Christ must always be above the flag.
But the flag is important. Well, it's quite challenging, isn't it, for us to think about these things, particularly in this political year. I've written a book entitled Christians, Politics, and the Cross, and we're making it available as a resource.
What you can do is go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. For now, let us listen to What God Thinks of the Cross. The question at hand is this. What do we do when society begins to crumble? What do we do when our families are coming apart and when there is violence and immorality and darkness and great cruelty in a country? What do we do when our freedoms, which we so often have taken for granted, suddenly seem to be eroded in courts that want to make a very strong wall of separation between church and state, and when political correctness seems to close the mouths of our university students and college students, knowing that they cannot share their faith? What do we do at a time like that? Well, I want you to know that even though things are bad, it is encouraging for us to realize that there have been other times in history when the church has been a minority. We may think that we do not have enough people to vote people into office whom we would like to see there, or we think that they might do a better job. But Christians in a democracy might become a minority when their voting power is not that great.
What then? Where do we turn? Where do we turn when we have pinned our hopes on political realities only to discover that they might be overturned?
Where do we turn? Well, I want you to take your Bibles today and turn to the fourth chapter of the book of Acts, Acts chapter 4, because it is here that we see that the church was also a great minority. But God used the apostles mightily for the advancement of his kingdom, even in circumstances that seem to be contrary to them, circumstances in which they were decidedly a minority.
Acts chapter 4 verse 1 reads, and as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came upon them, being greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead, and they laid hands on them and put them in jail until the next day because it was evening. The next day they bring them out and Peter gives the folks who had jailed him a speech, and he's speaking to people who are very hostile to the message of Jesus Christ. And he says to them in verse 11, he, that is Christ, is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the very cornerstone, and there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. Now there's an example of keeping the main thing the main thing, because the most important truth that people could ever know is that God has come to us in Christ and that he is only the only way to the Father, and this is our message in a day when many people seem to be discouraged because of the violence and because of what is happening in society. Now what I'd like to suggest to you today and not only suggest it but to imprint it upon your mind is this, that the cross, and when we speak of the cross we're not talking about a piece of wood on which Jesus Christ died, but rather that word cross refers to Christ's death and what was accomplished there. The cross is really the centerpiece of God's agenda and therefore it should be our centerpiece too. As a matter of fact the cross is the hinge upon which the door of history turns. The cross is actually the hub in which all of the spokes of history all come together and it is the cross that makes sense out of all of these seemingly unrelated elements that go into your history textbooks. It is the cross and what we must do that is to realize that when we as Christians talk about that old rugged cross we are talking about the centrality of our faith. Well my assignment today is a big one but we're going to plunge in and we're going to walk through it. What we're going to do is to look at the cross from the standpoint of eternity past. We're going to talk about the cross also in history, the history that has passed and then we're going to speak about the cross in the future but the journey will be brief.
I want you to come along with me. What we need to understand is first of all the earth is like a drama that is being played out. This is the planet upon which issues such as justice and injustice, righteousness and unrighteousness, the devil and God.
This is the planet upon which all those issues are going to be settled. That's what God's plan was that this would be the place where it would all happen. What we want to do at the beginning is to look at the person who made the script, the one who wrote the play so to speak and that is God himself and his relationship to the cross and that's why I've entitled this message what God thinks of the cross or the cross we could begin by talking about it in eternity past.
The script writer, what does he think of it? Well you remember the fall of man in the garden of Eden, of course a very familiar story. Do you remember what it says in Genesis 3 15?
You need not look at it because you know it by memory. God said to the serpent I will put enmity between thee and the woman between thy seed and her seed and he that is the seed of the woman will crush you on the head and you will only be able to nip his heel. A couple of observations about that verse. First of all God is saying that he is the one who's going to take the initiative in redemption. Man fell into sin, the ruin is great, the devastation was all over the place. What can man do?
The answer is nothing. God says I will. Then he says that that act of redemption is going to have in it enmity, there's going to be strife, there's going to be the seed of the woman which turns out to be Jesus Christ who will crush the head of the serpent and that's what Christ did when he died on the cross. Satan was cast out we read.
Now I have a question for you. When did this idea of redemption occur to God? Was it that after the fall God thought to himself you know I had hoped for better things from Adam and Eve but now that they've blown it I'd better do something.
I'll send my son. Well there's a minister in Canada who preached a message entitled God the gambler. Now he's in an evangelical church in a respectable denomination. God the gambler. What that message actually said is that when God created Adam and Eve he hoped that they would obey him but when they didn't and he lost the gamble he does the very same thing that somebody does in Las Vegas. He ups the ante and now God says I'm willing to gamble even higher.
I'm going to gamble my son. Because said this minister God had no guarantees that anyone would believe on Christ after Christ died but he took the gamble. In fact it's hard for you to believe this but he actually quotes John 3 16 as saying for God so loved the world that he gambled his only begotten son. Now how do you like that theology?
I hope you dislike it passionately. It's demeaning to God. It is unbiblical. It shows you what happens when somebody begins to spin ideas in his mind that have been severed from the scripture and when you begin to float into the realm of your own thinking.
That's what I think it shows. Now if I've been unclear as to my opinion regarding it come up to me later and I'll tell you what I really think about it. It's unworthy of God.
Let me give you a second view that is much better. One that certainly restores sovereignty to God and that is that somewhere between eternity past and the creation of the world it is then that God the Father and God the Son planned redemption and the Father said to God the Son I love you so much I want to give you a gift of redeemed humanity. And so what we're going to do is to realize now that there's going to be a creation there's going to be a fall and there's going to be redemption so that I can display my mercy and my grace and my glory. It does say after all in Titus chapter 1 verse 2 in hope of eternal life which God who cannot lie promised before the world began. To whom did he promise it? God the Father promising it to God the Son. The Trinity involved.
Now that is a much better view but I would like to suggest that the answer even lies deeper in the recesses of eternity. I believe that the cross was an idea in the mind of God as long as God has existed which means from eternity past. It was always an idea in God's mind always. It makes no sense to ask when did the idea of the cross come to God or occur to God or when did he plan it?
That question makes no more sense than asking when did God arise and what is his history? Because the cross always existed with him. Now of course in a sense that's true of all of God's ideas and all of God's decisions known unto God are all of his works from the beginning of time. But the cross occupied that central place because it was in redemption that God was going to be most clearly seen.
This was if I may be somewhat imprecise his finest moment. Now you say well that makes sense logically because God is eternal therefore redemption is eternal but can you show me a verse? There are some of you who bring your Bibles I wish all of you did and what you need to do is to take your Bible sometimes and put your finger on a verse in your Bible. If you're wanting to do that keep your Bible open to Acts chapter 4 because we're going to come back there but let's look at 2 Timothy. I know that Timothy is a book that's always difficult to find but the good news is that 2 Timothy follows 1 Timothy that should help you. And just before that we have the book of Thessalonians 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 9.
This is what the scripture says that God has saved us and called us with a holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity. That already then God was granting us grace the script was written the plan was made. In fact in Greek that expression says before times eternal.
I can't even get a handle on that I can't understand that I can't get my mind around it. What do you mean before times eternal? Where did God come from we cannot we cannot even think that we can think of God as being eternal in the future it is impossible for us to comprehend God being eternal from the past. Our minds can't grasp it but as long as God existed which is eternity past that's as long as the grace of God was granted to us in Christ that was the script.
Do you realize what that means? That means that you too were in God's mind from eternity past. That the redeemed humanity that Jesus Christ would purchase on the cross they were in God's mind and and you were known to God and you were chosen by God from before the foundation of the earth and you were a part of the divine plan as long as God existed. My point is simply this that there was a cross in the heart of God long before there was a cross planted at Calvary. We've looked very briefly at the cross God's heart God's heart his priority his number one agenda. Let's look briefly at the cross God's history God's history. Now I hope that you kept your Bible open to Acts chapter 4 because Peter here is giving a prayer and in this prayer he gives us a tremendous amount of insight into how it all came about that the purpose of God was accomplished. We'll pick it up in verse 27 for truly in this city that is in Jerusalem there were gathered together against thy holy servant Jesus whom thou didst anoint both Herod and Pontius Pilate along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel to do whatever thy hand and thy purpose predestined to occur.
In eternity past the script was written God knew what was going to happen God already had us in mind way back then and now suddenly the script was going to be played out on the stage of the world and who are the players. There is a coalition of God's enemies that conspire together to have Christ put away to have them put to death. First of all of course you have Herod. Now there are six Harrods in the Bible so don't get them confused it is very easy to do this this actually is Herod Antipas. He was the ruler in Galilee. This is the Herod who beheaded John the Baptist. This is the Herod before whom Christ was brought and Christ said nothing. Remember the story of how Herod said to him perform a miracle do something for me Herod wanted Christ to entertain him with something spectacular and Jesus would not say a word to him he kept quiet that was the Herod. And now suddenly this Herod is confronted by what to do with someone who at his birth was said to be the king of the Jews and he conspired along with some of the others such as Pilate is listed. Pilate is a very tragic figure I think in history because remember he preferred not to have anything to do with Jesus Christ and he knew that Jesus was innocent.
Then his wife even warned him she said because of a dream I have suffered many things don't have anything to do with this man. So he tried to bargain with the Jews and said let me scourge him and let him go because at the Passover you always let a prisoner go anyway. The crowd shouted no not Christ give us Barabbas crucify him crucify him crucify him. So what does Pilate do he gives in to the mob and he lets Jesus be crucified. Now it's interesting that Herod and Pilate were enemies they did not get along at all but the scripture says that on that day they became friends. They said that the man whom we hate has to be put away and we need each other in order to do it.
Let's lay aside our differences to get rid of Christ. And then there were the Gentiles it says here in verse 27. The Gentiles those were the Romans who actually ended up crucifying Christ and of course the nation Israel who rejected him. And why did they reject him was it because of theological difficulties and it's because he claimed to be God and they couldn't handle it their theology couldn't no that isn't the reason. Pilate who had his ear to the ground and was apparently a great student of human nature and picked up the scuttlebutt. He's the one who gives us the answer the Bible says that Pilate knew that it was because of envy that they delivered him.
Jesus made the religious leaders look bad and and because of that jealousy because the crowds were going with Christ and people were turning away from the scribes and the Pharisees and they saw his popularity and they were so angry they said get him out of our way and that was the motivation to have him crucified. Well I have a question for you was it a gamble might it be that it won't happen what if Jesus came and they wouldn't crucify him and then the prophecies of God could not be fulfilled. After all said someone God is the gambler well I want you to notice what it says in verse 28 to do whatever thy hand and thy purpose predestined to ochre don't be afraid of that word predestined it simply means predetermined.
Wasn't a chance in the world that it would happen other than the way the script was written. Yes my friend we must always remind ourselves that God is in charge. You know I'm greatly encouraged by Isaiah. You remember how it says in the year that King who Zaya died, I saw the Lord was I was a king who range for 52 years. And I think the point that God was making is this that even though the throne of Israel is empty the throne in heaven is always occupied. Let's keep that in our minds during this very volatile political season. Well I've written a book entitled Christians politics and the cross.
It's an urgent plea for the church to return to its mission, but at the same time I want to emphasize that politics is also important, but not supremely important. Well very quickly for a gift of any amount we're making this resource available for you. Here's what you do go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337.
That's rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. Thank you so much for your support and for your prayers. It's time again for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Many who listen to us battle with deep fears.
Today's questioner is no exception. Nancy from Ohio writes, I've been experiencing many health issues over the last few months and feel like the devil has me chained up tight. I was a terrible sinner when I was young, but have been God's child for quite some time, but the devil is using my mind as his playground. I'm overwhelmed with fearful thoughts concerning my family. I know God is my only hope, but I cannot get free from these binding chains of fear and doubt.
I feel so worthless. I really worry about my two grandchildren who have never been taken to church and have had to endure a lot as children. Although I am God's child, I feel as though God is not listening to the prayers I pray to him. I feel defeated and know I shouldn't since I am a child of God. Well, Nancy, I know that you have many burdens that you are bearing and God wants to help you bear them. So let me give you a word of encouragement.
First of all, I think that your analysis is right. I do believe that the devil is using your mind as a playground. And what you need to do is to not let him do that. You need to fill your mind with God's promises and you need to accept these promises. But you know, Nancy, it's possible for us to get into such a predicament that we can't get out of it on our own. I really do think that in your despair, you need people to come around you to pray with you and to pray for you.
Now, you know, you didn't mention anything about your relationship with your husband, but you spoke about grandchildren. That's another burden that you can't bear alone. I hope that God gives you some Christian friends who can encourage you and pray with you. That's really what you need. What you need to do is to find, then, time to put your mind on the promises of God and grant grace.
A further comment. I'm just rethinking about what you said about the sense of guilt that you've had over your past. God doesn't remember your past.
He blots it out. The Bible says that he takes our sin and as far as the East is from the West, so far he removes it, and then he dumps the sin into the depths of the sea and he puts up a sign saying, No fishing. Nancy, God has forgiven you. God loves you.
God cares. Keep walking in your faith. Words of hope for Nancy and for all in her predicament. Thank you, Dr. Lutzer. If you'd like to hear your question answered, 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 Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614. The cross of Jesus was in the mind of God from eternity past. Its benefits extend into eternity yet to be. Without a doubt, its history's great intersection, the place where the love of God was expressed to fallen mankind most clearly. Next time on Running to Win, Erwin Lutzer turns again to Acts chapter 4, where we get a glimpse of God's big picture view of the cross. Running to Win is all about helping you understand God's roadmap for your race of life. Thanks for listening. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
