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June 25, 2024 1:00 am

What God Thinks Of The Cross "“ Part 2 of 2

Running to Win / Erwin Lutzer

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June 25, 2024 1:00 am

The sovereignty of God in His plan of salvation is revealed through the cross of Christ, which is the centerpiece of God's plan from eternity past. The cross is not just a historical event, but also a future reality in heaven, where Jesus Christ will be represented forever by those who have been redeemed by its purchase and blood.

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Hi, this is Pastor Lutzer. Let me ask you a question.

Have you been blessed by running to win? Recently, we received a very interesting proposal. One of our listeners has pledged up to $25,000 for those who contribute to this ministry for the first time. Now, this only lasts until the end of June.

Would you take advantage of this opportunity of doubling your gift? Here's what you do. moodymedia.org forward slash matching. That's moodymedia.org forward slash matching, or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. from eternity past. Its benefits extend to eternity yet to be. Its history's great intersection, the place where God expressed His love to fallen mankind most clearly. 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're turning to Acts chapter 4 today. What will we find when we get there? Well, Dave, what we're going to discover is the sovereignty of God in His plan of salvation. And I don't know about you, but my heart rejoices when I realize that God did have a plan from eternity past. And of course, as we look back in history, we can see the cross of Christ being the centerpiece of God's plan, the cross and the resurrection. And of course, eventually, we'll have the privilege of being with God. That is, as Augustine said, the city of God.

Meanwhile, we do live in the city of man as well. And that's why this series of messages attempts to balance the relationship between the cross and the flag. Would you help us get these messages to even more people? Would you consider becoming an endurance partner? That's someone who stands with us regularly with their prayers and their gifts. Very quickly, here's what you can do to get some info. Go to RTWOffer.com.

When you're there, you click on the endurance partner button, or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now let us listen carefully. 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 four, 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. 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 him put to death. First of all, of course, you have Herod. Now there are six Herods 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, and 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 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 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 occur. Don't be afraid of that word, predestined.

It simply means predetermined. It wasn't a chance in the world that it would happen other than the way the script was written. Well, you say, yeah, but human responsibility, human free will.

I hope you realize that I'm not going to speak on solving that dilemma today, or else we'd be here a little longer than you intended to stay when you came here today. All that I can say is that in the Bible, we need to live with the tension, that on one hand, we are not puppets, but we actually do have wills, and we act voluntarily as Herod. If you went up to Herod and said, now, Herod, why are you delivering Christ over? Did he say, well, I feel the pressure of a divine decree. No, he did it because he wanted to. He acted voluntarily. So we need to live with that, and then we also need to live with the fact that whatever God wills comes to pass, and we have to live with that tension and recognize that there's some mysteries here that we will never possibly solve.

But here's my point. When Jesus Christ died in history now, and the script of heaven became a reality, the scripture says that God set him forth to be a propitiation for our sins, to declare, first of all, the justice of God, the apostle Paul said in Romans 3. God wanted to declare the fact that he was totally just, that he could not overlook sin, that if he wanted to redeem sinners, every single sin had to be accounted for and paid for, meticulously just, and the cross of Christ proves that. To prove his justice, to prove his love, because he would not have had to die at all. In other words, God could have been just by just letting all of humanity go its way and be lost forever. There was no necessary reason to redeem us apart from love.

And that's why we say with such enthusiasm that God loved the world, and aren't you glad he did? And then his wisdom, his wisdom of how this dilemma could be solved, that on the one hand we are sinners and cannot be received by God, on the other hand he is so holy that indeed there can be no bridge, no fellowship, and the dilemma was solved by the coming of Christ when God came himself onto the stage of history. Remember the Roman poet Horace used to say, used to criticize Greek plays, because whenever the plot got so tangled that they needed to untangle it, they would bring a god onto the stage, and Horace said sometimes you are bringing a god onto the stage too quickly before the plot is so tangled that it can't be undone. Well, I want you to know that this plot needed a god, and God came.

God came. We've talked about the cross in the heart of God from the beginning of eternity. We've talked about the cross in history and the players as the script was enacted.

What about the future? Is that the end of the cross? No, we have to speak briefly about the cross now in heaven. Take your Bibles and turn to Revelation chapter 5. Revelation chapter 5, chapter 4, God is seen on the throne, but in chapter 5 there is a book written, a scroll that is written on both sides.

It is so full of information. It is the script. It is God's script of history as to how it's all going to end, and no one can open this book. They can't open the seals because it is hidden.

Only the one who wrote the script knows its contents and can enact it and make sure that it is carried out. And so because John is involved here emotionally wondering who is going to open this book, he says, I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals. And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open it or to look upon it.

And I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book nor to look upon it. One of the elders said to me, stop weeping, John. Behold, the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, he has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals. And I saw and notice he didn't see a lion now. He sees a lamb between the throne. That is to say, in the middle of the throne with the four living creatures, the elders, I saw a lamb standing as if it had been slain. There is the cross. It is frequently said that when we get to heaven, yes, we will see the nail pierced hands because Thomas was invited to see them. And there it is, a lamb as if he had been put to death.

He is living, but he still has the scars of that event that took place in history just outside of the walls of the city of Jerusalem. And I want you to notice that now we see the audience that was participating in this play because there is a new song that has been written. Roy Clements points out in a message that the cross of Jesus Christ changes the unchangeable. It even changes heaven. A new song has to be written with new creativity, with a new way in which to worship because the lamb is there on the throne, the lamb who is God.

And notice what they sing when they sing this new song. Worthy art thou, verse nine, to take the book and to break its seals, for thou was slain. There's the cross and its purchase for God with thy blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And notice what it says, and thou has made them to be a kingdom and priest to our God, and they will reign upon the earth.

Now there's a kingdom that is not going to be shaken no matter who wins a political election. Do you see now that if it were not for that cross, if it were not for the lamb that was slain, these people would be indistinguishable from all of the other people in the world because they would not be redeemed. The cross was in the heart of God. The cross in history becomes the focal point of history, and the cross of Christ is going to be represented in heaven forever by those of us who have been redeemed by its purchase and its blood.

That's why the cross is God's priority. You know, on earth it is sometimes said that it's not what you know, it's who you know. That's true in heaven too. When you get to heaven, you want to know the right person, and the right person to know is Jesus Christ. You know I'm here on earth and he will take you to heaven to be with him.

It's not how much you know, it is who you know. And Christ is the center of it all. Now what I need to do is to end today by three very important lessons that I trust will be branded upon our hearts. Number one, redemption. Redemption, not political reformation, is obviously God's priority.

I've emphasized that but I need to say it again, redemption. Not political reformation is God's priority. Now, you don't need to think that I'm asking that we withdraw from the political process.

Here in America we have the privilege to be involved and we should be involved. Christians should be running for office but hear me very carefully. Even that must be subject to God's larger purpose and for the purpose of being a mirror to display the wonder of God's love to fallen humanity. Because what we are interested in is not merely changes that might take place in the world today, but we are interested in eternity.

We are interested in the vision that John had of heaven where you had people from every tongue and people and nation participating. It's not our responsibility to see whether or not we can shout louder than others. Whether we can take up our political muscle and that we can therefore control a political party because they had better march to our agenda and we had better have our Christian agenda adopted. That has its place somewhere if it is done carefully but that is not God's agenda. That's not the thing to which we should be giving our energy, our attention, our time and our money and our focus. We have a higher purpose.

We indeed look for that city whose builder and maker is God and we should not come across to society as those who are hostile, those who can shout just as loud as somebody else and those who whine like babies because our rights are stepped on. The rights of Christians have always been stepped on throughout 2000 years of history. Christ's rights were stepped on and that was the whole message of the cross. It's interesting, I wonder if those who think that believe in political salvation, I wonder if they have ever taken the time to ask this simple question. How did Jesus and a small band of his followers actually transform their culture and transform their society through the proclamation of the gospel?

How did that happen? I believe that we have lost confidence in God's ability to save America through the cross. We don't think that he does that anymore and we're not seeing it happen and therefore we think that God can't and we cast about for some solution that is going to deliver us and restore us and God is bringing us back to the basics, to God's own priority.

That's number one. Number two, all nations, all nations, not just one nation, but all nations are a part of God's program and comprise his agenda. Verse 9, thou didst purchase for God with thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You say, well surely there's a very special little part of heaven that's reserved just for Americans.

Well, maybe there is, but that's not what the text tells us about. Do you realize that God's agenda is much greater than saving the American dream? There are people from Brazil and from Russia and from China and from all the nations of the earth because God's vision for this world is transnational. And it includes people of every color and people of every nation and every tribe that have ever existed and that is God's agenda for the world and that should be our agenda for the world as well.

The best thing we can do is to get in line with the director, the man who wrote the script, the one who wrote the script and be in line with his agenda. Lastly, and of course I've already said it, it is the church. It is the church and not a political party that is the bearer of this message. I want you to know today that the future of America does not rest with a political election. The future of America much more rests with the people of God and always will. It is we who are called to be salt and light and even a candle, even a match in a very dark cave can give a tremendous amount of light and we need not decry the fact that we do not have enough numbers possibly to always do what we want to do politically. We may work toward that goal but that's not a means of discouragement because we recognize that at the end of the day we have a message which can grow and can be in the lives of people and grant them eternal life.

And if God should be pleased, this nation could have a great spiritual awakening and men and women all over the place turning to Christ. You say, well is it going to happen? I don't know whether it's going to happen.

We certainly don't deserve it. I don't believe that Christians are desperate yet. That's why we find it so hard to get people to pray today because we still are not in a condition that is bad enough for them to be that concerned. So we do not know. But what we know is we must, we must stick with God's agenda.

Take for example England. Do you know that there was a time in English history when things were so bad that they would have to shut down Parliament during the afternoon because the members were too drunk to continue? Children were being abused in factories and working long hours and they were being rejected and the decadence was all over the place and then what did God do? He raised up the Wesley brothers and you have the great awakening and that awakening by the way has its effects here in America and we think of the preaching of Jonathan Edwards. We do not know whether God will do that again, but this much we do know is that is that that is ultimately God's means of restoring us. It is through his cross. You see, God gives us the cross and when we believe on the cross and receive what Jesus did for us there as a payment for sinners, when we receive it, then what happens is God gives us himself. God gives us himself. God comes to us. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. What we must do is to have the same boldness as the early church who were so deeply convinced that this message could change lives. Nothing could stop them as they proclaimed it around the world and we stand now.

We stand in their history and in their train. Will you join me as we pray? Father, we pray that there may be those who in this moment are believing on Christ as Savior. We pray that you will give them the grace to reach out and say, Lord Jesus, I've sinned. I cannot be reconciled to you apart from Christ. I accept him.

Enable them to reach out. Father, for those of us who know him, we pray that during these days we might use every opportunity to represent him well, to tell men and women that there is only one name by which you can be saved. And that is the glorious name of Christ. Grant us that vision of the cross. We pray in Jesus name. Well, this is Pastor Lutzer.

I want you to listen to me very carefully. What is it that motivates us here at Running to Win? The answer is the fact that the gospel of Jesus Christ is going around the world in 50 different countries in seven different languages. For a moment, could I just share a testimony that we've received from Egypt?

Because Running to Win is in the Arabic language. This person connects and says that the words that were being preached amazed him. He says something inside me urged me to contact you, although I was afraid.

The person goes on to say that if his family discovered this contact, they could be in trouble. Please tell me about Jesus. After he was contacted, by the way, by some of those who are involved in our ministry in the Arabic language, he prayed, Oh, I am a sinner and I need the Lord's redemption. Now, friends, testimonies like this would not be possible were it not for people just like you. Have you ever considered supporting the Ministry of Running to Win? Have you ever considered becoming an endurance partner? That's someone who stands with us regularly with their prayers and their gifts.

Of course, the amount that you give is entirely your decision. I hope that you have a pen or pencil handy because we need people just like you as we continue to expand this ministry. Go to RTWOffer.com. Now, RTWOffer, of course, is all one word. RTWOffer.com. When you're there, you click on the endurance partner button.

Or you can pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. Help us to continue to get the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world. I want to thank you in advance for your prayers, for your gifts, because together we are making a difference. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. On Running to Win, we've been looking at God's view of the cross, but next time we'll change our focus. These days, politicians take lots of polls, so let's take a poll ourselves. Don't miss What Man Thinks of the Cross. As we'll see, the contrast is startling. 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.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-06-25 02:36:24 / 2024-06-25 02:45:38 / 9

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