Running To Win

Dave McAllister: Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. What if you found you're an heir to a fortune and didn't know it? An heir, that's exactly what you are as a child of God. The Bible says the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, joint heirs with Christ. 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, people are thrilled when they find they've been named in a relative's will and have a major inheritance coming to them. As children of God, many of us don't realize we have exactly that waiting for us.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: But you know, Dave, as you've already implied, the problem is we do not enter into that which is ours. It must be received by faith, it must be received by discipline, by understanding, by recognizing that it is indeed a gift of God.

And my friend today, no matter where you are, I believe that you're going to be greatly blessed by this message, and I want to emphasize that this message will go to 50 different countries in seven different languages because of people just like you who have chosen to become a part of what we like to call the Running to Win family.

We call them endurance partners because Jesus said that we should run the race of life together all the way to the finish line. At the end of this message, I'm going to challenge you to investigate what it means to become an endurance partner. Now let us listen.

The name of the woman is Birdie Adams. Birdie died at the age of 71 in Palm Beach, Florida, on Christmas Day, 1976. Birdie, according to the police and the coroner, the cause of death was malnutrition. She lived in a hovel, she was obviously living in squalor, she begged for food in the neighborhood, and when she died, indeed, it was for lack of food.

As they went through her house trying to just find out how they could identify her and so forth, they came across two keys. The keys were actually for lockboxes in a bank. Bank number one had 700 shares of AT&T, which back in 1976 probably really meant something. And not only that, but in it was $200,000 in cash. In the other lockbox, no shares, just $600,000 in cash.

Birdie's relatives would inherit it, actually a niece and a nephew. Can you imagine them getting that phone call? "We just want you to know that your aunt Birdie died and she left you an inheritance." "Birdie? Yeah, you know the woman that you didn't want to attend any events because she never showered? Remember that one? She has just left you over a million dollars to divide between yourselves."

A friend of mine who tells this story likes to point out that misers are weird people, but they sure make great ancestors. And they do, don't they? In the eighth chapter of the book of Romans, it's as if God says, "I'm giving you the keys so that you can unlock the boxes and see what your inheritance is." When you begin to think that you are living in poverty, what you can do is to simply open up the text and you can see what I've done for you and what I still am going to do for you.

Romans 8 is the passage that everyone should be turning to at this moment. It begins with the famous words, "There is therefore now no condemnation." If you weren't here last time, be sure to get the message so that you can understand that in sequence. The chapter begins with no condemnation, which takes care of our past. The chapter ends with no separation, which takes care of our future. And what an ocean of truth lies between those two concepts.

What we'll discover today is that salvation is much more than simply God taking away our sins. Ask the average person what a Christian is. "Well, he's a Christian who's been forgiven, somebody who's been forgiven." Yes, he's been forgiven, but much more than that, the forgiveness happens to bring something else about. You are not merely forgiven and that's the end of the story.

As a matter of fact, the whole Trinity is involved in this business of salvation. It is huge to God. To take you out of the pit and to save you is huge. And I am pointing at you because I know you, and thank you for smiling back. Now let's look at the text and I'm going to pick it up there in verse 12. Romans chapter 8.

"So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you've received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God, fellow heirs with Christ, provided that we suffer with him in order that we may be glorified together." He's talking about us sinners, imagine that.

How is the Trinity involved? First of all, notice that the Holy Spirit leads us. In fact, as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. The ministry and the work of the Holy Spirit. And how does the Spirit lead us? Lead us to do what? Well, first of all, lead us in our struggle with sin. I read the text. "For if you live according to the flesh," verse 13, "you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body"—he's talking about sinful deeds—"you will live."

What an amazing statement. To put to death the deeds of the body, the sinful deeds of the body. You know, the older translations used to always say "mortify." We don't use the word "mortification" anymore. We may talk about a mortician, but we don't use the word "mortification." It means to put to death sin in our lives. The ancients used to say, "Either you will kill sin or sin will kill you," and the Christian fights against sin, trying with the help of the Holy Spirit obviously to kill it.

Most of us say, "I don't want to kill it, I just want to manage it." The Bible says that through the Spirit, we put to death the deeds of the body that we may live. Of course, that's a separate message. A couple of years ago I thought I'd preach an entire message on this text; I still may. But let me just simply say that we put the deeds of the flesh to death by deep repentance, by trust, by faith, by gathering together with God's people, by reading the word, and sometimes by drastic action.

Jesus was talking about lust and he says, "If your eye offends you, pluck it out and cast it from you, for it is better for you to enter into heaven with one eye than to be in hell with two." Wow. Jesus is saying whatever you need to do to put to death the lust of the flesh, do it. So the Spirit helps us, but we have a part. We by the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body.

Now you say, "Well, is he talking about Christians, non-Christians?" Well, the previous verses do talk about the contrast between the converted and the unconverted. The mind of the flesh, which is hostile to God, in strong comparison to the mind that has been regenerated by the Spirit. But here notice he is talking to Christians as a warning. Verse 12, "So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die."

In a sense, this verse applies to both. If you are here today and you've never trusted Christ and therefore you are living according to the flesh, your own dictates, your own desires, your own agendas, as you must, then you will die. You will die in this life in many different ways in the sense of the emptiness of your own life, and eventually there will be eternal death.

If you're here as a Christian and you live according to the flesh, you also will die in the sense that life not only will be empty, but it will be filled with rot, filled with rot, and you will not enjoy the life that God intends for you, even though at the end of the day as a believer you will be saved because as we heard sung, "God his children ne'er forsaketh." But I've known Christians and you have too, who have lived wasted, empty, self-filled lives, and the Bible says that if you live in pleasure, you are dead while you're doing it. If you live according to the flesh, you will die.

So the Spirit helps us with our battle with sin. The Spirit also helps us with our struggle with assurance. Do we belong to God or do we not? Look at the text, everyone with a Bible open. It says, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God, for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear"—slavery to death, fear of death, slavery to the law—"but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God."

And what the Holy Spirit does is to give us not only the permission but the desire to call God Father and to even call him Papa. Abba, Aramaic for daddy, dada. It's what a baby would say as he's growing up, and to us he might say Papa or Daddy; in Aramaic he'd say Abba, Daddy. And we can call him that. The Spirit enables us to speak that.

If you've ever led a person to faith in Jesus Christ, you know that almost immediately after their conversion, when they pray, they call God Father, inspired and led and spoken in the Spirit. I know a woman who struggles greatly with alcoholism, and she keeps falling into it again and again though she is trying to put to death the deeds of the body. She's having a hard time. But every time she confesses her sin, she always begins with, "Father, you know how much I love you, and you know that I know that this is sinful and it grieves you." Isn't that interesting? That's what comes out of her mouth is Father. And Father, we can even say Daddy.

Now, if during the prayer this morning I had said, "Now Daddy, we're here together as a congregation and we need your help," I can imagine that I'd get some letters. People would say, "Pastor Lutzer has become far too familiar with God. He's becoming too intimate, and this seems a little disrespectful to me." But I could have done that. I could have done that. And in your private prayer you can look into his eyes by faith, so to speak, and say Papa, Daddy.

Jews, when they copied the Old Testament, they were so concerned about reverence for the name of God that they would stop and they'd take and they'd clean out their pen, they'd put clean ink into it, they'd wash their hands, and then they would continue. That has an upside. It's wonderful to be reverent in the presence of God. But it has a downside. God was so distant, he was so impersonal that in the Old Testament they'd have never thought of calling God Father. Indeed, in the Muslim community you cannot call God Father.

"Abba, Father" is the witness of the Holy Spirit that we belong to God and we can say, "I love you, Daddy." Now notice that the Spirit helps us not only in our battle with sin, he helps us not only with our struggle with assurance, he gives us permission to say Daddy, and also with the knowledge that we belong to God, our identity. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

Now, very important. Other religions think they are right. They are just as convinced that they are right as we are. The difference is they do not have individual assurance. If you ask any one of them, "Do you know that you belong to God and that you belong to him forever and that God his children ne'er forsaketh and God is your Father?" They'll say, "No, no one can have that assurance." Why? It is only given by the Spirit. The sense of certainty that with the purity of the Holy Spirit I've been cleansed and I belong to God. What a way to live.

As you know, 45,000 runners passed Moody Church this morning. We didn't count them all, but they were there, believe me, a river of humanity. I was out there for three quarters of an hour and it showed no sign of stopping; it must have been two and a half to three hours by the time they all got past.

I noticed one T-shirt. A T-shirt worn by a man running who said, "For my Father." That's what was on his T-shirt. I thought to myself, probably his father has passed on, and very likely what he's saying is, "I'm doing this for you, Dad," hoping that his dad was watching. "For my Father." And I thought of all the training that this man went through and all of the hardship that must be necessary in order to run the marathon. I still think it would be much easier for me to drive it than to run it.

What is there in your life that's hard? What discipline do you have? What sin do you have to put away? Would you do it for my Father? "I'm doing it for my Daddy. If he loves me that much and cares about me, I'll do it for him." And we know for sure that Daddy is watching.

The Holy Spirit of God leads us. But you'll notice that the Father adopts us. The whole Trinity is involved; it's verse 15. "We have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba, Father.'" It's the spirit of adoption. The Father says that you are mine.

Now you'll notice that there are two different expressions that are used here for us. One is that we are the children of God, and the other is that we are the sons of God or the sons and daughters of God, and you hear about adoption. So let me clarify all that for you very quickly.

We get into the Christian life by being born into it. That makes us a child of God. "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." So we get into the Christian life by being born into it, but as soon as we are born into it, God adopts us. And the reason that he does that, and Paul argues this in Galatians, is that a baby can't enter into its inheritance. If you have a child, he could inherit, you know, $100 million and he can't enjoy it; he just needs to get through his day and not drive his parents crazy in the process. That's his agenda.

You need to be a son or a daughter, an adult son or daughter to enjoy your inheritance. Now this is what the Bible teaches. It teaches that we are born again and we become God's children, and immediately God adopts us so that we can begin to enter into our inheritance right away. And the new Christian who's never trusted Christ before but now trusts him as Savior has the very same inheritance as the believer who's lived with God and known God for many years. Now that new believer is going to have to grow into that inheritance, but it will be his possession.

There's no doubt in my mind that when the Apostle Paul talks about God adopting us, he's speaking about the Roman method of adoption, which was very complicated. But it involved two very important things that I will mention briefly. One is that all ties to previous parents had to be severed. That meant that all debts were cancelled, it meant all obligations to the previous family were negated; they no longer existed.

That's why by the way the Apostle Paul says, "So we are obligated now as God's children no longer to live according to the flesh." When God adopts us into our family, we have no obligation to obey the impact that Adam had in our life. We're in another sphere here. So that's one thing. It was to cut off, to sever yourself from parents who previously owned you or you were theirs.

But the second had to do with the bonding, the bonding that had to take place between the father and the son, the new son. And this involved giving him a new name—you had to be have a new name—and a new status. He would now inherit all of the blessings of the father, a new sense of security, because all of the wealth now of the father would be shared, and that adopted son because of this very solemn ceremony would belong to that man forever. Till the father died of course, and our heavenly Father never dies, so we're secure all the way to the pearly gates.

So what Paul is talking about is here is the fact that God adopts us and he accepts us as sons and as daughters of his with all rights, privileges, joys, and happiness associated with those privileges and with that honor. We receive the Father's name, we receive the Father's friendship, we receive the Father's wealth.

Remember that song that we used to sing when we were younger? "My Father is rich in houses and land, he holdeth the wealth of the world in his hands, of rubies and diamonds, of silver and gold, he has wealth untold. I'm a child of the King." Yeah, we really do inherit everything that God has. I'm not making this up. I'll give you some verses in a moment that will show you that this is true.

And we inherit of course also the Father's sense of security. It says when we get to the Holy City, "Behold the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and walk with them and God himself shall be their God, and they shall dwell with him forever and ever." We know a little bit about that on earth, but our relationship with God is oftentimes clouded, it's often unclear, sin gets in the mix. Just imagine the total clarity, the complete clarity of our consciences and our hearts purified by God in his presence enjoying him.

So what we really have is the Father who adopts us, who says to us, "You are mine, you are mine." New identity, new obligations. So notice that the Holy Spirit is involved, the Spirit leads us, it is the Father who adopts us, and then as if that isn't enough, the Son crowns us. Imagine all that freely given to those who are in Christ who have turned from their sins to him.

Dave McAllister: This is Pastor Lutzer. Don't you agree that a message like this is uplifting? Because life is hard and there are times that we need to be able to simply relax and learn that we have a greater inheritance in Jesus Christ than we realize.

And I want to emphasize that the message that you have just been listening to is heard around the world. It's in 50 different countries in seven different languages, and we are going into an eighth language very soon. And the reason that we are doing that is because we believe that the gospel ultimately is the most important message that people can hear because it is the message of eternal life.

Would you consider helping us? Would you consider becoming what we like to call an endurance partner? Because Jesus said that we should run the race of life with endurance, and of course we all want to do it faithfully to the finish line.

I hope that you have a pen or pencil handy because I want you to investigate something. Would you go to rtwoffer.com? That's rtwoffer.com. Of course, rtwoffer is all one word. When you're there, you click on the endurance partner button. Or if you prefer, you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. Endurance partners are those who support this ministry regularly with their prayers and with their gifts. I want you to check it out. Once again, go to rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337.

You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. Think life's tough? Just wait. Think you've always gotten the short end of life's stick? Just wait. As a member of the body of Christ, your inheritance is earning interest right now in the bank of heaven, and one day you'll make a withdrawal. Next time on Running to Win, tune in to find out why even in a tough economy, you can be earning fantastic interest in heaven's bank. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.