Running To Win 15 Minute Version

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 got a letter saying that someone died, leaving you 10 million dollars? 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. In Romans, we read: “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. Today, we continue a series from Romans chapter eight on the blessings we’ve been given as children of an awesome God. And one key blessing is this: you will sit next to the King.

Erwin W. Lutzer: 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’re 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.

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. 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 struggle 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 of 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 grieved 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.”

Dave McAllister: My friend, I want your attention for a moment. I want you to imagine that this message, which is a message of hope, goes into the darkest corners of the world—a world in which there is very little hope, there is the hope of the gospel and there is the hope of believing on Jesus Christ so that God becomes our Father.

Would you help us get this ministry to even more countries? Right now, we are actually in 50 different countries in seven different languages, and we’ll soon be going into an eighth language. And we can do that because of people just like you who have invested in this ministry.

I hope that you have a pen or pencil handy because I would like you to think about becoming what we call an endurance partner. The Bible says that we should run the race of life with endurance. Here’s what you do to get some info. Go to offerrtw.com. That’s offerrtw.com, and when you’re there, you click on the endurance partner button.

Or you can call us at 1-800-215-5001. Now because we depend upon people just like you, let me give you that contact info again. Go to offerrtw.com, click on the endurance partner button, or call us at 1-800-215-5001.

Erwin Lutzer introducing “You Will Sit Next to the King,” the second in an eight-part series on Children of an Awesome God. Do you feel free calling God Daddy? If not, plan to listen as this teaching continues next time. Children of an Awesome God opens our hearts and minds to the real future ahead for the believer.

This series will be sent on CD as our thanks when you give a gift of any amount to support Running to Win. Just call us at 1-800-215-5001. That’s 1-800-215-5001. Online, go to offerrtw.com. That’s offerrtw.com. Or write to Running to Win, Moody Church, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is a ministry of the Moody Church.