Running To Win

Guest (Male): Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Ever been at the end of your rope? Jonah was when he found himself in the belly of a fish. God has amazing ways of getting us to say yes. He arranges conditions so that we will choose to do His will. 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 in Jonah chapter two, learning about death to self-reliance and about the lengths some of us go to to avoid obeying God.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: A man who is nearly 100 years old, who walked with God throughout his lifetime, was asked, "What amazes you?" And he said, "I'm still amazed at the depth of our sin and the wonder of God's grace." And so it is, we think of many different ways to disobey God. But also the good news is that when we do obey Him, He has a marvelous plan for our lives.

I'm holding in my hands a book I want you to have. It's a book of hope. It's a book of a girl who was rejected by her mother, experienced severe abuse, and yet she found the grace of God to enable her to make it through life. And the good part of the story is she and her husband became missionaries in New Guinea and really opened up that country for the gospel. If you know someone who feels hopeless, who feels a sense of rejection, this book is for you. And for a gift of any amount, we're making it available for you. And I want to emphasize this, this is the second to the last day that we're making it available for our listeners.

At the end of this message, I'll be giving you some info I want you to be able to write down. God was showing him that even in a dilemma over which we have no control, when we are finally brought to the end of manipulation, of self-will, of self-reliance, of dependence upon ourselves, of determination that we are going to change a situation, and God kicks all those props out from under us so that suddenly everything that we have been able to control no longer is under our thumb or under our feet. It is then that God meets us and answers us, and it is then that God comes through.

And so Jonah says that God was answering. What else was God doing there? He was purifying. Two aspects to this purification. First of all, you'll notice he says in verse seven and following, well, let's look at verse eight. "Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love." Why does he throw that in there? Because his own will and his own desires he recognized to be an idol.

There are things that we set up. It says in the book of Ezekiel that this people have set up idols in their own hearts. Our idol can be another person, it can be a vocation, it can be whatever we desire to do. That can be our idol that says I want this even above the will and the purposes of God. I want this more than I want the glory of Jesus. And that's an idol.

So he says those who follow vain idols, they forsake their hope of steadfast love. They're not going to get through to God. "But I with a voice of thanksgiving," he says, "will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will pay." Isn't that interesting? He's saying, Lord, I made a commitment to you long ago and now I realize that I'm going to fulfill that commitment. In the next chapter, we can see that part of the commitment was that he does eventually go to Nineveh where he was determined he would not go.

So he says, Lord, I'm going to pay my vows. I was reading that in the text and I discovered that the pagans in chapter one, as a result of Jonah's limp witness, actually ended up believing in God and paying their vows. Do you realize that sometimes a child of God can have a harder heart, a more stubborn will, a more determined personality to blow God off than even pagans who apparently came to know the true God?

It's amazing what Christians have done. Have you ever been surprised at Christians? We shouldn't be surprised at those who aren't Christians, but our surprise is people who have been redeemed by God trying to thwart God's will, trying to do others in to the very best of their ability with all of their might, trying to thwart what would be the acceptable will of God. So God says, Jonah, have you learned something here? And he says, yeah, one thing I've learned is no more idols. In fact, I'm going to give thanks to you here.

And then there's something else that God purified, and that was Jonah's theology. He comes out with this marvelous statement: "Salvation belongs to the Lord." A well-known preacher in England by the name of Charles Haddon Spurgeon said that Jonah in the belly of the fish went in an Arminian—that is to say he believed in free will and that we direct things basically—and he came out a Calvinist.

Now that word Calvinism, some people don't like. I'm only quoting Spurgeon, you understand. Just quoting Spurgeon. No quote of mine would fit here. But there's a stress on the sovereignty of God and he's saying salvation is of the Lord. He's talking about his own salvation, his own deliverance. There's no question about that. But there's a larger statement in Scripture that salvation is of the Lord, that is to say that it is God who redeems us. It is God who initiates us by having Jesus Christ die on the cross. God initiates salvation and then God applies it to the human heart.

Salvation has to be of God. I began this message by quoting the words of Jesus that no man comes to me except the Father drags him. And unless we were dragged into the kingdom, we would go our own way. We would reject Christ. We would see no reason why we should believe. And so God grants us that ability to believe. Isn't He gracious? Because from beginning to end, salvation is of the Lord.

By the way, this is another argument as to why Jesus Christ is fully God. There are many people who believe that He's a lesser god of some sorts, all kinds of problems with that biblically and theologically. But just hang on to this for a moment. If Jesus were not fully God, God would have delegated the dirty work of redemption to a created creature and salvation would not be of the Lord. But from beginning to end, salvation is of God.

Some of you have never trusted Christ as Savior. What you need to do is to open your hearts to Him and realize this: that if God is talking to you, if you sense within you this emptiness that you'd like to have filled, this sense of alienation and sin, don't turn away from that. That is God getting your attention to realize salvation is in Him alone. So God was purifying his theology even.

What's the bottom line? At the end of the day, we always want the bottom line. I think that the bottom line is simply this: that only desperate people pray. Only desperate people pray. I omitted it a moment ago, but let's look at verse seven. "When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord." It took that. It took that. If you're not desperate, you're not going to pray.

Isn't it interesting, we see this nationally. We have, for example, a 9/11 experience where thousands of people are killed and the very next Sunday, the churches are filled. People come to prayer meeting. They say, we're just coming to prayer meeting because we think we need God. Like the young people say, duh. So it took that.

I remember hearing somebody say, things are so bad we're going to have to begin to pray. Only desperate people pray. But listen to me carefully. If you and I actually saw who we were before God, we'd know that we're always desperate. It's just that we don't know it. We'd be at prayer meeting all the time if we understood our true condition before God because we'd understand that we are in desperate straits as a nation, most assuredly, but also as individuals.

We are desperate and what God is trying to do is to say, don't you see your need? And the reason that God motivates us to pray, He does it through giving us circumstances that lead us to utter desperation. And then we finally cry out to God and say, God, it's over, I lay down the weapons of a rebel, I am desperate, help me. And the Bible says that if you call unto me in the day of trouble, I will answer thee.

I have a little booklet in my study. I think it's entitled Crying Out to God, and it makes this interesting point that in the Old Testament, at least, there is a distinction between just praying and crying out. For example, in the Psalms, David will say something like this: I prayed to the Lord and I cried out to him. Now we know that we don't have to cry out because God knows our thoughts, so we can pray silently. But there's something in Scripture about lifting up our voice in desperation that attracts the attention of God.

And over and over again in the Scripture it says, I cried out to you and you inclined your ear. You inclined your ear to me and you answered me. And there are times when we should cry out. You might not want to do it in your apartment if you have thin walls. But maybe you can go somewhere at times and just cry out to God. He loves to hear the voice of His children. And desperate people pray.

I'm interested as I look at the text that Jonah doesn't even bargain with God. People who are really, really desperate don't bargain. He doesn't say, God, get me out of here and I'll be going to Nineveh in a heartbeat, just get me out of here. I don't see that in the text. What he's doing is he's thanking God for the deliverance that was wrought through the fish and he's recognizing that and he's giving God praise.

And his future is entirely in God's hands. Isn't it interesting that Jesus in the New Testament used this? One day some people came to Jesus and they said, why don't you give us a sign that we might believe you? Jesus had given them many signs, many miracles. But He said, no longer shall a sign be given unto you, but as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

And just as God had Jonah expelled from his confinement, in the very same way on resurrection morning Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, giving an evidence that He was indeed the Son of God, which is an incidental proof also that Jesus believed this story. He believed the story. And I don't know about you, but I'm going to believe anything that Jesus believes. If He believes it, I'm going to believe it too.

So what does God have to do in your life before you chafe and fight and manipulate and plan for your will to be accomplished? I've seen people dragged from one thorn patch to another to another to another to another and they will not bow and say, God help me, do with me as seems good in your sight. Because we as humans are so stubborn.

Look at what God did to Jonah. And next time we'll find out that he still had not totally come around. He was a reluctant, angry preacher. He went, but just barely. I love to tell the story, oh by the way, before I do, I want to quote the words of Martin Luther. There was wisdom when he said we must descend into hell before we can ascend into heaven. What he meant was if you don't see your need, you're not going to call up to God for help. Some people have to descend into the depths of Sheol, the pit. Then they say, now God, where are you? You've got my attention. Don't let it go that far. Don't let it go that far.

I tell the story that you've heard me tell before, perhaps several years ago, about a man who called a pastor on the phone, a friend of mine, and asked him to come over to his office. And the man was just wailing and weeping and just crying out, but in the midst of tears so that he could not be understood. And the pastor went over there thinking that the man's wife had died or maybe a child had been in an accident and was killed. And all that he could do there is kind of look at the man, try to figure out what in the world was happening because the guy was just wailing, just wailing and crying out to God.

And so when he got himself settled down, he said, you know, what is the problem? The man said, God just showed me my heart. And when I saw my heart, it was as if I was looking into hell. What happened was this: he was a businessman and he had been cheating on expense forms. You know, you go into a hotel and you write down certain expenses that are not valid and then somehow, I don't know how, but then you get the kickback or the money.

Actually, I think in the business world, it's very, very common practice. I mean, virtually everybody does it. Is that really that big a deal? I mean, what's with it? I mean, a little bit of cheating here, a little bit of cheating there. You know, a fellow has to make it. The company's got lots of money. Furthermore, they owe me a lot more than they're paying me anyway. So it's no big deal until you see God.

And suddenly when God points it out to you, it is then that you become desperate. It is then that you call out. It is then that you say, oh God, whatever it takes, no matter what it's going to cost me, there's only one thing that matters now and that is to be fully right with you, fully, fully in harmony with you and with a clear conscience. And so we cry up to God and we say, oh God, forgive me, deliver me, and we cry up.

And God finally says, I'm so thankful that at last, after years of this and this and this, I have your attention. Samuel Johnson says that nothing focuses the mind like the knowledge that one is to be hanged. Nothing focuses the mind like the knowledge that one has nowhere to go, no future, no hope, nothing except you and God. That's what Jonah learned in the belly of a sea monster. Where does God have to take you and me before we learn the same thing? Let's pray.

As we pray together today, there are two categories of people, two major categories of people who've been listening to this message. One is those of you who have never trusted Christ as your Savior. I mentioned earlier that you have to dial the 800 number, J-E-S-U-S. Jesus died for sinners and He rose again, as I explained a few moments ago. And if you do not know Christ as Savior, even where you are, you can cry up to Him in your heart. Better for you to use your voice, but in this general congregation, you can cry up to Him in your heart and say, Jesus save me. We often have people who come up later and say, you know, I received Christ a week ago or two weeks ago during the closing prayer, I accepted Him.

Then there's another category and that is you are a believer and you know that your name is written in heaven, but you also know that you are just struggling with God. It's not against circumstances. You think it's circumstances, but it's God trying to bring you to the end so that your will would be yielded to Him. And so what about you? Are you willing to finally say okay, God, I am willing to be broken? Willing to say Lord Jesus, glorify yourself in me through circumstances, through heartaches, through events that you cannot control? I live only for your glory and lay it all down at His feet.

Father, would you make this a transforming moment for people? If we could see hearts, we'd see people struggling with anxieties and sinful relationships and dishonesty. We'd just see a picture, Father, that you see clearly. And it's a picture that you want to change. And so grant a spirit of yieldedness and repentance and faith to come to your people. Father, even as we want to thank you for what you did to get Jonah's attention, we also want to thank you for what you've done to get our attention. We pray, Father, that you might not have to do too much, that we will say yes, Lord, your servant hears. Grant that, oh God, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Guest (Male): My friend today, what are you struggling with? What might you be withholding from God? What is there in your life that displeases Him? This is the second to the last day that we’re making available for you a book entitled Dorie: The Girl Nobody Loved. As I’ve mentioned previously, she was abandoned, she went through rejection, a great sense of loss. It is a story that brings tears to our eyes, but it’s also a story of hope. And if there’s anything that we need in this world that is so terribly broken, if you know someone who is brought up with that sense of helplessness, rejection, this book will be a tremendous blessing for them. I hope that you have a pen or pencil handy because I want to give you some contact info. Here’s what you do. You go to rtwoffer.com. That’s rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. Let me say this, there is hope for the hopeless. There is help for those who have experienced abuse and this book will showcase God’s grace. Once again, right now go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

It’s time now for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Pastor Lutzer, the Bible warns us often about the perils of mixing light with darkness. And Steve in Pennsylvania is concerned about someone he thinks may be trying to do just that. He asks, "I have a friend who claims to be a Christian, yet he takes spiritual advice from a fortune teller. Is this occultism? What does the Bible say about this?"

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Well Steve, the Bible is very clear about this. Let me give you Deuteronomy chapter 18. It lists there the kind of occult practices that we should avoid. To go to a fortune teller is wrong. Fortune tellers oftentimes are fakes. They have ways in which they pretend to predict the future and they are incorrect. They're wrong. And sometimes you can see that. What you need to do is to buy a magazine on January 1st with all of their predictions that will come to pass that coming year and then pull it out a year or two later and see how many have come to pass.

But also there are some fortune tellers who are plugged into the spirit world. They may be receiving information from occultic spirit powers, evil spirits. And even they cannot predict the future with absolute accuracy because the devil doesn't know the future the way in which God does. He has a good hunch, he knows more than we do. But the bottom line is this, that spiritism is wrong and you need to encourage your friend to stay away and to trust God. God judges those who go to the occult for information.

Guest (Male): Steve, thank you for your concern for your friend. And thank you Pastor Lutzer for your helpful answer. If you’d like to hear your question answered, you can. Just 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. God wants His servants focused on God's agenda, not their own. It's taken extraordinary measures to get Jonah back on the road to Nineveh, but now he's going, in body if not in heart. Next time on Running To Win, Pastor Lutzer continues his series on brokenness: how God gets us to say yes. We'll turn to Jonah chapter three for a message on death to self-interest. Running To Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.