Running To Win

Dave Lutzer: Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. We learn about the Holy Spirit by seeing his work in terms of word pictures, oil, water, and wind. Each picture increases our understanding. And today we'll learn about another word picture that speaks of the power and purity of the Spirit. Stay with us. 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, you're teaching us about when the Spirit has his way.

Is the Holy Spirit's power something every believer should seek?

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Dave, what's so exciting is in this series of messages I want every believer to understand how they can begin to experience the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit. Every time I stand up to speak, I receive the Spirit's fullness. I know that I'm indwelt, but I seek the Spirit's fullness for wisdom, for guidance. And that is something every single believer can do. I'm so glad for all the people who are listening. And as I like to emphasize, I hope that they invite their friends to listen as well. And of course, we have some very exciting news.

Thanks to some generous donors, any gift given during the month of August will be doubled up to $90,000. What a great opportunity to give. Would you at least pray and ask the Lord if he would lead you and guide you to help us so that we might continue to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world. Here's how you can connect with us. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. Even as I'm speaking now, I visualize partners around the world helping us so that we can continue to expand this ministry.

I'll give you that contact info again at the end of this message. For now, let us listen. But there's another figure of speech, and that is fire. Fire frequently represents the Holy Spirit in scripture. And the reason for that is fire sometimes has various meanings. Sometimes it represents the very presence of God. And people are brought into the presence of God. In fact, it says in the book of Hebrews, now speaking of fire as a judgment, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. For our God is a consuming fire.

Wow. I say to those of you who are listening to this message, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God unprepared because God is a consuming fire. I personally would want to make sure that I am shielded from that fire. And the only shield is Jesus Christ and his work on our behalf. But now we see that fire represents the presence of God. Sometimes it represents the approval of God. In the case, for example, of Elijah on Mount Carmel, it was the fire that represented God's approval. Mostly, though, in the scripture, fire often represents the purifying effect of God.

We all know what happens when there is wind and fire together, don't we? We think of what happened in Colorado when you have so many homes that were destroyed. And you can go through those areas and all that you'll find is a chimney and a basement and a few other things that survived the fire. That's a good way to look at a purifying fire. If the Holy Spirit of God had his way here at Moody Church, what he would do, symbolically speaking, is go through the congregation, my life, everybody's life, and he would want to consume everything that isn't holy.

He'd want to consume and to burn out all of our sins and our rationalizations that we bring to ourselves and we tell ourselves and all of the things and and what he would do is to purify, to purify, to purify. The spirit always purifies. And a symbol of that purification is fire. Now it says here that after this, verse four, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. I have to take out a few moments and comment on this and wish I had more would have to be done in another message actually.

But there are many dear people who say that we should speak in tongues today as a sign of either the filling or the baptism of the Holy Spirit, so I must comment. I believe that Pentecost was an event that need never and will never be repeated. Just like the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem was a one-time event, and Jesus doesn't have to be born again in Bethlehem, in the very same way we don't have to gather in a room somewhere and wait for the coming of the Spirit. The Spirit came at Pentecost. Now he came at Pentecost and he came among his people as Jesus explained.

And this will become a little clearer in the next message. But the point is that what about this tongue speaking? You know, suddenly people able to speak languages they never learned. And by the way, they are languages. And I believe all through the New Testament where it refers to tongues, it's talking about actual dialects. I think there are about 13 different nations represented here. And And the question is do we have to speak in tongues today as a sign of the Spirit? Let me tell you why I think the answer is no. What's happening here on the day of Pentecost is God is dramatically showing that the good news of the gospel, the wonderful works of God will no longer be confined just to one area of the world, namely the land that we call Israel and the Jewish people.

But now the gospel of Jesus Christ is going to go out to the whole world in all the different languages of the world. The wonderful works of the gospel will be proclaimed. You see, Isaiah predicted this in chapter 28 verse 11. God says the day is going to come when I'm going to speak to this people, namely the Jews, in the stammering lips of Gentile languages. And Paul quotes it in 1 Corinthians 14 as having been fulfilled at Pentecost or through the gift of tongues. So you see what God is saying here is that this is a dramatic way of saying that from now on in all the areas of the world, to the ends of the earth, the gospel of Jesus Christ is going to be proclaimed, not just in the beautiful language of Hebrew, but in all the Gentile languages that there are.

And so every place where tongues is spoken of in the book of Acts, and there are at least two other places where it occurs, the gospel is going to a new ethnic and racial group. And as it spreads out, God says this is the sign, the sign that the gospel has now gone is going throughout the whole world to all the different districts of the world, to all the different people of the world. Now I could give you more scriptural support for that, but we must hurry on except to say this. I don't believe that tongues is a sign today of the filling of the Spirit or even the baptism of the Spirit, as we shall see in subsequent messages.

And I have a sister who worked with Wycliffe Bible Translation. She and her husband were in Southern Mexico, 250 miles south of Mexico City for about 25 years taking an Indian language and breaking it down and translating the New Testament into their language. How they longed for the gift of tongues. But God didn't give it to them. And if he does it today miraculously, if somebody stands up and speaks Chinese because Chinese are present, certainly God can do those miracles. But it is interesting that the gift of tongues died out very early in the church after the first century because it no longer was relevant to what God was trying to demonstrate.

So but the effects of the Spirit, the transformation of lives that we find in the book of Acts, that response of the Spirit is still very relevant today. You notice, for example, the scripture says first of all they opened their mouths. It says in verse 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans, Arabians, you'll notice all the different language groups were there, not all of them, but many. We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. You know what would happen if the Spirit had his way at Moody Church? Businessmen who work with other businessmen who have never witnessed to their faith would suddenly spill over with the joy of the Lord and tell other others about the wonderful works of God, namely the redemptive plan that we have in Jesus Christ our Lord.

That's what would happen if the Spirit had his way. We would be talking about the things of God. And we'd be glad to do so because we'd have a testimony of what God did in our own hearts. And we can't help but share good news with others. So that's what would happen. Generosity. And we'll look at this later in a message, but you know that they sold everything and they said, Apostles, you take care of it. This is not normative for the church. This would not possibly work today, and nowhere in the New Testament is it prescribed.

But they were so filled with joy they said, You know, who cares about owning anything? Let's sell it and let's give the money to the apostles and let them distribute it. Could you imagine a church in which people were not asking how much should I give, but rather asking a different kind of question, namely how much how much am I really willing to sacrifice to give? A different kind of question. This happened in the book of Acts. And remember, the spirit of God has not changed. He changes people's values. He changes their hearts. He brings about transformation that you and I can scarcely understand when the Spirit has his way.

As I conclude this message today, a couple of comments. First of all, do you pick up on the fact that when the Spirit has his way, as I've mentioned, the real transformation is an inner transformation. This is not behavior modification. This is not a situation in which you put people and and you try to structure them or to talk them out of one set of desires and to have another. You can't do that, by the way. But rather that the spirit of God changes our desires. Now when you trust Christ as your savior, one of the first desires that he changes is you begin to love God.

So you can't wake up in the morning and say to yourself, Well, today I'm going to love God because that's the first commandment. That ability must be supernaturally given, and it is given by the Spirit. The desire of reconciliation, the desire to give up bitterness and anger which grieves the spirit and stands in the way of his intentions and his agenda for us. All of that, you see, is all spirit-directed and spirit-given. That 's why before I come to the pulpit here, I pray and I always pray, Oh God, open my eyes and open the hearts and the eyes of all who listen because if the Spirit doesn't do it, we are totally helpless.

I can't change your desire. I can't make you into a God lover. I can't make you into somebody who loves righteousness and hates iniquity. That is impossible. But the spirit of God can because the spirit can do the impossible in your life. So the spirit transforms us. But we also have to seek God and seek the spirit. You say, Well, you know, as you develop this idea of companionship of the Spirit, which I 'm going to do next week, I mean, should we pray to the Spirit because he's God? It's not wrong necessarily to pray to the Spirit because the Spirit is God, but prayer should be offered to the Father in the name of Jesus, but by the power and the direction of the Spirit.

That's what Paul means when he says praying at all times in the Spirit. So you see the whole Trinity is involved in our praying, but the Spirit is there to help us. Oh, I get so excited about next week's lesson. I might give it to you now. So so the fact is that the spirit of God though must be sought, we have to be serious because I've already told you that there are issues that we need to deal with in all honesty if we want to experience the fullness of the Spirit. Because the Spirit does not enter closed doors.

Some of you have never trusted Christ as savior, by the way. And you're asking the question, How do I get the spirit that you're talking about? Well, the good news is that when Jesus died on the cross, his death was a sacrifice for sinners just like you and like me. And if we trust him and transfer our trust to him and recognize that we are helpless apart from his grace and mercy and substitution, we then receive the spirit of God when we receive Jesus. But if you've never trusted Christ as savior, you may have a different spirit, but you don't have the Holy Spirit.

The Bible is very clear that the world cannot receive the spirit. And those who do not have the spirit of Christ do not belong to him. It is one of the many gifts that God gives to those who believe on his blessed son. So even today as you listen, no matter which way you're listening to this, whether radio, CD, on the internet, you can say right here today, I want and desire this Holy Spirit. I receive Christ as my savior. I believe he died for me. And today he is mine. That's the way you receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and other gifts such as the earnest of the spirit, the sealing of the spirit, all of which we hope to explain in subsequent messages.

When I was in college, which is getting further and further away in terms of years, I remember reading a story that I still remember the essence of it. There was a woman who lived in great poverty and squalor. Her husband was killed in the war. And she had basically no money. And somebody said to her, Doesn't the government help you? She said, No. She said, I've not received anything from the government. But she said the government does send me a letter every week with a with a few things on it and a strange-looking piece of paper.

But that's that's all. I've not received any money. So the person went and said, Show me one of those. And he discovered that it was a check, whole stack of them, uncashed. I wonder if you and I sometimes say to God, God, what have you done for me recently? Maybe you're out of work, maybe your relationship has gone sour, you're you're going through some trial and you feel as if you're going through it all alone and you're saying, Well, God, what have you done for me recently? You know what God says to you? Huh. I have given you the Spirit and you have not opened my gift.

I've given you the blessed Holy Spirit of God who is there through your trials, who is there amid your tears, who walks with you in the difficult times of life. I have given you a companion who's going to abide with you forever and you have never entered into it. The letter still is sealed and you're acting as if I've left you alone, but I have not. I've not left you orphans, Jesus. Oh, no, no, no. I come to you as we'll explain next week. Are you willing to be open to the Spirit to let him have his way?

There's a cost involved. Oh, receiving the spirit as a gift is free, but there's a cost to walk in the Spirit. And that is to get serious. I hope that you read the scripture that we've outlined, you memorize the text, and each time you open the Bible, you pray Psalm 119. I think it's verse 18. Oh Lord, open thou my eyes that I might behold wondrous things out of thy law. The Spirit has been given not just to be resident, but to be president and lead us all the way to our heavenly home. Will you join me as we pray together?

And even as we bow our heads in prayer, I do have to ask the question, what is it that you need to talk to God about right now? What is he revealed to you that is very clear? Why don't we just take a moment of silence and you talk to the Lord? Some of you have never received Christ as savior. You could reach out right now and say, Jesus, I receive you as savior. Others of you say, I've been living in such defeat for so long, Lord. I'm open to the instruction of the Spirit to finally walk away free.

Whatever it is that God has talked to you about, you pray about it right now. And of course, as I speak to the congregation, you can't deal with all these issues in 30 seconds of prayer. This is only the beginning. Father, meet with us, we pray. Come to transform us. Don't leave us as you found us, but may your Holy Spirit have his way regardless of the personal cost. We long for the work of the Spirit, for the power of the Spirit, for the gift that you've given to us in the Spirit. We thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, my friend, this is Pastor Lutzer. I hope something that you pick up from this series of messages is the personality of the Spirit, the desire of the Spirit to help us, to control us. I want you to think of the Holy Spirit of God as a companion as Jesus said he was. I'm holding in my hands a letter from someone who listens to this broadcast in Colombia. You say Colombia? Yes. Running to Win is in many different countries in different languages. But this person writes, Every day I fall more and more in love with the Lord through your teaching.

That testimony belongs to you, belongs to all of our partners who pray for us and who encourage us in the work. And the good news is thanks to some generous partners, we can now in the month of August double every gift you give up to $90,000. Very quickly, I'm giving you some contact info. Hope that you have a pen or pencil handy. This is what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 888-218-9337. Ask the Lord for wisdom and then check it out. Right now go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

Dave Lutzer: It's time now for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. When is it appropriate to begin a relationship with the opposite sex? Michael got in touch with us wanting to know this. Is it a sin to date a woman who has been separated from her husband for more than 10 years?

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Michael, when you use the word separated in your question, it has confused me a little bit because obviously if this woman is only separated from her husband, she isn't divorced. And separation means always the possibility of reconciliation. So most assuredly you should not be involved in her life. She is still an unmarried woman. Even if she has been separated for 5 years, 10 years, or 20 years, that does not change. Time does not enter into that equation. Now if you mean that she has been divorced for 10 years, then you have to ask another question.

Even though she has been divorced, is it true that the covenant actually has been broken? And that's a larger question that you should be discussing with your pastor. And even in that instance, whether it's 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, it really doesn't change the status of the person. I ask you, Michael, to tread carefully on this because my suspicion is that the answer is no. You should not be dating her. And I hope that you have the wisdom and the guidance of God in confronting in your own life such a huge decision with so many implications.

Dave Lutzer: Some wise counsel from Dr. Erwin Lutzer. 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 La Salle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614. During the Last Supper, Jesus promised his disciples a companion who would be with them after he was gone. That companion is the Holy Spirit. He's still doing for today's believers what he did for the original 12 so long ago. Next time on Running to Win, Pastor Lutzer will speak on the gift of companionship.

This is Dave Lutzer. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.