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.

Guest (Male): One day, Jesus will be united with his church at a great marriage supper of the Lamb in heaven. What that will be like is our focus on today's broadcast, as Erwin Lutzer wraps up his study of the church as a key element of what we believe. 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.

Dave McCallister: Pastor Lutzer, I'm glad that in the end, there really will be unity in the church.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Well, Dave, you're absolutely right. We are going to have to wait until that day to experience the unity that Jesus Christ died for. Meanwhile, we have our differences, yet we can respect one another, even though we might understand some of the doctrines differently.

What unites us is the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The fact that we have to be born again into the kingdom of God, and it's not something that happens just because you're baptized. This is a miracle that God does, and that's why we are making available for you a book entitled *The New Birth* by Peter Mead. At the end of this message, I'm going to be giving you some contact info as to how this book can be yours. For now, I want you to listen, and I also want to thank you in advance for helping us as we continue this radio ministry around the world.

In most weddings, the emphasis is on the bride. Understandably, in this one, the groom gets an awful lot of attention. You'll notice it says in verse seven, "Let us rejoice and exult and give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come." Let us at that moment, folks, give him glory for the marriage of the Lamb has come. Are you going to be excited to give Jesus glory someday? Are you going to be?

Wretches that we are, brought out of the pit, now the wedding. In ancient culture, the bride and groom sometimes didn't meet until their wedding day. Having not seen him, you love him, the Bible says. We love him though we haven't seen him. But at that time, we'll love him even more intensely because we will be there and we'll actually see him.

Now there's something else that needs to happen. You need something to wear because it's the wedding feast. You've got the righteousness of Christ that's brought you there, but what are you going to put on for the wedding? Well, let's read it. It was granted in verse eight to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure. Notice it says, "For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints."

When you arrive at the wedding of Jesus as the bride, what you wear is a gown of your own making. The righteousness of Jesus Christ gets you there, but when you're dressed for the wedding, it is your righteous deeds. This is not the righteousness of Christ. Notice it says the righteous deeds, plural, of the saints, plural. You make up your own clothes while you're here on earth. Can you imagine how some people are going to be terribly, terribly underdressed?

Only once in my life that I remember clearly did I fret about whether or not I was underdressed. My wife would tell you that she wished I would fret a little bit more often about whether or not I'm underdressed. But have you ever showed up some place where you were woefully underdressed? I thought that this was something very casual and everybody else was very formal. I was feeling pretty silly, actually.

There are some people who are more concerned about showing up in church properly dressed than they are showing up at the marriage feast properly dressed. Notice it is of our own making. We're weaving garments. You're teaching a Sunday school class, you're mentoring children, you're working with young people. You're giving to the ministry, you're giving to missionaries, you're giving to our Christian Life Center. You're doing all these things. What are you doing? You're making garments so that you won't show up underclothed at the marriage supper.

Notice that there is but one church. There's one church, there's one bride. Isn't that beautiful? It's not that Jesus marries one group of people and says, "Well, you're my bride, you're my bride, you're my bride." He's not going to have a number of brides. It's one bride. And it's one bride from, as the Book of Revelation says, every nation and tongue and people. All the different colors of the world, all brought together for that beautiful bride for the Lord Jesus Christ.

When we're sitting on the throne, the Bible says, "He who overcomes, Jesus said, to him I shall grant to sit with me on my throne, even as I overcame and sat with my father on his throne." Jesus said you're going to sit with me and you're going to rule with me, and I'm going to be marrying you. The engagement period is over, the marriage supper has now come, and we're going to celebrate and we're going to be together for all of eternity. And that, my friend, is a long time.

There's but one church. I know that we have differences in theology with other folks who are also going to be there, and our differences are important to us. But that which unites us as members of the body of Jesus Christ is much stronger than that which divides us. So what we need to do is to minimize the differences and to accentuate the unity for those who trust Christ as Savior. This is the bride, those who are in Christ. The church is but one church.

Secondly, the church is very costly. Jesus died that he might present to himself the church so that he could marry her. He cleaned her up from the gutter, declared her to be totally pure, and married her and did so rationally, morally, legally, and in every way. Think of how much it meant to Jesus to die for us. What do you think God thinks of people who take his people and commitment to the local church so casually?

What do you think God thinks of that? If you're going to meet the President of the United States, you'd be there an hour ahead of time. Yet some folks are late every single Sunday to our church. We live in a time when commitment-phobia is widespread. People don't want to be committed to anything. "I'll attend if it's good, if I like the sermon; I'll be there if I like the music, but if somewhere else has got something going on, I'll be there. I'm not going to commit."

Some stay at a distance and do what's right for them and include the church when it seems to fit. They don't give regularly. They date the church but never think of really committing themselves to it. There's no consistent plan to give. We have a Christian Life Center that we are all building, and thank God for the hundreds that are helping us. But the casualness with which we treat our treasures, our time, and our talents needs to change.

When there are children that need to be mentored, that's the way in which we sew garments so that at the marriage supper of the Lamb, we'll actually have something to wear. You say, "None of my deeds are that righteous." You've got that right. God takes our sinful deeds and through Christ they are made righteous. When we get to heaven, God purifies all that, and so in the eyes of God, these are righteous deeds because of our commitment to the church.

The church community is where we learn to love God and others, where we are strengthened and transformed by truth from the Word, where we are taught to pray, to worship, to serve. It is where we can be most certain that we're investing our time and abilities for eternity. The church is earth's single best place. God especially designed this place. It's the place to start over, the place to grow, and the place to change for the glory of God. That is the church that God loves.

Ravi Zacharias told an interesting story about a boy in Thailand with Down syndrome who had learned to weave cloth in such a way that it was so artistic that these cloths were being sold. Ravi discovered that this boy, when he sold his first piece of cloth, was so excited that he began to sell others. So far he has sold 61 of his artistic cloths. When he gets paid, this boy always gives it to his mother because he says, "I want mother to have all of it because were it not for her, I wouldn't have the encouragement to do this."

We are weaving garments. Jesus said, "It is through my church I have eyes that can see human need. Through my church I have feet that can go to places in need. Through my church I have the opportunity to speak words of comfort and hope. The church represents me on earth. I am still on earth; this is my body. And as they go into neighborhoods and communities, and as they give and go and pray and work and commit, that is my work."

Your works are incredibly important. Because we stress that salvation has nothing to do with works, people think they can get saved and then just drift along. God is watching. He's keeping track of even a cup of cold water given in his name. When we're standing at the wedding feast and we are now clothed by these white linens made clean by Jesus, we will take our crowns and we will cast our crowns before him and we say, "Jesus, you get all the glory, because if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be here."

You say, "Pastor Lutzer, I don't love the church because it is so imperfect. I was hurt by the church." If you were hurt by us, come and tell us so that we can apologize. We're sorry. Yes, the church is imperfect, but Jesus loved the church when we were very imperfect. Why don't you and I love the church? He loved us before we were redeemed and will love us throughout all of eternity. What keeps us from committing and loving and becoming a part of something that means so much to God?

Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. You don't get an invitation after you die. You're either invited here on earth and you accept the invitation while you're alive, in which case then when you die you are indeed invited. But you can't change course after you're dead. It is in this life where those decisions are made.

If you turn from your sins and trust Christ alone, you can join us at the wedding. After you have received Christ, your good deeds are being woven and will turn out to be linen, white and clean. Father, we thank you today that you love the church. May we love it too. May we cease our criticism because we're all filled with faults. We ask that this church that you love would be a church that we love.

Now, before I close this prayer, have you trusted Christ as Savior? Are you sure that you're going to show up at the wedding feast? What you must do is to say, "Jesus, I'm a sinner, you died for sinners, and I accept your death as my substitute." Tell him that. Thank you, Father, for your mercy toward us in Jesus' name, Amen.

Dave McCallister: My friend, I want you to listen very carefully. In the New Testament, in John chapter three, there is a story of a man by the name of Nicodemus. He was a very religious man, but what he didn't have is what he desperately needed, and that is the new birth. Jesus said to him, "You must be born again." I want to ask you the question that Jesus would ask all of us: are you born again?

It doesn't happen just because you are baptized as an infant or christened; it happens through faith in Jesus Christ. That's why we are making available for you a book entitled *The New Birth* by Peter Mead. What this book is going to do is to clarify for you what the new birth really is. For a gift of any amount, this book can be yours. Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. There are many things that we can be wrong about, but let us not be wrong about the new birth.

It's time again for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Those who've lost loved ones find themselves asking questions they may have never thought about before. Peggy emailed us this question not long ago. "My husband of 40 years died on March 26th, 2006. I'm having trouble adjusting to life without him. He was saved, so I know he's with Jesus. What happens to you when you die? Do you actually go to be with Jesus? Can the spirits of loved ones see their families? Can they communicate with them?"

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Well, Peggy, I just want to say first of all that I send you my sympathy and my prayers. It's very difficult when you love someone and you've lived with them for so many years to suddenly find that you're a widow or a widower. But in answer to your questions, the answer's yes. The spirit of your husband, if he knew Christ as Savior, is with Jesus. When I say that, I mean it's your actual husband.

Of course, he is without his permanent body; the body has gone to the grave, but it's the real man whom you knew who is with Jesus. His mind, his thinking, who he is, has gone to be with the Lord. Can he see you? Probably not; there's nothing in the Bible to suggest that. But I've often speculated that if he's interested in how you are doing, he could ask Jesus how you're doing, and Jesus would tell him.

By the way, he loves you with the same love that he had on earth, only more so. Obviously, he's not going to know less than he did when he was on earth, nor is he going to love less, but even love more. But finally, the answer to your question is no, there can be no communication between you and him. You're going to have to wait until you die and go to heaven and join him, and at that time, the Bible says we shall be all together with the Lord.

Dave McCallister: Thank you for those words of comfort, 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 you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running To Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614.

One thing's for sure: Christians don't need crystal balls to see into the future. The Bible gives tantalizing details about a heavenly kingdom beyond all description—a new Jerusalem with streets of gold. Next time on Running To Win, don't miss Pastor Lutzer's final message in this series, "The Future We Anticipate." We'll take a peek through the mists of time into the timelessness of eternity. Running To Win is all about helping you understand God's roadmap for your race of life. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McCallister. Running To Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.