Running To Win

Dave: Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, the founder and proctor of our faith. God sees every motivation and watches every act. This means keeping intimacy where God intended it and fleeing any temptation for us to defile our bodies, the temples of the Holy Spirit. Today, more teaching from Paul's writings to the church at Corinth. 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, were the Corinthians' morals any worse than those of people living today?

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: You know, Dave, I'm not sure if I know exactly how to answer your question. This much I know. The people in Corinth were inundated with many prostitutes. There was all kinds of immorality going on. And of course, today, as I've often mentioned, thanks to technology, immorality is brought into our lives, even the lives of children. Be that as it may, every era has to fight against the wrong use of sexuality. I want to thank the many of you who support the ministry of Running to Win. We are so deeply grateful and we recognize that you have an option.

There are many ministries that share the good word of God, but would you pray about the possibility of partnering with us? We are right in the middle of our matching gift campaign. That means that every gift that you give will be doubled. What an opportunity for you to make an eternal investment as we continue to share the gospel around the world. I'm going to take time to give you some contact info, which I will share with you again at the end of this message, but you can go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1 888 218 9337.

For now, let us listen to a message that this generation needs. And the apostle Paul is saying that if you're a believer in Jesus, you should know that your body is now the the very temple of the Holy Spirit. Your body is where God dwells. Imagine that. You're going to work tomorrow, and you're going to be on the L. God is within you. And when you're on the L, aren't you glad that he's within you? You're driving down the expressway, you're even gladder that God is within you. God dwells in you. I can't get over this.

I'm just thinking now, I hadn't thought of this earlier, but the passage in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 where it says, as God has said, I will dwell with them and they shall be my people and I shall be their God. Don't you love it, the fact that God is with his people and even in dwells his people? So Paul says, you're living an impure life. You're sitting there watching pornography and Jesus has to watch it with you because he's a part of it, right? I mean, he's there, the spirit is within you. Don't you see that you have to live a different kind of life because the Holy Spirit of God lives within you and James says, and who of us cannot identify with this?

I certainly identify with this. He says, the flesh lusts against the spirit. The flesh wars against the spirit. The spirit wars against the flesh. And therefore, you can't do what you want to do, can you or can I? No, we can't. And and the conflict is there because the spirit directs us towards purity and the flesh directs us towards impurity. And we have all found the battle within us to be strong and unrelenting. It is there for us. But think of it. The Holy Spirit of God dwelling within us, we are his temple. Obviously, we should live differently, shouldn't we?

And so the apostle Paul says, the spirit of God Now, I'm back in James. Envies Envies us in the sense that he desires for us. That's a better way for me to phrase it. He desires for us to be set apart to God. There is still a message in this series that I'm going to be preaching a couple of times from now on grieving the Holy Spirit, but this is a good place to mention the grief of the spirit. He can be silenced. Well, you live long enough without any confession, without any sense of your sin and you are in this relationship having paid a heavy price to invest in it.

The spirit will no longer be speaking, leading, guiding because he is sensitive, sensitivity of the spirit. And remember, the spirit loves you. The reason that he grieves is because he loves you. If he didn't love you, he wouldn't care. He'd just say, well, let this person sacrifice themselves on the altar of sexual immorality. What do I care? The spirit loves us and the spirit cares. You know, of course, on the news, we've heard recently about various young women who have been killed and so forth. The crimes are absolutely horrible. But when I see a crime like that on television, I grieve within, but I don't necessarily cry.

I mean, I feel sorry for the families, but that kind of passes after another news item about something else and you go on to something else. Why don't I cry or deeply grieve? It's because I don't know these people. Now, if that happened to one of my daughters or one of my granddaughters, you can understand the absolute agony in grief I would be over because I know them and I love them. The spirit loves you. He's on your side. He doesn't want you to sacrifice yourself on the false altar of sexuality. And so Paul says, don't you know that the Holy Spirit of God has taken up residence within you?

He's a holy guest and what you want to do is to allow him to go into all of the rooms of your life, the living room, which is the intellectual part that you have. He should be able to go to your library. He should be able to go to the den, your entertainment center. He should be able to go also into the basement where you have the closets with hidden things. Let the spirit do his work. That's why he's there. Now, there's another reason that Paul gives and he says that we are owned by God.

We've been bought with a price. I'm not going to comment on that because actually the next message in this series has to do with the ownership of the spirit in our lives. But now I'd like to just talk to you very frankly. Uh I talk to you as a pastor. I talk to you as a counselor. I talk to you as a fellow traveler along the pathway of life. I think to myself of the times that I have grieved the spirit just by watching television. And I have to think about all the things that the Holy Spirit has had to put up with in my own life.

So I'm not pointing my finger. I'm not judging you, but I'm here to help you. So I'm going to speak to you very plainly. And I simply say this, pay any price that you have to pay to get out of and be free of unholy sexual relationships. Pay any price. I'm getting older as some of you know and I like to remind myself and it feels that way when I get out of bed in the morning. So I've had lots of opportunity to observe human nature. And I could tell you story after story of people whose lives have been ruined because of sexual relationships outside of a man woman relationship in marriage.

History is strewn with it. Your neighborhood is strewn with one example after another leading to cheating and lying and covering and hatred and divorce and on and on it goes. And sexuality has the power to put you into a trance. Very important to realize where you become totally irrational and unable to see what you are doing and you don't care about your kids and your family and your wife. You don't care anymore because only one thing matters and that is this soul tie that needs to be broken in the power of the spirit. I'll tell you that it has been my observation that even though sexual relationships outside of marriage the power of sexuality it's been my experience that even though they promise like a God in the end they pay like a devil.

And you can see that all across the landscape today, wherever you look, do whatever you need to do. Now, let me give you some biblical encouragement and hope. Do you notice what it says there? It says, flee immorality. Verse 18. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Why? Because of the soul ties. This is not just a biological experience that is enjoyable when you have a sexual relationship with someone. And therefore, in a sense, the sexual immorality is in a different category.

The others they're more outside the body, but this one is against your very soul. So he says, flee. For some of you, it may mean cancel your subscription to the television. Whatever it is, do it, Jesus would say. He said that very vividly, didn't he? He says, be willing to cut out your eye or cut off your hand. I mean, I 'm not asking you to do that. I'm just asking you to end your subscription to television. I mean, that's a small thing to do, right? Comparison. Then recognize what Jesus is able to do, what he's able to do.

And that's why we need the power of the spirit because we need also to believe the scripture. Now, notice what it says. I 'm still in chapter 6. He says in verse 9, do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Why does he say don't be deceived? There's no area in which we want to be as deceived as willingly as this area. Oh, a man in adultery told me. Oh, pastor, you don't understand. It's such a beautiful relationship. It's a beautiful relationship. If somebody tells you that, don't argue with them.

It might be beautiful. I'm sure that he loves her more than maybe anybody else that he's ever loved. I'm not disputing that. It's exactly the argument, of course, that Eve used in the garden, right? Well, the fruit is beautiful. Imagine an angel tapping Eve on the shoulder and saying, uh uh don't do it. What do you mean don't do it? Who are you to tell me this fruit is beautiful? It is desirous to make me wise. I can see it with my own eyes. It's nothing but beautiful. Get that straight. So the angel backs away and says, okay, it is beautiful.

But God says, it's sin and you will pay the utmost farthing. Wow. So he says, don't be deceived. Don't talk yourself into this loving, beautiful relationship that you are having with someone to whom you are not married. Some of you are just living together without the benefit of marriage and you have all your rationalizations. I I'm sure I've heard them all. But he says, uh don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God, neither the sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, those who practice homosexuality, thieves. Notice it's not just sexual sin, the greedy, anybody here who's greedy, drunkards, revilers, swindlers.

We've got plenty of them today, don't we? He says, they will not inherit the kingdom of God. It's pretty discouraging, but now hope. And such were some of you. It's the kind of thing that Jesus died to save you out of. And such were some of you, but you were washed. Oh, isn't that wonderful? To have your conscience washed, the washing of regeneration. At last, you can look up into God. And if you make it right, you can look into the eyes of your partner at last without that conscience constantly saying, uh uh look at what you're doing.

You're a hypocrite, aren't you? You know, you're living a lie and you're trying to work. Oh, but it's a nice relationship and I've invested so much in it, blah blah blah. But the conscience keeps saying, you're you're living a lie, aren't you? Huh? So uh he says, uh you're washed. That takes care of your heart. It cleanses the heart. You've been sanctified by God. You've been made holy. You belong to Jesus. That 's a fact if you're a believer. Now, you're to live it out most assuredly, but Jesus said the reason that I've become a part of you and you a part of me is for the sake of holiness.

And so he says, you've been sanctified and you've been justified. You've been declared righteous by God. God has declared you to be righteous. So just know that you've come out of that because of the intervention of God in your life when you receive Jesus Christ as your savior. The power of God and the grace of God was poured into your soul. And uh thank God that you aren't what you used to be. We're still not what we should be, but thank God we aren't what we used to be, are we? Anybody out here who says, yeah, thank God I'm not what I used to be?

I spoke to you about spiritual virginity. In the Old Testament, there's a very interesting story of Hosea, a prophet who was actually asked to marry a woman who'd become a prostitute. Uh uh and God knew that that was going to happen. I mean, that is an amazing story. Scholars have struggled with the whole thing, but there it is. And uh she uh becomes unfaithful and she has children by someone else and Hosea keeps hanging in. He keeps buying her back when she's on the slave market. And he does buy her back. He uh the auctioneer asks for this much, this much, this much.

Hosea outbids everybody and gets his wife back. She'd become a slave to some other man. And then he says, the valley of Achor and the word Achor means trouble. He says, the valley of Achor for her is going to be the door of hope. Do you know of anybody about whom it can be said that the valley of trouble will eventually become the door of hope? Some people won't change unless they're in deep trouble. Could I say that change before you get to the deep trouble? But he says, the valley of trouble is going to be the door of hope and then he says and there he says, in the wilderness I will betroth her unto me.

And I will betroth her unto me, he says, in righteousness, in justice, in faithfulness. The idea is that she's going to be a virgin again and she shall know the Lord. What God was saying through Hosea God was saying, Hosea, you know how badly you felt when your wife cheated on you? That's the way I feel all the time about Israel who's always going back to idols. Just get the point. But Hosea says that I will see her, betroth her, clean her up, so to speak. And she will be mine in faithfulness. And she shall know the Lord.

God says, look, despite all the sin, despite all the past, you can be cleaned up. You can become through the grace of Christ spiritually speaking a virgin. One day a young man asked me about marrying a certain young woman who before she was converted had been somewhat promiscuous. And I told him, I said, I do know that she is now a virgin in her heart. And she was. That's been many years ago and they've had a happy marriage. God is in the business of restoring the messes. And Jesus invites us and says to us, come unto me.

I will help you, but for some of you, God knows you're you have issues. I mean, you have huge issues. That why I encourage you to join the men's ministry. I encourage you to get involved in women's ministries because we need one another and you need accountability. It is a struggle, but any price you pay for sexual purity will be eminently worth it because the spirit of God whom you and I have so often grieved will cease being grieved and he will be within us what he desires to be. That's the hope. And some of you who don't know Christ as savior, the way you get into this life, being joined to Christ, having the Holy Spirit washed, sanctified, justified is through faith in him alone.

You have to cry out to Jesus right now and say, Jesus, save me. Make me one of yours. And he will hear you and he will respond. And if you will let us pray. I know that many of you have issues. I honestly don't know what to say after all that. Who knows the investment that you have made into an immoral life? Are you at least willing to pray and say, oh God? In fact, let us pray this prayer together. It's one that we can all pray. It's one that I can pray, okay? Can we just pray a short prayer together and then I'll give you a moment to pray on your own?

Father, we confess today that we need your help. Would you pray it with me out loud? Father, we confess today that we need your help. And we ask today that you will grant us the grace that we need to be obedient to whatever you have shown us. Help us to desire a pure life. To receive your forgiveness and your grace. And to depend on Christ despite our weaknesses and sins. And I'm going to pray. Father, whatever you've desired to do, I pray that you might grant the grace to do it. Now, you talk to God personally.

What issue did he point out today by the spirit that you need to deal with? Are you willing to say, God, I don't know how, but by your spirit I'll be obedient. You're willing to say that? And I might say that there'll be prayer partners up here and maybe today there should be more prayer partners. If you're on a different shift, you can come up too because there may be many people who may not be involved in immorality, but because of their past, they're dealing with issues. And we're here to point them to the savior.

Help us, Lord, we pray and as we sing, we ask that this song might be our prayer. May your fire make us pure. Oh, how we need it. In Jesus' name. Amen. We hear at Running to Win are deeply committed to the word of God, but at the same time we desire to speak the word of God to this culture. Let me ask you a question. Have you been challenged, encouraged, or blessed as a result of this message and other messages that you listen to? If you answer yes to that, it's because people just like you have made an investment so that this ministry continues to flourish even around the world.

Would you consider and pray about becoming part of our ministry through your gifts? And I want to emphasize that we are in the middle of our matching gift campaign. What an opportunity for you to double your investment. Here's how you can do that. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or call us at 1 888 218 9337. Now, because also this is the end of our fiscal year, that is to say this month is the end of our fiscal year, I'm going to be giving you that contact info again. Go to rtwoffer.com. Of course, rtwoffer is all one word.

rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1 888 218 9337. What an opportunity for you to double your gift.

Dave: You can write to us at Running to Win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614. Major documents are sealed to ensure authenticity. Seals speak of certainty that what's inside is genuine and permanent. Next time on Running to Win, we'll learn what it means to be sealed by the Holy Spirit and how that gives us security. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.