Running To Win

Announcer: Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.

John chapter one is a breathtaking overview of how Jesus is God's expression to mankind. Jesus shows us what God is like. Today, more of the wonder of a savior whose words are those of God himself. 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.

Guest (Male): Pastor Lutzer, today you conclude your series on being changed by the Word. What is your desire for us as we listen?

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Dave, I'm going to answer that in a moment, but I also want to emphasize this. Jesus is the only one who is qualified to save us. And I say that because he was both God and man. That is to say, he had a human nature and a divine nature. Nobody else on this planet has ever had that.

And because he is both God and man, he is able to bring us together. How wonderful that is. Well, my intention in preaching the series of messages entitled, Changed By The Word, is indeed that we might be changed by the word.

One of the things I attempted to do is to help people to know how to study the Bible, how to read it, how to glean something from it that they can take with them all day. For a gift of any amount, we're making this sermon series available for you in permanent form.

Now, that's important because it means that you can play these messages again and again. You can share them with your friends. Perhaps you were able to get some of them and there were others that you couldn't listen to. You can have the entire series for a gift of any amount. Here's what you do. Go to rtw offer.com. That's rtw offer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

Ask for the sermon series, Changed By The Word. And now let us listen that we might be changed by the Word.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Today in some churches, there's so much grace, you'd get the impression that God was never mad at anything. That everything was okay with him. The balance between grace and truth comes to us in Jesus. And then notice also the very person of God is revealed. No one has ever seen God. As I explained, no one has ever seen the essence of God as God.

But the only begotten God, or the only begotten Son, who is at the Father's side, he has explained him. Jesus explained God. The words of Jesus are the words of God. The acts of Jesus are the acts of God. Finally, the invisible God, the mysterious, invisible God, comes to us visibly in Jesus so that Jesus can say, whoever has seen me has seen the Father.

Wow, takes your breath away. Whoever has seen him, has seen the Father. And Jesus takes us into God's presence. Now, I promised you that this sermon could be transforming. I hope it is. It is to me, and I hope it is also to you as a reminder of what we have in Christ. But what I'd like to do is to nail this down for us so that we understand its implications.

And I nail it down first of all, by saying that our greatest need is always a fresh vision of God. Maybe you came here and you thought something else was your greatest need. You thought your greatest need was your crumbling marriage, it was all kinds of other things that may have happened, and those may be needs, but your greatest need is always a fresh vision of God, a fresh vision of Jesus.

I marvel at Moses. You know, in Exodus 33, when he said, show me thy glory, I read the text and I say, Moses, come on. You've been in the mountain, up in the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights with God. And you still don't have enough?

I mean, there are people who think they have enough if they go to church once a week. And you've been up there with 40 days and 40 nights. And Moses said, I still don't have enough. Before I move, I need another revelation of God. It's always our greatest need.

And then the interesting thing is, you know that Moses can't go into the land. You know that story because of his disobedience, but he shows up in the land on the Mount of Transfiguration. And what in the world and it is in the world, some of us are going to be at the Mount of Transfiguration in a couple of weeks. What in the world is he doing? He's getting more of the glory of God. He just can't get enough.

You think that heaven is going to be boring? We're going to begin at the first song in the hymnal, sing our way through, and then when we're done, we resing it again? Is that your view of heaven? Some of you are being too quiet here today. Are you listening? You with me?

I'll tell you, heaven is going to be getting more of God throughout all eternity. That's what it's going to be. And our biggest need always is to see God in a new way. Look at the text here.

Of his fullness, we have all received. I'm in verse 16. From his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. Inexhaustible supply of grace for inexhaustible problems, for inexhaustible doubts, for inexhaustible situations. There is Jesus supplying us grace upon grace.

And it's all in him because in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and we are complete in him. If only we understood that better, we'd find that there is grace for every need. There's corresponding grace. Our greatest need always is a fresh revelation of God, a fresh revelation of Jesus Christ, who reveals the Father to us and explains him to us.

Second, it's very important to realize that our need for Christ, let's take this slowly, our need for Christ has to be shown to us by God. Christianity here is the only religion like this. In order for us to understand the statement I just made, let's back up a little bit. It says in verse 10, he was in the world, the world was made through him, yet the world didn't know him. By and large, the world rejected him.

This is the big world. And he came to his own people, verse 11, the Jews, and they didn't receive him. But verse 12, to all who did receive him, who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Let's take that a little bit more slowly.

What the text is saying is that though Jesus was rejected, for those who did receive him, he gave them the right to be called the children of God. First of all, why is it that more didn't receive him? Because they were walking in darkness and got used to the darkness and didn't recognize the light.

Tons of people like that today, walking in darkness, but they don't recognize the fact that they are in darkness. They wonder why they're constantly stumbling, why life is empty. But they don't recognize that there is light in Jesus.

But now here's the point. For those who did receive him, these people were born, let's take this slowly, not of blood. You're not a Christian because your parents were. You're not a Christian because you have a Christian genealogy. You're not a Christian because you somehow are in a church.

You know, Billy Sunday, who was an evangelist who used to preach here, and somebody who was still alive when I became pastor said that he used to jump from that platform to this platform without using the stairs because, you know, Billy Sunday was into baseball, and he carried over some of his abilities to the pulpit.

And Billy Sunday used to say, "Putting a car into a garage doesn't make it, excuse me, I got it wrong." Can we just back up and we redo it? All right. Like a man who likes to watch his wedding videos backwards. He loves to see himself back out of the church, a free man. I'm sorry, that just happened to come to mind to get me out of my dilemma.

Billy Sunday said that to put a wheelbarrow into a garage does not make it a car. I finally said it correctly. Attending church does not make you a Christian. It's not of blood, it's not by the will of man, it's not saying, well, I'm going to become a Christian, and I'm going to become living the Christian life. Uh-uh.

Now, that won't do it. It says, you're born not of blood, nor of the will of man. You don't have enough willpower to become a Christian. You don't have enough righteousness to be a Christian. But it says, those who are born of God. And that's the uniqueness of the Christian faith. Is the fact that God works in our hearts in such a way that we are born of God, as explained later in John chapter 3, the story of Nicodemus.

I'm asking you today, as you're listening to this, by whatever means you're listening to it, have you been born of God? And if you aren't sure, you probably aren't. Those who are born of God have the deep, settled assurance that they personally belong to God, and they belong to him forever.

And so it is that Jesus Christ brings us to the Father. And finally, only in Christ, only in Christ can we recover all the hope we are meant to have. In Christ alone do we uncover or recover all the hope we were meant to have. We were meant by God to live this life in hope.

In hope of eternity, in hope of God's glory, in hope of the fact that the God whom we have come to know is the God with whom we shall forever be. You know, Augustine, that great theologian, apparently said, "Oh, God, your word says, 'No man can see thee and live.' Lord, help me to die that I might behold thy glory." Wow.

The desire of a soul for God eternally. Recently, in another place, I preached a message which not sure I ever preached here was on the stoning of Stephen. And you remember, as the stones were flying, Stephen looked into heaven, and the first thing the Bible says is he saw the glory of God and Jesus standing in the midst.

Listen, if Stephen saw that while he was still alive, while he was feeling the pressure of the stones and the pain, and being stoned must not be a very, very comfortable way to die. But he saw the glory of God and Jesus standing there. If that was already true before his soul left his body, imagine what he saw after he died.

It is unimaginable in its beauty, in its holiness, and in its fulfillment and satisfaction. I've quoted before the words of Joni Eareckson Tada, who has lived about 45 years in a wheelchair. I don't know of anyone whose testimony has so inspired me, so humbled me, convicted me as hers. The joy that she has in the midst of constant pain.

But she said this: the reason she looks forward to heaven is not just because she can put her wheelchair somewhere else, park it at the door, or as she humorously says, put it somewhere else, really low beneath heaven. It is at that moment, she said, that I'll finally be able to behold God to the extent that we as humans can without any sin ever coming in between. Only Jesus can do that.

And I bring you to him today wherever you are. No matter where you are on your spiritual journey, you come to Christ, who replaces the Old Testament, the glory of God, the sacrifices, the worship of God. The closer we get to him, the more we please the Father. And then we discover the words of scripture: Christ in you, the hope of glory. It can't get any better than that, can it?

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Father, today we say in sincerity, may we be led to Christ. May we be led to the one who reveals the Father, full of grace and truth. No man has seen God at any time, but the only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him. Help us to rush to him for forgiveness, for fellowship, for our own joy that he promised us and find in him everything we need in this life and it'll take us to the next. We pray.

Before I close this prayer, if you need to talk to God right now, and I would think that many of you do, just talk to him. For some of you, receive the forgiveness that Jesus offers. For some of you, make it a moment of thanksgiving and worship. For some of you, may it be a sense of commitment, a new commitment beyond your present relationship. Do in our hearts, Father, whatever you desire, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): My friend, today I want to ask you a question. Do you cherish Jesus? Do you love him? If you don't, it may well be that you have never savingly believed on him. It's not possible to be born again without finding within us a new desire to love God, to love Jesus, and yes, to cherish him. I hope that that is true of you.

You know, the sermon series that you have just listened to is entitled, Changed By The Word. It's so important that you have this series so that you can listen to the messages again and again. You can have these messages in permanent form. For a gift of any amount, we're making it available. Here's what you do. Go to rtw offer.com. That's rtw offer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

Now, because this is the last opportunity that we're making this available for you, I want to give you that contact info again. Remember the sermon series, Changed By The Word. Go to rtw offer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337.

Announcer: Time now for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Some parents know the story of the prodigal son all too well. Grace lives in Newberg, Indiana and listens to us on Oneplace. She needs serious help.

I have a wayward son who will soon be 22. He's been smoking marijuana and binge drinking for the last four years. After many warnings from his very prestigious college, where he received a full-ride scholarship grant, he was finally asked to leave school and seek medical intervention for addiction. Instead of coming home and seeking help, he went to a different city where he grew up. He's been there ever since.

Before I became a believer, I married an abusive man, and our tumultuous marriage ended in divorce when my son was five. He was emotionally abused by his father and grew up without a father figure or a male role model. He accepted Christ when he was five and renewed his commitment as a teenager at Young Life Camp. However, he now tells me he's an apostate and does not believe in God's existence anymore.

My question to you is this. Should I continue to provide for him when he is far from being repentant and far from changing his lifestyle? Recently, I cut off his cell phone service I've been paying for. It's not that I'm trying to control his life. He does not take any responsibility for himself, and I feel there should be consequences. Am I supposed to extend God's grace to him when he's not ready to come home from the far country? Or should I cut him off and wait for his repentance?

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Grace, before I say anything, I just want you to know that I feel deeply for your predicament because I know that you love your son, and it's clear also that he was damaged, thanks to his father. And so we have a boy here that needs to be treated tenderly and with a great deal of care.

But that being said, I have some very difficult news for you, that sometimes grace is misinterpreted. One of the things that I think you should not do is enable him in his lifestyle. He is so consumed with drugs and alcohol that that's all that really matters to him. The question always is, where do I get my next drink? And where do I get my next bit of drugs, whatever kind he might be using? And this is all consuming.

The tough news is that people like that do not repent until they are absolutely desperate. I've said it before on this program, but some people don't change when they see the light, but only when they feel the heat. Now, I think that we should take a lesson here from the prodigal father in the story of the prodigal son.

Even though you treat him with a great deal of tenderness, and it's important for you to tell him over and over again and to assure him that he will always be welcomed back home. The fact is that yes, I don't think that you should support him. He's 22 years old, he's had a good opportunity. He was in this prestigious university with a full scholarship.