Running To Win

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

Dave McCallister: A war is coming where all the guns of all time will be meaningless. When the world's armies turn on Jesus Christ, they will be destroyed in an instant. Untold numbers of bodies will lie dead on the ground. The battle of Armageddon, its sign number seven, that Christ will soon return. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is running to win with Dr. Irwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Irwin Lutzer is in a series on seven signs of Christ's return. Today we're looking at sign number seven, the world's bloodiest conflict.

Pastor, for all who never saw Israel during their lifetimes, the grand tour is all set for a great day. The day Jesus returns with his saints.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: You know, Dave, that is going to be a wonderful time for believers, but a terrible time for those who are unbelievers. And of course, all of us are aware that history is going to wrap up. There's no doubt about it. We may wonder about the time, but one thing is sure, as the Bible predicts it's going to be, that's the way it's going to be. Well, let me ask you a question. How can you prepare for eternity for the return of Jesus Christ? I want to ask you another question. Do you know children ages two to six?

If so, I have a very special book for them. The book is entitled One Two Three Jesus Loves Me, beautifully illustrated. And not only that, but hard back. It's the kind of book that you want to read to your children or your grandchildren because as they count one two three, they're going to learn about Jesus. For a gift of any amount, we're making it available for you. And at the end of this message, I'm going to be giving you some contact info as to how this book can be yours. But for now, let us listen.

And if it is true that the devil said, as Milton believed, that he decided that he would rather be a king in hell than a than a servant in heaven, I'll tell you he was incredibly mistaken because listen to me carefully, there are no kings in hell. There are no kings in hell. He is tormented along with the beast and the false prophet day and night into the ages of the ages forever and ever. Any doubt as to who the winner in this conflict is? Jesus is the winner. And the battle of Armageddon is interrupted by his glorious return.

Let's continue on now. We're not finished yet. Number four, many individual Jews during this period of time recognize Christ to be the Messiah. We were telling you all throughout this series that the Bible says in Romans chapter 11, the apostle Paul says, so all Israel shall be saved. He doesn't mean every individual Israelite, but what he does mean is that is that there's going to be a whole generation of Jews that are going to look upon Jesus Christ and recognize him as their Messiah, and they will be saved. And they are the ones that are going to populate now the millennial kingdom still in their earthly bodies.

They are the ones over which Jesus Christ shall rule as we shall see in a moment. It says in Zechariah chapter 12 verse 10, I will pour out the spirit of grace and supplication so that they will look on me whom they have pierced. They will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son and will weep bitterly over him like weeping over a firstborn son. So the Jews, many of them at that time living, will believe in Jesus and accept him as their Messiah and their king. Number five, Christ will establish his kingdom here on earth centered in Jerusalem.

Now at this time some of you are saying, you know, this is this is unbelievable. I can't imagine if you're a visitor here today and you are not acquainted with the scriptures, you say, what planet did that guy come from? That's what you're thinking. But we actually, I say we, a friend of mine said that one time when he made a theological statement, he says, we believe. And some student challenged him and said, who's we? And he said, God and I. So maybe I'd better change that. I believe. I believe that Christ is going to rule yet from this earth.

Now listen. This is the time now for you to just kick back and hear my words. This is what Isaiah the prophet said. The day will come, he says, when many shall say, come, let us go on to the mountain of the Lord, onto the house of the God of Jacob, onto Zion, Jerusalem. For he will teach us his ways and we shall walk in his paths. For the law shall go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations and shall rebuke many people. And they shall beat their swords into plow shears, their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. Now you answer the question. Has that happened yet? Has the time come when there's no need for weapons because people have forgot how to fight and they do not learn war anymore? No, all that you need to do is to pick up the newspapers and know that those verses were never fulfilled. One day there was a little woman or at least a young woman by the name of Mary and the angel came to her and said, you're going to bear a son.

Now listen what the angel said. He shall be great. He shall be called the son of the highest and the Lord God shall give onto him the throne of his father David and he shall rule over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there shall be no end. How do you think Mary understood that? Would she not have understood that the child that she was going to bear was going to fulfill all those Old Testament prophecies when God said to David that you're going to have a child who's going to rule over the kingdoms forever?

Uh would she not think that this meant that he would rule in the territory over which David ruled, in the area that David ruled, and even the city from which he ruled? I believe that's the way she'd interpreted. Now you say, but Pastor Lutzer, what does that mean for us? I mean, where are we going to be? Well, again, we're going to have earthly bodies and we are going to be given assignments. This is not yet the eternal kingdom, but even the kingdom here on earth, we will be given responsibilities to rule with Christ, rule with him.

You say, yeah, but how can you have people who have earthly bodies, such as those Jews that you talked about a moment ago who are going to go into the millennial kingdom with earthly bodies and they shall live a long time, but they will die? The Bible says that the lion and the lamb shall lie down together, as I've mentioned before. Today, if you notice, when the lion and the lamb lie down, when the lion gets up, the lamb is missing. You don't have that happen today. How can people with glorified bodies intermingle with those who have still earthly physical bodies?

Well, Jesus did. You remember after his resurrection and his glorification, he even ate meat and fish with the disciples on the shores of Galilee. And we are going to be like him, for we shall see him as he is. But that does not mean that we aren't going to have those spatial physical characteristics because we will how that interaction will happen, I do not know. All that I know is this, that it says in the fifth chapter of Revelation regarding Christ, thou art worthy to take the book because thou wast slain and purchased for God people from every tribe and kindred and tongue and nation.

And thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priests and they shall reign on the earth. That settles it for me. I don't have all of the details. I don't understand it all, but I'm just simply saying that the saints shall rule with Christ on the earth. Now let's look at Revelation chapter 20. After the Lord Jesus Christ comes back and the beast and the false prophet are thrown into the lake of fire, and this gets a little bit complicated, but you're still with me today. I don't want to be like a politician who left a political rally in Chicago the other day and whispered to one of his aides, I hope that in the excitement I didn't happen to make myself clear about anything.

I'd like to be clear if possible. But in chapter 20, Satan is bound for a thousand years. And the martyrs who die during the tribulation period, and there are many of them, they are raised to reign with Jesus Christ for a thousand years. And I take it that we'll be reigning with them for a thousand years. That's what you discover if you read these next verses. And then it says in verse five, the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. That's actually a reference to the unsaved dead.

Now this gets a little technical, but when it says this is the first resurrection in verse five, it's really referring back to verse four. And the rest of the dead who do not come to life until after the thousand years are completed, that's the dead of unbelievers that we shall look at in just a moment. But the simple fact is that these people then are raised with Jesus Christ, that is the martyrs are. They rule with Christ. We rule with Christ. And then at the end of that period, the kingdom is of course changed and it turns out to be heaven.

But listen what the text says. It now gives us a glimpse into two different eternities at that point. The millennial kingdom now ends. The thousand-year reign is over. And now we look at the final judgment. And this is the final judgment now of all the dead who lived from the beginning, who did not come under the protection of God's forgiveness, his grace, and his beloved son. Of course, in the Old Testament times, they could not believe in Jesus as we do, but they could believe in the God of Jehovah as the Jewish people did. And they too would be saved, whether they were Jew or Gentile, because the Bible says that God was willing to overlook those sins, knowing that Christ would come.

And therefore he also took away the sins of David, of Abraham, and so forth. But now let's look at the judgment verse 11. I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away. And there was no place found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. And the books were opened and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds.

The sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades delivered up the dead which were in them. And they were judged every one of them according to their deeds. And death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Remember now we're talking about the rest of the dead. That is the unsaved of all the ages and they are standing before God. Is not this perhaps the most dramatic scene that one could ever possibly contemplate?

I want you to look at this crowd and see first of all its diversity, the small and the great. I don't take that to be physically, but it has to do with their stature in the world. This is the place you see where the millionaire stands with a pauper. This is the place where the attorney stands next to the shopkeeper. This is the place where the person who owns a million dollar of mansions or even more, whatever, stands with those who grew up in the ghetto. They're all alike here. They all stand together. They are diverse in terms of their economics.

They are also diverse in terms of their geography, geographically diverse. We think for example of the the millions in Asia. We think of the millions in Russia. We think of the millions in the rest of Europe. We think of the millions in South America, in Africa, in North America, in Canada, and the United States. And our minds cannot take in the vastness of this crowd. And they are all gathered together there before God. They are also diverse religiously. We think for example of the Buddhists. We think of the Hindus. We think of the Mormons. We think of the Catholics.

We think of the Protestants. We think of those who are nurtured in the Christian tradition. We think of those who thought that meditation would somehow save them. They too show up and they are there. Wow. They're also diverse in terms of their lifestyles. I can imagine a person who spent his entire life giving to charity and working and being a good, honest, loving person and promoting love and good deeds standing right next to Hitler and to Stalin because they are there too. Wow. You say, well, if that's their diversity, what holds them together? What's their common thread?

Because no matter who they are, they are not good enough to enter into the kingdom of heaven. And the Bible says that their names are not therefore recorded in the book of life. Even the best of the best must be damned. So this this judgment is to see the extent of their condemnation. That's why there of course Hitler will get something quite different from the people who did righteousness because God is just. But the problem is they lack something and that is the righteousness of God. That's their problem. The people who are in the book of life, it's not as if they're such better people.

God knows they were born with the same sinful nature, the same tendency to wander into sin. But there's something different about them. And that is they knew that they could not get into heaven as a result of their righteousness. Therefore, the only righteousness which God accepts is the righteousness of Christ. And therefore they trusted that righteousness. And in the Old Testament, they believed in Jehovah because they believed that a redeemer would someday come and take away sin. And therefore their faith and their trust is in the only one who can redeem them. And that's why they're in the book of life.

And so it all is ends because anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire because your works and your deeds and your religion cannot save you. It cannot save you. Well, that's one look into eternity. There's another one and that's Revelation 21. What a different picture. I saw a new heaven and new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away. And there's no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city new Jerusalem coming down from heaven, from God as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is among men and he shall dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be among them. And he shall wipe away every tear from their eye and there shall be no longer be any death and no longer any mourning or crying or pain for the first things have passed away. And he who sits on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new. And he said, write, for these words are faithful and true. And he said to me, it is done.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. Why the difference? The difference is this, that some people saw themselves as sinners and therefore accepted God's way of forgiveness and pardon through Christ. And others thought that they could stand before God on the basis of their meditation, their crystals, their good works, and that every religion is equal. And they shall be damned. God only accepts his own righteousness, the righteousness of Christ. And if you die without it, you too shall be in the lake of fire.

Why should we study prophecy? First of all, it's a reminder of the fact that God reigns. He really does. Don't ever try to outsmart him. Don't ever play games with him. Don't ever pretend that somehow you have a better way because in the end he's going to win. Here if you are wise for yourself even, just totally selfish you'd submit totally to God and say, hey, I'm giving up the I'm giving up the weapons of a rebel. I'm finished. Here I am. God reigns. Secondly, we live in the light of eternity. All this stuff is going to happen.

I mean, this is this is unbelievable. And I think C. S. Lewis was right when he said, the people who did most in this life are the ones who believed in a life to come. There is an eternity to come to set to rest the injustices of the world because it's all going to come out in these judgments, every little bit. That's how come we're going to sing forever just and true are thy ways, thou king of saints. We'll say that the judge of all the earth did right. And even the people in hell will say that as we know.

And finally, the whole purpose of prophecy is to remind us that there's a future coming and we don't know when it is. And even if we don't live to see all these events, we will die. And so we're going to participate with them somehow and in them. That we must flee to Christ because if not, God is a God of wrath. I'm working on a series of messages on God. And one of the lies I'm dealing with is this idea that God is more lenient than he used to be, some people think. Well, you know, in the Old Testament they stoned people.

And in the New Testament we don't. When you read this, do you get any impression that God is less of a just God in the New Testament than in the Old? I don't get that impression at all. We'll talk about that in another context except to say this is unbelievable, the justice and the righteousness and the wrath and the anger of God against sin. It is unbelievable. I like to tell that story of a forest fire or at least not a forest fire, it's a prairie fire. And a man and his daughter saw in the distance that this fire was coming toward them slowly and they wondered what they should do.

They could have run, but maybe they couldn't outrun it. So they decided to begin a fire right where they were and they burned many many patches. They burned as much as they possibly could, the story goes. And then as the fire came closer hours later, they stood where the fire had already been. And it went past them because the fire will not come where it's been. Want you to know today that when you come to Christ and you come to the cross, you are standing where the wrath of God was already unleashed, already unleashed. Death and the curse were in thy cup.

Oh Christ, was full for thee, but thou hast drained the last dark drop. 'Tis empty now for me. Jehovah bade his sword awake. Oh Christ, it woke against thee. Thy open bosom was 'Tis warred. It braved the storm for me. If you do not come under the protection of Jesus Christ through repentance and trusting him, you shall be in the lake of fire forever and ever and ever and ever. Let us pray. Father, we know that your goodness leads us to repentance. Your grace does. Sometimes your judgment does too. And therefore, Father, we pray that this message may not have been more harsh than necessary.

But help us to plead with men and women and to say, look at the facts that they may come to Christ, that they might be saved. Today, do you know Christ as your savior? If not, you'd better believe on him right now. Don't worry about tomorrow. Right now say, Jesus, I'm a sinner, save me. Father, may many come to know you, to trust you, to believe in you. And we ask that those of us who know you, who've done that, that we might live lives that are worthy until we see you face to face, one on one.

We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. My friend, I know it's very easy for us to speak about the return of Jesus. And oftentimes it falls on deaf ears. People need to realize that we are speaking the truth because Jesus predicted it. It's predicted in various books of the New Testament. And we must remember that he is returning. If you have never received him as savior, would you do so right now? Come to him as you are. Well, at the beginning of this broadcast, I mentioned a very special book. It's a book that will enable children to count and learn about Jesus at the same time.

It's entitled One Two Three Jesus Loves Me. And I want to emphasize that this book, hard back cover, was written by my dear wife Rebecca. She loves children. She loves our three children, our eight grandchildren. And she has a burden to get the gospel to children. So if you want to learn Bible stories and at the same time, make sure that your children learn to count from one to 10. Well, here's the book for you. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com or call us at 1 888 218 9337. The name of the book One Two Three Jesus Loves Me.

Make a contribution to the life of your child, your grandchild, or some other child who needs to know about Jesus by ordering a copy of One Two Three Jesus Loves Me right now. Go to rtwoffer.com. That is rtwoffer.com or call us at 1 888 218 9337.

Dave McCallister: You can write to us at Running to Win 1635 North La Salle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614. Irwin Lutzer has concluded the world's bloodiest conflict. The seventh sign in his series Seven Signs of Christ's Return. And may that return be soon. Next time we begin a series on a flurry of wings, what angels do and what they know. Plan to join us. Running to Win comes to you from the Moody Church in Chicago to help you understand God's road map for your race of life, present and future. For Pastor Irwin Lutzer, this is Dave McCallister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.