Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Each believer needs the Word of God on a daily basis, just like we need food and water. We need to develop an appetite for the Bible, but sin can quench that appetite real fast. Today, more on making the way clear for the Word of God to do its work.
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, take us again into 1 Peter chapter 2, as you teach about how the Word of God converts us.
Yes, Dave, the amazing thing is that God takes His Word, the message of the Gospel, and let me put it this way, the Word of God combines with the Spirit of God to birth within us the life of God, the power of the Word of God. I'm holding in my hands a very delightful book entitled Awesome Bible Verses Every Kid Should Know and What They Mean. For a gift of any amount, this book can be yours. It's for children about ages 6 to 12. Here's what you do.
Go to rtwoffer.com, rtwoffer.com, or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Ask for awesome Bible verses every kid should know. And now let us turn to the Word of God and find out the power of those verses. You know, that's the case, I believe, of many believers in the body of Jesus Christ. They're basically infants and they are starved spiritually. And as a result of that starving, they don't know how to receive the pure spiritual milk of the Word that Peter talks about. Now imagine a baby who gets fed once a week. Every Sunday morning he goes for some food. And then he's starved during the week and then he comes on Sunday and he sings songs and he hears the Word of God preached and he opens his or her Bible and so they are inspired and they say, wow, you know, that was really interesting and helpful and I'm motivated. And then nothing. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, starved.
And they don't grow. And why is it that we don't have an appetite for the Word? Well I think what we need to do is just look at the context of what Peter is talking about here. You'll notice it says in chapter 2 verse 1, put away all malice. Why that'll stifle your appetite for the Word of God. If you have malice in your heart, if you're overcome by hatred and all deceit, what are you doing that's deceitful? You begin to live a deceitful life and I'll tell you, it'll be hard for you to put up with church much less reading the Word and being encouraged by it and being fed by it. What about hypocrisy and envy and all slander? You see, as sin develops in our life, it zaps our appetite for the Word.
And the world does. So we've got all of these other things going on, including the technology around us that is constantly distracting us. And so there's no way for us to grow spiritually and it would be very interesting to see what Moody Church would look like if we took all the spiritual babies and put them in a nursery. Wonder how many we'd have. And so you see, appetite needs to be developed and that's what we're going to do.
We're going to do it together as a church. We are going to restart, jumpstart an appetite for the Word. Now, what does the Word do for us? Well, it is food. It is food. Spiritually speaking, it is food. If you need food to grow physically, you need food to grow spiritually.
You'll notice it says the pure spiritual milk of the Word that you thereby may grow. You need milk. But it's not just that you need milk.
You also need bread. And that's what Jesus was using when he was combating Satan. You know, milk is just the basics of the Christian life. How to read the Bible, reading the stories about Jesus in the New Testament, all that is milk. But Jesus is withstanding Satan and he quotes from Deuteronomy that says, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And in the Scripture, bread is spoken of, what bread is to the body, in the same way the Scripture is to the soul. So if you want to graduate from being a baby in the Lord that needs milk, you begin to memorize Scripture so that you can use it the way Jesus used it against Satan. Satan comes to him with one temptation and Jesus says it is written. And Jesus is able to quote it. I wonder, anyone who's been saved here for two, three, five years, how many verses of Scripture could you quote in a moment, a fierce, unrelenting temptation?
How many would you be able to quote? The more you're able to quote and to apply the Word, now you're getting to the level of bread. But the Bible also is meat.
It's also meat. You'll notice that the author of Hebrews, and you can just write this down and read it later, I'm picking it up in chapter 5, verse 11. He says about this, in context he's talking about Melchizedek and Jesus and the parallels, we have much to say and it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. And you're saying, I just don't understand this. Let's go on to something else.
Let's answer the cell phone. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food. Solid food is translated in some translations as meat, which is what it is. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness because he's a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good and evil.
You say, well, what's an example of solid food, of meat? Well, certainly the doctrine of Melchizedek. How long has it been since you have read the book of Hebrews to try to understand the relationship of Melchizedek to Jesus and how it affirms the priesthood of Jesus Christ? Do you know something about that?
Well, that would be an example. Paul's writings, no doubt. The book of Romans and Ephesians and Philippians and Colossians, now we're beginning to get into the meat. And he says, you should be able to teach others. Fathers, you should be able to teach your families.
And if you say, I don't know even where to begin, I'll give you a suggestion. Take the book of Proverbs and read it with your children. And read a chapter a day of the book of Proverbs, for example, and learn along with them. But the point of spiritual growth is that eventually we become disciplers of other people rather than simply saying, OK, we have all this truth and we are not sharing it with anyone else. You begin to get to the meat of the word so that you can instruct others. And it doesn't mean in a formal classroom, though it includes that.
It means just in relationship. Are you able to sit down with someone else and say, let's read the Bible together and let's figure out what it says together and let me be able to guide you because I have come to the point, and of course I'm being very careful in what I say here, none of us comes to the point where we understand everything, but we're further along in growth. And then of course you say, oh, but you know, there's milk, there's bread, there's meat. That's pretty heavy, but I need some dessert.
Don't you think it would be wonderful? Just like me yesterday after I had a sandwich for lunch, I had a chocolate attack. I don't know whether or not you've ever had a chocolate attack, but you really need a chocolate at that moment. That was my dessert.
You say, oh, I need dessert. Well, the Bible has that too. In Psalm 19, the Bible says that the precepts of the Lord are more important and more precious than gold, yea, then much fine gold, sweeter also than honey, and the dripping of a honeycomb.
You need dessert? Go into the Psalms and it's full of honeycombs. So the Word of God has within it a whole meal, and meditation is to the soul what digestion is to the body. And it's the transforming power of the Word of God, grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, growing, vibrant Christians. You say, oh, I've been defeated by sin all this time. Well, yeah. Have you been reading the Word and listening to the Word? That's where the power is.
What I want to do is to nail this down. I was going to mention being confronted by the Word, but we'll leave that some other time. First of all, God wills. God wills that we grow into a predetermined image, that we grow into a predetermined image, namely the image of Jesus. I emphasize that we have the DNA of Jesus. One of the most remarkable things to me about the miracle of birth, and I don't know how in the world somebody can see a newborn baby and not believe in God, but that's a separate issue. The fact is this, the miracle of birth, where you can look at a child who's a couple of weeks old and you can see in that child actually the features of his father or his mother, and you just say to yourself, this is incredibly amazing.
The color of eyes is determined already when the child is conceived. Height, hair color, all kinds of features, all wrapped up, all wrapped up in that embryo, in that birth process, all there already. God says, when I convert you, I give you the stamp of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says in the fourth chapter of the book of Ephesians, it says that we are to exercise our gifts within the church and communicate with one another within the church so that we might grow up into him in all things, into the image of Christ. Scripture says in the eighth chapter of the book of Romans that God puts us through various experiences, that we might be conformed to the image of his son. When you are converted, God had his son Jesus in mind and said that if this person grows and gets out of the spiritual nursery and begins to allow the word of God to feed him or her, when that begins, then Jesus is going to break through some of the characteristics of Jesus.
We're all different, just like members of the family are different. I mean, I can't believe we have three daughters who are so radically different, all with the same parents and within us, very much different, racial differences, economic differences, abilities different, but all of them having within themselves implanted all that they need to have Christ-likeness apart from the fact that they must be in the word of God and learn to feed themselves. And one of the things I'm going to be doing in a future message is to speak specifically about meditation and how the feeding process works. Second, growth can only take place with the intake of the word.
Growth can only take place with the intake of the word of God. Now, the idea of listening to seven chapters a day or whatever it turns out to be so that you listen to the whole New Testament in 40 days for many people seems formidable. They just say, I don't know where I would have the time. I want to be very sensitive here, but I don't believe you.
Is that clear? I'll tell you why I don't believe you. I was on the phone this week with a pastor friend of mine in California who had leukemia, and he went through a treatment that involved five hours a day for several weeks. Well, where in the world does a pastor, a busy pastor, get five hours a day?
Please tell me. Ah, but his life was at stake. When your life is at stake, you find five hours a day.
Thank you very, very much. And when your spiritual life and your eternity is at stake and whether or not you really live a life to the glory of God, when that's at stake, somewhere, someplace you find 28 minutes a day, somewhere, someplace. And when you think of listening to it nowadays, you can do that with your family over a meal. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a meal without any arguments because everybody is just listening to the scripture being read? You can even listen to it in the car, though I remind you that angels that guard you when you drive officially retire at 75. So be vigilant, be vigilant, but you know, you can listen in that context.
If you are creative, you will find that half an hour somewhere, someplace. And of course, if we do it together, if we all say today is our beginning date and we write that on the back, you can imagine the impact that it's going to have. This is what the Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 4.
It says, exercise yourself toward godliness. Now there are other ways to do it. You know what you can do. You can read a chapter a day and so forth. This is jump-starting.
This is immersion. And when you read or when you hear the word of God, before you do, you have to pray this and say, Lord, open thou mine eyes that I might behold wondrous things out of thy law. Pray that prayer from Psalm 119. Then what you do is you ask God for the ability to concentrate. And that means turning off everything, all the stimuli that normally interrupt you and say, God, I'm giving you this time. And you know what's going to happen?
Oh, the first times it's going to be so hard. You're going to say, I did it yesterday and I don't even remember anything. So what do you do? You do it the next day.
That's what you do. And you keep doing it day after day until suddenly there's an appetite that develops within you. And you say to yourself, you know, I don't think I can go a whole day without the word of God.
Because you've tasted and you've seen that the Lord is good and the appetite, as you deal with issues through the word, will happen. Now I have to tell you, I had a heads up here. And so yesterday I listened to today's section.
So I'm ahead of you. All day yesterday, because I did it in the morning, all day yesterday, various passages came to mind. You know, this passage, and then I'd be thinking about this and this passage. When you're going through a large section like that, you don't have to stop and smell the flowers, so to speak. You know, you can go back later and you can study.
And what you're interested in is the whole sweep of it. And remember, we're only challenging you for 40 days, though we believe it's going to go much longer than that. Israel was in the desert for 40 years. Goliath challenged David for 40 days, 40 days.
And then David took care of him. Maybe it'll take 40 days for you to slay Goliath, but be faithful. Jesus was tempted of the devil for 40 days.
We can do this together for 40 days. Do I have a witness that we can do this together? Now I have to ask you a question. Have you been born again by the water? Jesus mentioned water as a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Have you been born of the Spirit and the Word?
That's a very good question. As I mentioned, it's not something that you grow into. It's not church attendance. Jesus was talking to Nicodemus, that religious leader, who came by night because this leader had a hunger within his soul, and he knew that there's got to be more to religion than these boring rituals. He knew that it isn't just a matter of rules and regulations and promises that we make to ourselves that we break anyway.
There's got to be more to it. And Jesus said to him immediately, you must be born from above. It's a miracle that you can't do.
It's not a matter of determination. The Scripture says that we are born from above by the will of God. Have you been born from above?
Has God created within you that new nature? Because now you're hearing the Word of God, that Jesus died for us as sinners. He shed his blood so that we could be reconciled to God, and he rose again in triumph to show that what he did was legitimate and right. And do you say, I believe on him as my Savior? And it will happen in a moment of time when you, with a kind of desperate faith, know your sinfulness the moment you believe.
How does that song go? It's just coming to mind as I'm preaching, the moment we believe that pardon from God we receive, something like that. But it's right, and God transforms you. For some people, it's a great experience because the environment is such.
For others, it's a quiet experience. You could believe on Christ right now. Those of you who are listening by radio or by internet or any other way that you are listening right now, you can say, Jesus, today I accept you as my substitute, as my Savior, and I believe and trust you alone for my eternity. You know, in the book of Acts, in Acts chapter 16, there are two remarkable conversions. One is the conversion of the Philippian jailer. There was an earthquake, and he was so terrified, he began to get his life in order really, really fast. And he said to Peter and the others, he said, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you'll be saved. And evidently, he was saved right there because they went into his home and all those who believed were baptized. We don't know that there were any children in the home. There's no infant baptism in the Bible, but they were baptized.
And that was a rather spectacular conversion, I'd say. But in the very same chapter, there's the story of Lydia. And the Bible says that Lydia was going along by the river, and there was going to be a Bible study there. And it says she was a woman whose heart God opened.
And later on, she helped the apostles. Are you listening today and your heart is being opened to God? Or you say, OK, I reach out to Jesus as my Savior to receive the miracle that he alone is able to give. Bottom line, a man was explaining how he got saved to someone, and he said it very, very simply. He said, I did my part. God did his part. Said, oh, interesting.
Explain. He said, my part was to do the sinning. Jesus Christ's part was to do the saving. At the end of the day, that's what the gospel is. Our part is the sinning.
His part is the saving. And then as a newborn infant, you'll notice that the text says you'll begin to desire the pure, unadulterated milk of the Word, because you're going to be reading the Bible, that you may grow thereby. And with that, I invite you to pray with me. Father, we ask today that you might grant us as a church the great opportunity to be able to be involved in your Word. And Lord, if we're discouraged and we miss a day, we pray that you might help us to continue on the next day, because you understand our weakness. But at the same time, may we be determined to listen to your Word, to read your Word, and above all, with open hearts, to be transformed by it. For those who've never trusted Christ, may they do that right now, I pray, as your Holy Spirit works in their life and brings them to saving faith.
We thank you. If you need to pray right now, you pray, because God is listening, and He knows your thoughts. We ask in Jesus' blessed name, amen. My friend, I hope that you prayed that prayer today.
If you've never accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, admit your sinfulness and believe the goodness of the gospel, the gospel that comes to us through the Word of God. I'm holding in my hands a book entitled Awesome Bible Versus Every Kid Should Know. Now, I have to tell you that this book was written by my wife for this reason.
Years ago, she told me, you know, the children grow up in Sunday school and they know the stories about Daniel and David, but they don't know doctrine. So she wrote this book, Awesome Bible Versus Every Kid Should Know, for children perhaps ages 6 to 12, in which there are 20 or 30 different essays of about a page each, 20 or 30 different topics that are covered scripturally to help children understand Bible doctrine. For a gift of any amount, this book can be yours.
Here's what you do. Go to RTWOffer.com. That's RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. This would be a great book for your children, for your grandchildren, so that they are grounded in the Word of God at their level.
Go to RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 714. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. Next time on Running to Win, we'll turn to Psalm 19 to find out how the Word of God teaches us. Thanks for listening to our series on being changed by the Word. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
