The Mark of a God-Lived Life

1 Peter 1:22-2:3

Today we are bringing our series, our stewardship series to an end. What have we considered? We have considered how a God-lived life is a life of hospitality. That we are open to others. We want to reach out to others because we want others to have what we have. And oftentimes that starts with us just being nice to people. It can be as simple as that. We’ve talked about how a God-lived life is a life of service. That even as Jesus came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. So our goal in life is to serve, not be served, serve like Jesus did. Last week we considered how a God-lived life is a life lived shrewdly in regards to the way we use our money. That we want to make sure we’re using our money and stuff in a way that is heaven-focused. That is eternal-focused. Because at the end of the day what could be more important to use our money on than heaven, amen? But today we wrap it up with what is the source of it all. And that’s that a God-lived life is a life connected to the word of God. And dare I say that is the most important mark of a God-lived life. That a God-lived life is a life marked by having an open Bible. Is a life marked by being people who hear the word, who study the word, who read the word. Why? Well, I’m going to go with an illustration. I’ve got this wonderful laptop computer. It’s fantastic. You all supply it for me so that I can take it over to the school and use it to teach confirmation class. And when I want to bring it here into the church, I can bring it here into the church. And if I need to take it home and work on things at home, I can do that. It’s fantastic. And it’s got this battery that works for, you know, most of the day. But… eventually, that battery runs out. And what do I need to do? I need to plug it in. Because if I don’t plug that computer in and recharge the battery, we’ll get to the point where the battery will die and then I can’t make use of that computer at all. The word of God is like the charger for the battery of faith. When you are connected to the word of God, when you are hearing the word of God, reading the word of God, thinking about the word of God, singing the word of God, praying about the word of God, anytime you are somehow, some way connected to the word of God, God is charging your spiritual batteries. But if we are disconnected from the word of God, then what happens is our spiritual batteries wear down more and more and more and more. And if we’re not careful, those spiritual batteries can wear down to the point where they die. And we have no more belief left inside of us. Does it sound kind of sound like staying plugged in is kind of important? If I don’t get an amen on that, something’s wrong. Amen? Because this is indeed the source of our God-lived life. This is the source of us staying believers in Jesus. How does faith happen? Faith comes by hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ. Paul says, “I’m not ashamed of the gospel because it’s the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” The Bible is our one and only power source and that’s what empowers baptism. That’s what empowers the Lord’s Supper. It’s because the Bible is there, the gospel is there with its empowerment. How desperately you and I need to keep on hearing the word and that’s exactly what Peter urges us to do here in our text. He compares it to a newborn baby and he compares it to the way the newborn baby feels about milk. Yes, there is milk inside this glass. I would assume that every one of us has at some time in our life been around a little baby. And I would assume, in fact, a few of you are holding them right now, which is awesome. Larry’s got one over there. Nice. When the baby’s hungry, do you know it? Oh boy, do you ever. And do they care if you’re trying to finish up a project? No. Do they care if an important phone call just came in? No. Do they care if you need to go use the restroom or you need to do something? No. When they’re hungry, they crave physical milk. Right? Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk. The milk is the Bible. The way the newborn baby craves milk is the way God wants you and me to crave the word of God. Why? Because that’s the way, Peter puts it, that’s the way we grow up in our salvation. What would happen to a baby if you brought the baby home and the baby was healthy and the baby was good and the baby was fine, but you never fed it? Would it grow? No. In fact, eventually it would die. It’s the same thing in our life of faith. “Crave pure spiritual milk,” God says. “Crave the Bible.” Why? Because God doesn’t want you and me to be spiritual infants. God doesn’t want you and me to be spiritual infants who can get blown back and forth by false teachings or could eventually lose our faith. “Crave pure spiritual milk so that you and I can keep on growing.” Making sense? Absolutely so. And now here we have toilet bowl cleanser. I’m going to put just a couple of drops of the toilet bowl cleanser into the milk. Oh, this thing just fell off. Hopefully, it won’t. Just going to put a couple drops. There we go. And I would now offer it to a volunteer to drink it. I see lots of heads shaking. No. You are being so judgmental. You are being judgmental, aren’t you? Of course, you are. I would suggest you are making an extremely wise judgment that drinking milk with toilet bowl cleanser mixed into it would not be a good move. True? If I drank this, do you think that I would drop over dead immediately? No, I doubt it. Might there even still be some physical benefit in there? Yeah, there’s still milk in there. But a steady diet of this, steady diet of this would probably kill me. The milk is the Bible. What’s the toilet bowl cleanser? It’s false teaching. The toilet bowl cleanser is false teaching. How much false teaching are you willing to put up with in your spiritual milk? Now remember, what’s at stake? Eternity. Heaven or hell is at stake. How much toilet bowl cleanser, how much false teaching are you willing to put up with in your spiritual diet? I’m thankful to see a lot of heads shaking. No, none. Aren’t you being judgmental? Yes, you are. You are making a very wise judgment that your eternity is worth way too much to put up with any kind of falsehood in your spiritual diet. Amen? Now, how much false teaching can kill faith? I don’t know. And the reason I don’t know is because God doesn’t tell us. God never says you can put up with this much false teaching before your faith will die before your faith will be killed. He doesn’t do that. What he does is he says to us, “Crave pure spiritual milk.” Not just any spiritual milk, pure spiritual milk. God says to us things like, “Watch out for false teachers. We’re going to come to you like sheep.” But inwardly, they are ferocious wolves. He’s going to say to us that when we see the presence of false teachers or false teachings, we should watch out for them and avoid them. Not join them, avoid them. Wait, isn’t God being judgmental? Yes, he is. Yes, he is. God is making the judgment that his word is not to be tampered with by sinful mortals. God is making the judgment that your souls are so precious to him that he doesn’t want anyone messing with your salvation. He wants you to hear pure and unfiltered that Jesus loves you dearly, that Jesus has paid for your sins in full, that there is salvation, one for you, one 100% for you. He wants you to hear full bore that baptism saves you and babies need to be baptized because they’re sinners who deserve to go to hell. But God wants them saved and so he wants them brought to his font. God wants you to hear with clear, unvarnished words that the Lord’s Supper really does give you Jesus’ true body and blood together with the bread and the wine. And you really are receiving a miracle. And so God makes the judgment that he wants you and me to crave pure spiritual milk and not put up with even the least bit of toilet bowl cleanser garbage in our spiritual diet. How do I make sure that happens? I need to stay plugged into the Word of God. Right? Because the more I know the Word of God, the more I’ll know when that false teaching comes or when that false teacher comes. Oh, they may look like sheep. They may look like they’re part of the flock. But there’s something wrong. And the more you’re plugged into the Word, the more you’ll recognize that. I don’t know where I heard this story, but somewhere along the line, I heard a story about how they train treasury agents to find fake money, counterfeit money. What they do is they make the treasury agents handle real money over and over and over and over and over again. Because then when they get a counterfeit bill in their hands, it just doesn’t feel right. And they may not be able to tell you right off the bat what’s wrong with it, but it just doesn’t feel right. Brothers and sisters, the same thing happens in our lives of faith. The more that we are connected to the truth, the more that we are connected to the Word of God, the more that our Bibles are open, the more often we’re in Bible study, the more often we’re here in worship, the more often we’re hearing, reading, meditating on the Word of God, the more we know truth. And then when error comes to us, we may not be able to always recognize what the problem is, but it just won’t feel. Something will feel off because the truth will have told you that. Make sense? But even more, the more we’re into the Word of God, the more we’re reminded of some vitally important and ultimately wonderful truths about ourselves. All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. There are some people in this world who are outstanding, right? There are some people in this world who become fantastic athletes or fantastic actors or actresses or fantastic singers or fantastic business people, fantastic doctors, whatever. And then what happens? They die. And a few years later, who remembers? Just like I hardly remember what our front garden looked like back in May, because it sure doesn’t look anything like that now. The grass withers and the flowers fall. You and I are mortal, sinful human beings, and because we’re sinful, we are mortal. We will die, and we will stand in front of God for judgment. But the Word of God also reminds us what it says in verse 22 of chapter 1. “Now that you stand before God as a pure one.” Wait, you stand before God as a what? A pure one. Why? Because the perfect life of Jesus has been credited to your account. So on that wonderful day when you stand in front of God, God is going to say, “You’re a pure one, Cliff. You’re a pure one, Barb. You’re a pure one, Ricardo. You are a pure one. Come into my kingdom, because you stand before me as pure.” The Word of God reminds you of that. And oh, think of the confidence that that gives you in me as we face day-to-day life. I stand as pure in the eyes of God because God says so. I don’t know what today brings, but I know where I stand with my God. My God will strengthen me to handle it no matter what it might be. That’s confidence. And oh, think about the confidence it brings you when you face your death. I stand before God as a pure one. When I breathe my last, Jesus will welcome me into his heavenly kingdom. And so even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Because I’m a pure one in the eyes of God, all because of Jesus. My brothers and sisters, God wants you and me to have that. And that’s why the ultimate mark of a God-lived life is a life with an open Bible. It’s a life of being connected to the Word of God, day by day, with a group on Sundays or other days. That is the ultimate mark of a God-lived life. It’s the ultimate way that God keeps strengthening your faith and keep walking you on your road to eternal life. May that, that we are open Bible people, may that be the mark of our God-lived lives. Amen? And amen.