Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): On your spiritual journey with Christ, you are guaranteed to face obstacles, upsets, and challenges. Today, we'll hear part two of Stuart's message, "Press On," as he encourages you from Paul's letter to the Philippians to keep on moving forward, no matter what.

Before we hear that message, though, your generous support helps keep broadcasts like this one today going out around the world, so you and others can experience life in Christ. As thanks for your gift today, we'll send you two great resources: the Briscoes' two-message series "Worry Less" and Jill's booklet "Me Worry?"

These encouraging resources are filled with biblical wisdom and practical advice to help you overcome worry and live with God's peace. These resources are available through tomorrow only, so call today to request yours: 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Let's listen now to Stuart's teaching.

Stuart Briscoe: He who decided that if he was going to be a Jew, he was going to be a real one. And so, having explored the different tenets of the Jewish faith, he had opted for the most strict, the most devout, the most serious sect of Judaism, and he had become a Pharisee.

He wasn't just a theoretical Pharisee; on the contrary, he had decided that if he was going to be somebody who took the law seriously, he was going to dot every "i" and he was going to cross every "t." And as far as legalistic righteousness was concerned, he would be on the top of the heap. And because he saw this pernicious thing called Christianity coming to bear, he devoted his considerable intellect and energy to the extermination of it. And all these things, he said, had merit in them.

Now he says, "I am not simply writing those things off. What I'm saying is this: the new discovery that I made did not make these things worthless. It's just compared to the new discovery that I made that I counted them as loss." Is that complicated? Let me give you an example.

Many years ago, Jill and I traveled to South Africa. Well now, on this particular occasion, a little lady met us. She was rather agitated and excited, and she burbled on at great length. And among other things, she said that we were staying in her home. We thanked her very much for that. And she said, "Then, would you like to see the Hole?" H-O-L-E. "Would you like to see the Hole?" I had no idea what she was talking about. So, being terribly British, I said, "We would love to. Thank you so much."

And we started chugging along the road there, and she went on at great length about the Hole. It was one mile in circumference at the top; it was hundreds of feet deep. You couldn't see the bottom of it because it had filled up with water. It was dug by hundreds and thousands of men who came from all over the world to dig it. They went through terrible privation. There was famine, there was disease, there was epidemic, but they kept digging.

I said, "Why in the world would anybody come from somewhere else in the world to dig a hill and make it into the biggest hole in the world?" And she said, "Oh, one day some little boys were playing on the hill, and they were throwing pebbles to each other and catching the pebbles and throwing them back to each other. And a gentleman walking past just happened to notice the boys doing this, and he noticed that the boys were throwing the pebbles because as they went through the air, the sun glinted on the pebbles. So, he caught one of the pebbles, and it was a diamond."

And word got out that this hill was full of diamonds, and so people arrived from all over the world, and the Kimberley Diamond Mine was born. We saw it. Now, the whole point of the story is this: that little piece of real estate was very valuable to those little boys. It was their playground. They loved it. Probably generation after generation had played there, and they'd played with these cute little pebbles, and they'd thrown them around, and this had been fun.

And then one day, somebody discovered, "Hey folks, this is a diamond mine." And that which had been important to them, now they count as loss compared to the excellency, the surpassing excellency of the knowledge. "Hey folks, this is a diamond mine."

Now says the Apostle Paul, "All my heritage, all my religious background, all that I learned as a kid, I'm simply telling you this: it was not worthless." In fact, when he wrote the letter to the Romans in Chapter 3, Verse 1, he asked this question: "What then is the profit to a Jew, and what value is there in circumcision?" And his answer is, "Much in every way." It’s profoundly significant.

Let me show you how. The knowledge of the Ten Commandments will not give you the way to be reconciled to God. You can say, "Well, my parents taught me the Ten Commandments, and I learned the Ten Commandments, and I memorized the Ten Commandments, and I live by the Ten Commandments." Now, you could say that. Even if you had adopted that principle, the reality of it is this: you would have broken them somewhere. Like, you haven't loved the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength, and you haven't loved your neighbor as yourself.

But you can say, "I've lived by the Ten Commandments." Does that make the Ten Commandments valueless? No. They are immensely valuable, not as a means of being made right with God, but as a means of showing you the sinfulness of your own sin. And when you discover the sinfulness of your own sin through the Ten Commandments, at that point, you look for a way where you might be forgiven.

And Paul writing to the Galatians said that the law is like a schoolmaster that trains you until in the end you graduate and you're brought to Christ. The law will teach you the sinfulness of your sin, not in order that you might be made right with God through keeping the law, but in order that you might come to Christ and discover in Christ the forgiveness is available to you, not through your own efforts, but through the grace and mercy of Christ. So, he puts in contrast the righteousness that is my own that comes through the works of the law, and then the righteousness that is of God by faith.

You know something? I've preached in Milwaukee now for years, and I'm more convinced today than I was on the day that I came: the hardest message to get across is this: you are not made righteous by your own efforts. You can only be made righteous by the mercy and grace of God mediated through the death and resurrection of Christ.

Guest (Male): This is Telling the Truth, and we're hearing from Stuart Briscoe today about pressing on in your faith, whatever comes your way. We'll hear more in a moment, but first, we want you to hear this testimony from Kristen, who wrote to say: "I absolutely love Jill and Stuart's ministry. I was just recently born again, and my heart is so full. Satan has come to challenge me, of course, and he is just solidifying my love for God. We started a Bible study here in Las Vegas back in April with women. It's now upwards of 20 people and growing. God is so very great."

That's the kind of encouragement your support today will help bring more people around the world as you help in share the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth, so others can experience life in Christ. And we'd like to encourage you this month with two helpful resources: Stuart and Jill Briscoe's two-message series "Worry Less" and Jill's booklet "Me Worry?"

The stresses of life can leave you feeling worried, anxious, even afraid, and this turmoil can rob you of the joy and peace God wants for you. In this powerful series, the Briscoes help you discover the secret to worrying less and living with more joy. These encouraging messages shine a critical light on a root cause of worry and give you practical guidance on how to rule your anxieties instead of having them rule you.

Through this Friday only, this special resource plus Jill's booklet come as thanks for your gift to help more people experience life through the teaching resources of Telling the Truth. So request your copy of "Worry Less" and "Me Worry?" when you call 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or give online at tellingthetruth.org. All right, let's hear more of Stuart's message.

Stuart Briscoe: People still have got this idea there's no such thing as a free lunch. Now, I like that attitude. I really do. That was one of the things that was appealing to me when we were invited to come to old Milwaukee. I looked around and I said, "You know, there's some good old-fashioned, hard-nosed, hard-working, old-time Europeans around here." And I figured that those are the kind of people I'd come out from, and they were the kind of people I'd like to be with.

They put up with the bad weather. They support the Packers when they're abysmal. They keep on keeping on. They're tough. They stick with it. They've got some principles, and they're not looking for a handout, and there's no such thing as a free lunch. But it backfires on these dear old people, you know why? Because the reality of it is this: that there is no such thing as hard-nosed, hard-earned righteousness. You can't do it.

It's the hardest message to get across. And the Apostle Paul says, "The time came for me when I began to realize that all the heritage and all the things that had been factored into my life could never ever make me right with God." Not that they were worthless, just that compared to discovering that Christ, crucified and risen, is the basis of my righteousness, simply in comparison to Him, makes all the rest worthless.

Now he says, "If I've counted all that was profit now as loss, I have now decided that all that was loss is to my profit." What was loss to him? Christ. No, he wouldn't give Him the time of day. He was utterly, relentlessly, totally, mercilessly opposed to Christ. And now he says, "Listen, what really matters now is that I know Christ."

The word that he uses to describe knowing Christ is a very strong word in the original language, *epignosis*. It means to know intimately, to know experimentally, to know experientially. It doesn't mean to have a casual acquaintance with; it doesn't mean to have some information about. It means to have entered into an intimacy of relationship with. The thing that really matters to him now is an intimate relationship with Christ.

Now, this is hard sometimes for people to grasp. Let me explain it to you this way. It is possible to have learned as a kid that Jesus is the Savior of the world. Okay. Well, it's one thing to learn that Jesus is the Savior of the world; it's an entirely different thing to say, "If Jesus is the Savior of the world, that means I'm part of the world, therefore He could be my Savior. I need saving. I haven't been saved. But if Jesus could be my Savior, and I need saving and I haven't been saved, I need to be saved."

Therefore, he says, "If I ask Him, He will save me. I'll ask Him. Guess what? I'm saved." Now, it isn't just knowing about Jesus; now it's knowing Jesus as my Savior. It's possible to say, "Well, I believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins." Well, you can believe that. A vast majority of people in this area believe that. They believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins.

It's an entirely different matter, however, to say, "If Jesus died on the cross for our sins, I wonder what sins of mine necessitated Him dying on the cross?" And I need to confront my own sinfulness. And then I need to ask the question: what possible difference could Jesus dying on the cross 2,000 years ago, thousands of miles away from here, what possible significance can that have to my sinfulness now?

And I've got to think the thing through, and I've got to come to this conclusion: that if in some remarkable way, God was gathering the sins of the whole world, including mine—past, present, and future—and He was reckoning them to Christ, and Christ becomes a substitutionary offering for the sins of the whole world, that means that Jesus died on the cross for my sins. And now God says, "Because Jesus died on the cross for your sins, your sins can be forgiven."

And so, I say, "Oh, gee. Then I will look simply at my sins. I will admit they're sins and stop saying they were mistakes, and stop blaming everybody that I'm a victim. And I'll start saying my sin is sin, and it cost Jesus the cross. And I'm so incredibly grateful. And God, if You, because Jesus died on the cross for my sins, are willing to forgive me, I ask You, forgive me." And God says, "Done."

Now I know Jesus as the Savior from my sins. And I've moved from knowing about Him to knowing Him. Now says the Apostle Paul, "The important thing for me is to embrace the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord." And he goes further. He says, "The thing that really matters to me now is that I may gain Christ." That word "gain" means I want to amass more and more of the merits of Christ into my life. More and more of the benefits of Christ. I want to discover more and more of Christ.

And then he says, "And I want to be found in Christ." That's a legal term. If you go into court, the charges are read, the evidence is given, the jury is dismissed, they consider, and then they come back and what do they do? They give their findings. And you will either be found guilty or found not guilty. And Paul says, "Now that I know Christ, the big thing for me is that one day on the Great Judgment Day, the jury of the Trinity will go out having heard the evidence and they'll come back. And the big thing for me is that then on that great day, I will be found in Christ."

And to be found in Christ, having continually amassed more and more of the discovery of Christ, is what it means now that I have made this radical reevaluation. But then he goes on. He says that, "I want to know Christ in His sufferings, and I want to know Christ in the power of His resurrection."

I was talking to one of the brothers who's in the congregation yesterday evening, and we were talking about cancer and what cancer is doing in his home at this time. He was explaining all the difficulties and the pain and the struggle and the anguish that is involved with cancer. But then he said this amazing thing about it: "As we're being moved into this area of our lives that we didn't want and we don't welcome, and we never thought would happen to us, it's pushing us into a depth of experience of Christ we never knew before."

You see, the tragedy of our lives is this: that sometimes we can get them so delightfully, so smoothly organized that we can move imperturbably through them, and we don't need Christ. We can do it. What He wants us to do, of course, is intentionally move out of comfort zones onto risk's edge, where we recognize inadequacy and discover His adequacy. If that doesn't happen, then eventually and inevitably, we will be introduced to facets of this fallen world that will impinge on us.

And some of the horror and some of the pain and some of the anguish, some of the dysfunction and some of the disease of fallenness—all of which was wrapped up in the sufferings that Christ bore on the cross—will impinge upon us. And we find ourselves caught up in the sufferings of Christ. And as we're caught up in the sufferings of Christ, guess what? Then we're given the chance to know Him in the power of His resurrection, because up until that time, we weren't particularly interested because we could do it on our own.

Guest (Male): We'll get back to Stuart's teaching in a moment, but before we do, worry and anxiety can limit your joy and keep you from experiencing true peace. And that's not what God wants for your life. We want to help you conquer worry and anxiety so you can start to live with the joy and peace God intends by sending you Stuart and Jill Briscoe's encouraging series "Worry Less."

This uplifting two-message series offers biblical truth about the root cause of worry and will help you uncover the secret to worrying less and living more. Through tomorrow only, we'll send you a copy of "Worry Less" as thanks for your gift to help more people experience the peace and joy of life in Christ through the unchanging truth of God's word.

And when you give today, we'll also send you Jill Briscoe's booklet "Me Worry?" These resources will help carry you from angst and uneasiness to the peace God intends for your life. Simply request your copies when you call today and give a gift to help keep Telling the Truth going around the world. This offer ends tomorrow, so call now: 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Let's listen to Stuart's conclusion of today's message.

Stuart Briscoe: And then he said, "This one thing I do. This one thing I do. I'm not spending a lot of time looking into the past. All the glories of the past, all the mistakes of the past, all the disasters of the past, they're all past. They're done with. They've been dealt with by Christ. What I'm doing is I'm looking where I'm going. And I'm looking for the day when one day I will be with Christ at the finishing line and He will give me the eternal prize."

And I realize that the upward call is the one thing that I keep in mind and I'm pressing on. Whatever happens, I'm pressing on to know Him more fully, more richly, more realistically, until the day I'm with Him. I went to watch one of my grandsons run a cross-country race. And the gun sounded, and off these kids went, and they went through the hills and the dales.

And then eventually, after 3.1 miles, they came to the finishing point. And there were a couple of judges there, and one of them was wearing a black and white shirt, and he got an orange armband on his arm. And he was standing on the finishing line, and he was pointing because, you see, the kids couldn't necessarily get the perspective of exactly where the finishing line was. And there he stood with this orange finger pointing to the finishing line.

And I thought to myself: Jesus is standing at the finishing line, and He's got an orange armband on. You didn't realize that, but Jesus wears an orange armband, and He's pointing His finger at the finishing line. But with the other finger, He's beckoning and saying, "Come on! Come on, guys! You can do it! You can do it!"

Now, I noticed at this cross-country race that the kids were running, there were a lot of parents there who were carrying 30 or 40 extra pounds. And they were yelling and shouting at their kids and telling the kids what to do. And in my opinion, those kids should have stopped and said, "Dad, why don't you get rid of 30 or 40 pounds, and you try running?" And then they could have carried on a little bit further.

It's one thing for Dad, 30 or 40 pounds overweight, to be encouraging; it's an entirely different thing to be an encourager and an empowerer. And Jesus stands with this orange armband—which He does wear—pointing at the finishing line. With the other hand, He's beckoning and saying, "Come on! Come on, guys! You can make it!"

And listen, at the same time, through the Holy Spirit, He empowers us to be able to do what He's encouraging us to do. And what He's encouraging us to do is very simple: whatever happens, press on. Now, the interesting thing about it is this: Verse 15 says this: "All of us who are mature should take such a view of things." And there's the application.

Let me ask you one question. There are many questions we could ask about all of us taking such a view of things, but I'll limit it to one. It is this: what is the one dominant thing in your life? What is the one dominant thing in your life? Because remember, the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. But the main thing about the main thing being the main thing is that you know what the main thing is.

What is it? What is it? Paul would tell you in a flash. He said, "I'll tell you what the one thing is: forgetting what's behind, I press towards the mark of the heavenly calling in Christ Jesus. For the greatest thing that ever happened to me was coming to know Christ. And ever since, I've been getting to know Him better. And I'm going to press on, whatever happens, to deepen in my relationship with Him, until one day I cross the finishing line and He says, 'Well done. Welcome home.' Whatever happens, press on."

Guest (Male): I know I'm blessed by those words, and I hope you are too. Before we go for the day, remember that through tomorrow only, when you give to help keep Telling the Truth broadcasts like this one today going out around the world, we'll send you a copy of "Worry Less," the Briscoes' two-message series designed to help you start worrying less and living with more joy.

And as a special thanks, we'll also send you Jill's booklet "Me Worry?" This offer ends tomorrow, so call now to give and remember to request these resources with our thanks: 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Thanks for being with us today. We hope you'll return tomorrow for fresh encouragement in Stuart's message "Be Content." Experience life here on Telling the Truth.