Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Today on Telling the Truth, you’ll hear the first in a four-part series from Stuart Briscoe called “Why Christ Came.” Stuart asks the question, is all the activity around Christmas keeping you from experiencing the true meaning of this special holiday? We’ll hear from Stuart in just a moment.

Right now is one of the most important times of the year for Telling the Truth. As we approach December 31st, generous friends have stepped forward with a special matching grant that will double your gift to help more people experience life in Christ. That means your support will go twice as far to help share God's word around the world through Stuart and Jill’s biblical teaching, digital broadcasts, and global partners.

Don't miss this powerful opportunity to make an even greater impact before midnight, December 31st, while your gift will be doubled through this special matching grant. Call 262-788-4648. That's 262-788-4648 or give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here's Stuart Briscoe with his message, “For the Salvation of Sinners.”

Stuart Briscoe: A number of years ago, I was staying briefly with some very dear friends in Stuttgart, a lovely city down in the southwest corner of Germany. At the time, they had another house guest. She was a young woman who was born and had grown up in what was then East Germany. Relatively recently at that particular time, the Soviet regime had collapsed and efforts were underway to reunify East and West Germany.

I had traveled into East Germany behind the Iron Curtain years earlier, so I was not unfamiliar with life in the Soviet sector as opposed to life in the Western zone. The contrast was dramatic indeed. She told me a story about how, as a child, she had often walked past the large churches dotted around Eastern Germany. Of course, she had never gone into one because they were either closed or were museums or warehouses, or boarded up and simply going into decay.

None of them were being used as a place of worship. But one of the changes that took place when East and West were reunited was that some of the churches were opened up again as places of worship. This became particularly evident over a Christmas period. She, along with her family, decided that they would go into one of these churches to see what was going on at this particular time of the year.

They got there unfortunately just as whatever was going on wasn’t going on, but they were sent to another place. They went into the church. I asked her what it was like. She said it was a beautiful old building. She said she had never been in a building like that before. It was wonderfully decorated with all kinds of beautiful lights and trees. It was very beautiful.

I asked what they did. She said they sang some songs she had never heard before. She said there was something very interesting. Nearly all the people in that church were old people. They seemed to be very moved by these songs because most of them were crying while they were singing. She said she didn't understand that.

Then she said a man got up and talked to them. I asked what he told them. She said he told them a wonderful story about a young woman who was expecting a baby. She went to a different town and they couldn't find a hotel to stay in. She had to be put up with her husband in a stable. While she was in that stable, the baby was born.

She said they didn't even have a little crib for the baby and they had to put the baby in a manger. Some shepherds came by and helped with the baby. She said it was such a beautiful story. As she went on telling me the story, it dawned upon me that she had sat there and she had listened to the details of the story of Christmas without any understanding whatsoever of the point.

It had totally eluded her. It was something that was utterly and totally foreign to her. She could have told the story, and she did tell the story, of the baby born in the stable. She did tell the story of the baby cradled in the manger, but without any sense of why this was important, why the old people were crying as they sang songs about this story. She had no idea.

I think we better wake up in America because I think we're heading in a similar direction. In many areas of our culture, there is a perpetuation once a year of the story of the baby born in the stable and cradled in the manger without any understanding whatsoever of the point of the story.

Not only that, I believe we're in danger of so obscuring the point of this story with all kinds of accumulations that it is very possible that we may, once a year, be totally distracted by what is accumulated around this story from even interest in the story at all. I think the reality is that as we move into the Christmas story, we will hear the story again.

But we will hear the story in the context of the cards and the presents and the feasting and the over-indulging and all the parties and all this kind of thing. I have no problem with any of those things if that's what you want to do. But I think we need to be very much aware of the fact that we may be in danger, like the little girl in East Germany, who didn't know the reason for the season.

With that in mind, let's turn to a reading from 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 12. The aged Apostle Paul is writing to one of the young men he's been training to take over from him. This is what he says, speaking rather openly about his life before he was an apostle and a missionary or even a disciple of Jesus.

“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

Guest (Male): Don't go anywhere. There's more life-giving truth from the Briscoes headed your way. Tellingthetruth.org and the Telling the Truth app are great resources to help you grow in your spiritual life. Packed with videos like “Ask the Briscoes,” articles from Stuart and Jill, and encouraging audio teaching content, you'll find a treasure trove of resources to encourage you and others in your faith.

While you're there, you can also request this month's featured resource when you give a gift to help more people around the world experience life in Christ. So visit us online or download the app today. We look forward to connecting with you. Now, back to Stuart.

Stuart Briscoe: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. In order to understand that very straightforward statement, we need to understand what a sinner is and we need to understand what it means to be saved. Otherwise, we can simply allow the concepts to flow off our tongues without any real grasp of the reason for the season.

What is a sinner? What does it mean for a sinner to be saved? How did Jesus’s coming into the world accomplish this objective? Well, let's back up a bit. Let me talk to you a little bit about this topic that is not really politically correct, this topic of sin and being a sinner. We know it's lurking out there somewhere, but we don't really talk about it too much.

If we do talk about it, there is a certain ambiguity about what we mean by it. I don't think the Scripture is at all ambiguous when it talks about sin and sinners. Back up with me to the very beginning of the Bible, in which there’s a statement without preface, without apology, without introduction at all. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

That's how it starts out. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” There are actually some people who believe that. There are actually some people who believe in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Why would they believe that? I think because they have already believed that God is.

They are dyed-in-the-wool believers. They believe that God exists, and they believe that the God who exists created the world in which we live. They are believers. Then, of course, there are other people. What's interesting about those people is, to their surprise, they could discover that they, too, are believers. They believe that God isn't.

They believe that the world kind of happened. It was not intentionally created by an intelligent creator. Now you'll notice that I say they believed, and that that is true. They believe because they were not eyewitnesses. They are going on information that was imparted to them from people who also were not eyewitnesses.

Not only that, they believe that God isn't and they believe that the world just happened, not because of scientific empirical evidence, but because that is what they have chosen as an act of faith to believe. So we have the strange phenomenon here that everybody is a believer. It's just that we believe opposite things.

Some believe God is, some believe God isn't. Some believe the world just happened, some believe it was created. Where are you? You say, “Well, I don't know, this is very confusing to me.” I hope you decide because, in actual fact, from those two fundamental faith positions, your life will develop one way or the other.

At that particular dividing point, you have already decided which way your life is going to go. Now, I just happen to believe that God is and I happen to believe that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. I freely admit I was not an eyewitness. I freely admit I was not there. You young people here probably look at me and thought I was there, but I came slightly after in the beginning.

What you need to know, however, is this. On the basis of my belief position, my faith position that God is and that God created the heavens and the earth, I now read with great interest this Bible that claims to give information on the subject. This is the kind of information it gives. Assuming, as it does, that God created the world, it then tells us that when God evaluated what he had created, he pronounced it good. Good, good, very good. In other words, he was highly pleased with it.

The Hebrews, of course, in whose language the Old Testament was written, have a beautiful word for that goodness that God created. The word is shalom. If you go to Israel, you will find that the locals will greet you each morning with the word shalom. What they're meaning is, “I trust you'll have a good day,” basically, in the vernacular.

But the word shalom has deeper, richer meaning. The fundamental idea of it is order, which leads to the idea of harmony, which leads to the idea of peace. Order and harmony and peace. It's a beautiful concept. It's a lovely, lovely word. Shalom. Now, in the original idea of creation, this is what we're told.

When the creation first came into being, God and the created order, with particular reference to the pinnacle of the created order, humanity, were living in harmony. There was a sense of tranquility. There was peace there. The God of order had ordered how the world should be ordered and the world was responding.

The God of order had ordered how man should behave and man was responding. God and man were in harmony, and man and God and man and man were in harmony, and world and man and man and environment were in harmony. Can you believe it? It is the most idyllic picture. Shalom. Shalom.

Now, look at the world today. Let me ask you a question. Would you say that there is any confusion about God on the part of human beings? I think you'd agree there is. Some have decided he doesn't exist, some have decided they don't know if he exists, some have decided they don't want to know if he exists, some have decided if he does exist, he’s fundamentally irrelevant, some have decided, “Oh, yes, he exists, he is like a jolly old Santa Claus and a very benign old granddad.”

All kinds of confusion. Would you say that there is any disruption between human beings and human beings? Tell me about it. Would you say that there's any problem between the environment and human beings? Of course there is, and we're becoming increasingly aware of it. Yes, of course.

We are aware that there isn't harmony, that there isn't tranquility, that there isn't peace, that there isn't order. I think then you'd probably agree with me, with just about everybody I've talked to around the world, that things are not the way they ought to be. Right? Things are not the way they ought to be.

As soon as people say that, they are assuming there is a way things ought to be. Everybody agrees things are not the way they ought to be. There isn't harmony, there isn't peace, but we do have subconsciously a longing for harmony, a longing for peace, a longing for order, a longing for meaning. We haven't got it. What went wrong? Scripture has a very straightforward answer. You believe it or you don't believe it. This is what it says. By one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin. That's it. Shalom shattered, sin entered.

Guest (Male): Stuart, why is it so important for Christians to believe in the creation story?

Stuart Briscoe: It's fascinating to me to realize that whilst people arrive at very different conclusions about the meaning of life and accordingly live their lives in very different ways, that things really start very close to each other even though lifestyles will be miles and miles apart. Let me explain what I mean. There are some people who take a faith position, and the faith position is simply this: I believe that God is.

But the other people take a different position, but notice how close it is. They say, “I believe that God is not or isn't.” If I believe that God is, then I explore who this God is. If I believe that God isn't, I ignore, I turn away from, I resent, I reject any exploration of this. It will lead to an entirely different lifestyle from the other one.

Take it a step further. I believe that God is the creator of all things, including me. If I believe that, then I want to know why God created me, what he thinks about me, what he plans for me. If on the other hand, I say I believe that God isn't, I don't believe that he created, I simply believe that everything operates by fate or by chance, there's nothing I can do about either, and so I live an entirely different lifestyle. Believing the creation, believing that God created me is going to make all the difference in the world to my life.

Guest (Male): Stuart, we know the world isn't the place God intended it to be because of sin. But what can a believer do to help make the world a better place?

Stuart Briscoe: There's no question about it. Things are not the way they ought to be. What can the Christian do about that? They can make absolutely certain that as far as they are can possibly do it, they find out the way things ought to be. Then, whilst this can be a fascinating study as far as the global universal situation is concerned, they need to narrow it down and say, “Okay, things are not the way they ought to be, but I do have some idea of the way things ought to be. Let's start with me.”

How should I behave? How should I relate? What should be in my life that is not there? What should not be in my life that is there? How can my life become more and more conformed to the way it ought to be? When I begin to do that, I will begin to live a different kind of life from the people who never consider these things.

Then my life will become what Jesus called salt and light. When we become light, we can point out the way to other people. When we become salt, we can have a purifying effect on the area of our influence. That's what we can do about this world that is not the way it ought to be.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us today. We hope today's message has encouraged you to know Christ more deeply and live in the joy of his truth. Right now is one of the most important times of the year for Telling the Truth. As we approach December 31st, generous friends have stepped forward with a special matching grant that will double your gift to help more people experience life in Christ.

That means your support will go twice as far to help share God's word around the world through Stuart and Jill’s biblical teaching, digital broadcasts, and global partners. Every day, lives are being transformed as people discover the peace and purpose that only Jesus gives, and your year-end gift makes that possible.

So don't miss this powerful opportunity to make an even greater impact before midnight, December 31st, while your gift will be doubled through this special matching grant. Call 262-788-4648. That's 262-788-4648 or give online at tellingthetruth.org. Thank you for helping others experience life in Christ through the unchanging truth of God's word. We're so glad you listened today. Be sure to come back next time for more encouraging biblical truth with the Briscoes. Experience life right here on Telling the Truth.