Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Today, we're hearing from Stuart Briscoe and his message "Jesus Challenged the Religious." Your generous support keeps broadcasts like this one today going out around the world so you and others can experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth.

And to thank you for your gift today, we'll send you Stuart and Jill's powerful new five-message series, Fighting Unseen Forces. It's all about how you can live victoriously and win the battles against your spiritual enemy when you stand in Christ and the power of His spirit. This offer is only available through tomorrow, so don't delay any longer. Call now to request your copy at 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, I'm going to get out of the way and let Stuart talk to you about how Jesus challenged the religious and how you should, too.

Stuart Briscoe: One of the things that the contemporaries of Jesus found the hardest to accept was that He would challenge the religious people and embrace the irreligious people. In fact, they criticized Him that so often He seemed to prefer the company of the dregs of society than He enjoyed the company of those who were deeply religious. This stuck in their craw. This, they were not prepared to accept.

Why would this be the case? The reason that Jesus embraced the irreligious and challenged the religious was that, to a very large extent, the irreligious were more open to His message than the religious people were. The religious people had developed a system. It was a meticulous system. It was a detailed system. They were great teachers of their system, and many of them deeply committed to their system. But the system was designed to produce a standard of living that would be acceptable to God.

The problem with this was simply this: that the Lord Jesus had come to tell people that whatever religious system you've got, whatever religious practices you engage in, however much religious religion you have in your life, the sum totality of all this will never equip one person for right standing with God. All the religion in the world, all the observances in the world will never get one person to heaven. Now, religious people find it extremely difficult to accept that. Irreligious people don't have any problem with that at all.

What Jesus came to tell them was this: you don't get to heaven on your own merits. You get to heaven by grace through faith that God offers you as a gift that was paid for by Christ, the salvation that you could never earn. Now, if you've got some people who know they can never earn it, and they know that their lives are a mess, and that they know that they need to come to repentance, and they know that God will give them what they don't deserve—if they know all that, they are much more likely to respond than the people who say, "I'm good enough. I don't need grace. I can justify myself by the religious observance that I've been committed to all my life."

You see, it was the religious people who were most resistant to His message. It was the irreligious people who, by and large, were most open to His message. The Apostle Paul summarized it like this: he said, "By grace are you saved through faith, not of yourselves, not of works, lest any man should boast." The principle of salvation is that God in His grace offers you what you don't deserve and can never earn, and you receive it in humble, repentant, trusting faith.

The people who know they're being bad, who know they need to repent, who know they can never earn it, are much more open to that message than the people who say, "I still think I'm good enough. I don't need God to give me something I don't deserve because, quite frankly, I think I deserve it." They're the ones who have the biggest struggle.

In Jesus' day, it was these religious people who became so incensed with what Jesus was saying. As He pointed out the inconsistencies in their religious behavior, showing that it was mainly externals that was not indicative of an internal heart attitude of repentant trusting faith, it was those people who became so incensed that they took the initiative to get rid of Him, and they began fiercely to oppose Him.

Well, what did Jesus do? Two things we know Jesus did. He challenged the religious and He embraced the irreligious in order that He might present to them the message of salvation by grace through faith. Now, with that in mind, let's amplify that a little bit further. Let's identify for you three kinds of religious people that we have in Luke chapter 11, which is the basis of our study today.

First of all, there were His religious accusers. He countered their arguments. Secondly, there were the religious fence-sitters. He confronted them. Thirdly, there were the religious enthusiasts, and He challenged them. One day, He healed a man who was mute. Luke tells us—and remember Luke was a physician—that He healed the man who was mute by exorcising a demon.

Some of the skeptics who were there couldn't deny that a miracle had taken place because the mute man began to speak. They couldn't deny that there had been some demonic activity that had been overpowered, but in their skepticism, they said, "Well, He is doing it by the power of Satan." That's how He does it, by the power of Satan. Jesus countered that rather easily. He said, "Well, if Satan is casting out Satan, he's going to lose because a kingdom divided against itself cannot survive."

And then He gives them a little nudge. He says, "By the way, when you guys do it, whose power do you use?" Well, they got off that subject quickly. Then He presents another possibility. He says, "You're suggesting that I have done this by the power of Satan. Another possibility is this: I have done this by the finger of God. And if that is true, then the kingdom of God has come among you. And what you have just observed is not the power of Satan; what you've just observed is the power of God transforming a person's life."

Now, they were resistant to that idea of the power of God transforming a person's life. Why? Because they were into the business of transforming themselves. The last thing that they wanted to hear was that God would divinely intervene in the affairs of men and women and utterly, totally transform them. He then tells a rather interesting little story.

He said if a demon is cast out, the demon will wander around looking for somewhere to go. And he'll find some company, and he'll go back to the place he was cast out from and find it all cleaned out and nice and tidy. And he'll find seven other demons, and he'll go in, and the latter situation will be worse than the first. And you say, "That's a bit of a weird story, isn't it?" And the answer is yes, it is.

But the point of it is this: if you get rid of the bad and don't put in its place the good, you'll finish up worse. If you get rid of the bad and you don't put in the good, you'll finish up worse. What's that got to do with anything? Well, if you recognize, for instance, that there are some things that aren't very good in your life, but you decide to reform—that you decide through moral reformation or by behavioral modification to get rid of the bad—that's very good. It tidies up your life.

But if you don't replace what you kicked out with that which is good, your situation can finish up much worse. Well, if the bad is getting rid of the bad things in your life, what's the good? And the answer to that question is this: the finger of God, the power of God, divine intervention in your life. This is how it works with many religious people. They say, "Well, I'm not perfect. I never claimed to be perfect. But by religion, I do this, and religion, I do that. And I've stopped doing this, and I've stopped doing that. And I've started doing this, and I've started doing that. And I've got my house in order. I've got rid of the bad."

And Jesus says, "Yes, but you didn't get the good." And what's the good? You didn't receive the Spirit of God. You didn't receive the regenerative activity of Christ. You didn't receive the gift of eternal life. You got through moral reformation and through behavioral modification. You got rid of the bad, but you didn't replace it with the good, and your situation at the end is worse than it was in the beginning.

You say, "How can it be worse?" I tell you how it can be worse. The person who engages in behavioral modification or moral reformation without spiritual regeneration will say, "I've tidied up my life. I've cleaned up my life. And I did it, and I alone did it." And they will become infected with that worst kind of pride. You know what that is? Spiritual pride.

"I don't need Christ to die for me. I don't need the Spirit of God to transform me. I don't need God to intervene in my life. I don't need to be born again. Don't talk to me about being born again. I don't need to be converted. Don't you dare talk to me about being converted. I don't need to be saved. How dare you suggest I need to be saved? If you were to look at my life, you would see that I've got rid of the bad." And we'd say, "Yeah, but you didn't get the good, and your situation now is worse than when you started because now you're infected with the worst kind of pride: spiritual pride."

What Jesus said is, you'll never earn it. That's why He died to procure it for you, to give it to you as a gift. And all He wants is your humble, trusting repentance. Out of that will come love for Him that will serve Him.

Guest (Male): Keep listening because there's more to come from Stuart Briscoe, part of the teaching team that makes up Telling the Truth. Before we get back to Stuart, we want to share this note from Clyde, who wrote to say, "I'm so thankful for the Briscoes. God bless you all and praise God for your ministry. You've certainly made a difference in eternal impact in this child of God's life and walk with our great God and Father. Love everyone at Telling the Truth."

Thank you so much for those words, Clyde. That's the kind of blessing you can bring into people's lives through your gift of support today as you help share God's word around the world so more people can experience life through Telling the Truth. And when you give this month, we'd like to bless you with a copy of Stuart and Jill Briscoe's new five-message series, Fighting Unseen Forces.

Every day, you're locked in a battle with your spiritual enemy, one that threatens your spiritual, emotional, and relational well-being. But you're not alone, and you're not without help. And in this powerful series, the Briscoes will show you straight from God's word how you can live victoriously each day. You'll gain confidence in knowing that you'll never be overpowered in your spiritual battles as you discover that the fight's not even fair when you have Christ and His Spirit.

Fighting Unseen Forces is our thanks for your gift to help more people experience life through the teaching resources of Telling the Truth. This offer ends tomorrow, so request your copy when you call 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or give online at tellingthetruth.org. Here's Stuart again to talk to you more about Jesus challenging the religious.

Stuart Briscoe: So, Jesus counters the arguments of His religious accusers. He goes even further with this, and He says to the people, "Now listen, if you don't buy what I'm saying about the finger of God, if you don't buy what I'm saying about the intervention of God, if you don't buy this necessity for the sheer power of God to come into your moral reformation, if you don't buy this, remember this: you're not neutral. If you're not for Me, you're against Me."

Now you can imagine that this did not go over big with these people because what Jesus has the audacity to say to these religious people is, "If you don't accept this message I bring, you are opposing Me. You're in diametric opposition to Me." And to this day, there are many, many people who would be deeply, deeply offended if you were to tell them, "Not only you cannot earn your way to heaven, you cannot merit salvation, but if you then went on to say that and if you don't accept that, you're actually standing against the Lord Jesus Himself." It would be very, very hard for them to accept it, but it's true.

Look at the second group of people that He dealt with. It wasn't just that some people accused Him of casting out demons by the power of Satan. There were some who said to Him, "Why don't you give us a sign from heaven?" That's what we need. Now, He'd been going around doing miracles. Another word for a miracle was a sign. His miracles were signs because they signified something.

So they're saying, "Give us a sign. We need a sign. We want more signs." In other words, "We don't have enough evidence to go on. We're not opposing you, but we're not agreeing with you. We just want more evidence." And Jesus' answer to them was, "Well, you're not going to get any. You've got enough evidence to be going on with."

He said, "The signs that you've got are quite sufficient for you." He goes on to talk about light. He goes on to talk about light banishing darkness. He said, "If your eyes are dark, the whole of your life is dark. But if the light gets into your eyes, it begins to flood the whole of your life with light." Another way of talking about the transforming power of God, of the Spirit of God coming into your life, of being born again, of being converted, of being saved by the grace of God.

There's a third group of people He talked to. They were the religious enthusiasts. They were the kind of people who, when Jesus went for a meal and He didn't go through all the detailed ceremonial washing between the meal, looked down their noses at Him and said, "Well, if He really was who He said He was, He would be observing all the details." And Jesus understands what they're thinking, and He talks about the possibility of washing the outside and being corrupt on the inside.

What really matters is that the inside is changed so that the outside will be transformed. He's back on the same kick, you see. He's back on the finger of God. He's back on the truth coming in. He's back on the light banishing the darkness. He's back on this whole idea that what we need is an internal transformation through the power of the living God as He intervenes in our lives.

But you see, religious people want to major on the externals, and Jesus wants to major on the internals where internally we come to repentance and faith, and internally the Spirit of God moves in and changes us. So the question before the house is, what would Jesus do? To answer it, we have to say, well, what did Jesus do?

And what Jesus did do was challenge the religious and embrace the irreligious. Not because He was against religion, just because He knew how hard it was for people who put all their eggs in the basket of their own effort ever to come to point of repentance and simple faith in order that the power of God might move into their lives. They would be born again of the Spirit of God—saved, converted, transformed, new creation, use whatever term you wish.

People who find that hardest to accept are the people who are in a religious system that insists you earn it yourself. Conversely—and this is fascinating—conversely, it is often the people who don't need anybody telling them they blew it, who don't need anybody telling them they're sinners, who don't need anybody telling them they don't deserve heaven. And they don't need anybody telling them that God is not jumping up with anticipation that they will make it into glory.

Those kind of people are overwhelmed with joy when you tell them, "Listen, it's not through religious effort that you get right with God. It's when God in His grace tells you the truth that you're a sinner, that you need to come to repentance, points out to you that Christ died on the cross that your sins might be forgiven and raised Him up from the dead in order that in the power of His resurrection He might live in your life through the Holy Spirit and transform you from the inside out." It's the humble people. It's the irreligious people. It's the people so often in the gutter who are more open to that message. It's such a humbling message, the message of the gospel. It's not very complicated. It's not very complimentary, either, but it's absolutely compelling.

And I know what Jesus would do today. He would challenge religious people with a tear in His eye, and He'd say, "By grace you're saved through faith, not of works."

Guest (Male): That's the end of Stuart's message today, but keep listening because very shortly, he's going to answer a few questions about what you've just heard. Spiritual warfare is very real, and it's a war in which every Christian is engaged. The truth is your spiritual enemy will stop at nothing to keep you from experiencing the abundant life God wants you to have in Christ.

The good news is that through Christ and the power of His Spirit, you're guaranteed victory. It's that encouragement that Stuart and Jill are excited to give you with their new five-message series, Fighting Unseen Forces. This powerful resource will encourage you with the comforting truth that you're not alone when it comes to spiritual warfare. As you grow in God's word with this series, you'll gain clarity of purpose, courage for battle, and strength for each day.

And for just two more days, Fighting Unseen Forces is our way of thanking you for your gift to help more people around the world experience abundant life in Christ through the unchanging truth of God's word. This special offer ends tomorrow, so don't miss it. Simply request your copy of the series when you call today and give a gift to help keep the ministry of Telling the Truth going around the world. Call 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or give online at tellingthetruth.org. Here are some answers from Stuart to a couple of questions about his message today.

Stuart, what would you say to people who feel that they can earn God's favor?

Stuart Briscoe: Well, it's very easy to understand why people feel that it's necessary to earn God's favor. They've been brought up in a culture that says there's no such thing as a free lunch. And so the idea of God giving us something that we don't deserve, that's hard to grasp. So we've got to deserve it. We've got to earn it. We've got to gain His favor.

Well, I would say to people who think like that, first of all, I'd say I understand why you're thinking like that, but think this as well. Ask yourself the question, what is it that is going to please God? God is holy. God is righteous. What is it that is going to please Him? And I would suggest a holy, righteous life, the kind of life that He wants people to live.

All right, so in a nutshell, all I've got to do to earn God's favor is to be perfect. All right, now go for it, folks. But here's the problem: if you decide from now on you're going to be perfect and you manage to achieve it, which is questionable, what are you going to do about all the years that have gone by when you weren't? No, you'll never earn God's favor because His standards are too high.

Guest (Male): Okay, but if we can never earn God's favor, why should we try to obey?

Stuart Briscoe: We do not enter into a life of obedience with a view to gaining God's favor. God's favor is totally unmerited. That is the essence of the wonderful word grace. It is God's unmerited favor. It is God imparting to us because He is God, because this is what He's like and for no other reason, imparting to us all that is necessary for us to live in a way that pleases Him.

Okay, so if we receive God's grace, then there should be a response. The Latin word for grace is gratia, and the obvious connection between gratia and gratitude gives us a clue here. When we become recipients of grace, gratitude should be the normative response. "Oh God, you have been so good. You have overwhelmed me. I am so grateful. How can I express my gratitude?" And God says, "By doing what I've told you to do." Now obedience is not a means to earning God's favor; it is a means of demonstrating your gratitude for favor received.

Guest (Male): Thanks, Stuart, for answering these questions for us. We hope today's message encouraged you. Now, before we go, remember that through tomorrow only, when you give to help keep Telling the Truth broadcasts like this one going out around the world, we'll send you Stuart and Jill Briscoe's new five-message series, Fighting Unseen Forces, to help you discover how you can live victoriously each day, knowing that with Christ and His Spirit, you're never alone. You don't want to miss out on this powerful resource, so call now to give and remember to request your copy of Fighting Unseen Forces with our thanks. 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Thanks for joining us today on Telling the Truth with Stuart and Jill Briscoe.