Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Today on Telling the Truth, Stuart continues his series on being wise. Today, his focus: being wise about the Word of God. What difference does it really make? A big one, as Stuart explains, coming up.

So many people read their Bible, go to church, serve on mission trips, and go through the motions, yet still struggle to find God. Jill Briscoe has a surprising and deeply encouraging answer to this dilemma, which she shares in her three-message series titled *Finding God*.

In this inspired series, you'll discover how you can stop spending so much energy on finding God and let Him find you. The *Finding God* series is our thanks for your gift today to help more people experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth. Request your copy when you give today at 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here's Stuart with "Be Wise About the Word of God."

Stuart Briscoe: There's another sense in which perfection is important, and it is this. The word "perfect" in the Bible can also mean "mature." Now, there are different stages of maturity. Let me illustrate this for you.

There are some very mature little kids around. There are some very immature little kids around. There are some very mature 30-year-olds around. There are some very immature 30-year-olds. Let's take a mature three-year-old and a mature 30-year-old. Both mature, but clearly very different.

One of my colleagues has a little girl three years of age. Some time ago, she was playing with a toy gun, and she said to her mommy, "Bang, bang, you're dead." And mommy dutifully fell to the ground.

As she lay on the ground, "dead," she was thinking to herself, "This is stupid. Why am I lying here playing dead?" She got up. Whereupon the three-year-old looked at her and said, "Huh. Playing Jesus Christ now, are you? Rising from the dead?"

Ladies and gentlemen, that is a mature three-year-old. Her father is a very mature young 30-something-year-old. There's no comparison between the two. In exactly the same way, when it comes to spiritual life, there are some people who've just got started, but they are mature. They are really coming along.

There are other people who've been along the way quite a way, and they are immature. They haven't got anywhere. On the other hand, there are some people who've been along the way and they are really mature at the stage where they've got. Do you know how they get mature? Do you know how they get perfected?

Paul explains it's through the Word of God. And so we approach the Word of God with a view to perfection, with a view to growing to maturity. Don't kid yourself. If you don't have much of a diet of the Word of God, there is no way on earth, under the sun, that you can mature spiritually.

You can't do it. That would be like trying to have a healthy body and only eating junk food once a week. We approach it with a view to perfection. Secondly, we approach it with a view to progress. This is related to the other thing.

Notice now in Colossians 2, verse 6, what Paul says: "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness." The literal translation here is, "As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him."

This idea of walking is a very common expression for the Christian life. What would you think if I said to my wife this afternoon, "Jill, it's a lovely afternoon. Why don't we go out for a step?" What would you think? You'd think it's slowly been happening, and now he's finally gone.

You would not expect us to go out for a step. You would expect us to go for a walk. But incidentally, as the Chinese proverb says, "The longest march starts with the first step." So does the spiritual experience. It starts with the first step.

Some people's spiritual experience gives us the idea that they have gone for a step. They have received Christ Jesus the Lord, and that's all they've got to say about it. You listen to the testimony, and that's it. They can go into minute details about the step.

What you long to hear is about the walk, the progress that is being made. Now the Apostle Paul, building on that idea, also says we should be "rooted and built up." It's one thing to have something rooted, but you don't just want roots, do you? What do you want? You want the thing built up.

You don't just want a step; you want a walk. You don't just want a root; you want it built up. In addition to that, he says that you should go on being taught in the truth that you already received. You take a step, you receive the initial truth, you become rooted in Christ with a view to the step becoming a walk and the root being built up and the initial truth becoming an increasing establishment of truth in your life.

How does it happen? Through the Word of God. How do we approach the Word of God? We approach it with a view to perfection. We approach it with a view to progress. Thirdly, we approach it with a view to protection. The Scriptures tell us that we are not ignorant of Satan's devices.

That's what Paul said to some of the people he was writing to. I wonder if he would say it if he wrote to the modern church. We are not ignorant of Satan's devices. In this passage of Scripture, great care is taken to show that we need to protect ourselves against the forces that militate against our spiritual lives.

There are internal impulses. We need to be aware of them. Paul talks about it in chapter 3, verse 5: "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming."

"You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language. Do not lie to each other," etc. Notice please that he is talking about some very common problems.

He's talking about anger and rage and malice and slander and dirty language and lying and sexual immorality and impurity and lust and greed and idolatry. We're familiar with these things. I want you to notice that he says that they are all related to our earthly nature.

He also says that these things related to our earthly nature have to be put to death. I'll guarantee that unless you are either reading the Word of God or are listening to somebody acquainted with the Word of God, you'll never get the idea that all those things are related to something inside you that's wrong that must be put to death.

We have all kinds of polite ways of talking about these things. We have all kinds of highfalutin terminology to describe these things. We have all kinds of erudite understandings as to why we get into these things. I'm not denying any of these things, and they're all very helpful.

I'm totally committed to the idea that any insight that we can get about what is wrong with us, if it is true, is true and therefore should be embraced. But we must recognize that when it finally comes down to dealing with life, we need to have adequate protection about what is fundamentally wrong inside. And you're only going to get information about that from God's Word.

Guest (Male): More powerful teaching from the Briscoes is headed your way, so don't go anywhere. We've made a wide array of resources and content available to you online for free at tellingthetruth.org and on the Telling the Truth app.

There, you can listen, read, and watch powerful teaching from Stuart and Jill on relevant topics like the sovereignty of God, the importance of the church, and how to grow closer with Jesus Christ. You can also request this month's featured resource as thanks for your gift of support to help share the abundant life Jesus offers with more people around the world. Visit us online or download the app today and experience life with Telling the Truth. Now, once again, is Stuart Briscoe.

Stuart Briscoe: Get all the information you can from wherever you can get it. Check it out with God's Word and make sure that it's truth that you're responding to. You see, otherwise, we won't know what the enemy's up to. And we won't stand a chance against him.

In addition to the internal impulses that Paul is concerned about, there are external influences as well. In chapter 2, he talks about a lot of these that were particularly relevant as far as the Colossians were concerned. How do we learn to evaluate our society? How do we determine standards of morality?

How do we arrive at political conclusions and convictions? How do you do it? Do you just listen to the latest fad? Do you just follow the most charismatic speaker? Do you just vote your pocketbook? Or do you somehow or other learn to evaluate what is going on around you in the light of what God says in His Word?

The Bible's quite clear what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to learn how to be on our guard against internal impulses and external influences by carefully approaching the Word of God. If we're not doing that, there's a very real possibility that we'll be struggling with forces within us and without and not struggling very well against them.

We appreciate the Word, and we approach the Word. Which leaves the third point, and that is applying God's Word. Let me put this as simply as I know how. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. That's what it says. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. Let me break it down. First of all, that means let it in.

When I went to school hundreds of years ago, they told me that information could get into me through eye gate or through ear gate. They explained to me that if I opened eye gate and they put information in front of me, there was a very high possibility that information would go through eye gate into me.

They also told me that if I kept my ears open and I listened to what was being said, what was being said would pass through ear gate and get into me. That's how you let it in. Now, the Word of God is black print on white paper. So this is what you do: you open it, and you open eye gate, and you read it.

I know that this is complicated, but stick with me for a minute. You open it. You see, people have got wonderful Bibles that are gathering dust. Doesn't do them any good. Some people revere the Bible. "Oh, it's wonderful. We've had this in our family for years." It's never been opened yet.

Some of the pages are still sticking together. Doesn't do you any good. Eye gate, folks, got to let it in. Ear gate: you've got to put yourself in a place where it is being taught. Now, that's very obvious, isn't it? Not only let it in, let it dwell in you.

To dwell somewhere means to stay and feel at home. What they told me in school was this: that sometimes the information that came to me through eye gate and ear gate went in one ear and out the other. They explained why. They said there was nothing in between to stop it.

The next question we have to address is this: okay, given that I've blown the dust off it, I've opened it, and I've got eye gate and ear gate attuned to it and the information is going in, I have a problem. What is it? It goes out as soon as it gets in.

Now you can put something in there to stop it going straight out. It's called—listen—thinking. Or another word, meditating. Or another word, ruminating. What it means is this: that you don't just read it and you're done. You open it and you read it and you think it through.

You meditate upon it. You chew over it. You ruminate on it. You give careful attention to it. You see, that's going to take time. Exactly. How about 10 minutes a day for a start? Can you handle that? We don't want anybody getting fanatical now. How about 10 minutes a day?

Just say to yourself, "I'm going to approach the Word of God, and I'm going to ask God by His Spirit to speak to my heart and teach me something I need to know, or remind me of something already I know, or to give me a word of promise and encouragement, or to tell me what I need to do, or to wrap me over the knuckles—whatever He wants to do, here I am, eye gate, ear gate, and I'm going to take time to think about it."

Let it in. Let it dwell in. Let it dwell in you richly. The Word of God is called the "sincere milk of the word." Some people just want skimmed milk. They want to stick with the basic elementary things. Why, then, would God give us the deep things, the rich things of the Word if He wanted us to ignore them and just stay with the elementary things?

If you're going to have a solid diet of the Word and proper nutrition, let it in, let it dwell in, and get into it richly. Let it dwell in you richly in all wisdom. There's a difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is the accumulation of data. It is the amassing of information.

Wisdom is knowing what in the world to do with it. It is applying it. We are swamped in our world with information and starving for wisdom, which is more or less what John Naisbitt says in *Megatrends*. I agree, as far as the spiritual world is concerned, that sometimes there's so much information being boomed out, but the wisdom is the problem.

Wisdom is knowing what to do with the information. But it's not difficult: you do what it says. Has He ever told you to do something? Did you do it? You don't need more information sometimes; we need the application of what we've got.

Letting the Word of Christ dwell in you richly with wisdom. That's what we're supposed to be doing. Then what do you do? You let it in, you let it dwell in, you let it dwell in richly, you let it dwell in you richly with wisdom. Then what do you do? Well, this will be a surprise: then you let it out.

As you let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly with all wisdom, you then engage in teaching and warning each other in all wisdom. You don't just take it in for your benefit; you take it in for everybody's benefit. You see, you are in the know now.

What about all those people in the dark? Does God just want you to sit there and you and God have a wonderful time just saying, "Hahaha, here we are in the know, God." And they're all in the dark. Is that how God does it? No, of course not. God says you're in the know; now go to them, they're in the dark.

You let it in, then you let it out. But you realize this: you can't let out what you haven't put in. If there's nothing rich in, there's nothing rich out. As the computer people tell us, garbage in, garbage out. Word of Christ in, Word of Christ out.

Clearly God has called some people for different ministries. But the church of Jesus Christ is comprised of people who must appreciate, approach, and apply the Word themselves. Will you take steps to make sure that you're not trying to live by bread alone? That you're letting the Word of Christ dwell in you richly?

Guest (Male): Stuart, how can an immature believer start to grow up? I mean, what does the maturation process look like?

Stuart Briscoe: I think part of the answer to your question about growing in maturity in the Christian life is found in the very, very last words that we have recorded from Peter in the Scriptures, where he concludes his second epistle by saying, "But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

Now, he's talking about growing. He's talking about developing. He's talking about maturing. And he is showing how this is an ongoing process. What are we to mature in? Well, first of all, we are to mature in grace. Grace, of course, is God's unmerited favor that abounds towards us in resources that enables us to live in the richness that He has in mind for us.

So to mature is to increase in our practical experience of God's resources in our lives. We discover this by stepping out in obedience to do what He tells us to do and in faith that He will provide the resources to us. Coupled with that, Peter says, "Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

Knowledge there is not just getting academic truth into your head; it means experience of Christ. In other words, we are to grow in our experience of Christ as we trust Him more, as we obey Him more, as we learn to love Him more. Put these things into action, and we will discover that we begin to look more like Him. That, of course, is the goal of maturity, which, incidentally, we will not achieve until we see Him, and then we are like Him.

Guest (Male): Stuart, when has knowing the truth about God's Word helped you stand up against the enemy?

Stuart Briscoe: Let me just give you one example how knowing the truth of God's Word can help you stand up against the enemy. C.S. Lewis put it this way: he said the devil doesn't really mind if we totally ignore him. Lots of people do that.

They don't believe the devil exists altogether. They laugh at him, they tell jokes about him, they just slough it off as some relic of medieval Christianity. Lewis says the devil doesn't mind that. If you ignore him, that gives him a clear field. He can do what he likes.

On the other hand, he says he doesn't mind if we become obsessed by him. If we become obsessed by him, then we become paralyzed. We feel that we are up against such an overwhelming foe that we are just beaten. There's nothing we can do.

The truth of God's Word does not allow me to ignore him; neither does it allow me to be obsessed with him because the truth of God's Word explains very, very basically that there is a force of evil, that he is a personality of evil, that he is diametrically opposed to the purposes of God.

But when Christ died on the cross, He rendered him inoperative in many ways. Now, that does not mean that he is not still a force to be reckoned with, a power to be reckoned with, a reality that we must face. What it does mean, however, is that Christ is the victor over him. And so every time I am coming up against the forces of evil, I call on the risen Christ, the victorious Christ, and say, "Christ, you better handle this. I can't."

Guest (Male): Thanks for being with us today here on Telling the Truth. We pray today's message encouraged you and helped you experience life in Christ. So many people read their Bible, go to church, serve on mission trips, and go through the motions, yet still struggle to find God.

Jill Briscoe has a surprising and deeply encouraging answer to this dilemma, which she shares in her three-message series titled *Finding God*. In this inspired series, you'll discover how you can stop spending so much energy on finding God and let Him find you.

By slowing down and putting yourself deliberately in His presence, you'll recognize that He's already there waiting for you. You'll be uplifted as Jill explains how God worked in the lives of men and women in the Old Testament and how He works in your life too, even when you don't see Him and feel His presence.

The *Finding God* series is our thanks for your gift today to help more people experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth. So request your copy when you give today at 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Thanks for listening today. Tune in again next time to experience life in Christ with sound biblical truth from Stuart and Jill Briscoe.