Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Today on Telling the Truth, Stewart Briscoe shares how you can be confident that God is really at work in your life. He's coming up with that message in just a moment, but first, right now, people are searching for hope, answers, and truth they can build their lives on. And Stewart and Joel Briscoe's timeless biblical teaching is reaching into those very moments through social media and other digital platforms, a vast collection of vintage videos and wonderful ministry partners. At Telling the Truth, our mission has always been clear, faithfully share the truth of God's word so people everywhere can know and experience life in Christ.

And you can be part of that mission. When you give today, you help share hope with people who need to hear biblical truth taught clearly, faithfully, and without compromise. As our thanks, we'd love to send you verses for Advent, a set of 25 beautifully designed scripture cards created to help you keep God's word at the center of the Christmas season. Reflect on a new verse each day through Advent as you embark on a journey from Old Testament prophecies about Jesus to the Christmas story in the New Testament. So please consider a gift today and help us carry out the Great Commission, ensuring that more people can hear God's word and discover the life found in Jesus.

Call now at 262-788-4648. That's 262-788-4648 or give online at tellingthetruth.org. Thanks again for listening and for your support today. Now here's Stewart with his message, How to Deal with Adversity.

Stuart Briscoe: Why why do good people experience adversity? Well, let's see if there's any answer here in scripture. For we go on in verse three of 1 Peter chapter one. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Now he's bringing up something important. He is talking about the fact that Jesus came into the world. He lived among us. He suffered deeply. In the end, he was crucified in ignominious death that Roman citizens were never subjected to, but the Romans would subject other people too.

And Jesus died this terrible death and went down into the grave. That's adversity for you. But on the third day, he rose again from the dead. And we have been given in Christ a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. Now he's talking about what it means to be part of the the chosen people of God in Christ. What it means to be chosen in Christ means that we have been chosen for all eternity to be like Christ and with him in his eternal glory in new heavens and in new earth.

Now he says, all this is something that will never perish. It will never spoil. It will never fade. It is kept in heaven for you. The word kept means it's in the strong room of the best bank in the world. It's deep down in the most secure recesses of Fort Knox. This inheritance because you are in Christ and the elect in Christ and Christ is risen from the dead is something that is rock solid, certain. It's part of your experience. So this inheritance is kept between heaven for you who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the end.

Now listen to this. In all this, you greatly rejoice. Though now for a little while, you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trial. Now it's addressing the issue. Now it's addressing the issue. These are very extraordinary people who have been subjected to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. You say, why? Why does such adversity happen? Well, read on. It's a great book this, particularly if you read it. Just read on. In all this, you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trial.

These have come so that All right, this is the reason now. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith of greater worth than gold which perishes even though refined by fire may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. So what is it saying? It is saying one of the reasons that good people experience bad things is that they are experiencing bad things and these bad things give an opportunity for them to demonstrate the value, the genuineness, the quality, the reality of their faith. That's one of the reasons. Now you say, well, that sounds a bit weird, didn't it?

Well, let me put it to you this way. If you are training to be a Navy Seal, how do you prove that you're able to be a Navy Seal? Well, I've never been in that circumstance. I was in the Marine Commandos, and it wasn't quite Navy Seals, but I do know this, that the way you prove that in our case you're worthy to wear the green beret or the Navy Seals are able to talk about being a Navy Seal, the way they're doing it is by going through all kinds of testing times, of challenging times, of difficult times, and coming through them with flying colors.

That's how they prove the reality of the fact that they are Navy Seals. How does a Christian prove the reality of his commitment to Christ? The sanctifying work of the Spirit that is being called of God, that he is experiencing the cleansing of the precious blood of Christ, that he has an eternal destiny that is locked up in the Fort Knox of heaven, secure, pure, clean, will not fade, will not perish. How in the world does he prove it? How does he demonstrate this is real? And the answer very often is by how he behaves in adversity.

How he behaves in adversity. Now you may ask the question, then what's so great about faith? So that it says here that your faith is more precious than gold. Your faith is more precious than gold. What's so precious about faith? Well, the scripture tells us that it is by faith that we experience forgiveness. It is by faith that we're reconciled to God. It is by faith that we are brought into a new relationship. We are introduced to life in the Spirit. It is by faith that we begin to understand that we have an eternal inheritance.

It is by faith we believe that when we die, that is going to not be the end and is not a step into the inky darkness of uncertainty. It means that when we die, we're going to be absent from the body and present with the Lord and experiencing his eternal glory in the totally new heaven and new earth characterized by righteousness. And Professor NT Wright says, literally speaking, that means in a new heaven and a new earth where everything, absolutely everything is set to rights. That's where you're heading. And that's where it is faith that opens all this up to you.

Faith in the work of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now then, adversity will come. And a lot of people find it pretty easy to trust in Jesus when they got some songs they like, particularly if they like the beat and particularly if the tune is singable. And they don't need to think too much about the words and they're just worshiping and having a whale of a time. And a good time is had by all until some adversity comes. They're gone. And you say, what what kind of faith was this? And so one of the reasons that adversity happens is it gives us the opportunity and the challenge of proving the reality of our faith.

Now obviously that raises more questions than I have time to answer now, but it's the beginning of an answer. Romans chapter eight, verse 28 is probably one of the most misquoted and misunderstood verses of scripture. This is because of a particular translation that was inaccurate. This translation goes something like this. For we know that God works all things for good to those who love God. So we look at all the bad stuff that's happening and we say, aha, God is bringing all these bad things in here so that he can prove the reality of your relationship with him.

So God is not working in all things because a whole lot of things that happen to us are totally contrary to all that God is and all that God stands for. And we make a mistake if we try to see God in those situations. What the verse actually says is this, we know that in all things God is working towards the ultimate good of those who are called according to his purpose. In other words, God is totally committed to bringing those who are chosen in Christ. We don't need to go through all the details again.

He is totally committed to bringing them to their ultimate eternal glorious consummation of their salvation. If he's started it, he's going to finish it. All kinds of stuff can happen in between, but in all those things God will relentlessly be working towards his designed end.

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 Stewart and Joel 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 here's more from Stewart on how you can handle adversity.

Stuart Briscoe: What is his designed end? His designed end is that you'll finish up like his son. There's a great verse in scripture that talks about Jesus once to have many people around him in eternal glory like himself that he might be the first of a huge family of people who bear his family likeness. And with that in mind, heavenly Father is willing in all kinds of adversity that he did not create, that he did not send. He is committed to working in these things to bring about the ultimate experience that which he is called us in Christ.

When you say, well, all right, if God is not making these adverse things but is willing to use these things and work in them and through them to his eternal purposes, where in the world do all these bad things come from? That brings us to the second question, doesn't it? What what exactly is going on? All the adversity that happens. There's a word that's rather similar to adversity and it is adversary. Don't confuse the two. Adversity is the bad things that happen. Adversary is the person who is making the bad things happen, an adversary, an opponent, an enemy.

And scripture says that there is an enemy of our souls. It it says quite categorically that there is somebody who is diametrically opposed to the purposes of God. It says that there is an an individual, a person, a dynamic, a power operating in the world of intrinsic evil that is in total hard, unrelenting opposition to God and to all his purposes. Call him Satan, call him the devil, call him the adversary, which he is called specifically in some versions of the scripture. He is a reality. And Peter says in this epistle that the devil is like a roaring lion going around seeking whom he may devour.

Now we may we may sort of dismiss the idea of a devil. We don't dismiss the idea of a God who is the personification of good. Why why should we reject the idea of a devil who's the very personification of evil? It does does not mean that there are two equal forces in the world. God is God and the devil is not. The devil was one of the with the chosen angels that terrabim, the ones who had the highest position in glory in the presence of God. But he wasn't satisfied with his exalted position. He wanted to be higher.

He didn't want to be close to God. He wanted to be God. And he was guilty of rebellion. And a rebellion that has changed everything. This rebel thrown out of heaven came down and he began to insinuate into the life of mankind whom God had made. God had created all things. He pronounced them good. And having created all things and pronounced them good, he then put on the pinnacle of his good, beautiful, glorious creation, man, man male and man female. And committed to them the oversight and care of this glorious created order. And they put all things at their disposal.

And they were to control and to develop and discover and explore and enjoy the whole created order to the glory of God. And the devil came along diametrically opposed to the purposes of God, sowed seeds of doubt, told them outright lies, made some very appealing, seductive suggestions, basically showed them how they could be God and God would not be a nuisance in their lives, that they could actually enjoy all that the created order without the necessity of acknowledging a creator, and they could be their own man and woman, and they could do their own thing.

And they bought it and something called the fall happened. And it was a rejection of God by the created order so that the whole created order Now we are told lies in the grip of the wicked one. We call that the world in which we live, where evil is rampant. But then so we have two enemies. We have the devil. And then as a result of the devil's work, we have a world that is in opposition to the purposes of God because it is the creation of the devil himself. But there's another problem and it is this, it's what we call the flesh.

In fact, scripture talks about a three-pronged difficulty that human beings have. The three-pronged difficulty we have is the world, the flesh, and the devil. The flesh is not that part of us that hangs over the belt sometimes. It is not something that we decide we're going to do something about every January and forgive give up on February. The flesh in this sense in scripture is an a human being living a life as if God does not exist or living a life where God is fundamentally irrelevant. It is a human being who is living totally out of touch with the spiritual dimension of their humanity.

If we are living as if there is no God, as if God is irrelevant, or we are living in outright rejection of him, then we are simply subject to all the forces of evil in the world and all the blandishments of the devil and we're sitting ducks. And we give into all kinds of inner desires of the flesh that are not being controlled because the devil is having a free shot at us. And the world itself is impinging upon us and with us there is a godless attitude that responds to the devil and to the world.

And the world and the flesh and the devil are working their nefarious work and the net results are all kinds of adversities upon adversities upon adversities upon adversities. The good news is this, when Jesus came into the world, he took the devil on nose to nose. And first of all, in the series of temptations, he defeated him intellectually. And then on the cross, he went down into death and came out of death in resurrection. And this is what he said, through death he destroyed him that had the power of death. That is the devil. And delivered those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

I'd love to be able to explain that to you. But simply get hold of this thing that through death Jesus rendered the devil incapable of being totally free in this world. He is not at this time called totally free. He is bound. But he is operating in the world under the oversight of God himself. Why why would God allow the devil to produce adversity in the world, to produce adversity in the flesh, to produce adversity in us? I had a good friend who owned a a big plantation, an old plantation down in the Delta. When the cotton industry went, they stopped growing cotton, so they tried doing rice and that didn't work.

Then he realized that they had a lot of heavy loam soil and the water would just sit in it. So he scooped out some places, filled it with water, and decided he'd start breeding catfish. And he started feeding these catfish and they just put in all kinds of feed for them morning and evening. And these catfish were getting bigger and bigger and bigger and fatter and fatter than their meat was less edible and less edible. And he didn't know what in the world to do and then he had a good idea because they were just sluggish catfish lying on the base of the whole tank that he he'd built for them and being waiting to be fed twice a day.

Do you do you know what his solution was? He got a barracuda. And he put a little barracuda in among all those catfish and they finished up with the sleekest, finest catfish meat that you ever ate in your life. And I looked at catfish and I think why would anybody want to eat that unless they come from Mississippi? And what was the key? The key was while they just lay around being fed and doing nothing, then of course the net result was that they became increasingly sluggish. What he did was introduced the barracuda that got them pretty active.

And then they get exactly the same way. The devil like a roaring lion is after you. But the good news you've got is this, that the risen Christ is greater. And God is the one who is able to give us victory over the devil and help us to deal with all the nefarious desires of the flesh and also help us to see the world as it really is and where it's going and give us the power and ability not to respond to it.

Guest (Male): Thanks for listening to Telling the Truth today. We're thrilled you've joined us and pray today's message has helped you experience more of the abundant life Jesus promises. Right now, people are searching for hope, answers, and truth they can build their lives on. And Stewart and Joel Briscoe's timeless biblical teaching is reaching into those very moments through social media and other digital platforms, a vast collection of vintage videos and wonderful ministry partners. At Telling the Truth, our mission has always been clear, faithfully share the truth of God's word so people everywhere can know and experience life in Christ.

And you can be part of that mission. When you give today, you help share hope with people who need to hear biblical truth taught clearly, faithfully, and without compromise. As our thanks, we'd love to send you verses for Advent, a set of 25 beautifully designed scripture cards created to help you keep God's word at the center of the Christmas season. Reflect on a new verse each day through Advent as you embark on a journey from Old Testament prophecies about Jesus to the Christmas story in the New Testament. So please consider a gift today and help us carry out the Great Commission, ensuring that more people can hear God's word and discover the life found in Jesus.

Call now at 262-788-4648. That's 262-788-4648 or give online at tellingthetruth.org. Thanks so much for listening today. Join us again tomorrow as the Briscoes share more powerful truth from God's word. Come back and experience abundant life in Christ next time on Telling the Truth.