Articles
True or False?--Transcript
Good morning, like to welcome everyone here.
We have our front row back full after it's been a little bit empty.
A lot of the kids have been gone to camp and it's good to see them back.
The adults that went, I know you had a blessed week being there this past week.
When I was at school I always liked true or false tests because even if you didn't know the answer, you had a 50-50 chance.
It's a little bit more better than the multiple choice because the more answers you had to choose from, the percentages went down.
And then those fill in the blank, if you didn't study, then you were just really in trouble.
But the true or false questions, those were the easy ones because one way or the other you could kind of guess and sometimes get them right.
True or false? I came across some of these, just some trivia questions.
Lightning is hotter than the surface of the sun.
True or false? That one's actually true, interesting enough.
What about movie theatres make most of their money from ticket sales? That one's actually false.
It's from the concession stand.
Motel 6 got its name because it's first rooms for $6 a night.
Believe it or not, that one's true.
Weird facts, but some true, some not.
True or false? Let me ask you this one.
You can believe anything you want and still be right.
But we all know that one is false.
We live in a world that's full of information and misinformation.
We've got facts and opinions and hot takes and half truths.
How do you know what is true? You scroll through social media and see a post, you watch the news and wonder if it's biased in some way.
You hear someone say, well, that might be true for you, but it's not for me.
We're left asking, is there such a thing as truth? Not just facts about the temperature of lightning, but truth that actually matters in our life.
Truth that shapes the way that we live.
Truth that tells us what is right and what is wrong.
Truth that determines ultimately where we will spend eternity.
John 8 verse 31, Jesus once said, if you continue in my words, then you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
Truth isn't just a concept.
Jesus says it's the key to freedom.
But here's the challenge.
There's truth and then there's things that sound like truth.
There's a real truth and then there's a distorted truth.
And some people don't want the truth because sometimes the truth is just too painful and they don't want to accept it because of that.
So today we're asking a simple but life changing question.
True or false? Not just about trivia, but questions of life and faith and eternity.
Let's dig in and discover the truth that God has revealed and why it's the only foundation that's not going to fail.
It doesn't matter really how much science you know.
It doesn't matter if you understand algebra or how all that works and those facts, they're not going to change your life.
It's not going to change the way you live.
Looking back through history, knowledge and truth were important to people.
The philosophers of ancient Greece, Plato, Aristotle, their followers were called lovers of wisdom.
That's where that term philosophy comes from.
That's actually what it means.
But now, as he said, we watch the news and read something and we wonder, is it true? Is there an absolute truth? The Bible tells us what we believe to be truth is very important because already stated it will ultimately determine our destiny, our eternity.
So what are some important things that we can say about this idea of truth? This morning I want to first think about that there is this idea of a moral truth of what is right and what is wrong.
And it's what is written in our hearts or on our hearts.
Even without reading the Bible, people have a pretty good idea of what is right and what is wrong, even if they've never picked up the Bible and never read of it.
Perhaps even if they don't even believe in God, they still have this idea within them of what is right and what is wrong.
We call that our conscience.
God has blessed us with that.
So without reading the Bible, without knowing the Bible, people still realize that murder is wrong.
You shouldn't do that.
Or stealing, most people would say, that's something you shouldn't do, that's just wrong.
Even without picking up the Bible and reading that, they know that.
In Romans 2 verse 14, Paul grabs that when he says, The point that we see here is that even though the Gentiles did not have the law, they had a sense of what was right and wrong.
God's truth is that even though the Gentiles did not have the law, they had a sense of what was right and wrong.
God's truth has placed in our hearts, even before we read his word, this idea of what's right and what's wrong.
Someone can flip on the news and see that a horrible crime has been committed.
We see that often.
Maybe somebody has opened up the door and said, We look at that and we're disgusted by that.
People just look at that and say, that's terrible.
That's horrible.
It's because of this idea of what is right and what is wrong.
God has placed this moral truth in our heart.
But there's a problem with that because have you ever heard the term, let your conscience be your guide? That's not always a good thing.
It doesn't always work that way.
In 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 1, it says, The spirit explicitly says, in the latter time, Some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, By means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience with a branding iron.
And he goes on and says, who forbid marriage and some of the things that they teach.
Notice it says at the end there, which God has created for the people of the world.
Notice it says at the end there, which God has created and gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.
The idea here is that there are some who are deceived, who believe not the truth and they don't feel bad about it because as it says their conscience has been seared.
So even though their conscience says it's okay, I think this is okay, we see that it's not okay.
They allow their conscience to be seared so that what is wrong no longer bothers them.
In Acts 23 we see concerning Paul, he looked and he said, Brethren, I have lived my life with an entirely good conscience before God up to this day.
Before he was Paul, we know he was Saul of Tarsus.
Before he was Paul, we know he was a persecutor of the church.
We know that he took Christians and persecuted them and threw them in prison.
He was there consenting to the death of Stephen when he was stoned.
But yet Paul looked and he said, I did it with a good conscience.
I thought I was right.
So when we think of truth and it comes to this idea of this moral truth, it's a good thing to know this idea of right and wrong, but ultimately we can't depend completely on this moral truth because you see it kind of wavers back and forth depending on what we let our conscience get used to, what we allow ourselves to look at it and say, well it's not really that bad after all.
But there is this moral truth that we have ultimately within us of an idea that there is right and there is wrong.
Something else though we see about the truth though is that it can be distorted.
And when we go back to the very beginning in Genesis chapter 3, we see that's what Satan does.
This distorted truth is Satan's strategy against us to deceive us into thinking that something is true when in reality it's not true.
In Genesis 3, God's truth was given to Adam and Eve.
Eat of any tree except this one.
Eat of this one and God says you will die.
Now that seems easy to follow doesn't it? It's very direct.
It didn't leave anything for interpretation Well I think that this is what God meant.
Well no, he said it very plainly.
You can eat of any tree out here but this one don't do it and if you do here's the consequence.
You will die.
Satan came along though and he twisted that truth.
Satan came along and he tells Eve he says well you won't really die.
You're really going to happen.
You see God knows that if you eat of that tree you're going to be like him.
But you're not really going to die.
That's not going to happen.
He twists the truth and distorts it and Eve when she took of that fruit and she took a bite of it.
She wasn't indeed immediately physically struck dead.
What Satan said I guess in that sense you know he had twisted the truth around Maybe Eve when she took that bite thought well the devil was right.
But we know the rest of the story.
Even though Eve was not immediately struck dead when she ate she died in a spiritual sense and with later she would die physically.
And what God said was truth and it did happen.
Both for her spiritual death and then later physical death as well.
Matthew chapter 4 we see the devil twisting and distorting the truth once again.
When he came to Jesus and tempted him.
And in Matthew chapter 4 beginning in verse 1 Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
And after he had fasted for 40 days and 40 nights he became hungry.
And the tempter came and said to him if you are the son of God command these stones become bread.
But he answered and said it is written man should not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
And the devil took him along into a holy city and had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple and he said if you are the son of God throw yourself down for it is written he will give his angels orders concerning you and on their hands they will lift you up so that you do not strike your foot against a stone.
The devil is quoting scriptures.
He is quoting scripture to Jesus.
And he says do this because the scripture said you are going to be okay.
Jesus tells him on the other hand it is written you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.
And again the devil took him along to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory and he said to him all these things I will give you.
Fuel bow down.
And Jesus said to him again for it is written you shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only.
And the devil left him.
The devil quotes scriptures but he misapplies and distorts what the truth is.
And each time he does that Jesus quoted scriptures back at him not distorting the truth of God.
We must be careful because the devil will still distort the truth today.
You read through the New Testament and many of the epistles and they are written to correct error.
Much of what is stated in those is warnings against false teaching and how to correct it when it has overtaken some.
They were those distorting the truth in the early days of the church and unfortunately there are still those who are distorting the truth today because as we said that is Satan's strategy.
To deceive and to distort the truth.
In Romans 1 verse 25 we are told of those who exchanged the truth of God for falsehood and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forevermore.
How do we protect ourselves from believing a lie? From believing the distorted truth.
That's not really truth at all.
1 2 Timothy chapter 2.
Paul explains to us how to overcome this and how to not be deceived or fooled when it comes to what truth really is.
He tells us there to be diligent or depending on what translation you have it says study to present yourself approved to God.
A worker who does not need to be ashamed.
Accurately handling or dividing the word of truth.
Study, be diligent and study.
Know what truth is.
A secret service agent once was asked how are they able to so effectively be able to detect counterfeit bills, money? And his answer was well we don't study the fakes.
We spend hours every day studying the real thing.
We know the genuine article so well that the fakes stand out right away.
When it comes to truth that's how it works.
A world full of half truths and fake news and twisted beliefs.
The only way to spot counterfeit is to know the truth, the real truth, the truth that God has presented in his word.
As Paul said, study, be diligent to know the truth and the distorted truth then will stick out and we won't be deceived.
Something else we see about truth though is sometimes the truth is painful.
But even when the truth is painful to us to hear it's still worth hearing.
Again goes back to what we said at the beginning of the lesson because it determines our eternity.
So it's worth it even when it's painful.
Many had rather hear something that is comforting even if it's not truth instead of the unpleasant truth.
Paul describes those to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4 verse 3 saying the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine but wanting to have their ears tickled they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires.
Don't tell us what we need to hear, tell us what we want to hear.
Don't tell us something that's going to upset us, don't tell us something that's going to convict us.
Instead tell us something that's going to make us feel good.
Unfortunately that's how much of preaching sometimes has become in many places is that it's more of a motivational TED talk than it is a gospel sermon.
People will react differently when they hear the truth.
Some will hear it and accept it even though it's painful and they're willing to change.
If you look at the book of Acts we see a great contrast just between a few chapters of one another.
In Acts chapter 2 as we're familiar with Peter and the other apostles there on the day of Pentecost but Peter who was speaking and presenting the gospel on that occasion.
He preached to those who some had had a hand in killing Jesus even.
He preached to them the message about Jesus, the one that they had crucified he says.
That must have been very painful, very painful for them to hear.
To know that the one that they rejected, the one that they had ridiculed, the one that they had ultimately taken and beaten and then had taken and nailed to the cross.
That one was the Messiah, the Savior.
And coming to an understanding of that had to be painful because of what they had done.
As a matter of fact it says they were pierced to the heart.
In verse 37 it says when they heard this they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brother what are we to do? Peter said to them, Repent and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For the promises to you and your children and for all who are far off as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.
And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on urging them saying be saved from this perverse narration.
And we see they had heard the message.
It was a painful message to hear.
Cut them to the heart.
But verse 41 says, So then they who received his word were baptized and they were at it about 3000 souls.
They heard the painful message of convicting them of their sin.
But they responded in obedience.
To contrast that if you flip over a few pages over to Acts the 7th chapter.
In Acts chapter 7 we see Peter, we see Stephen who preached the message of the gospel as well.
Probably said much the same things that Peter said as he preached the message of the gospel.
But Stephen had a very different reaction to the truth that he spoke to the people that day.
Verse 54 it's interesting because it says that those who heard also were pierced to the heart.
The same thing happened to them that happened to those on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2.
They were convicted of what had happened.
Understanding that this was painful to hear.
But they didn't like the painful truth.
They were infuriated by the message.
They picked up stones and stone Stephen to death.
Jesus makes the point.
Matthew chapter 13 where he tells the parable of the sower.
He makes this point that people are going to respond to the preaching of the truth in different ways.
Beginning in verse 18 after telling the parable he explains the parable to them.
He says here then the parable of the sower when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it.
The evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.
This is the one on whom the seed was sown beside the road.
So you have one person who hears it, doesn't really understand.
The devil comes in and takes advantage of that, distorts the truth and that person never obeys.
The one on whom the seed was sown in the rocky place is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.
Yet has no firm root in himself but is only temporary.
When affliction or persecution arises because of the word immediately he falls away.
That's that person that accepts it when he hears it but isn't diligent in growing and studying to rightly divide the word.
To know what is truth and what is not truth.
Then he goes on to talk about the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns is the man who hears the word and the worry of the world and the seafelness of wealth.
Choke the word and it becomes unfruitful.
Verse 23 he says the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil.
This is the man who hears the word and understands it.
Who indeed bears fruit and brings forth some a hundred folds, some sixty and some thirty.
People are going to hear the same message of truth.
Some are going to reject it or deny it.
Others are going to accept it.
And we see examples of that throughout the scriptures.
We've looked at a contrast of a couple of those already today.
What is our part in this? Ephesians 4 tells us speak the truth in love.
We are to grow in all aspects into him who is the head that is Christ.
Our job is to speak the truth in love.
Sometimes it will be painful to hear the truth when it convicts us.
But if we love the Lord, we'll allow the word to penetrate our hearts and we'll receive it with joy.
We'll go back to think about truth one more time.
There is an absolute truth and that is the truth that saves.
It's not this moral truth that is kind of relative depending on who you are necessarily.
It's not the truth that's been distorted.
But it is this truth that is absolute.
That there is a law above human law.
Wisdom above human wisdom.
There is a standard of right and wrong that doesn't come from any of us, but it comes from God.
In Jeremiah 5 verse 1, Jeremiah was looking for one person who was seeking the truth.
Rome about through the streets of Jerusalem.
Look and take notice.
Seek in our public squares.
If you can find a person, if there is one who does justice, who seeks honesty or truth, then I will forgive her.
Jeremiah couldn't find one person you're going to read there seeking truth.
How many people are seeking really truth today? The days of Jeremiah was a problem because there was nobody that really wanted to know what truth was.
Jesus though talks about a time when there were those who would be looking for truth and would be worshiping in truth.
He says the time is coming and even has now arrived.
The true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
That is what God is seeking notice.
Jeremiah was seeking someone and God is still seeking that today.
He is seeking those who will worship him in spirit and in truth.
The way that he wants it to be, the way he has commanded us to do it.
So what is absolute truth and where do we find it? The trend today is that all roads lead to heaven.
It doesn't matter what you believe as long as you believe in something.
That's being open-minded and tolerant because the worst thing to be these days is closed-minded and intolerant.
We look around at the world religions that we see all around us.
If they're all right, then there is no absolute truth.
I talked about that a little bit in the Bible class here in the auditorium this morning.
The result of that is that God would be the God of confusion.
That it would be chaos.
The result of that is that ultimately God would be a liar which we know is impossible.
God is not going to tell one person, one thing, that this is what you need to do and then go and tell someone else.
This is what you need to do.
It doesn't work that way.
That doesn't even really make common sense when you sit down and really think about it.
In John 1 verse 17, we're told that the law was given through Moses grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
Where is truth found in Jesus? That's the only place in Jesus.
Several times in the scriptures Jesus says, I will tell you the truth.
That's where truth is found.
Jesus himself said, I am the way, the truth and the light.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
In Acts chapter 4 verse 12, Peter says, there is salvation and no one else.
For there is no other name under heaven that has been given among mankind by which we must be saved.
There is absolute truth, the only truth that leads to salvation.
Salvation is only found in Jesus who died for us and rose again to give us hope of eternal life.
That's where absolute truth is found.
It's found in God's Word.
It's found in reading it and studying it and knowing what the truth is.
Absolute truth.
It only comes from God.
It doesn't have to be that we're left wondering, but when we sit down and we follow what God has commanded us to do, much is what we've been, again, studying this quarter on authority.
If you've been in the auditorium class, it's been a great study.
Following what God commands us to do, that's truth.
And that's what God is seeking those who will follow him in truth.
In John the 18th chapter, I'd like to conclude here.
Our scripture reading this morning kind of painted this picture of Pilate with Jesus before Pilate.
And we see, as we continue to read about that, actually verse 33, it says that Pilate entered the auditorium again and summoned Jesus and said to him, You are the king of the Jews.
Jesus answered, Are you saying this on your own or did others tell you about me? Pilate answered, I'm not a Jew, am I? Your own nation, a chief priest, handed you over to me.
What have you done? Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world.
If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews.
But as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm.
Verse 37, Therefore Pilate said to him, So you are a king.
Jesus answered, You say correctly that I am a king.
For this purpose, I have been born and for this I have come into the world to testify to the truth.
Everyone is of truth, listens to my voice.
And Pilate said, What is truth? Pilate asked Jesus, What is truth? He asked the question to the one who was the embodiment of truth.
Truth was standing right in front of him and he couldn't see it, he missed it.
We see what Pilate and the people who screamed, Crucify Him, Crucify Him.
We see what they did with truth.
The question for us this morning, what will we do with truth? Will we accept it? Will we reject it? Will we allow it to change our lives? If you're here this morning, we go back to what Peter said on Acts 2 that we read earlier.
Repent and let each of you be baptized for a forgiveness of your sins.
That's truth.
What will you do with truth? You had that opportunity this morning to come and accept it.
Believe in Jesus and be baptized.
If we can help you in any way, we hope that you'll respond while we stand and sing.
