Sermon Illustrations on Truth — page 4

What Can I Trust?

Romans 11:2

Wot ye not what the Scripture saith? — Romans 11:2.

My only safeguard against licentiousness on the one hand and monasticism and all foolish notions of human piety on the other, is “What saith the Scripture?” for it forms the only infallible test wherewith to prove the spirits whether they be of God (1 John 4:6). I cannot trust the voice of the church, she has so many voices. I cannot trust the voice of my brethren — it changes too often. I cannot trust the voice of my own heart, it is so often fanciful and false. But when I open the Bible I hear a voice which I can trust. It is my Father’s voice, the Good Shepherd’s voice, and I reverently bow to it as the voice of God and believe and confess what it says as the Word of God.

God’s Word unfolds Jehovah’s mind;

This Voice unfolds in accents kind.

This sun renews and warms the soul;

This sword both wounds and makes us whole.

This letter shows our sins forgiven;

This guide conducts us safe to Heaven.

This charter has been sealed with blood;

This volume is the Word of God.

Truth Versus 'truthiness

John 14:6

Jesus wasn’t afraid to show His emotions. He wept when Lazarus died. He shed tears over Jerusalem. He raged against hypocrites and moneychangers defiling His Father’s house.

But Jesus based His life and teaching on something firmer than feeling: The truth as revealed by the Word of God. And He didn’t hesitate to make this absolute declaration of truth: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

You will know the truth, Jesus also said, and it will make you free (John 8:32). But what is truth? Pontius Pilate’s famous question seems to have as many answers as there are people nowadays.

If you watch “Oprah” and follow bestseller lists, you’ve probably heard all about the uproar over “A Million Little Pieces.” That’s the title of a “memoir” by writer James Frey about his alleged criminal career and bizarre misadventures. With a push from superstar Oprah Winfrey –- now the most powerful force in American book publishing -– it has sold more than 3.5 million copies, and was second only to the latest “Harry Potter” book among 2005 bestsellers.

The trouble started when “Smoking Gun,” an investigative website, reported about a million little fabrications in “A Million Little Pieces.” The site exposed whole sections of the book as wildly exaggerated or outright fiction. At first Oprah defended Frey. Later, to her credit, she apologized to her millions of fans for presenting the book as factual –- and lambasted Frey on her show.

“A Million Little Pieces” is far from the first autobiography to play fast and loose with facts. The whole episode would be a minor literary sideshow if not for the huge public visibility Oprah gives everything she touches.

But this incident also illustrates the sad state of “truth” in America. Everything is now open to acceptance or dispute. Almost everybody, it seems, feels qualified to declare what is true, regardless of the facts. If it feels right, if it’s declared loudly or entertainingly enough, then hey, it’s the truth –- even if it’s only my truth. Your truth is your business.

“Feels” is a key word here. Oprah, despite taking the high road this time, has done as much as anyone to create the market for gut-wrenching “memoirs.” In Oprah culture, if it “feels” true, it must be true.

Politicians, phony academics, purveyors of “reality television” and other masters of distortion contribute to the confusion. Much of TV news has morphed into entertainment. Many news “consumers” access only websites or e-news services that tell them exactly what they want to hear. Several million young adults claim their primary news source is Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” a program that reports “phony news” for satirical purposes. It’s entertainment, but an amazing number of people believe it.

Washington Times columnist Suzanne Fields calls this phenomenon the triumph of “truthiness” -– a word coined, appropriately, by mock pundit Stephen Colbert of “The Daily Show.”

“Truthiness” is what sincere people “conclude with their hearts, not their heads,” Fields explains. “Much that passes for fact in textbooks and in the media is really about truthiness, not truth.”

Basically, “truthiness” is emotional relativism. Among its most gullible victims are young people. Numerous studies show that many students, even at the college level, lack critical thinking skills, cannot identify the most basic events of recent history –- much less past generations –- and cannot distinguish between fact and fiction.

But “truthiness” often afflicts another target: the church. Yes, the Gospel of truth must be embraced by faith. But it’s built upon a rock-solid biblical foundation that has withstood the storms of ages. Too often, we undermine that foundation through neglect and mushy theology.

“Modern evangelicalism puts undue weight on experience,” Christian commentator Chuck Colson recently observed. “If somebody lacks a personal testimony -– and the more dramatic the better –- he is made to feel like a second-class believer.

“This heavy reliance on feelings carries over (to) discipleship and worship.... This is all to the good when it results in people making a personal commitment to Jesus. But it can be dangerous when that is all there is. Doctrine may be seen as abstract and inaccessible because it seems unrelated to personal experience.”

Yet the church stands or falls on the great doctrines of the Bible. God’s supremacy and love. His righteousness and man’s utter lostness in sin. His exclusive offer of salvation by faith through Jesus Christ alone. His command to declare His glory and make disciples among all nations.

If some of those doctrines sound too stern, too “judgmental” to touchy-feely believers, what then?

R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., warns that the American evangelical church “seems to be losing its voice” just as the opportunity to declare the Gospel worldwide is greater than ever.

“At base, the issue is a failure of theological nerve -– a devastating loss of biblical and doctrinal conviction,” Mohler says. “Put bluntly, many who claim to be Christians simply do not believe that anyone is actually lost.”

This view, which is being quietly, often unconsciously adopted by more and more churchgoers, is anything but compassionate, Mohler adds. These believers sleep soundly only “because their conscience is uncluttered by concern for the lost.”

If no one is lost, we have no business preaching the Gospel. If no one is lost, we have no business asking our best and brightest to leave their homes and sacrifice their comforts to be missionaries. If no one is lost, we have no right to ask someone to follow Christ who may lose his or her life as a result.

But people are lost. They do need a Savior. God loves them. And He tells us to declare His name and make disciples to the ends of the earth.

That’s not “truthiness.” That’s the truth.

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The Side of Truth

John 3:11

It was for me a dawning thought packed within the confines of a recurring chorus. “And the truth's not contingent on me.” I still remember the notion catching my attention and then hanging there in my mind like a portrait I was having a hard time getting my eyes around. At the time, it was an utterly startling and freeing image; namely, God did not need me to uphold the pillars and pieces of Christianity to make it a true and valid thing to believe in. It is an incredibly simple lesson with which to be struck, perhaps exposing a self-centered worldview as much as my misunderstanding of the old, old story. And yet, it was an awakening not only to the Christian story as I discovered that day, but also to the very nature of truth itself. Truth is truth whether we choose to stand beside it or not.

Perhaps as a reaction to the intense rationalism of the modern era, postmodern thought tends to emphasize the idea that all is not as it might seem. But the preference is now anti-rationalism or anti-realism. We want to create our own reality, a mosaic of truths that will suit our own needs. Intrinsic to this approach is the concept of practicality. If it is in anyway useful to our lives then it is viewed as a “valid” truth. I once heard someone note this in a statement she went as far as to call her life's motto. She said, “If you can't use what you know to be true then it isn't worth knowing.” Such is the current mood; one where truth itself can be deemed unworthy of knowing. Writes C.S. Lewis, “Man is becoming as narrowly 'practical' as the irrational animals.”

Yet the posture of preference and practicality, though widely present among us, is hardly a new approach to the quest for truth. As Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate he told him, “I came into this world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me” (John 18:37-38). Before Pilate had even uttered his sardonic reply — “What is truth?” — Jesus's words in that profoundly charged conversation cut to the crumbling foundation on which men have stood from antiquity to postmodernism: the search for truth is all too often not about truth at all.

As an acquaintance one time commented, “I refuse to let anyone tell me what my truth is.” But does such a statement even make sense? Truth corresponds to reality, not preference or opinion. If the quest for truth is about personal appetite, contingent only on the individual holding the belief, anything and everything could be deemed true. Such an approach taken in realms of science or history would be thoroughly mocked in its ridiculousness. We know better than this.

The same Gospel that relays the conversation of Jesus and Pilate on the subject of truth begins with the powerful thought of God at the beginning of all things. Whatever truth is it is something far beyond me, corresponding with reality, coherently giving shape to my life. In the Christian story, there is a beginning, a middle, and an end, none of which is contingent on us. Christ has come to testify to this reality and lead us to truth itself. He is Lord whether we choose to stand beside him or not.

________

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Giraffes With No Necks

“If you draw a giraffe, you must draw him with a long neck. If, in your bold creative way, you hold yourself free to draw a giraffe with a short neck, you will really find that you are not free to draw a giraffe. The moment you step into the world of facts, you step into a world of limits. You can free things from alien or accidental laws, but not from the laws of their own nature.” So writes G.K. Chesterton in his book ORTHODOXY.

In our world of whimsical art and computer-altered images I have seen plenty of incredible depictions of giraffes, from a blue giraffe to a fat giraffe to a giraffe jumping over the moon. Though none of these depictions are realistic, they are still recognizable because they retain the giraffe's defining characteristic: a long neck.

There is creativity, and then, there is creativity. One kind of creativity brings out the true essence of a thing, helping the onlooker see the object under consideration in a new light. The other kind of creativity distorts the subject beyond recognition; the subject becomes incidental rather than essential.

While I view creativity as a good thing, there is a danger in practicing the latter kind of creativity in the realms of Christian spirituality and scholarship. There is far more pressure in the academic world to say something that is perceived as original or innovative than there is to say something true. A scholar can swiftly rise to prominence by suggesting that every previous historian or theologian has been mistaken. Promoting truth that has been tested and tried is far less popular and attracts less attention.

The same pressures can be true of spirituality, whether in worship, preaching, or the exercise of any spiritual discipline. As humans, we are enchanted by novelty, and novelty is good, as long as it points us in the right direction rather than becoming the focus of our interest. But when the methods of devotion become our focus rather than the glory of God, we have ceased to worship. God-centeredness is the defining characteristic of true worship.

It bewilders me when individuals or churches choose to unswervingly identify themselves as Christian, all the while abandoning every defining characteristic of the Christian faith. It makes as little sense to call someone a Christian who does not believe that Jesus rose from the dead as it does to call a creature a giraffe, though it has no neck. Followers of Jesus come in many theological shapes and sizes, yet to be identified as a Christian, it is only logical that one should bear certain defining characteristics.

One of the earliest known confessions used by the first-century church was the declaration, “Jesus is Lord.” Some find creeds and confessions constricting. But confessions such as this one remind us that there is an essence to Christianity, and that is the recognition of the lordship of Jesus. In the words of Abraham Kuyper, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!'"

Chesterton advises the reader, “Do not free a camel of the burden of his hump: you may be freeing him from being a camel. Do not go about as a demagogue, encouraging triangles to break out of the prison of their three sides. If a triangle breaks out of its three sides, its life comes to a lamentable end.” Those who seek to free the world from the lordship of Christ only succeed in freeing themselves of their Christianity. For the Christian, the lordship of Christ is not constraining; it is life itself.

________

Irrelevant Exploration

Someone searching for gasoline by digging holes in the ground will be horribly disappointed when he finds only crude oil - and that only if he’s lucky.

If its gasoline you want, the ground is the wrong place to be looking -- that’s why we have gas stations every few blocks.

The world needs to know their search for happiness and satisfaction is much like searching for gasoline in the ground.

Man in his search for meaning is looking in all the wrong places; searching the world for what comes from God alone is futile.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #19266]

Truth Vindicated

At the funeral of a man, who was very generous and loving, but ungodly and dissipated, I felt unwilling to make a funeral address that should be untrue to my convictions of the truth of the Word of God. Accordingly I spoke to the businessmen, present in very large numbers, who had been his companions, about the folly of neglecting the soul even for the sake of worldly profit. They had expected to hear a eulogy of the dead, and get comfort in their own ungodliness, and were much incensed. One of them cursed and swore that he would provide in his will that I should never officiate at his funeral.

Shortly after, God smote him with incurable disease, and for many months he lingered in great agony, and died. He would send for me and cling to me like a child, confess to me his sinful life, and beg me to pray for him and with him. Before his death he wrote me a letter with a trembling hand-a letter that is to me as precious as gold. In it he says: "Be always honest and true with men; tell them the truth, and even those who at the time may take offense, will afterward stand by you and approve your course." When he came to look into the great hereafter, he wanted no shallow quicksand of flattering falsehood on which to rest his feet. There comes a time when every man wants to know the truth.

Jesus is Truth Personalized

John 17:3

Jesus said: "I am the Truth-the Way to the Truth and the Life of the Truth." It is not enough to say that Jesus speaks the Truth or brings the Truth. The fact is that Jesus is the Truth. He is the Truth personalized. If we wish to know the truth we must get to know Christ. When we know Christ we know everything that is worth knowing. If we see Christ, we shall see God. "If ye had known Me ye should have known My Father also." If we learn of Christ we shall know what sin is and what righteousness is and what salvation is and the means of salvation. We shall understand eternal life if we know Christ. "This is eternal life, to know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3). All we need to know about the Church and the judgment and the future we shall understand in the teaching of our Lord.

Emptiness of Unbelief

Unbelief is the most unmanly thing that a man can boast of-not believing in truth, in all the great thoughts that belong to the universe, in men, in women, in virtue, in heroism. To rest in unbelief is to be like a tenement house that is abandoned by the tenant, and given up to the rats and vermin. The emptiest, poorest, most unmanly of all conditions, is that of a man without belief in anything.

"In the Heavenly Places"

John 15:7

If we want to live more than ordinarily spiritual lives as Christian men, it is necessary that we be great feeders upon the Word of God, which is not only quick, but powerful. De Quincey divided all literature into the literature of knowledge and literature of power. This is pre-eminently the literature of power. "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (John 15:7). And still further, we might make this additional statement: that without spiritual Bible study, other spiritual helps may often lead us into danger, and ultimately they may be abandoned. Take the matter of meditation: without the Bible, meditation may lead a man to morbid introspection. Secret prayer is not a monologue, but is a dialogue.

Truth In the Dungeon

Malachi 2:6

The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity. — Malachi 2:6.

Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour. — Ephesians 4:25.

The truth cannot be burned, beheaded or crucified. A lie on the throne is a lie still; and truth in a dungeon is still truth; and the lie on the throne is on the way to defeat, and the truth in the dungeon is on the way to victory. — A. T. Pierson.

Jehovah is our strength,

And He shall be our song;

We shall o’ercome at length,

Although the foes be strong;

In vain then Satan doth oppose

For God is stronger than His foes. — Samuel Barnard

Give Attendance To Reading

John 17:17

Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. — John 17:17.

One thing essential to an advance in practical sanctification is acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures, and ready subjection of mind to that which we discern to be therein revealed. If we cherish opinions contrary to the Word of God, if our estimates of things are not guided thereby, then it is impossible that there should be found in us a growing conformity to the mind of Christ. The cherishing of thoughts unsanctified by and contrary to Him constitutes an in-ward disobedience of soul, the consequences of which will be sooner or later manifested. This Scripture plainly shows that the knowledge of revealed truth is a necessary means to sanctification.

Thy Word, Thyself reflecting, doth sanctify by truth,

Still leading on Thy children with gentle, heavenly growth. — G. Gilpin

The True Word

John 17:17

Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. — John 17:17.

“Thy Word is truth” means much more than that the Bible is true. It means that the Bible is essentially in itself, truth. When our Lord said “I am the Truth” He meant that He was the perfect embodiment of truth — all that truth ever was or would be. So, with the Word of God. It is not only true in its contents but truth in itself. The “Thy” is emphatic. It is God’s Word and therefore must be true and the truth, because it “is impossible for God to lie.” — H. K. Downie.

The book is true or false; if false it’s such a lie

That none could make another like it should he try.

If true, it’s such a truth as should all hearts engage,

For God, the King of kings, speaks from its printed page.

I know it’s true and so do you.

Then let us to it cling, though men and demons rage.

That's Not Nice

Romans 3

Imagine with me… you read an advertisement that declares one of history’s all time greatest preachers will be presenting God’s Word to the lost.

“Bring your unsaved friends, your unbelieving family members and all of your neighbors who need the Gospel!” the ad declares. You arrive at the service to find not only a huge crowd of non-Christians, but a large contingent of Christian leaders as well – Pastors, preachers, church growth specialists, teachers – all anxious to witness how the “best Preacher of all time” does things so they can take his successful techniques back to their own churches and organizations.

With great anticipation, the Giant of the Faith steps up to the podium. He’s not much to look at, for sure, but hey, image problems can be overcome with presence, right? As he begins to speak, it’s apparent that not only is he kind of an eyesore, he’s not even all that good of a speaker. I mean, with someone of his reputation, you would be hoping for the Christian equivalent of Tony Robbins.

“Well” you think, “hmmm. He’s not impressive looking; he’s not a dynamic, captivating speaker… it must be his content that has earned him the reputation of one of God’s all time great church builders.” Mild disappointment soon turns to puzzled annoyance as this supposed “great teacher” proclaims:

There is not one person here that is righteous.

None of you understand God’s truth.

Not a single one of you seek after anything Godly.

All of you have strayed from God’s plan and there is nothing about you worth anything.

There is not one single person here that is good, not even one.

Your words are like rotting dead people.

You are all deceitful on purpose.

Your mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.

You are quick to shed blood and you ruin everything you come in contact with.

You don’t know a thing about real peace.

You have no real respect for God.

With each passing statement different groups begin to mumble, shake their heads and the auditorium starts to empty out.

The unbelievers who have been fed a steady diet of “love yourself” all their life – by the world, the education system and even their churches – simply cannot believe this self-esteem-destroying, unloving condemnation. What kind of “Gospel” is this that makes you feel so bad about yourself? God is “love” and following Jesus is supposed to be the path to improving your life and helping you to finally learn to love yourself like you should. Much of the crowd sensing an attack on their self-esteem and self-worth quickly decide that this “preacher” is out of touch with the realities of the modern church.

The prosperity teachers begin to exit, wanting to escape all these “negative confessions” and faith-killing proclamations. Doesn’t this guy get it? Doesn’t he know that saying all these negative things will cause them to come to pass, and that “real faith” is “positive faith”? Hasn’t he learned that God has revealed to us today a more complete “revelation” – the positive-faith-filled-Word?

The seek-friendly-church-growth-experts make their disappointed exit realizing that they weren’t going to find anything here to help them attract the world into their pews. Every graduate of “Church Growth 101” knows that you don’t invite unbelievers in and start telling them how sinful and wicked they are. You’ve got to “meet people at the point of their need” and give them resources and ministries that will help them get their life turned around. The church of today is a church that is relevant and gives people what they seeking and helps them to fulfill their potential. This old fashioned preaching about sin just simply does not work today… it’s not “relevant” anymore… it doesn’t “reach” real people.

Many other Pastors start filing out knowing that Christianity only works when it is tolerant, inclusive and “loving”… all this talk of sin and wickedness doesn’t draw people to God’s love. People are looking for love, not condemnation. People need to feel accepted, not judged. This may have worked in times past, but we have come a long way past “browbeating” someone over “sin”. Several of those that are walking out are household names in American Christianity who have declared publicly that “preaching sin” is ineffective at a best, destructive at worst.

Every graduate of “Church Growth 101” knows

that you don’t invite unbelievers in and

start telling them how sinful and wicked they are.

Well with only a small handful of people left in attendance, you start to wonder how this “man of God” could possibly consider the night a “success”. He’s just emptied out a large auditorium and is left with what appears to be couple of poor people and a few others who don’t look like they would win any popularity contests… all of them weeping and sobbing; a couple of them actually flat on their face on the floor, crying.

Then the Apostle Paul makes his way down to the pitiful little group, and shares the Good News of Jesus Christ to those who have come to realize that they truly have a need for a Savior; those who are broken in spirit can have their spirits made new. Those who realize their sin, can have their sins washed away. Those who recognize their wicked hopelessness, can now embrace The Hope.

The list of points Paul preached are of course directly from God’s Word in Romans 3. The list of responses are also of course very real, and very common responses that we see all across “Christendom” today.

Do you see how far we’ve strayed from true Gospel today? How can people accept a Savior if they don’t realize they need to be saved from something? How can people truly repent if they don’t truly believe they have sinned? How can people understand salvation if they don’t understand condemnation? (This involves an understanding of what sin is, where it came from and why we all are “infected” with it… but that’s another Devotional).

The Gospel must be presented GOD’s WAY… in full, in balance and in truth. We are sinners. We are condemned. God has provided salvation.

What we have a lot of today is “Madison Avenue Salvation” that packages the Gospel in a way that makes it easier to “sell” and more “successful”. God help us and those who never hear the real Gospel.

Lord God, Help us to present the Truth about salvation with no spin or marketing. Help us to present Your Word just as You have presented without our “help” to make it more palatable. Open the hearts of those who need salvation and we pray you will send someone to them to teach them the truth about sin and the Savior. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Contemplation: How do you present the Gospel? Does talk of sin, condemnation or hell seem “counter productive” to you? When you hear someone preach or teach the “negative” parts of Scripture, what is your reaction? Do you think success is measured by numbers of positive responses?

Application: How foolish and arrogant we humans are when we feel like we need to “package” God’s Word to make it more attractive, or easier to swallow. It’s a mistake to conform Christianity to meet the “needs” of the world for the purpose of drawing response or increasing favorable opinion. Yes, Christianity takes different things from different cultures and societies… but that should only be true concerning those things where God gives liberty. When it comes to SALVATION, the message should never be “dressed up”, “re-packaged”, “marketed”, “watered-down” or “spinned” in order to get a greater response. Preach the Gospel as the Bible presents it, and let God worry about the results.

James 1:22 – But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. (NKJV)

What is the most obvious Bible truth you have learned today?

What change in your life needs to be made concerning this truth?

What specific thing will you do today to begin that change?

The Whole Truth

James 1:2

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience” James 1:2-3

Today this world is desperately attempting to redefine anything that would convict it of sin. Sin has become a very “relative” term. The world is attempting to say, “What is sin to you may or may not be sin to me. Everything is relative.” Whether you realize it or not, this philosophy is being taught in our public schools. All students today, understand this principal. Simply said, “There are NO absolutes.” Implied meaning, “There is NO God.” Scripture tells us to, “Stay away from those that call good evil and evil good.” That is a difficult task, especially when our children are required to attend schools and receive an education by the state.

Even the churches today will accept sinful behavior in favor of Political Correctness. Oh we cannot take a stand on that issue or lifestyle, we might be called too “Radically-Right.” We must adapt and fit in and be socially acceptable.

Martin Luther once said, “If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God exept precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady in all the battle front besides is but flight and disgrace if you flinch at this point.”

Five hundred years later, Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. Where do you stand??

The Empirical Demonstration of Truth

John 8:32

The first and most important step to understanding the nature of truth is exemplified in a conversation between Jesus and Pilate. The conversation began with Pilate asking Jesus if indeed he was a king. The very surprising answer of Jesus was, “Are you asking this of your own, or has someone else set you up for this?”

In effect, Jesus was asking Pilate if this was a genuine question or purely an academic one. He was not merely checking on Pilate’s sincerity. He was opening up Pilate’s heart to himself, to reveal to Pilate his unwillingness to deal with the implications of Jesus’s answer. Intent, in the pursuit of truth, is prior to content, or to the availability of it. The love of truth and the willingness to submit to its demands is the first step.

But second, Jesus said something even more extraordinary. After identifying his Lordship in a kingdom that was not of this world, he said, “They that are on the side of truth, listen to me” (John 18:37). Jesus was not merely establishing the existence of truth, but his pristine embodiment of it. He was identical with the truth. This meant that everything he said and did, and the life he lived in the flesh, represented that which was in keeping with ultimate reality. Therefore, to reject him is to choose to govern one’s self with a lie.

God’s answers to life’s questions of origin, meaning, morality, and destiny are not just proven by the process of abstract reasoning, but are also sustained by the rigors of experience. And in the reality of history, God has demonstrated empirically the living out of truth in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of his Son. In short, the intimations of truth come in multisensory fashion. The Guardian of Reason leads us to check the correspondence of his word with reality and to ascertain the coherence of the assertions. But our experience in life proves those truths in concrete reality. Our grand privilege is to know Him, to bring our lives into conformity with truth, which leads us to that coherence within. Christ has said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). In a world increasingly enslaved by error and alienation, and seduced by images to believe a lie, how wonderful to be freed by the truth to his peace. The Scriptures tell us that the enemy of our souls is the father of all lies. He will do anything to keep us from coming to the truth because it is the most valuable thing in the world, and leads us to the source of all truth, to God Himself.

To all of this the skeptic might say that such conclusions may be drawn only if the God of the Bible exists. To that I heartily answer, Absolutely! And on numerous campuses around the world it has been my thrilling privilege to present a defense for the existence of God and for the authority of the Scriptures, unique in their splendor and convincing in the truth they proclaim. But let us not miss what the skeptic unwittingly surrenders by saying that all this could be true only if God exists. For, implicit in that concession is the Law of Non-contradiction and the Law of Rational Inference, which exist only if truth exists. Truth, in turn, can exist only if there is an objective standard by which to measure it. That objective, unchanging absolute is God.

I heard a cute little story, growing up in India. It is the story of a little boy who had lots of pretty marbles. But he was constantly eyeing his sister’s bagful of candy. One day he said to her, “If you give me all your candy, I’ll give you all of my marbles.” She gave it much thought, and agreed to the trade. He took all her candy and went back to his room to get his marbles. But the more he admired them the more reluctant he became to give them all up. So he hid the best of them under his pillow and took the rest to her. That night, she slept soundly, while he tossed and turned restlessly, unable to sleep and thinking, I wonder if she gave me all the candy.

I have often wondered, when I see our angry culture claiming that God has not given us enough evidence, if it is not the veiled restlessness of lives that live in doubt because of their own duplicity. The battle in our time is posed as one of the intellect, in the assertion that truth is unknowable. But that may be only a veneer for the real battle, that of the heart.

________

Stretching the Truth?

Psalms 86:11

Stretching or lying? Do you know what is the most stretchable thing in the world? Some think it’s a PA Dutchman’s dollar, but that’s unfair. We Dutchman aren’t “tight” — we just have perfect control over our generous impulses.

I think the most stretchable commodity is “truth in advertising.” Most ad agencies seem to have stretching of the truth down to a fine art. Can you ever read the very fine print at the bottom of the TV screen? It zooms by about about as fast as as your life would flash before you if your parachute didn’t open.

However, let’s make it more personal. When we advertise our church as loving and friendly, are we being totally truthful? When we put the fish sign on our cars, are we advertising our faith, commitment and life-style truthfully?

Truth in advertising our faith is expressed in Psa. 86:11 (nlt), “Teach me your ways. O Lord, that I may live according to your truth! Grant me purity of heart, that I may honor you.”

Things Are Not Always What They Seem

On the campus of Harvard University is a statue with the following inscription: “John Harvard, Founder 1638.” Guides tell visitors that this statue is known as “the statue of the three lies.”

First, the artist commissioned to sculpt the statue could not find a clear picture of John Harvard, so he just chose a picture of a respectable-looking gentleman from the proper era.

Second, John Harvard was not the founder of Harvard University – he just donated a lot of money in its early days.

Third, the date on the base of the statue does not represent John Harvard’s death, as one might suppose, but the year he donated his library and most of his fortune to the college.

To top it off, on the side of the statue is the Harvard emblem, emblazoned with the school’s motto: “Veritas.”

The Price of Truth

Jeremiah 17:9

”The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? ‘I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve’” (Jeremiah 17:9-10, NIV).

The parable is told about the young man who was seeking advice from a wise old sage. “What do you want?” the sage asked the young man.

“Truth,” he replied.

“Then follow me,” the sage answered.

Off they set on a day’s journey … through the city … the suburbs … the country side … with the sage leading the way and the young man following.

Periodically the young man would stop to question the sage as to why all this walking — seemingly going nowhere in particular.

All the sage would say was, “Do you want truth?”

“Yes,” answered the young man.

“Then follow me.”

As the day was cooling and the shadows lengthening, the two of them came to the sea shïre. Here the sage began to walk out into the water. Again the young man stopped.

“Do you want truth?” asked the sage. “If so, follow me.”

Deeper and deeper they went and when the water was right up to their neck, the sage grabbed the young man’s head and forcibly held it under water.

The young man was furious. He threw back the sage and blurted out, “You’re crazy. You’re trying to kill me!” To which the sage replied, “When you want truth as much as you want air, then you will find it.”

While this illustration seems far fetched, there is much truth in it’s application. Because of our fallen, sinful nature, the human heart is incredibly deceitful. We fool ourselves. We hide from the truth about ourselves, and as long as we do this, we distort all other truth to make it match our perception of reality.

To find truth, in many ways we first need to discover the truth about ourselves — warts and all — and bring all our broken parts to God for his healing touch.

And this is a very difficult thing to do. As they say in AA, “It’s not the truth that hurts us, but letting go of the lies.” How true. Only when we desire the truth “as much as we want air,” are we likely to find it.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please deliver me from the lies I tell myself. And please give me the courage to face the truth about myself (I’m willing to be made willing to do this), so I will be able to see all of your truth more clearly. Gratefully in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

Who Holds the Real Pearl?

Around A.D. 800, Timothy, a patriarch of the Nestorian church, engaged in a famous debate with the Muslim caliph in Baghdad. The discussion was marked by reason and civility on both sides.

Imagine, Timothy said, that we are all in a dark house, and someone throws a precious pearl in the midst of a pile of ordinary stones. Everyone scrabbles for the pearl, and some think they’ve found it, but nobody can be sure until day breaks.

In the same way, he said, the pearl of true faith and wisdom had fallen into the darkness of this transitory world; each faith believed that it alone had found the pearl. Yet all he could claim - and all the caliph could say in response - was that some faiths thought they had enough evidence to prove that they were indeed holding the real pearl, but the final truth would not be known in this world.

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Philip Jenkins, professor of the humanities at Penn State University

Come Into the Light

1 Corinthians 4:5

One of our church janitors was in my office the other day and told me a fascinating but sad story. A hardworking man finally had time to go to a night baseball game with his family. They were doing the usual things: eating hot-dogs and peanuts, drinking cokes, and complaining about the prices. His wife, a registered nurse and mother of his three kids, said something and he turned in such a way that the park lights were directly in his eyes. She gasp and took his face in her hands to have a closer look. Her suspicion was correct, his eyes were jaundiced, a sign of several serious diseases. Within a few weeks her childhood sweetheart and the father of her three children was dead.

Commentary: Man must come into the light of God to see the ravaging affects of his sins. He is little more than the walking dead without the cleansing power of the blood of the Lamb. The Light reveals the truth for all to see. Many will come into the light too late. [1 Corinthians 4:5]

Falsehoods Are Much Better Than Lies

Luke 22:31

“My campaign is not based on a foundation of lies,” said Antwon Womack, 21, a candidate for the Board of Education in Birmingham, Alabama. “My values are not lies. It’s just the information I provided to the people is false.”

Many key facts on his campaign web site were li -- ...uh... false: his age (he said he was 23), his bachelor’s degree in education and his title of “Dr.” (he actually dropped out of high school -- as a freshman), even his address (he didn’t actually live in the district where he was running) and phone number.

Womack said he was running for the Board “because I seen a lack of leadership,” but the revelation of his lies -- er, falsehoods -- “is really going to hurt my political career,” he said.

Womack announced he would drop out of the race “because when people read this, there’s no way I can win.” But he reneged on that promise, saying that two local politicians were supportive of him staying in the race. Both denied supporting him and demanded he stop using their names. Womack came in third with just 117 votes.

________

Birmingham News

Truth Decay

Amos 5:10

“Have you brushed your teeth?” You’ve heard that question since you were young.

Sometimes the answer was “Yes”; other times “No.” The truth would be somewhere in the middle -- as kids we had lots more important things to do, so 10 strokes back and forth on the front teeth and we’d think we were good to go.

TV commercials and our parents drilled into our minds that we didn’t want the dreaded tooth decay. Instead, our parents longed to hear, “Look, Mom, no cavities!” (And then they rewarded us with candy!)

Tooth decay is painful. When the dentist says, “You’ll only feel a slight pinch” -- buckle up. They also know it can be painful financially.

Today our society suffers from “truth decay.” Our courts require us to place our hands on a Bible and promise “to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God,” and yet the truth often eludes us in today’s legal system, in our legislative bodies and government entities.

“You can’t handle the truth!” is an often-quoted line in a popular movie from the 1990s but today the truth is that most people don’t want to hear the truth. Educators and scholars lecture that there’s no such thing as “absolute truth.” “You can’t handle the truth” has been replaced with “I don’t want to hear the truth” as we place our hands over our ears (and our hearts) and in effect say, “I’m not listening!”

During Jesus’ mock trial, Pilot asked Him, “What is truth?” An ad I saw in a major national newspaper/trade publication said in part:

The truth can’t be glossed over.

The truth has no agenda.

The truth can’t be manufactured.

The truth doesn’t take sides.

But the apostle Paul warned Timothy, “... there is going to come a time when people won’t listen to the truth but will go around looking for teachers who will tell them just what they want to hear” (2 Timothy 4:3, TLB).

That time has arrived.

Truth decay wreaks havoc in our culture, in our relationships and in our churches. It’s piped into our homes and devices through television, the internet and social media.

How do we combat “truth decay”?

The only remedy for “truth decay” is to return to the One who said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” The implication of Jesus’ declaration confounds the culture, yet it remains the only hope for the world. This is the unaltered, unfiltered, unapologetic truth. Jesus declared God’s words are truth (John 17:17) -- words that need to be applied generously and frequently that will set a person free (John 8:32). Truth should be presented creatively and consistently using current communication platforms. Most importantly, the truth must be delivered with love (Ephesians 4:15).

Our entire country is desperately in need of a “truth infusion.” No legislation can stop the cultural decay. Only God’s truth can change a heart and correct the course of a nation.

________

John Kyle is director of communications for the Louisiana Baptist Convention

What Conscience Really Is

Job 27:6

Ray Stedman sheds some light on what conscience really is:

“I find a great deal of misunderstanding, even among Christians, on what the conscience is. Many feel that the conscience is given to us to teach us the difference between right and wrong. But nothing could be further from the truth.

“No, the conscience is given to us, rather, to resist any deviation from the truth, from the right and the wrong that we know.

“If you think it is given to us to indicate what is wrong or what is right, you will begin to rely upon your feelings to determine right and wrong. That is where many go astray -- many young Christians, especially. They think their conscience is their feelings; and if they feel something is right then they do it.”

Sermon: Refutiate Falseness

2 Timothy 2:14

Sermon in 2 Timothy series. 2 Timothy 2:14-26

REFUTIATE FALSENESS

===================

I. The world needs more refutiating.

II. How NOT to handle truth.

A. Don't quarrel about words. 2:14

B. Don't get sidetracked on unimportant issues. 2:16

C. Don't wander from the true faith. 2:18

D. Don't be impetuous. 2:22

III. How to handle truth correctly.

A. Put some effort into it. 2:15

B. Cut to the heart of the issue.

C. Always try to do it tactfully.

IV. We have a firm foundation. 2:19

A. Paul's quotes come from Korah's rebellion in Numbers 16.

B. Two complementary issues: God and us.

C. Be a decent vessel. 2:20-21

V. Lead them back. 2:25-26

Lies and Truth

Luke 22:31

There is an old Hindu law which says lying is justified in only two cases: in saving a person’s life and in paying a compliment to a lady. It gives us cause to chuckle, but most often lying takes on a more ominous nature.

Lying is one of the most fascinating of sins. It is denounced and often despised by those on the receiving end, whereas it is commonly brushed off as no big deal by those on the giving end. Lies are easy to justify in the human mind. There is always someone to protect, someone to avoid disappointing or some reason to try to achieve what one believes is “the greater good” in a given situation.

Christians historically have believed it sinful to lie and that it somehow simultaneously displeases God while actually pleasing Satan, who is identified in Scripture as the “father of lies.” Longtime Southern Baptist pastor Adrian Rogers said, “A man is never more like the devil than when he lies.”

Throughout Scripture the concepts of “truth” and “lies” are contrasted. It begins as early as Genesis 3 when sin first entered the world. It was God’s “truth” which was “lied” about by Satan who then helped lead Adam and Eve astray. Sadly, mankind has been lying ever since.

In order for there to be a lie, there must first be truth. A lie is nothing more than a distortion or denial of the truth. Truth is the objective standard and the lie always falls short, conceals or attempts to change/pervert truth.

Most often, lies are about self-preservation or self-promotion. Perhaps the worst lies of all are those we tell ourselves and actually believe. People will not be honest with God unless or until they become honest with themselves. Many lies have been contrived to protect one’s self from the harm of consequences, whether it be shame or anything else. Quite often it seems another purpose, another agenda is in view.

The Lord Jesus stated He is the Way, Truth and Life in John 14:6. We are actually most like Jesus when we stretch ourselves to be as truthful as possible and hold “truth” in high regard. Lies demand tolerance, understanding and creative interpretation of facts, whereas truth calls for as close and as thorough examination as can be given. Truth never has fear of having the brightest of lights turned on it. It is always able to stand the test.

The problem is that the “looked to” standard has changed. God’s Word was once the standard in American and European culture, but no more. Now, it seems, serving other interests is the primary objective. That makes it easy for the standards of truth to change. Truth essentially now is seen as whatever someone says is the truth. No longer are people “servants” of the truth, they have instead found ways by which to make the truth subservient to them.

But it simply never works. It always blows up somehow if given enough time.

When a person makes the declarative statement “this is true,” what does it mean? One must determine what standard is being used. Is it the biblical standard or another standard? The Bible was given as a foundation to mankind. Scripture asks us quite pointedly, “If the foundations be destroyed, what will the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3).

The good news for Christians is that we do not have to live enslaved to lies. God has promised, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32). The truth is incredibly liberating and unencumbering, whereas lies constrain, entangle and ultimately control. Believers need not wander around in the darkness and constraints of lies. There is the light of God’s truth to illumine our path. In John 17:17, the Lord Jesus appealed to the heavenly Father on behalf of His disciples, “Sanctify them by your truth. Your Word is truth.” Jesus desires for all people to identify themselves with Him by identifying with all that is true.

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Allen Raynor is senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Rogers, Texas.

The Lost Art of Christian Persuasion

Acts 17:4

How do we communicate the Gospel in an increasingly anti-Gospel world? One of the leading Christian thinkers of our day has some ideas.

One of the great things about working for the Colson Center is that each summer we work with outstanding college interns. And our interns aren’t here doing filing and fetching coffee. When they show up, we put their developing skills to productive work: writing for our blog at BreakPoint.org, helping us with social media, and other ways that further our mission. And one of our interns, Leah Hickman, who attends Hillsdale College, beat me to the punch on something I’ve been wanting to do on BreakPoint, and that’s review Os Guinness’s new book: “Fool’s Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion.”

In her review at BreakPoint.org, Leah hits on something I think that all of us feel or think with a growing frequency these days. And that’s frustration: Frustration about our inability to communicate the truth and the beauty of the Gospel in this increasingly anti-Christian culture.

“I hardly know how to approach apologetics and evangelism anymore,” Leah writes. “No one seems to really care about truth ... and how can you explain the truth of God’s Word with people who think that everything” is a matter of opinion?

Leah identifies a fear that many of us have: “[H]ow do you tell someone that their beliefs are wrong and that they need Jesus without offending them or scaring them off? And what if I’m an ineffective debater and can’t win the arguments? They’ll never come to Christ that way. It will only drive them away.”

Well, happily for Leah, and for us, Os Guinness has written “Fool’s Talk” specifically to address these issues and to help us recapture what he calls the art of Christian persuasion.

Guinness makes it clear from the start his book is not about technique; it’s not a step-by-step guide on “apologetics for dummies.” As he asserts, there is no “surefire, foolproof approach to sharing the faith.”

Instead, Guinness offers us an approach that’s based on and flows from a thoroughly Christian worldview. He writes, “True to the biblical understanding of creation, Christian persuasion must always take account of the human capacity for reason and the primacy of the human heart.”

Because of the fall, “Christian persuasion must always take account of the anatomy of an unbelieving mind in its denial of God.”

And because of the incarnation, “Christian persuasion always has to be primarily person-to-person and face-to-face, and not argument to argument ... media to media or methodology to methodology. And true to the Holy Spirit, Christian persuasion must always know and show that the decisive power is not ours but God’s.”

Guinness also wants us to understand that the Scriptures themselves use a variety of means to communicate truth — and so should we. “The Bible has a high place,” he writes, “for rational arguments as well as for stories, drama, parables, and poetry. The Bible contains the book of Romans as well as the psalms of David and the parables of Jesus.”

Throughout the book, Guinness illustrates how the great persuaders reached their audience: From Jesus, to Socrates, to Augustine, and of course Lewis and Chesterton. But he is also unafraid to use great atheist persuaders as examples, like Nietzsche and even Norman Mailer.

Now, this is not a book you’ll be able to absorb in one sitting. It’s a book that demands prayerful attention. But it’s also a book that can ease frustrations about communicating the Gospel. That’s because, as Guinness reminds us, in the end, Christian persuasion is “not for salesmen, propagandists ... spin doctors ... and the like.” The art of Christian persuasion “is for those who desire to share the way of Jesus because of their love for Jesus, and who know that love is also a key part of any human being’s search for knowledge and truth.”

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176 Sermon Illustrations on Truth