In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of choosing to believe in the truth of God rather than embracing lies. He highlights how mankind has often chosen to believe lies about God, leading to rebellion and the pursuit of false gods. The preacher also emphasizes that the truth is unmovable and unshakable, even in the face of attacks and arguments. He warns against mixing truth and lies, stating that even a small amount of falsehood can taint the entire message. Ultimately, the sermon encourages listeners to wholeheartedly follow the truth and reject the lies of the world.

This message by Glenn Meldrum was originally produced by In His Presence Ministries for the Radical Truth Podcast. You can listen and subscribe to the Radical Truth Podcast by going to www.ihpministry.com You are welcome to reproduce this message for free distribution. This message is part of a series entitled, The Radical Jesus. I cannot think of anyone that I know that likes to be lied to. Do you, dear listener, like to be lied to? Even the perpetual liar hates it when someone lies to him or her. Used car salesmen have a notorious reputation of being liars and high pressure in their sales approach. The last vehicle I bought came from a used car dealer where the saleswoman was a terrible liar. Jessica and I drove 650 miles to look at a truck to pull our fifth wheel trailer. When we got there, it was obvious the saleswoman had unashamedly lied to us. I almost didn't buy the truck on principle. I hate being lied to. The price was good enough and I had driven such a long way, so I bought it anyway. The lying saleswoman knew this would probably be the case, so she thought it was better to lie than to tell the truth. How does it make us feel when we have been lied to? The bigger the lie, the greater the pain it inflicts upon us. No matter whether the lie is big or little, it always hurts the liar and the one who has been lied to. There are always negative consequences that come out of lying. Do you know what is really strange? When a person that hates to have someone lie to them refuses to hear the truth about God and eternity. Such people would rather believe lies about God than to believe the truth and be saved. My dad is a perfect example of this, a man hard against the gospel. If people were as ignorant about how to make money as they are about God, there would be a whole lot more people living in poverty. In today's podcast, we are going to study truth, and I hope that I will be able to demonstrate just how radical the truth actually is. The truth is not a slave to mankind. Therefore, it will never yield to opinions or hypotheses. Society does not have the ability to decide what is true and false. It does not possess that kind of power. Though they may try to legislate right and wrong or force their standards upon a culture, they have no more power to make wrong right and right wrong than they would have the power to stop the sun from shining. Universities and their professors do not have the power to argue truth out of existence or into existence. The truth is stronger than men and devils. Lies cannot alter the truth. They are powerless to even slowly whittle away at the truth as if it could make the truth a little less true. Like I said in my book, The Radical Jesus, truth stands defiantly against lies like granite cliffs against a hurricane. It is nothing new for people to attack the truth, but those who choose to make the truth their enemy do so at their own peril. We need to realize that the truth is not on trial. We are. The Lord will judge each and every person according to the truth. How will you answer the God of all truth when you stand before him? It will be a terrifying judgment for all those that rejected the truth because they will be judged by the very truth they rejected. But for those that are lovers of the truth, the truth they loved and strove to live out will be their defense. So that day will be a day of great rejoicing. A man may think himself brilliant because he devised an argument attacking the truth that he thinks is foolproof. He may write a book on the subject that becomes a bestseller and as a result becomes a sought-after speaker. He may consider that his hypothesis is faultless, that he has proved that there is no such thing as truth. Yet the truth is not afraid of the man's silly little arguments, for the truth remains unmovable, unshakable, and unchangeable. Though people viciously attack the truth, it will always emerge as the unconquerable conqueror. When all the dust settles from the battle, the man with his alleged flawless arguments will lie in an ash heap of his worthless propositions, with truth standing tall, without even a single scratch from the confrontation. Time and again, the self-proclaimed wise have thought they proved the truth wrong. In the end, they only prove themselves to be fools. Everyone that promotes and fights for lies will in the end lay as conquered enemies slain at the feet of truth. Because multitudes believe something is true does not make it so. The truth has never been, nor will it ever be, subject to popular opinion. Poles are worthless in determining truth. Pole may ascertain what people believe, but they cannot change what is right and wrong, true and false. The truth is not afraid to be examined, scrutinized, or dissected. Any religion, philosophy, or ideology that will not allow people to examine it must have something terrible to hide. Take, for example, Islam, which is a false religion. The founder of that religion designed within it a command that forbids people to question their sacred book, its teachings, or the self-proclaimed prophet who invented it. What is the penalty for questioning that religion? Death. That is a cowardly response to those that would question the validity of any religious claim. There is only one reason why someone would integrate within their man-made religion a command that forbids people to question it, and that is because he knew that it could not stand up to the truth. Truth is unmovable, and if what we call as truth is changeable, then it is not worth trusting because it is only a lie. The truth stands high and bold like an invincible fortress. Since Lucifer's great rebellion, lies have relentlessly attacked the truth. Yet the truth still remains the same, for it has withstood the most violent assaults from men and devils. And because people forsake the truth to believe lies does not diminish the truth at all. Though people doubt the truth, it remains unchangeable, for it cannot deny itself. One day, in the flow of human history, truth had a face and was called by a name. Truth has never been, nor will it ever be, a product of evolution. Many people claim that all of creation came into being through a big bang, where everything that is came into existence out of absolutely nothing. Such a premise is thoroughly illogical because it is impossible for nothing to produce something. This is simple logic. All of the laws of science that we know about had to then be created out of mindless nothingness, out of time and chance. Such a hypothesis is beyond ridiculous. It takes greater faith to believe in the big bang theory and macroevolution than it does in a timeless God that created, by His own inherent power, all that is, both material and spiritual. It is impossible that truth could be a product of evolution because truth is changeless and timeless. Solomon stated this thought with poetic beauty in Proverbs 8. The Lord brought me forth as the first of His works, before His deeds of old. I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began. I was there when He set the heavens in place, when He marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when He established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep, when He gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep His command, and when He marked out the foundations of the earth. Then I was the craftsman at His side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in His presence, rejoicing in His whole world and delighting in mankind. In these verses, Solomon personifies the wisdom of God, which is actually Jesus. The truths that relate to the physical creation had a beginning in the sense that they came into existence when God spoke them into being. In a different sense, these truths have always been because they were in the mind of the timeless God before they materially came into being. God created all that is through His infinite power, wisdom, and genius, and through those same attributes He sustains all of creation. Ever since Adam's great rebellion, most of mankind has made a conscious choice to believe lies about the one subject that determines their eternal destiny, and that is God. The Lord called an obscure people group to become the nation that He would reveal Himself through. He sent them prophets and preachers to instruct them in how to serve the Lord, but they refused to listen and went after man-made gods and false religions that existed only to satisfy the lusts of their flesh. Through this same nation, the Lord personally revealed Himself and offers us the only remedy that can heal our sin-sick souls. What was that remedy? That truth in flesh and blood broke into our world that is filled with lies, deception, and rebellion so that we could know the truth and be saved. The one that spoke heaven and earth into existence literally became human and walked among us. Now that is radical. He is the creator God that performed the mighty work of creation, ex nihilo, which is a Latin phrase meaning out of nothing. He is also the timeless wisdom that through infinite genius invented and created all the laws of the universe, both the ones that we know about and the ones that we have not yet discovered. The same God, not a different God or a lesser God, but the one true God, when He walked this planet, He spoke eternal truths that came bursting into a world hiding behind lies and illusions. Jesus always made radical statements that shocked people and upset the status quo. One such statement is found in John 14, 6. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. In this verse we find Jesus making a radical, exclusive claim. This is only one instance among the many where Jesus made bold declarations concerning His divinity. Then He made a mind-boggling statement declaring that He was literally truth in human form, the eternal wisdom of God made flesh. These are revolutionary statements. Look at the life of Christ. Scrutinize Him. Even go to secular historians and see what they have to say about Him and you will find a man like no other. If you compare Jesus to Muhammad, Buddha, Russell Smith, and all the other founders of cults and world religions, you will find that Jesus stands totally separate, unique, and distinct from all of them. None can compare to Him. Christ's enemies could not bring a single legitimate accusation against His character. He was pure and perfect. Though they did everything in their power to malign His character and discredit His teaching, they utterly failed in the attempt. Just like in my parable, the deformed man, who was a representation of Jesus, the village people hated Him because His perfect life reproved them of their twisted and perverted lives. This is what literally happened 2,000 years ago when Israel and Rome were in cahoots to have Jesus crucified. They hated Him for who He was, the miracles He performed, and the truths that He taught. Everything about Christ exposed the pride and rebellion that defined who they were, and this caused them much trauma. They thought by crucifying Jesus they could silence His voice that rang in their ears and soothed the aching conscience of the evil they had propagated, but it did not work. Jesus was truth incarnate. His very life offended people, especially those that spread lies and illusions for their own selfish purposes. In spite of all the efforts by Christ's antagonists, they could not stop the truth from advancing across the world. Christianity flourished despite the fact that they were severely persecuted. Persecution does not mean that what people believe is true. The world has known many false religions that have been brutally attacked. Right now ISIS is killing vast numbers of people in Syria and Iraq that adhere to false religions. You even see people that belong to the same religion attacking each other because they are of different sex. All this has nothing to do with the truth, but with hatred and the love of power and the love of self. It only stands to reason that since Jesus was the truth incarnate, that He would be a lover of the truth. Here is an interesting fact. Almost 80 times in the four Gospels, Jesus declared, I tell you the truth. This is significant. It not only reveals that Jesus spoke the truth, but that He loved the truth and wanted others to know and love the truth as well. You will notice that in the Gospels, not one of Christ's adversaries could legitimately accuse Him of a single lie, flaw in His character, or sin He committed. They reproached Him for breaking the traditions of the elders, which were additions of the Mosaic law and had no place in the true faith. They also condemned Him for breaking the Sabbath, which was just not true. Christ's antagonists had to resort to lies and half-truths to silence Jesus and crucify Him. They were jealous of Jesus and threatened by Him, so they wanted to discredit Him, but they failed to do it. When you look at their attacks against His teaching, the accusations were always perversions of the truth Jesus spoke, because they could not find anything He said or taught that was legitimately wrong. Jesus, as the author of truth and a lover of truth, never advanced any form of relativism, whether moral, spiritual, or scientific. Relativism is the philosophical theory that claims there are no absolutes, because holding to any criteria of judgment must be relative due to varying individuals, circumstances, and environments. That may sound noble, but it's a lie. Relativism leaves its adherents bankrupt because there is no ability to know right from wrong, truth from lie. In the end, relativism leaves people without the ability to know whether or not what they even believe is true. True morality is not changeable or relative because right and wrong, truth and lie are based upon God's perfect, holy, changeless character. Jesus clearly and powerfully taught that there is truth and error, that there is right and wrong. Compromise between the two is impossible, for they are at war with each other. Jesus clearly taught that we cannot serve two masters, but this idea was not new in Christ's day. In 1 Kings 18.21, Elijah confronted King Ahab and the nation of Israel, testifying, How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him. But if Baal is God, follow him. In Romans 6.16, Paul stated it this way, Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves of the one to whom you obey, whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? There is nothing relative in these sayings. There is right and there is wrong. There is good and there is evil. And they cannot be mingled. If we hold to the one, we are forced to reject the other. As James told us, you adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Either we wholeheartedly strive to follow the truth, or we will embrace lies. There is no middle ground, no ability to mingle the two. Sentimental notions are not enough. We must choose sides. Mix a little lie with the truth, and all you have in the end is one big lie. It may have the ring of truth in it, but it is nonetheless a lie. Imagine for a moment that a church printed a huge sign and put it in their front lawn that proudly declared, We preach 80% truth here. Would you think that a noble statement? Would you want to attend a church that knowingly believes 20% lies? They are preaching 80% truth. Isn't that good? But what do you do with the 20% lies? When you mingle truth and lie together, how would you know what is truth and what is lie then? Could they even be separated? I don't think so. It would be like trying to get the egg out of a cake mix after it has been baked. Would you think yourself wise enough that you could discern truth from lie? Are you willing to base your eternity upon 80% truth and gamble that the 20% lies are not important enough to cause you to miss heaven? Such thinking would be absurd. It would be dangerous. It would be damnable. Yet such a ludicrous concept of faith has taken hold of vast numbers of church folk that have embraced a layman's form of relativism. Churchgoers pick and choose what they want to believe and what they refuse to believe as if they had the power to define the truth. Many people that claim to love Jesus are not followers of the truth because they believe in lies and practice sin. It is thoroughly illogical and completely contrary to scriptures to claim to love Jesus when you hate the truth. Jesus is the truth and the author of all that is true and to hate truth is in the end to hate Jesus. Remember, we cannot serve two masters. We cannot simultaneously serve Jesus who is the truth and serve lies and untruths that are the foundations of Satan's hellish kingdom. Listen to what Jesus warned the church about through Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2. This concerns the last days before Christ's second coming. For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that they will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. Many people possess this exact attitude. They love and delight in lies. How can people come to the place where they delight in wickedness? Because they chose to love and practice lies rather than embrace the truth and be changed. What Pilate said to Jesus 2,000 years ago at his interrogation and trial was not a new thought, for this attitude defines the mass of humanity today. The story goes like this. The Jewish elders did not have the legal right to execute Jesus because Rome had taken that civil right away from them as their occupying conquerors. So they took Jesus to Pilate who was the procurator of Judah that had become a Roman province. Pilate knew the religious leaders were trying to kill Jesus because they were jealous of him. In Pilate's defense, he was trying to release Jesus, but he was a weak ruler. Pilate asked Jesus a very important question. Are you the king of the Jews? Jesus responded, Is that your own idea or did others talk to you about me? Pilate reacted in anger. Am I a Jew? It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done? Jesus with bold, radical humility answered, My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place. Jesus stated a fact. He is a king and he rules a kingdom. And one day that kingdom will rule this earth as well. Probably with mocking demeanor, Pilate retorted, You are a king then. Jesus replied in a way that shook Pilate. You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born. And for this I came into the world to testify to the truth. Here Jesus reveals the reason he came to this world in human form. To testify to the truth. And since he is the truth, he is testifying that he is the only way of salvation. Pilate then arrogantly countered, What is truth? There are two reasons why people ask this question. First, they are desirous to know the truth. And second, they are making excuses to not believe the truth. Jesus declared to Pilate, Everyone on the side of truth listens to me. And Pilate's response demonstrated that he was an enemy of the truth. Since Pilate was not a lover of the truth, he could not hear the truth Jesus spoke or recognize the truth Jesus was. Jesus here establishes that both he and his word are self-evidencing, self-recommending. This means that the only way we can truly know the truth of God's word and of Jesus himself is to place our faith in him. Without faith in Christ, the Spirit's power that evidences and recommends the truth is not operating in the life. Without active living faith, we will be prone to believe lies, even if we believe the doctrinal truths of Scripture. Many professing Christians believe in God, but do not believe God in a way that imparts to them saving grace. If we are not lovers of Christ, then we will not be lovers of the truth. And if we are not lovers of truth, then we cannot be lovers of Christ. Genuine followers of Jesus will always be lovers of truth. We have to love God and love truth whether or not it is convenient or difficult. Jesus never promised us that life would be easy if we fully embraced the truth. He actually told us the exact opposite. Here's an example in John 15 of what Jesus taught concerning this issue. If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belong to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you. No servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. The growing hostility against true Christians is because the God-hatred that defines the unsaved is now given opportunity to manifest itself more freely. Their hatred of the truth will be unleashed against genuine followers of Jesus as we move into the final tick of the end-time clock. Because this is what the church will face, especially in the last days, Jesus told us that all men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. We should not think that because we love the truth, people will love us. The only ones that will love us when we live out the truth are those that are of like precious faith and those that want to know the truth. Jesus did not tell us that believing the truth and living it out would be easy. When we are lovers of the truth, we will want truth to permeate every part of our lives. We will want the truth to define our home life and for the spirit to create a family centered and focused upon the love of God. We want our church to be engulfed in the truth in every area so that there is no room for lies, deception and gossip. I have seen people that claim to love Jesus act like scheming Pharisees that were plotting to kill Jesus. Anytime people have to turn to scheming and deceptive practices within the church, you know that hell is at work. Jesus never operated this way and he forbids his people to act that way as well. When we are lovers of the truth, we will live out that truth in the workplace. Genuine followers of Jesus should be the hardest working, most conscientious and faithful workers in any business. There should never be even the slightest ability for employers to accuse Christians of stealing or of laziness. And when we are lovers of truth, we should want the truth to so define our lives that an unsaved world with a family of friends know that we are living out the truth. Disciples of Jesus should passionately desire that their faith is entirely established upon and flows out of the truth. As lovers of truth, we should refuse to allow any error in our lives whether moral, doctrinal, ethical or financial. When we find an area that does not line up with the truth and a Christ-like character, we should run to Jesus for forgiveness, cleansing and transformation because we refuse to let any lie have root in our lives. As lovers of truth, we must stand against and even confront lies and illusions for the glory of God and the well-being of others. The more we stand up for truth, the more we will end up standing against the lies and illusions of this world that are inspired by hell. It is not enough just to believe what is true, but we must live it out no matter the cost. We cannot be lovers of truth and cower in a corner or strive to live a safe life for that is contrary to the truth itself. We must take the truth to a world inundated with lies and deception, a victorious faith that is bold and daring to proclaim the truth to a world that is antagonistic to God. If we are silent, how will they ever know the truth? If we are silent, what will we say in the end to Jesus?