President
Lincoln once asked the question I am going to ask you. How many legs does a cow have? Four, of course, right? Now, suppose you call the cow's tail a leg;
how many legs would the cow have? It
still has only four legs. Calling a
cow's tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.
Let’s talk
about truth for a few minutes. The
question, “What is truth?” could fill
a library worth of books in response.
Just because someone says something is truth doesn’t necessarily make it
so just like saying a cow has five legs is not necessarily true. Is that statement true? Or is that just my opinion? How do you know? How do you know that something is truth or
not?
The very
first sermon I ever preached was in a nursing home and it was a tough room,
I’ll tell you. Two ladies in wheelchairs
nearly got in a fight over who was sitting where on the front row. Everybody in the place had a
much-too-detailed list of the things for which they needed prayer. There was a continually ringing phone in the
next room and to top it off, when I finally did get to start preaching, and was
just getting into it, some lady in the back yelled, “That’s a lie!” to me
several times.
That part
was the worst. Not only was it fairly
distracting but it hurt because from day one I have demanded of myself to only
preach what I know is true. But what is
truth and how do we know? It is a
subject that has been debated by every great philosopher from Aristotle to Gwen
Stefani and to tell you the truth (slight pun intended) it can easily go over
my head. It can be hard for me to
understand, sometimes, the deeper meaning of truth.
What I do
understand is the importance of finding the truth, knowing the truth and living
the truth. I have said lots of times
that deep down everybody wants to know the truth. They don’t always want to believe it when
they see it and they sure don’t want to live it out but nobody wants to go
through life deceived. God has put that
desire for truth inside of us. It is a
gift but what we do with that gift is up to us.
Like only
God can do, He put the gift of a hunger for truth inside of us and then gives
us rewards when we find it and live by it.
Those rewards are for the here and now as well as for the hereafter. As we finish our sermon series on where to
invest for eternal rewards, I have seen that in all that places we have looked
at to invest that you not only get rewards for eternity in Heaven but there are
also rewards to be had right here and now.
When you
want to invest for eternity, whether it is in unbelievers, the Word, the church
or in each other, there are rewards to be had in eternity but they also come
with rewards here on earth. But if you
want your rewards on earth then this is the only place you will get them. Jesus said in Matthew 6 that the hypocrites who do their good deeds for show have
gotten their rewards in full.
So, let’s
turn to the Gospel of John and see
what Jesus said about truth and how He relates to it and the reward of finding
it. We are looking at John chapter 3
with a focus on verse 21 but let’s look at verses
19-21 to keep it in context. You
remember that in this passage, Jesus is talking to Nicodemus. Nic came to Jesus at night because he was a
Pharisee and didn’t want anybody seeing him talking to Jesus. He knew that would be bad for business but at
the same time he wanted to know the truth and he knew that Jesus was the Man to
talk to. As we will see, the fact that
Nicodemus came at night was not lost on Jesus.
John 3:19-21 says, 19 “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but
people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the
light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.
21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into
the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been
done in the sight of God.”
Two men had an argument. To settle the
matter, they went to a judge for arbitration. The plaintiff made his case. He
was very eloquent and persuasive in his reasoning. When he finished, the judge
nodded in approval and said, "That's
true, that's true."
On hearing this, the defendant jumped
up and said, "Wait a second, judge,
you haven't even heard my side of the case yet." The judge said, “Oh, that’s true. Go ahead.”
And he, too, was very persuasive and eloquent. When he finished, the judge
said, "That's true, that's
true."
When the clerk of
court heard this, he jumped up and said, "Judge,
they both can't be right." The judge looked at the clerk of court and
said, "That's true, that's
true."
I could bore you with
statistics but the truth is that younger people nowadays are getting more and
more skeptical about the truth of God. The
fault for that skepticism lies in several places. Part of the problem is an apathetic
church. Part of the blame goes to
society, part to the parents and part of the reason we are seeing it is prophetic. We saw last week that in the end times we
will see people become lovers of self and money instead of lovers of God and
one way younger people are justifying this trend is just by saying, “Well, I
don’t believe it to be true.”
I saw a quote online
the other day that said 90% of the quotations posted on the internet were
false. The quotation was credited to
George Washington so I don’t know if that’s true or not. I’m kinda doubting it. I have thought a lot about truth this week
and how to know it; how to believe, why to believe and how to live it out.
That “living it out”
part is vital because without living it out then your belief is not really
belief, is it? Look back at verse 21. Keep your place there and keep looking at
it. We want to focus on that verse. Jesus said, “whoever lives by the truth comes
into the light.” That phrase “lives by” means to do;
to do the truth. How do we do the truth?
Well, to do the truth, we first have to know it and that is the big
question. How do we know what is
truth? The Greek word for truth is
“aletheia” which literally means “to un-hide” or “hiding nothing” meaning that
it is all completely seen. The only
thing we can completely see is in the past.
We can’t see into the future, even one second but we can see completely
what has happened in the past. So, we
base our belief in truth on what has been true in the past then we have faith
that that truth or what is said to be truth will happen again in the future.
Does that make sense? Are you
following me? Let me give you an
example. I did some research on biblical
prophecy and there are between 1800-2500 different prophecies that have all, up
to this point, been fulfilled. Obviously
some are prophesied for the future and have not yet come true but up to this
point they all have. There are
prophecies written in the Old Testament about Jesus that came true in the New
Testament, some of which are thousands of years apart.
It was prophesied that He would be betrayed and abandoned by His friends
in Zechariah and Psalms; that He would be accused by false witnesses and beaten
and spit upon in Psalms and Isaiah.
Genesis, Numbers, Amos, Daniel, Malachi and so many others prophecy
about Jesus. It says in Psalm
38:11 “My loved ones and my friends stand aloof
from my plague; And my kinsmen stand afar off.” Fulfillment: Luke
23:49 “And all His acquaintances and the women who
accompanied Him from Galilee, were standing at a distance, seeing these things.” Over and over again the prophecies of the Old
Testament came true in the New Testament.
So, at the
very least this leads me to believe that when the Bible says something…it is
truth. But…wait a minute. There are other religious writings beside the
Bible. What if they are true? What if the Koran is also true? Maybe we could just combine them and maybe
even add the Buddhist scriptures or sutras?
What do you think?
Well, I went
to Al Islam, which is the official website of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community to see
what prophecies were in the Koran and surprise, surprise, they, too, had
prophecies fulfilled. This comes
straight from the horse’s mouth (or maybe camel) but if you doubt any of this
you can check it out when I post the sermon on our website and you will see
where I found all of this.
This is from
the Muslim website about the Koran and it says, “No one can ever imagine that
an unlettered person living in a nomadic society of Arabia 1400 years ago can
predict such amazing scientific events, as mentioned hereunder, to happen. It
is very well beyond the human capacity to foretell or even visualize such
incredible incidents. The only conceivable source of these prophecies and
predictions is purely divine.” https://www.alislam.org/library/articles/prophecies.html
Then the
first prophecy that they cite is in chapter 41:21 where the Koran prophecies –
are you ready? – fingerprints! Yes, 1400
years ago this book says, "Their skins will bear
witness against them as to what they have been doing" which this website
says is a prediction that we would have fingerprints. So…there’s that.
Next
– and this is a biggie- chapter 30:43 says, “"Corruption has spread on
land and sea because of what men’s hands have wrought" which Al Islam says
is a prophecy concerning pollution. Yep,
nailed it on the pollution. I promise
I’m not making this up. Check it out all
you skeptics.
It
goes on to predict that there will be a nation of Israel. It says, “And after him We said to the
Children of Israel, 'Dwell Ye in the promised land” blah, blah, blah. (17:105) Yes, he told the nation of Israel that there
will be a nation of Israel. Those are
the first three. There are others about
how there will be roads in mountains, there will be zoos and there will
extra-terrestrial life (42:30). I’m not
kidding. That’s a prophecy that the
Muslims are proud of.
I didn’t
know that Islam would make it so easy to believe in the Bible but not to be
outdone, Buddhism goes even a step further when talking about Buddhist
prophecies when it actually quotes the Bible to prove it is truth. Again, I promise this is what the Buddhists say
about their prophecies in their holy writings.
They say, “This prophecy by Guatama Buddha is very
ambiguous, that is to say, it has very few details that allow us to probe into
it and extract details that predict when Maitreya will come.” Then it goes on to quote Revelation 1:7 because it is easier to understand. http://maitreya.org/english/PBuddhism.htm
I can’t make
this stuff up but obviously somebody has!
I have said before that every other religion basically comes from some
guy sitting under a tree trying to figure life out and since the Bible won’t
let him live the lifestyle he wants to live, he just makes something up and
calls it truth. But that doesn’t make it
truth, does it?
Okay, I went
a long way and took a long time to try to prove to you that the Bible and only
the Bible is truth and that real truth only comes from Jehovah God. Now let’s look at what truth is not. Truth is not simply what works. A lie can work but is not the truth.
Truth is not
always understandable. God said His ways
are higher than our ways and we may not always understand it but that’s
okay. It’s still truth.
Truth is not
necessarily what makes people feel good.
In fact, truth often hurts.
That’s why we are told to speak the truth in love.
Truth is not
what the majority of people say it is.
The majority of people can be and often are wrong. For a long time people sincerely thought the
earth was flat.
Truth is not
defined by what is intended. You can
make an honest mistake but it is still a mistake. (gotquestions.org)
Lastly,
while God gives us feelings and discernment through the Holy Spirit living
inside of us, those feelings (if they are true) will never supersede or run
counter to what God says in the Bible.
There are
some problems with truth, though. Have
you ever noticed that telling the truth rarely wins you new friends? You can tell a dear old friend the truth and
they will hopefully still love you but rarely does it bring in new
friends. The problem is that truth is
narrow-minded. 2 plus 2 is always going
to be 4. Truth is always going to be
truth and there is no room for “almost the truth” in spiritual matters.
You can
become the President of the United States telling “almost the truth”. If you don’t believe it, then just wait for the
election in November but when it comes to eternity, that’s too long to be wrong
and for Christians, we have to strive for truth because anything less is
detrimental to the Kingdom of God.
Look at the
last part of verse 21. “whoever lives by
the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done through
God.” Some translations
say “in the sight of God” or “by God” or “in God”. It means that when we “do truth” it is done
with God’s help and His blessing and according to His will. Anything less than truth reflects poorly on
God.
I know sometimes that the Bible seems harsh and we have a tendency to
want to soften it up a bit when we are talking to unbelievers. You know what I mean. “Well,
Jesus wasn’t really comparing hate with murder.
It was just hyperbole.” “Yes,
Jesus said in Matthew 19:19 that anyone who divorces
his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits
adultery. But that doesn’t really apply in this case.” Softening up the truth makes it less than the truth or almost
the truth and that is not truth.
If we are
going to do truth or live truth then we have to live all of it, even when it is
difficult. The first step in living
truth is knowing it and we know that the Bible is true. The next steps are to do the truth without
delay and then continue doing it. Know
it. Do it all right away and continue doing
it. So, when 1 Thessalonians (5:22) says
to abstain from all appearances of evil, then you make sure that you do that in
every aspect of your life to the best of your knowledge and you continue doing
it.
When Matthew
6 says forgive men when they sin against you that
means every time, no excuses. Do it now
and continue to do it.
In Philippians 4:6 it says
not to worry. Is that just good advice
to do when you can? No. It is a command; a truth from God to be lived
out right away and forever.
Wives, be submissive to your
husbands. Husbands, love your wives as
you love yourself (1 Peter 3). Let no
coarse word come from your mouth (Eph. 4:29).
The Bible is full of truth but sometimes it is hard to do and yet not to
do it and not to do it right away and not to continue doing it…is sin. It is sin that put Jesus on the cross. It is sin that will always have consequences. It is sin that will be a barrier between you
and Holy God.
In John chapter 18, Jesus is standing before Pilate on trial for His
life. The two are standing inside
Pilate’s house and Pilate is questioning Him.
Finally, Jesus says, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into
the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to
me.”
Pilate, who is standing right there in front
of Jesus; standing there looking at the Truth; in the very presence of all
truth and what is his response? “What is truth?” Don’t you know that for all eternity the only
thought Pilate will ever have is “Why
didn’t I see it? How could I have missed
it being so close to Truth?” For all
eternity Pilate will be embarrassed. He
will be mad at himself for his unbelief.
Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man comes to the Father but by Me.” I know it is hard sometimes to do truth;
to live truth right away and all the time but I encourage you with this because
I love you and want you to have eternal rewards, not just crummy, earthly
rewards. In 1 Corinthians 13 it says that love does not rejoice in
unrighteousness, but love rejoices with the truth. I love you too much to not encourage you to invest
in truth.
Do it today.
Do it right now and continue doing it and see the eternal rewards.
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