Sermon Cloud

The question now for you!  Do you really want to know the truth?

 

Everyone says they want the truth.  About politicians, about big companies asking for bailout money, about who shot Kennedy, but what about the truth about God?  What about the truth of Creation?  Do they really want to know?  Do you really want to know?

 

 

John 8:32 – You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you ___________.

 

John 4:23 & 24 – God says true worshippers of Him will worship Him in spirit and TRUTH. 

 

We are called by God to be Truth Seekers. 

 

Psalms 25:5 – David asks God to lead him by His Truth.

 

Psalms 119:123 – David strained to see the Truth of God’s promise.

 

Psalm 43:3 – Send out your light and truth – let them guide me to You!

 

But the Bible clearly explains that not all men want to know the truth:

 

Isaiah 30:8-11 – Some people don’t want the truth – they just want to hear what they want to hear.

 

Ezekiel 12:1-2 – If people want the truth, if they truly seek it, God will reveal it to them, but many flat out don’t want it.

 

Acts 7:51 – Some people choose to resist God’s Holy Spirit and be deaf to the truth

 

Do YOU really want the Truth?

 

So, maybe you’re thinking, Okay, I do want to know the truth.  But that brings up a bigger question, a question that was asked and recorded thousands of years ago.  Let’s watch a video clip of that moment.

 

Show CLIP 1

 

John 18:34-38

 

What is TRUTH???  That is the question!  A BIG question.  Right up there with What is the Meaning of Life?  Perhaps knowing the answer to one lead to the answer of the other.

 

But what is truth – can we know it?  How do we know it?

Let’s do a little experiment.  A quiz.

 

1)      What politician said “I can see Russia from my house.”?

2)      In baseball when attempting to throw a runner out at first, what happens in the case of a tie?

3)      The different phases of the moon (Full, Half, New, etc) are caused by what? Just us seeing it’s illuminated half from differing angles.

4)      If you’re a crook afraid you might be talking to an undercover cop, what should you ask them?

5)      What is the brightest star in the night sky? (Sirius)

6)      Hyperactivity in children is most often caused by giving them too much of what? (Trials show no difference in sugar vs sugar free. The difference in behavior was proven most often to be in the parent’s minds.)

7)      The greatest amount of body heat is most often lost through what part of the body?

8)      In what official US Document was the famous phrase “separation of church and state” used?  None – a letter from Thomas Jefferson to a Baptist Association assuring them they’d be protected from interference by government through the Bill of Rights

 

So we can see that often times we think we know the truth about something when we don’t.

 

So we need to answer the question that Pilate asked Jesus – what is truth?  If we were to go out on the street today and ask people what truth is, we’d probably get a lot of different answers.  In fact, let’s watch another video clip that will give us some different thoughts on what truth is.

 

Clip 2

 

So you can see there that people have different concepts of what truth is.  Maybe different ones of those people match up with different ones of you here.  So if we are going to talk about what truth is, let’s first look at it from a purely logical perspective.

 

Webster’s dictionary defines truth as “The state of being the case” or Fact – the body of real things, events, and facts or a transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality.

A couple of the people in the video expressed and probably a majority of the people in the world today would agree that what’s called relativity – which is a belief that truth is relative.  In other words, what you believe determines your truth and what I believe determines my truth.

 

 

Now I’m going to challenge that notion.  I’m going to suggest that belief differs from truth.  That what you believe is irrelevant to truth.

 

Truth doesn’t change and is unaffected by what anyone does or doesn’t believe about it.

 

Up until Galileo’s time, people believed that the earth was the center of the universe and that the Sun circled the earth.  Galileo was one of the first astronomer’s to suggest that in actuality the Sun was the center of the universe and the earth traveled around it.

-         Did belief change fact?

-         Galileo was right to an extent but spend the last years of his life under house arrest

 

Let’s say I choose to not believe in GRAVITY.  You believe it – I don’t.  If we go get on the roof and we both step off the edge, will you fall because you believe in it and I’ll float because I don’t?

 

See, when you look at it that way, it’s kinda ridiculous to think that what we believe determines truth.  But usually when people say that, they are referring specifically to God or religion or morals.  Almost all of those people would agree that what you believe doesn’t determine truth about everything, but they want to apply that to God because if God exist as a fact of truth then there are serious implications about what that means that they don’t want to deal with.  Even Christians will often say “well, that’s what you believe – or well this is what I believe” as if that settles it – whatever they believe is it.  But what if what you believe isn’t the truth?

 

Let’s watch another video clip of someone who had a belief that was in obvious opposition to truth, but he was so dead set on his belief, he didn’t realize the obvious truth.

 

Clip 3

 

So poor Buddy believed with all his heart that he was an elf but the truth is that he wasn’t an elf and no matter how much he believed it, his belief couldn’t change that.

 

Let’s demonstrate the difference between belief or personal opinion vs truth in another way.

 

Someone tell me what the best ice cream flavor is –

Okay – now I’m holding a McDonald’s Bag of peanuts – why doesn’t someone guess at the number of peanuts in this bag.

Ice Cream Flavor vs Number of Peanuts in Bag

Opinion/Preference vs Truth/Belief

 

B&W  things in Bible vs Gray Areas

 

Having established that there is Truth in the world.  Earth is round. Gravity exist.  Let’s go back to the question – How do we know what truth is.

 

More to the point – how do we know the truth about God or His plan for this earth and for us His creation?

 

John 17:17 NKJV – Sanctify them by Your truth.  Your word is truth.

 

John 8:31-32 – If you believe in Jesus and obey His teachings, you will know the truth.

 

John 14:6 – Jesus is the truth.

 

John 14:15-17 & John 16:13-15 – The Holy Spirit leads us to truth

 

So according to the scriptures we just read then we get the truth from the Roman Catholic Pope, right?  Okay, according to the scriptures we just read, the ultimate source of truth is the Baptist church, right?  Okay, then truth must come from the non-denominational Christian churches, right?  Well, surely the ultimate source of truth is Pastor Joe, right?  Well, how ‘bout me?  I’m up here on the stage teaching about truth, so I must know the truth, right?

 

You see, just like what you believe is irrelevant to what is truth, so too is what I believe or what a particular church or denomination believes or even what Billy Graham believes.

 

Now that doesn’t mean you ignore what any of those people say – hopefully you’re not just ignoring or disregarding everything I’m saying.  But what it means is you have to take everything in, then take it to God and to His Word to compare it with the ultimate source of truth.

 

Just because someone stands in a pulpit or on a stage doesn’t mean what they are speaking is truth.

 

Galations 1:6-9 – People can twist the truth intentionally or not

 

Acts 17:10-12 – So what were the people of Berea doing to verify what Paul and Silas were teaching them?  (searching the Scriptures)

 

That’s what you gotta do.  This SHIRT I’m wearing.  I said I’d come back to it.  That’s why.  Some of you come to church and you don’t bring your Bible and you don’t write down the scripture references so Pastor Joe or Me or anyone could stand up here and say a specific verse says something and be completely wrong and you wouldn’t know.

 

You can’t just take what someone teaches as being truth.  Now I know Pastor Joe – I’ve spent lots of time with him and we’ve had discussions about the Bible and theology, so I trust him.  I don’t think he would intentionally try to distort God’s Word.  BUT he’s human – he can make a mistake.  I’m human – I can make a mistake.

 

You should get in the habit of bringing your Bible to church – but most importantly of writing down scripture and then during the week, looking them up and especially reading all the verses around them.

 

You can take verses from the Bible out of context and make the Bible say anything you want.  So you gotta read the verses quoted and the verses around them and make sure what was taught lines up within context. 

 

The other thing you have to do with the Bible to know the Truth is COMPARE SCRIPTURE to SCRIPTURE.  No scripture stands alone – the Bible is one book in entirety.  It’s an all or nothing thing.  So you have to compare what the old testament says about the Messiah with what the new testament tells us about Jesus.  You have to compare the laws God gave the Jews in the Torah to what Jesus teaches about the way to live life.

 

Use the internet!  Crosswalk.com or Biblegateway.com

 

STAND UP AND STRETCH

 

So, who on this earth do you think has the truth?  NOBODY

 

The second a person or preacher or church or denomination starts saying THEY have the WHOLE truth – period – that’s the second you know they couldn’t be farther away. 

 

First, it shows a like of humility.  But second, and most importantly, it shows they are no longer SEEKING TRUTH.  God wants us to be seeking truth, not get to the point where we think we’ve figured it all out and have no room to grow.

 

Matthew 11:25-26 – Childlike – children are inquisitive – they’re always asking, always seeking to learn and know more.  God wants us to be like that, not thinking we’re so wise and clever and have it all figured out because then, if we are wrong, He can’t correct us.

 

Remember, what we believe is irrelevant to truth, but if we aren’t humble and childlike and seeking truth knowing that we don’t have it all, then God can’t teach us, can’t show us something new.

 

I’ve been a believer my whole life, literally gave my life to God as child as best as I understood to and believed in Jesus as soon as I understood who He was and surrendered my heart and life to Him as soon as I understood I needed to do that.  I grew up in a very theological-based Baptist church – Sunday School, Sunday Morning Service, Sunday Evening Service, Wednesday Night Service.  I went to a Christian school K-12 – I had Bible class every day.  Since moving to LA 14 years ago I have always been in church and various Bible Studies.  I’ve learned a lot – I know a lot – if you have a question about the God or Jesus or the Bible, chances are I have an answer, YET I know that God probably still has things to teach me.  I know that I am not the beacon of TRUTH, and I continually ask Him that if something I believe to be truth differs from what His Truth actually is, for Him to show me through His Holy Spirit and correct me.

 

Now I would like for us have time to look into Scripture to see the Truth about God and who He is, the Truth about Jesus and who is, the Truth about God’s Word and what it is, but we don’t have time to go into all that this morning.

 

But before closing here, I do want to reiterate that what you believe about God is irrelevant to the Truth about God. 

 

Just like whether you believe the earth is round or not is irrelevant to the fact that it is round.  You may not believe God exist – someone else believes that He does.  Well, the Truth is that He does or doesn’t. 

 

And a lot of people say they believe in God, but the god they believe in isn’t the True God, but rather just this belief of a god they’ve created in their minds who is whoever they want him to be. 

 

Now I don’t know about you guys, but I am who I am.  You can sit in the audience and you can believe a million different things about me, but it doesn’t change who I am.

 

What’s crazy is that I don’t think anyone would disagree with that.  That each person is who they are and they don’t become someone different based on who people think they are.  And yet so many people think that about God.  They say things like “well, you have your beliefs about God, and I have my beliefs, and this other person has his beliefs and it’s all good because that’s just who God is to you and what I believe is what He is to me.”

 

That doesn’t sound much like any kind of god I’d want to believe in – that sounds like a pushover.  But the God of the Bible, the Creator of the universe, the God who created mankind because He wanted someone in His image to have a relationship with – that God, the true God doesn’t waver on who He is.  In the Old Testament, the Torah, He often referred to Himself to the Jews as “I Am.”  And that really says it all.  The most basic fact about God is that He is – that He exist.  And because He actually exist, He is who He is and what you or I believe about Him doesn’t change who He is.

 

So we have to be searching the scripture and praying to Him, asking Him to reveal Himself to us through His Word and through His Holy Spirit and asking Him to change our hearts and minds if what we believe doesn’t line up with His Truth.

 

Back to the first question – the question my dad asked me.  Do you really want to know the truth???  Are you going to be a truth seeker, even if it means that some truths that God shows you might mean you have to make some changes in your life?!?

 

When Buddy learned the truth that he wasn’t an elf, he had to make a lot of changes – it sent him on whole new journey. 

 

It’s easy to just get comfortable with where you’re at, but don’t be like some of the people in the verses we read in the beginning who were deaf to the truth.  Be a truth seeker.  Be in God’s Word.

 

Everything you hear from church, from other believers, on TV, wherever – take it to God and His Word in prayer and ask Him to reveal the truth to you, and if you do that and if you really do want the truth, God will reveal it to you.