Is There Still Truth?

The irony of truth in our world today is that it cannot be believed. We live in a world where we all carry a search engine in our pockets wherever we go and so when we do not know the answer to something or we wish to learn more about any topic then we just Google it. The problem with this is that the answers we get back are not necessarily the truth. This is really not a new phenomenon; truth has been under attack since the beginning of time. It was a distortion of truth in the Garden of Eden that led Adam and Eve to disobey God and since that day man has sought to have his own truth. But in reality there can be only truth despite what the relativism of the day declares.

 When Jesus was brought before Pilate He mentioned the word truth to him and Pilate’s response was the quintessential question we all need to know the answer to. Pilate said this in John 18:38, "What is truth?"

 We like to describe God as being love and certainly God is that. The Bible is clear that love is the most important trait we Christians need to be the light God calls us to be. But to describe God with simply one word just does not suffice. In this earthly state we shall never understand all there is to know about God. He is too deep, too wide, and to vast to know completely. You see we are finite beings with finite minds while God is infinite. But the Bible gives us all we need to know about God as we walk this life and probing the depths of its richness will keep us busy until Jesus takes us home.

 There are many attributes of God that the Bible teaches us. One of the descriptions of God is that He is truth and everything about Him is true. Many people are afraid of the word theology and they think we should leave that endeavor to the scholars and the philosophers but the word theology is really simply the study of God. Christianity is not a religion; it is a relationship. The entire point of the Bible is that it is a story of a relationship with God which was messed up by man and then the restoral of that relationship through the redemptive work of Christ on the cross. Theology should be seen as our attempts to know God and to know Him more and more each and every day. When we look at who God is it is clear that He is truth.

 All three persons of God are seen in what we call the trinity and all three persons of the trinity share the same attributes, one of them being truth. In Deuteronomy 32:4 we read that our God is “a God of truth.” Jesus describes Himself in John 14:6 saying, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” Then in John 15:26 Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as “…the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father.” God is the truth.

 The world however rejects God and rejects Him as the truth. But in our own little Christian world we must be careful. You see truth can be destroyed by just one simple little addition or subtraction. There is warning about this found in Galatians 5:7-9, “You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough.”

 Truth becomes non-truth when take anything at all away from it or if we add one small iota. This is how Satan operates. This has been the attack on the Bible for a very long time. This is why we have such a mess today in our own culture. One example is the legalization of abortion. Did you know that those who sought to make it legal hired an advertisement firm to help them push this through a country that at one time would never have dreamed of making it legal. They simply changed its name. Instead of calling it abortion; they called it choice. This changed the truth of what it really is; the murder of a child for selfish reasons.

 
Do you see the danger in that little twist of the truth? If we call ourselves Christians then we must be disciples of Christ. We must study under Him and know what He teaches. We must examine all things under the microscope of scripture. We must read and know all of it.
 

Christians, even a small amount of untruth is untruth. It really doesn’t even matter about motive in the alteration of truth. Many well-meaning preachers and Bible teachers and authors put out things that are simply not Biblical truth. Some are plants by Satan but some are just simply being human and being human means we are not perfect.

So the message today is simple; do not believe everything you read and hear but treat it all against scripture. God has empowered all believers with the Holy Spirit and He is the Spirit of truth sent to teach us all things. So today we must commit ourselves to God’s Word. That way as the end times draw nearer we will not be fooled by the subtle ways of the devil and the world. Jesus said it best in John 8:31-32, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."  Don’t listen to me; listen to Him.

Did God Really Say that?

Did God actually say…? This question is the root of all sin and though it was first asked by the devil in the Garden of Eden, man is still using that question today to cast doubt on God’s Word. Go back to Genesis 3:1, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" The KJV uses the word subtle in place of the terms other versions use and I think it is important to understand what happened there by thinking of it in terms of subtleness.

You see that is exactly how Satan works. Other translations of the Bible describe Satan as cunning or crafty and the very essence of how he operates is to be crafty through the use of subtleness. John 8:44 tells us Satan is not only a liar but he is “the father of lies” and that he “does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.” And the hardest lie to detect is the one that consists of the subtle twisting of the truth. Satan has accomplished much damage to the world by taking the truth and distorting it by giving it just a little tweak of falsehood. 1 Corinthians 5:6 and Galatians 5:9 both warn us that “a little leaven leavens the whole lump.” Watch out for that little bit of lie that will mess up the truth.

 When Satan challenged God’s Word back in the Garden of Eden and Eve fell for the subtle questioning of God’s Word the world was forever changed. So what has happened today is that Satan has taken clear Biblical warnings against certain sins and twisted them in the minds of man so that we now have acceptable social behaviors that seem right in our eyes. We took down the 10 commandments and made it illegal to have prayer in school. It became legal to abort babies. The sexual revolution of the sixties has sky rocketed our culture into one that accepts pornography, adultery, and homosexuality as acceptable behavior despite clear Biblical commands against them. The list goes on and on and it doesn’t take much to see that our culture is in a serious moral decline.

 The subtle lie comes in the form of tolerance. It comes in the form of free love and in the form of same sex marriage which is redefining what our culture calls marriage. It comes in the form of greed as the abortion industry and the pornography industries make billions of dollars each year off of our sins. These things were unthinkable a mere forty years ago. Of course there have always been a small group of those who would call for the acceptance of these things but in America today we are seeing churches and whole denominations declare these things God calls sin, to be acceptable. This should not be.

 
The question is did God really say abortion is wrong? Did He really mean it’s not ok to have sex with someone not your wife or with someone of the same sex? “Why that is awfully judgmental to say”, we hear. “The Bible is outdated” is the cry. Again the subtle lies of Satan. Yes God did really say that these things are wrong.
 

The problem with declaring that the Bible is wrong about these things being sin that we don’t want to be sin is that if we say it is wrong about those things then how can we say it is right about anything? If we say that, then this whole Jesus thing must be bogus too. If you are an atheist then you have every right to believe that.

But if you call yourselves a Christian then you have no right to say those things. Defining what a Christian is has become almost impossible these days. Unless you believe the Bible is truly God’s Word. Then it is simple; define being a Christian by the Word of God, which is clear. A Christian is a disciple and follower of Christ. But not part of Christ, all of Him. That, my friends, is the truth. Jesus was clear in John 14:23-24 saying, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.”

It is time the Church stood up for truth. Not the subtle false-truth of the devil but the truth of God’s Holy Word even if we don’t always like what it says. We cannot allow the world to dictate what is right and what is wrong but as Christians we must stand up and declare God’s Word to be true. We must declare all of it to be true though, not just the parts we like.

The world will call us intolerant and say we are being judgmental. That again is a twisting of the truth and right from the mouth of Satan. The judgment as to what is sin is not being made by us but by God.

So if you are truly a disciple of Christ then do not fall for the subtle lies of the devil. We must become vigilant in knowing God’s Word so that we can be vigilant in defending His truth. This can only come by reading and studying His Word and being filled with the Holy Spirit. Then when the devil asks you, “Did God really say that?” you can respond in truth and say, “Yes. Yes He really did say that.”

The Subtle Lies of Satan

In the Bible it is clear how God feels about lying. Proverbs 12:22 is but one of many admonitions against lying telling us that “Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD” and the New Testament in Revelation 21:8 goes so far as to declare that “all liars” will be cast into the Lake of Fire. Lying is a serious thing.

“But I wasn’t really lying, I just held back a little of the truth.” Who of us has not done that in our lives? We have a thing we like to call a “white lie” and by that one word “white” we imply that though it’s a lie, it’s a pure one and for the best. Often we use that term when we have withheld the truth from someone in order to be polite or to be tactful. Maybe there are times when telling someone the truth has no value and it would be pointless to hurt them with something meaningless but the problem with that term is that the term itself is by nature a lie. The other problem is that we abuse that term when we describe our lies. More often than not our lies are just what the word says they are; lies.

 

We see an amazing dichotomy in scripture as we look at the difference between God and Satan.  Isaiah 65:16 calls our God, the God of truth. Titus 1:2 says God never lies and Hebrews 6:18 reminds us it is impossible for God to lie. In John 14:6 Jesus declares Himself to not only be true but says He is the truth.

Satan on the other hand is the very antithesis of God. Scripture is clear on who and what Satan is. John 8:44 tells us exactly who Satan is saying that “He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

Scripture is also clear about what Satan wants to do to us. 1 Peter 5:8 warns us saying this, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”  John 10:10 says the devil comes to steal and destroy. The Bible is clear; we have an enemy and it is him. Ephesians 6:12 spells it out, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” The first lie of the devil is to tell you he doesn’t exist. God’s Word says differently. Your enemy is not man; it is a spiritual army of cosmic powers led by the fallen angel himself, Lucifer, otherwise known as Satan or the devil.

The reason I began this writing talking about the white lie is because we need to aware of the schemes of the devil. Certainly there are things in this world that are clearly lies of Satan. But as Christians, most of us can see those clearly. The warning this morning I feel called to give involves a specific word and that word is subtle. Satan will use subtle means to slip into our minds and trick us if we are not constantly vigilant. The very beginning of all sin came from Satan’s subtle twisting of God’s Word back in the Garden of Eden. We need to take time regularly to study that part of scripture. In Genesis chapter 3 we find Satan putting just a little question into Eve’s mind. Listen to how it works from Genesis 3:1, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?"

Do you see how crafty he was? “Did God actually say…” he asks her. And from that one little deceptive question came the entire fall of mankind and sin and death entered into the world. And ever since that day Satan has been working on our minds to question everything God says.

Married people, have you ever been around a member of the opposite sex and felt just that little twinge of excitement when she(he) gives you that look or compliments you. You know deep down you are walking a dangerous path. But in that subtle little way of lying to ourselves we think “Oh this is harmless.” Then later there is a little harmless lunch and so goes the path to destruction. Then one day you wake up and realize you have fallen into a pit and there is no good way out. My friends this is how that word subtle will get you.

There is no end to the various ways Satan can lead you subtly down the wrong path. There is a great book and later a movie called A Simple Plan that demonstrates how a simple little plan to keep some unaccounted for drug money that three men find in the woods, ends up in betrayal and murder. It all seemed so simple.

We cannot be blind to the schemes of the devil. We cannot dabble around with sin no matter how minor it seems. It was just one piece of fruit that Eve took in the garden but it would have catastrophic ramifications for all time until Christ returns. The Apostle Paul reminds us being a Christian does not prevent us from falling into the traps of the devil saying this in 2 Corinthians 11:3, “But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”

But as always the word of God is filled with good news. Jesus defeated the devil at Calvary and we do not fight for victory but we fight from victory. If this very day you are stuck in that pit because you fell for the subtle lies of Satan there is hope. Lamentations 3:21-23 says, “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” In Luke 15:11-32 is the story Jesus told about the prodigal son and in it we can know that no matter how far we have fallen into the pigpen our Father in Heaven is waiting for us to get up and come back to him. It really is that simple.

So this very day wherever you are you can cry out to God and He will come get you. Chapter 15 has two more parables about those who have fallen into sin.

Luke 15:3-10
So he told them this parable: "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. "Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

There is joy in heaven when we repent and are back in the arms of Jesus. But I don’t know about you but I am tiring of my own foolish nature leading me into these pits. The answer is to stay focused on Jesus. We must read His Word, we must listen to sermons that call us out on our sin, we must pray, pray, and pray that we will become more like Jesus every day. We do not have to keep falling down.

So wherever we are today it is time to be aware of the subtle schemes and lies of the devil. James 4:7-10 is good counsel. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”

My prayer today is that we Christians ask God for the wisdom to see through these subtle lies. Then we can get back to the mission Jesus calls us to and take the Gospel to a lost and dying world. May God richly bless all who hear His Word.

7 Principles for Handling Persecution

Most of us American Christians have no idea what persecution is. For most of us, we have never faced it at any level, but if we have it is seen in the form of mocking or laughing at us by a friend or co-worker when we tell them we trust Jesus or we pray. But when is the last time someone who actually hated us brought persecution? How many of us have had our homes burned down, been beaten up, jailed, or have been killed because we are Christian?

Jesus was clear that Christians will be persecuted. He says this in John 15:18-20, "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. "If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. "Remember the word that I said to you, 'A slave is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.”

Persecution is a Biblical promise. 2 Timothy 3:12 gives the promise, “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” Yet here in America it is popular to say we are blessed to not have this promise fulfilled in its truest from. Personally I am thankful I have avoided it. But in truth the easy life of the American Christian has weakened us as individuals and it has weakened the church.

Persecution is coming to America. The handwriting is on the wall. The Muslim people are filling up our cities. Mosques are being built all over. There will be a new climate of hate in America for Christians. So what do we do? The popular sentiment of many American Christians is that we will stand against it with our guns and fight. But I do not find that idea in the Bible. What I do find is that persecution opens up a whole new set of opportunities to share the Gospel. But it is a hard way that requires a deeper faith and a complete dependence on the Holy Spirit.

In the book of Acts we find a great teaching on what to do when they come to persecute us. Acts chapter 4 is a description of the first acts of persecution against the Church. I suggest you take time to read Acts 4:1-32. In his commentary on Acts John MacArthur lists seven principles on handling persecution and I believe we would all do well to study these and prepare ourselves.

As you read Acts chapter 4, I suggest you look for these seven principles as demonstrated by Peter and John. They are as follows:

1. Be submissive – Peter and John did not offer any resistance to the leaders who confronted them in Jerusalem, jailed them, and demanded to know who gave them the authority to heal the beggar as seen in chapter 3 and to be proclaiming Jesus resurrected.

2. Be Filled With the Holy Spirit – This is the key to everything we do in our Christian walk. In our flesh we will fail but with the power of God we can do anything God wills us to.

3. Be Aggressive In Seizing Opportunities – To be submissive is not to be a coward. Jesus performed the greatest act of submissiveness in history by allowing Himself to be crucified. Through the power of the Holy Spirit Peter was able to be brave enough to stand in front of these men and share the Gospel with them. Peter spoke the truth saying this in Acts 4:12
"And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved." Had Peter and John fought back they would not have had the opportunity to share the Gospel with these men.

4. Be Obedient To God At All Costs – Jesus taught we are to follow all authority because it is put in place by God. But when authority refuses to acknowledge God is the source of their power and goes against God’s Word, well then we must obey God. Acts 4:19-20 is one demonstration of this truth. “But Peter and John answered and said to them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard." We must be obedient to God even at risk of our own lives and freedom.

5. Be Committed to Fellowship – Notice what Peter and John did immediately after being released. Acts 4:23, “When they had been released, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.” We need each other. We need comfort and encouragement from our brothers and sisters in Christ and they need it from us. This is how persecution strengthens the church.

6. Be Thankful – Peter and John did not return from this ordeal afraid and depressed; they came back exhilarated. This fired up the whole church. Acts 4:24 says, “And when they heard this, they lifted their voices to God with one accord and said, "O Lord, it is You who MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND THE SEA , AND ALL THAT IS IN THEM.” They praised God for what just happened to them.

7. Desire Greater Boldness – Rather than allowing themselves to be scared they asked for boldness in spite of the threats they were living under. Acts 4:29-30, "And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your bond-servants may speak Your word with all confidence, while You extend Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy servant Jesus."

See what happened when these men and this church did these seven things in the midst of persecution.

Acts 4:31
And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.

 The answer to persecution is not to react with either fear or resistance; it is to seize the day and use it to spread the Gospel to our enemies. This is what Jesus meant in Matthew 5:43-48, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

We cannot do these things in our own power. But we can do them. I can do all things through him who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13). Persecution? Let’s prepare to embrace it. It’s coming.

Dead or Alive? The Power of the Resurrection.

Good Friday and Easter are two big days for the Christian Church. But what about Saturday? No one ever talks about the Saturday between.

 Luke 23:55-56
The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

Many people will flock to church tomorrow. It is one of the biggest days for Church attendance. Maybe you go to church every Sunday and maybe you go twice a year; Christmas and Easter Sunday. But either way before you put on your Sunday best tomorrow I suggest you look in the mirror tonight. I suggest you take a hard look at the tomb and see how Jesus is laid. That should be you and it should be me laid in that tomb.

 I suggest tonight would be a good night to examine yourself in light of Jesus. He was without sin. We are the very sin He became.

 Tomorrow we will go to church and we will learn that the tomb is empty. We will hear that Jesus is resurrected. And we will have a choice.

 We can leave church dead and full of sin. Or we can put our faith in the power of the resurrection and if we do, then we too, can be resurrected to a new life.

 Romans 8:10-11
But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

 Tonight friends we should look at Jesus and rest. Tomorrow we should not only celebrate the joy of the resurrection of Christ but we should live in the power of it.