People Who Seek Truth

Read at beginning of service:

John 8:31-46 (NIV)

31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” 34 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word. 38 I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you do what you have heard from your father.” 39 “Abraham is our father,” they answered. “If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do the things Abraham did. 40 As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. 41 You are doing the things your own father does.” “We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.” 42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. 43 Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! 46 Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me?

INTRODUCTION

Today I am continuing the series that I have been sharing with you for a few weeks now that explores the heart of God and asks the question, “What does God really want?” As God looks over his creation I wonder, what are the desires pulsing through His being? I don?t believe it?s a question that can?t be answered. I know that it probably can?t be completely or fully unveiled but the Bible does give us glimpses into the desires of God. So far we have discovered

God really wants someone to listen to Him

Because He loves us and wants what?s best for us.

God really wants a heart that loves Him.

Because our heart is the center of our being, the place where our pains and pleasures are found, our prospects and our passions.

Because God wants to kick sin out of our heart and?

Heal our pains and seal our pleasures

Restore or create faith in Him, and

Fan into a hot flame our passion for Him and His work.

As I continued this study of the heart of God and His deepest desires my journey took me to Psalm 51. King David wrote this psalm after the prophet Nathan had confronted him about his adultery with Bathsheba (elaborate if time). David was heartbroken over what he had done as he realized the great chasm it opened up between Him and God. In a posture of repentance David penned these words asking for God?s mercy and confessing his awful sin. Then in verse six David writes something that I believe the Holy Spirit inspired Him to include that gives us a very insightful look into God?s heart.

Psalm 51:6 (NIV)

6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

“Surely you desire truth” Hmm. God desires truth. As I did a word search on “truth” throughout the Bible I was simply astounded by the number of times that word appeared and the context in which it appeared. Further, I came across another passage that really demonstrates the value of truth to God. In Jeremiah chapter 5 God speaks to Jeremiah and says?

Jeremiah 5:1 (NIV)

1 “Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem, look around and consider, search through her squares. If you can find but one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth, I will forgive this city.

Jeremiah responds,

Jeremiah 5:3 (NIV)

3 O LORD, do not your eyes look for truth??

God had been speaking through Jeremiah about his impending judgment on Jerusalem and Judah because of their sins and falling away from God but here God says he was willing to forgive an entire city if one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth was found!

In the gospels we find the story of when a Samaritan woman tried to trip Jesus up on some religious questions. But he said to her,

John 4:23-24 (NIV)

23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

The kind of worshippers that God seeks or desires or wants ? are people who worship in spirit and in truth!

Friends, God really wants people who seek truth. Sadly, truth in our world today has fallen upon hard times,

According to a survey done by Barna Research back in 2001 ? about ??s of all adults in America rejected the notion that there are absolute moral truths. Most Americans believe that all truth is relative to the situation and the individuals involved. Similarly, at least 80% of teens embrace the same position regarding moral truths. Not only did more than 4 out of 5 teenagers say there is no absolute moral truth, 4 out of 5 also claim that nobody can know for certain whether or not they actually know what truth is. What is even more shocking that only 6% of teens, and 9% of born-again teens believe in moral absolutes. (from a sermon by Don Jaques, “Moral Relativism and Absolute Truth” on sermoncentral.com)

Now even though these are American statistics I doubt much is different here in Canada ? in fact I suspect the statistics would be even more alarming in light of the recent events in our country.

Stanford Research Institute was studying the differences in vocational perceptions. They devised a short but succinct test. The first to be tested was an engineer. The researchers asked him: “What does two plus two make?” The engineer simply said, “In absolute terms: four.”

After making their notes and dismissing him, they called an architect. To the same question, he responded, “Well, there are several possibilities: two and two make four, but so does three and one ? or two point five and one point five ? they also make four. So, it is all a matter of choosing the right option.” The researchers thanked him and made their notes.

Finally, they called an attorney. When he heard the question, he looked around slyly, asked if he could close the door for privacy, and then came over close, leaned toward them and said, “Well, tell me, what would you like it to be?”

(from a sermon by Greg Yount at sermoncentral.com)

That is the attitude that many have about the truth. WE tell it or fail to tell it depending on it?ll benefit us or not. And the world is reaping the repercussions of this kind of thinking. There is a problem with our society. And though it never quite gets the headlines, it is slowly eroding the foundations of our society. What is the hidden danger, the menace that is causing inestimable am0ounts of suffering and moral decay in our society ? and even within the church?

Moral Relativism: The prevailing philosophy of our day that teaches there is no absolute truth, and that all philosophies, all religions, all opinions, are EQUALLY VALID, with no way to distinguish one as being morally superior to others. It?s also known by the name “tolerance”. It?s the philosophy that is taught in our schools and in our media that there is nothing that is true everywhere, and that everything is true somewhere.

Why is moral relativism or “tolerance” so dangerous? Because it is an intellectually bankrupt, morally bankrupt, and completely spiritually bankrupt philosophy which pulls the foundations of our society out from under us, leaving us a lot like Wile E Coyote when he has run off a cliff. Sooner or later there are dire consequences.

Yes, truth ? absolute truth ? that is, truth that doesn?t change, truth that is the same no matter where you go, truth that everything should be measured against ? has fallen upon disfavor in today?s world. As Christians we believe that there are important truths that govern life, and that these truths are absolutes. These truths do not come from us, they are beyond us. That is, they are truths that cannot be influenced or changed by human behavior. They are true whether anyone believes in them or not. They are true whether anyone agrees with them or not. They are true whether anyone likes them or not. They are absolute truths because they come from an absolute God, and they are the foundation of life itself. God created truth, and the world has been built upon it. You don?t break these truths, they break you if you fail to follow them. You can disbelieve that there is such a thing as gravity if you want. You can dislike the law of gravity. You can even defy the law of gravity. But if you do, you will not break the law of gravity; it will break you. It is an absolute law that God has built into the world. And when we fly an airplane, we are merely applying other universal laws that we have discovered.

It is always fun to ask those who believe that there is no such thing as absolute truth, if they are absolutely sure that there is no absolute truth, and how they know it!

Friends, What God really WANTS is people who seek truth.

Why? Because?

HE IS TRUTH BY NATURE

Truth is a person. God describes himself as truth in His word. The Bible describes God the Father as truth,

Psalms 31:5 (NIV)

5 Into your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O LORD, the God of truth.

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Titus 1:2 (NIV)

2 a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time,

The Bible describes Jesus the Son as truth,

John 1:14 (NIV)

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

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John 14:6 (NIV)

6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

The Bible describes The Holy Spirit as truth,

John 14:15-17 (NIV)

15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever– 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

John 15:26-27 (NIV)

26 “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.

John 16:13 (NIV)

13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth?.

So the biblical witness is clear about the fact that God in very nature, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all truth. Everything that is right, everything that is correct, everything that is verified is truth in Him. God is the measure of all that is right, correct, and verifiable because He is truth. Truth at its source and very description is found in God. Not only does God not lie ? but He is incapable of lying. It is just not in his nature to lie. In fact, a lie is the anti-polar opposite of truth. A lie is simply a denial of truth. Since God cannot deny his own existence He cannot lie.

Now I know that that?s a bit of a head strainer to think about (trust me it was hard enough for me to write it and then speak it!) But this is the first reason why God really wants people who seek truth ? because in His very nature He is truth. Truth is what God is. Truth is a person.

HIS MISSION (OR HIS MESSAGE) IS TRUTH

From the very beginning God has communicated truth with His creation. From the setting of certain absolute physical laws in the universe (such as gravity) to his first truth given to mankind ? God?s mission is to enable creation to dwell in, be sustained by, and multiply His truth.

What was the first truth God spoke to man?

Genesis 2:16-17 (NIV)

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

The truth? You can eat any tree in the garden BUT you will die if you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God wasn?t trying to mislead Adam, He wasn?t trying to keep something from Adam He was simply giving Adam the truth.

A short while later though, the serpent Satan spoke the first lie to Eve and said,

Genesis 3:4-5 (NIV)

4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

At the core of every lie is the belief that there is no such thing as absolute truth! Truth is only relative to the situation you are in. Satan was tempting Eve with the idea that what God said isn?t really true ? He was just trying to keep Adam and Eve from becoming like Him. So Satan polluted their mind with the relative truth that the fruit wouldn?t really harm them but instead make them better. Oh, friends ? Satan has been hissing that same hellish way of thinking into the receptive minds of our world forward through time into our day and age. He hasn?t stopped trying to subvert God?s creation and keep people from knowing the truth.

But God has been equally and even more relentless in His mission and message of truth to mankind. Through Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses and the Ten Commandments, the Israelites, the Old Testament prophets and Kings ? God has been at work revealing His truth to the world and showing the way to life ? rescuing people who embraced His truth from the death that gripped those who fell for Satan?s lie.

The psalmist wrote many times,

Psalms 25:5 ? “Guide me in your truth and teach me?”

Psalms 26:3 ? “?I walk continually in your truth”

Psalms 40:11 ? “?may your love and your truth always protect me.”

Psalms 43:3 ? “Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me?”

Psalms 86:11 ? “Teach me your way, O LORD< and I will walk in your truth"

Of course, Jesus was God?s ultimate revelation of truth to the world and proved to be the final demise for Satan.

It?s interesting folks but 79 times in the gospels Jesus precedes what He speaks to others with the phrase, “I tell you the truth” Clearly that phrase was intended to catch His hearers attention and to invite them to take notice of what He was saying but more importantly it indicates the nature of Jesus? message and His mission. As truth Jesus wanted people to hear and understand the truth for their own lives. Everything Jesus spoke carried the full weight and authoritative truth of God. What He spoke is. You can either believe it or not, do it or don?t, say it or keep silent but it doesn?t change the fact that, “I tell you the truth”. A study of what comes after each time that phrase was spoken will reveal the lifestyle and makeup of people who seek truth.

Further, in declaring that He was the way, the truth, and the life Jesus was indicating the path by which men may know the truth and escape the lie of Satan. Friends, truth is real. Truth is tangible. It is not subjective, or something that is decided by majority opinion. Water is wet, rocks are hard, and grass is green. We could take a vote and agree that rocks are wet, water is dry and grass is red, but that would not change the nature of rocks, water and grass!

Truth is not only real, it is knowable. That is why Jesus said (as part of his mission and message),

John 8:31-32 (NIV)

31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

God has made truth knowable through His Son Jesus Christ and through His word and guides us into that knowledge by His Spirit,

John 16:13 (NIV)

13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth…

So God really wants people seek truth because He is truth in His very nature, because His mission and message is truth ? but ultimately, He really wants people who seek truth because

TO ALIGN WITH TRUTH IS TO ALIGN WITH HIM

Psalms 15:1-5 (NIV)

1 LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? 2 He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart 3 and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman, 4 who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the LORD, who keeps his oath even when it hurts, 5 who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.

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Psalms 145:18 (NIV)

18 The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

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Romans 1:18-19 (NIV)

18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.

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Romans 1:25-27 (NIV)

25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator–who is forever praised. Amen. 26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

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Romans 2:2 (NIV)

2 Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.

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Romans 2:8-10 (NIV)

8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

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Revelation 21:8 (NIV)

8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars–their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

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John 18:37-38 (NIV)

37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “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. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” 38 “What is truth?” Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him.

God really wants you and me to be people who seek truth so that we may know Him and be rescued from the death that following the lie brings. God doesn?t want anyone to perish but everyone to have a real relationship with Him. People who seek truth have better relationships, better health, a better future ? and they have Jesus, they have the Father, they have the Holy Spirit. To know the truth, to embrace the truth is to embrace and to know God.

CONCLUSION

We HAVE A REAL God who sent a real Savior, into a real world, to save real sinners, from real sin, that they might experience real forgiveness, in order to live real life, and inherit a real heaven. No other faith makes exactly these same claims. That is why one faith is right and the others are wrong. They cannot all be right, because they contradict each other. If there is a real God, he wants us to know the real truth. If he wants us to know the real truth, he must have provided a way for us to know the truth. He would give us a book. He would come in person. Why would God confuse us with contradictory truths? That is what Satan attempts to do. The Bible says that he comes to decieve. Jesus said,

Matthew 24:24 (NIV)

24 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect–if that were possible.

Truth is eternal! It?s not something that the human race made up. It did not begin with us. Truth is transcendent and unchangeable. Why is it then that people have so much trouble understanding the truth? The Bible explains it with these words:

2 Corinthians 4:3-4, 6 (NIV)

3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

The god of this world, the devil, has blinded the minds of people who do not want to know the truth, in order to keep them from seeing and understanding the truth. Jesus said this about the devil:

John 8:44 (NIV)

?for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

He is the father of darkness. But for those who seek the truth, God shines his light in the darkness and gives them the ability to see and understand. But you have to want to know. You have to believe there is truth. You have to ask before you are answered, seek before you find.

The apostle Paul admonishes us:

Ephesians 4:17-19 (NIV)

17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.

Paul is saying that truth is impossible to know if you are living in willful ignorance. And when you deliberately avoid the truth, your life is headed for ruin. God has built into this world universal principles which govern life. You acceptance or rejection of the truth will determine the direction of your life. You need to deliberately be a seeker of truth and reality, because your acceptance or rejection of the truth will determine the kind of person you become. If you base your life on a lie, then your life will end in ruin. But if you base your life on the truth of Jesus Christ, and live according to his plan for you, then your life will be abundant and rewarding ? even if you face difficulties. The truth will transform your life.

I have known many people who want help with some difficulty they are facing. They want you to fix them. They want you to be sympathetic, but they do not want you to present them with the truth. They want their lives to work, but they do not want to see the truth about themselves, and they do not want to change. When you refuse to see the truth, you are never wrong, and everything is always someone else?s fault. Understanding the truth is important because it has to do with whether or not you understand the basic principles of life.

A man was standing in line at WalMart one day, and a woman and her son were ahead of him. The boy was unhappy because he saw something he wanted and his mother was not allowing him to get it. His disappointment began to crescendo, and she suddenly blurted out: “What can I tell you, Billie? Life sucks, and then you die.” (taken from message by Rodney Buchanan, “What is Truth?” on sermoncentral.com)

Imagine having that as a truth on which you were operating your life! The kind of truths we tell ourselves, and our children, are molding us and the future generation. The truth is that God created a good world, and life is good, when we live it for God and base our lives on His Word. When we live away from God, “life sucks and then you die.” When you live your life for God life makes sense because it is based on the truth, and because your life is based on the truth, it works. The Bible says of believers:

Isaiah 35:10 (NIV)

10 and the ransomed of the LORD will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

This is why God really wants us to SEEK TRUTH!

J.P. Moreland, in his book Apologetic Reasoning and the Christian Mind, tells of an experience that illustrates the importance of truth:

“One afternoon I was sharing the gospel in a student?s dorm room at the University of Vermont. The student began to espouse ethical relativism: ?Whatever is true for you is true for you and whatever is true for me is true for me?But no one should force his or her views on other people since everything is relative.?” Moreland says, “I knew that if I allowed him to get away with ethical relativism, there could be for him no such thing as real, objective sin measured against the objective moral command of God, and thus no need of a Savior. I thanked the student for his time an began to leave his room. On the way out, I picked up his small stereo and started out the door with it. ?Hey, what are you doing?? he shouted??I am leaving your room with your stereo.? ?You can?t do that,? he gushed.” But Moreland said, “I happen to think it is permissible to steal stereos if it will help a person?s religious devotions, and I myself could use a stereo to listen to Christian music in my morning devotions. Now I would never try to force you to accept my moral beliefs in this regard because, as you said, everything is relative and we shouldn?t force our ideas on others. But surely you aren?t going to force on me your belief that it is wrong to steal your stereo, are you?” Moreland looked at him and continued: “You know what I think? I think that you espouse relativism in areas of your life where it?s convenient, say in sexual morality, or in areas about which you do not care, but when it comes to someone stealing your stereo or criticizing your own moral hobbyhorses, I suspect that you become a moral absolutionist pretty quickly, don?t you?” The story has a happy ending, for Moreland says, “Believe it or not, the student honestly saw the inconsistency of his behavior and, a few weeks later, I was able to lead him to Jesus Christ.”

God really wants you to seek truth. Because He is truth ? His mission/message is truth ? and He wants those who align with truth align with Him!

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