How Do You Know?
2 Timothy 4 : 1 - 8
Friday at quitting time, Jim said, ‘Boss, have you got any extra work I can do tonight?’
Sure do but I can’t pay you overtime.
That’s okay, I just don’t want to go home.
Why not?
Well, I’ve been in the doghouse since last night.
I see...Why? What did you do to deserve that?
I still don’t know, it must be one of those woman things. I was minding my own business relaxing in front of the TV. My wife enters the room & asks, "What’s on the TV?"
And all I said was, "Dust!" (byron sherman)
Truth can get you into trouble. Amen? This morning I want us to look at truth in the larger context of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
First let’s talk about the nature of truth. Many people in our day and age allow society to determine what truth is. We fall into several traps when we do that. First, society is always going to say what ever is newest is best. I don’t know about you, but as I’ve gotten older especially I’ve discovered that newer does not mean better - sometimes it’s not even close! In fact of all the frying pans I’ve ever used the old well worn cast iron pan is the best hands down. No teflon, no anodized surfaces, no special instructions as to when it can and can’t be used, and it’s still cheaper than any of the modern pans.
Today society will tell you that our openness to the homosexual life style is finally getting to “where it should be”. Less than 10 years ago the social workers handbook on deviant behavior listed homosexuality as illness. No longer. Now it’s simply one’s choice of lifestyle. So what’s the truth?
I can tell you this ... if society determines truth, truth changes every generation. But if there is a greater truth. A universal truth. Wow! Wouldn’t that be great? To find some bedrock answers to life that don’t change every generation but instead are answers that we can hold on to all our lives.
Well, some of us believe there is such a thing. It’s called God’s Word. Truth. It was embodied in Jesus Christ who said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the light”.
2 Timothy 3:16
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
The question becomes ... do we believe that? Right now our legal system in the United States is teetering on the edge of some incredibly difficult questions. Since we have been told our laws can’t have been founded on the 10 Commandments because of “separation between church and state” they are in a quandry to decide just what our laws are based on. And they are struggling with the questions about society determining truth.
If, however, with a minority of U.S. Citizens you believe the Bible to be the source for ultimate truth the questions don’t end there.
You see, there is this thing called the Holy Spirit that we celebrated at Pentecost and that we hopes moves in our worship services every week. We know the Holy Spirit has great power, but is that power a revelatory power that gives us new revelations about God’s truth. Well ... let me give you a politicians answer, Yes and No.
Yes - the Holy Spirit does give us new revelations about God’s truth ... new to us anyway. No - because this new revelation can never contradict or supercede God’s truth in the Bible and if we think it does, we should probably examine it much more closely because God does not contradict Himself. Those times when people have believed that their new revelation has superceded God’s Word have always lead to tragedy with people like David Koresh and James Jones and the list goes on and on.
This is most important when we come to the question of Jesus Christ. Is Jesus Christ the one, the unique, the singular Son of God? The ultimate revelation of God’s self to humanity? If He was God incarnate ... in the flesh ... then all that He said and did need to be more than a passing fancy for us to study - because He is God! Anytime we start questioning that truth we need to look around us - because yes ... that is a handbag and yes ... we’re going to hell in it.
We need to understand that Jesus Christ is God’s ultimate revelation and that it is in Him that we find not only salvation but meaning and purpose for living.
But How do We know? We don’t. I can give you all kinds arguments as to the truth of the Bible and of Jesus Christ but both of these come down to faith.
John Wesley had a method for dealing with the tough questions. A Method because he was the first Methodist. His method has come to be called the Quadrilateral. Quad because it has four sides ... but not four equal sides, just three equal and one much more prominent. The three equal sides are Experience, Tradition and Reason. In your experience does the answer makes sense ... has it worked out for you in the past. Tradition ... what has the Christian church thought about this question through the years and why. And Reason ... Is this rational? Does it make sense? These three are very important and can help us come to some good answers on their own. Wesley said all three of these were subservient to the primary source which is the Bible. What does the Bible say about your question? Not with a lot of fancy exegesis or questions of authenticity but plain out - what does it say?
In college a student was asked to prepare a lesson to teach his speech class. He was to be graded on creativity and ability to drive home a point in a memorable way. The title of his talk was, “The Law of the Pendulum.” He spent twenty minutes carefully teaching the physical principle that governs a swinging pendulum. The law of the pendulum is: A pendulum can never return to a point higher than the point from which it was released. Because of friction and gravity, when the pendulum returns, it will fall short of its original release point. Each time it swings it makes less and less of an arc, until finally it is at rest. This point of rest is called the state of equilibrium, where all forces acting on the pendulum are equal.
The student attached a three-foot string to a child’s toy top and secured it to the top the blackboard with a thumbtack. He pulled the top to one side and made a mark on the blackboard where he let it go. Each time it swung back he made a new mark. It took less than a minute for the top to complete its swinging and come to rest. When he finished the demonstration, the markings on the blackboard proved the law of the pendulum.
The student then asked how many people in the room believed the law of the pendulum was true. All of his classmates raised their hands and so did the teacher. The teacher started to walk to the front of the room thinking the class was over. In reality it had only begun. Hanging from the steal beams in the middle of the room was a large, crude but functional pendulum made from 250 pounds of metal weights tied to four strands of 500 pound test parachute cord. The student invited the instructor to climb up on a table and sit in a chair with back of his head against a cement wall. Then the student brought the 250 pounds of metal up to the teachers’ nose. Holding the huge pendulum just a fraction of an inch from the teacher’s face, the student once again explained the law of the pendulum he had applauded only moments before, “If the law of the pendulum is true, then when I release this mass of metal, it will swing across the room and return short of the release point. Your nose will be in no danger.”
After that final restatement of this law, the student looked his teacher in the eye and asked, “Sir, do you believe this law is true?” There was a long pause. Huge beads of sweat formed on his upper lip and then weakly he nodded and whispered, “Yes.”
The student released the pendulum. It made a swishing sound as it arced across the room. At the far end of its swing, it paused momentarily and started back. The student later testified that he had never seen a man move so fast in his entire life as the teacher literally dove from the table (Ken Davis, How To Speak To Youth, pp104-106).
It was easy for this teacher to believe in the law of the pendulum when it was all theoretical. But when his life literally depended on the law of the pendulum he showed that his belief was only theoretical. How easy it is for us to believe in God’s sufficiency in church on Sunday morning or in a Bible study. But in the real world where our lives are on the line too many of us demonstrate that our belief was only theoretical. How do we know? Only through faith. Only by casting our lot to believe that the God of Abraham and Isaac as handed down to us in the Bible is our God, born in the person of Jesus Christ and giving us new revelations through the Holy Spirit.
A young, new preacher was walking with an older, more seasoned preacher in the garden one day and feeling a bit insecure about what God had for him to do, he was inquiring of the older preacher. The older preacher walked up to a rosebush and handed the young preacher a rosebud and told him to open it without tearing off any petals.
The young preacher looked in disbelief at the older preacher and was trying to figure out what a rosebud could possibly have to do with his wanting to know the WILL OF GOD for his life and for his ministry. Because of his high respect for the older preacher, he proceeded to TRY to unfold the rose, while keeping every petal intact...It wasn’t long before he realized how it was impossible to do so.
Noticing the younger preacher’s inability to unfold the rosebud while keeping it intact, the older preacher began to tell the following poem...
It is only a tiny rosebud,
A flower of God’s design;
But I cannot unfold the petals
With these clumsy hands of mine.
The secret of unfolding flowers
Is not known to such as I.
GOD opens this flower so sweetly,
When in my hands they fade and die.
If I cannot unfold a rosebud,
This flower of God’s design,
Then how can I think I have wisdom
To unfold this life of mine?
So I’ll trust in Him for His leading
Each moment of every day.
I will look to Him for His guidance
Each step of the pilgrim way.
The pathway that lies before me,
Only my heavenly Father knows.
I’ll trust Him to unfold the moments,
Just as He unfolds the rose.
(Danny Thomas)
Just remember ... you don’t have to know everything. But it’s a great thing to know the One who does know everything.
