Don’t be Confused – about the truth
John 18:36-38
* The first time I heard the term was during the Bill Clinton presidency. Of course I knew it went on, but I had never heard the term (in political jargon) ‘spin.’ Does everyone know what ‘spin’ actually is? My personal definition is something like this: “Spin is the attempt to twisting events and/or words in a way which is more favorable to the ‘spinster’ or his boss.” Now, that definition will never win a popularity award, but it seems to be true, nonetheless. In fact, I’ll take it a step further; for the professional spinster, truth is no object. For those who cannot discern my meaning; ‘in the spin, lying is acceptable.’ The culture of 2010 is confused about a great number of things. Today we conclude a 3-part series of messages about this topic.
* Last week we began a journey attempting to lift the veil of modern-day confusion about the church. Here is the map of our last Sunday’s journey;
Confusion about the ’term’ Confusion about the ’task’ –
What it’s not! The skeptic’s concept -
What it is The selfish concept -
What it will be! The Savior’s concept
* Today we address the very foundation of LIFE.
1) Confusion about the ’truth’ – Is it any wonder with all the spinning going on that we are confused? Everyone is attempting to reinvent the truth. This week I read that Bill O’Reilly has coined the phrase, “The spin stops here.” You know what? That should be the mantra of the church, “The spin stops here!” We need to be purveyors of truth! And not OUR truth, God’s truth. In John 18, Pilate is standing before Jesus attempting to have a conversation about the issues of life, in particular, the life of Jesus. (Let’s read – vs 36-38) Think about Pilate’s question, “What is truth?” and you will discover the question which is being asked in the 21st Century American culture by almost everyone. Truth is at a premium. Strictly speaking, truth is accurately defined as “That which is truth for all people, at all times, and in all places.” We live in a culture which no longer believes in truth. Over 15 years ago, Josh McDowell told us that 70% of our young people & adult do not believe in absolute truth. In 2001, Barna research said this figure is over 75% and that over 80% of teenagers believe there is no absolute moral truth & that nobody can know for certain whether or not they actually know what truth is. ONLY 6% of teens & only 9% OF BORN-AGAIN TEENS believe in “Moral absolutes.” Do I have anyone’s attention yet?? In short: IN THIS CULTURE WE ARE CONFUSED ABOUT TRUTH! And truth makes a difference. Yet, without absolute truth, there exist no basis for society, culture, or life. So if we are to be purveyors of the gospel message, we must discern, display & disseminate truth. Consider modern-day truth.
a) The Cultural truth – What I mean is this; the truth which is accepted by a particular culture. Sad to say but much of our culture’s truth is not truth at all, but only opinion. A culture cannot create or revise truth, we can only rewrite laws and statues as well as change concepts, but we cannot create truth. Truth is truth no matter where you find it and lie is lie no matter who says it. Let me illustrate; no one created math, they discovered it (no matter who you think is the father of math, Archimedes, Euclid, etc) whoever it is, they discovered not invented math. The laws of math, science, physics, and the rest were laid out in a definite design LONG BEFORE feeble minded people discovered it. Today, we live in a culture that seems to believe that we can create truth as we go along. This culture would have us believe that evolution not creation is the way mankind arrived on the scene. The scientific problems for evolution are so many that most ‘respectable’ scientists have rejected this theory, yet our government says we have to teach it in our class rooms to the exclusion of creation. The problems with this theory are many. To make evolution work we have to bridge the gap from ’nothing to something’, then we must move from ‘something to life’ and finally we must progress from ‘life to intelligence.’ The laws of science works against proving this notion. The law of Biogenesis states that ‘life comes from life.’ The Bible tells us in Romans 1 that through creation enough has been revealed that MAN IS WITOUT EXCUSE. I know what that means, my dad taught me.
* When we come to believe that the culture can create truth we are on a slippery slope with a foundation that will wash before your eyes. It reminds me of the story with which Jesus ended the Sermon on the Mount. (Matthew 7:24-27.) The house on the sand is washed away.
* Please don’t be confused about cultural truth. The culture tells us that perversion is sexual preference and should be given civil-rights status. The culture tells us that ‘any group’ of people who love each other is a family. The culture tells us that aberrant behavior is to be expected and even accepted. The culture tells us there are no losers and that we are a result of our up-bringing (so we blame mom & dad for our failures). What does cultural truth do for mankind? (Romans 1:22-23) Several truths in these verses grab me; “claiming to be wise, they became fools.” I submit that the sin of the culture is done, in large measure from ignorance. Instead of embracing truth, we try to create truth—and in verse 23 we can see it clearly. This reminds me of the trek of naming our automobiles (which seems to coincide with the turning from God). First cars were name after man (Ford, Lincoln), then birds (falcons, t’bird), next 4-footed animas (cougar, pinto) and finally, reptiles (viper, cobra). It is like the Bible looked into the future with its writers knowing how vial mankind would become. We cannot make up truth. Don’t be confused about culture’s brand of truth.
b) The Carnal truth – To me, this is the most dangerous of all. Whereas the cultural truth is followed because of ignorance, the carnal truth is entirely different. It has enough eternal truth to fool the unsuspecting & enough pseudo truth (that is, false truth) to attract the multitudes. Rarely do I call someone’s name in a message, but we need to know that there are many very popular and charismatic leaders in the USA today who are purveying the ‘carnal’ truth (and doing it well). One who comes to mind is Mr. Popular, Mr. Positive, and Mr. Polished. He is Mr. Osteen. Confessionally, I listen very little to Joel, but even this week Dr. John McArthur reviewed much of Joel theology for his congregation—I’ll only highlight a couple of thoughts. Dr. MacArthur points out that Joel is a pagan religionist, quasi pantheist; Jesus is a footnote that satisfies his critics and deceives His followers. The idea of his whole teaching is that man has inside of him the power to change. In his book, “Your Best Life Now” he says “If you develop an image of success, peace, and happiness, nothing will be able to keep that from you. You were born to win.” How do you get all of this? “Believe, speak out loud, and act.” Before we act so self-righteous, please remember this man now leads the largest ‘gathering’ of people for religious purposes in America today. What he teaches (among others), while attractive is giving a carnal version of truth. It is given in the trappings of the church. It is like the trap one sets for a monkey.
* Sadly, inside the church today much carnal truth is being given. Tacitly we tell people it they will come to church, clean up their lives, study the Bible, and give their money, it will all be okay.
* How often do we hear these words, “Well, I know that YOU think that Bible says this, but you know what I think?” Turn to 2 Peter 1:20-2:1-9 and then to Jude. …Some will say, “I love it when we get together and just talk about the Bible.” Every believer loves to do this, however, if we only share our opinions about the scripture, at the end of the meeting, we can leave with a diluted and deluded interpretation of the text and this is dangerous.
* I am afraid that to be confused about the ‘term’ church and then to be confused about the task of the church leads us to being confused about the truth upon which the church is built. Or this could work in reverse.
* It seems to me that ‘carnal truth’ seems to be ruling inside of many churches today—and carnal truth is like leak in your plumbing- it’s never stops itself. Uncheck by an outside agent (the plumber) the leak only gets larger, more severe, and more costly. Jude is a book of only 25 verses and yet, it seems to reveal exactly where the church in America is today. (Read selected verses) Some will say, “You read this a few weeks ago.” Right, and I may read it again next week because of its contemporary application. Carnal truth is propagated by those, who Paul describes, as abnormal babies in Christ.
c) The Complete truth – The term complete truth seems almost redundant because anything less than the complete truth is untruth. Yet, when people sit to testify in a court of law, they take an oath to tell the ‘truth’, the ‘whole’ truth, and ‘nothing but the truth.’ This is a good standard. Simplistically, the complete truth is in this book (The Bible). Yet I know that, depending on your brand, version, and style of Bible you have, that it is at least 1000 pages & can range up to 2100 pages of truth. So how does one get complete truth? Just to be clear; any journey (I.E. science, physics, biology, math, etc) in life which is undertaken with an open mind, will ultimately reveal the truth of God’s word.
* As we consider the ‘complete’ truth about the church today, I knew that this part of the series would be the most difficult to communicate, to hear, and certainly to implement. The reason is that what the Bible teaches us about the church is, in a practical sense, foreign to what everyone in this building has been taught and conceives the church to be. I say, “In a practical sense” because when it “affects me”, we fold.
* The church’s one function is to be an agent of change in this world. And the change should be birthed in Christ. First, the local church will never rise above the spiritual life of her membership. In other words, the call to change begins with ME. ‘If I am a born-again member of His Church’, my life is to be lived in harmony with the purpose of God for my life.’ This means my life (daily) reflects His holiness. (Be Holy as I am holy). This is not intended to be offensive, but it is the truth. Until the body (you & me) get THIS RIGHT, we will do little of eternal value. Judgment begins first at the house of God and if it doesn’t begin there, they’ll be little change.
* Our assignment is to bring the gospel of redemption to the world. Did you realize that the very nature of the church is at enmity with the world? The Bible tells us that we cannot be friends of God & friends of the world at the same time yet, this is the big focus of our day. Think about it this way, “Light and dark cannot co-exist and neither can death & life.” One cancels the other out! This is the function of the church to bring redemption, restoration, and regeneration to the Lord world. Don’t miss this, without us doing HIS WORK; many will go to a place called hell. Hell waits for those who reject God’s call to salvation. This could mean YOU!
* Our assignment causes us to do battle with the forces of evil. Matthew 16 reminds us that we are not on the defensive (circling the wagons), but rather we are on the offensive – that is, our primary goal is to overrun the gates of hell—with the power of the gospel—to release those who are in bondage to forces of evil.
* The hard truth is that we can have a church without a building, budget, VBS, Ministries (Women’s, Men’s, Children, Music, etc) and we can only have a ‘crowd’ and have these things. A cold – hard truth is that the church which Jesus builds is a church who is making an eternal difference.
