A small-town prosecuting attorney called his first witness to the stand in a trial - a grand-motherly, elderly woman. He approached her and asked, “Mrs. Jones, do you know me?’
She responded, ‘Why, yes, I do know you, Mr. Williams. I’ve known you since you were a young boy. And frankly, you’ve been a big disappointment to me. You like, you cheat on your wife, you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. You think you’re a rising big shot when you haven’t the brains to realize you will never amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher. Yes, I know you.”
The lawyer was stunned. Not knowing what else to do, he pointed across the room and asked, ‘Mrs. Williams, do you know the defense attorney?’
She replied, ‘Why, yes I do. I’ve known Mr. Bradley since he was a youngster, too. I sued to baby-sit him for his parents. And he, too, has been a real disappointment to me. He’s lazy bigoted, and he has a drinking problem. The man can’t build a normal relationship with anyone, and his law practice is one of the shoddiest in the entire state. Yes, I know him.’
At this point, the judge rapped the courtroom to silence and called both counselors to the bench. In a very quiet voice, he said with menace, ‘If either of you asks her if she knows me, you’ll be jailed for contempt!’
Truth is an interesting concept. We know that we need to hear it, but we don’t alway like to hear it. But was we look at the heart of God we are going to understand that He is a God of truth. If we are His people we will speak the truth.
1 Kings 22:6-14, “So the king of Israel brought together the prophets-about four hundred men - and asked them, ‘Shall I go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?’ ‘Go,’ they answered, ‘for the Lord will give it into the king’s hand.’ But Jehoshaphat asked, ‘Is there not a prophet of the LORD here whom we can inquire of?’ The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, ‘There is still one man through whom we can inquire of the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always band. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.’ ‘The king should not say that,’ Jehoshaphat replied. So the king of Israel called one of his officials and said, ‘Bring Micaiah son of Imlah at once.’ Dressed in their royal roves, the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were sitting on their thrones at the threshing floor by the entrance of the gate of Samaria, with all the prophets prophesying before them. Now Zedekiah son of Kenaananah had made iron horns and he declared, ‘This is what the LORD says: ‘With these you will gore the Arameans until they are destroyed.’ All the other prophets were prophesying the same thing. ‘Attack Ramoth Gilead and be victorious,’ they said, ‘for the LORD will give it into the king’s hand.’ the messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, ‘Look, as one man the other prophets are predicting success for the king. Let your word agree with theirs, and speak favorably.’ But Micaiah said, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, I can tell him only what the LORD tells me.’
We’re continuing today in our series “Discovering the Heart of God.” We’re looking at ways that the love of God flows from His heart into ours. But His love and these characteristics are not passive they are active. If we really are committed to God then it will show in our lives. Our key verse for this series is 2 Chronicles 16:9, “For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” God isn’t looking for our perfection, He is looking for our commitment. God can and will change a heart that is committed to Him to be more like Him.
So what does that commitment look like. Well first it will be a heart that has faith. If you really believe that God is who He says He is then when He calls you to do something you will follow. Even if that means taking risks because you know that He is faithful to see you through challenges and He is able to see you through those challenges. It will also be a heart that forgives because He has forgiven us. It will also be a heart that puts others first out of love because of what God has done and continues to do for us out of love.
Now this week, in the sermon but also in our small groups we are looking at the concept of truth. Before we get into our scripture passage for the day, we need to understand somethings about truth, what it is and what it is not.
1. The Nature of Truth
It doesn’t seem like the nature of truth should be controversial but it is. We live in a culture where people want to reject absolutes. They get replace by something called “situational ethics.” Or we think that truth is relative, where what your background is determines what is true for you. Truth there depends on what part of the country you’re from, what color your skin in, what your education or income level is. According to some people there are a lot of factors that go into determining what is true so we should respect everyone’s view point and just not argue or disagree with them.
The problem is that if something is true then it’s opposite can not be true was well. The sky can not be blue and orange at the same time. Two plus to can not be five, and ain’t still isn’t a word. It surprised me but as I was preparing for this sermon I discovered that the debate over the nature of truth has been going on for thousands of years. This attempt at relativity isn’t new and it won’t end with us. But at least we can try and understand the nature of truth and share that with others.
Aristotle speaking centuries before Christ was born summarized the difference between true and false like this, “To day of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is, is false, while to say of what is that it is, and of what is not that it is not, is true; so that he who says of anything that it is, or that it is not, will say either what is true or what is false; but neither what is nor what is not is said to be or not to be.” You thought that last point was Shakespeare but it was Aristotle first. and I agree that that definition is a little complicated but essentially what he was saying is that truth lies in the actual existence of the thing which a thought or statement is about.
That is a pretty good beginning but it doesn’t quite cover everything. Thomas Aquinas the great Christian scholar came along 1500 years later and added, “For the meaning of true consists in a matching of thing and understanding, and matching presupposes diversity, not identity. So the notion of truth is first found in understanding when understanding first starts to have something of its own which the external thing doesn’t have, yet which corresponds to the thing and can be expected to match it.” I know kinda gives you a headache, but essentially what Aquinas meant was truth can be defined as a match of understanding and the thing that is being understood.
That’s a simple definition, I think it’s a make sense kind of definition. But it’s a definition that a lot of people don’t want to follow. The key word there is “want.” They don’t want something to be true so they argue with it and about it. But if something is true then it’s opposite is false. In this case what Aquinas was saying is that for something is true not only must the thing exist but what you understand about it must be consistent with that thing.
The next concept for us to understand is that for truth to be real it must be absolute. Understand as we begin to look at this that there is a difference between a fact and a truth. One of those differences is that a fact is relative to time and space, but truth is not. For example, when I was in High School that statement, Ronald Reagan is the President of the United States. That fact is no longer accurate, but it once was, it was bound by time.
Truth is also not relative to persons. We all may have opinions about something, but our opinions do not change what is true they just reflect our understanding of what is true. Mortimer Adler said, “We may differ in our judgment about what is true, but that does not affect the truth of the matter itself.” We all have opinions, but they are just that opinions, but truth is something different entirely. It simply is.
Here’s the good news, we can know the truth about God. Think about the story of God appearing to Moses in the burning bush. God is sending Moses back to Egypt to bring the people out. Moses begins to ask questions, he’s really looking for a way out and finally he asks Exodus 3:13, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?’ God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” That could also be translated as “I will be what I will be.” I love the simplicity of the response but also the profoundness of it. God says, Moses, I am what I am, it’s not up to you, it’s about me. It’s not about your opinion, it just is, apart from you, from the children of Israel, apart from all the people who ever will be including us, God is who He is, it isn’t relative, it is a truth.
The truth of God is also not dependent on space and time. Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Genesis tells us that in the beginning was God. John tells us that the Word being Jesus was with God in the beginning, and was God in the beginning. Revelation assures us that God is not just the beginning, that He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. God is God all the time and for all time, this is a truth, it is not a matter of opinion and it does not change over time. God is God and because that is true we can know about God.
2. The Truth From God
More than that, since God is the beginning and He is true, then God becomes the source of truth. The most important truth is found in Jesus Christ. You’re familiar with what Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the Father except through me.” But the truth of God is more then just what we read about the life of Christ, it is all of the Bible. This is reflected in Jesus prayer in the Garden in John 17:17 He says, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” But the truth is not just in God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Bible, we find it through the work of the Holy Spirit as well. In John 14:16 Jesus says, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever - the Spirit of Truth. The world cannon accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” All of the aspects of God come together as truth and in the word of God and through the word of God they reveal the truth to us.
The most important truth of all begins with this understanding, Jesus sis who the Bible says He is. Do you realize that the questions about who Jesus is aren’t new? When you read the gospels you see the religious leaders debating with Jesus but they are also investigating Him as well. They were trying to figure out who He was. Last week we looked at the story of Pharisee who invited Jesus over for dinner but the first opportunity he had we see him judging if Jesus was even a prophet. But that Pharisee’s questions were answered when Jesus answered the question that he said to himself.
Through His life, His word and His people Jesus has been about the business of showing who He was, that He was the truth and He is the savior literally from the beginning. The prophecies of the Messiah are through out the Bible from Genesis through Revelation. You understand the Jesus is the Messiah who did come and He is the Messiah who will come. He is the one who will crush the head of the serpent in Genesis and He is the conqueror who will return in Revelation. But in between the start of the war in Genesis and His final victory in Revelation was Jesus time on Earth and His decisive victory on the cross that was complete when He stepped out of the grave.
He fulfilled over 300 prophecies about the Messiah, clearly marking Him as the one who was prophecies to come. His disciples left behind their written and verbal testimony of their belief in Him as the savior of the world. Think about what it cost them. Simon Peter crucified upside down. Andrew, crucified. James, Beheaded. John died in exile. Matthew, speared to death. Bartholomew, beaten then crucified. Philip, crucified. Thomas, speared to death. Simon the zealot, crucified. James, stoned. Thaddaeus, stoned. What was the offense that each of these men committed. Preaching that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and that in Him we could have eternal life.
But what about the Bible itself? This is the best documented work in all antiquity. There are 5,000 copies in the original Greek language from that time. When you add up all of the manuscripts in different languages there are over 25,000 manuscripts from that time period. These hand written manuscripts are 97.9% identical and all of the major teachings of the church are affirmed in them. When a new translation of the Bible comes out, these are the manuscripts that the translators go back to, not previous editions even by the same publishers. The goal is to accurate. Eternity is a real long time, theologians want to be right. Jesus is who the Bible says He is and we do know what the Bible said about Him, His disciples were willing to die for this truth and their disciples were willing to die for it. You realize that the truth of Christianity was one that could get you killed for centuries, and yet still it spreads. By the way it still can get you killed in parts of the world and still it spreads.
Why? Because of this, Jesus is the only way to Heaven. It goes back to the claim of John 14:6, but even more than that. Every other religion claims that the path to Heaven is about what you do. Really, can we be honest here. None of us is big enough to create eternal life. We can’t even cure the common cold. Most of us have been suffering from allergies, between our perfect weather and lack of rain. We can’t fix those either. But somehow we’re the key to eternal life. Good luck with that. I’m taking Jesus promise in the beginning of John 14, “Do not let your hearts be troubled, Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am going.” Salvation isn’t about what we do, it is about what He has already done. That is the truth that we need to be sharing with the people around us and then inviting them on the journey to discover the truth of God with us. Some people hide from the truth because they think that they know best. They hide because they want control of their lives. They hide from it because they think that then they are free. But look at what Jesus said in John 8:31, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” When we know Christ we discover that He is the source of freedom. We are free to become who we were created to be, the best version of ourselves. We don’t have to search for who we are because we know that we are children of God. Then we spend our time, following Him and finding who He created us to be. We are free to find the truth
3. The Truth about Us.
So that is the nature of truth, that is the truth from God. But there is one other thing we have to look at, the truth about us. This is the part that makes us cringe. Because sometimes that truth is uncomfortable. As we look at 1 Kings we see two men with a different view of the truth. This was a time when Israel and Judah were allies and so Aram the King of Israel asks Jehoshaphat the king of Judah to go to war with Him. Jehoshaphat says, “I’m with you, but first let’s see what God says.” That is a good answer. It’s one we should all give when we realize and believe that God is the source of all truth. So Aram calls 400 guys together and they all say, “Go for the Lord will give it into the kings hand.”
There’s a problem that answer and Jehoshaphat saw it, do you? Notice it doesn’t say that they prayed first, it just says that the answered. So Jehoshaphat asks, “Isn’t there a prophet of the Lord we can ask?” Look at Aram’s answer because it reflects us so many times. 1 Kings 22:8, “The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, ‘There is still one man through whom we can inquire of the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.” We’re like that, we like to be around people who tell us good things about ourselves. Let’s just be honest, if there is someone who always tells you how horrible you are, always points out your weaknesses and flaws, we start to want to be someplace else. We like people who tell us we look good, even when we don’t. Here’s an important relational tip we all need to remember to tell people good things about themselves sometimes. We like it when people do it for us, and we should do it for them.
So there’s this understandably strained relationship, the problem for Aram is that he was talking to a prophet of God and God wasn’t pleased with Him. When he was seeking an answer that God would bless him the answer from God was no. Here’s the truth, although all of us have talents and abilities. Although we can always find nice things to say about each other. Sometimes we need people who are also willing to tell us difficult truths. People who will tell us God’s truth that we need to hear are valuable. I’m talking about the times when we’re headed in a wrong direction and someone is willing to help us. This is a two point lesson. It’s not just that we need to be open to hear a hard truth from people who have earned our trust. But that when we feel like someone is going a wrong direction or has a flaw or weakness we don’t always need to share. I’m losing my hair, this is a truth, I don’t need to hear it all the time and if someone wants to remind me of it all the time, I might not think that their advice is valuable.
There is a time and a place to share with someone the truth of God’s word, but we need to make sure it is valuable and to make sure that it is from God. Look at what happens with our kings. Ahab and Jehoshaphat call Micaiah forward, after a brief discussion, lets be honest a bit of an argument with sarcasm thrown in Micaiah finally tells Ahab the truth, Verse 17, “Then Micaiah answered, ‘I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd, and the LORD said, ‘These people have no master. Let each one go home in peace.’ Then the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, ‘Didn’t I tell you that he never prophesies anything good about me, but only bad?”
Micaiah told Ahab the truth, but Ahab didn’t want to hear it. It was valuable because Micaiah warned him that defeat and death was coming. But Ahab didn’t want to hear it, so he rejected it. He went into battle. If you read the rest of the story, he actually tried to set Jehoshaphat up so that if a king was killed it would be him. It didn’t work and end the end Ahab was killed. We need to have people in our lives who will speak God’s truth to us, and we need to be willing to value it when we hear it.
Here’s the good news though, God’s desire for us is to live a life of victory, a life of hope. So while sometimes His word to us may be a warning, if we are following Him and walking on His path overall the messages will be positive. Because God wants whats best for us and God is in control. As we think of one final passage one final truth for us What God says about you and to you is true.
With that in mind listen to these words from Paul to Titus, Titus 1, “Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God’s elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness-a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, and at his appointed season he brought his word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior.” God does not lie and He sent His Son for us. If we will put our faith in HIm then we will live with Him, in this world and in the next. Have you embrace this truth today.
Message Notes – Sunday March 11th, 2012
“The Value of Truth”
1 Kings 22:6-14
“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32
Understanding the Nature of Truth:
Truth can be defined as a match of understanding and the thing that is being understood.
For truth to be real it must be absolute.
We can know the truth about God.
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8
The Truth From God:
God is the source of truth.
Jesus is who the Bible says He is.
Jesus is the only way to Heaven.
The Truth About Us:
We like to be around people who tell us good things about ourselves.
People who will tell us God’s truth that we need to hear are valuable.
What God says about you and to you is true.
