-What is truth? In the metaphysical statement of logic it is stated that “No statement can be both true and false”
-It really depends upon where your source of truth lies. If you follow the belief of the northern folks 20 degrees can be quite pleasant, but if you follow their southern counterparts they might say 20 degrees is blustery and unacceptable. It depends upon who you follow and what their belief is.
-This however, is where we get into the problems with statements of “what may be true for you may not be for me”. Does this argument hold water? Can something both be true and yet false at the same time?
-Can you believe something and it is true and yet I believe something totally different and it also is true?
-Can there both be a God and not be a God? Can there be a Savior and yet not be a Savior? Is there sin that we are accountable for and yet no accountability needed? WOW, we could go much deeper, but we will stop there. I think you can see the dilemma we face.
-This argument has lasted for centuries and no conclusive answer has come yet. This tells me that there is a need, a need for truth, an absolute if you will; something to stand on, stand in, be part of, it be part of you.
-Imagine living your life with no truth. With statements like, “It can’t be true that if I jump into the fire I will get burned.” Or “If I don’t eat I won’t die.” If life was lived on speculation, or opinion based on incomplete information only, our existence would be meaningless. There would be no point, no direction, no warning, no advise, no ABSOLUTE.
-Let us take this thought a little further, imagine facing eternity and the uncertainty of it without any truth. Oh we may make up some things in our mind about what to believe and what not, but does that make the truth any less true?
-No it just means that we are facing the eternal side of life with uncertainty.
-Michael Faraday, the great scientist, was taken ill. When it became evident that the sickness that had fastened itself upon him would soon result in his death, a group of fellow scientists came to see him--not so much to talk about science as to talk about death. One of them said to him: "Mr. Faraday, what are your speculations about your future?" With evident surprise to them he replied: "Speculations! I have none. I am resting on certainties." Then he quoted II Tim. 1:12: "For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day."
-I don’t know about you but I would rather face this life with no truth that eternity with no truth.
-For those that do not believe in Christ as the ONLY way to the Father, and to those that believe He is, one of us is incredibly wrong, tragically wrong.
-You have to make a decision today, Is this word that we read and call the Scriptures, ancient in nature and proven stable and reliable, is IT true, or is my thought of who Christ is true?
-You either have to live life as if it is totally true or live life as if it is not true at all.
-Christ is the central theme of all Scripture, it’s all about Him, it’s not about making your life better, but it’s all about Him.
-If there were no truth in this world at all, then all the sudden I told you I have the truth and it is reliable and proven, after examination of me and my truth you come to find it true also, would you not protect it, cherish it, and share it with every person you know?
-If we were to take verse 14 and remove the designation of Christ as the “only Son” and reread that sentence it would say, “glory as from the Father”. Note just a few passages about something being from the Father:
Psalm 104:4 (ESV)
4 he makes his messengers (angels) winds, his ministers a flaming fire.
Hebrews 11:28 (ESV)
28 By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer (Or messenger of God, angel) of the firstborn might not touch them.
1 Corinthians 10:10 (ESV)
10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.
2 Samuel 24:16 (ESV)
16 And when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented from the calamity and said to the angel who was working destruction among the people, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” And the angel of the LORD was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
1 Chronicles 21:16 (ESV)
16 And David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the LORD standing between earth and heaven, and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.
2 Kings 19:35 (ESV)
35 And that night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
Acts 12:21-23 (ESV)
21 On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them.
22 And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!”
23 Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.
-Now please allow me to read to you about the “Son”. Hebrews 1:5-13 Read with me.
-As powerful and glorious as the angels are, the Son, only beloved one, is more so.
I. Glory
A.
1. W.E. Vine’s says, “His glory” speaking of God, “was exhibited in the character and acts of Christ in the days of His flesh.” In other words God’s glory was seen in Christ.
2. This is speaking of the Glory of God.
3. There is a lot made of the glory of God, we say that, “we give Him glory” when in all actuality that statement may not be completely true.
4. Know this, Him having glory is not contingent upon you giving it to Him, it already belongs to Him.
5. 1 Chronicles 29:11 (ESV)
11 Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all.
6. Know this also, that not only does it, all the glory, already belong to Him, but it was displayed through Christ.
7. In other words when we look at Christ we look at God.
8. Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” “If you have seen Me you have seen the Father.”
9. So either Jesus is completely true or He is completely false, there is no in between.
10. So if we, being broken people with sin in our life unable to obtain perfection, deny Jesus and what the Bible says of Him does it make it any less true? NO! Truth is not contingent upon what you believe.
11. Whether you want to believe it or not, Jesus is not only the Son of God that died for our sins, but He is also the very representation of God Himself.
12. When we deny Christ, we are denying the very glory of God, in essence denying God.
II. Grace
A. The Law
1. We as fallen humanity live our whole life trying to be good.
2. We then live clinging to what we do for justification.
3. Fact of the matter is no law has ever made a person better, the knowledge of the law does, but not the law itself.
4. The Bible makes reference to the law being a schoolmaster showing that we need a Savior, someone to deliver us from our faults, but it never saved us.
5. I have had many teachers in my life, but none of them ever got me a job, what they did for me did get me jobs, but not the teacher.
6. Counting on the law, or being good, will not make you good at all.
B. Grace
1. John 1:17 (ESV)
17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
2. Romans 6:23 (ESV)
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
3. Ephesians 2:8 (ESV)
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
4. It comes only through Christ.
III. Truth
A. John 14:6 (ESV)
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
1. Not “A” way or a truth or a life, but “THE”
-There is none greater a truth than Christ. He is the Creator and Sustainer of your life and all mans existence, He alone is worthy to carry your present and eternity.
