TRUTH AND GODLINESS
TITUS 1:1
Over the past few weeks there has been a lot of talk on truth. Most of it focused on whether the President told the truth when he testified before a judge and a grand jury. The president claims that he did tell the truth as he understood certain terms. President Clinton puts forth the basic idea that is held by many Americans, that is if you believe something to be true, that in itself makes it true.
What is strange about this viewpoint is that it is only acceptable when you are talking of morals or religion. We have all heard people say it doesn’t matter what religion you are as long as you are sincere. In other words if you believe that you will go to heaven, you will, regardless of whether you have trusted in Jesus or not.
People belief that if you believe something is ok to do then it is. I shared with you the viewpoint of many kids in our youth group, that there are no moral absolutes. If you believe that it is ok to perform a certain act, or live a certain way, then it is ok. In other words it may
not be ok for me, but if you believe it, it is ok for you.
Let us try applying this to the real word. If I believe that it is true that I have a $1000 in my checking account (but in reality only have $5), what do you think is going to happen when I write a check for $999? My believe in that $1000 is not going to help me a bit.
Napoleon believed that he could capture Russia in the winter. What he believed to be true did not help him in the least as he was soundly defeated.
The passengers of the Titanic believed that the ship was unsinkable. Did that believe stop that ship from going to the bottom of the ocean, carrying with it 1,000’s to their deaths? No.
We need to understand, especially in our society today, that TRUTH IS IMPORTANT! It is important to our God, and it should be important to us as well. Regardless of whether we are talking about morals, religion, or everyday life, truth is important.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
Please turn with me to this morning passage, that will be found in the book of Titus chapter one, verse 1. That would be page 1032 in your pew Bibles. Bet you never thought someone could have so much to say about one passage of the Bible. I promise that this will be the last message on verse 1.
"Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness,"
I want to read to you the last phrase of that verse from the NIV as I believe it give a little better inside into the meaning of the verse. "…and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness". Get that, "The knowledge of the truth, that leads to godliness."
The word that is translated "accords" in the NKJV and "leads to" in the NIV literally means "promotes" or "leads to".
So we are told quite plainly in this verse that importance of truth! It leads to, or promotes godliness. Truth, (and we will see what "Truth" is), will bring about godliness.
Lies therefore will bring about what, ungodliness, corruption, evil. Someone once said, "The road to tyranny, we must never forget, is the destruction of the truth", (repeat). That is true, in fact those words were spoken by president Clinton in Oct. of 1995.
But truth is important because it leads us to godliness. So what is truth, what is godliness? Let’s take a look at those two questions. First of all what is truth?
Truth let us understand is not relative. Truth is a concrete ideal. What is true is true for everyone. Something cannot be true and false at the same time. That would destroy the very idea of truth.
I want to read to you an exchange that our Lord Jesus Christ had with Pilate at his trail. This is from John 18:38; "Pilate therefore said to Him, "Are You a king then?" Jesus answered, "You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice."
Pilate said to Him, "What is truth?" And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, "I find no fault in Him at all."
Pilate asked a very profound question, "What is truth?" What he failed to realize that truth was standing right there in front of him. Truth was not some abstract idea that Pilate was ignorant of. Truth was a God-man, Jesus Christ. God himself in human form. Jesus is truth. All He said was truth, all He did was the truth.
Jesus said in John 14:6 "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
Jesus Christ is truth. You want to understand what truth is, read the gospels, read of the life of the one is was and is truth. Not something that changes with passing of time, or the changing of cultures, Jesus Christ is the eternal truth.
The Holy Spirit is also truth. Jesus tells us again in John 14, "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever; the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you."
The Holy Spirit will guide us to the truth. The Holy Spirit’s job is to lead us closer to Jesus Christ. He is the Spirit of truth, and can only leads us to truth. I heard people say that they were lead by the Spirit to lie, or distort the truth in order to accomplish what they believed to be a greater cause. That is nonsense. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, He will not lead one to lie, or distort that fact, or dishonesty, It just will not happen. If you are wondering, is the Spirit leading me to do this or that. If it is true and it is leading you closer to Jesus then Yes He probably is. Is it false or misleading and leading me away from Christ, then no it is definitely not of the Spirit of God.
God’s word is also true. Jesus in His pray to the heavenly Father in John 17 states, "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth."
God’s word is true, all of it! This book contains the Word of God, and every word of it is true. There are too many churches, to many Christian’s now a days that want to cut up the Bible. The want to say well this part is true, but that part is not. This part pertains us, but this part does not.
Jesus who is truth, states that this Book is true, (every word!), and that is good enough for me. You want truth, read the Bible! God’s word is true, and will remain so for all eternity!
God’s law is true! Listen to these passages from Psa. 119; "Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, And Your law is truth."
"You are near, O LORD, And all Your commandments are truth."
We have seem that God’s word is truth, so it only stands to reason that God’s laws and commandments are truth. In our youth group the topic of homosexuality came up. One of the girls stated that while the Bible way say it is wrong, someday God will give us a "New Age" Bible, that will explain that He messed up, and that homosexuality is really ok. In other words that truth of God’s commands, of his laws will change.
Truth by it’s very nature cannot change. God’s laws will never change. What God stated was morally wrong in ancient times is still wrong today, that truth as not changed. Just because a majority of people believe something to be true or false does not make so. Just because the majority of American would say that living together outside of marriage is ok, the truth is it is not. Because God says so. Just because millions of Americans believe that abortion is ok, does not make it ok. God states that it is murder, and that is what it is. And nothing is going to change that truth!
So God’s law is truth!
That last thing I want to point out as truth is the Gospel. Col. 1:5, "because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel,"
Gal. 2:5 "to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you."
The gospel is truth. That fact that Jesus Christ died on the cross to give us eternal life is truth!
1 Cor. 15:1-4 tells us exactly what the Gospel is, "Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you; unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,"
That is the gospel which is truth. That Christ died for our sins, that he was buried, and that He rose again on the third day. Let us be said that there is no other gospel, there is no other way to eternal life! All the other so-called paths to eternal life are false, and lead to destruction. This gospel is truth! This is the gospel you must believe in to have eternal life! To have forgiveness, to have salvation!
So we can see that truth indeed does matter. Truth is powerful. Rom 1:16 tells us "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes,"
Scripture tells us that the truth will set us free, free from sin. It tells us that truth will sanctify us, set us apart to be used by God.
Peter tells us in 1 Peter "Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart," The truth will purify us.
The truth will cause us to grow in the Spirit of God.
All this leads us to say, the truth will promote Godliness in our lives. The road of truth will lead us to godliness.
But what is godliness?
The word Paul uses in our passage is defined this way by W.E. Vine "To be devout, denotes that piety which, characterized by Godward attitude, does that which is pleasing to Him, (God)." That is the Christian life. An attitude that seeks to please God in all we do, that is godliness.
It is those truths that we looked that will promote that godliness. If we wish to be godly people we must follow the one who is truth Jesus Christ.
A very popular sign now a days is the WWJD. What would Jesus Do? That is a question we do not ask ourselves enough. If we wish to live godly lives we need to sincerely ask ourselves "What would Jesus Do?"
If we are to live godly lives we need to look to the God’s word which is truth. Paul states in 1 Tim. "If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness,"
There is that word "accords" again. What Paul is saying here is that the truth of words of Jesus Christ, the doctrine of the Word of God, will lead us to godliness.
We must be lead by the Spirit of truth in our quest to be Godly men and women of God.
We must obey the Word of God, not just read the Bible but obey God, walk in obedience. Without obedience godliness is impossible!
In order to be godly we must believe and accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have no hope of godliness if we reject the gospel. If we do not accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Saviour, we cannot be godly. No matter how many good works we do, no matter how good a person we think we are, if we have not trusted Jesus Christ to cleanse us of our sins, we are not godly people.
I want to point out some principles of Godliness. Godliness means that we are to have an inner piety. Godliness is a sign of a spiritually mature person. It is an inner thing, a closeness to God.
Godliness is not something we put on to impress or please others, yet the godly believer is know by his or her works or fruits. The fruits of the Spirit are very evident within the works of godly Christian.
The Bible is clear on contrasting the works of the flesh with the fruits of the Spirit. The live of one who is godly with the one who is ungodly.
Gal 5:19-21 speaks of the works of the flesh; "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissension’s, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."
Where as Gal. 5:22-23 contrast those things with the fruits of the Spirit; "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law."
These are the signs of Godliness, there are the fruit of those who are walking in those truths we mentioned earlier. As we go through the book of Titus we wills see that Paul brings out the need to live godly lives throughout his letter. He states that young women are to be taught how to live Godly lives by the older women.
He tells Titus to show himself "a pattern of good works", in others word to live a godly live.
He also tell servants to maintain godly lives in their relationship with their masters.
Throughout the letter, as we will see Paul calls on live godly lives.
Godliness means that we live devote lives. An earnest, sincere, devotion to God. We need to be serious about our relationship with God. It is not just a Sunday thing, not just an hour and half with God a week. We need to be devoted as Daniel was devoted, he prayed not once a day but three times a day.
In Luke 2:37 we are told of a women whom scriptures states, "and this woman was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day." That is devotion, that is godliness!
Godliness is also God-like-ness, (repeat). That is characterized by righteousness, Holiness, and Faithfulness.
That is how we ought to live at all times.
Listen to how Scripture describes Hezekiah, "Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, and he did what was good and right and true before the LORD his God."
Can that be said about you. Hezekiah strove to act like God. To be good, to do right, and true. He strove for God-like-ness.
We can see many other examples of "God-like-ness" within the Scripture. Men like Nathaniel, who is said to have "no deceit" within him. A godly man. Barnabas, Timothy, Paul, Elizabeth, men and women who were devote, who were godly, who had a reputation of being Godly.
That is what we should be like. God-like, righteous, holy, devote, living in the truth, living by the truth!
In conclusion we have seen today that truth does matter, it is important, for without truth that is the truth of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, God’s word, God’s law, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we cannot be godly. We cannot be God-like, and devote.
The truth that leads to, that promotes godliness is not what we think to be true, but what God states is true!
You see we all need to be godly, everyone of us. A healthy church is one full of godly Christians. Devote Christians. And as we have noted before a healthy church will lead to godliness in the home. Godly parents will produce godly children.
And when we begin to live as Godly Christians the world will take notice, and we will be able to impact that world with the gospel of Jesus Christ, we will be able to impact that world with what is really truth!
Pray to live in God’s truth, live for the one who is truth, by the Spirit of truth. Godly lives, healthy church, godly homes, greater witness.
