The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God
Isaiah 56:1-2
Isa 56:1 Thus says the LORD: "Keep justice, and do righteousness, For My salvation is about to come, And My righteousness to be revealed.
2 Blessed is the man who does this, And the son of man who lays hold on it; Who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, And keeps his hand from doing any evil."
1- Introduction
Pick up your Bible – What do you have in your hand? - TRUTH
A friend of ours who went through Bible college while we were still living in Northamptonshire came back completely mixed up to the point where he said that the Bible was no longer necessary because it wasn’t absolute truth. He didn’t trust what was written through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
He denied many fundamental truths such as Hell, Jesus being God, and Jesus being the only way to heaven.
1. In the passage we read “keep justice and do righteousness.” Where do these come from? - God
Jesus the truth
John 14:6 Jesus said “I am the way the truth and the life”
God of truth
De 32:1 "Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
2 Let my teaching drop as the rain, My speech distill as the dew, As raindrops on the tender herb, And as showers on the grass.
3 For I proclaim the name of the LORD: Ascribe greatness to our God.
4 He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He.
Spirit of Truth
1Jo 5:6 This is He who came by water and blood--Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth.
The Word is truth
Ps 119:160 The entirety of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.
2 - Justice and righteousness come from the truth of God’s word and character.
To be just means to be impartial in action and judgement. To be honest, correct and true. God’s word and His character are the highest standards by which anything or anyone can be judged.
In Engineering if something is true then it is straight without bends, bumps or imperfections along its length.
In archery an arrow has to be true so that it flies straight, incidentally in archery the word used to describe missing the target is “sin.”
When manufacturing something the engineer or craftsman is always given a tolerance to work within because it is impossible to get something perfectly straight.
When it comes to God’s word there is no tolerance
Dictionary says, ”the permitted variation in some characteristic of an object or workpiece.”
There is no variation in God; He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Jas 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
When the Bible says, “the wages of sin is death” it means “the wages of sin is death.” Missing the target with God means the judgement of eternity in Hell.
Rather than tolerating, God gives grace and shows mercy to completely remove us from the penalty of sin. Bible says “mercy triumphs over judgement”
In mercy another has stepped into our place and taken that punishment of death. Who was this person? It was the one who said “I am the way the truth and the life.” Nobody else would have been good enough, nobody else was without sin except for Jesus.
Let’s take a quick look at our justice system. It relies completely on the truth and the discovery of the truth. Seen any of those programs like CSI or Silent Witness where science uncovers the truth. Occasionally, some one manages to get away with a crime because the truth could not be proven and established strongly enough and others have been jailed wrongly because the truth was manipulated or science wasn’t advanced enough to reveal the truth in time.
The legal system works with something provable but the spiritual system of this nation is something else.
Truth is what you make it.
To some there is no such thing as absolute truth.
There is my truth and your truth, each one is equally valid even if they contradict each other
Spiritual truth has become very subjective.
Ho 4:1 Hear the word of the LORD, You children of Israel, For the LORD brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land: "There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land.
This nation of ours is rated the second most Godless nation in the world second only to Japan. Since 9/11 27,000 people have converted to Islam
When we remove the truth form our Christian faith we remove the authority of the Bible, the influence of the Holy Spirit the saving Grace of Jesus Christ and the love of the Father
These must be defended by every believer and held like treasure in our hands.
David Pawson is saying that this nation is going to become an Islamic state.
When Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except by me” He meant exactly that. He was stating the truth.
3 - And this we can’t compromise.
Each one of us knows something of the truth
because we know something of the Bible.
Because we know something of God,
Because we have experienced Him in our lives,
Because we have seen Him work in and through others.
If we say “the Bible doesn’t mean that” when it does,
Or “God didn’t say that” when he did,
Or “God didn’t do that” when He did,
we compromise the truth
As a young Christian I used to look at people and see that they were doing OK and thought that if they heard the Gospel and responded their lives would be turned upside down. What I didn’t understand was that their lives were already upside down and they needed God to put them the right way up.
If they hear the truth and respond they were going to be spared from and eternity knowing the truth in Hell to an eternity experiencing the truth in Heaven
We mustn’t compromise the truth. If God said it that settles for all eternity.
We compromise the truth for 1 of 2 reasons
1 Ignorance
2 disobedience
If we are ignorant then we can simply ask God for wisdom and understanding. If we are disobedient we must seek forgiveness.
The passage said “Keep Justice and righteousness”
“Keep the truth and act accordingly”
“Keep and act according to the truth”
4 - Personal justice and righteousness
Truth in us
Ps 51:6 Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts,
3 Jo 1:1 THE ELDER, To the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth:
2 Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.
3 For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth.
4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
Eph 6:14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
Php 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy--meditate on these things.
God is true to us let us also be true to Him. Truth doesn’t have a religious form it has a holy and spiritual nature and character in a person. We mustn’t fall into the trap of thinking my actions are always an expression of what’s inside.
A religious form stifles and enslaves but the truth makes us free.
Occasionally we should ask ourselves “is what I am doing an expression of God’s truth in my life or a form of religion that has no value or grace in my life”
Remember we are human beings not doings. So much of the Bible is concerned with who we are and not what we do. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking because I am doing such and such I am alright with God.
God would rather we sat down with him and be still in His presence and establish a relationship with Him than see us run around too busy to invest our time in something worthwhile.
Keep Justice and do righteousness for my salvation is about to come and my righteousness to be revealed
Isaiah here is speaking about a future hope and deliverance that would come and he wanted them to be ready. It is so easy to miss out on what God has for us if we stray from the truth.
Future Hope of truth
Our Bible studies have been focused on the second coming of Jesus and about how we need to be ready. Keep the truth and act according to the truth. So let us lay hold of the truth and in justice and righteousness and eagerly wait for that day
5 - Conclusion
As a closing thought just maybe if we lay hold of the truth and allow it to shape us and develop us we might see the salvation of God and his righteousness revealed amongst us as we pray for and witness to our friends and family. Maybe we might just be the catalyst for something good in this town.
Without the truth we can say nothing worthwhile, do nothing that is worthwhile and be nothing worthwhile. Hold on to the truth as treasure invest your lives in it.
