Truth - A Bargain At Twice The Price Series

(I spent a couple years as a student at Purdue University, and this is one of the jokes I heard there) There were a couple of students - one from IU and one from Notre Dame - standing beside a flagpole discussing something. About that time, a student from Purdue walked over and asked “What ya doing?” “We trying to figure out the height of this flagpole,” said one of them, “and we can’t agree on what formula we should use to calculate its height.” The Purdue student thought about that for a couple moments and then he walked over and lifted the pole out of its holder and laid it on the grass. He pulled out a tape measure, measured it, and said, “Exactly 24 feet.” Then he put the pole back up… and walked away. The other two students stood there for a minute and then one said to the other: “Isn’t that just like a guy from Purdue! We ask him for height - he gives us length.”

Now, why is that funny? Well, it’s funny because - however you measure that pole - it’s always going to be the same. You could take it out of the ground and measure its length, and it would be the same distance as its height! That truth doesn’t change no matter how you measure that pole.

(PAUSE) And that’s how we tend to think about truth. Truth doesn’t change. And, because Truth doesn’t change, we learn to depend upon it. That’s why our text this morning advises us: “Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.” Proverbs 23:23

To paraphrase an old saying “Truth is a bargain at twice the price." Buy Truth! You could pay twice as much for truth as you might pay for anything else and it would still be worth it, because truth has such a great value that it’s a bargain.

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ILLUS: WE value truth. If a person lies to us, if they don’t tell us the truth, then after a while we don’t trust them. In fact, eventually we’ll even avoid them. We value truth in relationships.

Albert Einstein once observed: “Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.”

When a person testifies in court they’re asked: “Do you swear to the tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God.”

You’d think that because we rely so heavily on truth… that truth would be highly valued in our society. But – too often - it’s not!

I saw a cartoon recently that said it this way. “Do you swear to the tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth even though nobody has any idea what that is anymore?”

Does anybody really NOT know what the truth is anymore? Well, when “experts” won’t tell you whether a MAN can get pregnant or not - they might not know what truth is anymore. Or when sports authorities won’t tell men (who identify as “women”) that they can’t compete in women’s sports - they might not know what truth is anymore. Or when libraries allow cross-dressing men to read stories you'd never dream of reading to your kids to elementary kids - they might not know what truth is anymore.

As it says in Romans 1:22–25 “Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them up … because they exchanged THE TRUTH about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator …”

We’ve actually reached the point where a lot of folks agree with this t-shirt (I showed it on the screen) “I reject your reality and substitute my own.” It’s meant to be a funny saying… but it’s not funny anymore.

For Bible believing Christians that kind of thinking is absolute nonsense. Bible believing Christians believe (hold up the Bible) THIS IS TRUTH! In fact, when Jesus prayed what’s called… His High Priestly prayer in Jn 17 He said: “Sanctify them in the truth; your word (The Bible) IS TRUTH.” John 17:17

ILLUS: One man compared the Bible to the jigsaw puzzles he used to put together at his grandmother’s house when he was younger. She’d buy these jigsaw puzzles and then throw the box away, and he’d try to put the puzzle together, but he had no idea whether the puzzle was of a barn/ an antique car/ or sailing ship. Without the picture he had no idea how the puzzle fit together. He explained that like the box of Jigsaw puzzle “The Bible gives us the picture, so we know how the pieces fit together.”