What Is Truth?

2023.08.20.SERMON NOTES. WHAT IS TRUTH?

William Akehurst, HSWC

BIG IDEA: Times have changed. We see that society and culture is changing. What was once evil is not called good, what was called good, is not called evil. There is much deception in our world today, and yet many cry out, searching for “What is truth?”

SCRIPTURES: Philippians 4:8, 2 Timothy 4:1-5, 2 Timothy 3:1-9, John 18:33-38, Genesis 2:15-17, Genesis 3:1-5, 2 Timothy 3:10-17, 2 Timothy 2:15, Psalms 25:1-5, 2 Timothy 4:1-5, 2 Thessalonians 2:5-12, Romans 1:24-25, Isaiah 5:20, Proverbs 3:5-7, Luke 6:43-49, Proverbs 17:15, John 8:42-47, John 14:6, John 1:1, 1 John 2:18-27

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Philippians 4:8

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.

PAUL’S CHARGE TO NOT BE SILENT, BUT TO SPEAK THE TRUTH.

2 Timothy 4:1-5

1 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom:

2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.

3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;

4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

IN THESE LAST DAYS, THERE WILL BE PERILOUS TIMES

WHEN THERE ARE THOSE WHO WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO ACCEPT THE TRUTH

2 Timothy 3:1-9

1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:

2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,

4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

6 For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,

7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

8 Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith;

9 but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.

PILATE – “WHAT IS TRUTH?”

John 18:33-38

33 Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus, and said to Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?”

34 Jesus answered him, “Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this concerning Me?”

35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You to me. What have You done?”

36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”

37 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.”

38 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 ASKS “WHAT IS TRUTH?”

ADAM AND EVE AT THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL HAD TO CHOOSE

BETWEEN GOD’S TRUTH AND THE DEVIL’S LIE,

AND THEY CHOSE THE DEVIL’S LIE.

SATAN SPEAKS THE LIE

Genesis 2:15-17

15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

SATAN IS CUNNING, DECEIVING MANY. WHISPERING, TAUNTING, SEDUCING.

Genesis 3:1-5

1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”