The Absence of Truth

Message 3: The Absence of Truth SUGGESTED PASSAGE: Romans 1:18-32 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. 28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. MESSAGE GOAL: The goal of this message is to sound the alarm about the dangers that result when a culture is determined to deny and suppress the truth, and to present the only solution that can bring an end to the chaos. INTRODUCTION: Voter suppression is a term we’re hearing a lot about because it’s one of the major political, social, racial and cultural issues of the day. Those who advocate for greater voter accessibility believe there are inferences that intentionally seek to limit or deny equal access to the ballot box. Since the equal right to vote is a hallmark of democracy, the battle rages across communities and states to ensure voting rights for all people. As important as this issue is, there is a greater suppression we face today, with implications much deeper and consequences that last much longer than the suppression of a vote. This greater issue is the suppression of truth in our culture. When a culture suppresses or even seeks to cancel truth altogether, it will leave lasting negative results in every area of life. The absence of truth leads to people with warped character, resulting in greater and greater cultural chaos. Whether in the name of popularity, preference, independence or political correctness, our society is trying to suppress truth. To suppress something means to push and hold it down so that it cannot function the way it was designed to. But truth can’t be suppressed forever without popping back up to the surface, sometimes with explosive results. We have a phenomenon in our nation today called cancel culture, and the church is not immune to it. Cancel culture is a deliberate and devastating attempt to limit, hinder and silence people, viewpoints and ideas that don’t agree with the prevailing mood. Cancel culture is the most toxic form of suppression we have ever witnessed in this country—a concerted attack on any form of truth that is inconvenient to or opposed to those who want to live without any restraints. It is limiting another person’s freedom to believe and say something different than what society has deemed satisfactory tonyevans.org | tonyevanstraining.org

to believe or say. When applied to Christian subjects or Christian viewpoints, cancel culture becomes what Paul called in Romans 1 the suppression of truth. We’re going to see how this process works and why it is so devastating to individuals and to society. But there is also good news. God’s truth cannot be held down forever. Like a ball filled with air, truth is designed to float on the surface of our hearts and our minds so we can recognize it for what it is. But first, let’s see how our culture seeks to suppress truth in order to remove it from the discussion and equation when it comes to how we should live our lives. SERMON POINTS: 1. TRUTH IS BEING SUPPRESSED BY PEOPLE WHO DON’T WANT GOD (VV. 18-20) People who suppress God’s truth want to live life their own way, independently of Him. Truth has been kicked to the curb today. It’s been kicked out of our schools, booted out of our government, stripped from our families and pulled from our relationships. And sadly, God’s truth has even been asked to leave the church in many cases. But trying to suppress truth doesn’t cancel out its truthfulness! Truth isn’t created by consensus, and its removal comes with severe consequences of God’s wrath on its wickedness. 2. SUPPRESSING TRUTH REQUIRES THE DULLING OF OUR CONSCIENCE (VV. 21-23) Our conscience is a truth regulator, a God-given “smoke detector” of the soul. But suppressing the truth warps the conscience, like batteries wearing out in a smoke detector so that it becomes less and less activated and alert. Suppressing the truth can bury the conscience under a pile of lies. But people are without excuse because the truth is right in front of them. 3. GOD IS UNLEASHING HIS WRATH AGAINST TRUTH SUPPRESSORS (VV. 24-32) His wrath is evident in the destructive consequences we see today in individual lives and especially in the culture at large. God does not have to rain down fire and brimstone to express His wrath. He simply has to give over the truth suppressors to their evil desires. People who say to God, “I want to get rid of You. I don’t want to acknowledge You or anything that has to do with You. I want You completely out of my life,” have lost their way. America has lost its way, and unfortunately, a lot of Christians have lost their way too, because they have abandoned the truth. Whether you’re thinking of yourself or someone else, the antidote to experiencing the pain and distress of living under God’s wrath is to remember where you went off the track, repent of the sin, and return to the Lord (Revelation 2:4-5). You will find reprieve and release as you bow in confession and submission to God. He will satisfy you with the finest of fine things to enjoy. And when God satisfies you, He satisfies you in a way that lasts. He gives peace, contentment, fulfillment, calm and joy. All you have to do is return to the God of truth! SERMON ILLUSTRATIONS: HANDLING THE TRUTH One of my favorite movies is A Few Good Men, particularly the epic scene in which Tom Cruise’s character is interrogating Jack Nicholson on the witness stand about the murder of a Marine that was covered up. As passions rise, Cruise pounds on the table and yells, “I want the truth!” Nicholson looks him in the eyes and yells back, “You can’t handle the truth!” tonyevans.org | tonyevanstraining.org

This seems to be where we have landed in our culture today. Everybody claims that they want truth. But when truth comes to the surface, most people can’t handle it or don’t want to hear it. That’s why many calls for truth are really little more than calls for consensus: “Let’s just agree on what we believe the truth is and get along. Don’t rock the boat.” NEED OXYGEN? Many people want to dismiss God as a force in our world because they can’t see Him. But we can’t see oxygen either, yet we depend on it for life. If we were to declare that oxygen no longer exists because we can’t see it, and therefore say we have the right to breathe whatever we want whenever we want in its place, we wouldn’t last much longer. We can’t replace oxygen with whatever we want and have anything good come of it. Neither can we replace God. Yet, that is exactly what our culture is seeking to do. But people cannot replace God and have anything good come of it. THE REAL VALUE When you buy a picture frame, it may be expensive. But it’s really worthless until you take out that generic photo that comes with the frame and replace it with a photo that is special to you and worthy of being displayed in a beautiful frame. That’s the real value of the frame. However, many people in our culture have taken the beautiful frame of God’s creation and put their own picture in it, which causes the frame to lose its value to them. But if we ever put God back into the frame—if He once again becomes the centerpiece for all of life, then the frame of our lives will achieve what it was designed to achieve. BACKGROUND BIBLICAL HISTORY AND CULTURE: The church at Rome was one of the few New Testament churches that Paul didn’t establish. Of course, Rome was the center of political, social, cultural and economic power in the first century. It was also the center of just about every kind of sexual and moral debauchery imaginable, making Paul’s warning in Romans 1 extremely relevant to his readers. SERMON LINES: This sermon will outline the devastating results that come when individuals and a culture deliberately suppress and abandon God’s truth as revealed in His Word. This sermon will also show listeners the way back from suppressing and abandoning God’s truth to living under its manifold blessings. QUOTES BY DR. TONY EVANS: “When there is the death of truth, the person who thinks he is wise becomes nothing more than a fool with a degree!” “If and when a culture chooses to suppress truth, that culture will face the consequences of its choices.” “Sometimes we treat God the way people treat the Queen of England. She gets a lot of respect. When she is away, the flag on the castle is at one level. When she comes back, the flag is raised. When her entourage comes down the street, everybody pulls over because it’s the queen. But even though the queen gets respect, she has no real power. She can’t pass laws; she just represents a historical tradition to be honored. But there’s no power behind it.” “One trait of truth suppressors is that they aren’t thankful. I don’t ever remember my dog saying, ‘Thanks for feeding and watering me, and making sure I stay healthy.’ I do remember that he had great expectations for food and water, and let me know when he wanted to be fed. He wanted to be blessed. He just never stopped to say, ‘Thank you.’” “Today we have a culture full of folks who act like my dog. They’ve got great expectations, but never tell God, ‘Thank you.’”