What is Truth?
The attributes of God in Proverbs • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.
We are once again in the motif of the courtroom. This time however we are at an actual known location and an actual known time. If you recall our first encounter with the courtroom scene was with Agur though admittedly that was more of a classroom than what we would consider a courtroom. At that place there was a teacher and students rather than a criminal and a judge. Our second encounter with a courtroom was the courtroom of God when we stand before Him for He is our judge and we are the lawbreakers. This courtroom is not on this earth but rather before the gates of heaven as we all stand convicted of high treason against the Most High. Only in this case Christ takes our punishment that we so richly deserve and gives us His righteousness. This morning is our third look at a courtroom setting which is like the second mention of a courtroom in that there is a Person on trial and a judge to judge the case. Always keep in mind and never lose sight of this fact that had not this third courtroom scene that we will be looking at throughout this miniseries had not taken place then the second courtroom in which we have a champion who placed upon Himself the righteous judgement that we so richly deserve would not take place.
This third form of the courtroom scenes we are all very familiar with, which John tells us in his gospel as well as the other 3 gospel writers. In our imaginations then let us climb aboard our time machine and go back in time 2000yrs ago to the bustling place of Jerusalem (ironically the city of peace). Within it was a Roman citadel where the seat of power resided. Within that Roman citadel there was a Roman governor who ruled as best he could for Roman govenors were not well liked by the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Also within the Roman citadel was a room probably quite large and rather ornate which was called the judgement hall where the seat of power resided. Here criminals as well as others were questioned and/or tried. Within that hall there was a place called the pavement and upon the pavement there was a lone seat raised on a platform which was called the judgement seat or Bema seat where sentence was carried out.
2000 yrs ago there stood 2 men within these lofty halls. The one, the King of kings and Lord of lords disguised as a servant and on trial illegally as a supposed criminal. It was this second man, one Pilate who is staring at the One who is Truth itself. This man has the audacity to ask the question What is Truth. And then like the coward that he was walks away without hearing the answer. Perhaps he was beginning to sense that it was he himself, the servant of the emperor who was on trial and not the God-man that stood before him, one Christ Jesus who only appeared as though He were on trial so that He would be the complete sacrifice for us. This morning however, we won’t be so cowardly as Pilate for we will stay and hear the voice of Truth speak of what truth is as we begin our mini-series on truth.
Let us begin this morning by reading our triumvirate of proverb verses that will be the backbone of our miniseries. In case you are wondering what a triumvirate was it was the governing body of Rome that consisted of 3 people most famously involving Julius Ceasar in which he shared the ruling of the entire Roman world with 2 other people. This was before he became emperor. So, our 3 verses are
Lying lips are abomination to the Lord:
But they that deal truly are his delight.
Have not I written to thee excellent things
In counsels and knowledge,
That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth;
That thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee?
Buy the truth, and sell it not;
Also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
Titling this sermon What is Truth or God’s Attribute of Truth as found in Proverbs
Review
Review
-looking at the attributes of God in proverbs
-sovereignty, holiness, the 3 omni’s omnipresent omnipotent omniscience
-mercy, righteousness and justice.
-work and its necessity,
-rest and its necessity
-looked at an outworking of joy
-looked at that Christ is the source of all Joy
-created a mini-series starting with looking at love being an attribute of God
- we continued in the next study with an aspect of love shown through forgiveness
-looked at the forest and the trees tying the concepts of love, hate, repeat-a-matters and forgiveness together
-last time we connected the dots and found that God is the God of all comfort
So now we have come to truth. The sad irony is that truth is very simple for Jesus said in John 14:6
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Truth is that simple but us as a fallen human race have muddied the waters so bad that it becomes difficult to discover it. The reason why we have muddied the waters is because mankind hates the truth and one of the reasons why mankind hates the truth is because the truth exposes who man is and he does not want to know that lest he be exposed. So, man attempts to change the truth, stretches the truth but discovers that truth is immovable unmailable and an absolute. Failing at the changing of truth, man begins to set up lies as truth as Rom 1:25
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
And so, we have a continuing downward spiral of truth exposes, truth is hated because it exposes, truth is replaced by a lie for the lie agrees with us. This happens not only on an individual basis but on a society as well. If you don’t believe me just look at our own society. This downward spiral all began in the garden when Eve and vicariously Adam questioned the truth of God and we will look at this closer at another time.
The only way in which this spiral can be reversed is through the love of God covering our sins and giving us a new heart so that we no longer hate the truth and what it exposes about ourselves and the world around us. This must be distinctly understood for in no other way can truth be arrived at. Truth can only be arrived at through God opening your eyes to the truth and thus causing you to believe it.
The objection may be raised but what about philosophy? Is it not by definition the study of truth and therefore discovers what truth is? If you can remember back to our studies on Western Civ (which in a lot of ways was church history) I would turn the question around and ask did it? Has philosophy discovered truth? The answer to that is outside of the confines of the true church it is a resounding no. From Plato and Aristotle to our modern philosophers every single one of them come to an unanswerable impasse as to what truth is and how it can be discovered for they all end in skepticism. The only way that this unanswerable impasse can be resolved is in Christ which Lord willing we will discover as we go along.
But we are studying proverbs right? Does proverbs have anything to say on truth? Of course it does. Proverbs are a list of true sayings therefore, all the proverbs in the book of Proverbs, are truths spelt out in different ways. However, as we noted earlier, we will narrow it down to 3 verses in Proverbs as the backbone of our miniseries as they deal specifically with truth. In previous studies we have discovered that it is not always necessary or even desirable to start with the first proverb that deals with a topic but in this case we can start with our first verse. Lets read it this morning. Proverbs 12:22
Lying lips are abomination to the Lord:
But they that deal truly are his delight.
As we always do we will exegete this verse by breaking it up into parts to study their meaning. The question that you may be pondering at the moment is why do we exegete the verse? The short answer is that this is part of the method by which we discover truth in the bible. A more fuller explination of this Lord willing we take a closer look at another time. For now suffice it to say by doing so we will be able to ascertain the whole of its meaning. We have several key phrases here and they are Lying lips, abomination, Lord, the word “they”, deal truly, and His delight, As we look closer at our phrases, we can see that there are 2 pairs that emerge. “Lying lips” pairs with “deal truly” and the word “they” goes with both of the phrases. “Abomination” pairs up nicely with “His delight”. Like our proverb from some of our previous studies the pairing phrases are antithetical to one another which is why it is called an antithetical parallelism which hopefully by this point you have that down pat. The remaining word that is left in our proverb is the Lord which is what this entire proverb is hinged on.
In order to understand our proverb this morning we need to define each pair of antithetical phrases. We will begin with “abomination” and “His delight”. To define them we will use synonyms so for abomination we could use words like detest, hate, stays as far away from, disgust and so on and so forth. For “His delight” we’ll use words like pleased, embraces, loves, finds favor with etc. Our verse continues with the pairing of “lying lips” and “deal truly” which again are opposites. As we stated earlier that the Lord is what the entire proverb is hinged on so therefore it is the Lord who finds lying lips an abomination. It is Jehovah who hates lying lips. It is God who delights in those who deal truly. It is the Lord God Almighty who is well pleased in the truth because God is truth. The reason why we know that is by using the same method of inferences that we have made in the previous studies that we have done. God delights in true dealing because when someone deals truly it is a reflection of God’s character or His attributes so therefore truth must be an attribute of God. Plus, God says so directly from the John 14 verse that we quoted from earlier this morning. So, we can safely say that truth is an attribute of God. But we stand with Pilate and ask, What is truth? The only answer to this question that comes from our proverb is that truth can be defined as non-lie for in our proverb lying lips and dealing truly are opposites.
We have a counterpart in the NT which says essentially the same thing. This is found in Eph 4:25
Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
This verse is right in step with our first proverb this morning for it tells us that we as christians or as God-pleasers we need to put away lying since this displeases God. Instead speak truth to one another as this is pleasing to God. Not only that but as the Eph verse points out we are to be truthful to one another as we are all members of the body of Christ. Therefore, to help keep the community intact we need to be truthful.
Thus far we have discovered that truth is an attribute of God and that being truthful is pleasing to God and that it is needful for the body of believers. However, if you notice we are still standing with Pilate and asking what is truth, for here is is our problem. In essence all we have done is created circular reasoning without defining anything. Indeed, all we have stated is that truth is a non-lie and a lie is a non-truth without really defining anything. Seemingly at this point we are no closer than Pilate was to an answer. However, unlike Pilate who did not want to hear the answer we intend to hear what the Master has to say.
So how then do we discover what is truth? The answer is rather multifaceted, and each facet is so interconnected with each other that it is very difficult to figure out where to start. We could start with logic as it too is an attribute of God but that may require a separate study all on its own. Additionally, to start with logic as an attribute of God requires certain assumptions such as the bible being the authority that testifies of God. The question then arises how do we know this? How do we know that the bible is true and that it is the authority that testifies of God. Is it simply because, or is there more to it. This question we will deal with more fully next week. However, to help us begin to find the answers let’s look at our second set of verses from proverbs and yes we are starting with scripture for it is necessary which again we will look at more fully next week. Prov 22:20-21
Have not I written to thee excellent things
In counsels and knowledge,
That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth;
That thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee?
Again this sounds very familiar, does it not, as we play our familiar game of where else have we heard this? If you were thinking of 1 Peter 3:15 you would be right
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
If you notice there are many similarities between these 2 verses but for our purposes right now we will be looking at 2 parallel points that both authors make. First from proverbs we have: That thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee? and from 1 peter we have: be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you.
But wait a minute you might be saying. 1 Peter says hope and proverbs says truth and generally speaking people tend to think of truth as being something concrete and hope as something that has not yet been grasped so how can these 2 fit together? To answer that question let me ask you one in return. Who is the hope of Peter and who is the hope of the christian? Our hope is Jesus. What did Jesus say of Himself? That He is the way the truth and the life. Therefore, the truth is Christ as we have stated before and therein lies our hope.
The interesting thing about the 1 Peter text is that the Greek word that Peter uses for the words “to give an answer” is the word apologia. It is the root of our English word apologetics. To keep the record straight apologetics does not mean the art of saying I’m sorry though that is very needful for the Christian to know and I must confess that my wife is much better at that than I am. The study of apologetics means exactly as the Hebrew in our proverbs text has rendered it, answer the words of truth. So then, it is giving a defense for the hope that is within us or giving a defense for the truth that is true Christianity.
We will be spending the rest of our time looking at apologia a.k.a apologetics and the reason why we will be taking so much time is because we need to answer Pilate’s question, what is truth. Pilate isn’t the only one who has asked for many throughout the ages have asked that question and many of those who have asked have completely missed the mark as to defining what truth is. There have been so many definitions of what truth is that our society now labels itself multi-truth and flaunts it. You have your truth in your corner and I have my truth in my corner and it doesn’t matter if they contradict each other so long as I hold to my truth sincerely and, and this is most important, that my truth doesn’t encroach on your truth. If it doesn’t then it’s all ok. Well rubbish. To say so completely dismantles the definition and nuances of what truth is. Isn’t it interesting that our secular society and to some extent the very large institution we call the church, not the true church, completely ignore that particular logical fallacy. Why? because by doing so they hope to completely bury the truth in a sea of lies and thus render the truth harmless. People hate the truth because it exposes them and causes them to be accountable, as we already stated. Btw if you haven’t noticed we’ve actually begun to engage in an apologetic type of reasoning.
Let’s step back a bit so we don’t get lost in the details and miss the whole concept. Essentially what apologetics does is that it proves what Jesus says in John 14:6
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
What John says here is the truth and not all those other little truths floating around out there in our society.
So now that we have established that apologetics defends the truth. It acknowledges that God is truth in that truth is an attribute of God and that all truth is God’s truth. Having established these points, we now need to look at different approaches in the application of apologetics.
There are many different variations of apologetics but they can be boiled down to 2 different approaches. The first approach is called classical or evidential apologetics, and the 2nd approach is called presuppositional apologetics. These 2 positions have been debated, sometimes hotly for well over 50yrs or more. Both lines of thinking link themselves to christian philosophers in antiquity though classical likes to link themselves through Aquinas and Augustine even to Greek philosophers such as Aristotle who discovered logic and codified it. In more modern times men such as RC Sproul, though Rc would differentiate between the classical and the evidential apologist. For our purposes this morning we will group them together since they have the same starting point which would indicate very little difference between the 2. Josh McDowell, quite likely Lee Stroebel as well as others have toted such a position. On the presuppositional side you have the champion in Cornelious Van Til. Also you have Greg Bahnson, Vos, John Frame, Gordon Clark as well as a number of others so it isn’t so much of a question of reformed vs non-reformed as you find reformed people on both sides of the question.
So what exactly are the 2 approaches? For the sake of time we need to be brief here since many seminaries teach courses on this very subject and many of the aforementioned people have written books on the subject. The classical position is as follows. The starting point is man, his mind, his self-conscienceness. I exist or as Decarte put it, I think therefore I am. Because I exist and that I think therefore someone must have created me as I am not eternal and self-generation is illogical. These things are certainties. These things are brute facts.
The classical apologetic goes on to say that logic as we mentioned before is an attribute of God and that attribute has been communicated onto man. In this world that God has made there are many absolutes which are called brute facts and another example of this would be you can’t walk through walls. Since they are absolutes, these facts are neutral as they are the same for the christian and the non-christian alike. It doesn’t take any special knowledge or special revelation to understand them. They are what they are and thus the building blocks to understanding truth and the God of truth. Additionally, God has left His mark throughout creation. Therefore, since God has endowed man with the gift of logic that comes from Himself and since there are so many brute facts and since God has left His mark on creation it is possible through the use of logic and reason that man can, not only know that God exists but that it is Jehovah God who is the God of all. The prooftext that they use to substantiate their claims is Rom 1:18-20
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Therefore, so the reasoning goes, that since God has clearly shown Himself in all the evidences that are in creation, it is possible though some would argue that it requires specific illumination of the Holy Spirit to see it, to reason that God exists and that Jehovah is the God of the universe.
The presuppositionalist has a different approach. Their starting point is with God and not man. While it is true that I know that I exist the only reason why I know that I exist is because God exists and He has created me. It is God who gives me the self-awareness that I have and without Him I am nothing including the self-awareness and even the knowledge of self-conscienceness. Those cannot exist without God. The knowledge of self-awareness and the knowledge of self-conscienceness are gifts from God. A good example that proves this is Nebuchadnezzar who became a beast for 7 years with no ability of self-conscienceness and then had that restored to him. It was God who gave him the self-awareness, then took it from him and then restored it. Therefore, it is imperative that we begin with God. While the presuppositionalist acknowledges that evidences are good and necessary they are insufficient to bring anyone to Christ. The reason being is because facts are not the neutral things that they are made out to be. Every fact is interpreted by someone. A good example of this is the evolutionist vs the creationist. Both people look at the very same brute facts as the classical apologist terms them yet come up with radically different conclusions. Why? If there is such a thing as brute facts and thus the facts are therefore neutral, then everyone should come up with exactly the same conclusion whether they be an evolutionist or a creationist. If you think about it there would be no evolutionist because there is no factual basis for anyone to hold the viewpoint of evolution. The problem isn’t that the facts aren’t true it’s the presuppositions or the underlining belief structure that people start with which makes for the radically different conclusions.
For the atheist he starts with there is no God yet life exists so where did life originate? Either life is eternal, or life evolved from nonlife into life. In fact, all the nonchristian viewpoints start with the premise that Jehovah God of the bible is not the true God and therefore they form these elaborate religions in order to accommodate all the questions that arise as the result. Therefore, for the presuppositionalist pounding people with facts upon facts isn’t going to do much. Rather what needs to be done is the starting point needs to be changed for as Paul puts it in 1 Cor 1:21
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
In other words, those brute facts that the evidentialist says lead you to God are simply wordly wisdom that cannot bring you to the point of salvation in any way, for it doesn’t deal with the underlying problem. It’s the heart, the presuppositions, the worldview that needs changing.
The objection might be raised well go ahead walk through that wall with your presuppositions. I’d like to see you do it! There you see brute facts since you cannot walk through that wall even if you presuppose that the wall isn’t there. The answer to that is that we aren’t the only ones who interpret facts. God Himself interprets fact because He is the creator and sustainer of those facts. Because God is absolute, He has made those facts absolute so that we cannot walk through walls. That does not mean that He is bound by them. On the contrary, this means that since God is the interpreter of all of the brute fact it makes it possible for Him to change them if He so desires. This is the very nature of what miracles are. Miracles are a testimony of the fact that God is creator God and as such then is the interpreter of all facts. Therefore, it means that He can change them as He sees fit. A perfect example of this is when Jesus walks on the water and bids Peter to do the same. By this example it shows that God interprets facts and since He does, He can interpret them differently whenever He deems it right to do so. In fact, it is as much of a miracle that all facts remain consistent as facts minute by minute as it is when God changes them and creates what we call a miracle for it is God’s power that does both.
Another charge could be labeled at the feet of the presuppositionalist and this charge has a little bit more teeth. Presuppositionalism is nothing more than a blind leap of faith. It is a shot in the dark. It is no different than a belief in fate. What’s the difference between your leap of faith and the Muslims leap of faith or the Mormon or the JWs or anyone else. Are you therefore just fortunate that you landed on the right faith after your leap?
There are 3 responses to this. First and foremost, God is not an impersonal God like that of Islam or like fate. God is both transcendent and immanent which means that He is both, way above us but also is very near to us. As Psalm 47:2 puts it
For the Lord most high is terrible;
He is a great King over all the earth.
This is how God is transcendent. God shows that He is immanent in this manor Gal 4:6
And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
A mark of nearness; a personalness that is God. Thus, though God is the King of kings and Lord over all things He is concerned for you. Christianity is unique in this regard for in no other religion is there found a God who is both ruler of all and who cares for His people.
Secondly and this is related to the first point and that is that only in christianity do we have a God who redeems. No other religion is there a God who redeems His people. All other religions you hope that you do enough good things to balance out the bad things that you do. The difficulty with that line of thinking is that, no amount of good things will make up for the bad things done. For example: all the good driving that you do throughout your life will not make up for the one time you got caught speeding and given a ticket for speeding. It doesn’t work that way. Only in Christianity do we have a God who is our Savior.
Thirdly that though it is true that we presuppose that God exists those presuppositions are not without validation. Indeed, there are many validations for our presuppositions. First there is the bible itself that was written by approx 40 authors which we will look at its validation next week. Secondly the creation itself testifies to its Creator. Consider for a moment when you make something new or do something artistic, that thing that you have created has your footprint left on it because it is uniquely yours because you are unique. Additionally, in a lot of cases you have put your name upon the thing that you have created. This is exactly how it is with the universe. God has written His name upon the universe and it is uniquely His as He is unique. For the sake of time, we will only look at a couple of ways that shows God’s mark on the creation of the universe.
The first one we will look at is the gravitational pull within an atom. Consider how small an atom is and then consider how many billions upon billions that make up just your own body. Now if the gravitational pull within the atom was just an incredibly tiny fraction (I forget the exact number) more everything would implode or if it was just an incredibly minute fraction less then everything would fly apart. In short if the gravitational pull within the atom was just the minutest fraction off nothing in the universe would exist or could exist. That is a testament to the exactness to God’s power for it shows the impossibleness of the universe happening by chance. It is true that God could’ve made the universe to a different set of values but that does not negate the necessity of God in it. The term that’s often used in cases such as this one is the impossibility of the alternitive.
The second is the living creatures that are here on this earth and their uniqueness defy any other explanation other than God created them. Granted that’s not what the evolutionist believes but show me the missing links? Where are the fossils of all the ones that didn’t make it while the new species was being formed? Ya know the tiger with no teeth or the short-necked giraffe or the turtle with no shell or half a shell or what have you. There are just far too many species on this planet to have evolution be valid. Not to mention the various symbiotic relationships etc. etc.
You might be thinking to yourself, he’s beginning to sound an awful lot like an evidentialist, and I can see how you could reach that conclusion. Understand that the presuppositionalist will never say don’t use evidences but rather say that evidences are a tool rather than the ends. The evidentialist believes that facts are neutral and thus you can begin with them. The presuppostionalist will say that neutrality is a myth. It does not exist. Everyone has a bias and those who are not christian have a God-hating bias and we are seeing this more and more in the left as it is becoming increasingly more anti-christian. Therefore what must be done is to focus on your opponent's presuppositions and ask him how he got them and why and furthermore ask him to validate them rather than blasting him away with evidences that he doesn’t believe anyway and has interpreted them in an entirely different way that you have. If he asks you for evidences of what you believe then by all means use the evidenses that you have. Although if he is asking, it’s likely the battle is half over, God is already working in him to seek answers.
So why is it necessary to know and understand apologetics. Why are there courses in seminary on the subject of apologetic. Why have there been book upon book written on the subject of apologetics? After all aren’t we only supposed say as Paul said in 1 Cor 2:2
For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
which btw is an apologetical statement.
The answer is first because it is commanded of us to do so as we have already mentioned 1 Pet 3:15
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
Secondly it helps you to grow in the knowledge and wisdom of our Lord and it increases your faith. This is why Solomon commands us to Prov 23:23
Buy the truth, and sell it not;
Also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
This verse is the application of the previous 2 proverb verses that we discussed this morning. Remember the first one? To paraphrase, God hates liars but delights in those who deal in truth because God is the truth thus establishing that truth is an attribute of God. This must be established for in all things we must start with God as the center of all things for God is the center of all things. If God is not in the center of all things than God is not who He says He is including being the truth. This is what our second proverb is telling us that in our defense of what we believe, our opologia we must again start with God in that God is who He says He is and that all the evidence points to that. We will continue to look at the proverbs 22:20-21 verses as we go through our miniseries. Our 3rd verse is telling us to stand firm in the truth that God says who He says He is. It is telling us to stand firm in the reasons why we believe what we believe for it is the truth. Don’t ever give it up or let go of it. Keep exploring it, keep digging deeper into it for it is a goldmine of knowledge and there is no bottom. This is what it means to buy the truth and sell it not though you may need to use money as well in the buying of good books that speak the truth. Next week we will continue on in our study of truth as we look to the validations of the bible.
