The Struggle with Truth

Yesterday I was visiting with one of our members who previously led a team of employees at his job. I asked his permission to share what he said about truthfulness. He said he told all his team, “Rule #1 is ‘don’t lie to me.’ It is inevitable that you will fail from time to time and we can work through that, but Rule #1 is ‘don’t lie to me’.”

Why is it so hard to forgive someone who has lied to you? Why is it that one lie can crumble a wall built of many truths? It is because God knows how devastating a lie can be that He warns us…

Exodus 20:16 ESV:2016

16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Last week I concluded by contrasting Satan as the one who steals and God as the one who gives. Similarly, the Bible tells us that Satan is “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). Titus 1:2, on the other hand, states that God is the one who never lies, and in John 14:6 Jesus claims he is the truth.

What we are going to talk about today doesn’t only affect your spiritual life, it has direct application at school, at work, in your home, and in your personal relationships.

The most precise application of today’s text is in a court of law. Do you know why in past times people placed a hand on the Bible when promising to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? It was a symbol that “If I don’t tell the truth, I invite all the curses of this book to happen to me.”

False legal testimony is exactly what the religious leaders did to Jesus leading to his crucifixion. Lying happens whenever people are willing to say whatever is necessary to achieve a desire result.

Transition: Perjury may be the last station on the Truth line, but there are many other stops on that route as well.

Stations on the Route

There are many ways we speak towards a desired result. Today we hear phrases like “I’m just speaking my truth” or “it’s just a white lie”. A white lie in God’s perspective is an oxymoron; it’s like a clean sewer.

Flattery

1. Someone has described flattery as "saying to someone's face what you would never say behind his or her back!"

2. Flattery happens when you want to make a good impression, so you say what you think another person wants to hear even if that bears little relation to reality.

Exaggeration

1. In your attempt to make an impression, you overstate what you said, did, or accomplished, taking credit that really belongs to someone else.

2. Or, if you are looking for sympathy, you may overstate the wrong that was done to you because you want the person who hears your story to feel sorry for you.

3. Telling your story in a way that misleads a person by hiding or excluding what they would need to know to make a balanced judgment is a form of lying.

Gossip

1. Gossip involves passing on news about another person that may or may not be true with the intent of harming that person.

2. The lie may be in your words or it may be in your motive; passing on information under the pretense of being helpful when your real aim is to alter perceptions about the other person.

3. Gossip is like nailing flyers to a fence. You may remove the handbill and the nail, but it will always leave a scar in the wood.

The reason that we are prone to lying is that we are more deeply committed to ourselves than we are committed to the truth.

Transition: The entire human experience has been blemished due to a lie in the Garden of Eden that creates a wide freeway leading leads to the destruction of all liars in Revelation 21. Jesus stands with a placard that says “I am the way, the truth, the life. Take this exit” Let’s take a look at the map and see where these two roads lead.

The Wide Freeway

From Garden to Jungle (Gen 3:1, John 18:37-38)

1. Before the earth was created, Satan conceived the idea that instead of him serving God, that God should serve him. This rebellion got Lucifer and all of the heavenly beings who followed him to be ejected from Heaven for eternity. Ever since that mutiny Satan has been trying to convince others to join him in opposing God.

2. Satan's first strategy was to question God's truth. "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" (Genesis 3:1).

3. Many are still asking Satan's question: Can you really know or trust what God has said? Discrediting Scripture has always been Satan’s first strategy.

This week America’s 2nd largest protestant denomination will be meeting in St. Louis to debate the question “Should we believe what God has said or replace it with progressive, modern notions?”

4. The doubt and confusion generated by Satan's lies were obvious when Pontius Pilate was asked to pass judgment on Jesus. Pilate asked Jesus many questions, and Christ answered plainly.

John 18:37 ESV:2016

37 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

5. Jesus made it clear that His words were the truth and that the first evidence of a person dealing in truth is that they follow His teaching.

6. Pilate's response was terse: "What is truth?" (John 18:38). Pilate was a politician. He knew that people would say anything to get their way, and he had come to the conclusion that what people call "truth" is only a way of speaking about what they want.

It was the ultimate miscarriage of justice. A man who believes that truth is nothing more than a personal perspective or opinion cannot bring justice. Judgments can only be made if there is an objective truth to judge. And if truth is merely opinion, then it cannot be tested because there is no objective standard by which you can measure a personal opinion.

8. Ultimately the loss of truth leads to a society in which the most powerful opinion wins--that's the law of the jungle. By questioning the reality of truth, Satan takes us from the beautiful garden that God intended to the jungle where the most powerful dominate.

Transition: Jesus invites us to an alternative to this jungle, this wide freeway based on a lie.

The Narrow Trail (Matthew 7:13-14)

Matthew 7:13–14 ESV:2016

13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Hearing/Believing the Truth (Romans 10:17)

1. Matthew 13 tells us that the God’s kingdom is like unto a farmer spreading seed. And 1 Pt 1:23 describes that seed as the “living and abiding word of God”. But that good seed yields 4 results.

2. You may have seen this in your own witnessing. Sometimes you share truth and it seems to fall on deaf ears, other times people respond with “tell me more.” This “tell me more” response is evidence that the Spirit of God has removed the blinders that Satan has put on eyes, so that they are capable of responding to the truth in faith.

Romans 10:17 ESV:2016

17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

3. The truth that leads to Faith is the Word of God. That is why it is so important that we read and study God’s Word more than books about the Christian life.

Obeying the Truth (John 8:31)

1. Progress on the Narrow trail of Truth involves more than just listening or believing, it requires obeying.

John 8:31 ESV:2016

31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,

2. It is one thing to sit in church and believe that Jesus is truth. It is quite another thing to speak and live according to that truth when your friends say it is outdated and obsolete.

3. Jesus says true disciples are those who believe and obey the truth.

Knowing the Truth (John 8:32)

1. John 8 goes on to talk of another step beyond obedience.

John 8:32 (ESV) — and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

2. It's as we put His truth into practice that our knowledge of it will grow and we will experience its power in our lives.

Allow me to tell you two stories that illustrate the type of knowledge I’m talking about.

Ever since my days in Boy Scouts as a teenager in the late 1970’s I have been certified in CPR. I understand how compressions will force blood through the passages of the lungs to receive oxygen and carry that oxygen to the brain. But I have never been in a situation to use this training.

In 1994 our youngest child was born 6 weeks pre-mature. Even though Ann had been hospitalized and received intravenous drugs to develop Sarah’s lungs, she was having trouble breathing after delivery. She was transferred to a NICU unit in Oklahoma City and put on a ventilator. She was given the first dose of a drug and we were told it would take 48 hours before it would show appreciable difference. Well, it was Wednesday when she was given the drug and I was sent home to check on Ann who was still recuperating on our small town hospital. On the way back to Weatherford I called ahead and asked all my pastor friends to pray for Sarah at prayer meeting. When I arrived at the NICU the next morning, she wasn’t on the ventilator. I was told that after only 1 dose of the medication she began to wean herself off the ventilator so that by morning it was removed.

To this day, I believe that CPR saves lives. But I know that the faithful prayers of God’s people healed our little girl.

Transition: The Wide freeway follows a lie. The Narrow Path believes, obeys and knows the Truth. And when we know the truth it is natural to Share the Truth.

Share the Truth Wisely (reference)

Some Christians are confused about what is appropriate when it comes to speaking the truth. So allow me to provide 2 examples where wisdom/caution is needed.

Truth Blasters (Matthew 10:16)

1. Gullible – some truth-tellers are naïve when it comes to how people will respond to the truth that we have come to understand.

2. Jesus warned of over-telling:

Matthew 10:16 ESV:2016

16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

3. Some of the truth about you and me is ugly, and the only place to go with that is to the cross and the blood of Jesus. Sharing the poison in you openly will only spread the infection. Each of us has a responsibility to discern what we should share, with whom, when, and why.

It can be relational suicide to confess our sins too openly. If a particular person stirs your temptation to lust, it is probably unwise to tell that person of your sinful thoughts. If you have a problem with gossip, it may not be wise to announce to your Bible Study group that anything shared is likely to get repeated.

4. Paul gives good advice when he writes:

Ephesians 4:29 ESV:2016

29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Truth Bullies (Colossians 4:6)

1. The second type of truth terrorist is the one who uses the truth to blast other people in confrontation or even in evangelism. Some people love confrontation and use the truth as a reason to have more of it.

2. Our calling is to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). That means that I am to speak the truth in a way that will be in the best interests of the hearer.

3. There will be times when I have to exercise courage and say what someone does not want to hear, and there will be other times when I need to exercise restraint and hold back what a person is not yet ready to hear. There is a time to confront and there is a time to conceal.

Imagine if a child lovingly draws a picture for you and you respond with, “Your proportions are all wrong, My face isn’t shaped like that, and I’m not as big as the house you have me standing in front of.” I can pretty much guarantee that is the last picture that child will ever draw for you.

Everything stated may be absolutely true, but is it loving or in the best interest of the child to hear it at that time?

4. Paul writes in Colossians:

Colossians 4:6 ESV:2016

6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

Transition: The Wide freeway of lies, The Narrow path of Truth and Wisely sharing the truth with others are all challenges that we each face regularly.

Conclusion:

Robert Frost wrote “Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one less traveled, and that has made all the difference.”

Today my challenge for each of us is to take the narrow path of Truth path. That path has a name and His name is Jesus, for Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

If you would only repent and believe that His death and resurrection on behalf of your sins is the way to the Father, today you could have eternal life. But that belief must be acted upon and by accepting that gift you can know the truth and the Truth will set you free!