Finding Truth

Introduction

As I was praying for today’s message the Holy Spirit dropped a question in my heart. Three very simple words but the implications that these three words placed together present have the power of life and death. You may be thinking that seems a bit rash that three words would have the ability to be so serious. Yet I come to you this morning to show you why. What are the three words?

Simply this: What is truth?

For most people on this planet, their truth is usually an amalgamation of personal preferences that work for them. If at any time they discover that truth no longer suits their purposes, it is just as easily discarded for an updated version.

But what if truth is not as simplistically subjective? What if, in reality there really is only one source for truth that can be trusted 100% of the time? This morning I want to explore that idea with you.

Truth Does Not Start With You

Truth does not begin with you, nor is it concerned with what you want it to be. Truth does not change because of how you feel about it. This may not fit with your present way of thinking, or maybe you have heard someone else that claims to be a man or woman of God that has tried to sell you on the idea that at least some truth is subjective.

Truth- Something that is in accordance with fact or reality.

You may think well of course that is what truth is, but I want you to consider for a moment all of the things you hold to be true. How do you know they are true? Who told you they were true? How do you know they can be trusted?

Many people that are still talked about in our generation speculated as to the nature of the truth. Men like Socrates and Aristotle arrived at some conclusions concerning truth but they fell short of actual truth.

2 Timothy 3:1–9 ESV

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.

Always learning and never able to arrive at the TRUTH

How many thousands of institutions of higher learning are there on this planet? Have they come to the end of knowledge? Scientists still scratch their heads over the complexities of the human body and its design. When we place our faith in science or higher education we will always be limited in the amount of truth that can be found.

To find complete truth we must go to the source. We must understand the nature of truth.

Truth is Objective Not Subjective

From a practical point of view, this question of whether we can know objective truth is one of the most important questions in apologetics. Today, most arguments between Christians and Non- Christians ultimately come down to this point. Ravi Zacharias was one of the most well known and best apologists of our time. He would often boil any debate down to the argument over objective and subjective truth, because at the heart of the issue that is where the problem lies.

It is not to say that one party or the other is purposefully walking around lying to themselves, it is that their truths come from either an internal source or an external one.

Once the substantive argument has been settled, most conversations turn out this way. “What you say may be true for you, but not for me. Truth is relative. What right do you have to impose your beliefs on me? You’re being judgmental.”

C.S. Lewis stated:

“If truth is objective, if we live in a world we did not create and cannot change merely by thinking, if the world is not really a dream of our own, then the most destructive belief we could possibly believe would be a denial of this primary fact. It would be like closing your eyes while driving, or blissfully ignoring the doctor’s warnings.” C. S. Lewis

Truth is not how we know, it is what we know.

Objective does not mean “known by all” or “believed by all. Even if everyone believes a lie, it is still a lie.

There are many differing theories of how to arrive at truth, but we don’t have time for all of that. We need to cut to the chase if we are going to make a real difference in our lives or in our communities.

One Source For Truth

Jesus said:

John 14:6 ESV

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Psalm 86:11 ESV

Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name.

Isaiah 59:14–15 ESV

Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.

Pontius Pilate asked Jesus this question:

John 18:38 ESV

Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him.

What is Truth?

This was in response to Jesus’ statement

John 18:37 ESV

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.”

Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.- Jesus

Can you see the irony in this moment? Pilate asking the embodiment of all truth (The purest form of and creator of reality) what truth is!! If he had really concerned himself with the truth would the events of that day been different?

NO, because the truth is that a lie was propagated in a garden that needed to be corrected. That one lie started a chain of events that had brought about, and continues to bring destruction and death to God’s creation. That lie was this, God does not love you enough to let you do what you want. But the truth was that He loves us enough to keep us from things that will harm us.

In order to right that wrong, or bring correction to that lie, God sent His only begotten Son to die for our belief in that lie. Therefore, the truth has to be that only in and through God’s love for us can we ever really know truth as it really is.

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.