The Attributes of God Part 6

Bible Text: Exodus 34:6

Exodus 34:6 “And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,”

Introduction:

We have been talking about the attributes of God. We have been doing so for some time now. I had said last month that I had hoped to finish the series this month with the last two attributes we were going to look at, that God is Truth and then that God is Holy, but when I began working on the message I quickly realized there is no way I could cover these two topics in one message. I really can’t even cover one of them in one message but we will try.

And it is the last word of our text that I would like to focus on today. The statement that God made of Himself, that the LORD God is a God of truth.

XIV. God is Truth

Now there is more to that statement than meets the eye. It is not just that God speaks the truth, that He is truthful. But God is the very source of truth itself.

We come to that age old question that Pilate put to Jesus, “What is truth?”

I would have loved to heard Jesus’ answer to Pilate had he stuck around, but after asking that question Pilate turned and walked away, as if to say, “Am I not the maker of truth? Does not what I say, go?”

So, if we are to understand that God is truth, we must first understand how we define truth.

Now here are a few of our definitions of truth according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

Definition of truth

1a(1): the body of real things, events, and facts : ACTUALITY (2): the state of being the case : FACT (3) a transcendent fundamental or spiritual reality 2a: the property (as of a statement) of being in accord with fact or reality c: fidelity to an original or to a standard (That’s a big one there.)

3a: sincerity in action, character, and utterance : in accordance with fact : ACTUALLY

So, in essence what truth is is that which corresponds to reality, to that which actually is.

As to the case with Pilate again. He thought he was in control, he thought that his actions, his demands made up what truth is.

He even asked Jesus, “Do you not know that I have the power to crucify thee, and the power to release thee?”

But, what did Jesus say?

John 19:11

11 Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above:

See, the reality of it was, the truth of it was that that which Pilate proposed to do, he could only do in actuality, that which God had determined he could do.

Many seem to believe, especially in our day of postmodernism that there is no absolute truth.

Postmodernism has done away with God and His authority and replaced it with the idea that each man is an island unto himself.

I’d like to read to you part of an article By Paul Copan from the North American Mission Board, the topic on what is postmodernism: He says,

Obviously, the term postmodernism presupposes an era that preceded it—modernism. But we must also understand what modernism was reacting to—namely, premodernism.

Premodernism: Before the 1600s, people in the West generally believed that God (or the transcendent/supernatural realm) furnished the basis for moral absolutes, rationality, human dignity, and truth. This is expressed by the noted Christian theologian Anselm (b. AD 1033), who said, “I believe that I may understand” (credo ut intelligam) he spoke of a “faith seeking understanding” (fides quaerens intellectum). That is, the starting point for knowledge and wisdom was God, who provided the lens through which one could properly interpret reality and human experience. By having faith in God, the world could be rightly understood.

Modernism: Then came philosopher René Descartes (1596-1650). As a Roman Catholic, he was troubled by the philosophical skepticism and (due to the Protestant Reformation) the theological uncertainty of his day. So he embarked on a “skeptical voyage” in the pursuit of absolutely certain knowledge. As part of his project, he determined to doubt everything: Maybe an evil genius was tinkering with his mind – or maybe everything is an illusion. But he concluded that at least he knew he was doubting, which is a form of thinking. He concluded: I think; therefore I am (or, in Latin, cogito, ergo sum). So without realizing it, Descartes’ project removed God from center stage, replacing it with the human knower as the starting point. The effect would be momentous. The rationalism of the European Enlightenment (c. 1650-1800) reflected this shift. This period was both optimistic about human potential and reason, but was also skeptical about church authority/state churches and Christian doctrine (“dogma”).

This was just one of many modernist projects that assumed that human dignity, truth, and reason could be preserved without God. Besides rationalism (with its emphasis on reason), there were Romanticism (with the emphasis on feeling), Marxism, Nazism, and other utopian schemes that sought to displace God as the starting point for understanding and living. The Jewish-Christian worldview that had deeply influenced the West was now being challenged.

Postmodernism: Then, in the wake of two World Wars, a postmodern climate started to permeate the West. Confidence in human progress and autonomy was shattered on the rocks of Auschwitz and the Soviet gulags. The systems or “grand stories” (“metanarratives”) of Nazism, Marxism, scientism, or rationalism ended up oppressing “the other”—that is, those marginalized by these systems such as Jews, capitalists, etc. These systems proved to be total failures. So with postmodernism, not only was God excluded as a foundation for making sense of reality and human experience; we cannot speak of any universal truth, reason, or morality. We just have fragmented perspectives.

Which opens up the door for a whole kaleidoscope of problems.

A pretty bleak and really unintelligent way of looking at the world.

Because not one that holds this worldview acts out and lives according to the worldview that they claim to have.

All of them live as if their is an absolute truth and an absolute standard.

All of them, when they do math, whether on their job or at the market or wherever they may be, do math according to an absolute standard. That there is a right way and there is a wrong way.

You don’t count out your money to buy something and say, “One, two, four, ten, fifty dollars. There’s your money, thank you.”

The person behind the counter is going to think something is wrong with you and call somebody to come pick you up.

Also, that same person that claims there is no absolute truth and no absolute standard, absolutely thinks that it is not OK for you to infringe on his person or on his belongings. If you steal from them, or assault them they are going to call the law and demand that justice be done.

But wait a minute, by what standard do they want the law to use to bring justice?

Is it an arbitrary standard that they want them to go by?

Is it a subjective standard, that is made up by society itself?

If that’s the case, then why did we call what Hitler or Stalin did, why did we call it wrong?

Does the masses get to choose what right and wrong, what truth and fiction are?

Because the masses say that the murder of babies in the womb is OK, does that make it OK?

No friend, there is a standard that goes beyond you and me, goes beyond the masses of society and goes to the very origin of truth itself.

But man has rejected that truth.

Romans 1:25 Talking about the ungodly, “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.”

They did not change the truth, as if they had any authority to determine what truth is, the Greek word is (metellaxan, to substitute, to exchange).

They seen the truth, they know the truth as observed in all nature and in all life, but they did not want to be subject to that truth, they did not want to be judged by the standard of that truth, so they exchanged that truth, the real truth, for a lie.

But, God is true and God’s Word is true not because it conforms to some external reality called “truth,” But because He is the very author of truth and because his Word is an expression of the truth itself—namely, God’s own essence. This is why the Scriptures insist that God “cannot lie” (Titus 1:2), for in doing so would entail God’s denial of his very self—which is an impossibility.

Look at our verse again:

Exodus 34:6 “And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,”

OK, now I want you to turn to Hebrews 6:18,

there are a few other verses I would like us to turn to which will establish first of all the fullness of the Godhead, and then also the truth that is in and from the Godhead that all truth comes.

A. The Father is truth

Hebrews 6:18 KJV

18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:

Why is it impossible for God to lie, because God is Truth and is the Author and standard of truth.

Quite simply if God were to lie, it would forever be and have been the truth.

Friend, He can not lie because all that He says comes from who He is, which is truth, which is reality, which is actually, which is fact!

OK, now turn to John 14:6.

B. The Son is truth

John 14:6 KJV

6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

So, not only is the first person of the Godhead truth, but the second person of the Godhead, the Son, Jesus Christ is also truth.

He is the One that spoke the worlds into existence. He is the One that spoke the laws of nature into existence, He is the One that holds all these things together continuously. If He were to ever relax His hold on humanity or on the universe or on the angels of heaven, friend, they would cease to exist.

He is the Truth that spoke to nature. Spoke to nature! Listen to me for a second, He spoke to nature, an inanimate object, that has no mind, that has no will, that has no conscience, and it obeyed Him!

Why did a force of nature obey Him?

Because He is the One that set the forces of nature in motion to begin with. And so when He said, Peace, be still, He spoke absolute truth and nature had no choice but to obey Him.

John 1:14 “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”

Not some quality that He possessed, but what He is.

When He called Lazarus from the tomb, do you think Lazarus had a choice?

Of course not, The Truth spoke and it was so, and Lazarus came forth.

In the beginning when He spoke the worlds into existence out of nothing, it couldn’t have not obeyed. Psalm 33:9 For He spake, and it was done, He commanded, and it stood fast.

The Truth spoke. Reality Spoke, Actuality spoke, what is Fact spoke, and it was. And it was.

C. The Holy Spirit is truth

Staying in John turn to John 15:26

John 15:26 KJV

26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

Who is the Comforter?

The Holy Spirit! The Spirit of truth.

Not only are the first two persons of the Godhead truth, but the third person of the Godhead is also truth.

He leads us into all truth.

What truth does He lead us into?

The truth of the divine truth, the truth that is incarnate, Jesus Christ.

He shall testify of Me.

One more verse that I would have you turn to, John 17:17.

Look at this,

D. The Word is truth

John 17:17 KJV

17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

So, once again, not only are all three members of the Godhead truth in and of themselves, but what they speak, Thy Word, is also truth.

John 8:31-32 “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Oh, I hear this verse misquoted all the time!

“The Bible says, just tell the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

No sir!

Sometimes you tell the truth, it will get you into hot water, sometimes even locked up and imprisoned.

Or how about this one:

“Does this dress make me look fat?”

Try the truth there and see how free you get.

Now, listen, I’m not purporting that we should not tell the truth, sure we should. And no matter the consequences, except in the last example, of course.

And sure there is some truth to the fact that by telling the truth you will be set free, as your conscience is cleared and also that God will honor that.

But that is not what that verse is talking about at all.

Well what truth is He talking about then?

He says, if ye continue in my Word. If ye continue in My Word.

Again, Jesus said,

John 17:17 talking to the Father, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”

Do you want to know the truth and be set free by that truth? Right here it is friend. His Word. Through the truth of His Word the Spirit of Truth will lead you into the knowledge of that divine Truth, the incarnate Truth, the Son of Truth, which will give glory to the Father of Truth.

Numbers 23:19 “God is not a man, that he should lie; Neither the son of man, that he should repent: Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”

Psalm 43:3 “O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; Let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.”

Friend, when we are led by the truth, by the light and the truth of God’s Word and God’s promises, they will always bring us to the dwelling place of God. Into His very presence where there is sweet fellowship. And ultimately into His presence in heaven where we will bask in that truth for all eternity.

So friend, we need to be a proclaimer of the truth.

E. The Church is the proclaimer of the Truth

Paul told Timothy,

1 Timothy 3:14–15

14 These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly:

15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

Now the Church is not the pillar and ground of the truth, but she is the proclaimer of that truth.

And what is that truth? Well Paul tells us in the next verse:

1 Timothy 3:16

16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:

Here is that truth:

God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

Friend, the truth of the gospel, the truth of the good news, is that Christ came, God incarnate came to this world, came for the sole purpose of redeeming mankind unto Himself. Redeeming those that would believe and trust in that truth.

Ephesians 1:13

13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

Colossians 1:5

5 For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;

Conclusion:

Friend, where is your hope today?

Where does your faith and trust lie?

Is it in man?

Is it in the things of this world?

Is your hope for mankind in politics, in philosophy, in sanctions, and laws, in weapons of war, and of might?

Or, is your hope founded upon the Truth?

Founded upon the Word of His truth?

Founded upon the Spirit of His truth?

Founded upon the Son of His truth. Truth incarnate?

Founded upon the One that IS truth Himself?

Exodus 34:6 “And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,”

Next month we are going to look at His holiness.

That’s the message!