Don’t Be Confused About The Truth Series

Don’t be Confused – about the truth

John 18:36-38

* The first time I heard the term was during the Bill Clinton presidency. Of course I knew it went on, but I had never heard the term (in political jargon) ‘spin.’ Does everyone know what ‘spin’ actually is? My personal definition is something like this: “Spin is the attempt to twisting events and/or words in a way which is more favorable to the ‘spinster’ or his boss.” Now, that definition will never win a popularity award, but it seems to be true, nonetheless. In fact, I’ll take it a step further; for the professional spinster, truth is no object. For those who cannot discern my meaning; ‘in the spin, lying is acceptable.’ The culture of 2010 is confused about a great number of things. Today we conclude a 3-part series of messages about this topic.

* Last week we began a journey attempting to lift the veil of modern-day confusion about the church. Here is the map of our last Sunday’s journey;

Confusion about the ’term’ Confusion about the ’task’ –

What it’s not! The skeptic’s concept -

What it is The selfish concept -

What it will be! The Savior’s concept

* Today we address the very foundation of LIFE.

1) Confusion about the ’truth’ – Is it any wonder with all the spinning going on that we are confused? Everyone is attempting to reinvent the truth. This week I read that Bill O’Reilly has coined the phrase, “The spin stops here.” You know what? That should be the mantra of the church, “The spin stops here!” We need to be purveyors of truth! And not OUR truth, God’s truth. In John 18, Pilate is standing before Jesus attempting to have a conversation about the issues of life, in particular, the life of Jesus. (Let’s read – vs 36-38) Think about Pilate’s question, “What is truth?” and you will discover the question which is being asked in the 21st Century American culture by almost everyone. Truth is at a premium. Strictly speaking, truth is accurately defined as “That which is truth for all people, at all times, and in all places.” We live in a culture which no longer believes in truth. Over 15 years ago, Josh McDowell told us that 70% of our young people & adult do not believe in absolute truth. In 2001, Barna research said this figure is over 75% and that over 80% of teenagers believe there is no absolute moral truth & that nobody can know for certain whether or not they actually know what truth is. ONLY 6% of teens & only 9% OF BORN-AGAIN TEENS believe in “Moral absolutes.” Do I have anyone’s attention yet?? In short: IN THIS CULTURE WE ARE CONFUSED ABOUT TRUTH! And truth makes a difference. Yet, without absolute truth, there exist no basis for society, culture, or life. So if we are to be purveyors of the gospel message, we must discern, display & disseminate truth. Consider modern-day truth.

a) The Cultural truth – What I mean is this; the truth which is accepted by a particular culture. Sad to say but much of our culture’s truth is not truth at all, but only opinion. A culture cannot create or revise truth, we can only rewrite laws and statues as well as change concepts, but we cannot create truth. Truth is truth no matter where you find it and lie is lie no matter who says it. Let me illustrate; no one created math, they discovered it (no matter who you think is the father of math, Archimedes, Euclid, etc) whoever it is, they discovered not invented math. The laws of math, science, physics, and the rest were laid out in a definite design LONG BEFORE feeble minded people discovered it. Today, we live in a culture that seems to believe that we can create truth as we go along. This culture would have us believe that evolution not creation is the way mankind arrived on the scene. The scientific problems for evolution are so many that most ‘respectable’ scientists have rejected this theory, yet our government says we have to teach it in our class rooms to the exclusion of creation. The problems with this theory are many. To make evolution work we have to bridge the gap from ’nothing to something’, then we must move from ‘something to life’ and finally we must progress from ‘life to intelligence.’ The laws of science works against proving this notion. The law of Biogenesis states that ‘life comes from life.’ The Bible tells us in Romans 1 that through creation enough has been revealed that MAN IS WITOUT EXCUSE. I know what that means, my dad taught me.

* When we come to believe that the culture can create truth we are on a slippery slope with a foundation that will wash before your eyes. It reminds me of the story with which Jesus ended the Sermon on the Mount. (Matthew 7:24-27.) The house on the sand is washed away.