Sermon Central
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It's The Truth !
Contributed by Doug Brown on Feb 5, 2001 (message contributor)
Summary: Various kinds of practical everyday perspectives of Truth
It’s The Truth !
alhqeia
Illus: The Greek philosopher, Socrates?, in giving his perspective on truth uses the following illustration to prove his point... Imagine a man spending his entire life in a cave. And he is so placed in the cave that he cannot turn around and see any trace of sunlight. All he can see is shadows on the back of the cave wall. If we can take him and suddenly release him and for the first time in his life… letting him see real sunshine. O, what an awesome sight! How utterly blinding. How utterly shocking to come to know that all his life all he has been seeing is mere shadows of another reality heretofore unknown to him. THAT IS THE WAY IT IS WITH THE WORD OF GOD.
IT IS DESIGNED TO RELEASE US FROM OUR BONDS, AND SHOWS US THE TRUE LIGHT INSTEAD OF MERE SHADOWS. IT POINTS US TO A TRUTH THAT IS BEYOND OUR NORMAL REALM OF UNDERSTANDING… THE TRUTH FROM GOD!
What some call Truth, is not really truth at all.
O they may not mean to misrepresent the truth, but no matter what the intent, unless what they say is really the truth, they lie.
There are various kinds of truth…
RELATIVE TRUTH –
a. Child I saw playing at Ponderosa.
Not my child to discipline.
b. The taste of a dessert. Too Sweet.
Not Sweet Enough
c. Steak - Raw Medium Well Done
“Your Steak is Done” Not So Fast!
d. Temperature - To some of you, this room is just right, others it is too cool, too warm. All those things are of Relative Truth. Truth is as it relates to each individual person.
ROUNDABOUT TRUTH - 24.89 / $25
* Rounding Numbers.
* Close enough for a hand grenade.
50 meters is close enough!
ABSOLUTE TRUTH - Quibbling with Words.
John 14 deals largely with specific encouragement to counterbalance the
Departure of Jesus, the
Defection of Judas, and the predicted
Denial of Peter, but
We want to know the truth. There is security in that. Yet, often, the truth about us makes us nervous, for some, it even makes angry. It also causes arguments. “That’s your Opinion.”
Well, I have Always Said.. There Is Your Opinion, My Opinion and God’s. Whose Counts in the End?
HE DOES NOT QUIBBLE WITH THE TRUTH!
TWO KINDS OF ABSOLUTE TRUTH
A. Natural - Absolute Zero- When there is absolutely no humanly measureable presence of heat. 24 V formation of Geese - Eleven of them stretched for 2 miles across the highway.
Every season… Absolutely count on it.
Gravity- Absolutely count on it.
B. Biblical Absolutes- So many, but 2 / 3 here...
God is a Unique one of a king being.
“I am the Lord God, I change Not.”
We are seen as sinners in the eyes of God before Christ. Universalism… Every Person is responsible for the revelation they have.
We will all give an Account to God.
Every knee shall bow.
PLAIN TRUTH - Herbert W. Armstrong
Anita’s grandpa was a devout reader of Armstrong’s material. The Man was a heretic. Salvation was in His Church alone. Anita’s dad, when his father in law died took and burned a whole pile of Armstrong’s magazines. Heresy, pure heresy.
John 14:3-6 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to My self; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know." 5 Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?" 6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
He is the Way. This has special prominence because of the context. It had been somewhat anticipated in the teaching about the door Jo 10:9
He is the Ttruth. Christ as truth makes the way dependable and infallible (1:14; 8:32,36; 4:20-21).
He is the Life (cf. John 1:4; 11:25). No man cometh. The verb puts Jesus on the side of God rather than on the side of man (he does not say, "goeth"). "No man can attain the Father except by perceiving the Truth and participating in the Life which is revealed to men in His Son. Thus, while being the guide. He does not guide to what is beyond Himself. Knowledge of the Son is the knowledge of God" (Hoskyns). Copied
GIVEN TRUTH There are many forms of given truth in our world. But there is another way to look at this. How many of us have gleaned from the fields of wisdom because someone told us.
What about the myriad of mothers, fathers, teachers, co-workers, etc.? We Learn Truth Everyday From People Around Us.
