It’s The Truth !
alhqeia
John 14:6 Psalm 51:6
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.
Why should it be no different with God?
I Cor. 2:14 …1 Cor 2:14 “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
Who Do Men say that I am?
Matt 16:13-18 “When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" 14 So they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." 15 He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" 16 Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 17 Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”
MISUNDERSTOOD TRUTH …
The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven." 42 And they said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, ’I have come down from heaven’?" 43 Jesus therefore answered and said to them, "Do not murmur among yourselves. 44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him;”
Standing right there in plain sight, and they still missed it.
How many times have we gone to look for something, and someone else comes in behind us and points it out? What do they normally say to us… “Had it been a snake it would have bit you!”
DENIED TRUTH
Matt 28:11-15
“Now while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all the things that had happened. 12 When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, 13 saying, "Tell them, ’His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.’ 14 "And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and make you secure." 15 So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.”
STUNTED TRUTH Annanias & Saphira.
We can fool ourselves, each other, but we cannot fool God. Hypocrisy is to make your appear to be something you are not.
To be more concerned about ones reputation than the truth is dangerous. But be not unwise in how you go about handling that because…
PROTECTED TRUTH
WE MUST BE CAREFUL ABOUT HOW WE LEAVE OURSELVES OPEN. GOD GAVE US PRIVACY. WE MUST PROTECT THAT. PRIVACY UNPROTECTED LEADS TO A PUBLIC FEEDING FRENZY!
Bite and devour one another
What is that to you?
As High as the heavens are above the earth.
We protect our children from certain trues, until we know they are emotionally mature enough to handle them.
I believe that is true of God toward us as well. Many are the things in this world we do not understand. However, “For now we see in a mirror darkly, but some day face to face. And as we are fully known, we shall fully know.”
Yet for now, let us realize, we ourselves can withhold no truth about ourselves to God.
“Out of the depths I cry to you O Lord, If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O lord who could stand?” But with you there is forgiveness: therefore you are to be respected.” Ps 130:1-4
“You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” John 8:32
“Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You Will Make Me To Know Wisdom” Psalm 51:6
CLOSE
I am a psychiatrist, but I can attest to the fact that all truth--including psychological truth--is already written in the Bible. All of the "findings" of the social scientists and psychologists have their basis first of all in the Bible. A person could visit three different psychiatrists and get three different approaches to his problem! He could visit them again a few years later and discover they have shifted their views even more. Those of us who believe the Bible have an unchanging foundation on which to build.
