Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Mark Twain once said that the trouble with the world is not that people know too little, it's that they know so many things that just aren't so. There is a barrage of opinions available to us. Plenty of voices claiming to have the answers. Where is your truth coming from? We all want to know truth. We crave a higher purpose and an ultimate good.
It's part of being made in the image of God. Thankfully, God gives the truth of His Word. Truth that transcends all boundaries.
It's the truth for all people. You know, a robust memory of His Word is vital to a meaningful life because in it, He tells us who we are and why we're here. His Word tells us our greatest need and heaven's most beautiful answer to that need. Let's listen to this message titled Transcendent Truth.
This is part two of a message first preached on August 13, 2023 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. What do I mean by sovereign? God is absolutely free. You and I can't say that, but God is absolutely free. Nothing limits Him apart from Himself. You and I could never claim that, but God is sovereign over the universe and Jesus demonstrated that by His miraculous works by saying three words, three words, peace be still, and all of a sudden the raging sea becomes calm. What is that? He's demonstrating His sovereignty over the universe.
You and I can't do that. God is absolutely free. And so, when He speaks, when we're talking about transcended truth, when He speaks, what does He provide for us when God speaks? When words come from God, what does that provide for us? It provides for us these three things.
Number one, definition. Who am I? Let me make something very, very clear. You want to understand yourself? You need to understand God first.
Mark my word. If you try to understand yourself without understanding God, you will fail. His transcendent truth gives us definition.
Not only does it give us definition, it gives us meaning. Why am I here? First of all, who am I? Secondly, why am I here?
Why? Because He's a transcendent, infinite, sovereign God. Thirdly, it gives us purpose. Where am I going? What is this all about?
What on earth are we doing here? To what does this point us? God's transcendent truth provides that for us. So, transcendent truth is like an umbrella.
What does that mean? It's an umbrella truth over all other things that we might claim to be true. The transcendent truth just simply means this. Whoever you are, whether you're a ruler, a pauper, or a worker, or wherever you are, whether you're in the bedroom, the boardroom, or the Bahamas, or whatever's going on, whether it's prosperity, adversity, or complacency, this is true. It's transcendent truth, because it comes from an infinite, sovereign God.
And here it is. Truth has a name. Truth has a name.
What is it? There is a man who said, I am the way, the... He didn't say, I know the truth. He didn't say, I possess the truth.
He said, I what? Am the truth. God defines truth. This is what he's revealed to us. That's why it's so important for us to understand the nature of this transcendent truth. Okay, third point.
First point, human agency. Second, divine disclosure. Third, spirit born.
It's what he says. Men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Interestingly enough, two words here. Look in verse 21. No prophecy was ever produced, and then men spoke from God as they were carried along.
Those two are the same verb. Produced and carried along. So the idea is kind of like a ferry. Have you ever taken a ride on a ferry across a river or a bay or something like that?
I have numerous times. Multiple different kinds of cars come onto the ferry. They're all coming from different places.
They're going to different directions, but they get on the ferry and the ferry carries them over. And this is kind of the idea of this word that is used here. Carried along. Born along by the Holy Spirit. Paul uses the word inspiration.
Remember that word? Inspiration. All scripture is God-breathed. That's why we can say it is the word of God, even though God used human agency to pen the words, to write the words, to speak the words.
God uses human agency, yet it is carried along by the Holy Spirit, and that's why we can say it is the word of God. Now the fact that we know that it is the word of God gives us two assurances at least. The first assurance is this. It is accurate. It is accurate. There is no error in the word of God. In other words, it is consistent. It is true to history. Secondly, it does not prescribe anything contrary to the character and purpose of God.
I read all kinds of sin in scripture. Yeah, it'll report the sinful deeds of humanity, but it never prescribes or commands something that is contrary to God's character and purpose. And so we can count on its accuracy. Secondly, we can count on its authority. We can count on its authority because it's the word of God. God makes Himself known to us. It is God in His word coming to us by the Holy Spirit. So let me make something very clear, and we do this often, right? We're sitting around in a small group or something like that, sitting in a circle or sitting around the dinner table with your family, and you read something and you say, now what is God trying to say here?
Stop right there. God's not trying to say anything. God has spoken.
You with me on this? So you might need to alter how you study the Bible, all right? God's not trying to say anything. This is the authoritative word of God that is to be brought to bear upon my life. In other words, I need to measure my life against the word of God instead of adapting the word of God to my life. You see the difference there? That's exactly what's going on in our culture today.
Listen, we can't participate in that. This is the authority because it's the word of God. God has made Himself known to us. So here's the fourth point.
Ready? It's unique. It's unique. You say, Rich, there are all kinds of other religions.
They have their written authority. What makes you say this is special? Well, we've already talked about that quite a bit already, but let me talk about this one point. It's unique. Look back at the very first verses of 2 Peter, 2 Peter 1. To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, may grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. What is it that makes this revelation unique? One word. Grace. The grace of God. It sets Christianity apart because man would never come up with the idea and the reality of grace. Everything about how we live, where we live, all of business, athletics, everything.
Social media. It's all about performance, isn't it? It's all about merit. Here's the grace of God, 2 Corinthians 5.21. For God made Him, who's that? Jesus. God made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin.
So that what? We might become the righteousness of God in Him. That is mind blowing when you think about it. That's a God thing. And no human being would ever be able to come up with a religious system like that and sell it to the rest of humanity.
This is what makes it unique. It's what sets Christianity apart. All other faith systems are a merit-based system.
Merit-based. Grace is counterintuitive. But I love what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4.16. God who said, God who said, let light shine out of darkness.
What is he talking about? He's talking about creation. The creator God who created ex nihilo, out of nothing, God spoke and it came into existence.
That God. God who said, let light shine out of darkness has done what? He's shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. God has made Himself known to us in person and that person is Jesus Christ. Truth has a name.
The one who said, I am the way, the truth and the life. That's what makes this unique. That's why it's accurate and it's authoritative. And this is why Peter says to his readers, you need to remember so that you're not led away. Because we will have a tendency to be led away.
And he knows that there will be people coming in who call themselves Christian and they will be twisting the written word and leading people away. So it's unique. Let's not lose its uniqueness.
Here's the fifth point. It's compelling. Look at verse 19. You will do well to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart.
It's compelling. All the founders of other religions have a grave. And that grave is what?
Occupied. Christianity begins where all of the religions end and that's at the grave. So this gospel is compelling. This one, Christ, the one who said, I am the way, the truth and the life. This one, I don't really consider him the founder of biblical faith because biblical faith existed long before he walked on the earth. But he is the eternally existent one, right? So he is, yeah, the founder of faith, but he's the eternally existent one. But he didn't come to earth to establish faith. He came to earth to what? To fulfill all the truth that we needed to have the foundation for our faith. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.
