Truth Or Consequences - Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ.

It's interesting as they go through questions of trying to find the right church to go to. Well, what's your criteria? Well, first of all, I want to know what kind of music they have. What? Yes. Secondly, I really want to know what the programs are. I've heard of a church that doesn't just have a preschool program, it has a pre-preschool program.

So the little leader and a half, there's going to be a program for them. I think that's why I should go. Well, there can be all those. What about the Bible? What about the Word of God? Oh, I never thought about that too much. Well, you should.

That's the whole point. Preach the Word. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt.

Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. Jesus responds to this. He speaks. He says, truly, truly.

I love that book. Maybe you're misunderstanding me. Let me say truly, truly. Let me repeat the word. Because what I'm talking to you about is one thing.

I'm talking about truth. Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever. The son does remain forever. So if the son makes you free, you're free indeed. He said, I know that you're Abraham's descendants, yet you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you.

What's he saying? Look, I know you're just religious folks. I got it. That's why you want me dead. Because of the truth.

You don't want the truth. You see, that's what he is saying. I know what you're doing.

I know what you're trying to say. Look, if you were truly of the truth, you'd love me. Why? I am the truth. But no, no, my religion, you don't fit. Well. He said, I speak the things which I have seen with my father, therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.

This is really neat. Jesus is saying, look. I represent my father and you represent your father.

Now, remember the context. He's talking to religious Jews. So what's a religious Jew think? He's talking about Abraham. He is not. He's not talking about Abraham at all. But they think he is.

So here's their response. They answered and said to him, Abraham is our father. But Jesus, who is true, said it's not true. He said, if you are Abraham's children, do the deeds of Abraham. Now, what are the deeds of Abraham? We know that in Romans.

Remember what Paul said? Abraham believed God and God reckoned his faith as righteousness. That's the deeds of Abraham. Faith.

That's the deed. That's the truth. And he says, but as it is, you're seeking to kill me, a man who has told you the truth. I just told you the truth and you want to kill me for it. Why? Because you're religious.

That's why. He said, which I heard from God, Abraham. Abraham did not do this. He said, you're doing the deeds of your father. And they said, we are not born in fornication.

We have one father, God. And Jesus said to him, if God were your father. And by the way, by the tenser of the use of the word if is and he's not, it's not true. It's a second class condition of assumption.

It's not true. If God were your father and he's not, you would love me. For I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on my own initiative, but God sent me. You know why I'm here? Because God loves mankind. For God so loved the world, he sent me here. I'm full of truth and grace. And now this is interesting. If God sent his own son full of truth and grace to help man, then man should readily accept it.

This is the greatest news that ever happened for mankind. But since the fall, man is skeptical of truth. And he is incurably religious. You see, that's what he tries.

So. Jesus said, why do you not understand what I'm saying? It's because you could not hear my word. He said, you are of your father, the devil. He told this to religious Jews. Everybody respected them in the community, Pharisees, everybody. As I told you many times, every parent would want their daughter to marry a Pharisee.

They had so much deep spiritual respect in Israel. He said, you're of your father, the devil. What do you mean the devil? He said, that's the source of the religion you believe, not God. You see, you deny the grace of God. You are of your father, the devil. And he says, and you do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning. And he does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

He said, but because I speak the truth, you do not believe me. There's the dilemma. There's exactly what ends up happening.

You won't believe it. Have you ever given the gospel to a religious person? You notice what the response almost always is. That's too easy. That's not taught.

That's not possible. The church has told me something else. You have to do certain things to get favor with God. That's not true.

But it's always the same. No, I reject that. Satan knows that religion immunizes you against Jesus Christ. He knows that. And Christ knows it.

And this isn't some helter-skelter group. These are the Jewish people at the time their Messiah comes chosen by God. And they reject them and they want to crucify him. Because of the religious bigotry and how they see it. We won't ever be like that.

We're not susceptible to that, are we? Don't be so sure. Go with me to Second Timothy, chapter four. And the last thing that Paul wrote before he died. Paul is writing to Timothy. In these last words, Timothy, you've got to be able to follow through here. You've just got to. So he says, I solemnly.

What an interesting word. Paul is about to die. He said, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is the judge of the living and the dead.

And by appearing, he said, by his appearing and his kingdom. Timothy, these are as serious words as I can give you. Preach the word. Preach the word. Why? It's the truth.

That's why. It's the truth. One of the reasons that we moved from Pennsylvania to Western Pennsylvania to Dallas is to preach the word. In a big sign on Live Oak Avenue on the one side that you stood at Live Oak, look toward the seminary. It said, changing lives through scripture. But on the side from Dallas looking out, it says, preach the word. Preach the word of God. That's what you have to do.

Now watch what happens. He says, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction. On what basis do I reprove and rebuke and exhort?

The Bible. It's the only thing you could do. Listen, I'm wasting all of our time if I just stand up here and say, well, let me tell you what I think. That means nothing. That means absolutely nothing. You say everything you do is to bring the word of God to bear on a situation.

Why? Because it's the truth. That's the point. It is, he says, the truth. Then he gives us all a warning for the time will come when they will not endorse sound doctrine, wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires. That's what happened in the church.

What does it happen? If you go all the way back to the Reformation. A Franciscan monk named Martin Luther. Studied the New Testament in Greek, and he came to this conclusion. Just two things, basically, everything he believed could pare down to.

And it's interesting. The first thing Luther said was sola fida. Faith alone saves. Now, he's saying that as a Catholic priest.

In Catholicism, which that is not true, that's completely rejected under all conditions. Luther said, no, I looked at the truth says sola fida. And they very much disliked him for that. But the next thing he said got him in real trouble.

He said sola scriptura. Only the Bible has authority. And boy, he was hated and wanted to be martyred.

They wanted to martyr him for that. What do you mean the Bible has the Bible doesn't have authority. The Bible is our toll. We have authority. And that's the birth of the Reformation.

And it went on fine. And then in the late 1800s, early 1900s, first in Europe and America, liberalism came into Protestantism. And liberalism started this whole idea that you can't trust the Bible.

There are some ideas in it that are pretty good, but the rest of it you can't trust or anything like that. Out of liberalism, then, came certain things. I knew a Protestant pastor who was a friend of mine in Pennsylvania, and he taught universalism to the church. And he said, everyone goes to heaven. And also, all roads, all religions, all lead the same place to heaven. And he was a great guy, and that's what he believed.

Is that true? Not according to what Jesus said. Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life, and no one will come to the Father but through me. But he started believing that. Now, we don't go through that too much, but just think of evangelicalism today.

I'll make the statement. One of the most important things is that you become prosperous. God wants all of us to be very prosperous and very healthy. That's what God wants for everybody. In fact, the largest attended church in America, the point of the pastor is to stand up and say, do you know why God exists?

God exists so that you can realize all your dreams. That's why there is a God. And he's the same pastor who has said, I would never, and I heard him say it, I would never even speak of the word sin.

People don't like that. No kidding. It's the largest attended church in America, because what is he telling them? Exactly what they want to hear. He's telling them exactly what they want to hear. God exists for me, and I can get a whole bunch of stuff out of this.

I like this. You accumulate for yourselves. They accumulate for themselves, teachers that tickle their ears. Now, even when people from our church and that have moved away and gone to other churches, I hate to say this, but sometimes it's true.

But it's interesting as they go through questions of trying to find the right church to go to. Well, what's your criteria? Well, first of all, I want to know what kind of music they have.

What? Yes. Secondly, I really want to know what the programs are. I've heard of a church that doesn't just have a preschool program. It has a pre-preschool program.

So the little leader and a half, there's going to be a program for them. I think that's why I should go. Look, there can be all those things. What about the Bible? What about the word of God? Oh, I never thought about that too much.

Well, you should. That's the whole point. Preach the word. I get stuff across my desk from people that mail and say, if you really want to grow a gigantic church, you've got to diminish what the Bible says. You must diminish that, because people aren't going to like a lot of that. Or the one that's interesting now is, whatever you do, don't go over 10 or 15 minutes. OK?

Well, you're not so lucky when it comes to that. But the point is this. Where is the truth? He said to Timothy, before he's dying, you preach the word. That's the point.

We can accumulate for ourselves teachers like that. And let me take this one step further. Go with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Paul defines ministry here. What is ministry? Here's what Paul says in verse 1.

Therefore, since we have this ministry, that's the ministry. As we received mercy, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced the things hidden because of shame. We don't walk in craftiness or adulterating the word of God. We don't play any compromises with the word of God. But by the manifestation of truth.

He's right back to it. By the manifestation of truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. He said, and even if our gospel is veiled, it's veiled to those who are perishing. Even if I stand up and give the gospel and many of you say, I don't believe that. OK, you don't have to.

But you're perishing. Now, why did that happen? Watch what Paul says. In whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that it may not see the light or the truth of the gospel of the glory of Christ? Who blinded their minds? Satan has. He blinded their minds.

They can't accept it. He said, for we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus is Lord. We're just his servants.

We're his slaves. It's all by the truth. You see, that's the whole idea of the angelic conflict. When a man ministered the gospel to me in my early 20s and I kept rejecting it, the New Testament says I was more like a Greek, more like an intellectual. I wasn't very religious. And I just thought when I heard the gospel, and I remember even saying it, that's just stupid. That's just stupid. You're going to tell me that there is a God and that if some Jewish guy was crucified by the Romans and they crucified thousands of people, and I believe he died for my sins, I get to go to heaven, and I'm OK with God? Yeah, that's just stupid.

That doesn't make any sense to me. Now, if you're a Jew, a religious person, and someone gives you the gospel, what do you say? As I said earlier, that's too easy.

That's just too easy. We've got to do the things to gain favor with God. That's how this works. Neither one of those things are true.

And the origin of both of those is Lucifer. That's where they come. That's the way this works, this whole idea of truth. Our ministry must be of the truth, the whole truth, and really nothing else but the truth. So if we don't have truth, we just don't have anything.

I want you to think of our culture. How's truth doing? Under the relativism of our culture, you're being taught, there is no such thing as absolute truth. All opinions, you see, it's pluralistic.

All opinions have equal value. But there's no such thing as absolute truth. Well, if there's no such thing as absolute truth, does anybody have a platform to judge anyone else's moral behavior?

No. And aren't we taught this all the time? This is what the culture teaches. You can't judge anybody's moral behavior. Well, then, on what grounds does even the culture try to judge?

Well, I've heard people say this. It's by consensus. We're a democracy. If the majority of Americans think it's okay, then that's going to be what's right for us. Okay? If that's true, let me just give you a framework on this.

In the late 1930s and early 40s, about 80% of all Germans supported Nazism. So you can trust the crowd, right? Because that's a good thing. No, that doesn't work. But think of it from even another perspective here. I decide when life begins within me. I decide. And if I want to kill the life, I can kill it.

And then we pass laws so you can. Because I decide. I don't want no prenatal doctor telling me when life begins, no biologist telling me. I decide.

Well, how about this one? I decide my gender. I decide. I don't care what biology says. Got to put biology on the back burner. I decide what my gender is, not biology. Wow.

I just read an article where parents are now raising their children all the way up to school age and never refer to them ever as he or she. That's a decision they'll make later. It's just the way this works. And by the way, you can almost understand it. If there is no truth, who are you to say that doesn't make sense? Who are you to say?

Who is anyone to say? We're just beginning this road, and it's going to get much, much worse in the future because there is no such thing as absolute moral truth at all. There isn't any.

There will change for the worse. So how do we respond? Seek the truth. The first thing we should do is seek the truth. Obviously, you say, well, it's in the Word.

It is in the Word. However, it takes more than just understanding it. I have to submit to it. I have to believe it, and I have to submit to it. Secondly, you've got to turn your ears off to what comes out there. I'll use a term we use today, but there's a lot of fake truth out there. It's everywhere.

It's just fake, fake truth being told by people who are experts. Secondly, we have to speak the truth in love. That's what the Word of God says. We need to speak the truth in love to people. Some of us are really good at speaking the truth.

I just love telling people the way it is. But you have to do it in the context of the love. Even He said to Timothy, with gentleness, so be careful with that. Thirdly, we have to live the truth that we believe, and this is where the Church is failing.

It's a profound weakness of the Church right now. If we don't live the truth, we don't have anything to say to people. You see, that's such an important thing.

What's one of the most common words that people in our culture use to describe us? Hypocrite. I'm not talking about perfection, but people who are committed to living the truth out of their lives. Truth tellers, do it with love. So, this Christmas season, I just want you to remember, as John said, we beheld His glory. The Word became flesh. We beheld His glory. Full of grace and truth.

Let's pray. Father, we are being affected by our culture. We are being inundated with false truth. Father, it is alarming that when you read polls among evangelicals, how many young people believe that there's no such thing as absolute truth, and yet they say they follow Jesus.

This is worthy of our attention, Father. And I pray that if you are one of the people that really struggled with the concept of grace and the concept of absolute truth, you're left with this decision. You're deciding about the credibility of Jesus Christ, because the words that we used today and looked at today were His. These are the words that He spoke. The Bible says that He is full of grace and truth. But it's our responsibility to believe Him. That's what I pray for each and every one of us.

In His great name, amen. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word. .