Treasuring Truth

Known for his unique ability to simplify profound truth so that it can be applied to everyday life, Adrian Rogers was one of the most effective preachers, respected Bible teachers, and Christian leaders of our time. Thanks for joining us for this message.

Here's Adrian Rogers. Find in your Bibles the book of Proverbs, write out the book of Psalms, and turn to the 23rd chapter, and most of our time we're going to spend in just one verse. We're going to be talking about truth today, about truth. You know we live in a strange day. Everybody's talking today about pluralism. This is America, and there has to be room for everybody. Pluralism.

And you know what, I agree with that, but I want to tell you something. These people who are talking about pluralism, they do not mean pluralism. For example, in a public gathering, it's time to pray, and they'll ask a rabbi to pray, and he'll pray, and that'll be fine. They will ask a Muslim, perhaps, to pray, and he'll pray, and that'll be fine. But ask a Christian to pray, and he might pray and say, and in Jesus' name. They say, ooh, don't say that. Don't pray in Jesus' name.

Well, why not? That's pluralism, isn't it? Listen to me, folks. A rabbi ought to pray as a rabbi prays. A Catholic priest ought to pray as a Catholic priest prays.

A Muslim ought to pray as a Muslim prays, and a Christian ought to pray as a Christian prays. That's pluralism. You know, none of us are going to agree with everybody else, but in pluralism, we all say, hey, this is who we are. This is what we believe. But you see, we have a world that doesn't really believe in pluralism. What they want is syncretism. That's just a big word.

It means mush everything up. Nobody have any sharp edges. Nobody really even believe any particular thing. We have a generation today that talks so much about values. Boy, I'm telling you, you're going to hear more and more about values and values and values and values, and they're going to pray about family values.

Well, folks, let me tell you something. Everybody has values. The mafia has values. Everybody has values. It is not values that we need. It is virtues. Values come from parents.

Values come from autonomous individuals who just decide what they want to believe in, and I was surprised to listen to some of these political rallies when they would talk about a woman's right to kill her baby. Everybody would applaud. Applauding that. Applauding that.

Cheering for that. Why? That is their value. My friend, it may be a value, but it is not a virtue. You see, what we've done, we've come from pluralism to syncretism. We have come from virtues to values.

Now, another thing that we have done is this. We have come from truth to facts, F-A-C-T-S, and we have a generation today that does not know how to differentiate between truth and facts. Now, facts deals with knowledge, and knowledge may double, but truth never. Listen to me now.

If it is new, it's not true. Truth is settled in eternity. Listen to the Word of God.

Proverbs chapter 23 and verse 23. Buy the truth. Buy the truth and sell it not.

There is no wisdom and instruction and understanding. Casualty in modern America today and, yes, around the world is that truth has been sacrificed on the altar of pragmatism. You see, what we have is just simply this. If our pockets are full, then everything is fine.

Not necessarily so. Have we moved from one nation under God to another nation under greed? Buy the truth and sell it not. Now, we have substituted facts for truth. Not that facts in themselves are wrong. Facts are stubborn things, but there is a difference in acquiring facts and learning truth.

We're drowning in facts. If you were to take man's accumulated knowledge from the time that history began, wherever that was, and up to the year 1845, just let that equal an inch. From creation to 1845, that's an inch. That's how much accumulated knowledge so far as facts man had. All right, and then if you would go to 1845 to 1945, that inch has gone to three inches. So, man has really learned a lot.

But if you were to go from 1945 to 1975, that three inches would be as tall as the Washington Monument just in those few years. And from that time on, from 1975 till today, the accumulated facts would be out of sight in the stratosphere. So, we're learning more and more facts. And that's what the Bible prophesied. The Bible says, in the last days, knowledge shall increase.

And that, my friend, is true. But truth has not changed one bit. And you see, we have a generation that is devouring facts and crucifying truth.

And so, we see more crime, more suicide, more mental illness, becomes more drug abuse than ever before. What's the difference between facts and truth? Facts are like a recipe. Truth is the meal. When you digest the truth, it will change your life. That's the reason that Satan's chief, chief tool in trade is a lie, which is antithetical to the truth. Jesus, speaking to the Pharisees of his day, said, you are of your father, the devil.

And the lust of your father, you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, now watch this, and abode not in the truth. His motive is murder, his method is the lie. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth. And then Jesus said, because there is no truth in him. He speaks of the lie, he speaks of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it.

He's the father of all lies and any liar is acting like his father, the devil. Now, three things I want to lay on your heart today about truth. First of all, we must prize the truth. We must treasure the truth. Truth is indispensable.

Young people listen to me. It is absolutely, totally indispensable. Why did God write a book? The Bible calls itself the word of truth. Why has the Holy Spirit come? He is called in the Bible, the spirit of truth.

Who is our Lord and Savior, the Messiah? He said, I am the way, the truth, and the light. What is the church called?

The church is called in the Bible, the pillar and the ground of truth. What did the apostle John say as he wrote his epistle? He said, I have no greater joy than to know that my children walk in the truth. Hey, those of us who are parents, is that not true? Boy, when you see your kids getting hold of truth, it's such a joy, such a joy. I have no greater joy for me that is so true than to know that my children walk in the truth, it rejoices our heart. It is indispensable, and friend, listen to me now. Truth is absolute.

Did you get that? Truth is absolute. You see, in mathematics, truth is absolute.

Two and two is four. In mechanics, truth is absolute. In medicine, truth is absolute.

And friend, in faith and morals, truth is absolutely absolute. I am accused of being narrow-minded. Well, you know, you get so broad-minded, your mind gets thin in the middle.

You know that, don't you? You get so open-minded, your brains will fall out. No, we're called narrow-minded. Well, I'll tell you one thing. I want my banker to be narrow-minded when he's handling my money. I want my pilot to be narrow-minded when he's flying that airplane. I certainly do. And I'll tell you something else.

I want my pharmacist to be narrow-minded when he's mixing those medicines. Why should we not, in the most important thing of all of earth, be right with God? Want truth that is absolute. Now, we're living in a day today where the idea of absolute truth is being jettisoned. The society today calls itself post-modern, post-modern. The modernists were arguing about what is truth.

The post-modernists said, forget truth. What's true for you may not be true for me, but I have truth and I have my truth and we just become autonomous and create our own truth. There is a movement, a very strong movement in the world today, you may not be aware of it, but it's called humanism and it is more than a philosophy. It also has its own organization and they have their printing and they have their own humanist manifesto.

Let me tell you what the humanist manifesto has to say about the difference between truth and non-truth. So, moral values derive their source from human experience. Ethics is autonomous and situational. That is, you make up the rules as you play the game.

In Plato's Republic, he wrote about some sailors who lost their compass and so they put a light on the bow and they were inspired by that. That's what we're doing today. That's, morals, values, man is autonomous. And so, when our kids are going off to college, many of them going off to college now, they will be told in the normal, average university that there are no moral absolutes. As a matter of fact, one professor was teaching that class and he said to the students, there are no absolutes, none.

And the student said, professor, you sure about that? He said, absolutely. Truth is indispensable. Truth is absolute and thank God, truth is attainable.

It is attainable. The Bible says, by the truth. How is truth attainable? Well, again, I remind you that the Bible has the precepts of truth. John 17, verse 17, Jesus is praying for us and Jesus says, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth.

You get a rock-rib grip on that. God's word is true. And a God of truth could not inspire error. The Bible is, has the precepts of truth. Jesus is the person of truth. John 14, verse 6, he said of himself, I am the way, the truth and the life.

The truth and the life. Jesus is the truth that makes any other truth, true. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth.

Notice what Jesus said when he talked about the Holy Spirit coming into the world in John chapter 16, verse 13. He said, when he, the spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth. That's the reason I'm telling you that truth is attainable, not apart from the Holy Spirit, but if you take the Bible, which is the word of truth, which presents Jesus, the man of truth, and let the Holy Spirit, who is the spirit of truth, open your understanding, friend, I'm telling you that truth is attainable. You can know truth. It's just enough to know truth, however. You see, listen, truth without power is deadening and depressing.

The Bible speaks in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 6, of being ministers of the New Testament, not the letter, but of the spirit, for the letter killer, the spirit giveth life. If all you have is the letter of the law, you don't have the spirit, you have the words, but you don't have the music, then that's deadening truth. If knowledge without transformation avails nothing, all it does is just increase your judgment.

The Bible said it would be better for you not to have known the way of righteousness than to know it and then not live by it. Friend, it would be better for you not to hear truth than to hear truth, to learn truth, and not to act upon truth. Truth is attainable. Now, what am I saying?

Now, folks, listen to me. We must prize the truth, but now look at our text again. We must also purchase the truth. Look in verse 23, buy the truth.

Buy it. Salvation is free, but you pay a price to have truth. Truth is costly, and I'm going to show you what it's going to cost you. You know, we're hearing bandied about these words these days, but the truth will set you free. The truth will make you free. Well, that's only part of the truth, and part of the truth without all the truth is an untruth. You know, you take a Scripture out of context, and you miss the whole thing. Now, let me give you the whole verse where Jesus said the truth will make you free.

By the way, you might want to turn to it or put it in your margin. John chapter 8, verses 31 and 32, Jesus said to those Jews which believed on him, underscore that, if ye continue in my word, underscore that, then are ye my disciples indeed, underscore that, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. Did you hear that?

Now, listen to it. Truth alone does not make you free. First of all, you must believe the truth.

Listen, the Jews believed on him. You must believe on the Lord Jesus. Now, once you believe on the Lord Jesus, is it done? No. Then he says what? Continue in my word. Are you finished then? No.

He says what? Then become a disciple, and the word disciple means learner. Be a disciple indeed. Now, a lot are disciples in name if I ask you.

How many of you are disciples of Jesus? I'm a disciple of Jesus, but he says be a disciple indeed, and then he says, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. You see, when you believe the word, when you believe in Jesus, when you continue in the word, when you become a disciple indeed, then you know the truth, and then you become liberated. There are a lot of you today who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you're going to heaven, but friend, you are not a liberated person because you have never really absorbed truth. You have never taken truth.

You've never taken time to purchase, to buy the truth. You know, the word in that sentence that is the rub, disciple. Do you know another word that is akin to disciple? Discipline, and people don't like discipline because we have a generation that wants to be free. You see truth as restricting you, and discipline as restricting you.

I have a quote somewhere, I don't know who said it, but it stuck in my heart. He who is a slave to the compass is the master of the oceans. The rest have to sail close to the shore.

Is that not great? He who is a slave to the compass, the compass is what the ancient mariners used to guide the ships with. He who is a slave to the compass is the master of the oceans.

The rest have to sail close to the shore. Friend, you see truth liberates you. Truth makes you free, truth sets you free. Buy the truth. Now, discipleship is costly, but ignorance is far more costly. So, how do you buy the truth? How do you purchase the truth? Number one, it's going to cost you precious time. That's one of the costs you're going to have to pay.

You're going to get it by osmosis. Time is precious, but it is not as precious as truth. And therefore, hurry is the death knell of prayer and Bible study. You want to buy the truth, it's going to cost you some time. Most of us won't pay that price. We don't want to pay the price, the simple price of time. As a matter of fact, that's one of the lowest things in our society in the morning.

We wake up a little late, hurry through the morning, read the newspaper, drink a scalding cup of coffee, rush out the door and say, well, Lord, bless this mess. Now, I'll tell you something else. It will cost you discipline. Look in verse 23 again. Buy the truth, sell it not, also wisdom and instruction.

You know what instruction means? Well, actually, the Hebrew word literally means self-discipline. Now, you can pray for wisdom, but you have to study for instruction. Many of us are not serious in our Bible study.

No wonder we're so easily led astray. Paul was in prison. By the way, you might want to reference this verse, even turn to it, 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 13.

It is Paul's second imprisonment. He is writing perhaps the last epistle that he will write. He's getting down to the end of that epistle.

Now, I want you to see the old apostle Paul. He's in this cold, damp prison. It is so cold, he's shivering. He needs a coat and he's all alone and he has no television. He has no transistor radio. He has none of that. He's there in this prison and here's what he is writing.

I want you to listen to it. He says, the cloak that I left with Carpus, that thou comest bring with thee and the books, but especially the parchments, the parchments. Now, here's old Paul. He had to leave in a hurry. He didn't have time to get his coat, didn't have time to get his library, didn't have time to get his Bible, the parchments.

Can you imagine a man like Paul being in prison like that without anything to read? Now, about instruction, in his rush to leave Troas, he left all this. He said, now, Carpus, Carpo boy, take care of this for me. I got to get out of here.

And so, he says to, he says, now look, when you come to me, bring the cloak. It's wet in here. It's damp in here.

I'm shivering in here. Don't ever get so spiritual that you don't take care of your body. Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost of God.

Don't ever get the idea that if you're spiritual, that you don't have to worry about those kind of things. I was in the grocery store buying some groceries. A lady came to me and she said, Dr. Rogers, I didn't know you had to buy groceries. Yeah.

No, I just live on Nana, you know. Bring the cloak. And so, the winner is coming. There's going to be the chill of this old dungeon. Then he says, not only bring the cloak, but he says, bring the books, bring the parchments.

I want to study. I need something for my body, but I need something for my soul. Now, who was this man who was saying this? This was the apostle Paul.

He had been to heaven and back in a vision. He had met the Lord Jesus on the Damascus road. He wasn't much of the New Testament, yet he wants to study. He wants to learn.

You never get beyond the place where you need to study, where you need to learn, where you need to grow. Here's the apostle Paul at the end of his journey saying, I want to learn. He told young Timothy, Timothy, give yourself to reading. Warren Wisby has given some reasons why we ought to read.

I want you to draw them down. Number one, you read for enlightenment. You read to get hold of the truth. Truth is to your spirit what food is to your body, what light is to your eyes, what melody is to your ears. You read to get truth, not just facts.

Hey folks, you only have one short life to live. To know truth is to know God, for God is truth. The devil wants to obscure the truth and to hide the truth from you. Paul read widely also. He read more than the Bible.

He said, bring the books and the parchments. If you read the apostle Paul, as he writes, you can tell he was well read. He read, for example, in the book of Acts, he's preaching and he quotes one of their poets there in Athens. He said, one of the Greek poets, he read their plays and so forth and he quoted them, for in him we live and move and have our being, as one of your poets said. You can tell that Paul was a man who read much, he knew what was going on.

Dr. Warren Wiersbe said, if you were to spend only 30 minutes a day on any subject, nutrition, history, whatever, just 30 minutes a day on any subject, consistently in 10 years you would have the equivalency of a PhD in that subject. There's so much knowledge here. You know, as a, you read widely, but as a Bible student, you measure everything that you read and test everything that you read by the Word of God. You have a grid that it all has to pass through.

You have a radar. You see, all truth intersects. And one of the tests of any good book is this, when you put that book down, do you begin to think?

Because it will relate to everything else that you know. All genuine truth intersects because all real truth is of God and God did not make you just to be, however, a reservoir of facts but he means for you to be a channel of truth. If you're growing in knowledge but not growing in grace, you're going to be dangerous.

I've met those people. I've split a theological hair to nine separate sections, but they don't, they're not growing in the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So, you read number one for what? Enlightenment. Read number two, friend, for enjoyment. You know, one of the worst things that they used to do, I hope they don't do this in one school, but when we would act up and even your pastor as a schoolboy acted up some, you know what they said? We don't want to read so many chapters in a book. That was our punishment, to read. Teacher, if you're a teacher, never punish a child by making a child read.

No, bless a child by letting a child read. Don't look at reading as something dull by reading a book. Friend, when you read, you can meet people you've always wanted to meet, the great leaders. You can visit periods of history that have gone before you. You can visit faraway places that you've never been to. You can grapple with issues and think about these things. You can study the past. They say, if you don't study the past, you're destined to repeat it. You can study the future. If you don't study the future, you probably don't have much of a future. You can understand great truths.

And by the way, theology has been rightly called the queen of the sciences, to study theology. Why? Because of this fact. You see, you read, friend, for enjoyment.

You get so full of truth. When you learn about the world and you learn about God, you can be such a blessing to people. You know what counseling is? Counseling is just knowing about God and knowing about people and getting the two together. That's it.

Just knowing about God and knowing about people and getting them together. You're not the answer. God is the answer. God is the answer. And any good counselor is not solving people's problems.

He's bringing people to God. That's what it's all about. So, you read for enjoyment. You read for enrichment. People say, all books are expensive. Friend, ignorance costs a whole lot more than books cost.

You can be rich. Your children can inherit your books and your children can learn from your knowledge while you're living. And the purpose of truth is building character by truth. And so, when you read, read devotional readings for the heart. Now, you see, by the way, don't just read the cookbook. Eat the meal.

Eat the meal. Doctrinal truth for the mind. Sharpen your mind. Read the truth for the will. You ought to learn more about missions. You ought to learn more about soul winning.

You ought to learn about home building. By the way, would you like to find out whether you're growing in knowledge, whether you're really purchasing the truth? Ask yourself this question. Am I getting excited about truth? I am.

I don't want to say it boastfully, but I want to say it thankfully. I am excited about truth. I can hardly wait to get my hands on more truth. You guys want to study methods. You will never ever get excited about methods unless you learn the truth behind the method.

Why do you do this? Are you experiencing freedom? Real truth, as Jesus says, sets you free. You're going to be free from the prejudice and the party line and from lies and from pressures and from fears because truth has a way of liberating you.

You ask yourself this question. Am I learning humility? You know, the more a man learns, the more he knows he doesn't know.

Is that not true? And as you study, you begin to get more and more humble. Ask this question. Am I learning balance? You see, if you're studying and buying the truth, you ought to be balanced, not just all worship, but no evangelism, not just all prophecy, but no devotion, not just all program, but no theology. And then, last of all, read for enablement.

Enablement, not just enjoyment, but enablement. I want my doctor to continue to read. I want my mechanic to continue to learn.

I wish the cooks in the restaurant would go back to the cookbooks. What's it going to cost you? It's going to cost you time. It's going to cost you discipline. It's going to cost you obedience. Now, if you don't obey the truth, then that's dangerous.

Impression without expression leads to depression. And James says, James 1, verse 21 and 22, Wherefore, lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. Now, listen to this. And be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only. Jesus said, Who?

The one who hears these things of mine and does them not is like a foolish man. Now, what does it cost? It costs time. It costs discipline. It costs obedience.

Now, here finally, and I must get to the final thing. Not only do we prize the truth, and not only do we purchase the truth, but friend, we must preserve the truth. Now, look in verse 23 again. Buy the truth, now watch this, and sell it not.

Sell anything else before you would sell the truth. Titus 1, 9, holding fast the faithful word. Jude 1, 3, earnestly contend for the faith.

That is once for all delivered to the saints. We have to guard against those who would deny the Bible. There's an open war on the Word of God today. We have to guard against those who would distort the truth. We have in the modern charismatic extravagances today, we have all of those who are getting all this extra biblical revelation. Well, friend, when you start getting extra biblical revelation, it's only a half step to anti-biblical revelation.

Listen to me now. There are those who deny the truth. There are those who distort the truth. There are those who would dilute the truth. For example, many people in order to appear intellectual have to jettison the book of Genesis that tells us in the beginning, we have to obey the heavens and the earth and substitute evolution for that. Well, that's just a dilution of the truth. You can believe that monkey mythology if you want to.

I don't believe it. Don't change the message to please the congregation. Now, we have people today who are talking about user-friendly churches.

Well, I want to be as friendly as we can be. But friend, it's not primarily my job to fill the auditorium. It's my job to fill the pulpit. We can't dilute the truth. We would defile the truth. 2 Corinthians 2, verse 17, For we are not as many which corrupt the word of God. The Bible says, Buy the truth and sell it not.

And when the child of God looks into the word of God and sees the Son of God and is changed by the Spirit of God into the glory of God, the image of God for the glory of God, many of these learn the truth of God. Now, prize the truth, yes, praise God. Purchase the truth, yes. Preserve the truth, yea, verily. But now, let me just proclaim the truth very quickly. All truth comes to one great focal point.

Let me tell you what it is. It is the gospel of the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but should have everlasting life. That, my friend, is the gospel truth.

That is the gospel truth. And I am telling you with all of my heart, if you today will open your heart and receive Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, God will forgive every sin and the grave of his forgetfulness. God will fill you with His Spirit and give you peace and power that you've never known. And God will set you on a journey of discipleship where you can be a disciple indeed and learn truth.

And that truth will make you free. If you're not certain that you're saved today, I mean, we can get it settled today. If you want to be saved, I remind you again that Jesus died for you. He paid for your sins on that tree on the cross. Your sins have all already been paid for. Now you must open your heart and receive the gift of God. Pray like this, dear God, I am a sinner.

I am lost. My sin deserves judgment, but I need and I want mercy. Jesus, you died to save me. You promised to save me if I would trust you. Lord Jesus, I do trust you.

Tell him that out of your heart. I believe you're the Son of God. I believe you paid my sin debt with your blood on the cross.

I believe that God raised you from the dead. By faith, I receive you into my heart right now as my Lord and Savior. Forgive my sin, cleanse me, save me, Lord Jesus. Pray that. Did you pray?

Did you? Save me, Lord Jesus. Then pray this way, by faith, thank you for doing it.

Thank you for doing it. You cannot lie. I stand on your word. I don't look for a feeling.

I don't ask for a sign. I stand on your word. You cannot lie.

Thank you for saving me. Begin now to make me the person you want me to be. Lord Jesus, help me never to be ashamed of you. In your name I pray, amen. If you would like to learn more about how you can know Jesus or deepen your relationship with him, click the Discover Jesus link on our website, lwf.org. For a copy of this message or additional resources, visit our online store at lwf.org, or call 1-800-274-5683. Thank you.