In Defense of Truth #1

Is there even truth at all? Does truth even exist? Hello and welcome back to The Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

I'm Bill Wright. Today, as Don continues teaching God's people God's Word, he's going to take a hard look at the subject of truth and how the current culture likes to bend that term to fit its own social and political agenda. Well Don, we've all heard some liberal professor or some woke young person perhaps saying things like, well that's your truth or that isn't my truth, when they're attempting to justify some aspect of what might be an immoral lifestyle or some social or cultural trend. But there's a very real danger in dismissing the absolute truth found in God's Word and bowing down to what you've called the spirit of the age, isn't there?

Well yes, that's right Bill. The spirit of our age, my friend, is to deny that there even is such a thing as absolute, objective, universal truth that applies to all men. People seek their own truth, so-called, based on their feelings, based on voices they hear inside their head, maybe visions that they think that they have seen. But beloved, it's all individual, it's all subjective, there's no way to verify it independently, and that's not the nature of truth. People tell us, the world tells us, that we are not supposed to think we know any objective truth, and we're certainly not supposed to be strong about our opinions about truth.

Well friends, Christianity opposes that entire way of thinking. God is a God of truth. Jesus Christ is the truth. God's Word is truth, and that assaults the spirit of our age. We'll see all of that and much much more in this series from The Truth Pulpit.

Thanks Don. And friend, let's join our teacher now for the first half of a message called In Defense of Truth, here on The Truth Pulpit. What I want to do to start with is just start with a beginning principle here, the first point in today's message if you want to treat it that way. Just simply a point called the centrality of truth. The centrality of truth. Beloved, we must understand something really foundational. If there is no such thing as absolute truth, there is no such thing as salvation from sin.

There is no such thing as a Bible that has authority, because once you deny the principle of absolute truth, you have denied everything that Christ stands for, denied everything that Christ is, denied everything about his work, and have just led yourself into complete and utter darkness where there are no answers to anything. And listen, I've stood by the deathbeds of enough people to know that truth matters. Truth is going to matter greatly and eternally when you are five breaths away from entering into the unknown realm of death. Unknown if you don't believe truth. And so we must understand that this is no incidental message.

This is no incidental series. This is everything. This is everything that we stand for, and everything is built on the very foundation of truth. What you need to see is how how central truth is to everything that we assert in the gospel, everything that we believe as Christians. Truth cannot be separated from the things that are most essential to the Christian faith. The very principle of truth, the very existence of truth must be defended, not simply teaching a passage, but teaching that a passage has authority because it comes from the God of truth. Look at the Gospel of John chapter 1 in verse 1.

Let's start there. The gospel according to John chapter 1 verse 1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In that first verse we have been taken back before time began in order to see what was in existence at the moment God spoke creation into being. And we see that before time began was the Word. The Word was with God, the Word was God.

And you immediately are plunged into the depth of Trinitarian reality. This Word was God Himself, and yet He was somehow distinct from God because He was God, and yet He was with God. There is a personal distinction in the Godhead, and the language of the grammar there in verse 1 says that in the beginning the Word was already existing. The Word existed before time began, and so there is this assertion of the pre-existence of the Word, this compatibility or this companionship of the Word with God, and this essence of the Word that He Himself was God. And then you go down to verse 14, and you see, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory.

Glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and what? Truth. Truth being central to who the Word is, and the Word being someone who was pre-existent and with God and existing at the time of creation. This tells us that truth is eternal. Truth in the Word, this Word made flesh, has existed before time began.

There was no beginning to it. Truth has always been because truth is found in this Word. Truth found in the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so as you talk about Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, God become man, the element of truth is central to that. But that this is reality. This is the way that things really are.

This is genuine. This is accurate that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, full of grace and truth. And so you see truth and the incarnation, the person of Jesus Christ, inextricably linked and wrapped around one another in the fact that you cannot see Christ without truth, and you cannot see truth without Christ. They are indivisible.

That's essential to understand. Go to John chapter 4, verse 23. John chapter 4, verse 23.

We see in verse 23 this statement from our Lord to the woman at the well. He says, An hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For such people the Father seeks to be his worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. Worship must be true worship, or it is a sin against God. Worship must be true worship, or it is not worship at all. And so we're not free to simply make up our own rules and just make up our own approach to worship. True worship must be done according to the principles that God has revealed in his word and not go beyond them.

And when you see and realize that the Bible says nothing about worshiping in drama and skits and things like that, you realize that churches in the name of Christ for decades have been practicing a false form of worship by pretending that that was actually worship toward God. Worship must be done in spirit and in truth. And so the reality of truth shapes and forms and informs everything that we do as we gather together as a body of Christ, and it shapes and forms and informs everything that you do when you worship in the privacy of your own prayer closet. You must worship in truth. You're not free to make up your own approach to it. God, who is holy, has the prerogative to establish the terms on which he will be approached by men, if he will be approached at all.

And so we must worship according to his dictates, not the dictates of what we prefer or what we like or what we, you know, what we think seems best. Beloved, one of the things about the principle of truth is this, is that your opinion and mine when it comes to the realm of truth, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what your opinion is or what my opinion is, that does not change truth at all. The question is not what you feel like truth is, the question is what has truth always been? Because what was truth before you were born? What will truth be after you die?

Those are the kinds of questions that we need to get to if we're going to deal rightly with an eternal God, if we're going to know and understand him, those are the kinds of questions that we need to be asking. You know, it's painful for me as a pastor and just as a Christian to realize the silly things that people use by which to determine what kind of church that they're going to go to, just matters of preference and do I like the music or not? Well, I always want to say in times like that, what about the truth? Does this church, I'm not talking about our church, just the concept of looking for a church, what about the truth? Does this church teach truth? Forget about whether the people are friendly enough to you the first time you've been there, forget about music styles, what about the truth? Is the truth central to why this church exists?

Or is it simply a social club with a small little click of you and me and another three? You know, we need to get down to the principles that matter. God says that if he is to be truly worshipped, that it must be worship that is done in spirit and in truth.

That means that we need to understand that our preferences are secondary to the principle of truth and what the content of truth is. We're going to rightly worship him. This would be revolutionary in the Christian community if people took this seriously, but often they don't, right? John chapter 8, the third passage that we'll look at in this series, we've seen truth in the incarnation, truth in worship. John chapter 8, verses 31 and 32. Now we're just going to see truth in perseverance and continuing in the faith.

John 8, 31 and 32. So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed him, if you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free. Genuine salvation produces disciples who continue in the faith.

That is not because they somehow contribute to their salvation with their good works, but because God, by the power of his Holy Spirit, draws a man to the Lord Jesus Christ, makes him a new creation in Christ, gives him the ability to repent and believe, and the overflow of that is a changed, transformed life. That is the mark of a true Christian, someone who believes in Christ and continues in Christ, not someone who prayed a prayer and then went on their own merry way and their life was never transformed. Jesus is saying that true salvation has a transforming effect and one of the ways that you recognize that is that the person is continuing in the truth. Well if we're going to know what true salvation is and if you and I are truly saved or not, then we need to know what the truth is and we need to acknowledge and recognize that there is such a thing as truth itself. If you are to know the truth and it will make you free, then there must be such a thing as truth that transcends personal opinion or feelings. Go on to John chapter 14 verse 6. Jesus said to Thomas, I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father but through me. To deny the principle of truth is to deny salvation itself. To deny the principle of truth is to deny and to close the doors to heaven and bolt and lock them shut from the outside to those who hear such monstrous lies that there is no such thing as truth. Truth in salvation, truth in access to God, truth in the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you start to see how in these most fundamental doctrines the principle of truth is so central to it? Do you start to see that if you abandon the principle of truth, you have thrown the Bible away, you have denied God, you have accused God of lying himself for saying such a thing as there is truth when there is not truth if in fact our postmodern spirit is correct. The Bible is utterly incompatible with the spirit of our age. We must understand that. We are not going to be friends with this world, with our worldview. We cannot accommodate them. We cannot bring it into the church and try to make the two mix together. It's oil and water. There is always a separation between the two.

It could be no other way. John chapter 17 verse 17 where you see the doctrine of sanctification and the authority of Scripture side by side wrapped around the idea, the principle of truth. John 17 17 sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth.

There is no sanctification. There is no progress in the Christian life apart from truth. God's word is truth. God's word is authoritative. Now listen, you and I have to understand there are just such massive implications to this. We must understand that the principle of truth and truth as it is found in Christ is the foundation upon which everything else is built.

There is no other foundation than that. And what this means, beloved, is this, is that if you are going to be a Christian, if you are going to continue as a Christian in light of these things, you must understand that that means that you are not going to be able to be friends with this world. You are not going to be able to be popular with people who hate the very principles upon which your salvation is built.

That's not possible. And we need to stop worrying about the fear of man and what men think of us as Christians from every level, from the man on the street whom we might have a conversation with Christ about all the ways to the highest halls of Christian academia. We don't care what they think if they deny truth, if they're trying to accommodate themselves to the world. We don't care about that.

We reject that. We separate ourselves from that because there is something more important than the approval of academics or the approval of the man on the street. Truth is more important than that. Christ is more important than that. And if Christ is the one who has truly loved you, if Christ is the one who has truly given himself up for you at the cross of Calvary, and you say that you belong to him, then, beloved, the question of your loyalties and priorities has been settled in a way that makes you willing to accept rejection and abuse and hatred and rejection from the world because truth is more important than they are. Jesus said in John 15 verse 18, if the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this, the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you. A slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. And so we affirm the centrality of truth. The centrality of truth in the understanding of basic reality. The centrality of truth in understanding Christian doctrine and salvation. You can't have doctrine or salvation without it. And also the centrality of truth in determining your priorities and your loyalties in the face of a hostile world. If the world hates us and rejects us and makes life very, very difficult for us because it hates truth and rejects the principle of truth and we hold to it, then that's simply the consequence that we have of being blessedly chosen by Christ and saved by him as we walk through this world. Scripture, Christ, and salvation from sin.

The concept of truth is foundational to each one. And for those of you that are sitting on the fence about this, let me just give you some advice. Don't trade your eternal soul for the sake of approval of people who deny the very principle of truth itself. Don't trade your soul for that. That's a bad bargain.

That's not too swift to do something like that. And these are things that we need to think about individually and corporately. And as the broad church of Christ, we need to think about these things at a very deep and profound level and reexamine the foundations upon which we stand and decide for ourselves, am I going to be committed to this or not?

Am I going to be committed to this enough to change the way my children are educated and to spend the time that is necessary to train them in the Word of God because this is so important and to guard and to protect them from a world that is trying to suck them away from that, which I say is important. Just for example, the consequences of this go everywhere. The consequences of this go deep for church leaders. The consequences of this for church leaders mean that to lead a body that is devoted to truth means that you're willing to accept some people who reject you. Some come for a while, don't decide this isn't for me and leave because they don't like the emphasis on Scripture or whatever.

That's okay. Let them go. You let them go rather than changing your philosophy of ministry, fudging on the sharp edges of truth in order to keep someone.

You don't do that. The priority for church leadership is determined by the concept of truth itself and being loyal and faithful to that. There's more that can be said about that maybe later on, I will. But all of these fundamental matters, from what's deep in your heart, your loyalties and affections all the way to the way that the broad Church of Christ should function and the cultural collision of philosophies, all of that starts here. This is the foundation upon which everything is built.

Well, let's go on to a second point. The significance of truth. The significance of truth. The Greek word for translated truth in English is elathia, and it occurs 27 times just in the Gospel of John alone.

It's obviously one of the key themes of his gospel. And so it's important for us, since we're taking all of these texts out of the Gospel of John, to just take a moment to consider what does this term mean? What does truth mean? As it is presented to us in the Gospel of John and in Scripture and as we consider it in a way that we just understand what the nature of reality is. What does truth mean?

Well, let's start with something simple. Here's something that a child can understand. Truth is simply that which is really so. It's that which is really so. It's the way things really are as opposed to that which is false or misleading. So we start from that principle, it is that which is really so.

And from there, you can work out different meanings that you can find in Scripture and in the lexicons. Truth, and I'm just going to give you a series of statements here to just kind of look at it from different perspectives. Truth is communication that does not deceive. Truth is communication that does not deceive.

It is a representation of facts and reality that leads people to understand the way things really are. And thus, there is a fullness to truth. We all know that you can tell a partial truth in order to deceive someone. That is using truth to tell a lie.

That's not true. You can tell the truth in order to deceive someone. Truth, by contrast, in its full-orbed reality, is communication that does not deceive. Here's another aspect of it.

This goes to the heart of what we are clashing with our culture on this. Truth is reality which transcends individual experience. Truth is reality that transcends individual experience. It transcends your opinion. The fact that a transgender person says, I feel like a girl in a man's body and therefore I'm a girl, that is not true.

That does not make them into a girl because the truth of their existence transcends their individual experience or their individual feelings about who they are. Truth is greater than what you feel inside. In other words, truth is reality which transcends individual experience.

Another way to look at that is to repeat what I said earlier. Truth is that which was real before you were born, which is true now and will be true after you are born, the meaning of Scripture. You know, it doesn't matter what Scripture means to you.

What we want to know is what Scripture meant before you were born and what it will mean after you die. That's a way of saying that truth is transcendent and goes beyond what any individual thinks. We have such high opinions of ourselves and we're so convinced that what we think is everything in the world, concept of truth humbles that pride of man and says the truth is bigger than you are and you need to align with truth, not truth aligning with you. Truth could say in another application of it. Truth is personal integrity that keeps one's commitments. He's a truthful man is a way that could be used to say he's a man who keeps his word.

Psalm 15 addresses that as one of the aspects of true godly character. Truth is personal integrity that keeps one's commitments. Truth is character that acts with no hidden agenda. Character that acts with no hidden agenda.

You know people like that. You're always wondering what's really behind the words that they say, right? What are they really getting at?

What did they mean by that thing that they said to me? Well, truth is character that acts without an agenda. And with that we'll bring our study to a close for today here on The Truth Pulpit. And friend, if you'd like to find out more about Don Green and this broadcast, just go to thetruthpulpit.com. When you get there, you'll find more information about this ministry as well as all of Don's lessons available to you 24 hours a day. Once more, that's thetruthpulpit.com. I'm Bill Wright, inviting you to join us next time as Don continues in his ministry of teaching God's people God's Word from The Truth Pulpit.