Have you ever had somebody say to you, Well, that may be your truth, and that's great if it works for you, but it's not my truth?
So, how do we respond to that as Christians? Is there such a thing as absolute truth? We'll find out today on Truth for Life as Alastair Begg explores the exclusive claims of Christ. Um I invite you to turn with me to the Bible, first of all, to Isaiah chapter 45. And then to Philippians 2, and we're going to read from verse twenty.
God speaks through his prophet, gather together and come, assemble. you fugitives from the nations, Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood. who pray to gods that cannot save. Declare what is to be. Present it.
Let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago? Who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no God apart from me.
a righteous God and a Saviour. There is none but me. Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth. For I am God and there is no other. By myself, I have sworn.
My mouth has uttered in all integrity a word That will not be revoked. And here comes the word. Before me every knee will bow, By me Every tongue will swear. They will say of me In the Lord alone are righteousness and strength. All who have raged against him will come to him.
and be put to shame. But in the LORD all the descendants of Israel, will be found righteous. and will exalt. And then in Philippians 2:9, therefore God exalted him, that is Jesus, to the highest place. and gave him the name that is above every name.
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. In heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord. To the glory of of God the Father. Amen.
Gracious God, with our Bibles open before us, we pray for your help. that we may be true to the scriptures in our thinking and speaking and listening. Believing and obeying. Trusting? And we depend entirely upon you for this.
And we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Well, I don't imagine that many of you will remember the first Sunday of the new millennium. except for the fact that many of you were embarrassed at how many toilet robes you had purchased in prospect of the great collapse. Or, how vociferous you had been in letting me know that none of the traffic lights in the entire world were going to work and that all of our computers would crash entirely.
I must confess, I was a complete sceptic about the whole thing and therefore felt horribly smug when I wakened up on that morning and realized that actually everyone who had bought a generator would be going back to Walmart as quickly as they could to try and get rid of it. I'm sure you still have it in your basement. But anyway, when we came to church on that first Sunday, We acknowledge the fact that as we looked out on the horizon before us, It would probably be uh for the Christian population. a decade, a quarter of a century of particular challenge. And we said that That would come.
without question in three areas, more, but definitely these three. They onslaught on the Bible itself. regarding its veracity and its sufficiency. the constant bombardment as to whether the Bible is the collection of material that was hodgepodged together by people or whether anyone can with any accuracy and conviction say that it is nothing other than the very Word of God. That would be one area of challenge.
Another area we said would be in the matter of human sexuality. The question of man and woman. What is the difference? Why did God make them in this way? Or if He didn't make them in that way, as we have been led to believe, what are we supposed to do with one another?
And I don't think that in either of these areas any of us have been surprised, except perhaps by the extent of the onslaught. I think we knew it was coming. And the third area, we said, would be in this matter of the exclusive claims of Jesus Christ. And this, of course, would not be unique to the first Couple of decades of the 21st century, but we had a sense that it might be quickened. in its intensity and begin to cut more deeply not only into the surrounding culture, but into the convictions of some who would profess to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And here we are, some ten years on. And I think we have actually proved to ourselves that those surmisings have been accurate. I thought that it would be appropriate for us to address at least one of these three areas. And I want to address with you this morning this question of the exclusive claims of Jesus. I do so in a way that is topical rather than expositional.
We're not going to go to one passage of Scripture to justify our deliberations. But I hope that all that is said will be anchored in the Bible, and that if it isn't, you can reject it out of hand. I begin with words from the mid-20th century, which is when I was born, and some of you were too. At that point in history in England, the Archbishop of Canterbury was Archbishop William Temple. He wrote a book entitled Toward the Conversion of England.
And in the second chapter, at the beginning of it, he makes this statement. The gospel is true always and everywhere. or it is not a gospel at all. or true at all. He also observed, quotes, The church has become confused and uncertain.
in its proclamation of the message. The church. Has become confused and uncertain in its proclamation of the message. He was able to justify that, looking at the panorama of events in the middle of the 20th century in England. And I think that he would be more than happy, if he were still alive, to reinforce that statement as he would survey the vista of contemporary life.
here in America at this point in time. Yeah. uh notes the observation of a Buddhist monk Who said at that time to the Eastern religious? It looks as if Christianity has reached the stage in adolescence When the child is slightly ashamed of his father, and embarrassed when talking about him. It's a long time since I was in that position.
I'm glad that it only lasts for a short while, but it is a period in time that many of us as adolescents experience when we think that our father is the weirdest father in the entire universe. And if we see him coming down the high street, we try and duck into the butcher's shop so that none of our friends will be introduced to this weird character who is our dad. Everyone else's dad is perfectly fine. It's just our dad who is slightly weird. Then we suddenly realize that every all of our friends feel the same way about their dads, whom we regard as being perfectly normal.
But the Buddhist observes, he says, it looks as if the Christians have reached the stage in adolescence where they're actually ashamed of their father and they're embarrassed. when they're talking about him.
Now I wonder is that not accurate? Are we not on many of us on our back foot? The surrounding culture has been prevailing in such a way that some of us are increasingly vague, lacking in confidence. And we are responsible for a guilty silence. And part of the reason for our guilty silence is that we lack a thorough knowledge of the gospel itself.
We do not have a complete understanding or conviction about its truth. and about its relevance or about both. And in that respect, we are Pilgrims of our age. for the environment in which we live. is a tough environment for proclaiming the truth.
It's tough to declare the claims of the Bible. when the very idea of truth as something that is fixed, or universal or objective or absolute. is challenged on a daily basis. Indeed, one of the great challenges to proclaiming the news of the gospel is in this very arena, because people have trouble believing in Christianity because of the exclusivity of its claims. If only we're prepared to be like other people, if only we could be like the nice people around us, then folks would be able to handle it much better.
Stephen Protheru, someone I like to read, he's a professor of religion at Boston University, has just written a quite masterful book entitled God is Not One. We might hope from the thesis of it that this was Stephen's conviction coming across very clearly regarding the very things we're considering now. I don't think it is. I may have misread him. I hope I get the chance one day to talk with him concerning this.
But he says, quite honestly, in the opening part of the book. Before I came to describe myself as religiously confused. I thought I had the answer to the big questions. Before I came to describe myself as religiously confused, in other words, this is an expression now of intellectual maturity. Intellectual maturity is found in being able to say, you know, I am just horribly confused.
I used to be an idiot and actually believed things. I had convictions when I was a boy coming out of Sunday school. But now I have ascended to the high territory where I am just confused. He goes on to say, I discovered the study of religion just as I was losing the Christian faith of my youth. It's actually quite sad.
I felt sad as I read the book. And I say to myself now, We need to make sure that our children do not grow up to make the same statements, that they don't emerge from the Sunday school work and the youth work of Parkside Church. rejecting the convictions of childhood. And maturing to a position of religious confusion. And what will be the antidote to that?
It will be the convictions of parents and grandparents, instilling in your children and in your grandchildren these truths. The Hebrew Shema gets it right: these things are to be upon your hearts. And you are to teach them to your children when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you get up. And what is that? Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one.
And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your mind, your soul, your strength. He is the one God. He is the only God. He is your God. Make sure your children and your grandchildren know this, says the Shema.
So here we are. And I want, as I say, to tackle this with you throughout our study this morning. And then again, if the first service is anything to go by, coming back to it this evening, so as to bring some clarity to the remarks.
Well, we are concerned as Christians And we are responsible as Christians to affirm what the Bible makes clear. What the Bible makes clear. What does the Bible make clear concerning its content? Regarding this matter of God and there being no other God.
Well It's actually very straightforward. And that's why I read initially from Isaiah and chapter 45. Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is No other. I'm God and there is no other.
It's quite a statement, isn't it? And that's what the Bible says. And you don't have to go and ferret it out in obscure passages of the Bible, you will find that it is. woven into the entire uh mixture of the Bible. For example, Psalm 115: Why do the nations say, Where is their God?
Our God is in heaven. He does whatever pleases him. But their idols are silver and gold, they're made by the hands of men. They have mouths but cannot speak. Eyes can't see, ears can't hear, noses can't smell, hands can't feel, feet can't walk, nor can they utter a sound with their throats.
Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them. It's unequivocal. You can disagree with it. But unless there's something wrong with you, you can't misunderstand it. Nobody's going to say, well, I'm pretty sure that that isn't what is being said there.
There's virtually not two ways to understand it. I am God and there aren't any other gods. All the gods that are little idols are useless to you. They can't do anything, they can't see anything, they can't help you in any way. And if you entrust yourself to those useless idols, then you will actually become like them.
You will become a hollow man or a hollow woman. When you come into the New Testament, it reinforces the truth of the Old. I like to keep in mind just three statements when I'm thinking these things out, often because. I get engaged in this kind of conversation as you do too. First of all, that there is one way, one way, John 14:6.
Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father but by me.
Okay. Secondly, there is one mediator. 1 Timothy 2 and verse 5: There is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And thirdly, there is one name, Acts chapter 4 and verse 12, when Peter preaches after the healing of the man at the gate, beautiful, and the authorities of religion come to him and ask for an explanation of what's going on. He says, Well, actually, if you're inquiring about this, we need to let you know that this has been done in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, the one that you crucified, God has raised up from the dead.
And he said, And you need to know that there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
Well, the Jewish authorities of the time must have said, now that sounds a tremendous amount like Isaiah the prophet. But how does that fit with Jesus of Nazareth?
Well, he is. The fulfillment. And the Explanation. of all these things.
So one way One mediator. One name. As Christians, we affirm the fact that in Jesus' name Every knee is going to bow. that all of history is moving towards that event. That every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
That is not, as we've said before, an expression of personal devotion, a feeling in your tummy, but it is a declaration of his identity. The word that is used there for Lord is the word which is used thousands of times in the Old Testament in the Septuagint when it is translated into Greek. And the word that is used for Yahweh when it is translated into Greek, the name of God, is this word Kyrios, Lord. And so, what Paul is saying here is: there's going to come a day when every tongue will say that Jesus is actually God, that Jesus is Lord. That doesn't mean that everybody will bow having embraced him as Savior and Lord.
But those who have rejected him in time will in eternity. to their shame. and to their destruction. Do you clear? him to be the person.
He claims to be.
Now, the statements then are straightforward, aren't they? Peter, in the declaration and response there in Acts chapter 4, which you can read at your leisure, is absolutely unapologetic. He's direct, he's clear. He's not offering an academic treatise. He's not suggesting that what he has to say is up for debate.
Or that he is encouraging all kinds of opinions and discussions on the subject. No. Because although his statement is in contemporary terms politically incorrect. It is not logically incorrect. Because the statement made by Peter, the statement made by the prophets.
is a logical deduction from the facts as they're given. In a way that testifies to the fulfilment of Christ. And the promise of the Holy Spirit bringing the apostles into all truth, Peter then conveys this truth. Remember Peter and the disciples as we've been seeing in Mark. They were not really getting the picture.
Little bits and pieces of the jigsaw, but they didn't get it all.
Now we find him on the streets of Jerusalem, and he's got it absolutely perfectly. How did this happen?
Well, because of what Jesus had promised. When the Holy Spirit comes, he will lead you into all truth. And suddenly the picture will form up, and you will be able both to understand and to explain to people what's going on. And that is why Peter does what he does. In light of Christ's life and death and resurrection, He declares that there is no other Saviour.
He's not being arrogant or rude. He's saying in light of the life and the death and the resurrection. There is no other Saviour, for there is no one else who is qualified to save. The Buddha's final words, apparently, to his followers on his deathbed were: try a little harder. Jesus says to his disciples, I'm going to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the place where I'm going. And Philip says, Lord, We don't know where you're going. How can we know the way? I am the way.
The truth and the life. That then is essentially and summarily The content Of what the Bible affirms concerning God's exclusive claims. Let's say a word secondly about the context in which these affirmations are given. First of all, we've noted the context in here in Isaiah. I could turn you again to, for example, you can read on from Isaiah all around 44, 45, 46, 47.
When you get to chapter 47, The statement is is still as clear as ever. The prophet says to the people of his day, he says, Keep on then with your magic spells and with your many sorceries, which you've labored at since childhood. Perhaps you will succeed, perhaps you will cause terror. All the counsel you have received has only worn you out. It's a great picture, isn't it?
Of the futility of taking advice and counsel and advice and counsel, of reading your horoscope, of trying to figure everything out. And he says, Here you are, and you go to this stuff all day, every day. You go to substitute gods all day, every day, and instead of them bringing you peace and forgiveness and satisfaction and joy, all they've done is they've made you weary.
So why don't you let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month? Why do you bring those boys out? Let them save you from what is coming. He's challenging them.
Okay. If this is the answer, bring them out. Surely they are like stubble. The fire will burn them up. They cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame.
Here are no coals to warm anyone. Here is no fire to sit by. That is all they can do for you. These you have labored with and trafficked with since childhood. Each one of them goes on in his error.
There is not one that can save you.
Now that's the context in Isaiah's day. You fast forward through all the centuries, and it just comes with striking application, doesn't it? Why? Because everybody needs to be saved. Everybody knows they need to be saved.
The only question is saved from what? Saved simply from suffering, as Buddha would suggest? Or saved from sin as the Bible suggests? But saved nevertheless. And everybody every day is looking to something or to someone to save them.
You're listening to Truth for Life with Alastair Begg. He's titled today's message, There is No Other Stream. We'll hear the conclusion tomorrow. In the meantime, let me remind you that to day is the last day for you to request your copy of the Sing Hymnal with a donation to Truth for Life. If you have not yet requested your copy, You'll want to do that today.
As musicians and songwriters, Keith and Christian Getty exercised great care as they compiled hundreds of worship songs that exalt Christ with biblically rich lyrics and engaging melodies. This hymnal also includes brief stories about each hymn as well as practical advice on strengthening congregational singing.
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Now here's Alister to close out the year with a special message. Thanks, Bob. You know, my prayer is that as you've listened to Truth for Life this year. You have grown in your relationship with the Lord Jesus. and I hope too that you've had the opportunity to share the Gospel with others by freely passing along our messages.
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And once again, you can give a donation securely. Go to truthforlife.org/slash donate. I'm Bob Lepine. Thanks for listening. Christian beliefs are often considered intolerant, Should we soften the message to make it more acceptable?
Join us tomorrow to hear the answer. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.
