November 24th, 2019
Jeremiah 38:1-28
“No Place for Truth”
Aux. Text: John 8:31-47
Call to Worship: Psa 25
Service Orientation: When people are bent on going their own way, not even the facts, and/or the truth, will divert them. Jesus, Truth incarnate, can give you a new heart and new mind that will allow you to embrace and pursue truth rather than resist.
Bible Memory Verse for the Week: “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” — John 8:32
Background Information:
- Zedekiah was vulnerable to peer pressure. Whoever had the ear of the king steered the ship of state. When Nebuchadnezzar first came to capture Jerusalem in 597 B.C., Zedekiah was all for the Babylonians. In fact, he became their puppet king over the city. But once they went back home, he started listening to the advisers who wanted to rebel (cf. Ez 17:11-21). So Zedekiah reversed his foreign policy. He also vacillated in his domestic policy. First the abolitionists persuaded him to make an emancipation proclamation, but then the slaveholders talked him into revoking it (Jer 34:8-11). (Philip Graham Ryken, Preaching the Word: Jeremiah, 583)
- A true prophet of God refuses to compromise his message no matter how great the price he must pay for his faithfulness. (Max Anders, Holman OT Commentary: Jeremiah, 288)
- (v. 1) Angry because Jeremiah’s words were hurting the war effort, four of Zedekiah’s officials banded together to urge the king to kill the prophet. We know nothing about Shephatiah. If Gedaliah was the son of the Pashur who had put Jeremiah in the stocks (20:1-6), he was certainly no friend to Jeremiah or to the truth. (Warren Wiersbe, Be Decisive, 167)
- (v. 5) Jeremiah’s message and the freedom with which he was able to deliver it, however, enraged many powerful nobles and high government officials. His message was undermining their attempts to defend the city. These nobles, therefore, approached the king with a demand. They accused Jeremiah of treason. As a traitor, he deserved to die. Though he had always been under the suspicion of treason, the intensity of the siege made the charge even more damning. The accusers pressed the king to do something. Against better knowledge, the king surrendered Jeremiah to them. He had neither the strength nor the resolve to oppose them. (David M. Gosdeck, The Peoples Bible: Jeremiah, 247)
- (v. 5) Nothing lasted long with Zedekiah. The man was a marshmallow. He received impressions from anyone who pushed hard enough. When the pressure was off, he gradually resumed his earlier state ready for the next impression. In contrast to Jeremiah, who was formed within by obedience to God and faith in God (an iron pillar!), Zedekiah took on whatever shape the circumstances required. (Eugene H. Peterson, Run with the Horses: The Quest for Life at Its Best, 163-4)
- (v. 7) Ebed-Melech was a nobody. He was a Cushite, to begin with. Cushintes were Gentiles, black Africans from Ethiopia or Sudan. So Ebed-Melech was an alien in Judah. Plus, he was a eunuch in the royal palace. Perhaps he was in charge of Zedekiah’s harem, but in any case he was a slave, and very likely an emasculated slave. We may not even know his name, for “Ebed-Melech” simply means “servant of the king.” It was not much of a name. Even if it was the man’s proper name, it shows that he had no identity of his own. His status as a human being was completely defined by his relationship to his owner.
Within the context of Hebrew culture, Ebed-Melech counted for nothing. He was nameless. He was alienated from God’s people by his ethnicity. And he was banned from God’s temple by his sexual deformity (see Dt 23:1).
Ebed-Melech did count, however, because he counted to God. Remember that Jeremiah was called to be a prophet to the nations. Ebed-Melech was the fruit of that international ministry. Cushite though he was, he heard God’s Word from Jeremiah and received it unto salvation. (Philip Graham Ryken, Preaching the Word: Jeremiah, 575)
- (v. 9) Because Ebed-Melech was God’s man, he was willing to take a stand for God’s prophet. He could see that Jeremiah was as good as dead. But he valued the life of God’s prophet as much as he prized the truth of God’s Word. Even when the whole world seemed to be arrayed against him, he had the courage to do what was right. (Philip Graham Ryken, Preaching the Word: Jeremiah, 576)
- (v. 14) This was Zedekiah’s last meeting with Jeremiah. It is not a duplicate of 37:17-21 because of differences of time and circumstance. The king realized that only through Jeremiah could he get the truth (v. 14). (Frank E. Gæbelein, Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Jeremiah, 618)
- (v. 19) Secretly the king hoped Jeremiah had some favorable communication for him. He pleaded: “Hide nothing from me” (38:14). He assured Jeremiah upon oath that he would protect him from the princes (vs. 16). Once again Jeremiah urged the king to surrender himself and the city to the Chaldeans, declaring that it was God’s will to save the king and the people from needless suffering and the city from fire. But the king seemed to fear the Jews who had deserted to the Chaldeans. (Howard Tillman Kuist, Layman’s Bible Commentary: Jeremiah, 113-4)
- (vss. 22-23) While their fate is not specified, the king would know what this meant. Enemy women in the ancient Near East were raped, forced into marriages, or killed. It was not a pretty picture. (Tremper Longman III, Understanding the Bible: Jeremiah, 249)
- (v. 27) There’s no suggestion that Jeremiah lied to the officers who questioned him. To begin with, we may not have a transcript of the complete conversation between Jeremiah and Zedekiah, and Jeremiah may have asked not to be returned to the house of Jonathan. Certainly in their second conversation, Jeremiah had made such a request (37:17-21) He was under no obligation to report everything to the officers, and he didn’t have to lie in order to keep the conversation confidential. (Warren Wiersbe, Be Decisive, 168)
- (v. 27) Jeremiah’s answer has been called a “half-truth” or “a white lie” for the king’s sake (so Hyatt). But another interpretation is that he told the truth, nothing but the truth, but not the whole truth (so Clarke). Still another interpretation is that for Jeremiah to tell the partial truth was misleading, but he did it to shield the king (so Bewer). We must be extremely reluctant to fault a true prophet of God like Jeremiah–a man of courage, brotherly love, patriotism, tremendous spiritual stature, and unparalleled devotion. In his defense the following facts need to be considered.
- The precarious position of the king must be taken into account.
- To allay suspicion was as much in the king’s interest as in his own.
- Jeremiah’s answer was not a falsehood because the petition was implied in vv. 15-16 (so Laetsch).
- At this critical time, the king did not want to occasion a break between himself and his generals (so Payne Smith).
- Actually, the officials had no authority to question either the king or the prophet.
- The officials wanted to use the information for evil purposes.
- Jeremiah told only what was necessary and no more.
- It was his way of bolstering Zedekiah’s battered morale (so Sunliffe-Jones). (Frank E. Gæbelein, Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Jeremiah, 619-20)
Background Information: Truth Defined
- The way things really are or the way things are supposed to be.
- Truth is eternal, knowledge is changeable. It is disastrous to confuse them. (Madeleine L’Engle; Reader’s Digest: 6/97, 73)
- Etymologically, this (Hebrew word for truth) suggests that something is open, uncovered, revealed for what it indeed is, hence real and genuine rather than imaginary or spurious, and true rather than false. Hence we read of “the true God” and “the true vine,” just as the Nicene Creed speaks of “very God of very God.” (Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol. 5, 827)
- Three concepts of truth. Biblical usage suggests three related concepts: (1) moral truth, (2) ontological truth, (3) cognitive truth. (2) and (3) depend logically on (1), and (3) depends logically on (1) and (2). In each case the basis of truth is in God, the source and standard of (1) righteousness, (2) being, and (3) knowledge. (Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol. 5, 827)
- Since the character of God is to be emulated by men, truth in the same sense is to be a moral attribute of men. It entails honesty (Ps 15:2; Eph 4:24) and civil justice (Isa 59:4, 14, 15). Speaking the truth is therefore mandatory, so that truthfulness (cognitive truth) marks the trustworthy man (moral truth). (Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol. 5, 827)
- In God, truthfulness stems from omniscience, so that the attribute of truth refers in part to His perfect knowledge (Job 38:20-26; 38; 39). Since He is creator, whatever we know depends on Him. All truth is God’s truth. Our cognitive abilities are His creation, and the intelligility of nature attests His wisdom.. (Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol. 5, 828)
The question to be answered is . . . What does Jeremiah 38 tell us about the Truth?
Answer: Our corrupt, broken and depraved hearts and minds have been deceived about the truth. Without repentance, we reject hard truth by bending it. Without Jesus we can’t handle the truth.
The Word for the Day is . . . Truth
Truth is so obscure in these times and falsehood so established, that unless we love the truth, we cannot know it. (Hank Hanegraaff; Counterfeit Revival, 64)
There is no way of knowing what the Truth is unless you know the Truth. And there is no way of knowing the Truth unless you believe there is Truth. —Frank Peretti
Now there is much to be said, socially and intellectually, for bringing together people of different outlooks and beliefs; but there is no rational basis for the notion that by mixing a number of conflicting views you are likely to arrive at the truth. You cannot construct truth from a mass of dissonant and disparate material. You cannot construct truth at all: you can only discover it. And the more noisily opinionated people intervene with their contributions, the less likely you are to discover it. (Harry Blamires; The Christian Mind: How Should a Christian Think?, 112)
The marks of truth as Christianly conceived, then, are: that it is supernaturally grounded, not developed within nature; that it is objective and not subjective; that it is a revelation and not a construction; that it is discovered by inquiry and not elected by a majority vote; that it is authoritative and not a matter of personal choice. (Harry Blaimires; The Christian Mind, 107)
What does Jeremiah 38 tell us about the Truth?:
I- Our broken and depraved hearts and minds have no place for truth. (Jer 38:4-5 see also: Ex 20:16; 23:1, 7; Dt 5:20; 19:18-19; Ps 34:13; Prv 17:4; 29:12; Jer 7:28; 9:5; 17:9; Jn 3:19; 8:37-47; 14:17; Rom 1:18-25; 2 Tm 3:7-8 )
The king demanded to know the truth. Knowing that speaking the truth had nearly killed him before, Jeremiah hesitated to tell the king the truth again, fearing that after hearing it the king might decide to kill him. Jeremiah was convinced that even if the king heard the truth again, he would not act according to it anyway. In either case there was little point to Jeremiah’s saying anything. To secure an answer from Jeremiah, the king promised with a solemn oath to protect his life. He would not kill the prophet nor would he allow his nobles to kill him. (David M. Gosdeck, The Peoples Bible: Jeremiah, 251)
The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it. —George Orwell
The truth must essentially be regarded as in conflict with the world; the world has never been so good, and will never become so good that the majority will desire truth. —Soren Kierkegaard (Dr. Chris Thurman; The Lies We Believe, 59)
Does the truth come at you? Does God’s Word argue with you? Does the truth comfort you? Jesus is the final prophet. Jesus is the truth in a person. (Tim Keller message on Acts 3)
The persecution of God’s prophet begins with the rejection of the prophetic word. Jeremiah’s enemies were shutting their ears to his life-or-death message. (Philip Graham Ryken, Preaching the Word: Jeremiah, 571)
God’s truth sounds dangerous to the post-Christian mind.
Jesus endured the same kind of opposition. When he preached repentance and the kingdom of God, he was rejected as a threat to society. The religious leaders of his day “were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus” (Lk 22:2). They said, “We have found this man subverting our nation” (23:2a). God’s enemies always reject the word of God’s prophet. (Philip Graham Ryken, Preaching the Word: Jeremiah, 572-3)
So what is this darkness? It is not the shadow of some other presence falling over life; rather; it is something inherent to and pervasively present throughout human nature. It is the darkness of fallen human nature, a predisposition to embrace falsehood (cf. Jn 18:37) and to love corruption (Jn 3:19). It is the love of sin that John equates with blindness (Jn 9:41). It would be a serious mistake to underestimate the power and pervasiveness of this corrupting darkness. (David Wells; God in the Wasteland, 42)
The truth is exchanged for the lie simply because the lie seems easier to live with. (R.C. Sproul; If There’s a God, Why Are There Atheists?, 76)
The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear. — Herbert S. Agar
As the Greek statesmen Demosthenes said long ago, “Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true. (Os Guinness; Time for Truth, 116)
When Jesus speaks the truth, He certainly says what is true, but He also brings the revelation of God. As revelation, the truth is to be known (Jn 8:32; 1 Jn 2:21). But this is more than formal knowledge of factual or theoretical truth. It is knowledge of Jesus Himself as the truth. He brings the truth in Himself (Jn 14:6), and to know Him is to know the One who is full of grace and truth (1:14). This knowledge is by faith and thus by the Holy Spirit. Hence John closely links the Holy Spirit and truth. The Spirit is the Spirit of truth, and He guides into all truth (15:26; 16:13). His anointing is true (1 Jn 2:27), and His witness is true, for, like Jesus, the Spirit is truth (5:6). To worship in the Spirit is thus to worship in truth (Jn 4:23f.). This means supremely not worshiping in spirituality or with pure ideas, but worshiping in conformity with the reality of God revealed in Jesus by the spirit. Yet one should not forget that truth in this revelatory sense also implies right doctrine (1 Jn 2:21) and right conduct (3 Jn 3). (Geoffrey W. Bromiley, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: Vol. Two, 926-7)
We humans have a fatal tendency to try to adjust the truth to fit our desires rather than adjusting our desires to fit the truth. (Norman L. Geisler & Frank Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, 32)
The chief cause of stress is reality. —Lily Tomlin
If you want the real truth, talk to someone who is intoxicated…or to a child. –Michael Schneider
Given the city’s weak tactical position, it is easy to see why Jeremiah’s little sermon was bad for morale. He was announcing that victory was impossible, defeat inevitable. His message was “Surrender or Die.” He was preaching that message not because the Babylonians were invincible, but because God himself was fighting on Babylon’s side. (Philip Graham Ryken, Preaching the Word: Jeremiah, 570)
Zedekiah was more concerned about the political situation than about his spiritual condition. He was more worried about what people would think than about doing what was right. He was a man like King Herod, who preferred to commit murder than to be embarrassed in front of his dinner guests (Mt 14:9-10). Zedekiah did not want Jeremiah to tell on him. Like most unscrupulous politicians, he was afraid of leaks. So he told Jeremiah what kind of “spin” to put on their private meeting. (Philip Graham Ryken, Preaching the Word: Jeremiah, 587)
The transgender revolution is in fact not a revolution but a rebellion, a rebellion against the very clear teacher of Scripture-and the very nature of the universe. Gender is not a construct. It is a reality. (Stephen J. Nichols, A Time for Confidence, 45)
Nothing weakens the truth more than twisting it.
“Truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it; ignorance may deride it; malice may distort it; but there it is.” —Winston Churchill
Satan uses the weaknesses and limitations of men to entice them to sin (1 Cor 7:5). He also employs the allurements of the world (1 Jn 2:15-17; 4:4). He commonly tempts men to evil by the falsehood that they can attain a desired good through the doing of wrong. His mode of operation is vividly demonstrated in the account of the Fall in Genesis 3. Deception is a universal feature of his activities, justifying his description as “the deceiver of the whole world” (Rv 12:9). He constantly lays “snares” for men to make them his captives (1 Tm 3:7; 2 Tm 2:26). A fundamental temptation employed is pride (1 Tm 3:6).
Satan opposes the work of God through his counterfeiting activities. He oversows the wheat with darnel, placing counterfeit believers among “the sons of the kingdom” (Mt 13:25, 38, 39). These counterfeit believers form “a synagogue of Satan” (Rv 2:9; 3:9). Satan often disguises himself as “an angel of light” by presenting his messengers of falsehood as messengers of truth (2 Cor 11:13-15). Those who thus give themselves over to evil and become the agents of Satan to persuade others to do evil are the children and servants of the devil (Jn 6:70; 8:44; Acts 13:10). (The Zondervan Pictoral Encyclopedia of the Bible Q-Z, 283)
For the wise men of old, the cardinal problem of human life was how to conform the soul to objective reality; and the solution was wisdom, self-discipline and virtue. For the modern man, the cardinal problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of man, and the solution is a technique. (C. S. Lewis; The Abolition of Man, as quoted by Tim Keller in a sermon entitled, “Power for Facing Trouble”)
He (Zedekiah) was afraid the Babylonians would turn him over for torture to the Jewish defectors. They had always advised submission to Babylon (so Payne Smith) and would have dealt harshly with him for not doing as they had done–a course of action that might have spared Jerusalem the agony of a long siege. What a choice he made in view of the alternatives! He feared men more than he feared God (cf. Prv 29:25). Nor would he believe the solemn assurances of his own safety that Jeremiah gave him. (Frank E. Gæbelein, Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Jeremiah, 618)
While truth is always bitter, pleasantness waits upon evildoing. (St. Jerome, Letter 40)
It seems as though Deuteronomy 8-10 & Prv 14:12 were right. The very thing that we try to do for ourselves and our loved ones is the thing that is killing us and them. We try to keep them from suffering, pain, sickness, loss and trouble, only to find that the experience of those things is what humbles us and leads us to the Way, the Truth and the Life (Jn 14:6).
A half truth is a whole lie. (Yiddish proverb)
II- Without repentance, we have no place for hard truth. (Jer 38:19 see also: 2 Kgs 24:18-20; 25:1-21; 2 Chr 36:11-21; Ps 4:2; 5:6; 10:7-9; 52:1-3; 58:3; 59:12; Prv 19:5, 9; 21:28; Isa 59; Jer 14:4; 23:16; 27:1-16; 34:8-22; Ezek 13:22-23; 21:25; 22:28; Dn 9:13; Rom 2:8; 3:9-21; 2 Thes 2:9-13; 2 Tm 2:25-26; 1 Jn 1:6)
True repentance only begins when one passes out of what the Bible sees as self-deception (cf. Jas 1:22, 26; 1 Jn 1:8) and modern counselors call denial, into what the Bible calls conviction of sin (Cf. Jn 16:8). (J.I. Packer; Rediscovering Holiness, 123-4)
When the truth is in your way, you are on the wrong road.
It is quite difficult to break the power of religious self-deception, for the very nature of faith is to give no room for doubt. Once a person is deceived, he does not recognize that he is deceived, because he has been deceived! For all that we think we know, we must know this as well: we can be wrong. If we refuse to accept this truth, how will we ever be corrected from our errors? (Francis Frangipane, The Three Battlegrounds, 30)
“There are times,” Václav Havel wrote, “When we must sink to the bottom of our misery to understand truth, just as we must descend to the bottom of the well to see the stars in broad daylight. (David Wells; No Time for Truth, 98)
The difficulty is not that men are ignorant of the truth; it is that they have not yet dared to live by it. —Morton J. Cohen
We human beings have the amazing ability to deceive ourselves. We rationalize, make up excuses, and say we will change tomorrow. God brought circumstances into the life of the prodigal son that woke him up. Suddenly he realized what had happened to him. That awakening was the most critical event in his life. (R. C. Sproul; Before the Face of God Book Two by, 364)
Your eternal destiny lies in your response to the truth.
It is interesting that our culture cries and expects the absolute TRUTH when it comes to the chemicals in our food supplies, environmental contaminations, government cover-ups, and the skinny of breast-implants. But when it comes to finding out about the moral obligations of our private lives, (telling the truth, our sexual behaviors, and upholding our contracts) everything is relative.
The trouble with stretching the truth is that it is apt to snap back.
The great enemy of the Word of God is anything outside the Word of God…the word of Satan, the word of demons, the word of man. And we are living in very dangerous seasons concocted by seducing spirits and hypocritical liars propagated by false teachers. And here’s what makes them successful…look at verses 3 and 4 (of 2 Tm 4). “The time will come, and it does, it cycles through all of church history, when they will not endure sound doctrine.” People don’t want to hear sound doctrine. “Sound” means healthy, whole, wholesome. They don’t want wholesome teaching. They don’t want the sound, solid Word. They just want to have their ears tickled. That’s all they want. They’re driven by the sensual, not the cognitive. They’re not interested in truth. They’re not interested in theology. All they want is ear-tickling sensations. That’s what they want. They refuse to hear the great truth that saves and the great truth that sanctifies. And according to chapter 2 verse 16, they would rather hear worldly empty chatter that produces ungodliness and spreads like gangrene. (John MacArthur, www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/80-180_5-Reasons-to-Preach-the-Word, 6)
Either we conform the truth to our desires or we conform our desires to the truth. (Os Guinness; Time for Truth, 110)
It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it. (Patrick Henry, speech in Virginia Convention, 03/23/1775)
III- Without Jesus we can’t handle the truth, so we bend it. (Jer 38:24 see also: Ps 25:5; 26:3; 43:3; 86:11; 119:30; Jn 17:17; 18:37-38; 1 Cor 1:18-2:16; Gal 4:16; 2 Thes 2:9-10; 1 Tm 2:4; 3:15; 1 Jn 1:6)
The officials on whom the burden of the defense of the city rested saw him only as a traitor. They called for his death. Politicians are often obtuse to spiritual issues, and Judah’s leaders never saw that the Exile was God’s way of using the Babylonians to purge the nation of idolatry. The Babylonians were only his agents. (Frank E. Gæbelein, Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Jeremiah, 615)
Was their accusation true? Listen again to the charge of “Gang of Four” leveled against Jeremiah: “This man is not seeking the good of these people but their ruin” (v. 4). Was the accusation true? Was Jeremiah a traitor to God’s people or not? Was he seeking their ruin or their good?
News of divine judgment is always bad news. It is unpleasant to hear that God punishes sin rather than overlooks it. But the only thing that really matters is whether or not the bad news of divine judgment is true. When the bad news is God’s news, it needs to be heard. (Philip Graham Ryken, Preaching the Word: Jeremiah, 571)
Shephatiah, Gedaliah, Jehucal, and Pashhur were the liberal theologians of their day. They wanted a God of mercy, but not a God of justice. They wanted a God who gives victory, but not a God who allows suffering. They wanted a Father of love, but not a Father of discipline. (Philip Graham Ryken, Preaching the Word: Jeremiah, 572)
This story is a parable for post-Christian times. The church of Jesus Christ is like Jeremiah to a postmodern culture. We do not say, “There, there, everything will be all right.” Instead, we say, “It’s not all right with you until you get right with God.” We do not say, “Peace, peace.” Instead, we say, “You will be troubled until you make peace with God.” We proclaim God’s judgment, speaking out against greed, pride, false worship, sexual immorality, and all kinds of sin. And we proclaim God’s grace to this world, announcing free pardon from every sin in Jesus Christ. (Philip Graham Ryken, Preaching the Word: Jeremiah, 572)
From the court of the guard, where he would remain now to the fall of the city, Jeremiah is brought to the king in secret, this time at the temple. He knows all too well that Zedekiah is only hoping for a change of mind in God, instead of the change on his own part that he cannot face. (Derek Kidner, The Bible Speaks Today: Jeremiah, 125)
If doctrine becomes our emphasis, we are being led astray. We are not changed by doctrine; we are changed by seeing Jesus (2 Cor 3:18). Anointed teachings are essential for the nourishment of the Christ that is being formed within us, but whenever a truth becomes our focus, it will distract us. For this reason Satan often comes as an angel of light, or “messenger of truth.” Truth can deceive us. Only in the Truth, Jesus, is there life. He did not come just to teach us truth; He came to be Truth. (Rick Joyner, There Were Two Trees in the Garden, 81)
It is the Christ, by whom all things were made and are sustained, who gives intelligible order and purpose to nature and history. To know Him is to know the omniscient source of all knowledge–not to know all He knows, but to understand how wisdom and knowledge are at all possible. He it is who guarantees the trustworthiness of the truth we acquire.
While in the NT the cognitive concept of truth is evident (e.g., Mk 5:33; 12:32; Rom 1:25), it is applied particularly to the message of Christ and His apostles (Jn 5:33; 8:31-47; Rom 2:8; Gal 2:5; 5:7; Eph 1:13; 1 Tm 3:15; 1 Jn 2:21-27). The faithful messenger speaks the truth from God, in responding to the truth the believer accordingly trusts the God from whom the message comes. Faith is both assent to truth and dependence on God. A man is therefore said to “do the truth” when his assent to the message and trust in God are evident in his “moral truth” or faithfulness (1 Jn 1:6-8; 2:4; 3:18, 19). (Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol. 5, 828)
Today I might preach: “Let me tell you why you’re not going to be a truthful person. I lie most often to avoid others’ disapproval. If I just try to stop lying, it won’t work because my need for others’ approval overwhelms my good intentions. I allow other people, instead of Jesus, to determine my worth. If you want to stop lying, you have to find what is motivating your sin–like my tendency to look to others for affirmation–and replace it with the security you can find in Jesus.
The goal is not reformation, but transformation. (Tim Keller; Leadership: Winter, 2002, 36)
Augustine was right when he said that we love the truth when it enlightens us, but we hate it when it convicts us. Maybe we can’t handle the truth. (Norman L. Geisler & Frank Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, 36)
In God, truth means that His knowledge accords first with His essence and secondly with things He has created. (Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol. 5, 828)
Throw away the excuses and face reality! The fact that you are grumpy in the morning does not mean that “you got up on the wrong side of the bed.” It means your old sinful nature is in control. Because you enjoy hearing some “dirt” about other people does not mean you have an inquisitive mind. It means that you are not abiding in Christ. Because you easily “blow your cool” does not mean you have a short fuse. It means you have a weak connection to Jesus. (Don Matzat; Christ Esteem, 125)
Doubting is often a must, I answered her. We need to doubt many of our beliefs in order to know if they are true. If you believe that doubt is evil, especially doubt of theological teachings, this truth may be hard to digest. I think, though, that doubt is a God-given ability that helps us to take what we hear and test its truth. In fact, I think God wants us to doubt what we hear, even from a minister’s mouth, so that we know why we believe what we believe. ( Dr. Chris Thurman; The Lies We Believe, 171)
Where there is light there are bugs.
It’s not only okay to doubt, but I believe it’s often fundamental in order to grasp the truth. You can’t have secondhand beliefs and be emotionally healthy. Constructive doubt can help you solidify your own beliefs. (Dr. Chris Thurman; The Lies We Believe, 173)
The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable. — James A. Garfield
Being truthful when you know it will cost you is the true test of honesty.
Doubt can help lead us from error to truth. Doubt can be a vital tool for the achievement of assurance. (R.C. Sproul; Doubt and Assurance, 10)
Doubt forces us back to first principles. (R.C. Sproul; Doubt and Assurance, 10)
Doubt does not, indeed cannot, exist in a vacuum. Without some knowledge I cannot doubt at all. It is the light of truth that doubt becomes a possibility. But doubt cannot ever have the last word. Only truth can establish doubt. Truth demands that we doubt what does not conform to truth. (R.C. Sproul; Doubt and Assurance, 10)
As the apostle Paul makes clear to us, the philosophies of this world can be foolishness (2 Cor 3:19). It is not that reason is bad or cannot be trusted. It is just that we are misled when we try to build our relationship with God on reason alone. We must remember that the basis of our salvation is experiencing God in a passionate, loving relationship.
The truth about God cannot be known through some sophisticated theology or through some scientific method. The truth about God is not some propositional statement or empirical data that can be learned out of a textbook and committed to memory. The truth is that God is a person, and that person is Jesus Christ. Only those who know and love Him know anything at all about God. (Tony Campolo; Carpe Diem—Seize the Day, 71-2)
My thesis is that we lack such an awareness because we dumb down the truth of God in false efforts to feel better about ourselves. We do not have enough of God —especially the truth of his wrath in the midst of his love—to experience the exhilarating freedom of confessing our sin and the joyous beauty of forgiveness. (Marva Dawn; Reaching Out without Dumbing Down, 91)
But isn’t it true? Don’t we fear being exposed for who and what we really are? Sin does this. So often we worry about the deeds we have done but the truer, deeper transgression of our sin lies in what that sin has done to us. It has made us more afraid. Fear turns to hiding, hiding turns to lying, lying turns to masking, masking turns to coping mechanisms which take us further and further away from our true selves. We become a false image of a person unrecognizable to others and even to ourselves. (Charlie Jones; “The Fear of Christmas” Key Life, Fall/Christmas 2006, Vol. 21 #3, 5)
If God is the ground of all truth, then whatever truths we know bear witness to Him. Recognizing this, Augustine of Hippo (354-430) constructed an argument for God’s existence from our knowledge of truth (On Free Will, ii). The mind apprehends certain universal and necessary truths that cannot change, including logical truths like “A is either B or non-B,” and mathematical truths. They are neither made true nor amended by the mind as if they were its inferiors; rather the mind willingly submits to being corrected and judged by them, as by its superiors. Truth exists independently of the mind and is superior to it. The mind fluctuates in its apprehension of truth, but truth remains forever the same. What accounts for its eternal, changeless, and universal status? Individual truths must participate in Truth-itself, the eternal and changeless God “in whom and by whom are all things.” (Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol. 5, 828)
The Scriptures are explicit that God hates lying in any form. “The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in men who are truthful” Prv 12:22. The famous divine diatribe in Proverbs, “There are 6 things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him,” begins by listing “haughty eyes, a lying tongue” and ends with, “a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers. (Prv 6:16-19)
God’s hatred of lying is embedded in the fact that He is emeth, true, and faithful. It is therefore “impossible for God to lie” (Heb 6:18). His Son said simply, “I am the …truth” (Jn 14:6) and God’s written Word bears the dominical seal, “Your word is truth” (Jn 17:17).
Worship Point: Real worship of God MUST be done in Spirit and in Truth (Jn 4:23-24). We worship the God of all Truth by recognizing the fact that He can lead us into all Truth where the Truth can set us free. (Jn 8:31-36)
True worship occurs only when that part of man, his spirit, which is akin to the divine nature (for God is spirit), actually meets with God and finds itself praising Him for His love, wisdom, beauty, truth, holiness, compassion, mercy, grace, power, and all His other attributes. (James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John, vol. 1: The Coming of the Light: John 1-4, 296-7)
William Temple’s definition of worship is helpful: “To quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open up the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.” (R. Kent Hughes; Preaching the Word Acts: The Church Afire, 349)
It must be by the Holy Spirit and truth. We cannot worship in the spirit alone, for the spirit without truth is helpless. We cannot worship in truth alone, for that would be theology without fire.
Worship must be in spirit and in truth! (A. W. Tozer, Whatever Happened to Worship?, 46)
Gospel Application: The Way the Truth and the Life can make us into a new creation that accepts, embraces, and promotes the Truth. (Ps 145:18; Jn 1:1-18; 8:31-36; 14:6, 17; 2 Cor 5:17; Eph 4:21; 1 Jn 1:8; 5:6)
Buddha said, I am a teacher of truth
Mohammed said, I am a seeker of truth
Mahout Ma Gandhi said, I do not know the truth
Moses said, I deliver the Truth
Jesus said, I AM the truth
Jesus is the embodiment of truth
One of the worst mistakes that can be made in practical ministry is to think that people can choose to believe and feel differently. Following that, we will mistakenly try to generate faith by going through the will–possibly trying to move the will by playing on emotion. Rather, the will must be moved by insight into truth and reality. Such insight will evoke emotion appropriate to a new set of the will. That is the order of real inward change. (Dallas Willard; Renovation of the Heart, 248)
The word (WORD) of God is truth. And we need to meditate or ruminate on truth until it becomes food for us. That is why Jesus said that His food was to do the will of His father and Jesus also echoed the words of Dt 8:3 in that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
Are we taking in and chewing God’s word until it becomes food for our souls? I feel the reason so many of us are spiritually malnourished is because we are not taking in God’s Word like this. —paraphrase of Tim Keller
People cannot change truth, but truth can change people.
The weapons of the Church are the same as those of Christ: truth and love. It is to teach and love mankind into desiring and seeking the complete psychological and social harmony that only obedience to God and love of God can produce. (Chad Walsh, Early Christians of the 21st Century, 179)
As Montaigne put it, “We are born to inquire into the truth; it belongs to a greater power to possess it.” (Dr. Chris Thurman; The Lies We Believe, 165)
. . . to think that people today are incapable of understanding Christian truth or having their minds transformed is to underestimate the Holy Spirit and the power of God. (Gene Veith; Postmodern Times, 228)
Spiritual Challenge: Endeavor to recognize, combat, and replace the lies we inherited when we listened to Satan (the father of lies- Jn 8:43-47) at the Fall. God is Truth. Everyone else is not. (Ps 145:18; Prv 12:22; Jer 17:9; Jn 2:23-25; Rom 3:9-21; Eph 4:21-25; 1 Jn 2:20-22)
Diogenes said that false teachers were those whose method it was to follow wherever the applause of the crowd led. Today Diogenes would say that False teachers and false scientists’ method is to follow wherever the buck led.” (William Barclay; Barclay’s Commentary on 2 Peter, 315)
We live in a world where preferences have supplanted objective truth. (R.C. Sproul message, A BLUEPRINT FOR THINKING)
A prophet’s task is to reveal the fault lines, hidden beneath the comfortable surface of the worlds we invest for ourselves, the national myths as well as the little lies and delusions of control and security that get us through the day.” False prophets assure of peace when there is no peace. True prophets have the annoying habit of insisting that there is no peace just when we’ve convinced ourselves that everything is running smoothly. (Kathleen Norris, “The Cloister Walk,” Mars Hill Audio Journal, Vol 103)
The most dangerous lies are those that most resemble the truth.
If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things. —Descartes
Needless to say, this view of human reason contradicts the biblical point of view as it has been explained in previous lessons. The fall of man involved the entirety of man; all aspects of his personality were corrupted by sin. As a result, reason is not the judge of truth; only God can act as such a judge. Moreover, sin has so affected mankind that even rational abilities are not neutral. Christians seek to use their reason in dependence on God. Non-Christians seek to be independent in their thinking; there is no neutral ground on which to deal with unbelief. Human reason can be as much a hindrance as a help to faith in Christ. As St. Augustine once said, “Believe that you may understand.” To rest our faith on independent reason is to rebel against God. Reason must rest on our faith commitment to Christ and our faith must rest on God alone. (Richard L. Pratt, Jr.; Every Thought Captive A Study Manual for the Defense of Christian Truth, 74)
Biblical authority must never depend on human verification for it is the unquestionable Word of God.
The problem with much of the popular tactics used by many defenders of the faith today may be summed up as a problem of authority. The apologist must see clearly that the non–Christian is in need of forsaking his commitment to independence and should turn in faith to the authority of Christ. If however, trust in Christ is founded on logical consistency, historical evidence, scientific arguments, etc., then Christ is yet to be received as the ultimate authority. The various foundations are more authoritative than Christ himself. . . . if beliefs in Christian truth comes only after the claims of Christ are run through the verification machine of independent human judgment, then human judgment is still thought to be the ultimate authority. (Richard L. Pratt, Jr.; Every Thought Captive A Study Manual for the Defense of Christian Truth, 79-80)
We have actually convinced ourselves that slogans will save us. Shoot up if you must; but use a clean needle. Enjoy sex whenever and with whomever you wish, but wear a condom. No! The answer is no. Not because it isn’t cool or smart or because you might end up in jail or in an aids ward, but no because it’s wrong, because we have spent 5,000 years as a race of rational human beings, trying to drag ourselves out of the primeval slime by searching for truth and moral absolutes. In its purest form, truth is not a polite tap on the shoulder. It is a howling reproach. What Moses brought down from Mount Sinai were not the Ten Suggestions. (Ted Koppel; Duke University 1987 commencement address)
Beware of the half truth. You may have gotten hold of the wrong half. — Seymour L. Essrog
When a half truth is presented as the whole truth, it becomes an untruth. (Walter J. Chantry, Today’s Gospel: Authentic or Synthetic?, 17)
Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. . . . I really look with commiseration over the great body of my fellow citizens, who, reading newspapers, live and die in the belief that they have known something of what has been passing the world of their time . . . The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors. (Thomas Jefferson as quoted by John Sommerville; How the News Makes Us Dumb, 140)
Spiritual Challenge Questions
:
- What is truth? What has taken place in our culture that makes truth so illusive?
- Since Satan is the “Father of Lies” and the Fall of creation is Satan’s legacy on earth, how does knowing this fact help you to understand why it is hard for humanity to know the truth and live by it?
- Jesus prays to God in John 17:17 to . . . “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” How does God’s Word help us to know the truth? Why is it nearly impossible to know the truth without God’s Word and His Spirit Who guides us into all truth (Jn 16:13)?
- Jesus is Truth incarnate (Jn 14:6). What does that mean? How does this assist us in knowing the Truth?
So What?: A life, a future, shalom and relationships cannot be sustained without recognizing, embracing, promoting, and living in the Truth. We need to cherish a relationship with God in Christ Who is Truth so that it may go well us. (Ps 15:1-2; 24:4; 40:10-11; Jer 5:1-3; 38:20; Jn 3:16-21; 8:31-36; 14:6; 16:13; 1 Cor 13:6; 1 Pt 1:22).
Seek the truth, Listen to the truth, Teach the truth, Love the truth, Abide by the truth, And defend the truth, Unto death. (John Hus as quoted by Dr. Chris Thurman; The Lies We Believe, 163)
The more clearly we see the reality of the world, the better equipped we are to deal with the world. The less clearly we see the reality of the world–the more our minds are befuddled by falsehood, misperceptions, and illusions–the less able we will be to determine correct courses of action and make wise decisions. Our view of reality is like a map…If the map is true and accurate, we will generally know where we are, and if we have decided where we want to go, we will generally know how to get there. If the map is false and inaccurate, we generally will be lost. (Dr. Chris Thurman; The Lies We Believe, 167)
Ebed-Melech’s profile in courage is a perfect illustration of a principle Jesus taught his disciples: “Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward” (Mt 10:41). Ebed-Melech received the same reward as Jeremiah. When Jerusalem fell, both men were rescued, for God delivers all who trust in him. Like all true servants of the King, Ebed-Melech was saved by faith. (Philip Graham Ryken, Preaching the Word: Jeremiah, 577)
Could it be that discouraged and depressed people (living under the sun) are the most sane? Could it be that they alone see life under the sun . . . As it really is? — Pastor Keith
“America first proclaimed its independence on the basis of self-evident moral truths. America will remain a beacon of freedom for the world as long as it stands by those moral truths which are the very heart of its historical experience…And so America: if you want peace, work for justice. If you want justice, defend life. If you want life, embrace truth-truth revealed by God.” (Pope John Paul II, during a prayer service in St. Louis, Missouri, Jan. 26, 1999; Leadership, Spring 1999, 75)
The spirit of truth and the spirit of freedom–they are the pillars of society. (Henrik Ibsen, Pillars of Society, act III)
“Then you will know the truth,
and the truth will set you free.”— Jesus in John 8:32
JESUS:
TRUTH INCARNATE