The Importance of Truth

I. Definitions A. Truth - Conformity with fact; agreement with reality; accuracy, correctness, verity (of a statement or thought) B. Fact - Something that has really occurred or is actually the case; something certainly known to be of this character; hence, a particular truth known by actual observation or authentic testimony, as opposed to what is merely inferred, or to a conjecture or fiction; a datum of experience, as distinguished from the conclusions that may be based upon it. C. Reality - The quality of being real or having an actual existence. D. Verity - Without article. Truth, either in general or with reference to a particular fact; conformity to fact or reality. With article or pronoun. The truth; the true or real facts or circumstances. E. True - Of a statement or belief: Consistent with fact; agreeing with reality; representing the thing as it is.

II. Some facts about truth. A. God’s word is truth. PSA 119:142,151,160,128; JOH 17:17 B. Jesus Christ is the truth. JOH 14:6 1. He spoke the truth. Many times he stated this explicitly (“verily, verily”) to draw special attention to the facts. JOH 3:3,5,11 2. Verily - adv. In truth or verity; as a matter of truth or fact; in deed, fact, or reality; really, truly. C. Jesus Christ is the true God. 1JO 5:20; JOH 1:1-3,14 D. Truth can be known. PRO 22:19-21; 1TI 4:3 E. The truth is liberating. JOH 8:31-32; PRO 11:9 c/w EPH 4:13-14 F. The truth has been given to the church and it is responsible to uphold it. 1TI 3:15 G. We ought to love God and his word (i.e. the truth). MAT 22:37; PSA 119:113 H. Truth is little known. ISA 59:14-15 1. False teachers are many and they have many followers. 2PE 2:1-2; MAT 24:11; 1KI 18:22; 1JO 4:1; 2JO 7; MAT 7:13-14 2. They manipulate through feigned words and fair speeches. They appeal to your carnal lusts. 2PE 2:3; PRO 7:21 3. People like it this way. It soothes their conscience and fits better with their carnal desires. ISA 30:8-10 4. Those who you expect to be teaching truth and righteousness have been known to conspire to teach lies and corruption. EZE 22:23-28; 2CO 2:17; EPH 4:14 5. False teachers even exist within the church. 2PE 2:1; ACT 20:28-30; JUD 3-4 I. Denying the truth does not change it or make it untrue.

III. Some facts about the devil who is the enemy of the truth and the father of lies. JOH 8:44 A. He is very subtle and crafty. GEN 3:1 B. He turns the truth around 180 degrees so that it is opposite, and that is his doctrine. 1. It seems like this would be easy to spot, but it is not. It is essentially a mirror image of the truth that so closely resembles it only the discerning eye can tell it is false. a) Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror? You will see your right eye on the right and your left eye on the left. But that is not what other people see when they look at you head-on. They see your left eye on their right and your right eye on their left. b) Have you ever taken a selfie and looked at it? When you are taking the picture, you will see a mirror image of yourself. But when you look at the picture, you will see the image reversed - this is what other people see when they look at you. 2. Here is a plain example of the devil doing exactly this. GEN 3:1-5 a) The devil’s doctrine - “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” (GEN 3:1) b) The truth - “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (GEN 2:16-17) C. All false worship is devil worship. JOH 4:24; 1CO 10:20; 1. Offering unto the LORD what he did not specify is not acceptable to him. GEN 4:3-5; 1SA 15:18-23; MAR 7:7 2. Fashioning idols in the service of God is just plain idolatry. EXO 32:4-8 c/w 1CO 10:7 3. Many will call Jesus Lord and do wonderful works in his name and yet not be true worshippers of God. MAT 7:21-23

IV. The true gospel is that God by his will gives eternal life to those whom he chooses. A. The true gospel is that Jesus Christ died for all those God gave him to save and they all have eternal life regardless of their belief. B. God chose himself a people, gave them to Jesus Christ to save, and he saved every one of them. EPH 1:3-4; JOH 17:2; JOH 6:37-39; JOH 10:27-29 C. Notice that this work of eternal salvation is all of God. It is done by his will, according to his own purpose and grace, and man plays no active role in it; he is simply the blessed, passive recipient of it. D. God did not choose men on the basis of their works. ROM 9:11; TIT 3:5; 2TI 1:9 E. Jesus never offered himself to man to receive him as if that would redeem him eternally. He offered himself to God, and God received that offering. HEB 9:14; EPH 5:2 F. This is the gospel in a nutshell. We could multiply texts that plainly say that Jesus Christ himself purged our sins (HEB 1:3), obtained eternal redemption for us (HEB 9:12), is the author of our eternal salvation (HEB 5:9), etc. The fact is God is the Savior. G. God knows whom he has chosen (2TI 2:19). We know them by their faith. JOH 6:47

V. The false gospel is that man, by his own will, can get eternal life and be like God. A. This gospel claims that Jesus Christ died for everyone and that only those who believe will have eternal life. B. This is a twisted perversion of the truth. 1. It says Jesus Christ died for everyone to save them from their sins. 2. It says that you get eternal life by believing in Jesus Christ, and that Jesus Christ is the only way. 3. It says that if you don’t believe in Jesus Christ you are going to hell. 4. This means that Jesus Christ did not actually do anything for you when he died on the cross, since if you don’t believe it, you are going to hell. 5. This means that your belief in Jesus Christ is itself the thing that gets you eternal life, instead of what Jesus Christ did. 6. This means that you are not really believing in Jesus Christ as the source of your eternal salvation (HEB 5:9), you are believing in your belief in Jesus Christ as the source of your eternal salvation. 7. In other words, you are trusting in YOURSELF. This is anti-Christ! This is the devil’s subtle lie. Do you see how twisted this is?! 8. The truth is that Jesus Christ himself saved you from your sins by shedding his righteous blood for you on the cross. He could do this because he had no sin of his own, so he is the perfect sacrifice for sins. He obtained eternal redemption for us. HEB 9:12; HEB 1:3 C. The false gospel makes man his own savior. It is his will and work that gets him eternal life. D. The false gospel is based on the truth that those who do truly believe that Jesus Christ saved them from their sins have eternal life. (JOH 6:47) But nowhere does scripture teach that we get eternal life by believing in Jesus Christ. It is the opposite. We believe because we have eternal life. JOH 10:26-28 E. If it were true that you must believe the gospel to get eternal life, nobody could be saved. 1. Man by nature does not believe the spiritual message of the gospel. He cannot. 1CO 2:14; JOH 10:26; JOH 6:65 2. He must be born again of the Spirit of God in order to believe the gospel. JOH 3:3-8; EZE 36:26-27; JER 31:33-34; ROM 8:11 a) Note: Per ROM 8:11, if every person ever born has the Spirit of God within them, then every person ever born will be raised again from the dead unto eternal life. But this is not the case, since the Bible teaches there are some who are suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. JUD 7; JOH 5:28-29 b) Therefore not everyone has the Spirit of God. c) Those who do are the children of God. ROM 8:14 d) How does one get the Spirit of God? (1) You can’t buy it. ACT 8:18-20 (2) You can’t control it. JOH 3:8 (3) You can’t tell where it came from or where it is going. JOH 3:8 (4) God gives it to us in regeneration. TIT 3:5

VI. Christian living is spiritual warfare. 2CO 10:3-5; EPH 6:10-17 A. It is REAL, though it is spiritual. 2CO 4:18 B. In reality, there exist things that are natural and things that are spiritual. 1CO 2:13-14; 1CO 15:44 C. Christ is above all principality and power. EPH 1:21; COL 2:10 D. God will destroy those who attack his church. REV 20:9 E. Successful Christian living is walking by faith, clinging to God’s promises, knowing that Christ has conquered death and in the end the devil and all evil will be destroyed. ROM 12:21