Truth

TRUTH

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date:   June 14, 2020

Series: Crucial Teachings for Chaotic Times

Note:   Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard   Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION: THEY STAGED INJUSTICE

At the king’s direction, the city leaders proclaimed a day of fasting – a day on which the whole city would gather together in solemn assembly. On this day there was supposed to be special regard for humility, prayer, and righteousness among the people.

The citizens of this small city gathered together in the same place. The man seated at the front of all the people was, by all previous accounts, a respectable man. But who knows what respectable men might say and do in more private settings?

As it happened, two men suddenly made noise from the opposite side, and they were looking intently at the respectable man. They pointed their fingers at him and cried out, ‘Blasphemer!’ “[This man] cursed God and the king.” (1 Kings 21:13) With the criteria of two witnesses met, the charges stuck. The guilty man was escorted “outside the city and stoned… to death” (1 Kings 21:13)

Ordinary observers believed that the law had been upheld and that justice had been administered. And the news reports, sticking to the few basic facts of the case, agreed.

There is only one small problem: the whole thing was staged (see 1 Kings 21:1-19). King Ahab was upset that Naboth wouldn’t sell his vineyard. The ungodly king was “vexed and sullen” (1 Kings 21:4) at Naboth’s refusal. So the wicked Jezebel, Ahab’s wife, hatched a plan in which the city leaders gathered the people together for a fast, placed Naboth in a prominent location, and arranged for two scoundrels to falsely accuse Naboth of blasphemy. The city’s elders and leaders were co-conspirators with Jezebel in this cruel deed, which used the machinery of law and justice to inflict injustice on a righteous man.

Do not be surprised when the rulers of this world use the machinery and good name of law and justice, in order to do that which is unrighteous and unjust. Their game depends on most people not knowing the truth.

Indeed, the fundamental issue that the Naboth story raises for us is the issue of truth. The reason we know that the stoning to death of Naboth was actually the enactment of a false narrative, is because God made sure that His faithful prophet Elijah knew the truth.

If you don’t know the truth, then the city’s elders and leaders appear to be both spiritual men (they proclaimed a fast) and righteous men (they approved of swift justice against Naboth). But if you do know the truth, then the city’s elders and leaders are revealed to be the true scoundrels who deserve the death sentence.

Truth matters, doesn’t it?

TRUTH IS CRUCIAL FOR CHAOTIC TIMES

Last week I started a new sermon series entitled ‘Crucial Teachings for Chaotic Times’. The purpose of this series is to help our church family think through key issues as the foundations of our society are crumbling around us.

The crucial teaching that I want to explore this morning has to do with truth. Truth is ‘what is objectively real, regardless of how you think or feel about it’.  

The Bible tells us the truth about humanity’s love affair with untruth. The sinful human mind brokers in fiction and falsehood, distortion and deception. Our reality-distorting fabrications make sense to us because they reflect the dubious angles, bents, and edges of our dark minds. We do not see clearly – and yet we are easily persuaded to see what is not there, and to believe the lie.

And yet, we desperately need the truth. In fact, the only way to come to the Father is to come through the One who is the Truth (John 14:6) and who “[has] the words of eternal life” (John 6:68) – our Lord Jesus Christ.

TRUTH ON TRIAL

One of the most remarkable scenes in all of human history is that moment when the Lord Jesus Christ was on trial before Pontius Pilate. Earlier in The Gospel of John, Jesus had told His disciples, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6, italics added). Now He tells Pilate: “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world – to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” (John 18:37) If you are “of the truth”, then you will listen to the One who is the Truth and who tells the truth.

Do you know how Pilate responded to Jesus’ statement? “Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”” (John 18:38) While we don’t know what tone of voice Pilate used when he uttered those words, it is clear that Pilate was not humbly and eagerly placing himself at Jesus’ feet in order to learn about truth. For Pilate, what mattered was having and holding onto power, not offending Rome, and not letting the crowd get out of hand. For Pilate, truth was a peripheral issue. Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent. He said, “I find no guilt in him.” (John 18:38) And Pilate had been warned by his own wife: “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.” (Matthew 27:19) Further, Pilate “knew that it was out of envy that [the religious leaders] had delivered him [Jesus] up.” (Matthew 27:18) Even so, Pilate did what all human beings do – by his unrighteousness he suppressed the truth (Romans 1:18) and chose the high road of ‘survival politics’. Pilate used his governmental authority – not to serve the cause of justice, but – to placate the bloodthirsty mob. And so he “delivered him [Jesus] to be crucified.” (Matthew 27:26) Truth was sacrificed on the altar of expediency. Pilate’s actions show that his question “What is truth?” arose out of a heart that was dismissive of truth.

Dismissing and suppressing the truth, playing politics and placating the mob, fearing man and not God, continue to be the standard operating procedure of human beings and of their leaders.

MYTHIC TALES FOR ITCHING EARS

Paul’s words to Timothy are always timely:

“[Preach] the word…. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” (2 Timothy 4:2-4)

Myths can be so inviting, so affirming, so comforting, so easy. “You will not surely die” (Genesis 3:4), says the serpent with forked tongue. “Peace, peace,” say the false prophets, even though “there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14). ‘Justice, justice’ cry the false healers, even though there is no justice. But mythic life and mythic peace and mythic justice tickle the ears of reality-denying sinners.

Myths can sell you a bill of goods that offer you everything and cost you nothing. Myths are congenial to your own passions – and be assured that the god of myth would never want to deprive you of your own self-fulfillment. The god of myth feels your pain and cheers you on as you discover your own path. People are so willing to venture off into fictional accounts of the universe, and teachers-for-hire and politicians-looking-for-votes are so willing to give the people what they want.

But the Lord calls us to be people of the Word; people of sound teaching; people of the truth. 

THE CALL TO BE PEOPLE OF THE TRUTH

We need to be absolutely clear about this: God calls us, His image-bearers, to be truth-loving, truth-embracing people.

Jesus’ word is the key to knowing the truth, and the truth is the key to true freedom. Jesus said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32)

The only way for unbelievers to become believers is by embracing the truth of the gospel: “But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.” (2 Thessalonians 2:13)

What is a church? A true church is a group of disciples who are established in the truth. And each and every Christian is called to “[walk] in the truth” (2 John 4; 3 John 3, 4).

THREE WORDS OF WISDOM TO HELP US BE PEOPLE OF TRUTH

With this biblical foundation about the centrality of truth beneath our feet – and hopefully also written in our hearts! – I want to proclaim three words of wisdom to help us be people who are unwavering in our commitment to truth.

The First Word of Wisdom: The World is Awash in Deceit

The first word of wisdom is a reality check about the world in which we live, namely, that the world is awash in deceit.

You need to understand this. If you operate on the assumption that most people are dealing honestly with truth and dealing truthfully with you, then you have a view of humanity that is at odds with the biblical view. The prophet Jeremiah’s insight into the inhabitants of Jerusalem was painfully truthful:

“For from the least to the greatest of them,

everyone is greedy for unjust gain;

and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely.” (Jeremiah 6:13)

People were animated by a craving for selfish gain, and that meant exporting justice and truth out of the city. Do you think 21^st century (AD) America is more virtuous than 7^th century (BC) Jerusalem?

A news outlet that is steeped in an anti-biblical worldview and that has consistently demonstrated its opposition to biblical truth and biblical morality, should not be viewed as a neutral dispenser of objective information. This is not to say that they don’t get anything right; this is not to say that they don’t have any useful insight. God’s common grace is able to restrain the wildness of men and draw straight lines with crooked sticks. However, you should be careful – because the world’s information dispensers are not neutral. They are caught up in the world system – and the world system is caught up in deceit.  

Jesus called the devil “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). He is “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2). And what is characteristic of these sons of disobedience – these unbelievers who don’t know God? Deceit. The sinful man, says Paul, “is corrupt through deceitful desires” (Ephesians 4:22). Their minds are futile (Ephesians 4:17). “They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.” (Ephesians 4:18-19) That was first century Ephesus. That is twenty-first century America. If you think that unbelievers – especially the unbelievers who live at the intersection of big money and power, like the ones who hold office, pass laws, set policies, report news, interpret data, award funding, win contracts, and market products – if you think that they are basically enlightened, truthful, unbiased, and kindhearted folks, then you have an unbiblical view of the heart of man.

In the early 1970s, the British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge recounted a story told him by Ignazio Silone, an Italian politician who was part of the Communist Party of Italy at its founding. Muggeridge wrote:

“Ignazio Silone told me once how, when he was a member of the old Comintern [an international Communist organization], some stratagem was under discussion, and a delegate, a newcomer who had never attended before, made the extraordinary observation that if such and such a statement were to be put out, it wouldn’t be true. There was a moment of dazed silence, and then everyone began to laugh. They laughed and laughed until tears ran down their cheeks and the Kremlin walls seemed to shake. The same laughter echoes in every council chamber and cabinet room, wherever two or more are gathered together to exercise authority. It is truth that has died, not God.”[1]

Now you, discerning listener that you are, might sensibly ask why should I trust Muggeridge or why Muggeridge should trust Silone. A fair question indeed. But the only point I wish to make is that this sort of mockery and laughing disregard for truth is exactly what the biblical worldview teaches us to expect.

The Bible says: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) The Bible is talking about us and our world. And we can be sure that deceitful and desperately sick hearts are in the habit of fostering political forces and social movements that are not based on the truth.

When Jesus said that “[everyone] who is of the truth listens to [his] voice,” He implied that everyone who does not listen to Him is not of the truth. Commenting on this passage from John 18, Ravi Zacharias put it this way: “the truthfulness or falsity of an individual’s heart [is] revealed by that person’s response to Him [Jesus].”[2] So if people who by their refusal to believe in Jesus show themselves to be of falsehood and not of the truth, then I am going to assume that their version of morality or their version of compassion or their version of history or their version of justice or their version of sensible public policy probably has a lot of falseness and foolishness mixed into it. And I am going to assume this, not because their intellect is deficient, but because their heart and will are not properly related to the Truth.

The Second Word of Wisdom: Stay Close to God’s Word

This leads to a second word of wisdom. As we live in this deceit-saturated world, we must be ever diligent to stay close to God’s Word. As it is written: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105)

To be a Christian is, in fact, to have been rescued out of the darkness and deceit by the grace and power of God (see Ephesians 2:1-10). Once we were “children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Ephesians 2:3), but now we are children of truth, having been transformed by grace. And God says to us,

“[Do] not become partners with them [the sons of disobedience]; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:7-10)

If we are true Christians, then now we are oriented to goodness and righteousness and truth – not as the world fancies it, but as God has revealed it. We must be people of the truth who speak God’s truth to one another: “[Speaking] the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (Ephesians 4:15).

This call to walk in the truth is clear, but we need to be realistic about our own vulnerability to drift from the truth. Over and over again Paul refers to professing Christians who “have swerved from the faith” (1 Timothy 6:21). The apostle Peter, just a few verses before telling us that “there will be false teachers among [us]” (2 Peter 2:1), told us that we “do well to pay attention [to the prophetic word] as to a lamp shining in a dark place” (2 Peter 1:19). God’s Word is our light in a world of darkness – so ponder it day and night, and hide it in your heart.

This call to stay close to God’s Word should also be heard as the wonderful freedom – yes, wonderful freedom! – to not stay so close to other words. Here’s what I mean as I attempt to speak helpfully into our current cultural situation: God does not call us to be experts on the origin, nature, and characteristics of the coronavirus. God does not call us to be experts on the government’s management and mismanagement of the pandemic. God does not call us to be experts on the history of race relations in America. God does not call us to be experts on the various social forces that have recently converged to demand that there be reforms in our justice system. God does not call us to be experts on ‘the politics of the left’ or ‘the politics of the right’.

Now what I am saying, I say carefully. I said ‘God does not call us to be experts’ on these various issues – and the key word is ‘experts’. I am not exalting ignorance. I am not encouraging Christians to be unthoughtful or unthinking. I am not suggesting that we should be inattentive to or undiscerning about the times in which we live.

But here’s the problem: the temptation is very great for the tumults of 2020 and the world’s endless opining about it, to distract the church from its main calling, to dictate the church’s conversation, and to hijack the church’s mission. The world is no friend of the church, and yet the world has a wonderful plan for us: ‘get out in front and signal that you care about Covid-19 as much as we do’; ‘get out in front and signal that you will love people in the way that we tell you to’; ‘get out in front and signal that you adhere to mainstream secular views of justice and race’. My question is: who is calling the church’s plays – or who are we allowing to call our plays? The world? The government? The media? Or the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ?

Let’s be honest: we will not become experts on the coronavirus, on pandemic management, on race relations, and on the social and political forces of our time, without spending enormous amounts of time and energy on it. Why not? Because you don’t achieve expertise on anything without extensive and sacrificial devotion. But the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is called to be sacrificially devoted to God and to His Word (see Romans 12:1, Psalm 1:1-2).

Is it possible that God is calling us to take action on an issue such as racial reconciliation? Of course this is possible. But my point is that we need to make sure that it is actually God who is calling us, and not the political winds and social tidal waves of 2020. Brothers and sisters: Do not be conformed to this [deceitful] world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)

The only sure way to know what God is calling us to be and do and say, is to stay very close to His Word.

The Third Word of Wisdom: Speak the Truth Clearly, Forthrightly, and with a Readiness to Suffer

As we pay attention to God’s Word, and as God’s Word shapes how we see the world, we will have some very important things to say – to each other, and to the world. This calls for a third word of wisdom: speak the truth clearly, forthrightly, and with a readiness to suffer.

Paul instructs us to always speak “in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Colossians 3:17), which puts us in the role of ambassador. We ought always to speak as representatives of King Jesus. As servants of the truth, we are under the King’s commission to bring His sovereign word to bear upon the world and its inhabitants. The whole counsel of God must be made known; the righteousness of the Lord must be proclaimed; the gospel of salvation must be heralded; and the sins of mankind must be exposed, that sinners might flee from those sins and take refuge in Jesus.   

As a speaking community, we must follow the apostle Paul’s example of speaking the truth clearly, and not resorting to spin or distortion. Paul said,

“[We] have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:2)

Our method is not to tickle people’s ears so that they like us and come back and put an offering in the plate. Our aim is not to win followers for ourselves. Our objective is not to appear to be agreeable to our wider culture. Our strategy is not to downplay or disregard certain teachings in order to avoid giving offense. Our tactic is not to take a poll and tell people what they want to hear by giving popular secular ideas a little Christian window dressing. Our operating procedure is notto play the part assigned to us by the secular progressives and not to recite the lines that their speech police have scripted for us.

Instead, our goal is to speak in such a way that God is pleased, because we are speaking first and foremost “in the sight of God.” We also speak in such a way that the consciences of our hearers are confronted by the unadulterated word of God. If our hearers would be saved and sanctified and strengthened, then they need the pure word of God. This is why we are committed to “the open statement of the truth” – because the truth of God’s Word is the only word that will do anyone any good in the long run.

In a similar passage, Paul explained:

“For our appeal [that is, our proclamation of God’s gospel to sinners (see v. 2)] does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed–God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others” (1 Thessalonians 2:3-6).

This is the standard for all gospel proclamation: no error, no impurity, no attempt to deceive, no words of flattery, no pretext for greed, no ambition to please man or seek glory from our hearers. Of course, this high standard for gospel proclamation is, in fact, the standard for every kind of communication. When is it ever okay to broker in error, deceit, manipulation, and vainglory? If only everyone, everywhere, in every circumstance, had an unwavering commitment to the truth, everyday life would change dramatically. Words would then be measured for their truthfulness – and therefore for their genuine helpfulness – and not for their pragmatic effort in advancing a private agenda. Notice that Paul’s determination to speak the truth arose from the conviction that he was speaking on God’s behalf (he had been “entrusted with the gospel”) and from the conviction that he was accountable to the all-seeing God “who tests our hearts.”

For the same reasons, we also must speak forth the truth with clarity and forthrightness. And we must be ready to bear the cost and to endure the suffering that so often comes to those who stand for truth. The prophet Micaiah spoke the truth of God’s judgment upon King Ahab, and he got thrown into prison for it (see 1 Kings 22:1-28). The prophet John the Baptist reproved Herod for adultery, and he also got thrown into prison – and was eventually beheaded. The preacher Stephen called out the religious leaders for being “stiff-necked people” and “uncircumcised in heart” (Acts 7:51), and he got stoned to death.

Twenty-first century America is brutal in its opposition to truth. In principle and to some degree in practice, our country has historically been a context for the right of free speech and for the free exchange of ideas. As Christians, our commitment is not mainly to free speech but to truthful speech. Even so, we understand that within the framework of a secular and sinful society, it is wise to safeguard the right of all citizens to speak freely and to allow earnest but respectful sparring in the marketplace of ideas. But the free exchange of ideas requires genuine charity, civility, and intellectual honesty across the spectrum of viewpoints, and that form of America is fast fading into the rearview mirror.

If you have been attentive to the news over the past few years, then you know how the story so often goes. A person or organization has taken what is perceived to be the wrong stand on a particular moral issue – or perhaps has failed to take what is perceived to be the right stand – and someone is offended. Or someone expresses outrage on behalf of a supposedly victimized or psychologically-harmed group. And there is an immediately demand for an apology, or for a resignation or termination, and for the offending person or organization to do a public about-face and get on the right side of history. The message is clear: if you don’t adopt the values of the secular revolutionaries, if you don’t wave their banner, if you don’t parrot their message, then you will be punished – at the very least, by being pushed to the margins of our society.

Although our society’s mad rush into increasing falsehood is tragic, it is not surprising. When people exchange the glory of God for cheap substitutes, God gives them up to impurity (Romans 1:23-24). When people exchange the truth of God for a lie, God gives them up to dishonorable passions (Romans 1:25-26). When people turn away from the knowledge of God, God gives them up to a debased mind (Romans 1:28) that is full of deceit (Romans 1:29). Those who would speak truth to an impure, dishonorable, and debased society should be ready to face fierce opposition.

In his brilliant poem “7/8 Of The Truth And Nothing But The Truth,” Steve Turner captures the cost of speaking the whole truth:

“No one admires the whole truth.

No one ever applauds.

It takes things too far.

It’s nice but where would

you put it?

People who neglect the strawberry

flavouring, do not get asked back.

They get put in their place,

with nails if necessary.”[3]

The Truth was sacrificed on a cross outside of Jerusalem. But the truth about that sacrifice is that it absorbed in itself all the damning consequences of our sin – with God pouring out His wrath in full measure upon the spotless Lamb. Then the Crucified One rose again on the third day to offer forgiveness, new life, and peace with God to everyone who believes in Him.

Brothers and sisters, we speak truth on behalf of the Crucified One. We share in His suffering. In word and deed both, we strive to make Him known to a world that will never have true wisdom and will never have true justice and will never have true healing and will never have true reformation until it embraces the real Truth as it is in the Person of Jesus Christ.

ENDNOTES

[1] Malcolm Muggeridge, The Green Stick: A Chronicle of Wasted Years. Quoted in Ravi Zacharias Ravi Zacharias, Can Man Live Without God?. Dallas: Word Publishing, 1994: p. 96.

[2] Ravi Zacharias, Can Man Live Without God?. Dallas: Word Publishing, 1994: p. 98.

[3] Steve Turner, “7/8 Of The Truth And Nothing But The Truth.” In Steve Turner, Up To Date: Poems 1968-1982. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1983: p. 43.