SN - notes from 11/27/10
As always, you can get this podcast on itunes (:thesngroup) and watch live SN videos on calvarychapelcostamesa.com under media/video - this is part 2 of a 4 part series called:
LOVE - TRUTH
AWARENESS - ACTION
truth
Ps. 108:4 - For Your mercy is great above the heavens,
And Your truth reaches to the clouds.
I. What is it?
common definitions
truth – noun
1. the true or actual state of a matter
2. conformity with fact or reality
3. a verified or indisputable fact, proposition, principle, or the like: mathematical truths.
biblical definitions (OT)
1. (from an intellectual perspective) facts which may be ascertained to be true or false (Dt. 17:4; 1 Ki. 10:6)
Dt. 17:4 - …and it is told you, and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an abomination has been committed in Israel, then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has committed…
2. (from a moral perspective) - truth as the attribute of a person. Joseph’s brothers are detained in prison ‘that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you’ (Gn. 42:16)
the 2nd definition was more common in terms of application and usage in the OT.
biblical definitions (NT)
In the NT, the words for truth (alētheia, alēthēs, alēthinos) do not have the same personal and moral connotation. Rather, truth is almost purely intellectual. It is ‘the full or real state of affairs
As in judicial language the alētheia is the actual state of affairs to be maintained against different statements, so historians use it to denote real events as distinct from myths, and philosophers to indicate real being in the absolute sense’ (R. Bultmann, TDNT 1, pp. 238).
II. Why is it important?
A. b/c (like love) God refers to Himself and is described as the “Truth”.
1. Dt. 32:4 - He is the Rock, His work is perfect;
For all His ways are justice,
a God of truth and without injustice;
Righteous and upright is He.
2. John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
3. John 15:26 - “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.
B. b/c (like love) truth came from Jesus
1. John 1:14 - And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
2. John 1:17 - For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
3. Mar 12:32 - So the scribe said to Him, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He.
4. Luke 20:21 - Then they asked Him, saying, “Teacher, we know that You say and teach rightly, and You do not show personal favoritism, but teach the way of God in truth:
C. b/c truth is required from us in our response to God.
1. Jhn 8:32 - “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
2. 2 Th 2:10 - … and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
3. 1Ti 2:4 - Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
4. 2Ti 2:25 - …in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth,
5. John 4:24 - “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
D. b/c truth is required in our response to people
1. 2Jo 1:4 - I rejoiced greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth, as we received commandment from the Father.
2. 3Jo 1:3-4 - For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
3. 3Jo 1:8 - We therefore ought to receive such, that we may become fellow workers for the truth.
4. 2 Cor 4:2 - But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
5. Eph 4:14 - …that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head - Christ.
6. 1Th 2:13 - For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe …
7. Jam 5:19 - Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
E. b/c our enemy, the devil, is described as the exact opposite of the truth and actively seeks to counter the truth. He always has, and always will.
1. John 8:44 - “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.
When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
2. Rev. 20:2-3 - He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished.
How does he do this?
truth diluted.
Rom 2:20 - … an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law.
truth disliked.
Gal 4:16 - Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
truth questioned.
John 18:38 - Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, “I find no fault in Him at all
truth suppressed.
Rom 1:18 - For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.
truth “replaced” (aka idolatry).
Rom 1:25 - who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen
truth ridiculed.
Act 26:25 - But he said, “I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak the words of truth and reason.
truth ignored.
Gal 5:7 - You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?
F. Final question -
How do we worship in truth, walk in truth, and fight in truth?
1. Be true to Jesus.
Jdg 6:14 - Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”
2. Be close to Jesus (truth is a fruit of sorts) through good and bad times.
Eph 5:9 (For the fruit of the Spirit [is] in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)
3. Be true to yourself.
1Jo 4:5 - They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Which spirit most influences you tonight?
“The believer is guided into truth (John 16:13), to worship God in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24). Doing Christ’s word enables one to know the truth and so be free (John 8:32). This Christian freedom is not due to possession of correct knowledge but rather comes from relationship to that which is truly real, namely, God.”
