Man Must Love Truth

            As I have said before in prior lessons, that there is society’s view of man, and then there is the biblical view of man, and many times the two do not agree. What we are going to be studying tonight is the biblical view that man must be a lover of truth. Not a mere friend of truth, or some one who is tolerant of truth, but man is to value the truth above anything that could be found of great worth in this world. “Buy the truth, and sell it not; Yea, wisdom, and instruction, and understanding” said the wise man (Pr. 23:23). We are to favor truth over every non-truth and seek after it and pursue it always. As the title of this lesson declares, we “must” love the truth. Truth is a compass that will lead us safely through the wilderness of life and toward our heavenly home, if we will value it, seek after it, and follow it until the end of our days.

Man Must Know What Truth Is

            When Jesus was brought before Pilate, at one point he asked him,

…Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end have I been born, and to this end am I come into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find no crime in him. (Jn. 18:37-38)

Everything that Jesus said was the truth! He was the embodiment of truth (cf. Jn. 14:6)! From the time that Jesus entered into this world until he left it there upon the cross, in His words, in His actions, in Himself, He bore witness to and was a living proclamation of the truth to the world. Do you want to know the truth, Pilate? You were looking at Him. What an extraordinary opportunity for Pilate! But, unfortunately, he just sort of dismissed what He said with an heir of indifference and says, “what is truth,” and walked away.

            That same scenario seems to be being played out over and over again, the world over. People hear the truth, and with an indifferent shrug of the shoulders, say, “yea, what’s truth,” and walk away. “That’s fine if you want to believe that, but what’s it to me? You say it’s truth, but what is truth anyway? What’s true for you, may not be true for me.”

            Friends, truth is not relative, it is absolute. Truth is, as I was taught in school, “that which corresponds with reality.” Whenever what is believed corresponds with what is real, it is true. Whenever what is believed does not correspond with what is real, it is false. If I say that my dog is black, and then in reality my dog is black, what I have said is true. If I say that my bird has X-ray vision, and then in reality it does not have X-ray vision, what I have said is false.

What about reality?

            There is only one reality. The earth is round. That is reality. Anything that is contrary to that reality is not real. The earth is round. It cannot be both round and flat at the same time and in the same way. If the earth is round, it is not flat. There is only one reality.

Our perceptions of reality don’t change it.

Our perceptions and beliefs about reality may be different, but what we believe about reality does not change it. No matter what shape I believe the world to be in my own mind, that does not do anything to change the fact that the world is still round no matter what I believe. Reality is outside of us and does not depend on our perception of it in order for it to be what it is.

            There is a God in heaven. That is true. Why? It is true because there really is a God in heaven. What if I don’t believe in God? That still doesn’t change the fact, or the reality of there being a God in heaven. Truth is not determined by what we think, but by what is real. We can all believe something different about God, but that would not change anything about God. He is what He is, and what we believe about Him is only true in so much as it corresponds with what He already is and always has been.

Reality is not limited by what we, ourselves, see or know.

            If we were to try and explain to someone 500 years ago that they had tiny little microscopic bugs on them and in the water they drink, etc., they would not believe it. Nevertheless, it would still be true even though they could not see those little bugs for themselves, they would still have been there just the same. Because reality is not confined to the physical universe, or just to what we can see, but also includes God the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, angels, Satan, demons, Heaven and Hell, and everything else that exists, whether physical or spiritual (seen and not seen), our perception of reality must be equally inclusive. If we limit what we will accept as true to only those things that we can detect with our five senses, then we will have a false belief system about everything that would then be necessarily excluded, including God! In order for us to have all truth, we must be willing to accept all of reality. If we were to draw a circle and label that “reality.” We could then draw a line down the middle of that circle and call one side “physical reality” and the other side “spiritual reality.” If we only accept the half that is physical, there is still another whole part of that circle, reality, which we have not yet accepted.

All that we read about in the Bible, whether seen or unseen, is all true; it corresponds with reality.

            Bible is truth because it everything that is in it corresponds with what is real. Someone says, “I don’t believe the Bible because it tells me that things exist that I can’t see, taste, smell, touch, or hear.” Well, that person has assumed that there is no reality outside of what can be known with his five senses. That is the mistake that many people make with science, they think that science can give an answer for everything. The problem is, though, that science only deals with the physical universe, those things that can be observed and measured, but there is a whole lot more to reality that science has no way of dealing with. To gain a full picture of reality, we must expand our perception of it to include both the physical as well as the spiritual, the visible as well as the invisible, that’s where walking by faith and not by sight comes into play (cf. 2 Cor. 5:7). It requires faith to accept what the Bible teaches because we must depend on what has been revealed to us rather than things that we can see for ourselves. However, if Jesus came into the physical from the spiritual, and He has confirmed to us that He is not of this world by the miracles and signs which He demonstrated while He was here upon this earth, then we can confidently trust and rely upon what He has revealed to us. So, we cannot know all truth on our own because we can see all that there is, but we must examine the Scriptures, God’s word is truth (Jn. 17:17).

The Lost Do Not Love The Truth

And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to nought by the manifestation of his coming; even he, whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God sendeth them a working of error, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thes. 2:8-12)

Who does he say are “them that perish”? They who “received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” We must love that truth in order to be saved. What is truth? “Thy word is truth,” prayed Jesus (Jn. 17:17). Those who refuse the truth, those who do not love it, who do not seek it, and who do not follow after it, are lost. A person cannot reject God’s word and at the same time be saved. When a person does not have a love for the truth, the only other alternative is that they love error rather than truth. “That they all might be damned…” Who? “All who believed not the truth.” Why? They “believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

            The Bible only says one thing. When the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to pen the letter to the Romans, what He said only had one meaning and that meaning is what the Holy Spirit said. He said what He meant and He meant what He said. The only correct interpretation then, of Romans, is the interpretation that is the same as what the Holy Spirit said through Paul. Anything other than that is false. The same is true for the entire Bible.

            When we look over the religious landscape, there are thousands of interpretations that can be found about the Bible, but it is only possible that one of those is right. Well, what is the difference between all of these churches all around us? It’s what they teach. If the Bible only teaches one thing, and all of these churches teach something different, only one of those churches can be the true church because only one of those churches can be teaching what the Bible teaches. The rest of them are in error; what they are teaching is not the same as what the Bible teaches, which means that they are not teaching according to spiritual reality. We must be absolutely certain that the church we are members of is the one we read about in the Bible, that teaches only what the Bible teaches and teaches nothing that the Bible does not teach. To be a member of any other church is to be in error, it is to be outside of the body of Christ, it is to be eternally lost. That is not a popular position today, but that is reality.

Truth Requires Sacrifice

            To be a lover of the truth requires us to take the less popular position; it is going to require sacrifice. Paul said, “Yea, and all that would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Ti. 3:12). But, isn’t it true that the more valuable something is, the greater its cost is going to be? A diamond ring is not free; it is very costly. Cars and houses are not free; they are costly. But, how many of us would not gladly give everything that we have for our loved ones, those whom we cherish the most? Truth is not free, but if we love it and value it properly, we will be willing to sacrifice for it.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, and ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Ro. 12:1-2)

And if thy right eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not thy whole body be cast into hell. And if thy right hand causeth thee to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not thy whole body go into hell. (Mt. 5:29-30)

And he said unto all, If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever would save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose or forfeit his own self? For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in his own glory, and the glory of the Father, and of the holy angels. (Lk. 9:23-26)

And just who is Jesus that we should follow Him? He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me” (Jn. 14:6). He is the embodiment of truth. When Pilot said, “what is truth,” he was looking at Him. All that He said, did, and was, was a declaration of the truth! “In the beginning was the Word…” (Jn. 1:1). He is the word of God in living form; He is the truth. To know Christ is to know truth. The truth does not exist apart from Christ, and Christ does not exist apart from the truth. The two are inseparable. In order for us to have a correct understanding of truth, we must have a correct understanding of Christ. One of the reasons why there is so much disagreement in the religious world, not just within “Christianity”, is because there is an entire sea of misunderstanding that seems to surround the biblical Jesus. Do we want to love and follow after truth? Then we must love and follow after Christ. Not this person’s view of Christ, or that person’s view of Christ, but the biblical Christ, which corresponds to reality—the real Christ!

            The priests of the old law used to offer sacrifices daily at the temple in Jerusalem. As Christians, we are all priests (cf. 1 Pet. 2:9) and we offer ourselves to God as a living sacrifice, “holy, acceptable” to Him, which is our “acceptable”, or “reasonable” (KJV), service. We must be willing to “take up our cross daily.” Now that doesn’t literally mean that we have to take up a literal cross, of course, but what ever burden we have to bear in order to follow Christ, no matter what it costs us, we must stand up under that burden that has been laid upon us and follow Him. For some, it may be more costly than others, but there can be no greater cost to us than what has already been paid by Him.

For consider him that hath endured such gainsaying of sinners against himself, that ye wax not weary, fainting in your souls. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin: and ye have forgotten the exhortation which reasoneth with you as with sons, My son, regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord, Nor faint when thou art reproved of him; For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, And scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. It is for chastening that ye endure; God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father chasteneth not?.…All chastening seemeth for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby, even the fruit of righteousness. Wherefore lift up the hands that hang down, and the palsied knees; and make straight paths for your feet, that that which is lame be not turned out of the way, but rather be healed. (Heb.12:3-7, 11-13)

Knowledge Of The Truth Requires Actions To Follow It

Know ye not, that to whom ye present yourselves as servants unto obedience, his servants ye are whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But thanks be to God, that, whereas ye were servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered; and being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness. (Ro. 6:16-18)

Until we learn, accept, and follow the truth, we are the servants of sin; we are in bondage to it! Or, to put it another way, we are enslaved by sin. The only thing that can “deliver” us from that is the truth of the gospel. Well, what do we become once we have been freed from the bondage of sin? We become the “servants of righteousness.” What is righteousness? It means right-doing; we do the right things according the gospel. It has become popular today to believe that we can go right on sinning and still be saved, but that’s not what the Bible teaches; that’s not the truth. When we obey “from the heart that form of teaching whereunto we were delivered,” that means that we have stopped living in sin, we are no longer enslaved by it, and we have instead, began to live righteously. Those who claim to be saved, but who refuse righteousness, are still enslaved by sin! (This in no way suggests that we earn salvation, or that our works are meritorious, but that our salvation is conditioned upon our works and change of mind which are of obedience to God’s word.)

Let’s compare that to what Jesus said in John 8:31-32: “Jesus therefore said to those Jews that had believed him, If ye abide in my word, then are ye truly my disciples; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” There are many who claim to be Jesus’ disciples who are not. Well, who are truly His disciples? Those who “abide,” or “continue” (KJV), in His word. In other words, those who do as He says. A person who won’t be obedient to Christ isn’t really His disciple. “…And ye shall know the truth.” How? by listening to and doing the things of Christ, or in other words, by doing God’s will. What will happen if we do? “The truth shall make you free.” Friends, I’m not trying to be ugly here, but there is a lot at stake and it is imperative that we know what the truth is, because that is the only way that we will ever be able to respond to it and escape sin and death.

            The person who has followed after truth and has been set free from the bondage of sin and no longer lives any longer in it. We are not some dirty or spotted creature who keeps on sinning. We are not like some dirty rag. We have been “washed,” we have been “sanctified,” we have been “justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (cf. 1 Cor. 6:11). I’m not just some worthless or vile, or evil human being that can’t help myself, I am a child of God! Peter said, “But ye are a elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Pet. 2:9). “But like as he who called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living” (1 Pet. 1:15). The truth will set us free, but not until we are willing to change our mind and our actions to conform and be obedient to it.

Conclusion

            People need some directing, we all do. “O Jehovah, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps” (Jer. 10:23). The only thing that is going to guide us down the right path is truth. A person without truth is like a blind man stumbling around in the dark (cf. Lk. 6:39; Jn. 9:39-41; 2 Pet. 1:9). We need the truth to light our way (cf. Ps. 119:105). We need to know what truth is, where to find it, or need for it, and the determination to posses and follow it. God’s word is truth (Jn. 17:17), and Christ is truth (Jn. 14:6). Do we love God’s word? Do we love Christ? We must, if we want to have eternal life.