Salvation: Who is Telling the Truth?

A message summary of November 1, 2020 from Pastor Gus Brown:

How do you distinguish truth today? Do you seek it out and compare it to God’s truth?

There is only one truth, and all truth comes from God.

A person has to believe that he or she can achieve much more. This is one of God’s truths.

Parents have a responsibility to tell their children the truth. It’s not easy out there!

Keep in mind that young people will often believe their peers outside of the home before they listen to their parents.

What information out there is reliable, and what is unreliable?  You sometimes have to look back historically to see if what is being said is true. Is it fake news or real news?  Which one is true? Is the truth the only truth to the one who believes it is true? Is truth based on facts and not just on statements?

We are dealing with two types, categories, varieties or classes of truth today:

1. Post truth thinkers.  They look to their feelings, intuition, cultural norms, and peers to define right and wrong.
2. Truth based thinkers.  They look to an outside, fixed, unchanging written standard to define right and wrong.

For the post truth thinkers, everything is in flux. Standards eventually change. Post truthers reject absolute truth. It can’t exist. Their argument is that everything changes.

Truth based thinkers are not against change, but hold to absolute truths.

When was the last time you saw the sun rise in the South and set in the North? It’s never happened. It won’t ever happen. God has fixed that it will always rise in the East and set in the West.

How do you define truth?

Proverbs 27:19 ESV

As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man.

What you believe to be true will govern your life.  Many very intelligent people who have ever lived are foolish when it comes to the things of God.  Knowledge and faith are two different things.

Romans 3:3-4 ESV 

What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.”

Hebrews 6:17-18 ESV

So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

It is impossible for God to lie to his people, but a person has to believe that this is true.  How many of you think that God is holding out on you and not telling the truth? To think wrongly about God, Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit is to have little knowledge of the Scriptures.

Satan will do all that he can do to spoil the relationship between you and Jesus.

John 10:10 ESV

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Luke 8:11-15 ESV

11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12  The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13  And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. 14  And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. 15  As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.

Revelation 20:10

…and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

John 8:44-47

44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45  But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. 46  Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? 47  Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”

If I don’t know God’s Word, I can’t possibly claim any of His faithful promises.  If you allow Satan to rob you of God’s promises, then that is on you.

God tells us in Ephesians 6:17 to put on the helmet of salvation. Why? The mind is the conscience of man, where deep thoughts take place and decisions are made.  The helmet is protection over the mind from the enemy.

We need protection from the god of this world.  Jesus provides this protection with the armor of the living God.

We’re still the children of God.  Will you believe in Him?

Dig into His Word.  Believe in His Word.  Trust in His Word.