Kaleo San Diego Church

Then Pilate said to Him “what is truth?”

-Pilate (John 18:38)

Jesus said to him “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to my Father except through Me.”

-Jesus (John 14:6)

INTRODUCTION

Tonight we are going to be talking about two things that should be very important to each of us. We are going to be talking about truth, and we are going to be talking about freedom.

It is no great sociological statement or observation to say that these two topics, truth and freedom, are no longer topics of discussion or concepts of concern for the average American. Painfully I confess, this is an accurate description even for the average Christian.

The concept of truth and the concept of freedom have taken serious beatings over this last century and more specifically over the last 30 years. The contemporary definitions of these two concepts are distant cousins to those that our parents held.

Today these two words are either rendered meaningless, or at best, left to the individual to define.

With that said, I want to make a strong statement that will show my lack of political correctness. My statement is this: You have been lied to. Moreover, you have been lied to so often, that when you are presented with truth, it seems like the lie.

For some of you, this study may be nothing more than an affirmation of what you already believe and live, for others, this study may be the first time you have considered such issues, and for some this study may affirm what you believe but do not live. God and your conscience are your judges over this matter, I am not.

Let’s pray…

CONTEXT

This week continues the recorded dialogue of God the son, the greatest theologian, and we contrast him with finite minded, human, pseudo-theologians, called the Pharisees.

As many of you have learned, the Pharisees are the religious leaders of Israel. They are supposed to be the keepers of the Law of God. They are men that are very proud of their heritage and their self-righteousness. They are also men that are willing to break the very laws they claim to keep for their own selfish gain.

For the purpose of context in the passage we will be examining tonight, please turn with me to the Gospel of John, chapter 8 starting a verse 31.

Verse 31- Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.

Verse 31- Begins with Jesus giving the Jews clarification of what it means to believe in Him. Many had made a false profession that was simply an intellectual agreement in verse 30, so Jesus explains that to be a true disciple of His means that you abide “in” His word. Not “around” His word, not “next to” His word, but “in” His word.

Those that are truly Christ’s disciples will make known their loyalty to their master by living outwardly the belief they claim inwardly. It is in this context that Jesus makes the powerful claim that He makes in the next verse.

Verse 32-"And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

I. Truth (“And you shall know the truth…”)

Notice that Jesus does not say, “you can” know the truth, or even “you might” know the truth, but He says to those that claim to be His disciples “And you shall” know the truth. It is a definite promise. “Shall” should not be understood as a term of permission, but rather a guarantee of what will happen.

A. Specifically, Jesus says “if” you are truly my disciple, you will show it, and you will know truth. This is predicated upon an “if.” It is no guarantee or comfort to those that do not meet the “if” condition.

B. Generally, we can confidently say that truth is knowable. As a Christian I make that claim with confidence.

So to make such an outrageous claim to truth, perhaps we should define the word truth.

If I use a secular dictionary to establish what seems to be the general consensus to describe the word truth, here is the result;

Truth: That which is considered to be the supreme reality and to have the ultimate meaning and value of existence.

But this simply opens the door to more questions:

• What is considered to be “the supreme reality?”

• Who decides what “the supreme reality” is?

• Is it voted upon? Does one person decide?

• What is the ultimate “meaning and value of existence?”

• Who determines the ultimate “meaning and value of our existence”?

• Man? If so, how does he know? Who told him? How did he figure it out? Which man, or group discovered “the ultimate meaning and value of existence?”

We must start somewhere to “know” truth. You must presuppose a foundation for “knowing” anything. You must say “I know because.”

You either start with man being the one that determines our supreme reality and ultimate existence, with no need for help from God.

Or, you start with God as the one that determines our supreme reality and ultimate existence, with no need for help from man.

It is not a co-op program. Either one is the standard for the other, but both can not be the standard. Both can not have different claims to truth. Truth is not voted upon. It either is, or is not.

• Truth exists-even if no one knows it

• Truth exists-even if no one admits it

• Truth exists-even if no one agrees to what it is

• Truth exists-even if no one follows it

• Truth exists-even if no one but God can fully understand it

Truth does not need our help to exist. It does not need to be accepted by everyone, or voted on to be true. Even if everyone, but God, were skeptical or confused, truth would still exist.

Romans 3:4 ….Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar.

God is there, He is not silent, and he has revealed His truth in…

A. His Creation

a. Romans 1:20-For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,

B. His Word

a. Psalm 119:160-The entirety of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.

C. His Son

a. John 14:6-“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

All of this with the promise that the “Spirit of truth will lead you into all truth.” John 16:13

Any knowledge that we have about the truth of God, is only known because He has graciously chosen to reveal His infinite, eternal truths to us. Our reference point is always God.

For knowledge and truth to mean anything, it must be anchored to something, or more specifically, someone. That anchor is God. Everything we know about His creation, His Word, or His Son, is through His revelation.

So unbelieving man both knows and doesn’t know God at the same time.

He knows God from God’s creation. Yet what does the unbelieving man do with this revelation? Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

But he does not “know” God unto salvation. God must grant a man faith for Him to believe. Why? Romans 8:7 Because the carnal mind is in enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.

Truth is not found through philosophical argumentation. Truth is not found through a proper use of logic. Truth is not found in the imagination of man. Truth is found in Christ.

Truth is not a set of rules to be obeyed, mysteries to be known or evidences to be mastered, but Christ, by whom we know and are known.

Truth is not discovered, it is revealed to both the head and the heart. Therefore, Truth is not something merely known or proclaimed but Someone experienced, by grace and faith that not only knows the Truth but loves Him.

Truth comes from the Father through the Son and is revealed by the Spirit. It does not come solely by reason, evidence, experience, or tradition. Neither progress, science, technology, nor anything else, nor anyone tied to life under the sun, can unearth it.

Truth lives in the light. For this reason we both love and hate the Truth. We love it because He cleanses and renews us in His light. But, we also hate the Truth because in His light our sin and depravity is laid, unmasked and unexcused, to our shame, and humility.

Truth is the incarnate Word of God, the very expression of the mind of God. Christ is the “truth” of God revealed to man. Christ is the answer to each and every question. He is THE TRUTH.

When Pilate asked “What is truth”, the answer was given in the crucifixion of truth.

To not believe in truth is to believe in a lie. Not just an error or a mistake, but to actively live a lie. This lie is absent of all truth and is found in the father of lies;

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.

In the garden, Adam was created to believe God’s revelation without doubt. He had not considered distrusting God’s word. He was able to hear God and act without question, because the question never surfaced.

Because Adam was not a fallen creature, it didn’t occur to him to doubt his senses and question the obvious about God’s creation.

Yet when Satan came to tempt eve, what was the real issue in question? Food? Trees? Freedom? No. The thing that was in question in the temptation of Adam, was the authority and integrity of God’s word.

Satan questioned Adams reasons for believing God. He presented a question that was to alter mans relationship with God for the rest of human history. The question was “has God really said?” “Can you really trust what God says to you?”

Declare you independence from God and learn on your own. You don’t need Him to tell you what is true, you can figure it out on your own.

Like Adam, modern man follows in His steps. Instead of believing the only One that is true, the only One that is good. Man attempts to live his life apart from God. All the while not realizing that the very brain that fires its electrical impulses, the very heart that beats in rhythm, the very air that he draws into his lungs, is a gift from the creator that he denies exists.

What lies have you believed about yourself and about God?

How would you know whether or not they are lies or truth?

Where do you find universal, eternal, absolute, infinite truths? Do you go to man or to God? Do you seek the counsel of the infinite, or the opinion of the finite?

To know Christ is to know truth. To know truth is to know freedom.

II. Freedom (…and the truth shall make you free)

Notice again the definite promise to those that are the disciples of the truth, it shall make you free. Not might, not maybe, it will make you free.

Why does man need freedom?

Simple, he is not free by nature. Man comes into this world as a slave sold to sin.

John 8:34- Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.

We live in a society that actually believes that “being free” means you can do whatever you want, whenever you want, to anyone or with anyone you want.

Man has been lied to. Man has believed this lie for so long, that to tell him that it is wrong to kill babies, it is wrong to have sex with as many sexual partners as you wish, it is wrong to watch pornography of children having sex, it is wrong to take drugs that are slowly killing him, is to intrude on his freedom.

I should be able to take drugs if I want. I should be able to do what I want. You can’t judge me. You can’t tell me what to do, and if you do, you are oppressing my freedom.

What man does not realize is that true freedom means you are no longer a slave to your impulses. You no longer are mastered by your feelings. You no longer serve sin.

Freedom unlocks the keys to your sin and opens the chamber door so you no longer remain shackled by your own wicked desires.

Freedom sets you free from the guilt and the consequences of your sin.

Listen to Paul’s admonishment to the Romans;

Romans 6:7- For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. 15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! 16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? 17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. 18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness 21 What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

You have been freed from death, freed from decay, freed from guilt, freed from the power, freed from the consequences of sin.

Christ has made you free.

John 8:36 "Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

Are you a slave or are you free?

What sins are keeping you in bondage? Do you want to be set free from them?

Who is the only one that can set you free from sin?

Truth produces freedom. Lies produce slavery.

Let's pray....

Communion

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