How to See the Truth in the Midst of Confusion

Reverend Leo H. McCrary II

In the battle over the truth about God, it can become easy for one to not know who to trust. There three steps you can start today to be able to discern the truth from the lie.

Introduction

As I said in last week’s sermon, there is a three-sided battle taking place between sincere believers, insincere believers, and deniers over the truth about God.  Caught in the middle are those who either don’t care about the truth or those who are lost, confused, and don’t know how to discern what is true.  So, I want to focus on: What the truth is; Why it’s important to know the truth; And how to recognize the truth in the midst of all of today’s confusion.

What Is the Truth

I want to start this week’s sermon off by once again speaking of what is true.  In the beginning, God said He created the heavens and the earth, and set the order of His creation (Gen. 1).  

God then said that He made mankind from the dust of the ground, in His image, according to His likeness, and breathed into mankind’s nostrils His breath, and we became a living soul (Gen. 2:7).  

Yet, with His breath flowing through us, mankind made a choice in the garden, choosing to sin – to disobey God’s instructions.  Because of mankind’s wickedness, and because of His great love and desire to dwell with us, God said that He gave the world His only begotten Son to atone for our sins.  Through faith in Him, Christ promised that anyone can overcome their wickedness, their sin.

Why Recognizing God’s Truth Is Important

Now, there are two reasons why recognizing and knowing God’s truth is so important in the midst of the ongoing battle over truth. 

Liberty through Christ  

Paul shared the first reason why it’s important to know the truth in 1 Corinthians 2:6-9.  Paul wrote:

“⁶ However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. ⁷ But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, ⁸ which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”

“⁹ But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

The things which God has prepared, Jesus told the disciples, is a mansion in His Father’s house.  Jesus said to them, “I go to prepare a place for you.   And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also (John 14:2-3).”

The promise from Christ is a promise of liberty!  Again, Christ promised, “IF you abide in My word, you will know the truth, and truth shall make you free (John 8:31-32).  

The freedom in Christ is freedom from those who believe in the salvation of sin-filled worldliness that only comes through obtaining riches.  Therefore, it is freedom from the rich and “successful” who can ‘enjoy’ their riches, while the rest of us live struggling, while making them even richer.

This freedom in Christ is freedom from your demons and from your sin, which torture and weigh down the soul.  It is freedom from Satan and his army of wicked ones, who set out with the desire to crush and destroy your soul.

Time calls for discernment

While this truth is preached by the sincere in faith, there are those who move against it in their truth.

To Timothy, Paul wrote, “The Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron…(1 Tim. 4:1-2).”

That teaching, I want you to know, was not teaching that Paul came up with by his own volition.

When asked to speak about signs of the end of the age, Jesus answered, saying, “Many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many … For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.  All these are the beginning of sorrows (Matt. 24:5,7-8).”

Here lies the second reason why it is important for you to know and recognize the truth:  We’re living in a time where some are propping up a man to be their messiah.  Making matters worse is that it’s those who calll themselves a child of God consenting to the blasphemy in their hypocrisy.  They draw others to view this man as a messiah while pushing several more away from God! The time we are in calls for you to discern truth from lies and deceptions.

Evil is at work today

We who are of sincere faith must make clear who and what those who mock God’s salvation through hypocrisy, and deny the promise of God’s salvation through lies are. 

John wrote, “Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son (1 John 2:22).”

John also wrote, “In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother (1 John 3:10).”

Let me be clear about this: evil is at work today.  The deniers and liars are adamantly denying Christ and the promise of salvation through Him.  The false teachers, proclaiming to be of God, are constantly causing more and more strife, in the name of God, in their greed and covetousness.  

The devil, the author of strife and confusion, is at work today–he is still waging war against the truth!  Satan has lived in denial of the Lord from the beginning, was cast out of heaven because of it, and condemnation is what awaits him and those who follow him.  

This is the third reason for you to recognize the truth in the midst of confusion: Satan is trying to use the confusion of today to keep those who don’t care or are lost in confusion lost to God.  Do not be lost to the truth, do not be lost to God, is the message I wish to share with you today!  

Steps to Recognize the Real Truth

If one asks for proof today, to know what is and is not the truth about God, just know that it is not the first time that has happened.  I used to ask my dad for proof that God spoke to him.  Christ Himself was asked to prove Himself by showing signs or by providing witnesses who could testify to who He was (John 5:31-40).

To the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus said that John the Baptist, the forerunner, testified of Him when he said, “He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.”

Jesus then told those religious leaders that He had greater witnesses than John the Baptist.  Christ stated that His works testified that He worked on the Father’s behalf.  Christ then stated that the Father testified of who He was.  Lastly, Christ said that the Scriptures, the prophets especially, testified of Him.

If you desire proof to recognize the truth, I will follow Jesus’ witness to help you be able to recognize the real truth in the midst of all of the confusion.

Look at the works

When Jesus warned about false teachers, He said, “¹⁵ “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. ¹⁶ You will know them by their fruits … ¹⁸ A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit (Matt. 7:15-16, 18).”

As I shared with all of you in last week’s message, the way of God is holy.  What that means is that the way of God is full of works of love.  The works that Christ did were works that healed and uplifted.  The only ones that were angered by His works, were religious leaders who were upset that the people were praising Him more than them.

You can discern the truth, whether it is of God or not, by looking at the works.  Where there is strife, division, hatred, and bitterness, God is not there.  Where there is a helping hand and a mouth of correction/rebuke, that is where the Lord is.  God does not rejoice in wickedness, nor does He consent with sin and wickedness!

Turn to the written word

 For the next way to discern the truth, I will refer to the day when Satan tempted Christ, as shown in Matthew 4:1-11.  

The devil first encouraged Jesus to turn stones into bread.  Jesus responded, saying to him,  “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

When Satan tried to encourage Jesus to jump from a high point, he used Psalm 91, a song that sings of safety in God, as a weapon to try to tempt Jesus.  Jesus again responded, saying to the devil, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ “

If you haven’t been paying attention, the devil still uses this same tactic today.  Oh, how the wicked love to quote scripture to justify their thoughts, their words, and their wicked deeds!  Oh, how the wicked love to quote and will even make up scripture for their evil purposes.  For that very reason, I tell you today that if you desire to know, to discern the truth, turn to the written word for yourself!

God, I want you to understand, has not hidden Himself, nor His truth, from anyone – He has put it in word!  

Paul told Timothy, in 2 Timothy 3:13-16, in a time when evil men and impostors will grow worse, deceiving and being deceived, to continue in what has been assured of and known in Scripture.  Scripture, he said, will make one wise for salvation through faith in Christ, as it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof (rebuke), for correction, and for instruction in righteousness.”

I am one who believes in another seeing the written word for themselves, reading it, and studying it!  We’re living in a time of urgency where we, mankind, need to return to reading and studying the sound doctrine of God so that we aren’t fooled and deceived by the devil, deniers, and false teachers who know not what they quote and preach!

Seek and heed wise counsel

Now, if you struggle to see and discern, or to read and understand, there is one more way to discern, which all of us should do.

Proverbs 1:5-6 tells us that wise counsel is needed for one to understand a proverb and an enigma, and to also understand the words of the wise and their riddles.  

Jesus, when He taught, He taught in parables – in riddles.  When Jesus did that, the apostles couldn’t understand why He did it.  Jesus told them, “Whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him (Matt. 13:12).”  Even that answer was a riddle.

However, Jesus told them that the hearts of the people had grown dull; they were hard of hearing.  So, He taught in such a way that would cause one who desired to know the truth to seek clarity and understanding – they would come to Him.

We’ll see in 1 Corinthians 2:13-16, Paul stated, “These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”  To be clear – the truth of God is delivered through the Holy Spirit.

Paul continued, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”

Nobody can understand God’s truth, written, verbally, or through actions, without the Holy Spirit!  The reason why there is so much confusion today is because many move based on what they think they know, rather than through the discernment of the Holy Spirit!

To recognize the truth, God’s desire, you must go to the source, and permit Him, the Holy Spirit, to make a home in you.  When you receive the Holy Spirit, you will receive the Spirit of truth and error.  The Holy Spirit will help to open your eyes, by taking away the veil so that you can see (discern) more clearly. 

The Holy Spirit is needed in the hearts of all people today because the devil is at work.  Yet, if we were to permit the Spirit to lead and guide us in all truth, we will overcome that devil and all the workers of evil.  The truth will be revealed, and we altogether would be uplifted and prosper!