The key verse:
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness – 2 Timothy 3:16 KJV
Introduction
What is truth? Truth is fact and not an opinion. There are many people living today that confuse opinion with truth/fact; there is a great difference between what is opinion and what is truth/fact. You see, truth is absolute. In other words, truth is final! We are, and say, that we are believers of the truth. We are believers of that one and inspirational truth! Let’s take a look at truth, evaluate truth, and come to a conclusion about truth.
Truth of the world
You might recall me having preached about the truth of the world in a previous sermon. We live in a time where the truth, in which we believe, is highly doubted. There are many people that doubt the doctrine in which we have believed. We should not find this to be strange because this is something that both Jesus and the apostles spoke of. In fact the Apostle Paul said this in 2 Timothy 3:5: men of the last days will have a form of godliness but deny it’s power. What does this mean?
We live in a time where men think of themselves as gods; man thinks himself to have some kind of power. You see, man of the last days believes in their godliness, believes in their ways, but deny the one true God. Man created his own truth. Truth, by definition, is defined as: in accordance with fact or reality; a fact or belief that is accepted as true.
Over the last 6 months I had to learn how to live with a catheter in my chest; I had to learn to sleep with it and move around with it. After getting the catheter removed, it was only then that I realized what I conditioned my mind to do. The human mind is an amazing thing when you really think about it. We are able to train our mind to accept just about anything! We are able to condition our mind to accept our reality. We are able to train our mind to accept what some other person deems to be true. In actuality, a lot of the truths that we have learned to accept are truths that somebody else created.
Isaac Newton, for example, came up with his theory on gravity and many other laws that are universally accepted and followed in science. Albert Einstein, another very smart man, came up with the theory of relativity and other ideas that are universally accepted and followed as truth in science. In school we learned that there is a right and a wrong way to compose sentences; we also learned that there is a right and a wrong way to do math. My dad and mom had things that they taught both me and my brother and over the years we learned that there was a great amount of truth in their teachings – I’m sure the same holds true for you as well.
The Bandit said, in Smokey and the Bandit, “when you tell somebody something, it depends on what part of the country you’re standing in as to just how dumb you are.” That is how our society, and how our world works! There is a such thing as worldly truth and depending on where you are, that truth can be completely different – that’s the thing when it comes to truth created by man. Man’s created truth is constantly in flux, there is very little that is absolute and final about man’s created truth. Man’s created truth constantly changes because man is always learning something new.
Inspirational Truth vs Fables/Myths
The one thing that man has done with it’s knowledge and idea of truth is try to apply the same knowledge and concept to that inspirational truth that comes from the Lord. We take the Bible, filled with the 66 books that make up both the new and old testament, and feel that somebody must have “come up” with these stories. We peruse the scriptures and we think to ourselves, somebody created these stories and they’re trying to pass them off as truth. Why? Because that is how our idea of accepting something to be true, or not, works.
We pick up the Bible, read the first few chapters in Genesis, and we think to ourselves, no way. Man-created truth about the creation event tells us that there is no way that the creation happened as it is explained in the Bible. The Bible tells us how the Lord formed Adam from the dust of the earth, and man’s created truth looks at that and says, “absolutely not”; it could not have happened that way, we evolved from apes! It is that time of year in which we celebrated the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Yet, man will tell you, there’s no way that Jesus was born in the manner that is described in the Bible – there’s no such thing as a virgin birth; there’s no way that GOD could possibly place Himself into the womb of Mary and be born into the world.
Man turns around and call the Bible a lie! The Bible is nothing but a fable or a myth according to man’s knowledge of the “truth”. Better yet, some pick and choose the parts that their mind is able to grasp, say that it is true, and that the other parts is something that “some man” made up. In our key verse, Paul says that the scripture comes through the inspiration of God. In other words, the scripture, and therefore the books of the Bible, come through the inspiration of the Lord – not man made.
The disciple Peter also says this same thing in 2 Peter 1:21: prophecy did not come by the will of man but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. When you study scripture, then compare it to what you know about man, you will realize right away that there is absolutely no way that man could come up with that kind of knowledge. Man doesn’t take time to ponder about the spiritual to have the knowledge to tell others how to gain salvation!
Personally speaking, I certainly don’t stand up preaching or teaching by my own will. Without the guidance of the Spirit, I would have no idea on how you could be saved; I wouldn’t know that you or I even needed saving! I am led by the Spirit! If it were up to me I’d be doing something else, not having any problems, rejoicing in my sin. The fact of the matter is that the truth was revealed to the world, and one thing I have learned about the truth is that it is hard for people to accept truth! The truth comes a calling and we will try to run away from it! I heard the call of the truth and I now rejoice in the truth!
That Inspirational Truth
The Bible is not a lie! The scriptures are not a lie! God is not a lie nor is He a liar! The virgin birth of our Savior is not a lie but it is the truth! Why would God lie about that? Those that do not believe cannot provide you with an answer to that question. Jesus hung His head on the cross, gave up the ghost, rose with all power in His hands, that is not a lie! The birth, the death, and the resurrection of Christ were witnessed events! Peter said that they were eye witnesses (2 Peter 1:16) to Christ, no following after fables!
That inspirational truth is certainly doubted, but nobody can give you an answer as to why the Lord would like about His only begotten Son and gaining salvation! Apparently, the holy men that spread the gospel were lying on the Lord? Apparently Jesus Christ was lying on Himself? Apparently man has lied on God? That does not make any sense! We, man, will certainly try to put words into God’s mouth, yet the Lord is not the liar! The word of God is not a lie! We can gain salvation through Christ Jesus!
Had this been a cunningly devised fable, do you really believe that man would have shared how to freely gain eternal life? Man would have either hid this truth or tried to profit off this truth. Salvation was revealed to all, not hidden, but the truth was put into writing and it is up to us to accept or deny that inspirational truth from the Lord.