Sermons by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church 28 March and 4 April 2010
As Jesus stood before Pilate, Jesus claimed to bear witness to the truth. That’s when Pilate cynically asked the famous question, “What is truth?” (John 18:37-38) What is truth? Can it be found? If so, where?
Optical illusions from http://www.MichaelBach.de/ot/index.html
o Hermann Grid
o Hering’s effect
o Poggendorf effect
o Fraser’s Spiral
o Muler-Lyer effect
o Shephard’s Tables
o If you cannot trust your brain to interpret correctly what you see in these optical illusions, can you trust your brain to distinguish what is true from what is false in any other area of life?
o Everything we observe is interpreted, so it is impossible for any human being to be objective when it comes to determining reality.
o Each of us starts with a different set of assumptions and a different set of experiences.
o This makes it impossible for one human being to accurately and authoritatively define reality for another human being.
o
We all function with boundaries as to what is true
and what is false.
It is impossible to function without a set of assumptions about reality.
o
These boundaries can only be defined by either you,
by God, or by some other person.
We have seen some of the problems so far with having ourselves or some other
person define reality; we must consider submitting to a transcendent, personal
God to define reality.
o The great war hero of the Hebrews, Joshua, when Moses died and he took leadership of his nation said, “Now therefore fear Jehovah, and serve Him in sincerity and in truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, and in Egypt; and serve Jehovah. And if it seems bad to you to serve Jehovah, choose this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served… but as for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah.” Josh 24:14-15
o The ancient gods of the Egyptians and Arabs and Persians do not hold much appeal to a Western audience. In the modern and post-modern age, the choice is pretty much between God or Man.
o If you want to know whether the earth around you is real or just a grand illusion, and if you believe that truth comes from man, you will probably get one of two answers.
o Marcelo Gleiser wrote on the American National Public Radio page on “Cosmos and Culture,” last week that, “…as science progressed, it has threatened God's traditional role in the world [as something we can use to explain the things we don’t understand] … In my opinion,” he went on to write, “there are two kinds of people: the naturalists and the supernaturalists. The supernaturalists see hidden forces acting behind shadows, dictating the affairs of men, explaining all that we can't through mysterious and law-defying cause and effect relations beyond what we call the real. They live a life of fear, enslaved by apocalyptic beliefs, oppressed by their gods and death. The naturalists humbly accept that we will never have all the answers, that knowledge is an ongoing process, and that it's okay not to know. Instead of embracing fear, they embrace our ignorance as a means to inspire personal and collective growth, as a challenge and not a prison.” www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/ 2010/03/science_belief_and_the_search.html Our tax dollars are supporting this rhetoric that says that naturalists are humble, but religious people are fearful, enslaved, and oppressed.
o This man-centered worldview was held by the ancient Sophists. Plato described the position of one of these Sophists named Protagoras, in his book Theaetetus. Protagoras held that “Man is the measure of all things,” arguing that the sense perception of human beings defines reality, so that no one can ever be wrong; everybody is right if they define their own reality. So when the wind blows and it makes one man chilly and another man exhilarated, both have defined wind, one as disagreeable, the other as agreeable. Plato pointed out, however, that what the two men perceived were not qualities existing objectively in wind, but rather the limited interaction of their sensory organs with the wind. They came up with two different descriptions of the wind because neither man can know the wind for what it really is through the senses. In fact man cannot know anything at all through the senses. (Clark, Thales to Dewey, p.57ff)
o
TV New Zealand conducted an interview a couple of weeks
ago with Richard Dawkins and summed it up like this, “The world… is quite
simple – if science can prove it, it is real. If not, forget it.”
http://tvnz.co.nz/close-up/science-religion-which-reigns-supreme-3420317
o
Science has a major problem, however. Every scientific
hypothesis is based upon unproven assumptions. The way the scientist pursues
his method is as follows:
He hypothesizes that if p then q.
He then goes on to demonstrate q.
Finally, he deduces q therefore p.
P, however has never been proved.
For instance, I could make a hypothesis that water would make a good lubricant
for door hinges.
I could pour water over a thousand door hinges, and – what do you know – the squeaks
disappear and the hinges move well.
Therefore I conclude that water makes a good lubricant for door hinges.
I then go on a year-long tour selling my new book on my discovery and come home
to find that my front door hinges have rusted so badly from all the water I
poured over them a year ago that I can’t open the door!
o The scientific method cannot, in fact arrive at any truth because any event heretofore unobserved could prove any scientific hypothesis wrong, and often does prove scientists wrong after a while, like my hypothetical door-hinge-watering man.
§ That is why centuries ago, Joseph Butler in his book Analogy of Religion to the Constitution and Course of Nature asserted that probability is the only basis of knowledge. The scientific method can only conclude that a certain average result has happened a certain number of times out of a certain number of tries and that it therefore has a certain percent likelihood of happening again given the same circumstances.
§ That’s why weather forecasts are made in terms of percentage of probability, and we all know how accurate they are!
o
Today, we have the same sort of problem from
another direction. We live in a media-saturated culture that is driven by
political power and commercial sales, such that it is hard to tell what is real
from what is spin designed to win us to a particular political leader or get us
to purchase a certain product or service. In his book, The Trouble with
Paris, Mark Sayers writes:
“Our culture has a corrosive impact on the quality of our life and faith… The
combination of a hyper-consumer culture, mass media, and rampant individualism
has created a world of hyper-reality. (p. 5) Our culture promises things that
are better than the real thing. It has overextended our expectations of life…
[For example the models you see on many magazines are so Photo-shopped that you
wouldn’t recognize the real woman if you passed her on the street.]
Hyperreality means that often we cannot tell the difference between what
advertising tells us about products, places, and people, and what they are like
in the real world. (7)... But the lifestyles we see on T.V. are not
real… We are entrusting the task of making our lives happy to the hands of a
corporate culture that has a vested interest in keeping us unhappy.
Advertising makes us dissatisfied so we will buy to meet the need (71)…”
However, “Since Jesus’ incarnation, God’s reality has been breaking out
into our world. We do not see it because we assess life with the wrong tools (prosperity
and satisfaction) rather than by God’s agenda. (155) Whenever we see justice,
beauty, or goodness, there is a good chance the light is shining through from
heaven. (157) If we act in the ways of the kingdom, we will see benefits
in our lives… To sin (to choose to live in a way that runs contrary to God’s reality)
is to punish ourselves, to fight against the inherent laws of the universe as
God has created them. (173) Those who choose to live according to God’s reality,
who pursue wisdom, find life.” (pg. 177)
o Just as our mind turns straight lines into crooked lines in the Poggindorf illustration, so our minds also bend and twist the truth. This is called the Noetic effect of sin.
o The Bible tells us that humans naturally “suppress the truth in unrighteousness… and exchange the truth of God for a lie” Rom 1:18 “…the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hinder the truth in unrighteousness… knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither gave thanks; but became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts unto uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves: because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever… (28) And even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up unto a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness… they that practice such things are worthy of death...
o Col 1:21-23 “ And you, being in time past alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works, He has now reconciled in the body of his flesh through death...” It took the death of Christ to pay the price of our sin and the transformation of our minds by the holy spirit to overcome the crookedness that sin made in our minds.
o 1Co 2:12-14 “Now, as for us, we received – not the spirit of the world, but rather – the Spirit, the one which [came] out of God, in order that we might know the things freely given to us by God... Now, a natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are stupidity to him. He is not even able to know because it has to be figured out spiritually.”
o
SUMMARY: Hopefully, the question raised by the
optical illusions
as well as the questions raised by other philosophers
and by the Bible itself as to the ability of people to figure out the
truth for themselves raises serious doubts in your mind as to how good you
or any other human being would be at playing god and determining reality from
falsehood. What alternative does the Bible give for our source of truth?
o You can be sure of the truth:
§ 1 John 3:19-20 “…we know that we are of the truth, and may assure our heart before Him, because if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.”
§ 1 John 5:13 “I have written these things to you, that you may know that you have eternal life, even to you that believe on the name of the Son of God.”
§ 1 John 5:20 “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, that we know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.”
o You will be a tremendous threat to those who do not wish to accept the truth and who pretend that they are still searching for the truth.
§ “All who are willing to live in a godly way in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” 2 Tim. 3:12.
§ Why? 1 Pet 4:1-5 explains, “Since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind; for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin; that you no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but rather to the will of God. For the time past may suffice to have done the desire of the Gentiles, and to have walked in lasciviousness, lusts, drunken-binges, revellings, carousings, and abominable idolatries: in which they are speaking evil of you, thinking it strange that you are not running with them into the same excess of riot – You who will give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.”
§ Mat 5:11-12 Jesus taught, “You will be blessed whenever men reproach you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be extremely glad: for great is your reward in heaven…”
o (If you believe that God is the final arbiter of truth, you can be confident, you will be persecuted, and…) The Bible will be precious to you:
§ Psalm 19:9b-11 “…The ordinances of Jehovah are true, and righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much pure gold; Sweeter also than honey and the droppings of the honeycomb. Moreover by them Your servant is warned. In keeping them there is great reward.”
§ Peter called God’s word His “great and exceedingly precious promises” 2 Pet 1:4
o The Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth:
§ John 16:13 “…when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth: for He will not speak from Himself; but whatever things He hears, these shall He speak: and He will declare to you the things that are to come.”
§ 1 John 2:27 “…the anointing [of the Holy Spirit] which you received from Him remains in you, and you need not that any one teach you; but as His anointing teaches you; concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as He taught you, remain in Him.”
o You will not merely intellectually accept the truth, but you will obey it:
§ James 2:19-20 “You believe that God is one; you’re doing well. The demons also believe and tremble, but don’t you know, vain man, that faith apart from works is barren?”
§ 1 John 1:6 “If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
§ 1 John 2:4 He who says, “I know Him, yet does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”
§ John 3:36 “He who believes on the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
o You will be blessed by the true God
§ John 8:31-32 Jesus said… “If you abide in my word, then you are truly my disciples; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
§ John 5:24 – “Truly I say to you, whoever believes in the Son of God has eternal life”
§ Eph 1:13 “…having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed in Him [Christ] you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.”
I have a bit more to say about epistemology, but as we have looked at the contrast between having man define truth or having God define truth, let me repeat the words of Joshua: “Choose this day whom you will serve.” Whom do you want to define reality for you? Yourself/Man, or God? Trust God, learn what the Bible says, obey it, endure the persecution, and receive Jesus’ extravagant blessings of confidence, personal presence through His Spirit, freedom, and eternal life.
Flying by instruments – story from Grandpa Amos’ life:
o My mother’s father was named Amos, and he loved to fly airplanes. When he got drafted into the Air Force in World War 2, he entered flight training, but on his very first training flight, the instructor saw that even though Amos was just a buck private, he already knew how to fly, so he awarded Grandpa Amos his wings right away.
o Amos’ older brother Joe had gone through ROTC, so when the war started, he was a captain, and he was able to look out for his little brother. After Amos got his wings, Joe told him to do whatever it took to get flight instrument training, so Amos went to flight instrument school and learned all he could about flying using the instruments on the dashboard of a plane, including the altimeter, which tells you how high you are off the ground, the compass that tells you what direction you’re pointed, and the attitude indicator that tells you what direction you are tilted.
o Amos learned to fly by his instruments, rather than by sight or feel, and that saved his life on multiple occasions:
§ One time he had to do a cross-country flight from California to the East Coast with three other airplanes and pilots. The fleet hit a storm over the Sierras, and one pilot crashed and died. The other two turned around rather than try to fly through the storm, but Amos made it through because he knew how to fly by his instruments.
§ Another time he was flying a C-47 cargo plane across Australia. He was carrying some soldiers to where they were supposed to go, and he also had the engines of two Japanese fighter planes loaded in the back of his plane for allied technicians at his destination to analyze for strategic weaknesses in combat. His plane encountered a gigantic thunderhead cloud that was over 60,000 feet high and spread left to right as far as the eye could see. The only thing he could do to fulfill his mission was to fly through it. It made for a wild ride. There were times, he said, when he had the stick all the way back but he was still falling 2,000 feet per minute, and other times that storm would be throwing him upwards at 2,000 feet per minute, and that was with the stick all the way forward to keep the nose down. It was incredible the beating their plane took in that storm. Windows popped out of the plane and rivets on the plane’s skin burst, and there was no way humanly to keep track of what was happening to the plane except to trust what the instruments were saying, because that much motion can totally disorient our brains. The soldiers in the back of the plane were saying their prayers because they thought for sure that they would die. But Grandpa Amos knew where he was and knew how to control that plane because he knew how to follow what the instruments said, and he made it safely to his destination.
o We are all like pilots in this life. We are all trying to fly through life in this world, and we have the choice: Will we fly by the instruments God has provided, or will we trust ourselves or some other person to get our bearings on what is true and what is false?
o The epistemological question “What is the truth?” is the foundational question upon which all the rest of our worldview is based. If you get this one wrong, everything else you believe will be wrong too.
o
For instance, if you believe that truth is
established by the scientific method, you will never believe in the
resurrection of the dead, because scientists have never duplicated the
resurrection in a lab.
If however, you believe that God is the source of all truth and that He communicated
to us in the Holy Bible truths like, “Christ has been raised from the dead, the
first fruits of those who are asleep [in death]… for as in Adam all die, so
also in Christ all will be made alive,” (I Cor. 15:20-21) then you will assume
that Jesus was raised from the dead and that you will be resurrected too in
time to come; and it won’t make a lick of difference how many scientists tell
you that you’re wrong.
o In the first half of this study, we looked at some of the differences between trusting man to define reality, and trusting God to define reality. Let’s review them using a chart that one of my seminary professors, the late Dr. John Robbins, shared in his apologetics classes:
o On the left column is the Rationalists who assume that the mind of man is perfect enough to be able to determine, by means of reason and logic, what is true and what is false.
§ They would say we know something to be true because we can logically prove that it is true.
§ The rationalist position answers the question “What is truth?” by saying that human thinking can determine truth from falsehood, which, by the way, denies the fallenness of mankind and also makes faith optional.
o The Empiricists in the next column to the right are the scientists.
§ The esoteric philosophical proofs of Rationalist thought is just mumbo-jumbo to the empiricists.
§ Thomas Aquinas actually wrote that the existence of God can be proved empirically and that God revealed Himself in the Bible simply for those who are too “stupid,” “busy,” or “lazy” to figure it out for themselves.
§ The Empiricists say that the way we can really tell whether something is true or not is to look and smell and touch and listen to it, and decide for ourselves.
§ Thus truth is defined by sensory perception through the scientific method, and once again, truth is determined by man, this time not by his philosophical thinking but through what we see and hear and touch. By the way, this places all spiritual realities which cannot be seen with the human eye now into the realm of falsehood, or, at best, into the realm of un-know-ablility.
o “Not so,” says the Scripturalist in the next column. “The purpose of the senses,” said Augustine, “is to protect the body, not to take in truth.” Our minds are too bent by sin to figure straight.
§ John Calvin once wrote, “It is foolish to attempt to prove scripture as the word of God.” What he meant is that, if God is the one who defines truth, then there is no higher authority (such as human logic or sensory perception) to which we can appeal to establish whether or not God’s claims are true, therefore, we must simply accept the Bible as true and reason forward from there.
§ That is why, for instance, the Westminster Confession of Faith starts with a paragraph on the Scriptures rather than starting with a paragraph on God. It says, “The authority of the holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed and obeyed, depends not upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God the author thereof, and therefore it is to be received because it is the Word of God.”
o “Oh, good grief,” say the Irrationalists, “Nothing can be proved empirically, and no authority should be trusted implicitly…
§ There is absolutely no such thing as an absolute truth, and it’s o.k. if somebody else’s truth contradicts yours.”
§ Karl Barth taught, for example, that when the ancient Hebrews emigrated from Egypt, they felt they had experienced a miracle, so they wrote in the Bible a mythical history (gesichte) about a miraculous parting of the Red Sea. As far as they were concerned, it was true – in a religious sense, even though we know from science today that miracles cannot happen.
§ Similarly, we can decide that Jesus means so much to us that we can say that He died and rose from the dead to give us life, and thus it becomes true to us even though science has proved that nobody ever actually rises from the dead.
§ Every person in this Irrational worldview must therefore decide what is true based upon his or her own feelings. How many times have you heard the phrase, “Look deep inside and you will know...”
§ Once again, this places the authority to determine truth from falsehood with a human being.
§ This radical individualism and rebellion against God’s authority to determine truth, has resulted in the millions of conflicting opinions about truth that we see today in our culture.
Robbins’ Epistemology Comparison Chart
|
TOPIC |
RATIONALISM |
EMPIRICISM |
SCRIPTURALISM |
IRRATIONALISM |
|
Axiom |
Logic alone |
All knowledge comes through the senses |
All knowledge of the truth comes through the Bible |
Truth is unknowable or unimportant |
|
Source of truth |
Logic |
Human sensation |
Propositional Revelation |
Feelings |
|
Truth |
Objective |
Objective |
Objective |
Subjective |
|
Method of proof |
Deduction |
Induction and deduction |
Deduction |
No proof possible or necessary |
|
Christian Proponents |
Anselm |
Thomas Aquinas |
John Calvin |
Søren Kierkegaard |
|
Existence of God proved by: |
Logic alone |
Experience and sensory perception |
Statements from the Bible |
Feelings |
|
Scriptures proved by: |
Logical consistency |
Archaeology |
Assumed, not proven |
Irrelevant; assumed to have errors |
|
Relationship of faith and reason |
Reason without faith |
Reason plus faith |
Faith plus reason |
Faith without reason |
1. Do you see how it comes down to man or God?
2. Do you also see how Christians are not always consistent when it comes to epistemology? Most Christians attempt to live with some truth from human sources and some truth from God.
What does the Bible have to say about this?
o The book of Job teaches that man does not have ultimate knowledge; only God does. Job 38:1 Jehovah answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now gird up your loins like a man, for I will make a demand of you that declare to me: Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you know. Who determined its measures, do you know? … 18) Have you comprehended the earth in its breadth? Declare, if you know it all… 32) Can you lead forth the constellations in their season? … 36) Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who hath given understanding to the mind? … 40:8) And will you annul my judgment? Will you condemn me, that you may be justified? …” 40:3) Then Job answered Jehovah, and said, “Behold, I am of little account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand upon my mouth.”
o The Psalmists also are emphatic that truth comes from God as revealed in His word:
§ Psalm 19:7-9 “The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring the soul: The testimony of Jehovah is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of Jehovah are right, rejoicing the heart: The commandment of Jehovah is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of Jehovah is clean, enduring for ever: The ordinances of Jehovah are true, and righteous altogether.”
§ Psalm 119:65 “You have dealt well with your servant, O Jehovah, according to Your word. Teach me good judgment and knowledge; For I have believed in your commandments. Before I was afflicted I went astray; But now I observe your word…” Where do we learn knowledge and truth? From God’s word!
§ God’s word can even make you smarter than your professors: Psalm 119:97 “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are always with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation… Through Your precepts I get understanding: Therefore I hate every false way.”
o Proverbs reveals God as the source of truth in wisdom and understanding:
§ Prov. 2:6 “Jehovah gives wisdom; out of His mouth comes knowledge and understanding:”
§ Prov 3:5-6 “Trust in Jehovah with all your heart, and lean not upon your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.”
o Isaiah and the other prophets also speak of God as the source of truth:
§ Isa 8:19-20 “when they shall say to you, ‘Seek after the mediums and to the wizards, the ones who chirp and mutter. Should not a people seek after their God – to the living instead of to the dead? To the instruction and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, then that one has no dawn.” In other words, don’t go to men for advice, go to God’s word! What happens if you look for the light of truth from man?
§ Isa 50:10-11 “Who among you fears Jehovah, listening to the voice of His Servant? Whoever walked dark places and there was no brightness for him, let him trust in the name of Jehovah and lean into his God. Look, all you kindlers of fire who are clasping firebrands, walk in the light of your fire and with the firebrands you burned. This happened to you from my hand: you will lie down for anguish.”
§ Jer 29:21-23 Jehovah-God says, “I am the one who knows… I did not dictate false words.”
o When we get to the New Testament, the message is the same:
§ Acts 15:7-8 – God is the one who “knows the heart”,
§ and a new name for God is introduced: Jesus.
§ Paul calls the good news of Jesus Christ the “word of truth” (Col 1:5),
§ and asserts that the church of Jesus Christ is “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim 3:15).
o One-third of the instances of the word “true” in the ESV Bible are found in the Apostle John’s writings:
§ In John 8:43ff, Jesus asked, “…I tell the truth, will you not believe me?”
§ In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth the life…”
§ “This witness is true” wrote John in 19:35.
§ God the Father is called “the one who is true” in 1 John 5:20: “we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, that we know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.”
§ Then, in the book of Revelation Jesus is called the one who is true: “I saw the heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He that sat on it called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He judges and makes war.” (Rev. 3:7, 19:11)
§ The words of the Bible are also called the truth in John 17, and the holy scriptures are called, “faithful and true” in Rev. 21:5 & 22:6.
o There is an organic unity between God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Bible. This is not to say that they are all the same thing, but that they speak the truth and define reality in a unified way.
o “let God be found true, though every man be found a liar” ~Apostle Paul, Romans 3:4
o “All proceeds from Scripture” ~John Wycliffe
o Martin Luther “Scripture alone is the schriftprinzip – the true master of all teaching. Whoever does not consult the scripture will know nothing. Whatever is not from scripture is of the devil.”
o “The Word of God is given to us in order to enable us to see ourselves. When we examine our own hearts, there is much we cannot see. That is why introspection is not the route to self-knowledge, but to confusion. The study of God’s word is the only proper way to come to a proper understanding of ourselves.” ~Douglas Wilson, Federal Husband, p.29
1 Thess. 2:13 “…we praise God without ceasing, because, when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you received it – not as the word of men, but – as it is, in truth, the word of God, which works effectively in you also who believe.”
o It extends to our appetites:
§ Adam and Eve judged the fruit based on sensory perception and human reason. They decided to reject God’s warning and eat the fruit because it looked good.
§ Jesus, on the other hand, answered the temptation of turning stones to bread by trusting God’s word and quoting it, “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
§ Will you seek to fill your appetites – whether your appetite for food or sex or attention or sleep – based on the appeal of the things in this world, or will you accept God’s word as your reality-defining authority for what is good for you?
o Accepting God’s word as the source of truth will influence how you answer questions:
§ Pontius Pilate was stumped over what to do with Jesus: he found no crime in Jesus, but his subjects wanted Jesus killed. What to do? Instead of hearing the word of God from his wife, he held a vote and let the majority kill Jesus. He trusted democracy rather than revelation.
§ However, when Jesus was presented with a dilemma in Matthew 22, having been asked a stumper of a question on divorce and remarriage and the after life, He quoted scripture and answered with God’s authority.
§ Will you quote popular people and statistics and abdicate your role as a discipler, or will you pray for God’s help and use scripture to answer questions?
o This also applies to what you value and what motivates you:
§
In Matthew 23:16, Jesus upbraided the Pharisees when
they said that they were not obligated to fulfill a promise if they merely
swore by the temple to do something; they claimed they were only
obligated if they swore by the gold in the temple.
“Which is greater,” asked Jesus, “the gold, or the temple that makes the gold
holy?”
§ Would Jesus be able to point out similar foolishness in you? Are you more motivated by your boss saying you have to be at work at a certain time, than you are to meet with God in the morning? Which boss do you value most?
1. The world
a. In his passion of St. Matthew, the great composer, Johan Sebastian Bach wrote the following poetry which translates into English roughly as follows: “The crafty world would fain devise/By false reports and secret lies/ Wherewith it might ensnare me. / Lord show Your power / In danger’s hour / And sure escape prepare me.”
b. The world – that is every person around us, together with the institutions they have developed – puts pressure on us to let them define reality for us.
i. Educators assess what the world needs and try to provide a set of information and training in a set of skills to meet those needs.
ii. Businesses revolve around a quest to position their product or service as the answer to people’s problems.
iii. Political leaders and non-profit leaders are seeking to get people to believe in a certain way of thinking about issues and a certain way of responding to those issues.
c. We must recognize that the truth does not come from the world of men; therefore we must evaluate every claim made by those educators and salesmen and political leaders and news pundits by asking, “What does the Bible say about this?”
i. Perhaps you will see an advertisement that a Snickers bar will really satisfy you. What does the Bible say?
o Isa 55:2 To what [purpose] do y’all weigh out silver for non-bread, and your labor with dissatisfaction? Listen carefully to me…”
o Jer 31:14 “…my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, says Jehovah.”
o If you need quick energy to do God’s will, that’s one thing, but satisfaction does not come from a candy bar.
ii. Say you want to watch a movie on TV. Will it paint an accurate picture of reality? Even PBS has admitted that:
o while a television cop is likely to draw his or her weapon at least once per episode, and shoot it more than once per season, most real police officers will never use a gun in the line of duty.
o Furthermore, only about 3 percent of characters on TV are over 65, whereas in the U.S. population, it’s more like 12%.
o
And have you noticed how 60 percent of TV
characters work as professionals or executives? That’s way out of sync with the
actual 25 percent.
(Source: http://pbskids.org/dontbuyit)
iii. The news is not much better.
o Of the hundreds of billions of things that happen in a single day, only a dozen or so are written up as headlines.
o The stories that survived the cuts are going to be the ones which support the worldview of the majority religion of our country, Secular Humanism, not Christianity.
o When you read the Bible, you see the advance of the kingdom of God into the hearts of people as the main theme, but I fail to see any such thing when I look at the news.
o I did, however find the following in the top local story on the CNN website: “[when] the human spirit becomes tested. It is then that one comes to know the power within as they fend for themselves. It is then that a community must join together to save itself.”
o What does the Bible say? Isa 45:22 “Turn to me and be saved, all ends of earth! For I am God and there is not another.”
iv. What if you’re not sure about the truth of something? James 1:5 says, “…if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and does not scold; and it shall be given...” Just pray and ask God!
d. Finally, regarding the influence of the world, realize that influence
can work both ways.
Will you teach God’s truth to the world rather than looking to them
for truth?
i. Will you stand alone on the word of God even if everyone else says you are misguided?
ii. Zec 8:16 “every one of you must… speak the truth with his neighbor; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates.” You can create in your gates – your home or office a culture based on God’s truth.
iii. Eph 4:14 “Let us no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error; 15) but speaking truth in love, let us grow up in all things into Him, who is the head, even Christ”
iv. We can be an influence on the world rather than letting it define our reality.
2. The flesh (Competitor #2 against God for truth):
a. We must also fight the tendency to let our flesh define reality.
b. We’ve already seen in Romans 1 that we have a natural tendency to “Worship the creature rather than Creator”:
i. How often do we try to make ourselves look good so that people will think better of us rather than trying to figure out how to get people to think about how good God is?
ii. How often do we think about the physical attractiveness of a member of the opposite sex rather than thinking about their eternal destiny?
iii. How often do we consider the entertainment value of a new technology instead of its potential for spreading the gospel?
c. Simply because something appeals to your senses does not mean it is
good for you. Your reality is defined by God, not by yourself, so we must
appeal to the master of reality, God Himself, rather than to our senses to
determine whether or not that thing is part of His reality or whether it is
part of the hollow deception that people create (out of rebellion to God) as an
alternative to His satisfying reality.
The Apostle Peter makes a strong appeal in his first letter about this very
thing:
i. 1 Pet 2:11 “Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul…”
ii. 1 Pet 4:2 “no longer live the rest of your time in flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.”
d. What can we do to keep from being deceived by our own flesh?
i. Trust in God and His word: Jer 17:7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in Jehovah, and whose trust is Jehovah, for he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, that spreads out its roots by the river… and he will not cease from yielding fruit. 9) The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?”
ii. Hold yourself accountable to other Christians: Heb 3:13 “…exhort one another day by day, as long as it is called ‘to-day,’ lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”
3. The devil (Competitor #3 for truth against God)
a. In Rev. 12:9, Satan is called “the deceiver” – that is his nature.
b. Jesus told us that “…the devil… 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 of his own, for he is a liar, and the father of such.” (John 8:44)
c. From the beginning, the Devil has been telling lies to mankind to get them to rebel against God. When he appeared to Eve and said, “You will not die,” he was tempting Eve to use her own judgment rather than trust God’s judgment regarding that fruit.
d. Even today, Satan plants untrue – or partially-true – ideas in our heads:
i. In Matt. 16:21ff, Jesus identified some words that Peter said, as coming from Satan. He said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan…”
ii. The idea of suicide is typical of Satan. He lives to “steal, kill and destroy” (John 10:10), so he plants the idea in your mind of killing yourself.
e. Such evil thoughts will come as long as the devil is at large, so our response must be to “resist him”
i. 1 Pet. 5:8-9 “Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9) Resist him, steadfast in your faith...”
ii. Martin Luther is said to have once quipped, “You can’t stop the birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest on your head!”
iii. Respond to false ideas by remembering the truth of God’s word and obeying God.
o
Let me tell you another story about my Grandpa Amos
that also relates to the importance of following the truth rather than lies.
One mission that he had was to fly supplies from the U.S. over to England, but
the way they had to do this was to follow the coast of South America then chart
over to Ascension Island and across the Atlantic to West Africa, then up the
African coast and up over France and into England.
Well, Grandpa Amos had a crack navigator named Johnny Spain, who had been
a navigation trainer for PanAmerican airlines. Johnny knew his maps and how to
fly by the instruments too, so after hundreds of miles he was able to chart
Grandpa Amos’ course so that they hit the little four mile square island of
Ascension dead on.
When they got up to France, they had been instructed to make radio contact
with Allied radio stations situated along the length of France to navigate them
across the country. They had a password to give, and the radio stations in
France had another password to reply, and the passwords changed every hour.
When they got over France, they gave the password over the radio and got a
reply with the proper password saying that they had drifted way to the west and
that they needed to adjust their course and go East. Johnny Spain couldn’t
believe that he had navigated so far off course. Grandpa Amos decided to trust
Johnny and his maps instead of trusting the men at the radio station, so he
kept on his original course.
An hour later, he tried again to establish radio contact. He gave the
password, and the radio station answered with the right password for that hour
and then repeated the message that they were too far off course to the West.
Just then, another radio station crackled onto the air. The new radio station
told them that they were right on course and doing fine. Later they found out
that the Germans had set up radio stations in France in order to lure Allied
pilots off course into position to be shot down with anti-aircraft guns! How
glad Grandpa was that he had trusted his navigator and the maps instead of the
German radio stations that were giving him false information to lure him to his
death.
o We are all like pilots in this life. We are all trying to fly through life in this world, and we have the choice: Will we fly by the instruments God has provided, or will we trust ourselves or some other person to decide what is true and what is false?
o Christians have the Holy Spirit inside us to help us navigate, and we have the map of God’s word, but most people around us are not flying by the instruments; they are living according to what they see and feel.
o Our crooked, sin-filled minds are so naturally rebellious to God that we would rather fly by the seat of our pants and make wrecks of ourselves than trust God to define reality for us. I regret to say that my Grandpa Amos did just that; he committed suicide some time after the war was all over.
o Even though the principles of truth in the Bible are easily proved true, it still takes faith to trust that the God of the Bible is the one we should trust to tell us what is true from what is false.
o Heb 11:1 Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen… 6) and without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing to Him; for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek after him… 12:1) Therefore let us also… lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily besets us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2) looking unto Jesus the Author and Perfecter of our faith...”