Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript
## Acts 26:19-29

Our focus will be on verses 24 and 25. We’ll read beginning at verse 19 through verse 29. Acts 26:19-29.

“Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision, but showed first unto them of Damascus, in Jerusalem and throughout all the coast of Judea and then to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance. For these cause the Jews caught me in the temple and went about to kill me, having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other thing than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come, that Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should show light unto the people and to the Gentiles. And as he thus spake for himself, Festus said a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself. Much learning doth make thee mad. But he said, I’m not mad, most noble Festus, but speak forth of the words of truth and soberness. For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely, for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him. For this thing was not done in a corner. Believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest. And then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. And Paul said, I would to God that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as I am except these bonds.”

Please be seated. Let us pray.

Father, we thank you for your most holy word that comes to our lives, throwing light on our darkness, causing us to cast ourselves upon your mercy and bringing illumination to our path with a command word to walk in obedience to you, to King Jesus, and the power of the Holy Spirit. We pray Lord God that you would indeed through this word that is your very breath, that is God breathed. We pray Lord God your spirit may breathe upon us bringing us to life. May we flame forward as a torch for the Lord Jesus Christ as a result of your word and go forth into this world empowered to be dispensers of your grace as we preach forth that word of the ascension of the savior king to the throne in Jesus name we pray and for the sake of his kingdom.

Amen.

Somewhere around 6,000 years ago, two men met in a field and had a little talk, a little heart-to-heart. These men were brothers. One of those brothers had words of truth and soberness. The other brother had no truth and had no soberness in him. No self-control, no moderation. One of these brothers was chosen by God, given faith, regenerated by his holy spirit and his holy grace. And that brother, I am sure, had his conversation, his walk, and his talk filled with truth and sobriety.

The other brother detested him for that. And the other brother, literally his brother, you understand, struck out and killed him. I’m talking, of course, of Cain and Abel. A discussion, a reaction, the entrance of truth and sobriety into relationship that caused one to rejoice in that truth and the other to hate it, to seek to extinguish it.

Many years later, two other brothers had conflict. Jacob and Esau. Conflict that began in the womb, continued throughout their life. Jacob, it’s often given a bum rap by churches today being a deceiver, a supplanter. He is a supplanter, but in the grace of God, it was God’s calling that Jacob should receive the blessing from the father. And the father in his perversity blessed instead or attempted to bless Esau. Although you may not see it quite as clearly, we have here another Cain and Abel.

Esau seeking to essentially extinguish the right of blessing to Jacob and Jacob in the providence of God coming back from the dead, so to speak, and moving in the context of faith. And it is in the context of Jacob and his offspring that the world will move.

Many years later, descendants of those two lines again met for a discussion. Our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, met in the presence of Herod, another Herod. And the Herodian line came forth from that ungodly line of Esau, Edom, etc. Christ wouldn’t answer Herod a word. Herod hated Christ. Herod hated the revelation of the light and truth and soberness that is the Lord Jesus. So Herod also did nothing to prevent Jesus from being killed. Indeed, he desired it himself.

And so this conversation we’ve been involved with for the last couple of months of three men really, but primarily a relationship, a conversation between two men, the Apostle Paul and another Herod, brothers, so to speak, having as all men in a sense are having the same bloodline back to our first man, Adam, but even in a more determined sense, having their relationship back to Jacob and Esau. These two brothers or cousins, whatever you want to call them, meet again and they discuss things again. One of them, the Apostle Paul, who operates in the power and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ speaks to another Herod. And this time there is much word given out. Much truth and soberness and light is shed into the issue. But Herod doesn’t repent for his evilness. So Herod moves in terms of death and damnation once more.

That’s a fascinating conversation. Now we have a third party involved in this one. We don’t just have two men. We have other people around. We have three particular participants. But primarily we have a discussion between Paul and Herod and there’s Agrippa with them. Herod Agrippa of course has along with him Festus, representative of the Roman culture. Festus thinks this is an internal squabble between the family members here, so to speak, a matter that doesn’t really concern him too much.

But as the Apostle Paul works in the power and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit and speaks forth our Savior’s words which are truth and soberness and as he sheds forth light as he speaks of the threefold repentance. He talks about this not just in the context of this family feud going on in Israel. He says that he’s been commissioned not just to shine light and to talk about the need to repent and to turn to God and do works meet for repentance, not just to the Jews, but to the Gentiles, to the Greeks, to all men everywhere.

And Paul speaks forth his word. Then the voice of Paul shines forth and depicts the darkness not just of Herod Agrippa but also depicts the darkness of Festus. So when Paul asserts for the second or third time in the context of the conversation that this light is unto the people—the family squabble so to speak—but also to the Gentiles, the arrow pierces through to the throne so to speak of the Roman Empire and there is reaction from Festus and he says with a loud voice. This is not some sort of a dialogue. He is startled by this conviction of sin that God brings to him, I believe. And he shouts forth with a loud voice, “Paul. You are beside yourself. You’re mad. You’re insane. You’re a maniac.”

The word mania is what’s used here. Much learning doth make thee a maniac. So this reaction sounds forth.

Scriptures tell us in 1 Corinthians 1, why don’t you turn there for a minute? We know, of course, that the word of God is spiritually discerned. That the carnal man cannot comprehend it. Festus can’t get it. He will never get it because the grace of God doesn’t enliven him. It doesn’t regenerate him and bring him to faith. So we’re told in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 22: “The Jews require a sign. The Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness.”

Well, here we are. Here we have Paul preaching Christ crucified and resurrected. And this proves to the Jews to be a stumbling block. Herod will trip and stumble. Herod will say, “I’m going to be part of this lowclass rabble Christianity that you guys are part of? No way. I’m a prideful man. I’m the chosen of God. I’m the king of Israel here. King of the Jews. Prideful man of upper class.” And the preaching of the gospel, Christ crucified, is foolishness to this Greek man that stands there before Paul. It’s foolishness. It’s mania. It’s insanity. And it’s insanity that he is tired of hearing because it’s now beginning to prick his conscience.

Paul speaks forth the words of truth and soberness. And this particular man, Festus, responds by saying it is words of maniacal ravings.

Now, it’s interesting that we have here this as I mentioned longstanding discussion between the two seeds—Jacob and Esau, Cain and Abel, Jesus and Herod—seed of the serpent and seed of the woman here are seen in conflict and in battle and the battles being waged by the seed of righteousness through the word of the Lord Jesus Christ, through voice, through message. Now it’s interesting to me because Paul—well, he was the other brother, wasn’t he? He wasn’t raised a good godly boy. He was raised a boy who persecuted the church of Jesus Christ who was maniacal. Same word—mania—earlier in the text used to describe his ravings against Jesus Christ and against the church.

Paul makes confession in the context of his warfare that of himself he’s Cain. He killed righteous Abels. He persecuted the righteous Jesus Christ. He’s Esau. He sought to extinguish the blessings of the true Jacob, the Lord Jesus, and all those Jacobs who are also covenantally in the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul isn’t Jacob, he’s Esau. Paul isn’t Abel, he’s Cain. Paul isn’t Jesus, he’s Herod. But Paul has been brought by the sovereign grace of God to be transformed and translated now into Abel and into Jacob and into the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is in the person of Christ and with his truth that he speaks forth.

Our Savior told us a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. He said that if Satan is warring against himself, that kingdom can’t stand. But see here we have the great demonstration to this ruler of Rome and the ruler of the Jews and the great demonstration to us that Satan’s empire has been destroyed. We see Cain, Esau, and Herod now become the promised son, Abel, Jacob, and Jesus. Because Paul has been converted by the sovereign grace of God.

Paul is a picture of the world lost in sin, of the loss of righteousness through personal sin and through the imputed sin of covenantal wickedness of the father, Adam. Paul’s a picture of that. And Paul is a picture of the conversion of the entire world. See, a kingdom divided against itself can’t stand. Paul has been transformed and translated. So he’s a picture to us that what’s going to happen here no matter what the reaction of these two men is that history will move in relationship to the righteous seed. Abel while dead spoke from the grave. And it was the line of Abel that retained blessing from God. And Abel was resurrected so to speak in his lineage of those who are faithful to God.

And so the world moves in terms of the righteous. And how does this happen? How does Satan’s kingdom become divided and despoiled and removed from victory? It happens through what this text is telling us. It happens through the exhortation of the Apostle Paul. It happens through the speaking forth of the word of truth. That’s how things change. Not by some big physical armaments going on. Not ultimately by the return of the Lord Jesus, as important as that is to us, but by the gospel, the preaching forth of the good news of the ascension of Christ to the throne. It is the voice of Jesus. It’s the voice of Abel, the voice of Jacob, the voice of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ that wins men, that is the sharp two-edged sword. It’s the word of truth.

So, if we’re going to want to see around us the translation of a wicked world into a righteous world, we must be that voice that speaks forth the word of truth.

Now, our Savior didn’t just speak with Herod or have a meeting with him. He also spoke with Pilate before his crucifixion. And Jesus said that he was involved with those who follow the truth and Pilate’s response to that is: “What is truth?”

What is truth in the context of our day and age today? Well, truth is very important and I want us before we get to a discussion of Pilate’s reaction to that saying of our Lord and Savior to give a brief overview according to the scripture of what this text implies to us.

Let’s first of all understand what we’re talking about here. I’ll try to give a brief introduction to it and then after we do that, we’ll talk a little bit more about Pilate’s question to our Savior and then we’ll talk about a brief biblical overview of what truth and what soberness is. Paul says that he speaks words of truth and soberness here. And so we’re going to look at those and then we’ll conclude by looking at the relevance of truth to our particular situation today and to our culture.

Now, as I said, the scriptures tell us that the carnal cannot perceive the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. Festus demonstrates his unregenerate heart by crying out against Paul. “Paul, you’re crazy. All this study has made you crazy.”

I want to read a quote from the great Lutheran commentator Lensky on this particular portion of scripture. It’s really quite good in summing up the reaction of Festus:

“This Roman pagan had evidently never read the Greek Old Testament. And all the things said about Jesus the Nazarene—dead, risen to glory, appearing to Paul in divine light and commissioning him to proclaim light, repentance, etc.—was utterly beyond him. This was a new world that startled and crashed into all his old pagan conceptions with the voice loud and the text emphatically tells us that this loudness of voice betrays the tension of Festus. He shouts ‘thou ravest Paul.’ This shout is neither anger nor resentment. It is self-defense, a thrust to remove all that Paul was saying. In this respect, it was like the words of the fools at Pentecost who called the apostles and believers drunk.

“If Paul is just raving, if his mind is unbalanced, that excuses Festus. He may brush aside all that Paul says. Then it’s a helpless, pitiful, foolish self-defense. The only thing this Roman can think of to thrust Paul’s words aside. Moreover, Festus’ word is not sincere. If he really thought Paul unbalanced mentally, he would not shout at him. He would smile in pity and try to catch Agrippa with a significant look, a gesture, or a whisper. And if Paul indeed was crazy, the case would automatically end despite Paul’s appeal to Caesar. No governor would send a lunatic to the emperor’s court. Festus is pierced through. He feels the heat, the light coming upon him, and he tries to thrust it aside by shouting at Paul that he is crazy and he is a mad man.”

The word mania, as I said, is the Greek word here that’s used of Paul. That’s interesting, by the way, that our Savior was called a maniac, too. Paul’s in good company, because the Jews said over and over again that this Jesus—he’s maniacal. Same word. He’s crazy. He’s got a demon in him. As a result, you got to watch out for that guy. Even Jesus’s friends, we are told in Mark 3:21, “When his friends heard of it they went out to lay hold on him for they said he is beside himself.” It’s the same word—he’s a maniac, crazy, doesn’t have soundness of mind.

Actually, that may not be the same Greek word, but that’s the same intent. So our Savior is really again being accused in the person of Paul of being beside himself. Never forget that it was the friends of our Savior who also said that he was out of his right mind.

Paul, as I said earlier, had said that he was a maniac for a while when he used to persecute the church. But now sanity had come to him. That’s the way it is, you see. Sanity has to do with the definition of reality. And the word that rejects the one who is reality himself—as we’ll see when we get to this understanding of the definition of truth—rejects reality itself, essentially. It holds on to reality for a time as it moves more self-consciously in its rejection of the God of reality. When it finally comes to a realization of what it’s done, it rejects all reality.

All unregenerate men are insane. They deny reality. Only regenerate men are sane because they submit to the reality of the Creator God and of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

So Paul is called a maniac here. Now Paul doesn’t respond the way we probably would in our flesh all too often. Paul responds in a very different style from Festus. Festus with a loud voice crying out, “You’re a maniac.” Paul very calmly and collectedly answers and he says, “Most excellent Festus, on the contrary, I’m speaking forth utterances of truth and sanity.”

Again, to quote Lensky: “Without speaking in a loud voice, with perfect composure, and telling clarity, Paul promptly answers this accusation by Festus. Paul’s response is one of sobriety, soberness, control, self-restraint. It’s one of truth. He directs him back to the fact that he’s not crazy. He’s very calm, and he does it in such a way as to try to minister as much grace as possible to this authority that Paul recognized a sovereign God had placed over him. He doesn’t say, ‘Well, you’ve given up all right to rule since you’re persecuting me a Christian and you’re calling me a nut and everything. Who are you, you idiot judge?’ He doesn’t do that. He says, ‘Most excellent Festus, most noble Festus.’ He approaches him with respect and honor because he represents God and his rule and authority.

“There’s no reason to get all upset on the part of Paul. He believes in what he’s saying. He’s got a firm, rude conviction that the God of scripture—he’s the one that directs history. He’s the one that’s moved Paul sovereignly to salvation and he can rely upon him. He can count upon him and he doesn’t have to get involved in a lot of his own self-defense here. He’s defending the word of God, not himself as a person. And so Paul answers in this very calm and measured way.

Calvin by way of application of some of these truths said the following: “At this day many fly from the word of God lest they drown themselves in a labyrinth”—speaking of Festus and his flying from the word of God. “They think that we be mad because we move questions concerning hidden matters and so become troublesome both to ourselves and also to others. Wherefore being admonished by this example—this is really interesting, the application Calvin makes—let us beg of God that he will show us the light of his doctrine and that he would therewith all give us a taste thereof, lest through obscurity and hardness it become unsavory and at length proud loathsomeness break out into blasphemy.”

Calvin doesn’t just relate the application of that to the ungodly people that we’re going to speak to. He makes application of it to ourselves. As we see the obstinacy and the darkness and the inability of Festus to respond in truth except for the grace of God, he says: “Let us also then pray that God would have mercy on us that when we hear his word preached, that when we read his word and then of course speak it to others, we would do so not in blindness but in light, that we wouldn’t ultimately break forth also into blasphemy against that very word.”

You know I’ve been involved in the last 10, 12, 13 years in several disciplinary cases and I can tell you that the men who have been involved directly—as you watch what happens as people are hardened by God and turned over to spirits of delusion, etc.—you know that the end result is you’re praying to God that you not become so hardened in sin. You probably know of cases. You know of men probably who’ve been pastors or elders, whatever it is, and take an example where it’s obvious to all their sin going on. Perhaps he runs off with another woman or something. I don’t know if you’ve ever encountered that sort of situation personally. I have. And it is a frightening thing to see the darkness and stubbornness that men can step over into seemingly so easily. And it should cause all of us to pray as Calvin said we should pray that God would not allow us to become stubborn in our response to his word, but remain pliable and soft.

It’s the grace of God that enables that to happen. It’s not a matter of will on our part. Now will is involved. We’ve got to work and work hard to do what’s right. We need to pray for the grace of God that we not become stubborn when people come to us about truths of scripture.

Paul’s response, as I said, was very gentle to Festus. He told him words already that convicted him. He knew that. He knew that he was not trying to curry favor here with Festus. But his response is one of asserting the excellency of the governor and telling him that indeed what he must focus on is the fact that Paul’s words are words of truth and soberness.

Again, here Calvin makes application to our lives. Let’s see. He said, “Paul doth indeed refute Festus’s error. Yet we may gather by this which is the best manner of teaching—that it is that which is not only clean from all fallacies and deceit. So you don’t want to engage in stuff that isn’t a matter of piety and self-control and soberness. You don’t want to engage in deceit. But also does not make the minds of men drunk with vain questions and does not nourish foolish curiosity, nor an intemperate desire to know more than is meet, but is moderate and good for sound edification.”

Paul didn’t get off into side issues, is what he’s saying. And again, if you’ve worked with people—your children, friends, whatever it is—in a counseling situation, people want to go off into side issues and want to start pushing, “Where’s the biblical text for this, that, and the other thing?” You bring the word of God to people, you bring it to bear in their lives. And when they say, “Hey, you’re mad,” Paul doesn’t engage in a great lengthy conversation about what madness is. He said, “No, I’m speaking words of truth and sobriety.”

Agrippa here knows what I’m talking about. These things weren’t done in a corner. Everything’s clear here, isn’t it? He says, “Festus, you know about Jesus? What are you trying to imagine you don’t know about Jesus?” Now, surely Agrippa does. He’s been around. He’s been ruling this people when all this stuff’s been going on. Lord Jesus has come. He raised from the dead. A lot of people saw him. You know this, and you know, Agrippa. You’ve heard undoubtedly intelligence reports about me. You know I was a strict Pharisee. Now I’m not. Don’t tell me I’m speaking untruths here beyond self-control. These things weren’t done in a corner. You know that something is up.

Paul is saying, and I’m giving you the interpretation to what’s going on here. Well, that interpretation is important.

The Lord Jesus, as I said, said much about or at least made a very pointed reference to truth to Pilate. And as I said, Festus’ reaction is kind of like Pilate’s, maybe not quite as overt. But Pilate said, “What’s truth?” Pilate, you know, what did he mean by that? What is the relationship of truth to the particular culture at which Pilate and Festus and Paul lived and then to our culture as well? There’s a correlation.

I was listening last night to a tape by Otto Scott given at a Reconstruction conference a number of years ago and he spoke on the loss of truth in our culture. And he spoke about this phrase “What is truth?” uttered by Pilate to our Savior. And he said that, you know, they lived in a day and age when the Roman truths, the Roman gods had become completely irrelevant to these rulers. They’re like kind of like our culture. They once had a form of religion, but it had basically gone away. They didn’t believe in the gods anymore. They didn’t believe in any of that stuff for the most part. What they believed in was money. What they believed in was power. What they believed in was economics and politics as we use the words today.

Nero didn’t care what truth was. His governors didn’t care what truth was. It wasn’t that he was having involving in some philosophical conversation with our Savior. He was saying truth has no relevance. Doesn’t mean a darn thing to me, is what Pilate was saying. What means something to me is that I’m governing this people and that I—for every dollar I get, 30 cents of it goes to Caesar, 30 cents goes to the state, and 30 cents goes to me. And when I’m done with this governing thing here, I’m going to go off on this nice island with my great estate and I’m going to have a good life. Truth? What’s truth got to do with me? I’m a man of power and influence and I’m gathering money and economics.

You know, the Roman governors by this time had tremendous mansions. Tremendous mansions lined their particular places of residence and vacation places. You wouldn’t believe the opulence. It was like you had a whole bunch of Bill Gates living in a long row there. That’s who these men were. They didn’t care about truth. They didn’t care about sobriety. What they cared about was money. What they cared about was power. It means nothing to me.

Shakespeare—Otto Scott quoted Shakespeare’s character Falstaff. Falstaff said, “What is that word honor? Honor. That’s all that word honor is—air.” Somebody says the word means nothing in terms of reality. And that’s what Pilate was saying: Truth means nothing. It’s just breath from you. Jesus Christ means nothing to me and it means nothing to our culture. Means everything to us. We serve the Lord Jesus Christ who he himself is the way, the truth, and the life. And so I think it should mean something to us. It obviously means something to us.

And I just want to go in a brief biblical overview of a bunch of scriptures here that relate to the doctrine of truth. And if you’re going to take notes, you have to take them fast.

Truth. Truth means stability. Truth means reality. Truth is who God is. It implies stability and steadfastness and adherence to a particular standard, faithfulness, and it means reality as well. Truth is something that is manifest. It’s not hidden. It is open. God is who God is. Because God who is, he is, we have a world of stability and steadfastness. A world that is revealed and a world that has reality to it.

The Lord Jesus Christ said that he is truth. The scriptures tell us that over and over and over again. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Truth does not just have to do with ethical truth in the sense of ethics or right and wrong, but truth has its great fullness and scope as embodied in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus is the perfect expression of what truth is. Now it has a lot of implications for our lives and I want to touch on some of those.

Now I’m going to go through several verses here but understand that truth is essentially who God is. Because truth is who God is, it is understood then as relationship to reality. It’s understood in relationship to stability and morality and it’s understood in the manifestation of all these things openly. It has to do with what is clear.

Matthew 22:16: “We know that thou art true and teachest us the way of God in truth. Neither carest thou for any man, for thou regardest not the person of man.”

Mark 5:33: “The woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, that is Jesus, and told him all the truth.”

So we see from these two verses that truth has a relationship to fear. If you fear man, you’re going to move in terms of deceit and instability and not reality. And if you fear God and his manifestation to you, as this woman did, then you’re going to move in terms of truth. And again, I don’t know if you’ve ever had a real strong sense of conviction and God about sin. I’m sure you have if you’re a believer sitting in the pew today. But I know there are times in my life when the truth of God came forth on me and conviction came and fear and trembling came before me. And I’ll tell you, words of truth come tumbling out of your mouth at that point in time. You’re going to confess sin at that point in time.

Truth about who you are and about who God is and about how you’ve sinned against God has a relationship to fear. The absence of fear of men and the presence of fear of God.

Secondly, as I said, truth is Jesus Christ. We read in John 1:14: “The word is made flesh, dwelt among us. We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”

Now, it doesn’t contrast their law and grace and truth. What it says is the law is a revelation of the person of God. The law indicates certain things about God in terms of these written formulations. But grace and truth in its ultimate sense in relationship to the revelation of the law comes in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Law is given. Jesus comes in an incarnation. And so God incarnate is truth and grace—not in opposition to the law but in a further and a great far greater revelation of what that truth is comes in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So secondly, first has to do with fear. Secondly has of course relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Third, our Savior said that they that worship God must worship the father in spirit and in truth. So when we come forth to worship, we should be worshiping in spirit and truth, manifest, stability, reality. So truth has to do with worship. And notice here we’ve already seen a couple relationships. When Paul talks about truth and soberness, here we have truth being linked to grace in the law in the gospels. And we also have truth being linked to the spirit of course who comes to reveal the truth, the Lord Jesus Christ.

John 8:40: “But now you seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth which I have heard of God. This did not Abraham.”

He goes on to say in verse 44 that you’re of your father, the devil. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there was no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he’s a liar and the father of it.

Truth is part of the antithetical nature that God has built into the universe. Those that reject truth love and grab for the lie. Those that reject truth kill those that manifest the truth. As we talked about in terms of the struggle between the two seeds, the struggle takes place in the context of truth and falsehood. And so truth has to do with the antithesis that God has placed into the world between the two seeds. They sought to kill Jesus because he told the truth. His father the devil was a liar.

And I’ve tried to tell my children one application of the biblical concept of truth is that we want to tell the truth. We don’t want to lie. And I was told by a professor years ago that when we tell lies, we’re worshiping Satan. When we tell truth, we’re worshiping God. To serve is to worship. To honor is to worship. And when we tell lies, we honor the father of lies. We worship him and serve him. And we tell lies. We tell truth. We worship God. So we are children. They shouldn’t want to worship the devil. They should want to tell truth. So truth has to do with the whole conflict that goes on throughout world history. Truth versus lies, life versus death.

When John 16:13: “Howbeit when the spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come.”

So the Holy Spirit is spoken of as the spirit of truth. Jesus is truth. The spirit is the spirit of truth. And he comes to guide us into truth to make manifest who God is. And as a result to properly understand the reality in which we walk.

In John 17:17, Jesus prays for us that God might sanctify us through his truth. His word is truth.

In John 18:37, this is where Pilate is speaking with Jesus and Jesus says: “Said unto them, to this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth hears my voice.”

So truth is of the essence of the Christian faith. The spirit who indwells us is a spirit of truth guiding us into truth. Jesus prayed that we might be sanctified and grow in grace. That sanctification is through God’s truth and he identifies that with the word. So the spirit comes to minister the word of Jesus, the word of the scriptures to us. That word is truth. And that provides the vehicle for our sanctification and growth in grace.

And those who are called and elect in the Lord Jesus Christ will indeed hear that truth and respond to it. They won’t call it crazy. Other people will call them crazy, but they’re effectually called in the context of the Lord Jesus Christ coming to speak forth that truth and then saying that those who are indeed called shall hear the truth and shall respond to it.

Truth is something that has an ethical dimension to it, of course.

Romans 1:18: “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. They suppress or hold down the truth through sinful actions and unrighteousness. They change the truth of God into a lie and worship and serve the creature more than the creator.”

Romans 2:8: “Unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, that obey unrighteousness shall come indignation and wrath.”

See, so truth has an ethical dimension. You can either walk in terms of obedience to it or you can hold it down and disobey it.

1 Corinthians 5:8: “Therefore let us keep the feast not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

Sincerity and truth. Sincerity is linked there to truth as soberness is by Paul. The spirit is linked to truth. God’s word is linked to truth. The word is truth and the grace of God is linked to truth. Okay. So grace, spirit, word, soberness, and in this context sincerity, in terms of keeping of the feast, are the corollaries to or the things that accompany the truth of God’s word. And again here sincerity and truth are contrasted with malice and wickedness, actions. And so truth obeys the word of God. Truth isn’t abstract. It isn’t just intellectual truth. It doesn’t have any relationship to what we do.

In the scriptures, truth is something that must be obeyed. If you don’t obey the truth, you don’t believe the truth. It’s not as if you believe it and don’t obey it. And so truth has a relationship to obedience.

1 John 2:4: “He that saith, I know him and keepeth not his commandments. He is a liar and the truth isn’t in him.”

See, quite clearly, if you don’t do the commandments, don’t say that you love Jesus, and don’t say that you’re of the truth. You’re of the liar. You’re doing the lies there. And so those who love truth are motivated by the spirit. They love the Lord Jesus Christ who is the perfect embodiment of what truth is and grace, but they don’t do that in isolation from his word. They keep God’s word. The word is truth that we’re being sanctified in. And the word is commandment by Jesus, and we’re to obey commandment.

Galatians 2:14: “Paul says that there were those who walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel. And he talks about Peter there and how he fell away and he sinned and when he sins he’s not walking in terms of truth.”

Galatians 3:1: “Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth.”

So truth is something that either is obeyed or not obeyed. As I said before, truth is something that isn’t just simply obeyed. Truth is something that we should rejoice in. We read in 1 Corinthians 13:6 that we’re not to rejoice in iniquity, but to rejoice in the truth. And of course, if you understand that the truth is the Lord Jesus and his word, that it’s not simply a matter of slavish obedience to him. It is a great joy in knowing King Jesus and knowing he is full of all truth and grace, the manifestation of God’s character. And so we rejoice in our relationship to him.

Truth as well is related to love.

2 Thessalonians 2:10: “Those who are disobedient are said to have not received the love of the truth. That is through the love of the truth that we are saved. And so truth is something we obey, we rejoice in and we have love for truth. And as you walk around in the world, you should hate deceitfulness. You should hate deeds of iniquity. You should hate falsehoods. And you should love truth and the manifestation of God’s truth.”

2 Thessalonians 2:12: “That they all might be damned who believe not the truth because but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Again, the relationship between belief and action. If they don’t obey that, believe the truth, then they actually participate in deeds of unrighteousness.”

All of this has relationship not just to us to relationship directly to the Lord Jesus. That is certainly true and to his word, but it has a community aspect to truth as well.

In 1 Timothy 3:15, we read this. Paul says: “If I tarry long, I want you to know how that you ought to behave yourself in the house of God, the church, the covenant community, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”

You see, you can’t have truth in isolation from the community of saints. Truth is seen in the context the obey—obedience, joy, and love of the truth is seen in the context of the covenant community.

This is also pointed out in 1 Peter 1:22: “Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit. And how is this manifested? Unto unfeigned love of the brethren, that you might love one another with a pure heart fervently.”

A love of the truth is manifested in a love for the Savior. He is the embodiment of truth. It’s manifested in a love for his word, a rejoicing in the Savior and his word, a love for the Savior and his word. And by way of application, a love for and rejoicing in the church of God, which is the pillar and ground of the truth. And that truth leads us into an unfeigned love for the brethren.

Truth is a community fact. In other words, truth is not seen in isolation. It’s not something just between you and Jesus. It’s between you and Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the church of Jesus Christ. And so when people separate themselves from the church, when they walk in contradiction to the unfeigned love for the brethren they’re supposed to have, they demonstrate once more. They’re not of the truth. They’re of the lie. They’re of the falsehood.