6.21.9 – There is ________

This summer, I’m building a pyramid to explain our faith. I think this is important because so many of us—while we have faith—have difficulty articulating it. Or even saying what’s important.

Here on the screen we have a picture of our Dumas windmills. Our faith has the capability of impacting the world around us and I’d like to think the faith of our congregation will be acted out in such a way as to impact our city.

So, we laid down the first layer of our pyramid, the all important foundation: God Is. That’s the most crucial fact of all. You know, even Jesus’s death burial and resurrection comes after this. For if his sacrifice was not in the service of his Father—if he indeed had no heavenly Father—then it’s just a strange little story. God is.

The second layer of the pyramid is this: He has spoken. God has spoken to us through the prophets. He has spoken to us through his written word that we call the Bible and he has spoken to us through his Son, his very essence. He is a personal God who has spoken personally to mankind. He has spoken.

The fact that he has spoken brings us to today’s layer of the pyramid:

There is truth.

John 18:37-38
Then Pilate said to him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice." Pilate said to him, "What is truth?" After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, "I find no guilt in him. (ESV)

I’ve been told that if you look at the original language, Pilate isn’t asking a question there. It’s more of a derogatory sneer. “What is truth!” Pilate would fit well in our modern world where most people don’t believe in absolute truth.

Remember first grade math where 2+2=4? Now, we have theoretical mathematicians who say that may not always be true. Or people who say gravity is only an illusion and certainly not a constant. Who wants to stick around and take turns helping me drop this pencil until we find the one time it doesn’t fall?

Jesus says he bears witness to the truth. In other words, there really is truth out there.

A simple definition of truth might be:

Truth is what is

Romans 2:14-15
For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them. (ESV)

You watch kids and you’ll soon learn that there are universal truths. Even the little kid who lies about everything doesn’t like being lied to. The kid who cheats doesn’t like to be cheated. Innately, they know there are things that are right and wrong. They may disobey. They may even be trained—specifically or by circumstances—to disobey, but they often live by a twisted version of the golden rule: treat me the way I should be treated. This is known as “truth through conscience” and is what led an atheist named CS Lewis to begin to believe that there was a moral law written into the universe, which he came to believe had been written by the God of the Bible.

There’s also “truth through reason.” Ever do science experiments in school where the science book knew how the experiment was going to come out? Why is that? Because science is based on the idea that there are constants in this universe (which makes little to no sense if the universe is totally random in origin).

Romans 1:19-20
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. (ESV)

Ever strike a match and it not light? Why did that happen? Sometimes it’s because we missed the sandpaper. Sometimes it’s because the match was wet. Or maybe the match was defective. There’s always a reason. We never assume it’s because the physical properties of the universe failed to engage at that moment.

Truth is Eternal

Now, there are temporary things that are true. For instance, I could tell you what’s showing at the movie theater here in town. I could tell you the truth. But they’re going to change the movie this Friday (probably), in which case I’d have to say a different movie if I were telling you what was showing.

Real truth. The truth that actually impacts our life in a positive and substantial way, is eternal. It doesn’t shift with the wind or the calendar.

But the Bible says …

Psalm 19:9b
The rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether. (ESV)

Psalm 119:151
But you are near, O LORD, and all your commandments are true. (ESV)

Think about those two verses for a minute. In English, they don’t make any sense.

Why would I say that? If I tell you, “That door over there is closed” you can tell instantly whether I am telling the truth. If it’s closed, I’m telling the truth. If it’s open, I’m not telling the truth.

But if I command you, “Close the door!” In English, that is a command and can be neither true nor false. It might be silly if the door’s already closed, but it’s not true or false.

The psalmist is praising the commandments of the Lord because they are eternal.

Why is it not a good idea to jump off the rim of Palo Duro Canyon? Gravity, right? We can use gravity and other physical forces to keep a glider aloft, but we still have to work with the rules. We can’t disobey them or just pretend they don’t exist. Let’s say the Parks Dept. puts a sign on the rim that says “No Jumping”. Was it OK to jump before the sign was put up or is the sign just an indicator of a truth that already existed?

God gave commandments to Moses. The Psalmist praises those commandments. Were the things the commandments deal with (one God, lying, coveting, etc.) all right before Moses wrote it all down, or are the commandments just a reflection of eternal truths?

We believe there is a God. We believe he has spoken. We believe there is truth and that truth is based on what God says is! God didn’t say, “Don’t commit adultery” to be a killjoy. He said it because he created the universe to work a certain way, and the human heart to work a certain way, and adultery runs counter to both. Same with murder and theft.

There’s something about God’s truth, though, that is more than just “is”.

God’s Truth Demands Action

A lot of churches have a problem with what we call doctrine because they perceive it as dry and boring. Not only that, but they see churches with a history of being spot-on with doctrine, and very articulate in expressing it, but who are doing no good in this world.

So they de-emphasized doctrine and re-emphasized feeding the hungry, caring for the homeless, etc.

You know what? We do need to do those things. Because that was part of the truth God laid out for us. In this broken world, he’s made us his agents of truth and, to carry that out, we have to do deal with the brokenness.

Without truth—without right doctrine—what we’re trying to do gets perverted. We end up trying to save people’s lives while letting their souls perish. If we don’t know the truth as God as revealed it, we’ll eventually drift away from it. Ethics—something our society is in desperate need of—have to be based on something more than the moment. How about something eternal?

Look at our world. Mankind has always had sin (and always will). But in the 18th & 19th century we saw mankind actively seek to abandon God. What happened? In the 20th century we managed to kill of more of our fellow men than in the previous 19 centuries combined. And when the blood-letting was over, rather than turn to God we have concluded that God must not be present at all.

John 14:6
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (ESV)

We may not be capable—as one little church of 40 people—of changing the world. But we can start turning things around in our little sphere of influence by returning to our foundation. By remembering (and living) that there is eternal truth, and it’s found in the person of Jesus.

What do I DO with this?
• God is
• He has Spoken
• There is truth