Coming to Know The Truth

Special music and good morning to everyone. Happy Sabbath!

We are deeply saddened with the news about Glenn Kreish, a member here in the congregation, and wonderful example, but it just highlights how, whether we like it or not, we are in the midst of a worldwide plague, and continuous waves are covering the earth with it. My wife and I are also grieving. Just a little less than a month ago, we lost our father-in-law in Santiago, Chile. He was a deacon. He was 97, but he was a hearty 97, and COVID also affected him, and so a number of congregations are going through this. But we do have 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 that always does comfort us, as we read in verse 13 of 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.

It says, but I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep. And notice here there are three times in three verses that the Bible reveals this truth. And of course, it's throughout the Bible, but here it emphasizes it three times, that you don't go up to heaven, you don't go down to hell, you don't have an immortal soul, but those who have fallen asleep, you go into unconsciousness until the time when Jesus Christ returns, and a person comes back to consciousness. So we will see him in a much better world. And maybe God is taking some of the people now because of the times that we're living in and what's going to happen in the future. He says, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. And of course, that's happening around the entire world, but we have that hope.

It says, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. Here's the second time it's repeated. You're not awake in Jesus, you're not in heaven, you are asleep, but in Jesus. This is talking about those that are going to be part of that first resurrection, which basically, you know, you won the lottery ticket of the universe if you get into the first resurrection. It's the chance to work under Jesus Christ, have him personally mentor us for a thousand years. How'd you like to have a boss like that? So that's what we have as hope. But it's not only in the future, it's also applying these principles now.

And then it says, for this we say to you, by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. Third time, how can this world be teaching in Christianity that you don't go to sleep when you die? And that's one of the great heresies that is being taught around the world by traditional Christianity.

And so we have hope and consolation. Yes, there's a grieving process, but again, we understand maybe the person like Isaiah 57, 1 and 2, it says they're taken away from a worse fate that we are not aware of, but God sees it all. And so I would like to share with you a principle of hope and consolation that has been very beneficial during these times. And it has to do with a question that we often ask. You usually don't have this in other churches, but in our church, and as we were growing up in the church as young men, one of the most fascinating questions you could ask someone, whether you met them for the first time, you're out for dinner, and you know, how did you come into the truth? How did you come into the truth? And we all intuitively knew what that was about. How were your eyes open to this truth? And sometimes it took hours to just go through and converse, and everybody would have their story. And it's always exciting during the feast as you meet new people, and you bring that up. And that concept is primarily based on 1st Timothy 2 verses 3 through 4. 1st Timothy 2 verses 3 through 4, it says, For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved, not just some, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. That's where we say, how did you come to the knowledge of the truth? We came across that truth. This means the whole package of revealed truths in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. It's coming to the knowledge of the truth.

The truth begins in Genesis, and it ends in Revelation.

And the lesson that I learned has to do with the phrase I found while studying Ephesians chapter 4 verse 15. There in Ephesians 4 verse 15 is a very important concept, very simply put, but very profound. And it says, But speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head Christ.

Focusing on speaking the truth in love. What does this mean?

We will see that this is not one of the best translations.

We also will see how this phrase can be applied in our lives and in the church.

And by the way, first of all, I'm preaching to myself. I need to apply this. I need to put this into practice every day of my life. As a matter of fact, I incorporate it into my prayer. When I ask God, please keep me from saying hurtful and damaging words, but say edifying words, speaking the truth in love. That's how I incorporate it.

So the purpose of this message is to deeply study this phrase, look at the context, look at the text, and be able to see the examples in the Bible and how we can apply them in our own lives. So let's first look at the context of the book of Ephesians.

It is one of the so-called prison epistles. It was written by Paul while in prison, probably in Rome during that period of time, about two years or more. As Acts 28 verse 30 says that he spent two years in prison, and that basically ends the book of Acts. So we don't know how much longer he spent, but he was doing his job, even in prison. This was house arrest because he was a Roman citizen, so he did have access to people coming in and out. But he still had a guard, and he was chained to it. But that didn't stop him from writing some of the most inspiring literature in human history. I put it up there. Nobody compares to the way God inspired him and the rest of the writers of the Bible. In Ephesians 3 verse 1, he says, For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles, and then he goes on to say in 4.1, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthy.

The other prison epistles besides Ephesians are Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon.

Those are the four. Now, about the content in Ephesians, you have first, basically, three chapters where Paul is reviewing God's plan of salvation. So this is important in his mind.

He wants Ephesians to understand God's plan of salvation in its different dimensions and aspects.

But then, the last three chapters, 4, 5, and 6, he goes into the practical applications of God's plan of salvation for them at that time. And Paul is quite concerned about maintaining the unity of the church, keeping everybody participating, actively working together.

And so in chapter 4, he really develops this topic. Notice in chapter 4, verses 1 through 6, he says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love. This is one of the key themes about Ephesians 4, verse 15. Yes, truth is essential, which is what he talked about, the plan of salvation. But how do we speak it? How do we express it? Well, with gentleness, lowliness of mind, not thinking of ourselves as something so important. It's a message that's important, not the messenger. We're just instruments of God.

And he goes on to say, and endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

It's an endeavor. It's a pursuit. It's not something automatic. We have to work at this.

And then going on, in verse 4, there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling. Yes, when we came into the truth, there's only one truth, and God opened our minds to it. He says, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all. So he is working actively in us. And then in verse 11, is where he brings up this truth and love principle. In verse 11, he says, and he, talking about Christ himself, gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry. And it doesn't have to do with the formal, just talking about the way they are working in the body of Christ, their part.

Now, every cell in our body has a purpose, and each one is important, as he brings out many times that if you have an eye, but you also have a foot, and everybody wants to have their eyes working, they're more important. But if you're missing a foot, you're really going to be handicapped.

So everything is important. Everybody has a role to play, is what he's saying. And then he goes on to say, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till all we all come to the unity of the faith. Again, emphasizing it's something hard to do. And of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man, which means fully spiritually mature in the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. But to counteract that, speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head Christ. He is the model. He is what we are focusing on to become more like. Now, looking at the text itself, in the Greek, it simply says, but rather truth in love. It doesn't have speaking at something added by the translators. They're struggling here to figure out, how do you express this? And different translators bring out different aspects of this same thing.

The word truth here, which has to do with alethio, alethiu, which aletheia is the noun. This is an action verb. This word is not a noun, but it means action. As the expositor's Greek dictionary brings out, it says, truthing in love, because it's an action.

It's not truth in love. That means a noun. It is talking about an active way of promoting it.

The closest I've gotten to the Greek word and trying to see what it meant, it means expressing the truth in love, because there are many ways you can express it. They are like spokes on a wheel.

You can speak it, but you also have to live it, and you have to hold on to it.

And so different translations bring this out. For instance, the New American Bible Revised Edition puts it, rather, living the truth in love. It also includes the principle of action verb again, holding on to it. It can slip from us. The Bible warns us.

Coming to the knowledge of truth, you can lose it. You can go back into the world. You can become like that sower that wallows again in the brine and whatever else is there. It means that you can have a taste for the world that you lost. And so just like the dog returns to his vomit, well, there's part of our human nature that can gravitate if we allow it to. So truth has to be held firmly. Notice in the Phillips translation it says, but we are meant to hold firmly to the truth in love. So we need to live it, hold on to it, and also speak it.

In Vincent's word studies, it adds, here, the idea is rather that of being or walking in truth.

It's another concept, following the truth, a path that you're following. You can get sidetracked.

And so here are two great principles. In the sermonette, we talked about the brand essence of God. Well, in a way, in this three-day retreat we had, we came up with a brand essence of the church, which is kind of the vision statement that we have, and it is truth in love.

What are we? We're supposed to express that truth, but in love, with love. And so you have two elements, and it's not enough to have one to the detriment of the other. Oh, you can have all kinds of understanding and truth, but if you don't express it in love, it can become harsh. It can be judgmental.

It can become very, kind of a negative, and I think everybody's seen examples of that.

But what if you only have love, and you don't have truth? Well, then it becomes wishy-washy.

It loses form and structure, and it can become sentimental, and so it's not enough to have love as such. You need both to balance things out. As again, in the first message, it was brought out that the beautiful balance that we have in the Bible, where you don't go to the extremes. You have to know when to apply mercy and when to apply punishment or discipline. And we all that have had children, and now we have grandchildren, and you have to have that balance. There are parents that are very loving, but guess what? They don't have any guidelines. They don't have any boundaries, and so the kids are all over their place. Never forget those four ways of child rearing that, even in the secular world, studies that they did, and I think they were onto something. They said, look, you can be permissive in the way you rear children, but you're loving.

That's one category. Then the other one is you can be applying discipline with love, or you can apply discipline without love, and the final one was being permissive without love. And they made the studies, and they figured out that kids turn out worse when it's discipline without love. That's where you don't bond together in a military atmosphere to things. The second worst is being permissive without love, where parents allow a lot of things, not much discipline, but there's a loving atmosphere.

Those kids are in the second category of worst case, and then you have being permissive with love as one that is a bit better, but still doesn't really produce the best effects. It is discipline with love, where you have boundaries, but you have a loving atmosphere, and the kids know how far they can go. And you can be patient, you can be tolerant, but there's going to be a time, there's going to be a reckoning, and there are going to be effects. And so the kids learn. And in the same way, God is that way with us, and we need to have this brand of expressing the truth in love.

Church should have boundaries, but it should be in a loving manner. We want to have that same type of atmosphere as the one that is brought out in the child-rearing principles in the Bible itself.

At the council retreat, Brian Shaw made an exposition on this verse, and he's going to give it at the COE meetings, God willing, in these following days. And to a man, all 12 of the men at the retreat. We had two on Zoom, but we all agree this is a concept that we need to develop in the church, and you'll see more of the reasons why.

I already had the sermon prepared when I brought it, but I'll tell you, it was enriched by our discussions during those three days. So let's go into each part. What is the truth that is being spoken here about? The best definitions are in John chapter 17 verse 17. It comes directly from Jesus Christ. John 17 and verse 17 in his prayer to his father. He said, sanctify them by your truth.

That means separate them for holy use. Use them this way by your truth. Your word is truth. So the entirety of the Bible is the truth. There is no uninspired verse that was in the original inspired. We know there's 1st John 5.7, which is a bogus scripture. It wasn't there for the first 500 years, and it didn't even appear in the in the Greek manuscripts. It started appearing in the Latin manuscripts, and then some scribe translating finally got it into the Greek. But we have a trail that shows this was not inspired, and that had to do with the Trinity concept, which was adopted in the 5th century. So going into what is the truth, it's the entire package of God's revealed word. Notice in Psalms 119, 142. Here's another aspect of the truth that we know well.

Psalms 119, 142. Longest Psalm in the Scriptures. It says in verse 142, your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and your law is truth.

So there is no law that God has established which isn't part of that package of truths.

It has different purposes. We know even the laws of the sacrifices, they weren't bad laws.

They were to point Israel to that Messiah that would come and would point them to the gravity of sin. I've mentioned, what if when somebody or we sin and we have to go and sacrifice, maybe buy a lamb and have to go and sacrifice it? Or you have to take a bull, a cow or something, you have to sacrifice. I wonder how many times we would repeat that sin?

Because it has a price. It takes effort. Sometimes we just dismiss our faults and sins and think, well, just a little confession before God and then everything is just perfectly fine.

Or we really realize the seriousness of it. So there is a principle behind the sacrifices that was to point to the need for Christ and also the gravity that blood had to be spilled.

And ultimately, Jesus Christ's blood had to be spilled for our sins. Continuing on in Psalm 119, 151, it says, You are near, O Lord, and all your commandments are truth.

It's the same word. It's later translated into the Greek, but it has to do with God's revealed word. That's why Jesus Christ said, Matthew 4, 4, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Paul loved this concept of the love and the truth being together. He saw it as a key principle to maintain unity in the church and to develop spiritual maturity.

The vision statement in the church in large part is based on Ephesians 4, verses 14-16, which we already read. Let me read Ephesians 4, 16. It says here that speaking the truth and love, we may grow up in all things. And then verse 16, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself and love. Notice how it ends. Yes, love is an end result of this. The way we treat each other, our relationships, expressing that concern. A division statement, I'd like to read it. It says, a church led by God's Holy Spirit joined and knit together by what every member supplies with all doing their share and growing in love to fulfill God's great purpose for humanity to bring many children to glory. So we see the essence in Ephesians 4, also has a part in Hebrews 2, verse 10.

Notice in Ephesians, as Paul further develops this concept, verses 20 through 24, how many times he mentions the truth. So it is further defined here in Ephesians 4. In verse 20, he's going on about the past life, and then he says in verse 20, but you have not so learned Christ. That's not the way Christ is. He says, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus, the truth that's in Jesus that we are learning from all the time.

And here the noun is used, aletheia, which has to do, and I want to define what that is.

And that Greek term means what is the reality of things, what actually exists, not what we conceive, but it's the reality, the truth of the matter. In Barn's note, it says, truth is a representation of things as they are, and there is no virtue that is more valuable in a Christian life than the love of simple truth. That's the reality. And by the way, it not only extends out to God's Word. Truth is what is real. If we don't obey the laws of gravity, which are revealed physical laws, yeah, we're going to crash. We're going to have consequences.

And I've divided truth into three parts, which is the physical truths, which is the universe and are the laws that we should respect. Secondly, it's the biblical truths that God has revealed. And thirdly, it's the relational truths among ourselves, how we deal with ourselves, the honesty and all of that. So we have a role to do about living in truth or not. What about the word agape? That's the word for love that Paul is using there in Ephesians 4 verse 15. In a nutshell, it means self-sacrificing love, the outward concern for others. It's outward bound. It's our concern. It's not only concern, but our actions toward others that express that concern. Of course, the best definition is found in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 1. Let's go to it. 1 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 1. And I'm going to read the first eight verses. It says, Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, you can be so eloquent, so spellbinding, he says, but have not love, which is the right motivating principle behind it.

So you can say things in the right way and express them wonderfully, but they're not the genuine thing. It's not rightly motivated. It goes on to say, And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. God sees through all of that. He sees the heart.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, that self-sacrificing, that putting the other person first, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. Here's the word again. Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail, they'll be accomplished, and they'll be part of the past. Whether there are tongues, and for that time in the first century, they didn't have dictionaries, they didn't have Google translations, so they couldn't walk around. The apostles were five different dictionaries. They went to all different parts of the world, so God gave them the gift of it. And He gave certain congregations that were multilingual that gift, and then He had to kind of take it back a bit because they were abusing it, they were getting vain, they were getting puffed up over it, as in the book of Corinthians. And then it says, whether these will cease, whether there is knowledge, it will vanish. So the principle is an internal attitude that should motivate.

And so here we have these two beautiful concepts. The truth of God, which is a gift. It's not something that we intellectually discovered and came up with. It was revealed to us. God took those blinders from our eyes to open it up. Notice in Ephesians chapter 5, just one more chapter over from what we've been focusing on. Ephesians 5 and verse 8 and 9, it says, For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord, walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is all goodness, righteousness, and truth. So to the nine fruits of God's Spirit in Galatians 5, we should add two more here of the fruits. The gifts of God's Spirit also include righteousness and truth. So it comes from Him, and it can be taken away, as we well know.

The definition of agape or love is not limited to 1 Corinthians 13, because there's another element which John brings out. Notice in 1 John chapter 5 verse 3. It says, For this is the love of God.

This is the agape, love toward God. We want to express it to Him. It says that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome. Again, that's a spiritual state.

We don't chafe under the law of God or the commandments. Oh, there just have to be a debate. No, this is the most wonderful thing to be revealed how to live without bad consequences. How blessed we should feel that we can have freedom within God's laws.

When you have freedom outside of God's laws, that's where trouble is. That's where the Satan is saying, Go ahead. Hey, aren't you enticed by this? Aren't you curious by this?

Go ahead and try these other things in the world out there. And then what happens?

You have headaches. You have regrets. You have guilt. You have all kinds of negative consequences.

So we need to live within the freedom of God's laws.

So we need, and maybe we can read one more scripture along that line, and just two chapters before 1 John chapter 3 verse 22. It says, And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.

I like this because it shows that the commandments aren't just... they don't spell everything out, but the attitude is, What pleases God in His sight? That's the way we should focus on it.

And of course, we understand in 1 John 5, we see that... No, I'm sorry. I guess it was 1 John 3 just a little bit before.

It says here...

Let me go into this where it mentions, we have to do it according to His will.

Yeah, I think it's in chapter 5 that we see... it's not just asking God and saying, We're doing this and we're pleasing you, so please just carry out our will.

No, it has to be done according to His will.

In chapter 5 verse 14. Now, this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

Because we can only see the threads of this great big tapestry, but God sees the whole tapestry.

And He's ultimately the one who will explain to us why things happen.

And He will wipe the tears from everybody's eyes.

And there will be a time where there won't be death or pain.

So we need these two elements. They're like two oars of a boat.

You can't really row a boat very well if you just have one oar, right?

Start going around in circles. But with the two of them being used, yes, the love of the truth is very important.

But also, we need the element of how we express it to others, with care, with humility, with love.

Notice in Galatians chapter 6, go ahead and start showing some of the applications.

In Galatians chapter 6, the importance of trying to put ourselves in others' shoes.

Galatians chapter 6 verse 1 and 2.

It says, brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.

Considering yourself lest you also be tempted. So instead of being harsh, maybe you know something. There's some truth here that is revealed. But how should we handle it?

With love, with patience, with tolerance, with kindness. Because it's as here so that you are not tempted into dealing with such a thing so harshly that you end up sinning worse than the person that you were correcting at the time. That is possible. Notice in Romans chapter 15 verses 1 and 2 also. Romans 15.

It says in verse 1, we then who are strong, talking about spiritually mature, ought to bear with the scruples or the weaknesses of the weak and not to please ourselves. And we've seen that type of an attitude where maybe a person is very spiritually mature, somebody makes some mistake someplace, and then he raises them up to the same bar as the person who has had all this experience. That's not the way you should deal with children either. You should treat them according to their age and maturity level. My wife has said many times, if you want to know what it's like to be a two or three year old, try to pick up something with your left hand all the time. Because kids are always spilling things. They don't have the same coordination that comes along. And sometimes they can be so harshly dealt with and humiliated that they don't forget that the rest of their lives. And we had all kinds of spilled glasses and whatever, but it wasn't intentional. Kids have to develop their motor skills. So again, the principle is here that those who are strong ought to bear to be patient with those that are weak. Verse 2, let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. The attitude that we need applying this speaking and acting with the truth, but in love. And it's a process we see throughout the entire Bible. It starts with Genesis, where you have God in the garden speaking to Adam and Eve.

And how did he speak to them? He spoke to them like a parent, giving them the truth.

Here's here are my truths. There's a tree here. It's called the Tree of Life. Why is it called Tree of Life? Because it's good. It follows my ways. It means you are going to subscribe and accept it. But there's another tree, because I don't want some automaton or robot that just has one choice in everything. But here's another tree. This is not the way of life. And you're going to find out what evil is all about. And it's going to bring a lot of heartache.

But you are going to have to decide. And like a loving parent, he's advocating for the good. And so God spoke the truth in love. That's in chapter 2. And what do we have in chapter 3? Satan. He's speaking the lies with deceit, not with love, but with malice, wickedness. He's trying to deceive. And so we have this constant development of the truth in love and the lie in deceit. And it's up to our days, and it's going to continue.

When Christ sets up the kingdom, then people are going to be taught to act out to follow the truth in love. And it's going to be a whole different society that we have to deal with. We have to learn not to become judgmental in the sense of the definition, in the dictionary, which says displaying an excessive critical point of view. So yes, we have a right to evaluate and examine the fruits of something.

But to be judgmental is we are already looking at that person's heart and judging and condemning them. We don't have all the facts, and we should be careful to just be very quick on the trigger as we have to evaluate and judge other people. In 1 Corinthians chapter 4, I'll be ending here soon, 1 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 1 through 6, it says, Let a man so consider us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.

But with me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself, for I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this. But he who judges me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts.

Then each one's praise will come from God. He knows everything. He knows the heart like no human being can do so. So again, we have to evaluate the fruits, but not become so adamant and so absolute in our judgments that we don't give a chance many times.

So what we thought was something wrong with further examination, we ended up saying, you know what, I completely missed the boat on this one. I completely got this wrong. And it happened. And in our home, sometimes one of the girls would do something with the other one, and we thought for sure, this is the guilty one. And then we got more information, we found out. And sometimes I had discipline, the wrong girl.

And I had to come, I said, I apologize. Will you forgive me? And so, you know, anybody can make mistakes. And all you can do is go up, apologize, tell the person. And you know, they will respect you a lot more than if you just use the authority card and just think that you can get away with things because of that.

So in summary, in God's kingdom, in all his stages, I'm talking about not just the coming of Christ, but also second resurrection, judgment, and all of this involved, people will have the opportunity to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now, one day, all of these people on earth, and if they accept God's ways, we'll be able to say, how did you come to the knowledge of the truth?

Just like we do in church, as we do in God's feasts, and they will be taught this kingdom rule to express the truth in love. That is also a brand, but that's a church brand for us. Who are we? What do we do? We express the truth in love. That should be what motivates us, drives us forward, and now it's time to apply it in our lives, to put it into practice, and let's start today.