Living God's Truth

Today, in my sermon, I want to talk with us about an ancient problem that continues to afflict humanity in our time. This problem has been with us since the founding of the world, since the Garden of Eden, when our parents, Adam and Eve, disobeyed God, and sinned and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Certainly, Satan was complicit in their sin, and Satan will receive God's just punishment, just as humanity receives its own. Under Satan's influence, humanity continues, though.

It continues in its way of willfulness and sin. It continues in the rejection of God's law. If you would, I'd like to start in 2 Timothy 3, verses 1-5. If you do keep up the news stories, or perhaps you have your routine of going to the websites and checking out certain pages every day, that tends to be my habit of late, you're going to find recent weeks and months, perhaps longer, because it keeps happening, continuous news stories that shock us, and some of them sicken us, and they should sicken us because of their sinfulness and wickedness.

These are stories about human wickedness, and as bad as they are, the sad thing is, human wickedness will most likely worsen, and it already is, before Jesus Christ returns. I don't want it to get worse, but I expect it will, and you'd probably feel the same way. Let's remember what Paul, in his second epistle of Timothy here, 2 Timothy 3 verse 1, does not remember what he prophesied about the end of the age. We read, but know this, that in the last days perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful and unholy. They're going to be unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control.

They'll be brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. They will have a form of godliness, but denying its power. Paul ends this set of scriptures saying, From such people turn away. Meaning we must not live our whole lives in and amidst these people practicing their way of life. Much as Paul described it nearly two thousand years ago, society today continues to reject God in his way of love as his love is defined by the Ten Commandments.

Those who strive to obey God find themselves more often than not condemned and even ridiculed for following their convictions and living according to God's word. And although we hear much about tolerance and acceptance and inclusivity today, and especially towards those who lifestyles and values may differ greatly from our own, bitter intolerance is the fate of those who refuse to violate their Christian conscience. And so we have seen photographers, florists, and bakers sued, some forced out of business, or perhaps even compelled to take diversity training classes because they refused to violate their convictions and to serve customers of same-sex weddings.

Just one example. This is all very disturbing, and it's just part of what we see that seems to support what Paul talks about in 2 Timothy 3. Well, how can we make sense of such events happening around us today? And whether or not we actually can make total sense of it, what can we do to guard ourselves and our families? And especially, we worry about our children. What might we do to protect our families from society's ungodly values, its ungodly ways?

This is concern people of God have always had, I'm sure. In our day and age, perhaps we've never seen something quite like this, at least again in our day and age. Well, this kind of broad way sums up the topic of what I'd like to talk about in the sermon today. The title I've given my sermon is Living God's Truth. Living God's Truth. Although we do understand that the world today is the way it is, as I said, because of Adam and Eve's disobedience to God.

What, though, is the more immediate cause of this growing opposition, this growing hostility toward our traditional cultural values and against Christianity in general? What is it that's going on? What can we see? The problem is also often nice to try to find the cause.

What's behind all of this? More specifically, at this time, the cause of much of the turmoil we see today is rooted in a philosophical approach that arose in the aftermath of World War II. But this philosophical approach is now much more deeply entrenched than ever in our Western societies, and especially through the United States.

Now, those buzzwords I mentioned earlier of tolerance, acceptance, inclusivity, they are aspects of this philosophical approach. On their own, these words sound like good values. Right. We should be tolerant. We should accept people. We should include people in our group. And yes, they on the surface sound like good values. But they're rooted in this philosophical approach that does not see the words the same way as you and I would. These words are rooted in a worldview called, and you've heard this before, this word, postmodernism. Postmodernism. Now, in the approach of postmodernism, these words actually mean tolerance and acceptance and inclusivity, but only for those who reject Judeo-Christian values and traditions.

That is why it's to our benefit if we will take time to understand what this worldview is about.

In many ways, postmodernism is an anti-Western worldview, and hence it opposes values and traditions drawn from the Bible, God's word. According to a website allaboutphilosophy.org, the postmodern worldview sees, this is quoting, this postmodern worldview sees the Western world society as an outdated lifestyle. Postmodernists believe that the West's claim of freedom and prosperity continue to be nothing more than empty promises and have not met the needs of humanity.

And so, postmodernists challenge the core religious and capitalistic values of the Western world and seek change for a new age of liberty within a global community. Many prefer to live under a global non-political government without tribal or national boundaries, and one that is sensitive to the socioeconomic equality for all people. Most believe nationalism builds walls, makes enemies, and destroys mother earth, while capitalism creates a have and have not society, and religion causes moral friction and division among people. Now, this description I've read to you, when I read this, it sort of had a familiar nightly news ring to it. It may also help, this definition may also help us to understand why progressives who tend to be postmodernists, why they from all around the globe love President Barack Obama, who himself is a postmodernist. And it also helps to explain just why as many around the world demonize President Donald Trump, who speaks of America first, and of building a wall, a literal wall, and who also seems to promote more traditional American values. History will tell whether President Trump is more fully pro-modern in his views or not. He sounds like he's more conservative at this point. The postmodern world view about the origin of truth and concepts about right and wrong also oppose long-held Western values and traditions. Again, from all about philosophy.org, postmodernists believe that truth is relative, and truth is up to each individual to determine for himself. Postmodernists do not attempt to refine their thoughts about what is right or wrong, what is true or false, or what is good or evil. They believe that there isn't such a thing as absolute truth. Such a thing as absolute truth does not exist in their mind. Now, for decades now, children have been taught in school that it is wrong and flat-out ignorant to believe that an objective and knowable truth with a capital T can even exist.

I know that because as a freshman in college back in 1978, I had an English professor tell me, Mr. Erweller, there is no capital T truth. You cannot talk about truth that way. Did not. Okay.

That was in 1978, folks. I'm not going to tell you how many years ago that was exactly. There's many decades. And what I've seen since then, as you have too, is it's now in our elementary schools. It's part of our teacher education programs. I know that from my own experience. And it's a part of our media, part of our music, our children listen to. It's firmly entrenched in our society. Well, this lie that's taught that there's no such thing as an objective and knowable truth, that really is a terrible thing to teach. But the fact is, many now truly and sincerely believe it. That is part of their worldview. They believe it. To use the terms truth and reality in an absolute sense, as it has been done for centuries, as many of us grew up saying and talking about, is now, in this present, more enlightened and scientific age, that is now considered to be backward and foolish. We don't talk about absolute truth. Again, from the website, postmodernists also view the world outside of themselves as being in error. That is, other people's truth becomes indistinguishable or the same as error. If someone doesn't agree with your truth, you don't have to listen to them, because that's their truth. You have your own truth as the idea. What that further means is that no one has the authority to define truth or to impose upon others his idea of moral right and wrong. We cannot do that. If you're in the education field classroom, you know you have to be very careful how you talk to children. So, in other words, the problem with life, from the postmodernist individual's point of view, the problem in my life is with others, but not with me. My world is okay. There's something wrong with you. There's something wrong with you. One phrase I think we may hear a lot these days is, don't judge me. Don't judge me. I've heard that a lot as an educator.

Don't judge me means don't tell me that I'm wrong. Only I decide when I am wrong is the way it goes nowadays. And even in that statement, don't judge me. And that attitude, I think we see reflected the influence of postmodernism, postmodern thinking. Finally, one more quote. Postmodernist self-rationalization, their creation of reality, the universe in their own mind, postmodernist self-rationalization of the universe and world around them pits themselves against divine revelation. It's their revelation versus divine revelation and versus their view of moral relativism. Many choose to believe in naturalism. That means life came about all by itself, physically, naturally. They believe in naturalism and evolution rather than God and creationism. They are typically atheistic or agnostic, meaning they don't know what to believe, while some prefer to follow Eastern religion thoughts and practices. So, pure postmodernists do not believe in the supernatural. They don't believe in ghosts, they don't believe in angels, they don't believe in elves, and they certainly don't believe in the divine. They do not believe in God. And moreover, the pure postmodernist, he or she will decide for himself or herself exactly what reality is. They define what reality is. When we consider the entirety of this description of the postmodern view, I think we should walk away, perhaps more clearly than before, we should walk away with the understanding that this philosophical approach directly opposes God. It not only opposes God, it opposes, of course, his laws and his way of life, and it certainly opposes his church, the body of Christ. It opposes everything that we have come to believe and want to practice and everything that we are striving to teach our own children. Culturally speaking, and spiritually speaking as well, we are in the midst of a war. We may not have thought of it in those terms, but we are in the midst of a war. But we need not be fearful about that. We need not fear that reality. You know, God most certainly exists, despite what people say and believe, even the very intelligent ones. They're pretty smart, according to their IQ scores.

But God has called us. We know that. God has called us, and he has set us apart to be members of his family. No matter how much we may be disparaged by those who disagree with us, we may not be no longer discouraged by those who disagree with us. We need to cling to that. We need to remember that and make sure our children understand that. God the Father has called us. God has set us apart to be members of his eternal family. You could look at it as saying, we are on the winning team. We're on the winning team. But we have a part to play. Your part and my part, together, our part is to become more like God. We are to become more like God. We must believe God and we must obey God.

That being said, we do need to stay on guard. We don't want to let our guard down. We need to keep the centuries up, so to speak. It means we mustn't be complacent about how well we live according to God's truth, how we live God's truth. We must stay awake spiritually, especially because this postmodernism is so insidious, it's so cunning that we could easily be duped or deceived by the ploys of our enemy. And, of course, the enemy ultimately is Satan. Satan is a real enemy.

When we consider the values of postmodernism, is it any surprise that we're facing and seeing such fierce opposition to our country's traditional moors and values, the moors and values of our culture, what most of us grew up with, and especially against those values and traditions that are drawn directly from the Bible, such as marriage and the Bible's stance about sexuality?

Another great irony I have to point out about postmodernism and this idea of tolerance for different views is a great irony in hypocrisy in postmodernism that it demands tolerance for multiple truths and diverse values, and yet postmodernists themselves will not tolerate anyone who believes in absolute truth. They will not tolerate anyone who believes in absolute truth.

But truth absolute and divine exist. It exists. And again, I urge you and I stress that our children especially need to understand this. They are at the forefront in public schools especially. And even if you homeschool, you're not necessarily safe. A lot of the textbooks you use, a lot of the materials do have some influence of postmodernism about them. The music our children listen to, the television programs, it's out there. Satan wants to destroy our family. He wants to destroy God's family. And he will not let up. And so understanding postmodernism is vital for us to protect our children, to protect our families.

Truth matters because truth is a matter of eternal life or eternal death. There are absolutes in life.

There are really real consequences for being wrong. People don't like to talk about this.

Taking the wrong medication quite simply can kill you, can it not?

There are truths out there. Taking the wrong turn can get you lost. Yeah. Making the wrong person can destroy your family. There is right and wrong in this world, despite what people will try to tell us and tell our children. Postmodernists want us to believe that absolute truth is neither knowable nor possible, but they are so absolutely wrong. When we turn to the Bible, God's Bible, God's holy word and scripture, we really need to be grateful for what he has preserved for us.

He has called us out of this world's spiritual darkness, and he has revealed to us the light of his truth. God's word is truth. And so more than ever, we need to be praying. We need to be studying God's word. We do not want to lose our way. Let's turn to the Bible now. I'm ready to get in God's word.

I feel if I spend too much time in the world, we get a little dirty. Let's turn to God's word. Let's strengthen our hearts and minds with his scripture, with his light. Let's review now what God tells us about truth. Let's review what God tells us about human reasoning. Let's begin in John 1717.

We begin in John 1717 because we're going to answer an age-old question.

That age-old question, what is truth? What is truth?

Unlike postmodernism, God's answer is clear, very direct, and to the point. In John 1717, Jesus Christ said these words in prayer to the Father in those minutes just prior to his arrest.

Jesus said in that prayer, sanctify them by your truth, Father. Your word is truth.

Your word is truth. I want to delve a little more deeply in the meaning of these words. The Greek word used for the English word here is logos. It's translated here in English as word, but it can mean several different things. It can mean a word. It can also mean the sayings of God. It can also mean a decree, a mandate, or order. It also means the moral precepts given by God.

Now, this other major word here translated as truth is from the Greek word, aletheia. I'll spell it for you because I know a number of you told me you love to hear these words. It's A-L-E-T-H-E-I-A. Aletheia means of a truth, in reality, in fact.

In addition, I found this interesting, aletheia also means free of affectation. That means free of pretense, free of falsehood and deceit.

God's word is truth. That means the word of God is absolute. It is perfect. It is everlasting.

That means God's word is also trustworthy. It is reliable. It is indisputable. It is permanent.

And I think if you consider all the philosophies of men, they just kind of keep coming.

Always changing. Never settled.

Of course, if you'd like, turn with me to 2 Timothy 3, 16-17, one of our favorite Scriptures. 2 Timothy 3, 16-17 here, Paul reminds us of the priceless value of God's words. God's word is truth. 2 Timothy 3, 16-17, Paul states, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God.

It is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness.

Why did he give it? It's so that the man of God, the woman of God, may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. We're supposed to be doing something with these words.

The word Scripture here, in all Scripture, that's translated from the Greek word grapha, G-R-A-P-H-E, where our word graph comes from. Graph means a writing or the book itself. It can mean its contents. It can refer to a certain section or portion of God's Scripture, of the Holy Scripture. And so when it says Scripture, we now understand not just what Paul had at his day, what we call the Old Testament, includes all that's been canonized, all that through the ages has been declared holy. And it's with this Scripture, 2 Timothy 3, 16-17, that Paul is emphasizing that God inspired his words. He inspired his words to be written down so that we might study them, so that we might use them to prepare ourselves for God's purpose.

And so we must be studying the Scriptures. We must allow them to guide us. We must use them seriously to evaluate ourselves, to let God's word correct us, to tell us where we are wrong. We must let God's word judge us, so he doesn't have to. We can use God's word to judge ourselves and change the way we live. We must use God's words so that we can become more like he is.

And the setting apart that happens as we use God's word of truth does not occur instantaneously. What I'm saying is we need to be always studying God's words. You last studied something in the Bible last year? Oh boy, you can't do that. You really can't do that. You need to be studying God's word every day. Now, to emphasize the consistency of God's word, I'd like for us to turn back to Psalm 119. Let's turn back to the Old Testament. There are some people who read the Bible, and they misunderstand Paul's words, and they think that Scripture only refers to the New Testament. The truth is only talking about what's really important in some people's mind as the New Testament, but that's not it. It's the whole Bible. We can put this together. Let's look at Psalm 119 and Psalm 116 verse 116. I said it again in verse 160. Too many S's in there. Psalm 119 verse 160. Here we read, The entirety of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous judgments endures forever. There we see some of those definitions for truth. Here, the Hebrew word translated as word is debar, which means speech, saying, utterance, word, or words. In the Hebrew word for truth, debar, I should say, is D-A-B-A-R, and the Hebrew word for truth is emeth, E-M-E-T-H. Emeth means firmness, sureness, reliability, continuance, faithfulness, and then the scholars threw in the word truth. I think it's useful to understand that truth means these other synonyms, that it's reliable, it's set, it's not going anywhere. You can always trust truth to remain truth. It doesn't shift. It doesn't change colors on us.

Now, these Hebrew words really mean about the same as the words Christ spoke in John 1717, and that really should be no surprise to us. Psalm 119, verse 160, confirms then that God's word is consistent, it is sure, it's reliable, God's word is truth. And so, no matter what those who do not know God say or believe, we can trust God and know that his word is truth.

We have in our hands the truth that many say does not exist. It cannot exist. It cannot be known. But we're holding it in our hands.

There's an old quotation, and some of you may have heard of it. I don't hear it much nowadays. There's an old quotation. It goes like this, truth is the truth whether one believes it or not. You'll never hear that said by a postmodernist thinker nowadays. Truth is the truth whether one believes it or not.

Of course, that's just like God, isn't it? God is God whether you believe him or not.

And so, brethren, we do have the truth. We must believe it and we must obey it.

The blessings that come from knowing and believing and obeying God's word are real and abundant.

We have many witnesses out here. You've been living God's way for a long time, and you know. You can tell stories. Sometimes the stories are hard to explain, but you know because your life is not what it would have been, except that God has called you. Let's turn a little bit further back in Psalms. Let's go back to Psalm 19.

King David was someone who experienced and lived God's truth, who knew and believed and obeyed God.

Let's read Psalm 19, verse 7-11.

It's here that David praises God for giving not only him, but all of us, the blessing of his word.

And he also encourages those who hear this song of thanksgiving. David encourages those of us who hear his song to live according to God's truth, to live according to God's eternal word. Psalm 19, verse 7-11. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. And the fear of the Lord, meaning the reverence of God, is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, and sweeter also than honey in the honeycomb. And moreover, by them your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward. God's truth does all of this. It guides us, it directs us, and helps us to have a sense of permanence in this world that seems to be changing so quickly around us. And when we come to know God's word and live according to his commandments, we too come to rejoice in God's wisdom and love, even as David did. His words become our words.

And numerous people through the centuries have attested to the precious value of God's truth.

In preparing the sermon, I read the commentary by Albert Barnes regarding John 1717, set them apart by your truth, your word is truth.

And I was really taken by Barnes' comments and insight about the value of God's truth. Now, Albert Barnes died in 1870. He's been gone for quite a while. He died in 1870. But his words still ring true because they remind us of the absolute value of God's truth. And I want to share with you the words he wrote there in his commentary. Albert Barnes said this. He says, truth is a representation of things as they are. To see things as they are in truth is to see God, and to be infinitely lovely and pure. His commands, God's commands, we see them to be reasonable and just. It's to see His service to be easy and religion pleasant and sin odious.

It's to see truth is to see that life is short, that death is near, that the pride, pomp, and pleasures, the wealth and honors of this world are of little value, and that it is of infinite importance to be prepared to enter on the eternal state of being.

He that sees all this, or that looks on things as they are, will desire to be holy.

He will make it his great object to live near to God and to glorify His name.

And I thought these words by Albert Barnes were really pretty good words. They talked to me. He that sees God's Word as truth will look on things as they are, and He will desire to be holy.

Do we desire to be holy?

Only God's Word as truth reveals to us things as they are. And isn't that nice to know? I spent a lot of time as a teenager back in college trying to find myself. You ever heard that expression?

I tried to find myself, and God found me.

And that's been wonderful. It hasn't always been easy, but it was wonderful to be found.

And so we need to go to God's Word. We can find direction. We can find truth here. We don't have to worry about it. The truth is in our hands. Our part is to believe it and to obey it.

And so we do understand, then, that without God, on its own, humanity cannot possibly comprehend that there is only one true reality, that there is only one eternal and holy God, and He's a family. And He wants to add to His family.

Without God's Word of Truth and His Holy Spirit, without His Word of Truth and His Holy Spirit, though, we cannot ourselves understand God's awesome plan of salvation. And not salvation just for us, but for everyone, even for those postmodernists out there who currently are blinded and don't understand what God has allowed us to understand because of His mercy and compassion. We need to be sure, though—I want to make this point again—we need to be sure that we convey this understanding to our children. They hear a lot of junk out there in the world. They're influenced in ways they don't even understand, and we may miss ourselves. We must convey to our children that the Bible is their compass. The Bible gives them truth. The Bible gives them direction. They need to see you, Mom and Dad, going to your Bible. They need to see you, Grandma and Grandpa, talking about God's Word.

They need to see it's okay to talk about God because they're not allowed to talk about it in public and among a lot of their friends. It's even possible in the Church of God that teenagers kind of giggle if another person starts talking about God's Word.

Not everybody's at the same place, but we want them to be. We want them to be in the same place in a right relationship with God. We need to talk about God and His Word naturally, easily, because we, too, are making it our compass. We adults. God's Word is truth, and He's called us to believe it, but it's more than just these words on pages that are God's truth, of course.

Truth is more than just the written Word of God. Jesus Christ also is truth. He is the Word of God. Let's look at John 1. John 1, if every time I speak lately I seem to be going back to these first few verses of John 1, I don't apologize, necessarily, but I do recognize I tend to go there, and I think that's where I want to be. John 1, let's look here. John 1, 1-5. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. And those in the darkness still don't comprehend God's light. They still don't recognize the Word of God. Let's couple these scriptures with John 14.6. In John 14.6, another familiar scripture, I'm sure, Jesus said to him, jumping in here, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Jesus Christ is the living Word of God. John 1-5 tells us that Jesus Christ was the Word, or logos, logos, logos, the same word used we saw in John 17.17. The Father created all things and gave life to all things through the Word who became Jesus Christ. He is the Word and the light that shines in the darkness of the world, showing the way to those the Father calls. Jesus called Himself the way, the truth, and the life. What did He mean? What did He mean? Well, when we accept the Father's call or invitation to salvation, and it's the Father, as we need to remember, that begins our process of salvation, when we accept the Father's call or invitation, we then begin the process of building a relationship with Him. In order to come to the Father, though, we must come through Jesus Christ. We have to work with and through Jesus Christ. He is the only way anyone has access to the Father. Let's turn over to John 6 now. John chapter 6. As we begin our process after we've accepted God's call, we need to spend time with the Word. We need to read it and we need to hear it preached. We need to know and understand what Jesus Christ taught and what He said.

John 6.63. Jesus said, it is the Spirit which gives life. The flesh profits nothing.

The first things we have to come to recognize, we have to change our ways. We have to change our focus.

Continuing, Christ said, the words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life.

And so, in studying God's Word, and coupled with God's Holy Spirit working with us and through His Scripture, we begin that process of understanding and evaluating ourselves. That process of turning to God and repentance. Our hearts and minds, we turn to God in submission. We come to understand that our only hope for salvation in eternal life resides with God. Let's hold our place here and turn back to John 12.49. It's also important to understand that these words of spirit and life that Jesus Christ spoke, they come from the Father. They are direct from God the Father.

Jesus said, John 12.49, for I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me gave me a command that I should say what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told me, so I speak.

We can have great confidence that Christ's words bear the authority of our Father. They come from the top. They're coming from the top. Next, let's keep holding your place here in John 6. I promise we'll get back there. Romans 10.17. Romans 10.17. Now, if we would continue in the way to eternal life, and we need to, if we would continue in the way to eternal life, then we need to be listening. We need to hear. We need to obey God. That means we have to put God's words into action, and that takes faith. Paul wrote Romans 10.17. So then, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. We have got to be studying and practicing together God's words of life.

Now, flip back to John 6.68. John 6.68, where hopefully you kept your finger. In John 6.68, I just wanted to show us that we can see here how Peter grasped the significance of Christ's words.

And so must we. John 6.68. Peter said to Jesus, Lord, to whom would we go? Where else would we want to go? Lord. For he says, you have the words that give eternal life. God's word is truth. These words are still true today. Jesus Christ has the words that give eternal life.

Dare I ask what other words might give us eternal life? Are there any other words that we can turn to anywhere? Shakespeare. Shakespeare's good. The Hobbit? It's okay, you know. There's a lot of weird teen science fiction out there right now. It's really dark and dystopic. You're not going to find much truth there. Where else might we turn for words that give us eternal life? There are no other words. There's no other place we can go. It's only here in the words of God found in His Holy Scripture. And they come from our Father. They come from the Father through Christ into His Bible and through our eyes and through our ears and into our hearts and minds. And there we must act on them. Let's turn now to 1 Peter 2.21. 1 Peter 2.21. It's vital then that we more than merely read and know God's words. You know, I've worked with many people outside the Church the years. Some of them really knew their Bibles. They really, truly knew and know their Bibles.

But my understanding, my life experience, and what I read here is we have to do more than just read and know God's Word. We must do as Christ taught. We must follow His example. 1 Peter 2.21. Peter wrote saying, For God has called you to do good. Speaking to us too. God has called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. Christ is our example.

And we must follow in His steps. You must follow in His steps.

And so as we learn to love one another, following Christ's example, we also be learning to love our enemies. As we do that, we are learning the way of life that leads to eternity, that leads to salvation. Ultimately, as God works with us, as we study His Word and repent from sin, we come to believe more deeply and profoundly, as years go by even more so, we come to believe and trust profoundly in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our sins. Let's read Hebrews 9, verses 11-12.

Here we read these powerful, meaningful scriptures. Hebrews 9, verses 11. But Christ came as high priest of the good things to come. With the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood, He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

We've been studying these since before Passover, haven't we? Jesus Christ came as our sacrifice for sin, to remove our penalty of death. He made it possible for all humanity to have a very personal relationship with the Father.

Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father. And so we must be reading, we must be studying those scriptures. We've got to so we might know and understand God. We must obey and imitate Christ. We must believe and trust in God's mercy. Without Jesus Christ, we would not know this way to the Father. He is the way. He is the way. But Jesus also said in John 14.6, He says, I am the truth. I've laid a pretty good foundation so far. What does He mean? We'll build on it. What does He mean, I am the truth? Well, Jesus Christ, in one sense, of course, is the source of truth that God has communicated to humanity. His words, the things He said have been recorded in Scripture. He inspired the prophets. He inspired the apostles and others to record God's words and inspired words in Scripture. We have that. Christ, it came through Christ, that truth came through Him. So, in a sense, He is the source of truth that God has communicated, including the Gospel, salvation, and kingdom of God. We should also remember that Jesus, again, was the Word, as we read in John 1. He was the God of the Old Testament, the God of Abraham.

That didn't go over too well with the Jews of His time. Let's look at John 8. They didn't like what Jesus said about that. John 8, verse 56, they kept wanting to know if He was the Messiah, and their minds were dark, and they couldn't get it.

John 8, verse 56-58, here we read just how Jesus angered the Pharisees. He angered them when He told them these words. John 8, verse 56, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. And the Jews said to Him, You are not yet 50 years old, and have you seen Abraham? And Jesus said to them, most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. Of course, those words are limited to their understanding of God, God who spoke to them in Scripture. So just as the Father commanded him, so Jesus spoke, and so the words of God are recorded as truth here in Scripture. Jesus is the truth in that sense. And Jesus also said, I am the life. I am the life.

We understand Christ gave His life so that all might know the Father, and receive the gift of eternal life. And over in John 11, verse 25, and John 11.25.26, Christ makes this point quite clear. John 11.25, Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Let's also read Acts 4.12.

Got to read this. It sums up so much what we've been reading here. Acts 4, verse 12. Nor is there salvation in any other, meaning Jesus Christ, nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. By which we must be saved. God's word is truth. No other words or truths ultimately matter in this life, but only those divinely inspired by God and preserved in the pages of His Bible. Only God's word provides us the certainty of knowing that eternal life is only possible through Jesus Christ.

So now, what must we be doing? I think we made clear what the world thinks of truth. We've made clear what God's word says about truth. What must we be doing to keep ourselves clear-headed and clear-eyed in this postmodern society that we understand rejects truth, rejects the sense of reality, and rejects God? What must we be doing? Well, we must remain diligent. We've got to remain diligent in following Jesus Christ and submitting ourselves to serving Him and serving one another as He directs. Let's look at John 12.26.

He said, If anyone serves me, let him follow me.

And where I am there my servant will also be. If anyone serves me, Christ said, Him my Father will honor. Of course, ultimate honor from the Father is to receive salvation, eternal life. We are following God, brethren, when we stay committed to reading, to studying, and when we remain committed to living God's truth according to His word. Psalm 119. We teach these scriptures to our children. Do our children remember them? Do we remember them? Psalm 119 verse 105. Here we remember that the psalmist exhorts us to use God's word as a lamp, to guide us not just on Sabbath, but every single day. Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. There have been some beautiful songs written with that verse. That's scripture in it. With the light of God's word as our guide, we can always find our way through this spiritual darkness that we and our children have to live in right now. Let's also turn to Deuteronomy 30. Deuteronomy 30 verse 15 through 16.

You know, every day we have multiple opportunities, probably more than we really would like to have sometimes, but every day we have multiple opportunities to show God how we have to make some tough choices, perhaps, and choose against temptation to live life His way. Deuteronomy 30 15 through 16. It reads, See, I have said before you today, today is every day, I have said before you today life and death, excuse me, life and good, death and evil. In that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. And of course, we know these promises go far beyond the physical promises here, but spiritually speaking, to us and anyone that practice faith in God and obey Him. We follow Jesus Christ when we choose to change from our self-centered way and to keep God's commandments.

And it's so vital, and it's so vital, that we remember to keep God's commandments. We have to remember all 10 of them and not get kind of remember, oh yeah, the two summary ones. Yeah, no, all 10. We spent a lot of time when our kids were little making sure our children knew all 10 commandments. And I know some of you have done the same thing. Do our children still remember the 10 commandments? Can they still put them in correct order? Order matters. Order matters in my book. Can they still do it? Can we do it as grown-ups?

All right.

More importantly, although that is important, more importantly are we obeying God's commandments. We really studied and delved into them and seen them in the larger parameters and their spiritual significance as Christ expounded upon them Himself. God's commandments is word of truth and not our emotions and not human reasoning. That should be what guides us through life. And as our children grow up from being little toddlers, especially those teen years and beyond, they really need help deciphering what is important in life. They really need help understanding that their emotions... Well, what have we learned, folks? You follow your emotions, you end up in a bad spot most times. All right? But if we could nudge our children, if we could show them, look, you've got to learn to separate emotions from what God tells you to do. Just trust God. Help them to learn that if they just do it, God says they will be okay. It may not be fun, in their definition of fun, but you will be okay. You're doing the right thing.

Let's also turn now to Ephesians 5, verse 8-11. You see, when you use God's light, His lamp, His word is a lamp to guide us. And when we follow Christ and keep His commandments, it's an amazing thing. But then we become lights. God wants us to be. We can become lights to the darkened world. They don't want light. They don't think they want it. One day they will.

Ephesians 5, verse 8-11. We're reminded here, For you we were once darkness. We're not better than other people. We've just been given a blessing to use. 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 in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. Finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. That means, of course, we're going to talk with people and be around people that don't maybe smoke or do whatever or work on Sabbath. We're going to meet people. We're not supposed to stay away from those folks. We're just not supposed to be so up close and personal that we become what they are in that sense, in the darkness. We need to be firm with God's truth and be that light. And our light will show where we differ. God expects us to live by His truth. He expects us to be lights of truth in this dark world. Now, I can assure you that our postmodernist neighbors won't like us shining our light in their darkened world. We're not always going to be well received. But they won't believe it, perhaps, but they really do need us.

They need you and they need me to be the light of God's truth. Remember, that is what God has called us to be. Are we willing to do it? Or are we wanting to hide ourselves or kids wanting to hide what's right from other kids they know? We need to encourage one another, encourage all of us, our children, to go ahead and do what is right, even though it may not be popular.

You see, when we are lights, even in this darkened world, especially in this darkened world, we never know. Perhaps our examples will help those in the darkness to better appreciate God's truth for seeing it in action, for seeing us living it.

And so, postmodernist increasingly dominate and influence our society. We know that. We are on to them, though, because we have studied God's truth.

Proverbs 14.12. Proverbs 14.12. You can turn there. You may know it. I'll read it for you. Proverbs 14.12. We know what they are about because we have read God's word.

What we find through Proverbs 14.12 is that what is being practiced in our society is just another worn-out rendition. It's kind of like a play of different characters, but it's kind of the same story line. It's just a worn-out rendition of carnal human nature. Proverbs 14.12 says, There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is a way of death.

That's where the world is going. Also, you might want to turn here to Isaiah 5.20. Perhaps this is not as familiar. Isaiah 5.20. God's word condemns the self-willed and lawless thinking that is in the world, especially that postmodernism is voicing off on us, society trying to foist off on us. Isaiah 5.20. God's truth helps us see what they're about. Isaiah 5.20 reads, Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

It wasn't so many years ago. I've kind of lost track of slang. It used to be that something was good. It was really bad. And let's see. Sweet meant, oh, that's great. And usually what they're calling sweet was something criminal, at least with the people I knew. You know, we've got to let God's word define what is good and not ourselves. Human reasoning leads to destruction and death.

We and our children need to understand that the ways that society increasingly thinks and acts is not the way that leads to the so-called good life. Postmodernism is really just that old godless and lawless principle of men. It's that principle that concludes the book of Judges. You don't have to turn there. You can jot this down. The conclusion of Judges 21 verse 25. That's the last verse of Judges. The conclusion of Judges was that everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

No shock. It's still going on. Same old song. Same old story. Same old bad conclusion. Living contrary to God's word will never bring lasting peace or happiness. Constructing values and truths, as postmodernism does based on human feelings and experiences and human reasoning, that does not make for truth. Only our merciful and loving God defines truth. And he has recorded it for us because he loves us. And it's recorded in the Bible. God defines truth.

And we must be sure to obey God as he commands. Brethren, we have been called to believe and obey God to trust him totally. Not halfway, but totally. And we're to dedicate our lives to living God's truth. So we mustn't let the world get to us. We mustn't despair over the confusion and animosity that seems to be rising up against us at times. Because God has called us, never forget, God has called us to be in his eternal family. The way he is established is true. It is sure. And it is only through Jesus Christ who is the way, who is the truth, and who is the life.