HOW CAN WE KNOW THE TRUTH? PART 2
JOHN 8:32 …AND YOU WILL KNOW THE TRUTH AND THE TRUTH WILL MAKE YOU FREE.
How can we know the truth about the questions we may have? How can we know what to believe when we hear and read so many different thoughts about a particular event or story? How can we know how we are to live in this current world?
Where should our truth come from? Man, or God?
We have a choice—-either we believe what the Bible says, or we do not. We can choose to believe all of the Bible, or we can choose to believe the parts we want to believe and ignore the parts we do not want to believe.
I was told of a sermon a preacher presented about believing in what the Bible says. He had an open Bible in his hand as he started preaching. He said some people say that is not in my Bible as he tore a page out of the Bible. Some people say that is not what God means, he tore a page out of the Bible. Some people say, I do not believe that God requires Baptism for salvation, he tore another page out of the Bible.
He went on to demonstrate how people ignore the word of God by saying I do not believe that God meant that, that God would do that, and on and on, because God is a loving God. So, in essences if we say and believe these things, we are tearing pages out of our Bible.
2 Timothy 4:3-4 Be careful of false teachers who may not teach all of the truth. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
Matthew 7:15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.
In Part 1 I started out talking about lying: Titus 1:1-3 Paul a bond servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness in the hope of eternal life which God who cannot lie promised but at the proper time manifested even His word…
Hebrews 6:18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, …
So, if it is impossible for God to lie, the evident choice is to believe His word. The Bible. Everything in it, not just the parts we would like to believe. But the whole Bible. All of the parts-even the ones that are hard for us to swallow.
Jesus Himself said in John 14:6…. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Enough said. If Jesus is the truth, then we need to go to Him to find out what is true. Man is of this world, and he is fallible. Jesus said, Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks. For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes! Matthew 18:7.
Is it enough to know the truth? Or, do we have to do more than just know what the truth is? Jesus talked about the truth-knowing the truth-and what it does for us. He tells us what we must do. In John 8:31-32 Jesus is talking to the Jews who had believed in Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine, and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.
What can the truth do for us?
It can set us free if we continue in His word. Proverbs 23:23 Buy the truth and do not sell it. Where can we find this truth? In the world? From what man/woman tell us? NO—it can only be found in the Bible. This a vital truth.
What can this truth do for us?
We have to Hear:
Romans 10:17 So, faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. The word is where we learn about faith. Luke 11:28 Blessed are those who hear the word of God. John 8:32…the truth will make you free. 1 Timothy 2:4…who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
We have to Obey:
1 Peter 1:22 Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, you have been born again…
1 John 2:4 The one who says I have come to know Him and does not keep His commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. Sincerity is not enough.
How can we know the truth? Where can we find the truth? We answered that by looking at the word of God when Jesus told us in John 14:6 I am the way, the truth, and the life. Again, in John 8:31-32 Jesus told us. If you abide in MY word (the Bible) …you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.
We learned in 1 Peter 1:22 that the truth can purify our souls, but we learned there is more for us to do. We must also obey. Or the truth is not in us as we see in 1 John 2:4 We can know that we have come to know Him is we keep His commandments as we read in 1 John 2:3
We must be doers of the word and not just hearers. James 1:22.
We must obey God rather than man as we read in Acts 5:29.
Do you know the truth of God? Do you believe the truth of God?
Have you obeyed the truth of God? (or did you obey a man’s truth).
Shelia Holmes
I would love to study the word of God with you. If you have any doubts, let’s dig into the word of God and help settle those doubts. Or you can go to: www.worldbiblschool.org
Shelia's Notes 