Lord Jesus Come to us with YOUR TRUTH 1 John 4:1-6

Know the Truth

Know the source of Truth

Dear Christian Friends,

Raise your right hand and repeat after me: “Do you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God?”  “I do”, Sound familiar? If you’re a big Matlock fan like me or even Perry Mason or you may even catch an episode of one of the several court TV shows, you’ll know what scene I am talking about. In the courtroom, lawyers search for the truth. Why? The truth is what brings about justice. Knowing the facts and the truth allows the innocent to be free and the guilty to be punished. When it comes to our spiritual life we too are in a courtroom, and we also want justice and the only way that is accomplished is by knowing the truth. As we come together for this Advent season, we ask today, LORD JESUS COME TO US WITH YOUR TRUTH. The inspired writer John is going to first of all tell us what the truth is, and secondly he is going to tell us who the source of that truth is.

Before one can discover the truth, one must expose the lie. That is precisely what John is doing in our text. John penned this epistle in the mid 90’s. At the time in the early Christian church there was a great deal of heresy going on hand and hand with the truth. One such heresy was called Gnosticism.

It taught that the only way to salvation was through this special “knowledge or gnosis” where one escaped the body. Like mold on bread that spreads quickly this teaching soon gave way to those who denied the incarnation of Jesus.  They said he was just a natural son of Mary and Joseph, and at his baptism THEN the divine came to him, and THEN the divine left him before his passion.   In other words they didn’t believe that Jesus is and remains the true God and man.

Knowing that there is a great deal of people writing, preaching and leading people astray with this teaching, John writes in verse 1 test the spirits, because many people were being led astray by the perspective that gnostism taught.

In the science world one can tell the difference between an acid and an base by the litmus test. You put a piece of litmus paper in the two solutions, and if it turns blue it is a base, if it turns pink it’s an acid. Here in our text the litmus test that John gives for discovering the truth is, verse 2-3. Simply put it is their confession that is the litmus test to see the truth.  

This truth is found in John’s gospel. READ John 1 (selected verses). Right there John says in the beginning was the WORD, speaking about Jesus and the WORD was with God and the WORD was God, He was with God in the beginning. That right there my friends, is the truth, of who Jesus is, True God and True man not just at his baptism, but for all time. Even the writer to the Hebrews tells us, 13:8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. It can be seen and heard in the words we confess in the Nicene creed. Words like incarnate and begotten both state what the scriptures believe and teach about God becoming man.

Finally what does all of this have to do with us here? In the postmodern world, many people question truth and what truth can be, what is true to you is not true to me.   Illustration: Mr. and Mrs. Jones received this letter from their daughter Julie, a college freshman:

Dear Mom and Dad,

I just though I’d drop you a note to let you know what’s going on with me. I’ve fallen in love with a guy named Blaze. He’s a really neat guy, but he quit high school a few years ago to get married. That didn’t work out, so he got a divorce last year. We’ve been going on for several weeks, and we’re going to get married in the fall.  Until then I’ve decided to move into his apartment. I think I might be pregnant. Oh yeah, I dropped out of school last week so that I could get a job to help support Blaze. I’m hoping I’ll be able to finish college after we get married.

Mom and Dad, I just want you to know that everything I’ve written so far in this letter is a lie. None of it is true.

But Mom and Dad, it is true that I got a C in French and a D in Math. And it’s also true that I need some more money. Could you please send me hundred dollars? Thanks a bunch.

Love, Julie

She received a check in the mail from her parents two days later.

Julie played it smart. She knew she could make bad news seem like good news if it were seen from a particular perspective.

Where do you get your perspective on life each day?  From the Word of God or from MTV, Movies or the postmodern world of everything is truth? We need to stay close to God and to His family, the church or our perspective on life will become distorted, shaped by the values of the world.

When we stay away from the truth, we end up with a badly distorted view of reality. We aren’t able to make good decisions or to know the difference between what is right and wrong, true and false in our lives and in what people tell us to be true in the Word. The good seems bad; the bad seems good. Our view of reality is always a matter of perspective, and the only perspective worth trusting is God’s, Stay close to him.

We stay close by burying ourselves in the truth in our home devotions, in attendance at Bible class. It is in the pages of scripture that we have the evidence. The truth being that Jesus Christ is our substitute, He is the rock, the foundation of all our lives. He came to this earth as true God and True man, and took our place on the cross, taking our sins there especially the sins where we place ourselves above God and his truth. These sins are never to be seen again. He is the way the truth and the life, and salvation is found in him ALONE. That is what we confess and that is what we believe and that my friends is the TRUTH.

Prove it!, ever have anybody question a story you might have told? Maybe the fish or deer that got away? When a story is told whether it be a tall tale or the truth, we always check the source. As we ask Jesus to come to us with his truth, we too check the source of this truth.  Who is it that gives us this truth?

Back in our courtroom scene, it is always good to have a credible witness. An eye witness that can not be refuted whatsoever. We have a witness like none other, a witness that has the proof, a witness that can not lie. A witness who was there when the earth’s foundations were laid. Who is that witness? John tells us in verse 4 READ.

Leviticus 19:2 Be holy because I the Lord your God am holy. He does not sin. We on the other hand are sinful. Scripture tells us that “every inclination of man’s heart is evil.” God keeps his promises, Numbers 23:19 God is not man that he should lie, nor the son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? We on the other hand break promises left and right.

Want more proof? Look at his tract record from the pages of history, think of how God made the world, preserved his people, Adam and Eve, the promise of a Savior in Genesis 3:15, to Abraham, a senior citizen, to David, a shepherd boy, to the world by sending his SON. Even today in this time of crisis in our nation, He still works to preserve his truth, his church, Psalm 46 gives us a good reminder of that fact………read……As man destroys, God preserves and keeps his people best interests in mind.

That can be seen when, He gives us Pastors and teachers grounded in that truth,   to spread that truth.

The evidence is before you, the case is cut and dry, the source of this evidence is irrefutable. We know who we are by faith. We know who our Lord and Savior is by faith.  These next few weeks, might be a blur as we start the rollercoaster season of shopping, cooking, running here, running there, but my friends lets remember the reason for the season, take a deep breath and breathe in that truth, and exhale that truth to family and friends who, sure may need a nice warm cooked meal, or that special gift, but who REALLY need to hear the soothing truth of Jesus’ love. The truth that He has come, and will come again to take us to be with him in heaven for eternity…..that is the whole truth, and nothing but the truth………AMEN.