We’ve all heard people say “live your own truth.” The problem with that statement is in the word “truth.” For truth to be truth, it must be based on an absolute standard. God is that standard, and to use any other standard leads us away from the one and only truth that He laid out for us.

let god be true

and everybody

[Music]

a liar

so here what that means is

when you and anybody you know disagrees

with god y’all wrong

[Music]

because it is impossible for god to lie

[Music]

[Applause]

you and i are living in a day where you

are

watching the death of truth

the depth of truth has led

to a breakdown in the cultural immune

system

and the shattering that has taken place

as truth

is being buried and funeralized

is replete

you want the truth

but because we’re living in a day when

you’re watching the death of truth

everything has become up for grabs

leading to

cataclysmic

confusion

there’s psychological confusion

people’s mental trajectory

is off because

there is no truth to define it

there is

philosophical confusion

as people

doodle with ideas

the bible calls it

ever learning and never coming into the

knowledge of the truth

that’s what

ii timothy calls it they are collecting

information going to school going to

college but never arriving at the truth

second timothy 3 7 says

it’s amazing how dumb the educated are

becoming

as they stand at the graveyard of truth

there is

scientific confusion

as people deal with the probabilities

and

possibilities and

potentialities of life

only to find out that the scientists

change their minds

because they discover new things and

what they thought was the truth wasn’t

fully the truth

there is uh

entertainment confusion

you listen to talk shows and you’re

listening to babble by the hour

as confused people lead a confused

audience

where there is this plethora of opinions

and you don’t know who to believe who to

listen to

who to follow

there is

communicative

confusion on social media

where everybody’s got a thought

and they want to share it

so you find yourselves

following and being followed

there is uh

spiritual confusion

crickets in the pulpit

chirping noises

without

clarity

the one thing that ought to mark

the christian

in the church of jesus christ is that

they are people of the truth

they are

people who take

the concept of truth

seriously

in john chapter 18.

let me read these

two verses verses 37 and 38.

jesus is before pilate and jesus says

when asked i’ll read verse 36 my kingdom

is not of this world if my kingdom of

this world and my servants would be

fighting so that i would not be handed

over to the jews but as it is my kingdom

is not from this realm

therefore pilate said to him so you are

a king

verse 37 jesus answered you say

correctly that i am a king

for this i have been born

and for this i have come into the world

to testify to the truth

everyone who is of the truth

hears

me then pilate in verse 38 says

to jesus

what is truth

pilate is an agnostic

he questions whether you can know truth

what in the world is it

many people are like that they don’t

they don’t

they don’t know whether

truth is ever findable so the concept of

truth is a question mark

what is it

then there is

rationalism

that view says the truth is what you can

logically and intellectually

perceive

it becomes the mind of the academician

the learner

the truth is that which your mind can

grab

and it makes sense to you and then that

makes it

truth

for others

it’s pragmatism

pragmatism says truth is what works if

it worked it’s true

truth is what works

there is um

fatherism

truth is subjective it’s kind of how you

feel

kind of

kind of what gets you

moving on the inside that’s true

so you’ve got all of these

isms

that are trying to help us to grab the

subject of truth and to answer pilates

question what is truth jesus says

i have come to bring the truth

truth can be defined

as an absolute standard by which reality

is measured let me say that again the

definition of truth

is an absolute standard by which reality

is measured

truth

is an absolute standard by which reality

is measured

first of all you have to understand

truth exists

jesus says in john 8 32 and you shall

know the truth

so truth is

something that exists there is a thing

called truth

it’s not a made-up concept or made-up

word we use the word all the time even

though people define it differently

truth exists jesus says i came to bring

witness to the truth

not only does truth exist

truth that exists is knowable

you shall know the truth

so truth is something that can be

learned understood or discovered

this absolute standard by which reality

is measured does exist and it is

knowable

but here’s what you need to know

truth sits outside of you

it is an objective standard that is

absolute

in its origin amen

it is an objective standard

that is absolute

in its origin

okay

what i mean by that is truth the

absolute standard by which reality is

measured

transcends your emotions

in other words

how you feel does not determine whether

it’s true

last time i checked one plus one equals

two

it is two now and one and one will be

two tomorrow because it is a fixed

absolute standard by which reality is to

be measured or else you couldn’t do math

because you need a fixed standard

today

we’ve got people walking around feeling

who they are

and abandoning an objective standard

now we’re going to talk about this in

more detail in terms of love and

sensitivity but

none of that should infringe on the

truth

okay let me tell you something else

truth is deeper than facts

truth is deeper than facts

truth includes facts

but you can have facts and not know the

truth

so if you have the facts but you don’t

know the truth you can’t get to the

resolution of the problem

one of the problems today is people are

going to school and getting educated

with facts but not being told the truth

and that’s where everybody’s getting

confused because the facts are real

and if the facts are real you’ll assume

because if the facts are real that it

must be also the truth

the truth has to originate from an

originating source

in order to determine it’s the truth

not just because it is factually

correct

so when people have facts

but don’t want the truth

they’ll switch on you

so what we got today is people bouncing

around

they just bouncing around until they get

to somebody who tells them what they

want to hear

because they don’t want to know the

truth

a fixed standard an absolute standard by

which reality is to be

measured pilate said what is truth

now you’re going to run into a problem

if you decide to take your faith

seriously and become a person and people

of the truth

because you’re going to run into people

who don’t buy truth but if you decide as

every christian should

to be a person of the truth

why can’t you be your own truth

let me give you a few reasons

why you can’t be the standard

for truth

first of all

you can’t be the standard

because

you me us are sinful people

so our our

our truth gets distorted

by our own sin

another reason you can’t be the standard

for truth i can’t be the standard for

truth is because we are finite

we are limited by our humanity we don’t

know all things about all subjects

so that’s why we learn we learn because

we find out new stuff that we didn’t

know yesterday how many times you said

in your life oh i didn’t know that

or even if you didn’t say that you said

oh i didn’t understand that

because you you’re finite you’ll find

that i’m finite we are limited

so you can’t be the truth there’s

another reason why

you can’t be the standard of truth and

no other person can be that either

is because of the schemes of the devil

the doctrine of demons

demons have a school

and most of humanity is enrolled

where satan and the demonic forces

trick people with the truth

or with the lies or with partial truth

in order to deceive

and there’s probably not too many people

on the side of my voice who haven’t been

duped by the devil a time or two

another reason why you and nobody else

you know can be the final arbiter of

truth

is because of the secularization of the

culture

you’re living in a world of lies

you and i are being bombarded with lies

they’re painted they’re dressed up

but you and i are living in a world of

deception

and this secular world has increasingly

as it is drifted from a judeo-christian

ethic

become

a liar’s paradise

so you and nobody you know

can be the ultimate standard for truth

because nobody’s infinite nobody is

perfect

the devil is deceitful and the culture

is contaminated

jesus says

i have come down

to be a witness to the truth

to give testimony to the truth

if

you want absolute truth

it must come from an absolute source

[Music]

if you want perfect truth

it must come from a perfect source

everything else is guesswork

there is only one perfect source

in the universe

god amen amen

so if you want to get rid of truth you

got to get rid of god

that’s why

certain political movements socialism

communism marxism

have to

keep religion either eradicated

or marginalized

so that they don’t have to deal with god

because in those systems they want

government

to be the arbiter of truth

even in our own nation as we shift away

from a judeo-christian worldview

there is this attack on the freedom of

religion why because religion based in

god becomes a problem

because it’s calling for an absolute

standard

outside

of what people say and think

the bible declares

that god is truth

psalm 31 verse 5

the god of truth isaiah

65 verse 16.

scripture declares

that the god of truth

cannot lie

hebrews 6 18.

in fact let me tell you how radical it

is

romans chapter 3 verse 4

let god be true and every man a liar

amen

hello

let god be true

and everybody

a liar

so here what that means is when you and

anybody you know disagrees with god

you’re wrong

because it is impossible for god to lie

he can’t be he can’t be wrong

because there is nothing in his nature

see when you know everything about

everything

you can’t be wrong

when you know past present and future

you can’t be wrong

when you then made it all sustain it all

and one day will destroy it all you

can’t be wrong

[Applause]

jesus declared as part of the triune

godhead

that he came john 1 14 full of grace and

truth

john 14 verse 6 i am the way

the truth notice the article i’m not a

truth i’m the truth

i’m amen

i’m not just truth among many i am the

standard by which truth is to be

measured

the bible calls the holy spirit the

third member of the trinity the spirit

of truth john 14 17

john 15 26

john 16 13

over and over again

i’ve given you the spirit of truth not

the spirit of this world amen

so you’re not supposed to be checking

with the world first

here’s what you need to tell all your

young people going to college you know

we got some kids going to college this

year

here’s what you need to tell you tell

yourself and then tell all your kids

going to college

you can give them this this heads up

you can be smarter than your teachers

david said i’m smarter than my teachers

why

because he started with an absolute

standard so he had a standard to judge

what the teachers were saying amen

the reason why the evolutionary

hypothesis is being taught as fact in

school is because with evolution you can

get rid of god

you don’t have to deal with god when you

uh when existence happens by chance

see they have to get rid of god

so that man

if so facto becomes the standard by

which truth is

truth is whatever god says something is

it is not what the opinion polls say

it is not what the surveys say

[Music]

i’m tired of surveys i’m tired of

opinion polls

i’m tired of this group says this this

group says that

all that’s all that’s

secondary

if god is spoken amen

jesus says the triune god and i have

come truth is not sourced here he says

i’m coming from another realm so truth

sits outside of time and space

truth sits outside of your five senses

truth sits outside because truth comes

from a different source

he says it comes from another realm

jesus said and all i’ve done is come in

to validate it in human terms

so your question my question

on every subject not just the subjects i

want to talk about on every subject is

what has god said on this matter

that becomes the question

what has god said on his mind and if you

ask that on the front end instead of the

back end you’ll save yourself a lot of

headache

[Applause]

what has god said what did he mean by

what he said okay what do i do in light

of what he said what he meant by what he

said

so the question that you’re gonna have

to answer i’m gonna have to answer

you’re gonna have to

talk to your friends about answering is

this what will be the standard of your

determining truth

will it be your feelings that change

will it be your intellect that’s finite

will it be your morals

uh instincts that differ

because i may think something’s okay you

may think it’s not okay so we don’t have

the same moral code so

what’s going to be the standard

it is time

those of us who name the name of jesus

christ

who declare we believe in god

to return to the truth

to not apologizing

for being a person of the truth

now we’re going to talk about how you do

it we’re going to talk about speaking

the truth in love we’re going to talk

about the sensitivities involved we’re

going to do all that because people are

hurting people are confused and all of

that

but you still shouldn’t be wavering on

the truth

the absolute divinely authorized

objective standard by which reality

is measured

it’s the original source

and when you and i do that

we decide that we’re not just church

goers we’re not just

christians we are people of the truth

on all subjects

and you you can always know a person of

the truth because they will want to know

what god says

you will always know a person who is not

of the truth because they don’t want to

hear what god has to say

amen that is the telltale side

do they welcome it

or do they reject it not do they like it

or not like it because a lot of god’s

truth you’re not going to like

i’ll tell you that now

a lot of god’s truth you’re not going to

like

they hated jesus because he was of the

truth

he says and anybody who is of the truth

hears me

so you so if if they’re not taking me

seriously that’s because they don’t take

truth seriously

because i was i’m full of grace and

truth

so the challenge i give to us today

to all

who are

part of this ministry and this world

view

this kingdom agenda this

this sea of god’s rule he says jesus

says that it came down from above

that he says it came down from the

kingdom

the kingdom up there thy kingdom come

thy will be done on earth as it is in

heaven that we are supposed to make an

imprint on earth from the information

given in heaven

amen

so when you leave here

and live your life you must live it as a

person of the truth

because that’s the only way you’ll get

god’s involvement amen

because he will not fellowship with the

lie

because

in him there is no deceit

no deception

[Music]

while god wants us to be committed to

truth

he wants us to communicate that truth

in a certain kind of way

and he defines that way to communicate

his truth

as communicated in love

what is love

love is the decision

to compassionately

righteously

and responsibly

seek the well-being of another

which means when we’re communicating

truth god’s way we want that truth to

build somebody up and not tear people

down

when your or my communication of truth

is harmful and hurtful

it is believing how truth is to be made

known

[Music]

so

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

you