The part of the chapter that I’d like to focus on is beginning verse 10 where the bible reads, “And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie. That they all might be damned to believe not the truth, but had pleasure and unrighteousness.” Now, this scripture talks about people not believing the truth, because they have pleasure and unrighteousness. At the end of verse 10, it says that, “They received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”
What I want to preach about this morning is the subject of ‘loving the truth.’ Now, there are some people who love the truth, other people don’t. People who don’t love the truth, the Bible tells us that they will not believe the truth. They won’t be saved, because they don’t love the truth. Now, go to 2 Peter chapter number 3. 2 Peter chapter number 3 toward the end of the New Testament, there’s a questions that sometimes people will ask and that is this question: “Why is it that some people believe on Jesus Christ and others don’t?” Doctrines like Calvinism, which is a false doctrine, teach that God has foreordained and chosen certain people to believe and he’s foreordained and chosen others not to believe, and that it is not in our hands to choose whether or not we believe in Christ, but it’s God up in Heaven pulling all the strings, everyone’s a marionette, and people believe, because God makes them believe and people don’t believe it, because God makes them happy. That’s simply not true.
Look at 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 9. 2 Peter 3 verse 9 says, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” The Bible says, “God’s not willing that any should perish.” Elsewhere it says that, “He will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” It says in verse number 3 of 2 Peter 3, go up a few verses. It says, “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of its coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this day, willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God, the Heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water.”
In this passage, we see God’s will in verse number 9 that, “All men will be saved, that all men will come to the knowledge of the truth,” but then we see man’s wicked will in verse number 5 that says, “They willingly are ignorant of the fact that God created the earth, of the fact that God flooded the earth and destroyed the first world in the days of Noah, and they are willfully ignorant of the coming judgment when God will rain fire in brimstone and punish the inhabitants of the earth at the second coming of Christ.”
These are things that they’re willingly ignorant of. Now, what does it mean ‘to be willingly’? Their will, it’s what they want. Just to put it in modern vernacular when we say, “This is the will of God,” that means it’s one God once. When we say, “He’s not willing, then he should perish,” it means he doesn’t want anybody to perish. What this is saying is that people don’t want to know the truth when it says that they’re willingly ignorant of these things. You said, “Well, why would anyone just willfully ignore the fact, to just willfully ignore the truth and just want to remain in unbelief?”
Well, the Bible tells us in verse 3 when it says, “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts.” Notice these people who walk after their own lust, people who live a sinful, wicked and ungodly life, they want to say things like, “Where is the promise of his coming?” They want to scoffeth the word of God. They want to reject what the Lord has to say. Why? Because they do not want to be corrected for their wickedness. Now, go to John chapter 3 and we’ll see the exact same thing.
John chapter 3 is the famous chapter where Jesus is speaking with Nicodemus. It’s where we get the most famous verse in the whole Bible, “John 3:16,” which is known in virtually every language of the world. Look at John chapter 3 verse 19, the Bible reads, “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil, hated the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” Notice how truth is associated with the light. The Bible says that men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
“Every one that doeth evil hateth the light,” the Bible says, “Neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.” Now, what does it mean for ‘your deeds to be reproved’? Well, your deeds are the things that you do, and ‘reproved’ means that you’re told that you’re wrong. What the Bible’s saying here is that wicked and ungodly people, they stay away from the Bible. They stay away from the word of God, because they don’t want to be told that the things that they do in their life are wrong. Now, all of us realize that we’re sinners here this morning. Nobody here thinks that they’re perfect. Nobody here thinks that they are completely without sin and all of us are willing to admit, “Hey, we do wrong things from time to time. We make mistakes. We’re not perfect. We’ve all sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
As it is written, “There’s none righteous, no not one.” The difference between us and these wicked unbelievers who are willfully ignorant of the truth is that we’re willing to admit that we’re a sinner. We’re willing to admit that there are things that we do that aren’t right, but there are some very wicked people out there who just refuse to admit that anything that they’ve ever done is wrong. Now, how can you say, “I’ve never done anything wrong?” Well, there’s really only way to say that. Basically say, “There is no God,” because if there is no God, then pretty much there’s no such thing as right and wrong, because we’re all just animals. In the animal kingdom, there’s not really a right and wrong. When animals just tear each other apart and just survival the fittest and they do whatever they want.
We see that there are people out there who don’t want to believe the word of God, not because they would have to change their whole life around to get saved, because you don’t have to change your whole life around to get saved. You just have to believe in Jesus. You have to believe the truth, but because of the fact that they don’t even want their deeds reproved at all. See, being saved is easy. All you have to do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but in order to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that includes the fact that you’re basically believing that there is a God, and you’re believing that God has rules, and you’re believing that you’ve broken those rules, and that because you’ve broken those rules, you’re in need of a savior, because if you didn’t have any sins, you wouldn’t need a savior.
Just the fact that you’re believing on the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior shows that you’re acknowledging that you needed to be saved from something and that you’ve done wrong and that you deserve hell and that you need Jesus to get you to Heaven and so forth, and a lot of people don’t want to admit that. They want to live a sinful, wicked life and they want to say, “There’s nothing wrong with the life I’m living. It’s fine for me to live the way that I’m living.” That’s what we saw in 2 Thessalonians 2. It says that, “They received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” It says, “They all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
2 Peter 3 said, “They walk after their lust,” therefore they scoffeth the word of God. They scoffeth the creation. They scoffeth the flood. They scoff at the coming judgment upon this earth. Why? Because they’re walking after their own lust, because their deeds are evil, and they don’t want to be reproved, and they don’t want to admit the truth to me. Now, people will claim, “Well, if you’re intelligent, you’ll believe in the Big Bang. If you’re intelligent and educated, you’ll believe in evolution. If you’re a scientist, then you’ll believe these things.” I’ve heard atheist and agnostics make statements like, “Well, you’ll never find a scientist that believes in creation.” You know, they’ll throw things out there like that.
Of course there are all kinds of scientist who believe in biblical creation. This is a lot, but they’ll say that, so then when you confront them with an example and say, “Well, here’s an example of a scientist,” and give them all the qualifications and everything, “Here’s a guy who believes in biblical young earth creationism.” You show him the example. Here’s what they’ll say, “Well, yeah, but he’s not in the field of evolutionary biology.” Now, why would someone who doesn’t believe in evolution go into the field of evolutionary biology? That’s like saying, “Well, you know, all pastors believe in Catholicism.” “No. Look, here are all these pastors that are against it.” “Yeah, but none of them are catholic priests.” Every catholic priest that we talked to believes in Catholicism.
That’s the ridiculousness, because the fields that they want them to be in are basically fields that involve the Big Bang and evolution. That’s all that those fields are about, and they’re like, “Well, everybody in that field believes in it.” Yeah, that’s why they went into that field, because they believe in it.” There are all kinds, in fact, I talked to a scientist not that long ago, who had been an unbeliever when he became a scientist. He said as he studied science, and as he studied microbiology, it convinced him, “Wow, there’s no way that this happened on its own. Just the DNA is too complicated. When you get down on the micro-level and look at the smallest simplest organism, they’re so complicated. There’s no way these could have come on its own.” It made him want to seek after God and figure out where the truth was. Eventually, he got saved and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
The truth to the matter is, the reason that people believe in the Big Bang and evolution, is not because, “It’s scientifically sound and it’s just there’s all the data and the overwhelming evidence.” That’s what they’ll say, but they’re lying. The real reason is because they want to believe in it. Just let these words sink down in your ears, “People believe what they want.” I mean isn’t that what the Bible’s showing us? People believe what they want. People are willingly ignorant many times of the truth. Other people, if they hate the light, they won’t come to the light. If they love the light, they’ll come to it. Who is it that’s coming to the light and getting saved? Who is it that’s shunning the light and not getting saved? It’s based on what those people love and what those people want. The people who receive the love of the truth are saved. The people have the pleasure in unrighteousness, that which is not right, they don’t get saved.
You ask yourself, “Why would these people lie about it? Why would all these scientist …” Well, for money, to get paid, because if you don’t go with the party line of what everybody is saying, you’re not going to succeed in the university. Look, anybody who says anything in these universities that doesn’t go along with their liberal communist agenda ends up losing their job. The people going to that field and succeed are the people who are will to sell their soul to the devil. Even just the silliest things, like I remember a few years ago, there was this president, I think it was of Harvard, one of these major ivy league universities, and the president of the school did a study on proficiency of math amongst men and women.
He basically came out with the results, and I hope I’m remembering this properly, but he came out with the results and it showed that men were a lot better at math than women at Harvard. He came out with this result, and it was just a scientific study. He wasn’t trying to be down on women or negative about women. He’s just like, “Wow, isn’t this interesting? We studied this, we tested, men and women’s proficiency.” I was just like, “What are you doing? You sexist, misogynistic.” Freaking out. It’s just data. It’s just about ... Look, our world is so bizarre, they think there’s no difference between men and women. In fact that men are better than women, it’s that men are better than women at math. Okay? It’s that simple.
There are many things that women are better at than men, because men have different strengths and weaknesses. Ladies have different strengths and weaknesses. We’re just different, okay? When it comes to the bench press, men are going to win, all right? When it comes to math, I know when I was in school, the high level math classes were filled with boys not girls. It’s not because men are just smarter in general than women, it’s just that when it comes to math, that’s the way that men are more wired. Now, you say, “I know a woman who’s great at math. I know men, they’re terrible at math.” The exception proves the rule. The study showed that in general most of the time, that’s the way it works.
So what? Does it really matter? No, but the point that I’m making is, that as soon as anybody steps out of line and doesn’t say what they’re being told to say, which is the agenda of godlessness, which is an agenda of anti-Bible, anti-creationism, anti-Jesus, anti-men and women having different roles. They’re going to be attacked and criticized and fired and destroyed, because of the fact that there is an agenda in this world to promote anything that’s against the Lord. Okay? The devil is called the god of this world and he has an agenda to blind the minds of those that believe not. People who succeed down at Devil State University in Tempe are people who fall in line, and are on board with the devil’s program. Okay? That’s the way life is.
Now, another reason why they would lie about it is, because they go into it wanting to believe that there’s no God, because they want to live however they want and have no conscience about it, and not even have to think about whether what they’re doing is right or wrong, so they had to find a lot of students who want to have that same philosophy and it’s just a great match up for them to keep perpetuating their lies that say, “Oh yeah, we came from nothing and it’s the Big Bang and evolution.” That’s why they believe in it, because they want to believe that there’s no God. It’s not that it actually makes sense that there was nothing in the universe. All the matter in the universe was compressed down to the size smaller than the period on the page; infinitesimally small, all the stars, all the galaxies, all the planets was all jammed into this tiny little dot.
In fact, they say, “The mass of that dot was approaching zero.” Why don’t we just go all the way and just say it with zero and then God created it. Okay. It was damn so small. You say, “No mass?” “ Well, because this is all just energy and it just explode! Boom! Then it just spun out into all the … They say that it exploded in one trillion, trillionth of a second to the size of our observable universe. That defies so many loss of so-called science, saying that things can’t travel faster than the speed of light, for example.
It’s all just this, “Theory of all these quantum, physics and relativity and all this stupidity.” Here’s what people say, “Oh, you don’t believe in science? How’s that new iPhone treating you? Oh, you don’t believe in science huh? How do you like that android phone with the text-to-speech capability, huh? How do like that hybrid vehicle that you’re driving on the parking lot, huh? You know, it’s all made by evolutionary biologist.” “No, it wasn’t fool. You know what, those are made by engineers.” Mathematicians and engineers and anything that has to do with science is not coming from evolutionary biology, okay?
It’s not coming from quantum physics. Astrophysics; studying to stars. They didn’t study some star supposedly billions of light-years away to make you that iPhone, but they’ll just try to say, “You don’t mind driving cars and using air-conditioning, but you just hate science.” “No, I hate science falsely so called.” The Bible says to avoid oppositions of science falsely so called. That’s just one example. Flip over if you would to Romans chapter 1. While you’re turning that, I’ll read for you from 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 3. Listen to this, “For the time will come when they will not endure a sound doctrine.” Sound doctrine means sound teaching, okay? He says, “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts, will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables.”
Why do people turn their ears away from the truth and turn their ears unto things that are fake; fables, made-up stories. The reason why is because it says that they don’t want to endure a sound doctrine and it’s after their own lust. What does lust mean? Lust is desire. They want to hear what they want to hear. It’s not that they’ve been convinced that these things are true; it’s just that that’s what they want to hear. When they’re confronted with the truth which is the light of the word of God, they hate it. They don’t want anything to do with it. They’re like, “Wait a minute, this is reproving my lifestyle. This is reproving things that I do every day. I don’t want to hear this.” Then, “Oh, there’s no God.” “Oh yeah. Well, tell me more. That sounds good.”
That’s what it comes to my friend, over and over again, the Bible’s really clear that people who don’t know the truth are willfully ignorant often and that the difference between the person who believes and the person who doesn’t believe is their own desire and the love in their heart. That’s what the Bible tells us. Look at Romans chapter 1 verse 18. It says, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,” watch this, “Who hold the truth and unrighteousness.” Do these people not possess the truth? They have it, don’t they? They hold the truth in unrighteousness. Verse 19, “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them. For God hath shewed it unto them.”
I mean could these people know the truth that they wanted to? Of course, but it says, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.” Go to John chapter 5. John chapter number 5. While you’re turning there, listen to Revelation 22:17 where the Bible reads, “And the spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” What does it mean ‘whosoever will’? Whosoever wants to.
See, we often in our modern vernacular use the word ‘will’ to just express the future tense which is a legitimate use of the word ‘will’. When the Bible says there, “Whosoever will,” it’s talking about whosoever wants to, whosoever is willing. The Bible often use the word ‘will’ that way. Who may come and be saved? Whoever wants to. What does that imply? That there are people who don’t want to, and they just wanted to just ignore the truth. They’re like the Jews who hurt Stephen preaching and covered their ears. Remember it says, “They stopped their ears”? When he’s preaching to them the word of God, they stopped the ears like a little a kid that would go, “Baaaaaa.”
Did you ever do that when you were a little kid and your siblings were saying something you didn’t like? You’re like, “I’m not listening to you.” They keep talking, “No, no, no. Just listen. Just listen.” You go, “Baaaaa.” You’d say ‘baaaa’ just to make sure, with my ears plugged, nothing’s getting through. That’s what they’re doing in Acts chapter 7 with Stephen. He’s telling them the truth, they stopped their ears at hearing the truth. They will not. They don’t want to.
Look at John 5 verse 38. It says, “And ye have not his word abiding in you, for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.” Okay, why don’t they believe? “Search the scriptures,” he says in verse 39, “For in them ye think you have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that you might have life.” It’s not that God’s not willing. It’s that they’re not willing. They will not come to him. The Bible says in, go to 2 John if you would. 2 John, but while you’re turning the Bible, it says in 2 Timothy 3:7, “Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth, men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith.”
When we have somebody being confronted with the truth, the truth is right there in front of them, it’s being preached unto them, it’s being exposed to them. The Bible says there are people who resist the truth. Here, the truth is saying, “Look, can’t you see it? It’s right there.” They’re just resisting it. “No, no, no.” Because they don’t want to see it, because they don’t want to believe. Stay there in 2 John, but in 1 Corinthians 13, the famous chapter about charity. It says in verse 6, “Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.” There are those who rejoice in the truth, delight in the truth, love the truth. In the next breathe, it says, “Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.”
Okay, there are people who rejoice in the truth. Other people rejoice in iniquity. The Bible says there in 2 John verse 1, “The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; not I only, but also all day that have known the truth. For the truth’s sake, which dweleth in us and shall be with us forever. Grace be with you, mercy and peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we received a commandment from the Father.” Now, do you notice an emphasis there in every single verse? Verse 1, verse 2, verse 3, verse 4, what’s being emphasized over and over again? The truth.
He says, “I love you in the truth, and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth.” Twice in verse 1 the ‘truth’ is mentioned. Verse 2, “For the truth’s sake.” At the end of the verse 3, “In truth and love.” Verse 4, “I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth.” See, truth is what matters today. It’s what mattered to John.
The apostle that was the disciple who Jesus loved, the one that was after his heart, he loved the truth. That’s why the book of John talks more about the truth than any book. 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, the truth, the truth, the truth. Go to 3 John, just flip the page over to 3 John. It should be right across the page there, verse 1, “The elder unto the well-beloved Gaius whom I love in truth.” Behold, “Beloveth, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee. Even as thou walkest in the truth. I have to greater joy than to hear that my children walking truth.”
You see it over and over and over again. You know what matters today about this church service and about this Bible that I hold in my hand and about the things that are being preached, is that they’re true today. That’s what matters. That’s important to God. People say, “Well, you know, is your heart in the right place?” You know, when your heart’s in the right place when you love the truth. “Well, you know, we don’t even … True, False, just is your heart right.” No, your heart’s right when you love the truth.
You know what rejoices the Lord? To see his children walking in truth. He looks at you and says, “It’s we’re doing it for the truth’s sake.” You say, “Why do you preach that sermon?” Whatever the sermom. “Why do you preach that sermon?” Because it was truth, that’s why. It doesn’t matter what they say. “Well, why was that sermon relevant?” You know why it was relevant? Because I told the truth, and we today need to be Christians who love the truth, and embrace the truth, and rejoice in the truth, and want to impart unto others the truth, that’s what matters. Say, “Well, but it’s not nice.” “Well, it’s the truth.” Sometimes the truth is very nice. Sometimes, the truth is not so nice, but it’s always the truth and we should always love it.
That’s why I love the whole Bible. Some people only like parts of the Bible. Other parts, “I don’t like that part.” See, I like it all, because I know that it is all true and that’s what makes me love it. Now, there are some people who just love the truth and other people who don’t really care about the truth. Now, I can think of so many things throughout my life where I didn’t really know which way was right and I was trying to learn about something. I can often remember thinking, “I don’t really care which one it is. I just want to know the truth.” A lot of people, they decide what they want to believe and then they set out to prove what they want to believe.
They try to go find it in the Bible. They decide, “This is what I want to believe. Let’s see if we can find it in here.” You know what, if you approached that way, you’ll find it in your twisted mind. It’s not really going to be there, but with the book this big with 31,000 some verses in it, people can always find a verse that they can twist and take out of context to pretty much make the Bible say whatever they wanted to say, just by twisting things. Now, they’ll never have a clear verse that exactly states what they’re saying, but they’ll have a verse that they can go, “Well, if this verse says this, then how about this?” They can twist it and make it say whatever they want.
There are people out there who want to believe in polygamy. The Joseph Smiths of this world, the Brighan Youngs of this world, the Mohammeds of this world. If somebody just goes into the Bible and wants to prove, “Hey, polygamy is fine.” They’ll find a way to twist scripture and make it fine. Of course, there’s no clear scripture that tells you, “Hey, it’s okay to have more than one wife.” In fact, the clear scripture says that, “God made them at the beginning, male and female. A man will depart his father and mother and cleave unto his wife, singular, and they too shall be one flesh.” The Bible also says that it is a sin for the pastor or the bishop or the deacon to have more than one wife. Why is it wrong for a pastor to be the husband of more than one wife? Because having more than one wife is a sin, that’s why.
Because otherwise, they wouldn’t say, “Well, no. it’s just the pastor can’t have it.” Well, here’s the newsflash, everybody who’s a pastor started out not being a pastor. How could it be okay for the people in the pew to have more than one wife, if it’s not okay for the pastor to have more than one wife? The truth to the matter is, it’s not okay for anybody to have more than one wife, because God intended marriage to be between two people; one man and one woman and it would be until death, and that’s it, because otherwise, you’d have all these laymen with all their hair and the wives and then it’s like, “Oh, I want to be a pastor now.” “Sorry.”
It wouldn’t make any sense folks, but there are people out there in their diluted twisted mind, in fact there are 14 million of them that called themselves ‘Mormons’ who believe that polygamy is fine. You say, “Well, Mormons don’t believe that. Mormons don’t practice polygamy.” Ask any Mormon you want. I’ve talked to hundreds and hundreds of Mormons. Mormons will tell you that they don’t believe in polygamy, because they believe in obeying the law of the land. You know what that means, that if it were legal, they would do it. That’s what they’re saying.
The Mormons did it up until the federal government was going to come in and raid them and shot them down. Then conveniently, they got a revelation from their prophet. “Oh wow, polygamy is now something that we’re not going to do anymore. We’re going to follow law of land.” I’ve asked these Mormons, I’ve said to them, basically, what you’re saying is that if it were legal, you’d practice it. That’s what you’re saying you say, “Well, we believe in obeying the law of land, that’s why we don’t …” Look, I don’t practice polygamy, because I believe the Bible. It has nothing to do with the law of the land. It’s just it has to do with God said, “No.” Okay?
Who wants to practice it anyway? Good night. Anyway, that’s another sermon I would solve. Good night. Who wants to pay for that? No, I’m just kidding. Just kidding. My wife is just so wonderful and amazing. She’s all I need. The thing is, we, as Christians, it’s not just enough to love the truth enough to get saved. That’s obviously the most important thing is whether or not you’re saved. People who don’t love the truth and won’t come to the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior, there’s going to be hell to pay. Not only that, after we’re saved, after we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, we need to continue to love the truth.
Even once we’re children of God. What did he say in 2 John and 3 John? “I want you to keep walking in the truth. I want to hear that you’re walking in truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that you’re walking in truth. We received the commandment of the Father that we would walk in truth.” Go to John 17. John 17, there are all kinds of things about this in the books that John pinned down. Isn’t it amazing that John, the gospel of John is the only book in the Bible with the stated purpose of getting people saved?
Obviously, you could use other scriptures throughout the Bible, other books to get people saved, but the gospel of John is the gospel that states that the purpose of the book is to get people saved. It says, “There are many things that Jesus did, but these are written that you might believe, that Jesus the Christ and that believing, you might have life through his name. For the gospel of John is written that you might be saved.” Isn’t it interesting how much it emphasizes belief? I think 90 times in the gospel of John, the word ‘believe’ is used, 90 times. Not only that, it emphasized the truth, because what gets you saved? Believing the truth and Jesus is the truth.
The Bible says in John 17 verse 4, I have given them thy word, and the world have hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world, I pray not that thou shouldeset take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Watch this, “Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth.” Sanctify means ‘to set apart.’ You study the Bible, you could for example go to Exodus 13 and see where that is defined as ‘set apart,’ if you compare verse 2 with verse 12.
He says, “Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth.” The truth is what sets us apart from the world. We are sanctified through the truth. We are set apart from this world by the truth. Why does the world hate us? Because it says in verse number 14, “I’d given them my word and the world have hated them.” Because they’re not in the world even as I am in the world. Why is it that believers are hating the world? Because of the word. “I’ve given them my word and the world hated them.” Because we’re set apart, we’re different. What makes us different? That we have the truth.
Look at verse number 18, “As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes, I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for this alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.” Just flip over to chapter 18 while we’re there. This is where Jesus is standing before Pontius Pilate. In verse 36, it says, “Jesus answered, My Kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from hence. Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.”
Why did Jesus come into the world? To bear witness unto the truth. “Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews and saith unto them, I found in him no fault at all. What is Jesus saying here ‘every one that is of the truth heareth my voice’? Then the people out there will be like Pontius Pilate and say, “What is truth?” Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. “Duh, what’s truth?” The Socrates and the Plato and the Aristotle of this world, they would just go on and on and on and on discussing, “What is truth? What is justice? What is righteous? Blah, blah, blah.”
Look, it’s really simple. You know what righteousness is? Obeying God. You know what the truth is? The word of God. There I say it. Socrates and Plato and Aristotle could have all just been put on a three black five card. These fools of this world are like Pontius Pilate who wants you to define the most simple term, “What is life? What is truth?” You know what, these are type of foolish and unlearned questions of the unbelievers. Everybody knows what truth means. Then you’ll try to tell people something like, “Believe on Jesus.” “What does ‘believe’ mean?” As if anyone doesn’t know what the word ‘believe’ means. It’s this type, “What is truth? Like there’s no absolute truth or like there’s no absolute definition of what believe means, or there’s no absolute definition of what life is.
Everyone knows what life is. If I show you, “Hey, is this alive? Is this not alive?” You could all give me the right answer. Baby in its mother’s womb. Well, I know that’s alive.” Yeah, exactly. The cellphone tower, is it alive or not alive? It’s not alive. We got a little quiet there. You guys think that power poles are coming to life? Okay, let me make it really easy. The chair you’re sitting on … Yeah, is it alive? Is this microphone alive or not? Hello, is this live? No, I’m just kidding. Anyway, that’s a different meaning of the word ‘live,’ okay?
The Bible here shows Jesus making this very profound statement. I don’t want you to miss this, ‘profound statement.’ “Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice.” See, people who love the truth, people who are of the truth, when they hear the voice of Jesus, they hear it. They listen to it. They believe it. Why? Because Jesus is the truth. Anyone who is of the truth when they’re confronted with the word of God and when they’re confronted with, the truth of God’s word is going to embrace it, because they are of the truth.
Now, go to John chapter 8 and you’ll find a similar statement. John chapter 8. Let me just read this while you’re turning to John 8. Psalm 119 says this in verse 29, “Remove from me the way of lying.” Get lying away from me. “Remove from me the way of lying, and grant me thy law graciously. I have chosen the way of truth.” Did you hear that? “I’ve chosen the way of truth, thy judgments have I laid before me.” It’s a choice that we make. Choosing the way of truth. Why? Because we love the truth. Or choosing to have pleasure in unrighteousness, to scoffeth the word of God, to be willfully ignorant.”
Look, Calvinism’s a lie. It’s a choice, my friend. You choose the way of the truth or you choose the lie. You say, “Well, what makes one person believe and another person not believe?” It has to do with what they want to believe and it’s a choice that they make to decide whether to be somebody who’s of the truth or not the truth. Let me tell you something. There are a lot people who are not of the truth and you say, “How do you define that?” Well, when you walk up to somebody and just show someone the facts and they’re just like, “I still don’t believe in it.” I’m not just talking about the gospel, I mean I’m talking about anything.
I remember one time I was at the missionary in Germany and he told me, he said, “Well, there’s a reason why there’s two genealogies of Jesus.” This guy was a pastor. “There’s a reason why there are two genealogies of Jesus. The one in Luke 3 and the one in Matthew 1.” He said, “You know, one of them shows that he’s of the tribe of Juda, the king of the Jews, the son of David. The other one shows that he’s of the tribe of Levi, because he’s the priest.” I told him, I said, “No, that’s not true.” I took him to the genealogy and I showed him in Luke 3 that the Levi in Luke 3 is a different Levi who’s hundreds and hundreds of years from the Levi he’s thinking of.
Then I took him to the book of Hebrews, this one is like 18. I took him to the book of Hebrews, I showed him where it says, “It is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood.” It said that, “It is evident.” He said, our Lord sprang from another tribe, not of the tribe of Levi. It says he’s a priest after the order of Melchisedec and it was then started another priesthood rise not after the order of Erin, not from the tribe … I read them the whole thing and he just silently listened to me.
As I read him the whole the passage from Hebrews and showed him the facts right into the genealogies and I’m done and I just looked at him like … He paused for a minute and then he just repeated it to me. “The reason there’s two genealogies is because one of them shows Jesus of the tribe of Levi and the other one shows Jesus of the tribe of Juda. One out of his mom’s side, one on his father’s side.” There’s a guy who doesn’t love the truth. Isn’t it interesting, you also turned out to be a Calvinist, by the way? He didn’t love the truth. I guess he was just foreordained to be ignorant of the Bible from the foundation of the world, according to this Calvinist.
Things like that just blow my mind, but I’ll bet everybody in this room has had a similar experience, where you just told somebody something just playing his day and he was like, “No. No, I still think that he’s of the tribe of Levi. I still think that.” “Okay, are you basing that on anything?” Doesn’t it just frustrate you and you’re just like, “Aarrgh.” You just want to grab people and shake people or somebody and like, “Look. Look at it.” They’re like, “No, no. I still think …” How many times have I sat there and given the gospel to somebody for 20 minutes and show them what’s wrong with Mormonism, show them from the Bible what’s wrong with the Jehovah’s witnesses , show them what … Then, at the end, I’m just like, “Do you want to believe this? Are you going to believe this and get saved or do you want to just stick with your religion?” “I’ll just stick with my religion, thanks.” “What are you doing?”
You say, “Well, you know, you grew up in a Christian home.” You know, when I was growing up in a Christian home, I read the Bible for myself and I said to myself, “You know what, if anything in this Bible is different than what I’ve been taught, I’m going to change what I believe.” There, I could give you many examples of things where I’d change what I believed from what I was taught. Thank God I was raised Baptist and raised Christian. A lot of the things I was taught were right, most of the things, I was taught right. There are a lot of things where I said, “You know what, that isn’t true. I’ve been taught that my whole life, but the Bible says something different.” “Why would you go against what your parents taught you or what your pastor taught you?” Because you love the truth more that you love your parents and more than you love your pastor.
You loved the truth more than anything, because you’re of the truth. The Bible even describes certain people as being of the truth. I mean wouldn’t that be a good moniker to have? I’m a person who is of the truth. What does having to do with the truth? I’m a person who has a relationship with the truth. Exodus 18:21, you have to turn there, but it says, “Moreover thou shall provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness, and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rules of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.”
The Bible says that our leader should be man of truth, people that are of the truth. Jesus said, “Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.” Look at John chapter 8 verse 44, where you had to turn. It says, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning,8 and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he’s a liar and the father of it. Because I tell you the truth, you believe me not. Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why you do not believe me?”
Jesus is asking the question, “Why someone believes and another doesn’t?” He said, “Well, I’m telling you the truth. Everything I’m saying’s the truth, so why don’t you believe me?” He says it the next verse, this is why, “He that is of God heareth God’s words, ye therefore hear them not, because you’re not of God.” There are people out there who willfully choose the way of lies instead of choosing the way of truth. They reject the truth and are willfully ignorant, because they don’t want to believe in anybody who’s gone out soul winning for any like the time and knock through a lot of doors knows that there are lot of people who just have no interest in the truth. They don’t care.
I’ve had people tell me, “I don’t care what you show me in the Bible, you’re not going to change what I believe. I don’t care what you show me,” because they’re just not interested in the truth. They don’t care. You could prove it them. You could have facts and they will just … Look, how many times when you talk to these worldly just zombies of people who are just so mind-controlled. You try to show them. For example, not to keep bringing this up, but my sermon from a few weeks ago, that they caused all the hoopla and thank God, no more protesters this morning. They keep telling me, “We’re going to keep protesting until you stop preaching hate.” The thing is, they always stop and I never stop. They always stop.
When it comes to that sermon, it’s funny because when you preach the Bible part of it, then basically people who aren’t saved obviously that doesn’t mean anything to them, because they’re not of the truth. They don’t hear God’s word, because they’re not of God. They don’t really care. Then it’s funny when you start pulling out all of the scientific data. Remember, I did a lot of scientific data in that sermon, and other sermons like it. I pulled out the data and I even walked over and talk to some of the protesters a week ago, and I was pulling up the data on my phone and so I’m, “Look, it’s right here on the government’s website, aids.gov, cdc.gov, and I’m showing them the facts and they get real quiet when you start reading them the facts.
You know, when you talk about the Bible, it’s like, “Well, that bronzy book and blah, blah, blah.” Then when you start showing them the facts and the science, they get real quiet. What do they say? They can’t really say anything. This is the government’s website. This is aids.gov. Then they’re quiet and you think to yourself, because you’re of the truth, so you tend to mirror on other people your own attributes. Have you ever heard of judging other people by your own heart? You think to yourself, “Oh, they’re getting quiet, because they’re getting this. I just made a breakthrough.”
You think for a moment that you’re Anne Sullivan with Helen Keller, and you’ve just finally gotten through. “Water, water.” You made this breakthrough and they’re real quiet, because they have nothing to say. “It’s fog. It’s all this fog. False science.” It’s all backing up what you just said from the Bible. After a pause, it’s just like, “No, you’re wrong.” What? They can’t prove you wrong. They can’t show you that it is wrong, but it’s just they don’t care, but see, it’s irrelevant to some people what about the truth.
Thankfully, in America today, if someone sues you for defamation of character, you know that you can defend yourself by proving the way you said was true, which makes sense, right? They say, “Oh, I’m suing you for defamation of character.” All you have to do is go into the court and say, “Well, your honor, everything I said is true. Here is all the fact.” It’s like, “Case dismissed.” This man spoke the truth. Did you know that in other countries like Canada, the truth is not a defense in defamation lawsuits? There are situations where they say, “Well, what you’re saying is hate speech.” You tell them, “Yeah, but it’s all true.” It doesn’t matter whether it’s true. You can’t say that, because it’s hate speech.
The truth, thankfully in America, is still a defense in our court system. “Hey, everything I said was true.” It’s fine, but in other countries, they have laws. They’re so weird where the truth is no defense. Isn’t that just show you how our society is … Because if you want to know the future of America, take a trip to Europe, take a trip to Canada. That’s where we’re headed. It’s like getting a time machine to the future of the morality. Now, when it comes to some of the culture, it’s like going backward sometime. They’re just getting into ‘80s and ‘90s and some places, but when it comes to the moral decline, it’s like moving forward when you go to these places. It’s sad today.
Let’s go to one place, Isaiah 30. We want to be people that are described as being of the truth. We as men want to be men of truth. Ladies want to be ladies of truth. There are a lot of people who throw around the word ‘truth’. Now, I’m talking about the truth movement or being a truther, right? Being a truther, the truth movement. This is the real truth movement. You who the truthers are? Bible-beleiving Christians are the real truthers today. Yeah, honestly.
Now, a lot of the people in the so-called truth movement are also Bible-believing Christians and that’s great. Why? Why would that be? Because it’s the same type of person who wants to know the truth about God and the truth about Jesus and the truth about the Bible, then also wants to know the truth about all the other things in this world. That’s why so many people who are involved in the truth movement are often attracted to biblical preaching, because of that’s the same type of person, it’s just a person who loves the truth. They want to know the truth.
There are other people in the so-called truth movement that are atheist. They’re not a truther at all. They’re still in darkness. They’re not awake. They’re in darkness even till now. Look at Isaiah 30 verse 8. It says, “Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever: That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD: Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness and stay thereon. Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly in an instant.”
Notice what he says here. At the end of verse 10, they’re saying to the preachers, “Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits.” Did they even want to hear the truth at all? No, just lie to us as long as it’s smooth. “That’s what we want to hear. Just tell us what we want. Give us something that we like. Don’t tell us the truth. Give us lies.” Look at verse 12, “Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, because ye despise this word.” Look, why did they not want the truth? Because they hate the word of God. They despise the word of God. What is it that makes people believe the word of God? The love of the truth.
Jesus said, “Thy word is truth.” Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me.” What I’m trying to get across in this sermon is that there are people who love the truth and people who don’t. They don’t care about the truth. In fact, they often hate the truth. They want to be lied to as long as it gratifies their lust. They have itching ears. They’ll turn unto fables. Now, when it comes to salvation, the most important truth that there is the world, the most important decision that we could ever make, the stakes are pretty high on those who decide to just stop up their ears of the truth and not want to hear the gospel, and just refuse to hear what the word of God says.
Even after we get saved and we believe that truth of the gospel, there are other truths that we need to learn. I mean the Bible’s a big thick book. It’s not just about salvation. There are all kinds of truths about how we should live our lives, about marriage, about child wearing, about our jobs, and about our life that we live, and about the works that we should do, about how our church should be, about how the preaching should be, about how we should pray, and how we should read our bibles, just all kinds of things about our life, different things about cleaning up our life and being godly and holy.
We need to remain people of truth and to continue to walk in the truth. The apostle John who really represents the Lord, being our Father, he rejoice greatly that his children were walking in truth and the Lord rejoices greatly when his children are walking in truth, just like John rejoiced about his children. We, if we want to please God, if we want God to rejoice and happy with us and be pleased with us, we need to be people who love truth. That means when you come to church, let me just give a real practical application to this, when you come to church, the question should not be, “Did I like the sermon or not like it?” The question should be, “Was the sermon true or false?” Because there are a lot of things that we might not like or want to hear, but if they’re the truth, we need to love them for the truth’s sake.
You say, “Hey did you like that sermon? Or did you love that sermon?” The question should come down to the truth of the sermon. Even if your flesh bristled maybe, because the pastor got on your sin a little bit or got on your buddies or got on your … Whatever, then you might bristle a little bit, but you know what, for the truth’s sake, you know what you should say? “The pastor preached the truth and that’s what we need to hear, and therefore, I love that preaching, because it’s true.”
Now, you say, “Well, I don’t always love your preaching.” That’s okay to not love my preaching as long as you’re not loving it, because I didn’t tell the truth. Like if I don’t tell the truth, then get mad. You ought to be mad.” If come near and I get up and preach lies, you ought to be mad, you ought to get angry. If what I said was true and you’re, “Well, I just don’t like the way that you said it.” It’s not really the way that I said it that made people upset. That’s what the children of Israel said, “Oh, we don’t want to hear this voice speaking with us.” The Bible says they could not endure that which was commanded. The problem wasn’t the tone of voice, coming from my mouth. They could not endure that which was commanded.
Honestly, I could get up and preach. Some of my most hated sermons; I could preach them in a whisper. I could get the microphone. I could speak and whisper like this. Hey, this is the judgment of God. People would still freak out. You know they would. It’s, “Oh, I just don’t like to waste it.” No, it’s just an excuse for not liking the truth. Okay. Now, the Bible does say we should speak the truth and love, but also is we love the truth and walking the truth and be men of truth, and women of truth.
Let’s bow our heads and have a word prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, because it is the ultimate source of truth. That’s why I love the Bible so much is, because unlike any other book on this planet, when I pick it up and read it, I always know I’m reading the truth. That’s what’s so great about it. Other books could pretend that, “Oh, they’re more exciting,” but this is the book that’s always true and that’s why we love it more than any other book, Lord. Help us to walk in the truth and love the truth, and be people of truth, Lord. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
