From His Heart

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Do you know the truth? Are you sure? Here's Pastor Jeff Shreve.

Speaker 2

Jesus says in John, chapter eight, if you abide in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine.

And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Free from what? Sets you free from the penalty of sin. Sets you free from the power of sin. Set you free one day from the presence of sin.

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The.

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The truth does that. And if you don't know the truth, you're not going to be set free. Truth is so critically important. From his heart.

Speaker 1

Welcome to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, where today he tackles the truth about truth and the lies that try to hide the truth. Truth is critical in a court of law. It's critical in the Christian faith, too. The apostle John was extremely focused on the issue of truth. He knew that if we lose the truth, we lose everything.

Today, Pastor Jeff Shreve opens what is often an overlooked book of the Bible. It's 2 John, and it's going to help us learn to focus all of our hearts and minds on what is nothing but the truth.

Open your Bible now to the book of 2 John as Pastor Jeff asks the question and gives you an opportunity to provide an honest answer to this: Are you sure you know the truth?

Speaker 2

But I remember as a kid, my dad would watch particular shows, and he loved the show Perry Mason. You know Perry Mason? Interesting show. So Perry is a defense attorney. He's always got a client that is accused of murder that didn't do it. It's amazing how he always got those clients. He never lost a case. And the prosecuting attorney, Hamilton Berger, never won a case for years.

But, you know, it was during those times of watching Perry Mason with my dad that I learned about swearing in a witness because Perry Mason always had. It was a lawyer show, but it was also a detective type show. And it was also a show of murder mystery. You were always trying to figure out who done it because, you know, whoever Perry was defending, he didn't do it; she didn't do it. And so they would always have a courtroom scene. It would always follow this formula in the courtroom: you would find out, ah, this is the person that did it. But you would have to swear in the witnesses.

So what would they do to swear in the witnesses? You would put your left hand on the Bible, you would put your right hand up. "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?" Yes. You had to say yes. If you said no, I don't know what they would do. You say yes because, hey, if you're getting ready to go on the witness stand, you better tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. No half-truths, no innuendos. You speak the truth, so help you God.

We're starting a new series today on the often overlooked little book of 2 John. John is known as the evangelist, the gospel writer. He wrote the Gospel of John, which is different from Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Those gospels are called the synoptic gospels. Synoptic means seeing the same. If you spend time reading Matthew, Mark, and Luke, you'll read a lot of the same stories. John is very, very different. He has a different emphasis than Matthew, Mark, and Luke. He's talking about the deity of Christ.

John wrote the Gospel of John, and he also wrote 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John. Then he was given the revelation of Jesus Christ, which he writes in the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible. Now, John is different from Matthew, Mark, and Luke in that he focuses on the word "truth" so much more than those guys do. They all wrote truth because the Bible is truth. Jesus said in his great high priestly prayer to his father, "Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth." So they all wrote truth, but John focused on the word "truth" a lot.

That word is "aletheia" in the Greek. It's used about 109, 110 times in the New Testament, and John uses it 46 times. To give you an example, comparing him to the other gospel writers, Paul uses it 48 times. He uses it a lot. But the other Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke—incidentally, Luke wrote in terms of volume of the New Testament; he wrote more than anybody else. Paul wrote 13 letters; he wrote nearly half the New Testament in terms of letters, 27 books in the New Testament. But Luke, as far as volume goes, as far as sheer number of words and verses, he wrote the most because he wrote the Gospel of Luke and he wrote Acts, the book of Acts.

Luke uses the word "aletheia" four times in his writings—just four times. Matthew uses it once, Mark uses it twice, and John uses it 26 times in his gospel and then 20 times in his epistles. 2 John is a small little book, kind of a postcard book. 3 John is another postcard book. 3 John is the shortest book in the New Testament. The second shortest book in the New Testament is 2 John. The theme of 2 John and 3 John is truth.

Look what the Scripture says. 2 John—we say chapter one, but it's only one chapter. 2 John, reading in verse one: "The elder." That's how he refers to himself, the elder. He's probably writing this in the 90s AD, so he is an old man. Everyone else of his contemporaries—Peter, James, Philip, Andrew, Bartholomew—all the other disciples, they're gone. They have gone into glory. He is the elder to the chosen lady and her children. The chosen lady and her children.

He's either writing to a specific woman and her kids—maybe she had a house church, or a church that met in her house—or this is used figuratively for the church because we are the bride of Christ. I like what Insight for Living's Chuck Swindoll says: whether it's an individual lady or whether it's a church, it doesn't really change the truth of what he is saying. So commentators go back and forth as to whom he's talking to.

"The elder, to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in truth. And not only I, but also all who know the truth for the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever. Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love." And then verse four: "I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth." Five times in four verses, he uses the word "aletheia." Truth.

Truth is a very important subject to John, and he wants you to know the truth. Now, I've entitled this series "Nothing but the Truth," and I've entitled this first message in this series, the first three verses, "Do You Know the Truth?" Because he says in verse one, "but also all who know the truth." Do you know the truth? Is it real in your heart and in your life? I'm not talking about knowing about the truth; I'm talking about knowing the truth. And the truth is the reality and the certainty and the facts concerning the Lord and his Word.

So, three reasons why it is so important to know the truth. See, the question, "Do you know the truth?" That's a personal question; it's either yes or no. But the question, "Why is it so important to know the truth?" Well, that's a question that has reasons—reasons that are answered in those first three verses.

Reason number one: why is it so important to know the truth? Reason number one, it's because the truth is what sets a person free. The truth is what sets a person free. Jesus, in John chapter eight, is going back and forth with the Jewish religious leaders. He's always in confrontation with them because they hate Jesus and they hate his message, and they want to kill him. Until they finally do, under God's plan, they do push him to the cross. But Jesus said, "No man takes my life; I lay it down freely." So they couldn't have done anything had not God allowed that.

But these guys, they're in conflict. And Jesus says in John chapter eight, "He was saying therefore to those Jews who had believed him, if you abide in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." You know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. The truth is what sets you free. Sets you free from what? Sets you free from the penalty of sin. Sets you free from the power of sin. Sets you free one day from the presence of sin. The truth does that. And if you don't know the truth, you're not going to be set free. Truth is so critically important.

Now think about this: everything is coming at you, at me. In our world, it comes from two places. It either comes from God, who is the truth, who speaks the truth—it's impossible for God to lie—or it comes from the Father of lies. If you think of—we talk about fake news. If you think of newscasters, God is the caster of the truth, and the devil is the caster of lies. Jesus said he doesn't stand in the truth. There is no truth in him. He is a liar and the Father of lies. Everything he speaks is a lie, and everything God speaks is the truth.

You go back to Genesis chapter three. How did the devil deceive Eve? With a lie. "Indeed, has God said, you shall not eat from any tree of the garden?" We can eat from any tree of the garden, but the tree that is in the middle of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we're not supposed to eat of that tree, and we're not supposed to touch it. "For the day that we eat of it, we shall surely die." "You shall not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Well, that was a flat, bold-faced lie. And she believed the lie. She rejected God's truth, believed the lie, and she and Adam plunged all of humanity into sin.

Hey, truth is what sets a person free. What do you need to know to be set free? The truth about what? First of all, you need to know the truth about yourself. The truth about yourself. Say, "What is the truth about yourself?" Not personally you, but yourself, meaning all of us. And here's the truth: all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. You're a sinner. I'm a sinner. John was a sinner. Paul was a sinner. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We're not needing a little help from the Lord; we're needing everything from the Lord. We don't need just a Lord. Just give me a little boost, just a little nudge. That's all I need, just a little nudge. No, you need everything from him because you are a sinner.

Four times over: sinner by choice, a sinner by birth, sinner by nature, sinner by choice, sinner by practice—you're a sinner. And because you're a sinner, and I'm a sinner, and we're sinners, we fall short of the glory of God, and we are children of wrath, even as the rest (Ephesians 2:3). A child of wrath, not a child of God. A child of wrath. Now, people don't like that truth that they're a sinner, but that is the truth of the word of God. And until you embrace the fact and understand the fact and agree with God on who you are and the trouble that you're in, you'll never be set free. Because you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Now, Isaiah saw, when he had his vision in Isaiah chapter six of the Lord, how God was holy, holy, holy. He saw that he was a sinner before a holy God. What did he say? "Woe is me, for I am undone. For I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." Or as it says in the Good News Bible, "There is no hope for me." Isaiah says, "I am doomed because every word that passes my lips is sinful, and I live among a people whose every word is sinful."

Here's the truth about who you are, who I am, who all of us are outside of Christ. We are hopeless, helpless sinners on the highway to hell. There's no getting off of that. We're on the broad road that leads to destruction. Now, why is that so important to understand about yourself? Because until you understand that about yourself, you'll never be open to the Savior. If I tell you, "Hey, I have the cure for your cancer," if you don't think you have cancer, you're not very excited about the fact that I have the cure for your cancer. It's like, "Well, I'm glad you have the cure for cancer, but I don't have cancer, so you need to take that to somebody else."

But if you have cancer and you find out, "Hey, this guy has the cure for your cancer," that is the most wonderful news of all because now you can be set free from your cancer. You have to know the truth about yourself. Secondly, you must know the truth about Jesus—who he is. Who you are: a sinner, hopeless, helpless, doomed. Who he is: he is not just a good teacher; he's not just a miracle worker; he's not just a moral man. He is the God-man.

Verse 3 is an interesting verse where he says, "Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love." John does that on purpose. He puts God the Father and the Son, Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, together because in the mind of a Jew, when you put things together like that, you're saying that Jesus Christ is God.

John chapter five is a great example of this. Jesus said, you know, he healed a man in John chapter 5—a guy, 38 years in his affliction. He raised him up; he was crippled for 38 years. He raised him up, but it was on the Sabbath. You don't do miracles on the Sabbath because that's a work, and you don't work on the Sabbath. The law said that the Jewish leaders had constructed, if you do work on the Sabbath, you will be killed. So Jesus did that on the Sabbath. And so they're looking out for him to say, "Hey, this guy's breaking the Sabbath. We need to kill him."

And Jesus said, "My Father is working until now, and I myself am working." And they went ballistic. And now they didn't want to kill him because he was doing stuff on the Sabbath; they said, "We want to kill him because he calls himself the Son of God, thereby making himself equal with God." That's how they viewed that.

What was the reason that Jesus was crucified? You know, they came up, "Well, he tells us not to obey Caesar; he's trying to breed an insurrection." None of those things were true when Pilate was going to let Jesus go. John chapter 19, they said to Pilate, "This man deserves to die because he said he is the Son of God." That was the charge: the Son of God. He is saying he is God.

John chapter 8: "Before Abraham was born, I am." What did they do? They picked up stones to stone him. John chapter 10: "I and the Father are one." Again they picked up stones to stone him. Jesus said, "I've shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning me?" They said, "For a good work we stone you not, but for blasphemy, because you being a man, claim to be God." That's why they wanted to kill him.

Anybody that tells you Jesus Christ never claimed to be God doesn't understand the Bible or they're lying through their teeth. Jesus Christ did claim to be God. And it is critical that you understand that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. He is as much God as though he were not man at all. He's as much man as though he were not God at all. That is an emphasis that is strongly made in the New Testament, strongly made by John. Why? Because there were false teachers that were coming into the church, as Peter said.

"But false prophets arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them and will lead people away from the truth." From the truth. And there were people that were buying into this thing called Gnosticism. The first century had incipient—the seeds of Gnosticism. Gnosticism comes from the Greek word "gnosis." G-N-O-S-I-S means to know. And they said, "Well, we know more; you guys are just low-life Christians, but we're the elite; we know these things."

And they would say that matter is evil and only the spirit is good. Gnosticism, kind of an offshoot of that, was called docetism. And that comes from a Greek word that means to seem. And they would say this: the docetic says Jesus wasn't a man; he just seemed to be a man. How do we know he wasn't a man? Because matter is evil; only the spirit is good. And God can't have a body because then that would make him evil. So Jesus just appeared to be a man; he was just kind of like a phantom. He was playing a parlor trick; he wasn't really a man.

And so John goes on to say in verse seven, "For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the Antichrist." Now today, we don't have people that deny the humanity of Jesus; we have people who deny the deity of Jesus. And what's the mark of a false cult? They get their Christology wrong. They say, "Well, Jesus is the Son of God; he's not God." The Mormons are a great example of this. Jesus is the Son of God, but he is not God.

Well, Jesus is God in the flesh. In the beginning, John says in his Gospel, "was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by him, and apart from him, nothing came into being that has come into being." And the Word became flesh, verse 14, and dwelt among us. "And we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." He is the only begotten Son, the "Monogenes," the Greek—the only one.

Now we can be sons and daughters of God, and I can be a son of God. I am never going to be the Son of God because that is Jesus. He is the mediator between God and men. Now, why is it so important to understand who Jesus is? Because Jesus said in John chapter 8, verse 24, "Unless you believe that I am, you will all die in your sins." "I am" is the name for God. From the burning bush, from Exodus chapter three, where Moses met God at the burning bush. God, who are you? "I am who I am." You tell the children of Israel, "I am sent you." Man, when Jesus said, "Before Abraham was born, I am," why did they pick up stones to stone him? Because he's claiming the name of God. Because he's God in the flesh. In him, all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.

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As we've learned, truth is in shorter and shorter supply these days. And if we trust everything the world teaches, we're in trouble. In these increasingly dark days in which we live, the truth is becoming more subjective and constantly wavering to fit the culture. Pastors are watering down the gospel and presenting a warped view of God's word.

Today's message, "Do You Know the Truth?" shares how we can know the truth. The famous actor Denzel Washington once said, "If you don't read the daily paper, you'll be uninformed. If you do read the paper, you'll be misinformed." Well, why did he say that? Because it is written by imperfect people who have an agenda. But if you read the Bible, you will be completely informed about the real truth that should guide your life. God is faithful and true.

And that's why we want you to get Pastor Jeff Shreve's eight-message series that we aired earlier this month called "Faithful and Introducing the One and Only God." You get that truth right, and your life will bring Him glory and you eternal peace. The series is our gift of thanks for your support to From His Heart this month of any amount, and this will be the last day we'll be talking about that.

You can get the complete eight lessons on CDs, DVDs, a USB flash drive, or MP3 download. Just call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE) or go online to fromhishheart.org and request the series "Faithful and True" with your gift of any amount this month. Thank you for standing with us to help share the truth with the world.

Well, I'm Larry Nobles. Thank you so very, very much for joining us. Our time is up for today, but we trust you'll be able to join Pastor J for part two of this important and foundational lesson called "Do You Know the Truth?" from the series "Nothing but the Truth" from the book of 2 John. Join us on Tuesday when we share real truth, real love, and real hope from God's heart here on From His Heart.

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Heart there is tremendous truth. There is hope that you always dream of.

Speaker 1

From his heart is the listener supported Broadcast Ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world.

Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out about that when you go to fromisheart.org.