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TRUTH
JOHN 8:32

Pastor Stephen Muncherian
August 16, 1998

This morning I’d like to focus on one Bible verse - John 8:32 - and what Jesus says to us about truth and freedom. In John 8:32, Jesus says, “....and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

In today’s world - for many people the idea of finding absolute truth - truth about God and what it means to know Him - seems like an absurd idea. But Jesus says, “you shall know the truth - and the truth shall make you free.” Is it possible to know truth? Can His truth free us?

A pastor I’ve read about - Stephen Belynsky - starts each confirmation class with a jar full of beans. He asks his students to guess how many beans are in the jar, and on a big pad of paper writes down their estimates. Then, next to those estimates, he helps them make another list: their favorite songs. When the lists are complete, he reveals the actual number of beans in the jar. The whole class looks over their guesses, to see which estimate was closest to being right.

Then Belynsky turns to the list of favorite songs and asks which of the favorite songs should be considered the real favorite. Always the students protest that there is no "right answer" - a person's favorite song is purely a matter of taste. Then Belynsky, who holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Notre Dame asks, "When you decide what to believe in terms of your faith, is that more like guessing the number of beans, or more like choosing your favorite song?" Always, Belynsky gets the same answer - Choosing one's faith is more like choosing a favorite song.

According to the 1992-1993 Barna report - 50% of the adults in America believe that “everything in life is negotiable.” 60% of all adults believe that, “nothing can be known for certain except the things you experience in your own life.”

In the survey taken in early 1991 - only 23% of evangelical Christians agreed with the existence of absolute truth. Think about that. Over 75% of evangelical Christians are saying that nothing can be known for certain. If there is no absolute truth, then by definition nothing can be said to be absolutely true. To the majority, apparently, it's all relative.

Who really created everything we see around us? Was Jesus really who He claimed to be? Did He really die for our sins? Can we really know God? Nothing is certain. Might be. Might not be. Who knows for sure?

The Bible is not an ordinary book. It’s a divine book. When we turn to it - we read the truth. The Bible is 66 separate books - written over a period of hundreds of years. But is also one book, and it was inspired by the Spirit of God. The Bible tells us the truth of who Jesus is.

A minimum of 200 plus years before Jesus was born prophecies were written concerning who the Messiah would be - how He could be identified. Imagine one of our ancestors - 200 plus years ago - living someplace in central Turkey - trying to predict your name - when and where you would be born.

In the Old Testament there are 60 major messianic prophecies and approximately 270 ramifications that were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The chance that any one man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled just 8 of these prophecies is 1 in 10 to the 17th - a one with a lot of zeros after it.

To put this into perspective - suppose we take 10 to the 17th silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They’ll cover the entire state two feet deep. Mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up the one marked silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one on his first try?

He’d have the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man - providing they wrote them in their own wisdom. Over 300 prophecies were fulfilled in the coming of Jesus Christ - only God could have accomplished that.

This same Jesus says, “You shall know the truth - and the truth will set you free.” - not “a” truth - but “the” - singular - truth. Jesus is speaking of the truth of His Gospel.

When we come to the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ there are four realities that we must know:

1. GOD LOVES US

John 3:16 says, “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him - and put your name there - if Toros believes in Him - then Toros - shall not perish but have eternal life.” - Why? Because God loves you.

2. WE ARE SINFUL AND SEPARATED FROM GOD

Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

And that’s the great problem in the world today - sin. Our sin which separates us from God. We were created to have fellowship with God - to enjoy an intimate relationship with Him. But because of our own stubborn self-will we’ve chosen to go our own way and the fellowship we could have had has been broken.

Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death” What we earn with our sin is spiritual - eternal - separation from God.

3. JESUS IS THE ONLY WAY TO GOD

Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for our sin. Through Jesus we can know and experience God’s love and plan for our lives.

Romans 5:8 says, “God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” God - Jesus died in our place.

And Jesus rose from the dead. 1 Corinthians 15:3-6 say, “Christ died for our sins....He was buried....He was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures....He appeared to Peter, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than 500....”

Jesus is the only way to God. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:6)

4. WE MUST INDIVIDUALLY RECEIVE JESUS AS OUR SAVIOR

What most often keeps people from trusting Jesus as their Savior and finding His freedom is that they think they’re OK the way they are. They may need a few minor adjustments here and there but no big changes are required - they feel they’re already free.

They look at themselves the same way travel brochures describe San Francisco - you know those tourist booklets with pictures that are in hotel lobbies. Have you ever read through a travel brochure of San Francisco?

You’ll never find a paragraph that says, "Although it is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, San Francisco has a huge homeless population. You can drive almost anywhere and see people living in squalor, misery, hunger and heartache. This city is also noted as one of the most immoral cities in the world.”

We probably won’t find that in a travel brochure. Instead they talk about the Golden Gate Bridge, the beauty of the Bay, the wonder of the redwood trees, and the glories of the history of San Francisco, while they ignore the hurt, the heartache and sin.

But Jesus speaks the truth about what is really going on in our hearts. Outwardly we may be the most beautifully moral and upright person - for years a devoted - faithful attendee and supporter of the church. But unless we’ve personally received Jesus as our Savior - we have not been set free from the sin in our heart.

John 1:12 says, “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.”

We must individually receive Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God’s love and plan for our lives.

Jesus says, “....you shall know the truth, - the truth of what it means to have a relationship with Jesus Christ - His Gospel - and the truth shall make you free.”

Think with me for a moment about what that freedom means. Patrick Henry - the American Revolutionary Patriot - prior to the American Revolution (1775) delivered an address before the Virginia House of Burgesses in Williamsburg. These are powerful words: “Is life so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I care not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

Many people today do not understand freedom. Most people define freedom as being able to do whatever we feel like doing. Do you remember the parable of the prodigal son? We can’t read that parable without realizing that this exactly the way the Prodigal son defined freedom. He thought that getting an early inheritance, leaving home and going off and indulging in some instant gratification was freedom. But he soon found that it was another form of slavery.

The true definition of freedom is, “being able to be all that we were meant to be.” Don’t we long for that? To feel fulfilled, to be able to do all that is possible for us to do and be - that’s freedom.

That’s the freedom that Jesus offers us. “The truth will set you free.” - The truth will deliver us. When we accept the truth of who Jesus is - and trust Him as our Savior - His truth permits us to be all that we were meant to be.

To put this into practical terms. Jesus offers us freedom from hang-ups. Hang-ups are what keep us from being all that we were meant to be. To be hung-up means that we can’t move - we’re bound or limited by something - unable to free ourselves.

I recently read a story by Gigi Tchividjian - the daughter of Billy Graham. Its only a story - but it illustrates what we’re talking about. It seems that there was a pastor in a small Midwestern church who, as a young man had committed some terrible sin. And although he had asked God’s forgiveness - all his life he carried around the burden of this sin. He just could not be sure God had really forgiven him.

One day he was told of an elderly woman in his congregation who sometimes had visions. During these visions she would often have conversations with the Lord. So, after a while the pastor finally got up enough courage to visit this woman.

She invited him in and offered him a cup of tea. Toward the end of his visit, he set his cup down on the table and looked into the old woman’s eyes. And he asked her this question. “Is it true that you sometimes have visions? And, during these visions - do you often speak with the Lord?”

“Yes,” she replied.

“Well... the next time you have a vision and speak with the Lord, would you ask Him a question for me?” The woman looked at the pastor a little curiously. She had never been asked this before. “What do you want me to ask Him?”

“Well, would you please ask Him what sin it was that I committed as a young man?”

The woman- who was very curious - agreed. A few weeks passed, and the pastor again went to visit this woman. After another cup of tea he cautiously asked, “Have you had any visions lately? Did you speak with the Lord?”

“Why yes, I have,” replied the woman.

“Did you ask Him what sin I committed as a young man?”

“Yes,” the woman replied, “I did. The Lord told me He could not remember.”

God not only forgives our sins, He also chooses to forget them. The Bible tells us He takes them and buries them in the deepest sea. And then as Corrie Ten Boom used to say, “He puts up a sign that says, “No fishing allowed.”

Forgiveness and freedom.

Probably some here this morning - suffer inwardly from a terrible sense of failure - of shame about things in your past. Millions suffer inwardly from hurt - despair - even depression over the past or present. When we come to Jesus as our Savior - God forgives our sins - and we need not feel guilty for them.

So many today are gripped by fear - worried - anxious - insecure. I’ve known people who couldn’t go outside their house - they we’re too afraid. Maybe that’s extreme. But most of us have fears that limit us and keep us from doing what we long to do. Knowing the truth of a relationship with God - how our Heavenly Father who loves us so much that He forgives our sins through the death of His Son Jesus - how He cares for us - knowing God’s truth gives us confidence to live life boldly.

Then there is anger - and how God reassures us that the burdens which drive us to hatred - bitterness - and rage - are the same hang-ups that He dealt with on the cross through Jesus - and the freedom we can have if we will just trust Him to take care of us.

Pride is another hang-up - a proud - aggressive - arrogant spirit that indulges in prejudice and bigotry - an aloofness and withdrawing from others - with its accompanying loneliness. In trusting Jesus - we come in humility knowing that it is only by His grace that I - or you - or any of us are saved. Not by anything we’ve done or could do.

So we’re freed from having to “be somebody” and maintain our reputation. Because for the Christian - the only reputation that matters is whether or not as obedient servants of God - are we are bringing glory to Him - His reputation.

This is what Jesus is talking about - His wonderful truth is that there is a way out. "Bring them to me," - your hang-ups - whatever binds you. Jesus tells us. "Bring yourself to me. Listen to my words. Trust me and I will set you free.”