“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John
8:32
This scripture was brought to my attention this week as I was
travailing. I heard a very educated, very will spoken, uneducated, unintelligent,
PhD type preacher on the radio trying to preach on this scripture. As most
people, he had no idea what God is saying in this scripture. He said, “truth is
whatever truth is to you” and then failed to connect the saving grace of God
thru Jesus Christ to this scripture. He spoke about 10 minutes proving he had
no idea what he was talking about and then started to talk about how to buy his
book. This preacher is exactly what is wrong with what is called Christianity in
America. Folks, truth is NOT what you think truth is to you, truth is whatever
God says. God said of mankind, “…let God
be true, but every man a liar…”.
Romans 3:4 And God went on to say in
that same scripture “…That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings…”, what
a difference from what the radio preacher said. I see why the radio preacher
said what he said, it is the very same reason most non-church preachers say
what they do, they do not want to hurt the sensitive feeling of those self-righteous,
very tender-feeling, I-will-leave if you hurt my feeling members of his church.
Most people in these non-church assemblies cannot stand to hear the truth of
the scriptures, therefore their Pastors are bound to preaching a watered-down
version of the bible. You know, there is another saying here in America, “the
truth hurts” and if the bible does not hurt you sometimes, then you are not
hearing truth. God said as He was speaking to Pastors, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all
longsuffering and doctrine.” 2
Timothy 4:2. The word “reprove” means - convict of their errors – and the word
rebuke means - to tax upon – which means to charge them, charge on pain of, and
to charge on pain of penalty for disobedience. – So what God is saying here is,
Pastors that are really true to the word are to preach the word of God, and in
being true to the word you will convict the membership of their errors in life,
any that truth will convict them of their sins and cause them pain to want to
change their ways. That is the “truth setting you free” of sin. Most people in
the non-churches are so self-righteous that they cannot handle the truth. That
could be they do not know the truth, “Jesus
saith unto him, I am the way, the truth,
and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6 The
scriptures goes on to say, “…the Spirit of truth; whom the world
cannot receive, because it seeth him
not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and
shall be in you.” John 14:17 So
here is truth, The Father is truth, The Son is truth, and the Holy Spirit is
truth and He also delivers truth to the believer. This scripture right here
tells us why people, especially people
in the non-church assemblies cannot “handle the truth” it is because “…whom the world cannot receive, because it
seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you,
and shall be in you.” This is also why so many people visit churches of
truth and leave because they cannot handle the truth, it hurts their feelings.
I cannot count the amount of times my feelings have been hurt by the
scriptures, but if your feeling does not get hurt by studying God’s word, then you have not been set free by the
truth. As a Pastor I preach the Word, if it hurts someone’s feelings and
they leave, I let them walk. If they are a believer in Jesus Christ and a lover
of truth, then they will want to talk about it, and be set free of their anger.
Folks, this is the truth, God The
Father, Jesus The Son, The Holy Spirit, and The Word of God. Listen to the
truth and it will make you free or else you are bound to sin and lies. “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word
is truth.” John 17:17 Have you been sanctified by the truth, has your thinking
been sanctified by the truth, are you offended by the truth? If not then maybe
you need to know the truth (Jesus Christ) and be set free by the Truth.
