One of the ideals that we treasure in this country is truth. We value honesty, integrity, and truth as the foundation by which our society functions. And thus, we have certain expectations as a result. For one, we expect truth to prevail in our justice system. Lady Justice is not only to be blind, but her ears are also to be open to the truth. And so when a person steps to the witness stand and takes the oath to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God, the court holds that person to that oath. Failure to tell the truth under oath is perjury, a felony, that is punishable by long prison terms. Because at stake may be a person's life or their livelihood or property, and thus it's important that the truth be told. We expect truth in business transactions and advertisements, that a business will honestly represent and advertise their products and not making outrageous claims that cannot be substantiated. And we demand that bottles have the correct labels with all of the ingredients, including those that are hard to pronounce, clearly spelled out. We demand that if a product has serious side effects, such as a drug, that the manufacturer discloses them. And failure to do so can be grounds for lawsuits or even criminal actions. And we demand that when financing a loan through a bank or credit union, that all of the financial information be accurately and clearly stated, that there be truth in lending. Disclosures, where everything is spelled out. On a daily basis, we expect people to be honest with us. For we know that the only way to shop, the way the shop, the office, the classroom, or a factory will function, is if there is open and honest communication where people say what they mean, and they mean what they say. And we've discovered also the value of honesty in family situations and open, honest, truthful communication with our spouses and with our children. Now, unfortunately, people are not always truthful or completely honest. Some shade the truth. They don't quite tell you the whole story. that what they say may be true up to a point, but they conveniently leave out the incriminating evidence. And so they tell half-truths or partial statements or not a full disclosure. Some are also guilty of distorting or twisting the facts to reinterpret what has happened to fit their own views. We are less than a month away from the general election. Praise God. I am so tired of hearing all of the advertisements on TV. It seems like this election season has gone on forever as political ads started to, I think they started to surface at the beginning of the year when it became apparent that former President Trump would be the Republican nominee for president. And there's been one negative ad after another, from both sides of the aisle. And it seems that that has dominated this election year. And each negative ad, though, is countered by a positive one that negates the negative one. And so you view these conflicting ads, and it leaves you scratching your head because you don't know who or what to believe these days. as there's so much shading and distorting and twisting the truth to fit one's own view. Plus the truth is that some are guilty of not telling you the truth at all. Of all out lies, a complete fabrication, not a shred of truth in the story. So today, we have fact checkers. who are supposedly checked to see if the statements are true or not. But even then, we're not sure if the fact checkers are unbiased or if they too have an agenda that they are pushing. And so the question comes down to this, who do you believe? Who do you believe? Who's telling you the truth? Now, before we come down too hard on our politicians, How many of us have been absolutely honest 100% of the time, have never told a lie, have never twisted a fact, have never shaded the truth? The truth is, I think, none of us are absolutely honest. That is 100% truthful, one that you can count on to tell you the truth every time about every situation. There is none of us that are truthful except for one, and that is God himself. God is a God of truth, for scripture reveals that one of the very foundational, fundamental attributes of God, on par with God being holy, with God being love, with God being eternal, is that God is truth. He is truth personified, our truthful God. 1 John 5, verse 20. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, and we know Him who is true. And we are in Him who is true, in His Son, Jesus Christ. Jeremiah 10, verse 10. But the Lord is the true God. He is the living God and the everlasting King. Psalm 31, verse five. Into your hands I commit my spirit. You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth. And Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except from me. God is true. He is the God of truth. God of truth. But what is truth? You know, that's the same question Pilate asked Jesus. Jesus, according to John 18, 37, had said to Pilate that he was right in saying that I am a king, and that for this cause I was born, and for this cause I came into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. And so Jesus says here that his mission in life, the reason that he was sent to was to tell us the truth. And that those who are on his side of truth will listen to him. To which Pilate asked the billion dollar question, what is truth? What is truth? You know, intellectuals have debated that over the years. In fact, they're probably debating it today. What do we mean by truth? What is truth? A very simple definition of truth is, truth is that which conforms to or accurately describes reality. Truth is that which conforms to or accurately describes reality, what has been, what is, or what will be. Truth is agreement to that which is representative. When something is true, It accurately explains reality. At the core of the Greek word for truth is the idea of openness. That is full disclosure of what one knows to be true, accurate, the facts. in the situation. So when we say to someone, say that someone is telling the truth, or when we ask in the court for the truth, the whole truth, that nothing but the truth, we mean that the person is giving an accurate description of reality. We desire an accurate description of what happened, what they saw, what they observed, what they heard, or what they know. We want them to tell everything they know about the situation, but nothing more. No conjectures, no opinions, no, oh, I think this might have happened. Just the facts as they observed it. All the facts, full disclosure. That's truth. That's truth. So when we apply it to God, truth to God, we mean that God's knowledge or his declarations, his representations, eternally conform to reality, to what is real. In other words, he gives an accurate description of what was, is, and will be. And because our God knows all things, as we saw before, he is omniscient, he can give a complete accurate view of reality. Only God can do that. Now, perhaps to better understand this concept of truth, God is truth, that he is in touch with reality, it might be beneficial if we look at the nature of his arch rival, Satan himself. And I ask you to turn to John chapter eight, and we're gonna look at just one verse here, John chapter eight, verse 44, because Jesus here describes the nature of Satan or the devil. He says, you are of your father the devil and the desire of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources for he is a liar and the father of it. I like the way the New International Version translates this. He says, you belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he speaks, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Now, note that there is no truth in Satan. No truth in Satan. That is, it is not in his nature or his essential being. Now, if we would lay Satan down on the couch and would psychoanalyze him, like they do today, we might conclude that Satan had a break with reality. He had a break with reality. He's not operating on a rational basis. We would have to say that he is psychotic. He's psychotic. Satan is psychotic. Isaiah 14 reveals that Lucifer, Satan, before he fell was puffed up with pride and had delusional and distorted thinking. He said in his heart, Isaiah 14, 13, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest side of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the cloud. I will be like the most high. Now what we have recorded here is delusional thinking. Delusional thinking. The thinking of one who has lost touch with reality. Because of pride that blinds him to an accurate assessment of his own abilities and position, Lucifer had lost touch with reality. He had a distorted, inflated view of how things really were, and in his prideful self-deception, he insanely rebelled against the rule of God over him. And today, there is no truth in him, no truth in Satan. He's completely lost touch with reality. Now, perhaps we've all known people who have told themselves a lie or have lied about something and have said it so often to so many people that they actually come to believe it, that it's the truth, when it's really the lie. They live in a lie. They live in a fantasy world of their own making. They're blind to what is real, to what is true, to what is right. You know, that's Satan. That's where he's living today. He's so out of touch with reality and has been for so long that he thinks his view of reality is the truth. Now notice, too, that Satan is a natruat this. He's natruat lying, for note again what John 8, 44 says. He says, you are the father of the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, does not stand in the truth because there's no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is the father of lies. He speaks from his own resources, or as the NIV states it, he speaks his own native language. It's what he talks. Lying comes naturally to him. It just flows from him. He is natural at deceiving, at distorting the facts, at twisting situations and worlds. He's out of touch with reality. And then he spreads his fantasy thinking to others, and distorts their view of reality as well. But the opposite of that is our God. Opposite of that is our God. Because God's nature is to be truthful, to operate on the base of what is real. And because He, by nature, is truth, and in touch with reality, God cannot lie. It's impossible for God to mislead us, to distort the facts, to shade the truth, because God cannot lie. Numbers 23 verse 19. God is not man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should repent. He has said and will he not do? Or has he spoken and will he not make it good? Of course he will. God said he's gonna do it. Titus 1-2, and hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began. God cannot lie. So what we have on one side is the truthful God who is absolutely honest, who cannot lie, who is completely in touch with reality, who accurately assesses and relates what has happened, is happening, and will happen. And on the other side, we have Satan, who is completely out of touch with reality, who lives in a fantasy world of his own delusional thinking, and thus has a distorted view of what has happened, is happening now, and what will happen in the future. Now, how does this all apply to us? How does it apply to us? Well, first of all, if God is the God of truth, that is of His very nature to be truthful, then it follows that His word is also truth. His word is also truth. Jesus said in John 17, 17, sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth. Psalm 119 verse 160, the entirety of your word is truth. and every one of your righteous judgments endures forever. All of God's words are true. That is, all of what God says in his word accurately describes reality, accurately describes the way things are, describes what has been, is, and will be, accurately depicting reality. The entirety of God's word is truth, which means, I believe, that there are no errors in the scriptures, in the original scriptures. So when the Bible says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, that's what really happened. That's an accurate description of how the world came into existence. When the Bible says, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, that's an accurate description of the reality of the sinfulness of man, the very nature of man. Man's main problem is not a poor self-image or his environment, but the main problem of man is his sinfulness. that at his very core he lives in rebellion against God and worships the creation rather than the creator. But when the Bible says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life, that is an accurate description of the reality of the incarnation of Jesus Christ and that salvation is only through personal faith. or belief in Christ. That's real. That's reality. And that's what really happens when you and I trust in Jesus, we have eternal life. That's reality. Or when the Bible says that one day Jesus Christ is gonna come again, that will happen, just as God said. It's so accurate, in fact, it's so accurate, the scriptures are so accurate that the Old Testament prophecies in predicting what will happen in world history. so accurate that it's led some modern scholars to conclude that the prophecies of Daniel, in which God through Daniel reveals the four great world empires that would follow the Babylonians hundreds of years before the other three even became world powers, it has led them to conclude that Daniel must have been written very late after the fact rather than before. So how did God know that the Medo-Persians would follow the Babylonians? And how did God know that the Grecians' empire under Alexander the Great would follow them? And how did God all know this and advance and accurately predict the course of world history and relay it to men? How? Because God knows everything, both the actual and the potential. What was and is and it will be, and because He is the God of truth, who is in touch with reality. That's why. Now there are some today who challenge the accuracy of the Bible. They say that the Bible cannot be trusted to be telling the truth in every detail. They contend that the Bible is accurate when it comes to areas of faith and morals, but it's inaccurate when it comes to the areas of history and science. They point out that the Bible was written by fallible men who made mistakes in recording God's word. In their thinking, the scriptures are full of errors and therefore cannot be fully trusted to be telling the truth when it comes to how the world began or recording ancient people groups or nations or even the history of the Israelites. And so they raise all kinds of questions. Did God create the world in six literal days as Genesis 1 records, or is that just a myth that the writers adapted from other cultures' creation stories? Was there a literal Adam and Eve, the first couple that God created, or are they only representatives of early mankind? Did God really destroy the world by a universal flood in the days of Noah, or was it simply a local flood that took on universal proportions in people's minds? Did Abraham really exist? Was David really a powerful king in Israel, or was he simply a local war lord with limited powers? Did Jesus really walk on water, feed the 5,000, turn water into wine, or any of the other miracles he performed? Or are these myths or lures that developed around Jesus to create a bigger-than-life Messiah? Is the Bible 100% true or not? Is the Bible errant that is full of errors when it comes to history and science, or is the Bible inerrant, having no errors as it's recorded for you and I? And if the Bible is not 100% accurate, then can it be trusted to be a record of the truth? Now it is true, it is true that God used fallible men to record the scriptures, but the source of the content of scripture is God himself. Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be completely Thoroughly equipped for every good work. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. Literally, all scripture is God-breathed. That is, breathed out, expelled by God. When tempted, Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 8 verse 3 to Satan. He says, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. The scriptures, the word of God proceeds out from the mouth of God. Numerous times of the Old Testament you find these words, thus saith the Lord, thus saith the Lord. The writer of the Hebrews begins his treatise with these words, God who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets. God spoke, the prophets relayed his message and recorded it for us. And so the content comes from God. It is His message to us, from His mouth to our ears. But how? How did fallible men record God's message without error? Did they somehow become infallible? The answer to that question is simply no, they did not. The infallibility in the inerrancy of scripture, that is, it was recorded without error, is not due to them suddenly becoming error-free, but rather It is due to the ministry of the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is the one who guarantees the accuracy of the transmission of the message. He is the one who guarantees that what we have today is accurate. Peter writes this, he says, and so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart, knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Holy men of God, men who were filled with the Spirit of God, they spoke the Word of God, they relayed God's message to men as they were moved. Literally, the Greek word there means to be borne along, to be carried by the Spirit of God. In other words, the Spirit of God superintended the transmission. He was the one that was over the whole process and he brought them along. And so he guarantees the accuracy of the transmission. and God's indictment on Israel's failure to hear, thus saith the Lord. Zechariah 7 records that they refused to heed, shrugged their shoulders, stopped their ears so that they could not hear. Yes, they made their hearts like flint. refusing to hear the law and the words which the Lord of Hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. Thus great wrath came from the Lord of Hosts." The Lord sent His Word by His Spirit through the prophets. That's the process. The Spirit of God was very active in the transmission of God's message. The Old Testament Scriptures were written by godly, holy men who were filled with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is responsible for the content of the Scriptures and also overseeing, supervising, superintending the writing of it so that it was recorded as God said it without error. But what about the New Testament? What about the New Testament? Well, Jesus promised to his disciples upon his departure that he would send to them the Spirit of God. John 15, 26 says, but when the helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify of me. Earlier Jesus had said, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to remembrance all things that I had said to you. Jesus also said to his disciples, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and will tell you things to come. How were Jesus' disciples able to remember the words of Jesus that are recorded in the gospel many, many years after Jesus spoke them. How? The helper, the spirit of truth. that he would bring back to their remembrance what they had heard. The entire New Testament was written either by an apostle or a close associate of an apostle. All of the writers were godly, spirit-filled men who wrote under the supervision of and power of the Spirit of God, and so God spoke directly to them. They recorded God's word without error, for the spirit of truth was in control of them. So the spirit of truth is who guarantees the inerrancy of scripture. We have the word of God today. Now, how far does inerrancy of the Bible extend? Is it inerrant in every way and in every manner or only in terms of theology and ethics and morals? Can it be trusted when dealing with matters of faith and practice but mistaken in areas of history and science? Well, close examination of scripture reveals that the scientific and spiritual truths of scripture are often inseparable. For example, one cannot separate the spiritual truth of Christ's resurrection from the fact that his body permanently vacated the tomb in bodily form complete with nail prints and hands and his feet. Can't separate those two. And if Jesus Christ were not born of a biological virgin, then he's no different than the rest of the human race who inherited Adam's sinful nature. And a close examination of the historical and spiritual truths of scripture are also inseparable. In Matthew 19, Jesus' moral teaching on marriage was based on his teaching about God joining together a literal Adam and Eve. Jesus connects his burial and resurrection to Jonah. And the great fish in Matthew 12, 1240 and his second coming, he compares to the days of Noah. in Matthew 24. So evidently, Jesus believed that Adam and Eve, Jonah and Noah were historical figures and that the stories of Jonah and the belly of the great fish and Noah and the universal flood as recorded in the Old Testament, they were true. Indeed, Jesus questioned Nicodemus. He says, if I have told you earthly things, and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? If the Bible does not speak truthfully about the physical world, science and history, then it cannot be trusted when it speaks about the spiritual world, the spiritual world. So the truth is that whatever the Bible declares is true, whether it's a major point or a minor point, It's true. The Bible is God's Word. He does not deviate from the truth at any place in it. All the parts are true. As a whole, they comprise. Now, there are lies in the Bible, but they are accurately recorded as lies. All everything is truth. The spirit of truth who supervised the writing of scriptures using fallible men who recorded without error the very word of God, the spirit of truth is what guarantees its accuracy. So we can fully trust his word. Now I know many today balk at the idea of absolute truth. Oh, they might believe that there is absolute truth in certain areas, such as in the pure sciences like mathematics, because 2 plus 2 is 4 no matter how you look at it in every culture. That's reality. That's true wherever you go. Or absolute truth when it comes to definitions. such as it's absolutely true that a triangle has three sides. You can't have a four-sided triangle because by definition a triangle has three sides. But when it comes to areas of morality or religion, they would say there are no absolutes. You know, who's to tell me what is right or wrong? What might be wrong for me might be right for you under certain circumstances, they would argue. Or what might be right for you is wrong for me. Or who are you to dogmatically say that there's only one way to God through faith in Jesus Christ? After all, they contend, don't we all worship the same God, but just under different names? And so there are many ways to God, not just one. And so they reject absolute truth, as the Bible reveals it, and put in its place relative truth. But I'm here to tell you this morning, there is no such thing as relative truth. There is no such thing as relative truth. If truth is that which describes accurately reality, how things really are, then it's either true or false. It cannot be relatively true. The opposite of absolute truth in the scripture is not relative truth, but rather mythology or a lie. Paul in chronicling the downward spiral of man into sin and degradation in Romans 1 says the problem with man is that they've exchanged the truth of God for a lie. and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Paul in describing, in 2 Timothy 4, describes modern man as one who will turn their ears away from the truth and they're gonna be turned aside to myths. Myths. Myths have no correspondence with what is real. The Easter bunny is a myth. even though you might find Cadbury eggs in a basket on Easter Sunday. The Easter Bunny is a myth. He does not exist. There is no correspondence or agreement with reality. And man, when he rejects the God of truth, rejects the truth of God and the Word of God, binds into Satan's view of reality, who's really out of touch with reality, with what is happening, who leaves behind the absolutes of God, the sail on the sea of relative truth, he ends up believing anything, any explanation. That's why scientists who have dismissed God from their thinking or have discounted the Genesis account of creation of the world as a myth can come up with their own far-out theories of how this world began. For me, it's easier to believe that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth than to believe that in the beginning, there was a giant explosion, a big bang, bang and zappo, life began. or that somehow the primeval slug crawled out of the ocean, grew arms, legs, hands, feet, a fully functional body, and somehow evolved into a human being. Or that we owe our existence to some extraterrestrial creatures who invaded this planet and started the human race. That's the newest one. If indeed we're a product of extraterrestrial creatures, then the question remains, where did they come from? Where did they originate? Who created them? One traces the lineage backwards. One has to come to the source, to the creator, to the uncaused cause of everything. And that uncaused cause is God, in the beginning, God. I laugh when I hear some of the theories that man has come up with to describe what they see. If they really wanted to know the truth of what really happened or what is happening, they would only have to look as far as the word of God. Open their Bibles, they would say. But as Paul says in 2 Timothy 3.7, intellectual men today are always learning, but never able to acknowledge the truth. They make great discoveries in science and medicine concerning the universe, the human body, but in all their learning, they're not able to put the pieces together to get a grasp of reality. Only when you have God in the picture does it all fit together. Only a believer, only when one accepts on the premise that God is the God of truth, that God is in touch with reality, what God says accurately describes the ways things really are, only believers have the framework to understand and to view life as it really is. When we look at the world through God's eyes, we see the world as it is. And so we as believers in Christ who trust God and his word, we're in touch with reality. Whereas those who deny God and his word have a distorted view of life. Now, may I say too that as believers, we do not need to be afraid of learning. We do not need to be afraid of learning because there's another practical application of the God who is truth, and that is all truth is God's truth. All truth is God's truth. No matter where the truth might be found, it's God's truth. We don't need to be afraid of truth for we have a framework. which helps us piece together all the pieces for when we start with the starting point of God, that God is the God of truth, that God accurately depicts reality, that within that framework all the pieces and all the facts can be arranged and fit. Whether it's biology, physics, chemistry, astronomy, and they all become a study of God's creative work. Anatomy and physiology, anthropology, psychology, sociology become a study of God's masterpiece, the human being, their body, their cultures, their customs, their needs. History becomes a study of his story. History, the story of God at work in this world, directing nations, setting up and tearing down kingdoms, ultimately ending just as God has stated in his prophetic word. We don't need to be afraid of learning because we have a framework from which to evaluate things. God's word is true. When God says has happened, is happening, just as he said. So the question we ask in closing is, who are we going to trust? Who are we going to trust? Personally, I trust the God of truth and the God of the word. What God has said in his word is true. And I go with that. And I think of people today, who are they going to trust when it comes to eternity? Are you going to trust the God who tells you the truth about the condition of man, that all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God? There's none righteous, no not one. Are you going to trust the God of truth who tells us that Jesus Christ dies for our sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, that although the wages of our sin is death, yet the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Are we going to trust the God of truth who says, unless a man is born again, he cannot see. the kingdom of heaven. Will you trust the God of truth? But to as many as receive him, to them that is Jesus Christ, gives to them the power to become children of God, even to them that believe in his name. That's what God's word says. Or are people going to continue to trust the lie of Satan? The one who's so out of touch with reality, who's not giving it to you straight, who says, oh, it doesn't matter what you believe, just as long as you believe it sincerely. Or who perpetuate the myth that all religions lead to God. Just pick one, follow it, and you'll make it. Or who may be saying to you, you don't need a savior. You're too good for that. That's for the drug addict or for the alcoholic at the mission, but not for you. See, we have the choice as to who we're going to trust. As for me, I trust, my faith is in the Lord.