“Will the Truth Hurt?”Revelation 1: 4b-8

A police officer pulls a guy over for speeding and has the following exchange: Officer:  May I see your driver's license? Driver: I don't have one. I had it suspended when I got my 5th DUI.

Officer:  May I see the owner's card for this vehicle? Driver: It's not my car. I stole it. Officer: The car is stolen? Driver: That's right. But come to think of it, I think I saw the owner's card in the glove box when I was putting my gun in there.
Officer: There's a gun in the glove box? Driver: Yes sir. That's where I put it after I shot and killed the woman who owns this car and stuffed her in the trunk.
Officer: There's a BODY in the TRUNK?!?!? Driver: Yes, sir.
Hearing this, the officer immediately called his captain.The car was quickly surrounded by police, and the captain approached the driver to handle the tense situation:
Captain: Sir, can I see your license? Driver: Sure. Here it is. The Captain quickly discovered it was valid. Captain: Who's car is this? Driver: It's mine, officer. Here's the owner' card.The driver owned the car.
Captain: Could you slowly open your glove box so I can see if there's a gun in it?

Driver: Yeah, I'll bet that liar told you I was speeding, too! Lying to avoid punishment.

Driver: Yes, sir, but there's no gun in it. Sure enough, there was nothing in the glove box. Captain: Would you mind opening your trunk? I was told you said there's a body in it. Driver: No problem.Trunk is opened; no body.

Captain: I don't understand it. The officer who stopped you said you told him you didn't have a license, stole the car, had a gun in the glovebox, and that there was a dead body in the trunk. 

Driver: Yeah, I'll bet that liar told you I was speeding, too! 

Humans spend a lot of time by lying to avoid punishment.

  

The Apostles John and Mark use the Greek word, “alêtheia” (al-e-the-ia) when they are writing about truth in their respective Gospels. This word means the literal reality of God and the absence of any falsehood. It represents an absolute value.

One of the most amazing things that has happened over the last 20 years or so has been American society’s increasing belief that truth is relative and is not absolute.

People have come to understand that human values and truths can be manipulated.This means that politicians, teachers, church leaders, and even our children live in fantasy worlds that insulate them from shame, blame, and responsibility for their own actions. We’ve built a culture of psycho-babble that rewards participation and not success, and stresses overcoming the privileges of others in order to get even, not ahead.

Those of us who believe in alêtheia are the bad guys. We are the intolerant politically incorrect buffoons who are standing in the way of multi-cultural harmony. We don’t love our neighbors, we’re hypocrites, and we are judging others unfairly.

Why? Modern Christianity has come so far as to say “Life is a journey without an end. We are all on this journey together. We don’t know where the journey will end but that’s okay!” You’ll even hear, “We may take different paths, but we all serve the same God.” Do we?

Is Krishna, Allah, Buddah, Vishnu, Mother Earth the same? Do I really have to fake you into thinking that someone who thinks missionary climate change efforts are the same as preaching the Gospel? Do I really have to stand beside a person who embraces Biblically forbidden spirituality for the world to like me? Not gonna happen. The aleitheia of God.

This is the great deception and falling away that John, Daniel, Isaiah, and Jesus spoke about in Biblical prophecy. Someday soon these new “good Christians” will stand before Jesus and Almighty God and they will find that truth has no shades of gray and that God doesn’t give second chances in eternity. He doesn’t care what the community thinks.

Listen to our New Testament Lesson from Revelation 1: 4b-8: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail. So it is to be. Amen. "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

When we stand before Jesus each of us will be asked to account for our time after we have heard the al-ê-the-ia of God. What will your response be? I warn you: The contemporary ecumenical Christian church and the modern identification of Evangelical Faith has undergone a revision in focus, ideology, and vision that has led it away from the traditional doctrine, tenets, and truth of the Church of Jesus Christ.

Ironically, the dominant version of contemporary faith is through works, as the Scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees practiced in their day. It is not the content of the faith but rather the idea and appearance of “faith” that is important to these people.

These churches and leaders are characterized by three things.

1) Downplaying the ultimate authority and importance of the Bible. Most won't come right out and flatly deny the Bible, but most use differing ways to redefine the Bible by saying “Let's not argue about the Bible. After all, it's all about Jesus, right?" Really? How does one accept what Jesus said and what the Bible teaches about Him --- and then try to deny portions of Scripture? According to John 1: 1 and 1: 14, Jesus is the Word of God incarnate! They are inseparable. He is the way, the truth, and the life, period.

They say Christianity is "how we search for a kind of truth" where it’s all about "the journey," where nothing is absolute, and not actually a search for truth itself. They believe that “right behavior” trumps “right beliefs”.  This is why we have behavior police but not truth police.

If we had as much fight in our society for aleitheia as we do political correctness we'd still be one nation under God.

2) The redefinition of traditional terms: The new vision is that Jesus' use of the term "Kingdom of God" was a political and not a spiritual statement. Calling it a "peace network," "eco-system of God," or God's "global love economy," Christians seek to bring it to pass. They say, “The word salvation means us saving the planet!” All hail, Gaia!

LISTEN NOW! It is suggested that when passages like John 3: 16 say "world," it really means the physical Earth and not the lost humans on it! This is so wrong head it’s almost funny if it didn’t mean global warming is thought to be real.

3) Redefine the Mission and Purpose of the Church: "Evangelical" use to mean bringing individuals into a personal relationship with Christ.

Now it means bringing people into a setting that claims to be the Church in order to experience the journey of their earthly lives, including the notion that by their participation they earn salvation.  Remember the dumb idea that people ned to get awards and trophies for participation? This is the ultimate idea of rewarding participation!

Another deceptional teaching is that personal salvation is thought of "a lie that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone, can be in right relationship with God." They believe it is our ideas and actions that speack for the future salvation of humanity. Wrong headed as usual.

It comes down to the truth of the Scriptures and the Truth of Jesus Christ. So my question to you is this: “Will you already know the real truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth when you get to Heaven?” Or the ecumenical kum-by-blah version?

Did you live out Jude 1: 3 - “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”

Or will it be an experience that will probably leave a mark as your surprise, despair, and hopelessness grows as you come to realize you really should have paid attention? That that nice man or woman you thought of as a pastor and teacher failed to tell you the truth?

Will you try to blame it on false teachers that tickled your ears or will you recognize that God intends to hold you responsible for yourself? Your call – will the truth hurt you or render you perfect?  

Render to God with thanksgiving joy for His salvation draws near. Amen. 

FROM THE HEART # 1

Mark 12: 28-34

Have you ever played the “good-news/bad-news game? Tried to see both sides of the same situation at the same time? It’s a way to get in touch with your internal optimistic or pessimistic sides, if you will.

Many jokes exist that cover the “good news-bad news” topic:

Doctor: “I have good news and bad news for you!”  The good news is that the Medical Association has just named a new disease after you.

A large passenger train was crossing the country. After they had gone some distance, one of the two engines broke down. “No problem,” the engineer thought and carried on at half power. Farther on down the line, the other engine broke down and the train came to a standstill.

The engineer decided he should inform the passengers about why the train had stopped, and made the following announcement, “Ladies and gentlemen, I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that both engines have failed, and we will be stuck here for some time. The good news is that you’re not in an airplane.”

Our scripture lesson for today is the good news of the “good news-bad news teaching arc” of the Gospel of Mark’s 12 chapter, verses 28 to 44. Next week we’ll look at verses 38-44 and why it’s going to be difficult to be a perfect Christian.

In today’s message Jesus puts both the Jewish religion and the coming Christian faith in sync when He affirms the common core central to both. Love of God and love of neighbor must be become second nature to all who desire to follow God.

There is much debate about what constitutes being a “good” Christian, what’s the definition of “evangelical,” and even what it means to be “saved,” but there is no doubt about what Jesus considered to be the two greatest commandments given to the human race.

I think it has something to do with our being created in the image of God and the resulting respect and power that gives us as His people. It’s why all life is precious in our world and how each life, from the smallest bacteria to the largest animal has a place and function in God’s order.

In fact, we can consider Jesus’ teaching on these two issues so strong that they become almost natural laws that each of us must internalize and live up to automatically in our everyday endeavors.  If we don’t Jesus reminds us of the price we’ll pay for failure – hardness of our hearts and loss of our eternal life. They are said in love, not in obligation, said as things to do and not as forbiddens.

Listen to (Mark 12) verses 28 to 34:

One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, "Which commandment is the first of all?" 

Jesus answered, "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

Then the scribe said to him, "You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that 'he is one, and besides him there is no other'; and 'to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,' and 'to love one's neighbor as oneself,'--this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."

When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." After that no one dared to ask him any question.

What commandments do you hold to in your everyday life? What drives you?

He who dies with the most toys wins? There’s a sucker born every minute? I’m out to get any and everything I can. Me too! Let me go first. It wasn’t me! Not in my backyard or neighborhood. I’ve got mine, you get yours. Well, they’re just not our type of people. It won’t matter just this one time. I’m not like you. The biggest dog makes the rules. And my personal favorite: Don’t worry, nobody’s watching.

Do humans make their own rules? Whatever it takes to get ahead? If you think we evolved from pond scum then that’s what you should be thinking.  

But if you recognize a creator and All-powerful Being in charge of the universe then you should have both fear and respect for His rules, His identity, and His Will.

Humanity has wavered between these two concepts since our creation. Most of the time we have lived somewhat within the constraints of Godliness and applied these two commandments to our daily living.

The United States was the first country to use them to truly build, govern, and live within a set of God given, inalienable rights for its citizens. We’ve also tried to show others how and why it works. Truly for about its first 200 years we can say America loved its neighbors and its God.  

These values were instilled in its children and manifested in duty and sacrifice.

But when the daily call to a higher purpose and the abandonment of God’s commandments began to be questioned, starting in 1962 or so, and then dropped, we suffered the loss of our blessings as communities and as a country under God.

Now don’t misunderstand me, America has never been perfect, there have always been things we’ve been working on – but Christians know perfection is an ideal that may never be reached, but we were trying.

Since the Bible and the Ten Commandments have been taken out of our schools as the teachable standard in 1962 almost every element of society has started to crumble, beginning with families, our marriages, our manufacturing base, our military, our first responders, our education system, our churches, and our mental and emotional health.

No one really knows what to believe anymore and that’s why most of its being made up from human desire and experience, all gained from a sinful perspective.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, writing in The Brothers Karamazov said, “The world says: "You have needs -- satisfy them. You have as much right as the rich and the mighty. Don't hesitate to satisfy your needs; indeed, expand your needs and demand more." This is the worldly doctrine of today. And they believe that this is freedom. The result for the rich is isolation and suicide, for the poor, envy and murder.”

God gave us commandments for a reason:

They are about healthy relationships.

They remind us to slow down and think beyond ourselves.

They help us to communicate and understand each other.

They remind us of the power of words to express our values.

They encourage us to respect and protect personal property.

They establish the importance and value of human life.

They teach us to balance community and individuality.

They establish healthy social norms that help us live together in harmony.

They present a coherent (common sense) set of ground rules for life.

They give us truths and absolutes to respect, obey, and live by.

If we didn’t have them we’d be living in a truly evolving world of tooth and claw and quick death.

Instead God has shown us His Love by giving us the way to live in harmony and peace with others, wherever possible. That’s Good News! Amen.