You Shall know the truth: Recognizing the truth

As we count down to election day, truth becomes a precious reality. It seems the political process specializes in the partial or “half-truth.” This is nothing new, but our technology has created an environment where we question “the truth” we are receiving. The courtroom oath is one that we wish were universally applied, “Do you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth? So help you God.” As our morality falters and truth becomes optional, then trust will be in short supply. In our series, You Shall Know the Truth we are connecting to the truth that is not temporary but eternal. Half-truths will ensnare and enslave us but the eternal truth in Jesus Christ is the only path to freedom. This week the sermon is Recognizing Truth and is based on Hebrews 4:9-16. These verses take us back to the Exodus when God’s people sent 12 spies to explore the Promised Land. They found a land flowing with milk and honey but it also contained fortified cities and even giants! Joshua and Caleb were not distracted by the cities or the giants because they believed that the living God was with them and God would make them successful. The remaining 10 men spread rumors throughout the camp that they could not take the land, and they should go back to slavery in Egypt! God did not let them enter the “rest” of the Promised Land, instead, he sent his people into the wilderness for forty years. The author of Hebrews was inspired by the Holy Spirit to understand that God’s “rest” is still available for every believer, but we have to recognize and hold on to this eternal truth. The Promised Land is not geographic but spiritual! These Christians were being tempted to return to the wilderness of half-truths and distrust. They were following fear, lies, and mistrust rather than trusting God with their lives to find a deep and abiding rest for their souls. How were they to recognize this truth? The Word of God through the Holy Spirit was able to give them, and every believer, a powerful and eternal clarity! Through this powerful Word, we can know the whole truth and nothing but the truth because Jesus is our Savior and Lord! Our sincere and ardent prayer is for you to know this powerful truth that will lift you from the darkness of distrust into the throne room of God’s grace as you read Hebrews 4:9-16.

Hebrews 4:9-16:  This shows that the rest for God’s people is still coming. ¹⁰ Anyone who enters God’s rest will rest from his work as God did. ¹¹ Let us try as hard as we can to enter God’s rest so that no one will fail by following the example of those who refused to obey.¹² God’s Word is alive and working and is sharper than a double-edged sword. It cuts all the way into us, where the soul and the spirit are joined, to the center of our joints and bones. And it judges the thoughts and feelings in our hearts. ¹³ Nothing in all the world can be hidden from God. Everything is clear and lies open before him, and to him we must explain the way we have lived.¹⁴ Since we have a great high priest, Jesus, the Son of God, who has gone into heaven, let us hold on to the faith we have. ¹⁵ For our high priest is able to understand our weaknesses. He was tempted in every way that we are, but he did not sin. ¹⁶ Let us, then, feel very sure that we can come before God’s throne where there is grace. There we can receive mercy and grace to help us when we need it. (NCV)