Warmest greetings to you, my friend. It has been said that, not only has “truth been abandoned in our culture, but also the desire to retain the truth effect." Oh say! Is that really true? Our program today is titled "Buy the Truth."
Thank you, thank you, thank you, friend, for inviting us into your home today for Bible study In Search of the Lord's Way. Oh, yes, I sincerely believe His way to become a Christian, and His way to live a full life is the best way that has ever been introduced to the family of man. I'm thankful, too, to the members of some churches of Christ in the viewing area of this station for making our visit possible. Because of them, you won't be hearing us asking for your money or selling anything.
A couple of weeks ago we had a program about "False Prophets." We closed with Jesus' warning in His masterful Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:15, "Beware of false prophets," He said, "who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves." After reading that, it would be very difficult to deny the existence of false prophets, wouldn’t it? But, there could be no "false" prophets or teachers if there were no such thing as truth now, could there? And, it's to that that we turn our attention today.
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We are reading today from Matthew chapter 13, beginning at verse 44 and reading through 45 and 46. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” Now let’s go to God in prayer. Holy Father, we are so thankful to You for truth; and that we have truth; and we pray today that You will help us to restore the value of truthfulness in our culture today. We pray Your blessings upon each of us as we study this passage. In Jesus’ holy name, we pray. Amen!
"Buy the truth and sell it not." That is the title of our message today and it's the first part of the verse, Proverbs 23:23. What is truth? Sages and philosophers have wrestled with that question for millenniums and apart from Jesus Christ, and the one true God, they seek in vain for the answer.
It isn't difficult to imagine why Pilate and the Jews were skeptical about Christ's statement in John 18:37 that He had come into the world that He should bear witness to the truth. As for Jews, they continued to receive their teaching from the law given them by Moses, but the law didn't answer the question: "What is truth?" Of course the law was true, and as Paul put it in Romans chapter 7, verse 12, "the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.” But he had said in verse 10, "The commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death." John referred to this failure of the law to give all truth when he said in his gospel in chapter 1, verse 17, "the law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."
And so far as Pilate is concerned, it is impossible to describe the error into which the world had fallen at that time. The idol gods in the city of Athens, Greece for example, the intellectual center of the world at the time, were said to be more numerous than men. The Roman Empire was filled with corruption. Slavery made men beasts of burden. Women were the sport of the passions of men.
Jesus had come into the world to "bear witness to the truth." It can be said that He embodied all truth. That isn't hard to believe because, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us..." That is the reading of John 1:1 and 14. In fact, Jesus plainly declared, "I am the way, the truth and the life..."(John 14 and 6). The thought of the moral perfection of Jesus wasn't seriously questioned by those who were personally acquainted with Him and His ministry. I did say "seriously questioned" and I did say those who were personally acquainted with Him because I'm aware of some in our times who have frivolously charged Him with an adulterous relationship with Mary Magdalene, of a homosexual relationship with some of the apostles-- and, well, some other things. The truth of the matter is His critics who were contemporaries with Him, who lived in the world at the time that He did and were personally acquainted with Him, didn't make such charges against Him. He silenced them once, when He asked them: "Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me?" That is John 8:46. If the people of the world would make a universal turn to Christ's standard of morality, wars would cease, my friend, evil would be overcome with good, and God would reign in human lives. It is just as true that the life and teachings of Jesus embodied all the spiritual truth that man will ever need or know.
But, when Jesus had procured our redemption at the cross, He returned to the Father where He now lives; and He makes intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25). As He drew near to the end of His earthly ministry, He said to His apostles, "It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you" (John 16 and 7). His work here was about to be finished at the time He said this, His mission accomplished and in keeping with God's plan, He would return to Him. Then how was the truth which He embodied exist, be seen and spread to all the world? Well, He doesn't leave us without an answer to that question. In the same conversation with the apostles in John 16, verse 13 He said, "When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth." Notice now, that the Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth, was to come to the apostles to be an infallible guide to them. He would guide them into all truth. What the apostles spoke, what they wrote under the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit (the Spirit of truth) was (and is) the word of truth. This is exactly what is called in the Scriptures in 2 Timothy 2:15 as the word of truth "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." The old King James Version translates that, "Study to show thyself approved unto God." In James 1:18, again, the Scripture is called "the word of truth." "Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures." My friend, the Bible is the word of truth. It is also called "The word of God" in Hebrews 4 and 12 and other passages. If, indeed, the Bible is the word of God, well, it is the word of truth, isn’t it? In His prayer in the garden shortly before His betrayal and crucifixion, Jesus prayed for the Father, for the apostles rather, and He said, "Father . . . sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth" (John 17:17). Couldn't we say, then, without fear of error, that the spirit of truth recorded in the word of truth in the eternal book of truth, the Bible is God’s word of truth?
Well, the Bible is true on every subject on which it has spoken. It has never been proven wrong about anything it has said. Now, don't misunderstand me. Some things men have said the Bible says have been proven wrong, or false. But the Bible has never been proven wrong about anything on which it speaks. It isn't a textbook on any of the natural sciences, but when it speaks on subjects relating to those sciences, it is true, my friend!
Someone may be thinking, "Now wait a minute preacher, the very first verse of the Bible (“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”) has been proven to be wrong. If you are thinking that, my friend, you have been misled. That verse still stands. Other than Genesis 1:1, man has yet to come up with an acceptable answer to the question of the origin of things. "The Big Bang" theories of origin of the universe are just that-- they are theories. As a matter of fact-- or truth-- most leading scientists now openly reject "Big Bang" theories of origins. The theories of evolution of life on the earth are nothing more than what they say they are-- they are theories. They are not established facts or truths and with all due respect to all our scientific achievements, we have not proven the Bible to be false in any of its teaching on the origin of the universe and life on the earth. Sorry about that. But it's true. The Bible is true. Everything the Bible says is absolutely true. It stands.
Well, what we have said up till now is this: God is true, and He has embodied this nature in the person of His son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who when He was about to go back to the Father, promised the spirit of truth to the apostles whom He had chosen. The Spirit of truth would guide them, the apostles, into all truth, giving us the word of truth. Samuel M. Thompson said it well in his book, A Modern Philosophy of Religion, that "the only sound reason to advocate that a religious doctrine be accepted is to be found in its truth. If there is truth in religion then in addition to sincerity there must be a desire for truth, a strong desire, strong enough to compel belief to change wherever it is found to be false." The acceptability of the religion of Jesus Christ rests in its truthfulness. If we should argue that there is no such thing as "truth" in the religion of Christ, then His religion becomes unacceptable and it becomes irrelevant.
Now, what is to be our attitude and our relationship to this system of truth, which we call "Christianity?" Well, first, let's get back to that passage in Proverbs 23: 23: "Buy the truth and sell it not." Our attitude then is to be one of irresistible appreciation for it. It's something valuable"--something to be greatly desired, and as we mentioned in the quote from Samuel Thompson, "that appreciation for truth and that desire for it, must be strong enough to compel belief to change,"-- I mean conform my life to it, or to the teaching of that truth. To "buy" the truth, implies that it is worth whatever a person might have to pay. In the parables of Christ, which we read as the text for this passage or this message, Jesus compared His kingdom, the kingdom over which He reigns as King of Kings to "a treasure hidden in a field: which a man found and hid it; and for joy over it he goes and sells all he has and buys that field." Oh, that's how precious biblical truth is, friend. When a person finds that truth, it should be worth everything he owns-- or hopes to own-- to acquire it. Then Jesus said, it's "like a merchant, seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it." Truth on any subject ought to be to us a pearl of great price. It is worth a fortune; it is worth whatever it takes to obtain it. It’s worth anything we may have to forsake in this world to obtain it; and once we have found it and bought it, we will not turn loose of it. We'll be like, we will not be like I should say Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright; or Judas, who for only thirty pieces of silver, the price of a slave, sold his Savior; or Demas of whom Paul wrote that he having loved this present world more than he loved the truth, departed from the truth.
Well, we shouldn't just seek the truth, we must also love it. Seek it! Buy it! Love it! God sent a message to the Christians in Thessalonica that some people will "perish (that means to be eternally lost, friend) because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." That is 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 10. Now listen to what the next verse says, "And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
We are to know the truth. Some people tell us we can't know the truth. Well, that is a mistake, because Jesus said, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). We may never know all the truth. Certainly, it would be presumptuous on our part to say we had come to a complete and perfect understanding of all truth. But, because we don't know every thing, doesn't mean we can't know some thing. That is why we must study as in 2 Timothy 2:15.
It's critical that we believe the truth. Jesus said, "Because I tell you the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell you the truth why do you not believe Me" (John 8:45-46). Well, this must be the time to say that we must never become angry with the person who tells us the truth. Instead, let's receive the truth he tells us, even if it means changing some long standing beliefs or opinions that we have. Jesus told those Jews in John 8, "...you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God" (verse 40). They killed Him alright, but it didn't change the truth He spoke. Ahab had Micaiah put in prison and he fed him on black bread and water, but it didn't change the truth. The fat lady can smash the scales, but it won't change her weight. Shatter the thermometer if you will but it won't change the temperature. Destroying the preacher of truth won't change the truth that he preaches.
Opinion is not truth, even if it's taught and received as truth. Neither is truth opinion, even if it is taught and received as such. If the truth we know and believe doesn't mold our thoughts and our words and our deeds, it is of little value to us. Truth must be believed and obeyed and lived to be of relevance. Only by obedience to the truth is the dross of human error purified from our souls. The Bible says, "Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart" (1 Peter 1:22). Let’s pray. Thank You, Father, for the revelation of Your truth. Thank You, Thank You, Father for the revelation of Your truth in Your word, the Bible. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
"Buy the truth and sell it not." Oh, say that is good advice because it's God's word. It is good advice to any generation, but it's especially good for our generation. There is such a thing as truth, despite all of the assertions to the contrary. Christ's way is the way of truth. And I urge you to accept it as your way of life. I keep speaking to you about "repenting." That is a Biblical term and it just means to change your mind or your attitude, and to turn to God. You'll never regret doing that. Christ's way is the best way because it is the pearl of great price. I keep talking to you about being baptized, too. And, in spite of anything you might have been told or believed until now, it is the truth that baptism is essential to salvation. It is that point in the process of your conversion when you pass from the state of alienation from God to the state of reconciliation with God: from the lost state to the saved state. Oh, it is important because Christ taught it (Mark chapter 16, verses 15 and 16). Don't wait any longer to take these important actions, friend. To just believe in Christ and the truth of His way is not enough. Hurry! Hurry! "Buy the truth and sell it not."
If you would like a free CD, an audio cassette tape or a printed copy of today's program, write us or call us right now. Ask for the program by name: "Buy the Truth and Sell it Not," and we'll get it in the mail to you as quickly as possible. Our address is In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. Our e-mail address is searchtv@searchtv.org. If it would be more convenient for you to call, our toll-free telephone number is 1-800-321-8633. Now, you needn't be afraid to write or call, because we'll not add your name to a mailing list for a series of letters asking you to send us a donation. We don't do that sort of thing. When I say it's free: it is free. It's already been paid for by friends of yours in some churches of Christ in the area of this station. So, you feel free to write us your request.
And, please do accept our invitation to worship with us in the church of Christ. Somewhere not too far away, there is a congregation of those people who would dearly love to have you worship with them. If we can help you locate them, let us know. Thanks for seeing the program. God bless you this week. We love you.
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