1260. The Truth of God
The Truth of God
"Who changed the Truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, Who is blessed for ever. Amen" (Rom_1:25).
The Truth of God stands over against the lies of men and satan. Pilate asked Christ, "What is Truth?" (Joh_18:38). Let us take the answer from the lips of the Master as He spoke to His disciples: "I am * * the Truth" (Joh_14:6). Thus the word "Truth" has to do with the Gospel because it is the word that carries with it the honor of our Lord as He presents the way to God.
John rejoiced in his beloved Gaius because
(1) He walked in the Truth (see 3Jn_1:3).
(2) The children walked in the Truth (see 3Jn_1:4).
(3) He was a fellow-helper in the Truth (see 3Jn_1:8).
(4) The Truth bore witness (see 3Jn_1:12). Let us observe man's attitude to this Truth of God.
1. They hold down the Truth in unrighteousness. Rom_1:18 : "For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the Truth in unrighteousness."
This means that the righteousness of God, revealed in the Gospel, is repressed, held down, through the unrighteousness of men. Men are called upon to glorify God. They can do this by living righteously, and they can live righteously only by the Truth of the Gospel. In their unrighteousness they make void the Truth.
This also means that men in their unrighteousness reject the Truth; they spurn it, they put it beneath their feet. They receive not the love of the Truth; they reject its gracious terms; they laugh at its Gospel that saves and prefer to believe a lie that they may be damned. Compare 2Th_2:9-12. All of this because they had pleasure in unrighteousness.
2. They change the Truth of God into a lie. Rom_1:25 : "Who changed the Truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, Who is blessed for ever. Amen."
This is worse than believing a lie. This is charging God with falsehood.
Satan, in the Garden of Eden did this very thing when he spoke thus: "Hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? * * Ye shall not surely die."
All over the world men are changing God's words, forcing God to say what He does not say.
When men, in order to bolster up their false theories of evolution, deny the first chapters of Genesis, with their story of the creation, they change the Truth of God into a lie.
3. They obey not the Truth. Rom_2:8 : "But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the Truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath."
Which is worse, to deny and denounce the Truth or to refuse to obey its precepts? There are those who wholly refuse to be taught of the Word. They give it no attention whatsoever. If they hear the Word they will not do it. Such will reap a greater condemnation.
4. They receive not the love of the Truth. 2Th_2:10 : "And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the Truth, that they might be saved."
Here is the keynote of all that has gone before–there is no love of the Truth in their hearts. They love earthly things. The Truth runs counter to the cherished desire of men; the Truth shows them their own sinfulness; the Truth calls them out of the world into a life of separation; the Truth condemns this age and places the whole world under sin, and therefore men refuse to receive the love of the Truth.
5. They turn their ears away from the Truth. 2Ti_4:4 : "And they shall turn away their ears from the Truth, and shall be turned unto fables."
Because they do not love the Truth and will not obey it, they turn their ears away from it. They want to hear only the things which please them and which flatter them; they want to hear only a word which glories in the flesh and feeds the lusts of the flesh. Thus they utterly shut their ears to sound teaching.
6. They resist the Truth. 2Ti_3:7-8 : "Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth.
"Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the Truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith."
These men of the world climax their sin against the Truth by resisting it. They possess the spirit of Jannes and Jambres, the men who withstood Moses.
This is done because they are men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. They once heard the Truth; they know that it is true, and yet they wilfully and doggedly close their ears to its message and refuse in any way to be moved by its appeals.
There are scores of men to-day among the ranks of the critics, who have known the joyful sound. They have known the way of life and tasted of the good Word of God; but they refused to let it take root.
They have set their faces like a flint against the Gospel of God and against all the Truth which makes that Gospel glorious and which displays the destruction of those who disobey it. They are wilful Christ-rejecters, sinning against the light and resisting the Truth.
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR