The War Against Truth

Real life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. What is truth? It's almost a mockery. Yeah, what is truth? Sure, go ahead and tell me. Don't you and I live in a world like that right now? You can tell somebody to the truth and it could be a matter of life and death and they'll still now in this day and age because of hardness and a shattered dream or life, they'll say, what is truth? And we're in that time again. You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to Jackhibbs.com slash podcast. Today, if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us, that's like saying, amen or yes, then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now, open your hearts to what God's Word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs. First Thessalonians 5 verse 21, test all things, hold fast, what is good. The word test means this. We'll march through this together and I'm gonna go quick so you might want to use your phone to take notes or you can download the notes, all of the notes online at the app. So, test all things. The Greek word means to approve of by holding up to the light. Have you ever seen somebody, they'll take like, I think it's like a hundred dollar bill. I don't usually have a hundred dollar bill, but have you ever seen a merchant, they'll, somebody hands them a hundred dollar bill and what do they do with it? Exactly. They look at it, they hold it up to the light, what are they looking for? They're looking for a counterfeit. They're putting it to the light to see if those cryptic things inside the paper show up under the exposure of light. Notice this with the Bible is saying, test all things, hold everything that happens in your life up against the light. Examine it by the light to confirm the authenticity of something by exposure to scrutiny. God's Word says, starting right here. First Thessalonians 5, 21, scrutinize what? All things. Now, the Greek word is short and one. That's one word, P-A-S. That's all things in Greek. P-A-S. And this is what that word means as in all kinds, all kinds, all men that would be all people. All respects, all angles. I like that, all angles. A friend in Israel, he's not a follower of Jesus, not yet, working on him. But he grew up, of course, as a Jew and he grew up in Yemen, a Yemenite Jew. And he said that growing up, his father would read the scriptures, but the kids would have to sit in the table in the round. But the father would read the scriptures. But you had to read the scriptures with the father, he said. And he never moved the Bible. You had to read it from where you were sitting. So for some of the kids, the Bible was upside down. And you would have to bend your eyeballs so to speak and get it in your head when that verse fell upon you to read. And I said, what did that? What did your dad do that? He said, oh, because from our earliest ages, listen, our dad taught us that the truth of God you can get from every angle. This word means all angles, all possibilities, all situations. As an example, this is cool, the etymology of the word sincere means without wax, meaning that what we're speaking about on all things is that they are true things. Take the light shine it upon it to reveal its truth. When somebody writes sincerely, John, I'm not sure if you know what that means, we write sincerely and we think, oh, that's what the word means. If you looked up in the American dictionary, what does the word sincere mean? It means, oh, no, it doesn't. The word means without wax. If something is insincere, it means with wax. You say, what does that matter? Because in the first century world, as an example, if you were selling gods and idols, let's say you're in Corinth and you have your cart and you're selling Diana, you're selling zoos, you got some Jupiter in there, you got some Titan, you got some, are you with me? Your God, right there, handcrafted, if your God fell off the cart and his head fell off, but you still wanted to sell them, you would heat up some wax and you'd put his head back on and then you would clean it up and then paint it and then put him back up for sale and some unsuspecting idol worshiping income poop would grab it and pay you and then as they're going home, if the sun is hitting that idol, the head will fall off. Why? Because they're exposed to the light and the light has properties that expose things and you take that idol and you go back and you shout, insincere. In this case, you would say sincere. God's word to us is sincere without wax. If it's insincere, this is wax. It can't take the heat. I love that. Also, the word hold fast, again, is one word in the Greek language and it's this. It means to hold firm, watch everybody. It should come to light in the second. To hold firm, to grip or to bind yourself too, watch this. To possess, to restrain, by never letting go. This is the Bible speaking to you. Get a hold of the Bible. Don't let go. The word also means what we use today in our vernacular is death grip. Oh, man, he had a death grip on me. Have you ever heard that before? Do you know why people say that? When I was in high school, I had a girlfriend whose father had a massive heart attack and he grabbed her by the arm. She was all along with her dead. Her whole family, they were gone in vacation and he grabbed her arm and he squeezed her arm so bad as he died. Her arm was terribly bruised for a couple of weeks. What happened? The death grip. It's for real. But the Bible says, take that grip that you would hang on, apply it to holding on to the Word of God, vitally important, and then for what reason? For the Greek word, calo, good, hang on to what's beautiful, the better thing. Listen up, the better thing. Grab onto it. Don't let go. The beautiful thing. The best thing. What is excellent? The word means that which is of the highest value or character, the wise choice. Make the wise choice. Young people make the wise choice this year. Nowadays, it's always been risky, but like never before, a young person today, I guess anybody could make a decision now that will cost them their lives in seconds. My goodness. What's this funny powder? Nowadays, we need to teach our kids when they open up mail or when they go somewhere. What is this funny? What's this residue on this thing? Now it can kill them. With destiny, a fentanyl, all around the nation, a kid, police officers, social workers, you name it, child protection, they're getting fentanyl on their fingers and not even realizing it. It's on the countertop. And they'll wipe their nose and they're in 15 to 20 minutes. They're either severely, severely injured or dead. All the more reason why to grab onto the truth. So let's do it right now. Number one, will be against the truth. That's kind of like a no-brainer, but that's going to increase. Market down, take a picture. The war will be against the truth. Number one, by me saying that, it implies that the truth can be known. You agree with that? Follow this. If there's a war against the truth, that implies that you can know the truth and that the truth is available. That's why there's a war against it. So we're waking up to the warfare. We're waking up to the battle. Earlier, Sun Su, his big tactic was, get your opponent to realize that you're worrying against them, but they don't know it. That's how you win. Get your opponent to know that you are waging a war against them, but they don't even recognize you are. The world is doing that to us in a way. Satan, certainly, but the war against the truth. Listen, in John chapter 18, verse 37 and 38. Pilate, therefore, Jesus is standing before Pilate. Pilate, therefore, says to Jesus, are you a king then? Because they had the scribes and Pharisees that accused Jesus of being king of the Jews, which of course he was. Jesus answered and said, you say rightly that I am a king for this cause. I was born and for this cause. I have come into the world that you or that I should bear witness to the truth. And everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. That's key, but Pilate didn't respond to that key part. Pilate said, what is truth? What is truth? He missed it. The poor man, what he should have said was, are you implying Jesus that I can't hear your voice? What are you saying, Jesus? I don't understand what you're saying. What about what are you saying? His heart is not even sensitive enough to think that thought. Jesus said, people who want the truth, they hear my voice. And Pilate says, what's truth? Do you know where that comes from? A broken, cynical, guarded, wounded, heart? What is truth? It's a word that means I give up. It cannot be known. What is truth? It's almost a mockery. Yeah, what is truth? Sure. Go ahead and tell me. Don't you and I live in a world like that right now? You can tell somebody to the truth, and it could be a matter of life and death, and they'll still now, in this day and age, because of hardness and a shattered dream or life, they'll say, what is truth? And we're in that time again. People will tell you today, especially the younger they are. We can't know truth. It's funny to me. They'll say, we can't know truth, and that's a truth statement. Did you get that? We can't know truth. Well, that's a statement that you're making. The fact of the matter is it's premised upon being able to know the truth. Now, the truth is going to be under attack like never before in this year to come. And I'm going to give you ways to fight. This is not just the revelation of the issue. I'm going to give you so what stuff? So what do we do? And I'm going to give you that for every one of these things. I want to read this to you. Quote up here on the screen. Jesus Christ is the embodiment of the truth, and all that is true. All truth belongs to God, and there is no other truth on the market. Should anyone say, this is my truth, or well, that's just your truth. They have denied the fundamental reality of what the truth is. It is an absolute attribute of God. See, we don't have any, we have no creative activity or input regarding truth. It's an attribute of God, and without God, it is a falsehood, a counterfeit reality. It's to pretend. When somebody says, well, that's your truth. Listen, friends, are we not hearing a lot about this in our age today? Well, that's your truth. This is my truth. Live and let live. We live in that age, and it's going to get worse in 2024. So the number one thing for you and I is to absolutely have the truth embedded in our lives. And the truth is not what's happening over there, or here, or around there, or up there, or down there. The truth is God's word, the Bible. As I said, people have been taking shots at this for thousands of years. It's proven, attack it, try to destroy it. It's amazing. The more people attack it, in fact, those who attack it wind up becoming believers in it. Go talk to people like Josh McDowell, or at least Strobel, or some of the others. See us Lewis. They attack the Bible. They wind up becoming the believers in the Bible. Why? Because it's a supernatural book, but just know this. That you cannot have your truth, and I can have my truth, and everybody does as the Bible says what's right in their own eyes. That's a dangerous world to live in. And I submit to you, we live in a dangerous world. And so, Jack, what do I do about it? I'm going to give you just two verses, two verses, and I'm going to give you two versions. How's that? The first is awesome. It's the Old King James. Listen, I'll tell you why in a moment. Oh Timothy, keep what that which is committed to thy trust. Avoid profane and vain babelines. Would you say today there's profane and vain babelines taking place in our world? And oppositions of science, falsely so-called, which some professing have aired concern in the faith. Is that awesome? Say it's awesome. Say something. Are you guys okay? I need you. I just, I really need you today. That's the Old King James extremely accurate, by the way. You'll get a the pendulum swing over to a translation of that verse, and that's the NLT, the new living translation. It's not a Bible, it's a translation, but it's good when you want to understand something, that's more readable to our era. Watch this, 1 Timothy 6 verses 20 and 21, same verse, verses, different rendering. Oh Timothy, guard what God has entrusted to you. Avoid godless foolish discussions with those who oppose you with their so-called knowledge. Wow. Can you use that? Oh, I can use that this year. I could have used it last year. Verse 21, some people have wandered from the faith by following such foolishness, and you and I know some of them. Number two is this, the War of 2024 is against the facts. You say isn't that the same thing? Truth and facts? No, not at all. Truth is God's immutable, eternal, unwavering truth. All truth belongs to God. Period. But when it comes to facts, facts is simply the reporting of that which has been observed or experienced. Facts. What are the facts? Listen, I could give you the facts of a crime that I witnessed, and it was a very godless crime, right? Has nothing to do a truth? Well, yeah, but you're going to tell the truth when you give the facts. Yes, but listen, the facts are the recording of. The facts are what's observed. It is what is the fact. Just give me the facts. And so in this day and age in which you and I live in, facts are falling victim. By the way, I'm going to warn you right now. I love you guys. I just want you to know. You just remember that, and you just remember that. We go through here. I love you. But I'm going to bring it. I just want to make sure that you know that I love you before it's brought. So just listen, words like facts. What does that mean? How about data? Well, you know, the data says, you know, there's a little worldly proverb that says if you torture the numbers long enough, they'll confess whatever you want. Information. What does that mean anymore? Misinformation. It seems like the more misinformation that I was told a year ago turns out to be the truth. What's going on here? Research. This is getting hard now. It's making me think. Pastor, I just want to come to church and be left alone. How about this one? What does this word do to you? Expert. Exactly. I assume there's experts somewhere in the world. I just wouldn't want to be them anymore. Because poor thing, the less thing you want to say is, I'm an expert. Oh, sit down. You're right. How did that happen? Because there's a war on the facts. So I'm going to say something just because of time's sake, and I figured I just asked you a moment ago, all right, I told you, I love you. And you said, you love me back. So let's just see how deep is your love. So listen, I'm going to put you through a little test, and you're going to judge yourself on your response meter, and it's going to be in correlation with if you know the truth or not. Maybe you do? Maybe you're not sure? Maybe you don't? Okay, are you ready? Don't answer. Who is God? Think. What is gender? Think. What is your worldview? That's what guides your life. You make decisions. All of us, each of us, based on a worldview. Do you know your worldview? What does the word truth mean to you? Who you'll be voting for? What is your opinion on war? What is your opinion on religion? What is your opinion on politics? And guess what? The most emotionally reactive words, plural, and all of the American culture, as of today, is two words. It's two words. And I'm sad to say, it's not Jesus Christ. I wish it was Jesus Christ. That means people would be listening and caring. It's not Jesus Christ. The two most volatile words in the American culture today is Donald Trump. Isn't that weird? No, think about that. I don't know what you think about Donald Trump or how to listen. The thing is this. Instantly, there's heart rate. People's heart rates go up for real. People can't talk. They freak. That's how they're supposed to react about Jesus. Are you hearing me? It should be that when a pastor shows up in a room that he so represents God, that people get nervous. That doesn't happen anymore. And the name Jesus Christ is a cuss word. So what's the fix? The fix is this. The fix is found in 1 John 4 verse 1. 1 John 4 verse 1. If your heart rates elevated right now, it means this sermon is having its effect. Right? It's like I don't like that. Good. Listen. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets, how about this? Can I change the word a little bit? Many propagating and peddling false information have gone out into the world. By this, you know, the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming and is now already in the world.