You Can Handle the Truth Week 2
I CAN handle the truth.
We live in a day when we are more afraid of holiness than we are of sinfulness.
— Leonard Ravenhill
John 8:32 — You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Do I believe there is a God?
If God is real, don't assume he will perfectly align with your views. If he never challenges your assumptions you may have a made-up God. We should expect God to challenge us on what we think is right somewhere in our lives economically, socially, sexually, and personally.
— Author Tim Keller
Do I believe in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ?
Hebrews 11:6 — Without faith no one can please God. Whoever comes to God must believe that he is real and that he rewards those who sincerely try to find him.
Psalm 131:1-2 — Lord, my heart is not proud; my eyes are not haughty. I don’t concern myself with matters too great or too awesome for me to grasp. Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself, like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk. Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.
Mysticism
Moralism
Emotionalism
Mysticism — An experience where the soul reaches its highest degree of union with the sacred during our earthly existence.
Truth is not still being discovered.
John 14:6 — I am the way, the truth, and the life. The only way to the Father is through me.
Mysticism is dangerous because it is always looking to elevate a spiritual experience or new enlightenment over what God has already established.
Galatians 1:8 — Nobody should ever teach a message that is different from the good news that we taught you. Neither we ourselves, nor even an angel from heaven, should ever teach a different message. If anyone does that, I pray that God would curse him.
Moralism — A personal moral code. Moralism is a belief that being a good person is often the most important thing.
87%
100%
Morality may keep you out of jail, but it takes the blood of Jesus Christ to keep you out of hell.
— Charles Spurgeon
Galatians 5:16 — So I tell you, live the way the Spirit leads you. Then you will not do the evil things your sinful self wants.
1 Timothy 1:15 — Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.
Moralism is dangerous because it ultimately removes our need for salvation through Jesus Christ.
Emotionalism is when I let truth be determined and decided by how I feel.
Colossians 2:8 — Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual principles of this world, rather than from Christ.
Jeremiah 17:9 — The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?
Proverbs 4:23 — Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
1 John 3:20 — That’s how we know we belong to the way of truth. And when our hearts make us feel guilty, we can still have peace before God, because God is greater than our hearts. He knows everything.
Pleasure / Pain
Yes / No
Matthew 16:24 — Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.
Mysticism
Moralism
Emotionalism
We want to align our lives to the Bible, not align the Bible to our lives.
Am I obeying what I already know?
Acts 26:18 — You will make them able to understand the truth. They will turn away from darkness to the light. They will turn away from the power of Satan, and they will turn to God. Then their sins can be forgiven, and they can be given a place among God’s people — those who have been made holy by believing in me.