Months ago, my youngest son suggested that I post my sermons on the internet. That's why I have the Blog moniker that I do. With the upcoming election almost upon us, last Sunday's sermon was timely and one I would like to share with my blog readership - both of you. In the future, I hope to have this set up as a link so that it takes no more room than is necessary for point and click. For now, here it is in it's entirety.

Sunday, October 26th, 2008

True or False Test

Deut. 13:1-4, I John 4:13-23, Matthew 7: 13-23

Like most kids in school, I never liked tests much. But if I had to take a test, let it be true or false. Unlike essays that are fret and sweat and take for ever, or multiple guess with four or five confusing choices, true or false, yes or no was sstraight forward: a simple choice of one or the other. True or False tests in life today may be simple, but they are far from easy.

When I was a youngster, the truth was pretty clear cut. Mommy was the prettiest woman in the world. Dad was the smartest man who ever lived. You had no choice but to go to school. Good people went to church and bad people went to, well, you-know-where.

As we mature, our perspectives change. But also has our society. Today, lines between truth and fiction are often blurred. Imitation rivals the genuine article. Deception is highly marketed and and easily available. Ten years ago, with the assist of a standard Microsoft program, a little patience, and no previous experience, I was able to make an anniversary card of my daughter and her husband by cutting out their picture at their wedding and pasting them in a beautiful romantic garden. It looked for all the world, their picture was taken in that garden. It was a hoax. It never happened. Cut and paste is the stuff tabloids and law suites are made of.

With each passing year, I find I have greater and greater empathy for Pontious Pilate, the Roman governor faced with a jury-less conviction to send an innocent man to death. Exasperated by the crowds demand to acquit a convicted murderer and crucify an innocent Galilean standing before him, Pilate wearily queries “What is truth?” How can we know the truth, much less live with or by the truth?

True or False: By Roman Law does Barabbas deserve to die? True

Has Jesus committed a crime against Rome? False

Does Jesus deserve to die? False

Is He going to be sent to the cross? True

Pilate failed the test.

It seems that the season of national elections is when truth volleys between opposing parties., and the score is somewhat subjective. Truth or semblence thereof ricochets between campaign slogans and promises. It falls in one court then the another, until the game is so dizzying, it is tempting to side with Pilate in his weary quandary, “What is truth?” Sometimes, as I listen to the campaign advertisements of both parties, I almost wish a divine intervening voice would say, “I'm Jesus Christ, and I approve of this message. But He doesn't work that way.

Instead, Jesus warns His disciples against false prophets: people who look good on the outside, seem to have the inside scoop, but fail the true and false test. Matthew records His counsel in Chapter 7 v. 13: Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheeps' clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. They are not what they outwardly appear to be. So how can you know who they are and what they are really up to? Jesus teaches in vs. 16 by their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

Unfortunately, fruit takes time. Having planted some apple and peach trees, I asked a friend,,”well, how long will it be before they bear fruit?” Maybe ten years!

Some years ago I was privileged to be instrumental in forming a ministerial association where there had been none before. At the first meeting all the clergy from the surrounding area attended. As the meeting progressed, I noticed that the pastor from and independent church was very silent. However, just as we were about to adjourn, he spoke up and voiced without apology or diplomacy, his absolute conviction that no woman should be permitted to preach, much less be a pastor. Then he made several pointed comments and induendos about the United Methodist Denomination, as well as siting some unbecoming aspects of previous pastors. Faces of the three other pastor faces turned to me waiting for a rebuttal. I kid you not, from the throne of grace came my reply; “Well, I said, “A tree is known by it's fruit, so I guess we well just have to wait and see if it's good or bad.” It was six years before that pastor would talk to me.

Sometimes we don't have ten years or six years to discern a truth quoting leader from a tale-toting impostor. We may not have two months, or even two weeks. How do we know someone is for real or not? How can we know what they say they are is really who they are and what they practice? Truthfully, how do we know whom to choose?

Turn with me back to 1 John (the letter toward the back of your Bible, not the Gospel) chapter 4. Remember, John is writing to believers confronted with false teachings and bogus prophetic would-be leaders. Follow as I read starting with vs. 1:

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. James tells the, this is not just an idle game to play in the car on a long trip. “Hey kids, how many false prophets can you spot on the road?” This is a command. It is the solemn responsibility of every believer to seek the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit to discern what is of God, and what is not. We are built up, and made strong in our faith by what is God's. Which is precisely why the devil desires to trap us, tear us down, and totally destroy what is God's by what is not.

Then John clearly instructs how to test for the source of a teaching, an opinion, or a platform. Vs. 2 Every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. Jesus is the Truth. The Truth that Pontius Pilate was questioning was standing full-faced in front of him! Anyone who denies that Jesus is the ressurected Son of the Living God, denies the Truth. A false message is always wrong about one central thing: Jesus. A person may say they are a Christian because they go to Church, but a water-washed, blood-redeemed honest-to-God believer knows there are not many different ways to come to God, and that no one comes to the Father but through the Son, because that is what the Son said Himself about Himself. Many ways to God is a tenent of New Age Philosphy, Eastern religions, deceiving spirits - not the faith of a new creature in Christ.

John says Jesus is God in the flesh. Saving faith in Jesus Christ as the one begotten Son of the Father, crucified, dead, buried and resurrected by the Rightous Almighty Power of the God (the God above all gods) has but one accetable, correct answer: TRUE, not “mabye”, or “well, under most circustances” or “perhaps, back in the day”, but always and forever, the first time to the last, from the alpha to omega: TRUE.

Check the content of what you are hearing. A false prophet will say many good things, that really are true. But mingle in with the truth is deception as voracious as a man-eating shark. Look again at the warning in Dueteronomy 13:1-4 If a prophet, or owne who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sigh or wonder, and if the sign or waonder which he has spoken takes place, and he says, 'let us follow other gods (gods you have not known), you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. In other words, even if the predictions and promises are fulfilled, but the persuasion falsifies ones faith in God, Let him be as dead to you!

A True prophet today will not only profess that truth, but seek to unashamedly live by it. We are warned again in in 2 Peter 2 that there will be false prophets among the people just as there will be false teachers who, we are told in vs. 2 will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the soverieign Lord who bought them -bringing swift destructions on themselvesfes. Many will bollow their shameful wys and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. And in 2 Timothy 3:1-4 Mark this: there will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slacerous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, trecherous, rash conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God... The next question is then, this person passes the morality test; True or False? So, to know the truth, and based on the best of your lights, choose the truth, you ask “what about the track record? Does this individual consistantly choose to act in accordance with God's Word? Or with disregard, or even defiance of the Truth found in the Word of God?

Hitler once said that if you tell a lie long enough, loud enough, to enough people, eventually they will believe it as truth. There is the rub, because so many do not know, or do not believe, what the Bible says is God's Truth. Paul writes to his young protege in 2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. Visit a library this week, or a bookstore, and notice how many shelves of volumes there are on the religions that are not Christian, new-age philosphy, and the occult. Then pick up your Bible and read what it says about God's take on sin, about Jesus' take on the sinner, about gender issues, abortion issues, about relationships between husband and wife, parents and children, falsifying records, dishonest business practises, and how, in the last days evil will be made to look good, and good evil. The Bible is as pertinent today as this morning's news papers – only far more trustworth. Furthermore, unlike this morning's paper, the Bible is full of Good News. If you don't know where to look, ask me, I'll be happy to take you there.

The acid test is the Jesus question, but the bottom line is this: a true prophet upholds the word of God above all human dispute. A leader after God's own heart displays honesty and character. As human beings, we all make mistakes, but God's leaders admit them and work through them. The last question on this True and False test is, given the choice, whose truth are we wanting to listen to: the worlds, or Gods. In verse 5 of Chapter 4 of 1 John, the Apostle informs us of two distinct and contrasting, mutually exclusinve orientations and two contrasting, mutually exclusive viewpoints: that of the world, and that of God. He writes of false prophets They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. The world represents everything of the flesh without or opposed to God. But, John hastens to explain to the believer in whom God dwells through Jesus Christ, We are from Godand whoever knows God listens to us. But whoever is not from God, does not listen to us. This is ow we recognize the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of falsehood.

Wow. This discernment stuff is heavy! It is essential. Why does God allow so much deception in the world to trip up even Christians? We turn once again to Deuteronomy 13 vs. 3 The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love Him with all your heart and will all your soul. The first and foremost commandment even in Jesus' opinion, Verse4 follows with the reason from the heart of God: It is the Lord your God you must follow, and Him you must rever. Keep His commands and obey him: serve Him and hold fast to Him. This is the way to live life with God here and for all eternity.

In about 10 days you will have opportunity to exercise your right as an American citizen to vote. You also have the opportunity to exercise your claim as a child of God to exercise your love for Him and His Word. I cannot and will violate the dignity of free choice by presuming to tell you how to vote. God Himself honors our free will. But I urge you, as your pastor, consider the issues, the claims and the promises of the candidates from the perspective of the Scriptures and our holy faith. Pursue God's wisdom in prayer. If you have not already, consider signing up for the prayer vigil Monday Night till the polls close on Tuesday and intercede for our nation, its leaders, and it's future. Whatever the outcome Nov. 4^th, God is still sovereign, His will faithful to perform, and His people to preserve until Christ's comes in glory. Amen.