Counter Culture: What is Absolute Truth?
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Introduction:
Well, good morning once again. I’m so glad you’ve joined us at Hope. Today we are continuing on in a series of sermons called Counter Culture: Answering the lies in culture with the truth. Last week Josh Monda was here and talked about how we as Christians should respond to the political government that God has instituted. This week we will be asking the question: Is there such a thing as absolute truth. Spoiler alert: there is! To look at this we will be in Acts 17 and in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 as well as some supporting passages. I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Acts 17 and 2 Thessalonians and stick a finger in each of them.
When I was in high school, a popular Christian band had a song called My World View. The lyrics went like this:
I wanna see the world through Jesus eyes
See through Jesus tears
I wanna see the world through Jesus eyes
My vision's not as clear
I wanna feel the world with the hands that made it
Know the pain and appreciate it
Hear their cries and hope to understand
My world view
It's how I see the world
It's how I look at you
My world view
It's how I see the world
Would you like to see it to?
My world view
I wanna place my foot upon the rock
The rock that doesn't move
For upon the rock the kingdom's built
And here's the kingdom view
I see creation and I see Adam's fall
I see through the years and I can see it all
All things come together for the good
My world view
It's how I see the world
It's how I look at you
My world view
It's how I see the world
Would you like to see it to?
My world view
It's how I see the world
Would you like to see it to?
My world view
Comin' into view, comin' into view
Comin' into full view
My world view
(I can see, I can see it forever)
It's how I see the world
It's how I look at you
My world view
(Comin' into view, comin' into full view)
It's how I see the world
Would you like to see it too?
My world view
(I can see, I can see it forever)
It's how I see the world
It's how I look at you
My world view
(Comin' into view, comin' into full view)
It's how I see the world
Would you like to see it too?
My world view
(I can see, I can see it forever)
It's how I see the world
Would you like to see it too?
My world view
(Comin' into view, comin' into full view)
(Comin' into view, comin' into full view)
The irony in this song is that one of the singers on this particular piece of music has walked away from a Biblical worldview and now accepts all kinds of subjective truth and lies of our culture.
We all look through a particular lens to see the world. As Christians our lens is the bible. We want to have a biblical worldview. That begins with understanding that there is an absolute standard for truth.
Read Acts 17:16-34
16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.
17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.
18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.
19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?
20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.”
21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.
23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,
25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,
27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,
28 for “ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.”
33 So Paul went out from their midst.
34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
Pray
Paul was in Athens and he saw all of the idolatry around him and was provoked in his spirit. I want to point out how he responds to this provocation in his spirit. He goes to the religious spaces and to the marketplace and reasons with them. He’s not shouting them down. He’s not holding a sign with a hate filled slogan on it. He’s confronting them with truth, not accepting or ignoring them but sharing the truth with them in a specific and contextualized way.
It got me thinking about walking around in our culture today and the idols we see surrounding us. What are the false idols that people worship because they are chasing after a lie that seems true to them?
- relative truth
homosexuality
transgenderism
sports
families
comfort
retirement
personal freedoms
politics
money
relationships
possessions
work
position in life or even in church
social media
personal identity
So when we see people who have turned their back on absolute truth and are chasing after a lie, how should we as those who claim the name of Christ respond? We are going to come back to Acts 17 in a few minutes but for now we see Paul confront falsehood with truth. First we must establish what absolute truth is to make sure we are on the same page.
I. What is absolute truth?
I. What is absolute truth?
Absolute truth is something that is true at all times and in all places. It is something that is always true no matter what the circumstances. It is a fact that cannot be changed.
Alastair Begg says we are at a point of a question of reality in our postmodern culture. Everyone gets the “right” to their own version of reality. The problem comes when my version of reality contradicts your version of reality. At that point, ethics become personal taste. In the study of thinking there is a law called the law of noncontradiction. In fact, it’s the first principle of thought. It says that contradictory claims cannot both be true at the same time in the same sense. This principle sets forth that the opposite of true is false. All of us know this deep down and we use it in our everyday life quite naturally.
All religions claim that they have an exclusive truth. This of course cannot be. So there cannot be many versions of the truth. There is no such thing as my truth or your truth. There is only THE TRUTH.
God is the supreme creator of the world. He is sovereign King. If you believe this, then it will lead you inevitably to the belief in an absolute standard of truth. You can’t escape it.
We do not shape truth. We are shaped by it.
A. Truth is a person.
A. Truth is a person.
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
15 if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.
Because of what the church represents and stands for, the world hates it. People hate the church because God and the church represent the absolute claims that God has on the minds, wills, and even emotions of people. They don’t want to admit to an absolute right and wrong when it comes to affecting how they want to live out their lives.
So, since God exists and you are not Him, you don’t get to decide what is true. That unnerves many people. The universe is a monarchy. There is a King. And He is the King whether or not you recognize Him as such. Truth is what the King says it is because He made and rules over this place.
I read a quote from Arthur Leff, a professor of law at Yale. He said this:
“I want to believe—and so do you—in a complete, transcendent, and immanent set of propositions about right and wrong, findable rules that authoritatively and unambiguously direct us how to live righteously. I also want to believe—and so do you—in no such thing, but rather that we are wholly free, not only to choose for ourselves what we ought to do, but to decide for ourselves, individually and as a species, what we ought to be. What we want, Heaven help us, is simultaneously to be perfectly ruled and perfectly free, that is, at the same time to discover the right and the good and to create it.”
This quote sounds like us today. But that quote is from 1979.
Unless we have the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, our hearts will always lean one way. We will suppress real truth and try to create our own truth. We are born with a sin nature and without the saving power of Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, we will lean toward falsehood and sin.
II. The World’s Objections to Absolute Truth
II. The World’s Objections to Absolute Truth
The prevalence of postmodern thought and moral relativism has been responsible for many of the world’s reactions and how they have objected to the idea of absolute truth. We’ve talked about the world’s ethics based on personal preference and each person getting to experience “their own” truth. But one thing that the world uses to object to these ideas is the Christians that they know who don’t hold to Christian teachings. This is so common now. Maybe years ago it was just as common but now it seems like people are more vocal about what they don’t agree with. Or maybe it’s just because we have the internet. The world doesn’t even get to having to grapple with the truth claims of Christianity because they look at Christians they know and don’t think they believe this stuff either. I.E. One person may wonder why the church teaches that premarital sex is sin when a person who they know that attends that same church lives with their fiance. They ascertain that the church doesn’t really believe these things it teaches because they do not live it.
I was listening to a podcast this week from John Cooper, a Christian musician and he made a statement that just grabbed me. I’m going to paraphrase a little bit because he was speaking of Christian artists but it applies to Christians in general. He made the point that there are many so called Christians who are unashamed to speak the name of Jesus Christ but they are completely ashamed of His character. Listen, if you don’t love God’s character, then you don’t really love God. To love God is to love His ways.
Shane Pruitt, who speaks to students much of the year wrote that what most people think biblical Christianity is “I do whatever I want and however I want. And God exists to help me accomplish my dreams and goals for my life.” But what Biblical Christianity really is: “Jesus saves me from myself. And I exist to do whatever God calls me to do for His kingdom and glory.”
That starts with what is revealed right here in God’s Word.
With that, let’s turn our attention to our second passage for today, 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12
9 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders,
10 and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.
11 Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false,
12 in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
In verse 9, Paul writes of the lawless one. We aren’t going to focus on that right now but just know that this is in a section about the return of Christ and the lawless one is widely understood to be the antichrist. What I want to focus on here is the contrast that Paul draws between believing the truth and taking pleasure in unrighteousness. In verse 10, why were the people perishing? Why were they dying? Because they refused to love the truth. They didn’t love the truth and so God brings judgement against them. The judgement that He brings is that they would believe false things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
At some point if you say you want to run with evil, God will give you over to it. That is a form of judgement.
So, they didn’t love the truth and they didn’t even believe the truth. Not even at that level of just believing it.
They perished because they took pleasure in unrighteousness.
This was not because they lacked knowing facts. This was them loving unrighteous things. The problem is not that we don’t know the right facts. The problem is that we love our sin.
The truth being real, makes demands of us because it’s absolute. Instead of running toward truth, we chase after sin with love in our hearts for it. This requires repentance. We must turn from our sin and turn toward God in the gospel.
III. Responding to the culture’s lack of belief in absolute truth
III. Responding to the culture’s lack of belief in absolute truth
How do we interact with a society that as a whole has denied God’s place as the one who is absolute truth and supreme over all? Begg suggests three approaches, two bad and one good.
Attack - Admonishing them. Curse the darkness. This is rebuke, reproach, and reprimanding them. Often this is done in a spirit of condemnation and when they say the culture is “going to hell in a hand basket” there is almost a sense of them being pleased about this. It’s almost gleeful in the condemnation of the culture. Obviously, I do not advocate this approach. This would be quite different than what Paul told Titus about operating in Crete.
1 Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work,
2 to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.
I’m sorry to say that sometimes the church can become a very angry place. Jesus had to deal with this too. James and John see that Jesus gets rejected by a Samaritan village, they ask if he wants them to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them.
2. Affirmation - Accomodating them. This is the approach we see in liberal protestant churches. Many of the mainline denominations would be included in this approach. Anytime we have a problem in our culture with some aspect of the faith, instead of submitting it to God and taking Him at His Word, we seen many just getting rid of the “hard” parts altogether. It’s not a buffet. You don’t get to keep part of it and get rid of other parts. The truth is absolute.
People in these types of churches don’t like theology. Therefore, what you end up getting is basically psychology. They avoid creation, the truth claims about Christ, and God’s rules for human sexuality to seek approval in the culture. They affirm and accept what the Bible calls sin.
You can see this happening even here in Dixon.
Twonbee said that “of the 22 civilizations appearing in history, 19 have collapsed when they reach the moral state of the USA.”
3. Proclamation
As believers in Christ we have armor that defends us but we also have a weapon of warfare. Our weapon is the Word of God.
17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,
12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Now jump back into Acts 17. Paul does this. He reasons with them. He proclaims the truth. He starts at the beginning with them.
God is in charge and is the creator
God doesn’t live in a temple
God seeks relationship with His creation
God is righteous and commands repentance
God will judge the world
The proof was that Jesus rose from the dead
They resurrection tripped them up. That really got their attention. Some sneered but some wanted to hear again.
When we proclaim, we point people to the truth of the gospel.
They were created by God.
They are accountable to God.
They will face God.
Their only hope is that Jesus died in their place for their sin. If they believe this, placing their trust in Jesus death and resurrection, and repent of their sin, they will be forgiven and have eternal life.
Be ready and willing to say what the Bible says. That’s it. You don’t have to make stuff up. Please don’t. Don’t try and get into psychology. Know the truth of the Bible and be ready to speak what you know of it.
Don’t do so in rude or unkind words. We still need to be able to love and connect with a culture in rebellion against God because we too were once sinners and without the grace of God we would be right exactly where they are.
So what now?
Don’t only focus on facts in our ministry. They are important. We need to know facts. But that is not all. We must be praying and working against our and others’ love for sin. As long as we are in a torrid love affair with our sin we will deny the truth. And trust me, we will keep finding reasons to do this. We will make up new ones continually.
6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
2. Where in your soul are the obstacles to belief? It’s down deeper than knowledge of facts. At the root of those obstacles to belief is a love for unrighteousness, for darkness. Repent of this.
3. Speak on truth. Act on truth. Ideas have consequences.
Wrong thinking leads to wrong living.
12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
The only way that the truth gets planted and stuck down deep in our hearts is by the work of the Holy Spirit. If you believe these truths, it’s because someone first spoke them to you. We heard them and by the work of the Spirit in our hearts we believed. We must speak for others to hear the truth. It’s God’s plan. That’s how this works.
And if you jump back again to Acts 17 you see that the outcome was that some people believed.
So church, let’s be:
Careful, clear, and fair in our Biblical thinking about our culture.
And when it comes to the unbiblical or evil elements of culture let’s be:
Bold, Balanced, and Winsome as we confront with truth and proclaim forgiveness in Christ.
Pray