KNOWING THE TRUTH
Mark Twain once said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you mad.” Although it is often the case, this statement is a far cry from what Jesus said about knowing the truth. He said that it would set us free! Paul struggled in Romans chapter seven with what he called the law of sin and death. He closed the chapter by pathetically asking if there was any hope that he could be free from this law and the sin associated with it. Seeing himself as a wretched man who could not do good nor refrain from doing evil, he longed to be delivered from his body of death. Suddenly, chapter eight brings a breath of fresh air as he proclaims triumphantly that he now had victory because he had learned the truth of living and walking in the spirit. Truth had set him free; but, prior to this point, lack of truth or misinterpreted truth had handed him over to be tormented by the law of sin and death. Imagine how the devil must have bellowed out his diabolical, hideous, swearing laughter as Paul strove so hard and failed so miserably in chapter seven. In Satan's twisted mind, it must have seemed very humorous watching this great man struggle blindly to get out of the maze.
Misinformation
On another note of humor, we can get a glimpse of how funny we humans can appear when we don't get the facts straight and we misunderstand or totally miss the truth. There was a little old lady schoolteacher from London who was looking for a room in Switzerland. She asked the local village schoolmaster to help her. A place he showed her seemed to suit her, so she returned to England for her luggage; however, she remembered that she had not noticed a bathroom, or as she called it a “water closet.” She wrote the schoolmaster and asked him whether there was a W.C. in or near the house. The schoolmaster, who did not know the British expression, was puzzled by the term “W.C.”; never dreaming that she was talking about a bathroom. He finally sought the parish priest's advice, who concluded that W.C. must mean “wayside chapel.” The lady received the following letter a few days later.
Dear Madam: The W.C. is located nine miles from the house, in the heart of a beautiful grove of trees. It seats 350 people at one time and is open Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday of each week. Some people like to take their lunch and make a day of it. On Thursdays, there is organ accompaniment. Acoustics are very good and the slightest sound can be heard by everyone. It may interest you to know that my daughter met her husband at the W.C. We are now in the process of taking donations to be used to purchase plush seats. We feel that this is a long-overdue need, since the present seats have holes in them. My wife hasn't been able to attend regularly. It has been six months since she last went. Naturally it pains her very much not to come more often. I will close with the desire to accommodate in every possible way and will be happy to save you a seat down front near the door. Hope to see you soon.
It is very important for us to have the proper information. Misinformation or lack of information can be a very destructive force in our lives. My mother was from a very large family, and almost all of the eleven adult siblings lived in the same area. When I was a small lad, it was sort of a family tradition that every Sunday afternoon we would all visit at my grandmother's farm. By mid-afternoon, there might be a gathering of fifty or more people including my uncles, aunts, and cousins. The women would all go off and do their “women thing,” and the men would all go out and sit under the pecan tree to talk. It was underneath that pecan tree one Sunday afternoon that my Uncle John referred to someone who they had “gone down for the third time.” I asked what he meant, and he explained that if a drowning swimmer goes under the water for the third time, he will drown and will not come up again. My Uncle Herman confirmed that that's the way it is. These were two men with military backgrounds, so they must have known what they were talking about. I grew up with this very strong confirmation that if you went down three times that you would drown for sure. In addition to this important information, I had also heard from my school teacher that you should wait two hours after a meal before going swimming, or you would get the cramps which would cause you to drown.
One summer afternoon not long after I had obtained these two valuable pieces of information, some of the cousins, aunts, and uncles joined my parents, my sister, and me on a trip to a place called Broadway Creek. At that time, I didn't know the Scripture that the broad way leads to destruction. Had I known that fact too, what awaited me would have been an even more petrifying experience. At this swimming hole, the water ran over some smooth rocks to make a little waterfall which emptied into a nice big swimming area. After our picnic lunch, all the cousins went diving into the swimming hole. I went in very reluctantly because I had just eaten a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and I knew that I should not get in the water for two full hours lest I would get the cramps -- whatever they were -- and die. Fearfully, I slid across this little rock slide down into a pool of water. When I stood up, the water was just above my nose. I stood on my tiptoes and stuck my head out of the water as far as I could and cried for help. The rocks were slippery and I slipped down off my tiptoes. The water went above my nose for the second time before I could pull myself up on my tiptoes again and yell, “Help!” On my third time up, I was absolutely petrified. I was going to die for sure! The cramps were getting me! And this was my third time down under the water! This is goodbye to the world! My daddy was on the shore yelling, “Just walk out of the water.” I couldn't imagine it! There I was drowning and he was talking foolishness! Finally, my sister grabbed my hand and pulled me forward. Sure enough, when I took a couple of steps, my head was above the water. Misinformation had put me under a tremendous bondage.
The Bible tells us that we will know the truth and the truth shall set us free. On the other hand, if we don't know the truth, the misinformation or the lack of information that we have can bring us under tremendous bondage.
A lady was pregnant with a much wanted pregnancy; however, when she failed to feel the heartbeat, she decided that the baby had died. She became so distressed that she jumped from a railroad tower in an attempt to kill herself. When the doctors did an emergency Cesarean section, they found a healthy, strong baby inside the mother's mangled body. Because of lack of information, the woman had been thrown into a state of panic, and she killed herself. Ironically the baby she thought was dead miraculously survived.
We have to be so very careful that our lives -- spiritually, physically, mentally, and emotionally -- are not destroyed by wrong information or lack of information. Much of America was thrown into a panic on Halloween Eve of 1938 when Orson Wells read an H. G. Wells' The Wars of the Worlds over the American Radio Network. Written 1898 as if a news commentator were giving the account of an invasion by Martians, the story had cutaways to different sites where the Martians had landed. Thinking that what was being broadcasted over the radio was an actual account of the daily news rather than a theater production, many people who were listening to CBS Mercury Theater on that evening were so frightened that some committed suicide in the panic. Misinformation led those people to make a drastic and terrible decision, and led them to a destructive place in their lives -- all over a simple radio drama.
During 1964 filming the movie The Best Man, Ronald Reagan was one of the leading actors in Hollywood. The talent agents searched through the actors that they wanted to cast in the role of the President of the United States for the film. The United Artist executive refused to give the part to Ronald Reagan because he didn't think that the actor looked like a President. I can imagine how the casting director must have felt twenty years later when Mr. Reagan stepped into the Oval Office. Sometimes things are quite different from what we might think.
Every year in America there are 25,700 automobile fatalities, 11,000 deaths by falls, 8,300 deaths of pedestrians, 5,600 deaths by drowning, 4,800 deaths by fire, 4,400 deaths by motorcycles, 4,000 deaths my poisoning, 3,600 deaths by inhaling food or another object, 1,800 by guns, 1,200 by bicycles, 888 by electrocution, 300 by motor scooter and motor bikes, 130 by farm tractors, 91 by lightening, 48 by hornet, bee and wasp stings, 30 on commercial busses, 8 by venomous snake, lizard and spider bites, and 7 by fireworks. We all are aware that we can be killed in an automobile accident, but how many times do you think about that as opposed to being killed by fireworks? Around fireworks we are overly cautious and may even have a fear of them. Yet how many times each day do we throw the kids in the car without the slightest anxiety? The thought of an accident doesn't even enter our minds. We have a strange mentality about some things. Some people are deathly afraid of snakes, but they don't act that way toward their cars. Many times we have wrong or distorted information in our minds, but it is important for us to begin to think straight and understand things correctly.
Many times the operators of ministry prayer lines get calls from people asking for “traveling mercies” as they drive across the country. The problem is that our chances of being injured or killed in an automobile accident are greatly multiplied within twenty-five miles of our homes. Statistically, you are much safer traveling cross country than driving in your own town. However, no one ever calls for prayer for safety to drive to the grocery store.
Although the chances of being killed in an airplane are 0.046 per every 100 million passenger miles, while the chances of being killed by an automobile are 41 per 100 million passenger miles (almost 1000 times greater); fear of flying is fairly common. Many people are petrified of roller coasters, yet the chances of being killed on a roller coaster are one in 6 million. Of course, we could stay home where it's safe. Actually, our chances of being hurt at home are 6.6 times greater than our chances of being hurt at work. Many people prefer organized sports to outside activities, such as exploring or hiking or digging around in caves. They don't like to get out in the woods because they are afraid of snakes or being hurt in a fall. But the likelihood of an injury per hour of activity is far greater in playing football than in wild white-water rafting through the wilderness of America.
My point is this: misinformation can bring fear, destruction, or danger into our lives. The wise man of the Old Testament put it this way, “Little foxes can spoil the vine.” (Song of Solomon 2:15) Little bits of misinformation can be very dangerous to us. The devil is a murderer, and he accomplishes his destructive purposes through the means of being a liar.
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. (John 8:44)
Many times he distracts us from the real danger by drawing our attention to supposed dangers -- mere mirages and decoys -- allowing the real danger to be able to attack us.
Ignorance
The Bible lists a number of different things about which we need to be careful that we are not ignorant. Being ignorant does not mean being stupid, it simply means to be uninformed. A person can be a very brilliant man, but he may be ignorant of certain facts or have the wrong facts; therefore, he may make wrong decisions. On the other hand, a person may have a very low IQ; but if he has the right information, he can make the right decisions.
In Romans 10:3, Paul talks about one of those areas of ignorance. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
The Pharisees and Jewish leaders were very zealous for what they thought they understand about the Law. For example, the Law told them not to take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. They became so zealous that they refused to even speak the Lord's name. Even in reading the Scripture, if the word Yahweh were written into the text, they refused to read it aloud. They would substitute Adonai in its place. They were ignorant of the true righteousness of God: a righteousness that God, through the vicarious death of Jesus, has imputed unto us. Jesus is the only person who has even kept the total Law. In keeping the total Law, He was able to earn the total inheritance of God. By taking that for Himself, He was able to share it with His bride. Thus by becoming the bride of Christ, we become joint heirs with Him of the righteousness of God. Paul tells us that these Jewish leaders were ignorant. They were under the misinformation that they had to earn their salvation. They were very zealous in going about it, but they were ignorant of the true principle of what the righteousness of God is. They were doing everything they possibly could, but still missed the mark. Their problem was not in their effort, but in their ignorance.
In the 1929 Rose Bowl, Wrong Way Riegels picked up a fumbled ball and began running for the goal line and made a 69 yard run. He was finally tackled just before he made the goal -- by a member of his own team. He had been racing toward the wrong goal line! When Roy Riegels grabbed the pass, he was only thirty yards away from making a goal if he had only run the right direction! He put every ounce of energy he had into running the 69 yards, but it was in the wrong direction.
If you and I want to do better than the Pharisees, we need to make sure that we are not ignorant of the righteousness of God. We need to understand exactly what righteousness is. Righteousness is being born again as a new creature in Christ Jesus with minds that are renewed so that we are no longer conformed to this world but transformed to a new world. We have to know and be sure that we are not ignorant, uninformed, or misinformed about the righteousness of God. We must also not be ignorant of the fact that God has a plan for the Jews and the Gentiles.
For I do not desire brethren that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the gentiles has come in. (Romans 11:25)
Some Gentiles have had a very bad reaction to the Jewish people. The Nazis had an intense hatred toward the Jewish people. They call them “Christ killers,” and this hatred culminated in the Holocaust. But God said that He had a plan that the Gentiles having received the righteousness of God would be implanted into the Jews' spiritual heritage and that when the fruit began to produce on the grafted-in olive tree, jealousy would cause the Jews to come back to God. Paul goes on to say that if the natural branch was pruned off, much more could happen to the grafted-in branch. He tells us not to be wise in our own conceit and forget that the purpose we are grafted in is so we can draw the Jewish people back in.
Jonah became angry because God brought salvation to the people of Ninevah. He was happy preaching God's judgment that in forty days destruction would come. But when the entire city repented and God didn't destroy them, the prophet went to the top of the mountain overlooking the city and pouted. He didn't want those people to respond to the message of salvation. We, as Gentiles, must be very cautious that when the table is turned that we don't have a closed heart to the Jew as well. Our purpose in being grafted in is to cause the Jew to be brought back again through jealously.
Another area in which it is dangerous to be ignorant is in the spiritual gifts. Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant. (I Corinthians 12:1)
In the King James Version, the word “gifts” is in italics; this means that the word was not written in the original Greek. The actual verse says, “How concerning spirituals (or spiritual things), brethren, I would not have you ignorant.” Paul is not only talking about spiritual gifts; in this chapter he is talking about the gifts, the administrations, and the operations. The gift is the anointing of God, the impartation of divine ability, the enduement of supernatural power. The administration is the person who has these gifts flowing through him. The operation is the love which Paul talks about in chapter thirteen. Love is the spiritual manifestation of the personality, character, and nature of God; it is the God-quality through which those gifts are able to operate. God wants us to recognize that we are not to live in this world in the ability of our flesh. Paul in his own life had a difficulty with this. He tells in Romans chapter seven how he tried to live as a spiritual man through only his human ability. But in Romans eight, he describes the victory which came into his life when he was no longer ignorant of spiritual things.
We also must be cautious that we are not ignorant of the devices of Satan. We must know his tricks and his traps and his schemes. Lest Satan should take advantage of you for you are not ignorant of his devices. (II Corinthians 2:11)
In the old Western movies, there was always a gun fight between the good guys in the white hats and the bad guys wearing black hats. There was one trick that the man in the white hat always used. When he was totally surrounded by the bad guys, he would pick up a stone and toss it. It would hit the water barrel, and all the bad guys -- thinking that the good guy was hiding at the water barrel -- would shoot the water barrel. While they were looking that way, he would pick up another rock and toss it in a different direction. It would hit a sage bush. While the bad guys were focused toward the sagebrush, he would take another rock and toss it in an opposite direction, hitting the side of the barn. He would use that same technique of tossing rocks until all the bad guys had depleted their supply of bullets in their six shooters. Then he would stand up -- with his six shooter still full of bullets -- and arrest the whole bunch of them and march them off to jail.
The devil does that to us if we are not aware enough to catch on to his devices. He will have us shooting all our artillery in the wrong direction. When there is a little difficulty in our homes, we start blaming our wives or our kids -- when we really should be shooting at the devil. If we are not aware of his devices, we will expend all of our energy attacking those around us. When all of our strength is gone, then the devil will move in and overcome us. The Bible says that he takes us captive at his will. “And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.” (II Timothy 2:26)
We must be aware of the devil's schemes and devices. We need to understand that the devil will not suddenly possess us while we are simply minding our own business. The story of Judas explains to us very carefully that he was a man who was full of greed. His covetousness took root in the when he actually stole money out of the treasure. After he dipped into the till, greed increased itself to the point that he betrayed Jesus for money. Greed led to robbery, and robbery led to treason. It was only after these several phases that Satan was able to enter him. Judas was not minding his own business when all of a sudden the devil jumped into him. He had to go through steps of regression until the devil was able to take hold of him. Just as with Judas, there are steps and progressions which will lead us to destruction. “Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” (James 1:15)
We could echo Paul's question: Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? (Romans 6:16)
Therefore, don't yield yourself to sin. We have to be aware of Satan's devices or else we may begin to yield ourselves step by step, little by little, and he will begin to entwine and entangle us. You could take a piece of thread and wrap it around your hand and then break it. If you wrap it around twice, it will be harder to break. If you wrap it around three times, it will be harder. Eventually you can wrap it around enough times so your hand is actually immobilized by simple sewing thread. That's the way the devil works. Little by little, step by step -- if you sin enough times, it will become a habit and then a controlling spirit until finally it becomes a possession in your life. We have all learned that you can take a frog and put it on the stove in a pot filled with room-temperature water. The frog will be happily swimming around and won't try to jump out of the pan. As the water in the pan very slow begins to warm up, the change in temperature is so slight that the frog doesn't even notice because he's having such a good time swimming around in this big pot. Eventually he will be boiled alive without even knowing that he was in danger.
I once knew a girl who was actually quite homely and a little bit below par on her intelligence level. One day she met a man who told her how beautiful she was. Because no one had ever told her that she was attractive, she had a need for someone to say that to her. Even if she knew inside herself that he was lying, she wanted to hear it. She began to listen to him. He finally got her inside his house and offered her a drink. Soon she was drunk. Just like the frog, she didn't notice as he began to turn up the heat. Before she knew it, he had taken a whole roll of nude photographs of her. She was vulnerable because she didn't recognize that he was seducing her. The devil is a seducer, and we need to be aware of his seductive devices!
Those in the Thessalonian church were ignorant in relationship to the promise of the resurrection and the promise of the rapture. But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. (I Thessalonians 4:13)
They were concerned because some of the brethren had died. Their mind set was that Jesus must be coming back very soon because He had made a statement that some of those with Him would not die until they saw Him in His glory. The Thessalonian church had misunderstood what Jesus was talking about and thought that the Second Coming was just around the corner. When they saw their loved ones dying, they thought that they had either missed the Second Coming or that Jesus had canceled it. They questioned if those who have died were not going to be part of the Kingdom of Heaven. The living Christians were very confused and upset. Our lives can also be that way unless we are totally aware and informed that this life is only the dressing room for the real life to come. We have to realize the promise of the resurrection: that physical death is not the end of life. When we see our loved ones die, we must realize that they have gone on to their reward. It is a time for us to take encouragement in the Word of God and be stirred to go on for the future and for the Kingdom of God. But beloved do not be ignorant of this one thing. That with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day. (II Peter 3:8)
I was at the grave site of an infant who died a few hours after birth. The father and the mother, both Christians, were greatly upset and tormented. It was a traumatic time for them, and I wanted to somehow comfort this beautiful young couple. I didn't know what to say to them; but the Lord spoke to me and said, “To me, a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day.” Even though in our time frame the baby only lived a few hours, in God's perspective it was as a thousand years. God has His own plan, He has His own purpose. When He fulfills His plan and His purpose, His time schedule doesn't have to match with ours. To understand how God is working in our lives, we have to get out of our perspective and get into God's perspective.
The children of Israel were slaves in Egypt. At the end of 400 years, the Scriptures say, “And God remembered His covenant with them,” so He sent Moses to deliver them. Just as God hadn't forgotten the Israelites in Egypt, He hasn’t forgotten us; it is just that His timetable and our timetable aren't necessarily the same. Sometimes He can do things immediately that we think He should have worked over a long period of time. Other times He may drag something out for a long time because He has His plan.
The lame man who sat at the Gate Beautiful had been there all his life. Jesus had come out of the temple many, many times and had seen the man reach up to Him asking for alms. Maybe the beggar had even heard the stories about Jesus' healing people and thought, “What about me, have you forgotten me? When will my time come?” But God had a better timetable; when Peter and John ministered to him a few years later, 5,000 people were saved in one day because of this one man's testimony. If Jesus had personally healed the beggar, he would just be one more convert. But God's plan was to reach an entire city. God's timetable has to be superimposed above ours, and we have to be sure that we rest in confidence and that we are not ignorant of the fact that even though it seems as if it is taking God a long time, He knows what He is doing and He is in control. It may seem like a thousand years to us, but to God it is only one day. He knows how to deliver. The wheels of God may turn very slowly, but they grind very fine. God may seem to be slow, but He is never late. He is always on time.
In the last days there will be people who will be willingly ignorant. Willingly ignorant means that they do not want to “confuse the argument” with the facts. For this they are willingly ignorant that by the Word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water and by which the world that then existed perished being flooded with water but the heavens and the earth which are not preserved by the same word are reserved for fire unto the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. (II Peter 3:5)
I'm that way about the Southern diet I grew up and still enjoy. My wife wants to give me all the facts about the fat and sodium content of the foods I love best and tries to prove to me that it is not healthful for me. But I don't want to hear the facts; the food tastes good, so I want to keep eating it. I am ignorant willingly.
Peter says that in the last days people will be willingly ignorant of three specific things. One of them is that the world was made. There is more scientific evidence to prove that the earth came into being instantaneously rather than evolving over billions of years. One of the ways that scientists calculate the age of the earth is by the lead and uranium content. When uranium goes through radioactive decay, it produces lead. Through the scientific calculation of counting the half-lives of the radioactive material, they can calculate from the amount of lead that exists today how many years uranium has been going through radioactive decay to produce the present amount. When evolutionists do that, they theorize that the earth is many billions of years old. But if some of the lead today was lead to start with rather than uranium that became lead, then their calculations are totally off.
When uranium goes through radioactive decay, it not only produces lead; it also produces helium. Even though helium is the second lightest element on the periodic chart, it does not escape the earth's atmosphere. Through the same method of counting half-lives that is used with lead, we can do the calculations based on the amount of helium in the world today. The fascinating truth that comes when we do the calculation this way is that we find that it is impossible for the earth to have existed more than 10,000 years. Using the same calculations you can come to the conclusion that the earth is billions of years old -- or you could also say that the earth is only 10,000 years old! When scientists want to prove a point, they choose which figures to believe. Willingly ignorant, they push the helium theory aside and ignore it.
Peter also warned that in the last days, people would become willingly ignorant of the Flood which occurred in Noah's days. There is scientific evidence in every continent of the earth that there was a universal flood. But some scientists refuse to believe it.
The third thing is that in the last days people will be willingly ignorant that the world is preserved for judgment. I find it absolutely astounding that we can be engulfed in an incurable plague called AIDS which has one very simple cure: that people start living right. If you don't take drugs and you don't commit illicit sex, there would be no problem of AIDS in the world. The killer would die out in one generation if people would just live righteously. When the AIDS epidemic struck, Dr. Koop, the U.S. Surgeon General, said that the only cure is that people live monogamous lives and that people quit taking drugs. He gave us the Bible answer, but he lost his job because of his stance. Instead of following some simple principles, we are spending billions of dollars trying to develop a cure, the condom business is making millions of dollars, and our schools are educating our children about “safe sex.” Men are willingly ignorant that judgment is coming. They just won't face the consequences. They want to keep on sinning without the judgment.
are living in the last generation, and the Bible says that the people of the last generation are going to be willingly ignorant. In the Body of Christ we need to be very cautious that we are not ignorant in terms of what we don't know and also not ignorant in terms of what we know improperly.
The Bible tells us that we shall know the truth and the truth will set us free. We learn the truth, know the truth, get the truth inside of us, and live by the truth. If we won't have a fullness of the truth, we will be full of error, and what we don't know will hurt us.
Delron