WEBVTT 00:00:00.001 --> 00:00:04.000 We come to the truthfulness of God. 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:26.000 And as we think about God being true or He is truthful, which is rooted in the fact that He exists, that He is true, it reminds us of the fact that we're living in a time, and this may not be unique to our time, but it's definitely present in our time that it's hard to trust anything. 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:28.000 It's hard to trust people. 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:34.000 It's hard to trust the media, trust science anymore. 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:39.000 I mean, it's hard to trust Mr. Science. 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:41.000 Politicians, it's hard to trust them. 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:48.000 It's hard to trust just about universities. 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:51.000 Everywhere there should be truth. 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:54.000 You know, where truth needs to be established. 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:59.000 There's not truth in science, then science is worthless. 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:02.000 And it's not that science is bad, but what about the scientists? 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:05.000 Do you trust the scientists? 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:10.000 The media should be a pillar of truth, the media. 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:16.000 They should exist to hold politicians to an account. 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:21.000 They should exist to report truth, reality, facts. 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:24.000 But who do we trust anymore? 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:32.000 And I think the reason it's hard to trust people, the Bible tells us in the Psalms that all men or liars were come out of the womb speaking lies. 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:40.000 So there's something inherently broken in the human race that makes men deceptive. 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:48.000 And they'll speak lies or deception in order to get an advantage or to hide the truth for their own personal gain. 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:50.000 So it's hard to trust things. 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:51.000 It's hard to even trust. 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:53.000 Sometimes it's hard to trust the pulpit. 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:57.000 Churches around the world are no longer even preaching the word of God. 00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:02.000 So how do we trust in a day where truth is despised? 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:06.000 In fact, I would say people hate the truth. 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:10.000 And people hate the truth because they hate God. 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:14.000 They hate God because God is a binding element. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:19.000 By the very nature of God exists, then I'm accountable. 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:24.000 I'm accountable to a fits, a boundary. 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:26.000 Two plus two is four. 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:28.000 It doesn't matter how I feel about it. 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:29.000 It doesn't matter what I think. 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:30.000 It's true. 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:34.000 And I have to submit my life to reality, to what is true. 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:38.000 I think that's why people can't even define what a woman is anymore. 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:39.000 What is a woman? 00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:51.000 And we know what a woman is, but now even in universities, they won't define a woman because if you define-- once you define a woman, you're bound to that definition. 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:55.000 You have to submit yourself to the reality of that definition. 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:57.000 And so I think men hate God. 00:02:57.000 --> 00:02:59.000 Therefore, they hate the truth. 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:00.000 They hate boundaries. 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:01.000 They hate restrictions. 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:02.000 They want to be free. 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:08.000 And their idea of free is to be able to do what they want to do, and they create truth for themselves. 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:13.000 This is the postmodern world that we live in, that we have our own truth. 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:16.000 Postmodernism is the idea that there's no fixed reality. 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:19.000 There's no anchor point for reality. 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:22.000 There's no truth that is rooted in something eternal. 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:31.000 And if there's no eternal reality, if there's no God, there's no truth, and everything's in flux, everything's in movement, everything is progressive. 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:53.000 This is idea in philosophy that truth is always becoming, that you have a proposition, and that proposition is countered by antithesis, and then you draw a conclusion, and that new conclusion becomes the beginning of another process of always learning, if you would, but never coming to any knowledge or any truth. 00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:57.000 This is the way the world. 00:03:57.000 --> 00:04:00.000 And people hate the truth, I think. 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:06.000 They hate anywhere there is truth that people resist it, especially the truth of God. 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:28.000 And this is because they follow their father, who is Satan, and John A. 44, Jesus says this about the Pharisees, he says,"You are your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires." He was a murderer from the beginning, and he does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:34.000 When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:40.000 So here is the root source of all lies and deceptions. 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:42.000 It is like Satan cannot even tell the truth. 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:47.000 He does not know how to tell the truth, because Jesus says there is no truth in him. 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:51.000 He is a deception, he is a liar, he is a deceiver. 00:04:51.000 --> 00:05:07.000 And the Lord went on to say about the scribes of Pharisees,"You are doing what your father has done. You are a liar too." Psalm 116.11 says, "All men are liars." Who here hasn't lied? 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:11.000 I mean, we may not have murdered someone, at least outwardly. 00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:16.000 We may have hated someone in our heart, which Jesus says is essentially murder. 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:29.000 But none of us can say we have never lied, or we have never told a story that is not true, or exaggerated the truth for our own profit, or held back the truth when it was needed. 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:32.000 We are all guilty of lying. 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:38.000 The problem is, if you are caught in one lie, it wrecks your credibility. 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:43.000 If God lied one time, could you trust him in any of the other statements he made? 00:05:43.000 --> 00:06:00.000 If there was one lie in God, like he made one mistake, if he was misspoken in one area and deceived us in one little small area, and we found out that that was a lie, could we trust God in anything he said? 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:04.000 Well, we are going to look at how God never lies. 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:09.000 He cannot lie, how He is always true. He is the source of truth. 00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:11.000 That is His very nature. 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:19.000 As the very nature of Satan is a liar or deceiver, the very nature and the essence of our God is a God who is true. 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:21.000 He is true to Himself. 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:27.000 He exists eternally, and all that He says is true. 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:31.000 He cannot. He is impossible for God to lie. 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:35.000 So as we look at the truthfulness of God, let's see where this truthfulness is rooted. 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:39.000 It is rooted in His nature, His essence. 00:06:39.000 --> 00:06:49.000 The difference between God and us, we have attributes that we may or may not have, but we still exist independent of these characteristics or attributes. 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:55.000 We have fruits of the Spirit, but if we are lacking the fruit of the Spirit, we still exist. 00:06:55.000 --> 00:07:00.000 I can be Jep Johnson and tell the truth, but I am still Jep Johnson if I lie. 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:03.000 But that cannot be said about God. 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:08.000 If God ever lied, He is no longer God, or He never was God. 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:10.000 He cannot be God and be a liar. 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:15.000 You can be who you are and lie and still keep your existence. 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:19.000 This is why the Bible says God doesn't just have love. 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:22.000 God doesn't possess love. He obtained love. 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:32.000 We may be loving, we may be unloving, but God doesn't have that attribute in the sense that He acquired it or obtained it or grew into it. 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:35.000 No, He is love. That's what John tells us. 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:41.000 First John says God is love. That's who He is. That's His nature. 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:43.000 I mean, who are you? 00:07:43.000 --> 00:07:52.000 You know, your bones and ligaments and muscles and tissues, and you are who you are, but what you are is not love. 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:55.000 You may have love, and that love comes from God. 00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:58.000 But if you have love, that's derived from God. 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:01.000 That's a gift from God that He's given you. 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:04.000 He's put it as a fruit of God working in you. 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:13.000 But God doesn't obtain love or any other attribute that He has or that He is because He is who He is. 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:16.000 This is why the Bible says I am Jesus says I am who I am. 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:20.000 God said that to Moses. I am these things. I am truth. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:26.000 Jesus says I am truth. I don't just have truth. I am truth. 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:29.000 Charles Burgess says God is true. He is true in His very nature. 00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:34.000 There is no deceit, falsehood, or error in the essential nature of God. 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:39.000 Now, why is God true? Why is God truthful? Why is God faithful? 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:41.000 Because of all the other attributes of God. 00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:46.000 That is, God is true because God is perfect. 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:50.000 He is true because He is holy. 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:53.000 If God wasn't holy, He wouldn't be true. 00:08:53.000 --> 00:09:01.000 And if God had some error, falsehood, or spoke any deceit, He would cease to be holy. He would cease to be perfect. 00:09:01.000 --> 00:09:10.000 Because He's the perfect being, He is a being without error, without mistakes, without faultiness. 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:13.000 Thus He cannot lie, you see. 00:09:13.000 --> 00:09:17.000 He's true because He is a God of love. He is loving. 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:22.000 And therefore He cannot be anything other than love. 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:26.000 He can never cease to love. He can never not love. 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:34.000 However action and thing He does is motivated out of love in a demonstration and display of His love. 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:38.000 And thus He cannot lie. That's an amazing thing. 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:43.000 Also God cannot lie. He's truthful because God is all-knowing. 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:45.000 I mean, you make mistakes and I make mistakes. 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:50.000 Sometimes it's just an error, not intentional, but it's because we just didn't know the facts. 00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:53.000 We're mistaken about things out of ignorance. 00:09:53.000 --> 00:09:59.000 It's not intentional, but just of our ignorance, we say things that are not true all the time sometimes. 00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:04.000 We misspeak. And we just don't know everything. 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:06.000 In fact, our knowledge is so limited. 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:12.000 But God cannot err or make a mistake because He is all-knowing. 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:15.000 And He is all-knowing because God is sovereign. 00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:19.000 He's not learning. He's not looking down through history. 00:10:19.000 --> 00:10:24.000 "Oh, that's what this person is going to do," or "that person is going to do this. Now I know what they're going to do. 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:34.000 Then I'll do this." That's putting some knowledge that is required in God, and no one is His Teacher who has instructed the one who knows all things. 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:40.000 God can't learn, so He can't be mistaken in anything He thinks. 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:50.000 He's the author of all of history, and He's known all that He's going to do from all eternity past because He's sovereign. He cannot forget. 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:52.000 This is because God is immutable. 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:58.000 And we've gone through these attributes week after week, but I want you to see how all these attributes are interconnected. 00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:02.000 If one attribute goes, all the other attributes fall with that one attribute. 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:09.000 If God is lying, all the other attributes fall apart because He's immutable. He doesn't change. 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:14.000 He's the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:29.000 James 1, 17 says, "Ever good gift, never perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lots, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." So God is not fluctuating. He's not developing. 00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:31.000 He's not becoming better. 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:35.000 If He's coming better, that means He wasn't perfect to begin with. 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:39.000 But He's always perfect from eternity past, so there's no improvement. There's no development. 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:42.000 There's no maturity in God. 00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:48.000 He is unchangeable. He's perfected from the beginning. 00:11:48.000 --> 00:12:01.000 Numbers 23, 19, "God is not a man that He should lie, nor the Son of Man that He should change His mind." You and I make commitments, then a couple days later, we're like, "Oh, man, why did I do that? 00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:06.000 I wish I was free from that obligation." Oh, I see if I can get out of that. 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:10.000 Have you ever tried to get out of something committed to? 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:23.000 One time I foolishly, with my roommate, well, actually I can tell you all kinds of stories, but one time I almost bought me a brand-new Mustang as a freshman in college, and I had no money. 00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:28.000 But amazingly, I don't know if you know this, but the dealership doesn't care you don't have money. 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:31.000 Our credit, they'll sell you something. 00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:39.000 They had the paperwork in front of me before I knew what I was doing, and I'm like,"What am I doing? What am I doing? I can't afford this Mustang. 00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:47.000 I like it, but I can't afford it." Thankfully, I didn't sign the paperwork, but I changed my mind at the last second. 00:12:47.000 --> 00:12:52.000 Because I was a silly college student, I guess. 00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:54.000 But God doesn't have those episodes. 00:12:54.000 --> 00:13:05.000 He never gets into a situation like,"What was I thinking? I made a mistake here." Or makes a promise and goes,"No, I don't want to fulfill that one." He cannot change his mind. 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:08.000 He never does so. 00:13:08.000 --> 00:13:17.000 Psalm 110 verse 4, "The Lord has sworn, and He will not change His mind." We'll get into the application in a minute, but this is amazing. 00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:19.000 You can't have this in any other arena. 00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:22.000 You don't have this with man. 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:26.000 You don't have this with politicians that make all these empty promises. 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:31.000 You don't even have this with your parents that truly want to keep their word. 00:13:31.000 --> 00:13:33.000 You don't have it in any other area. 00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:39.000 You don't even have it necessarily altogether in the church because we make mistakes. 00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:43.000 When we look to man, we're going to find that man fells us. 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:47.000 We fell ourselves, but not God. 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:50.000 You see, God doesn't possess these attributes. 00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:52.000 He is these attributes. 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:58.000 That's the difference between God and man, the creator from the creature distinction. 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:03.000 He says, "I am what I am." Again, we exist if we're loving or not. 00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:07.000 God cannot exist if He's not loving. 00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:11.000 We exist if we're ignorant or smart or ignorant or knowledgeable. 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:18.000 The more knowledge we attain, it doesn't necessarily make us a different person. 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:23.000 But God, He doesn't just have knowledge. 00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:25.000 He is that. 00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:27.000 His knowledge is omnipotent. 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:29.000 It is omniscient. 00:14:29.000 --> 00:14:30.000 He knows all things. 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:32.000 He knows everything. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:34.000 And that's not just something He has. 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:37.000 That's something that He is. 00:14:37.000 --> 00:14:38.000 See, we're not our love. 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:40.000 We're not our knowledge. 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:42.000 We're not the source of these things. 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:46.000 But God is the very source of who He is. 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:50.000 We talked about that on the essayative God. 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:54.000 He's the only one who's the source of His own existence. 00:14:54.000 --> 00:14:56.000 And He acquires it not from some other source. 00:14:56.000 --> 00:15:03.000 If He had to require it somewhere else or learn something, obtain something, or get love, then that thing He would be dependent upon. 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:06.000 He would be dependent upon something other than Himself. 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:09.000 But God's completely independent. 00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:13.000 He exists without needing anything other than Himself. 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:22.000 So He has everything He needs in perfection because He is these things in and of Himself, from all eternity. 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:24.000 He's the source of Himself. 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:28.000 He's the eternal source of His own existence. 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:31.000 And that's an amazing concept to think about. 00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:44.000 That means He doesn't love, because if He would decide to love, He cannot help but love. 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:46.000 He can't be anything other than Himself. 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:48.000 He has to love. 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:54.000 It doesn't mean He doesn't hate, but even His hate is motivated out of His love for His glory. 00:15:54.000 --> 00:15:58.000 The Father's upset with sinners because He loves His Son. 00:15:58.000 --> 00:16:00.000 And that's what love does. 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:04.000 Love is angry with anything that's going to oppose that which He loves. 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:08.000 He loves His Son, so He hates those who sin against His Son. 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:10.000 So He cannot not love. 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:15.000 Even His hatred is a manifestation of His deep, deep love. 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:19.000 Again, He cannot be anything other than what He is. 00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:22.000 And therefore, there are some things God cannot do. 00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:25.000 If God is who He is, there are some things that God cannot do. 00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:30.000 Well, can God create a rock that He cannot pick up? 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:35.000 Which is a silly question, but the answer is no. 00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:38.000 If God could do some things, then He wouldn't be God. 00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:42.000 One of the things that God cannot do is lie. 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:45.000 He cannot be anything other than Himself. 00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:48.000 He can't say to Himself, "I don't want to be God anymore. 00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:55.000 I'll make something else God." That's an impossibility, even for God. 00:16:55.000 --> 00:17:02.000 And thus, He cannot be anything other than truthful. 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:04.000 He cannot deny Himself. 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:21.000 The Bible says in 2 Timothy 2.13, "If we are faithless, He remains faithful." And here's why, "For He cannot deny Himself." Now, if He ceased to be faithful and truthful and honest, then He's no longer sovereign. 00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:23.000 He's no longer immutable. 00:17:23.000 --> 00:17:24.000 He's no longer perfect. 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:26.000 He's no longer holy. 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:35.000 And if you put one deception or one lie into God, then God evaporates, and He never was. 00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:38.000 God ceases to be God. 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:43.000 And for God to deny Himself, He has to kill Himself. 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:46.000 And it's impossible for God not to exist. 00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:52.000 It's impossible for God to undermine His own existence, His own being, His own nature. 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:55.000 He cannot work and will not work against Himself. 00:17:55.000 --> 00:18:07.000 And therefore, it says over and over, Titus 1.2 says, "God who never lies." Hebrews 6.18, "It is impossible for God to lie." What does this mean for us? 00:18:07.000 --> 00:18:09.000 It's a wonderful truth. 00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:17.000 It means that God is true, faithful, honest, trustworthy. 00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:22.000 If we are faithless, which we are, it doesn't matter. 00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:25.000 He remains faithful. 00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:33.000 Now, in the ten minutes I have left, let's look at a few applications. 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:39.000 One, now this is where this doctrine is so important. 00:18:39.000 --> 00:18:44.000 It's a very applicable, hopeful one. 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:51.000 The truthfulness of the Bible is rooted in the truthfulness of God. 00:18:51.000 --> 00:19:06.000 If this is the Word of God, then the Bible is just as honest and truthful, mistake-free, error-free, inspired, and errant as God is. 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:13.000 This is why you say, "Well, don't elevate the Bible. Don't worship the Bible." Well, how do you not honor God's Word? 00:19:13.000 --> 00:19:17.000 Because the Word of God comes from God. 00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:20.000 It is God's message. It is God's Word. 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.000 And it's just as authoritative as God is authoritative. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:27.000 That's why the Bible has all the attributes of God. 00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:31.000 It speaks authoritatively. It speaks with honesty. 00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:35.000 It speaks with power. 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:37.000 It is the power of God into salvation. 00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:43.000 It speaks faithfully. 00:19:43.000 --> 00:19:56.000 The Bible says in Psalm 100 verse 5, "For the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations." The Word of God is true when it was first inspired. 00:19:56.000 --> 00:19:59.000 It's just as much true today. 00:19:59.000 --> 00:20:11.000 Time doesn't progress from this idea that truth is ever progressing through antithesis, synthesis. 00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:20.000 It's not this dialectic movement of gaining in truth and visually will arrive to truth one day if we're patient enough, long enough. 00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:22.000 No, truth's from the beginning. 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:26.000 And it's been recorded for us in His Word. 00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:29.000 God's Word is truthful because God is truthful. 00:20:29.000 --> 00:20:33.000 It flows out of God, out of His very breath. 00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:36.000 It proceeds out of the breath of God. 00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:46.000 As my words are proceeding out of the breath of my heart and my mind, God's Word has come directly out of the breath of God. 00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:48.000 And that's what it means to be inspired. 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:54.000 It represents God's holy and perfect and spotless nature. 00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:59.000 For the Bible to be wrong, God Himself would have to cease to exist. 00:20:59.000 --> 00:21:07.000 If this is lying to us, then God is not God and there never has been a God. 00:21:07.000 --> 00:21:11.000 That's how firm of a foundation we have. 00:21:11.000 --> 00:21:14.000 So what do you root your knowledge in? 00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:16.000 What do you root your confidence in? 00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:24.000 Are you rooted in the very character of God, in the very nature of who God is? 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:34.000 And secondly, as a word of application, this means that God's promises, all of them, are certain and sure. 00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:53.000 The Bible tells us in Romans 3-4, "Let God be true, though everyone is a liar." Though we find lies everywhere, misspeach, the words of today, or misinformation, you hear that all the time now. 00:21:53.000 --> 00:21:58.000 I mean, that's true. There's a lot of misinformation everywhere. 00:21:58.000 --> 00:22:02.000 But not in God's Word, not in God. 00:22:02.000 --> 00:22:05.000 His promises are certain. 00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:27.000 The only thing really in the day of confusion, and where everybody's mistrust everybody else, and we're skeptical about what we're reading and what we're hearing and what we're seeing, sometimes you just have to go back to what do I know? 00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:30.000 What can I count on? What is true? 00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:35.000 What's God's Word? It's God's promises. 00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.000 This means you can trust God. 00:22:39.000 --> 00:22:45.000 This is the proper response to the truthfulness of God is that you trust Him. 00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:48.000 You can't always trust your eyes. 00:22:48.000 --> 00:23:01.000 This is why Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that things that are unseen, the realities that we can't see with our eyes, our physical, empirical senses, are more real or more certain than the things that we see. 00:23:01.000 --> 00:23:09.000 I mean, we can ask my wife and I, we've had conversations that we've seen sheep or goats or sheep or cows. 00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:13.000 I mean, one of us is wrong, or maybe both of us are wrong. 00:23:13.000 --> 00:23:21.000 Maybe it's our memories. I don't know what it is, but maybe our poor eyesight, something got us confused. 00:23:21.000 --> 00:23:24.000 And so sometimes you can't even trust what you see. 00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:28.000 Sometimes you can't trust your memories. 00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:33.000 But one thing you can trust is the Word of God. 00:23:33.000 --> 00:23:38.000 If He's made you a promise, that you can bank on. 00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:45.000 It can't be revoked. It cannot be retracted. It cannot be undone. 00:23:45.000 --> 00:24:12.000 The Bible tells us in Romans 9, 33, "The one who believes in Him will never be put to shame." Sometimes that phrase is, "Those who trust in Him, those who believe in Him, shall never be disappointed." Never once is in the history of the human race, from Adam to Abraham to Moses, the prophets to the apostles, to all the heroes of the faith throughout history, down to our very time. 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:31.000 Not one person, even the weakest Christian who says, "I'm going to trust the Lord in this," ever came away disappointed, ever said, "Oh, God didn't keep His word." And this is amazing. There are some promises in the Bible that I find that are so certain that I'm guaranteed to receive them. 00:24:31.000 --> 00:24:47.000 "He who lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, and God will give generously without finding fault." It's like, "Hey, I like wisdom. God's promised to give that to me." Well, now I may think, "Well, he'll find some reason not to give it to me." No, the Bible says he won't find fault in you, but he'll give you generously. 00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:51.000 If you ask, you will receive. That's a promise, right? 00:24:51.000 --> 00:24:58.000 And if we understood the certainty of that promise and all of us like wisdom, we should be going, "I'm going to pray that every day. I need that. 00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:06.000 Therefore, God's going to give it to me. How do I know He's going to give it to me?" Because God doesn't lie. He can't lie. 00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:38.000 Isaiah 28, 16 says, "The one who believes in Him will never be shaken.""Will never come away going, 'That was a false confidence.' God broke His deal with me. God broke His word. God lied to me." It never happens. It never will happen. 00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:42.000 Now, here's the thing. I want to close on this with the four minutes I have left. 00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:46.000 I want to close on this, especially for the kids and all of us. 00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:49.000 I remember doubting my salvation for a couple of years. 00:25:49.000 --> 00:26:13.000 I mean, a couple of years, three years struggling with, "Am I saved or not?" Here's the problem I had, and I probably still have it to some degree today, is that sometimes we go, "Well, I know God's word is true, but I don't know if I have faith." So you start examining your faith, and your faith is trying to trust in faith. 00:26:13.000 --> 00:26:19.000 Does that make sense? Your faith is like, "Do I have faith?" I mean, it's like your eyes trying to look at themselves. 00:26:19.000 --> 00:26:32.000 Take your eyeballs out. "Can I see?" So your eyes are, "This eye wants to look at this eye. Can this eye see this eye?" But you don't see if you can see by seeing your eyeballs. 00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:34.000 Your eyes don't look at themselves. 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:36.000 They don't need to look at themselves to know if they see. 00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:39.000 Faith doesn't need to look at faith. 00:26:39.000 --> 00:26:43.000 When you start examining your faith, you're going to be full of doubt, because your faith is weak. 00:26:43.000 --> 00:26:46.000 Your faith is not something to trust in. 00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:48.000 Your faith is shaky. 00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:52.000 I believe by help of unbelief. That's how we all feel. 00:26:52.000 --> 00:26:54.000 I think that's what I was doing in those early days. 00:26:54.000 --> 00:26:58.000 I was struggling because of my own unfaithfulness. 00:26:58.000 --> 00:27:01.000 I surely can't be saved. I'm a weak man. 00:27:01.000 --> 00:27:03.000 I fail all the time. I make this sin, and that sin. 00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:05.000 Surely I don't have the fruits of the Spirit. 00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:07.000 Surely I don't love God the way I should. 00:27:07.000 --> 00:27:11.000 You can begin to question and wonder. 00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:18.000 Finally, I've said this story a couple of times in some of my sermons, but its reality was my own experience. 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:28.000 Finally, I was laying in bed, and I had the imagery of dying and getting into heaven, or getting to the gates of heaven, if you would. 00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:31.000 I can see into heaven, and there is God. 00:27:31.000 --> 00:27:33.000 The Father is saying, "Why should you come in here? 00:27:33.000 --> 00:27:42.000 Why should I let you in?" I didn't go, "Look at my faith." I didn't say, "Look at my good works." I thought to myself, "I don't count on any of these things. 00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:45.000 I know that I'm a failure. I'm a sinner. I don't deserve it. 00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:51.000 I don't look at me." Finally, I thought to myself, "There is this man named Jesus. 00:27:51.000 --> 00:27:57.000 He's given me a promise. He's the one who died for me. 00:27:57.000 --> 00:27:59.000 He's the one who rose from the dead for me. 00:27:59.000 --> 00:28:16.000 This is the truth. He is the way, the truth, and the life." I said, "He is my hope." That's when I realized for God to send me to hell, He would have to send Christ to hell. 00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:19.000 He would have to break His promise. 00:28:19.000 --> 00:28:37.000 Once I realized that God cannot break His promise, He cannot deny Himself, I was like, "Well, that is a surety. That is confidence." You can have assurance of salvation, because there's a certainty that God is truthful. 00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:41.000 God cannot lie to us. He will never lie to us. 00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:45.000 So let me end with this word before we pray. 00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:47.000 Let's believe God. 00:28:47.000 --> 00:28:51.000 Let's bank on Him. Let's trust Him. 00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:55.000 Not just for the salvation of our souls, for all the promises of God. 00:28:55.000 --> 00:29:02.000 We would do well to just start looking for the promises, like He will promise to give us the Holy Spirit if we ask. 00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:07.000 There are so many wonderful promises that we know He will give us. 00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:12.000 I'll add a prayer request as Ryan comes up here and gives us more. 00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:16.000 Let's pray the Holy Spirit will come to us at this service. 00:29:16.000 --> 00:29:22.000 If we pray, that's when we know He'll answer. 00:29:22.000 --> 00:29:26.000 Let's pray for that, and let's trust the Lord. Amen.