JESUS
CHRIST: THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH
By
Pastor Max Solbrekken, D.D.
Only in Jesus Christ do we find
absolute truth. In Him ALONE
there is no lying, hypocrisy, deceit or darkness. He alone is the ultimate
Truth. In His High Priestly Prayer to His Father our Lord stated: "Sanctify them through Thy
Truth. Thy Word is Truth." (John
17: 17)
To His Disciples He declared, "I
am the Way, the TRUTH and the Life: no man comes unto the Father but by
Me."(John 14:6). He said: "I
and My Father are One." (John
10:30); "I came to
do My Father's will." (John
6: 3)
"...My Father works hitherto and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more
to kill Him, because He not only had broken the Sabbath, but He said also
that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.
JESUS stated: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of
Himself, but what He sees the Father do: for what things soever He does, these
also does the Son likewise." (John
5: 17-20)
"... When ye have lifted up the Son of
Man, then shall ye know that I am HE, and the I do nothing of Myself; but as My
Father hath taught Me, I speak these things. And He that sent Me is with Me:
the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please
Him." (John 8: 28,29)
JESUS
PROMISED THE HOLY SPIRIT!
The Holy Spirit is called, "The
Spirit of Truth." (John
14: 17). Speaking of the Holy Spirit, our Lord stated: "But when the Comforter is
come, Whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth,
which proceeds from the Father, He shall testify of Me." (John 15: 26); "Howbeit when
He, the Spirit of Truth is come, He will guide you into all TRUTH..." (John 16: 13)
JAMES
RUSSELL LOWELL wrote: "Once
to every man and nation, Comes the moment to decide. In the strife of Truth and
Falsehood, For the Good or Evil side."
About 65 years ago, I committed to memory a great poem written by
British poet William
Dunkerley, under the
pseudonym of John
Oxenham. Hundreds of times
during the last half century, I have quoted it in my sermons. It is called 'THE WAY'. May the message
penetrate your heart as it has mine!
To every man there openeth
A Way, and Ways, and a Way,
And the High Soul climbs the High Way,
And the Low Soul gropes the Low,
And in between, on the misty flats,
The rest drift to and fro.
But to every man there openeth
A High Way, and a Low.
And every man decideth,
The way His soul shall go.
When you tell people that there is only ONE way to God and Heaven, they often
react negatively. Many want to do their own thing, go their own way and leave
everything to chance. After all, if everything we see evolved from nothing as
the pinhead evolutionists preach, then there is nothing to fear.
If there is no God, then there are no laws that must be obeyed and no
punishment for wrong doing, they erroneously assume! If there is no authoritative figure called God, Maker of Heaven and
earth, then there is No-one to give an account to. We may as well then do as
the Scripture says of the rebellious man, "Eat,
drink and be merry." (Eccl.8:15)
When you confront people because of their sins of unbelief, unrighteousness,
lust, greed, pride, hatred and jealousy, they get on their 'high horse' saying, "We will not have this Man to
rule over us." (Luke
19: 14). When told that we ought to help the poor, lift up the fallen and bring
the gospel to the lost, they often answer like Cain: "Am I my brother's keeper?” (Gen.4:9)
WHY
DO PEOPLE REJECT
THE
BIBLE AND CHRIST?
Here is the real 'Sixty-Four
Dollar Question'. Why
would any one in their right mind reject God's Holy Word? How could any one, of
even limited understanding, reject the liberating Gospel of God's grace and
love to fallen, degenerate and undeserving sinful man? And what would make
human beings who were created in God's image, become so stupid that they would
reject the world's Redeemer and Emancipator, our Lord Jesus Christ, and cling
to Satan, the Cosmic Liar?
THE
ANSWER: After
more than fifty years of intense Bible study, observing human nature, current
events, and having preached the Gospel of Christ and ministered His saving and
healing power to multitudes across the world, here is a concise answer to the
three questions posed!
1). These
people love their sins and refuse to give up their ungodly lifestyles!
"And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world,
and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil." (John 3:19)
2). They have
been enticed, deceived and snared by the devil, who is the Father of Lies,
deception and spiritual death!
"In
meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will
give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may
recover themselves out of the snare
of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." (2 Tim.2: 25, 26)
3). If they
admit that the Bible is God’s Word and that there is a Day of Judgment for
sinners, they would have to repent of their sins and receive Jesus Christ as
Lord and Saviour!
"For
everyone that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his
deeds should be reproved. But he that does truth comes to the light that his
deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." (John 3:20, 21)
The basic flaw in the Theory of Evolution is, that they can "strut their stuff" and at least until the 'angel of death' comes calling, they can have
a feeling of superiority. It's called the 'escape from God' factor.
Professor D.M.S. Watson's address to the British Association of
Scientists gave support to this same 'foolosophy'. He flatly stated that the
reason for the "universal
acceptance of evolution" among
his peers of atheistic scientists, was that the Biblical account of "special creation is the
only alternative". He
called the Bible account of creation as "clearly
incredible", meaning it is unbelievable.
BRILLIANT
MINDS BLINDED BY SATAN!
What keeps these seemingly
brilliant minds from believing the only plausible answer to the questions of
creation, life, death and eternity? The
ANSWER is that there is a lying devil who "has
blinded the minds" of
those who refuse to believe the truth and have rejected Christ and is glorious
Gospel! (2 Cor.4: 3,4; Rom.1: 18-22)
St. Paul, one of the most brilliant minds of the First Century, who met
the resurrected Lord Jesus on the Damascus Road, addressed this phenomenon. He
stated that they had been "taken
captive" by the Evil
One and are slaves to his deception, lies and downright stupidity! (2 Tim.2:
26)
No wonder than that King David stated: "The
fool hath said in his heart, there is no God." (Ps.14: 1). The Hebrew meaning of the
word fool as used here is that of an idiot or insane person. He implied that you
cannot blame an idiot for saying that there is no God. He doesn't know any
better!
VLADIMIR LENIN, the father of Soviet Communism stated: "Religion is the opiate of
the people. There is no God, but woe unto us Communists if there is One."
He died in January 1924, aged 53, after suffering three strokes
leaving him paralyzed and dumb. The Soviets covered up his erratic, manic
behaviour, his bouts of rage and his untimely death.
Miss Rappaport, an expert on Russian history has uncovered the medical records
of his death from SYPHILIS! She makes her claim in a new book "Conspirator: Lenin in
Exile". That
shouldn't surprise us, should it?
TOILED ALL NIGHT:
TAKEN NOTHING!
CLARENCE
DARROW, famed atheist and criminal lawyer and winner in the Scopes - Monkey Trial in 1925, that opened the flood
gates of the teaching of the 'Ape - Doctrine' in U.S. Schools, at the end of
his life, stated: "My colleagues say that i am a success. Many honors have
come my way, but in the Bible is a sentence which expresses the way I feel
about my life: "We
have toiled all night and taken nothing."
HOW
SAD! In the end, the brilliant atheist had to use a passage from the Holy Bible
- which will be opened at the
Judgment - to express the
emptiness of the evolutionary, atheistic teaching he had helped to promote!
The fact of the matter is that they would rather believe a lie, in
order to somehow escape the truth that God exists and demands an accounting of
our lives! They have convinced themselves that they are as good as their
neighbour and that if there really is God, He is good, charitable and kind and
would never judge anyone to Hell for their sins.
After
all, they didn't ask to be born, had no part of Adam's sin and it's damming
influence on us all, including our eternal abode! They live in a dream world
that everything will turn out alright in the end. And after all, their parents
may have brought them to church as a baby and had them christened or sprinkled!
SOLUTION
TO THE SIN PROBLEM!
We often hear people talk about drug problem, the alcohol problem,
the gambling problem, the crime problem and the racism problem. What we really
have is a SIN PROBLEM and the drug, alcohol, gambling, crime and racism
problems disappear when the Gospel of Jesus Christ is invited to function in
the hearts and lives of the people!
The
Bible says: "Come
now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as
scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they
shall be as wool." (Isa.1:18)
"Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him
while He is near. Let the wicked forsake His way and the unrighteous man His
thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him;
and to our God and He will abundantly pardon." (Isa. 55:1, 6, 7)
THE BIG QUESTION: How did we get into this situation? What drove us away from
the sanctuary of God's presence? Why did we get estranged from our Heavenly
Father and God? And how do we get back into His Eternal Kingdom? And will He
receive us as we are?
The answer is that we were, "born
in sin and shapen in iniquity" (Ps.51:
5).We are sinners by birth, by nature and by choice: "Wherein in time past, ye
walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience. (Eph.2: 2; Gal.5: 10-21)
HE
WILL RECEIVE US BACK AGAIN!
"Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the
lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind: and
were by NATURE the children of wrath, even as
others.
"But God, Who is rich in mercy, or His great love with which He
loved us, even when ewe were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with
Christ (by grace are ye saved);
and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in Heavenly places in
Christ Jesus." (Eph.3-6)
The GOOD NEWS is that even though we may have drifted away from Him, we
can be forgiven, healed and liberated by God's Divine love and power: "All have sinned and come
short of the glory of God." (Rom.3:23);
"The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life,
through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom.
6: 23); "He that believes on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that
believes not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on
Him." (John 3: 36)
God is
merciful, gracious and loving: "For
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever
believes in Him should not perish but have Everlasting Life. For God sent not
His Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through Him
might be saved." (John
3: 16, 17)
It is TRUE that sin had its grip on us all and we were on our way to a
Christ-less Eternity, but God in His great mercy and love redeemed us by His
precious blood that He shed on Golgotha. To receive His forgiveness and mercy,
however, we must repent of our sins and by His grace receive His pardon.
It is also true that all those who spurn and reject His offer of love
will be forever left outside to meet God's judgment. If His mercy is spurned
and rejected there will be nothing left but judgment!
He is NOW the God of mercy, but when He comes again, He will come “to judge the Living and the
Dead.” (1 Peter 4: 5); "I charge thee therefore
before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, Who shall judge the quick (living) and the dead at His
appearing and His Kingdom.” (2
Tim.4: 1)
ST.
PAUL admonished Timothy: "PREACH THE WORD; be instant in season and out
of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For
the time will come that they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their
own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears; And they
shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto
fables." (2 Tim.4: 2-4)
JESUS CHRIST SAYS: BE YE
READY!
Jesus WARNS: "Verily,
verily I say unto you, He that hears My Word, and believes on Him that sent Me,
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation: but is passed from
death unto life. Verily, verily I say unto you, the hour is coming, and NOW IS, when the dead (spiritually dead) shall hear the voice of the
Son of God; and they that hear shall live." (John 5:24, 25)
Our
LORD is inviting all sinners who
are "dead in their
trespasses" to hear His
voice and be saved for time and eternity! If however, they do not respond, they
will be in the Second Group who will hear His voice and come out
of their graves and face the Judge of the Entire Earth.
Here is His WARNING: "Marvel
not at this for the Hour is Coming in the which all that are in the graves
shall HEAR HIS VOICE, and
shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and
they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation." (John 5:28, 29)s unto me I will
in no wise cast him out." (John 6: 37):
"Behold I stand at the door (your
heart's door) and
KNOCK. If any man will hear My voice and open the door, I will come in unto Him
and sup with Him and he with Me." (Rev.3: 20) Amen.
