Truth is true…because it’s true.

Steve Brown:
Truth is true …because it’s true. Let’s talk about it, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Key Life is a radio program for struggling believers, sick of phony religion and pious cliches. Our host and teacher is seminary professor, Steve Brown. He teaches that radical freedom leads to infectious joy and surprising faithfulness.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. If you’re just joining us, we’re talking about the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and we spent a long time talking about the Holy Spirit’s connection to sin. Holy Spirit is drawn to sin, and the Holy Spirit does something about it. Now, we’re talking about the Holy Spirit’s connection to truth. First, I want you to note, and I’m going to give you some Scripture, and it’s pretty important to remember, that there is a necessary connection between truth presented and truth received. And you call that connection the Holy Spirit, John 16:12 through 15.

I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth, for he will not speak of His own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak.

If I’m driving across a bridge and I notice that the bridge is beginning to collapse, I’ll back up as fast as I can. And because I’m a reasonably compassionate person, I’ll do everything to keep other cars from going across that bridge that is collapsing, because they don’t know. And so, I’m going to stand in the middle of the road, being the compassionate Christian that I am, and I’m going to wave my hands, make the cars stop, and I’m going to say to the people that are driving the cars, don’t go over that bridge, it’s getting ready to collapse. Someone will say, you’re a crazy person, wandering in the middle of the street, leave me alone, and they’ll go on across that bridge. But others will say, You’re kidding, are you sure? And I’ll say, Yeah, I’m sure, I just was driving over and it was shaking, and I could see the cracks beginning to happen. And they would say, Thank you so much. Now, the difference between the ones who went over the bridge and maybe had it collapse and kill them, and the ones who listened to what I had to say and the warning that I gave, the difference was me. Well, there’s a difference also between those who hear the truth and reject it to their own destruction, and those who hear the truth, are drawn to it, and make it as a part of their lives. And listen to me, that is the Holy Spirit. That is the Holy Spirit that applies truth existentially to people and then uses that truth in their lives. Christopher Hitchens, as I’m sure you know was a famous atheist. He died. He knows the truth now. Christopher Hitchens wrote a book called God is Not Great, but a lot of people don’t know that Christopher Hitchens had a brother and his name was Peter and he was a Christian. In fact, he wrote a book called Rage Against God in which he proclaimed his faith. What’s the difference between Christopher and Peter? The Holy Spirit is the difference between Christopher and Peter. I one time interviewed Matt Casper. He was, it was an interesting interview on our talk show. You might want to check out that talk show on occasion. It’s called Steve Brown Etc. And it’s on about 200 stations around the country. And you can get it by going to our website keylife.org and looking around on the website and you’ll find it. But anyway, years ago, we interviewed two interesting guys. Matt Casper, he was an atheist, but his closest friend, or one of his closest friends, was Jim Henderson, a believer who wrote a great book and it was titled Jim and Casper go to Church. I opened with Matt. I suppose everybody on the face of the earth has tried to keep you out of hell. I said, look, I suppose that if you’ve gone to church with your friend as an experiment that a lot of Christians have come up to you and tried to convert you. And he said, you have no idea. And he said, the thing is, I’m thinking about it. He said, the thing is that I might even become a Christian someday, you never know. But it would sure ruin this kind of book that we wrote together, Jim and Casper Go to Church. Now, what’s the difference between Jim and Matt? Matt’s an atheist. Jim’s a Christian. What’s the difference? It’s the Holy Spirit that’s the difference. Listen, you ever think about how wild what we believe really is? I mean, it really is. We believe there’s a God who’s a Creator, Sustainer, Holder of everything that you see and touch and experience. We believe that that God entered time and space in a person, Jesus Christ, and died on a cross for our sins that we might live forever. We believe that that Incarnation was born of a virgin. We believe that a dead man got up and walked. And our pagan friends say, if you believe that, you’ll believe anything. But we do. Why is that? The Holy Spirit. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Thank you Steve. That was Steve Brown teaching us today about the Holy Spirit’s connection to truth, a basic tenet of our faith, yet so easy to take for granted. More from Steve tomorrow, hope you will join us. You know, there is a time and place for pretending like, you know, you’re playing with your kids or your grandkids, but there’s also a time when pretending isn’t good, like pretending we’re okay when we are not okay. Steve spoke about this in a sermon called When Believing is Hard and Pretending Doesn’t Work. Take a listen to part of that sermon, then I’ll be back to tell you about a special free offer. Here’s Steve.

Steve Brown:
Some of you have never doubted in your life. You’re quite proud of that. You’re a covenant child. Your mother told you it was true and your mother would never lie. So, you have never doubted. Now, denial is a nice place to live, but let me tell you something when the doctor says you’ve got cancer, when your daughter’s pregnant and there’s no husband, when your life is falling apart and people know about your sin, call me and we’ll talk about faith. But I suspect that the great majority of people really do believe. It’s very difficult, and you’ve struggled with it, and you’ve come to this position. You really do believe. Some of you may be pastors. Some of you missionaries. Some of you, some of you staff members at a para church organization. And you really believe it, and you’ve given your life to it. But at night, just before you go to sleep, in the dark, you think I hope this is true because if it’s not, I’ve really screwed up my life. And then you go to sleep. I want to talk to you this morning. And I’ve got some really neat stuff to show you. Now, in just a moment we’re going to get down, but first I want to go down a couple of side roads. Side road number one, you know, those people who never doubt. The leaders who stand before you and talk about their purity and their goodness and their obedience and their faith. You know those people, they are lying to you. And it’s very important that you remember, now they don’t mean to hurt you. They’re trying to help. They’re trying to bring you to a position of maturity, and then they will tell you the truth. But listen to me, they are lying to you. Listen, what we believe is really big and it’s really hard to believe and everybody I know has doubts. And it’s very important that you remember what I just taught you or you’ll get discouraged. Now, I’ve got a second side road that’s not totally unconnected to the first side road and it is this. Never ever, for God’s sake, dumb down your faith to fit your doubts. Never ever dumb down your faith to fit your doubts. Look at the 33rd verse.

The Jews answered him, “It is not for good work that we’re going to stone you but blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”

Whoa, he did. And that is a big, big thing. I’ve done that. As some of you know, I’m a graduate of a very liberal left wing graduate school in Boston, a graduate school of theology. And I went there because I didn’t believe anything and they didn’t either. Gradually, I began, I began to make my faith fit my doubt. I didn’t believe in the Virgin Birth. Intellectuals know that virgins don’t have babies. I didn’t believe in the Resurrection because intellectuals know that corpses don’t get out of graves. Okay. I didn’t believe the Bible as authority, it was an important book, but certainly not an inerrant book because people who were intellectuals simply knew that no book could be inerrant. And then the doctor told me my daughter was really, really sick. And I reached for my faith and there was none.

Matthew Porter:
If you’re going through it right now, or maybe you know someone who is, I think it’s going to help this sermon. So, get it on CD for free right now by calling us at 1-800-KEY-LIFE that’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] to ask for that CD. Or to mail your request, go to keylife.org /contact to find our mailing addresses. Again, just ask for your free copy of the CD called When Believing is Hard and Pretending Doesn’t Work. And finally, if you value the work of Key Life, would you support that work through your giving? You could charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or gift safely and securely through text. It’s super easy, just pick up your phone and text Key Life to 28950 that’s Key Life, one word, two words. It doesn’t matter. Just text that to 28950 and then follow the instructions. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. And we are a listener supported production of Key Life Network.