00:00:01 The evening before he died,
00:00:03 Jesus Christ asked his Father in prayer
00:00:06 to watch over his disciples.
00:00:10 His request is recorded at John 17:15-17.
00:00:15 Read it with me.
00:00:17 Jesus said: “I do not request
00:00:21 “that you take them out of the world,
00:00:24 “but that you watch over them
00:00:26 “because of the wicked one.
00:00:28 “They are no part of the world,
00:00:30 just as I am no part of the world.”
00:00:35 Jesus’ confidence in Jehovah
00:00:37 and in the power of the truth
00:00:40 can be seen clearly in what he asks of his Father in verse 17:
00:00:45 “Sanctify them by means of the truth;
00:00:50 your word is truth.”
00:00:54 When we accept the truth
00:00:56 and make a personal dedication to God,
00:00:59 in a general sense,
00:01:01 we are sanctified, or set apart, from the world
00:01:05 because we no longer fit into its mold.
00:01:09 People view us differently
00:01:12 because our values have changed.
00:01:15 We live by the standards of Bible truth,
00:01:18 and doing so honors Jehovah God,
00:01:22 gives our life meaning, and brings us great happiness.
00:01:28 With those thoughts in mind,
00:01:30 how should we feel about the sayings of God
00:01:34 and the Bible truths that we have learned?
00:01:38 We feel the way the psalmist did.
00:01:42 At Psalm 119:140,
00:01:45 he said to Jehovah God:
00:01:47 “Your saying is thoroughly refined
00:01:51 “[which means that it’s clean and pure;
00:01:54 and then he said], and your servant loves it.”
00:02:00 Isn’t that how we feel about the truth?
00:02:03 We love it!
00:02:05 It would be wonderful if everyone would respond to the truth of God’s Word
00:02:09 and love it.
00:02:11 However, the sad fact is that the majority of the world rejects it.
00:02:17 There are many people who do not believe that truth is attainable.
00:02:23 Some ancient philosophers made the teaching of doubts
00:02:27 virtually their life’s work.
00:02:30 Human philosophy is built on pride of intellect
00:02:34 and a warped pleasure of endless speculation
00:02:39 that leaves Jehovah God, the Creator,
00:02:41 completely out of the picture.
00:02:44 By removing God,
00:02:46 philosophers wander in a maze of ideas and theories
00:02:51 that fascinate the mind and inflate the ego
00:02:55 but never arrive at the truth.
00:03:00 If truth were not attainable,
00:03:03 why would Jesus Christ say
00:03:05 as recorded at John 8:31, 32:
00:03:08 “If you remain in my word,
00:03:12 “you are really my disciples,
00:03:14 “and you will know the truth,
00:03:17 and the truth will set you free”?
00:03:21 Are we not experiencing the freedom that Jesus spoke of?
00:03:26 And why would the apostle Paul write at 1 Timothy 2:4
00:03:30 that God’s “will is that all sorts of people
00:03:33 should be saved and come to an accurate knowledge of truth”?
00:03:39 Why does the word “truth” occur over a hundred times
00:03:43 in the Christian Greek Scriptures?
00:03:47 Jesus not only pointed out that the truth is attainable,
00:03:51 but he showed that finding it is required
00:03:54 if our worship is to be approved by God.
00:03:59 When a Samaritan woman wondered
00:04:01 what the true form of worship was
00:04:04 —the worship practiced by the Jews in Jerusalem
00:04:08 or that practiced by the Samaritans on Mount Gerizim—
00:04:12 Jesus did not answer by saying:
00:04:15 ‘Truth is unattainable, and you don’t need to worry about it,’
00:04:19 or ‘You can believe whatever you want to believe.’
00:04:23 No, Jesus did not view the truth as relative
00:04:28 —that whatever you want to believe is the truth.
00:04:32 That is nonsense
00:04:34 and has nothing to do with the realities of life.
00:04:38 At John 4:23, 24,
00:04:42 Jesus made a specific reference to truth,
00:04:46 God’s spirit, and pure worship.
00:04:50 At John 4:23, 24, he said:
00:04:54 “True worshippers
00:04:56 “will worship the Father with spirit and truth,
00:05:00 “for indeed, the Father is looking for ones like these
00:05:04 “to worship him.
00:05:05 “God is a Spirit, and those worshipping him
00:05:10 must worship with spirit and truth.”
00:05:14 Jesus was talking about being guided in our worship
00:05:18 by God’s holy spirit
00:05:20 and said that we do not need the use of temples, images,
00:05:24 or other physical objects in true worship.
00:05:28 And the truth that Jesus referred to
00:05:30 is an accurate knowledge of Bible truths.
00:05:36 True faith is much more than just belief in God
00:05:40 —that he exists;
00:05:42 it also means an acceptance of God’s Word,
00:05:45 obtaining an intellectual understanding of that Word,
00:05:49 and then manifesting a heartfelt reliance upon it.
00:05:54 As genuine Christians,
00:05:57 we view the Bible as the inspired Word of God,
00:06:01 beneficial for teaching and disciplining mankind.
00:06:06 Psalm 119:160 says of Jehovah God:
00:06:11 “The very essence of your word is truth.”
00:06:17 When Jesus Christ stood before Pontius Pilate
00:06:20 and told him that he had come to earth to speak the truth,
00:06:25 Pilate responded with the words: “What is truth?”
00:06:29 Likely, Pilate was cynical.
00:06:32 His words reveal a skeptical view of truth.
00:06:37 But the truth that Jesus had in mind was about God’s Kingdom
00:06:42 and Jesus’ role as its King.
00:06:45 That was the very theme, the core,
00:06:48 of Jesus’ teaching while he was on earth.
00:06:52 That’s why when Pilate asked Jesus if he was a king,
00:06:55 Jesus replied:
00:06:57 “You yourself say it.”
00:06:59 In other words, ‘Yes, I am,’
00:07:03 but he added that his Kingdom was “no part of this world.”
00:07:08 The truth is that his Kingdom will sanctify Jehovah’s name,
00:07:13 vindicate his sovereignty,
00:07:15 and restore faithful mankind to happy, eternal life.
00:07:21 Genuine Christians embrace this truth.
00:07:27 Since Jesus’ role in the fulfillment of all of God’s promises is so pivotal
00:07:32 and since all of God’s prophecies
00:07:35 become “Amen,” or true, because of him,
00:07:38 Jesus could well say, as recorded at John 14:6:
00:07:42 “I am the way and the truth and the life.”
00:07:48 And as 2 Corinthians 1:20 declares:
00:07:52 “For no matter how many the promises of God are,
00:07:55 “they have become ‘yes’ by means of him.
00:07:59 “Therefore, also through him
00:08:02 is the ‘Amen’ said to God.”
00:08:05 Jesus used the word “amen”
00:08:08 to affirm the truthfulness of what was said,
00:08:12 but he did so in a unique way.
00:08:16 We usually say “amen” after a prayer is said
00:08:19 to show our agreement with it.
00:08:22 However, rather than use it
00:08:24 to reply to a prayer or a statement,
00:08:27 he used “amen”
00:08:29 to introduce pronouncements of truth.
00:08:33 At times, he repeated the word,
00:08:35 saying “amen, amen” and then made his statement,
00:08:39 which would be like saying
00:08:41 “most truly I say to you.”
00:08:45 Yes, by using this expression,
00:08:48 he assured his listeners that his words were the absolute truth.
00:08:54 Jesus could speak with such certainty
00:08:57 because he was the one authorized
00:09:00 to make all of God’s promises come true.
00:09:04 To us, the exhilarating good news of God’s Kingdom
00:09:08 under the rulership of Jesus Christ
00:09:11 is more, far more, than mere information.
00:09:16 That truth moves us to action;
00:09:18 it compels us to live by it and share it with others.
00:09:24 To the first-century Christian congregation,
00:09:27 the way of life they adopted as followers of Christ
00:09:31 was sometimes known simply as “the truth”
00:09:35 or “the way of the truth.”
00:09:38 Read with me 3 John verse 4, where it says:
00:09:42 “No greater joy do I have than this:
00:09:47 “that I should hear that my children
00:09:49 go on walking in the truth.”
00:09:53 Isn’t that how parents feel about their children
00:09:56 who are serving Jehovah faithfully?
00:09:59 Absolutely!
00:10:01 However, not all young ones
00:10:04 raised in a believing household have stuck with the truth.
00:10:09 The same is true about many with whom we’ve studied the Bible.
00:10:13 Is their situation hopeless?
00:10:16 No, not at all.
00:10:18 There’s still time for them to act
00:10:21 and to show Jehovah that they love him
00:10:24 and that they love the truth.
00:10:28 The end of this system is fast approaching.
00:10:32 It is going to happen and soon.
00:10:36 We encourage such ones to give serious thought
00:10:39 to their relationship with Jehovah God,
00:10:42 because he genuinely loves them
00:10:45 and wants them to have life.
00:10:48 We pray that such ones take whatever steps are necessary
00:10:52 to return to Jehovah before it’s too late.
00:10:57 It’s a Scriptural fact
00:10:59 that people need to love the truth in order to be saved.
00:11:04 This is the point that the apostle Paul makes
00:11:07 at 2 Thessalonians 2:10,
00:11:10 where it reads in part that people will perish
00:11:14 “because they did not accept the love of the truth
00:11:19 in order that they might be saved.”
00:11:23 Our prayer is that honesthearted people everywhere
00:11:27 will respond to Jehovah’s invitation
00:11:29 to draw close to him and love the truth.
00:11:34 This world is heading for an abrupt end
00:11:38 at the battle of Armageddon.
00:11:41 To survive that battle,
00:11:43 we must have knowledge of Jehovah God
00:11:46 and live in harmony with his Word,
00:11:48 which includes the teachings of Jesus Christ.
00:11:53 Earth wide we are proclaiming the good news
00:11:57 that God’s Kingdom has been established in the heavens.
00:12:00 That proclamation
00:12:02 is the foretold “witness to all the nations”
00:12:06 that soon the accomplished end of this world’s system will come.
00:12:11 No, no, not the end of our planet,
00:12:14 because another basic truth is that “the earth remains forever”
00:12:19 as stated at Ecclesiastes 1:4.
00:12:23 These are absolute truths that we preach,
00:12:28 and we love them.
00:12:31 Knowing the truth sets us free from lies,
00:12:35 delusions, and superstitions.
00:12:38 And when we live by it,
00:12:40 the truth strengthens us to endure hardships.
00:12:44 God’s truth is so reliable and well-founded,
00:12:48 and it so inspires us with hope
00:12:51 that it enables us to stand up under any test.
00:12:56 We see our brothers in lands where they are mistreated and persecuted
00:13:00 doing just that, and they do it with joy.
00:13:06 To dismiss truth as relative or nonexistent
00:13:10 is to miss out on the most thrilling
00:13:13 and fulfilling quest that life offers.
00:13:17 To find the truth is to find hope;
00:13:21 to know and love it is to know and love the Creator of the universe
00:13:26 and his only-begotten Son;
00:13:29 to live by it is to live with purpose and peace of mind,
00:13:34 now and forever.
