“For the time will come when 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” (II Tim. 4:3-4). Zechariah urged Israel to “love the truth and peace” (Zech. 8:19). Solomon challenges all to “Buy the truth and sell it not” (Prov. 23:23). John stated very emphatically that “no lie is of the truth” (I John 2:21b). This is true no matter how good it sounds, who said it or taught it, how sincerely it is believed, or how many argue for it being true. It makes no difference how loudly it is presented or how long it has been believed and taught, truth is still truth, and everything else is a “lie.”
Why would men not want truth? Why would men not want to hear truth? Why would men rather hear a lie? Why would men say, “prophesy deceits” (Isa. 30:10)? The only way to have the truth that saves is to hear and follow God’s word. “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Jesus said, “Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth” (John 17:17). When one denies the truth, deserts the truth, closes his eyes to the truth, or in any other way refuses truth, his soul is lost.
Truth separates (Matt. 10:35). Truth makes free (John 8:32). Truth can be known (John 8:32). Truth makes enemies (Gal. 4:16). Truth can be held back (Rom. 1:18). Truth can be resisted (II Tim. 3:8). And truth can be obeyed (I Pet. 1:22).
There are consequences for those who “received not the love of the truth that they might be saved” (II Thess. 1:7). Isaiah pronounced a woe unto those “who call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” (Isa. 5:20). Paul declared that “The Gospel is God’s power unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16). But he also warned, “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (II Cor. 4:3-4). Satan cannot blind our eyes without our cooperation.
Pilate asked Jesus, ”What is truth?” (John 18:38). However, there is not anything to suggest that he cared for truth at all. The sad thing is that it seems to be the same position of a great many in our world today. They are basically saying, “Don’t bother me with the truth; I have already made up my mind.” They have no interest in truth; they are not seeking truth; they criticize and accuse those who are speaking truth today, and yet it seems that most of the world believe that everybody (no matter how evil they are or were) will go to Heaven. But that just is not so! Only those who “enter in at the strait gate” will be saved, for “strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matt. 7:13-14). And only those who “keep His commandments” have “the right to the tree of life, and to enter in through the gates into the city” (Heaven) (Rev. 22:14).
How about you? Let me encourage each one reading this to search, investigate, learn, believe, and obey the truth!
Paul M. Wilmoth, January 18,1944 – April 5, 2021
