Truth

[0:00] Let's pray again. Lord, we thank you for your word. We come to it, Lord, reverently with! Open hearts and Lord, make us attentive unto it. Help it, Lord, to minister. Help us, Lord, to get a challenge from your spirit by your word. In Jesus' name. Amen.

[0:20] Australia is in trouble. Our culture accepts lies and cover-ups. We see through the ungodly agenda that's always unfolding around us, this prevailing wickedness and delusion that seems to be all-encompassing.

[0:41] It's as if there's some kind of puppet master with his control over things, controlling people and controlling the media, controlling the situations. The Bible talks about our enemy being the prince of the power of the air. And you could see, I put to you, you could see somehow in the media as it's prevailing, the prevailing wickedness that seems to be in every dimension these days. And it's like people are misled by lies. You know, I think of empty philosophies. For example, I know someone touched on this morning, evolution. Evolution. It's so horrible, isn't it? To find a philosophy that will deny God, deny the creator and say that we're just accidents of some fluke or freak circumstance rather than designed and made with purpose by a creator who loves us, who intends for us to be his own creation. And it's like these empty philosophies just are constantly barraging us. And you can't always find the truth when you're searching too.

[1:54] You know, as it's been talked about, as if you could find the truth on Google, for example, or you know, believe everything that's on the internet, as if it's true. You know, we know it changes all the time. You've got encyclopedias called Wikipedia, and they change what's on there because it's like it's a constantly evolving, changing landscape. You can't always find the truth. And I put to you that that's the world we're living in today. It's like there's a spiritual battleground going on.

[2:24] And many people are unawares of this because it is a spiritual battleground. There's a conditioning going on, a misleading of this generation, a deliberate, intentional misinformation program.

[2:38] Now, we know as we tune into media, the so-called documentaries that are full of falsehoods and news stories that increasingly promote the moral decline of our nation and undermine what is wholesome and right, even the adverts. It's like it's all directed to the same end, the destruction of humanity.

[3:07] And these ones who promote this stuff, they're denying the truth, and they're publishing falsehood. Now, there's a new soapy out, I'm told, that is on ABC. It's called The Heights. And I haven't seen much of it because it's very new. But some shorts that I saw, previews of it, is it's a soapy that is actively persuading and influencing people to believe that evil is good and good is evil.

[3:39] For example, it's got some LGBTIQ players in there, and it's promoting that as a normalcy, as normality.

[3:52] And it's true, as we know, it talks about in Isaiah 8 verse 20, I believe it is, that it tells us how there's this lie that's being foisted on everyone, where it talks about, oh, that's not the one, but there's a scripture in Isaiah that talks about that they put evil for good and good for evil, light for darkness and darkness for light. And this is what's going on today. In these, you know, just to manufacture a soapy, a soap opera, that would be along that line. And so we see this propaganda machine. You know, we look back in World War II, World War I, you know, these propaganda campaigns, for example, of the Nazis, of the communists in communist Russia and communist China, they're painting these pictures of drawing people to a worship, drawing people to a belief system.

[4:57] And this is happening today. There's a propaganda campaign that's being waged against Christianity and Christian truth, where they're using words like diversity and tolerance. And it's really an increasing perversion that's being foisted on us as normality. So that our children, as they're watching this, as they're absorbing this, that they will think that that is normal.

[5:23] Here's another one. Yes, we can, says Obama. Yes, we can. And people swallowed that. And likewise, politicians and those that would want to get power over us, sometimes they put these propaganda messages out there. And I put to you that the ultimate deception, the ultimate master deceiver of humanity has the same intent, that he wants to indoctrinate our children and our grandchildren this way, this intentional conditioning that's underway on a grand scale, on a global scale, so that sinfulness is accepted and it's normalized. And further, it's promoted, it's celebrated, and it's enforced. Here's, you know, I could have shown you some pretty ugly pictures, but here's one of a drag queen story time at a kindergarten. You know, this is normal in some nations around our world today. And increasingly in our own nation, that a man would dress up in such a costume and then promote and tell stories that propagates and promulgates this perversion of lifestyle. And churches, meanwhile, are silent, and increasingly so, and even supporting such wickedness. We know there's some churches that have rainbow banners and promote and support, actively support such wickedness. It's like there's no dividing line anymore. The dividing line has gone. We know in the Bible, it speaks about a plumb line. You know, if we could picture a line, a plumb line as in like a string with a weight on it.

[7:16] And it tells us in Amos 7 verse 7 that there's a plumb line. And the context is, it's the word of God, a plumb line in his hand. The Bible says how God sets the plumb line. He says what's right and wrong.

[7:31] There's no, there's no question about it. It's straight up and down. There's the dividing line, the plumb line, such that builders would use when they see whether a building is plumb or it's out of whack, it's bent, it's skewed. And we see how the Bible tells us how this world is, it's twisted.

[7:51] It's, it's, it's, it's, um, trying to think of one of the messages in Acts, they talked about it's being warped. It's, it's out of whack. It's, and we know that it's upside down, essentially, that it's so out of, out of kilter with what God wants. And a further scripture alike to that is Isaiah 28 verse 17, where the Lord says, judgment also will I lay to the line and righteousness to the plumber. He's talking about that line, the plumb line. He's talking about righteousness. He's talking about judgment or justice. He's saying that he's, that he sets that dividing line. And he says, and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies and the water shall overflow the hiding place. He's talking about people taking refuge, people taking shelter, people running to some kind of protection that is failing them. A faulty failing shelter, a refuge of lies. It's a false refuge. And the context here is of people saying they have made lies their refuge. In fact, it is God who sets the parameters. God sets the plumb line. He says what is just. He says what is righteous. And yet people will run to the refuge of lies. Many resort to that false refuge that will fail them as if they can hide from God's judgment, as if they can establish their own righteousness. Many take shelter under a refuge of lies. What a shaky, failing, flimsy refuge that would be to take shelter under a refuge of lies rather than the refuge who is God, who is the truth. You know, it is possible to believe a lie. The Bible tells of such a time, of such an occurrence of people who will believe a lie.

[9:36] They will be so deceived. And you might question, well, how can that be? You know, some would say, how can 16 million Mormons be wrong? 16 million followed this man, this deceiver called Joseph Smith, this false prophet. And they believe that his book is truth when it's an absolute work of fiction, a refuge of lies, of lies. This man is a liar, a deceiver of the most gross kind that he would force such a religion on people. Some have said he's had some 40 wives, some of whom were still married to other men, and one of whom was only 14 years old. He is a liar, a con man, a deceiver, an absolute liar. And people resort to that religion today. You know, I must tell you, I must confess this evening that I have been a victim of scam, a scammer. You know, I was on the internet one day and it looked like a good product and such a good price. And I have been deceived. I bought a product over the internet. It was on Facebook. So I thought, oh, it should be safe enough to buy this product.

[10:54] I sent my visa number over and then I wondered some weeks and weeks later, like two or three months later, I wondered, oh, that's funny. It's not arrived yet. And then I did some searching and I found out that I fell for a really big con, a big con. I fell for the lie. I was scammed, a scam artist, a liar, a con man, deceived me and swindled us of money. And there's many who resort to a refuge of lies, not realising it's a con. And they fall for the ultimate con man, the ultimate con artist. It's the devil, isn't it? The ultimate deceiver. They follow what is fabricated and false and flimsy. It all sounds plausible. They follow the crowd. It's popular.

[11:46] Everybody else is doing it. They follow the crowd, the showmen, the fraudsters, the deceivers, the pied pipers. You know, here's a man that many still follow today. People might recognise who he is.

[11:58] His name's William Branham. William Branham, one of the founders of the Pentecostal movement. He is a very false deceiver. Doesn't even believe in the triune Godhead and made up all kinds of fake reports and of claimed signs, wonders and miracles. And we're seeing this today, there's this fakery, this falsehood, this deception that abounds. We're seeing many today, many of the popular TV preachers, the prosperity, health, wealth, gospel preachers, unbiblical practices abound. Deception, this make-believe tongues, there's all kinds of things that are going on that is quite out of accord with the scriptures. Here's a recent report of a fake resurrection. There's this big crowd of people in some African meeting and this man supposedly raised from the dead and they had it all on video and he walked around with his mouth gaping and a funny look on his face for a while and it was all just a big show, a big con, a big lie. And yet people follow this preacher, this man, and he's apparently quite a well-to-do kind of preacher in Africa. He's one of those really looked up to. And I saw some footage of whether this guy or someone else and he stepped out of his kind of Rolls Royce and there was this kind of almost a red carpet up to the door of the church and people were bowing on the ground and weeping and kind of bowing and scraping to this man and praising him and acting like he's some kind of God. And people are following this, they're swallowing this, it's fake, it's falsehood.

[13:41] No wonder people today are confused and they're suspicious of churches and preachers. Some 67% of adults today think there is no such thing as absolute truth. They just don't believe it anymore if they ever did. And one survey actually found that 75% of professing Christians cannot accept this idea of absolute truth. Of course, we know professing Christians may be in an American context. It's like just about every third person might be claiming to be a Christian but not truly a Christian. But it's such a staggering number that many professing Christians actually don't believe absolute truth. That there is a book we can believe in. There is a God we can take at his word. We can know and trust his truth. Yet there is such a thing as absolute truth. Now you might wonder, well, is there such a thing as absolute truth? Now suppose I tell you that there is a truth called the law of gravity. You know, if you sit under an apple tree long enough, you might have an apple fall on your head. And that is a picture of the truth of the law of gravity. Whatever goes up must come down.

[14:56] Now suppose that you reject that as just being my truth. That's what some people think, isn't it? You've got your truth. I've got mine. And they think even they could even question such a thing as the law of gravity or whether the earth is round or flat. There's all these crazy ideas out there. Now suppose that you reject that as just being my truth. So you decide to test your theory and leap from a building.

[15:23] It will not take you long to learn that there is such a thing as absolute truth. The law of gravity. And it can be known. You know, if I say rocks are hard, water is wet, grass is green. If you don't believe in absolute truth, then you might say no. To me, rocks are soft and water is dry and grass is orange. But just because you may believe it with all your heart, it does not make it so.

[15:53] Isn't that right? Truth is always truth. It always is something that is always true. And we can know absolute truth. We can know that for a surety, for an eternity, for God's guarantee.

[16:09] It's absolute 100% truth. And we can have an unshakable conviction, an unshakable confidence, even in a world that follows popular falsehood, where fake news are what the masses believe.

[16:22] In a world where we struggle to find authentic people, where we see those that, you know, second only to the Pope, wasn't it? This man, they think that they're authentic, that they've got integrity, when they're shown to be false. It's like there's a tidal wave coming against against us, isn't it? And we're there down at the beach and this tidal wave is coming, where it seems that most churches are now accepting what was once clearly identified as error.

[16:53] It's now becoming mainstream. I know some of us, as I was, was in the Pentecostal movement and they had quite a lot right. They were pretty right. They used to speak against people like Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn, but now it's mainstream. They just swallowed the whole box and dice and it's become mainstream. What was even amongst those who were more discerning in those movements would question and would oppose that and preach against it. Now it's just swallow the whole hook, line and sinker. The tidal wave is just swept right through.

[17:28] And taken over. Some are calling the times in which we live post-truth. The post-truth world. It's as if there's no truth anymore. They've crossed it out. There is no truth. It's post-truth.

[17:42] It's like there's a truth war going on. And churches are sometimes at risk of becoming a kind of social club where people can have a coffee and donut. Now I don't know if Chris has brought some donuts, but there's coffee out there after the service if Chris puts the cattle on. But we're not here for that. That's a nice sort of add-on, a nice little extra, isn't it? And I'll give Chris the signal and he'll put the cattle on. But we're not here for the coffee. We're not here, you know, we might have a, I don't know that we've got some, what's the different kinds of coffees you can get?

[18:12] I'm not really a coffee connoisseur, but it's like some churches, oh, we've got the best coffee, so come to our church. But we're not here for the coffee. Or the social club kind of feel as much as we want to be a sociable church. We're not here for some sprinkling of some pep talk, some feel-good message. We're here for the truth. That's what we're here for. And lying signs cause confusion. Hypocrisy prevails. A lack of authenticity, a lack of genuine scriptural foundation. In fact, in the place of that, we've got ignorance. And it tells us a number of times in the scriptures, I would not have you to be ignorant. God doesn't want us to be ignorant.

[18:57] The word ignorant means without information, without information. We don't want to be without information. We don't want to be ignorant. And I like to say B-I-B-L-E, basic instructions before leaving earth. This is information. This is instructions that we need before leaving earth.

[19:14] What is the answer? What does our post-truth world need? In Colossians 3.16, it tells us that let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Can the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom? We need the word. In a post-truth world, we need the word. We must have the word. We need to call on the Lord.

[19:49] It's been said that morals have changed. Churches have changed. Society has changed. People have changed. But God's word has remained the same. God's word has not changed. It has remained the same.

[20:02] The message is still the same. The gospel is still the same. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Let that sink deep down into your heart. It matters what we rest our confidence in.

[20:14] What are we trusting in? Salvation is free. It's free. It's all of God. All of God. Call on the Lord.

[20:25] We can swim against the flow. Sometimes you might feel a bit like this fish here. Swim against the flow. The word tells us of such a time as this. It tells us how judgment is turned backward and justice is standeth afar off for truth is fallen in the street. Truth is fallen in the street. As if the truth is just kind of just treated like a bit of rubbish, a bit of litter, a bit of waste that is blowing along the street. Truth is fallen in the street. It's gone. It's missing. It's neglected in this post-truth world. It tells us here judgment, discernment effectively, isn't it? It's sadly lacking.

[21:24] You know, I'm just staggered. I mentioned it before, but when you go down to Curung, for example, and the choice of books down there, it's woeful. It's woeful what is there. And the authors of these books, it's woeful what they're propagating. Often this self-help, these gurus, these prosperity preachers, as if it's all about a motivation kind of message, and discernment is sadly lacking.

[22:01] Hypocrisy prevails. False doctrine abounds. You know, these stories of fake prophets and healers, it's all they go on about. That's not to say that God can't give his profound word in a deep and meaningful and a directly challenging fashion, as he does. It's not to say God can't heal and save and do amazing, miraculous works. But it's like that's the focus. The spotlight has been taken off of Christ and onto these spectacles, onto these showmen, onto these gimmicks and these performers on the stage.

[22:40] And at the meantime, souls are perishing. And you see some of these men and women who preach that the message is lacking, that the soul-saving message is missing. The gospel message is missing. And spiritual blindness prevails. No wonder people are groping in the dark. Where is the truth? Where is the light? I'm lost. And confusion is snowballing. It's like a plague, like a virus. And we see this ignorance that prevails. Where the gospel message is missing, this vital message of the blood of the cross, of salvation by God's grace through faith. Abraham Lincoln was once used, he used a clever ploy to teach some people about the truth. People came to Abraham Lincoln and they had this decision that they based on suppositions rather than the truth. And it was all kind of just a kind of warped kind of logic. And Lincoln, after he heard them, he said, how many legs would a sheep have if you called its tail a leg? How many legs would a sheep have if you called its tail a leg? And they quickly answered, five. Abraham said, no, it would only have four legs. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it one. Now people can call error truth, but that doesn't change what it is. People can deny the

[24:10] Bible, but that does not change what the Bible is. And the Lord Jesus defines truth for us. He says, sanctify them through thy truth. As he prayed to the Father, he says, make the people holy, make them sanctified, make them saints, make them godly through thy truth. Thy word is truth. Thy word is truth.

[24:33] And I urge you tonight to get a hold of the word of God. Take it as read, take it as personal, take it as God's message to man. You know, it is the good news for modern man. I wouldn't recommend that one, but this one. Good news for modern man. The Bible, the word of God, the Holy Bible. God's sure word is the truth, the word of truth. And God is the only source of absolute truth. And we urge to study it, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, but rightly dividing the word of truth. One of the names of the Bible, the word of truth. His word is unchanging. In a post-truth world, where falseness and fakery prevails, we can have the truth. Can we handle the truth? Can we handle the truth? Can we grab a hold of the truth? His word is unchanging. And by it, we are born again. This is the message we must declare, the salvation message. And it tells us we're born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. I like to tell the story, and you've heard it before, some of you, but I had some seed packets in the tool shed, and they were well beyond their used by date. I planted them and nothing happened. It was corruptible seed. Corruptible seed. It corrupted. It had died and failed and was faulty.

[26:05] And it was dead seed. Corruptible seed. But the Bible says this is incorruptible. Incorruptible. Amen. It cannot be corrupted. It cannot corrupt. It cannot corrode. It cannot falter or fail. It's everlasting. The incorruptible seed. It cannot corrupt. It is beyond corruption. It withstands corruption. The word of God, it says, which liveth and abideth forever. It tells us further that the flesh, all flesh is as grass. We're just like the grass in the field. Now, Julie and I were commenting as we were driving today, how dry it is. The dry grass and the poor sheep having to sustain a living, just munching these dry, wispy bits of grass in the paddocks. And it's telling us that all flesh is as grass. That's what we are. As much as we might like to look in the mirror and think we're a fine looking specimen, the Bible says we're just as grass. And it says that the glory of man is as the flower of grass. Now, one day the flower, as every flower, will dry and fall to the ground. As the flower of the grass. The grass withereth and the flower thereof falleth the way. But the word of the Lord, it tells us, but the word of the Lord endureth forever.

[27:26] This book, this word, it's enduring forever. This word will last for eternity. The word of the Lord is going to endure forever. This is the word which by the gospel is preached onto you. It's an everlasting message, an everlasting salvation. And it tells us of this precious word that we should take heart in the treasure that it is, the richness of the word of God. Think of what the word of God is to us. It's called seed, as we talked about. It's called water that brings life to us. It's called a mirror that we can self-examine. And it talks about it as being a food, a nourishment to our soul. It tells us how it's a lamp, a light, that it's a sword, a spiritual weapon, that it's a plumb line, as we talked about, that it's a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces, that it's a fire, that it's a precious, more precious than gold, that it is sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. And of course, the ultimate expression of the word is Christ, the living word of God, the living word, the word who is God. The word of God. Let's take it as read.

[28:44] Take it to heart. It tells us in the word that it cannot be broken. The scripture cannot be broken. You know, I don't know how late a model car you've got, but one day it's going to be broken.

[28:56] Isn't it? You know, I've had some cars. I thought they were quite good cars, but it doesn't take long for something to go wrong. Bits to fall off, bits to break, and ultimately it's in the scrap heap.

[29:08] It's just a fit for the wreckers, the wrecking yard. But this word of God cannot be broken. The scripture cannot be broken. Amen. There's no need for some new model. This is everlasting.

[29:21] The word of God endures forever. And of the 222 verses in the Bible that contain the word truth, there's 222 apparently, or as one reckoned, 222 verses that contain the word truth. And 22 of the 222 or 10% are found in the gospel of John. It's amazing, isn't it? 10% of the words truth are found in the gospel according to John. And we see there that Pontius Pilate stood before Christ at his judgment stage. And he said, what is truth? What is truth? And then he tried to wash his hands as he condemned him, even though he was an innocent man. And what is truth is the big question, isn't it? What is truth? These days we have many who present another gospel. They present that salvation is faith plus works. Faith plus works. That is a lie. It is a lie. He took my place.

[30:26] His salvation is of his arrangement. You know, in effect, it's Jesus plus nothing equals everything, isn't it? If we have Christ, we have it all. Jesus Christ is made to me. Righteousness, sanctification, redemption, and all glory to him. Salvation is Jesus plus nothing is everything.

[30:50] You know, he took my place. It's not salvation is faith plus works. Of course, there's faith that saves and they will see works follow further on from that. But in that salvation definition, it's Jesus plus nothing, isn't it? He took my place. Salvation is God's free gift. Received through simple faith. Received through simple trusting in him. The Lord Jesus, it says he paid for our sins once and for all. And you are forgiven. If you're forgiven, you're forgiven completely. You're forgiven completely, totally, totally, perfectly. Jesus is the truth. He's the way, the truth, and the life.

[31:35] No man cometh unto the Father but by me, he says. And we must have the Bible. I urge you tonight to take a greater attention to the word. Make it your daily sustenance. That it's more desirable to you than your daily food. That the word of God, it feeds your soul. Take it to your heart and make it real. Make it meaningful. Make it live. Chew it over. Meditate upon it. Chew it over. We must have the Bible to read it, pray, to study, to let it sink in. An old time preacher called Ryle said, let us receive nothing, believe nothing, follow nothing which is not in the Bible, nor can be proved by the Bible. Let our rule of faith, our touchstone of all teaching be the written word of God. Good advice, isn't it?

[32:33] If it's not Bible, we question it. If it doesn't line up with that plumb line, we don't swallow it. We check it out. We discern God helping us. Is it scriptural?

[32:50] It tells us as we're coming closer to the finish line here, to the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to thy word, it is because there is no light in them. That's how we check things out. Does it line up? Is it according to this word? Is it according to the word of God?

[33:09] If they speak not according to this, there is no truth, no light in them. And brother, sister, here tonight, we need to be watchmen. In a post-truth world, God needs to use you and me to be watchmen, watch women, to actively sound the alarm, to tell others, to rouse and awaken those that are asleep, to tell the truth, to hear the truth, to feed your soul with the truth. Pilate asked, what is truth?

[33:41] What is truth? What is truth? And the Lord Jesus was stood face to face with him. He was eyeballing the Lord Jesus Christ in his face, face to face. He was looking at the Lord Jesus Christ and he says, what is truth. What is truth? And truth incarnate was staring him in the face. Truth embodied in human flesh. God manifest in the flesh. Truth in the flesh was staring him in the face and he didn't see it.

[34:15] He missed it. We must believe him who is the way, the truth and the life. Trust in him. And he tells to us that, if you continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. To reject the truth is to believe a lie. You know, some people think, oh, I'll go my own way. I'll find my own way to heaven. I'll climb up some other way. I don't need to go through that doorway, the door who is Christ. They'll say, oh, I'll find up my own way. I'll try my own works. I'll make my own way to heaven. You know, all paths lead to heaven, some people think, mistakenly. But there is only one door. There's only one access, way. There's only one saviour. There's only one salvation. And there's that only one saving truth. The saviour who is the truth, the truth shall make you free. And this truth shall make you free. Think of it. When we think of the situation, if we had a cure to cancer, if we had a cure to man's most dread disease on this planet, would we keep that to ourselves?

[35:33] Or would we herald it from the mountaintops? Would we want to broadcast that message and tell the world this message that will see such blessing? And we've got a message more important, haven't we?

[35:49] A message more life-changing, a message more meaningful than some cure to cancer. And this is not some fanciful stories of men, some rantings of visions or signs or some experience. That can happen. But that's not the emphasis. Our emphasis must be the pure, unadulterated, uncompromising, unvarnished gospel message, the word of truth, the message of salvation, as God puts to us in his scriptures, God's truth. That must be the emphasis. In some circles, the preacher scarcely opens the word of God. I've seen some videos of preachers and preaching, and it's like there's scarcely a Bible verse in there. It's like they scarcely open the Bible and say anything from the Bible. It's just man's reasoning, man's experiences, or some kind of pep talk. They just as well go to Dale Carnegie, or such a thing as that, some kind of motivational speaker. We must have the Bible. That's where the truth is, the Bible. And the word must be published. You know, the truth shall make you free. There's a breaking of chains. There's a setting of men's free. Their hearts made free. And I put to you tonight, the word must be published. Now, I'm privileged to know someone who prints books, Christian books.

[37:13] And I say good on you to that man. People who print Christian books is a very blessed ministry. And it's something that I've never sought to do or attempted to do. And, you know, I know there's a couple of, there's another man who sometimes attends, who likewise publishes Christian books.

[37:33] They've got Christian blogs out there. They want to get the word out. And it tells us in the scriptures in Psalm 68, 11, the word must be published. The word must be published. It says the Lord gave the word. Great was the company of those that published it. God's word must be published. Now, that's got the sense of publishing, of proclaiming, of delivering it. We see in Acts 13, as Paul and Barnabas, it says they waxed bold. It says it was necessary the word of God should be spoken to you. They were talking to the Jews of the day. But you judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life. Lo, we turn to the Gentiles.

[38:15] And it says that, he quotes, this is Paul and Barnabas. I'm not sure which one's speaking. I presume Paul. The Lord hath commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. They were glad and they glorified the word. And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed, and the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region. You know, that's why we're interested in gospel tracts. That's why we're interested in gospel literature, in Christian books, in Christian literature. The word of the Lord was published.

[38:56] God's word is truth. And we should publish it. We should declare it. We should promulgate it. In a world that is a post-truth world, there's no greater time than this, that the word of the Lord should be published. And many will flee to find some safety in men's words, in a refuge of lies that will fail them. Because a refuge of lies is a false refuge. And now today, we that believe should be men and women who are truth bearers, who will rise up and be truth bearers, carriers of the truth. The truth is at stake today. And we have a word from God. We can have sure confidence in this word. We can have confidence in the truth that he has declared. The very name of it is the word of truth. We can have a sure confidence in this gospel message. In a world where we're clearly in the minority, we're called to be truth bearers, truth publishers. And so I urge you tonight, consider how can I be such?

[39:58] And that's why God helping us, we've got to print some good gospel tracts, some leaflets, some literature that even the most bashful and shy Christian can put in a letterbox. For example, that we can be truth bearers. We have a message to take to our nation, to our city. And just to close, here's a famous quote that Jan Huss said. Now, Jan Huss was a man who was burnt at the stake.

[40:29] I don't know that any of us, well, who knows that any of us will get to that point where this world will hate the truth so much that it will hate the truth bearers so much that we'll have to die for the truth. That's what happened in history repeatedly. And it happened to Jan Huss who was burnt at the stake.

[40:50] Imagine that. And this is what Jan Huss said in this quote here. It says, Therefore, faithful Christian, seek the truth, listen to the truth, learn the truth, love the truth, tell the truth, learn the truth again, defend the truth, even to the death. And he fulfilled that.

[41:13] He told the truth. I put to you tonight that there is power in the word of God, the word of truth. And confess the word. Confess the word. The promises of God. It's like the prayer to start this meeting.

[41:29] If we believe in our heart as we pray, we believe that we receive it, we will receive it. We take God's word as what it says. We confess the word of truth and we believe it.

[41:41] And you can put the kettle on there, brother. Put the kettle on and get stuck, get people's appetite, smell that coffee brewing. But no, we're not here for the coffee. Amen. As much as that coffee might be very nice. And we don't have doughnuts laid on or anything flashed here tonight. But I pray that you've been fed by the word of truth. That's what counts. That's what matters. And in my failing attempts, hopefully I've delivered some kernel, some grain of truth that will stimulate and stir and God helping you and me stir us all to action. Because there's no greater need in a day, in a time of a post-truth world, there's no greater need for the truth. When by and large churches are failing to deliver it. And that's not to say we couldn't do better. But think of it. And think of how you might think, as I've considered, we're in a minority, in a world where the majority are believing a lie, as the Bible says they will, a strong delusion, a strong deception. When the ultimate master deceiver is taking multitudes to hell, we must hold to the absolute truth.

[42:51] And what's more, we must deliver it. We must publish the word. And you might say, look, we're only small. There's not many of us. Consider that it was less than 1% of Gideon's initial army. Gideon's initial army was 32,000 that went to battle. But it was only 1% went to battle.

[43:14] Gideon's 300 wrought a great victory over the Midianites. Think of that. Really, it was God, wasn't it? It wasn't even the 300. It was God. And we must seek God to do his work. And being faithful as best as we are able, publish the word. Publish the word. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the soul-saving truth that its salvation is faith plus nothing. It's Jesus is everything. Lord, let us have that heart to love you, to follow you. If there's any yet to trust you, they might in simple faith cry out, Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief.

[43:56] Help me, Lord, to follow you, to love you, to trust you, to trust that sacrifice on my part of your dying on the cross and rising to life again, to be my ever-living saviour.

[44:08] And help us, Lord, that are saved to put our trust into action, to put our faith into motion, to be activated. Lord, help us to find ways to publish the truth. Help us, Lord, to find ways to declare the truth, to be truth bearers. In a world full of lies, where people resort to the refuge of lies, may we point them to the refuge, the sure refuge, the sure shelter from God's wrath of the refuge who is Christ, the rock that can take shelter in him. Lord, help us to be a mighty army. Even if we be just in small number, we can be.

[44:49] Gideon's army, even in this time, in this place, that you would use us, Lord. And it won't be that we will do it, but it'll all be your glory and your power and your praise. In Jesus' name, amen.