The
World’s Truth Versus
God’s Truth
By: Dr. Hoyt
Noel Jr.
March 5, 2009
Good
Morning. Let me share
something with you. These
are actual answers that
kids gave to church
school questions…
1.
Noah's wife was Joan of
Ark
2. The
Fifth commandment is:
Humor thy father and
mother
3. Holy
acrimony is another name
for marriage
4.
Christians can only have
one wife. This is called
monotony
5. The
Pope lives in a Vacuum
6. A
republican is a sinner
mentioned in the Bible
7. The
First Commandment: Eve
told Adam to eat the
apple
8. It
is sometimes difficult to
hear what is being said
in church because the
agnostics are so bad
This
morning’s text is
from Deuteronomy chapter
32.
Deu
32:1 Give ear, O ye
heavens, and I will
speak; and hear, O earth,
the words of my mouth.
Deu
32:2 My doctrine shall
drop as the rain, my
speech shall distill as
the dew, as the small
rain upon the tender
herb, and as the showers
upon the grass:
Deu
32:3 Because I will
publish the name of the
LORD: ascribe ye
greatness unto our God.
Deu
32:4 He is the Rock, his
work is perfect: for all
his ways are judgment: a
God of truth and without
iniquity, just and right
is he.
Deu
32:5 They have corrupted
themselves, their spot is
not the spot of his
children: they are a
perverse and crooked
generation.
Deu
32:6 Do ye thus requite
the LORD, O foolish
people and unwise? is not
he thy father that hath
bought thee? hath he not
made thee, and
established thee?
Deu
32:7 Remember the days of
old, consider the years
of many generations: ask
thy father, and he will
show thee; thy elders,
and they will tell thee.
A funny
thing happened to me
while I was channel
surfing a while back. My
wife had gone to bed
early. I was sitting on
the couch and clicking
the remote control, and I
came across a program I
don’t usually watch,
"Buffy the Vampire
Slayer". I felt the
Holy Spirit prompting me,
and I watched the last
few minutes of the
program. The Lord moves
in miraculous and
mysterious ways without a
doubt, and this was one
of those times. I
don’t know if any of
you have ever seen this
program, and it’s
not important, other than
the fact that our
children and
grandchildren watch it,
but what was revealed to
me that night stuck in my
mind. Buffy, the main
character, was trying out
for the cheerleading
squad. Another
girl’s mother wanted
her daughter to get on
the squad real bad. She
(the mother) turned out
to be a witch. She cast a
spell on Buffy to make
her real sick so her
daughter (whose body she
had possessed) would win
a spot on the squad. Now
you as Christians would
think that this would be
a prime occasion to call
upon the power of God,
but not so in the
world of television. They
got a hold of the
witch’s spell book
and attempted to cast a
counter-spell. It was
like a 400 million
candlepower light went
off in my head, the Holy
Spirit made it so clear
to me. They were telling
viewers that to fight
against evil, you must
use more evil. That is a
lie straight from the
Lord of liars. Jesus was
accused of this, and this
is what He said in
Matthew 12: 25 And Jesus
knew their thoughts, and
said unto them, Every
kingdom divided against
itself is brought to
desolation; and every
city or house divided
against itself shall not
stand:
26 And
if Satan cast out Satan,
he is divided against
himself; how shall then
his kingdom stand? How
then can you fight
against witchcraft, which
is of the Devil, using
witchcraft? This applies
to a few other shows as
well.
"Charmed",
"Angel", and
movies and books like
"Harry Potter".
There are a lot of others
that depict that folks
can use powers like
so-called
"magic" to deal
with problems instead of
relying on God. As the
apostle Paul said in
Romans 13: 1 Let every
soul be subject unto the
higher powers. For there
is no power but of God:
the powers that be are
ordained of God.
2
Whosoever therefore
resisteth the power,
resisteth the ordinance
of God: and they that
resist shall receive to
themselves damnation. All
power comes from God.
Everything was created by
God, including the
angels, of which Satan
originally was one. The
problem is that the world
is telling us to worship
the creature, and not the
creator. The problem is
that the world is telling
us to believe a lie and
not believe the truth.
Psa
25:4 Show me thy ways, O
LORD; teach me thy paths.
Psa
25:5 Lead me in thy
truth, and teach me: for
thou art the God of my
salvation; on thee do I
wait all the day.
Psa
25:6 Remember, O LORD,
thy tender mercies and
thy loving kindnesses;
for they have been ever
of old.
Psa
25:7 Remember not the
sins of my youth, nor my
transgressions: according
to thy mercy remember
thou me for thy goodness'
sake, O LORD.
Psa
25:8 Good and upright is
the LORD: therefore will
he teach sinners in the
way.
Psa
25:9 The meek will he
guide in judgment: and
the meek will he teach
his way.
John
the Baptist's message
from the wilderness was
not, "Smile, God
loves you." It was
"O generation of
vipers, who hath warned
you to flee from the
wrath to come."
Jeremiah was not put into
a miry pit for preaching,
"I'm OK, you're
OK." It was for
crying against the
adultery, idolatry and
other wickedness of his
nation. Noah's message
from the steps of the ark
was not, "Something good
is going to happen to
you." He condemned
the world and was a
preacher of
righteousness. Jesus
Christ was not crucified
for saying,
"Consider the
lilies, how they
grow," but for
saying, "Woe unto
you scribes and
Pharisees,
hypocrites...children of
hell ...fools and blind
guides ... whited
sepulchers...generation
of vipers."
Psa
100:5 For the LORD is
good; his mercy is
everlasting; and his
truth endureth to all
generations.
When I
was just a kid, my folks
told me that if you told
the truth, you
wouldn’t have any
trouble remembering what
you said the next time
you tell the same thing.
God’s word is like
that. Just like in the
verse I just read,
God’s truth endureth
for all generations. The
truth, like God, is the
same yesterday, the same
today, and will be the
same tomorrow. Paul said
in Ephesians:
Eph
4:22 That ye put off
concerning the former
conversation the old man,
which is corrupt
according to the
deceitful lusts;
Eph
4:23 And be renewed in
the spirit of your mind;
Eph
4:24 And that ye put on
the new man, which after
God is created in
righteousness and true
holiness.
Eph
4:25 Wherefore putting
away lying, speak every
man truth with his
neighbor: for we are
members one of another.
And
Jesus said in Joh 8:31
Then said Jesus to those
Jews which believed on
him, If ye continue in my
word, then are ye my
disciples indeed;
Joh
8:32 And ye shall know
the truth, and the truth
shall make you free.
Just
because something is
"accepted" by
society and the world,
doesn’t make it
true. It doesn’t
make it right. It
doesn’t make it
something we should
follow. It doesn’t
mean that it is O.K. for
us to do and stay in
God’s will.
Rom
1:22 Professing
themselves to be wise,
they became fools,
Rom
1:23 And changed the
glory of the
incorruptible God into an
image made like to
corruptible man, and to
birds, and four footed
beasts, and creeping
things.
Rom
1:24 Wherefore God also
gave them up to
uncleanness through the
lusts of their own
hearts, to dishonor their
own bodies between
themselves:
Rom
1:25 Who changed the
truth of God into a lie,
and worshiped and served
the creature more than
the Creator, who is
blessed forever. Amen.
The
world is coming to the
point Paul predicted in
his second letter to
Timothy.
2Ti 4:3
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;
2Ti 4:4
And they shall turn away
their ears from the
truth, and shall be
turned unto fables.
The
apostle John gave some
good advice for us in
first John, chapter
three.
1Jo
3:18 My little children,
let us not love in word,
neither in tongue; but in
deed and in truth.
1Jo
3:19 And hereby we know
that we are of the truth,
and shall assure our
hearts before him.
1Jo
3:20 For if our heart
condemn us, God is
greater than our heart,
and knoweth all things.
1Jo
3:21 Beloved, if our
heart condemn us not,
then have we confidence
toward God.
A few
months before I was born,
my dad met a stranger who
was new to our town. From
the beginning, Dad was
fascinated with this
enchanting newcomer, and
soon invited him to live
with our family. The
stranger was quickly
accepted and was around
to welcome me into the
world a few months later.
As I
grew up I never
questioned his place in
our family. Mom taught me
to love
the Word of God, and Dad
taught me to obey it. But
the stranger
was our
storyteller. He could
weave the most
fascinating tales.
Adventures,
mysteries, and comedies
were daily conversations.
He could
hold
our whole family
spellbound for hours each
evening.
He was
like a friend to the
whole family. He took
Dad, Bill, and me to
our
first major league
baseball game. He was
always encouraging us to
see
the
movies and he even made
arrangements to introduce
us to several movie
stars.
The
stranger was an incessant
talker. Dad didn't seem
to mind, but
sometimes
Mom would quietly get up
- while the rest of us
were enthralled
with
one of his stories of
faraway places - go to
her room, read her
Bible,
and pray. I wonder now if
she ever prayed that the
stranger would
leave.
You
see, my dad ruled our
household with certain
moral convictions.
But
this stranger never felt
an obligation to honor
them. Profanity, for
example,
was not allowed in our
house-not from us, from
our friends, or
adults.
Our longtime visitor,
however, used occasional
four letter words
that
burned my ears and made
Dad squirm. To my
knowledge the stranger
was never confronted.
My Dad
was a teetotaler who
didn't permit alcohol in
his home not even
for
cooking. But the stranger
felt like we needed
exposure and
enlightened
us to other ways of life.
He offered us beer and
other
alcoholic
beverages often.
He made
cigarettes look tasty,
cigars manly, and pipes
distinguished.
He
talked freely (too much,
too freely) about sex.
His comments were
sometimes
blatant, sometimes
suggestive, and generally
embarrassing. I
know
now that my early
concepts of the man/woman
relationship were
influenced
by the stranger.
As I
look back, I believe it
was the grace of God that
the stranger
did not
influence us more. Time
after time he opposed the
values of my
parents,
yet he was seldom rebuked
and never asked to leave.
More
than forty years have
passed since the stranger
moved in with
the
young family on Carol
Street. But if I were to
walk into my
dad’s
den today, you would
still see him sitting
over in a corner,
waiting
for someone to listen to
him talk and watch him
draw his
pictures.
His
name...We always just
called him...TV.
This
little tale has been
around for a while, but
the "stranger"
has gotten more blatant
in his actions.
Television, thanks to
apathy on the part of
Christians, has moved
farther and farther away
from God and our
Christian principles paid
for by blood. Television,
thanks to folks wanting
the things of this world
more than the things of
the next, has taken over
raising our children and
grandchildren. The real
problem is than no one is
revealing the truth to
them. It certainly
isn’t going to be
the television.
The
things of this world have
a certain pull on them,
like a magnet. When we
watch TV, we see that in
order to be happy, we
need to be skinnier, we
need to be better
dressed, drive a nicer
and newer car, drink
certain brands of beer,
have sex whenever we feel
like it. You know…
if it feels good, do it.
Have you ever noticed
that when you put
something into the water
and then take it out,
that the water seems to
try and hold on to it,
pulling it back in?
That’s exactly the
way of the world is.
Satan uses this to make
us want the things of
this world and forget
about God and the things
of the next world. This
little story sort of
illustrates what I’m
talking about.
A man
was on the side of the
road with a large
birdcage. A boy noticed
that the cage was full of
birds of many kinds.
"Where
did you get those
birds?" he asked.
"Oh,
all over the place,"
the man replied. "I
lure them with crumbs, I
pretend
I'm their friend then
when they are close, I
net them and shove
the
into my cage."
"And
what are you going to do
with them now?"
The man
grinned, "I'm going
to prod them with sticks,
and get them really
mad so
they fight and kill each
other. Those that
survive, I will kill.
None
will escape."
The boy
looked steadily at the
man. What made him do
such things? He
looked
into the cruel, hard
eyes. Then he looked at
the birds, defenseless,
without hope.
"Can
I buy those birds?"
the boy asked. The man
hid a smile, aware that
he
could be on to a good
thing if he played his
cards right.
"Well,"
he said hesitantly,
"the cage is pretty
expensive, and I spent a
lot of
time collecting these
birds, I'll tell you what
I'll do, I'll let
you
have the lot, birds, cage
and all for ten dollars
and that jacket
you're
wearing."
The boy
paused, ten dollars was
all he had, and the
jacket was new and
very
special, in fact it was
his prized possession.
Slowly, he took out
the ten
dollars and handed it
over, then even more
slowly he took off his
jacket,
gave it one last look
then handed that over
too. And then (well,
you've
guessed it) he opened the
door and let the birds go
free.
There
is a moral to this story:
The
Enemy of the world,
Satan, was on the side of
life's road with a very
large
cage. The man coming
towards him noticed that
it was crammed full
of
people of every kind,
young, old, from every
race and nation.
"Where
did you get these
people?" the man
asked.
"Oh,
from all over the
world," Satan
replied. "I lure
them with drink,
drugs,
lust, lies, anger, hate,
love of money and all
manner of things. I
pretend
I'm their friend, out to
give them a good time,
then when I've
hooked
them, into the cage they
go."
"And
what are you going to do
with them now?"
asked the man.
Satan
grinned. "I'm going
to prod them, provoke
them, get them to hate
and
destroy each other; I'll
stir up racial hatred,
defiance of law and
order;
I'll make people bored,
lonely, dissatisfied,
confused and
restless.
It's easy. People will
always listen to what I
offer them and
(what's
better) blame God for the
outcome!"
"And
then what?" the man
asked.
"Those
who do not destroy
themselves, I will
destroy. None will escape
me."
The man
stepped forward.
"Can
I buy these people from
you?" he asked.
Satan
snarled, "Yes, but
it will cost you your
life."
So
Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, paid for your
release, your freedom
from
Satan's
trap, with His own life,
on the cross at Calvary.
The door is
open,
and anyone, whom Satan
has deceived and caged,
can be set free.
The
story is stylized and
brought into language we
can understand, but it
basically is the truth.
Jesus paid for us with
his very life. Now you
can do what you like with
what I have given you,
and what Jesus has done
for you. You can go back
home, turn on the
television like usual and
let your mind become
filled with worldly
things. Oh, there are
some good programs on
television also. I heard
a good little saying the
other day that might help
us.
"If
you fill your mind with
scriptures, Satan
can’t get in with
his lies." As for
me, I’ll follow what
Paul said in Philippians
3, verse 14: I press
toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus.
What about you? Are you
pressing toward that
mark? Have you accepted
Jesus as your Lord and
Savior? Are things right
between you and God? We
are going to sing a hymn
of invitation " The
Nail-Scarred Hand"
in a moment after I pray.
I urge you to do as the
song says, come right
down here, and put your
hand in the nail-scarred
hand of Jesus.
Let’s
pray.
Heavenly Father,
thank you for the word.
Thank you for allowing me
to be the first to hear,
and using me to share it
with others. Let us all
be faithful, not just
hearers of the word, but
doers also. Let us be
quick to share this faith
with others, feeding a
hungry generation, hungry
for a word from YOU.
Lord, as we go through
this invitation, prick
our hearts, infect us
with Your Holy Spirit,
and give us all a hunger
deep within to reach the
lost souls, for we know
You desire that none be
lost, that all may come
to repentance. Give us
strength for the task
ahead, forgive our sins,
and let us forgive
others. Let us show
forth-Christian love to
one another. In the name
of Jesus I pray, Amen.
