CHARLES HARRIS: Serving the God of truth
By Charles Harris
beattieroad.org
One of the most remarkable aspects of the nature of the Almighty God is one thing that He is not able to do. Consider first His power to speak the world into existence and it immediately occurring. Then ponder that same authority, when His voice will one day roar from heaven and the entire universe will cease to be. Yet there is one thing our God cannot do: He cannot lie.
Imagine trying to serve a lying God, one whose words simply can’t be trusted. We seek to deal with sin, but how do we know He was not lying when He revealed the plan of salvation? We seek to honor Him by worshiping every week with the five avenues of worship He has revealed to us, yet how do we know if He was lying when He gave us this pattern? Imagine trying to honor a lying God who speaks of sin, salvation, prayer, purity, holiness, kindness, peace and providence. He cannot lie (Titus 1:2), and that affects every aspect of the relationship we are privileged to have with Him. Our God is a God of truth.
The truthful God has given us the words of truth. On the night of Jesus’ betrayal, He spoke of the Father and of truth. While He had been with those apostles for more than three years, He had shared with them a part of God’s truth. He said, “I have given to them the words which you have given Me” (John 17:8), but there was additional truth that they had to learn.
He told those apostles that when He went to the Father, the Father would send the Spirit of truth to the apostles (John 14:16). The Spirit that dwelt in them was to guide these men into all truth (John 16:12-13). The result of that is the Bible. Jesus summed it up best when He said, “Your word is truth” (John 17:17).
The truthful God has given us the words of truth which are eternal. David said, “The truth of the Lord endures forever.” (Psalm 117:2) The word of the Lord is forever fixed in the heavens (Psalm 119:89), and every single precept of God endures forever (Psalm 119:160). God cannot lie; He has given us His words of truth, and not one syllable of any word has been lost.
The truthful God wants to write His truth on our souls. Knowing truth is not just memorizing it. His plan is for us to take His eternal truth and ingrain it into our very nature. Moses said, after he had given the law, “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart” (Deuteronomy 6:6). Most Jews felt that if they knew every minute detail of the law, God was pleased with them. There is a vast difference in knowing the law and knowing the Lawgiver. There is a vast difference in knowing about the Lord and truly knowing the Lord.
Father God, help us to take Your eternal truth, to love and cherish it, to hide it in our hearts, and to always walk in it.
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