Truth versus

Hopefully discussing the truth, over fancy tea.

I listened to this sermon recently. I will comment briefly on the introductory comments from the message.

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False Doctrine - by Michael Phillips Spiritual Depression - Part 10 of 13 Sermon Notes Galatians 4:15 Jan 27, 2008 am

Link

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Please rank the following five things in order of importance for living the Christian Life. So as to not tip my hand on what I think most important, I'll give them to you in alphabetical order and with a short, neutral description of what I mean by each one of them: 

(My comments)

Activity

Morality 

Niceness 

Sincerity 

Truth 

By activity I mean doing things for Christ, the Church, and the Kingdom. Things like praying, reading the Bible, attending church, putting money in the offering box, witnessing to the lost, helping out at the Rescue Mission, and voting for good causes and candidates. 

(Activity can be for the good or the bad)

By morality I mean living a good life, working hard, paying your bills, being faithful to your spouse, telling the truth, not stealing, cussing, or watching immoral movies.

(Morality and ethics are good, but according to the New Testament, persons are not saved, post-mortem, through morality and ethics; people are not saved by good works, Ephesians 2, for example. People are saved, including being made legally justified, through the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ, by the applied atoning and resurrection of Jesus Christ by grace alone, through faith alone, which should lead to good works for God, when divine regeneration of persons takes place.)

By niceness I mean being easy to get along with, friendly, helpful, and pleasant. 

(Niceness is generally better to use, but sometimes stating the truth, even in love, at least risks being perceived as not nice. It has been stated that the gospel, the good news, is bad news for those that do not embrace it.)

By sincerity I mean really believing what you believe and trying to live up to it. 

(People can be sincerely right or sincerely wrong and there are degrees of each)

By truth I mean the main doctrines of the Bible. I'm not sure which of the four would be at the top of the list for most believers, but I know very well which one would be at the bottom! Truth.

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And the not-so-good, II Thessalonians 2:12- That they may all be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 

I'll put it to you as plainly as I can: Receiving the Truth will promote your salvation, while rejecting or ignoring it will put you in grave danger of not being saved at all. The Truth matters!
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God reveals himself supernaturally, primarily and as the final authority, through the Hebrew Bible and New Testament books. By definition a reasonable understanding of biblical and theological premises and conclusions that teaches essential doctrines, the nature of God, salvation, sin and humanity, as examples, requires understanding, accepting and applying truth.

Truth is the most important concept of those mentioned and listed in the sermon, in my view. Equally important is love. In other words, divine directed truth and divine directed love.

BLACKBURN, SIMON (1996) Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, Oxford, Oxford University Press. 

BOICE, JAMES, MONTGOMERY (1981) Foundations of the Christian Faith, Downers Grove, IVP Press.

CONWAY DAVID A. AND RONALD MUNSON (1997) The Elements of Reasoning, Wadsworth Publishing Company, New York.

ERICKSON, MILLARD (1994) Christian Theology, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House.

ERICKSON, MILLARD (2003) What Does God Know and When Does He Know It?, Grand Rapids, Zondervan.

PIRIE, MADSEN (2006)(2015) How To Win Every Argument, Bloomsbury, London.