YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Introduction: In the movie “A Few Good Men” an exchange developed between Col. Nathan Jessup and Lt. Kaffee in which we have this famous dialogue. Jessep: You want answers?
Kaffee (Tom Cruise): I think I'm entitled to them.
Jessep: You want answers?
Kaffee: I want the truth!
Jessep: You can't handle the truth!
When it comes to the truth some of us cannot handle it or, in other words, deal with it for a number of reasons. This is what I would like to explore this morning. I want to consider with you what truth is and even what it is not. I believe people cannot handle the truth because they either do not understand it or they do not care about it.
I. What is truth?
A. Allow me to make an observation – there is a distinction to be made between the facts and the truth; we can observe and sense realities or facts, things that just are, yet not know the truth about them
1. The sun rising and setting, the need for water and air, etc.
2. Jesus lived, died, was buried and rose again
B. Facts in and of themselves are not the truth of the matter
1. There must be some analysis, investigation, probing to get at the rational behind the facts; what do the facts say?
2. A detective gathers facts, sees the facts, puts together the facts from which he begins his investigation to get at the truth
C.
This is why we study the Bible (2 Tim.
1. Truth is the answer to the questions (Why, what does it mean?)
2. Consider the question David posed (Psa. 8:3-6) – David saw the facts, but sought the rational behind them
D. This was a challenge of philosophers (Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Protagoras, etc)
1. Plato: “God is true in word and deed and neither changes himself nor deceives others” (Rom. 3:4)
a. Plato however did not know God
b.
Many philosophers fall into the same category as
Plato (Acts
2. Protagoras: Man is the measure (truth is relative or subjective)
a. A breeze – to one person it may be cool and to another is may be warm
b. Truth can only be attained by ones own perceptions and sensations
c. Such promotes injustice and immorality (explain)
d. To make man the measure or standard is like trying to assess distance with a broken ruler or attain time with a broken clock – the truth is that it may be that it is 70 degrees outside; people just react to the truth differently, yet their reaction does not alter the facts or truth This is true in the physical world as well as the moral world – relativism results in a world in which everyone sets his own temperature
3. What this says concerning these men who struggled with what is truth (Stoics, Epicureans -- seeking pleasure which may be injurious and destroy happiness) is that, though these men were very intelligent and wise in their time, they still did not come to know God; God allowed men to fail in their wisdom to show men that they did not have the answers (1 Cor. 1:18-25)
II.
Jesus and Pilate (John
A. What is truth?
1. Jesus said that He had come to bear witness the truth
2. Pilate responded by saying “What is truth?”
a. Pilate evidently believed that truth was not attainable and may have lived by the Protagoras view, “Man is the measure.”
b. Pilate walks away without getting an answer because he did not look to Jesus as one who had an answer to the question – this was a question that had been asked for centuries and no man could answer
3. The question is still asked and men in their lack of patience and fidelity do not preserver in their search for the truth, but immediately walk away to settle for the easier measure, the fatal measure
4. I believe many do note have the humility or the sincerity to accept the truth when discovered (2 Tim. 3:7)
5.
The quest for the discovery of truth must be met
with an unrelenting determination to find it and a fundamental faith in the fact
that it is there (2 Tim.
B. Truth was right in front of Pilate – His blindness would not allow him to see it
1. Jesus is the embodiment of truth (John 14:6) – He is every man’s answer to every problem that ever was
2. God is truth – Notice what Jesus said in John 18:37, “Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice”
a. Similar to 1 John 4:6
b. Compare to 1 John 5:20
3.
There is no truth outside of God (
a.
He is the measure, the standard (Eph.
b. When we measure up to Christ are we walk in truth
C. Truth is not attained by looking at the mere physical
1. God is truth – yet God cannot be seen with our physical eyes
2. How confining it is to limit the search for truth to this created earth which no one yet understands
3. How can man be the measure?
a.
He is corrupt and decadent (Rom.
b.
His life is short (James
c.
All things physical will pass away (Mark
4.
Truth is eternal and endures (Mark
Conclusion: Pilate was not of God, thus he could not truth standing
in front of him. This is true of people today; if they are not looking for God,
they will never find the truth, for God is truth.