"BUY THE TRUTH AND SELL IT NOT"

PROVERBS 23:2

A. OUR TEXT EXPRESSES THE BURDEN OF MY MESSAGE
  1. I do not doubt that you are here in this service because you believe the truths taught by the Seventh-day Adventist Church:
  2. It takes courage to break away from former positions taught to us by our well meaning and sincere parents:
    1. They were taught the things which they, in turn, taught us.
    2. They assumed that what they believed was biblical.
B. "BUY THE TRUTH"
  1. That admonition indicates that truth is no longer our natural possession; if it were not so, why buy it?
  2. Also, that while the truth is free, yet it has a price attached to it:
    1. We know from experience that truth cannot be had for nothing, in the sense of exchange.
    2. The rich young ruler learned this truth the hard way - Matt. 19:16-19
  3. The price may differ for each person buying the truth:
    1. To some, it may require to sell all to come into the possession of the truth, as indicated in our Lord's parable - Matt. 13:46
    2. To others, it may necessitate giving up the affections of loved ones who are opposed to the truth - Luke 14:26
    3. Peter boasted to the Lord that they had left all and followed the Lord - Mark 10:28-30
    4. We know, also, that the history of the church of God is marked with the names of untold numbers who bought the truth with their own lives - Heb. 11:36- 40
    5. The value we place upon the truth will determine our willingness to pay the price God has attached to the truth.
    6. The Book of Martyrs will reveal the reason why so many persons during the Dark Ages gave their substance and their lives so freely and with joy.
C. INCENTIVES FOR BUYING THE TRUTH AND FOR NOT SELLING IT AGAIN
  1. Some incentives for buying the truth:
    1. It makes us free - John 8:32. That means that by nature none of us are truly free; we need to be made free.
    2. It will eventually lead us to the kingdom of heaven - Ps. 23:1-6; 43:3
    3. It will purify our lives - 1 Pet. 1:22; Isa. 1:18, 19
    4. Truth, in our lives, has the promise of this present life and that of the world to come - EXAMPLES -
      1. Joseph - Gen. 39:9
      2. Daniel - Dan. 1:8; 6:10
    5. It will, some day, open for us the gates into the city of God - Isa. 26:2
  2. This brings us to Pilate's question: "What is truth?"
    1. Jesus Christ is God's Truth in the flesh - John 14:6
    2. The Bible - sixty-six books! The Bible is the truth - Dan. 10:21; 2 Tim. 3:15-17
    3. The Ten Commandments are God's truth - Ps. 119:142, 172
    4. The Holy Spirit is the truth - John 16:13
  3. "Sell it Not"
    1. That ever present temptation to exchange the truth for worldly advantages is too well known unto most of us -
      1. Judas sold the embodiment of the truth for thirty pieces of silver - Matt. 26:15, 16
      2. Esau sold the truth for a meal of vegetables - Gen. 25:30-34
      3. Adam and Eve sold the truth for a lying promise - Gen. 3:1-19
    2. To sell the truth is to become disloyal to what we know to be our duty to God and our fellow men -
      1. Sabbath keeping.
      2. A faithful tithe.
      3. Upholding the standards of the truth.


Design © John Bryant 2011