My notes on a sermon:  The Power of the Word:  The Truth vs. Fact 

 The sermon starts with quoting from John 18:37-38, but first the preacher gives some context to those verses before he reads them saying, “Jesus is speaking, and the context is that Jesus was brought before Pilate (the governor of Judea) after he had been arrested, and they were having a dialogue.”

In John 18:37-38 Jesus said, “…Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” ³⁸ Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?...” 

The preacher said his sermon was born out of this passage.  And as he read it, he stopped and thought about that….,and asked himself the question:  What is truth?

He reads the first part again, ““…Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”  He says a lot of people tell him that they have trouble hearing God.  Perhaps there is a truth issue going on.  There are a lot of voices that we hear, different inputs that are coming from different voices in the world, but there is only one truth. 

He tells a story about his wife being pregnant, and having complications from the pregnancy.  They went to the doctor, and the doctor ran some tests.  The preacher went back by himself the next day to get results of the tests, and the doctor told him the fetus was dead.  He clarifies that those were the doctor’s words, he called the baby a “fetus.”  (You can tell that was upsetting to him).  Anyway, that was a scientific fact.  The doctor could prove through the results of the test that the baby was in fact dead.  He had the evidence.  It was a fact, but it wasn’t the truth.  He says the Spirit of God rose up in him and said, “NO!”  At that moment he had an opportunity to choose between a fact, and the truth.  He chose truth.

He went home and told his wife everything would be o.k., because he chose not to quote the doctor of facts, he quoted the doctor of truth, Dr. Jesus.

His son was born two weeks late, perfectly healthy, and he’s in his 40’s now.  He’s doing well, married, and has a child, all because the preacher chose to believe the truth, and not the facts. 

He had a chance to agree with the fact, and unleash the power of that fact, or he could agree with what the Spirit quickened to him, the truth.  He chose to walk in the truth. 

Scientific facts keep changing.  For example, many years ago people said eggs were healthy.  Then there were studies done that said eggs are bad for you.  Then years later they said they were o.k. again.  The facts about eggs keep changing.  They decided the white part was good, but the yellow part isn’t, then that changed too.  But each time there are scientific facts that are backing up these proclamations, and we are supposed to believe those facts. 

We have moral facts that are also changing in the world.  The Bible says that marriage is between a man and a woman, that’s a truth.  But the Supreme Court says, “No, it can be between two men or two women.”  That’s a lie, but it’s been put forth as a fact.

So we as a body of Christ are having to choose between facts, and between the truth.  And many Christians, because we are not grounded in the truth of God’s Word, we are left with nothing but facts, especially in the world of health and healing.  There are plenty of people that have facts for you to listen to.  There are whole websites, that if you feel a symptom, you can go to a website and try to identify what’s wrong with you.  Then start planning your funeral, based upon the facts.  “I must have this, this is exactly what it feels like.”  And so we are consciously choosing facts over truth.  Truth (By His Stripes I am Healed) gets pushed aside, and we end up harvesting the results of the words we chose to believe. 

In the book of Acts, when Paul was shipwrecked on an island, he was bitten by a snake when he was preparing a fire.  The islanders were sure he was going to die, because they knew what kind of snake it was, and the facts were that a bite from that kind of snake should have killed Paul.  But Paul was not living by the facts, he was living by truth.  The Scripture says, “You shall take up serpents, and it shall not harm you.”  In other words, there is something that trumps facts, and that is truth (God’s Word).

Pilate said, “What is truth?”  A lot of us need to ask that same question, “What is truth?”  Are we living by facts, or are we living by truth?  In Luke 18:11 it says there was a woman living by a spirit of infirmity for 18 years.  That was a fact.  She was bent over, and couldn’t raise herself up.  But when Jesus saw her, and laid hands on her in verse 13, immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. 

If this same woman was living in our times, you could take her to any doctor, and they would do their tests, and come up with results and tell you why she was bent over and couldn’t raise herself up.  But none of them would ever come to the conclusion that she had a spirit of infirmity.  They would say, “She has osteo-this or scoliosis-that.” They could identify it on x-rays, it is there, its a fact.  But Jesus knew what doctors don’t, He could see beyond the facts to the truth.  The facts could show you calcium deposits or what have you, but they couldn’t show you what is going on in the spiritual realm.  When Jesus laid His hands on her, all of the facts left.  Or in other words, when the spirit that was binding her left, it took the facts with it.  The facts were only temporary.  But when truth showed up on the scene, and Jesus laid His hand on her, she was healed instantly.

We often are confronted with so many facts, if we don’t have our lives built on truth, then the facts that the doctor tells us are all we have to work with; unless of course the Spirit of God quickens you and tells you not to receive that fact. 

The words that you believe will determine the quality of life that you live.  If you believe all of the facts, then that will determine your quality of life, because the facts keep changing.  Sometimes people go to a different doctor to get a second opinion.  Why would you need a second opinion if the first one was based in truth?  Because it’s not based in truth, it’s a fact that is a deduction, and that’s why you want a second opinion, so you can get a different deduction. 

If there is nothing in your spirit man that says no to the facts, then you are stuck with the facts.  If you are not grounded on the truth of God’s Word, and if there is nothing that rises up in you and says, “I’ve got a word from God on this one.” Then you are stuck with what the doctor said. 

(The sermon is a little over an hour long, and this is only the first 15 minutes, but I thought it was good, and I wanted to share it).   

 Here is the link to the sermon:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LjESKGuIFY