And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”     John 8:32 ESV

The truth is often times harsh. It’s not always what we want to hear. But lies keep us in bondage. As long as we believe a lie we are bound up in that lie. The Bible clearly tells us in our Scripture passage for today that the truth sets us free. We don’t always want to hear the truth because sometimes the truth really does hurt. Sometimes we would rather go on believing a lie than knowing the truth. But the problem with this is that lies are destructive. Eventually lies cause big problems.

Many people are content believing lies about the Bible. Many people don’t take time to read their Bible but they like to believe lies like, “God is so loving that everybody is going to get into heaven.” They like to believe that if you are a good person, you will get into heaven. They like to believe that a loving God would never condemn anyone to hell. But these are all lies. You will not find this anywhere in the Bible. What you will find in John 14:6 is Jesus saying that He is the way, the truth and the life and that no one comes to the father except through Him. That is the harsh reality. So, you can be a good person. You can be kind to others, but if you are not in a rock solid relationship with Jesus Christ, if you are not being as obedient as you possibly can, you have a problem. The truth is we must draw near to Christ, we must accept Him as our Savior. When we do this, we are not only a good person, but we detest what is evil. We don’t want to sin. We want to present ourselves to Him as someone who is approved, as a worker who has no need to be ashamed and as someone who rightly handles the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15).

I spent several years thinking I could live as I wanted to live, half-heartedly say I loved the Lord, attend church every now and then, tithe and be just fine. I lied to myself. Those lies I told myself eventually led to destruction. When things began to crumble around me amidst the turmoil and chaos I had created in my life, I turned to Jesus and begged His forgiveness. I begged Him to take over and I surrendered it all to Him. I finally faced the truth, and you know what? The truth really does set you free.

We are told in 1 John 1:8 that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. My friend, there are so many false preachers and teachers out there today that there is an abundance of people standing ready to deceive us. We ought not deceive ourselves. 1 John 1:6 says if we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

Many people today claim to be Christians, but fail to put Christ first in their lives. They live the way they want to live and do what they want to do and hope He will bless it. If you are doing this, you are lying to yourself. The harsh reality is that we must put God first. Putting God first means that we want to obey His commands, it means that we want to live our lives in a way that brings Him glory, honor and praise.

If you are hoping that you are “good enough” to get into heaven, you better be sure that you are headed there. We spoke just the other day about the narrow gate and how few will find it. You don’t want to get there and hear Jesus say, “Depart from Me I never knew you (Matthew 7:23).” You want to hear Him say, “Well done my good and faithful servant (Matthew 25:23)”. It’s time to get honest with yourself and face the harsh reality. Trust in Him today. Surrender your life to Him before it’s too late. There is nothing in this world that is worth forfeiting eternity in heaven with God our Father.

Have a great day!