by Ben Davenport

“Preach the truth.” That’s what they said to me. “Stand for the truth” sounded like pretty good advice at the time. “Know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” That one’s from the Bible. But will the truth set everyone free from everything? No, it will not.

1+1=2 is truth, and to learn this truth will indeed set an individual free from mathematical ignorance, but will it free a heroin addict from her love affair with death? No. Truth indeed will set the captive free, but in reality, people are held captive by different things.

The first intrepid souls who crossed the Atlantic to forge a new life in a new world found themselves instead facing extinction. The pilgrims were perishing for lack of knowledge. They were starving. They knew nothing of North American agriculture and simply could not grow enough food to feed their families. What did they need to survive? Truth? Yes, truth, but not just any truth, they needed native American agricultural truth. They needed knowledge of how to work the soil of this strange and foreign land. Nothing else would do. For a man to come along and see the pilgrims starving in ignorance and then begin to teach them that 1+1=2 imagining that he was liberating them from their predicament because he was teaching them the truth and that the truth would set them free, would be ludicrous!

The pilgrims would have gone to their graves with mathematical truth rattling around in their heads but without the truth that they so desperately needed, the truth that would have put food in their children’s bellies, life in their bodies, and would have kept them upright and breathing.

The man who would help such pilgrims must bring the truth that meets their most urgent need, not the truth that is most conveniently at hand.

The same applies to the message of the Bible. Remember this: The gospel is truth, but all truth is not the gospel. Everything in the Bible is truth, but everything in the Bible is not the gospel. And it is the gospel that Paul said is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe.

1+1=2 is a truth that cannot free the souls of men. We know this. But we often miss that, “Blessed are the peacemakers” is also a truth that cannot purchase one moment of reprieve from the shackles of slavery. Why? Because the particular truth that sets men and women free from bondage is the gospel of Jesus Christ and no other!

You’ve probably heard that the word “gospel” means “good news.” So is just any ”good news” the power of God unto salvation? No. It is the good news of Jesus Christ! The good news that He has come and conquered and now offers to us not only His pardon, but the opportunity to be partakers with Him in His victory; to tread upon the serpents and scorpions within our souls and upon all the powers of the enemy that should beset us.

“All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” is truth, but it was truth before Christ came to this earth and died. “Thou shalt not kill” is truth but it was truth before Jesus ever rose from the grave. That it is good for men to pray and to study God’s word is truth but it was truth before the sacrifice of Calvary; and if these truths had the power to set the captive free then Christ died in vain!

The loftiest truths in the Bible can be read, studied, preached, and memorized and will never be lived out unless the glorious truth of the gospel has dawned, bringing salvation to those who behold it.

The man or woman who would help the wandering pilgrims of the human race must bring them the scripture truth that meets their most immediate, urgent and dire need, not the biblical truth that is least controversial, most convenient, socially acceptable, comfortable, or culturally relevant.

What most men and women desperately need, is something that most, especially in the church, think they already have . . . salvation.

The truth that man is hopelessly lost and dead in trespasses and sins is part of the Christian message and must be presented clearly and with love but without apology. It is a truthful and accurate description of the condition of mankind but this truth is not God’s solution to man’s condition and can hardly be called “good news”.

The truth is not the gospel; and it is the gospel of Jesus Christ and nothing else that is the power of God unto salvation.

This is why Paul said, not that he would “preach the truth,” or that he would, “stand for the truth,” But that he determined to preach nothing but Christ, and Christ crucified, glorying in nothing but the cross.

The mere preaching of truth, even biblical truth, apart from the gospel will never save a single soul from the clutches of death.

Christ condemned the Pharisees saying, “You search the scriptures for in them you think you have life; but the scriptures all testify of Me; and you will not come to Me that I may give you life.”

Scripture truth is not an end in itself; it is a means to an end. It is the cross of Christ, not the canon of scripture that makes men into new creatures, that speaks to dead men’s bones and causes dust to come to life.

How many professing Christians, both liberal and conservative, have gone to their graves with orthodox, theological truth rattling around in their heads but without the truth that they so desperately needed, the truth that would have put Christ, the Bread and Water of Life into their parched, starving souls, and would have kept them from ever having to hear those chilling words, “I never knew you”.

There are many truths one can learn that will inform, but only one that transforms.

The only transforming truth is the gospel.

The only saving truth is the good news of Jesus.

He has come to be the Savior and Redeemer of all men; of both the atheist filled with facts and fiction as well as the Pharisee filled with Divine doctrine. The Gospel, the good news, to both the Hypocrite and the heroine addict is the same, “He came to save his people from their sins”. And He is now present and ready to save all those who will look to Him and believe.

He is the way. He is the truth. And it is He who is salvation.

Preach Christ.

Stand for Christ.

Know Christ.

The truth is not the gospel. Jesus is.

Never forget it.

Editor’s Note:

Ben Davenport is the pastor of Stone Mountain Church in Fort Collins, Colorado.  Thanks, dear readers, to your continued pestering, Ben is launching a ministry website soon.  But for now, this is the place to find him. If you are interested in catching Ben’s thunderous sermons in person sometime, Stone Mountain Church’s main worship service is held at 5pm, Sunday nights, in Old Town Fort Collins at 328 Remington St, on the corner of Magnolia and Remington.  But, as I’ve warned many of you, please be aware, this guy preaches even more forcefully than he writes.