Before we start the main part of this sermon lets turn the clock back 1600years to the first foundations of the church a sermon preached by St. Augustine in the 5^th century

Truth sprang from the earth and justice looked down from heaven

from a Sermon by St Augustine, 5th century

 Wake up, O man - it was for you that God was made man!  Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.  For you, I say, was God made man.  Eternal death would have awaited you had he not been born in time.  Never would you be freed from your sinful flesh, had he not taken to himself the likeness of sinful flesh.  Everlasting would be your misery, had he not performed this act of mercy.  You would not have come to life again, had he not come to die your death.  You would have broken down, had he not come to help.  You would have perished, had he not come.

Let us joyfully celebrate the coming of our salvation and redemption.  Let us celebrate the hallowed day on which the great eternal day came from the great eternal day into this, our so short and temporal day.  He has become our justice, and our sanctification, and our redemption.  And so, as scripture says: ‘Let him who glories, glory in the Lord'.

Truth, then, is sprung out of the earth: Christ who said, ‘I am the truth', is born of a virgin.  And justice looked down from heaven: man, believing in him who has been born, has been justified not by himself, but by God.

Truth is sprung out of the earth, for the Word was made flesh.  And justice looked down from heaven, for every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above.

Truth is sprung out of the earth - flesh born of Mary.  And justice looked down from heaven, for a man cannot receive anything, unless it be given him from heaven.

Being justified by faith, let us have peace with God, for justice and peace have kissed each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ, for Truth is sprung out of the earth.  Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we glory in our hope of sharing the glory of God.  Saint Paul does not say, ‘our glory', but ‘the glory of God'; because justice does not proceed from us, but has looked down from heaven.  Let him who glories then, glory, not in himself, but in the Lord.  Because of this, when the Lord was born of the Virgin, the angels announced, ‘Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will'.

Whence is peace on earth, if not from the fact that Truth is sprung out of the earth, that is, Christ is born of flesh?  And he is our peace, who has made both one, that we might be men of good will, bound together by the sweet bonds of unity.

Let us, then, rejoice in this grace, that our glory may be the testimony of our conscience, and we may glory, not in ourselves, but in the Lord.  Obviously, it was because of this that it was said, ‘my glory, who lifts up my head'.

For what greater grace could have dawned upon us from God, than that he, who had only one Son, made him the son of man, and so in turn made the son of man a son of God.  Ask yourself whether this involved any merit, any motivation, any right on your part; and see whether you find anything but grace!

Truth is sprung out of the earth.    Today We are going to talk to you about truth. Not a truth but the truth.

In this age of relativity we often put an “a” in front of truth but it is a specific word that can only be singular and absolute. It is the truth!!!  The Truth is sprung out of the earth and his name is Jesus. For He is the one that said:

John 14:6

 "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

As Christians it is important for us to focus and as we start a new year I hope we can start it focused on the true light, the only salvation, the way, the truth, and the life.

 A few months ago I was having a conversation about this very topic the topic of truth and ever since I wanted to share my thoughts on this subject. We were speaking on triths and then the students asked me a question that lingered in my thoughts for weeks, actually it still lingers there. The question was a simple one. After we talked about some details of nature and super nature as we did in last sermon looking at the birth of Christ through revelations 12 and the cosmic battle that was taking place around the birth and life of Christ beyond our nature in the supernature. As I was saying after we talked we discussed truth and I believe myself to be a truth seeker as I believe all of you are. Well anyway the students asked me what was the first truth I learned. My mind went blank as I delve deeper and deeper into thought a voice speaking out inside my head. “You know the answer, Its me” I was reluctant to say it but it was the truth the only answer on my mind it filled me with such a wonder. Yes it was Him It was Jesus.

 Now how can I say that after all I wasn’t saved, born again until I was 27. So, how could Jesus be the first truth. And this is what I have been pondering for weeks. How could Jesus be the first truth.

Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice." Pilate said to him, "What is truth?"

Yes he was born to bear witness to the truth but He is the truth Himself and so he came to bear witness to himself. All needs to be filtered through Christ. That was it all I had known all I would know needed to be filtered through the truth through Christ. It is kind of like an hour glass. The moment you are saved, born again you are turned over and know it all starts again all the grains of sand, grains of knowledge you had are filter through the narrow passage of the truth but that is not all now the knowledge keeps expanding for the hour glass will never be turned again but merely filled from the top and the bottom expands to hold the knowledge. So even that first grain of knowledge you had only becomes truth as it is filtered through the word of God become flesh.

1600 years ago Augustine preached this and the world still doesn’t understand it. Many in the churches still don’t understand it. And so many are not truly saved because they are still in the a truth category accepting the worlds “truths” and trying to accept the truth which is Jesus

Every year Christmas poses a question to the world -- and to you this morning -- namely, why did Jesus come? Or what is the meaning of Jesus Christ? Or, more personally, what difference should this man make in my life? In my marriage, in my work, in my leisure, in my thinking, in my emotions?

When he was on trial for his life Jesus spoke some words which give an answer to this question. He said in John 18:37, "For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice."

The words were spoken at the end of his life, but they are about Christmas. "For this reason I was born . . ." For this reason there is Christmas. Christmas exists because Jesus came to bear witness to the truth.

So what I would like to do in this Christmas season is to think for a few minutes with you about these words of Jesus.

Implication #1. Christmas means that there is truth -- truth that everyone should believe.

Implication #2. Christmas means that Jesus came to testify to that truth -- he is the key witness.

Exhortation. Don't be like Pilate when you hear the truth.

Implication #1. There is truth -- truth that everyone should believe.

"For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth." THE TRUTH! There is truth -- truth that comes from outside the world and gives meaning to the world. The world doesn't make this truth. It doesn't shape or change this truth. It is THE TRUTH, not at truth for me and a different truth for you. But THE TRUTH for all of us. Unchanging, absolute.

There may have been a generation or a century when this simple implication of the text would not need to be stressed: that there is truth -- truth outside of my own mind, truth that I don't create but discover, that I don't control but submit to. There may have been a time when we didn't have to proclaim this as part of the Christian message. But not today.

Today this simple affirmation is a stunning and controversial revelation. It meets with widespread disbelief. If you try to claim today that there is absolute truth -- truth that everyone should believe and follow -- you will very likely be considered misguided and immoral.

People will say you are misguided because there's no God to give absoluteness to truth, or, if there is a God, there is no way of knowing him and what he thinks. One person's idea of what he is like is as good as any other person's.

But not only would you be considered misguided, you would also be considered by many to be immoral if you insist on absolute truth. Why? Because to claim that there is absolute truth leads to intolerance and prejudice against what others think.

Morality today has been virtually defined in terms of relativism. If you don't believe that the truth you see is binding on me then you are humble and good and moral. But if you do believe that the truth you see is binding on me then you are arrogant and intolerant and immoral. Virtue or morality today demands relativism.

This is the 20th century world to which Jesus says, "For this purpose I was born and came into the world, to bear witness to THE TRUTH."

  The Scriptures have been translated into more than a thousand languages by many worthy organizations. In fact, the Old Testament books are presently being made available in another hundred new tongues! The Word of God lends itself well to this necessary and wonderful work. For instance, the American Bible Society reports: "We in the United States love the Lord with our 'heart,' but the Karre people of French Equatorial Africa love Him with their 'liver.' The Conob Indians of Guatemala love with their 'stomachs,' and the Marshall Islanders in the South Pacific with their 'throats.' But do all these different words in the various languages distort the message? Not at all. In each tongue they are synonymous with the sense of the original. Though we say, 'I press toward the mark (Phil. 3:14) and the Navajo Indians say, 'I run with my mouth open,' it is one and the same truth." (Psa. 68:11)

Christmas began in the heart of God. It is complete only when it reaches the heart of man.
 
Christmas means that Jesus was born and came into the world to bear witness to the truth. The witness of his work and his words is preserved in the Gospels. Read them afresh in the coming year with a willing heart and you will know the THE TRUTH that he came to bring.