El Emmett - The God of Truth

Psalm 31:5 “Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O LORD, God of truth (El Emmett).

God is a God of Truth

Exodus 34:6 And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the Lord GOD, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth…”

God loves truth. Everything He says and everything He does comes out of His truth. Psalm 33:4 tells us that “all of His work is done in truth.”

According to Deuteronomy 32:4, God will always take the side of truth. “He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He.” God isn’t the business of concealing things - He takes delight when the truth is known.

In fact, He has already revealed the truth to us in its entirety!

His Word (the Bible) is Truth

There is only one truth, and it’s contained in the pages of God’s Word.

There are two part to this idea of the Scriptures being truth.

First, we believe that God’s Word is true - that is to say, it contains no errors. This means that everything that the Bible says is true. When the Bible says that God created the world in six days, it’s right. Since it says that Jonah was inside a fish’s belly for three days, we know he was. When we read that God split an entire sea right down the middle, you can rest assured that it actually happened. Why? Because the Bible is true!

2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that all of the writings of Scripture were inspired, literally meaning they were breathed by God Himself. And since we read in Hebrews 6:18 that it is “impossible for God to lie”, then we know that the events recorded in scripture are recorded accurately.

But there’s more to this than claiming that the Scripture contains no errors...we also believe that Scripture is the truth itself. In John 17:17, we read these words from Jesus to the Father, “Your word is truth.” This means that truth can only be found in the pages of Scripture.

To be clear, we’re not simply talking about facts. Facts are natural truths - like the sky is blue, water is wet, and I like to eat pizza. Those statements are factual, but the truth is something more. Truth is higher than fact in the same way that the spiritual is higher than the natural. An idea is true only to the degree that it is in agreement with the Bible.

Psalm 119.142 “Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Your law is truth.”

God’s Word is truth. Psalm 119:160 agrees with this and then adds onto it, “The entirety of Your word is truth…” It’s not a verse in the Bible that is truth…it’s the Bible in its entirety that is truth. This means that we’re responsible to make sure we’re not pulling a single verse out of the scriptures (i.e. “God is Love”) and making it mean something that it doesn’t (i.e. “I can do whatever I want to do, because God will always love me”). No, my friends; you and I are now responsible to take the truth of God’s Word and study it to make sure we’re not distorting it to fit our own ideas. This is referred to in 2 Timothy 2:15 as “rightly dividing the Word of truth.”

To help us with this, God has given us a place where we can come and learn His truth and how to apply it to our lives. This place is known as “Church”.

His House Is Where Truth Is On Display

1 Timothy 3:15 “...but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”

This isn’t a teaching on church per say; it’s a teaching on the God of truth. You’ll have to do your own study on this to make sure that I’m “rightly dividing the Word”. But let me make a statement that will be somewhat controversial and trust you to do your own research on it: The local congregation of believers is the house of God on earth.

We can actually see this idea in the verse that we just read. Paul told Timothy that he was writing so that there would be correct behavior in the house of God which is the church. Where you and I come together is God’s house. And as such, the last phrase of the verse ought to apply. The local church should be the “pillar and ground of the truth.”

Psalm 40:10 I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great assembly.”

This means that in the church you attend, truth should be exalted. There ought not be a concealment of anything, but a clear and plain teaching of God’s word as it is. Of everyone, our pastors and teachers in the pulpit ought to be men of truth - like the men that Exodus 18:21 speaks of: “You shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth…”

The church ought to be elevating the truth of the Bible and putting it on clear display to the world. It is the pedestal (the literal meaning of the word “pillar”) that God chose to set His truth upon! Why? Because God loves truth and wants the world to know it!

1 Timothy 2:4 [God] desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

He Opposes Every Deviation From The Truth

Proverbs 12:22 Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD, but those who deal truthfully are His delight.

As we learn about El Emmett, it’s becoming easier to see why God hates lying so much. It’s not that lying hurts you - you may not ever feel the effects of it in this life. He doesn’t hate it because it hurts other people - again, they may never find out that you’re lying to them. No, God hates lying because it offends His very nature. He is the God of Truth!

Listen to me carefully; all truth comes from God. Truth only comes from God. This brings us to an obvious question; then where do lies come from? John 8:44 makes it plain, “...he [the devil] is a liar and the father of it.” The very first lie we see in the Bible is in Genesis 3, where the devil said “You will not die.” This was the first time the world had ever seen a departure from God’s truth, and the devil’s lies have been running rampant in the world ever since then.

Now let’s read the whole verse of John 8:44: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” Did you see what Jesus just said about a person who speaks lies? When they tell their lies and distort the truth, they are taking the devil’s side and literally adopting him as their father. No wonder God hates it so much!

God always opposes lying, no matter what the reasoning is. He delights when the truth is known. Even when there are times that someone dreads the truth being known, God is always for it!

Ironically, someone who holds onto lies will have a hard time believing the truth when they hear it. Immediately after explaining to the crowd that they were the children of the father of lies, Jesus went on to say this in John 8:45: “But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me.” It’s a strange thing to see a liar confronted with the truth of God’s word - it becomes so difficult for them to listen to it! Why? Because they’re already used to not believing what they hear! This is the type of people that Paul is speaking to in Galatians 4:16, “Have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?”

What’s the answer to a world that holds onto lies and rejects the truth? There is only one solution, they must repent! According to 2 Timothy 2:25, we must “in humility correct those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth.” Until a person is willing to repent, they will never accept what God’s word says as the truth.

He Wants Us To Be People Of Truth

Because He is the God of Truth, He expects us to walk like He walks. In fact, John 8:31-32 tells us that we can only become disciples of Jesus when we continue in the truth of His Word. “Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed in Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’”

It isn’t knowing the facts of a situation that will make you free. It’s the truth that’s found in God’s word that will set you free - if you continue in it. If you don’t continue in the light of the truth, then 1 John 1:6 applies: “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” Apparently, when you don’t continue in the truth of the Word - reading and practicing it - then you’re still walking in darkness and have no fellowship with God. I don’t know about you, but I want my fellowship with El Emmett intact!

Psalm 51:6 “Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.”

God wants His kids to walk in His truth. According to scriptures, we can only serve God in truth.
Joshua 24:14 shows us this: “Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve HIm in sincerity and truth…”
John 4:23-24 agrees with this: “But the hour is coming, and now is, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

When we walk in the truth it will bring our Heavenly Father joy! Look at 3rd John verse 4, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” I believe that this is our Father’s heart toward us. He is the God of truth, and He has no greater joy than to see us walk in His truth.