Reliable Truth

How important is truth in our society today?

I've been reading Truth Triumphs by Bible teacher John McArthur, and have really gained some new insights into this, which kind of helped open the door to this study.

MacArthur believes that all of life is about the truth. In fact, he believes it's the most important reality in the universe. Think about how the issue of truth is so important in all of life. Not only do we have moral, spiritual and theological truth, we also have fixed truth in the physical world that we live in.

Most rational people care about the laws of nature and science, and they realize the harm that violating those laws bring into their lives. But some of these same people are willing to split the reality of physical laws with the spiritual moral laws. 

So we have to ask, how do reasonable people do this?

The Lord gave this reply to the Israelites through the prophet Isaiah, "Because you have said, 'We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have made a pact. The overwhelming scourge will not reach us when it passes by, for we have made falsehood our refuge and we have concealed ourselves with deception.'" - Isaiah 28:15

And in John 8:31-32, "To the Jews who had believed Jesus, He said, 'If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'” >>Watch On YouTube

Can we really love God if we don't know him?

We have to set aside time in order to get to know Him, and also to love Him. And at the heart of our faith is learning how to trust God with our hearts and with our lives.

If you want to be a healthy, vibrant, dynamic Christian whose life makes a difference, three things have to be taking place in your life:

• The inner life of devotion. deepening your relationship with God.
• The intellectual life of rationality—developing your mind and the ability to reason and think.
• The outer life of service to others.

Life moves fast. Bodies age. But your soul can still grow strong, resulting in a vibrant inward life. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 4:16: “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.”

You were made to know God, flourish spiritually, live with purpose, and pass your faith on to others. 

​​As this new year unfolds, how will you seek Him daily and let Him renew you from the inside out? >>Watch on YouTube

What final words would you leave to shape the faith and direction of your children for a lifetime?

Drawing from David’s last instruction to Solomon in 1 Chronicles 28:9, this message emphasizes four enduring priorities to pass on to the next generation:

• deeply knowing God (not merely acknowledging Him),
• wholeheartedly serving Him,
• living with right motives that please God rather than self or others, and
• actively seeking Him with the promise that He will be found.

Through Scripture, illustration, and personal reflection, this study challenges believers to examine their relationship with God, reminding us that spiritual growth and blessing flow from intentional pursuit and obedience—and that we are always only as close to God as we choose to be.

So if your life and legacy were distilled into a single message, would it point others toward truly knowing, serving, and seeking God?

I Chronicles 28 9: "As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind. For the Lord searches all hearts and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, he will let you find Him. But if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever."

There is a thirst in the soul of every human being that seeks to be satisfied. King David writes in Psalm 42:1-2:

"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for You, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?"

Many people are not looking to God to satisfy their souls. Instead, they are driven and ruled by unsatisfied desires, desperately looking everywhere they can in hopes of finding satisfaction, turning away from the fountain of living water, the only water that can satisfy the thirst of their souls.

We then come up with our own strategy for life. So we come up with ways to make our own cisterns, thinking we can fill those cisterns and we'll find satisfaction and a quenching of the thirst of the soul.

But what does God tell us? He says that the problem with human cisterns is that they're all broken. They leak. They can't truly quench the thirst of the soul.

Today we will discuss three tendencies that seem to creep into a man's life when this happens. As you listen today, think about your own life and how this applies to you.

What truly satisfies us? 

Today we are looking into the book of Psalms. We can find in the Psalms the reality of our human fallenness, our human fickleness, our sinfulness, our need for redemption, and God's offer of love and forgiveness.

The Psalms are like a mountain range–they are the heights. The Psalms are also a valley–they are the depths. In the Psalms you can be met in both places. The book of Psalms is waiting to meet you in the instability and the unfixed character of your own life.

Of all the major themes of the Bible, here in the Psalms you can find the revelation of God and His goodness.

John Donne, the great 17th century English preacher, poet and Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, famously said that the Psalms are manna for the soul.

For us to understand who we really are requires a knowledge of God and knowing who God is. This in turn sheds a spotlight on who we really are. Studying the Psalms gives this to us.

Dr. Mark Gignilliat is professor of divinity at Beeson Divinity School, where he teaches courses in Old Testament and Hebrew. Mark also serves as theologian in residence at St. Peter's Anglican Church in Birmingham. Dr. Gignilliat is married to Naomi, and they have four children.

How can we know God? Is He knowable?

Yes He is!

Today we're studying Jeremiah --- Many Bible scholars, including Tim Keller, view this as the most famous prophecy of the Bible. Though it was written almost 800 years before Christ was born, the New Testament writer Peter felt this passage was important enough that he wrote it in its entirety in Hebrews.

God is knowable—He is not a god who is hidden. He reveals Himself so that He can be known.

What is the season of advent?

The season of advent is a season of waiting on the Lord. We're waiting. We recognize not everything is right, we're waiting for it to be reordered.

And we find the people of God in Isaiah chapter 40 in a season of waiting. And what is it that they're having to wait for?

Well, Isaiah tells us they're waiting for mishpat, a Hebrew word that means "judgment," or "law. They're waiting for justice, and they're waiting for the fulfillment of these promises that come in Isaiah 40:28-31

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. >>Watch on YouTube

Dr. Mark Gignilliat is professor of divinity at Beeson Divinity School, where he teaches courses in Old Testament and Hebrew. Mark also serves as theologian in residence at St. Peter's Anglican Church in Birmingham. Dr. Gignilliat is married to Naomi, and they have four children.

In what way does God exist and is He present in the book of Esther? And what does it mean to live life faithfully when God's absence seems to be real?

When Esther has finally become the queen and the crisis is now emerging in the book, her Uncle Mordecai says to her, "Who knows Esther, maybe you became Queen for such a time as this."

That is a claim about God's providence, God's ordering of creaturely human affairs towards His own ultimate redemptive purposes.

Dr. Mark Gignilliat is professor of divinity at Beeson Divinity School, where he teaches courses in Old Testament and Hebrew. Mark also serves as theologian in residence at St. Peter's Anglican Church in Birmingham. Dr. Gignilliat is married to Naomi, and they have four children.

Why did Jesus work miracles?

These miracles served to show love to hurting people, prove His divine nature, and affirm the authenticity of His teaching. The book of John tells us how Jesus replied to the Samaritan woman's question to him:

"Jesus answered and said to her, 'If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.'” - John 4:10 >>Watch on YouTube

Who or what are you trusting in? 

Today Mark is discussing Isaiah 13-39.
"Draw near, O nations, to hear, and give attention, O peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that fills it; the world, and all that comes from it. For the Lord is enraged against all the nations, and furious against all their host....

Strengthen the weak hands...say to those who have an anxious heart, 'Be strong; fear not!'... Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,.. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." —Taken from Isaiah 34:1-2; 35:3-5,10

>>Watch on YouTube

Dr. Mark Gignilliat is professor of divinity at Beeson Divinity School, where he teaches courses in Old Testament and Hebrew. Mark also serves as theologian in residence at St. Peter's Anglican Church in Birmingham. Dr. Gignilliat is married to Naomi, and they have four children.