Buy the truth and sell it not

 

LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 29 OCTOBER 2023

PASTOR PAUL JOHNSTON (FINTONA IMC)

PROVERBS 23 VERSE 23

 

“Buy the truth and sell it not, also wisdom and instruction and understanding.”

 

My thought today is “buy the truth and sell it not”.  Many years ago I was Pastor in a church in north Belfast Ballysillan.  We had a tape recording ministry and I listened to a man called Richard Shelley Taylor.  He preached at the installation service of a young preacher.  I never forgot the text – “young man, buy the truth and sell it not.”  Every time I read this text I think of the challenge on that tape.  There is the challenge for those who are not following Christ as yet and there is the challenge for those who are Christ’s own to continue on buying the truth and selling it not.”

 

Firstly, you need to perceive it.  You need to have a understanding as to what the truth is if you are going to buy it.  The bible talks a lot about truth. 

 

“Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth.” (John 17 verse 17)

 

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that heedeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2 verse 15)

 

 God the Father is described as truth.

 

“Because I will publish the name of the Lord; ascribe ye greatness unto our God.  He is the Rock, his work is perfect; for all his ways are judgment; a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.” (Deuteronomy 32 verses 3 and 4)

 

“Into thine hand I commit my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.” (Psalm 31 verse 5)

 

The truth is the word of God.

 

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.” John 1 verse 14

 

The Lord said …

 

“I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” John 14 verse 6

 

Jesus also is the truth.  You would therefore expect the Holy Spirit is truth.

 

“But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.” John 15 verse 26

 

The Spirit will lead, guide, speak to you, show you things yet to come.  So the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit and the word of God are truth.  King Solomon encourages us today to “buy the truth and sell it not”.  How on earth can I do that?

 

Secondly, we must understand that when we buy something, someone has put a price on it.  That price tag indicates what it is worth.  Everything has a value.  What value does the Father have in your estimation?  What value does the Son have in your estimation?  What value does the Holy Spirit have in your estimation?  What value does the word of God have in your estimation?  Such value that you would give it a few minutes to come to church this morning?  Or maybe even extend it to a second time tonight?  Do you have a hungry heart to come again midweek?  What value do you place on the truth?  If you are going to buy something it means it has a price. 

 

It means also you will possess it.  Everything you buy – whose is it?  It is yours.  God wants you to take himself, the Father, also the Son and his Holy Spirit, take that precious word of God and really cherish and make it absolutely, totally your own.  That world out there has no interest.  People ask you “why do you go there?  Why do you read your bible every day?  Why do you pray?”  So often the response is “because my church tells me to.”  It is not your own.  I want you to take the truth and possess it, own it and so take it into your heart that when anyone asks you anything you can say “because this is my personal conviction that I stand on God’s word.”  This is what you really believe because you have bought the truth.  It has become your personal possession.  Maybe there is someone today who does not have a personal experience with the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost and the word of God.  It is a meaningless thing.  Maud Kells the great missionary who has died and will be buried today said “whenever I asked the Lord into my heart the thing I noticed was the bible became a living book. I previously read it and couldn’t understand it but now it became alive to me.”  Now that the Lord had come into her heart, she had bought the truth and it had become her own.

 

If you are going to buy the truth you must perceive it.  If you are going to buy the truth you must think of the price so that it is worth it.   You have to possess the truth for it to become your own.

 

If you are going to buy the truth it means preference.  What do you mean?  It is very simple – when you go into a shop to buy something you have limited resources.  You are putting a sense of preference when shopping.  You have limited resources.  When I buy this it is to the exclusion of the other.  If I take this I cannot have that.  There is a choice to buy.  If I buy the Father, if I buy the Son, if I buy the Holy Spirit, if I buy the word of God it is to the exclusion of other things I could have bought.  They must go that I must win Christ.  It is a tremendous day for the Christian when he says to himself “I will buy the truth.”  Maybe the Lord is asking you to set something aside.  Is there anything more important to you than him?  If he was to ask you to give them up for him would you prefer them over him?  Buying the truth involves a purchase.  A purchase always means a decision has to be made.  The moment you say “I will take it” you have done the right thing.  You will never regret it when you stand before the Lord.  A purchase always involves a critical moment when you say “yes”.  It starts with an act of will.  Maybe the Lord has been putting his hand on your heart and asking you to change something in your life.  He is waiting for your decision.  Decisions don’t save alone.  God is waiting to do a mighty work in your heart – will you let him? 

 

There is also the words “sell it not”.  When you have bought the truth don’t sell it.  Protect your selling.  Means we exchange the thing for either money or something else.  Selling means we exchange something.  The devil comes along with his lies to convince you into selling something you have already bought.  There is a continual daily pressure.  We are always under pressure to compromise – the Lord’s Day, marriage, what a man or woman is, the word of the Lord.  We are always under pressure to let some truth go.  If you have bought it don’t sell it.  When you sell something it is hard to get it back again.  When you sell something to do with the things of the Lord and the devil gets you on that one it is hard.  Don’t sell the truth, not for anything because when it goes out of your possession it is difficult to get it back.  Don’t sell the truth because it is priceless.  Completely without price.  Will you say “I choose Christ and I will never let go of him not for anything, not for anyone.”  It is then that you have bought the truth and will never sell it – why – for Christ is priceless.